Did you know about Demaryius Thomas
Thomas was selected by the Broncos in the first round of the 2010 NFL draft.
Notable Deaths on December 9
December 9 has 112 recorded notable deaths across history, from 638 to 2024. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
2021 — Demaryius Thomas
American football player (born 1987)
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Notable Deaths
112 source records
638 – 2024
Today in history
Major events on December 9
See what else happened on this day in history.
Did you know about Enoch L. Johnson
Enoch L. Johnson's rule encompassed the Roaring Twenties when Atlantic City was at the height of its popularity as a refuge from Prohibition.
Did you know about Vincent Gardenia
Vincent Gardenia was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, first for Bang the Drum Slowly (1973) and again for Moonstruck (1987).
Did you know about Mary Leakey
Mary Leakey discovered the Laetoli footprints, and at the Laetoli site she discovered hominin fossils that were more than 3.75 million years old.
Did you know about Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni won numerous awards, including the Langston Hughes Medal and the NAACP Image Award.
More major people who died on December 9
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
1968
Enoch L. Johnson
American mob boss (born 1883)
Enoch Lewis "Nucky" Johnson was an American politician from the Republican Party who served as an Atlantic City political boss, sheriff of Atlantic County, businessman, and crime boss who was the leader of the political machine that controlled Atlantic City and the Atlantic County government from the 1910s until his conviction and imprisonment in 1941. His rule encompassed the Roaring Twenties when Atlantic City was at the height of its popularity as a refuge from Prohibition. In addition to bootlegging, the criminal aspect of his organization was also involved in gambling and prostitution. The HBO series Boardwalk Empire was loosely based on Johnson, portrayed by Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson.
1992
Vincent Gardenia
American actor (born 1922)
Vincent Gardenia was an Italian American stage, film and television actor. He was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, first for Bang the Drum Slowly (1973) and again for Moonstruck (1987). He also portrayed Det. Frank Ochoa in Death Wish (1974) and its 1982 sequel, Death Wish II, and played Mr. Mushnik in the musical film adaptation Little Shop of Horrors (1986). His other notable feature films include Murder Inc. (1960), The Hustler (1961), The Front Page (1974), Greased Lightning (1977), Heaven Can Wait (1978) and The Super (1991).
1996
Mary Leakey
English archaeologist and anthropologist (born 1913)
Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised Proconsul skull, an extinct ape believed to be ancestral to humans. She also discovered the robust Zinjanthropus skull at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, eastern Africa. For much of her career she worked with her husband, Louis Leakey, at Olduvai Gorge, where they uncovered fossils of ancient hominines and the earliest hominins, as well as the stone tools produced by the latter group. Mary Leakey developed a system for classifying the stone tools found at Olduvai. She discovered the Laetoli footprints, and at the Laetoli site she discovered hominin fossils that were more than 3.75 million years old.
2024
Nikki Giovanni
American poet, writer and activist (born 1943)
Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni Jr. was an American poet, writer, commentator, activist and educator. One of the world's best-known African-American poets, her work includes poetry anthologies, poetry recordings, and nonfiction essays, and covers topics ranging from race and social issues to children's literature. She won numerous awards, including the Langston Hughes Medal and the NAACP Image Award. She was nominated for a 2004 Grammy Award for her poetry album, The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection. Additionally, she was named as one of Oprah Winfrey's 25 "Living Legends". Giovanni was a member of The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective.
