Famous Hangings - On This Day

1 - 28 of 28 Historically important and notable famous hangings ranked by their popularity on On This Day.

List of Deaths from Hanging

• 1305-08-23 Scottish patriot William Wallace is hanged, disemboweled and beheaded at Smithfield, London
• 1330-11-29 Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, de facto ruler of England, executed by hanging on orders of Edward III at 43
• 1417-12-14 John Oldcastle, English nobleman and pro-protestant Lollard leader, whom Shakespeare based his Falstaff character on, hanged for heresy at 39
• 1440-10-26 Gilles de Rais, French marshal, killer of 140 children, hanged
• 1498-05-23 Girolamo Savonarola, Italian Dominican friar who helped expel Medici from Florence, becoming the city's de facto ruler (1494-98), and preached against papal corruption, hanged at 45
• 1534-04-20 Elizabeth Barton [St Magd van Kent], English nun, prophet and only woman whose head was on a spike on London Bridge, hanged for treason
• 1566-07-29 Agnes Waterhouse, British woman hanged after being convicted of witchcraft at approximately 63
• 1572-06-24 Adrianus van Gouda, Dutch lay brother of Enkhuizen, hanged
• 1572-06-24 Cornelis van Diest, Dutch lay brother of Enkhuizen, hanged
• 1572-06-24 Daniel van Arendonck, Dutch clergyman of Enkhuizen, hanged
• 1572-06-24 Joannes van Naarden, Dutch priest of Enkhuizen, hanged
• 1572-06-24 Ludovicus Voets, Dutch priest of Enkhuizen, hanged
• 1573-12-11 Alardus/Eilard de Waterlant, duke of Alva, hanged
• 1575-12-23 Akiyama Nobutomo, Japanese warrior (hanged) (b. 1531)
• 1580-12-01 Edmund Campion, English jesuit, hanged, drawn and quartered at 42
• 1581-12-01 Ralph Sherwin, English Catholic saint, hanged, drawn and quartered at 31
• 1581-12-01 Alexander Briant, English Catholic saint, hanged, drawn and quartered (b. around 1556)
• 1586-09-20 Anthony Babington, English page and conspirator to Mary, Queen of Scots convicted of plotting the assassination of Elizabeth I, hanged, drawn and quartered at 24
• 1593-04-06 Henry Barrow, English Separatist Puritan, hanged for "devising and circulating seditious books" at about 43 (exact birthdate uncertain, c. 1550)
• 1593-04-06 John Greenwood, English Separatist Puritan, hanged for "devising and circulating seditious books" at about 37 (d.1556, exact date uncertain)
• 1606-01-31 Guy Fawkes, English Catholic conspirator convicted in the "Gunpowder Plot" to blow up the British Parliament, hanged at 35
• 1630-09-30 John Billington, English-born murderer who sailed on the Mayflower, 1st American executed by Plymouth colony, hanged at about 40
• 1650-05-21 James Graham, Marquis of Montrose "the Great Montrose", Scottish general, hanged at 37
• 1660-06-01 Mary Dyer, English Quaker (martyred) - hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony
• 1661-03-24 William Leddra becomes the last Quaker to be hanged in Boston, for the crime of returning from banishment
• 1681-07-01 Oliver Plunkett, Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and last Catholic martyr (later beatified) to die in England, hanged, drawn and quartered for treason at Tyburn at 55
• 1688-02-17 Rev James Renwick, hanged in Scotland for being a Presbyterian
• 1691-05-16 Jacob Leisler, becomes 1st American colonist hanged for treason
• 1692-06-10 Bridget Bishop, 1st person to be hanged in the Salem witch trials at 60
• 1701-05-23 William Kidd, Scottish pirate legend, hanged at London's Execution Dock at about 56
• 1704-06-30 John Quelch, English pirate, hanged for piracy in Boston at 38
• 1720-11-17 Calico Jack [John Rackham], English pirate captain who operated in the Bahamas and Cuba, executed for piracy by hanging in Port Royal at 37
• 1724-11-11 Joseph Blake, alias "Blueskin", a highwayman known for attacking "Thief-Taker General" (and thief) Jonathan Wild at the Old Bailey, is hanged in London. (b. c. 1700)
