Tuesday 15th of September 1254

Merchant traveller Marco Polo is born in Venezia, Veneto, Italy.

Polo's exact date and place of birth are archivally unknown.

Tuesday 15th of September 1440

35-year-old Baron, knight, companion-in-arms of Jeanne D'Arc and serial killer of children Gilles de Rais aka Gilles de Retz is arrested in Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France.

de Rais' bodyservants Étienne Corrillaut aka Poitou and Henriet were also arrested.

Tuesday 15th of September 1857

27th President of the United States William Howard Taft is born in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.

Wednesday 15th of September 1869

16-year-old Gustave Kinck is stabbed to death by mass murderer Jean-Baptiste Troppmann aka Le Massacreur de Pantin in Chemin Vert, Pantin, Île-de-France, France.

Thursday 15th of September 1881

Automobile designer and manufacturer Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti is born in Milano, Lombardia, Italy.

Monday 15th of September 1890

Writer Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie known for creating Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple is born in Torquay, Devon, United Kingdom.

Saturday 15th of September 1894

Film director Jean Renoir is born in Pavillon 6, 13 Rue Girardon, Paris, XVIIIe, Île-de-France, France.

Wednesday 15th of September 1909

Kriminalsekretär Ludwig Daniel Ramdohr is born in Kassel, Hessen, Germany.

Friday 15th of September 1911

Murderess Léa Papin is born in Le Mans, Pays de la Loire, France.

Wednesday 15th of September 1915

Cyclist Fausto Angelo Coppi aka Il Campionissimo is born in Castellania, Piemonte, Italy.

Sunday 15th of September 1935

34-year-old Isabella Belle Kerr is strangled by physician and murderer Buck Ruxton in 2 Dalton Square, Lancaster, Lancashire, United Kingdom.

To prevent their housemaid Mary Jane Rogerson from discovering his crime before he could dispose of the body, or because she witnessed Kerr's murder, Ruxton most likely stabbed her to death or cut her throat after a blow on the head. The amount of blood on the stairs indicated a knife crime.

Saturday 15th of September 1945

Composer Anton Friedrich Wilhelm Webern is shot and killed by an American Army soldier at the age of 62 in Wien, Wien, Austria.

The incident occurred when three-quarters of an hour before a curfew was to have gone into effect Webern stepped outside the house so as not to disturb his sleeping grandchildren in order to enjoy a few draws on a cigar given him that evening by his son-in-law.

Sunday 15th of September 1946

Film director Oliver William Stone is born in New York City, New York, United States.

Friday 15th of September 1950

Child trafficker Georgia Beulah George Tann dies of uterine cancer at the age of 59 in Memphis, Tennessee, United States.

Tann is estimated to have stolen and sold over 5.000 children while she was workings as the Executive Secretary at the Shelby County branch of the Tennessee Children's Home Society.

Sunday 15th of September 1957

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

Thursday 15th of September 1966

41-year-old Wiener Aktionist Otto Muehl performs 'Simultanaktion' at the 'Destruction In Art Symposium' in African Centre, 33 King Street, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Sunday 15th of September 1968

43-year-old Wiener Aktionist Otto Muehl performs 'Aktion nr. 49 / Pissaktion' in Occam-Studio, Occamstraße, München, Schwabing, Bayern, Germany.

Muehl was wanted by the German police for public indecency after this performance.

Tuesday 15th of September 1970

The Radical Left Organisation the Weathermen helps 50-year-old Psychologist and writer Timothy Francis Leary known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs escape from prison where he had been locked up for four years for the possession of marihuana in California Men's Colony, San Luis Obispo, California, United States.

For a fee of $25.000 paid by The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, the Weathermen smuggled Leary out of the U.S. in a pickup truck.

Sunday 15th of September 1974

75 die in Air Vietnam Flight 706 Boeing 727-121C explosion in Phan Rang Air Base, Phan Rang, Ninh Thuận, Vietnam.

