Notable Deaths on January 27

January 27 has 110 recorded notable deaths across history, from 98 to 2022. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

Pete Seeger

2014 — Pete Seeger

American singer-songwriter, guitarist and activist (born 1919)

By · — Wikipedia

Notable Deaths 110 source records 98 – 2022

Major events on January 27

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1996 In a military coup, Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane. Source
  2. 1973 The Paris Peace Accords officially ends the Vietnam War. Colonel William Nolde is killed in action becoming the conflict's last recorded American combat casualty. Source

Did you know about Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, especially their recording of Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene", which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950.

Did you know about crew of Apollo 1

crew of Apollo 1 was also the second American to fly in space twice, preceded only by Joe Walker with his sub-orbital X-15 flights.

Did you know about R. Venkataraman

In 1984, he was elected as the vice president of India and in 1987, he became the president of India and served from 1987 to 1992.

Did you know about Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson was an American gospel singer, widely considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century.

Did you know about Zelda Rubinstein

Zelda Rubinstein also made guest appearances in the TV show Poltergeist: The Legacy (1996), as seer Christina, and was the voice of Skittles candies in their long-running "Taste the Rainbow" ad campaign.

More major people who died on January 27

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

1967 crew of Apollo 1

crew of Apollo 1

Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom was an American astronaut, and one of the original Mercury Seven selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for Project Mercury, a program to train and launch astronauts into outer space. Grissom went on to be a Project Gemini and Apollo program astronaut for NASA. As a member of the NASA Astronaut Corps, Grissom was the second American to fly in space in 1961. He was also the second American to fly in space twice, preceded only by Joe Walker with his sub-orbital X-15 flights.
Wikipedia source
2009 R. Venkataraman

R. Venkataraman

Indian lawyer and politician, 8th President of India (born 1910)
Ramaswamy Venkataraman, also known as R. Venkataraman, was an Indian lawyer, independence activist and politician who served as a union minister and as the vice president of india and president of India. Venkataraman was born in Rajamadam village in Tanjore district, Madras Presidency. He studied law and practised in the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court of India. In his youth, he was an activist for the Indian independence movement, and he participated in the Quit India Movement. He was appointed as the member of the Constituent Assembly and the provisional cabinet. He was elected to the Lok Sabha four times and served as Union Finance Minister and Defence Minister. In 1984, he was elected as the vice president of India and in 1987, he became the president of India and served from 1987 to 1992. He also served as a state minister under K. Kamaraj and M. Bhaktavatsalam. He is referred to as the Father of Industrialisation of Tamilnadu
Wikipedia source
1972 Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson

American singer (born 1911)
Mahalia Jackson was an American gospel singer, widely considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. With a career spanning 40 years, Jackson was integral to the development and spread of gospel blues in black churches throughout the U.S. During a time when racial segregation was pervasive in American society, she met considerable and unexpected success in a recording career, selling an estimated 22 million records and performing in front of integrated and secular audiences in concert halls around the world, making her one of the best-selling gospel music artists.
Wikipedia source
2010 Zelda Rubinstein

Zelda Rubinstein

American actress (born 1933)
Zelda May Rubinstein was an American actress and human rights activist, known as eccentric medium Tangina Barrons in the Poltergeist film series. Playing "Ginny", she was a regular on David E. Kelley's Emmy Award-winning television series Picket Fences for two seasons. She also made guest appearances in the TV show Poltergeist: The Legacy (1996), as seer Christina, and was the voice of Skittles candies in their long-running "Taste the Rainbow" ad campaign. Rubinstein was also known for her outspoken activism for little people and her early participation in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Wikipedia source
457 Marcian

Marcian

Byzantine emperor (born 392)
Marcian was Roman emperor of the East from 450 to 457. Very little is known of his life before becoming emperor, other than that he was a domesticus who served under the commanders Ardabur and his son Aspar for fifteen years. After the death of Emperor Theodosius II on 28 July 450, Marcian was made a candidate for the throne by Aspar, who held much influence because of his military power. After a month of negotiations Pulcheria, Theodosius's sister, agreed to marry Marcian. Zeno, a military leader whose influence was similar to Aspar's, may have been involved in these negotiations, as he was given the high-ranking court title of patrician upon Marcian's accession. Marcian was elected and inaugurated on 25 August 450.
Wikipedia source
1996 Ralph Yarborough

