Did you know
A University of Tulsa graduate, she got her start winning the Writers of the Future Contest in 1988, and then later won Field Publications' "Teachers as Writers" Award in 1991
Notable Deaths on April 18
67 people
727 – 2024
April 18 has seen 67 notable figures pass away throughout recorded history — from 727 – 2024. Below are the most significant names who died on this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
2012 — K. D. Wentworth
American author (born 1951)
Did you know
Wentworth served two terms as secretary of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in the early 2000s
Did you know
She served as the editor for the Writers of the Future Contest from 2009 until her death
Did you know
One of her novelettes, "Kaleidoscope" (2008), and three of her short stories, "Burning Bright" (1997)
Did you know
"Tall One" (1998), and "Born Again" (2005) have been Nebula Award finalists
Byzantine commander and rebel leader
Year 727 (DCCXXVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 727 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the…
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727
850
Syriac Orthodox patriarch of Antioch
Dionysius II was the Patriarch of Antioch and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 896/897 until his death in 908/909.
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909
Japanese nobleman and poet (born 906)
Fujiwara no Atsutada was a mid-Heian waka and Japanese nobleman.
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943
co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire
Stephen Lekapenos or Lecapenus was the second son of the Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos, and co-emperor from 924 to 945. With his younger brother Constantine, he deposed Romanos I in December 944, but they were…
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963
French-English archbishop (born 1090)
Theobald of Bec was a Norman archbishop of Canterbury from 1139 to 1161. His exact birth date is unknown. Some time in the late 11th or early 12th century Theobald became a monk at the Abbey of Bec, rising to the…
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1161
Italian archdeacon and saint
Galdino della Sala, Galdinus or Galdimus, was a Roman Catholic saint from Milan in northern Italy. He was a cardinal elevated in 1165 and he also served as Archbishop of Milan from 1166 to his death in 1176. He was a…
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1176
1430
English poet and historian (born 1502)
John Leland or Leyland was an English poet and antiquary.
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1552
English historian (born 1470)
Polydore Vergil or Virgil, widely known as Polydore Vergil of Urbino, was an Italian humanist scholar, historian, priest and diplomat, who spent much of his life in England. He is particularly remembered for his works…
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1555
Italian poet and politician (born 1495)
Luigi Alamanni was an Italian poet and statesman. He was regarded as a prolific and versatile poet. He was credited with introducing the epigram into Italian poetry.
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1556
German adventurer (born 1503)
Wilhelm von Grumbach was a German adventurer, chiefly known through his connection with the so-called "Grumbach Feud", the last attempt of the Imperial Knights to prevail against the power of the territorial Princes of…
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1567
1587
English judge and politician (born 1557)
Sir Julius Caesar was an English lawyer, judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1589 and 1622. He was also known as Julius Adelmare.
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1636
English lawyer and politician (born 1602)
Sir Simonds d'Ewes, 1st Baronet was an English antiquary and politician. He was bred for the bar, was a member of the Long Parliament and left notes on its transactions. D'Ewes took the Puritan side in the Civil War.…
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1650
English demographer and statistician (born 1620)
John Graunt has been regarded as the founder of demography. Graunt was one of the first demographers, and perhaps the first epidemiologist, though by profession he was a haberdasher. He was bankrupted later in life by…
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1674
1st Baron Jeffreys, Welsh judge and politician, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (born 1648)
George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys was a Welsh judge and politician. He became notable during the reign of King James II, rising to the position of Lord Chancellor. His conduct as a judge was to enforce royal policy,…
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1689
French astronomer, geographer, and botanist (born 1660)
Louis Éconches Feuillée was a French member of the Order of the Minims, explorer, astronomer, geographer and botanist.
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1732
Swedish general and politician (born 1664)
Count Arvid Bernhard Horn af Ekebyholm was a Swedish general, diplomat and politician, a member of the noble Horn family. He served twice as president of the privy council chancellery and was one of the leading figures…
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1742
Canadian murderer (born 1733)
Marie-Josephte Corriveau, better known as "la Corriveau", is a well-known figure in Québécois folklore. She lived in New France, and was sentenced to death in 1763 by a British court martial for the murder of her second…
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1763
1st Earl Camden, English lawyer, judge, and politician, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (born 1714)
Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, PC was an English lawyer, judge and Whig politician who was first to hold the title of Earl Camden. As a lawyer and judge he was a leading proponent of civil liberties, championing the…
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1794
1796
English physician and botanist (born 1731)
Erasmus Robert Darwin was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, abolitionist, inventor, freemason, and poet.
