Did you know about Dennis Nilsen
Dennis Andrew Nilsen was a Scottish serial killer and necrophile who murdered at least twelve young men and boys between 1978 and 1983.
Notable Deaths on May 12
May 12 has 98 recorded notable deaths across history, from 805 to 2026. This page lists every one of them, with the best-known people first.
2018 — Dennis Nilsen
Scottish serial killer (born 1945)
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia · Report an error
Notable Deaths
98 source records
805 – 2026
Today in history
Major events on May 12
See what else happened on this day in history.
- 2002 Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro, becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since the Cuban Revolution. Source
- 1846 The Donner Party of pioneers departs Independence, Missouri for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship and cannibalism. Source
Did you know about Robert Reed
In 1976, he earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his guest-starring role in a two-part episode of Medical Center and for his work on the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man.
Did you know about H. R. Giger
H. R. Giger was part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for the visual design of Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien, and was responsible for creating the xenomorph alien itself.
Did you know about Jason Collins
Collins was selected by the Houston Rockets in the first round of the 2001 NBA draft with the 18th overall pick.
Did you know about Józef Piłsudski
Józef Klemens Piłsudski was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (1918–1922) and first Marshal of Poland.
More major people who died on May 12
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
1992
Robert Reed
American actor (born 1932)
Robert Reed was an American actor. He played Kenneth Preston on the legal drama The Defenders from 1961 to 1965 alongside E. G. Marshall, and is best known for his role as patriarch Mike Brady, opposite Florence Henderson's role as Carol Brady, on the ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch, which aired from 1969 to 1974. He later reprised his role of Mike Brady on several of the reunion programs. In 1976, he earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his guest-starring role in a two-part episode of Medical Center and for his work on the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man. The following year, Reed earned a third Emmy nomination for his role in the miniseries Roots.
2014
H. R. Giger
Swiss painter, sculptor, and set designer (born 1940)
Hans Ruedi Giger was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as "biomechanical". He was part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for the visual design of Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien, and was responsible for creating the xenomorph alien itself. His work is on permanent display at the H. R. Giger Museum in Gruyères, Switzerland. His style has been adapted to many forms of media, including album covers, furniture, and music videos.
2026
Jason Collins
American basketball player (born 1978)
Jason Paul Collins was an American professional basketball player who was a center for 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Stanford Cardinal, earning third-team All-American honors in 2001. Collins was selected by the Houston Rockets in the first round of the 2001 NBA draft with the 18th overall pick. He went on to play for the New Jersey Nets, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Washington Wizards, and Brooklyn Nets.
1935
Józef Piłsudski
Polish field marshal and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Poland (born 1867)
Józef Klemens Piłsudski was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (1918–1922) and first Marshal of Poland. In the aftermath of World War I, he became an increasingly dominant figure in Polish politics and exerted significant influence on shaping the country's foreign policy. Piłsudski is viewed as a father of the Second Polish Republic, which was re-established in 1918, 123 years after the final partition of Poland in 1795, and was considered de facto leader (1926–1935) of the Second Republic as the Minister of Military Affairs.
1966
Felix Steiner
Russian-German SS officer (born 1896)
Felix Martin Julius Steiner was a German SS commander during the Nazi era. During World War II, he served in the Waffen-SS, the combat branch of the SS, and commanded several SS divisions and corps. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. Together with Paul Hausser, he contributed significantly to the development and transformation of the Waffen-SS into a combat force made up of volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and un-occupied lands.
2001
Perry Como
American singer and television host (born 1912)
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer, actor, and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, from 1943 until 1987.
2008
Irena Sendler
Polish nurse and humanitarian (born 1910)
Irena Stanisława Sendler, operating under the nom de guerre Jolanta, was a Polish humanitarian, social worker, and nurse who served in the Polish Underground Resistance during World War II in German-occupied Warsaw. From October 1943 she was head of the children's section of Żegota, the Polish Council to Aid Jews.
1916
James Connolly
executed Scottish-born Irish socialist and rebel leader (born 1868)
James Connolly was a Scottish-born Irish republican, socialist, and trade union leader, executed for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule in Ireland. He remains an important figure both for the Irish labour movement and for Irish republicanism.
