Did you know about Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the Earthsea fantasy series.
Notable Deaths on January 22
January 22 has 113 recorded notable deaths across history, from 239 to 2026. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
2018 — Ursula K. Le Guin
American sci-fi and fantasy novelist (born 1929)
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Notable Deaths
113 source records
239 – 2026
Today in history
Major events on January 22
See what else happened on this day in history.
Did you know about Hank Aaron
Hank Aaron broke the long-standing MLB record for career home runs held by Babe Ruth and remained the career leader for 33 years, until Barry Bonds surpassed his famous total of 755 in 2007.
Did you know about Wendell H. Ford
Wendell H. Ford was the first person to be successively elected lieutenant governor of Kentucky, governor, and United States Senate member in Kentucky history.
Did you know about Cao Rui
Cao Rui's parentage is in dispute: his mother, Lady Zhen, was Yuan Xi's wife, but she later remarried Cao Pi, the first ruler of Wei.
Did you know about Herbert Sutcliffe
Herbert Sutcliffe's first-class debut was delayed by the First World War until 1919 and his career was effectively terminated in August 1939 when he was called up for military service in the imminent Second World War.
More major people who died on January 22
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
2021
Hank Aaron
American baseball player (born 1934)
Henry Louis Aaron, nicknamed "Hammer" or "Hammerin' Hank", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1954 through 1976. Considered one of the greatest baseball players in history, he spent 21 seasons with the Milwaukee / Atlanta Braves in the National League (NL) and two seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League (AL). At the time of his retirement, Aaron held most of the game's key career power-hitting records. He broke the long-standing MLB record for career home runs held by Babe Ruth and remained the career leader for 33 years, until Barry Bonds surpassed his famous total of 755 in 2007. He hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973 and is one of only two players to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least 15 times.
2015
Wendell H. Ford
American lieutenant and politician, 53rd Governor of Kentucky (born 1924)
Wendell Hampton Ford was an American politician from Kentucky. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 53rd governor of Kentucky from 1971 to 1974, and as a member of the United States Senate from 1974 to 1999. He was the first person to be successively elected lieutenant governor of Kentucky, governor, and United States Senate member in Kentucky history. He was the Senate Democratic whip from 1991 to 1999, and was considered the leader of the state's Democratic Party from his election as governor in 1971 until he retired from the Senate in 1999. At the time of his retirement he was the longest-serving senator in Kentucky's history, a mark which was then surpassed by Mitch McConnell, in 2009. Ford is the last Democrat to have served as a U.S. Senate member from the state of Kentucky.
239
Cao Rui
Chinese emperor (born 205)
Cao Rui, courtesy name Yuanzhong, was the second emperor of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period. His parentage is in dispute: his mother, Lady Zhen, was Yuan Xi's wife, but she later remarried Cao Pi, the first ruler of Wei. Based on conflicting accounts of his age, Pei Songzhi calculated that, in order to be Cao Pi's son, Cao Rui could not have been 36 when he died as recorded, so the recorded age was in error; late-Qing scholars Lu Bi (卢弼) and Mao Guangsheng (冒广生) argued instead that Cao Rui was Yuan Xi's son.
1978
Herbert Sutcliffe
English cricketer and soldier (born 1894)
Herbert Sutcliffe was an English professional cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England as an opening batsman. Apart from one match in 1945, his first-class career spanned the period between the two world wars. His first-class debut was delayed by the First World War until 1919 and his career was effectively terminated in August 1939 when he was called up for military service in the imminent Second World War. He was the first cricketer to score 16 centuries in Test match cricket. He is most famous for being the partner of Jack Hobbs and the partnership between the two, Hobbs and Sutcliffe, is widely regarded as the greatest partnership of all time.
1964
Marc Blitzstein
American pianist and composer (born 1905)
Marcus Samuel Blitzstein, was an American composer, lyricist, and librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration. He is known for The Cradle Will Rock and for his off-Broadway translation and adaptation of The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. His works also include the opera Regina, an adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes; the Broadway musical Juno, based on Seán O'Casey's play Juno and the Paycock; and No for an Answer. He completed translations and adaptations of Brecht's and Weill's musical play Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and of Brecht's play Mother Courage and Her Children with music by Paul Dessau. Blitzstein also composed music for films, such as Surf and Seaweed (1931) and The Spanish Earth (1937), and he contributed two songs to the original 1960 production of Hellman's play Toys in the Attic.