• 1724-11-16 Jack Sheppard, English burglar and prison escapee known as "Honest Jack", hanged at 22
• 1739-04-07 Dick Turpin, English highwayman (hanged) (b. 1706)
• 1748-06-28 Marretje Arends [Matje of Nieuwendijk], Amsterdam plunderer, hanged
• 1748-06-28 Pieter van Dort, Amsterdam plunderer, hanged
• 1760-05-05 Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers, last English peer to be hanged, executed at 39 for the murder of his steward
• 1776-06-28 Thomas Hickey, American sergeant convicted of treason, hanged
• 1776-09-22 Nathan Hale, American Revolutionary War patriot, "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country", hanged by the British for spying at 21
• 1778-07-02 Bathsheba Spooner, American first woman executed after US Independence for arranging husband's murder, hanged while pregnant at 32
• 1780-10-02 John Andre, British Army officer of the American Revolutionary War, hanged by Americans (spied with B Arnold) at 30
• 1786-12-20 Hannah Ocuish, at 12 is hanged for murder in New London Connecticut; the youngest ever executed in US
• 1792-04-21 Tiradentes, Brazilian revolutionary and independence fighter (Inconfidência Mineira) considered a national hero, hanged, drawn and quartered in Rio de Janeiro at 45
• 1798-11-19 Wolfe Tone, Irish republican and revolutionary figure (United Irishmen), dies at 35 in unclear circumstances on the day he was to be hanged
• 1799-02-22 Heshen, Chinese politician and infamous Qing Dynasty court official considered the most corrupt official in Chinese history, commits forced suicide at 48 by hanging himself on the order of the Jiaqing Emperor after he declared Heshen guilty by imperial edict
• 1800-05-19 French Bosbeeck, veterinarian/robber, hanged
• 1800-10-07 Gabriel, slave revolt leader (Virginia), hanged
• 1812-05-18 John Bellingham, English merchant who assassinated British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, executed by hanging at 42 or 43
• 1822-07-02 Denmark Vesey, American carpenter and ex-slave who planned an unsuccessful slave revolt in Charleston, South Carolina, hanged with 5 others at Blake's Landing, Charleston, South Carolina at about 55
• 1826-07-25 Pavel Ivanovich Pestel, Russian officer, hanged at 33 [OS Jul 13]
• 1831-11-11 Nat Turner, American leader of a major slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831, hanged at 31
• 1842-12-01 Philip Spencer, American sailor, 1st US naval officer condemned for mutiny, hanged aboard the USS Somers at 19
• 1857-04-08 Mangal Pandey, Indian Sepoy (soldier) in the 34th Bengal Native Infantry (B.N.I.) regiment of the British East India Company, hanged at 29
• 1859-12-02 John Brown, American abolitionist and revolutionary (Harpers Ferry), hanged at 59
• 1860-10-31 Johannes Nathan, Dutch murderer, the last ordinary execution in the Netherlands, hanged for killing his mother-in-law
• 1862-02-21 Nathaniel Gordon is hanged in NYC for engaging in the slave trade, the only slave trader in US history to be convicted and executed under the Piracy Law of 1820
• 1862-06-07 William B. Mumford, 1st US citizen hanged for treason, at 42
• 1865-07-07 Lewis Powell, American Confederate soldier who was part of the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln and who attempted to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, executed by hanging at 21
• 1865-07-07 David Herold, American pharmacist's assistant who was part of the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, executed by hanging at 23
• 1865-07-07 George Atzerodt, American conspirator who failed to attempt an assassination of Vice President Andrew Johnson on the night Abraham Lincoln was murdered, executed by hanging at 30
• 1865-07-07 Mary Surratt, American boarding house owner who was part of the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, executed by hanging at 42 or 45. She becomes the first woman executed by the US government.
