Did you know
His grandson, the 8th Prince, became a Belgian statesman.
Notable Deaths on December 13
91 people
558 – 2025
December 13 has seen 91 notable figures pass away throughout recorded history — from 558 – 2025. Below are the most significant names who died on this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
1814 — Charles-Joseph
7th Prince of Ligne, Belgian-Austrian field marshal (born 1735)
Did you know
After his estates in the Austrian Netherlands were lost to France during the War of the First Coalition, he lived in Vienna
Did you know
Charles-Joseph Lamoral, 7th Prince de Ligne in French; in German Karl-Joseph Lamoral 7
Did you know
He performed an important diplomatic mission to Catherine the Great in 1787 and led troops against the Turks at Belgrade in 1789
Did you know
Beginning in the 1770s, he authored an impressive volume of work
Frankish king (born 496)
Childebert I was a Frankish King of the Merovingian dynasty; as the third of the four sons of Clovis I, he inherited a share of the kingdom of the Franks, which was divided upon their father's death in 511. He was one…
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558
Chinese politician (born 709)
Du Hongjian, courtesy name Zhisun (之巽), formally Duke Wenxian of Wei (衛文憲公), was a Chinese Buddhist monk and politician during the Tang dynasty who served as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Daizong. He was…
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769
Pepin I or Pepin I of Aquitaine was King of Aquitaine and Duke of Maine.
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838
archbishop of Milan
Angilbert II was the Archbishop of Milan from 27 or 28 June 824 to his death on the 13 December 859. He succeeded Angilbert I.
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859
Pope Callixtus II or Callistus II, born Guy of Burgundy, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from February 1119 to his death in 1124. His pontificate was shaped by the Investiture…
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1124
1126
Spanish rabbi and philosopher (born 1135)
Moses ben Maimon, commonly known as Maimonides and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam, was a Sephardic Jewish rabbi who is widely acknowledged as one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the…
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1204
Holy Roman Emperor (born 1194)
Frederick II was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220, and King of Jerusalem from 1225 to 1228. He was the son of Emperor Henry VI, of the Hohenstaufen…
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1250
German preacher
Bertold of Regensburg, also known as Berthold of Ratisbon was a German preacher during the high Middle Ages.
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1272
1404
1466
German cryptographer and historian (born 1462)
Johannes Trithemius, born Johann Heidenberg, was a German Benedictine abbot and a polymath who was active in the German Renaissance as a lexicographer, chronicler, cryptographer, and occultist. He is considered the…
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1516
Manuel I, known as the Fortunate, was King of Portugal from 1495 to 1521. A member of the House of Aviz, Manuel was Duke of Beja and Viseu prior to succeeding his cousin, John II of Portugal, as monarch. Manuel ruled…
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1521
Italian mathematician and engineer (born 1499)
Nicolo, known as Tartaglia, was an Italian mathematician, engineer, a surveyor and a bookkeeper from the then Republic of Venice. He published many books, including the first Italian translations of Archimedes and…
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1557
Swiss botanist and physician (born 1516)
Conrad Gessner was a Swiss physician, naturalist, bibliographer, and philologist. Born into a poor family in Zurich, Switzerland, his father and teachers quickly realised his talents and supported him through…
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1565
queen of Gustav I of Sweden (born 1535)
Catherine Stenbock was Queen of Sweden from 1552 to 1560 as the third and last wife of King Gustav I.
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1621
Italian Roman Catholic priest(born 1592)
Antonio Grassi, born Vincenzo Grassi, was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Oratorians. Grassi was known for his humble and pious nature with a strong devotion to the Marian devotions of…
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1671
1716
Scottish sailor (born 1676)
Alexander Selkirk was a Scottish privateer and Royal Navy officer who spent four years and four months as a castaway (1704–1709) after being marooned by his captain, initially at his request, on an uninhabited island in…
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1721
English philosopher and author (born 1676)
Anthony Collins was an English philosopher and essayist, notable for being one of the early proponents of Deism in Great Britain.
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1729
1754
Canadian Acadia leader (born 1684)
Noël Doiron was a leader of the Acadians, renowned for his leadership during the Deportation of the Acadians. Doiron was deported on a vessel named the Duke William (1758). The Duke William sank, killing many…
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1758
German poet and hymn-writer (born 1715)
Christian Fürchtegott Gellert was a German poet, novelist, and popular moralistic writer, one of the forerunners of the golden age of German literature that was ushered in by Lessing.
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1769
Swedish astronomer and demographer (born 1717)
Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, Swedish astronomer and demographer.
