1580 – Emanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy (1553-80, regained lands of Savoy), dies at 52
1808 – Joseph Anton Bauer, Czech harpsichordist and composer, dies at 83
1844 – Francis Baily, English astronomer and describer of “Baily’s Beads” during solar eclipse, dies at 70
1856 – John Ross, Scottish naval officer and Artic explorer (he rediscovered Baffin Bay), dies at 79
1919 – Jóhann Sigurjónsson, Icelandic writer (Dr Rung), dies at 39
1950 – Ralph Hancock, Welsh garden designer (Rockefeller Center), dies at 57
1974 – Abraham Schierbeek, Dutch biologist (Leeuwenhoek), dies at 87
1986 – Ellis Achong, West Indian cricket spin bowler (6 Tests, 8 wickets; Trinidad; 1st of Chinese descent to play a Test match), dies at 82
2019 – Franco Columbu, Italian bodybuilder, powerlifter, actor and author (Mr. Olympia 1976, 81), dies at 78
2022 – Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1985-91), dies after an unspecified long and grave illness at 91
Category: Famous Deaths
Famous Deaths for 27th August 2024
1830 – Louis Henri, Prince of Condé, commits suicide at 74
1887 – Wilhelm Volkmar, German composer, dies at 74
1963 – Allama Mashriqi, Pakistani scholar and politician (b. 1888)
1965 – Gerald Bond, South African cricketer (South Africa 1938-39), dies at 56
1979 – Bolesław Szabelski, Polish organist and composer, dies at 82
1981 – Joan Edwards, American pop singer on radio (Your Hit Parade) and television (Joan Edwards Show), dies of a heart attack at 62
1991 – Gordon Heath, actor (Sapphire, Staircase, Animal Farm), dies
2006 – Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Indian film director (b. 1922)
2009 – Virgilio Savona, Italian jazz singer and composer (Quartetto Cetra – “Un bacio a mezzanotte”; “Crapa pelada”), dies of complications from Parkinson’s disease at 89
2019 – Dawda Kairaba Jawara, Gambian Prime Minister (1962-70) and 1st President of the Gambia (1970-94), dies at 95
Famous Deaths for 26th August 2024
1595 – Antonio, Prior of Crato, claimant to the throne of Portugal (b. 1531)
1813 – Daniel Gottlob Turk, German composer, dies at 63
1871 – Charles Scribner, American magazine and book publisher, dies of typhoid fever at 50
1930 – Leonidas “Lon” Chaney, American actor nicknamed “the man of a 1000 faces” (The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, The Phantom of the Opera), dies after long illness at 47
1978 – José Manuel Moreno, Argentine footballer, dies at 62
1989 – Irving Stone, American writer (Love is Eternal, Lust for Life), dies at 86
1993 – Rockin Dopsie Sr. [Alton Jay Rubin], American zydeco singer, and accordion player, dies of a heart attack at 61
1996 – Catherine Hall, British nurse who raised the professional profile of nursing and to establish its central role in health care, dies at 73
2000 – Lynden Pindling, Bahamas ‘Father of the Nation’ Prime Minister of Bahamas (1967-92), dies at 70
2001 – Louis Muhlstock, Canadian painter, dies at 97
Famous Deaths for 25th August 2024
1789 – Mary Ball Washington, mother of George, dies
1840 – Karl Leberecht Immermann, German writer, dies at 44
1942 – W van Daalen, opposition leader on Celebes, beheaded
1943 – Johan Petter Johansson, Swedish inventor and industrialist (modern adjustable spanner), dies at 86
1956 – Alfred Kinsey, American entomologist and sexologist (Kinsey Report), dies from a heart ailment and pneumonia at 62
1972 – Juan Carlos Paz, composer, dies at 71
1974 – Gus Viseur, Belgian-French jazz button accordionist, dies at 59
2001 – Ken Tyrrell, English race driver and founder of Tyrrell Racing, dies at 77
2021 – Neal Brendel, American rugby union prop (6 Tests; Pittsburgh RC) and executive (Chairman USA Rugby 2002-05), dies from cancer at 66
2021 – Robin Miller, American motorsports journalist (Indianapolis Star, Autoweek, Car and Driver, ESPN, Speed, NBCSN), dies from leukemia at 71
Famous Deaths for 24th August 2024
1779 – Saint Kosmas of Aetolia, Greek Orthodox martyr, executed at Kolkondas (b. c. 1714)
1798 – Thomas Alcock, English clergyman (b. 1709)
1974 – Alexander de Seversky, Russian-American aviation pioneer (b. 1894)
1978 – Kathleen Kenyon, English archaeologist, her excavations at Jericho established it as the oldest continuously occupied city, dies at 72
1980 – Frederick A. Fox, American classical composer (Nightscenes; Shaking The Pumpkin),and educator (Indiana University, 1974-94), dies at 80
1983 – Shawn Stephens Lewis, 5th wife of Jerry Lee Lewis, dies of methadone OD, after 77 days of marriage at 25
1992 – André Donner, Dutch jurist (2nd President European Court of Justice), dies at 74
1999 – Mary Jane Croft, American actress (Our Miss Brooks; The Lucy Show), dies of natural causes at 83
2001 – Hank Sauer, American baseball left fielder (NL MVP, HR leader, RBI leader 1952; MLB All Star 1950, 52; Chicago Cubs), dies from a heart attack at 84
