Did you know
He is the leading run-scorer and century-maker in first-class cricket, with 61,760 runs and 199 centuries
Notable Deaths on December 21
68 people
72 – 2024
December 21 has seen 68 notable figures pass away throughout recorded history — from 72 – 2024. Below are the most significant names who died on this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
1963 — Jack Hobbs
English cricketer and journalist (born 1882)
Did you know
Sir John Berry Hobbs was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey from 1905 to 1934 and for England in 61 Test matches between 1908 and 1930
Did you know
Known as "The Master", he is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket
Did you know
A right-handed batsman and an occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, Hobbs also excelled as a fielder, particularly in the position of cover point
Did you know
Hobbs was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century alongside Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Shane Warne, and Sir Viv Richards.
Roman martyr and saint (born 1 AD)
AD 72 (LXXII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Vespasian and Titus. The denomination AD 72 for this year has been used since the…
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72
882
956
975
Italian margrave (born 950)
Hugh, called the Great, was the Margrave of Tuscany from 969 until his death in 1001, and the Duke of Spoleto and Margrave of Camerino from 989 to 996. He was known for his restoration of the state apparatus in Tuscany…
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1001
Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq of Tayyibi Isma'ilism (born c. 1128)
Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Ja'far ibn Ibrahim ibn Abi Salama ibn al-Walid al-Abshami al-Qurashi was the 5th Tayyibi Isma'ili Da'i al-Mutlaq in Yemen from 1209 to his death in 1215. Descended from a noble lineage of the…
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1215
1308
bishop of Worcester
Thomas Hemenhale was a medieval Bishop of Norwich-elect and then Bishop of Worcester.
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1338
king of Armenia (born 1313)
Constantine III was the King of Armenian Cilicia from 1344 to 1362. He was the son of Baldwin, Lord of Neghir, and second cousin of Constantine II.
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1362
Italian author and poet (born 1313)
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was sometimes simply known as…
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1375
German archbishop (born 1442)
Bertold von Henneberg-Römhild (1442–1504) was Archbishop of Mainz and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 1484, imperial chancellor from 1486, and leader of the reform faction within the Empire.
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1504
English courtier (born 1474)
Sir John Seymour, Knight banneret was an English soldier and a courtier who served both Henry VII and Henry VIII. Born into a prominent gentry family, he is best known as the father of Henry VIII's third wife, Jane…
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1536
queen of Henry II of Navarre (born 1492)
Marguerite de Navarre, also known as Marguerite of Angoulême and Margaret of Navarre, was a princess of France, Duchess of Alençon and Berry, and Queen of Navarre by her second marriage to King Henry II of Navarre. Her…
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1549
51st Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (born 1502)
Fra' Jean l'Evesque de la Cassière was the 51st Grand Master of the Order of Malta, from 1572 to 1581. He commissioned the building of the Conventual Church of the Order in Valletta, Malta, and is buried in its crypt.
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1581
Dutch priest and saint (born 1521)
Peter Canisius was a Dutch Jesuit priest known for his strong support for the Catholic faith during the Protestant Reformation in Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland and the British Isles. The restoration of…
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1597
secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England (born c. 1541)
William Davison was an English diplomat and secretary to Queen Elizabeth I. As a Secretary of some influence, he was active in forging alliances with England's Protestant friends in Holland and Scotland to prevent war…
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1608
Swedish princess (born 1539)
Catherine Vasa of Sweden was a Swedish princess, and the Countess consort of East Frisia as the spouse of Edzard II, Count of East Frisia. She was the oldest daughter of Gustav Vasa and Margareta Leijonhufvud. She was…
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1610
Danish noblewoman (born 1578)
Sophie Axelsdatter Brahe was a Danish noblewoman and landowner. She is notable for being the first confirmed owner of Gunhild Cross. She was married to nobleman Holger Rosenkrantz, with whom she had 13 children, and…
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1646
Baronet of Bannockburn (born 1659)
Sir Hugh Paterson, 1st Baronet of Bannockburn, was a Scottish baronet and landowner.
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1701
English soldier and minister (born 1725)
John Newton was an English evangelical Anglican cleric and slavery abolitionist. He had previously been a captain of slave ships and an investor in the slave trade. Newton served as a sailor in the Royal Navy and was…
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1807
English physician and paleontologist (born 1755)
James Parkinson was an English surgeon, apothecary, geologist, palaeontologist, and political activist. He is best known for his 1817 work An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, in which he was the first to describe "paralysis…
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1824
German jurist and politician (born 1791)
Friedrich Ernst Scheller was a German jurist and politician. He served as a member of the Frankfurt Parliament.
