Friday 15th of August 1530

Grand Prince of Moscow and Tsar of Russia Ivan the Terrible is born as Ivan IV Vasilyevich in Kolomenskoye, Moscow, Central Federal District, Russia.

Tuesday 15th of August 1769

War leader Napoléon Bonaparte is born as Napoleone di Buonaparte in Casa Buonaparte, Rue Saint-Charles, Ajaccio, Corsica, France.

Thursday 15th of August 1771

Historical novelist, playwright and poet Walter Scott is born in College Wynd, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Monday 15th of August 1785

Writer Thomas Penson De Quincey is born in 86 Cross Street, Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom.

Thursday 15th of August 1822

Wife of Edgar Allan Poe Virginia Eliza Clemm is born in Baltimore, Maryland, United States.

Saturday 15th of August 1857

Jack the Ripper suspect Montague John Druitt is born in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 15th of August 1877

30-year-old Inventor Thomas Alva Edison aka The Wizard of Menlo Park makes the first phonograph recording in Newark, New Jersey, United States.

Edison recorded 'Mary had a Little Lamp'.

Thursday 15th of August 1895

Murderess Virginia Christian is born in Richmond, Virginia, United States.

Saturday 15th of August 1896

Inventor Léon Theremin is born as Lev Sergeyevich Termen in St. Petersburg, Northwestern Federal District, Russia.

Tuesday 15th of August 1905

Multiple murderer Arthur Devereux is executed by hanging by Henry Pierrepoint at the age of 24 in HM Prison Pentonville, Caledonian Road, London, Islington, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Devereux killed his 25-year-old wife Beatrice Ellen Maud and their 2-year-old twins Evelyn and Lawrence.

Tuesday 15th of August 1905

Nazi doctor Joachim Mrugowsky is born in Rathenow, Brandenburg, Germany.

Wednesday 15th of August 1917

Prelate of the Catholic Church Óscar Romero is born as Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez in Ciudad Barrios, San Miguel, .

Saturday 15th of August 1925

Actor Mike Connors known for playing detective Joe Mannix is born as Kreker J. Ohanian in Fresno, California, United States.

Friday 15th of August 1930

Murderer Robert Lee Wilkins is executed by hanging at the age of 44 in Washington State Penitentiary, Walla Walla, Washington, United States.

Thursday 15th of August 1935

Aviation pioneer Wiley Hardeman Post dies in a plane crash at the age of 37 in Point Barrow, Alaska, United States.

Along with Wiley also 55-year-old newspaper columnist Will Rogers died in the crash.

Thursday 15th of August 1940

Member of the Rote Armee Fraktion Gudrun Ensslin is born in Bartholomä, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Tuesday 15th of August 1944

Singer-songwriter and actress Sylvie Vartan aka La Collégienne du Twist is born as Sylvie Georges Vartanian in Iskrets, Sofiyska Oblast, Bulgaria.

Monday 15th of August 1955

Victim of Dean Corll aka The Candyman Donald Wayne Waldrop is born in Alpharetta, Georgia, United States.

Friday 15th of August 1958

Murderess Laurie Lawrencia Bembenek aka Run, Bambi, Run is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States.

Tuesday 15th of August 1961

19-year-old Soldier Conrad Hans Schumann aka The First Man to Jump the Berlin Wall succesfully makes his escape to the West over the Berlin Wall in Ruppiner Straße and Bernauer Straße, Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Thursday 15th of August 1963

Murderer Henry John Burnett known for becoming the last man to be hanged in Scotland is executed by hanging by Harry Allen at the age of 21 in Craiginches, Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Burnett was the last man to be hanged in Scotland.

Sunday 15th of August 1965

22-year-old Maria Błaszczyk is strangled by serial killer Zdzisław Marchwicki aka The Zagłębie Vampire in Czeladź, Województwo Sląskie, Poland.

Tuesday 15th of August 1967

Surrealist painter René François Ghislain Magritte dies of pancreatic cancer at the age of 69 in Brussel, Schaerbeek, Brabant, Belgium.

Sunday 15th of August 1971

Double murderer James Scott Porter is born in Lake Dallas, Texas, United States.

Thursday 15th of August 1974

Double murderer Tommie Tom Andrew Hughes is born in Dallas, Texas, United States.

Friday 15th of August 1975

46-year-old Olive Smelt is hit on the head and back with a hammer by serial killer Peter Sutcliffe aka The Yorkshire Ripper in Woodside Road, Halifax, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Smelt survived and required brain surgery.

Monday 15th of August 1977

70-year-old Sicherheitspolizei commander Herbert Kappler escapes from a prison hopital in Ospedale Militare Celio, Piazza Celimontana 52, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Kappler was diagnosed with terminal cancer. His wife and qualified nurse Anneliese carried him out in a large suitcase (he weighed about 47 kg at the time) and drove him straight to Germany in a red Fiat automobile. Six months after his escape Kappler died at home.

Friday 15th of August 1980

21-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'First Aid' in Bilzen, Limburg, Belgium.

I wanted to do the performance ‘Ladder-1’ on the roof of a building. Just when I started I was taken down by the security-services.

Saturday 15th of August 1992

Chief executioner Harry Bernard Allen dies of unknown causes at the age of 81 in Fleetwood, Lancashire, United Kingdom.

Tuesday 15th of August 1995

Murderer Vernon Lamar Sattiewhite is executed by lethal injection at the age of 40 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Thursday 15th of August 1996

Plane crash survivor Bahia Bakari is born in Evry, Île-de-France, France.

Friday 15th of August 1997

37-year-old School shooter Frederick Martin Davidson opens fire in a classroom while meeting with a panel of professors to defend his master's thesis, shooting to death 3 of the professors in San Diego State University Engineering Building, San Diego, California, United States.

The victims were 32-year-old Assistant Professor Chen Liang, 44-year-old Associate Professor D. Preston Lowery and 36-year-old Associate Professor Constantinos Lyrintzis. Davidson had intended to kill himself after the shootings but could not due to "pure cowardice".

Friday 15th of August 2003

A night-ride in Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Wednesday 15th of August 2007

A wooden fisherman's house on the old Schelde river in Weert, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Thursday 15th of August 2013

Lawyer, writer and political activist Jacques Vergès known from several legal cases for high-profile defendants charged with terrorism or war crimes dies of a heart attack at the age of 89 in 27 Quai Voltaire, Paris, VIIe, Île-de-France, France.