1930
Stephen Mather
American businessman and conservationist, co-founded the Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company (born 1867)
Stephen Tyng Mather was an American industrialist and conservationist who was the first director of the National Park Service. As president and owner of Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company he became a millionaire. Along with journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather led a publicity campaign known as the Mather Mountain Party to promote the creation of a unified federal agency to oversee National Parks administration, which was established in 1916. In 1917, Mather was appointed to lead the NPS, the new agency created within the Department of the Interior. He served until 1929, during which time Mather created a professional civil service organization, increased the numbers of parks and national monuments, and established systematic criteria for adding new properties to the federal system.
1955
Jonni Myyrä
Finnish-American athlete (born 1892)
Joonas "Jonni" Myyrä was a Finnish athlete who competed at the 1912, 1920 and 1924 Olympics. In 1912, he finished eighth in the javelin throw. At the 1920 Olympics, his left arm was fractured in a warm-up accident – the spear thrown by James Lincoln struck Myyrä while he was resting on the grass. Nevertheless, Myyrä won the javelin event with an Olympic record of 65.78 meters. He also finished 12th in the discus throw but could not complete his pentathlon events. Myyrä successfully defended his javelin title at the 1924 Summer Olympics and then fled to the United States due to his financial problems in Finland. He never returned to his home country and died in San Francisco in 1955.
1977
Ibrahim bin Abdullah Al Suwaiyel
Saudi Arabian diplomat (born 1916)
Sheikh Ibrahim bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al Suwaiyel was a Saudi Arabian statesman, diplomat, and military officer who served as the Saudi Arabian minister of foreign affairs from 1960 to 1962. Appointed on 22 December 1960 by King Saud, he succeeded the future king Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and was succeeded by him again on 16 March 1961. He was noted for being the first non-royal to hold the position of foreign minister. He also served as the Saudi Arabian ambassador to both the United States and Iraq, as the minister of agriculture, and later as a member of the Council of Ministers and an advisor to the Royal Court.
2005
Carlo Orelli
Italian soldier (born 1894)
Carlo Orelli was, at age 110, the last surviving Italian World War I veteran who joined the army at the onset of the war. Born in Perugia, although he lived in Rome for most of his life, Orelli came from a military family whose members had served in various Italian conflicts since 1849. A mechanic by trade, Orelli joined the Italian Army in May 1915 and engaged in combat operations in Italy. His recollections were marked by particularly brutal experiences of trench warfare, including the violent deaths of many of his friends. After receiving injuries to his leg, he was pulled from active duty and returned home.
2009
Billy Werber
American baseball player (born 1908)
William Murray Werber was an American professional baseball third baseman in Major League Baseball who played for the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox (1933–1936), Philadelphia Athletics (1937–1938), Cincinnati Reds (1939–1941) and New York Giants (1942). He led American League third basemen in putouts and assists once each, and also led National League third basemen in assists, double plays and fielding percentage once each. A strong baserunner, he led the AL in stolen bases three times and led the NL in runs in 1939 as the Reds won the pennant. He was born in Berwyn Heights, Maryland and batted and threw right-handed.
1951
Lawson Robertson
Scottish-American sprinter and high jumper (born 1883)
Lawson "Robbie" N. Robertson was considered one of the more accomplished American track coaches of the first half of the twentieth century. From 1904-1936, he was with the American team at every Olympics with the exception of 1916 when the Olympics were cancelled due to WWI. He coached Track and Field for the Irish-American Athletic Club in Queens, New York from 1909–16, and then for the University of Pennsylvania from 1916-47. He was U.S. Olympic Assistant Track coach in 1912 and 1920 and was head coach for the American Track and Field Team in four Olympics from 1924-36.
