On Oct. 15, 1946, Hermann Göring, the highest-ranking Nazi convicted at the Nuremberg trials, killed himself in his prison cell shortly before he was to be hanged, according to The Guardian and HISTORY.

Göring took poison about two and a quarter hours before his execution, The Guardian reported in its original 1946 account, which it republished in 2009. He did it while an American guard was watching him through the grating of his cell door.

The guard did not notice anything unusual, The Guardian reported. Göring slipped a small glass vial of potassium cyanide into his mouth and crushed it with his teeth. He had asked to be shot by a firing squad, as a soldier, but was refused.

HISTORY said Göring swallowed a cyanide tablet he had hidden from his guards. He had been found guilty at Nuremberg and sentenced to hang.

Göring was once Hitler's chosen successor, HISTORY reported. He led the German air force, the Luftwaffe, and headed the Gestapo secret police. He also helped create concentration camps for political enemies.

After the 1938 Kristallnacht attacks, it was Göring who ordered Jewish people pushed out of the German economy, HISTORY reported. Their property and businesses were seized.

While Göring's body lay in the prison morgue, the 10 other Nazi leaders sentenced with him were hanged in the prison gym, The Guardian reported. The hangings took one hour and 34 minutes.

Joachim von Ribbentrop was the first to be hanged, at 1:11 a.m. on Oct. 16. The last, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, died at 2:45 a.m., according to the Guardian report.

Göring had long struggled with drug addiction, HISTORY reported. When U.S. forces captured him, he had a large stash of painkiller pills.

What we know: Göring died by cyanide in his cell before his hanging, and 10 others were executed that night.
What we don't: Exactly how Göring kept the poison hidden while under guard.