Today in History in 1966 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs a bill creating the United States Department of Transportation.

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

October 15 is the 288th day of the year (289th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 77 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

533 – Byzantine general Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Vandals.

1066 - After the Battle of Hastings, Edgar the AEtheling is proclaimed King of England, but is never crowned.

1529 - The Siege of Vienna ends, as the Austrians defeat the invading Ottoman Turks.

1552 – Khanate of Kazan is conquered by troops of Ivan Grozny.

1582 – Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian Calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15.

1764 – Edward Gibbon observes a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspires him to begin work on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

1783 - The Montgolfier brothers' hot-air balloon marks the first human flight in this mode of transport, by Jean-Jacques Pilatre de Rozier.

1793 – Marie Antoinette is sentenced to death, being executed the next day.

1815 – Napoleon I of France begins his exile on St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.

1863 – American Civil War: The first successful submarine, the CSS Hunley sinks during a test, killing its inventor.

1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Glasgow, Glasgow, Missouri. The town surrenders its garrison to the Confederacy.

1878 – The Edison Electric Company begins operation.

1880 – Mexican soldiers kill Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists.

1883 – The Supreme Court of the United States declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional.

1888 - Investigators receives the "From Hell" letter, believed to have been written by the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.

1894 – Alfred Dreyfus is arrested for spying – Dreyfus affair begins.

1904 – The Russian Baltic Fleet leaves Reval, Estonia for Port Arthur, Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War.

1917 – World War I: At Vincennes outside of Paris, Dutch dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad for spying for Germany.

1928 - Airship Graf Zeppelin completes its first flight across the Atlantic Ocean when it lands at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

1932 – Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its first flight.

1934 - The Soviet Republic of China collapses.

1939 – The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed La Guardia Airport) is dedicated.

1940 – The Great Dictator, a satiric social commentary movie by and starring Charlie Chaplin, is released.

1944 - The Arrow Cross Party, allied to Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party, takes power in Hungary.

1945 – World War II: Former premier of Vichy France, Pierre Laval, is executed by firing squad for treason.

1946 – Nuremberg Trials: Founder of the Gestapo and recently convicted Nazi war criminal, Hermann Göring, poisons himself hours before his scheduled execution.

1951 – Television sitcom I Love Lucy premieres.

1953 – British nuclear test Totem 1 detonated at Emu Field, South Australia.

1954 - Hurricane Hazel strikes the eastern United States, killing 95 people.

1956 - Fortran, the first modern computer language, is first shared in the coding community.

1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: A stand-off ensues between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba.

1963 - German Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer officially resigns.

1965 – Vietnam War: The National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam stages the first public burning of a draft card in the United States.

1966 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs a bill creating the United States Department of Transportation.

1969 – Vietnam War: Hundreds of thousands of people take part in National Moratorium antiwar demonstrations across the United States.

1970 – Thirty-five construction workers are killed when a section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses.

1979 - A military junta takes over in El Salvador, after the overthrow of President Carlos Humberto Romero.

1981 – Professional cheerleader Krazy George Henderson leads what is thought to be the first audience wave in Oakland, California.

1982 - The first 400-year cycle of the Gregorian calendar ends. This date is therefore on exactly the same week-day as the same date in 1582 (the day it was first introduced).

1987 – The Great Storm of 1987 hits France and England in the night to October 16.

1989 – Wayne Gretzky becomes the all-time leading points scorer in the NHL.

1990 – Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is given the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and open up his nation.

1991 – Following a bitter confirmation hearing that involved allegations of sexual misconduct, the United States Senate votes to confirm Judge Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court of the United States.

1992 – In Russia, Andrei Chikatilo is found guilty of 52 serial murders.

1993 - Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk win the Nobel Peace Prize.

1995 – Saddam Hussein gains 99.96% of votes in Iraq's presidential elections.

1997 – The first supersonic land speed record is set by the ThrustSSC team from the United Kingdom.

1997 – The Cassini probe launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida on its way to Saturn.

2001 – NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io.

2003 – China launches Shenzhou 5, their first manned space mission.

2003 – Ilham Aliyev becomes President of Azerbaijan succeeding his father Heydar Aliyev.

2006 - The first Lusophone Games, for countries and territories speaking the Portuguese language, end in Macao.

2008 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops by 733.08 points in a single day.

2011 – Occupy Wall Street Campaign: In 951 cities in 82 countries, people protest against economic mismanagement.

2012 - British Prime Minister David Cameron and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond sign a deal on the terms and conditions of the referendum on Scottish independence, due to be held on September 18, 2014.

2013 - A magnitude 7.2 earthquake strikes the Philippines, killing at least 215 people.

2016 - 150 nations meeting at the UNEP summit in Kigali, Rwanda, agree to slowly get rid of hydrofluorocarbons.