1672 – John Cosin, English clergyman, dies at 77
1876 – Eliza Johnson, U.S. First Lady (b. 1810)
1902 – Alpheus Hyatt, American zoologist and paleontologist, dies at 63
1972 – Margaret “Daisy” Ashford, British child author who wrote “The Young Visiters” (Mister Salteena’s Plan) aged 9, dies at 90
1978 – Jack Jackson, British trumpeter, dance band bandleader, and influential BBC disc jockey, dies at 71
1989 – Wilf Slack, English cricketer, dies while playing cricket in Gambia at 34
1995 – Sollie McElroy, American RandB singer (The Flamingos. 1953-54 – “Golden Teardrops”), dies at 61
2004 – Gus Suhr, American baseball first baseman (1,435 MLB games Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies; only player to be sued by a fan injured after struck by a foul ball), dies at 98
2014 – Joachim Nowotny, German writer, dies at 80
2020 – Chris Darrow, American country-rock pioneer, singer-songwriter, guitarist, fiddler, bassist, and banjo plucker (Kaleidoscope; Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, 1967-70), dies from complications following a stroke at 75
Category: Famous Deaths
Famous Deaths for 14th January 2024
1766 – Frederick V, King of Denmark-Norway (1746-66), dies at 42
1887 – Peter Donders, Dutch Roman Catholic missionary to Suriname, dies at 77
1937 – Jaishankar Prasad, Hindi poet, dramatist and novelist, dies at 47
1959 – G. D. H. Cole, English political theorist and socialist, dies at 69
1991 – Gordon Bryant, Australian politician (b. 1914)
1996 – Jacques LeBrun, French yachtsman (Olympic gold Snowbird class 1932), dies at 85
1999 – Aldo van Eyck, Dutch architect (City Hall), dies at 80
2007 – Darlene Conley, American actress (The Bold and the Beautiful), dies at 72
2008 – Judah Folkman, Surgeon that developed Angiogenesis (b. 1933)
2018 – Marlene VerPlanck [Pampinella], American jazz and pop vocalist, dies of pancreatic cancer at 84
Famous Deaths for 13th January 2024
533 – Remigius van Reims, 1st bishop of Reims (459-533) and saint, dies about 96
1735 – Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg, Queen consort of Sardinia, dies at 28
1954 – Roland Diggle, English-American composer, organist and choirmaster (St. John’s Episcopal Church of Los Angeles, California), dies at 69
1957 – Alfred Edgar Coppard, English short story writer (Black Dogs and Other Stories), dies at 79
2002 – Kurt Brüggemann, German composer, conductor, and music educator, dies at 93
2005 – Nell Rankin, American operatic mezzo-soprano (Carmen; Metropolitan Opera, 1951-76), dies at 81
2009 – Hortense Calisher, American novelist (President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters), dies at 97
2010 – Theodore “Teddy” Pendergrass, American soul singer (Turn Off the Lights), dies of respiratory failure at 59
2018 – Tzimis Panousis, Greek musician, stand-up comedian, and radio presenter, dies of a heart attack at 63
2021 – Bernd Kannenber, German race walker (Olympic gold FRG 50k 1972), dies at 78
Famous Deaths for 12th January 2024
1674 – Giacomo Carissimi, Italian organist, choral director, composer (Jephta), and priest, dies at 68-ish
1735 – John Eccles, English composer (Master of the King’s Musick for four monarchs), dies (b. 1668)
1925 – Oskar Brefeld, German botanist and founder of modern mycology, dies at 85
1965 – Porcupine, in the National Zoo, dies at 27; oldest known rodent (Washington, DC)
1991 – Vasco Pratolini, Italian writer (Le Ragazze di San Frediano), dies at 77
2000 – Bobby Phills, American basketball player (b. 1969)
2001 – William Hewlett, American engineer and businessman (co-founder Hewlett-Packard), dies of a heart attack at 87
2009 – Russ Conway, Canadian-American character actor (Richard Diamond Private Eye), dies at 95
2021 – John Ward, New Zealand cricket wicketkeeper (8 Tests; 17 dismissals), dies at 83
2022 – Everett Lee, American violinist, and theater and classical conductor (Cosmopolitan Little Symphony, 1947-55; Norrkoping Symphony, 1962-72), dies at 105
Famous Deaths for 11th January 2024
1801 – Domenico Cimarosa, Italian composer (Il Matrimonio Segreto), dies at 51
1836 – John Molson, Canadian brewer (founded Montreal brewery Molsons), dies at 72
1896 – Francis Channing Barlow, American lawyer, Union general (US Civil War, meet with General John Brown Gordon at Gettysburg), dies from infuenza complications at 62
1993 – Lacey Fosburgh, author (Closing Time), dies of breast cancer at 50
1997 – Helen Foster Snow, American journalist (reported from China in the 1930s), dies at 89
1999 – Brian Moore, Irish novelist (Catholics, Doctor’s Wife), dies at 77
2002 – Henri Verneuil, French-Armenian playwright and film director (Mélodie en sous-sol), dies at 81
2005 – Jimmy Griffin, American pop singer, guitarist and songwriter, (Bread), and Academy Award winner (“For All We Know”), dies of cancer at 61
2010 – Georgy Garanian, Armenian-Russian jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer, dies of cardiac arrest at 75
