Notable Deaths on December 31

Leopold V, known as the Virtuous was a member of the House of Babenberg who reigned as Duke of Austria from 1177 and Duke of Styria within the Holy Roman Empire from 1192 until his death. The Georgenberg Pact resulted in Leopold being enfeoffed with Styria by Roman-German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1193, which would lead to the eventual creation of modern Austria. Leopold was also known for his involvement in the Third Crusade where he fought in the Siege of Acre in 1191 and of his imprisonment of King Richard I in 1193 at Dürnstein Castle.

Richard Neville, jure uxoris 5th Earl of Salisbury was a fifteenth-century English northern magnate. He was the eldest son by the second wife of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, from whom he inherited vast estates in Yorkshire, which he augmented by marriage to Alice Montagu, daughter and heiress of Thomas Montagu, Earl of Salisbury, from where he received his title. He was a loyal Lancastrian for most of his life, serving the King, Henry VI, in France, on the border with Scotland, and in many of the periodic crises of the reign. This included the fall of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the fall of the Duke of Suffolk, Jack Cade's rebellion, and the revolt of the King's cousin Richard of York. He was also closely involved in an internicine feud with the senior branch of his family over the dvision of Ralph's estates from the late 1420s to the 1440s, and in the early 1450s his family and that of the powerful northern Percy family indulged in a violent local war, during which period Salisbury was a royal councillor.

Floyd Cramer was an American pianist who became famous for his use of melodic "whole-step" attacks. He was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His signature playing style was a cornerstone of the pop-oriented "Nashville sound" of the 1950s and 1960s. Cramer's "slip-note" or "bent-note" style, in which a passing note slides almost instantly into or away from a chordal note, influenced a generation of pianists. His sound became popular to the degree that he stepped out of his role as a sideman and began touring as a solo act. In 1960, his piano instrumental solo, "Last Date" went to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 pop music chart and sold over one million copies. Its follow-up, "On the Rebound", topped the UK Singles Chart in 1961. As a studio musician, he became one of a cadre of elite players dubbed the Nashville A-Team and he performed on scores of hit records.

Syed Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi was a leading Indian Islamic scholar, thinker, writer, preacher, reformer and a Muslim public intellectual of 20th century India and the author of numerous books on history, biography, contemporary Islam, and the Muslim community in India, one of the most prominent figure of Deoband School. His teachings covered the entire spectrum of the collective existence of the Muslim Indians as a living community in the national and international context. Due to his command over Arabic, in writings and speeches, he had a wide area of influence extending far beyond the Sub-continent, particularly in the Arab World. During 1950s and 1960s he stringently attacked Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism as a new Jahiliyyah and promoted pan-Islamism. He began his academic career in 1934 as a teacher in Nadwatul Ulama, later in 1961; he became Chancellor of Nadwa and in 1985, he was appointed as Chairman of Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.

Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker was a Puerto Rican professional baseball player who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, primarily as a right fielder. On December 31, 1972, Clemente was killed when his Douglas DC-7 airplane, which he had chartered for a flight to deliver emergency relief goods for the survivors of a massive earthquake in Nicaragua, crashed and plunged into the water off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico. He was 38 years old. After his death, the National Baseball Hall of Fame changed its rules so that a player who had been dead for at least six months would be eligible for entry. In 1973, Clemente was posthumously inducted, becoming the first Latino and Caribbean player and second of Hispanic descent to be honored in the Hall of Fame. He is widely referred to as "the Great One."

Raoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent cinema actor George Walsh. He portrayed John Wilkes Booth in the silent film The Birth of a Nation (1915) and directed the widescreen epic The Big Trail (1930) starring John Wayne in his first leading role, The Roaring Twenties starring James Cagney, Gladys George, Priscilla Lane and Humphrey Bogart, High Sierra (1941) starring Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart, and White Heat (1949) starring James Cagney, Edmond O'Brien, Virginia Mayo and Margaret Wycherly. He directed his last film in 1964. His work has been noted as influences on directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Martin Scorsese.