Ralph Yarborough

American colonel, lawyer, and politician (born 1903)
Ralph Webster Yarborough was an American politician and lawyer who represented Texas in the United States Senate from 1957 to 1971. A member of the Democratic Party, he was a leader of the progressive wing of the party. Along with Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, but unlike most Southern congressmen, Yarborough refused to support the 1956 Southern Manifesto, which called for resistance to the racial integration of schools and other public places. Yarborough voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, and 1968, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court. Yarborough was the only senator from a state that was part of the Confederacy to vote for all five bills.
Wikipedia source
1982 Trần Văn Hương

Trần Văn Hương

South Vietnamese politician, 3rd President of South Vietnam, 3rd Vice President of South Vietnam, and 3rd Prime Minister of South Vietnam (born 1902)
Trần Văn Hương was a South Vietnamese politician who was the penultimate president of South Vietnam for a week in April 1975 before its surrender to the communist forces of North Vietnam. Before ascending to the presidency, he served as vice president under President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu since October 1971 after being elected on a joint ticket with Thiệu in the 1971 South Vietnamese presidential election. Prior to that, he was prime minister for three months from November 1964 to January 1965 under the supervision of a military junta led by General Nguyễn Khánh; during this time, there was widespread civil unrest from the Buddhist majority and power struggles with the military. He also served as prime minister again from May 1968 to August 1969.
Wikipedia source
2012 Kevin White

Kevin White

American politician, 51st Mayor of Boston (born 1929)
Kevin Hagan White was an American politician best known for serving as the mayor of Boston for four terms from 1968 to 1984. He was first elected to the office at the age of 38. He presided as mayor during racially turbulent years in the late 1960s and 1970s, and the start of desegregation of schools via court-ordered busing of school children in Boston. White won the mayoral office in the 1967 general election in a hard-fought campaign opposing the anti-busing and anti-desegregation Boston School Committee member Louise Day Hicks. Earlier he had been elected Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth in 1960 at the age of 31, and he resigned from that office after his election as Mayor.
Wikipedia source
1927 Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulevičius

Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulevičius

Lithuanian bishop (born 1871)
Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulevičius was a Latin Church Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Vilnius from late 1918 until his resignation in 1925. Matulaitis was also the founder of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception and the Handmaids of Jesus in the Eucharist; he served as the Superior-General of the Marian Fathers from 1911 until his death. He worked in secret to revive the Marian Fathers after the Russian authorities suppressed all religious orders and he even relinquished his teaching position to better dedicate himself to that secret revival. He was a noted teacher and spiritual director who set up other branches of the order in places such as Switzerland and the United States far from Russian authorities.
Wikipedia source
555 Yuan Di

Yuan Di

emperor of the Liang Dynasty (born 508)
Emperor Yuan of Liang, personal name Xiao Yi (蕭繹), courtesy name Shicheng (世誠), childhood name Qifu (七符), was an emperor of the Chinese Liang dynasty. After his father Emperor Wu and brother Emperor Jianwen were successively taken hostage and controlled by the rebel general Hou Jing, Xiao Yi was largely viewed as the de facto leader of Liang, and after defeating Hou in 552 declared himself emperor. In 554, after offending Yuwen Tai, the paramount general of rival Western Wei, Western Wei forces descended on and captured his capital Jiangling, executing him and instead declaring his nephew Xiao Cha the Emperor of Liang.
Wikipedia source
1970 Marietta Blau

Marietta Blau

Austrian physicist and academic (born 1894)
Marietta Blau was an Austrian physicist of the 20th century who pioneered developments of photographic nuclear emulsions to image and accurately measure high-energy nuclear particles and events, significantly advancing the field of particle physics in her time. For this, she was awarded the Lieben Prize in 1937 by the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW). As a Jew, she became an émigré from Austria because of the 1938 Nazi Anschluss (annexe), her research continuing from Oslo, on to Mexico and the United States of America before eventually returning to Austria in 1960 where she was awarded the ÖAW Erwin Schrödinger Prize.
Wikipedia source
1873 Adam Sedgwick

