Did you know about John von Neumann
John von Neumann was a Hungarian and American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer.
Notable Deaths on February 8
February 8 has 99 recorded notable deaths across history, from 538 to 2025. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
1957 — John von Neumann
Hungarian-American mathematician and physicist (born 1903)
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Notable Deaths
99 source records
538 – 2025
Today in history
Major events on February 8
See what else happened on this day in history.
- 1865 Delaware refuses to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, delaying the criminalization of slavery until the amendment's national adoption on December 6, 1865. The amendment is ultimately ratified by Delaware on February 12, 1901, the 92nd anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. Source
- 1807 Napoleon defeats the coalition forces of Russian General Bennigsen and Prussian General L'Estocq at the Battle of Eylau. Source
Did you know about Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch's first published novel, Under the Net (1954), was selected in 1998 as one of Modern Library's 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
Did you know about Marty Schottenheimer
Eighth in career wins at 205 and seventh in regular season wins at 200, Schottenheimer has the most wins among the league's head coaches to not win an NFL championship.
Did you know about Charles Curtis
Curtis also was the first and only Native American and first multiracial person to serve as vice president.
Did you know about Connie Mack
Mack holds records for the most wins (3,731), losses (3,948), ties (76), and games managed (7,755) in Major League Baseball (MLB) history.
More major people who died on February 8
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
1999
Iris Murdoch
Irish-born British novelist and philosopher (born 1919)
Dame Jean Iris Murdoch was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her first published novel, Under the Net (1954), was selected in 1998 as one of Modern Library's 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Her 1978 novel The Sea, The Sea won the Booker Prize. In 1987, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for services to literature. In 2008, The Times ranked Murdoch twelfth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
2021
Marty Schottenheimer
American football player and coach (born 1943)
Martin Edward Schottenheimer was an American professional football coach and linebacker who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 21 seasons. He was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns from 1984 to 1988, the Kansas City Chiefs from 1989 to 1998, the Washington Redskins in 2001, and the San Diego Chargers from 2002 to 2006. Eighth in career wins at 205 and seventh in regular season wins at 200, Schottenheimer has the most wins among the league's head coaches to not win an NFL championship. After coaching in the NFL, he won a 2011 championship in his one season with the Virginia Destroyers of the United Football League (UFL). He was inducted to the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Honor in 2010.
1936
Charles Curtis
American lawyer and politician, 31st Vice President of the United States (born 1860)
Charles Curtis was the 31st vice president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 under President Herbert Hoover. He was the Senate Majority Leader from 1924 to 1929. An enrolled citizen of the Kaw Nation born in the Kansas Territory, Curtis was the first Native American to serve in the United States Congress, where he served in the United States House of Representatives and Senate before becoming Senate Majority Leader. Curtis also was the first and only Native American and first multiracial person to serve as vice president.
1956
Connie Mack
American baseball player and manager (born 1862)
Cornelius McGillicuddy, better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and team owner. Mack holds records for the most wins (3,731), losses (3,948), ties (76), and games managed (7,755) in Major League Baseball (MLB) history. His victory total is 847 more than the second-highest: Tony La Russa's 2,884 wins. Mack's lead in career losses is even greater, with 1,449 more than La Russa's 2,499. Mack also has 17 more ties than the next-closest manager, Clark Griffith, who has 59.
2007
Ian Stevenson
Canadian-American psychiatrist and academic (born 1918)
Ian Pretyman Stevenson was a Canadian-born American psychiatrist, the founder and director of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He was a professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine for fifty years. He was chair of their department of psychiatry from 1957 to 1967, Carlson Professor of Psychiatry from 1967 to 2001, and research professor of psychiatry from 2002 until his death in 2007. He helped to found the Society for Scientific Exploration in 1982.
2012
Luis Alberto Spinetta
Argentinian singer-songwriter (born 1950)
Luis Alberto Spinetta was an Argentine singer, guitarist, composer, writer and poet. One of the most influential rock musicians of Argentina, he is widely regarded as one of the founders of Argentine rock, which is considered one of the first incarnations of Spanish-language rock. Born in Buenos Aires, he was the founder of several iconic rock bands including Almendra, Pescado Rabioso, Invisible, Spinetta Jade, and Spinetta y Los Socios del Desierto. In Argentina, January 23rd is celebrated as "Día Nacional del Músico" in honor of Spinetta's birth.
2025
Dick Jauron
American football player and coach (born 1950)
Richard Manual Jauron was an American professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). He played eight seasons in the NFL as a safety, five with the Detroit Lions and three with the Cincinnati Bengals. Jauron served as the head coach of the Chicago Bears from 1999 to 2003 and the Buffalo Bills from 2006 until November 2009. He was also the interim head coach for the Lions for the final five games of the 2005 season. He was named the AP Coach of the Year in 2001 after leading the Bears to a 13–3 record.
