Notable Deaths on May 22

John Derek was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He appeared in such films as Knock on Any Door, All the King's Men, Rogues of Sherwood Forest (1950), and The Ten Commandments (1956). He was also known for launching the career of his fourth wife, Bo Derek.

James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. An early innovator of jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance.

Farid al-Din Sher Shah, better known as Sher Shah Suri, was the Sultan of Hindustan also known by his title Sultan Adil, as the first Sur Emperor, from 1540 until his death in 1545. Prior to his ascension, he also served as the regent, and later Sultan of Bihar (1530–1540) and Bengal (1538–1540). He established the Sur Empire after defeating the Mughal Empire and declaring Delhi his seat of power. The influence of his innovations and reforms extended far beyond his brief reign, being recognized as one of the greatest administrative rulers in India. Sher Shah is renowned as one of the most skillful Afghan generals in history, and by the end of his reign, his empire covered nearly all of Northern India.

Martha Washington was the wife of George Washington, who was a Founding Father and the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, she served as the inaugural first lady of the United States, defining the role of the president's wife and setting many precedents that future first ladies observed. During her tenure, she was referred to as "Lady Washington". Washington is consistently ranked in the upper half of first ladies by historians.

Rita of Cascia, was an Italian Catholic widow and Augustinian nun. After Rita's husband died, she joined a small community of nuns who later became Augustinians. Therein, she was known both for practicing mortification of the flesh and for the efficacy of her prayers. Various miracles are attributed to her intercession, and she is often portrayed with a bleeding wound on her forehead, which is understood to indicate partial stigmata.

Cecil Day-Lewis, often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Anglo-Irish poet and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 until his death. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym Nicholas Blake, most of which feature the fictional detective Nigel Strangeways, starting with A Question of Proof (1935).

Nicholas Patrick Hayden, nicknamed "the Kentucky Kid", was an American professional motorcycle racer who won the MotoGP World Championship in 2006. Hayden began racing motorcycles at a young age. He began his road racing career in the CMRA before progressing to the AMA Supersport Championship and then to the AMA Superbike Championship. He won the AMA title in 2002 and was approached by the Repsol Honda team to race for them in MotoGP in 2003.

Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft was an American actor and bass singer best known for providing the voice of Tony the Tiger in Kellogg's Frosted Flakes commercials from the 1950s until his death and for singing "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" in the 1966 Christmas television special How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.

Joseph Brooks was an American songwriter, composer, and filmmaker. He was a successful author of commercial jingles during the 1960s, before pivoting to a filmmaking career. His 1977 romantic drama You Light Up My Life, which he wrote, directed, produced, and scored, spawned the hit song of the same name, earning Brooks an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and a Grammy Award.

Martin Gardner was an American writer on popular mathematics and popular science. His interests also encompassed magic, scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literature – especially the writings of Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum, and G. K. Chesterton. He was a leading authority on Lewis Carroll; The Annotated Alice, which incorporated the text of Carroll's two Alice books, was his most successful work and sold over a million copies. He had a lifelong interest in magic and illusion and in 1999, MAGIC magazine named him as one of the "100 Most Influential Magicians of the Twentieth Century". He was considered the doyen of American puzzlers. He was a prolific and versatile author, publishing more than 100 books.

Thomas Rocco Barbella, better known as Rocky Graziano, was an American professional boxer and actor who competed in the Welterweight and Middleweight divisions. He held the lineal World Middleweight title from 1947 to 1948.

Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, 4th Earl of Somerset, 1st Earl of Dorset, 1st Marquess of Dorset styled 1st Count of Mortain, was an English nobleman and an important figure during the Hundred Years' War. His rivalry with Richard, Duke of York, was a leading cause of the Wars of the Roses.

Anna Judith Gertrud Helene Kerr was a German-born British writer and illustrator whose books sold more than 10 million copies around the world. She created both enduring picture books such as the Mog series and The Tiger Who Came to Tea and acclaimed novels for older children such as the semi-autobiographical When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, which gave a child's-eye view of escaping Hitler's persecution in the Second World War. Born in the Weimar Republic, she came to Britain with her family in 1935 to escape persecution during the rise of the Nazis.