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1802
French painter (born 1761)
Jeanne-Elisabeth Chaudet was a French painter and the wife of the sculptor Antoine Denis Chaudet, who had also been her teacher.
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1832
Indian general (born 1814)
Tantia Tope was an Indian general in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the British East India Company.
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1859
Latvian philologist and linguist (born 1832)
Juris Alunāns was a Latvian writer and philologist in the Russian Empire. He was one of the first contributors of the Latvian language. He was one of the members of the Young Latvia movement.
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1864
German chemist and academic (born 1803)
Justus Freiherr von Liebig was a German scientist who made major contributions to the theory, practice, and pedagogy of chemistry, as well as to agricultural and biological chemistry; he is considered one of the…
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1873
Polish sculptor (born 1814)
Paweł Bryliński was a Polish folk-sculptor. He is perhaps best known for a series of works concerning Holy Week.
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1890
French painter and academic (born 1826)
Gustave Moreau was a French artist and an important figure in the Symbolist movement. Jean Cassou called him "the Symbolist painter par excellence". He was an influential forerunner of symbolism in the visual arts in…
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1898
Spanish religious leader, 24th Superior-General of the Society of Jesus (born 1846)
Luis Martín García was a Spanish Jesuit, elected the twenty-fourth Superior General of the Society of Jesus.
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1906
American physician (born 1843)
Martha George Rogers Ripley was an American physician, suffragist, and professor of medicine. Founder of the Maternity Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Ripley was one of the most outspoken activists for disadvantaged…
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1912
Russian psychiatrist and academic (born 1858)
Vladimir Petrovich Serbsky was a Russian psychiatrist and one of the founders of forensic psychiatry in Russia. The author of The Forensic Psychopathology, Serbsky thought delinquency to have no congenital basis,…
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1917
Italian religious leader (born 1851)
Savina Petrilli was an Italian Catholic professed religious who founded the Sisters of the Poor of Saint Catherine of Siena upon receiving the encouragement of Pope Pius IX.
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1923
American singer and bandleader (born 1903)
Milton Brown was an American band leader and vocalist who co-founded the genre of Western swing. His band was the first to fuse hillbilly hokum, jazz, and pop together into a unique, distinctly American hybrid, thus…
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1936
Italian composer and conductor (born 1879)
Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. His compositions range over operas, ballets, orchestral suites, choral…
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1936
American archer (born 1878)
George Philip "Phil" Bryant was an American archer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. He later became President of the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games for the 1932 Summer Olympics. He won two gold…
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1938
Estonian speed skater (born 1903)
Aleksander Mitt was an Estonian speed skater who competed at the 1928 and 1936 Winter Olympics.
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1942
American heiress, sculptor and art collector, founded the Whitney Museum of American Art (born 1875)
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney was an American sculptor, art patron and collector, and founder in 1931 of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. She was a prominent social figure and hostess, who was born…
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1942
Japanese admiral (born 1884)
Isoroku Yamamoto was an admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and the commander of the Combined Fleet during World War II. He commanded the fleet from 1939 until his death in 1943, overseeing the start of the…
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1943
English physicist and engineer, invented the vacuum tube (born 1849)
Sir John Ambrose Fleming was a British electrical engineer and physicist. He is known for inventing the vacuum tube radio transmitter—with which the first transatlantic radio transmission was made—and establishing the…
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1945
American journalist and soldier (born 1900)
Ernest Taylor Pyle was an American journalist and war correspondent who is best known for his stories about ordinary American soldiers during World War II. Pyle is also notable for the columns he wrote as a roving…
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1945
Slovak priest and politician, President of Slovakia (born 1887)
Jozef Gašpar Tiso was a Slovak politician, dictator, and Catholic priest who served as president of the First Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany during World War II, from 1939 to 1945. After the war, in…
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1947
Portuguese field marshal and politician, 11th President of Portugal (born 1869)
António Óscar de Fragoso Carmona was a Portuguese army officer and politician who served as president of Portugal from 1926 until his death in 1951. Before his presidency, he served as prime minister of Portugal from…
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1951
German-American physicist, engineer, and academic (born 1879)
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum theory. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2,…
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1955
Belgian-French general (born 1872)
Maurice Gustave Gamelin was a French general who served as head of the French Army from 1935 and as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies in France from the outbreak of the Second World War to his dismissal during the…
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1958
American academic and politician (born 1880)
Meyer Jacobstein was an American educator and politician who served three terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York from 1923 to 1929.