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1869
French admiral and explorer (born 1839)
Marie Joseph François Garnier was a French officer, inspector of Indigenous Affairs of Cochinchina and explorer. He eventually became mission leader of the Mekong Exploration Commission in 19th century Southeast Asia.
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1873
German geologist and palaeontologist (born 1809)
Friedrich August von Quenstedt was a German geologist and palaeontologist.
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1889
leader of the Dervish movement (born 1856)
Sayyid Moḥammad Abdallah Hassan was a Somali scholar, poet, military leader and religious, cultural and political figure who founded and headed the Somali Dervish movement, which led a holy war against British, Italian…
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1920
American politician, 18th Governor of Oregon (born 1859)
Isaac Lee Patterson, was the 18th governor of Oregon from 1927 to 1929. An Oregon native, he served in the Oregon Legislative Assembly from 1918 to 1922, and was a farmer in the Willamette Valley. He was the first…
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1929
Greenlandic anthropologist and explorer (born 1879)
Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen was a Greenlandic-Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He has been called the "father of Eskimology" and was the first European to cross the Northwest Passage via dog sled. He remains…
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1933
English footballer and manager (born 1878)
Edward Lawson Birnie was an English professional football player and manager. He played for Sunderland Seaburn, Newcastle United, Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur In his managerial career, he took on the…
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1935
German-Swedish journalist and author (born 1890)
Kurt Tucholsky was a German journalist, satirist, and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser, Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel.
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1935
American judge (born 1882)
Violette Neatley Anderson became the first African-American woman to practice law before the United States Supreme Court on January 29, 1926. She was one of the most prominent advocates of a landmark piece of…
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1937
1937
American lawyer and politician, 45th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1856)
Frank Billings Kellogg was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served in the U.S. Senate and as U.S. Secretary of State. He co-authored the Kellogg–Briand Pact, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace…
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1937
American novelist and short story writer (born 1896)
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, widely known as F. Scott Fitzgerald or simply Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and…
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1940
American general (born 1885)
George Smith Patton Jr. was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, then the Third Army in France and Germany after the Allied invasion of…
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1945
Polish psychologist, philosopher, translator, historian (of philosophy and art) and artist (born 1878)
Władysław Witwicki was a Polish psychologist, philosopher, translator, historian and artist. He is seen as one of the fathers of psychology in Poland.
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1948
American golfer (born 1886)
Kenneth Paine Edwards was an American golfer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.
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1952
Finnish-American wrestler and businessman (born 1888)
Kaarlo Anton "Kalle" Koskelo was a Greco-Roman wrestler from Finland who won the featherweight event at the 1912 Olympics. He then fought in World War I and Finnish Civil War, and in 1919 immigrated to the United…
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1953
English viola player and composer (born 1886)
Eric Francis Harrison Coates was an English composer of light music and, early in his career, a leading violist.
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1957
English actor (born 1875)
Henry Byron Warner was an English film and theatre actor. He was popular during the silent era and played Jesus Christ in The King of Kings. In later years, he successfully moved into supporting roles and appeared in…
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1958
German-American author and playwright (born 1884)
Lion Feuchtwanger was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht.
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1958
1959
American author and photographer (born 1880)
Carl Van Vechten was an American writer and artistic photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. He gained fame as a writer, and notoriety as well, for his 1926…
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1964
Canadian violinist, pianist, and composer (born 1891)
Claude Champagne was a French Canadian composer, teacher, pianist, and violinist.
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1965
Italian footballer, coach, and manager (born 1886)
Vittorio Pozzo was an Italian football player, manager and journalist.
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1968
Icelandic writer and visual artist (born 1930)
Ásta Sigurðardóttir was an Icelandic writer and visual artist recognized for her pioneering contributions to modernist short fiction. Her work is notably characterized by its depiction of urban marginalization in…
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1971
American actor and director (born 1927)
Richard McCord Long was an American actor best known for his leading roles in three ABC television series, The Big Valley, Nanny and the Professor, and Bourbon Street Beat. He was also a series regular on ABC's 77…
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1974
Pakistani poet and composer (born 1900)
Abul Asar Hafeez Jalandhari PP HI was a Pakistani poet who wrote the lyrics for the National Anthem of Pakistan and the Anthem of Azad Kashmir.
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1982
Belgian-born philosopher, literary critic and theorist (born 1919)
Paul de Man, born Paul Adolph Michel Deman, was a Belgian-born American literary critic and literary theorist. He was known particularly for his importation of German and French philosophical approaches into…
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1983
Dutch-English ethologist and ornithologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1907)
Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen was a Dutch biologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning the organization and…
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1988
American actress and educator (born 1901)
Stella Adler was an American actress and acting teacher.
