41st year - Nr 277 Sunday, 4 October 2026

BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)
41st year - Nr 277 Sunday, 4 October 2026

4 October / Today's 38 Events:

---

(-) 357 years ago Friday 4th of October 1669 Painter and printmaker Rembrandt, originally Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn dies of unknown causes at the age of 63 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands.

---

(+) 204 years ago Friday 4th of October 1822 19th President of the United States Rutherford Birchard Hayes is born in 17 E. William Street, Delaware, Ohio, United States.

---

(+) 148 years ago Friday 4th of October 1878 Aviation pioneer Eugène Lefebvre known for becoming the first man to die in an engine-powered aircraft is born in Corbie, Hauts de France, France.

---

(+) 134 years ago Tuesday 4th of October 1892 Chancellor of Austria Engelbert Dollfuss is born in Texing, Niederösterreich, Austria.

---

(+) 131 years ago He Was a Real Buster Friday 4th of October 1895 Actor, film director and stunt performer Buster Joseph Frank Keaton aka The Great Stone Face is born in Piqua, Kansas, United States. Keaton acquired the nickname 'Buster' at about eighteen months of age when Harry Houdini saw the young Keaton take a tumble down a long flight of stairs without injury. After the infant sat up and shook off his experience Houdini remarked "That was a real buster!"

---

(x) 127 years ago Wednesday 4th of October 1899 36-year-old Serial killer and cannibal Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann aka Die Bestie vom Schlesischen Bahnhof is sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for assault on a minor in Bayreuth, Bayern, Germany. Großmann assaulted 10-year-old Maria Gottwald and 4-year-old Babette Burkel on 21 April 1899. Burkel died later of her injuries.

---

(-) 122 years ago Tuesday 4th of October 1904 Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi known for sculpting the Statue of Liberty dies of tuberculosis at the age of 70 in VIe, Paris, Île-de-France, France.

---

(x) 108 years ago Friday 4th of October 1918 Over 100 die in Morgan Munitions Depot explosion in T. A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant, Sayreville, New Jersey, United States. The initial explosion triggered a fire and subsequent series of explosions that continued for three days.

---

(+) 103 years ago Thursday 4th of October 1923 Actor and political activist Charlton Heston, originally John Charles Carter is born in No Man's Land, Illinois, United States.

---

(+) 98 years ago Thursday 4th of October 1928 Writer and futurist Alvin Toffler is born in New York City, New York, United States.

---

(+) 95 years ago Sunday 4th of October 1931 Philosopher Richard McKay Rorty is born in New York City, New York, United States.

---

(+) 90 years ago Sunday 4th of October 1936 Murderer James Hanratty aka The A6 Lay-By Murderer is born in Bromley, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

---

(+) 82 years ago She Was Baby Marmalade Wednesday 4th of October 1944 Singer Patti LaBelle, originally Patricia Louise Holt-Edwards aka The Godmother of Soul known for the iconic disco song ‘Lady Marmalade’ is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

---

(-) 79 years ago Saturday 4th of October 1947 Theoretical physicist Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck known for originating quantum theory dies of a stroke at the age of 89 in Göttingen, Niedersachsen, Germany.

---

(+) 77 years ago Tuesday 4th of October 1949 Spree killer Marion Albert Pruett aka The Mad Dog Killer is born in Gastonia, North Carolina, United States.

---

(+) 77 years ago Tuesday 4th of October 1949 18th Duke of Veragua Cristóbal Colón de Carvajal y Gorosábel is born in Madrid, Área metropolitana de Madrid, Spain. Cristobal Colon is a direct descendant of Christopher Columbus.

---

(x) 69 years ago Friday 4th of October 1957 The first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 is launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit in Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 1/5, Baykonur, Kazakhstan. Sputnik 1 orbited for three weeks before its batteries died, then silently for two more months before falling back into the atmosphere.

---

(x) 65 years ago He Violated Section 205 Wednesday 4th of October 1961 36-year-old Stand-up comedian, social critic and satirist Lenny Bruce, originally Leonard Alfred Schneider is arrested for obscenity in Jazz Workshop, 473 Broadway Street, North Beach, San Francisco, California, United States. Bruce was booked for violation of Section 205 of the Police Code (“depicting or distributing obscene matter for the sake of prurient appeal”). Bruce made bail and was back at the Jazz Workshop for the second show that same night, where he related his arrest and booking to a standing-room audience.

---

(x) 61 years ago Monday 4th of October 1965 68-year-old 262nd Pope Paulus VI, originally Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini aka The Pilgrim Pope arrives for the first US Papal visit ever in New York City, New York, United States.

---

(+) 58 years ago Friday 4th of October 1968 Serial killer Beverley Gail Allitt aka The Angel of Death is born in Corby Glen, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom.

---

(-) 56 years ago She Joined the 27 Club Sunday 4th of October 1970 Singer-songwriter Janis Lyn Joplin dies of a heroin overdose at the age of 27 in Landmark Motor Hotel Room #105, 7047 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood, California, United States. Joplin had been given heroin that was much more potent than normal, as several of her dealer's other customers also overdosed that week.