1957
Erich von Stroheim
Austrian-American actor, director, and producer (born 1885)
Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim was an Austrian-American director, screenwriter, actor and producer, most noted as a film star and avant-garde, visionary director of the silent era. His 1924 film Greed, originally over nine hours long, was edited against his wishes to about two-and-a-half hours; despite initial negative reception, the theatrical release is considered one of the greatest films ever made. After clashes with Hollywood studio bosses over budget and workers' rights problems, Stroheim found it difficult to find work as a director and subsequently became a well-respected character actor, particularly in French cinema. As an actor, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Max von Mayerling in Sunset Boulevard (1950).
1864
J. E. B. Stuart
American general (born 1833)
James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart was a Confederate cavalry general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb", from the initials of his given names. Stuart was a cavalry commander known for his mastery of reconnaissance and the use of cavalry in support of offensive operations. While he cultivated a cavalier image, his serious work made him the trusted eyes and ears of Robert E. Lee's army and inspired Southern morale.
1884
Bedřich Smetana
Czech composer and educator (born 1824)
Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people's aspirations to a cultural and political "revival". He has been regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his 1866 opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast, which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native Bohemia. It contains the famous symphonic poem "Vltava", also popularly known by its German name "Die Moldau".
2024
David Sanborn
American saxophonist (born 1945)
David William Sanborn was an American alto saxophonist. He worked in many musical genres; his solo recordings typically blended jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He began playing the saxophone at the age of 11 and released his first solo album, Taking Off, in 1975. He was active as a session musician and played on numerous albums by artists including Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Sting, the Eagles, Rickie Lee Jones, James Brown, George Benson, Carly Simon, Elton John, Bryan Ferry, Ween, and The Rolling Stones. Sanborn released more than 20 albums and won six Grammy awards.
1994
John Smith
Scottish-English lawyer and politician, Labour Party leader, Leader of the Opposition (born 1938)
John Smith was a British politician who was Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from July 1992 until his death in May 1994. He was also Member of Parliament (MP) for Monklands East.
1994
Erik Erikson
German-American psychologist and psychoanalyst (born 1902)
Erik Homburger Erikson was a German-American child psychoanalyst and visual artist known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings. He coined the phrase identity crisis.
2008
Robert Rauschenberg
American painter and illustrator (born 1925)
Milton Ernest "Robert" or "Bob" Rauschenberg was an American painter and multi-media artist, whose work has been associated with numerous mid-20th century art movements including the New York School, Conceptual Art, Pop art, and Neo-Dada. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artworks which incorporated everyday objects as art materials and which blurred the distinctions between painting and sculpture. Rauschenberg was primarily a painter and a sculptor, but he also worked with photography, printmaking, papermaking and performance.
1700
John Dryden
English poet, playwright, and critic (born 1631)
John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Romantic writer Sir Walter Scott called him "Glorious John".
1956
Louis Calhern
American actor and singer (born 1895)
Carl Henry Vogt, known by his stage name Louis Calhern, was an American actor. Described by one film historian as a “star leading man of the theater and a star character actor of the screen,” he appeared in over 100 roles on the Broadway stage and in films and television, between 1923 and 1956. He was nominated for the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for portraying U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in the 1950 film The Magnificent Yankee.
2000
Adam Petty
American race car driver (born 1980)
Adam Kyler Petty was an American professional stock car racing driver. A member of the Petty racing family, he was the fourth generation from the Petty family to drive in races in the highest division of NASCAR racing, mostly in what was then known as the NASCAR Busch Series. He was believed to be the first fourth-generation athlete in all of modern American professional sports.
2024
Mark Damon
American film actor and producer (born 1933)
Mark Damon was an American film producer and actor. In 1960, he won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year for his performance in Roger Corman's House of Usher, and later moved to Italy to work in Spaghetti Westerns. He was a member of the 1960s Dolce Vita set of actors and actresses in Rome. During the early 1970's he switched to producing films, founding the production companies Producers Sales Organization, Vision International, MDP Worldwide and Foresight Unlimited.
1641
Thomas Wentworth
1st Earl of Strafford, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (born 1593)
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford was an English statesman who played a major role in the period leading up to the outbreak of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A prominent supporter of Charles I, from 1632 to 1640 he was Lord Deputy of Ireland, where he established a strong authoritarian rule. Recalled to England, he became a leading advisor to the King, attempting to strengthen the royal position against Parliament. When Parliament condemned Strafford to death, Charles reluctantly signed the execution warrant and he was executed.
