Notable Deaths on May 26

May 26 has 112 recorded notable deaths across history, from 604 to 2022. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

Ray Liotta

2022 — Ray Liotta

American actor (born 1954)

By · Wikipedia

Notable Deaths 112 source records 604 – 2022

Major events on May 26

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1991 Zviad Gamsakhurdia becomes the first elected President of the Republic of Georgia in the post-Soviet era. Source
  2. 451 Battle of Avarayr between Armenian rebels and the Sasanian Empire takes place. The Sasanids defeat the Armenians militarily but guarantee them freedom to openly practice Christianity. Source

Did you know about Ray Liotta

Ray Liotta first gained attention for his role in the film Something Wild (1986), which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination.

Did you know about Edmund I

Edmund I or Eadmund I was King of the English from 27 October 939 until his death in 946.

Did you know about Zbigniew Brzezinski

Zbigniew Brzezinski served as a counselor to Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981.

Did you know about Mehmed I

Starting from the province of Rûm he managed to bring first Anatolia and then the European territories (Rumelia) under his control, reuniting the Ottoman state by 1413, and ruling it until his death in 1421.

Did you know about Ali al-Ridha

A number of works are attributed to him, including Sahifah al-Rida, Fiqh al-Rida, and Al-Risala al-Dhahabiyya, the most precious Islamic work in the Science of Medicine.


More major people who died on May 26

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

946 Edmund I

Edmund I

king of England (born 921)
Edmund I or Eadmund I was King of the English from 27 October 939 until his death in 946. He was the elder son of King Edward the Elder and his third wife, Queen Eadgifu, and a grandson of King Alfred the Great. Edmund was crowned king after his eldest half-brother, King Æthelstan, died childless in 939. He had two sons, Eadwig and Edgar, who were young children when he was killed in a brawl with an outlaw at Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire. Edmund was succeeded by his younger brother Eadred, who died in 955 and was followed by Edmund's sons in succession.
2017 Zbigniew Brzezinski

Zbigniew Brzezinski

Polish-born American politician (born 1928)
Zbigniew "Zbig" Kazimierz Brzeziński was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981. As a scholar, Brzeziński belonged to the realist school of international relations, standing in the geopolitical tradition of Halford Mackinder and Nicholas J. Spykman, while elements of liberal idealism have also been identified in his outlook. Brzeziński was the primary organizer of The Trilateral Commission.
1421 Mehmed I

Mehmed I

Ottoman sultan (born 1389)
Mehmed I, also known as Mehmed Çelebi or Kirişçi, was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1413 to 1421. Son of Sultan Bayezid I and his concubine Devlet Hatun, he fought with his brothers over control of the Ottoman realm in the Ottoman Interregnum (1402–1413). Starting from the province of Rûm he managed to bring first Anatolia and then the European territories (Rumelia) under his control, reuniting the Ottoman state by 1413, and ruling it until his death in 1421. Called "The Restorer", he reestablished central authority in Anatolia, and he expanded the Ottoman presence in Europe through the conquest of Dobruja in 1419. Venice destroyed his fleet off Gallipoli in 1416 when the Ottomans lost a naval war.
818 Ali al-Ridha

Ali al-Ridha

8th of The Twelve Imams
Ali ibn Musa al-Rida was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the eighth of the Twelve Imams, succeeding his father Musa al-Kazim and his grandfather Ja'far al-Sadiq. His lineage traces through Ali and Fatima, via the line of Husayn. He is also part of the chain of mystical authority in Sunni Sufism. A number of works are attributed to him, including Sahifah al-Rida, Fiqh al-Rida, and Al-Risala al-Dhahabiyya, the most precious Islamic work in the Science of Medicine. Uyoun Akhbar Al-Rida includes his debates with scholars of various religions, biographical details, and even the miracles which have occurred at his shrine.
1924 Victor Herbert

Victor Herbert

Irish-American cellist, composer, and conductor, founded the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (born 1859)
Victor August Herbert was an American composer, cellist and conductor of English and Irish ancestry and German training. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I. He was also prominent among the Tin Pan Alley composers and was later a founder of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). A prolific composer, Herbert produced two operas, a cantata, 43 operettas, incidental music to 10 plays, 31 compositions for orchestra, nine band compositions, nine cello compositions, five violin compositions with piano or orchestra, 22 piano compositions and numerous songs, choral compositions and orchestrations of works by other composers, among other music.
1956 Al Simmons

Al Simmons

American baseball player and coach (born 1902)
Aloysius Harry Simmons was an American professional baseball outfielder who played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed "Bucketfoot Al", he had his best years with Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics during the late 1920s and early 1930s, winning two World Series with the team. Simmons also played for the Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, Washington Senators, Boston Bees, Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox. After his playing career, Simmons served as a coach for the Athletics and Cleveland Indians. A career .334 hitter, Simmons was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953.
1966 Elizabeth Dilling

