Today in History • Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024

On Oct. 15, 2017, actress and activist Alyssa Milano tweeted that women who had been sexually harassed or assaulted should write “Me too” as a status. Within hours, tens of thousands had taken up the #MeToo hashtag (using a phrase that had been introduced a decade earlier by social activist Tarana Burke).

Also on this date:

In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte, the deposed French emperor, arrived on the British-ruled South Atlantic island of St. Helena, where he spent the last 5 1/2 years of his life in exile.

In 1945, the former premier of Vichy France, Pierre Laval, was executed for treason.

In 1946, Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering (GEH’-reeng) fatally poisoned himself hours before he was to have been executed.

In 1954, Hurricane Hazel made landfall on the Carolina coast as a Category 4 storm; Hazel was blamed for about 1,000 deaths in the Caribbean, 95 in the U.S. and 81 in Canada.

In 1976, the first debate of its kind took place between vice-presidential nominees, Democrat Walter F. Mondale and Republican Bob Dole faced off in Houston.

In 1989, Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings broke Gordie Howe’s all-time NHL scoring record in a game against his former team, the Edmonton Oilers.

In 1991, despite sexual harassment allegations by Anita Hill, the Senate narrowly confirmed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court, 52-48.

In 1997, British Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green twice drove a jet-powered car in the Nevada desert faster than the speed of sound, officially shattering the world’s land-speed record.

In 2003, eleven people were killed when a Staten Island ferry slammed into a maintenance pier. (The ferry’s pilot, who had blacked out at the controls, later pleaded guilty to eleven counts of manslaughter.)

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Linda Lavin is 87. Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Palmer is 79. Musician Richard Carpenter is 78. Film director Mira Nair is 67. Britain’s Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, is 65. Chef Emeril Lagasse (EM’-ur-ul leh-GAH’-see) is 65. Actor Dominic West is 55. R&B singer Ginuwine (JIHN’-yoo-wyn) is 54. Singer-TV personality Keyshia Cole is 43. Actor Bailee Madison is 25.