1957
Alfonso de Portago
Spanish bobsledder and racing driver (born 1928)
Alfonso Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, 11th Marquess of Portago, GE, best known as Alfonso de Portago, was a Spanish aristocrat, racing and bobsleigh driver, jockey and pilot.
1003
Sylvester II
pope of the Catholic Church (born 946)
Pope Sylvester II, originally known as Gerbert of Aurillac, was a scholar and teacher who served as the bishop of Rome and led the Papal States from 999 until his death in 1003. He endorsed and promoted study of Moorish and Greco-Roman arithmetic, mathematics and astronomy, reintroducing to Western Christendom the abacus, armillary sphere, and water organ, which had been lost to Latin Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire. He is said to be the first in Christian Europe to introduce the decimal numeral system using the Hindu–Arabic numeral system.
1907
Joris-Karl Huysmans
French author and critic (born 1848)
Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans was a French novelist and art critic who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans. He is most famous for the novel À rebours. He supported himself by way of a 30-year career in the French civil service.
1967
John Masefield
English poet and author (born 1878)
John Edward Masefield, OM was an English poet and writer. He was Poet Laureate from 1930 until his death in 1967, during which time he lived at Burcot, Oxfordshire, near Abingdon-on-Thames. Among his best known works are the children's novels The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights, and the poems "The Everlasting Mercy" and "Sea-Fever". Shortly after his death his house burned down and was later replaced by a Cheshire Home named after him.
1465
Thomas Palaiologos
Despot of Morea (born 1409)
Thomas Palaiologos was Despot of the Morea from 1428 until the fall of the despotate in 1460, although he continued to claim the title until his death five years later. He was the younger brother of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the final Byzantine emperor. Thomas was appointed as Despot of the Morea by his oldest brother, Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, in 1428, joining his two brothers and other despots Theodore and Constantine, already governing the Morea. Though Theodore proved reluctant to cooperate with his brothers, Thomas and Constantine successfully worked to strengthen the despotate and expand its borders. In 1432, Thomas brought the remaining territories of the Latin Principality of Achaea, established during the Fourth Crusade more than two hundred years earlier, into Byzantine hands by marrying Catherine Zaccaria, heiress to the principality.
1985
Jean Dubuffet
French painter and sculptor (born 1901)
Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet was a French painter and sculptor of the École de Paris. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a more authentic and humanistic approach to image-making. He is perhaps best known for founding the art brut movement, and for the collection of works—Collection de l'art brut—that this movement spawned. Dubuffet enjoyed a prolific art career, both in France and in America, and was featured in many exhibitions throughout his lifetime.
2001
Didi
Brazilian footballer (born 1928)
Waldyr Pereira, also known as Didi, was a Brazilian footballer who played as a midfielder or as a forward. He played in three FIFA World Cups, winning the latter two.
1860
Charles Barry
English architect, designed Upper Brook Street Chapel and the Palace of Westminster (born 1795)
Sir Charles Barry was an English architect best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster in London during the mid-19th century, but also responsible for numerous other buildings and gardens. He is known for his major contribution to the use of Italianate architecture in Britain, especially the use of the Palazzo as basis for the design of country houses, city mansions and public buildings. He also developed the Italian Renaissance garden style for the many gardens he designed around country houses.
2003
Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan
French-American diplomat (born 1933)
Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan was a French-born statesman and activist who served as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 1966 to 1977. During his tenure, the agency expanded its operational focus to include refugee situations outside Europe.
1944
Max Brand
American journalist and author (born 1892)
Frederick Schiller Faust was an American writer known primarily for his Western stories using the pseudonym Max Brand. As Max Brand, he also created the popular fictional character of young medical intern Dr. James Kildare for a series of pulp fiction stories. His Kildare character was subsequently featured over several decades in other media, including a series of American theatrical movies by Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), a radio series, two television series, and comics. Faust's other pseudonyms include George Owen Baxter, Evan Evans, Peter Dawson, David Manning, John Frederick, Peter Henry Morland, George Challis, and Frederick Frost. He also wrote under his real name. As George Challis, Faust wrote the "Tizzo the Firebrand" series for Argosy magazine. The Tizzo saga was a series of historical swashbuckler stories, featuring the titular warrior, set in Renaissance Italy.
