Notable Deaths on August 25

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher and writer who started his career as a classical philologist and turned to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, at age 24, he was appointed Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel. Plagued by health problems for most of his life, he resigned from the university in 1879. He afterward lived as an independent writer, spending much of his life in relative solitude and financial insecurity while moving between Switzerland, Italy, and southern France in search of climates that might alleviate his condition, and in the following decade, he completed much of his core writing. In 1889, aged 44, he suffered a neurological collapse, and thereafter a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and vascular dementia; he lived out his remaining 11 years, first under the care of his mother, and later his sister, until his death. His works and his philosophy have fostered not only extensive scholarship but also much popular interest.

Edward Moore Kennedy was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the second-most-senior member of the Senate when he died. He is ranked fifth in U.S. history for length of continuous service as a senator. Kennedy was the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, an uncle of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the father of former U.S. Representative Patrick J. Kennedy.

Michael Faraday was an English chemist and physicist who contributed vastly to the study of electrochemistry and electromagnetism. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and electrolysis. Although Faraday received little formal education, as a self-made man, he was one of the most influential scientists in history. It was by his research on the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a direct current that Faraday established the concept of the electromagnetic field in physics. Faraday also established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena. He similarly discovered the principles of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and the laws of electrolysis. His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology, and it was largely due to his efforts that electricity became practical for use in technology. The SI unit of capacitance, the farad, is named after him.

Louis IX, also known as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270. He is widely recognized as the most distinguished of the Direct Capetians, is the sole king of France to be canonised as a saint of the Catholic Church, and is also the direct ancestor of all subsequent French kings. Following the death of his father, Louis VIII, he was crowned in Reims at the age of 12. His mother, Blanche of Castile, effectively ruled the kingdom as regent until he came of age, and continued to serve as his trusted adviser until her death.

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist and essayist who is known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beginning with A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40), Hume strove to create a naturalistic science of man that examined the psychological basis of human nature. Following John Locke, Hume rejected the existence of innate ideas, holding that all our ideas derive ultimately from impressions, but in his fork he distinguished relations of ideas, known a priori, from matters of fact, whose knowledge rests on experience. This places him in the empiricist tradition of Locke and George Berkeley, while drawing his experimental method from Francis Bacon.

Alfred Charles Kinsey was an American sexologist, biologist, and professor of entomology and zoology who, in 1947, founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now known as the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. He is best known for writing Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953), also known as the Kinsey Reports, as well as for the Kinsey scale. Kinsey's research on human sexuality, foundational to the field of sexology, provoked controversy in the 1940s and 1950s, and has continued to provoke controversy decades after his death. His work has influenced social and cultural values in the United States and United Kingdom as well as internationally.

Arthur Joseph Rooney Sr., often referred to as "the Chief", was an American professional football executive. He was the founding owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, an American football franchise in the National Football League (NFL), from 1933 until his death. Rooney is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was an Olympic qualifying boxer, and was part or whole owner in several track sport venues and Pittsburgh area pro teams. He was the first president of the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1933 to 1974, and the first chairman of the team from 1933 until his death in 1988.

Ahmad al-Mansur, also known as al-Dhahabī was the Saadi Sultan of Morocco from 1578 to his death in 1603, the sixth and most famous of all rulers of the Saadis. Ahmad al-Mansur was an important figure in both Europe and Africa in the sixteenth century. His powerful army and strategic location made him an important power player in the late Renaissance period. He has been described as "a man of profound Islamic learning, a lover of books, calligraphy and mathematics, as well as a connoisseur of mystical texts and a lover of scholarly discussions."

Stanley Joseph McCabe was an Australian cricketer who played 39 Test matches for Australia from 1930 to 1938. A short, stocky right-hander, McCabe was described by Wisden as "one of Australia's greatest and most enterprising batsmen" and by his captain Don Bradman as one of the great batsmen of the game. He was never dropped from the Australian Test team and was known for his footwork, mastery of fast bowling and the hook shot against the Bodyline strategy. He also regularly bowled medium-pace and often opened the bowling at a time when Australia lacked fast bowlers, using an off cutter. He was one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1935.