• 1865-11-10 (Heinrich) "Henry" Wirz, Swiss American Confederate army officer (Commander of Camp Sumter prisoner-of-war facility), hanged after being found guilty of excessive cruelty at 41
• 1869-11-16 Hamiora Pere is hanged for treason at the Terrace Gaol, Wellington - only New Zealander ever to be executed for treason
• 1873-10-03 Kintpuash (also known as Captain Jack), Native American leader, chief of the Modoc tribe of California and Oregon, hanged by US Army for war crimes at about 35
• 1877-03-01 Jack McCall, American gold miner and murderer, executed by hanging for the murder of Wild Bill Hickock at about 24 [date of birth uncertain]
• 1881-04-15 Sophia Perovskaya, Soviet icon, aristocrat, and socialist revolutionary (Narodnaya Volya), who helped orchestrate the successful assassination of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, executed by hanging at 27
• 1882-06-30 Charles Guiteau, American assassin of US President James A. Garfield, hanged at 40
• 1885-11-16 Louis Riel, Canadian politician, founder of the province of Manitoba, and leader of the Métis people of the Canadian prairies, hanged for treason at 41
• 1887-05-08 Alexander Ulyanov, Russian revolutionary and brother of Vladimir Lenin, hanged for the attempted assassination of tsar Alexander III at 21
• 1896-05-07 H. H. Holmes [Herman Webster Mudgett], American serial killer associated with 27 deaths, executed by hanging at 34
• 1896-06-10 Amelia Dyer, English murderer of 300 infants, hanged at Newgate Prison, London (b. 1829)
• 1903-11-20 Tom Horn, American gunfighter and outlaw, hanged to death at 42
• 1905-02-17 Serge Alexandrovich, Governor-General of Moscow, assassinated by a terrorist bomb; his carriage driver also died, the assailant survived, was tried and hanged
• 1905-08-04 Kinjikitile "Bokero" Ngwale, Tanzanian prophet and rebel leader, hanged for treason by German East African military
• 1910-11-23 Hawley Harvey Crippen [Dr Crippen], American homeopath and first killer to be caught with the aid of wireless telegraphy, dies by hanging at 48
• 1911-01-25 Kanno Sugako, Japanese anarcho-feminist journalist, hanged for her role in the plot to assassinate Emperor Meiji, dies at 29
• 1915-08-17 Leo Frank, American convict, hanged in 1915 by a lynch mob in Georgia at 31
• 1916-08-03 Roger Casement, Irish diplomat, ardent Irish nationalist (Easter uprising 1916) and poet, hanged after conviction for treason by the British at 51
• 1929-08-17 Horace Alderman, American smuggler who murdered two coast guards and a secret service agent, hanged at 38
• 1931-03-23 Bhagat Singh, Indian freedom fighter, hanged at 23
• 1934-01-12 Surya Sen "Master Da", Indian activist for independence (Chittagong armoury raid), hanged at 39
• 1935-12-02 State of California uses gas chamber instead of hanging for 1st time: Robert Lee Cannon (29) and Albert Kessel (28) executed for role in Folsom Prison escape attempt resulting in murder of warden and guard (San Quentin State Prison. Marin County)
• 1936-08-14 Rainey Bethea, American murderer, hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky, last US public hanging
• 1943-05-10 Andre Bertulot, Belgian resistance fighter, hanged
• 1943-05-10 Arnaud/Armand Fraiteur, Belgian resistance fighter, hanged
• 1943-05-10 Maurice-Albert Raskin, Belgian resistance fighter, hanged
• 1944-06-09 99 inhabitants of Tulle, hanged by SS
• 1944-08-08 Erwin von Witzleben, German fieldmarshal (July 20th plot), hanged at 62
• 1944-11-07 Richard Sorge, German spy for the Soviet Union in Tokyo during World War II, hanged in Tokyo at 49
• 1945-02-02 Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, German Leipzig mayor and Nazi regime opponent (20th July plot), hanged at 60
• 1945-03-21 Arthur Nebe, German SS officer and Holocaust perpetrator who took part in assassination plot against of Adolf Hitler, executed by hanging at 50
• 1945-04-09 Hans Oster, German major general, spy and "July 20th plot", hanged at 57
