Did you know about M. Karunanidhi
M. Karunanidhi was the ten-time president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) for nearly five decades and a leading figure in the Dravidian movement.
Notable Deaths on August 7
August 7 has 98 recorded notable deaths across history, from 461 to 2025. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
2018 — M. Karunanidhi
Indian politician, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and prominent leader of Tamils (born 1924)
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Notable Deaths
98 source records
461 – 2025
Today in history
Major events on August 7
See what else happened on this day in history.
Did you know about Joan of Kent
The French chronicler Jean Froissart described her as 'in her time the most beautiful woman in all the realm of England, and the most loved', and, Chandos Herald wrote that she was 'beautiful, pleasant and wise'.
Did you know about Frances Oldham Kelsey
Kelsey was the first woman to receive a PhD in pharmacology and the second woman to receive the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service, awarded to her by John F. Kennedy in 1962.
Did you know about Don Baylor
During his 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), Baylor was a power hitter known for standing very close to home plate and was a first baseman, left fielder, and designated hitter.
Did you know about Majorian
Majorian was Western Roman emperor from 457 to 461.
More major people who died on August 7
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
1385
Joan of Kent
mother of Richard II (born 1328)
Joan, Countess of Kent suo jure, also known as the "Fair Maid of Kent", was mother of King Richard II of England, her son by her third husband, Edward the Black Prince, the eldest son and heir apparent of King Edward III. The French chronicler Jean Froissart described her as 'in her time the most beautiful woman in all the realm of England, and the most loved', and, Chandos Herald wrote that she was 'beautiful, pleasant and wise'. After the death of her brother John, 3rd Earl of Kent, in 1352, Joan inherited the titles 4th Countess of Kent and 5th Baroness Wake of Liddell. Joan was made a Lady of the Garter in 1378.
2015
Frances Oldham Kelsey
Canadian pharmacologist and physician (born 1914)
Frances Kathleen Oldham Kelsey was a Canadian-American pharmacologist and physician who had a 45-year career with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As a reviewer, she refused to authorize thalidomide for market because she had concerns about the lack of evidence regarding the drug's safety. Her concerns proved to be justified when it was shown that thalidomide caused serious birth defects. Kelsey's career intersected with the passage of laws strengthening FDA oversight of pharmaceuticals. Kelsey was the first woman to receive a PhD in pharmacology and the second woman to receive the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service, awarded to her by John F. Kennedy in 1962.
2017
Don Baylor
American baseball player (born 1949)
Don Edward Baylor, nicknamed "Groove," was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager. During his 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), Baylor was a power hitter known for standing very close to home plate and was a first baseman, left fielder, and designated hitter. He played for six different American League (AL) teams, primarily the Baltimore Orioles and California Angels, but he also played for the Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins, and Boston Red Sox. In 1979, Baylor was an All-Star and won the AL Most Valuable Player Award. He won three Silver Slugger Awards, the Roberto Clemente Award, and was a member of the 1987 World Series champion Minnesota Twins.
461
Majorian
Roman emperor (born 420)
Majorian was Western Roman emperor from 457 to 461. A prominent commander in the Western military, Majorian deposed Avitus in 457 with the aid of his ally Ricimer at the Battle of Placentia. Possessing little more than Italy and Dalmatia, as well as some territory in Hispania and northern Gaul, Majorian campaigned vigorously for three years against the Empire's enemies. In 461, he was murdered at Dertona in a conspiracy, and his successors until the fall of the Empire in 476 were puppets either of barbarian generals or the Eastern Roman court.
1106
Henry IV
Holy Roman Emperor (born 1050)
Henry IV was Holy Roman Emperor (1084–1105), King of Germany (1054–1105), and King of Italy and Burgundy (1056–1105). A Salian ruler, he was the son of Henry III and Agnes of Poitou. After his father's death in 1056, his mother acted as regent, granting lands to secure aristocratic support. Unable to control papal elections, she witnessed the growing assertion of the "liberty of the Church", a principle central to the emerging Gregorian Reform. In 1062, Archbishop Anno II of Cologne kidnapped Henry and governed until he came of age in 1065.
2011
Mark Hatfield
American soldier, academic, and politician, 29th Governor of Oregon (born 1922)
Mark Odom Hatfield was an American politician and educator from the state of Oregon. A moderate Republican, he served eight years as the 29th governor of Oregon, followed by 30 years as one of its United States senators, including time as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. A native Oregonian, he served in the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater during World War II after graduating from Willamette University. After the war he earned a graduate degree from Stanford University before returning to Oregon and Willamette as a professor.
2009
Mike Seeger
American singer-songwriter (born 1933)
Mike Seeger was an American folk musician and folklorist. He was a distinctive singer and an accomplished musician who mainly played autoharp, banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, harmonica, mandolin, dobro, jaw harp, and pan pipes. Seeger, a half-brother of Pete Seeger, produced more than 30 documentary recordings, and performed in more than 40 other recordings. He desired to make known the caretakers of culture that inspired and taught him. He was posthumously inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2018.