1999
Saul Steinberg
Romanian-American illustrator (born 1914)
Saul Steinberg was a Romanian-born American artist, best known for his work for The New Yorker, most notably View of the World from 9th Avenue. He described himself as "a writer who draws".
1981
Benjamin Sheares
Singaporean professor and politician, second President of Singapore (born 1907)
Benjamin Henry Sheares was a Singaporean obstetrician, gynaecologist, and academic who served as the second president of Singapore between 1971 until his death in 1981.
1916
Seán Mac Diarmada
executed Irish rebel leader (born 1883)
Seán Mac Diarmada, also known as Seán MacDermott, was an Irish republican political activist and revolutionary leader. He was one of the seven leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916, which he helped to organise as a member of the Military Committee of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and was the second signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. He was executed for his part in the Rising at age 33.
1634
George Chapman
English poet and playwright (born 1559)
George Chapman was an English dramatist, translator and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman is seen as an anticipator of the metaphysical poets of the 17th century. He is best remembered for his translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and the Homeric Batrachomyomachia.
1182
Valdemar I
king of Denmark (born 1131)
Valdemar I Knudsen, also known as Valdemar the Great, was King of Denmark from 1154 until his death in 1182. The reign of King Valdemar I saw the rise of Denmark, which reached its medieval zenith under his son King Valdemar II.
1599
Murad Mirza
Mughal prince (born 1570)
Murad Mirza was a Mughal prince and the second surviving son of Mughal Emperor Akbar. He was raised by Salima Sultan Begum until the age of 5. He was the maternal grandfather of Nadira Banu Begum, wife of Prince Dara Shikoh.
2005
Martin Lings
English author and scholar (born 1909)
Martin Lings, also known as Abū Bakr Sirāj ad-Dīn, was an English writer, Islamic scholar, and philosopher. A student of the Swiss metaphysician Frithjof Schuon and an authority on the work of William Shakespeare, he is best known as the author of Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources.
1981
Francis Hughes
Irish Republican, died on hunger strike (born 1956)
Francis Joseph Sean Hughes was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) from Bellaghy, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Hughes was the most wanted man in Northern Ireland until his arrest following a shoot-out with the British Army in which a British soldier was killed. At his trial, he was sentenced to a total of 83 years' imprisonment; he died during the 1981 Irish hunger strike in HM Prison Maze. Hughes was one of 22 Irish republicans who died on hunger-strike between 1917 and 1981.
1970
Nelly Sachs
German poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1891)
Nelly Sachs was a German–Swedish poet and playwright. Her experiences resulting from the rise of the Nazis in World War II Europe transformed her into a poignant spokesperson for the grief and yearnings of her fellow Jews. Her best-known play is Eli: Ein Mysterienspiel vom Leiden Israels (1950) ; other works include the poems "Zeichen im Sand" (1962), "Verzauberung" (1970), and the collections of poetry In den Wohnungen des Todes (1947), Flucht und Verwandlung (1959), Fahrt ins Staublose (1961), and Suche nach Lebenden (1971). In 1966, she shared the Nobel Prize in Literature with the novelist, poet, and short-story writer Shmuel Yosef Agnon.
1986
Elisabeth Bergner
German actress (born 1897)
Elisabeth Bergner was an Austrian-British actress. Primarily a stage actress, her career flourished in Berlin and Paris before she moved to London to work in films. She played the title role in The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934). Her signature role was Gemma Jones in Escape Me Never, a 1934 play written for her by Margaret Kennedy. She played Gemma, first in London and then in the Broadway debut, and in a 1935 film version for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also starred in the American film Paris Calling (1941). In 1943, Bergner returned to Broadway in the play The Two Mrs. Carrolls, for which she won the Distinguished Performance Medal from the Drama League.
2017
Mauno Koivisto
Finnish banker and politician, ninth President of Finland (born 1923)
Mauno Henrik Koivisto was a Finnish politician who served as the president of Finland from 1982 to 1994. He also served as the country's prime minister twice, from 1968 to 1970 and again from 1979 to 1982. He was also the first member of the Social Democratic Party to be elected as President of Finland.
