Margaretha Geertruida "Margreet" MacLeod (Zelle)
(August 7, 1876 – October 15, 1917)

(Fox News) – Extremely rare letters from infamous World War I spy Mata
Hari to her lover have been sold for $15,000 at a Los Angeles auction.

Born Margaretha Zelle in the Netherlands in 1876, the courtesan and
exotic dancer was better known by her stage name of Mata Hari. She
was recruited by France to spy on Germany during World War I, and
was later accused of being a German double agent. 

Arrested in Paris on Feb. 13, 1917, she was put on trial on July 24 of
that year, charged with spying for Germany and causing the deaths
of at least 50,000 soldiers. Convicted, she was executed by a French
firing squad on Oct. 15, 1917. Some historians, however, think that
she was a scapegoat and her execution was used as a distraction
from the devastating losses France suffered during the war.

SANDY KOZEL

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty
on this day in 1939.

It was on this day in 1927, despite worldwide demonstrations in
support of their innocence, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco
and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for murder.

On April 15, 1920, a paymaster for a shoe company in South
Braintree, Massachusetts, was shot and killed along with his
guard.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.

Former priest John Geoghan, a notorious pedophile
whose case sparked the clergy molestation scandal 
for 18 months, died on this day in 2003 after being
attacked at the state prison in Shirley.

It was on this day in 1926.

1921

Rudolph Valentino
(Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi)
(May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926)

CAMILLE BOHANNON

 
Soviet hard-liners announced that President Mikhail Gorbachev had
been removed from power on this day in 1991. Gorbachev returned
to power two days later.

Adolf Hitler was approved for sole executive power in Germany as Fuehrer on this day in 1934.

Francis Gary Powers (far right) an American U-2 pilot, was convicted
of espionage in Moscow on this day in 1960.
    
    

  
  Pilot Francis Gary Powers and his U-2 spy plane.

It was on this day in1977. The comedian was 86.

1930

ROSS SIMPSON

On this day in 2003, President George W. Bush announced the end
of major combat in Iraq.

Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet
Union on this day in 1969. Powers was taken prisoner.

Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977)

The Empire State Building in New York was dedicated and opened
on this day in 1931. At 102 stories tall, it was the tallest building        
in the world at the time.

The movie "Citizen Kane," directed and starring Orson Welles,
premiered in New York on this day in 1941. It was Welles’s first
feature film and was nominated for Academy Awards in nine
categories, it won an Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Welles. The film is
Considered  by many critics, filmmakers, and fans to be the
greatest film of all time.       


    
    
    
   

Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu were married on this day in 1967
and were together until 1973.

TIM MAGUIRE

During the French Revolution on this day in 1793, King Louis XVI
was executed on the guillotine. He had been condemned for
treason.

Soviet leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin died on this day in 1924. Joseph
Stalin began a purge of his rivals for the leadership of the Soviet
Union.

        On this day in 1950.

President Jimmy Carter pardoned almost all Vietnam War draft
evaders on this day on 1977.

The French Concorde SST aircraft began regular commercial service
for Air France and British Airways on this day in 1976.

On this day in 1942, Count Basie and His Orchestra recorded "One O’Clock Jump."

William James "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984)