Category: Famous Deaths

1124 – Callistus/Callixtus II [Guido di Borgogna], Italian Pope (1119-24), dies
1793 – Johann Joachim Christoph Bode, German literary translator, dies at 63
1862 – Maxcy Gregg, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in Battle of Fredericksburg at 48
1868 – Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, German botanist and explorer, dies at 74
1894 – Sarah Parker Remond, African-American abolitionist, dies at 68
1908 – Augustus Le Plongeon, French-American photographer and antiquitarian, dies at 83
1934 – Thomas A. Watson, American assistant to Alexander Graham Bell in inventing the telephone, dies at 80
1935 – Victor Grignard, French chemist (Nobel 1912 – development of the Grignard reaction), dies at 64
1945 – Irma Grese, German Nazi concentration camp guard known as the “Hyena of Auschwitz”, and convicted war criminal, executed by hanging at 22
1963 – Hubert ME Pierlot, Belgian advocate/premier (1939-45), dies at 79

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1788 – Joseph Gibbs, English composer and organist, dies at 88
1852 – Tsjalling Hiddes Halbertsma, Dutch Frisian merchant, poet, and story teller (Rhymes and Tales), dies at 60
1877 – José de Alencar, Brazilian writer (O Guarani), dies at 48
1958 – Milutin Milanković, Serbian astronomer and geophysicist (linked long-term changes in climate to astronomical factors affecting the amount of solar energy received at Earth’s surface), dies at 79
1965 – Johnny Lee, American actor (Song of the South, The Amos ‘n’ Andy Show), dies from a heart attack at 67
1976 – John “Jack” Cassidy, American stage and screen actor and Grammy Award-winning singer (Shangri-La; The Eiger Sanction: She Loves Me; Columbo), dies in an apartment fire at 49
1998 – Marco Denevi, Argentine writer (Rosaura at Ten in the Morning, Secret Ceremony), dies at 76
2003 – Heydar Aliyev [Heydər Əliyev], Soviet-Azerbaijani politician (President of Azerbaijan, 1983-2003), dies at 80
2006 – Paul Arizin, American College/Basketball HOF small forward (NBA C’ship 1956; 10 x NBA All Star; NBA scoring champion 1952, 57; Philadelphia Warriors), dies in his sleep at 78
2021 – Vicente Fernández, Mexican Grammy Award-winning singer, known as “El Rey de la Música Ranchera” (The King of Ranchera Music), actor, and film producer, dies at 81

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969 – Nicephorus Phocas [Nikephoros II Phokas], Byzantine emperor (963-969), assassinated in his sleep at about 57 by his nephew and his wife’s lover John Tzimiskes and entourage
1573 – Alardus/Eilard de Waterlant, duke of Alva, hanged
1899 – Andrew Wauchope, British Major-General, dies in Battle of Magersfontein in the Boer war, South Africa. Another British Major, The Marquess of Winchester also killed.
1938 – Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian pacifist and internationalist (Nobel Peace Prize 1921), dies at 69
1950 – Leslie Comrie, New Zealand astronomer and computing pioneer, dies at 57
1979 – Claire Carleton, American actress (Alice-Cimarron City), dies at 66
1981 – I. D. du Plessis, South African writer and director (3rd World), dies at 81
1996 – William Rushton, actor, author and cartoonist (TW3, Private Eye), dies of a heart attack at 59
2008 – Patricia Hutchinson, British diplomat (Ambassador to Uruguay, 1980-83), dies at 82
2021 – Anne Rice, American Gothic novelist (Interview With A Vampire), dies of complications from a stroke at 80

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1508 – René II, Duke of Lorraine, dies at 57
1736 – António Manoel de Vilhena, Portuguese ruler of Malta (b. 1663)
1910 – Pablo Hernandez Salces, Spanish composer, dies at 76
1946 – Walter Johnson, American Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher (3 x Triple Crown of Pitching; World Series 1924; AL MVP 1913, 24; Washington Senators), dies from a brain tumour at 59
1959 – Charles Jones, West Indian cricket batsman (4 Tests), dies at 57
1968 – Thomas Merton, French-American Catholic writer and Trappist monk (7 Story Mountain), accidentally electrocuted by an electric fan at 53
1992 – Bernard Reichel, Swiss composer, dies at 91
2005 – Richard Pryor, American Emmy and 5X Grammy Award-winning comedian (Live on the Sunset Strip), actor (Silver Streak; Stir Crazy), and screenwriter (Blazing Saddles), dies of a heart attack at 65
2022 – Grant Wahl, American sports journalist (CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports), dies from a heart attack covering FIFA World Cup at 48
2024 – Michael Cole, American actor (The Mod Squad – “Pete”), dies at 84

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1603 – William Watson, English conspirator (b. 1559)
1819 – Ann C Coleman, American socialite and fiancée of lawyer and future US President James Buchanan, dies of a laudanum overdose at 23
1966 – Yury Alexandrovich Shaporin, Russian-Ukrainian Soviet composer, dies at 79
1975 – Frank Signorelli, American swing jazz pianist (Original Dixieland Jazz Band; Joe Venuti’s Blue Four), and songwriter (Stairway to the Stars), dies at 74
1982 – Fritz Usinger, German writer (Song Against Death), dies at 87
2001 – Michael Carver, British soldier (b. 1915)
2002 – Stan Rice, American painter, educator, and poet (b. 1942)
2012 – Patrick Moore, English astronomer, author and TV presenter (The Sky at Night), dies from an infection at 89
2014 – Mary Ann Mobley, American model and actress (Miss America 1959, Diff’rent Strokes), dies from breast cancer at 77
2018 – (Arie) “Aat” Veldhoen, Dutch visual artist, dies at 84