Günter Rössler was a German photographer who made a name for himself especially in the field of nude art photography. A pioneer of nude photography in East Germany and notable fashion photographer, Rössler was often referred to by the media as the Helmut Newton of East Germany, stylized since Playboy published in 1984 a photo-gallery titled: Mädchen der DDR. Rössler however, never liked this comparison with Newton, saying: "with Newton the pose dominates, with me it is about the highest possible authenticity of the girls". Rössler significantly contributed to the history of German photography in the second half of the twentieth century, earning him recognition not only as a great photographer, but also as the "old master of German nude photography".

Humphrey VI de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford, 2nd Earl of Essex was an English nobleman known primarily for his opposition to King Edward I over the Confirmatio Cartarum. He was also an active participant in the Welsh Wars and maintained for several years a private feud with the earl of Gloucester. His father, Humphrey (V) de Bohun, fought on the side of the rebellious barons in the Barons' War. When Humphrey (V) predeceased his father, Humphrey (VI) became heir to his grandfather, Humphrey (IV). At Humphrey (IV)'s death in 1275, Humphrey (VI) inherited the earldoms of Hereford and Essex. He also inherited major possessions in the Welsh Marches from his mother, Eleanor de Braose.

Henry Gerber was an early gay rights activist in the United States. Inspired by the work of Germany's Magnus Hirschfeld and his Scientific-Humanitarian Committee and by the organisation Bund für Menschenrecht by Friedrich Radszuweit and Karl Schulz, Gerber founded the Society for Human Rights (SHR) in 1924, the United States' first known gay organization, and Friendship and Freedom, the first known American gay publication. SHR was short-lived, as police arrested several of its members shortly after it incorporated. Although embittered by his experiences, Gerber maintained contacts within the fledgling homophile movement of the 1950s and continued to agitate for the rights of homosexuals. Gerber has been repeatedly recognized for his contributions to the LGBT movement.

Field Marshal Henry Maitland Wilson, 1st Baron Wilson, also known as Jumbo Wilson, was a senior British Army officer of the 20th century. He saw active service in the Second Boer War and then during the First World War on the Somme and at Passchendaele. During the Second World War he served as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) British Troops in Egypt, in which role he launched Operation Compass, attacking Italian forces with considerable success, in December 1940. He went on to be Military Governor of Cyrenaica in February 1941, commanding a Commonwealth expeditionary force to Greece in April 1941 and General Officer Commanding (GOC) British Forces in Palestine and Trans-Jordan in May 1941.

Li Shiji, courtesy name Maogong, posthumously known as Duke Zhenwu of Ying, was a Chinese military general and politician who lived in the early Tang dynasty. His original family name was Xú, but he was later given the family name of the Tang imperial clan, Li, by Emperor Gaozu, the Tang dynasty's founding emperor. Later, during the reign of Emperor Gaozong, Li Shiji was known as Li Ji to avoid naming taboo because the personal name of Emperor Gaozong's predecessor, Emperor Taizong, had the same Chinese character "Shi". Li Shiji is also referred to as Xu Maogong and Xu Ji in the historical novels Shuo Tang and Sui Tang Yanyi.

George Herbert Allen was an American football coach. He served as the head coach for two teams in the National Football League (NFL), the Los Angeles Rams from 1966 to 1970 and the Washington Redskins from 1971 to 1977. Allen led his teams to winning records in all 12 of his seasons as an NFL head coach, compiling an overall regular-season record of 116–47–5. Seven of his teams qualified for the NFL playoffs, including the 1972 Washington Redskins, who reached Super Bowl VII, losing to Don Shula's Miami Dolphins. Allen made a brief return as head coach of the Rams in 1978, but was fired before the regular season commenced.

Giovanni Alfonso Borelli was an Italian physiologist, physicist, and mathematician who is often described as the father of biomechanics. He contributed to the modern principle of scientific investigation by continuing Galileo's practice of testing hypotheses against observation. Trained in mathematics, Borelli also made extensive studies of Jupiter's moons, the mechanics of animal locomotion and, in microscopy, of the constituents of blood. He also used microscopy to investigate the stomatal movement of plants, and undertook studies in medicine and geology. During his career, he enjoyed the patronage of Queen Christina of Sweden. He was the first scientist to explain that animal and human bodily movements are caused by muscular contractions.

