October 15, 1917: The Dancer Mata Hari Is Shot as a Spy

Mata Hari, a Dutch dancer whose real name was Margaretha Zelle, was shot by a French firing squad at Vincennes on October 15, 1917, convicted of spying for Germany. She had been a celebrated performer in Paris before the war. The evidence against her was largely the money she had taken from German officers, and the case against her has been argued ever since. She refused the blindfold.