Notable people who died on March 8 include: Urraca of León and Castile (born 1079), Adela of Normandy, Pope Celestine II, Bayezid I, Francesco I Sforza.

Notable Deaths on March 8

Q: What is Bayezid I known for?

Bayezid I, Ottoman sultan (born 1360)

1403 — Bayezid I

Ottoman sultan (born 1360)

March 8 has seen 65 notable figures pass away throughout recorded history — from 1126 – 2025. Below are the most significant names who died on this date.

By thisDay.info Editorial Team · March 8 — Wikipedia

Notable Deaths 65 people 1126 – 2025

Did you know

Bayezid I, also known as Bayezid the Thunderbolt, was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1389 to 1402

Did you know

In 1394, Bayezid unsuccessfully besieged Constantinople

Did you know

Two years later, he defeated the crusaders at the Battle of Nicopolis in what is now Bulgaria in 1396

Did you know

In 1402, he once more besieged Constantinople, appearing to find success, but he ultimately withdrew due to the invasion of the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur

Did you know

Bayezid was defeated and captured by Timur at the Battle of Ankara in 1402 and died in captivity in March 1403, which triggered the Ottoman Interregnum between his sons.

Urraca of León and Castile (born 1079)

Urraca, called the Reckless (La Temeraria), was Queen of León, Castile and Galicia from 1109 until her death. She claimed the imperial title as suo jure Empress of All Spain and Empress of All Galicia. She is considered…

1126

Adela of Normandy

by marriage countess of Blois (born c. 1067)

Adela of Normandy, of Blois, or of England, also known as Saint Adela in the Catholic Church, was a daughter of William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders. She later became the countess of Blois, Chartres, and Meaux…

1137

Pope Celestine II

Pope Celestine II, born Guido di Castello, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 26 September 1143 to his death on 8 March 1144.

1144

Francesco I Sforza

Duke of Milan (born 1401)

Francesco I Sforza was an Italian condottiere who founded the Sforza dynasty in the duchy of Milan, ruling as its (fourth) duke from 1450 until his death. Renowned for his military skill and political acumen, he was…

1466

John of God

Portuguese friar and saint (born 1495)

John of God, O.H. was a Portuguese soldier turned healthcare worker in Spain, whose followers later formed the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, a Catholic religious institute dedicated to the care of the…

1550

Veit Bach

German baker and miller

Vitus "Veit" Bach was a German baker and miller who, according to Johann Sebastian Bach, founded the Bach family, which became one of the most important families in musical history.

1619

Xu Xiake

Chinese geographer and explorer (born 1587)

Xu Xiake, born Xu Hongzu (徐弘祖), courtesy name Zhenzhi (振之), was a Chinese explorer, geographer, and travel writer of the Ming dynasty, known best for his famous geographical treatise, and noted for his bravery and…

1641

William III of England (born 1650)

William III and II, also known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from 1672, and King of…

1702

Abraham Darby I

English blacksmith (born 1678)

Abraham Darby, in his later life called Abraham Darby the Elder, now sometimes known for convenience as Abraham Darby I, was an English ironmaster and foundryman. Born into an English Quaker family that played an…

1717

Povel Juel

Norwegian civil servant (born c.1673)

Povel Juel was a Norwegian civil servant and writer, executed for treason in 1723.

1723

Christopher Wren

English architect, designed St. Paul's Cathedral (born 1632)

Sir Christopher Wren was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who is one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he…

1723

Charles XIV John of Sweden (born 1763)

Charles XIV John was King of Sweden and Norway from 1818 until his death in 1844 and the first monarch of the Bernadotte dynasty. In Norway, he is known as Charles III John ; before he became royalty in Sweden, his name…

1844

Hector Berlioz

French composer, conductor, and critic (born 1803)

Louis-Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, conductor and critic. His output includes orchestral works such as the Symphonie fantastique and Harold in Italy, choral pieces including the Requiem and L'Enfance du…

1869

Priscilla Susan Bury

British botanist (born 1799)

Priscilla Susan Bury, born Falkner, was an English botanist and illustrator.

