41st year - Nr 294 Wednesday, 21 October 2026

BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)
41st year - Nr 294 Wednesday, 21 October 2026

21 October / Today's 26 Events:

---

(x) 586 years ago Il a Avoué Volontairement, Librement et Douloureusement Wednesday 21st of October 1440 35-year-old Baron, knight, companion-in-arms of Jeanne D'Arc and serial killer of children Gilles de Rais, originally Gilles de Montmorency-Laval aka Gilles de Retz makes a full confession of his crimes in court in Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France.

---

(-) 221 years ago They Did it at Last Monday 21st of October 1805 Admiral Horatio Nelson aka 1st Viscount Nelson is shot in the spine by a marksman from the Redoutable during the Battle of Trafalgar at the age of 47 in Cabo Trafalgar, Cádiz, Spain. The bullet had entered Nelson's left shoulder, passed through his spine at the sixth and seventh thoracic vertebrae, and lodged 5 cm below his right shoulder blade in the muscles of his back. "Hardy, I do believe they have done it at last… my backbone is shot through."

---

(+) 193 years ago He Came Boom! Monday 21st of October 1833 Chemist, engineer, innovator and armaments manufacturer Alfred Bernhard Nobel aka The Merchant of Death known for inventing dynamite is born in Stockholm, Södermanland, Sweden.

---

(+) 138 years ago Sunday 21st of October 1888 First wife of Hermann Göring Carin Axelina Hulda Fock is born in Stockholm, Södermanland, Sweden.

---

(+) 109 years ago He Wasn't Dizzy Sunday 21st of October 1917 Musician and bandleader Dizzy John Birks Gillespie is born in Cheraw, South Carolina, United States.

---

(-) 100 years ago Thursday 21st of October 1926 Mabel Fluke is raped and strangled by serial killer Earle Leonard Nelson aka The Gorilla Murderer in Portland, Oregon, United States.

---

(+) 100 years ago Thursday 21st of October 1926 United States Air Force pilot Felix Eugene Moncla is born in Mansura, Louisiana, United States.

---

(+) 96 years ago Tuesday 21st of October 1930 Murderer Richard Lewis Jordan is born in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States.

---

(-) 85 years ago He Could Have Shot Some More Tuesday 21st of October 1941 Spree killer Stanley Eric George Graham dies of injuries after being shot by police officers at the age of 41 in Westland Hospital, Hokitika, West Coast, New Zealand. Graham shot several police officers and members of the Home Guard over discussions on 8 and 9 October. Graham was finally surrounded by almost a hundred police, New Zealand Army and Home Guard personnel, reportedly telling one of them that he "could have shot some more".

---

(+) 80 years ago Monday 21st of October 1946 Musician Lux Interior, originally Erick Lee Purkhiser known from The Cramps is born in Akron, Ohio, United States.

---

(+) 72 years ago Thursday 21st of October 1954 Triple murderer Charles Rodman Campbell is born in Oʻahu, Hawaii, United States.

---

(x) 61 years ago Thursday 21st of October 1965 The body of 14-year-old Victim of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley aka The Moors Murderers John Kilbride is discovered in Sail Bark Moss, Oldham, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom. In this photograph taken by Ian Brady in November 1963, Myra Hindley crouches over Kilbride's grave on Saddleworth Moor with her dog, Puppet.

---

(x) 60 years ago Friday 21st of October 1966 116 children and 28 adults die in colliery spoil tip collapse in Pantglas Junior School, Aberfan, South Wales, United Kingdom. Over 40,000 cubic metres of debris covered the village in minutes and the classrooms at Pantglas Junior School were immediately inundated, with young children and teachers dying from impact or suffocation.