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644 – Omar I, 2nd Caliph of Islam (634-44), oversaw conquest of Persia and Egypt, murdered at 59 or 60
1680 – Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester, English politician (b. 1606)
1768 – Jean Denis Attiret, French Jesuit missionary and painter, dies at 66
1963 – Field Marshal Sarit Dhanarajata, Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1908)
1982 – André Kamperveen, Suriname footballer, politician, administrator, and pro-democracy advocate murdered by the military at 58
1992 – William Shawn, American magazine editor (New Yorker, 1952-87), dies at 85
1993 – Carlotta Monti [Montijo], American actress and memoirist (W. C. Fields and Me), dies of Alzheimer’s disease at 86
2015 – Mattiwilda Dobbs, American soprano, dies at 90
2016 – Florence Finch, Filipino-American war hero who fought against the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II, dies at 101
2018 – Evelyn Berezin, American computer pioneer, invented first word processor, dies at 93

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1254 – Innocent IV [Sinibaldo Fieschi], Italian pope (1243-54), dies at 58 or 59
1383 – Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxembourg (1354-83), Duke of Brabant and Limburg (1355-83), dies at 46
1867 – Rudolf Viole, German pianist and composer, dies at 42
1877 – Benjamin Huger, American Major General (Confederate Army), dies at 72
1909 – Whitcomb Judson, American inventor (zipper), dies at 63
1938 – Harry Moses, cricketer (6 Tests for Australia 1887-95), dies
1995 – Larry Bartlett, British photographic printer (Larry Bartlett’s Black and White Photographic Printing Workshop), dies at 42
2011 – Harry Morgan, American actor (December Bride; M*A*S*H, 1975-83 – “Col. Sherman Potter”; AfterMASH; Dragnet – “Bill Gannon”), dies in his sleep at 96
2012 – Saul Steinberg, American businessman, founder of Leasco and CEO of Reliance Insurance Company, dies at 73
2014 – John Bartholomew Tucker, American TV host (Candid Camera, Treasure Island), dies at 84

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1951 – J Edward Bromberg, Hungarian actor (The Mark of Zorro, Under 2 Flags), dies from a heart attack at 47
1970 – Thomas S Power, American USAF-gen (Raid on Tokyo-March 1945), dies at 65
1996 – Trevor Key, British photographer and graphic designer, known for his album cover art (Mike Oldfield; Phil Collins; New Order; OMD), dies of a brain tumor at 48
1997 – Eddie Myers, British WWII soldier and engineer, dies at 91
2001 – Robert Camac, American horse trainer, murdered by a family member at 61
2005 – Charly Gaul, Luxembourg cyclist (b. 1932)
2007 – Katy French, Irish Supermodel and Socialite, dies at 24
2010 – Hugues Cuénod, Swiss tenor and musical educator, dies at 108
2018 – Pete Shelley [Peter McNeish], English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Buzzcocks “Going Steady”), dies at 63
2023 – Tore Aleksandersen, Norwegian women’s volleyball coach (Allianz MTV Stuttgart; Norway, Finland women’s national teams), dies from prostate cancer at 55

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1675 – John Lightfoot, English theologist and scholar (Horae Hebraicae), dies at 73
1745 – Christoph Förster, German composer, dies at 52
1916 – Hans Richter, Austrian-Hungarian orchestral and opera conductor who led first complete performance of Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus (1876), dies at 73
1931 – Vachel Lindsay, American poet (b. 1879)
1968 – Fred Clark, American actor (Zotz, Auntie Mame), dies of liver ailment at 54
1977 – Aleksandr Vasilevsky, Soviet military commander (b. 1895)
1996 – Wilf Carter, Canadian country and western singer-songwriter, yodeler, and guitarist, also known as “Montana Slim”, dies at 91
2007 – Andrew Imbrie, American contemporary classical composer, and pianist, dies at 86
2013 – Colin Wilson, English writer (Afterlife, Book of Great Mysteries), dies at 82
2023 – Norman Lear, American Peabody and Emmy Award-winning TV writer and producer (All in The Family; One Day at a Time; The Jeffersons; Maude), and film director (Cold Turkey), dies at 101

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1334 – Pope John XXII (1316-1334), dies at about 90
1915 – Gustav Hollaender, German violinist, conductor, and composer, dies at 60
1944 – Roger Bresnahan, American Baseball Hall of Fame catcher, outfielder and manager (World Series 1905 NY Giants; St. Louis Cardinals; first shin guards and batting helmet), dies at 65
1969 – Alceo Toni, Italian arranger (Vivaldi’s “Four Season’s” for piano four-hands), composer (Elegiac Quintet), and musicologist, dies at 85
1983 – Bruce Drake, American Basketball Hall of Fame coach (University of Oklahoma 1938-55, 200-181), dies at 77
1985 – Marcel Boereboom, Belgian pianist, critic, educator, and musicologist (Handbook of Music History), dies at 83
1994 – Geoffery Rudolph Elton, historiographer, dies at 73
1995 – Adrianne Jones, killed by David Graham and Diane Zamora, at 16
2005 – Gregg Hoffman, American film producer (b.1963)
2017 – Mary Louise Hancock, American politician and activist, dies at 97

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