1872

Cornelius Krieghoff

Dutch-Canadian painter (born 1815)

Cornelius David Krieghoff was a Dutch-born Canadian-American painter of the 19th century. He is best known for his paintings of Canadian genre scenes involving landscapes and outdoor life, which were as sought after in…

1872

Millard Fillmore

American lawyer and politician, 13th President of the United States (born 1800)

Millard Fillmore was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853. He was the last president to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House, and the last to be neither a Democrat nor a…

1874

Henry Ward Beecher

American minister and activist (born 1813)

Henry Ward Beecher was an American Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and speaker, known for his support of the abolition of slavery, his emphasis on God's love, and his 1875 adultery trial. His rhetorical…

1887

James Buchanan Eads

American engineer, designed the Eads Bridge (born 1820)

James Buchanan Eads was an American civil engineer and inventor. He held more than 50 patents and was known internationally. He designed and built the Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River in St. Louis, which was…

1887

John Ericsson

Swedish-American engineer (born 1803)

John Ericsson was a Swedish-American engineer and inventor. He was active in England and the United States.

1889

Ferdinand von Zeppelin

German general and businessman (born 1838)

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin was a German general and later inventor of the Zeppelin rigid airships. His name became synonymous with airships and dominated long-distance flight until the 1930s. He founded the company…

1917

Johannes Diderik van der Waals

Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1837)

Johannes Diderik van der Waals was a Dutch theoretical physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1910 "for his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids." Van der Waals started his career as a…

1923

William Howard Taft

American politician, 27th President of the United States (born 1857)

William Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices.

1930

Edward Terry Sanford

American jurist and politician, United States Assistant Attorney General (born 1865)

Edward Terry Sanford was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1923 until his death in 1930. Prior to his nomination to the high court, Sanford served as a…

1930

Minna Craucher

Finnish socialite and spy (born 1891)

Minna Craucher was the pseudonym of Maria Vilhelmiina Lindell, a Finnish socialite and spy. Her home was a noted salon for various writers and artists. She also did espionage, originally for the Cheka, the Soviet secret…

1932

Howie Morenz

Canadian ice hockey player (born 1902)

Howard William Morenz was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Beginning in 1923, he played centre for three National Hockey League (NHL) teams: the Montreal Canadiens, the Chicago Black Hawks, and the New York…

1937

Sherwood Anderson

American novelist and short story writer (born 1876)

Sherwood Anderson was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and Elyria,…

1941

José Raúl Capablanca

Cuban chess player (born 1888)

José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera was a Cuban chess player who was the third world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he was widely renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play.

1942

Cipto Mangunkusumo

Indonesian independence leader (born 1886)

Cipto Mangunkusumo was a prominent Indonesian independence leader and Sukarno's political mentor. Together with Ernest Douwes Dekker and Soewardi Soerjaningrat, he was one of the three founders of the influential…

1943

Fredy Hirsch

German Jewish athlete who helped thousands of Jewish children in the Holocaust (born 1916)

Alfred Hirsch was a German-Jewish athlete, sports teacher, and Zionist youth movement leader, notable for helping thousands of Jewish children during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in Prague, Theresienstadt…

1944

Hulusi Behçet

Turkish dermatologist and scientist (born 1889)

Hulusi Behçet was a Turkish dermatologist and scientist. He described a disease of inflamed blood vessels in 1937, which is named after him as Behçet's disease. His portrait was depicted on a former Turkish postcard…

1948

Othmar Schoeck

Swiss composer and conductor (born 1886)

Othmar Schoeck was a Swiss Romantic composer and conductor. He was known for his considerable output of art songs and song cycles but also wrote operas, notably the one-act Penthesilea, premiered in Dresden in 1927, and…

1957

Thomas Beecham

English conductor and composer (born 1879)

Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the…

1961

Harold Lloyd

American actor, director, and producer (born 1893)

Harold Clayton Lloyd Sr. was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films.

