Notable Deaths on December 18

Q: Who died on December 18?

Notable people who died on December 18 include: Lady Wu, Yaonian Yanmujin, Edith of Wessex (born 1025), Hildebert, Magnus Ladulås.

Q: What is Charles Dvorak known for?

Charles Dvorak, American pole vaulter and coach (born 1878)

109 people 919 – 2025

December 18 has seen 109 notable figures pass away throughout recorded history — from 919 – 2025. Below are the most significant names who died on this date.

By thisDay.info Editorial Team · December 18 — Wikipedia

1969 — Charles Dvorak

American pole vaulter and coach (born 1878)

Did you know

In 1903, he set a world's record in the pole vault with a jump of 11 feet, 11 inches.(This mark doesn't appear in the progression of World or American Records)

Did you know

Dvorak returned to international competition and won the gold medal in the pole vault at the 1904 Summer Olympics

Did you know

He attended the University of Michigan where he competed for the Michigan Wolverines men's track and field team from 1900 to 1904

Did you know

He participated in the 1900 Summer Olympics where he was a favorite in the pole vault

Did you know

Dvorak later served as a high school football, basketball and track coach in Seattle, Washington, where he died in 1969 at age 91.

Lady Wu

wife of Qian Liu (born 858)

Lady Wu, formally Lady Zhuangmu of Wuyue (吳越莊穆夫人), was the wife of Qian Liu, the first king of the Chinese state Wuyue of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

919

Yaonian Yanmujin

Chinese empress dowager

Yaonian Yanmujin or Xiao Yanmujin, formally Empress Xuanjian (宣簡皇后), was an empress dowager of the Khitan-led Chinese Liao dynasty. She was the mother of Liao's founder Emperor Taizu of Liao and the wife of his father…

933

Edith of Wessex (born 1025)

Edith of Wessex was Queen of England through her marriage to Edward the Confessor from 1045 until Edward's death in 1066. Unlike most English queens in the 10th and 11th centuries, she was crowned. The principal source…

1075

Hildebert

French poet and scholar (born 1055)

Hildebert is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It may refer to:Hildebert Hildebert, Count of Ivois Hildebert Hildebert Hildebert I of Mont-Saint-Michel, abbot Hildebert II of Mont-Saint-Michel, abbot …

1133

Magnus Ladulås

king of Sweden (born 1240)

Magnus Ladulås or Magnus Birgersson was King of Sweden from 1275 until his death in 1290.

1290

Pierre Cauchon

French Catholic bishop (born 1371)

Pierre Cauchon was a French Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Beauvais from 1420 to 1432. He was a partisan of Burgundian and English interests in France during the latter years of the Hundred Years' War. In…

1442

Alfonso II of Naples (born 1448)

Alfonso II was Duke of Calabria and ruled as King of Naples from 25 January 1494 to 23 January 1495. He was a soldier and a patron of Renaissance architecture and the arts.

1495

Anna of Saxony

Princess consort of Orange (born 1544)

Anna of Saxony was the daughter of Maurice, Elector of Saxony, and Agnes of Hesse. Her wealth drew many suitors; she ultimately accepted the proposal of widowed William the Silent, and they were married on 25 August…

1577

Nur Jahan

empress consort of the Mughal Empire (born 1577)

Nur Jahan, born Mehr-un-Nissa, was the twentieth wife and chief consort of the Mughal emperor Jahangir.

1645

William Brabazon

1st Earl of Meath, English lawyer and politician (born 1580)

William Brabazon, 1st Earl of Meath was an Anglo-Irish peer.

1651

Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff

German scholar and politician (born 1626)

Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff or Seckendorf, German statesman and scholar, was a member of the House of Seckendorff, a noble family which took its name from the village of Seckendorf between Nuremberg and Langenzenn. The…

1692

Antonio Stradivari

Italian instrument maker (born 1644)

Antonio Stradivari was an Italian luthier and a craftsman of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas and harps. The Latinized form of his surname, Stradivarius, as well as the colloquial Strad are…

1737

Soame Jenyns

English poet and politician (born 1704)

Soame Jenyns was an English writer and Member of Parliament. He was an early advocate of the ethical consideration of animals.

1787

Jean-Étienne Montucla

French mathematician and historian (born 1725)

Jean-Étienne Montucla was a French mathematician and historian.