Ernst Toller was a German author, playwright, left-wing politician, and revolutionary known for his Expressionist plays. He served for six days in 1919 as president of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, after which he became head of its army. He was imprisoned for five years for his part in the Bavarian Soviet Republic's armed resistance to the central government in Berlin. In prison, Toller wrote several plays that gained him international renown. They were performed in London, New York City, and Berlin.

Wolfgang Reitherman, sometimes credited or casually referred to as Woolie Reitherman, was a German-American by-hand animator, director and producer. As a member of the "Nine Old Men" at Walt Disney Productions, Woolie was known for his action-oriented animation sequences.

Richard James Biggs II was an American television and stage actor, known for his roles on the television series Days of Our Lives and Babylon 5.

Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove was an American professional baseball pitcher. After having success in the minor leagues during the early 1920s, Grove became a star in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the American League's Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox. One of the greatest pitchers in history, Grove led the American League in wins in four separate seasons, in strikeouts seven consecutive seasons, and had the league's lowest earned run average a record nine times. Over the course of the three years from 1929 to 1931, he twice won the pitcher's Triple Crown, leading the league in wins, strikeouts, and ERA, while amassing a 79–15 record and leading the Athletics to three straight AL championships. Overall, Grove won 300 games in his 17-year MLB career. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947.

Gaetano Bresci was an Italian anarchist who assassinated King Umberto I of Italy. His experience working as a young weaver led him to the conclusion that he had faced exploitation in the workplace, which attracted him to anarchism. Bresci emigrated to the United States, where he became involved with other Italian immigrant anarchists in Paterson, New Jersey. News of the Bava Beccaris massacre motivated him to return to Italy, where he planned to assassinate Umberto in response. Local police knew of his return but did not mobilize. Bresci killed the king in July 1900 during Umberto's scheduled appearance in Monza amid a sparse police presence.

Catalino Ortiz Brocka was a Filipino film director. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most important filmmakers in the history of Philippine cinema. Brocka directed over 60 films across two decades that span a variety of genres, with his acclaimed work combining elements of melodrama and social realism.

Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory was an Anglo-Irish dramatist, folklorist and theatre manager. With William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn, she co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, and wrote numerous short works for both companies. Lady Gregory produced a number of books of retellings of stories taken from Irish mythology. Born into a class that identified closely with British rule, she turned against it. Her conversion to cultural nationalism, as evidenced by her writings, was emblematic of many of the political struggles that occurred in Ireland during her lifetime.

Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland was an English nobleman and military commander in the lead up to the Wars of the Roses. He was the son of Henry "Hotspur" Percy, and the grandson of Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland. His father and grandfather were killed in different rebellions against Henry IV in 1403 and 1408, respectively, and the young Henry spent his minority in exile in Scotland. Only after the death of Henry IV in 1413 was he reconciled with the Crown, and in 1414 he was created Earl of Northumberland.

Francesco Guicciardini was an Italian historian and statesman. A friend and critic of Niccolò Machiavelli, he is considered one of the major political writers of the Italian Renaissance. In his masterpiece, The History of Italy, Guicciardini paved the way for a new style in historiography with his use of government sources to support arguments and the realistic analysis of the people and events of his time.

Stanley Harding Mortensen was an English professional footballer, notable for his part in the 1953 FA Cup final, in which he became the only player ever to score a hat-trick in a Wembley FA Cup Final. He was also both the first player to score for England in a FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign and the first England player to score in the tournament proper.

Marques Haynes was an American professional basketball player and member of the Harlem Globetrotters, notable for his ability to dribble the ball and keep it away from defenders. According to the 1988 film Harlem Globetrotters: Six Decades of Magic, Haynes could dribble the ball as many as 348 times a minute.

Blanche of England, also known as Blanche of Lancaster, was a member of the House of Lancaster, the daughter of King Henry IV of England and his first wife Mary de Bohun.