Zinovios Zafirios I. Valvis was a Greek politician and Prime Minister of Greece. Valvis was born in 1800 in Missolonghi. He first studied theology at the Theological School of Halki but switched to law, furthering his studies in Pisa, Italy. Valvis married Arsinoe Ratzikosta and fathered nine children. He twice served as prime minister but fell on hard times in his old age, dying impoverished in 1872 after refusing a state pension so as not to be a burden on the Greek state. Zinovios Valvis was the brother of Dimitrios Valvis who also served as prime minister. He died in Missolonghi in 1886.

José António Carlos de Seixas was a pre-eminent Portuguese composer of the 18th century. An accomplished virtuoso of both the organ and the harpsichord, Seixas succeeded his father as the organist for Coimbra Cathedral at the age of fourteen. In 1720, he departed for the capital, Lisbon, where he was to serve as the organist for the royal chapel, one of the highest offices for a musician in Portugal, a position which earned him a knighthood. Much of Seixas' music rests in an ambiguous transitional period from the learned style of the 17th century to the galant style of the 18th century.

Andrea di Cione di Arcangelo, better known as Orcagna, was an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect active in Florence. He worked as a consultant at the Florence Cathedral and supervised the construction of the façade at the Orvieto Cathedral. His monumental marble tabernacle (1352–1359), commissioned by the confraternity of Orsanmichele to protect the Maestà by Bernardo Daddi (1347) at Orsanmichele, was immediately praised. The tabernacle, executed according to his design with the assistance of a team of selected sculptors and masons, included 117 figural sculptures or reliefs as part of a domed structure.

Akechi Tama , usually referred to as Hosokawa Gracia , was a member of the aristocratic Akechi family from the Sengoku period. Gracia is best known for her role in the Battle of Sekigahara; Ishida Mitsunari attempted to take her hostage to sway her husband, Hosokawa Tadaoki, into joining his side on the battle. She refused to commit suicide because of her Catholic faith, breaking the code of conduct imposed on women of the samurai class and causing a family retainer to kill her instead, possibly at her request.

Stephen Badlam was an American artisan and military officer. Raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Badlam was orphaned as a young child following the death of his father, a tavern-keeper and cabinetmaker. Badlam worked as a surveyor prior to the American Revolutionary War, where he served as an artillery commander in engagements in New York, Canada, and Vermont, serving as a major in General Richard Montgomery's ill-fated 1775 invasion of Quebec. After serving at Fort Stanwix, he fell gravely ill and was forced to return home with his wife to Dorchester.

Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spector, and went on to work with the Rolling Stones, Neil Young, and others. He worked extensively in film scores for the films Performance, The Exorcist and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. In 1983, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for co-writing "Up Where We Belong" with Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, was a politician and military officer of the Tudor era. He was an uncle of two of the wives of King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, both of whom were beheaded, and played a major role in the machinations affecting these royal marriages. After falling from favour in 1546, Norfolk was stripped of his dukedom and imprisoned in the Tower of London, avoiding execution when Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547.

Prince George, Duke of Kent, was a member of the British royal family, the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary, and a younger brother of Kings Edward VIII and George VI. He served in the Royal Navy during the 1920s before briefly working as a civil servant, and in 1934 was created Duke of Kent. That same year he married Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, with whom he had three children: Edward, Alexandra and Michael.

Carl Barks was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck. He worked anonymously until late in his career; fans dubbed him "The Duck Man" and "The Good Duck Artist". In 1987, Barks was one of the three inaugural inductees of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

Viktor Ivanovich Chukarin was a Ukrainian gymnast who competed for the Soviet Union. He won eleven medals, including seven gold medals at the 1952 and 1956 Summer Olympics and was the all-around world champion in 1954. He was the most successful athlete at the 1952 Summer Olympics. His performance at the 1952 Summer Olympics became second after Anton Heida for medals received in gymnastics, which was overcome by Boris Shakhlin at the 1960 Summer Olympics.