1485
Alexander Stewart
duke of Albany (born 1454)
Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany, was a Scottish prince and the second surviving son of King James II of Scotland. He fell out with his older brother, King James III, and fled to France, where he unsuccessfully sought help. In 1482 he invaded Scotland with the army of King Edward IV of England and assumed control of the country. Scottish lords turned against him in 1483 and he fled after King Edward died. The second invasion, in 1484, was not supported by the new English king, King Richard III, and failed. He died in a duel with Louis, Duke of Orléans, by a splinter from Louis's lance.
2015
Manuel Contreras
Chilean general (born 1929)
Juan Manuel "Mamo" Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda was a Chilean Army officer and the former head of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), Chile's secret police during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. In 1995, he was convicted of the murder of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C., and sentenced to seven years in prison, which he served until 2001. At the time of his death, Contreras was serving 59 unappealable sentences totaling 529 years in prison for kidnapping, forced disappearance, and assassination.
2014
Perry Moss
American football player and coach (born 1926)
Perry Lee Moss was an American professional football player, coach, and executive. Moss played tailback at the University of Tulsa and quarterback at Illinois during the 1940s. As a Tulsa tailback, he was on the Orange Bowl team that beat Georgia Tech, 26–12, in the 1945 Orange Bowl and later as an Illinois T-quarterback, he directed a Rose Bowl team which routed UCLA, 45–14, in 1947. Moss served two years in the United States Air Force between his playing time at Tulsa and Illinois. At Illinois, he was named to All-Big Ten Conference and All-American teams. He was drafted in 1948 by the Green Bay Packers in the 13th round and played at the professional level for one year before returning to Illinois as an assistant. He started one game at quarterback for the Packers.
1899
Jacob Maris
Dutch painter and educator (born 1837)
Jacob Henricus Maris was a Dutch painter, who with his brothers Willem and Matthijs belonged to what has come to be known as the Hague School of painters. He was considered to be the most important and influential Dutch landscape painter of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. His first teacher was painter J.A.B. Stroebel who taught him the art of painting from 1849 to 1852. Jacob Maris's most known works are the series of portraits of the royal House of Orange, he worked on these with his brother Matthijs Maris. He is also known for landscapes such as Ship on the Scheveningen beach.
1848
Jöns Jacob Berzelius
Swedish chemist and academic (born 1779)
Jöns Jacob Berzelius was a Swedish chemist. Berzelius is considered, along with Robert Boyle, John Dalton, and Antoine Lavoisier, to be one of the founders of modern chemistry. Berzelius became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1808 and served from 1818 as its principal functionary. He is known in Sweden as the "Father of Swedish Chemistry". During his lifetime he did not customarily use his first given name, and was universally known simply as Jacob Berzelius.
2021
Markie Post
American actress (born 1950)
Marjorie Armstrong Post, known professionally as Markie Post, was an American actress. Her best known roles include bail bondswoman Terri Michaels in The Fall Guy on ABC from 1982 to 1985; public defender Christine Sullivan on the NBC sitcom Night Court from 1985 to 1992; Georgie Anne Lahti Hartman on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire from 1992 to 1995; and Barbara ‘Bunny’ Fletcher, the mother of Detective Erin Lindsay, on the NBC drama series Chicago P.D. from 2014 to 2017.
1957
Oliver Hardy
American actor, singer, and director (born 1892)
Oliver Norvell Hardy was an American comic actor and one half of Laurel and Hardy, the double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted from 1926 to 1957. He appeared with his comedy partner Stan Laurel in 107 short films, feature films, and cameo roles. He was credited with his first film, Outwitting Dad, in 1914. In most of his silent films before joining producer Hal Roach, he was billed on screen as Babe Hardy.
1941
Rabindranath Tagore
Indian author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1861)
Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet, author, playwright, musician, composer, philosopher, social reformer, painter, and one of the foremost figures of the Bengal Renaissance. In 1913, Tagore became the first Indian and non-European to win a Nobel Prize in any category, and also the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. A significant moulder of culture within Bengal and the Indian subcontinent, he wrote and composed the national anthems of India and Bangladesh.
1985
Grayson Hall
American actress (born 1922)
Grayson Hall was an American actress. She was widely regarded for her avant-garde theatrical performances from the 1960s to the 1980s, and was known to television audiences for playing multiple prominent roles on the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows (1966–71). She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe in the same category for her performance in the John Huston film The Night of the Iguana (1964).
2023
William Friedkin
American film director (born 1935)
William David Friedkin was an American director, producer, and screenwriter who was closely identified with the New Hollywood movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in documentaries in the early 1960s, he is best known for his crime thriller film The French Connection (1971), which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and the horror film The Exorcist (1973), which earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Director.
1635
Friedrich Spee
German poet and academic (born 1591)
Friedrich Spee was a German Jesuit priest, professor, and poet, most well known as a forceful opponent of witch trials and one who was an insider writing from the epicenter of the European witch-phobia. Spee argued strongly against the use of torture, and as an eyewitness he gathered a book full of details regarding its cruelty and unreliability. He wrote, "Torture has the power to create witches where none exist."
1900
Wilhelm Liebknecht
German lawyer and politician (born 1826)
Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht was a German social democratic politician and journalist. A principal founder of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), his political career was a pioneering project in steering a Marxist-inspired workers' party to electoral success and mass membership. Liebknecht served as a member of the North German Reichstag from 1867 to 1871, and of the German Reichstag from 1874 until his death in 1900.