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Thursday 15 October 2026
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FILE NO. 10.15 5 specimens · est. 1815-1966

What happened on October 15?

Real photographs, all filed under this date. Name each event before you read on.
Case Timeline 1815-1966 · 151 years
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What happened on October 15

All 5 specimens from this file, spanning 1815 to 1966, with the story behind each photograph.

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  1. A watercolour of a man in a bicorne hat and green coat standing alone on a clifftop with his arms folded, looking out over a wide grey-blue sea with a distant sail.
    History · 1815

    A defeated emperor arrives at the island where he will spend the rest of his life

    Napoleon arrived at Saint Helena on 15 October 1815, having already escaped from exile on Elba once. The new island is about 1,200 miles from the nearest mainland and the garrison was heavily reinforced. He lived another five and a half years in a damp house on a plateau, dictating his memoirs and quarrelling with the governor.

  2. A studio photograph of a woman in an elaborate embroidered gown and headdress reclining on a chaise longue, looking directly at the camera.
    Crime · 1917

    An exotic dancer is shot as a double agent on thin evidence

    Mata Hari was shot by a French firing squad on 15 October 1917. She was a Dutch dancer who had performed across Europe as a supposed Javanese temple dancer, and she had taken money from German officials. The evidence that she passed anything useful was thin, and historians have argued ever since that France needed a scapegoat after a terrible year at the front.

  3. A black and white publicity portrait of a woman with light curled hair in a fur wrap and long gloves, hands clasped near her chin, eyes wide.
    Culture · 1951

    A sitcom starts that will invent the rerun and be filmed in front of an audience

    I Love Lucy began on 15 October 1951. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz insisted on shooting on film in front of a live audience rather than broadcasting live, and took a pay cut to keep ownership of the film. That decision created the rerun, and made them the owners of the most valuable library in television.

  4. A colour photograph of a young man with a beard in a dark suit and patterned tie standing outdoors among tall trees, looking at the camera.
    Society · 1966

    Two college students found a party that will patrol the police with law books and guns

    Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party in Oakland on 15 October 1966. Their first activity was following police patrols while openly carrying legal firearms and reading arrest rights aloud from a law book. Within a few years the party was running free breakfast programmes that fed tens of thousands of children a week.

  5. A photographic portrait of a man with a very large drooping moustache and dark swept-back hair, resting his head on one hand, in a heavy coat.
    Literature · 1844

    A philosopher is born who will spend his last eleven years insane

    Friedrich Nietzsche was born on 15 October 1844. He became a professor at 24, the youngest ever appointed at Basel, and collapsed into insanity at 44 after reportedly throwing his arms around a horse being beaten in a Turin street. His sister then took control of his writings and edited them to suit her own politics.