Notable Deaths on April 27

April 27 has 87 recorded notable deaths across history, from 630 to 2025. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

Ferdinand Magellan

1521 — Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese sailor and explorer (born 1480)

By · — Wikipedia

Notable Deaths 87 source records 630 – 2025

Major events on April 27

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1994 South African general election: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote. The Interim Constitution comes into force.This marked the end of Apartheid. Source
  2. 1978 The Saur Revolution begins in Afghanistan, ending the following morning with the murder of Afghan President Mohammed Daoud Khan and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Source

Did you know about Ferdinand Magellan

Magellan was killed in battle in the Philippines in 1521, but his crew, commanded by Spanish navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano, completed the return trip to Spain in 1522, achieving the first circumnavigation of Earth in history.

Did you know about Vinod Khanna

In 2018, Khanna was posthumously honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest cinematic award, at the 65th National Film Awards.

Did you know about Feroz Khan (actor)

Feroz Khan (actor) appeared in over 60 films throughout his career and became one of Bollywood's popular style icons.

Did you know about Carlos Castaneda

Starting in 1968, Castaneda published a series of books that describe alleged training in shamanism that he received under the tutelage of a Yaqui "Man of Knowledge" named Don Juan Matus.

Did you know about Alexander Scriabin

Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist.

More major people who died on April 27

Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.

2017 Vinod Khanna

Vinod Khanna

Indian actor, producer and politician (born 1946)
Vinod Khanna was an Indian actor, film producer, and politician known for his work in Hindi cinema. Recognised as a style and fashion icon, he was often referred to as the "Sexy Sanyasi" in the media, as well a sex symbol. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest stars in Indian cinema history. In 2018, Khanna was posthumously honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest cinematic award, at the 65th National Film Awards. Beyond his film career, Khanna was also a spiritual seeker.
Wikipedia source
2009 Feroz Khan (actor)

Feroz Khan (actor)

Indian Actor, Film Director & Producer (born 1939)
Feroz Khan was an Indian actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor, best known for his work in Indian cinema. He appeared in over 60 films throughout his career and became one of Bollywood's popular style icons. Feroz Khan rose to prominence with Phani Majumdar's drama film Oonche Log (1965), and starred in successful Hindi films, such as Arzoo (1965), Aag (1967), Safar (1970), Mela (1971), Apradh (1972), Geeta Mera Naam (1974), Khotte Sikkay (1974), Kaala Sona (1975), Dharmatma (1975), Nagin (1976), Shankar Shambhu (1976) and Qurbani (1980). The 2007 superhit Welcome (2007), was his final film.
Wikipedia source
1998 Carlos Castaneda

Carlos Castaneda

Peruvian-American anthropologist and author (born 1925)
Carlos Castaneda was a Peruvian-American writer, trained as an anthropologist. Starting in 1968, Castaneda published a series of books that describe alleged training in shamanism that he received under the tutelage of a Yaqui "Man of Knowledge" named Don Juan Matus. While Castaneda's work was accepted as factual by many when the books were first published, the character of Don Juan and the training he described is now generally considered to be fabricated and to have little relation to the actual cultural practices of the Yaqui. Castaneda's early writings featuring Don Juan were bestsellers with the general public, and are considered to be a significant influence on neoshamanism and the New Age movement more broadly.
Wikipedia source
1915 Alexander Scriabin

Alexander Scriabin

Russian pianist and composer (born 1872)
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist. Initially influenced by Frédéric Chopin, he composed in a relatively tonal, late-Romantic idiom. Later, independently of his contemporary Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed a highly dissonant musical language that transcended traditional tonality without being strictly atonal, aligning with his personal brand of metaphysics. He embraced the concepts of Gesamtkunstwerk and synesthesia, creating a colour-coded circle of fifths inspired by theosophy to associate colours with harmonies. Scriabin is widely considered the primary Russian symbolist composer and a major figure of the Silver Age of Russian Poetry.
Wikipedia source
1977 Stanley Adams

