Did you know about Gemini Ganesan
A recipient of the Padma Shri in 1971, he had also won several other awards including the Kalaimamani, the MGR Gold Medal, and the Screen Lifetime Achievement Award.
Notable Deaths on March 22
March 22 has 101 recorded notable deaths across history, from 235 to 2026. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
2005 — Gemini Ganesan
Indian film actor (born 1920)
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Notable Deaths
101 source records
235 – 2026
Today in history
Major events on March 22
See what else happened on this day in history.
Did you know about Scott Walker
Scott Walker lived in the UK from 1965 onwards, and became a UK citizen in 1970.
Did you know about Dan Hartman
"I Can Dream About You", his most successful US hit, reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984.
Did you know about U. G. Krishnamurti
Having pursued a religious path in his youth and eventually rejecting it, U.G. clarified that he had experienced a devastating biological transformation on his 49th birthday, an event he referred to as "the calamity".
Did you know about Jean-Baptiste Lully
Best known for his operas, he spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV and became a French subject in 1661.
More major people who died on March 22
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
2019
Scott Walker
British-American singer-songwriter (born 1943)
Noel Scott Engel, better known by his stage name Scott Walker, was an American-British singer-songwriter, composer, and record producer. Walker was known for his emotive baritone voice and his unorthodox career path, which took him from being a teen pop icon in the 1960s to an avant-garde musician from the 1990s to his death. Walker was most successful in the United Kingdom, where he achieved fame as a member of pop trio the Walker Brothers, who scored several hit singles during the mid-1960s, including two number-one hits on the UK singles chart with "Make It Easy on Yourself" (1965) and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" (1966). He lived in the UK from 1965 onwards, and became a UK citizen in 1970.
1994
Dan Hartman
American singer-songwriter, and producer (born 1950)
Daniel Earl Hartman was an American pop rock musician. Among songs he wrote and recorded were "Free Ride" as a member of the Edgar Winter Group, and the solo hits "Relight My Fire", "Instant Replay", "I Can Dream About You", "We Are the Young" and "Second Nature". "I Can Dream About You", his most successful US hit, reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984. The James Brown song "Living in America", which Hartman co-wrote and produced, reached No. 4 on March 1, 1986.
2007
U. G. Krishnamurti
Indian-Italian philosopher and educator (born 1918)
Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti was an Indian "anti-guru" who questioned the search for enlightenment. Having pursued a religious path in his youth and eventually rejecting it, U.G. clarified that he had experienced a devastating biological transformation on his 49th birthday, an event he referred to as "the calamity". He emphasized that this transformation back to "the natural state" is a rare, acausal, biological occurrence with no religious context. Because of this, he discouraged people from pursuing the "natural state" as a spiritual goal.
1687
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Italian-French composer and conductor (born 1632)
Jean-Baptiste Lully was an Italian-French composer, dancer and instrumentalist, who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV and became a French subject in 1661. He was a close friend of the playwright Molière, with whom he collaborated on numerous comédie-ballets, including L'Amour médecin, George Dandin ou le Mari confondu, Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, Psyché and his best known work, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme.
2026
Lionel Jospin
French civil servant and politician, 165th Prime Minister of France (born 1937)
Lionel Robert Jospin was a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002. Jospin was first secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and the party's candidate for president in the 1995 and 2002 elections. In 1995, he was narrowly defeated in the second round by Jacques Chirac. In 2002, he was eliminated in the first round after finishing behind both Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen, prompting him to announce his retirement from politics. In 2015, he was appointed to the Constitutional Council by National Assembly President Claude Bartolone.
2005
Kenzō Tange
Japanese architect, designed the Yoyogi National Gymnasium and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (born 1913)
Kenzō Tange was a Japanese architect. Born in Sakai and raised in China and southern Japan, Tange was inspired from an early age by the work of Le Corbusier and designed his first buildings under Imperial Japan. He first achieved recognition for his projects to reconstruct the destroyed cities of postwar Japan, particularly Hiroshima, where he designed the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. His engagement with the Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne in the 1950s made him one of the first Japanese architects to achieve international recognition.
880
Carloman of Bavaria
Frankish king
Carloman was a Frankish king of the Carolingian dynasty. He was the eldest son of Louis the German, king of East Francia, and Hemma, daughter of a Bavarian count. His father appointed him governor of Carantania in 856, and commander of southeastern frontier marches in 864. Upon his father's death in 876 he became king of Bavaria. He was appointed by King Louis II of Italy as his successor, but the Kingdom of Italy was taken by his uncle Charles the Bald in 875. Carloman only conquered it in 877. In 879 he was incapacitated, perhaps by a stroke, and abdicated his domains in favour of his younger brothers: Bavaria to Louis the Younger and Italy to Charles the Fat.
1996
Robert F. Overmyer
American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (born 1936)
Robert Franklyn Overmyer was an American test pilot, naval aviator, aeronautical engineer, physicist, United States Marine Corps officer, and USAF/NASA astronaut. Overmyer was selected by the Air Force as an astronaut for its Manned Orbiting Laboratory in 1966. Upon cancellation of the program in 1969, he became a NASA astronaut and served support crew duties for the Apollo program, Skylab program, and Apollo–Soyuz Test Project. In 1976, he was assigned to the Space Shuttle program and flew as pilot on STS-5 in 1982 and as commander on STS-51-B in 1985. He was selected as a lead investigator into the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, retiring from NASA that same year. A decade later, Overmyer died while testing the Cirrus VK-30 homebuilt aircraft.
