Notable Deaths on January 16

January 16 has 119 recorded notable deaths across history, from 654 to 2025. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

David Lynch

2025 — David Lynch

American filmmaker and actor (born 1946)

By · — Wikipedia

Notable Deaths 119 source records 654 – 2025

Major events on January 16

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1716 King Philip V of Spain promulgates the Nueva Planta decree of the Principality of Catalonia, abolishing the Catalan institutions and its legal system, being replaced by those of Castile, thus putting an end to Catalonia as separate state and becoming a province of the new French-style Kingdom of Spain. Source
  2. 2006 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state. Source

Did you know about David Lynch

David Lynch is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, with his films often characterized by a distinctive surrealist sensibility that gave rise to the adjective "Lynchian".

Did you know about Albert Fish

Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish was an American serial killer, rapist, child molester and cannibal who committed at least three child murders between July 1924 and June 1928.

Did you know about Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Indian author and playwright (born 1876)

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Indian author and playwright (born 1876) remains the most popular, translated, and adapted Indian author of all time.

Did you know about Arturo Toscanini

One of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, Toscanini was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his eidetic memory.

Did you know about Ivan Meštrović

Ivan Meštrović was the most prominent modern Croatian sculptor and a leading artistic personality in contemporary Zagreb.

More major people who died on January 16

Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.

1936 Albert Fish

Albert Fish

American serial killer, rapist and cannibal (born 1870)
Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish was an American serial killer, rapist, child molester and cannibal who committed at least three child murders between July 1924 and June 1928. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac and the Boogey Man. Fish was a suspect in at least ten murders during his lifetime, although he confessed to only three that police were able to trace to a known homicide. He also confessed to stabbing at least two other people.
Wikipedia source
1938 Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Indian author and playwright (born 1876)

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Indian author and playwright (born 1876)

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was a Bengali novelist and short story writer of the early 20th century. He generally wrote about the lives of Bengali family and society in cities and villages. However, his keen powers of observation, great sympathy for fellow human beings, a deep understanding of human psychology, an easy and natural writing style, and freedom from political biases and social prejudices enable his writing to transcend barriers and appeal to all Indians. He remains the most popular, translated, and adapted Indian author of all time.
Wikipedia source
1957 Arturo Toscanini

Arturo Toscanini

Italian cellist and conductor (born 1867)
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, Toscanini was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his eidetic memory. He was at various times the music director of La Scala in Milan and the New York Philharmonic. Later in his career, he was appointed the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937–1954), and this led to his becoming a household name, especially in the United States, through his radio and television broadcasts and many recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire.
Wikipedia source
1962 Ivan Meštrović

Ivan Meštrović

Croatian sculptor and architect, designed the Monument to the Unknown Hero (born 1883)
Ivan Meštrović was a Croatian sculptor, architect, and writer. He was the most prominent modern Croatian sculptor and a leading artistic personality in contemporary Zagreb. He studied at Pavao Bilinić's Stone Workshop in Split and at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he was formed under the influence of the Secession. He traveled throughout Europe and studied the works of ancient and Renaissance masters, especially Michelangelo, and French sculptors Auguste Rodin, Antoine Bourdelle and Aristide Maillol. He was the initiator of the national-romantic group Medulić. During the First World War, he lived in emigration. After the war, he returned to Croatia and began a long and fruitful period of sculpture and pedagogical work. In 1942 he emigrated to Italy, in 1943 to Switzerland and in 1947 to the United States. He was a professor of sculpture at Syracuse University and from 1955 at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.
Wikipedia source
2016 Ted Marchibroda

Ted Marchibroda

American football player and coach (born 1931)
Theodore Joseph Marchibroda was an American professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). He played four years in the NFL as a quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Cardinals (1957). Marchibroda was later head coach of the Colts in two different cities and decades, first in Baltimore from 1975 to 1979 and then Indianapolis from 1992 to 1995. Upon joining the Baltimore Ravens in 1996, he became the only individual to serve as head coach with both of Baltimore's NFL teams and gained the unusual distinction of having three stints as an NFL head coach for two franchises in two cities, but with no two of those tenures being for the same franchise in the same city. His career NFL head coaching record was 87–98–1 (.470) and 2–4 in the playoffs.
Wikipedia source
1988 Andrija Artuković