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1783
English poet and lexicographer (born 1709)
Samuel Johnson, often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer and polymath who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer.…
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1784
German botanist and entomologist (born 1766)
Johann Centurius Hoffmann Graf von Hoffmannsegg was a German botanist, entomologist and ornithologist. The standard author abbreviation Hoffmanns. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical…
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1849
American general, lawyer, and politician (born 1823)
Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb, also known as T. R. R. Cobb, was an American lawyer, author, politician, and Confederate States Army officer, killed in the Battle of Fredericksburg during the American Civil War. He was the…
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1862
German poet and playwright (born 1813)
Christian Friedrich Hebbel was a German poet and dramatist.
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1863
German botanist and explorer (born 1794)
Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius was a German botanist and explorer. Between 1817 and 1820, he travelled 10,000 km through Brazil while collecting botanical specimens. His most important work was a comprehensive flora…
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1868
Croatian author and poet (born 1838)
August Ivan Nepomuk Eduard Šenoa was a Croatian novelist, playwright, poet, and editor. Born to an ethnic German and Slovak family, Šenoa became a key figure in the development of an independent literary tradition in…
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1881
French poet and critic (born 1812)
Pierre Martin Victor Richard de Laprade, known as Victor de Laprade, was a French poet and critic.
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1883
German lawyer and politician, 3rd Mayor of Marburg (born 1816)
Georg August Rudolph was a German politician and from 4 December 1856 until 2 August 1884 mayor of Marburg.
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1893
Hungarian physicist and engineer (born 1800)
Ányos István Jedlik was a Hungarian inventor, engineer, physicist, and Benedictine priest. He was also a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and author of several books. He is considered by Hungarians and…
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1895
French photographer and historian (born 1825)
Augustus Henry Julian Le Plongeon was a British-American antiquarian and photographer who studied the pre-Columbian ruins of America, particularly those of the Maya civilization on the northern Yucatán Peninsula. While…
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1908
Australian cricketer (born 1878)
Reginald Alexander Duff was an Australian cricketer who played in 22 Tests between 1902 and 1905.
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1911
German physicist and academic (born 1850)
Woldemar Voigt was a German mathematician and physicist.
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1919
American painter and photographer (born 1857)
Arthur Wesley Dow was an American painter, printmaker, photographer and an arts educator.
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1922
Icelandic poet and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Iceland (born 1861)
Hannes Þórður Pétursson Hafstein was an Icelandic politician and poet. In 1904 he became the first Icelander to be appointed to the Danish Cabinet as the Minister for Iceland in the Cabinet of Deuntzer and was – unlike…
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1922
English-born American labor leader, founded the American Federation of Labor (born 1850)
Samuel Gompers was a British-born American cigar maker and labor union leader. A key figure in American labor history, Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and served as the organization's president…
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1924
Turkish mathematician and academic (born 1856)
Mehmet Nadir was a Turkish mathematician, politician, and educator.
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1927
Finnish physician (born 1842)
Emma Rosina Heikel was a Finnish medical doctor and feminist. In 1878, she became the first female physician in Finland, and specialised in gynaecology and paediatrics.
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1929
Slovenian-Austrian chemist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1869)
Fritz Pregl, was a Slovenian-Austrian chemist and physician from a mixed Slovene-German-speaking background. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1923 for making important contributions to quantitative organic…
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1930
French psychologist, sociologist, and anthropologist (born 1840)
Charles-Marie Gustave Le Bon was a leading French polymath whose areas of interest included anthropology, psychology, sociology, medicine, invention, and physics. He is best known for his 1895 work The Crowd: A Study of…
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1931
Greek painter and sculptor (born 1853)
Georgios Jakobides was a Greek painter and medallist, one of the main representatives of the Greek artistic movement of the Munich School. He founded and was the first curator of the National Gallery of Greece in Athens.