Ion Creangă was a Moldavian, later Romanian writer, raconteur and schoolteacher. A main figure in 19th-century Romanian literature, he is best known for his Childhood Memories volume, his novellas and short stories, and his many anecdotes. Creangă's main contribution to fantasy and children's literature includes narratives structured around eponymous protagonists, as well as fairy tales indebted to conventional forms. Widely seen as masterpieces of the Romanian language and local humor, his writings occupy the middle ground between a collection of folkloric sources and an original contribution to a literary realism of rural inspiration. They are accompanied by a set of contributions to erotic literature, collectively known as his "corrosives".

George Harold Sisler Jr. was an American professional baseball player and executive. The son of Hall of Fame first baseman and two-time .400 hitter George Sisler and the brother of two Major League Baseball players, Dick and Dave, George Jr. was a longtime executive in minor-league baseball, especially in the Triple-A International League (IL); at his death, the IL calculated that Sisler had been associated with that league for 52 of its 124 years of existence. He also served in the majors as chief assistant to St. Louis Cardinals vice president and de facto general manager William Walsingham Jr. during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Cornelia Maria Clapp was an American educator and zoologist, specializing in marine biology. She earned the first Ph.D. in biology awarded to a woman in the United States from Syracuse University in 1889, and she would earn a second doctoral degree from the University of Chicago in 1896. Clapp was the first female researcher employed at the Marine Biological Laboratory, as well as its only female trustee during the first half of the 20th century. She was rated one of the top 150 zoologists in the United States in 1903, and her name was starred in the first five editions of American Men of Science.

Natalie Maria Cole was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was the daughter of singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole. She rose to prominence in the mid-1970s, with the release of her debut album Inseparable (1975), along with the song "This Will Be ", and the album's title track. Its success led to her receiving the Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 18th Annual Grammy Awards, for which she became the first African-American recipient as well as the first R&B act to win the award. The singles "Sophisticated Lady" (1976), "I've Got Love on My Mind", and "Our Love" (1977) followed.

Michael Goldberg was an American abstract expressionist painter and teacher known for his gestural action paintings, abstractions and still-life paintings. A retrospective show, "Abstraction Over Time: The Paintings of Michael Goldberg", was shown at MOCA Jacksonville in Florida from 9/21/13 to 1/5/14. His work was seen in September 2007 in a solo exhibition at Knoedler & Company in New York City, as well as several exhibitions at Manny Silverman Gallery in Los Angeles. Additionally, a survey of Goldberg's work is exhibited at the University Art Museum at California State University, Long Beach since September 2010.

Kader Khan was an Indian actor, screenwriter and film producer. As an actor, he appeared in over 300 Bollywood films after his acting debut in the film Daag in 1973, starring Rajesh Khanna, as a prosecuting attorney. He was a prolific actor and screenwriter in Hindi cinema, from the late 1970s to 1990s and wrote dialogues for 200 films. Born in Afghanistan, Khan graduated from Ismail Yusuf College affiliated to Mumbai University. Before entering the film industry in 1971, he was a professor of civil engineering in M. H. Saboo Siddik College of Engineering, Mumbai.

Elliot Lee Richardson was an American lawyer and politician who was a member of the cabinets of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford between 1970 and 1977. A member of the Republican Party, Richardson is one of two persons to hold four cabinet positions, the other being George Shultz. As United States attorney general, Richardson played a prominent role in the Watergate scandal when he resigned in protest against President Nixon's order to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox. His resignation precipitated a crisis of confidence in Nixon which ultimately led to the president's resignation.

Prince Janusz Radziwiłł, also known as Janusz the Second or Janusz the Younger was a noble and magnate in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Throughout his life he occupied a number of posts in the state administration, including that of Court Chamberlain of Lithuania, Field Hetman of Lithuania and Grand Hetman of Lithuania. He was also a voivode of Vilna Voivodeship, as well as a starost of Samogitia, Kamieniec, Kazimierz and Sejwy. He was a protector of the Protestant religion in Lithuania and sponsor of many Protestant schools and churches.