1931
Eugène Ysaÿe
Belgian violinist, composer, and conductor (born 1858)
Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer, and conductor. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as his former student Nathan Milstein put it, the "tsar".
1944
Arthur Quiller-Couch
English author, poet, and critic (born 1863)
Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch was a British writer and literary critic who published using the pseudonym Q. Although a prolific novelist, he is remembered mainly for the monumental publication The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250–1900 and for his literary criticism. He influenced many who never met him, including American writer Helene Hanff, author of 84, Charing Cross Road and its sequel, Q's Legacy.
1973
Frances Marion
American screenwriter, novelist and journalist (born 1888)
Frances Marion was an American screenwriter, director, journalist and author often cited as one of the most renowned female screenwriters of the 20th century alongside June Mathis and Anita Loos. During the course of her career, she wrote over 325 scripts. She was the first writer to win two Academy Awards. Marion began her film career working for filmmaker Lois Weber. She wrote numerous silent film scenarios for actress Mary Pickford, before transitioning to writing sound films.
2015
Peter Gay
German-American historian, author, and academic (born 1923)
Peter Joachim Gay was a German-American historian, educator, and author. He was a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University and former director of the New York Public Library's Center for Scholars and Writers (1997–2003). He received the American Historical Association's (AHA) Award for Scholarly Distinction in 2004. He authored over 25 books, including The Enlightenment: An Interpretation ; Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider (1968); and the widely translated Freud: A Life for Our Time (1988).
1856
Jacques Philippe Marie Binet
French mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (born 1786)
Jacques Philippe Marie Binet was a French mathematician, physicist and astronomer born in Rennes; he died in Paris, France, in 1856. He made significant contributions to number theory, and the mathematical foundations of matrix algebra which would later lead to important contributions by Cayley and others. In his memoir on the theory of the conjugate axis and of the moment of inertia of bodies he enumerated the principle now known as Binet's theorem. He is also recognized as the first to describe the rule for multiplying matrices in 1812, and Binet's formula expressing Fibonacci numbers in closed form is named in his honour, although the same result was known to Abraham de Moivre a century earlier.
1897
Minna Canth
Finnish journalist, playwright, and activist (born 1844)
Minna Canth was a Finnish writer and social activist. Canth began to write while managing her family draper's shop and living as a widow raising seven children. Her work addresses issues of women's rights, particularly in the context of a prevailing culture she considered antithetical to permitting expression and realization of women's aspirations. The Worker's Wife and The Pastor's Family are her best known plays, but the play Anna Liisa is the most adapted to films and operas. In her time, she became a controversial figure, due to the asynchrony between her ideas and those of her time, and in part due to her strong advocacy for her point of view.
1971
Heinie Manush
American baseball player and coach (born 1901)
Henry Emmett Manush, nicknamed "Heinie", was an American baseball outfielder. He played professional baseball for 20 years from 1920 to 1939, including 17 years in Major League Baseball for the Detroit Tigers (1923–1927), St. Louis Browns (1928–1930), Washington Senators (1930–1935), Boston Red Sox (1936), Brooklyn Dodgers (1937–1938), and Pittsburgh Pirates (1938–1939). After retiring as a player, Manush was a minor league manager from 1940 to 1945, a scout for the Boston Braves in the late 1940s and a coach for the Senators from 1953 to 1954. He also scouted for the expansion Senators in the early 1960s. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964.
1759
Lambert-Sigisbert Adam
French sculptor (born 1700)
Lambert-Sigisbert Adam was a French sculptor, born in 1700 in Nancy. The eldest son of sculptor Jacob-Sigisbert Adam, he was known as Adam l’aîné to distinguish him from his two sculptor brothers Nicolas-Sébastien Adam, known as "Adam le jeune", and François Gaspard Balthazar Adam. His sister Anne Adam married Thomas Michel, an undistinguished sculptor, and became the mother of famous sculptor Claude Michel, known as Clodion, who received his early training in the studio of his uncle Lambert-Sigisbert. Lambert Sigisbert Adam, a French sculptor died on May 12th, 1759 in Paris, France. Lambert Sigisbert Adam was just 58 years old.