2013 – Mariangela Melato, Italian actress (Swept Away; Flash Gordon: Summer Night), dies from pancreatic cancer at 71
Famous Deaths for 10th January 2024
1542 – Gerardus Noviomagus [Gerrit Geldenhauer], Dutch theologist, die at 59
1833 – António da Silva Leite, Portuguese composer, dies at 73
1846 – Étienne Pivert de Senancour, French writer (De l’Amour), dies at 75
1863 – Lyman Beecher, US Presbyterian clergyman, temperance movement leader (b. 1775)
1941 – Frank Bridge, British violinist andcomposer (Sea), dies at 61
1968 – Howard Smith, American actor (Kiss of Death, Call Northside 777), dies at 74
1994 – Michael Aldridge, British actor (Last of the Summer Wine, Murder in Cathedral), dies at 73
2009 – Sidney Wood Jr, American tennis player (Wimbledon 1931), dies at 97
2017 – Oliver Smithies, British biochemist (2007 Noble Prize for gene targeting), dies at 91
2018 – Wiesje Backer, Dutch ballet dancer, actress. and playwright, dies at 79
Famous Deaths for 9th January 2024
1543 – Guillaume du Bellay, French diplomat and general, dies at about 52 (b. 1491, exact sate uncertain)
1799 – Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian scientist (b. 1718)
1908 – Wilhelm Busch, German poet, dies at 75
1975 – Pyotr Sergeyevich Novikov, Russian mathematician (group theory), dies at 73
1981 – Obdulio Morales, Cuban pianist, conductor, composer, ethno-musicologist, and Afro-Cuban bandleader, dies at 70
1991 – Chris Baay, Dutch actor (Tomorrow It Will Be Better, Klatergoud, Surprise Raid), dies at 86
2011 – Debbie Friedman, American singer-songwriter and arranger of Jewish religious music (“Mi Shebeirach”), dies of pneumonia at 59
2013 – James M. Buchanan, American economist (Nobel Memorial 1986), dies at 93
2020 – Bobby Comstock, American pop-rock singer (The Counts – “Let’s Stomp”), dies at 78
2021 – Vivalyn Latty-Scott, West Indian women’s cricket all-rounder (10 Tests, 25 wickets; Jamaica), dies at 82
Famous Deaths for 8th January 2024
1324 – Marco Polo, Venetian explorer (The Travels of Marco Polo), dies at 69
1919 – Peter Altenberg, writer, dies at 59
1938 – Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist, creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy (b. 1880)
1948 – John Lomax, American folk song collector and ethnomusicologist (American Folklore Society), and educator, dies of a stroke at 83
1958 – Mary Colter, American architect and designer (Fred Harvey Company, Santa Fe Railroad), dies at 88
1967 – Zbigniew Cybulski, Polish actor (Ashes and Diamonds), dies at 39
1979 – Sara Carter, American country musician, songwriter and vocalist (Carter Family), dies at 81
1987 – Manuel Blancafort, Spanish-Catalan pianist and composer, dies at 89
2017 – Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 4th President of Iran (1989-97) and de facto commander-in-chief of the Iranian military during the Iran-Iraq War, dies of a heart attack at 82
2023 – Bernard Kalb, American journalist, moderator, lecturer and author, one of the most respected broadcast journalists of his time (CBS News, New York Times), dies at 100
Famous Deaths for 7th January 2024
1767 – Thomas Clap, American academic, 1st president of Yale University, dies at 63
1864 – Caleb Blood Smith, American journalist and politician, 6th U.S. Secretary of the Interior, dies at 55
1901 – James Dunwoody Bulloch, Confederacy’s chief foreign agent in Great Britain during the American Civil War, dies at 77
1918 – Julius Wellhausen, German biblical scholar (analysis of the structure and dating of the Pentateuch), dies at 73
1981 – Eric Robinson, Australian politician (b. 1926)
1982 – Bert Oosterhuis, Dutch motor racer (Paris-Dakar), dies in a race crash at 41
1993 – Robert Cowan, Scottish CEO (Highlands and Islands Enterprises), dies at 60
1996 – Tarō Okamoto, Japanese avant-garde artist (b. 1911)
1996 – Károly Grósz, Hungarian communist politician, dies at 65
2002 – Jon Lee, Welsh drummer (Feeder) takes his own life at 33
Famous Deaths for 6th January 2024
1738 – Franz Xaver Murschhauser, German composer and theorist, dies at 74
1885 – Harishchandra, Indian poet, dramatist and commonly referred as “father of modern Hindi”, dies at 34
1922 – Jakob Rosanes, German mathematician (algebraic geometry and invariant theory), dies at 79
1928 – Alvin Kraenzlein, American track and field athlete (4 Olympic gold 1900), dies at 51
1933 – Vladimir de Pachmann, Russian-German pianist, dies at 84
1959 – Jose Enrique Pedreira, Puerto Rican composer (“Tus Caricias”; “Siempre”), and pedagogue, dies at 54
1977 – Hanns Lilje, German Lutheran bishop and antifascist (Church und Welt), dies at 77
1995 – Edward Sutcliffe, British judge (British Central Criminal Court), dies at 77
2022 – F. Sionil José, Filipino novelist (Rosales Saga) and Philippine National Artist for Literature, dies at 97
2023 – Dick Savitt, American tennis player (Wimbledon, Australian C’ships 1951), dies at 95