Notable Deaths on April 1

Eua Suntornsanan was a singer, Thai composer and bandleader of the Suntaraporn Band. He was a pioneer in introducing Western music into Thai culture. He started the trend of international style Thai music, or Phleng Thai Sakon. He composed over 2,000 songs that have been popular until today, for example, Rumwong Loy Kratong, many Songkran and New Year songs, and other Thai traditional songs. In 1975, he was given an insignia by the king. In 1981 he died of cancer. In 2007, the Ministry of Culture of Thailand nominated Kru Eua for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization (UNESCO) to honor Kru Eua Suntornsanan as Personality of the Year on the list of Anniversary of World Personalities and Historic Events 2010-2011, which was granted in 2010. Received the honor of being Burapasilpin in the performing arts category in 2015.

Max Ernst was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic training, but his experimental attitude toward the making of art resulted in his invention of frottage—a technique that uses pencil rubbings of textured objects and relief surfaces to create images—and grattage, an analogous technique in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath. Ernst is noted for his unconventional drawing methods as well as for creating novels and pamphlets using the method of collages. He served as a soldier for four years during World War I, which left him shocked and critical of the modern world. During World War II he was designated an "undesirable foreigner" while living in France.

Lonnie Brooks was an American blues singer and guitarist. The musicologist Robert Palmer, writing in Rolling Stone, stated, "His music is witty, soulful and ferociously energetic, brimming with novel harmonic turnarounds, committed vocals and simply astonishing guitar work." Jon Pareles, a music critic for the New York Times, wrote, "He sings in a rowdy baritone, sliding and rasping in songs that celebrate lust, fulfilled and unfulfilled; his guitar solos are pointed and unhurried, with a tone that slices cleanly across the beat. Wearing a cowboy hat, he looks like the embodiment of a good-time bluesman." Howard Reich, a music critic for the Chicago Tribune, wrote, "...the music that thundered from Brooks' instrument and voice...shook the room. His sound was so huge and delivery so ferocious as to make everything alongside him seem a little smaller."

Rozz Williams was an American singer and songwriter known for his work with the bands Christian Death, Shadow Project, and the industrial project Premature Ejaculation. Christian Death is cited by some as a pioneer of the American gothic rock scene as well as deathrock, and is considered to be one of the most influential figures of the scene. However, Williams disliked the "goth" label and actively worked to shed it during the 1980s and 1990s by focusing on punk rock, hard rock, cabaret, and spoken word music. Williams was also involved with his groups Daucus Karota, Heltir, EXP, Bloodflag, and his own version of Christian Death, along with recording a handful of solo albums. In addition to music, Williams was also an avid painter, poet, and collage artist.

Giorgio Chinaglia was an Italian footballer who played as a striker. He grew up and played his early football in Cardiff, Wales, and began his career with Swansea Town in 1964. He later returned to Italy to play for Massese, Internapoli and Lazio in 1969. Chinaglia led Lazio to the club's first league championship in the 1973–74 season, during which he was also the league's leading scorer. He played international football for Italy, making 14 appearances and scoring 4 goals between 1972 and 1975, including two appearances at the 1974 FIFA World Cup. Chinaglia was the first player in Italian football history to be called up internationally from the second division.

Dame Kathleen Lonsdale was an Irish crystallographer, pacifist, and prison reform activist. She proved, in 1929, that the benzene ring is flat by using X-ray diffraction methods to elucidate the structure of hexamethylbenzene. She was the first to use Fourier spectral methods while solving the structure of hexachlorobenzene in 1931. During her career she attained several firsts for female scientists, including being one of the first two women elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1945, first female professor at University College London, first woman president of the International Union of Crystallography, and first woman president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Jaime Jorge Guzmán Errázuriz was a Chilean constitutional law professor, politician, and founding member of the conservative Independent Democratic Union party. In the 1960s, he strongly opposed the University Reform movement and became an active organizer of the Gremialist movement. Guzmán vehemently opposed President Salvador Allende and later became a trusted advisor of General Augusto Pinochet and his dictatorship. As a professor of Constitutional Law, Guzmán played a significant role in drafting the 1980 Chilean Constitution. He briefly served as a senator during the transition to democracy before being assassinated in 1991 by members of the communist urban guerrilla organization, the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (Autonomous).