Rıza Tevfik Bey was an Ottoman and later Turkish philosopher, poet, politician of liberal signature and a community leader of the late-19th-century and early-20th-century. A polyglot, he is most remembered in Turkey for being one of the four Ottoman signatories of Treaty of Sèvres, for which reason he was included in 1923 among the 150 personae non gratae of Turkey, and he spent 20 years in exile until he was given amnesty by Turkey in 1938, and returned in 1943. He is the author of the Gallipoli Diaries.

Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter was an English military commander during the Hundred Years' War, and briefly Chancellor of England. He was the third of the four children born to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and his mistress Katherine Swynford. To overcome their problematic parentage, his parents were married in 1396, and he and his siblings were legitimated in 1390 and again in 1397. He married the daughter of Sir Thomas Neville of Hornby, Margaret Neville. They had one son, Henry Beaufort, who died young.

Seymour Martin Lipset was an American sociologist and political scientist. His major work was in the fields of political sociology, trade union organization, social stratification, public opinion, and the sociology of intellectual life. He also wrote extensively about the conditions for democracy in comparative perspective. He was president of both the American Political Science Association (1979–1980) and the American Sociological Association (1992–1993). A socialist in his early life, Lipset later moved to the right, and was considered to be one of the first neoconservatives.

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. His independence set an example that was important to later artists, such as the Impressionists and the Cubists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th-century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social statements through his work.

Samuel Ajayi Crowther was a Yoruba linguist, clergyman, and the first African Anglican bishop of West Africa. Born in Osogun, he and his family were captured by Fulani slave raiders when he was about twelve years old. This took place during the Yoruba civil wars, notably the Owu wars of 1821–1829, where his village Osogun was ransacked. Ajayi was later on resold to Portuguese slave dealers, where he was put on board to be transported to the New World through the Atlantic.

Raimond Valgre was an Estonian composer and musician, whose songs have become some of the most well known in Estonia. During World War II, Valgre was conscripted into the Red Army and was a member of the orchestra for the 8th Estonian Rifle Corps. It is believed that as a result of his service on the Eastern Front Valgre suffered from alcoholism. His music was banned in 1948 by the Soviet authorities. Raimond Valgre died in an accident on 31 December 1949.

Norm Phelps was an American animal rights activist, vegetarian and writer. He was a founding member of the Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV), and a former outreach director of the Fund for Animals. He authored four books on animal rights: The Dominion of Love: Animal Rights According to the Bible (2002), The Great Compassion: Buddhism and Animal Rights (2004), The Longest Struggle: Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA (2007), and Changing the Game: Animal Liberation in the Twenty-first Century (2015).

Herbert Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. Raised in Winnipeg, McLuhan studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge. He began his teaching career as a professor of English at several universities in the United States and Canada before moving to the University of Toronto in 1946, where he remained for the rest of his life. He is known as "the father of media studies".

Pancha Carrasco, born Francisca Carrasco Jiménez, was Costa Rica's first woman in the military. Carrasco is most famous for joining the defending forces at the Battle of Rivas in 1856 with a rifle and a pocketful of bullets. The strength and determination she showed there made her a symbol of national pride and she was later honored with a Costa Rican postage stamp, a Coast Guard vessel, and the creation of the "Pancha Carrasco Police Women's Excellence Award".

Brandon Teena was an American transgender man who was murdered, along with Phillip DeVine and Lisa Lambert, in Humboldt, Nebraska, by John Lotter and Tom Nissen, in what would become known as the Humboldt Murders. His life and death are the subject of the films The Brandon Teena Story and Boys Don't Cry. The murders, along with that of Matthew Shepard nearly five years later, led to increased lobbying for hate crime laws in the United States.

Edward Kirk Herrmann was an American actor, director, and writer. He was best known for his portrayals of Franklin D. Roosevelt in both the miniseries Eleanor and Franklin (1976) and 1982 film musical Annie, Richard Gilmore in Amy Sherman-Palladino's comedy-drama series Gilmore Girls (2000–2007), and a ubiquitous narrator for historical programs on The History Channel and in such PBS productions as Nova. He was also known in the 1990s as a spokesman for Dodge automobiles.