1941
Dmitry Merezhkovsky
Russian author, poet, and philosopher (born 1865)
Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky was a Russian novelist, poet, religious thinker, and literary critic. A seminal figure of the Silver Age of Russian Poetry, regarded as a co-founder of the Symbolist movement, Merezhkovsky – with his wife, the poet Zinaida Gippius – was twice forced into political exile. During his second exile (1918–1941), he continued publishing successful novels and gained recognition as a critic of the Soviet Union. Known both as a self-styled religious prophet with his own slant on apocalyptic Christianity, and as the author of philosophical historical novels which combined fervent idealism with literary innovation, Merezhkovsky was nominated nine times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, which he came closest to winning in 1933. However, due to contested claims that he expressed regard for Fascism as a lesser evil than Communism during the outbreak of war between Germany and the USSR shortly prior to his death, his work largely fell into neglect after World War II
2003
Norm Sloan
American basketball player and coach (born 1926)
Norman Leslie Sloan Jr. was an American college basketball player and coach. Sloan was a native of Indiana and played college basketball and football at North Carolina State University. He began a long career as a basketball coach months after graduating from college in 1951, and he was the men's basketball head coach at Presbyterian College, The Citadel, North Carolina State University, and two stints at the University of Florida. Over a career that spanned 38 seasons, Sloan was named conference coach of the year five times and won the 1974 national championship at North Carolina State, his alma mater. He was nicknamed "Stormin' Norman" due to his combative nature with the media, his players, and school administrators, and his collegiate coaching career ended in controversy when Florida's basketball program was under investigation in 1989, though Sloan claimed that he was treated unfairly.
1858
Robert Baldwin
Canadian lawyer and politician, 3rd Premier of Canada West (born 1804)
Robert Baldwin was an Upper Canadian lawyer and politician who with his political partner Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine of Lower Canada, led the first responsible government ministry in the Province of Canada. "Responsible Government" marked the province's democratic self-government, without a revolution, although not without violence. This achievement also included the introduction of municipal government, the introduction of a modern legal system, reforms to the jury system in Upper Canada, and the abolition of imprisonment for debt. Baldwin is also noted for feuding with the Orange Order and other fraternal societies. The Lafontaine-Baldwin government enacted the Rebellion Losses Bill to compensate Lower Canadians for damages suffered during the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837–1838. The passage of the Bill outraged Anglo-Canadian Tories in Montreal, resulting in the burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal in 1849.
1957
Ali İhsan Sâbis
Turkish general (born 1882)
Ali İhsan Pasha was the commander for the Sixth Army of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. After the war he was exiled to Malta by the British occupation forces. After returning to Turkey, he was appointed to the commandship of the First Army of Turkey. But shortly before the battle of Dumlupınar, he retired. During World War II, Pasha, director for the pro-Nazi Türkische Post, was court-martialed and imprisoned for 15 months for sending threatening letters against President İsmet İnönü for taking an increasingly anti-German stance. In 1941, Hitler personally invited him and Hüseyin Hüsnü Emir Erkilet to the Eastern Front, albeit Ali Ilhsan was replaced by General Ali Fuad Erden.
1935
Walter Liggett
American journalist and activist (born 1886)
Walter William Liggett, was an American journalist who worked at several newspapers in New York City, including the New York Times, The Sun, New York Post, and the New York Daily News. In the Twin Cities during the 1930s, Liggett worked as an investigative journalist and editor of the newspaper Midwest American. He specialized in exposés of Minneapolis and Saint Paul organized crime and their connections to corrupt politicians. He wrote novels including The River Riders. Subjects he wrote about included the timber business in northern Minnesota and the Alaskan gold rush events. He became involved in politics and covered political corruption. He was murdered as a result.
2001
Michael Carver
Baron Carver, English field marshal (born 1915)
Field Marshal Richard Michael Power Carver, Baron Carver, was a senior British Army officer. Lord Carver served as the Chief of the General Staff (CGS), the professional head of the British Army, and then as the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), the professional head of the British Armed Forces. He served with distinction during the Second World War and organised the administration of British forces deployed in response to the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya and later in his career provided advice to the British government on the response to the early stages of The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
1798
Johann Reinhold Forster
German pastor, botanist, and ornithologist (born 1729)
Johann Reinhold Forster was a German Reformed pastor and naturalist. Born in Dirschau, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, he attended school in Dirschau and Marienwerder before being admitted at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in Berlin in 1745. Skilled in classical and biblical languages, he studied theology at the University of Halle. In 1753, he became a parson at a parish just south of Danzig. He married his cousin Justina Elisabeth Nicolai in 1754, and they had seven children; the oldest child was George Forster, also known as Georg.
2013
Eleanor Parker
American actress (born 1922)
Eleanor Jean Parker was an American actress. She was nominated for three Academy Awards, one each for her roles in the films Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951), and Interrupted Melody (1955), the first of which won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress. She was also known for her roles in the films Of Human Bondage (1946), Scaramouche (1952), The Naked Jungle (1954), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), A Hole in the Head (1959), The Sound of Music (1965), and The Oscar (1966).
