Did you know
Notable Deaths on December 17
98 people
779 – 2024
December 17 has seen 98 notable figures pass away throughout recorded history — from 779 – 2024. Below are the most significant names who died on this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
2014 — Oleh Lysheha
Ukrainian poet and playwright (born 1949)
Did you know
Lysheha is the first Ukrainian poet to receive the PEN award.
Did you know
Lysheha entered Lviv University in 1968, where during his last year, he was expelled for his participation in an "unofficial" literary circle, Lviv Bohema
Did you know
Oleh Lysheha was a Ukrainian poet, playwright, translator and intellectual
Did you know
As punishment, Lysheha was drafted into the Soviet army and internally exiled
779
Abbasid vizier
Al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Ḥasan al-Jarjarāʾī was a senior Abbasid official and vizier from October 904 until his murder on 16 December 908.
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908
Abbasid prince and poet, anti-caliph for one day
Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz was the son of the caliph al-Mu'tazz and a political figure, but is better known as a leading Arabic poet and the author of the Kitab al-Badi, an early study of Arabic forms of poetry. This work…
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908
942
Pope Gregory VIII, born Alberto di Morra, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States for two months in 1187. Becoming Pope after a long diplomatic career as Apostolic Chancellor, he was notable in his…
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1187
1195
1273
1316
Chief Justice of England
Sir William Gascoigne was an English judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of England during the reign of King Henry IV. He was renowned for his integrity and independence, upholding the principle that even the monarch…
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1419
Duchess of Burgundy (born 1397)
Isabella of Portugal was Duchess of Burgundy from 1430 to 1467 as the third wife of Duke Philip the Good. Their son was Charles the Bold, the last Valois Duke of Burgundy.
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1471
Italian Renaissance poet and painter (born 1538)
Irene di Spilimbergo was an Italian Renaissance painter and poet.
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1559
Grand Duchess of Tuscany (born 1522)
Eleanor of Toledo was a Spanish noblewoman who became Duchess of Florence as the first wife of Cosimo I de' Medici. A keen businesswoman, she financed many of her husband's political campaigns and important buildings…
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1562
Nzinga or Njinga Ana de Sousa Mbande was a southwest African paramount ruler who ruled as a queen of the Ambundu Kingdoms of Ndongo (1624–1663) and Matamba (1631–1663), located in present-day northern Angola. Born into…
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1663
1st Earl of Scarbrough, English soldier and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (born 1640)
Lieutenant-General Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough was an English Army officer and Whig politician best known for his role in the Glorious Revolution.
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1721
Venezuelan general and politician, second President of Venezuela (born 1783)
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios Ponte y Blanco was a Venezuelan military officer and statesman who led what are currently the countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and…
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1830
German feral child (born 1812?)
Kaspar Hauser was a German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell. His claims, and his subsequent death from a stab wound, sparked much debate and controversy both in Nuremberg and…
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1833
Duchess of Parma (born 1791)
Marie Louise was Duchess of Parma from 11 April 1814 until her death in 1847. She was Napoleon's second wife and as such Empress of the French and Queen of Italy from their marriage on 2 April 1810 until his abdication…
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1847
Irish hydrographer and officer in the Royal Navy (born 1774)
Sir Francis Beaufort was an Irish hydrographer and naval officer who created the Beaufort cipher and the Beaufort scale.
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1857
Mexican politician and interim President (1876–1877) (born 1823)
José María Juan Nepomuceno Crisóforo Iglesias Inzáurraga was a Mexican lawyer, professor, journalist and liberal politician. He is known as author of the Iglesias law, an anticlerical law regulating ecclesiastical fees…
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1891
Irish-Australian politician, 16th Premier of Victoria (born 1848)
William Shiels was an Australian colonial-era politician, serving as the 16th Premier of Victoria.
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1904
1st Baron Kelvin, Irish-Scottish physicist and engineer (born 1824)
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer.
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1907
Leopold II was the second king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908.
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1909
English physician and activist (born 1836)
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was an English physician and suffragist. She is known for being the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon and as a co-founder and dean of the London School of Medicine…
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1917
Indian activist (born 1892)
Rajendra Nath Lahiri, known simply as Rajendra Lahiri, was an Indian revolutionary, who was a mastermind behind the Kakori conspiracy and Dakshineshwar bombing. He was an active member of the Hindustan Republican…
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1927
American photographer (born 1861)
Frank Albert Rinehart was an American photographer who captured Native American personalities and scenes, especially portrait settings of leaders and members of the delegations who attended the 1898 Indian Congress in…
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1928
Portuguese general and politician, tenth President of Portugal (born 1863)
Manuel de Oliveira Gomes da Costa was a Portuguese army officer and politician who served as president of Portugal in 1926. He was the second president of the Ditadura Nacional.