1799

Johann Gottfried Herder

German philosopher, theologian, and poet (born 1744)

Johann Gottfried von Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, pastor, poet, and literary critic. Herder is associated with the Age of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism. He was a Romantic…

1803

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

French soldier, biologist, and academic (born 1744)

Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck, often known simply as Lamarck, was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biological evolution…

1829

Thomas Graham

1st Baron Lynedoch, Scottish-English general and politician (born 1748)

General Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch, was a British Army officer and politician. After his education at Oxford, he inherited a substantial estate in Scotland, married and settled down to a quiet career as a…

1843

Bernard Bolzano

Bohemian priest and mathematician (born 1781)

Bernard Bolzano was a Bohemian mathematician, logician, philosopher, theologian and Catholic priest of Italian extraction, also known for his liberal views.

1848

José Justo Corro

Mexican politician, President of Mexico (1836–1837) (born 1794)

José Justo Corro y Silva was a Mexican lawyer and statesman who was made president of Mexico on 2 March 1836, after the sudden death of President Miguel Barragán. During his administration, he oversaw the transition…

1864

Louis Moreau Gottschalk

American pianist and composer (born 1829)

Louis Moreau Gottschalk was a Louisiana Creole and Jewish-American composer, pianist, and virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States.

1869

Michel Chasles

French mathematician and academic (born 1793)

Michel Floréal Chasles was a French mathematician.

1880

Richard Owen

English biologist, anatomist, and paleontologist (born 1804)

Sir Richard Owen was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils.

1892

John Alcock

English captain and pilot (born 1892)

Captain Sir John William Alcock was a British Royal Navy and later Royal Air Force officer who, with navigator Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown, piloted the first non-stop transatlantic flight from St. John's,…

1919

Sir Carl Meyer

1st Baronet, German-English banker and businessman (born 1851)

Sir Carl Ferdinand Meyer, 1st Baronet was a British banker and mining magnate.

1922

Hamo Thornycroft

English sculptor and academic (born 1850)

Sir William Hamo Thornycroft was an English sculptor, responsible for some of London's best-known statues, including the statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Palace of Westminster. He was a keen student of classical…

1925

Eduard Bernstein

German theorist and politician (born 1850)

Eduard Bernstein was a German social democratic politician and socialist theorist. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Bernstein is best known for his reformist challenge to Marxism known as evolutionary…

1932

Andrija Mohorovičić

Croatian meteorologist and seismologist (born 1857)

Andrija Mohorovičić was a Croatian geophysicist and academic. He is best known for the eponymous Mohorovičić discontinuity and is considered one of the founders of modern seismology. He is also considered among the…

1936

Ernest Lawson

Canadian-American painter (born 1873)

Ernest Lawson was a Canadian-American painter and exhibited his work at the Canadian Art Club and as a member of the American group The Eight, artists who formed a loose association in 1908 to protest the narrowness of…

1939

Leo Reisman

American violinist and bandleader (born 1897)

Leo F. Reisman was an American violinist and bandleader in the 1920s and 1930s. Born and reared in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, Inspired by the Russian-American violinist Jascha Heifetz, Reisman studied violin…

1961

Bobby Jones

American golfer and lawyer (born 1902)

Robert Tyre Jones Jr. was an American amateur golfer who was one of the most influential figures in the history of the sport; he was also a lawyer by profession. Jones founded and helped design Augusta National Golf…

1971

Diana Lynn

American actress (born 1926)

Diana Marie Lynn was an American actress. She built her career by starring in Paramount Pictures films and various television series during the 1940s and 1950s. Two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame are dedicated to…

1971

Neilia Hunter Biden

first wife of Joe Biden (born 1942)

Neilia Hunter Biden was an American teacher and the first wife of Joe Biden, who later became the 46th president of the United States. She died in a car crash with their one-year-old daughter, Naomi; their two sons,…

1972

Allamah Rasheed Turabi

Indian-Pakistani religious leader and philosopher (born 1908)

Raza Hussain also known as Allama Rasheed Turabi (9 July 1908 – 18 December 1973) was an Islamic scholar, religious leader, public speaker, poet and philosopher.

