Notable Deaths on August 18

August 18 has 103 recorded notable deaths across history, from 353 to 2026. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

Subhas Chandra Bose

1945 — Subhas Chandra Bose

Indian activist and politician (born 1897)

By · Wikipedia

Notable Deaths 103 source records 353 – 2026

Major events on August 18

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1920 The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage. Source
  2. 1945 Sukarno takes office as the first president of Indonesia, following the country's declaration of independence the previous day. Source

Did you know about Subhas Chandra Bose

The honorific Netaji was first applied to Bose in Germany in early 1942—by the Indian soldiers of the Indische Legion and by the German and Indian officials in the Special Bureau for India in Berlin.

Did you know about Francis I

Francis I became the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and Tuscany through his marriage to his second cousin Maria Theresa of Austria, daughter of Emperor Charles VI.

Did you know about Mother Solomon

In 1822, her family moved to the Big Spring Reservation in Wyandot County, where elders relayed oral tradition to her.

Did you know about Jim Jeffords

Jim Jeffords lost the 1972 Republican primary for governor of Vermont, but in 1974 he won Vermont's at-large seat in the United States House of Representatives.

Did you know about Robert Novak

Robert Novak teamed up with Rowland Evans in 1963 to start Inside Report, which became the longest running syndicated political column in U.S. history and ran in hundreds of papers.


More major people who died on August 18

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

1765 Francis I

Francis I

Holy Roman Emperor (born 1708)
Francis I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1745 to 1765, Archduke of Austria from 1740 to 1765, Duke of Lorraine and Bar from 1729 to 1737, and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1737 to 1765. He became the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and Tuscany through his marriage to his second cousin Maria Theresa of Austria, daughter of Emperor Charles VI. Francis was the last non-Habsburg monarch of the Empire. The couple were the founders of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and their marriage produced sixteen children.
1890 Mother Solomon

Mother Solomon

Wyandot activist (born 1816)
Margaret Grey Eyes Solomon, better known as Mother Solomon, was a Wyandot nanny and cultural activist. Solomon was born along Owl Creek in Marion County, Ohio, to a Wyandot chief father. In 1822, her family moved to the Big Spring Reservation in Wyandot County, where elders relayed oral tradition to her. She learned housekeeping and English at a mission school and began attending the Wyandot Mission Church. Solomon married David Young, a Wyandot man, in 1833 and had several children with him, some of whom died before 1843. That year, the Indian Removal Act forced the Wyandots to move to Kansas. Illness and poor living conditions were initially widespread in the new community. Solomon had more children in Kansas, though by 1860, her husband and remaining children had died.
2014 Jim Jeffords

Jim Jeffords

American captain, lawyer, and politician (born 1934)
James Merrill Jeffords was an American lawyer and politician from Vermont. Originally a Republican, he served as a member of the Vermont Senate from 1967 to 1969 and Vermont Attorney General 1969 to 1973. He lost the 1972 Republican primary for governor of Vermont, but in 1974 he won Vermont's at-large seat in the United States House of Representatives. He served in the US House from 1975 to 1989, and in 1988 won election to the United States Senate. In 2001, Jeffords left the Republican Party to become an independent and began caucusing with the senate's Democrats. Jeffords served in the Senate from 1989 until 2007.
2009 Robert Novak

Robert Novak

American journalist and author (born 1931)
Robert David Sanders Novak was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he became a reporter for the Associated Press and then for The Wall Street Journal. He teamed up with Rowland Evans in 1963 to start Inside Report, which became the longest running syndicated political column in U.S. history and ran in hundreds of papers. They also started the Evans-Novak Political Report, a biweekly newsletter, in 1967.
1559 Pope Paul IV (born 1476)

Pope Paul IV (born 1476)