David Andrew Wilkie was a Scottish swimmer who was the Olympic 200m breaststroke champion in 1976, the first British swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal since Anita Lonsbrough in 1960, and the first British man to do so since Henry Taylor in 1908. He is the only person to have held British, Commonwealth, European, World and Olympic swimming titles at the same time. Wilkie, a member of the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame and the International Swimming Hall of Fame, has been described as Scotland's greatest and Britain's finest swimmer. Fellow Olympic breaststroke gold medallist Duncan Goodhew considered him an "extraordinary talent" and "one of Britain's greatest ever athletes".

Pope Alexander VII, born Fabio Chigi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 April 1655 to his death, in May 1667.

Shripad Amrit Dange was an Indian politician who was a founding member of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and a stalwart of Indian trade union movement. During the 20th century, Dange was arrested by the authorities for communist and trade union activities and was jailed for an overall period of 13 years. His early years were marked by the Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Trial, and later by internal controversy over alleged 1924 letters in which he sought leniency from the British colonial administration.

Mordecai Manuel Noah was an American sheriff, playwright, diplomat, journalist, and utopian. He was born in a family of mixed Ashkenazi and Portuguese Sephardic ancestry and was the grandson of Jonas Phillips. He was the most important Jewish lay leader in New York in the early 19th century, and one of the first Jews born in the United States to reach national prominence. He is best known for envisioning a homeland for the Jewish people in upstate New York. Long taken by the idea of a Jewish territorial restoration, in 1825 Noah purchased a tract of land on Grand Island in the Niagara River near Buffalo, New York, which he named Ararat. He erected a monument on the island and envisioned the establishment of a Jewish colony there. Though the proposal elicited much discussion, the attempt was not a success. After the failure of the Ararat experience, Noah turned more strongly to the idea of Palestine as a national home for Jews. As the best-known American Jew of his time, Noah in 1840 delivered the principal address at a meeting at B’nai Jeshurun in New York protesting the Damascus Affair.

Albert Claude was a Belgian-American cell biologist and medical doctor who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 with Christian de Duve and George Emil Palade. His elementary education started in a comprehensive primary school at Longlier, his birthplace. He served in the British Intelligence Service during the First World War, and got imprisoned in concentration camps twice. In recognition of his service, he was granted enrolment at the University of Liège in Belgium to study medicine without any formal education required for the course. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1928. Devoted to medical research, he initially joined German institutes in Berlin. In 1929 he found an opportunity to join the Rockefeller Institute in New York. At Rockefeller University he made his most groundbreaking achievements in cell biology. In 1930 he developed the technique of cell fractionation, by which he discovered the agent of the Rous sarcoma, as well as components of cell organelles such as the mitochondrion, chloroplast, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, ribosome, and lysosome. He was the first to employ the electron microscope in the field of biology. In 1945 he published the first detailed structure of cell. His collective works established the complex functional and structural properties of cells.

Charles Albert "Chief" Bender was a Native American professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball during the 1900s and 1910s. In 1911, Bender tied a record by pitching three complete games in a single World Series. He finished his career with a 212–127 win–loss record for a .625 winning percentage and a career 2.46 earned run average (ERA).

William James Glackens was an American realist painter and one of the founders of the Ashcan School, which rejected the formal boundaries of artistic beauty laid down by the conservative National Academy of Design. He is also known for his work in helping Albert C. Barnes to acquire the European paintings that form the nucleus of the famed Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. His dark-hued, vibrantly painted street scenes and depictions of daily life in pre-WW I New York and Paris first established his reputation as a major artist. His later work was brighter in tone and showed the strong influence of Renoir. During much of his career as a painter, Glackens also worked as an illustrator for newspapers and magazines in Philadelphia and New York City.

Zellig Sabbettai Harris was an American linguist, mathematical syntactician, and methodologist of science widely considered to have been influential in his fields. Originally a Semiticist, he is best known for his work in structural linguistics and discourse analysis and for the discovery of transformational structure in language. These developments from the first 10 years of his career were published within the first 25. His contributions in the subsequent 35 years of his career include transfer grammar, string analysis, elementary sentence-differences, algebraic structures in language, operator grammar, sublanguage grammar, a theory of linguistic information, and a principled account of the nature and origin of language.