2005
Monica Zetterlund
Swedish actress (born 1937)
Monica Zetterlund was a Swedish jazz singer and actress. She represented represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 with the jazz ballad "En gång i Stockholm". Through her lifetime, she starred in over 10 Swedish film productions and recorded over 20 studio albums. She gained international fame through her collaborative album with Bill Evans, Waltz for Debby.
805
Æthelhard
archbishop of Canterbury
Æthelhard was an Archbishop of Canterbury in medieval England. Appointed by King Offa of Mercia, Æthelhard had difficulties with both the Kentish monarchs and with a rival archiepiscopate in southern England, and was deposed around 796 by King Eadberht III Præn of Kent. By 803, Æthelhard, along with the Mercian King Coenwulf, had secured the demotion of the rival archbishopric, once more making Canterbury the only archbishopric south of the Humber in Britain. Æthelhard died in 805, and was considered a saint until his cult was suppressed after the Norman Conquest in 1066.
1995
Adolfo Pedernera
Argentine footballer and manager (born 1918)
Adolfo Alfredo Pedernera was an Argentine football player and coach. Nicknamed "El Maestro", he was widely considered to be one of the best world football players in the 1940s and one of the greatest Argentine players of all time. Pedernera was the natural conductor of both the famous River Plate team known as La Máquina, with whom he won several Argentine and South American titles, and the Millonarios team called Ballet Azul that won the Small Club World Cup in 1953 among many others Colombian titles.
2005
Kai Setälä
Finnish physician and professor (born 1913)
Kai Martin Edvard Setälä was a Finnish physician and professor of pathological anatomy at the University of Helsinki. Through his daughter Christel, he was the maternal grandfather of Alexander Stubb, the 13th president of Finland. Setälä himself was the great-nephew of professor E. N. Setälä (1864–1935), the Counsellor of State, the Chairman of the Senate of Finland and co-author of the Finnish Declaration of Independence.
2014
Lorenzo Zambrano
Mexican businessman and philanthropist (born 1944)
Lorenzo Hormisdas Zambrano Treviño was a Mexican businessman and philanthropist. He took over Cemex, a regional cement company founded by his grandfather, and transformed it into one of the largest cement producers in the world by the time of his death. Zambrano also financed several cultural initiatives across Latin America and chaired, from 1997 to 2012, the board of trustees of the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM), one of the largest private universities in the region. He also co-owned Axtel, an important Mexican telecommunications company.
1490
Joanna
Portuguese princess and regent (born 1452)
Joanna of Portugal OP was a Portuguese regent princess of the House of Aviz, daughter of King Afonso V of Portugal and his first wife, Queen Isabel of Coimbra. She served as regent during the absence of her father in 1471. In 1475 she became a cloistered nun of the Dominican Order. She is venerated in the Catholic Church with the title 'Blessed', is commemorated by a feast on May 12, and is commonly known in Portugal as Holy Princess Joan.
1161
Fergus of Galloway
Scottish nobleman
Fergus of Galloway was a twelfth-century Lord of Galloway. Although his familial origins are unknown, it is possible that he was of Norse–Gaelic ancestry. Fergus first appears on record in 1136, when he witnessed a charter of David I, King of Scotland. There is considerable evidence indicating that Fergus was married to an illegitimate daughter of Henry I, King of England. It is possible that Elizabeth Fitzroy was the mother of Fergus's three children.
2020
Aimee Stephens
American funeral director and U.S. Supreme Court litigant (born 1960)
Aimee Stephens was an American funeral director known for her fight for civil rights for transgender people. She worked as a funeral director in Detroit and was fired for being transgender. Based on her court case, in a historic 2020 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects gay, lesbian, and transgender employees from discrimination based on sex.
2014
Cornell Borchers
Lithuanian-German actress and singer (born 1925)
Cornell Borchers was a Lithuanian-German actress and singer, active in the late 1940s and 1950s. She is best remembered for her roles opposite Montgomery Clift in The Big Lift (1950) and Errol Flynn and Nat King Cole in Istanbul (1957). She was said to resemble Ingrid Bergman in mid-1950s reviews.
1784
Abraham Trembley
Swiss zoologist and academic (born 1710)
Abraham Trembley was a Genevan naturalist. He is best known for being the first to study freshwater polyps or hydra and for being among the first to develop experimental zoology. His mastery of experimental method has led some historians of science to credit him as the "father of biology".