Adam Sedgwick

British geologist, Anglican priest and doctoral advisor to Charles Darwin (born 1785)
Adam Sedgwick was a British geologist and Anglican priest, one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Cambrian and Devonian period of the geological timescale. Based on work which he did on Welsh rock strata, he proposed the Cambrian period in 1835, in a joint publication in which Roderick Murchison also proposed the Silurian period. Later in 1840, to resolve what later became known as the Great Devonian Controversy about rocks near the boundary between the Silurian and Carboniferous periods, he and Murchison proposed the Devonian period.
Wikipedia source
1973 William Nolde

William Nolde

American colonel (born 1929)
Colonel William Benedict Nolde was an officer in the United States Army. Born in Menominee, Michigan, Nolde was a professor of military science at Central Michigan University before joining the army. He is known for being the last official American combat casualty of the Vietnam War: the 45,914th confirmed death and 57,597th in the total list of Americans killed during the conflict. Nolde was killed by artillery fire eleven hours before the cessation of all hostilities in accordance with the Paris Peace Accords.
Wikipedia source
2011 Charlie Callas

Charlie Callas

American comedian and musician (born 1927)
Charlie Callas was an American actor and comedian. He was most commonly known for his work with Mel Brooks, Jerry Lewis, and Dean Martin, and his many stand-up appearances on television talk shows in the 1970s. He was also known for his role as Malcolm Argos, the restaurant owner and former con man, on the Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner television series Switch (1975–1978). Callas was also known as the voice of Elliott the Dragon in Disney's live-action/animated musical film Pete's Dragon (1977).
Wikipedia source
1971 Jacobo Árbenz

Jacobo Árbenz

Guatemalan captain and politician, President of Guatemala (born 1913)
Juan Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the 25th president of Guatemala. He was Minister of National Defense from 1944 to 1950, before he became the second democratically elected President of Guatemala, from 1951 to 1954. He was a major figure in the ten-year Guatemalan Revolution, which represented some of the few years of representative democracy in Guatemalan history. The landmark program of agrarian reform Árbenz enacted as president was very influential across Latin America.
Wikipedia source
2004 Salvador Laurel

Salvador Laurel

Filipino lawyer and politician, 10th Vice President of the Philippines (born 1928)
Salvador Roman Hidalgo Laurel, also known as Doy Laurel, was a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the Vice President of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992 under President Corazon Aquino and briefly served as the last Prime Minister from February 25 to March 25, 1986, when the position was abolished. He was a major leader of the United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO), the political party that helped topple the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos with the 1986 People Power Revolution.
Wikipedia source
1851 John James Audubon

John James Audubon

French-American ornithologist and painter (born 1789)
John James Audubon was a French-American artist, entrepreneur, naturalist, explorer, and ornithologist. His combined interests in painting and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictorial record of all the bird species of North America. He was notable for his extensive studies of American birds and for his detailed illustrations, which were engraved in Scotland and England for a large-format color-plate (intaglio) book titled The Birds of America (1827–1838), and five volumes of accompanying text entitled Ornithological Biography (1831–1839).
Wikipedia source
1974 Georgios Grivas

Georgios Grivas

Cypriot general (born 1898)
Georgios Grivas, also known by his nickname Digenis, was a Greek Cypriot officer of the Hellenic Army and founder and leader of the Greek and Greek Cypriot paramilitary organisations Organization X (1942–1949), EOKA (1955–1959) and EOKA B (1971–1974). He was also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in Cyprus, then known as the Supreme Military Defence Command of Cyprus (ASDAK), which in the event of war would lead the Cyprus National Guard and the Hellenic Force in Cyprus (ELDYK).
Wikipedia source
672 Pope Vitalian

Pope Vitalian

Pope Vitalian was the bishop of Rome from 30 July 657 to his death in 672. His pontificate was marked by the dispute between the papacy and the imperial government in Constantinople over Monothelitism, which Rome condemned. Vitalian tried to resolve the dispute and had a conciliatory relationship with Emperor Constans II, who visited him in Rome and gave him gifts. Vitalian's pontificate also saw the secession of the Archbishopric of Ravenna from the papal authority.
Wikipedia source

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