1973

Harry Hooper

American baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1887)

Harry Bartholomew Hooper was an American professional baseball right fielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB). Hooper batted left-handed and threw right-handed. Hooper was born in Bell Station, California, and…

1974

Theodosius Dobzhansky

Ukrainian geneticist and biologist (born 1900)

Theodosius Grigorievich Dobzhansky was a Russian-born American geneticist and evolutionary biologist. He was a central figure in the field of evolutionary biology for his work in shaping the modern synthesis and also…

1975

Michio Nishizawa

Japanese baseball player and manager (born 1921)

Michio Nishizawa was a prominent Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball player who excelled as both a pitcher and a position player. Playing with the Chunichi Dragons franchise for most of his career, Nishizawa became…

1977

Louis Untermeyer American poet

anthologist, critic (born 1885)

Louis Untermeyer was an American poet, anthologist, critic, and editor. He was appointed the fourteenth Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1961.

1977

Dobriša Cesarić

Croatian poet and translator (born 1902)

Dobriša Cesarić was a Croatian poet and translator. In 1951, he became a member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts.

1980

Alexei Kosygin

Russian soldier and politician, 8th Premier of the Soviet Union (born 1904)

Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin was a Soviet statesman who served as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1964 to 1980. Following Khrushchev's removal from power, he briefly led the Soviet Union as part of a…

1980

Hans-Ulrich Rudel

German colonel and pilot (born 1916)

Hans-Ulrich Rudel was a German ground-attack pilot during World War II and a post-war neo-Nazi activist.

1982

Xuân Diệu

Vietnamese poet and author (born 1916)

Ngô Xuân Diệu was a Vietnamese poet, journalist, short-story writer, and literary critic, best known as one of the prominent figures of the twentieth-century Thơ mới Movement.

1985

Conny Plank

German keyboard player and producer (born 1940)

Konrad "Conny" Plank was a German record producer and musician. He is known for his innovative work as a sound engineer and producer in Germany's krautrock and kosmische music scene in the 1970s. Plank was involved in…

1987

Niyazi Berkes

Turkish Cypriot-English sociologist and academic (born 1908)

Niyazi Berkes was a Turkish Cypriot sociologist.

1988

Anne Revere

American actress (born 1903)

Anne Revere was an American actress and a member of the board of the Screen Actors Guild. She was best known for her work on Broadway and her portrayals of mothers in a series of critically acclaimed films. An outspoken…

1990

Paul Tortelier

French cellist and composer (born 1914)

Paul Tortelier was a French cellist and composer. After an outstanding student career at the Conservatoire de Paris he played in orchestras in France and the US before the Second World War. After the war he became a…

1990

Joseph Zubin

Lithuanian-American psychologist and academic (born 1900)

Joseph Zubin was a Lithuanian-born American educational psychologist and an authority on schizophrenia who is commemorated by the Joseph Zubin Awards. He was the founder of the Biometrics Research Department of New York…

1990

George Abecassis

English race car driver (born 1913)

George Edgar Abecassis was a British racing driver, and co-founder of the HWM Formula One team.

1991

Mark Goodson

American game show producer, created Family Feud and The Price Is Right (born 1915)

Mark Leo Goodson was an American television producer who specialized in game shows, most frequently with his business partner Bill Todman, with whom he created Goodson-Todman Productions.

1992

Helm Glöckler

German race car driver (born 1909)

Helmut Erik "Helm" Glöckler was a German amateur racing driver.

1993

Sam Wanamaker

American-English actor, director, and producer (born 1919)

Samuel Wanamaker was an American actor and director, whose career on stage and in film and television spanned five decades. He began his career on Broadway, but spent most of his professional life in the United Kingdom,…

1993

Roger Apéry

Greek-French mathematician and academic (born 1916)

Roger Apéry (French: [apeʁi]; 14 November 1916 – 18 December 1994) was a Greek-French mathematician most remembered for Apéry's theorem, which states that ζ(3) is an irrational number. Here, ζ(s) denotes the Riemann…

1994

Lilia Skala

Austrian-American actress (born 1896)

Lilia Skala was an Austrian and American architect and actress known for her role in the film Lilies of the Field (1963), for which she received critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomination. During her career, Skala…

1994

Brian Brockless

English organist, composer, and conductor (born 1926)

Brian Brockless was an English composer, organist and conductor and, for much of his life, was the Director of Music at the Priory Church of St Bartholomew-the-Great, Smithfield, London where he succeeded Paul Steinitz…

1995

Ross Thomas

American author (born 1926)

Ross Thomas was an American writer of crime fiction. He is best known for his witty thrillers that expose the mechanisms of professional politics. He also wrote five novels under the pseudonym Oliver Bleeck about…

1995

Konrad Zuse

German engineer, designed the Z3 computer (born 1910)

Konrad Ernst Otto Zuse was a German civil engineer, pioneering computer scientist, inventor and businessman. His greatest achievement was the world's first programmable computer; the functional program-controlled…

1995

Yulii Borisovich Khariton

Russian physicist and academic (born 1904)

Yulii Borisovich Khariton was a Russian physicist who was a leading scientist in the former Soviet program of nuclear weapons.