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1932
French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1871)
Francois Auguste Victor Grignard was a French chemist who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the eponymously named Grignard reagent and Grignard reaction, both of which are important in the formation of…
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1935
Austrian-Polish religious leader, 26th Superior-General of the Society of Jesus (born 1866)
Włodzimierz Halka Ledóchowski was a Polish Catholic priest who served as the 26th superior general of the Society of Jesus from 11 February 1915 until his death. Prior to taking holy orders, he was briefly a page to…
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1942
American architect (born 1868)
Robert Robinson Taylor was an American architect and educator. Taylor was the first African-American student enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the first accredited African-American…
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1942
Russian-French painter and theorist (born 1866)
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist active in Germany during the late Belle Époque and Interwar eras. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstraction in Western…
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1944
German concentration camp guard (born 1923)
Irma Ilse Ida Grese was a Nazi concentration camp guard at Ravensbrück, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, and Bergen-Belsen. She has been widely known as the "Hyena of Auschwitz" and the "Beast of Belsen" for the atrocities she…
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1945
German concentration camp commandant (born 1906)
Josef Kramer was a Hauptsturmführer in the SS and the Commandant of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen Belsen concentration camps. Dubbed the "Beast of Belsen" by camp inmates, he was a German Nazi war criminal, directly…
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1945
Polish-German concentration camp supervisor (born 1919)
Elisabeth Volkenrath was a German supervisor at several Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
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1945
American lawyer and author (born 1879)
Henry James III was an American writer who won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1931. James, who was described as "delightful, rather pedantic, crisp, and humorous," was the son of William James and…
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1947
Russian archaeologist, painter, and philosopher (born 1874)
Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh, better known as Nicholas Roerich, was a Russian polymath, painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophist, philosopher, and public figure. He is best known for his prolific body of artwork,…
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1947
Hungarian mathematician and academic (born 1902)
Abraham Wald was a Hungarian and American mathematician and statistician who contributed to decision theory, geometry and econometrics, and founded the field of sequential analysis. One of his well-known statistical…
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1950
American director and composer (born 1879)
John Raymond Hubbell was an American writer, composer and lyricist. He is best known for the popular song, "Poor Butterfly".
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1954
Portuguese psychiatrist and neurosurgeon, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1874)
António Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz, known as simply Egas Moniz, was a Portuguese neurologist and the developer of cerebral angiography. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern psychosurgery, having…
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1955
English author and activist (born 1882)
Dora Marsden was an English suffragette, editor of literary journals, and philosopher of language. Beginning her career as an activist in the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), Marsden eventually broke off from…
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1960
American painter (born 1860)
Anna Mary Robertson Moses, popularly known as Grandma Moses, was an American folk artist. She began painting in earnest at the age of 78 and is a prominent example of a newly successful art career at an advanced age.…
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1961
American singer-songwriter and pianist (born 1905)
Harry Barris was an American popular singer and songwriter. He was one of the earliest singers to use "scat singing" in recordings. Barris, one of Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Boys, along with Bing Crosby and Al Rinker,…
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1962
American admiral and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the Philippines (born 1886)
Raymond Ames Spruance was a United States Navy admiral during World War II. He commanded U.S. naval forces during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, one of the most significant naval battles of the Pacific Theatre. He…
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1969
English author (born 1905)
Henry Vincent Yorke, who wrote under the pen name Henry Green, was an English writer best remembered for the novels Party Going, Living, and Loving. He published a total of nine novels between 1926 and 1952. He is…
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1973
Egyptian-Turkish journalist, author, and politician (born 1889)
Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu was a Turkish novelist, journalist, diplomat, and member of parliament.
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1974
English-American actor (born 1889)
Harry Cyril Delevanti was an English character actor, with a long career in American films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He appeared in some 170 productions, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best…
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1975
American lawyer and trade commissioner (born 1893)
Addie Viola Smith, also known as Shi Fanglan, was an American attorney who served as the United States trade commissioner to Shanghai from 1928 to 1939. She was the first female Foreign Service officer in the United…
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1975
1977
1979
Turkish author, poet and translator (born 1916)
Behçet Necatigil, Turkish poet, teacher and translator who is often considered to be one of the most important poets of modern Turkish poetry. His paternal family originated from Kastamonu, a city in Turkey's Western…
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1979
Estonian-American priest and theologian (born 1921)
Alexander Dmitrievich Schmemann was an influential Orthodox priest, theologian, and author who spent most of his career in the United States.
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1983
1983
British-American actress (born 1909)
Heather Grace Angel was a British actress. She was known for providing the voice of Mrs. Darling, Wendy's mother in Peter Pan (1953) and Alice's sister in Alice in Wonderland (1951).
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1986
American activist (born 1903)
Ella Josephine Baker was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist. She was a largely behind-the-scenes organizer whose career spanned more than five decades. In New York City and the South, she worked…
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1986
Indian actress and journalist (born 1955)
Smita Patil was an Indian actress who primarily worked in Hindi and Marathi films. Regarded among the greatest and finest actresses in the history of Indian cinema, she was known for her unconventional portrayal of…
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1986
Canadian businessman (born 1899)
Kenneth Colin Irving, was a Canadian businessman whose business began with a family sawmill in Bouctouche, New Brunswick, in 1882. In 1989, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
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1992
American businessman and philanthropist (born 1899)
Cornelius "Sonny" Vanderbilt Whitney was an American businessman, film producer, government official, writer and philanthropist. He was also a polo player who owned a stable of Thoroughbred racehorses.