2016
Mike Agostini
Trinidadian sprinter (born 1935)
Michael George Raymond Agostini was a Trinidadian track and field athlete. He was the first athlete from his country to win a gold medal at what is now known as the Commonwealth Games, when he won the 100 yards final in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on 31 July 1954.
1699
Lucas Achtschellinck
Flemish painter (born 1626)
Lucas Achtschellinck was a Flemish landscape painter. He is counted among the landscape painters active in Brussels referred to as the School of Painters of the Sonian Forest who all shared an interest in depicting scenes set in the Sonian Forest, which is located near Brussels.
1900
Göran Fredrik Göransson
Swedish merchant, ironmaster and industrialist (born 1819)
Göran Fredrik Göransson was a Swedish merchant, ironmaster and industrialist. He was the founder of the company Sandvikens Jernverks AB and was the first person to implement the Bessemer process successfully on an industrial scale and pioneered ingot steel in the Swedish iron and steel industry.
2001
Alexei Tupolev
Russian engineer, designed the Tupolev Tu-144 (born 1925)
Aleksey Andreevich Tupolev was a Soviet and Russian aircraft designer who led the development of the first supersonic passenger jet, the Tupolev Tu-144. He also helped design the Buran space shuttle and the long-range heavy bomber Tu-2000, both of which were suspended for lack of funding.
1801
Nicholas Repnin
Russian general and politician, Governor-General of Baltic provinces (born 1734)
Prince Nikolai or Nicholas Vasilyevich Repnin was a Russian statesman and general from the Repnin princely family who played a key role in the dissolution of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth; the leading figure in the Repnin Sejm, the victor at Măcin.
1842
Walenty Wańkowicz
Belarusian-Polish painter (born 1799)
Walenty Wilhelm Wańkowicz was a Polish painter. He studied at the Jesuit College in Polotsk, the University of Wilno and the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. He produced, among other things, a well-known portrait of Adam Mickiewicz (1827–28).
1964
Agnes Forbes Blackadder
Scottish medical doctor (born 1875)
Agnes Forbes Blackadder Savill was a Scottish medical expert and doctor, sometimes regarded as a polymath. Blackadder became the first female graduate of the University of St Andrews when she gained her M.A. degree on 29 March 1895.
1876
Georgi Benkovski
Bulgarian activist (born 1843)
Georgi Benkovski was the pseudonym of Gavril Gruev Hlatev, a Bulgarian revolutionary and leading figure in the organization and direction of the Bulgarian anti-Ottoman April Uprising of 1876 and apostle of its 4th Revolutionary District.
2006
Hussein Maziq
Libyan politician, Prime Minister of Libya (born 1918)
Hussein Yousef Maziq was a Libyan politician who was Prime Minister of Libya from 20 March 1965 to 2 July 1967. He was one of the most important men in the Kingdom era of Libya.
1684
Edme Mariotte
French physicist and priest (born 1620)
Edme Mariotte was a French physicist and priest (abbé). He is particularly well known for formulating Boyle's law independently of Robert Boyle. Mariotte is also credited with designing the first Newton's cradle.
1993
Zeno Colò
Italian Olympic alpine skier (born 1920)
Zeno Colò was a champion alpine ski racer from Italy. Born in La Consuma (Abetone), Tuscany, he was among the top ski racers of the late 1940s and early 1950s.
2014
Marco Cé
Italian cardinal (born 1925)
Marco Cé was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the Patriarch of Venice from 1978 to 2002 and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1979.
1963
Robert Kerr
Irish-Canadian sprinter and coach (born 1882)
Robert Kerr was an Irish Canadian sprinter. He won the gold medal in the 200 metres and the bronze medal in the 100 metres at the 1908 Summer Olympics.
1708
Adolphus Frederick II
duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (born 1658)
Adolphus Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg, was the first Duke of the Mecklenburg-Strelitz, reigning from 1701 until his death. Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a part of the Holy Roman Empire.
1948
Hans Waldemar Wessolowski
German-American illustrator (born 1894)
Hans Waldemar Wessolowski was a German-American artist best known under the pseudonym "Wesso" for his many cover illustrations for pulp magazines in the 1930s and early 1940s.
1859
Sergey Aksakov
Russian author and academic (born 1791)
Sergey Timofeyevich Aksakov was a 19th-century Russian literary figure remembered for his semi-autobiographical tales of family life, as well as his books on hunting and fishing.