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1929
Welsh composer and critic (born 1894)
Philip Arnold Heseltine, known by the pseudonym Peter Warlock, was a British composer and music critic. The Warlock name, which reflects Heseltine's interest in occult practices, was used for all his published musical…
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1930
Danish discus thrower, shot putter, and tug of war competitor (born 1867)
Charles Gustav Wilhelm Winckler was a Danish thrower, swimmer, and tug of war competitor. He was set to compete in three swimming events at the 1896 Summer Olympics but did not start in any. He then competed at the 1900…
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1932
The 13th Dalai Lama was the 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet enthroned during a turbulent modern era. He presided during the collapse of the Qing dynasty, and is referred to as "the Great Thirteenth", responsible for…
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1933
American poet (born 1856)
Lizette Woodworth Reese was an American poet and teacher. Born in Maryland, she taught English for almost five decades in the schools of Baltimore. Though Reese was successful in prose as well as in poetry, the latter…
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1935
Anglo-Irish mathematician and academic (born 1860)
Alicia Boole Stott was a British mathematician. She made a number of contributions to the field and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Groningen. She grasped four-dimensional geometry from an early…
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1940
Lord Apsley, English lieutenant and politician (born 1895)
Allen Algernon Bathurst, Lord Apsley, DSO, MC, TD, DL was a British Army officer and Conservative Party politician.
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1942
Greek engineer (born 1877)
Christos Tsigiridis was a Greek electrical engineer and technological pioneer of his era. He is mainly known for setting up the first radio station in Greece and the wider Balkans based in Thessaloniki.
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1947
American actor (born 1903)
Edward DeKalb Acuff was an American stage and film actor. He frequently was cast as a droll comic relief, in the support of the star. His best-known recurring role is that of Mr. Beasley, the postman, in the Blondie…
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1956
English author, poet, and playwright (born 1893)
Dorothy Leigh Sayers was an English crime novelist, playwright, translator and critic.
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1957
American actor (born 1892)
Thomas John Mitchell was an American actor, writer, and theatre director. He is considered one of the great character actors of Golden Age of Hollywood and a leading man on Broadway.
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1962
Austrian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1883)
Victor Franz Hess was an Austrian–American experimental physicist who shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics with Carl David Anderson for his discovery of cosmic rays.
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1964
Australian lawyer and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Australia (born 1908)
Harold Edward Holt was an Australian politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia from 1966 until his disappearance and presumed death in 1967. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia…
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1967
American historian, author, and educator (born 1896)
Oliver Waterman Larkin was an American art historian and educator. He won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book Art and Life in America.
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1970
1978
Greek composer and conductor (born 1903)
Antiochos Evangelatos was a Greek classical composer and conductor.
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1981
American lawyer, judge, and politician (born 1889)
Homer Samuel Ferguson was an American attorney, professor, judge, United States senator from Michigan, ambassador to the Philippines, and later a judge on the United States Court of Military Appeals.
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1982
Colombian journalist (born 1925)
Guillermo Cano Isaza was a Colombian journalist. The editor of El Espectador from 1952 until 1986, he was assassinated in Bogotá in what was widely seen as an attack related to his criticism of Colombia's drug barons.
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1986
Dutch cardinal (born 1900)
Bernardus Johannes Alfrink was a Dutch Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Utrecht from 1955 to 1975, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1960.
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1987
American porn actress (born 1951)
Linda Wong was an American pornographic actress, and one of the first Asian Americans to become a star in the American adult film industry. In 1999, she was inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame. She was Japanese by…
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1987
Belgian-American author and poet (born 1903)
Marguerite Yourcenar was a Belgian-born French novelist and essayist who became a US citizen in 1947. Winner of the Prix Femina and the Erasmus Prize, she was the first woman elected to the Académie Française, in 1980.…
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1987
German journalist and philosopher (born 1902)
Günther Anders was a German-born philosopher, journalist and critical theorist.
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1992
American actor (born 1909)
Carver Dana Andrews was an American film actor who became a major star in what is now known as film noir and later in Western films. A leading man during the 1940s, he continued acting in less prestigious roles and…
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1992
1999
American singer-songwriter and saxophonist (born 1943)
Grover Washington Jr. was an American jazz-funk and soul-jazz saxophonist and Grammy Award winner. Along with Wes Montgomery and George Benson, he is considered by many to be one of the founders and legends of the…
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1999
American historian and academic (born 1908)
Comer Vann Woodward was an American historian who focused primarily on the American South and race relations. He was long a supporter of the approach of Charles A. Beard, stressing the influence of unseen economic…
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1999
Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, tenth Sri Lankan Minister of Justice (born 1910)
Deshamanya Kanapathipillai William "Bill" Devanayagam was a Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer, politician, government minister and Member of Parliament.