Andrija Artuković

Croatian politician, war criminal, and Porajmos perpetrator, first Minister of Interior of the Independent State of Croatia (born 1899)
Andrija Artuković was a Croatian lawyer, politician, and senior member of the fascist Ustaše movement, who served as the Minister of Internal Affairs and Minister of Justice in the Government of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during World War II in Yugoslavia. He signed into law several racial laws against Serbs, Jews, and Roma, and was responsible for a string of concentration camps where civilians were tortured and murdered. He escaped to the United States after the war, where he lived until he was extradited to Yugoslavia in 1986. He was tried and found guilty of several mass killings in the NDH and was sentenced to death, but the sentence was not carried out due to his age and health. He died in custody in 1988.
Wikipedia source
1898 Charles Pelham Villiers

Charles Pelham Villiers

English lawyer and politician (born 1802)
Charles Pelham Villiers was a British lawyer and politician from the aristocratic Villiers family. He sat in the House of Commons for 63 years, from 1835 to 1898, making him the longest-serving Member of Parliament (MP). He also holds the distinction of the oldest candidate to win a parliamentary seat, at 93. He was a radical and reformer who often collaborated with John Bright and had a noteworthy effect in the leadership of the Anti-Corn Law League, until the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. Lord Palmerston appointed him to the cabinet as president of the Poor-Law Board in 1859. His Public Works Act 1863 opened job-creating schemes in public health projects. He progressed numerous other reforms, most notably the Metropolitan Poor Act 1867. Florence Nightingale helped him formulate the reform, in particular, ensure professionalisation of nursing as part of the poor law regime, the workhouses of which erected public infirmaries under an Act of the same year. His political importance was overshadowed by his brother, the Earl of Clarendon, and undercut by the hostility of Gladstone.
Wikipedia source
1547 Johannes Schöner

Johannes Schöner

German astronomer and cartographer (born 1477)
Johannes Schöner was a German polymath. It is best to refer to him using the usual 16th-century Latin term "mathematicus", as the areas of study to which he devoted his life were very different from those now considered to be the domain of the mathematician. He was a priest, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, cosmographer, cartographer, mathematician, globe and scientific instrument maker and editor and publisher of scientific texts. In his own time he enjoyed a Europe-wide reputation as an innovative and influential globe maker and cosmographer and as one of the continent's leading and most authoritative astrologers. Today he is remembered as an influential pioneer in the history of globe making, and as a man who played a significant role in the events that led up to the publishing of Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, 'On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres' in the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg in 1543.
Wikipedia source
1752 Francis Blomefield

Francis Blomefield

English historian and author (born 1705)
Rev. Francis Blomefield, FSA, Rector of Fersfield in Norfolk, was an English antiquarian who wrote a county history of Norfolk: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk. It includes detailed accounts of the City of Norwich, the Borough of Thetford and all parishes in the southernmost Hundreds of Norfolk, but he died before completing it. This was done by a friend, Rev. Charles Parkin. The Norfolk historian Walter Rye related that although no portrait of him was known to exist, Blomefield closely resembled the astronomer John Flamsteed, whose portrait was used to depict Blomefield on the frontispiece of one of his volumes. His history of Norfolk was reissued in London in 11 volumes by William Miller in 1805–1810, the last seven being by Parkin.
Wikipedia source
1750 Ivan Trubetskoy

Ivan Trubetskoy

Russian field marshal and politician (born 1667)
Prince Ivan Yurievich Trubetskoy was a Russian field marshal, promoted in 1728. The son of Yuriy Trubetskoy, as a member of the House of Trubetskoy, he was a member of the inner circle of Tsar Peter I of Russia of the House of Romanov. Made a boyar in 1692, Trubetskoy commanded part of the Russian fleet during the Azov campaigns in 1696. In 1699, he was named governor of Novgorod. Trubetskoy ordered surrender during the Battle of Narva in 1700. He was captured and held prisoner in Sweden until exchanged in 1718. At the moment of death he was the last living boyar in Russia. Elisabeth made him a member of the renewed Senate.
Wikipedia source
1999 Jim McClelland

Jim McClelland

Australian lawyer, jurist, and politician, 12th Minister for Industry and Science (born 1915)
James Robert McClelland was an Australian lawyer, politician, and judge. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served as a Senator for New South Wales from 1971 to 1978. He briefly held ministerial office in the Whitlam government in 1975 as Minister for Manufacturing Industry and Minister for Labor and Immigration. He later served as the inaugural Chief Judge of the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales from 1980 to 1985, as well as presiding over the 1984 McClelland Royal Commission into British nuclear tests in Australia.
Wikipedia source
1856 Thaddeus William Harris