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1992
French author (born 1972)
Vanessa Duriès, also known as Katia Lamara, was a French novelist. She was the author of two novels; Le lien and L'Étudiante.
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1993
American author and educator (born 1896)
Ann Nolan Clark, born Anna Marie Nolan, was an American writer who won the 1953 Newbery Medal.
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1995
English author and educator (born 1920)
Edward Blishen was an English author and broadcaster. He may be known best for the first of two children's novels based on Greek mythology, written with Leon Garfield, illustrated by Charles Keeping, and published by…
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1996
American historian, author, and academic (born 1920)
Don Edward Fehrenbacher was an American historian. He wrote on politics, slavery, and Abraham Lincoln. He won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for History for The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics,…
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1997
Ukrainian-born British impresario and media proprietor (born 1906)
Lew Grade, Baron Grade, was a British media proprietor and impresario. Born to Jewish parents in the Russian Empire, he emigrated to the United Kingdom as a child and was raised in London. Originally a dancer, and later…
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1998
Royal Naval Officer (born 1922)
Admiral Sir William Richard Scott Thomas, was a senior Royal Navy officer and the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod in the British Parliament's House of Lords from January 1992 to 8 May 1995.
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1998
civil rights activist (born 1919)
Wade Watts was an American gospel preacher and civil rights activist from Oklahoma. He served as the state president of the Oklahoma chapter of the NAACP for sixteen years, challenging the Ku Klux Klan through Christian…
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1998
Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who founded The Lovin' Spoonful (born 1944)
Zalman Yanovsky was a Canadian folk-rock musician and restaurateur. Born in Toronto, he was the son of political cartoonist Avrom Yanovsky and teacher Nechama Yanovsky. He played lead guitar and sang for the Lovin'…
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2002
English computer scientist and academic (born 1927)
David John Wheeler was an English computer scientist and professor of computer science at the University of Cambridge.
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2004
American painter and ferryboat captain (born 1944)
Alan J. Shields was an American painter, and for a time during the 1980s, had a secondary career as a commercial boat operator, including as ferryboat captain.
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2005
American businessman, co-founded the American Football League and World Championship Tennis (born 1932)
Lamar Hunt Sr. was an American businessman and sports executive involved in promoting football, soccer, and tennis in the United States. With his brothers, he also attempted to corner the silver market.
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2006
Canadian actor, songwriter, game and talk-show host (born 1947)
Alan Willis Thicke was a Canadian-American actor, songwriter, and game/talk show host. He was the father of singer Robin Thicke. Thicke was best known for playing Dr. Jason Seaver on the 1980s sitcom Growing Pains on…
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2016
Holocaust survivor who became an award-winning Israeli journalist (born 1926)
Noah Klieger was an Israeli journalist and sports administrator. Klieger, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz, Mittelbau-Dora and Ravensbruck, covered trials of Nazi criminals after the end of World War…
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2018
American dancer and media personality (born 1982)
Stephen Laurel "tWitch" Boss was an American freestyle hip hop dancer, choreographer, actor, television producer, and television personality. In 2008, he finished in second place on the American version of So You Think…
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2022
American artist (born 1934)
Lorraine O'Grady was an American artist, writer, translator, and critic. Working in conceptual art and performance art that integrates photo and video installation, she explored the cultural construction of identity –…
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2024
2025
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Notable deaths
Who died on December 13?
Charles-Joseph — Habsburg Austrian field marshal, writer and intellectual (1735–1814)
FeaturedCharles-Joseph
Death year1814
Known forFürst von Ligne : was a field marshal, inhaber of an infantry regiment, prolific writer, intellectual, member of the princely family of Ligne
Deaths on this date91 (558 – 2025)
Explore December 13
Jump between the main pages for this date to compare events, people, and the daily quiz.
Also on December 13 in History
2007
The Treaty of Lisbon is signed by the EU member states to amend both the Treaty of Rome and the Maastricht Treaty which together form the constitutional basis of the EU. The Treaty of Lisbon is effective from 1 December 2009. Wikipedia →
2003
Iraq War: Operation Red Dawn: Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit. Wikipedia →
2002
See all events on December 13
European Union enlargement: The EU announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will become members on May 1, 2004. Wikipedia →
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