Stanley Adams

American actor and screenwriter (born 1915)
Stanley Adams was an American actor and screenwriter. He appeared in several films, including Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and Lilies of the Field (1963). On television, he is probably best known for his guest appearance in the 1967 Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" and the 1973 Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "More Tribbles, More Troubles" in which he portrayed outer space peddler Cyrano Jones, purveyor of tribbles. Concurrent with his acting career, Adams also maintained a career as a freelance television scriptwriter from the mid-1950s through the early 70s, writing for shows such as It's Always Jan, Mister Ed, Dr. Kildare, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Star Trek, The Outsider, The Flying Nun, Mannix, The Name of the Game, and others. Although he did appear in guest roles in many of these series, Adams generally did not appear as an actor in episodes he wrote.
Wikipedia source
1813 Zebulon Pike

Zebulon Pike

American general and explorer (born 1779)
Zebulon Montgomery Pike was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado is named. As a U.S. Army officer he led two expeditions through the Louisiana Purchase territory, first in 1805–1806 to reconnoiter the upper northern reaches of the Mississippi River, and then in 1806–1807 to explore the southwest to the fringes of the northern Spanish-colonial settlements of New Mexico and Texas. Pike's expeditions coincided with other Jeffersonian expeditions, including the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Red River Expedition in 1806.
Wikipedia source
2007 Mstislav Rostropovich

Mstislav Rostropovich

Russian cellist and conductor (born 1927)
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was well known for both inspiring and commissioning new works, which enlarged the cello repertoire more than any cellist before or since. He inspired and premiered over 100 pieces, forming long-standing friendships and artistic partnerships with composers including Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Nikolai Myaskovsky, Henri Dutilleux, Witold Lutosławski, Olivier Messiaen, Luciano Berio, Krzysztof Penderecki, Alfred Schnittke, Norbert Moret, Andreas Makris, Leonard Bernstein, Aram Khachaturian, and Benjamin Britten.
Wikipedia source
1936 Karl Pearson

Karl Pearson

English mathematician and academic (born 1857)
Karl Pearson was an English biostatistician and mathematician. He has been credited with establishing the discipline of mathematical statistics. He founded the world's first university statistics department at University College London in 1911, and contributed significantly to the field of biometrics. Pearson was also a proponent of Social Darwinism and eugenics, and his thought is an example of what is today described as scientific racism. Pearson was a protégé and biographer of Sir Francis Galton. He edited and completed both William Kingdon Clifford's Common Sense of the Exact Sciences (1885) and Isaac Todhunter's History of the Theory of Elasticity, Vol. 1 (1886–1893) and Vol. 2 (1893), following their deaths.
Wikipedia source
1999 Al Hirt

Al Hirt

American trumpet player and bandleader (born 1922)
Alois Maxwell "Al" Hirt was an American trumpeter and bandleader. He is best remembered for his million-selling recordings of "Java" and the accompanying album Honey in the Horn (1963), and for the theme music to The Green Hornet. His nicknames included "Jumbo" and "The Round Mound of Sound". Colin Escott, an author of musician biographies, wrote that RCA Victor, for which Hirt had recorded most of his best-selling recordings and for which he had spent most of his professional recording career, had simply dubbed him "The King." Hirt was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in November 2009. He received eight Grammy nominations during his lifetime, including winning the Grammy award in 1964 for his version of "Java".
Wikipedia source
1992 Gerard K. O'Neill

Gerard K. O'Neill

American physicist and astronomer (born 1927)
Gerard Kitchen O'Neill was an American physicist and space activist. As a faculty member of Princeton University, he invented a device called the particle storage ring for high-energy physics experiments. Later, he invented a magnetic launcher called the mass driver. In the 1970s, he developed a plan to build human settlements in outer space, including a space habitat design known as the O'Neill cylinder. He founded the Space Studies Institute, an organization devoted to funding research into space manufacturing and colonization.
Wikipedia source
1964 Jack Critchley

