1606 – Philippe Desportes, French poet (b. 1546)
1707 – Daniel Speer, German composer, dies at 71
1933 – Nikolai Nikolayevich Yudenich, Russian WWI general, dies at 71
1954 – Oscar Charleston, American Baseball HOF CF (NgL Triple Crown 1921 St. Louis Giants, 1924, 25 Harrisburg Giants) and manager (NgL WS 1933, 35, 36 Pittsburgh Crawfords), dies of a stroke at 57
1992 – Paul Acket, Dutch publisher (Music Express) and impresario (North Sea Jazz Festival), dies of lung cancer at 69
1995 – Dick Henry Jurgen, American swing bandleader, and songwriter (“Elmer’s Tune”), dies of cancer at 85
1997 – Andrew Keir, Scottish character actor (Rob Roy, Absolution, Blood Hunt, Catholics), dies at 71
2000 – Sidney R. Yates, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois), dies at 91
2004 – Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand-born English physicist (Nobel 1962-X-ray diffraction studies of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) proved crucial to the determination of DNA’s molecular structure by James D. Watson and Francis Crick), dies at 87
2012 – Keith H.S. Campbell, British biologist, dies at 58
Category: Famous Deaths
Famous Deaths for 4th October 2023
1590 – Cujacius [Jacques Cujas], French lawyer, dies at about 68
1597 – Sarsa Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1550)
1830 – Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg, Prussian Generalfeldmarschall, dies at 71
1863 – Gerrit Schimmelpenninck, Dutch politician (1st Dutch PM as Chairman of the Council of Ministers 1848), dies at 69
1961 – Benjamin (Fedchenkov), Bishop of the Russian Church and Orthodox missionary, dies at 81
1970 – Curtis Turner, American auto racer (184 NASCAR races over 17 years, 17 wins), dies in aeroplane crash at 46
1975 – May Sutton, American tennis player (first American woman to win Wimbledon singles title 1905), dies at 89
1982 – Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, Iraqi fieldmarshal and President of Iraq (1968-79), dies at 68
2013 – Võ Nguyên Giáp, Vietnamese general (Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam War) and politician, dies at 102
2013 – Akira Miyoshi, Japanese composer (Conversations; A Diary of the Sea), dies at 80
Famous Deaths for 3rd October 2023
1564 – Christophorus Fabritius [Christoffel Smit], calvinist vicar, burned
1703 – Richard Saab, Amersfoorts rebel leader, beheaded
1952 – Alfred Neumann, German playwright (Devil), dies at 56
1957 – Bernard Maybeck, American architect (Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco), dies at 95
1982 – Roger Claessen, Belgian soccer striker (17 caps; Standard de Liège), dies at 41
1988 – Franz Josef Strauss, German politician, Minister of Defense (1956-62), dies at 73
1996 – Thomas ap Rees, British botanist, dies in a cycling accident at 65
2004 – John Cerutti, American baseball pitcher (Toronto Blue Jays) and broadcaster (Rogers Sportsnet), dies of ventricular arrhythmia at 44
2006 – Alberto Ramento, Filipina bishop (b. 1937)
2008 – Aurel Stroe, Romanian composer, dies at 76
Famous Deaths for 2nd October 2023
1678 – Wu San-kuei, gen, invited Manchus to China, dies trying to expel them
1708 – Anne Jules de Noailles, French general under Louis XIV (marshal of France), dies at 58
1746 – Josiah Burchett, English Secretary of the Admiralty
1764 – William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, 5th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1756-57), dies at 44
1919 – Ernest Halliwell, South African cricket wicketkeeper (8 Tests), dies at 55
1931 – George Bradley, American baseball pitcher (first no-hitter in MLB history 1876; NL ERA leader 1876), dies at 79
1991 – Dimitrios I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (1973-91), dies at 77
1994 – Faith Davis, American triplets, world’s oldest surviving triplets (Charity and Hope survive), dies at 95
2007 – Lady Katherine Brandram, Princess of Greece, the last surviving great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, dies at 94
2018 – Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabian dissident, author, Washington Post columnist and editor in chief (Al-Arab News Channel), assassinated in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul at 59, reportedly on the orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Famous Deaths for 1st October 2023
1795 – Robert Bakewell, English cattle breeder, dies at about 70
1868 – Mongkut [Rama IV], King of Thailand (1851-68), opened country to the West (model for musical “The King and I”), dies at 63
1929 – Lee Richmond, American baseball pitcher (first ever MLB perfect game, 1880), dies at 72
1943 – Johan Kalshoven, resistance fighter, executed at 20
1943 – Johan van Mierlo, resistance fighter, executed at 35
1965 – Edward E “Doc” Smith, American sci-fi writer (Subspace encounter), dies at 75
1972 – Louis Leakey, British paleoanthropologist and archaeologist (Olduvai Gorge; 1964 Richard Hooper Medal), dies at 68