Sigismund I the Old was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until his death in 1548. He was a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty, the son of Casimir IV and younger brother of Kings John I Albert and Alexander Jagiellon. He was nicknamed "the Old" in later historiography to distinguish him from his son and successor, Sigismund II Augustus. Before ascending to the Polish and Lithuanian thrones, he was Duke of Głogów from 1499, Duke of Opava from 1501, and governor of Silesia from 1504 on behalf of his brother, King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary.

Trịnh Công Sơn was a Vietnamese musician, songwriter, painter and poet. He is widely considered to be Vietnam's greatest songwriter and one of the best-selling Vietnamese music artists of all time. His music explores themes of love, loss, and anti-war sentiments during the Vietnam War, for which he was censored by both the southern Republic of Vietnam and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Many performing artists, most notably Khánh Ly, Hồng Nhung, Trinh Vinh Trinh, and some overseas singers such as Tuan Ngoc, Le Quyen, Le Thu, and Ngoc Lan, have gained popularity in their own right from covering Sơn's songs.

Brian O'Nolan, whose pen names included Flann O'Brien, was an Irish Civil Service official, novelist, playwright and satirist, who is now considered a major figure in twentieth-century Irish literature. Born in Strabane, County Tyrone, he is regarded as a key figure in modernist and postmodern literature. His four English-language novels, At Swim-Two-Birds (1939), The Hard Life (1961), The Dalkey Archive (1964) and The Third Policeman (1967), were published under the pen name Flann O'Brien. His many satirical columns in The Irish Times and an Irish-language novel, An Béal Bocht (1941), were written under the name Myles na gCopaleen.

Eleanor of Aquitaine was Duchess of Aquitaine from 1137 to 1204, Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, and Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II. As the reigning duchess of Aquitaine, she ruled jointly with her husbands and two of her sons, Kings Richard I and John of England. As the heiress of the House of Poitiers, which controlled much of southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful people in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages.

Alan Dennis Kulwicki, nicknamed "Special K" and "the Polish Prince", was an American auto racing driver and team owner with Polish origin. He started racing at local short tracks in Wisconsin before moving up to regional stock car touring series. Kulwicki arrived at NASCAR, the highest and most expensive level of stock car racing in the United States, with no sponsor, a limited budget and only a racecar and a borrowed pickup truck. Despite starting with meager equipment and finances, he earned the 1986 NASCAR Rookie of the Year award over drivers racing for well-funded teams.

Emperor Shenzong of Song, personal name Zhao Xu, was the sixth emperor of the Song dynasty of China. His original personal name was Zhao Zhongzhen but he changed it to "Zhao Xu" after he acceded to the throne. He reigned from 1067 until his death in 1085 and is best known for supporting Wang Anshi's New Policies. He was a particularly active monarch concerned with expanding Song territory and solving its fiscal, bureaucratic, and military problems through major reforms, but his reign remains controversial due to military failures and the varied effects of his changes.

Charles Richard Drew was an American surgeon and medical researcher. He researched in the field of blood transfusions, developing improved techniques for blood storage, and applied his expert knowledge to developing large-scale blood banks early in World War II. This allowed medics to save thousands of Allied forces' lives during the war. As the most prominent African American in the field, Drew protested against the practice of racial segregation in the donation of blood, as it lacked scientific foundation, and resigned his position with the American Red Cross, which maintained the policy until 1950.

Abaqa Khan, was the second Mongol ruler (Ilkhan) of the Ilkhanate. The son of Hulagu Khan and Lady Yesünčin and the grandson of Tolui, he reigned from 1265 to 1282 and was succeeded by his brother Ahmed Tekuder. Much of Abaqa's reign was consumed with civil wars in the Mongol Empire, such as those between the Ilkhanate and the northern khanate of the Golden Horde, and the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia. Abaqa also engaged in unsuccessful attempts at invading Syria under the Mamluk Sultanate, which included the Second Battle of Homs.

Charles I and IV was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from November 1916 until the monarchy was abolished in November 1918. He was the last of the monarchs belonging to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine to rule over Austria-Hungary. The son of Archduke Otto of Austria and Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony, Charles became heir presumptive of Emperor Franz Joseph when his uncle Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in 1914. In 1911, he married Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma.

Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Dubbed the "King of Ragtime", he composed more than 40 ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first and most popular pieces, the "Maple Leaf Rag", became the genre's first and most influential hit, later being recognized as the quintessential rag. Joplin considered ragtime to be a form of classical music meant to be played in concert halls and largely disdained the performance of ragtime as honky tonk music most common in saloons.

Rolf Rendtorff was Professor of Old Testament at the University of Heidelberg from 1963 to 1990. He was one of the more significant German Old Testament scholars from the latter half of the twentieth-century and published extensively on various topics related to the Hebrew Bible. Rendtorff was especially notable for his contributions to the question of the origins of the Pentateuch, his adoption of a "canonical approach" to Old Testament theology, and his concerns over the relationship between Jews and Christians.

Val Edward Kilmer was an American actor. Initially a stage actor, he later found fame as a leading man in films in a wide variety of genres, including comedies, dramas, action adventures, westerns, historical films, crime dramas, science fiction films, and fantasy films. Films in which Kilmer appeared grossed more than $3.85 billion worldwide. In 1992, the film critic Roger Ebert remarked, "if there is an award for the most unsung leading man of his generation, Kilmer should get it".

Simo Häyhä, often referred to by his nickname The White Death, was a Finnish military sniper during the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union in World War II. He used a Finnish-produced M/28-30 rifle and a Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun. Häyhä is believed to have killed more than 500 enemy soldiers during the conflict, the highest number of sniper kills in any major war. Consequently, he is generally regarded as the deadliest sniper in history.

Zbigniew Oleśnicki, known in Latin as Sbigneus, was a high-ranking Roman Catholic clergyman and an influential Polish statesman and diplomat. He served as Bishop of Kraków from 1423 until his death in 1455. He took part in the management of the country's most important affairs, initially as a royal secretary under King Władysław II Jagiełło and later as the effective regent during King Władysław III's minority. In 1439, he became the first native Polish cardinal.

Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge FRSL was an English writer of fiction and children's books. She won the Carnegie Medal for British children's books in 1946 for The Little White Horse. Goudge was long a popular author in the UK and the US and regained attention decades later. J. K. Rowling identified The Little White Horse as one of her favourite books and one of few to have a direct influence on the Harry Potter series.

Lloyd Augustin Biden Hildebrand was a British-born racing cyclist who competed in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Hildebrand was still a British citizen in 1900, although he lived in France for much of his life and married a Frenchwoman. He participated in cycling at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, winning the silver medal in the men's 25 kilometre race. as well as the bronze medal 1900 Track Cycling World Championships.

Aimery of Lusignan, erroneously referred to as Amalric in earlier scholarship, was the first king of Cyprus from 1196 and the king of Jerusalem as the husband of Queen Isabella I from 1198 to his death. He was a capable ruler whose reign was a period of peace and stability in both kingdoms, and the progenitor of the Lusignan dynasty of the Kingdom of Cyprus.

Vontae Ottis Davis was an American professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons. He played college football for the Illinois Fighting Illini and was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the first round of the 2009 NFL draft. Davis also played for the Indianapolis Colts and Buffalo Bills. He made two Pro Bowls in his career.

Lev Davidovich Landau was a Soviet physicist who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics. He was considered as one of the last scientists who were universally well-versed and made seminal contributions to all branches of physics. He is credited with laying the foundations of twentieth century condensed matter physics, and is also considered arguably the greatest Soviet theoretical physicist.

Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. was an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Commonly referred to as the "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul", he helped to shape the sound of Motown and soul music in the 1960s and 1970s. A cultural icon, Gaye is often considered one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time.

Robert Coldwell Wood was an American political scientist, academic and government administrator, and professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). From 1965 to 1969, Wood served as the Under Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Lyndon B. Johnson, and for two weeks as the Secretary at the end of the Johnson Administration.

Agnes Mowinckel was a Norwegian actress and theatre director. Born in Bergen into a distinguished family, she became Norway's first professional stage director. A pioneer in bringing painters to the theatre, she used light as an artistic element, and engaged contemporary composers. She took part in theatrical experiments, worked at small stages in Oslo, and founded her own theatre.