William Caleb Yarborough was an American NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver and owner, businessman, farmer, and rancher. He was the first driver in NASCAR history to win three consecutive championships, winning in 1976, 1977, and 1978. He was one of the preeminent stock car drivers from the 1960s to the 1980s and also competed in IndyCar events. His fame was such that a special model of the Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II was named after him.

Peter Waters Dingley, known professionally as Johnnie Walker, was an English radio disc jockey and broadcaster. He began his career in 1966 on pirate radio station Swinging Radio England before joining Radio Caroline. He joined BBC Radio 1 in 1969 and BBC Radio 2 in 1998. From 2009 to 2024, he presented Sounds of the 70s on Radio 2 on Sunday afternoons and The Radio 2 Rock Show on Friday nights from 2018 to 2024.

Boies Penrose was an American politician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who served as a Republican member of the United States Senate for Pennsylvania from 1897 to 1921. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the Philadelphia County district in 1885. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 6th district in 1897 and as President pro tempore of the Pennsylvania Senate from 1889 to 1891.

Jovette Marchessault was a Canadian writer and artist from Quebec, who worked in a variety of literary and artistic domains including novels, poetry, drama, painting and sculpture. An important pioneer of lesbian and feminist literature and art in Canada, many of her most noted works were inspired by other real-life women in literature and art, including Violette Leduc, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Emily Carr, Anaïs Nin and Helena Blavatsky.

Enrico Di Giuseppe was a celebrated American operatic tenor who had an active performance career from the late 1950s through the 1990s. He spent most of his career performing in New York City, juggling concurrent performance contracts with both the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan Opera during the 1970s and 1980s. In the latter part of his career, he was active with the New York Grand Opera.

Catherine Labouré, DC was a French member of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul and a Marian visionary. She is believed to have relayed the request from the Blessed Virgin Mary to create the Miraculous Medal, now worn by millions of people around the world. Labouré spent forty years caring for the aged and infirm. For this, she is called the patroness of seniors.

Charles-Louis-Eugène Koechlin, commonly known as Charles Koechlin, was a French composer, teacher and musicologist. Among his better known works is Les Heures persanes, a set of piano pieces based on the novel Vers Ispahan by Pierre Loti and The Seven Stars Symphony, a 7 movement symphony where each movement is themed around a different film star who were popular at the time of the piece's writing (1933).

Albert Plesman was a Dutch pioneer in aviation and the first administrator and later director of the KLM, the oldest airline in the world still operating under its original name. Until his death, he was its CEO for over 35 years and was also on the board of the Dutch airline, which was to become one of the most important airlines in the world under his leadership.

Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode was an American athlete, actor, and author. He was a decathlete and football star who was one of the first Black American players in the National Football League (NFL) in the postwar era. After football, he went on to become a film actor, where he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960.

Donald Edwin Westlake was an American writer with more than one hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into science fiction and other genres. Westlake created two professional criminal characters who each starred in a long-running series: the relentless, hardboiled Parker, and John Dortmunder, who featured in a more humorous series.

Thomas Erastus was a Swiss physician and Calvinist theologian. He wrote 100 theses in which he argued that the sins committed by Christians should be punished by the State, and that the Church should not withhold sacraments as a form of punishment. They were published in 1589, after his death, with the title Explicatio gravissimae quaestionis. His name was later applied to Erastianism.

Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, philosopher and academic. His major philosophical essay was Tragic Sense of Life (1913), and his most famous novels were Abel Sánchez: The History of a Passion (1917), a modern exploration of the Cain and Abel story, and Mist (1914), which The Literary Encyclopedia calls "the most acclaimed Spanish Modernist novel".

James La Rue Avery was an American actor. He was best known for his roles as Philip Banks in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Judge Michael Conover on L.A. Law, Steve Yeager in The Brady Bunch Movie, and Dr. Crippen on The Closer (2005–2007); and as the voice actor for Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Haroud Hazi Bin in Aladdin.