Pope Paul IV, born Gian Pietro Carafa, was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 23 May 1555 to his death, in August 1559. While serving as papal nuncio in Spain, he developed an anti-Spanish outlook that later coloured his papacy. In response to an invasion of part of the Papal States by Spain during his papacy, he called for a French military intervention. After a defeat of the French and with Spanish troops at the edge of Rome, the Papacy and Spain reached a compromise: French and Spanish forces left the Papal States and the Pope thereafter adopted a neutral stance between France and Spain.
2016 Ernst Nolte

Ernst Nolte

German historian (born 1923)
Ernst Nolte was a German historian and philosopher. Nolte's major interest was the comparative studies of fascism and communism. Originally trained in philosophy, he was professor emeritus of modern history at the Free University of Berlin, where he taught from 1973 until his 1991 retirement. He was previously a professor at the University of Marburg from 1965 to 1973. He was best known for his seminal work Fascism in Its Epoch, which received widespread acclaim when it was published in 1963. Nolte was a prominent academic from the early 1960s and was involved in many controversies related to the interpretation of the history of fascism and communism, including the Historikerstreit in the late 1980s. In later years, Nolte focused on Islamism and "Islamic fascism".
1258 Theodore II Laskaris

Theodore II Laskaris

emperor of Nicea (Byzantine emperor in exile)
Theodore II Doukas Laskaris or Ducas Lascaris was Emperor of Nicaea from 1254 to 1258. He was the only child of Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes and Empress Irene Laskarina. His mother was the eldest daughter of Theodore I Laskaris, who had established the Empire of Nicaea as a successor state to the Byzantine Empire in Asia Minor after the crusaders captured the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Theodore received an excellent education from two renowned scholars, Nikephoros Blemmydes and George Akropolites. He made friends with young intellectuals, especially with a page of low birth, George Mouzalon. Theodore began to write treatises on theological, historical and philosophical themes in his youth.
1950 Julien Lahaut

Julien Lahaut

Belgian soldier and politician (born 1884)
Julien-Victor Lahaut was a Belgian politician and trade unionist who served as chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium from 1945 to 1950. An important figure during the German occupation of 1940–44, he became a vocal advocate for the abolition of the Belgian monarchy during the post-war Royal Question. His assassination in August 1950, at the height of the crisis, was linked to anti-communist and royalist elements inside the Belgian intelligence services by a team of historians in 2015; however, the murder remains officially unsolved.
1712 Richard Savage

Richard Savage

4th Earl Rivers, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Essex (born 1660)
General Richard Savage, 4th Earl Rivers PC was an English nobleman and soldier who was a senior Army officer in the English and then British Army. The second son of Thomas Savage, 3rd Earl Rivers and his first wife Elizabeth Scrope, Savage was styled Viscount Colchester after the death of his elder brother Thomas in 1680, he was designated by that title until he succeeded to the peerage upon the death of his father, the 3rd Earl, in 1694. Savage served as Master-General of the Ordnance and Constable of the Tower, and was briefly commander-in-chief of the forces in lieu of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde until his death in 1712.
1946 Luo Shiwen

Luo Shiwen

Chinese communist (born 1904)
Luo Shiwen was a Chinese communist. Born in Weiyuan County, Sichuan, he became interested in communism during the May Fourth Movement before joining the Chinese Socialist Youth League in 1923 and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1925. After three years in the Soviet Union, he returned to China in 1928 and was dispatched to advise General Kuang Jixun when his forces declared themselves part of the Red Army. After several victories against the Kuomintang (KMT), the communist forces were defeated at Kaijiang, and Luo was subsequently sent to provide training in the Sichuan–Shanxi Soviet.
2006 Ken Kearney

Ken Kearney

Australian rugby player (born 1924)
Kenneth Howard "Killer" Kearney was an Australian rugby footballer – a dual-code international player – and a rugby league coach. He represented the Wallabies in seven Tests, and the Kangaroos in thirty-one Test matches and World Cup games. He captained Australia in nine rugby league Test matches in 1956 and 1957. He was a hooker and captain-coach with the St. George Dragons in the first half of their eleven-year consecutive premiership winning run from 1956 to 1966. He is considered one of Australia's finest footballers of the 20th century.
1276 Pope Adrian V (born 1220)

