The last witch executed in the Saxon city of Braunschweig — Brunswick, in English — burned on this date in 1698.
Hers was a distinction that was long thought to adhere to the much better-documented Tempel Anneke, who suffered back in 1663. The eventual discovery in city archives of records for at least three later trials — Lucke Behrens in 1671, Elizabeth Lorentz in 1671, and our Katharina Sommermeyer in 1698 — corrected the record.
Unfortunately, only sketchy details are known about any of these women. Sommermeyer, the subject of our date’s small milestone, was a young woman of about 20, hailing from the tiny nearby village of Beierstedt. (Present-day population, according to Wikipedia: 386.)
On this day..
- 1918: Paul von Rennenkampf, tsarist general
- 889: Qin Zongquan, late Tang warlord
- 1592: The Uglich Bell
- 1464: Johann Breyde, via Schandbild
- 1307: Murcod Ballagh, beheaded
- 2013: A day in the death penalty around the Persian Gulf
- 1916: Gabrielle Petit, Belgian spy
- 1872: William Frederick Horry, Marwood's first
- 1942: Not Hersh Smolar, saved by Genesis
- 1965: John Harris, white anti-apartheid martyr
- 1691: Jack Withrington, highwayman
- Themed Set: Selections from the Newgate Calendar
- 325: Licinius, Constantine's last obstacle