George Edward "Rube" Waddell was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB). A left-hander, he played for 13 years, with the Louisville Colonels, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Chicago Orphans in the National League, as well as the Philadelphia Athletics and St. Louis Browns in the American League. Waddell was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.

Moses Zeh Blah was a Liberian politician. He served as the 28th vice president of Liberia under President Charles Taylor and became the 23rd president of Liberia on 11 August 2003, following Taylor's resignation. He served as president for two months, until 14 October 2003, when a United Nations-backed transitional government, headed by Gyude Bryant, was established.

Noah Nicholas Beery was an American actor who appeared in films from 1913 until his death in 1946. He was the older brother of Academy Award-winning actor Wallace Beery as well as the father of character actor Noah Beery Jr. He was billed as either Noah Beery or Noah Beery Sr. depending upon the film.

Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira, OCarm, known as Constable of Portugal, was a Portuguese general who played a decisive role in the 1383–1385 Crisis that assured Portugal's independence from Castile. He later became a mystic and was beatified by Pope Benedict XV in 1918, and canonised by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.

Blanche I was Queen of Navarre from the death of her father, King Charles III, in 1425 until her own death. She had been Queen of Sicily from 1402 to 1409 by marriage to King Martin I, serving as regent of Sicily from 1404 to 1405 and from 1408 to 1415.

Benjamin Pierce was an American politician who twice served as the governor of New Hampshire from 1827 to 1828 and from 1829 to 1830. Pierce fought during the American Revolutionary War before becoming a Democratic-Republican Party politician. He was the father of Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States.

Francisco Monción was a Dominican-born American ballet dancer and choreographer who was a charter member of the New York City Ballet. Over the course of his long career, spanning some forty years, he created roles in major works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and others. He was also an amateur painter.

Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing was a Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actor. One of the most influential cultural icons in the Sinophone world, Cheung was known for his debonair demeanour, flamboyant screen characters, and avant-garde, androgynous stage presence. Throughout his 26-year career, he released over 40 music albums and acted in 56 films.

Mohammad Reza Zahedi was an Iranian military officer. A senior figure within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), he had previously commanded the IRGC Aerospace Force and the IRGC Ground Forces, and was commanding the Quds Force Unit 18000 in Lebanon and Syria at the time of his death.

Uuno Johannes (Jussi) Kekkonen was a Finnish major, CEO and the younger brother of President of Finland Urho Kekkonen. Jussi Kekkonen fought successfully in the Winter War in the direction of Kuhmo but lost his sight when he was wounded in the early stages of the Continuation War.

Johnny Tillotson was an American singer-songwriter. He enjoyed his greatest success in the early 1960s, when he scored nine top-10 hits on the pop, country, and adult contemporary Billboard charts, including "Poetry in Motion", the self-penned "It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin'", "Talk Back Trembling Lips", and "Without You".

Caroline Louise Snodgress was an American actress. She is best remembered for her role in the film Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award as well as winning two Golden Globes and two Laurel Awards.

Franz Egon von Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg was a German count in the Holy Roman Empire. He was prime minister for Maximilian Henirich, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, and at the same time worked for Louis XIV of France influencing affairs in the Empire. Franz eventually became Prince-Bishop of Strassburg.

Louis Anthony Conter was an American naval officer who was a lieutenant commander and naval aviator in the United States Navy. He was the last living survivor of the sinking of the USS Arizona, destroyed during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Joseph Flaherty was an American actor, writer, and comedian. In television, Flaherty starred on the Canadian sketch comedy SCTV from 1976 to 1984 and as Harold Weir on Freaks and Geeks (1999). His film roles include the heckler in Happy Gilmore (1996).

John Lincoln Forsythe was an American stage, film, and television actor, producer, narrator, and drama teacher whose career spanned six decades. He also appeared as a guest on several talk and variety shows and as a panelist on numerous game shows.

Lionel Frost Bowen AC was an Australian politician. He was the deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1977 to 1990 and served as the sixth deputy prime minister of Australia in the Hawke government from 1983 to 1990.

Nicolae Rainea, nicknamed The Locomotive of the Carpathians, was a Romanian football referee and player. Regarded as one of the most important referees in the world of the 1970s and 1980s and, arguably, the most famous Romanian referee of all time.