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2002
American football player and coach (born 1921)
Otto Everett Graham Jr. was an American professional football player who was a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons. Graham…
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2003
American painter and sculptor (born 1931)
Thomas K. Wesselmann was an American artist associated with the pop art movement who worked in painting, collage and sculpture.
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2004
American journalist and author (born 1922)
Jack Northman Anderson was an American newspaper columnist, syndicated by United Features Syndicate, considered one of the founders of modern investigative journalism. Anderson won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for National…
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2005
Canadian actor and poet (born 1929)
Marc Favreau, was a French Canadian humorist, film actor, and poet born in Montreal, Quebec. He is best known for developing and portraying the clown character Sol.
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2005
Estonian orientalist and academic (born 1936)
Haljand Udam was an Estonian orientalist and translator.
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2005
American baseball player and coach (born 1935)
Lawrence Sherry was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed relief pitcher from 1958 to 1968, most prominently as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers and…
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2006
American football player and coach (born 1914)
Samuel Adrian Baugh was an American professional football quarterback who played 16 seasons with the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL). Baugh also played safety on defense and was the team's…
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2008
German singer-songwriter, producer, and journalist (born 1942)
Freddy Breck was a German schlager singer, composer, record producer, and news anchor.
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2008
American baseball player and coach (born 1955)
David Stanley Smith was an American Major League Baseball relief pitcher, primarily for the Houston Astros, for whom he pitched from 1980 to 1990. He also pitched for the Chicago Cubs.
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2008
2008
American football player (born 1983)
Christopher Henry was an American professional football player who was a wide receiver for five seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the West Virginia…
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2009
American actress (born 1919)
Jennifer Jones, also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental-health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned more than five decades, she was nominated for an Academy Award five…
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2009
American actress (born 1946)
Alaina Reed Hall was an American actress and singer who portrayed Olivia Robinson, Gordon's younger sister, on the PBS children's television series Sesame Street, and Rose Lee Holloway on the NBC sitcom 227.
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2009
American singer-songwriter (born 1941)
Don Van Vliet, known by his stage name Captain Beefheart, was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as the Magic Band, he recorded 13 studio…
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2010
American basketball and baseball player (born 1923)
Walter Dropo, nicknamed "Moose", was an American college basketball standout and a professional baseball first baseman. During a 13-year career in Major League Baseball, he played for the Boston Red Sox (1949–1952),…
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2010
English footballer (born 1946)
Ralph Coates was an English professional footballer who played as a winger. Coates played for Burnley, Tottenham Hotspur and Orient, making 480 appearances in the Football League. From 1970 to 1971, he played for the…
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2010
Venezuelan journalist and author, Miss Venezuela 2000 (born 1983)
Eva Mónica Anna Ekvall Johnson was a Venezuelan television news anchor, author, advocate in the fight against breast cancer, fashion model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Venezuela 2000. After…
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2011
North Korean commander and politician, second Supreme Leader of North Korea (born 1941)
Kim Jong Il was a North Korean politician and dictator who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from the death of his father Kim Il Sung in 1994 until his own death in 2011. Posthumously, Kim Jong Il was…
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2011
Filipino-American activist (born 1947)
Richard Frank Adams was a Filipino-American gay rights activist. After his 1975 same-sex marriage was declared invalid for the purposes of granting his husband permanent residency, Adams filed the federal lawsuit Adams…
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2012
American priest and activist, co-founded the College of the Atlantic (born 1922)
Rev. James Gower was an American Roman Catholic priest and peace activist. Gower and his former high school classmate, businessman Les Brewer, co-founded the College of the Atlantic, a private, liberal arts college in…
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2012
American captain and politician (born 1924)
Daniel Ken Inouye was an American attorney, soldier, and statesman from the state of Hawaii. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Hawaii in the United States Senate from 1963 until his death. Prior to his…
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2012
Canadian historian, journalist, and politician (born 1929)
Laurier L. LaPierre was a Canadian Senator, professor, broadcaster, journalist and author. He was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.
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2012
American baseball player and radio host (born 1957)
Frank Enrico Pastore was an American Major League Baseball player and radio host. He pitched for the Cincinnati Reds from 1979 until 1985 and for the Minnesota Twins in 1986, and was in the Texas Rangers organization in…
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2012
Latvian-Canadian photographer (born 1929)
Fred Bruemmer, D.Litt. was a Latvian Canadian nature photographer and researcher. He spent his life travelling extensively throughout the circumpolar regions and to other remote parts of the globe. His works have been…
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2013
Spanish cardinal (born 1926)
Ricardo María Carles Gordó was a cardinal priest and Archbishop Emeritus of Barcelona in the Catholic Church.
