1495 – John II the Perfect, King of Portugal (1481-95), dies at 40
1922 – Oskar Hertwig, German embryologist (discovered fertilization), dies at 73
1936 – Jaime de Magalhães Lima, Portuguese author and poet (Salmos do Prisoneiro), dies at 76
1973 – Abebe Bikila, Ethiopian distance athlete (Olympic gold marathon 1960 WR [barefoot], 64 WR; Africa’s first WR breaking athlete in any sport), dies of a brain hemorrhage at 41
1984 – Pascale Ogier, actress (Ghost Dance), dies of a heart attack at 24
1991 – Khigh Dhiegh [Kenneth Dickerson], American actor (Forbidden Nights; The Manchurian Candidate; Hawaii Five-0 – “Wo Fat”), dies of kidney and heart failure at 81
1991 – Margo J. Sylvia (née Lopez), American pop singer (Tune Weavers – “Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby”), dies of heart attack and stroke at 55
2010 – Gregory Isaacs, Jamaican reggae musician, dies of lung cancer at 59
2011 – Anna van Beers [Graeve], Dutch actress (A Woman like Eve, Diary of a Hooker), dies at 95
2018 – Sonny Fortune [Cornelius Fortune], American jazz saxophonist, dies at 79
Category: Famous Deaths
Famous Deaths for 24th October 2023
1789 – Joaquín Martínez de Oxinagas, composer, dies at 69
1852 – Daniel Webster, US Secretary of State (1841-43, 1850-52), politician and lawyer, dies at 70
1898 – Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, French painter, dies at 73
1902 – Władysław Zaremba, Polish pianist and composer, dies at 69
1985 – Maurice Roy, Archbishop of Quebec, (b. 1905)
1988 – Henry Armstrong, American boxer (world featherweight, lightweight, welterweight [19 x title defences] champion), dies at 75
1996 – Sid Pye, drummer, dies at 55
2002 – Winton M. Blount, United States Postmaster General (b. 1921)
2005 – Immanuel C.Y. Hsu, scholar of modern Chinese intellectual and diplomatic history (b. 1923)
2012 – Anita Björk, Swedish actress (Miss Julie, Loving Couples, Night People), dies at 89
Famous Deaths for 23rd October 2023
1764 – Emmanuel-Auguste de Cahideuc, Comte Dubois de la Motte, French naval officer (b. 1683)
1799 – William Paca, American judge and signer (Declaration of Independence), dies at 58
1899 – Penn Symons, British Major General during Second Boer War, dies in battle during the Battle Of Talana Hill at 56
1928 – François Victor Alphonse Aulard, French historian, dies at 79
1948 – Eugeniusz Morawski-Dabrowa, Polish composer, dies at 71
1954 – Henri Zagwijn, Dutch composer and musicologist, dies at 76
1996 – Ronald Alfred Gardyne “Rags” Butler, British sailor, dies at 68
2005 – John Muth, American economist (b. 1930)
2005 – William Hootkins, American actor, dies at 57
2011 – Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician whose models for determining the chemical crystal structures vital for life revolutionized chemistry (Nobel 1985), dies at 94
Famous Deaths for 22nd October 2023
1674 – Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Dutch painter, dies at 53
1708 – Herman Witsius [Wits], Dutch reformed theologist, dies at 72
1927 – Ross Youngs, American Baseball HOF right fielder (World Series 1921, 22; NY Giants), dies of Bright’s disease at 30
1966 – Hewlett Johnson [Red Dean of Canterbury], English bishop, dies at 92
1973 – Pablo Casals [Pau Casals i Defilló], Spanish cellist, conductor and composer, dies at 96
1982 – Savitri Devi [Maximiani Portas], Greek French Nazi writer, dies at 77
1985 – Viorica Ursuleac, Romanian operatic soprano, dies at 91
1994 – David Buchan, Scottish ethno-musicologist, dies at 55
1998 – Eric Ambler, English author of thrillers and spy novels (Epitaph for a Spy), dies at 89
2017 – George Young, Scottish-Australian musician, songwriter and record producer (the Easybeats, Flash and the Pan), dies at 70
Famous Deaths for 21st October 2023
1221 – Alix of Thouars, Duchess of Brittany (b. 1201)
1623 – William Wade, English statesman and diplomat (b. 1546)
1943 – Dudley Pound, British admiral of the fleet and 1st Sea Lord (Jutland, WW II), dies at 66
1969 – Oscar “TV Slim” Wills, American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist (“Flatfoot Sam”), dies in a car wreck at 53
1969 – Jack Kerouac, American novelist and poet of the Beat Generation (On the Road, Mexico Blues), dies of cirrhosis of the liver at 47
1996 – Eric Halsall, English TV presenter and sheepdog trial commentator (One Man and His Dog), dies at 76
1998 – Alexander Cairncross, Scottish economist (Chancellor of Glasgow University), dies at 87
1998 – Alan Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury, British business executive, dies at 96
2016 – Manfred Krug, German actor (Boxer), dies at 79
2021 – Nils Einár Grönberg, Swedish rapper (“Första klass”; “Katten i trakten”), shot to death in suspected gang-related incident at 19
