Almanac - Thursday October 15, 2024

Double Ten Day (The National Day of Republic of China), celebrates outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising in 1911 that led to founding of the Republic of China in 1912

Fiji Day, celebrates the independence of Fiji from United Kingdom in 1970

Finnish Literature Day (Finland)

Independence Day, commemorates the proclamation of Cuba's independence from Spain and the beginning of the Ten Years' War in 1868.

Party Foundation Day (North Korea)

World Day Against the Death Penalty

World Mental Health Day

If today is your birthday, Happy Birthday to you! You share your special day with….

1813 – Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer and philanthropist (d. 1901)

1900 – Helen Hayes, American actress (d. 1993)

1906 – R. K. Narayan, Indian author (d. 2001)

1914 – Ivory Joe Hunter, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1974)

1917 – Thelonious Monk, American pianist and composer (d. 1982)

1924 – James Clavell, Australian-American director, producer, screenwriter, and author (d. 1994)

1924 – Ed Wood, American actor, director, producer, screenwriter (d. 1978

1930 – Harold Pinter, English playwright, screenwriter, director Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2008)

1930 – Adlai Stevenson III, American lawyer and politician, son of 1950s presidential candidate (d. 2021)

1940 – Winston Churchill, English journalist and politician, son of Britain’s wartime prime minister(d. 2010)

1941 – Peter Coyote, American actor, director, and screenwriter

1941 – Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian author and activist (d. 1995)

1946 – John Prine, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2020)

1948 – Cyril Neville, American R&B percussionist and singer

1948 – Séverine, French singer and actress

1949 – Warren Burt, American-Australian composer

1949 – Lance Cairns, New Zealand cricketer

1949 – Jessica Harper, American actress

1950 – Nora Roberts, American author

1954 – David Lee Roth, American singer-songwriter and producer

1958 – Tanya Tucker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

1959 – Kirsty MacColl, English singer-songwriter (d. 2000)

1959 – Julia Sweeney, American actress, comedian, producer, and screenwriter

1963 – Daniel Pearl, American-Israeli journalist (d. 2002)

1967 – Gavin Newsom, American businessman and politician, 40th and current Governor of California

1971 – Evgeny Kissin, Russian pianist

….and on this day in history…..

1492 – The crew of Christopher Columbus's ship, the Santa Maria, attempt a mutiny.

1760 – In a treaty with the Dutch colonial authorities, the Ndyuka people of Suriname – descended from escaped slaves – gain territorial autonomy.

1780 – The Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 20,000–30,000 in the Caribbean.

1846 – Triton, the largest moon of the planet Neptune, is discovered by English astronomer William Lassell.

1903 – The Women's Social and Political Union is founded in support of the enfranchisement of British women

1957 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to Ghanaian finance minister Komla Agbeli Gbedemah after he is refused service in a Delaware restaurant.

1957 – The Windscale fire results in Britain's worst nuclear accident.

1963 – The Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty comes into effect.

1964 – The Tokyo Summer Olympics opening ceremony is the first to be relayed live by satellites.

1970 – Fiji becomes independent.

1980 – The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front is founded in El Salvador.

2009 – Armenia and Turkey sign the Zurich Protocols, intended to normalize relations. However, they are never ratified by either side.

2010 – The Netherlands Antilles are dissolved as a country.

2018 – Hurricane Michael makes landfall in the Florida Panhandle as a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane. It kills 57 people in the United States, 45 in Florida, and causes an estimated $25.1 billion in damage.