Volodymyr Katriuk was a Ukrainian-Canadian soldier and beekeeper, who was accused of having taken part in the Khatyn massacre and other massacres under the cover of anti-partisan warfare as a member of the Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118 during World War II. In the annual Nazi War Criminal Report for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014, Katriuk was ranked number three under the list of most-wanted Nazi war criminals as determined by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Katriuk denied any involvement in war crimes. On 18 March 2024, the Supreme Court of Belarus ruled that Katriuk was guilty of the "genocide of the Belarusian people".

Giovanni Bernardi, also known as Giovanni da Castel Bolognese and as Giovanni da Castelbolognese, was an Italian gem engraver and medallist who was born in Castel Bolognese, Italy. He was the son of a goldsmith and by 1530 had moved to Rome, where he had a position in the Papal mint, which also allowed him time to work for other patrons. These included Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici (1511–35), Pope Clement VII (1523–34), Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the future Pope Paul III, as well as his grandson, also called Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. He was "a skillful composer of elegant nudes in elaborate scenes".

Karl-August Fagerholm was a Finnish politician. Fagerholm served as Speaker of Parliament and three times as Prime Minister of Finland. Fagerholm became one of the leading politicians of the Social Democrats after the armistice in the Continuation War. As a Scandinavia-oriented Swedish-speaking Finn, he was believed to be more to the taste of the Soviet Union's leadership than his predecessor, Väinö Tanner. Fagerholm's postwar career was, however, marked by fierce opposition from both the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of Finland. He narrowly lost the presidential election to Urho Kekkonen in 1956.

Velimir "Bata" Živojinović was a Yugoslav and Serbian actor and politician. He appeared in more than 340 films and TV series, and is regarded as one of the best actors in former Yugoslavia.

Richard Alfred Tapia was an American mathematician and academic. He held the title of University Professor at Rice University in Houston, Texas, the university's highest academic rank. In 1996 President Bill Clinton awarded Tapia the Presidential Award for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering Mentoring. In 2011 President Barack Obama awarded Tapia the National Medal of Science. He was the Maxfield and Oshman professor of engineering; associate director of graduate studies, Office of Research and Graduate Studies; and director of the Center for Excellence and Equity in Education at Rice University.

Charlotte Serber was an American journalist, statistician and librarian. She was the librarian of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II, and the laboratory's only female group leader. After the war she attempted to secure a position as a librarian at the Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, but was rejected for lack of a security clearance; the likely reason was due to her political views. She later became a production assistant for the Broadway Theatre, and an interviewer for Louis Harris.

Muzafar Bhutto was a Sindhi nationalist politician, who served as the Secretary General of the Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM). His body was found at a roadside near Hatri bypass, in Hyderabad, Pakistan after he went missing on 25 February 2011. Following his death, JSMM members resorted to heavy aerial firing in different areas of Sindh. The heavy aerial firing created fear and panic among the people in Sindh and forced many business to close down.

Pierre-Jules Renard was a French novelist, playwright, and diarist. He was a member of the Académie Goncourt and is acclaimed for Poil de carotte, a bitterly ironical account of his own childhood. His other famous works include, Les Histoires Naturelles, Le Plaisir de rompre, and the posthumously published Huit Jours à la campagne.

Alfonso Quiñónez Molina was a Salvadoran politician and physician who served as the 24th President of El Salvador from 1923 to 1927. He also served as the country's acting president on two separate occasions and twice served as Vice President of El Salvador under his brothers-in-law Carlos and Jorge Meléndez. The presidencies of Quiñónez and the Meléndez brothers from 1913 to 1927 are collectively known as the Meléndez–Quiñónez dynasty.

Pemba Doma Sherpa was the first Nepalese female mountaineer to climb Mount Everest via its north face, was the second Nepali woman to summit from both the north and south faces, and is one of six women to have summited Everest twice. She was the leader of the 2002 Nepalese Woman Everest Expedition. Pemba Doma Sherpa climbed Cho Oyu from the Tibetan side on 28 September 2005.

Lee Jong-wook was a South Korean physician. He was the director-general of the World Health Organization for three years. Lee joined the WHO in 1983, working on a variety of projects including the Global Programme for Vaccines and Immunizations and Stop Tuberculosis. He began his term as director-general in 2004, and was the first figure from Korea to lead an international agency.