1971

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan

American keyboard player and songwriter (born 1945)

Ronald Charles McKernan, known as Pigpen, was an American musician. He was a founding member of the San Francisco band the Grateful Dead and played in the group from 1965 to 1972.

1973

George Stevens

American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1904)

George Cooper Stevens was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for A Place in the Sun (1951) and Giant (1956).

1975

Hatem Ali Jamadar

Bengali politician (born 1872)

Khan Sahib Hatem Ali Jamadar was a Bengali politician and philanthropist. He served as a member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly and the East Bengal Legislative Assembly.

1982

Alan Lennox-Boyd

1st Viscount Boyd of Merton, English lieutenant and politician (born 1904)

Alan Tindal Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton, CH, PC, DL, was a British Conservative politician.

1983

William Walton

English composer (born 1902)

Sir William Turner Walton was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include Façade, the cantata…

1983

Billy Eckstine

American jazz singer (born 1914)

William Clarence Eckstine was an American jazz and pop singer and a bandleader during the swing and bebop eras. He was noted for his rich, almost operatic bass-baritone voice. In 2019, Eckstine was posthumously awarded…

1993

Jack Churchill

British colonel (born 1906)

John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, was a British Army officer. Nicknamed "Fighting Jack Churchill" and "Mad Jack", he fought in the Second World War with a broadsword, longbow, and a set of bagpipes.

1996

Ray Nitschke

American football player (born 1936)

Raymond Ernest Nitschke was an American professional football player who spent his entire 15-year career as a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) with the Green Bay Packers. Enshrined in the Pro Football…

1998

Adolfo Bioy Casares

Argentinian journalist and author (born 1914)

Adolfo Bioy Casares was an Argentine fiction writer, journalist, diarist, and translator. He was a friend and frequent collaborator of his fellow countryman Jorge Luis Borges. He is the author of the Fantastique novel…

1999

Peggy Cass

American actress and comedian (born 1924)

Mary Margaret "Peggy" Cass was an American actress, comedian, game show panelist, and announcer.

1999

Joe DiMaggio

American baseball player and coach (born 1914)

Joseph Paul DiMaggio, nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "the Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American professional baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York…

1999

Adam Faith

English singer (born 1940)

Terence Nelhams Wright, known professionally as Adam Faith, was an English singer, actor, and financial journalist. As a British rock and roll teen idol, he scored consecutive No. 1 hits on the UK singles chart with…

2003

Karen Morley

American actress (born 1909)

Karen Morley was an American film actress.

2003

Muhammad Zaidan

Syrian militant, founded the Palestinian Liberation Front (born 1948)

Muhammad Zaidan aka Muhammad Abbas, sometimes known as Abu Abbas, was a founder of the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) Organization.

2004

César Lattes

Brazilian physicist and academic (born 1924)

Cesare Mansueto Giulio Lattes, also known as César Lattes, was a Brazilian experimental physicist, one of the discoverers of the pion, a subatomic particle composed of a quark and an antiquark.

2005

Aslan Maskhadov

Chechen commander and politician, President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (born 1951)

Aslan Aliyevich Maskhadov was a Soviet and Chechen politician and military commander who also served as the third president of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.

2005

John Inman

English actor (born 1935)

Frederick John Inman was an English actor and singer best known for his role as Mr. Humphries in Are You Being Served?, a British sitcom between 1972 and 1985, and the spin-off series Grace and Favour. He was the only…

2007

John Vukovich

American baseball player and coach (born 1947)

John Christopher Vukovich, nicknamed "Vuk" or "Johnny Vuk", was an American professional baseball utility infielder, manager, and coach in Major League Baseball, best known for his years with the Philadelphia Phillies.…

2007

Hank Locklin

American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1918)

Lawrence Hankins Locklin was an American country music singer and songwriter. He had 70 chart singles, including two number-one hits on Billboard's country chart. His biggest hits included "Send Me the Pillow You Dream…

2009

Simin Daneshvar

Iranian author and academic (born 1921)

Simin Dāneshvar was an Iranian academic, novelist, fiction writer, and translator.

