Today in History: October 15, #MeToo movement goes viral

Today is Thursday, Oct. 15, the 288th day of 2026. There are 77 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Oct. 15, 2017, actor and activist Alyssa Milano tweeted that women who had been sexually harassed or assaulted should write “Me too” as a status. Within hours, tens of thousands had taken up the #MeToo hashtag (using a phrase that had been introduced a decade earlier by social activist Tarana Burke).

Also on this date:

In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte, the deposed French emperor, arrived on the British-ruled South Atlantic island of St. Helena, where he spent the last 5 1/2 years of his life in exile.

In 1945, the former premier of Vichy France, Pierre Laval, was executed for treason.

In 1946, Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering (GEH’-reeng) fatally poisoned himself hours before he was to have been executed.

In 1954, Hurricane Hazel made landfall near the North Carolina-South Carolina coastal border as a Category 4 storm; Hazel was blamed for about 1,000 deaths in the Caribbean, 95 in the U.S. and 81 in Canada.

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

In 1991, despite sexual harassment allegations by Anita Hill, the Senate narrowly confirmed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court, 52-48.

In 1997, British Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green twice drove a jet-powered car in the Nevada desert faster than the speed of sound, officially shattering the world’s land-speed record.

In 2003, 11 people were killed and 70 were injured when a Staten Island ferry slammed into a maintenance pier. (The ferry’s pilot, who had blacked out at the controls, later pleaded guilty to 11 counts of manslaughter.)

In 2018, Paul G. Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Bill Gates before becoming a billionaire philanthropist who invested in conservation, space travel, arts and professional sports, died at age 65.

Today’s Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Palmer is 81. Musician Richard Carpenter is 80. Film director Mira Nair is 69. Britain’s Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, is 67. Chef Emeril Lagasse is 67. Actor Dominic West is 57. R&B singer Ginuwine (JIHN’-yoo-wyn) is 56. Singer-TV personality Keyshia Cole is 45. Former heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua is 37. Actor Bailee Madison is 27. WNBA basketball player Lauren Betts is 23.