1971
Ralph Bunche
American political scientist, academic, and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1904)
Ralph Johnson Bunche was an American political scientist and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in the Arab–Israeli conflict. He is the first black Nobel laureate and the first Black person to be awarded a Nobel Prize. He was involved in the formation and early administration of the United Nations (UN), serving as the under‑secretary‑general and briefly the acting secretary-general in 1953, and played a major role in both the decolonization process and numerous UN peacekeeping operations.
2021
Speedy Duncan
American football player (born 1942)
Leslie Herbert "Speedy" Duncan was an American professional football player who was a cornerback and return specialist in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Jackson State Tigers. Duncan played seven seasons with the San Diego Chargers, where he was a three-time AFL All-Star. He was also named to the Pro Bowl with the Washington Redskins. Duncan was inducted into the Chargers Hall of Fame and was named to their 40th and 50th anniversary teams.
2012
Jenni Rivera
American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress (born 1969)
Dolores Janney "Jenni" Rivera was an American singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman, and producer known for her work within the regional Mexican music genre, specifically in the styles of banda, mariachi and norteño. In life and death, several media outlets including CNN, Billboard, Fox News, and The New York Times have labeled her the most important female figure and top-selling female artist in regional Mexican music. Billboard magazine named her the "Top Latin Artist of 2013", and the "Best Selling Latin Artist of 2013".
1982
Marguerite Henry
Australian zoologist (born 1895)
Marguerite Henry was an Australian zoologist known for her research on freshwater crustaceans; she was active in the early 20th century. Henry's work contributed to the taxonomy and ecology of Australia's freshwater entomostracans, describing dozens of new species and establishing a new genus of copepods, Gladioferens. Her research, supported by the Australian government and the Linnean Society of New South Wales, focused on cladocerans, copepods, ostracodes, and phyllopods, with her findings published in a series of detailed monographs between 1919 and 1924.
1965
Branch Rickey
American baseball player and manager (born 1884)
Wesley Branch Rickey was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, sports executive, and team owner. He was instrumental in breaking the baseball color line by signing black player Jackie Robinson. He also created the framework for the modern minor league farm system, encouraged the major leagues to add new teams through his involvement in the proposed Continental League, introduced the batting helmet, and created the standard 20-80 scouting scale. He was posthumously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967.
748
Nasr ibn Sayyar
Umayyad general and politician (born 663)
Naṣr ibn Sayyār al-Lāythi al-Kināni was an Arab general and the last Umayyad governor of Khurasan in 738–748. Nasr played a distinguished role in the wars against the Turgesh, although he failed to decisively confront the rebellion of al-Harith ibn Surayj in its early stages. Although respected as a soldier and a statesman, he owed his appointment as governor more to his obscure tribal background, which rendered him dependent on the caliph. His tenure was nevertheless successful, as Nasr introduced long-overdue tax reforms that alleviated social tension and largely restored and stabilized Umayyad control in Transoxiana, which had been greatly reduced under the Turgesh onslaught. His last years were occupied by inter-tribal rivalries and uprisings, however, as the Umayyad Caliphate itself descended into a period of civil war. In 746 Nasr was driven from his capital by Ibn Surayj and Juday al-Kirmani, but returned after the latter fell out among themselves, resulting in Ibn Surayj's death. Preoccupied with this conflict, Nasr was unable to stop the outbreak and spread of the Abbasid Revolution, whose leader, Abu Muslim, exploited the situation to his advantage. Evicted from his province in early 748, he fled to Persia pursued by the Abbasid forces, where he died on 9 December 748.
2012
Béla Nagy Abodi
Hungarian painter and academic (born 1918)
Béla Nagy Abodi was a Hungarian painter, and professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cluj-Napoca. He studied in the class of Camil Ressu at the Academia de Belle-Arte in Bucharest, and then went to the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, as a student of István Szőnyi. He served for 5 years in the Hungarian army, and became a war prisoner in USSR. He worked as a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cluj-Napoca.