• 1945-04-09 Hans von Dohnanyi, "July 20th plotter", hanged
• 1945-04-09 Wilhelm Canaris, German admiral and head of Germany military intelligence, hanged by the Nazi regime for treason at 58
• 1945-10-06 Leonardo Conti, Nazi physician, dies by hanging himself while awaiting trial for war crimes at Nuremberg at 45
• 1945-12-13 Irma Grese, German Nazi concentration camp guard known as the "Hyena of Auschwitz", and convicted war criminal, executed by hanging at 22
• 1945-12-14 Josef Kramer, German Nazi war criminal ("The Beast of Belsen"), hanged at 39
• 1946-01-03 William Joyce, American-born Irish Fascist politician and NAZI propagandist, hanged in Britain for treason at 39
• 1946-02-23 Tomoyuki Yamashita [Yamashita Tomobumi], Imperial Japanese general dubbed "Tiger of Malaya," executed for war crimes by hanging at 60
• 1946-04-21 John Maynard Keynes, English economist whose ideas changed the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, dies of a heart attack at 62
• 1946-08-01 Andrey Vlasov, Russian-Soviet army general and Nazi collaborator, executed for high treason, by hanging at 45
• 1946-09-13 Amon Göth, Austrian SS commandant of the Płaszów concentration camp, executed by hanging at after being convicted of war crimes at 37
• 1946-10-16 Alfred Jodl, German general during World War II (head of the German High Command, signed unconditional Nazi surrender), hanged by Allied forces after the Nuremberg trials at 56
• 1946-10-16 Alfred Rosenberg, German war criminal, hanged
• 1946-10-16 Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian Nazi politician (Austrian Chancellor, 1938), and war criminal responsible for deportation of Dutch Jews, hanged at 54
• 1946-10-16 Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian Nazi (SS/SD), hanged at 43
• 1946-10-16 Fritz Sauckel, German Nazi politician (General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment, 1942-45), and convicted war criminal, hanged at 51
• 1946-10-16 Hans Frank, German Nazi Governor General of Occupied Poland, hanged by Allied forces after the Nuremberg war trials at 46
• 1946-10-16 Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi foreign minister and war criminal, hanged at 53
• 1946-10-16 Wilhelm Frick, German leading Nazi official and war criminal (Minister of the Interior, responsible for concentration camps), hanged for crimes against humanity at 69
• 1946-10-16 Wilhelm Keitel, Nazi military leader (head of the German High Command), is hanged at Nuremberg at 64
• 1947-05-02 Dorothea Binz, German Nazi war criminal (Ravensbrück concentration camp), executed by hanging for her crimes at 27
• 1947-06-18 Shigematsu Sakaibara, Japanese admiral, hanged for war crimes at 48
• 1947-09-23 Nikola Petkov, leader of Bulgaria Boer party, hanged
• 1947-12-22 Therese Brandl, German Nazi concentration camp guard (Auschwitz), and convicted war criminal, executed by hanging in Kraków, Poland at 45
• 1948-01-24 Maria Mandl, Austrian Nazi concentration camp worker (Lichtenburg; Ravensbrück) extermination camp official (Auschwitz II-Birkenau), and convicted war criminal, executed by hanging at 36
• 1948-06-02 Viktor Brack, German Nazi physician and war criminal, executed by hanging at 43
• 1948-06-02 Karl Brandt, German Nazi physician of Adolf Hitler, executed by hanging for war crimes at 44
• 1948-06-02 Karl Gebhardt, German Nazi physician (convicted of war crimes for experimenting on concentration camp inmates), executed by hanging at 50
• 1948-06-02 Waldemar Hoven, German Nazi physician (convicted of war crimes for experimenting on concentration camp inmates at Buchenwald), executed by hanging at 43
• 1948-06-02 Wolfram Sievers, German Nazi physician (convicted of war crimes for atrocities while director of the SS), executed by hanging at 42
• 1948-12-23 Seishirō Itagaki, Japanese military officer and politician (War Minister, 1938-39), hanged for war crimes at 63
