Notable Deaths on August 15

Hyacinth was a Polish Dominican priest and missionary who worked to reform the women's monasteries in his native Poland. Educated in Paris and Bologna, he was a Doctor of Sacred Studies.

Lorenzo Tiepolo was doge of the Republic of Venice from 1268 until his death.

Philippa of Hainault was Queen of England as the wife and political adviser of King Edward III. She acted as regent in 1346, when her husband was away for the Hundred Years' War.

Ide Pedersdatter Falk, was a powerful Danish noble landholder and the founder of a convent.

Alexander Agricola was a Netherlandish composer of the Renaissance writing in the Franco-Flemish style. A prominent member of the Grande chapelle, the Habsburg musical establishment, he was a renowned composer in the…

Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec was a French military leader. As Marshal of France, he commanded the campaign to conquer Naples, but died from the bubonic plague in 1528.

Thomas Kyd was an English playwright, the author of The Spanish Tragedy, and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama.

Johann Adam Schall von Bell was a German Jesuit, astronomer and instrument-maker. He spent most of his life as a missionary in China and became an adviser to the Shunzhi Emperor of the Qing dynasty.

Marin Marais was a French composer and viol player of the middle Baroque era. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe for…

Giuseppe Parini was an Italian satirist and Neoclassical poet.

Johan Gadolin was a Finnish chemist, physicist and mineralogist. Gadolin discovered a "new earth" containing the first rare-earth compound yttrium, which was later determined to be a chemical element. He is also…

Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most…

Thomas J. Higgins was a Union Army soldier during the American Civil War who was a recipient of America's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions at the Battle of Vicksburg.

Anatole von Hügel was a son of an Austrian nobleman who lived in England and was curator of the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology, 1883 – 1921.

William Penn Adair Rogers was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory, and is known as "Oklahoma's Favorite…

Grazia Maria Cosima Damiana Deledda was an Italian writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926 "for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island…

Korechika Anami was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II who was War Minister during the surrender of Japan.

Artur Schnabel was an Austrian-born classical pianist, composer and pedagogue. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th century's most respected…

Lei Feng, born Lei Zhengxing, was a Chinese soldier in the People's Liberation Army who was the object of several major propaganda campaigns in China. The most well-known of these campaigns in 1963 promoted the slogan…

Paul Lukas was a Hungarian actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor, and the first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, for his performance in the film Watch on the Rhine (1943), reprising the…

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, also known by the honorific Bangabandhu, was a Bangladeshi politician, revolutionary, statesman, activist and diarist who was the founding president of Bangladesh. As the leader of Bangladesh, he…

Raymond Alfred Palmer was an American author and magazine editor. Influential in the first wave of science fiction fandom, his first fiction stories were published in 1935.

Jørgen Løvset was a Norwegian professor of medicine, gynecology and obstetrics. He was the son of a farmer Arnt Løvset (1873–1938) and Helle Hove (1870–1911), married Selma Margaret Nilsen (1894–1986) in 1924, divorced…

John Robert "Jock" Taylor was a Scottish World Champion motorcycle sidecar racer.

General Minoru Genda was an Imperial Japanese Navy flight officer, JASDF general and politician. He is best known for helping to plan the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the war he became the third Chief of Staff of the…

Viktor Robertovich Tsoi was a Soviet singer-songwriter and actor who co-founded Kino, one of the most popular and influential bands in the history of Russian music.

Wouter "Wout" Wagtmans was a Dutch road bicycle racer.

Ida Gerhardt was a classicist and Dutch poet of a post-symbolist tradition.

Lancelot Lionel Ware OBE was an English barrister and biochemist. He co-founded Mensa, the international society for intellectually gifted people, with the Australian barrister Roland Berrill in 1946. It was originally…

Richard Chelimo was a Kenyan long-distance runner, and a world record holder over 10,000 metres. However, he is best known as the silver medallist in the controversial 10,000m at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. He was…

Karl Sune Detlof Bergström was a Swedish biochemist. In 1975, he was appointed to the Nobel Foundation Board of Directors in Sweden, and was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University, together with…

Dr. Bendapudi Venkata Satyanarayana was an Indian dermatologist who was known as 'the doyen of dermatology' in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Richard (Rick) Bourke was an Australian rugby league footballer. He played for Cronulla-Sutherland and South Sydney in the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) competition.

Richard James Bradshaw was a British opera conductor and the General Director of the Canadian Opera Company (COC) in Toronto.

Geoffrey Buckland Orbell was a New Zealand doctor and keen hunter and tramper who was responsible for the rediscovery of the takahē in 1948.

Victor "Vic" Anthony Toweel was a South African boxer and former Undisputed World Bantamweight Champion. He was the first South African to hold a world title.

Mary Catherine Lamb was an American textile artist, whose quilts reframed traditional Roman Catholic iconography. Recycling vintage textiles popular during the mid-20th century, she both honored and affectionately…

Robert Wayne Birch was an American musician, best known as the bass player for Elton John.

Harry Max Harrison was an American science fiction author, known mostly for his character The Stainless Steel Rat and for his novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966). The latter was the rough basis for the motion picture…

Sławomir Tangolo Mrożek was a Polish playwright.

August Werner Schellenberg was a Canadian actor. He played Randolph in the first three installments of the Free Willy film series (1993–1997) as well as characters in Black Robe (1991), The New World (2005), and dozens…

Horace Julian Bond was an American social activist, leader of the civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he…

Gunnar Birkerts was a Latvian American architect who, for the most of his career, was based in the metropolitan area of Detroit, Michigan.

Gerd Müller was a German professional footballer. A prolific striker, especially in and around the six-yard box, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalscorers and players in the history of the sport. With…