1996

Irving Caesar

American composer (born 1895)

Irving Caesar was an American lyricist and composer primarily for theater who wrote lyrics for numerous song standards, including "Swanee", "Sometimes I'm Happy", "Crazy Rhythm", and "Tea for Two", one of the most…

1996

Chris Farley

American comedian and actor (born 1964)

Christopher Crosby Farley was an American actor and comedian. Farley was a member of Chicago's Second City Theatre and later a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live for five seasons, from 1990 to…

1997

Lev Dyomin

Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut (born 1926)

Lev Stepanovich Dyomin was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 15 spaceflight in 1974. This spaceflight was intended to dock with the space station Salyut 3, but the docking failed.

1998

Robert Bresson

French director and screenwriter (born 1901)

Robert Bresson was a French filmmaker. Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson made a notable contribution to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, ellipses, and sparse use of scoring have led his works to be…

1999

Stan Fox

American race car driver (born 1952)

Stanley Cole Fuchs, known professionally as Stan Fox, was an American open wheel race car driver. Fox was one of the last links between the midget car racing world and the Indianapolis 500.

2000

Randolph Apperson Hearst

American businessman (born 1915)

Randolph Apperson Hearst was a newspaper publisher and member of the wealthy Hearst family. He was the fourth of the five sons of William Randolph Hearst and Millicent Hearst as well as the father of Patty Hearst.

2000

Kirsty MacColl

British singer-songwriter (born 1959)

Kirsty Anna MacColl was a British singer and songwriter. The daughter of folk singer Ewan MacColl, she recorded several pop hits in the 1980s and 1990s, including "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's…

2000

Gilbert Bécaud

French singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (born 1927)

François Gilbert Léopold Silly, known professionally as Gilbert Bécaud, was a French singer, composer, pianist and actor, known as "Monsieur 100,000 Volts" for his energetic performances. His best-known hits are…

2001

Dimitris Dragatakis

Greek violinist and composer (born 1914)

Dimitris Dragatakis was a Greek composer of classical music and Greek art music.

2001

Marcel Mule

French saxophonist and educator (born 1901)

Marcel Mule was a French classical saxophonist. He was known worldwide as one of the greatest classical saxophonists ever, and many pieces were written for him, premiered by him, and arranged by him. Many of these…

2001

Necip Hablemitoğlu

Turkish historian and academic (born 1954)

Necip Hablemitoğlu was a Turkish historian and intellectual. He was assassinated in front of his home in 2002. The perpetrators of this assassination have still not been found. In Ergenekon trial testimony, however,…

2002

Ray Hnatyshyn

Canadian lawyer and politician, 24th Governor General of Canada (born 1934)

Ramon John "Ray" Hnatyshyn was a Canadian lawyer and statesman who served as the 24th governor general of Canada from 1990 to 1995.

2002

Wayne Owens

American lawyer and politician (born 1937)

Douglas Wayne Owens was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for Utah's 2nd congressional district from 1973 to 1975 and again from 1987 to 1993. He was posthumously inducted…

2002

Lucy Grealy

Irish-American author (born 1963)

Lucinda Margaret Grealy was an Irish-American poet and memoirist who wrote Autobiography of a Face in 1994. This critically acclaimed book describes her childhood and early adolescent experience with cancer of the jaw,…

2002

Anthony Sampson

English journalist and author (born 1926)

Anthony Terrell Seward Sampson was a British writer and journalist. His most notable and successful book was Anatomy of Britain, which was published in 1962 and was followed by five more "Anatomies", updating the…

2004

Alan Voorhees

American engineer and urban planner (born 1922)

Alan Manners Voorhees was an American transportation engineer and urban planner who designed many large public works in the United States and elsewhere. Voorhees was born in Highland Park, New Jersey.

2005

Joseph Barbera

American animator, director, and producer, co-founded Hanna-Barbera (born 1911)

Joseph Roland Barbera was an American animator and cartoonist. He co-founded the animation studio Hanna-Barbera alongside William Hanna.