2010
James Black
Scottish biologist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1924)
Sir James Whyte Black born was a Scottish physician and pharmacologist. Together with Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings, he shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988 for pioneering strategies for rational drug-design, which, in his case, led to the development of propranolol and cimetidine. Black established a Veterinary Physiology department at the University of Glasgow, where he became interested in the effects of adrenaline on the human heart. He went to work for ICI Pharmaceuticals in 1958 and, while there, developed propranolol, a beta blocker used for the treatment of heart disease. Black was also responsible for the development of cimetidine, an H2 receptor antagonist, a drug used to treat stomach ulcers.
1976
John Dwyer McLaughlin
American painter (born 1898)
John Dwyer McLaughlin was an American abstract painter. Based primarily in California, he was a pioneer in minimalism and hard-edge painting. Considered one of the most significant Californian postwar artists, McLaughlin painted a focused body of geometric works that are completely devoid of any connection to everyday experience and objects, inspired by the Japanese notion of the void. He aimed to create paintings devoid of any object hood including but not limited to a gestures, representations and figuration. This led him to the rectangle. Leveraging a technique of layering rectangular bars on adjacent planes, McLaughlin creates works that provoke introspection and, consequently, a greater understanding of one's relationship to nature.
1322
Thomas
2nd Earl of Lancaster, English politician, Lord High Steward of England (born 1278)
Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster was an English nobleman of the first House of Lancaster, a cadet branch of the royal Plantagenet dynasty. He held the titles of Earl of Lancaster, Leicester, and Derby from 1296 until his death in 1322, and also those of Earl of Lincoln and Salisbury jure uxoris from 1311 to 1322. As one of the most powerful barons in England, Thomas became a leading figure in the baronial opposition to his first cousin, King Edward II.
2018
Johan van Hulst
Dutch politician, academic and author, Yad Vashem recipient (born 1911)
Johan Willem van Hulst was a Dutch school director, university professor, author, politician, chess player and centenarian. In 1943, with the help of the Dutch resistance and students of the nearby University of Amsterdam, he was instrumental in saving over 600 Jewish children from the nursery of the Hollandsche Schouwburg who were destined for deportation to Nazi concentration camps. For his humanitarian actions he received the Yad Vashem distinction Righteous Among the Nations from the State of Israel in 1973.
1832
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
German novelist, poet, playwright, and diplomat (born 1749)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on literary, political, Christian views, and philosophical thought in the Western world from the late 18th century to the present. A poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre-director, and critic, Goethe wrote a wide range of works, including plays, poetry and aesthetic criticism, as well as treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour.
1958
Mike Todd
American film producer (born 1909)
Michael Todd was an American theater and film producer, celebrated for his 1956 Around the World in 80 Days, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Actress Elizabeth Taylor was his third wife. Todd was the third of Taylor's seven husbands, and the only one Taylor did not divorce. He died in a private plane accident a year after they married. He was the driving force behind the development of the eponymous Todd-AO widescreen film format.
1471
George of Poděbrady (born 1420)
George of Kunštát and Poděbrady, also known as Poděbrad or Podiebrad, was the sixteenth King of Bohemia, who ruled in 1458–1471. He was a leader of the Hussites, but moderate and tolerant toward the Catholic faith. His rule was marked by great efforts to preserve peace and tolerance between the Hussites and Catholics in the religiously divided Crown of Bohemia – hence his contemporary nicknames: "King of two peoples" and "Friend of peace".
1820
Stephen Decatur
American commander (born 1779)
Stephen Decatur Jr. was a United States Navy officer. He was born on the eastern shore of Maryland in Worcester County. His father, Stephen Decatur Sr., was a commodore in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War; he brought the younger Stephen into the world of ships and sailing early on. Shortly after attending college, Decatur followed in his father's footsteps and joined the U.S. Navy at age 19 as a midshipman.
1913
Song Jiaoren
Chinese educator and politician (born 1882)
Song Jiaoren was a Chinese republican revolutionary and one of the founding leaders of the Kuomintang (KMT). An advocate of a parliamentary cabinet system to check the powers of Yuan Shikai, Song led the KMT to victory in China's first democratic election before being assassinated in Shanghai on 22 March 1913. His untimely death, widely attributed to Yuan, was regarded as having dashed the prospects for constitutional democracy in early 20th-century China.
2008
Cachao López
Cuban-American bassist and composer (born 1918)
Israel López Valdés, better known as Cachao, was a Cuban double bassist and composer. Cachao is widely known as the co-creator of the mambo and a master of the descarga. Throughout his career he also performed and recorded in a variety of music styles ranging from classical music to salsa. An exile in the United States since the 1960s, he only achieved international fame following a career revival in the 1990s.
1602
Agostino Carracci
Italian painter and educator (born 1557)
Agostino Carracci was an Italian painter, printmaker, tapestry designer, and art teacher. He was, together with his brother, Annibale Carracci, and cousin, Ludovico Carracci, one of the founders of the Accademia degli Incamminati in Bologna. Intended to devise alternatives to the Mannerist style favoured in the preceding decades, this teaching academy helped propel painters of the School of Bologna to prominence.