2024
A. J. Smith
American football executive (born 1949)
Albert J. Smith was an American professional football scout and executive. He served as a part-time scout for several NFL and USFL teams before joining the Buffalo Bills in 1986, serving as a scout and executive for them for 14 years. With the Bills, the team won four AFC Championships. He joined the San Diego Chargers in 2001 as a director of pro personnel, and was promoted to general manager and executive vice president for them two years later. He stayed with the Chargers until being fired following the 2012 season. Smith's son, Kyle, is the assistant general manager of the Atlanta Falcons.
1012
Sergius IV
pope of the Catholic Church (born 970)
Pope Sergius IV was the bishop of Rome and nominal ruler of the Papal States from 31 July 1009 to his death. His temporal power was eclipsed by the patrician John II Crescentius. Sergius IV may have called for the expulsion of Muslims from the Holy Land, but this is disputed. Since his time, the practice that the person who has been elected to the office of pope takes on a new name became a tradition.
2013
Gerd Langguth
German political scientist, author, and academic (born 1946)
Gerd Langguth was a professor of political science at the University of Bonn and the author of biographies of Angela Merkel, Horst Köhler and of Rudi Dutschke
1529
Cecily Bonville
7th Baroness Harington, English noblewoman (born 1460)
Cecily Bonville, 7th Baroness Harington, 2nd Baroness Bonville was an English peer, who was also Marchioness of Dorset by her first marriage to Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, and Countess of Wiltshire by her second marriage to Henry Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire.
940
Eutychius
patriarch of Alexandria (born 877)
Eutychius of Alexandria was the Melkite Patriarch of Alexandria. He is known for being one of the first Christian Egyptian writers to use the Arabic language. His writings include the chronicle Nazm al-Jawhar, also known by its Latin title Eutychii Annales.
1090
Liutold of Eppenstein
duke of Carinthia
Liutold of Eppenstein was Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Verona from 1077 until his death.
1331
Engelbert of Admont
Benedictine abbot and scholar
Engelbert was Abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Admont in Styria.
1748
Thomas Lowndes
English astronomer and academic (born 1692)
Thomas Lowndes was the founder of the Lowndean professorship of astronomy at Cambridge University, England.
1792
Charles Simon Favart
French playwright and composer (born 1710)
Charles Simon Favart was a French playwright and theatre director. The Salle Favart in Paris is named after him.
1796
1845
János Batsányi
Hungarian poet and academic (born 1763)
János Batsányi was a Hungarian poet.
1867
Friedrich Wilhelm Eduard Gerhard
German archaeologist and academic (born 1795)
Friedrich Wilhelm Eduard Gerhard was a German archaeologist. He was co-founder and secretary of the first international archaeological society.
1878
Anselme Payen
French chemist and academic (born 1795)
Anselme Payen was a French chemist known for discovering the enzyme diastase, and the carbohydrate cellulose.
1925
Amy Lowell
American poet and critic (born 1874)
Amy Lawrence Lowell was an American poet of the imagist school. She posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926.
1963
Richard Girulatis
German footballer and manager (born 1878)
Richard Girulatis was a German football manager.
1973
Art Pollard
American race car driver (born 1927)
Artle Lee Pollard Jr., was an American racecar driver.
1992
Nikos Gatsos
Greek poet and songwriter (born 1911)
Nikos Gatsos was a Greek poet, translator and lyricist.
2005
Ömer Kavur
Turkish director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1944)
Ömer Kavur was a Turkish film director, film producer and screenwriter.
2009
Antonio Vega
Spanish singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1957)
Antonio Vega Tallés was a Spanish pop singer-songwriter.
2012
Eddy Paape
Belgian illustrator (born 1920)
Edouard Paape, commonly known as Eddy Paape, was a Belgian comics artist best known for illustrating the science fiction comic series Luc Orient.
2012
Jan Bens
Dutch footballer and coach (born 1921)
Jan Bens was a Dutch professional football player and coach; he was also an amateur boxer and trainer.
2014
Sarat Pujari
Indian actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1934)
Sarat Pujari was an Indian actor, director and producer in Odia film industry (Ollywood). He was originally from Jhaduapada, Sambalpur.