---

(x) 50 years ago it Fizzled Monday 4th of October 1976 23-year-old Serial killer David Richard Berkowitz, originally Richard David Falco aka Son of Sam presumably throws a Molotov cocktail into the house of his neighbour Sam Carr in 35 Pine Street, Yonkers, New York, United States. Berkowitz tried to kill the demon lurking in Harvey with the Molotov cocktail but it fizzled.

---

(x) 48 years ago It Was a Hoax to Cover up Wednesday 4th of October 1978 36-year-old Singer-songwriter Tammy Wynette, originally Virginia Wynette Pugh aka The First Lady of Country Music is supposedly kidnapped and terrorized by an unidentified masked man, physically assaulted and abandoned 80 miles away in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. In her 2000 memoir Wynette's daughter Jackie Daly published that her mother had confessed to her that the kidnapping was a hoax to cover up domestic violence from her fifth husband George Richey. Richey denied the allegation.

---

(x) 47 years ago Thursday 4th of October 1979 Start of the trial against 46-year-old Serial killer Joachim Georg Kroll aka Jockel aka Der Ruhrkannibale in Landgericht Saal 201, König-Heinrich-Platz 1, Duisburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Kroll was charged with eight of at least twelve committed murders.

---

(-) 47 years ago Thursday 4th of October 1979 Neighbour to David Berkowitz aka Son of Sam Michael Carr dies in a fatal crash into a lamppost in West Side Highway, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States. Michael and his brother John were supposed members of the Satanic cult 'Twenty-two Disciples of Hell'. Their father Sam owned the dog that David Berkowitz aka Son of Sam said had ordered him to kill.

---

(-) 46 years ago Saturday 4th of October 1980 Clemens Lichtenberg is beaten to death with a rock by serial killer Kurt-Friedhelm Steinwegs aka Die Bestie vom Niederrhein in Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

---

(-) 46 years ago Saturday 4th of October 1980 SS-Obersturmbannführer Ernst Boje Ehlers aka der Endlöser von Belgien commits suicide by electrocution at the age of 71 in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Ehlers was supposed to go on trial for complicity in murder and his role in deporting thousands of Jews to Nazi death camps on 26 November.

---

(x) 45 years ago He Was Dead Alright Sunday 4th of October 1981 The body of 42-year-old Assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is exhumed to determine the truth about a claim by investigator Michael Eddowes that a look-alike Russian agent was buried instead of Oswald in Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park, Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Dental records confirmed that it was Oswald's body in the grave and it was reburied in a new coffin due to water damage to the original.

---

(x) 45 years ago Sunday 4th of October 1981 36-year-old Serial killer Dennis Andrew Nilsen aka Killing For Company burns the dissected remains of five murder victims on a bonfire at the rear of his house in 195 Melrose Avenue, London, Greater London, United Kingdom. Nilsen crowned the bonfire with an old car tyre to disguise the smell.

---

(-) 44 years ago Monday 4th of October 1982 Pianist Glenn Hubert Gould known for his interpretations of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach dies of complications from a stroke at the age of 50 in Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, United States.

---

(-) 43 years ago Tuesday 4th of October 1983 Derrick Hansen is found dismembered by serial killer Larry Eyler aka The Leather Boy Killer in Petrified Springs Park, Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States. Hansen disappeared on 27 September on the Chicago and Buffalo intersection in Milwaukee.

---

(x) 34 years ago Sunday 4th of October 1992 The grave of 68-year-old Comedian and actor Benny Alfred Hawthorne Hill known for The Benny Hill Show is robbed following rumours that he was buried with large amounts of gold jewellery in Hollybrook Cemetary, Shirley Warren, Southampton, Hampshire, United Kingdom. As a security measure, a 1-foot-thick concrete slab was placed over Hill's grave.

---

(-) 31 years ago Wednesday 4th of October 1995 Murderer Harold Joe Lane is executed by lethal injection at the age of 50 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

---

(-) 30 years ago Friday 4th of October 1996 Kidnapper and multiple murderer Larry Gene Bell is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 47 in Broad River Correctional Institution, Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Bell was especially infamous because he forced his victims to write a 'Last Will and Testament' before they were murdered and taunted their parents by telephone.

---

(x) 29 years ago Saturday 4th of October 1997 30-year-old Suicide bomber Muriel Degauque aka Maryam marries Fouad in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brussel, Brabant, Belgium.

---

(-) 24 years ago Friday 4th of October 2002 Film director André Delvaux dies of a heart attack at the age of 76 in Valencia, Valencia, Spain.

---

21 years ago The Eyes had it Tuesday 4th of October 2005 Some peculiar Gods or Ghosts in Dōngyuè Miào, 141 Chaoyangmen Outer St, Beijing, Hebei, China.

---

21 years ago The Eyes had it Tuesday 4th of October 2005 The Y2K bug in real life and super delay on a cinema display in Beijing, Hebei, China.

---