John Flamsteed was an English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal. His main achievements were the preparation of a 3,000-star catalogue, Catalogus Britannicus, and a star atlas called Atlas Coelestis, both published posthumously. He also made the first recorded observations of Uranus, although he mistakenly catalogued it as a star, and he laid the foundation stone for the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

Robert Ciro Gigante, known as Bob Grant, was an American radio host. A veteran of broadcasting in New York City, Grant is considered a pioneer of the conservative talk radio format and was one of the early adopters of the "combat talk" format. Grant's career spanned from the 1950s until shortly before his death at age 84 on December 31, 2013.

John Wycliffe was an English scholastic philosopher, Christian reformer, Catholic priest, and a theology professor at the University of Oxford. Wycliffe is traditionally believed to have advocated for or made a vernacular translation of the Vulgate Bible into Middle English, though more recent scholarship has minimised the extent of his advocacy or involvement for lack of direct contemporary evidence.

Shimazu Tadayoshi was a daimyō of Satsuma Province during Japan's Sengoku period. He was born into the Mimasaka Shimazu family (伊作島津家), which was part of the Shimazu clan, but after his father Shimazu Yoshihisa died, his mother married Shimazu Unkyu of another branch family, the Soshū (相州家). Tadayoshi thus came to represent two families within the larger Shimazu clan.

Barry Douglas Lane was an English professional golfer. He won five official European Tour events between 1988 and 2004. He played in the 1993 Ryder Cup and won the inaugural Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf in late 1995. After reaching 50 he had considerable success on the European Senior Tour, winning eight times between 2010 and 2019.

Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane or Benyamin Zeev Kahane, sometimes called Benjamin Ze’ev Kahana was an American and Israeli Orthodox far-right rabbi and follower of his father Meir Kahane, who started the ultra-nationalist Zionist ideology called Kahanism. He was assassinated in 2000. His assassination is suspected to have been carried out by Palestinian militants part of the Force 17.

Major Sir Malcolm Campbell was a British racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times, using vehicles called Blue Bird, including a 1921 Grand Prix Sunbeam. His son, Donald Campbell, carried on the family tradition by holding both land speed and water speed records.

Roy Charles Amara was an American researcher, scientist, futurist and president of the Institute for the Future best known for coining Amara's law on the effect of technology. He held a BS in Management, an MS in the Arts and Sciences, and a PhD in Systems Engineering, and also worked at the Stanford Research Institute.

Jean-Pierre Duport was a cellist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Along with his brother, Jean-Louis Duport, he was active in the musical life of France and Germany. Jean-Pierre was the son of a dancing master, and a student of the founder of the French school of cello playing Martin Berteau (1691–1771).

Count Christian of Waldeck-Wildungen, German: Christian Graf von Waldeck-Wildungen, official titles: Graf zu Waldeck und Pyrmont, was since 1588 Count of Waldeck-Eisenberg and after the division with his brother in 1607 Count of Waldeck-Wildungen. He founded the new cadet branch of Waldeck-Wildungen and is the progenitor of the princes of Waldeck and Pyrmont.

Dorgon was a Manchu prince and regent of the early Qing dynasty. Born in the House of Aisin-Gioro as the 14th son of Nurhaci, Dorgon started his career in military campaigns against the Mongols, the Koreans, and the Ming dynasty during the reign of Hong Taiji who succeeded their father.

Arnold Rüütel was an Estonian politician. He was the third President of Estonia from 8 October 2001 to 9 October 2006. Rüütel was the second president of the country after the end of the 1944–1991 Soviet occupation, and the restoration of the independent Republic of Estonia on 20 August 1991.

Anna Eileen Heckart was an American stage and screen actress whose career spanned nearly 60 years. Heckart won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and two Emmy Awards, as well as was nominated for three Tony Awards. In 2000, she received the Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre.

Catherine of Braganza was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from 21 May 1662 to 6 February 1685, through her marriage to Charles II of England. After his death, Catherine returned to Portugal and served as regent for her brother Peter II in 1701, and again in 1704–1705.

