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On this page about William Kemmler:

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• 1860 births (174)
• 1890 deaths (129)
• American murderers (130)
• People executed by electric chair (11)
• People executed for murder (84)
• People executed in the US (51)
• People from Buffalo, New York (106)

Encyclopedia: William Kemmler

William Kemmler (May 9, 1860 – August 6, 1890) of Buffalo, New York was the first person to be executed via electric chair. He had murdered Tillie Ziegler, his common-law wife, with a hatchet on March 29, 1889, and was sentenced to be executed on August 6, 1890, at 7:00 AM at New York's Auburn Prison. His lawyers appealed, arguing that electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment. George Westinghouse, one of the backers of alternating current as the standard for the distribution of mains power, supported his appeal. The appeal failed, partly due to the support of Thomas Edison for the state's position (Edison was a backer of direct current power supplies, and it is speculated he wanted to use the publicity surrounding the electric chair to convince people that AC was dangerous). See War of Currents.

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How to say "William Kemmler" in other languages:

	(German)	William Kemmler
	(Spanish)	William Kemmler
	(French)	William Kemmler

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List of people who were executed

of Arc William Kemmler Antoine Lavoisier King Louis XVI of France Cecily Lefort Vera Leigh John... Bhutto Guy Biéler Maurice Bishop Denise Bloch Anne Boleyn William George Bonin Andrée Borrel... Barbara Graham Jack Gilbert Graham William Grover-Williams Che Guevara Nathan Hale Robert Alton Harris...

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1890

Prison in New York, the first execution by electric chair is performed (murderer William Kemmler was.... November 23 - King William III of the Netherlands dies without a male heir and a special law is... Franck, composer and organist November 23 - King William III of the Netherlands December 26 - Heinrich...

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August 6

Auburn Prison in New York, the first execution by electric chair is performed, with murderer William Kemmler as the subject. 1901 - Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively... - Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, French writer (d. 1747) 1766 - William Hyde Wollaston...

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Electric chair

execution via the electric chair was carried out on William Kemmler in New York's Auburn Prison on...

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George Westinghouse

William Kemmler became the first person to be executed by electrocution. The execution was messy and... experimenting with AC networks in Pittsburgh. Assisted by William Stanley, Westinghouse worked to...

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