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1992
American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1924)
Albert King was an American guitarist and singer, who is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential blues guitarists ever. He is perhaps best known for his popular and influential album Born Under a Bad…
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1992
Russian-American violinist and composer (born 1903)
Nathan Mironovich Milstein was a Russian-American virtuoso violinist.
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1992
German colonel and physician (born 1904)
Ernst-Günther Schenck was a German medical doctor and member of the SS in Nazi Germany. Because of a chance encounter with Adolf Hitler during the closing days of World War II, his memoirs proved historically valuable.…
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1998
Indian physiologist and neurologist (born 1925)
Autar Singh Paintal was an Indian medical scientist who made pioneering discoveries in the area of neurosciences and respiratory sciences. He is the first Indian Physiologist to become the Fellow of the Royal Society,…
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2004
Turkmen engineer and politician, 1st President of Turkmenistan (born 1940) (date death announced)
Saparmyrat Ataýewiç Nyýazow, also spelled Saparmurat Niyazov, was a Turkmen politician and dictator who led Turkmenistan from 1985 until his death in 2006. He was the first secretary of the Communist Party of…
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2006
American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1918)
Edwin Gerhard Krebs was an American biochemist. He received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize of Columbia University in 1989 together with Alfred Gilman and, together…
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2009
Greek journalist and businessman (born 1934)
Christos Dimitriou Lambrakis was the owner of Lambrakis Press Group (DOL), one of the largest newspaper groups in Greece, and arguably the most influential.
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2009
Italian footballer and manager (born 1927)
Enzo Bearzot was an Italian professional football player and manager. A defender and midfielder in his playing career, he also coached the Italy national team to victory in the 1982 FIFA World Cup.
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2010
Canadian-American businessman and philanthropist (born 1929)
Edgar Miles Bronfman was a Canadian-American businessman. He worked for his family's distilled beverage firm, Seagram, eventually becoming president, treasurer and CEO. As president of the World Jewish Congress,…
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2013
American historian, general, and diplomat, 45th United States Ambassador to Belgium (born 1922)
John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower was a United States Army officer, diplomat, and military historian. He was the second son of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and First Lady Mamie Eisenhower. His military career spanned from…
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2013
Austrian-Swiss singer-songwriter and pianist (born 1934)
Udo Jürgens was an Austrian composer and singer of popular music whose career spanned over 50 years. He won the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 for Austria, composed close to 1,000 songs, and sold over 104 million records.…
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2014
Indonesian poet and author (born 1923)
Sitor Situmorang was an Indonesian poet, essayist and writer of short stories. Situmorang was born in Harianboho, North Sumatra, and educated in Jakarta. He worked as a journalist and literary critic in Medan,…
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2014
English actress (born 1932)
Billie Honor Whitelaw was an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and was regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works. She was also known for…
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2014
US astronaut who conducted the first untethered spacewalk (born 1937)
Bruce McCandless II was an American Navy officer and aviator, electrical engineer, and NASA astronaut. In 1984, during the first of his two Space Shuttle missions, he completed the first untethered spacewalk by using…
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2017
British engineer (born 1938)
Andrew Clennel Palmer was a British engineer who worked on offshore geotechnical problems of submarine pipeline design and the study of the properties of ice. He spent much of his career as a teacher and academic…
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2019
South African actress (born 1962)
Michélle Botes was a South African actress, language instructor, designer and aromatherapist. She is best known for her roles in the television soapies Legacy (2020), Isidingo (1998) and Arende (1994).
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2024
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Notable deaths
Who died on December 21?
Jack Hobbs — English cricketer (1882–1963)
FeaturedJack Hobbs
Death year1963
Known forKnown as "The Master", he is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket
Deaths on this date68 (72 – 2024)
Explore December 21
Jump between the main pages for this date to compare events, people, and the daily quiz.
Also on December 21 in History
2023
Fourteen people are killed and 25 others injured during a mass shooting at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Wikipedia →
2020
A great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurs, with the two planets separated in the sky by 0.1 degrees. This is the closest conjunction between the two planets since 1623. Wikipedia →
2012
See all events on December 21
2012 phenomenon: Festivities are held in parts of Mesoamerica to commemorate the conclusion of b'ak'tun 13, a roughly 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar whose passing many New Age spiritualists had earlier held to portend a variety of cataclysmic or transformative events. Wikipedia →
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