Spencer Trask was an American financier, philanthropist, and venture capitalist. Beginning in the 1870s, Trask began investing and supporting entrepreneurs, including Thomas Edison's commercial production of the electric light bulb and his electricity network. In 1896 he reorganized The New York Times, becoming its majority shareholder and chairman.

John Bevins Moisant was an American aviator, aeronautical engineer, flight instructor, businessman, and revolutionary. He was the first pilot to conduct passenger flights over a city (Paris), as well as across the English Channel, from Paris to London. He co-founded an eponymous flying circus, the Moisant International Aviators.

Samson Raphael Hirsch was a German Orthodox rabbi best known as the intellectual founder of the Torah im Derech Eretz school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. Occasionally termed neo-Orthodoxy, his philosophy, together with that of Azriel Hildesheimer, has had a considerable influence on the development of Orthodox Judaism.

Thomas Joannes Stieltjes was a Dutch mathematician. He was a pioneer in the field of moment problems and contributed to the study of continued fractions. The Thomas Stieltjes Institute for Mathematics at Leiden University, dissolved in 2011, was named after him, as is the Riemann–Stieltjes integral.

Eric Hilliard "Ricky" or "Rick" Nelson was an American musician and actor. From age eight, he starred alongside his family in the radio and television series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. In 1957, he began a long and successful career as a popular recording artist.

William Christopher was an American actor and comedian, best known for playing Private Lester Hummel on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. from 1965 to 1968 and Father Francis John Patrick Mulcahy on the television series M*A*S*H from 1972 to 1983 and its spinoff AfterMASH from 1983 to 1985.

Pope Benedict XVI was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City from 2005 until his resignation in 2013. Following his resignation, he chose to be known as "pope emeritus", a title he held until his death on 31 December 2022.

Basil Wolverton was an American cartoonist and illustrator known for his intricately detailed grotesques of bizarre or misshapen people. Wolverton was described as "Producer of Preposterous Pictures of Peculiar People who Prowl this Perplexing Planet." His many publishers included Marvel Comics and Mad magazine.

Richard Montgomery was an Irish-born American army officer. First serving in the British Army, he later became a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. On 31 December 1775, Montgomery was killed while leading an unsuccessful invasion of Quebec.

Bill Idelson was an American actor, writer, director and producer widely known for his teenage role as Rush Gook on the radio comedy Vic and Sade and his recurring television role as Herman Glimscher on The Dick Van Dyke Show in the 1960s.

Margaret Holland was a medieval English noblewoman and a member of the powerful Holland family. Through her marriages she became Countess of Somerset and Duchess of Clarence. She was "at the very centre of royal power and prestige" throughout her lifetime.

Bianca Maria Sforza was Queen of Germany and Empress of the Holy Roman Empire as the third spouse of Maximilian I. She was the eldest legitimate daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan by his second wife, Bona of Savoy.

Robert Boyle was an Anglo-Irish chemist, alchemist, physicist, theologian, and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of modern chemistry, and one of the pioneers of modern experimental scientific method.

Cyril Meir Scott was an English composer, writer, poet, and occultist. He created around four hundred musical compositions including piano, violin, cello concertos, symphonies, and operas. He also wrote around 20 pamphlets and books on occult topics and natural health.

Betty Marion Ludden was an American actress and comedian. A pioneer of early television with a career spanning almost seven decades, she was noted for her vast number of television appearances, acting in sitcoms, sketch comedy, and game shows.

Zviad Konstantines dze Gamsakhurdia was a Georgian politician, human rights activist, dissident, professor of English language studies and American literature at Tbilisi State University, and writer who became the first democratically elected President of Georgia in May 1991.

Arthur Robert von Hippel was a German American materials scientist and physicist. Von Hippel was a pioneer in the study of dielectrics, ferromagnetic and ferroelectric materials, and semiconductors and was a codeveloper of radar during World War II.

Gérard Debreu was a French-born economist and mathematician. Best known as a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he began work in 1962, he won the 1983 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Ettore Sottsass was an Italian architect and product designer. He was known for his designs of furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting, homeware and office supplies, and also worked on numerous buildings and interiors, often defined by bold colours.