1296
Przemysł II of Poland (born 1257)
Przemysł II was the Duke of Poznań from 1257–1279, of Greater Poland from 1279 to 1296, of Kraków from 1290 to 1291, and Gdańsk Pomerania (Pomerelia) from 1294 to 1296, and then King of Poland from 1295 until his death. After a long period of Polish high dukes and two nominal kings, he was the first to obtain the hereditary title of king, and thus to return Poland to the rank of kingdom. A member of the Greater Poland branch of the House of Piast as the only son of Duke Przemysł I and the Silesian Princess Elisabeth, he was born posthumously; for this reason he was brought up at the court of his uncle Bolesław the Pious and received his own district to rule, the Duchy of Poznań in 1273. Six years later, after the death of his uncle, he also obtained the Duchy of Kalisz.
1996
Del Ennis
American baseball player (born 1925)
Delmer Ennis was an American professional baseball outfielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1946 to 1959 for the Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and Chicago White Sox. From 1949 to 1957, he accumulated more runs batted in (RBI) than anyone besides Stan Musial and was eighth in the National League (NL) in home runs. In 1950, Ennis led the NL with 126 RBI as the Phillies won their first pennant in 35 years. He held the Phillies career record of 259 home runs from 1956 to 1980, and ranked 10th in National League history with 1,824 games in the outfield, when his career ended.
2016
Violette Verdy
French ballerina (born 1933)
Violette Verdy was a French ballerina, choreographer, teacher, and writer who worked as a dance company director with the Paris Opera Ballet in France and the Boston Ballet in the United States. From 1958 to 1977 she was a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, where she performed in the world premieres of several works created specifically for her by choreographers George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. She was Distinguished Professor of Music (Ballet) at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, in Bloomington, and the recipient of two medals from the French government.
1856
Agostino Bassi
Italian entomologist and academic (born 1773)
Agostino Bassi, sometimes called de Lodi, was an Italian entomologist. He preceded Louis Pasteur in the discovery that microorganisms can be the cause of disease. He discovered that the muscardine disease of silkworms was caused by a living, very small, parasitic organism, a fungus that would be named eventually Beauveria bassiana in his honor. In 1844, he stated the idea that not only animal (insect), but also human diseases are caused by other living microorganisms; for example, measles, syphilis, and the plague.
1998
Enoch Powell
English soldier and politician, Secretary of State for Health (born 1912)
John Enoch Powell was a British politician, scholar, soldier and writer. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton South West for the Conservative Party from 1950 to February 1974 and the MP for South Down for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from October 1974 to 1987. He was Minister of Health from 1960 to 1963 in the second Macmillan ministry and was Shadow Secretary of State for Defence from 1965 to 1968 in the Shadow Cabinet of Edward Heath.
1314
Helen of Anjou
Queen of Serbia (born 1236)
Saint Helen of Serbia was the queen consort of the Serbian Kingdom, as the spouse of King Stefan Uroš I, who ruled from 1243 to 1276. Their sons were later Serbian kings Stefan Dragutin and Stefan Milutin. As a dowager-queen, she held the provincial governorship in the regions of Zeta and Travunija. She built Gradac Monastery and was known for her religious tolerance. She is venerated as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church. Her relics, however, are now lost.
1749
Jan van Huysum
Dutch painter (born 1682)
Jan van Huysum is the most notable member of the Van Huysum family of artists working in Dutch Golden Age of the 17th and 18th centuries; "by common consent, Jan van Huysum has been held to be the best painter of flowers." Trained in decoration from a young age, he "gradually developed an execution of details of the utmost beauty and finish" creating "wonderful flower pieces whereon drops of water and crawling ants could be seen without a magnifying glass."
1959
William J. Donovan
American head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (born 1883)
William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan was an American soldier, lawyer, intelligence officer and diplomat. He is best known for serving as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), during World War II. He is regarded as the founding father of the CIA, and a statue of him stands in the lobby of the CIA headquarters building in Langley, Virginia.
1772
Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha
Princess of Wales (born 1719)
Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was Princess of Wales by marriage to Frederick, Prince of Wales, eldest son and heir apparent of King George II. She never became queen consort, as Frederick predeceased his father in 1751. Augusta's eldest son succeeded her father-in-law as George III in 1760. After her spouse died, Augusta was the presumptive regent of Great Britain in the event of a regency, until her son reached majority in 1756.
538
Severus of Antioch
patriarch of Antioch (born 465)
Severus of Antioch also known as Severus of Gaza and nicknamed the Crown of Syrians, was the Patriarch of Antioch and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 512 until his death in 538. He is venerated as a saint in the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and his feast day is celebrated on 29 September by the Syriac Orthodox Church and 8 February by the Coptic Orthodox Church
2021
Mary Wilson
American singer (born 1944)
Mary Wilson was an American singer. She gained worldwide recognition as a founding member of the Supremes, the most successful Motown act of the 1960s and the best-charting female group in U.S. chart history, as well as one of the best-selling girl groups of all-time. The trio reached number one on Billboard's Hot 100 with 12 of their singles, ten of which feature Wilson on backing vocals.
1382
Blanche of France
Duchess of Orléans (born 1328)
Blanche of France was the posthumous daughter of King Charles IV of France and his third wife, Joan of Évreux. She was the last direct Capetian and the last-surviving member of her family, and her marriage to her second cousin, Philip, Duke of Orléans, proved childless. With Blanche's death in 1393, the House of Capet continued to exist only via its numerous cadet branches.