On This Day: Sunday October 15, 2006

This is the 288th day of the year, with 77 days remaining in 2006.

Fact of the Day: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are: the Pyramids of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and Pharos (Lighthouse) of Alexandria. The oldest of the Seven Wonders and the only one that is substantially in existence today is the Pyramids of Giza.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Teresa of Avila, St. Leonard of Vandoeuvre, St. Thecla of Kitzingen, and St. Euthymius the Younger.
China: Chong Jiu Festival.
Jamaica: National Heroes Day.

Events

1581 - The first major ballet was staged at the request of Catherine de' Medici at the palace in Paris.
1582 - The Gregorian calendar was adopted in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France; 5 Oct became 15 Oct.
1815 - Napoleon began his exile on the island of St. Helena, after suffering a final defeat against a force under the Duke of Wellington.
1878 - Thomas A. Edison founded the Edison Electric Light Co.
1883 - U.S. Supreme Court struck down a significant part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, saying that only state-imposed discrimination was unlawful.
1914 - Congress passed the Clayton Anti-Trust Act.
1915 - During World War I, Bulgaria allied itself with the Central European Powers.
1946 - Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering, founder of the Gestapo, poisoned himself hours before he was to have been executed.
1951 - "I Love Lucy" premiered on TV.
1961 - Amnesty International, the human rights organization, was established in London.
1964 - Nikita Khrushchev was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev as leader of the Soviet Union.
1965 - First draft card was burned in protest of the U.S.'s involvement in Vietnam.
1966 - President Lyndon Johnson signed a bill creating the Department of Transportation.
1976 - First televised debate between vice-presidential nominees took place, involving Democrat Walter F. Mondale and Republican Bob Dole.
1990 - Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1991 - U.S. Senate narrowly confirmed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, 52-to-48, despite sexual harassment allegations.
1993 - Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1994 - President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to Haiti after three years in exile.

Births

70 B.C.E. - Virgil, Roman poet.
1608 - Evangelista Torricelli, Italian physicist and mathematician.
1881 - P.G. Wodehouse, English novelist.
1921 - Mario Puzo, American novelist and screenplay writer.
1959 - Sarah Ferguson (Fergi), Duchess of York.

Deaths

1917 - Mata Hari, a Paris dancer, executed by the French after being convicted of passing military secrets to the Germans during World War I.
1945 - Pierre Laval, French politician and leader of the Vichy government who collaborated with the Germans during World War II and was executed by a firing squad for treason against France.
1964 - Cole Porter, American composer and lyricist.