Did you know about José Ferrer
José Ferrer was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic American actors during his lifetime and after, with a career spanning nearly 60 years between 1935 and 1992.
Notable Deaths on January 26
January 26 has 89 recorded notable deaths across history, from 738 to 2025. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
1992 — José Ferrer
Puerto Rican-American actor (born 1912)
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Notable Deaths
89 source records
738 – 2025
Today in history
Major events on January 26
See what else happened on this day in history.
- 1950 The Constitution of India comes into force, forming a republic. Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as the first President of India. Observed as Republic Day in India. Source
- 1788 The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sails into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on Australia. Commemorated as Australia Day. Source
Did you know about Gianna Bryant
Along with her father and seven others, Bryant died in a helicopter crash in January 2020 at the age of 13 while traveling to a youth basketball tournament at the Mamba Sports Academy.
Did you know about Bear Bryant
Upon his retirement in 1982, he held the record for the most wins (323) as a head coach in collegiate football history.
Did you know about Charles George Gordon
Major-General Charles George Gordon CB, also known as Chinese Gordon, Gordon Pasha, Gordon of Khartoum and General Gordon, was a British Army officer and administrator.
Did you know about Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the war, and had a pivotal role in the early fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg.
More major people who died on January 26
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
2020
Gianna Bryant
American student-athlete (born 2006)
Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant, also known as Gigi Bryant and Mambacita, was an American student-athlete and the daughter of National Basketball Association (NBA) player Kobe Bryant and Vanessa Bryant. Raised in Newport Beach, California, Bryant was a competitive point guard who played for the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and Harbor Day School under the training and coaching of her father. A highly regarded prospect, she publicly aspired to play college basketball for the University of Connecticut Huskies and later play professionally in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was widely recognized as the heir to her father's athletic legacy. Along with her father and seven others, Bryant died in a helicopter crash in January 2020 at the age of 13 while traveling to a youth basketball tournament at the Mamba Sports Academy.
1983
Bear Bryant
American football player and coach (born 1913)
Paul William "Bear" Bryant was an American college football player and coach. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, and best known as the head coach of the University of Alabama football team, the Alabama Crimson Tide, from 1958 to 1982. During his 25-year tenure as Alabama's head coach, he amassed six national championships and 13 conference championships. Upon his retirement in 1982, he held the record for the most wins (323) as a head coach in collegiate football history. The Paul W. Bryant Museum, Paul W. Bryant Hall, Paul W. Bryant Drive, and Saban Field at Bryant–Denny Stadium are all named in his honor at the University of Alabama.
1885
Charles George Gordon
English general and politician (born 1833)
Major-General Charles George Gordon CB, also known as Chinese Gordon, Gordon Pasha, Gordon of Khartoum and General Gordon, was a British Army officer and administrator. He saw action in the Crimean War as an officer in the British Army. He made his military reputation in China, where he was placed in command of the "Ever Victorious Army", a force of Chinese soldiers led by European officers that was instrumental in putting down the Taiping Rebellion, regularly defeating much larger forces. For these accomplishments, he was given the nickname "Chinese Gordon" and honours from both the Emperor of China and the British.
1893
Abner Doubleday
American general (born 1819)
Abner Doubleday was a career United States Army officer and Union major general in the American Civil War. He fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the war, and had a pivotal role in the early fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg. Gettysburg was his finest hour, but his relief by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade caused lasting enmity between the two men. In San Francisco, after the war, he obtained a patent on the cable car railway that still runs there. In his final years in New Jersey, he was a prominent member and later president of the Theosophical Society.
1855
Gérard de Nerval
French poet and translator (born 1808)
Gérard de Nerval was the pen name of Gérard Labrunie, a French travel writer, essayist, poet, and translator. He was a major figure during the era of French romanticism, and best known for his novellas and poems, especially the collection Les Filles du feu, which included the novella Sylvie and the poem "El Desdichado". Through his translations, Nerval played a major role in introducing French readers to the works of German Romantic authors, including Klopstock, Schiller, Bürger and Goethe. His later work merged poetry and journalism in a fictional context and influenced Marcel Proust. His last novella, Aurélia ou le rêve et la vie, influenced André Breton and Surrealism.
1886
David Rice Atchison
American general and politician (born 1807)
David Rice Atchison was a mid-19th-century Democratic United States Senator from Missouri. He served as president pro tempore of the United States Senate for six years. Atchison served as a major general in the Missouri State Militia in 1838 during Missouri's Mormon War and as a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War under Major General Sterling Price in the Missouri Home Guard. Some of Atchison's associates claimed that for 24 hours—Sunday, March 4, 1849, through noon on Monday—he may have been acting president of the United States. This belief, however, is dismissed by most scholars.
2000
Don Budge
American tennis player and coach (born 1915)
John Donald Budge was an American tennis player. He is most famous as the first tennis player—male or female—to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in one year and complete the Grand Slam. Budge was the second man to complete the career Grand Slam, after Fred Perry. He won ten majors, of which six were Grand Slam events and four Pro Slams, the latter achieved on three different surfaces. Budge is considered to have had one of the best backhands in the history of tennis, with most observers rating it better than that of later player Ken Rosewall.
2014
Tom Gola
American basketball player, coach, and politician (born 1933)
Thomas Joseph Gola was an American basketball player and politician. Gola was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1976 and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. He is widely considered one of the greatest NCAA basketball players of all time, playing four years with the La Salle Explorers. Gola was a consensus first-team All-American for three consecutive years. He has held the record for the most total rebounds in NCAA history since 1955, and was the first college player to have over 2,000 points and 2,000 rebounds in a career. Gola was the Helms Foundations College Basketball Player of the Year in 1954, and the United Press Player of the Year in 1955, as well as being the highest vote recipient for the Associated Press' 1955 All-America Team. He was selected the most valuable player in the 1952 National Invitation Tournament and the 1954 NCAA basketball tournament.