Thaddeus William Harris

American entomologist and botanist (born 1795)
Thaddeus William Harris was an American entomologist and librarian. His focus on insect life cycles and interactions with plants was influential in broadening American entomological studies beyond a narrow taxonomic approach. He was an early agricultural entomologist and served as a mentor and role model for others in this new field. For 25 years Harris served as the librarian of Harvard University where oversaw the rapid growth of the library and introduced one of the earliest American library card catalogs.
Wikipedia source
2020 Christopher Tolkien

Christopher Tolkien

British academic and editor (born 1924)
Christopher John Reuel Tolkien was an English academic editor and writer. The son of the author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien, he edited 24 volumes based on his father's posthumously published work, including The Silmarillion and the 12-volume series The History of Middle-Earth, a task that took 45 years. He drew the original maps for his father's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. He spent the second half of his life in France, becoming a French citizen.
Wikipedia source
2012 Joe Bygraves

Joe Bygraves

Jamaican-English boxer (born 1931)
Joe Bygraves was a British heavyweight boxer. Bygraves turned professional in 1953, and after an impressive early career he successfully challenged Kitione Lave for the vacant Commonwealth Heavyweight belt in 1956. Bygraves defended the title on three occasions, knocking-out Henry Cooper and holding Dick Richardson to a draw before losing the championship to Joe Erskine. Bygraves immigrated to Britain as a youth but did not take British citizenship until the end of his fighting career in 1967.
Wikipedia source
2021 Pedro Trebbau

Pedro Trebbau

German-born Venezuelan zoologist (born 1929)
Pedro Trebbau was a German-born Venezuelan zoologist. His career was characterized by the promotion and preservation of Venezuelan wildlife and nature. His research and collaboration with the herpetologist Peter Pritchard produced the still-extant reference book on The Turtles of Venezuela, the 2018 re-edition of which, alongside the biography done on him entitled Trebbau: Maestro por naturaleza by Albor Rodríguez, sparked the series Colección La Fauna, which aimed to collect Trebbau's work on the fauna of Venezuela.
Wikipedia source
1901 Hiram Rhodes Revels

Hiram Rhodes Revels

American soldier, minister, and politician (born 1822)
Hiram Rhodes Revels was an American politician, minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and college administrator. Born free in North Carolina, he later lived and worked in Ohio, where he voted before the Civil War. Elected by the Mississippi legislature to the United States Senate as a Republican to represent Mississippi in 1870 and 1871 during the Reconstruction era, he was the first African American to serve in either house of the U.S. Congress.
Wikipedia source
1969 Vernon Duke

Vernon Duke

Russian-American composer and songwriter (born 1903)
Vernon Duke was a Russian and American composer and songwriter, who also wrote under his birth name, Vladimir Dukelsky. He is best known for "Taking a Chance on Love," with lyrics by Ted Fetter and John Latouche (1940); "I Can't Get Started," with lyrics by Ira Gershwin (1936); "April in Paris," with lyrics by E. Y. ("Yip") Harburg (1932), and "What Is There To Say," for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934, also with Harburg.
Wikipedia source
1919 Rodrigues Alves

Rodrigues Alves

Brazilian lawyer and politician, fifth President of Brazil (born 1848)
Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves was a Brazilian politician and statesman who served as the fifth president of Brazil, from 1902 to 1906. Alves was elected in 1902, becoming the third consecutive São Paulo native to hold the presidency. Before his presidency, he served as president of the province of São Paulo during the Empire of Brazil (1887) and as finance minister under Floriano Peixoto and Prudente de Morais in the 1890s.
Wikipedia source
1962 Frank Hurley

Frank Hurley

Australian photographer, director, producer, and cinematographer (born 1885)
James Francis Hurley was an Australian photographer, cinematographer of documentary films, and director of drama feature films. He participated in a number of expeditions to Antarctica and served as an official war photographer with Australian forces during both world wars. He was the official photographer for the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911–14) led by Douglas Mawson, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–16 led by Ernest Shackleton, and BANZARE (1929–31), again led by Mawson.
Wikipedia source

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