2006

Ruth Bernhard

German-American photographer (born 1905)

Ruth Bernhard was a German-born American photographer.

2006

Shaukat Siddiqui

Pakistani author and activist (born 1923)

Shaukat Siddiqi was a Pakistani writer of fiction who wrote in Urdu language. He is best known for his novels Khuda Ki Basti and Jangloos, the former of which won the Adamjee Literary Award in 1960.

2006

Hans Billian

Polish-German actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1918)

Hans Billian was a German film director, screenwriter, and actor noted for the "sex comedies" he directed in the 1970s. He was also credited as Hans Billan, Phillip Halliday, and Christian Kessler.

2007

Gerald Le Dain

Canadian lawyer and judge (born 1924)

Gerald Eric Le Dain, was a Canadian lawyer and judge, who sat on the Supreme Court of Canada from 1984 to 1988.

2007

William Strauss

American author and playwright (born 1947)

William Strauss was an American author, lawyer, playwright, theater director, and lecturer. As an author, he is known for his work with Neil Howe on social generations. They created the Strauss–Howe generational theory…

2007

Alan Wagner

American businessman and critic (born 1931)

Alan Cyril Wagner was an American television executive, radio personality, writer, and opera historian and critic. He served as the East Coast vice president of programming at CBS from 1976 to 1982. After he left CBS,…

2007

Majel Barrett

American actress and producer (born 1932)

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry was an American actress. She was best known for her roles as various characters in the Star Trek franchise: Nurse Christine Chapel, Number One, Lwaxana Troi, and the voice of most onboard…

2008

Mark Felt

American FBI agent, "Deep Throat" informant in the Watergate scandal (born 1913)

William Mark Felt Sr. was an American law enforcement officer who worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1942 to 1973 and was known for his role in uncovering the Watergate scandal. Felt was an FBI…

2008

Phil Cavarretta

American baseball player and manager (born 1916)

Philip Joseph Cavarretta was an American professional baseball first baseman, outfielder, and manager. He was known to friends and family as "Phil" and was also called "Philibuck", a nickname bestowed by Cubs manager…

2010

Jacqueline de Romilly

French philologist, author, and scholar (born 1913)

Jacqueline Worms de Romilly was a French philologist, classical scholar and fiction writer. She was the first woman nominated to the Collège de France, and in 1988, the second woman to enter the Académie française.

2010

Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa

Italian economist and politician, Italian Minister of Economy and Finances (born 1940)

Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, OMRI was an Italian banker and economist who served as Italy's Minister of Economy and Finance from 2006 to 2008. He previously served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central…

2010

James Pickles

English judge and journalist (born 1925)

James Pickles was an English barrister and circuit judge and who later became a tabloid newspaper columnist. He became known for his controversial sentencing decisions and press statements. His obituaries variously…

2010

Václav Havel

Czech poet, playwright, and politician, 1st President of the Czech Republic (born 1936)

Václav Havel was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 31 December, before…

2011

Frank Macchiarola

American lawyer and academic (born 1941)

Frank J. Macchiarola, was an American academic. His interests and expertise spanned the legal, academic, executive management and public service areas. From 2008 until his death, Macchiarola was the Chancellor of St.…

2012

Mustafa Ould Salek

Mauritanian colonel and politician, President of Mauritania (born 1936)

Col. Mustafa Ould Salek was the president of Mauritania from 1978 to 1979.

2012

Jim Whalen

American football player (born 1943)

James Francis Whalen, Jr. was an American professional football player who was a tight end in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL).

2012

Anatoliy Zayaev

Ukrainian footballer, coach, and manager (born 1931)

Anatoliy Zayaev was a Soviet football player and a Ukrainian coach. Merited Coach of Ukraine.

2012

Ken Hutcherson

American football player (born 1952)

Kenneth Lee Hutcherson was an American professional football linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) and senior pastor at Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, Washington, where he had been since 1985. His nickname…

2013

Graham Mackay

South African-English businessman (born 1949)

Ernest Arthur Graham Mackay was a South African businessman, former chief executive and chairman of SABMiller plc, a South African multinational brewing and beverage company registered on the London Stock Exchange, and…

2013

Donald J. Albosta

American soldier and politician (born 1925)

Donald Joseph Albosta was an American farmer, businessman, and politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. He served three terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1985.

2014

Gideon Ben-Yisrael

Israeli soldier and politician (born 1923)

Gideon Ben-Yisrael was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Mapai and Rafi in the 1950s and 1960s.