Giovanni Michelucci was an Italian architect, urban planner, and designer. He is known for projects such as the Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station and the San Giovanni Battista church on the Autostrada del Sole.

Alan MacGregor Cranston was an American politician and journalist who served as a United States senator from California from 1969 to 1993, and as President of the World Federalist Association from 1949 to 1952.

William Wayne McMillan Rogers III was an American actor, known for playing the roles of Captain "Trapper" John McIntyre in the CBS television series M*A*S*H and of Dr. Charley Michaels on House Calls (1979–1982).

Joanna of Bavaria, a member of the House of Wittelsbach, was Queen of Germany from 1376 and Queen of Bohemia from 1378 until her death, by her marriage with the Luxembourg king Wenceslaus.

Brigadier Arthur Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington, styled Marquess of Douro between 1943 and 1972, was a British peer and army officer. His main residence was Stratfield Saye House in Hampshire.

Per Oscar Heinrich Oscarsson was a Swedish actor. He is best known for his role in the 1966 film Hunger, which earned him a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor.

Sir Oliver St John was an English barrister, judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640-53. He supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War.

Aleksis Kivi was a Finnish writer who wrote the first significant novel in the Finnish language, Seitsemän veljestä, published in 1870. He is also known for his 1864 play, Nummisuutarit.

Ya'akov "Yankele" Hodorov was an Israeli football goalkeeper in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. He is one Israel's best goalkeepers of all time and the leading goalkeeper of his generation.

José Greco was an Italian-born American flamenco dancer and choreographer known for popularizing Spanish dance on the stage and screen in America mostly in the 1950s and 1960s.

Datuk Abdullah Hussain PJN, DSDK was a Malaysian novelist and writer. He received the Malaysian National Laureate in 1996 which made him the 8th recipient of the award.

Charles III Philip was Elector Palatine, Count of Palatinate-Neuburg, and Duke of Jülich and Berg from 1716 to 1742. Until 1728 he was also Count of Megen.

Justin Pascal Keating was an Irish Labour Party politician, broadcaster, journalist, lecturer and veterinary surgeon. In later life he was president of the Humanist Association of Ireland.

Frederick III was the Duke of Lorraine from 1251 to his death. He was the only son and successor of Matthias II and Catherine of Limburg.

Vasily Grigoryevich Lazarev was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 12 spaceflight as well as the abortive Soyuz 18a launch on 5 April 1975.

Raymond Impanis was a Belgian professional cyclist from 1947 to 1963. He won Paris–Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders, Gent–Wevelgem and three stages in Tour de France.

Ottokar III was Margrave of Styria from 1129 until 1164.

Margaret was the Countess of Anjou and Maine in her own right and Countess of Valois, Alençon and Perche by marriage.

Ludolph van Ceulen was a German-Dutch mathematician from Hildesheim known for the Ludolphine number, his calculation of the mathematical constant pi to 35 digits.

Sir Dudley North was an English merchant, politician, economist and writer on free trade. He was also a member of the North family.

Jean-François Marmontel was a French historian, writer and a member of the Encyclopédistes movement.

George Briscoe Kerferd, Australian colonial politician, was the 10th Premier of Victoria.

Archibald Hoxsey was an American aviator who worked for the Wright brothers.

Ólafur Tryggvason Thors was an Icelandic politician of the Independence Party, who served six times as prime minister of Iceland.

George Lewis was an American jazz clarinetist who achieved his highest profile in the later decades of his life.

Jerry Jackson Joiner, known professionally as Jerry Turner, was an American television news anchorman at WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland.

Robert Wesley Addy was an American actor of stage, television, and film.

Lillian Bohny, known professionally as Billie Dove, was an American actress.

Phillip Whitehead was a British Labour politician, television producer and writer.

Milton Lowen Klein, was a Montreal lawyer, a member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons, and a figure in the Jewish-Canadian community.

Cahal Brendan Daly KGCHS was a Roman Catholic cardinal, theologian and writer from County Antrim.

Roberto Ciotti was an Italian blues musician, composer and guitarist.

S. Arthur Spiegel was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.