1984 – Billy Goodman, American baseball infielder (MLB All-Star 1949, 53; AL batting champion 1950; Boston Red Sox), dies of cancer at 58
2010 – Audouin Dollfus, French Astronomer (discovered Janus, a moon of Saturn), dies at 85
2018 – Charles Aznavour [Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian], French-Armenian singer-songwriter (“She”; “Monsieur Carnavel”; “Tin Drum”), dies at 94
Famous Deaths for 30th September 2023
1877 – Toohoolhoolzote, prophet of Nez Perce indians, dies in battle
1885 – Maria Gartmann, Dutch actress, dies at 60
1888 – Elizabeth Stride “Long Liz”, English woman murdered by Jack the Ripper at 45
1955 – Arnold Struycken, Dutch lawyer, dies at 55
1978 – Edgar Bergen, American ventriloquist (Charlie McCarthy), dies at 75
1988 – Chick Chandler [Fehmer Chandler], American actor (Seven Doors to Death, One Happy Family), dies at 83
1990 – Liesbeth de Uyl, Dutch feminist and wife of PM Joop du, dies at 66
1996 – Elizabeth Gille, French writer, translator and editor, dies at 59
2004 – Michael Relph, British film producer and director (b. 1915)
2012 – Turhan Bey [Sahultavy], Austrian-born actor dubbed “The Turkish Delight” (Arabian Nights, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves), dies from Parkinson’s disease at 90
Famous Deaths for 29th September 2023
1364 – Charles, Duke of Brittany (“the Saint” beatified 1904), killed in the Battle of Auray at 44 or 45
1862 – William “Bull” Nelson, Union general-major, murdered after an argument by fellow Union officer General Jefferson C. Davis at 38
1900 – Samuel Fenton Cary, American politician and temperance movement leader (Rep-IR-Ohio), dies at 86
1967 – Ludwig Donath, Austrian actor (Torn Curtain, Sirocco, Jolson Sings Again), dies of leukemia at 67
1991 – Sam Ntuli, South African trade unionist and anti-apartheid activist, assassinated
1993 – Gordon Douglas, American actor and director (Tony Rome), dies of cancer at 85
2006 – Khalique Ibrahim Khalique, Pakistani journalist and Urdu poet and critic (b. 1926)
2008 – Hayden Carruth, American poet (The Crow and the Heart), dies at 87
2014 – Dan Goossen, American boxing promoter (Michael Nunn, Terry Norris, James Toney), dies of liver cancer at 64
2021 – Dom Alexandre José Maria dos Santos, Mozambican Roman Catholic Cardinal, Mozambique’s 1st black priest, dies at 97
Famous Deaths for 28th September 2023
1197 – Henry VI von Hohenstaufen, King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor, dies in Messina, Sicily
1582 – George Buchanan, Scottish historian (b. 1506)
1657 – Emilia Secunda Antwerpiana, 6th and youngest daughter of William of Orange, dies at 75
1667 – Jacobus Golius, Dutch mathematician and Arabic translator, dies at 71
1810 – John Archer, American Congressman who received the 1st medical diploma issued on US continent (1768), dies at 69
1930 – Daniel Guggenheim, American mining magnate and philanthropist, dies at 74
1938 – Con Conrad, American songwriter and producer, dies at 48
1988 – Marjorie Bonner Lowry, American actress (Reno, Poor Girls), wife of writer Malcolm Lowry, dies at 83
2020 – Frédéric Devreese, Belgian conductor, and composer of classical music (Gemini Suite; Valse Sacrée), and film scores (The Cruel Embrace), dies of cancer at 91
2021 – Tommy Kirk, American actor (Old Yeller), dies at 79
Famous Deaths for 27th September 2023
1891 – Ivan Goncharov, Russian novelist (Oblomov), dies at 79
1921 – Engelbert Humperdinck, German opera composer (Hänsel und Gretel), dies at 67
1969 – Violet Farebrother, English actress (Downhill, Easy Virtue), dies at 81
1982 – Ralph Baldwin, Canadian harness driver and trainer (11 major world records; Hambletonian Stakes 1963, 73), dies at 66
1986 – Cliff Burton, American rock bassist (Metallica), dies in bus crash at 24
1995 – Christopher Shaw, British composer, dies at 71
1995 – Alison “Night Bird” Steele, DJ (WNEW-FM, WXRK-FM), dies of cancer
2001 – Herman Berlinski, Polish-American organist, composer and choral conductor (The Tetragrammaton), dies at 91
2004 – John E. Mack, American psychiatrist and author (b. 1929)
2013 – Jay Robinson, American actor (Born Again, Malibu Bikini Shop), dies at 83
Famous Deaths for 26th September 2023
1560 – George van Egmond, Dutch bishop of Utrecht, dies at 56
1764 – Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro, Spanish scholar, dies at 89
1802 – Baron Jurij Vega, Slovenian mathematician and military officer (b. 1754)
1868 – August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1790)
1952 – George Santayana, Spanish-American philosopher and poet (Last Puritan), dies at 88
1960 – William Ling, South African cricketer (batsman in 6 Tests 1921-23), dies at 68
1965 – James Fitzmaurice, Irish aviation pioneer (b. 1898)
1994 – Maurice Ashley, historian and editor (The Listener), dies at 87
1998 – Betty Carter [Lillie Mae Jones], American jazz singer and scat vocalist, dies of pancreatic cancer at 69
2015 – Manuel Oltra, Spanish secular and sacred music composer, and professor (Barcelona Conservatory, 1959-87), dies at 93