1864 – John Sedgwick, American Major General (Union Army), is shot in battle after claiming “they couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance” at 50
1950 – Esteban Terradas i Illa, Catalan mathematician, scientist and engineer, dies at 66
1967 – Elmar Berkovich, Hungarian-Dutch industrial designer (Eindhoven theater), dies at 69
1993 – Freya Stark, English explorer and travel writer (The Southern Gates of Arabia), dies at 100
1995 – Percy Mansell, Rhodesian cricket all-rounder (13 Tests South Africa, 11 wickets, 2 x 50; Rhodesia), dies at 75
1997 – Willy Hess, Swiss musicologist, composer and famous Beethoven scholar, dies at 90
2012 – Vidal Sassoon, British-American hair stylist and CEO of Vidal Sasson, dies from leukemia at 84
2013 – Alfredo Landa, Spanish actor (The Crach, Sinatra), dies at 80
2014 – Mel Patton, American athlete (Olympic gold 200m, 4x100m relay 1948; WR 100 yards 9.2s 1948), dies at 89
2023 – Jon Povey, English drummer (The Pretty Things; Electric Banana), dies of leukemia at 80
Category: Famous Deaths
Famous Deaths for 8th May 2025
1319 – Haakon V, King of Norway (1299-1319), dies
1864 – James Samuel Wadsworth, American politician and major general (Union), dies in battle at 56
1876 – Truganini, last originating Tasmanian, dies
1880 – Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (Madame Bovary), dies at 58
1960 – Hugo Alfvén, Swedish violinist, conductor, and composer (Midsommarvaka – Midsummer Vigil), dies at 88
1994 – Steven Keats, American actor (Death Wish), dies of apparent suicide at 48
2007 – Carson Whitsett, American session keyboard player and songwriter (“Don’t Give Up On Me”), dies of brain cancer at 62
2007 – Mark Burns, British actor (Death in Venice, Juggernaut), dies from cancer at 71
2015 – (Antoni) “Ton” Hartsuiker, Dutch pianist, composer, broadcaster, and educator, dies at 81
2022 – Dennis Waterman, English stage and screen actor (Fair Exchange; Minder; The Sweeney), and singer, dies of lung cancer at 74
Famous Deaths for 7th May 2025
1166 – William I, the Bad, Norman King of Sicily (1154-66) dies at about 46
1814 – Franz Volrath Buttstett, German composer, dies at 79
1825 – Antonio Salieri, Italian composer (Tarare; La Fiera), opera director (Habsburg Court, 1774-92), and Kapellmeister (Austrian Imperial Court, 1788-1824), dies in Vienna at 74
1840 – Caspar David Friedrich, German painter, chiefly of landscapes with contemplative figures in the Romantic style, dies at 65
1985 – Dawn Addams, British actress (A King in New York, Star Maidens) who married the Prince of Roccasecca, dies of cancer at 54
1998 – Eddie Rabbitt, American songwriter (“Kentucky Rain”), and country singer (“I Love a Rainy Night”), dies of lung cancer at 56
2006 – Richard Carleton, Australian television news journalist, dies of a heart attack, while covering press conference of Beaconsfield Mine collapse, at 62
2007 – Bianco [Eugene Capobianco], American jazz, easy-listening, and session harpist, dies at 80
2010 – Adele Mara [Adelaida Delgado], American actress (Sands of Iwo Jima; Angel in Exile), dies at 87
2019 – Georg Katzer, German composer (electro-acoustic music), dies at 84
Famous Deaths for 6th May 2025
1776 – James Kent, English composer, dies at 76
1891 – Thomas Hare, English barrister and political reformer, dies at 85
1951 – Henri Carton de Wiart, Belgian count and politician (Prime Minister of Belgium 1920-21), dies at 82
1963 – Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian-born American physicist and aeronautic engineer (co-founder of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), dies at 81
2014 – Farley Mowat, Canadian author, dies at 92
2014 – William H Dana, American aeronautical engineer, US Navy pilot, NASA test pilot (X-15), and astronaut, dies at 83
2016 – Reg Grundy, Australian media and television mogul (Neighbours, Prisoner), dies at 92
2018 – Khaled Mohieddin, Egyptian military officer (member of the Revolutionary Command Council), dies at 95
2020 – Steve Blackmore, Welsh rugby union prop (4 caps; Cardiff RFC), dies from a brain tumour at 58
2024 – Judy Devlin Hashman, English-American badminton player (World Team Championship gold US – 1957, 1960, 1963, 1966), dies at 88
Famous Deaths for 5th May 2025
311 – Galerius, Emperor of Rome (305-311) ended persecution of Christianity in the East, dies of disease
1194 – Casimir II, the Just, grand duke of Poland (1177-94), dies. Born 1138
1316 – Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, youngest daughter of King Edward I and Queen Eleanor of Castile, dies at 33
1504 – Anton of Burgundy, the Great Bastard, knight, dies at about 82
1971 – Violet Jessop, Titanic survivor (b. 1887)
1998 – Syd Lawrence, British bandleader (Syd Lawrence Orchestra), dies at 74
2001 – Cliff Hillegass, American publisher (Cliffsnotes), dies at 83
2005 – Ted Atkinson, American jockey (US Champion 1944, 46), dies of a stroke at 88
2008 – Thomas Boggs, American rock drummer (Box Tops), dies at 63