The flight was hijacked by recently been demoted ranger Le Duc Tan, holding two grenades. Even though the exact cause remains unclear it has been speculated that the hijacker caused the crash by setting off his grenades after the pilots refused to give in to his demands.

Sunday 15th of September 1974

18-year-old Stefania Pettini and her 19-year-old lover Pasquale Gentilcore is shot dead and violated by unidentified serial killer Il Mostro di Firenze in Napoli, Borgo Santa Lucia, Campania, Italy.

Pettini and Gentilcore were shot and stabbed while having sex in Gentilcore's Fiat 127. Pettini's corpse had been violated with a grapevine stalk and disfigured with 97 stab-wounds. 

Thursday 15th of September 1977

18-year-old Robert Gilroy is murdered by serial killer John Wayne Gacy aka The Killer Clown in 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States.

Friday 15th of September 1978

Aircraft designer and manufacturer Willy Wilhelm Emil Messerschmitt dies of unknown causes at the age of 80 in München, Bayern, Germany.

Saturday 15th of September 1984

Noise music band Club Moral play their 37th concert at the Geminox festival in Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, Germany.

Also played: Der Plan, Tass II, Non Toxique Lost,....

Tuesday 15th of September 1987

16-year-old Yuri Tereshonok is stabbed to death by serial killer Andrei Chikatilo aka The Rostov Ripper in Leningrad, Northwestern Federal District, Russia.

Tuesday 15th of September 1987

25-year-old Steven Walter Tuomi is beaten to death by serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer aka The Milwaukee Cannibal in Ambassador Hotel, 2308 W Wisconsin Ave, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States.

According to Dahmer he had no intention of murdering Tuomi but simply intended to drug and rape him as he lay unconscious. The following morning however he awoke to find Tuomi lying beneath him on the bed, his chest "crushed in" and "black and blue" with bruises. Blood was also seeping from the corner of his mouth and Dahmer's fists and one forearm were extensively bruised.

Saturday 15th of September 1990

Blanka Bočková is stabbed and strangled by serial killer Jack Unterweger aka Jack the Writer aka Der Häfenpoet aka The Pug Dumper in Praha, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia.

Tuesday 15th of September 1992

Double murderer Willie Leroy Jones is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 34 in Mecklenburg Correctional Center, Boydton, Virginia, United States.

Sunday 15th of September 1996

Serial killer and companion to Henry Lee Lucas Ottis Elwood Toole dies of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 49 in Florida State Prison, 23916 NW 83rd Ave., Raiford, Florida, United States.

Monday 15th of September 1997

43-year-old Mass murderer Hastings Arthur Wise kills four co-workers because of a termination of employment in R. E. Phelon Company, 2063 University Pkwy, Aiken, South Carolina, United States.

Wise fatally shot 56-year-old Charles Griffeth, 30-year-old David Wayne Moore, 31-year-old Ernest Leonard Filyaw and 27-year-old Esther Sheryl Wood. After Wise reached the upper floor of the plant he lay down and swallowed insecticide in a suicide attempt. He was semi-conscious when police located him.

Wednesday 15th of September 1999

Member of the Rote Armee Fraktion Horst Ludwig Meyer is shot dead by the police during his arrest at the age of 43 in Wien, Wien, Austria.

Meyer's girlfriend Andrea Klump was arrested. Meyer was the last RAF member to die violently during the organisation's lifetime.

Saturday 15th of September 2001

A room used as horse stables by the German Wehrmacht in Fort van Oelegem, Oelegem, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Wednesday 15th of September 2004

Musician Johnny Ramone dies of prostate cancer at the age of 56 in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Friday 15th of September 2006

Journalist and writer Oriana Fallaci dies of lung cancer at the age of 77 in Firenze, Toscana, Italy.

Friday 15th of September 2017

Actor Harry Dean Stanton dies of natural causes at the age of 91 in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 8700 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, United States.

Sunday 15th of September 2019

Singer-songwriter and musician Ric Ocasek known from the band The Cars dies of natural causes at the age of 75 in Gramercy Park, New York, Manhattan, New York, United States.