Former Olympian Martial Van Schelle was executed by the Nazi occupation on this date in 1943.
American-born, Van Schelle (English Wikipedia entry | Dutch) was orphaned by the sinking of the Lusitania and got his licks in on the Reich as a member of the American Expeditionary Force.
He later represented Belgium as a multifaceted sportsmen, competing in three summer Olympics, one winter Olympics, and the Gordon Bennett Cup balloon race. (No medals.)
Afterwards, he went into business as a Brussels sporting goods merchant. Dutch Wikipedia credits him with building the first ice rink in his country and numerous others thereafter.
During World War II, Van Schelle bankrolled an underground traffic of refugees off the continent to Great Britain, until the Gestapo arrested him on January 15, 1943. He was eventually shot at Fort Breendonk prison.
On this day..
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- 1766: Nicholas Sheehy, Whiteboys priest
- 1718: Stepan Glebov, lover of the tsarina
- 1988: Dmitri Polyakov, Cold War spy
- 1745: Martha Stracey, whore and reprobate-creature
- 1878: Joseph LaPage, murderer of Josie Langmaid
- 1963: Victor Feguer, by the feds
- 1865: Marcellus Jerome Clarke, "Sue Mundy"
- 1536: Pargali Ibrahim Pasha, Suleiman the Magnificent's friend and grand vizier
- 1990: Farzad Bazoft, journalist
- 1957: Burton Abbott, reprieved too late
- 1938: Seventeen former Bolshevik officials from the Trial of the 21