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
Category: Famous Deaths
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
Famous Deaths for 5th January 2024
1759 – Thomas Philip Wallrad de Hénin-Liétard d’Alsace, Cardinal- Archbishop of Mechelen, Belgium, dies at 79
1762 – Elizabeth of Russia [Elizaveta Petrovna], Empress of Russia (1741-62) and daughter of Peter the Great, dies at 52
1788 – Johann Schneider, German composer and pupil of Bach, dies at 85
1965 – Nell Craig, American actress (Dr. Kildare (films); The Queen of Sheba), dies at 73
1973 – Cor of Dis sr. [Cornelis Nicolas of Dis sr.], Dutch politician (SGP), dies at 79
1987 – Herman Smith-Johannsen, Norwegian-born Canadian cross-country skier (b. 1875)
1989 – Philip Herschkowitz, Romanian composer, dies at 82
1993 – Westley Allan Dodd, American serial murderer and sex offender, dies in 1st hanging in US since 1965 at 31
2018 – Jerry Van Dyke, American actor (My Mother the Car, Coach), dies at 86
2022 – Olga Szabó-Orbán, Romanian fencer (World C’ship gold women’s foil individual 1962, team 1969; Olympic silver individual 1956, bronze team 1968, 72), dies at 83
Famous Deaths for 4th January 2024
1761 – Stephen Hales, English physiologist, chemist and inventor (first person to measure blood pressure), dies at 83
1987 – Peggy Bacon, American author and illustrator (Off With Their Heads), dies at 91
1990 – Robert Adams, American sci-fi author (Castaways in Time), dies at 57
1991 – Leo Wright, American jazz saxophone and flute player (Dizzy Gillespie; “Blues Shout”; “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”), dies of a heart attack at 57
1994 – R. D. Burman, Indian film score composer (1942: A Love Story), dies at 54
2003 – Sabine Ulibarri, Mexican American writer (b. 1919)
2004 – Joan Aiken, English writer of children’s books (The Whispering Mountain), dies at 79
2012 – Rod Robbie, Canadian architect and planner (Roger’s Centre/Sky Dome, Toronto), dies at 83
2017 – Milt Schmidt, Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame center (Stanley Cup 1939, 41; Boston Bruins) and coach/GM (Stanley Cup 1970, 72; Boston Bruins), dies from a stroke at 98
2022 – Rolf-Dieter Amend, German canoeist (Olympic gold GDR C-2 slalom 1972), dies at 72
Famous Deaths for 3rd January 2024
1552 – Henry II of Bavaria, Bishop of Utrecht (1524-29), Worms (1523-52) and Freising (1541-52), dies at 64
1767 – Luca Antonio Predieri, Italian composer and violinist, dies at 78
1895 – James Merritt Ives, American lithographer and businessman (Currier and Ives), dies at 70
1916 – Grenville M. Dodge, American railroad engineer (Transcontinental Railroad-Union Pacific) and Major General (Union Army), dies at 84
1945 – Théodore “Fyodor” Akimenko, Ukrainian composer, dies at 68
1965 – Julius Tannen, American vaudeville comedian, dies at 84
1974 – Arthur Daley, American sportswriter (NY Times-Pulitzer 1956), dies from a heart attack at 69
1999 – Jerry Quarry, American boxer (famous bouts v world champions Floyd Patterson, Jimmy Ellis, Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, Ken Norton), dies of chronic traumatic encephalopathy at 53
2007 – William Verity Jr., United States Secretary of Commerce 1987-1989 (b. 1917)
2012 – Gene Bartow, American College Basketball Hall of Fame coach (US National Team 1974; Valparaiso, Memphis State, Illinois, UCLA), dies of stomach cancer at 81