Today in History 10/15 (Mata Hari)

Lived: Aug 07, 1876 – Oct 15, 1917 (age 41)
Height: 5′ 10″
Nationality: Dutch
Spouse: Rudolf John MacLeod (m. 1895 – 1907)
Children: Louise Jeanne MacLeod (Daughter) · Norman-John MacLeod (Son)
Siblings: Ari Anne Zelle (Sister) · Cornelis Coenrad Zelle (Brother) · Johannes Henderikus Zelle (Brother)Highlights
- 1895: Mata Hari married Rudolf John MacLeod on July 11, 1895; their marriage lasted 12 years till 1907.
- 1905: By 1905, Mata Hari began to win fame as an exotic dancer.
- 1916: In late 1916, Zelle travelled to Madrid, where she met with the German military attaché, Major Arnold Kalle, and asked if he could arrange a meeting with the Crown Prince.
- 1916: In December 1916, the French Second Bureau of the French War Ministry let Mata Hari obtain the names of six Belgian agents.
- 1917: In January 1917, Major Kalle transmitted radio messages to Berlin describing the helpful activities of a German spy code-named H-21, whose biography so closely matched Zelle’s that it was patently obvious that Agent H-21 could only be Mata Hari.
- 1917: On 13 February 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in her room at the Hotel Elysée Palace on the Champs Elysées in Paris.

Mata Hari
wiki/Mata_Hari
(1917) An alluring spy faces a French firing squad.
Also on this day,
1581 | First ballet staged as a new art form debuts in De’ Medici’s court
Also on this day,
1581 | First ballet staged as a new art form debuts in De’ Medici’s court
Great art patron, former queen of France, mother of kings, and continual power-broker, Catherine de’ Medici enjoys a new spectacle put on for her court in Paris. The mixture of story, song, and dance, titled the ‘Ballet Comique de la Reine,’ is history’s first true work of ballet.1764 | A moment in Rome inspires a colossal work of history in the ‘Capitoline vision’
Not yet 30, English writer Edward Gibbon arrives in Rome and experiences a life-changing epiphany. As he watches friars singing their vespers within the Temple of Jupiter’s ruins, the idea of writing a history of Rome first strikes him, and he’ll later date the ‘vision’ to this day.1969 | Millions take to the streets, protesting for peace
With some 40,000 American troops killed in the Vietnam War, millions of people across the US and the world gather in a Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, a mass demonstration calling for peace and a withdrawal of forces from Southeast Asia. It will be called history’s largest peace rally.
Today in History 10/15/17

Date: Oct 15, 1969

Vietnam Moratorium protesters in the City Square, Melbourne, 18 September 1970
wiki/Moratorium_to_End_the_War_in_Vietnam