• 1948-12-23 Hideki Tojo, Japanese Prime Minister during WW II (1941-44), hanged for war crimes at 64
• 1950-03-02 Rosli Dhobi, pro-Indonesian Malay student, hanged in Kuching for the assassination of Duncan Stewart, British Governor of Sarawak
• 1950-06-27 Milada Horakova, Czech advocate/anti fascist, hanged
• 1951-06-07 Nazi war criminals Paul Blobel, Werner Braune, Erich Naumann, Otto Ohlendorf, Oswald Pohl, George Schallenmair & Otto Schmidt, hanged at Landsberg Prison in Germany
• 1951-06-07 Oswald Pohl, German head administrator of the Nazi concentration camps, executed by hanging for his war crimes at 58
• 1951-09-08 Jürgen Stroop, SS General during World War II and commander of Nazi forces during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, executed by hanging for crimes against humanity at 56
• 1955-05-17 Leslie Hylton, Jamaican cricketer and West Indies fast bowler, executed and hanged for murder at 50
• 1955-07-13 Ruth Ellis, last English woman (murderess), executed by hanging
• 1958-06-16 Imre Nagy, Hungarian communist and Prime Minister of Hungary (1953-56), hanged at 62
• 1962-06-01 Adolf Eichmann, German Nazi officer (SS-Obersturmbannführer, Holocaust organizer), hanged in Israel at 56
• 1963-06-20 Joseph Self, American murderer, executed by hanging in Walla Walla, Washington at 32; last state execution until 1990
• 1965-04-14 Perry Edward Smith, US murderer (In Cold Blood), hanged at 36
• 1965-04-14 Robert Hickok, US murderer (In Cold Blood), hanged at 33
• 1975-01-08 John Dierkes, American actor (Shane, Daughter of Dr Jekyll, Hanging Tree), dies from emphysema at 69
• 1975-05-16 Michael X, (Abdul Malik), hanged in Trinidad, for murder
• 1976-07-23 Martin Wickramasinghe, Sri Lankan author (Gamperaliya - The Uprooted/Changing Village), dies at 85
• 1979-04-04 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistani president, hanged in Pakistan at 51
• 1984-12-23 Joan Lindsay, Australian author (Picnic at Hanging Rock), dies at 88
• 1985-01-18 Mahmoud Taha, Sudanese Muslim leader, hanged at 76
• 1985-10-18 Benjamin Moloisi, South African poet/Anc'er, hanged at 30
• 1990-03-15 Farzad Bazoft, Iranian-born journalist (hanged) (b. 1958)
• 1990-07-05 Mitch Snyder, homeless advocate, commits suicide by hanging at 46
• 1991-12-09 Berenice Abbott, American photographer (The World of Atget; Changing New York), dies at 93
• 1993-01-05 Westley Allan Dodd, American serial murderer and sex offender, dies in 1st hanging in US since 1965 at 31
• 1994-09-23 John van Damme, businessman, hanged in Singapore at 59
• 1994-11-29 Ronald "Buster" Edwards, British Great Train Robber turned flower-seller, found hanged at 63
• 2002-03-09 Normand Lockwood, American composer (The Closing Doxology; The Hanging Judge), and educator, dies at 95
• 2005-12-02 Van Tuong Nguyen, Australian drug smuggler (hanged) (b. 1980)
• 2006-12-30 Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq (1979-2003), hanged in Baghdad at 69
• 2014-08-11 Robin Williams, American actor and comedian (Mork & Mindy, Jumanji, Dead Poets Society, Good Will Hunting), commits suicide by hanging himself at 63
• 2017-03-22 Francine Hughes Wilson, American domestic abuse victim "The Burning Bed" who changed pubic perceptions, dies at 69
• 2018-06-05 Kate Spade, American fashion designer, commits suicide by hanging at 55
• 2018-06-08 Anthony Bourdain, American-French celebrity chef, author, and TV personality considered one of the most influential chefs in the world (No Reservations, Parts Unknown), commits suicide by hanging at 61
• 2022-08-08 Lamont Dozier, American songwriter and producer (Holland–Dozier–Holland - "Heat Wave"; "Where Did Our Love Go"; "You Keep Me Hanging On"), dies at 81
• 2023-05-26 Jack Lee, American rock singer and songwriter (Blondie - "Hanging on the Telephone"; Paul Young - "Come Back and Stay"), dies of colon cancer at 71

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