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2013
American historian and television host (born 1925)
Richard Douglas Heffner was the creator and host of The Open Mind, a public affairs television show first broadcast in 1956. He was a University Professor of Communications and Public Policy at Rutgers University and…
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2013
Japanese drummer, songwriter, and producer (born 1950)
Tetsurō Kashibuchi was a Japanese musician, composer, and record producer.
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2013
American geneticist and biologist (born 1925)
Janet Davison Rowley was an American human geneticist and the first scientist to identify a chromosomal translocation as the cause of leukemia and other cancers, thus proving that cancer is a genetic disease. Rowley…
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2013
Dutch sailor (born 1926)
Cornelis "Conny" van Rietschoten was a Dutch yacht skipper who was the only skipper to win the Whitbread Round the World Race twice: a feat that has not been matched since.
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2013
German-American scientist and engineer (born 1913)
Dieter Grau was a German-born American aerospace engineer and member of the "von Braun rocket group", at Peenemünde (1939–1945) working on the V-2 rockets in World War II. He was among the engineers who surrendered to…
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2014
American journalist (born 1917)
Richard Curt Hottelet was an American broadcast journalist for the latter half of the twentieth century.
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2014
American captain (born 1919)
Lowell Steward was born in Los Angeles and was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen who flew missions during World War II. For his service, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross and other medals.
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2014
Croatian colonel, lawyer, and politician, Croatian Minister of the Interior (born 1938)
Ivan Vekić was a Croatian politician and lawyer. He was one of the founders of the Croatian Democratic Union and served as the Croatian Minister of Interior during the Croatian War of Independence.
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2014
2015
American-Japanese biochemist and academic (born 1920)
Osamu Hayaishi MJA , was a Japanese biochemist, physiologist, and military physician. He discovered Oxygenases at the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, National Institutes of Health in 1955.
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2015
German-American philosopher and theologian (born 1928)
Michael Wyschogrod was a Jewish German-American philosopher of religion, Jewish theologian, and activist for Jewish–Christian interfaith dialogue. During his academic career, he taught in philosophy and religion…
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2015
American soldier and politician (born 1922)
Benjamin Arthur Gilman was an American politician and Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Middletown, New York, from January 3, 1973, to January 3, 2003.
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2016
American doctor (born 1920)
Henry Judah Heimlich was an American thoracic surgeon and medical researcher. He is widely credited for the discovery of the Heimlich maneuver, a technique of abdominal thrusts for stopping choking, first described in…
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2016
American voice director (born 1929)
Gordon Edwynn Hunt was an American writer, director and actor who worked in television, film, theatre and voice work.
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2016
English actor (born 1945)
Jeremy Andrew Bulloch was an English actor. In a career that spanned six decades, he gained recognition for originating the physical portrayal of Boba Fett in the Star Wars franchise, appearing as the character in the…
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2020
American politician (born 1921)
Allen Dines was an American politician in the state of Colorado. He was a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 1957 to 1966, and the Colorado Senate from 1966 to 1974. From 1965 to 1966, Dines served as…
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2020
Filipino actor (born 1947)
James Ronald Dulaca Gibbs, popularly known by his screen name Ronaldo Valdez, was a Filipino actor whose career spanned almost five decades.
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2023
American actor (born 1958)
James Perry McCaffrey was an American actor. He starred as the lead character in the short lived series Swift Justice, which was cancelled after only a season. Additionally, he had roles such as Jimmy Keefe on Rescue Me…
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2023
Russian general (born 1970)
Igor Anatolyevich Kirillov was a Russian lieutenant general. He was the head of the Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear Defense Troops of the Russian Armed Forces. He held a Candidate of Military Sciences degree. He was…
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2024
Spanish film actress (born 1946)
María Luisa Paredes Bartolomé, known professionally as Marisa Paredes, was a Spanish actress with a 60-year long career. She acted in more than 75 films, 80 tv shows, and 15 plays.
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2024
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Notable deaths
Who died on December 17?
Oleh Lysheha — Ukrainian poet, playwright, translator and intellectual (1949 – 2014)
FeaturedOleh Lysheha
Death year2014
Known forLysheha entered Lviv University in 1968, where during his last year, he was expelled for his participation in an "unofficial" literary circle, Lviv Bohema
Deaths on this date98 (779 – 2024)
Explore December 17
Jump between the main pages for this date to compare events, people, and the daily quiz.
Also on December 17 in History
2014
The United States and Cuba re-establish diplomatic relations after severing them in 1961. Wikipedia →
2010
Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire. This act became the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring. Wikipedia →
2009
See all events on December 17
MV Danny F II sinks off the coast of Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of 44 people and over 28,000 animals. Wikipedia →
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