Famous Deaths for 20th October 2023
1268 – Conrad Hohenstaufen/Conradin, last Duke of Swabia, beheaded in Naples aged 16
1676 – Christopher Gibbons, British composer, dies at 61
1870 – Michael William Balfe, Irish violinist and composer (The Bohemian Girl), dies at 62
1927 – Mikhail Ivanov, Russian composer, dies at 78
1977 – Ronnie Van Zant, American rock musician (Lynyrd Skynyrd), dies in a plane crash at 29
1983 – Yves Thériault, French Canadian author, dies at 67
2003 – Čkalja [Miodrag Petrović], Serbian actor and one of the most popular comedians of former Yugoslavia, dies at 79
2005 – Chalmers Goodlin, US test pilot (XS-1), dies at 85
2007 – Paul Raven, British bass-player (Killing Joke, Ministry), dies of a heart attack at 46
2012 – E. Donnall Thomas, American physician (1990 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for bone marrow transport), dies at 92
Famous Deaths for 19th October 2023
1608 – Martin Delrio, Flemish theologian and occultist, dies at 57
1918 – Harold Lockwood, American actor (Tess of the Storm Country), dies from the flu at 31
1926 – Victor Babeş, Romanian physician and bacteriologist, dies at 72
1932 – Lindley M. Garrison, American lawyer and 46th U.S. Secretary of War (1913-16), dies at 67
1932 – Arthur Friedheim, Russian composer, dies at 72
1992 – Maurice Le Roux, French conductor and film score composer (Kamouraska), dies at 69
2007 – Jan Wolkers, Dutch sculptor and novelist (Brief American), dies at 81
2008 – Doreen Wilber, American archer (Olympic gold individual 1972), dies from Alzheimer’s disease at 78
2020 – Tony Lewis, British rock singer-songwriter and bass player (The Outfield – “Your Love”), dies at 62
2022 – Joanna Simon, American mezzo-soprano (1962-86), and Emmy Award-winning arts journalist (PBS, 1986-92), dies of thyroid cancer at 85
Famous Deaths for 18th October 2023
1744 – Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, close friend of Queen Anne of Great Britain, dies at 84
1840 – Pierre-Gabriel Gardel, French ballet dancer and choreographer (In L’Offrande à la Liberté), dies at 82
1871 – Charles Babbage, British mathematician and inventor (calculating machine) considered the “father of the computer”, dies of renal failure at 79
1938 – Karl Kautsky, Austrian philosopher and Marxist theorist (Socialist journal Neue Zeit), dies at 83
1945 – Fred Hovey, American tennis player (US Nationals 1895), dies at 77
1972 – Esma Cannon, Australian-born actress (Sailor Beware!), dies at 66
1982 – John Robarts, Canadian politician, Premier of Ontario (b. 1917)
1983 – Vijay Manjrekar, Indian cricket batsman (55 Tests, 7 x 100, HS 189no; Bombay, Bengal, Rajasthan, Maharashtra), dies at 52
1994 – WiIlliam Faure, South African film producer (Shaka Zulu), dies of kidney failure at 45
2021 – Colin Powell, American General and 1st Black US Secretary of State (2001-05), dies from complications of COVID-19, blood cancer, and Parkinson’s disease at 84
Famous Deaths for 17th October 2023
1836 – Orest Kiprensky, Russian painter (b. 1782)
1889 – N.G. [Nikolay Gavrilovich] Chernyshevsky, Russian philosopher (What Is to Be Done?), dies at 61
1910 – Julia Ward Howe, American poet (Battle Hymn of the Republic), author, abolitionist, and women’s suffragist, dies of pneumonia at 91
1966 – Wieland Wagner, German opera director, dies
1979 – Karel Reiner, Czech pianist, composer, and Theresienstadt concentration camp survivor, dies at 69
1982 – Peterus van Doorne, Dutch industrialist, dies at 47
1992 – Herman Johannes, Indonesian professor, scientist and politician (b. 1912)
1992 – Ton Hasebos, cameraman/TV director (Gnome Hasebos), dies
2006 – Daniel Emilfork, French actor (b. 1924)
2007 – Joey Bishop [Gottlieb], American TV talk show host (Joey Bishop Show) and member of the “Rat Pack” group of entertainers, dies at 89
Famous Deaths for 16th October 2023
1591 – Gregory XIV [Niccolo Sfondrati], Italian Pope, dies in office from a gallstone at 56
1628 – François de Malherbe, French poet and critic (b. 1555)
1690 – Margaretha M Alacoque, French mystic/saint, dies at 43
1694 – Samuel Freiherr von Pufendorf, German lawyer, dies at 62
1791 – Grigory Potemkin, Russian military leader, statesman and favorite of Catherine the Great, dies at 52
1810 – Nachman of Breslov, Ukrainian founder of Breslov Hasidut, dies at 38
1865 – Andrés Bello, Venezuelan poet, lawmaker, philosopher, and sociologist (b. 1781)
1944 – John Eigenhuis, Dutch writer (The Dike), dies at 78
1956 – Jules Rimet, French football administrator (3rd President of FIFA 1921-54), dies at 83
1996 – Anthony Griffin, British Royal Navy admiral (Controller of the Navy, 1971–75; chairman of British Shipbuilders 1977–80). dies at 75