Today in History....October 15

On this day in....

* 1917, Mata Hari, a Dutch dancer who had spied for the Germans, was executed by a French firing squad outside Paris

* 1945, the former premier of Vichy France, Pierre Laval, was executed

* 1946, Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering poisoned himself hours before he was to have been executed

* 1966, President Johnson signed a bill creating the Department of Transportation

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

* 1990, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev was named the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

* 1991, after facing s exual harassment allegations by Anita Hill, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, 52-48

* 2002, Iraqis turned out for a national referendum on whether Saddam Hussein should remain their president for another seven years; Saddam won with a reported 100 percent of the votes cast