John Frederick Denison Maurice, commonly known as F. D. Maurice, was an English Anglican priest and theologian. He was a prolific author and one of the founders of Christian socialism. Since the Second World War, interest in Maurice has expanded.

Jesse Albert Stone was an American rhythm and blues musician and songwriter whose influence spanned a wide range of genres. He also used the pseudonyms Charles Calhoun and Chuck Calhoun. His best-known composition as Calhoun was "Shake, Rattle and Roll".

Hugh of Châteauneuf, also called Hugh of Grenoble, was the Bishop of Grenoble from 1080 to his death. He was a partisan of the Gregorian reform and opposed to the Archbishop of Vienne, later Pope Callixtus II.

Henri Jean Cochet was a French tennis player. He was a world No. 1 ranked player, and a member of the famous "Four Musketeers" from France who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Steven Ronald Bochco was an American television writer and producer. He developed a number of television series, mostly crime dramas, including Hill Street Blues; L.A. Law; Doogie Howser, M.D.; Cop Rock; and NYPD Blue.

Dame Lucie Rie, was an Austrian-born, independent, British studio potter. She is known for her extensive technical knowledge, her meticulously detailed experimentation with glazes and with firing and her unusual decorative techniques.

Sami Michael was an Iraqi-Israeli author, having migrated from Iraq to Israel at the age of 23. From 2001, Michael was the President of The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).

Captain Charles Wells was the British founder of Charles Wells Ltd, which became the largest privately owned brewery in the United Kingdom, and the progenitor of the Wells Baronets of Felmersham.

Mehmet Recep Peker was a Turkish military officer and politician. A heavy-handed modernist, he served in various ministerial posts and finally as the Prime Minister of Turkey between 1946 and 1947.

António Mário Lopes Pereira Viegas was a Portuguese actor, theatre director and reciter. He is considered one of the best actors of his generation and one of Portugal's greatest poetry reciters.

Robert Doisneau was a French photographer. From the 1930s, he photographed the streets of Paris. He was a champion of humanist photography and, with Henri Cartier-Bresson, a pioneer of photojournalism.

Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado was a Mexican politician and lawyer affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as the 59th president of Mexico from 1982 to 1988.

George II was King of Greece from 27 September 1922 until 25 March 1924, and again from 25 November 1935 until his death on 1 April 1947.

Helena Rubinstein was a Polish businesswoman, art collector, and philanthropist. She founded Helena Rubinstein Incorporated cosmetics company, which ultimately made her one of the world's wealthiest women.

Antonios Kriezis was a captain of the Hellenic navy during the Greek War of Independence and a Prime Minister of Greece from 1849 to 1854.

Robert Michael Oldfield Havers, Baron Havers,, was a British barrister and Conservative politician. He was knighted in 1972 and appointed a life peer in 1987.

The 30s decade ran from January 1, AD 30, to December 31, AD 39.

Cristofano Allori was an Italian painter of the late Florentine Mannerist school, painting mostly portraits and religious subjects.

Floyer Sydenham was an English scholar of Ancient Greek.

Giuditta Angiola Maria Costanza Pasta was an Italian opera singer. A soprano, she has been compared to the 20th-century soprano Maria Callas.

Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaysky was an admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy, an aviation pioneer, and a researcher and designer of heavier-than-air craft.

David Wilber was a United States representative from New York.

Jacob W. Bolotin was the world's first totally blind physician.

Erik Belton Evers Bruhn was a Danish ballet dancer, choreographer, artistic director, actor, and author.

Martha Graham was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer responsible for creating the Graham technique.

Hubert Adams "Ad" Carter was an American mountaineer, language teacher and was editor of the American Alpine Journal for 35 years.

Paul Lazaro Bomani was a Tanzanian politician and ambassador to the United States and Mexico.

Karen Muir was a South African competitive swimmer. Born and raised in Kimberley, she attended the Diamantveld High School, where she matriculated in 1970.

Jacques Le Goff was a French historian and prolific author specializing in the Middle Ages, particularly the 12th and 13th centuries.

Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko was a Soviet and Russian poet, novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, publisher, actor, editor, university professor, and director of several films.