Pope Adrian V (born 1220)

Pope Adrian V, born Ottobuono de' Fieschi, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 July 1276 to his death on 18 August 1276. He was an envoy of Pope Clement IV sent to England in May 1265 who successfully completed his task of resolving disputes between King Henry III of England and his barons. Adrian V was elected pope following the death of Innocent V, but died of natural illness before being ordained to the priesthood.
2014 Gordon Faber

Gordon Faber

American soldier and politician, 39th Mayor of Hillsboro, Oregon (born 1930)
Gordon C. Faber was an American politician and businessman in the U.S. state of Oregon. A native of Pennsylvania, he grew up in Hillsboro, Oregon. He joined the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War and was a small business owner before becoming a real estate agent and entering politics. He served on Hillsboro's budget committee and city council before serving two terms as mayor from 1993 to 2001. The Gordon Faber Recreation Complex in the city's northeast corner is named in his honor.
1707 William Cavendish

William Cavendish

1st Duke of Devonshire, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire (born 1640)
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire was an English Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons of England from 1661 until 1684 when he inherited his father's peerage as Earl of Devonshire and took his seat in the House of Lords. Cavendish was part of the "Immortal Seven" which invited William of Orange to depose James II of England as part of the Glorious Revolution, and was rewarded for his efforts by being elevated to the Duke of Devonshire in 1694.
2015 Louis Stokes

Louis Stokes

American lawyer and politician (born 1925)
Louis Stokes was an American attorney, civil rights pioneer and politician. He served 15 terms in the United States House of Representatives – representing the east side of Cleveland – and was the first African American congressman elected in the state of Ohio. He was one of the Cold War era chairmen of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, headed the Congressional Black Caucus, and was the first African American on the United States House Committee on Appropriations.
673 Kim Yu-shin

Kim Yu-shin

general of Silla (born 595)
Kim Yu-sin was a Korean military general and politician in 7th-century Silla. He led the unification of the Korean Peninsula by Silla under the reign of King Muyeol and King Munmu. He is said to have been the great-grandchild of King Guhae of Geumgwan Gaya, the last ruler of the Geumgwan Gaya state. This would have given him a very high position in the Silla bone rank system, which governed the political and military status that a person could attain.
2012 Harrison Begay

Harrison Begay

American painter (born 1917)
Harrison Begay, also known as Haashké yah Níyá was a renowned Diné (Navajo) painter, printmaker, and illustrator. Begay specialized in watercolors, gouache, and silkscreen prints. At the time of his death in 2012, he was the last living, former student of Dorothy Dunn and Geronima C. Montoya at the Santa Fe Indian School. His work has won multiple awards and is exhibited in museums and private collections worldwide and he was among the most famous Diné artists of his generation.
472 Ricimer

Ricimer

Roman general and politician (born 405)
Ricimer was a Romanized Germanic general, who ruled the remaining territory of the Western Roman Empire from 456 after defeating Avitus, until his death in 472, with a brief interlude in which he contested power with Procopius Anthemius. Deriving his power from his position as magister militum of the Western Empire, Ricimer exercised political control through a series of puppet emperors. Ricimer's death led to unrest across Italy and the establishment of a Germanic kingdom on the Italian Peninsula.
2024 Alain Delon

Alain Delon

French-Swiss actor (born 1935)
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon was a French actor, film producer, screenwriter, singer, and businessman. Acknowledged as a cultural and cinematic leading man of the 20th century, Delon emerged as one of the foremost European actors of the late 1950s to the late 1980s, and became an international sex symbol. He is regarded as one of the most well-known figures in French cinema. His style, looks, and roles, which made him an international icon, earned him enduring popularity.

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