2006 – Léopold Simoneau, French Canadian tenor, dies at 90
Famous Deaths for 23rd August 2024
1484 – Diogo, Duke of Viseu, murdered by his cousin, King João II of Portugal at 34
1591 – Luis de Leon, Spanish scholar and poet, dies at 64
1914 – George Ambrose Pogson, British consul in Hamburg (1880-1914), dies
1979 – Mian Mohammad Saeed, cricketer (1st Pakistan captain 1948-49), dies
1987 – Siegfried Borris, German composer, dies at 80
1993 – Victorine Hefting, historian/wife of Bert Baker, dies at 88
1995 – Dwayne Goettel, Canadian keyboardist and industrial-electronic music composer (Skinny Puppy), dies of a heroin overdose at 31
1995 – Hedda J. Garza, American writer and political activist, dies at 66
1999 – James White, Northern Irish sci-fi author (Star Surgeon, Star Healer), dies of a stroke at 71
2002 – Hoyt Wilhelm, American Baseball HOF pitcher (8 × MLB All-Star; World Series 1954 NY Giants; no-hitter 1958 Baltimore Orioles; Chicago WS), dies of heart failure at 80
Famous Deaths for 22nd August 2024
1485 – Richard III, King of England (1483-85), killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field at 32
1609 – Maharal of Prague, Jewish mystic and philosopher (b. 1525)
1801 – Pieter Gerardus van Overstraten, Dutch Governor-General of Dutch East Indies (1796-1801), dies at 46
1866 – George Shillibeer, pioneer of London’s 1st bus service, dies
1917 – Matthijs Maris [Thijs], Dutch painter and etcher influenced by Pre-Raphaelites, dies at 78
1918 – Korbinian Brodmann, German neurologist (b. 1868)
1958 – Roger Martin du Gard, French novelist (Nobel Prize for Literature 1937), dies at 77
1979 – Henry Beernink, politician, dies at 69
1991 – Boris Pugo, USSR minister of Interior (1990), commits suicide
2015 – Charles Tomlinson, British poet and translator, dies at 88
Famous Deaths for 21st August 2024
1131 – Boudouin II van Bourg, king of Jerusalem, dies
1614 – Elizabeth Báthory, Hungarian countess and the world’s most prolific female serial killer, dies at 54
1673 – John de Love I, vice-admiral, dies in sea battle at about 54
1762 – Mary Wortley Montagu, English poet and writer (wrote about life in Istanbul, advocated for smallpox inoculation) dies at 73
1838 – Adelbert von Chamisso, French writer (Peter Schlemihl), dies at 57
1994 – Hein Fentener van Vlissingen, Dutch eccentric millionaire, dies at 73
2008 – “Huckle” Jerry Finn, American sound engineer and record producer (Blink-182), dies of a cerebral hemorrhage and heart attack at 39
2008 – Buddy Harman, American country music drummer (Grand Ole Opry, Elvis Presley), dies at 79
2012 – Georg Leber, German politician, dies at 91
2015 – Anna Kashfi [Joan O’Callaghan], Welsh actress and 1st wife of Marlon Barando, dies at 80
Famous Deaths for 20th August 2024
984 – John XIV [Petrus Canepanova], Italian Pope (983-84), dies
1384 – Geert Groote, Dutch founder of the Brethren of the Common Life, dies at 43
1825 – Richard Wainwright, composer and church organist, dies at 68
1910 – Arthur Coquard, French composer, and music critic (Le Monde; L’Echo de Paris), dies at 64
1915 – Paul Ehrlich, German bacteriologist and physician (Chemotherapy, Nobel Prize 1908), dies in 61
1931 – Waldemar von Baussnern, composer, dies at 64
1961 – Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist (Nobel 1946 – physics of high pressure), dies at 79
1968 – Earl Sande, American HOF jockey (Triple Crown 1930 Gallant Fox; 3 x Kentucky Derby; 5 x Belmont Stakes; 1 x Preakness Stakes; 3 x US Champion Jockey by earnings; US Champion Trainer by earnings 1938), dies at 69
2006 – Bryan Budd, British soldier (Afghanistan), dies at 29
2022 – Tom Weiskopf, American golfer (British Open 1973; US Senior Open 1995), dies from pancreatic cancer at 79
Famous Deaths for 19th August 2024
1493 – Frederick III of Innsbruck, Holy Roman Emperor (1452-1493), dies at 77 probably of blood loss after his leg is amputated
1650 – Abraham de Verwer, Dutch painter, buried at about 55
1856 – Charles Frédéric Gerhardt, French chemist, dies at 39
1887 – Alvan Clark, American astronomer and maker of the Dearborn Observatory telescope, the largest telescope in the world at the time, dies at 83
1895 – John Wesley Hardin, American outlaw and gunfighter (claimed to have killed 27 men), shot dead in a saloon at 42
1944 – Günther von Kluge, German field marshal during World War II (Invasion of Poland, Battle of France, Operation Barbarossa), commits suicide at 61
1967 – Isaac Deutscher, Polish-English historian (Stalin/Trotsky biography), dies at 60
1971 – Mary Browne, American tennis player (US Nat C’ship 1912-14), dies at 80
1975 – Mark Donohue, American auto racer (Indianapolis 500, 1972), dies from injuries suffered in a crash during a practice run in Graz, Austria at 38
2016 – Jack Riley, American actor (The Bob Newhart Show – “Mr. Carlin”; Rugrats -“Stu Pickles”), dies of pneumonia at 80