---

(-) 57 years ago He Left the Road Tuesday 21st of October 1969 Writer, poet and pioneer of the Beat Generation Jack Kerouac, originally Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac known for the novel On The Road dies of internal hemorrhage caused by cirrhosis at the age of 47 in St. Anthony's Hospital, 1200 7th Ave. N., St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. The day before around 11 in the morning Kerouac was sitting in his favorite chair drinking whiskey and malt liquor, trying to scribble notes for a book about his father's print shop. Kerouac suddenly felt sick to his stomach, which was nothing unusual, and headed for the bathroom. He began to throw up large amounts of blood, and yelled to his wife, "Stella, I'm bleeding." Eventually he was persuaded to go to the hospital and was taken by ambulance to St. Anthony's. Blood continued to pour from his mouth and he underwent several transfusions. That evening Kerouac underwent surgery in an attempt to tie off all the burst blood vessels, but his damaged liver prevented his blood from clotting.

---

(x) 55 years ago The Devil Didn't Do no Work Thursday 21st of October 1971 26-year-old Leading member of the 'Manson Family' Tex Charles Watson is sentenced to die in the Gas Chamber for the Tate-LaBianca murders in Los Angeles, California, United States.

---

(-) 48 years ago He Had Been Worried Saturday 21st of October 1978 Pilot Frederick Valentich goes missing during a training flight with his Cessna 182L aircraft at the age of 20 in Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia. There were belated reports of a UFO sighting in Australia on the night of Valentich's disappearance. However, the Department of Transport was sceptical a UFO was behind Valentich's disappearance. According to his father Guido, Valentich was an ardent believer in UFOs and had been worried about being attacked by them.

---

(-) 46 years ago He Went Incommunicado Tuesday 21st of October 1980 Pediatrician Hans Johann Friedrich Karl Asperger dies of natural causes at the age of 74 in Wien, Wien, Austria. Asperger's Syndrome was named after Asperger and officially recognized in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1994.

---

(-) 42 years ago Il a Pris le Dernier Métro Sunday 21st of October 1984 Film director François Roland Truffaut dies of a brain tumour at the age of 52 in American Hospital, 63 Blvd Victor Hugo, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, France.

---

(-) 41 years ago Monday 21st of October 1985 San Francisco supervisor and assassin Dan Daniel James White commits suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning at the age of 39 in San Francisco, California, United States. The San Francisco Weekly has referred to White as "perhaps the most hated man in San Francisco's history."

---

(x) 37 years ago Saturday 21st of October 1989 131 die in Tan-Sahsa Boeing 727-200 Flight 414 crash in Toncontín International Airport, Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central, Honduras. There were 15 survivors.

---

(x) 37 years ago Saturday 21st of October 1989 The skeletonised body of 59-year-old Victim of Arthur Shawcross aka The Genesee River Killer Dorothy Keeler , beaten to death by Arthur Shawcross aka The Genesee River Killer is found in Seth Green Island, Rochester, New York, United States.

---

(-) 27 years ago He Told Laura He Loved Her Thursday 21st of October 1999 Murderer Arthur Martin Boyd is executed by lethal injection at the age of 54 in Raleigh State Prison, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Boyd's last meal request was for two bacon mushroom melts from Wendy's and a pint of chocolate milk. Boyd's last words were "I love you, Laura".

---

23 years ago The Eyes had it Tuesday 21st of October 2003 Tables and chairs in the largest restaurant for civil servants that served 2000 people at the same time and is now demolished in Brussel, Brabant, Belgium.

---

(-) 20 years ago Saturday 21st of October 2006 Writer and biographer of Aleister Crowley John Symonds aka The Picasso of the Occult dies of natural causes at the age of 92 in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

---

(-) 19 years ago Sunday 21st of October 2007 Artist R. B. Ronald Brooks Kitaj commits suicide by suffocation with a plastic bag at the age of 75 in Los Angeles, California, United States.

---

(-) 5 years ago Thursday 21st of October 2021 Murderer Willie B. Smith III is executed by lethal injection at the age of 52 in Holman Correctional Facility, Ross Road, Atmore, Alabama, United States.

---