2014

Larry Henley

American singer-songwriter (born 1937)

Larry Joel Henley was an American singer and songwriter, best known for co-writing the 1989 hit record "Wind Beneath My Wings". He is also known for his distinctive falsetto singing voice, which he used prominently when…

2014

Virna Lisi

Italian actress (born 1936)

Virna Lisa Pieralisi, known as just Virna Lisi, was an Italian actress. Her international film appearances included How to Murder Your Wife (1965), Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966), The Secret of Santa Vittoria…

2014

Mandy Rice-Davies

English model and actress, central figure in the Profumo affair (born 1944)

Marilyn Foreman, better known as Mandy Rice-Davies, was a Welsh model and showgirl best known for her association with Christine Keeler and her role in the Profumo affair, which discredited the Conservative government…

2014

Robert Simpson

American meteorologist and author (born 1912)

Robert H. Simpson was an American meteorologist, hurricane specialist, first director of the National Hurricane Research Project (NHRP) from 1955 to 1959, and a former director (1967–1974) of the National Hurricane…

2014

Luc Brewaeys

Belgian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1959)

Luc Brewaeys was a Belgian composer, conductor, pianist and recording producer at the VRT. He studied composition with André Laporte in Brussels, with Franco Donatoni in Siena (Italy) and with Brian Ferneyhough in…

2015

Helge Solum Larsen

Norwegian businessman and politician (born 1969)

Helge Solum Larsen was a Norwegian businessman and politician for the Liberal Party. He served as deputy leader of the party from 2010 to 2012.

2015

Zsa Zsa Gabor

Hungarian-American actress and socialite (born 1917)

Zsa Zsa Gabor was a Hungarian-American socialite and actress. Her sisters were socialite Magda Gabor and actress and businesswoman Eva Gabor.

2016

Kim Jong-hyun

South Korean singer (born 1990)

Kim Jong-hyun, known mononymously as Jonghyun, was a South Korean singer-songwriter, record producer, radio host, and author under the SM Entertainment label. He was the vocalist of the South Korean boy band Shinee for…

2017

Jerry Relph

American politician and member of the Minnesota Senate (born 1944)

Jerry O. Relph was an American politician and member of the Minnesota Senate. A Republican, he represented District 14 in central Minnesota from 2017 until his death from COVID-19 complications in 2020. Six weeks before…

2020

Sayaka Kanda

Japanese actress and singer (born 1986)

Sayaka Kanda , also known professionally as Sayaka, Lily, and Jun Uehara , was a Japanese actress, singer, and model. She was the only child of actor Masaki Kanda and pop singer Seiko Matsuda.

2021

Slim Dunlap

American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1951)

Robert Bruce "Slim" Dunlap was an American rock musician. He was a Minnesota-based guitarist and singer-songwriter who was best known as a member of the Replacements from 1987 to 1991, replacing original lead guitarist…

2024

John Marsden

Australian writer (born 1950)

John Marsden was an Australian writer and teacher. He wrote more than 40 books in his career, including his young adult novel Tomorrow, When the War Began, which began a series of seven books.

2024

Jim Hunt

American politician, 69th and 71st Governor of North Carolina (born 1937)

James Baxter Hunt Jr. was an American politician and attorney who was the 69th and 71st governor of North Carolina. He was the longest-serving governor in the state's history.

2025

Osman Hadi

Bangladeshi politician and activist (born 1993)

Sharif Osman Bin Hadi was a Bangladeshi political and cultural activist, writer and a teacher. He was the co-founder and spokesperson of Inqilab Moncho. After the July Uprising, he became a prominent figure in youth-led…

2025

Notable deaths

Who died on December 18?

Charles Dvorak — American track and field athlete

FeaturedCharles Dvorak

Death year1969

Known forHe attended the University of Michigan where he competed for the Michigan Wolverines men's track and field team from 1900 to 1904

Deaths on this date109 (919 – 2025)

Explore December 18

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Also on December 18 in History

2022

Argentina win the FIFA World Cup final, defeating title holders France 4–2 on penalties following a 3–3 draw after extra time. Wikipedia →

2019

The United States House of Representatives impeaches Donald Trump for the first time. Wikipedia →

2017

Amtrak Cascades passenger train 501, derailed near DuPont, Washington, a city in United States near Olympia, Washington killing six people, and injuring 70 others. Wikipedia →

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1969 — Charles Dvorak

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