Christopher Reynolds Stone was a British radio broadcaster who in 1927 became the first disc jockey in the United Kingdom. He was co-founder of the music magazine The Gramophone. In addition to his reviews and articles in the magazine he wrote eight novels between 1907 and 1927, and edited collections of poetry and letters.

Julius Plücker was a German mathematician and physicist. He made fundamental contributions to the field of analytical geometry and was a pioneer in the investigations of cathode rays that led eventually to the discovery of the electron. He also vastly extended the study of Lamé curves.

Irmgard Flügge-Lotz, née Lotz was a German-American mathematician and aerospace engineer. She was a pioneer in the development of the theory of discontinuous automatic control, which has found wide application in hysteresis control systems; such applications include guidance systems, electronics, fire-control systems, and temperature regulation.

Mikhail Yakovlevich Voronin was a Soviet and Russian gymnast who competed for the Soviet Union in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He won seven medals, including two gold, at the 1968 Summer Olympics, as well as two silver medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics.

Wesley Anthony Brown was the first African-American graduate of the United States Naval Academy (USNA) in Annapolis, Maryland. He served in the United States Navy from May 2, 1949, until June 30, 1969. He was involved in both the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Edmund Davie Fulton was a Canadian Rhodes Scholar, politician and judge. He was born in Kamloops, British Columbia, the son of politician/lawyer Frederick John Fulton and Winnifred M. Davie, daughter of A. E. B. Davie. He was the youngest of 4 children.

Jiří Mahen was a Czech novelist and playwright. He was a prolific author and his literary work also includes essays, poetry, scientific articles, manuals and fairy tales. He was a significant figure in cultural life in the city of Brno.

John Forest was an English Franciscan friar and martyr. Confessor to Catherine of Aragon, Forest was burned to death at Smithfield for "heresy", in that he refused to acknowledge the King as head of the church.

Edmund Grey, 1st Earl of Kent, KB was an English administrator, nobleman and magnate, and the son of Sir John Grey, KG and Constance Holland. His main residence was at Wrest near Silsoe, Bedfordshire.

Empress Genshō was the 44th monarch of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Her reign spanned the years 715 through 724.

Emperor Go-Reizei was the 70th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.

Saint Humility, known as Saint Roxanne was the founder of the Vallumbrosan Nuns.

Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford, also 8th Lord of Skipton, was the elder son of John, 7th Baron de Clifford, and Elizabeth Percy.

Renata of Lorraine was a noblewoman of the House of Lorraine who became a Duchess of Bavaria by her marriage to Duke William V.

Pieter Willemsz Verhoeff was a Dutch admiral of the Admiralty of Amsterdam, notable for his voyage to Asia between 1607 and 1612.

François Marie de Broglie, 1st Duke of Broglie was a French Royal Army officer and diplomat.

Ewald Friedrich Graf von Hertzberg was a Prussian statesman.

Ferdinand II was King of the Two Sicilies from 1830 until his death in 1859.

Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo was a French Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician.

Tsengeltiin Jigjidjav was prime minister of Mongolia from 1930 to 1932.

Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay was a Jamaican-American writer and poet. He was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford was an English actress of stage, films and television.

Ahmet Cevdet Sunay was a Turkish politician and military officer who served as the president of Turkey from 1966 to 1973.

Giorgio Almirante was an Italian politician who founded the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, which he led until his retirement in 1987.

Steven De Groote was a South African classical pianist.

Mieczysław Horszowski was a Polish and American pianist who had one of the longest careers in the history of the performing arts.

Alfred Day Hershey was an American Nobel Prize–winning bacteriologist and geneticist.

Alziro Bergonzo was an Italian architect and painter. His primary style was the rationalized Stile Littorio.

Charilaos Florakis was a leader of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).

Robert Lynn Asprin was an American science fiction and fantasy author and active fan, known best for his humorous series MythAdventures and Phule's Company.

Sigurd Ottovich Schmidt was a Russian historian, ethnographer and teacher.

Dervla Murphy was an Irish touring cyclist and author of adventure travel books, writing for more than 50 years.