1170
Wang Chongyang
Chinese Daoist and co-founder of the Quanzhen School (born 1113)
Wang Chongyang is the founder of the Quanzhen school of Taoism. In his life he had many devotees and followers, but formally accepted seven major disciples which are known as the Seven Perfected or the Seven Masters of Quanzhen: Ma Danyang, Qiu Chuji, Tan Chuduan, Liu Chuxuan, Hao Datong, Wang Chuyi, and Sun Bu’er. Wang Chongyang is one of the Five Northern Patriarchs of Quanzhen, which in order they are: Wang Xuanfu 王玄甫, Zhongli Quan 钟离权, Lü Dongbin 吕洞宾, Liu Haichan 刘海蟾, Wang Chongyang 王重阳. He is also one of the Eight Immortals of Taoism.
1575
James Hamilton
Duke of Châtellerault (born 1516)
James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Châtellerault, 2nd Earl of Arran, was a Scottish nobleman and Regent of Scotland during the minority of Mary, Queen of Scots, from 1543 to 1554. At first pro-English and Protestant, he converted to Catholicism in 1543 and supported a pro-French policy. He reluctantly agreed to Mary's marriage to Francis, eldest son of King Henry II of France, and was rewarded by Henry by being made Duke of Châtellerault in 1549. During the Scottish Reformation, he joined the Protestant Lords of the Congregation to oppose the regency of Mary of Guise.
2016
Cecil Parkinson
English politician (born 1931)
Cecil Edward Parkinson, Baron Parkinson, was a British Conservative Party politician and cabinet minister. A chartered accountant by training, he entered Parliament in November 1970, and was appointed a minister in Margaret Thatcher's first government in May 1979. He successfully managed the Conservative Party's 1983 election campaign, and was rewarded with an appointment as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, but was forced to resign following revelations that his former secretary, Sara Keays, was pregnant with his child, whom she later bore and named Flora Keays. Flora was born with severe cerebral palsy.
2007
Ngô Quang Trưởng
Vietnamese general (born 1929)
Ngô Quang Trưởng was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Trưởng gained his commission in the Vietnamese National Army in 1954 and moved up the ranks over the next decade, mostly in the Airborne Brigade. In 1966, Trưởng commanded a division for the first time after he was given command of the 1st Division after helping to quell the Buddhist Uprising. He rebuilt the unit after this divisive period and used it to reclaim the city of Huế after weeks of bitter street fighting during the Tết Offensive.
2001
Tommie Agee
American baseball player (born 1942)
Tommie Lee Agee was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a center fielder from 1962 through 1973, most notably as a member of the New York Mets team that became known as the Miracle Mets when they rose from being perennial losers to defeat the favored Baltimore Orioles in the 1969 World Series for one of the most improbable upsets in World Series history. Agee performed two impressive defensive plays in center field to help preserve a Mets victory in the third game of the series.
2012
Dick Tufeld
American actor (born 1926)
Richard Norton Tufeld was an American actor, announcer, narrator, and voice actor from the late 1940s until the early 21st century. He worked constantly and continuously throughout this lengthy career and was one of the busiest announcers in television history. He was a well-known and well respected presence on television as an announcer on countless television shows, award shows, network promos, radio and movie promos but his most famous role was as the voice of the Robot in the 1960s television series Lost in Space and in the Lost in Space movie.
2012
Joe Paterno
American football player and coach (born 1926)
Joseph Vincent Paterno, sometimes referred to as JoePa, was an American college football player, athletic director, and coach. He was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions from 1966 to 2011. With 409 victories, Paterno is the most victorious coach in NCAA FBS history. He recorded his 409th victory on October 29, 2011; his career ended with his dismissal from the team on November 9, 2011, as a result of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal. He died 74 days later, of complications from lung cancer.
1536
John of Leiden
Anabaptist leader from the Dutch city of Leiden (born 1509)
John of Leiden was a Dutch Anabaptist leader. In 1533 he moved to Münster, capital of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster, where he became an influential prophet, turned the city into a millenarian Anabaptist theocracy, and proclaimed himself King of New Jerusalem in September 1534. The insurrection was suppressed in June 1535 after Prince-Bishop Franz von Waldeck besieged the city and captured John. John was tortured to death in the city's central marketplace on 22 January 1536, along with Bernhard Knipperdolling and Bernhard Krechting.