Saturday 3rd of October 1226

Catholic friar San Francesco d'Assisi known for founding the Franciscan Order dies after increasing ill-health at the age of 45 in Portiuncula, Assisi, Umbria, Italy.

Due in part to the way he mistreated Brother Ass, as Francesco called his body, he was led away from earth by Sister Death in whose praise he had shortly before added a new strophe to his Canticle of the Sun.

Saturday 3rd of October 1609

32-year-old Painter Peter Paul Rubens marries 18-year-old Isabella Brant in Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Monday 3rd of October 1796

Robber Joseph Hugues Nicolas Lesurques known for the ‘Courrier de Lyon’ case is executed by the Guillotine at the age of 33 in Place de Grève, Paris, IVe, Île-de-France, France.

Lesurques is widely believed to be innocent and this case is remembered in France for being a famous example of miscarriage of justice.

Tuesday 3rd of October 1815

Farmer, mechanic, militia captain, poet and singer-songwriter Daniel Belknap dies of unknown causes at the age of 44 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States.

Wednesday 3rd of October 1849

40-year-old Writer of mystery and the macabre Edgar Allan Poe is found on the streets of Baltimore by Joseph W. Walker, delirious and "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance" in East Lombard Street, Baltimore, Maryland, United States.

Poe was taken to the Washington Medical College where he died on 7 October 1849.

Thursday 3rd of October 1867

Artist Pierre Bonnard is born in Fontenay-aux-Roses, Île-de-France, France.

Friday 3rd of October 1884

Artist Hans Makart known for his influence on Gustav Klimt dies of general paralysis of the insane due to syphilis at the age of 44 in Wien, Wien, Austria.

Sunday 3rd of October 1897

Poet and writer Louis Aragon is born as Louis Andrieux in Paris, Île-de-France, France.

Saturday 3rd of October 1925

Writer Gore Eugene Louis Vidal is born in Cadet Hospital, 900 Washington Road, West Point, New York, United States.

Saturday 3rd of October 1936

Minimal composer Steve Stephen Michael Reich is born in New York City, New York, United States.

Monday 3rd of October 1938

Singer-songwriter and musician Eddie Edward Raymond Cochran is born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, United States.

Friday 3rd of October 1941

Rock 'n roll singer and dancer Chubby Checker known for popularising the Twist dance style is born as Ernest Evans in Spring Gully, South Carolina, United States.

Tuesday 3rd of October 1967

32-year-old Serial killer Joseph Kallinger aka The Shoemaker sets fire to a building he owns in 2039 East Fletcher Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

It was the fourth time in five years that Kallinger set fire to this building. He was charged with arson but released by lack of evidence.

Tuesday 3rd of October 1967

Singer-songwriter Woody Woodrow Wilson Guthrie dies of Huntington's Disease at the age of 55 in New York City, New York, United States.

Tuesday 3rd of October 1967

27-year-old Zofia Garbacz is strangled by serial killer Zdzisław Marchwicki aka The Zagłębie Vampire in Wojkowice, Województwo Sląskie, Poland.

Thursday 3rd of October 1968

35-year-old Jadwiga Sąsiek is strangled by serial killer Zdzisław Marchwicki aka The Zagłębie Vampire in Sosnowiec, Województwo Sląskie, Poland.

Friday 3rd of October 1969

Singer-songwriter Gwen Renée Stefani is born in Fullerton, California, United States.

Friday 3rd of October 1969

20-year-old Shirley Audette is raped, strangled and mutilated by serial killer Wayne Boden aka The Vampire Rapist in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Savage bite marks were found on Audette's breasts.

Sunday 3rd of October 1971

25-year-old Performance and installation artist Chris Christopher Burden performs 'I Became a Secret Hippy' in Museum of Conceptual Art, 86 Third Street, San Francisco, California, United States.

The piece began when I took my clothes off, jeans and a t-shirt, and lay on my floor on my back. A friend hammered a star-shaped stud into my sternum. I then sat in a chair and had all my hair cut off. Finally, I dressed in some FBI clothes I had bought for the piece.

Tuesday 3rd of October 1972

14-year-old Wally Jay Simoneaux is strangled by serial killer Dean Corll aka The Candyman in Westcott Towers 904, Houston, Texas, United States.

Tuesday 3rd of October 1972

13-year-old Richard Edward Hembree is strangled by serial killer Dean Corll aka The Candyman in Westcott Towers 904, Houston, Texas, United States.

Friday 3rd of October 1980

24-year-old Serial killer groupie Veronica Ver Lyn Compton is arrested in Carson Trailer Park, Los Angeles, California, United States.

Compton attempted to strangle 26-year-old Kim Breed in a motel in Bellingham in an attempt to have authorities believe that the Hillside Strangler was still on the loose and the wrong man was imprisoned. Hillside Strangler Kenneth Bianchi had given her some smuggled semen to use to make it look like a rape/murder committed by the Hillside Strangler.

Saturday 3rd of October 1981

The hungerstriking IRA-members stop their Irish Hungerstriking campaign in Maze Prison, Lisburn, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

In seven months ten of the Irish republican hunger strikers died.

Wednesday 3rd of October 1984

Second bomb attack by Terrorist organisation Les Cellules Communistes Combattantes aka CCC in M.A.N. Truck & Bus, Gossetlaan 13a, Dilbeek, Brabant, Belgium.

It was the second action in their Première Campagne Anti-Impérialiste d’Octobre.

Friday 3rd of October 1986

34-year-old Serial killer Larry Eyler aka The Leather Boy Killer is sentenced to death by lethal injection for the murder of Daniel Bridges in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Eyler was also sentenced to fifteen years in prison for aggravated kidnapping and five years for attempting to conceal his victim's death.

Saturday 3rd of October 1987

32-year-old Susan Hellams is strangled by serial killer Timothy Spencer in 514 West 31st Street, Richmond, Virginia, United States.

Monday 3rd of October 1988

Bayerischer Ministerpräsident Franz Josef Strauß dies of general organ failure at the age of 73 in Krankenhaus Barmherzige Brüder, Regensburg, Bayern, Germany.

Strauss collapsed two days earlier while hunting in the Thurn und Taxis forests.

Monday 3rd of October 1988

7-year-old Masami Yoshizawa is abducted and killed by serial killer, cannibal and necrophile Tsutomu Miyazaki aka The Little Girl Murderer in Hannō, Saitama, Japan.

Miyazaki engaged in sexual acts with the corpse and took the girl's clothes with him when he departed.

Thursday 3rd of October 1996

36-year-old Serial killer Richard Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramirez aka The Night Stalker marries 41-year-old Doreen Lioy who described herself as a virgin prior to her marriage in San Quentin State Prison, San Quentin, California, United States.

For many years before Ramirez's death Lioy stated that she would commit suicide when Ramirez was executed. However, Doreen Lioy and Richard Ramirez eventually separated before his death on 7 June 2013.

Saturday 3rd of October 1998

Actor Roddy Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall known from Planet of the Apes dies of lung cancer at the age of 70 in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Wednesday 3rd of October 2001

Test-running a video project for 75 years NMBS in Centraal Station, Astridplein, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Friday 3rd of October 2003

Murderer Edward Ernest Hartman is executed by lethal injection at the age of 39 in Raleigh State Prison, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States.

Hartman's last meal request was for Greek salad, linguini with clam sauce, garlic bread, cheesecake with cherry topping and a Coke.

Sunday 3rd of October 2004

Actress Janet Leigh dies of a heart attack at the age of 77 in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Leigh suffered from vasculitis and peripheral neuropathy which caused her right hand to become gangrenous.