1996
Frank Howard
American football player and coach (born 1909)
Frank J. Howard was an American college football player and coach. He played college football for Alabama. After a career-ending injury, Howard joined the staff at Clemson College and became head coach in 1940. Howard coached the Clemson Tigers for 30 years, amassing the 15th most wins of any college football coach. He led Clemson to ten bowl games, an undefeated season in 1948, and several top-20 rankings during his tenure as head coach. During his stay at Clemson, Howard also oversaw the athletic department, ticket sales, and was an assistant coach for the baseball team. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, the South Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and the Clemson Ring of Honor. The playing surface at Clemson's Memorial Stadium is named after him.
2017
Barbara Howard
Canadian sprinter and educator (born 1920)
Barbara Howard was a Canadian sprinter and educator. Growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia, Howard gained national media attention as a sprinter in high school when she completed a time trial that broke the standing British Empire Games record for the 100-yard dash. She was selected as a member of the Canadian track and field team for the 1938 British Empire Games, becoming the first Black woman to represent Canada in international athletic competition. Although she did not place in the 100-yard dash, she helped her team win silver and bronze in the 440-yard and 660-yard relay events. The outbreak of the Second World War meant that most international sporting events over the next decade were cancelled, and Howard's window of opportunity as a sprinter ended before she could compete again.
1948
Fred Conrad Koch
American biochemist and endocrinologist (born 1876)
Frederick Conrad Koch was an American biochemist and endocrinologist. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Koch graduated from the University of Illinois in 1899. He was affiliated with the University of Chicago from 1912 to 1941, serving as chairman of the department of biochemistry from 1936 to 1941. He retired as professor emeritus, and was director of biomedical research at Armour and Company. He was known primarily for his work on male sex hormones and testicular function. He served as the 19th president of the Endocrine Society, which in 1957 established the Fred Conrad Koch Lifetime Achievement Award, the society's highest honor.
1869
Duncan Gordon Boyes
English soldier; Victoria Cross recipient (born 1846)
Duncan Gordon Boyes VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. The award was bestowed upon him for his actions during the Shimonoseki Expedition, Japan in 1864. He was later discharged from naval service as a result of ill-discipline and moved to New Zealand to work on his family's sheep station. Suffering from depression and alcoholism, he committed suicide at the age of 22 in Dunedin.
2017
Tam Dalyell
Scottish politician (born 1932)
Sir Thomas Dalyell, 11th Baronet, known as Tam Dalyell, was a Scottish politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Linlithgow from 1962 to 2005. A member of the Labour Party, he was best known for formulating what came to be known as the "West Lothian question", on whether non-English MPs should be able to vote upon English-only matters after political devolution. He was also known for his staunch anti-war views, opposing the Falklands War, the Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War.
1962
Lucky Luciano
Italian-American mob boss (born 1897)
Charles "Lucky" Luciano was an Italian mafioso who operated mainly in the United States. He started his criminal career in New York City's Five Points Gang and was instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate. Luciano is considered the father of the Italian-American Mafia for the establishment of the Commission in 1931, after he abolished the capo dei capi title held by Salvatore Maranzano following the Castellammarese War. He was also the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family.
2006
Khan Abdul Wali Khan
Pakistani politician (born 1917)
Khan Abdul Wali Khan was a Pakistani politician who served as president of the National Awami Party from 1967 till its dissolution in 1986, and then of the Awami National Party, a left wing Pashtun nationalist federalist party. He was the Leader of the Opposition twice, from 1972 to 1975 and from 1988 to 1990. A political rival of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, he led the Pakistan National Alliance, and then a nationwide uprising, against the Pakistan Peoples Party in the 1977 parliamentary election.
2015
Tom Uren
Australian politician (born 1921)
Thomas Uren was an Australian politician and Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1975 to 1977. Uren served as the Member for Reid in the Australian House of Representatives from 1958 to 1990, being appointed Minister for Urban and Regional Development (1972–75), Minister for Territories and Local Government (1983–84) and Minister for Local Government and Administrative Services (1984–87). He helped establish the heritage and conservation movement in Australia and, in particular, worked to preserve the heritage of inner Sydney.
2020
John Altobelli
American college baseball coach (born 1963)
John Edward Altobelli was an American college baseball coach who worked for 27 seasons at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California. During his career, he led the Pirates to four California state junior college titles and in 2019 was named National Coach of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association. In January 2020, Altobelli, along with his wife Keri and daughter Alyssa, died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, which also killed basketball player Kobe Bryant.
1973
Edward G. Robinson
Romanian-American actor (born 1893)
Edward Goldenberg Robinson was an American actor who was popular during Hollywood's Golden Age. After making his stage debut in 1913, he rose to stardom with his performance as the title character in Little Caesar (1931) and became well known for his portrayals of gangsters. He starred in a variety of films, including the biopics Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet and A Dispatch from Reuters and the film noirs Double Indemnity and The Woman in the Window.
2017
Mike Connors
American actor (born 1925)
Krekor Ohanian, known professionally as Mike Connors, was an American actor and film producer. He was best known for playing private detective Joe Mannix on the CBS television series Mannix from 1967 to 1975. This role earned him a Golden Globe Award in 1970, the first of six straight nominations, as well as four consecutive Primetime Emmy nominations from 1970 to 1973. He also starred in the short-lived series Tightrope! (1959–1960) and Today's FBI (1981–1982).