2012

John O'Connell

Irish politician, Irish Minister of Health (born 1927)

John Francis O'Connell was an Irish politician who served as Minister for Health from 1992 to 1993 and Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann from 1981 to 1982. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1965 to 1987 and from 1989…

2013

Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin

German soldier and publisher (born 1922)

Ewald-Heinrich Hermann Konrad Oskar Ulrich Wolf Alfred von Kleist-Schmenzin was a German publisher and convenor of the Munich Conference on Security Policy until 1998. A member of the von Kleist family and an officer in…

2013

Leo Bretholz

Austrian-American Holocaust survivor and author (born 1921)

Leo Bretholz was a Holocaust survivor who, in 1942, escaped from a train heading for Auschwitz. He has also written a book on his experiences, titled Leap into Darkness.

2014

William Guarnere

American sergeant (born 1923)

William J. Guarnere Sr. was a United States Army paratrooper who fought in World War II as a non-commissioned officer with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division.

2014

Sam Simon

American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1955)

Samuel Michael Simon was an American television writer, producer and animal rights activist who co-developed the animated sitcom The Simpsons.

2015

George Martin

English composer, conductor, and producer (born 1926)

Sir George Henry Martin was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the "fifth Beatle" due to his extensive involvement in each of the Beatles' original…

2016

Kate Wilhelm

American author (born 1928)

Kate Wilhelm was an American author. She wrote novels and stories in the science fiction, mystery, and suspense genres, including the Hugo Award–winning Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang. Wilhelm established the Clarion…

2018

Marshall Brodien

American actor (born 1934)

Marshall Brodien was an American professional magician who played Wizzo the Wizard, a wizard clown character which appeared on WGN-TV's Bozo's Circus and The Bozo Show from 1968 to 1994.

2019

Cedrick Hardman

American football player and actor (born 1948)

Cedrick Ward Hardman was an American professional football defensive end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders, then played in the United States Football…

2019

Max von Sydow

Swedish actor (born 1929)

Max von Sydow was a Swedish-French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television series in multiple languages. Capable…

2020

Athol Fugard

South African actor, director, and playwright (born 1932)

Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard was a South African playwright, novelist, actor and director. Widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright and acclaimed as "the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking…

2025

March 8 in the Blog

The Komagata Maru Incident - March 8, 1914

375 passengers denied entry: the 1914 Komagata Maru Incident in Vancouver, Canada, escalates racial tensions that year

Read the full story

Notable deaths

Who died on March 8?

Bayezid I — Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1389 to 1402

FeaturedBayezid I

Death year1403

Known forHe adopted the title of Sultan-i Rûm, Rûm being the Arabic name for the Eastern Roman Empire

Deaths on this date65 (1126 – 2025)

Explore March 8

Jump between the main pages for this date to compare events, people, and the daily quiz.

Events on March 8 Birthdays on March 8 Deaths on March 8 March 8 quiz

Also on March 8 in History

2021

International Women's Day marches in Mexico become violent with 62 police officers and 19 civilians injured in Mexico City alone. Wikipedia →

2021

Twenty-eight political institutions in Myanmar establish the National Unity Consultative Council, a historic alliance of ethnic armed organizations and democratically elected leaders, in response to the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état. Wikipedia →

2018

The first Aurat March (social/political demonstration) is held on International Women's Day in Karachi, Pakistan, since then held annually across Pakistan, and the feminist slogan "Mera Jism Meri Marzi" (My body, my choice), in demand for women's right to bodily autonomy and against gender-based violence, came into vogue in Pakistan. Wikipedia →

See all events on March 8

March 7 March 9

Explore notable deaths on the interactive calendar.

Open the Calendar All Blog Posts

Notable Deaths on March 8

1403 — Bayezid I

March 8 in the Blog

Who died on March 8?

Explore March 8

Also on March 8 in History

History runs on facts, and this project runs on coffee!