2018 – Ermanno Olmi, Italian film director (The Tree of Wooden Clogs), dies at 86
Famous Deaths for 4th May 2025
1471 – Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, dies in Battle of Tewkesbury at 17, becoming the only heir apparent to the English throne to ever die in battle
1770 – Christian Gottfried Krause, German composer, dies at 51
1811 – Nikolay Kamensky, Russian general (b. 1776)
1859 – Joseph Diez Gergonne, French mathematician, dies at 87
1873 – William Holmes McGuffey, American professor (wrote elementary school McGuffey Readers – 120 million copies sold), dies at 72
1916 – Joseph Mary Plunkett, Irish revolutionary (b. 1887)
1972 – Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1886)
1980 – Kay Hammond, British actress (Blithe Spirit, 5 Golden Hours), dies at 71
1994 – Karl Francis Hettinger, American police officer (Onion Field survivor), dies at 59
2018 – Edwin G. Burrows, American historian and professor, dies at 74
Famous Deaths for 3rd May 2025
1704 – Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Bohemian-Austrian violinist and composer, dies at 59
1707 – Michiel de Swaen, Dutch physician and poet, dies at 53
1737 – Abraham Patras, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (1735-37), dies at 65
1779 – John Winthrop, American educator at Harvard and astronomer, dies at 64
1863 – Elisha Franklin Paxton [Bull Paxton], American general (Confederate Army), dies leading Stoneville Brigade at the Battle of Chancellorsville at 35
1968 – Leonid Sabaneyev, Russian composer, dies at 86
1972 – Bruce Cabot, actor (Diamonds are Forever), dies at 68
1991 – Don Whitmire, American College Football Hall of Fame tackle (Alabama, Navy – All American at both), dies at 68
2018 – Bob Prewitt, American college basketball coach (SMU Mustangs), dies at 93
2023 – Lance Blanks, American basketball guard (Detroit Pistons, Minnesota Timberwolves), executive (GM Phoenix Suns 2010-13), and broadcaster (ESPN, Longhorn Network), takes his own life at 56
Famous Deaths for 3rd May 2025
1704 – Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Bohemian-Austrian violinist and composer, dies at 59
1707 – Michiel de Swaen, Dutch physician and poet, dies at 53
1737 – Abraham Patras, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (1735-37), dies at 65
1779 – John Winthrop, American educator at Harvard and astronomer, dies at 64
1863 – Elisha Franklin Paxton [Bull Paxton], American general (Confederate Army), dies leading Stoneville Brigade at the Battle of Chancellorsville at 35
1968 – Leonid Sabaneyev, Russian composer, dies at 86
1972 – Bruce Cabot, actor (Diamonds are Forever), dies at 68
1991 – Don Whitmire, American College Football Hall of Fame tackle (Alabama, Navy – All American at both), dies at 68
2018 – Bob Prewitt, American college basketball coach (SMU Mustangs), dies at 93
2023 – Lance Blanks, American basketball guard (Detroit Pistons, Minnesota Timberwolves), executive (GM Phoenix Suns 2010-13), and broadcaster (ESPN, Longhorn Network), takes his own life at 56
Famous Deaths for 2nd May 2025
1300 – Blanche of Artois, regent of Navarre (b. 1248)
1934 – Sergey Lebedev, Russian chemist, inventor of first commercially viable, mass-produced polybutadiene synthetic rubber for tires, and synthetic motor oil for aircraft engines, dies at 59
1957 – Tadeusz Zygfryd Kassern, Polish composer and cultural attache, dies at 53
1960 – Caryl Chessman, American kidnapper and rapist, executed in gas chamber at San Quentin (California) State Prison after 12 years of appeals at 38
1982 – Hugh Marlowe [Hipple], American actor (All About Eve, Ellery Queen), dies from a heart attack at 71
1994 – Louis Calaferte, writer (Requiem of the Innocents), dies at 65
1995 – Michael Hordern, British actor (Watership Down, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold), dies from kidney disease at 83
1996 – Emile Habibi, Palestinian Israeli writer (The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist), dies at 73
2001 – Ted Rogers, British comedian and game show host (3-2-1), dies after emergency open-heart surgery at 65
2018 – Wang Danfeng, Chinese actress, dies at 93
Famous Deaths for 1st May 2025
1471 – Thomas a Kempis, German Dutch spiritual writer (Navolging of Christ), dies at 91
1679 – Esaias Reusner, German lutenist and composer, dies at 43
1903 – Luigi Arditi, Italian violinist and composer, dies at 80
1903 – Arthur Haygarth, English cricket batsman (Middlesex and Surrey, cricket historian), dies at 77
1921 – Louis Campbell-Tipton, American composer, dies at 43
1959 – Oscar Torp, Norwegian premier, dies
1985 – George Pravda, Czech actor, dies at 68
2018 – Bob Woffinden, British journalist and author, dies of mesothelioma at 89
2022 – Charles Siebert, American television actor (One Day at A Time; Trapper John, M.D. – “Stanley”), and director, dies at 84
2024 – Austin Savage, Welsh field hockey goaltender player (1972 Olympics), dies at 84