Jack Critchley

Australian politician (born 1892)
John Owen Critchley, was an Australian politician who served as a Labor member of the South Australian House of Assembly from 1930 to 1933 and then the Australian Senate from 1947 to 1959. Born at Callington in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia, and schooled at Sunnybrae and Petersburg, Critchley completed an apprenticeship as a wheelwright. He was then dismissed for forming a branch of his union. He was a founding member and also served twelve years on the executive committee of the Amalgamated Coach Rolling Stock Makers' and Wheelwrights' Society—later the Australian Coachmakers Employees' Federation then the Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation. He briefly served with the South Australia-raised 10th Battalion on the Western Front in France and Belgium during World War I, but was repatriated as medically unfit, suffering from a neck condition.
Wikipedia source
1972 Kwame Nkrumah

Kwame Nkrumah

Ghanaian politician, 1st President of Ghana (born 1909)
Kwame Nkrumah was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained independence from the United Kingdom. He was then the first prime minister and then the president of Ghana, from 1957 until 1966. An influential advocate of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union in 1962.
Wikipedia source
1896 Henry Parkes

Henry Parkes

English-Australian businessman and politician, 7th Premier of New South Wales (born 1815)
Sir Henry Parkes, was a colonial Australian politician and the longest-serving non-consecutive premier of the Colony of New South Wales, the present-day state of New South Wales in the Commonwealth of Australia. He has been referred to as the "Father of Federation" due to his early promotion for the federation of the six colonies of Australia, as an early critic of British convict transportation and as a proponent for the expansion of the Australian continental rail network.
Wikipedia source
1599 Maeda Toshiie

Maeda Toshiie

Japanese general (born 1538)
Maeda Toshiie was one of the leading generals of Oda Nobunaga following the Sengoku period of the 16th century extending to the Azuchi–Momoyama period. His preferred weapon was a yari, and Matazaemon (又左衛門) was his common name; he was therefore known as Yari no Mataza (槍の又左). He was a member of the so-called Echizen Sanninshu along with Sassa Narimasa and Fuwa Mitsuharu. The highest rank from the court that he received is the Great Counselor Dainagon.
Wikipedia source
1882 Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American poet and philosopher (born 1803)
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and critical thinking, as well as a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and conformity. The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche thought he was "the most gifted of the Americans", and Walt Whitman called Emerson his "master".
Wikipedia source
1999 Cyril Washbrook

Cyril Washbrook

English cricketer (born 1914)
Cyril Washbrook was an English cricketer, who played for Lancashire and England. He had a long career, split by World War II, and ending when he was aged 44. Washbrook, who is most famous for opening the batting for England with Len Hutton, which he did 51 times, played a total of 592 first-class cricket matches, of which 37 were Tests. Washbrook was named one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1947.
Wikipedia source
2025 Jiggly Caliente

Jiggly Caliente

Filipino-American drag performer, singer and actress (born 1980)
Bianca Castro-Arabejo, known professionally as Jiggly Caliente, was a Filipino-American transgender drag performer and entertainer. She rose to prominence competing on the fourth season of RuPaul's Drag Race (2012), followed by her debut studio album T.H.O.T. Process (2018), and a recurring role as Veronica Ferocity in the American drama television series Pose (2018–2021). After competing in the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (2021), she became a judge on Drag Race Philippines (2022–2024).
Wikipedia source
1988 Fred Bear

Fred Bear

American hunter and author (born 1902)
Fred Bear was an American bow hunter and manufacturer. Although he did not start bow hunting until he was 29 and did not master the skill for many years, he is widely regarded as a pioneer in the bow hunting community. Bear was a world traveler, film producer, and the founder of Bear Archery. He died in Gainesville, Florida and is inducted in the Bowhunters Hall of Fame.
Wikipedia source
1932 Hart Crane

Hart Crane

American poet (born 1899)
Harold Hart Crane was an American poet. Inspired by the Romantics and his fellow Modernists, Crane wrote highly stylized poetry, often noted for its complexity. His collection White Buildings (1926), featuring "Chaplinesque", "At Melville's Tomb", "Repose of Rivers" and "Voyages", helped to cement his place in the avant-garde literary scene of the time. The long poem The Bridge (1930) is an epic inspired by the Brooklyn Bridge.
Wikipedia source

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