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1963
1964
Mexican engineer (born 1917)
Guillermo González Camarena was a Mexican electrical engineer who invented an early field-sequential version of color television.
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1965
French author, playwright, and director (born 1895)
Marcel Paul Pagnol was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie française. Pagnol is generally regarded as one of France's…
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1974
Turkish poet and playwright (born 1914)
Ali Oktay Rifat, better known as Oktay Rifat, was a Turkish writer and playwright, and one of the forefront poets of modern Turkish poetry since the late 1930s. He was the founder of the Garip movement, together with…
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1988
Argentinian lawyer and politician, 32nd President of Argentina (born 1908)
Arturo Frondizi Ércoli was an Argentine lawyer, journalist, teacher, statesman, and politician. He was elected president of Argentina and governed from May 1, 1958, to March 29, 1962, when he was overthrown in a…
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1995
Norwegian ethnographer and explorer (born 1914)
Thor Heyerdahl KStJ was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in biology with specialization in zoology, botany and geography.
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2002
Fijian politician, 2nd President of Fiji (born 1920)
Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, was a Fijian politician who served as Chief Minister from 1967 to 1970, when Fiji gained its independence from the United Kingdom, and, apart from one brief interruption in 1987, as the first…
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2004
French ethnologist and anthropologist (born 1907)
Germaine Tillion was a French ethnologist, known for her work in Algeria in the 1950s on behalf of the Government of France. A member of the French Resistance in World War II, she spent time in Ravensbrück concentration…
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2008
American television host and producer, founded Dick Clark Productions (born 1929)
Richard Wagstaff Clark was an American television and radio personality and television producer who hosted American Bandstand from 1956 to 1989. He also hosted five incarnations of the Pyramid game show from 1973 to…
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2012
Canadian businessman and philanthropist (born 1929)
René G. Lépine was a Canadian real estate developer and philanthropist. Lépine was the chairman of Groupe Lépine, a real estate development and investment firm he founded in 1953. He is widely considered one of the most…
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2012
American musician (born 1931)
Robert Oliver Ragland was an American film score composer, best known for his soundtracks to numerous genre films ranging from blaxploitation (Abby), to horror, to monster movies, to thrillers and action films.…
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2012
Croatian philosopher and author (born 1947)
Goran Švob was a Croatian philosopher, logician, and author. He was an associate professor at the Department of Philosophy of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb where he taught logic and the…
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2013
English activist (born 1951)
Anne Elizabeth Williams was a campaigner for the victims of the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, in which 97 Liverpool football fans, including her son Kevin Williams, died at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield.
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2013
Indian director and producer (born 1959)
Guru Dhanapal was an Indian film director, who worked in Tamil cinema, mostly with actor Sathyaraj and Karthik (actor).
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2014
American screenwriter and producer (born 1954)
Sanford Jay "Sandy" Frank, also known as Sandy Frank, was a television writer who was known as a writer for Late Night with David Letterman. He wrote for Letterman's NBC show for four years, during which the show won…
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2014
English conductor and academic (born 1927)
Brian Priestman was a British conductor and music educator.
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2014
Irish journalist (born 1990)
Lyra Catherine McKee was a journalist from Northern Ireland who wrote for several publications about the consequences of the Troubles. She also served as an editor for Mediagazer, a news aggregator website. On 18 April…
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2019
British composer (born 1934)
Sir Harrison Birtwistle was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include The Triumph of…
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2022
American guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer (born 1943)
Forrest Richard "Dickey" Betts was an American rock guitarist and vocalist, best known as a longtime member of the Allman Brothers Band. A co-founder of the band when it formed in 1969, he was central to the group's…
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2024
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Notable deaths
Who died on April 18?
K. D. Wentworth — American writer (1951–2012)
Explore April 18
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Also on April 18 in History
2026
Seven people are killed and fourteen others are injured in a mass shooting in Kyiv, Ukraine Wikipedia →
2019
A redacted version of the Mueller report is released to the United States Congress and the public. Wikipedia →
2018
See all events on April 18
King Mswati III of Swaziland announces that his country's name will change to Eswatini. Wikipedia →
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