Elizabeth Dilling

American author and activist (born 1894)
Elizabeth Eloise Kirkpatrick Dilling was an American writer and political activist. In 1934, she published The Red Network—A Who's Who and Handbook of Radicalism for Patriots, which catalogs over 1,300 people Dilling stated were suspected communists or fellow travelers. Her books and lecture tours established her as the pre-eminent female right-wing activist of the 1930s, and one of the most outspoken critics of the New Deal, which she referred to as the "Jew Deal". In the mid-to-late 1930s, Dilling praised Nazi Germany.
1954 Lionel Conacher

Lionel Conacher

Canadian football player and politician (born 1900)
Lionel Pretoria Conacher, nicknamed "the Big Train", was a Canadian athlete and politician. Voted the country's top athlete of the first half of the 20th century, he won championships in numerous sports. His first passion was Canadian football; he was a member of the 1921 Grey Cup champion Toronto Argonauts. He was also a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team that won the International League championship in 1926. In hockey, he won the Memorial Cup in 1920, and the Stanley Cup twice: with the Chicago Black Hawks in 1934 and the Montreal Maroons in 1935. Additionally, he won wrestling, boxing and lacrosse championships during his playing career. He is one of three players, including Joe Miller and Carl Voss, to have their names engraved on both the Grey Cup and Stanley Cup.
2005 Chico Carrasquel

Chico Carrasquel

Venezuelan baseball player and manager (born 1928)
Alfonso Carrasquel Colón, better known as Chico Carrasquel, was a Venezuelan professional baseball player, coach, scout and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop from 1950 to 1959, most prominently as a member of the Chicago White Sox where he became the first Latin American in MLB history to start in an All-Star Game in 1951. A four-time All-Star known for his exceptional defensive skills, Carrasquel was the first in a long line of Major League shortstops from Venezuela including, Luis Aparicio, Dave Concepción, Ozzie Guillén and Omar Vizquel among others. He also played for the Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Athletics and the Baltimore Orioles.
2014 Miodrag Radulovacki

Miodrag Radulovacki

Serbian-American academic and neuropharmacologist (born 1933)
Miodrag (Misha) Radulovacki, was a Serbian American scientist and inventor. He was professor of pharmacology in the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Radulovacki's research accomplishments include: (1) the Adenosine Sleep Theory, and (2) pioneering pharmacological studies for the treatment of sleep apnea, together with research collaborator, David W. Carley,. Radulovacki and Carley invented several drug therapies for the treatment of sleep apnea which have been patented by the UIC. The UIC recognized them as the 2010 "Inventors of the Year." Radulovacki published more than 170 scientific papers. Radulovacki was also a Foreign Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
2015 Les Johnson

Les Johnson

Australian politician and diplomat, Australian High Commissioner to New Zealand (born 1924)
Leslie Royston Johnson AM was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and held ministerial office in the Whitlam government, serving as Minister for Housing (1972–1973), Works (1973), Housing and Construction (1973–1975), and Aboriginal Affairs (1975). He represented the Division of Hughes in New South Wales for 25 years from 1955 to 1966 and from 1969 to 1983. He later served as High Commissioner to New Zealand from 1984 to 1985, cutting short his term due to his daughter's ill health.
735 Bede

Bede

English monk, historian, and theologian
Bede, OSB, also known as the Venerable Bede or Bede the Venerable, was an English Benedictine monk, author and scholar. He was one of the best known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most famous work, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, gained him the title "The Father of English History". He served at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom of Northumbria of the Angles.
2011 Arisen Ahubudu

Arisen Ahubudu

Sri Lankan scholar, author, and playwright (born 1920)
Kalasuri Arisen Ahubudu was a Sri Lankan writer, orator, scholar, playwright, teacher (Guru), Sinhala lyricist, author and poet. He is a member of the Hela Havula. He has received three government awards for literary works, the title of Kalasuri from the Government of Sri Lanka, and the Sarasaviya Awards film award for best composer. As a composer, he is especially noted for writing music performed by W.D. Amaradeva, such as Gilem Obe Guna.
1933 Jimmie Rodgers

Jimmie Rodgers

American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1897)
James Charles Rodgers was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who rose to popularity in the late 1920s. Known as Jimmie Rodgers and widely regarded as the "Father of Country Music", he is best known for his distinctive yodeling. Rodgers was known as "The Singing Brakeman" and "America's Blue Yodeler". He has been cited as an inspiration by many artists, and he has been inducted into multiple halls of fame.
1914 Jacob August Riis

Jacob August Riis

Danish-American journalist, photographer, and reformer (born 1849)
Jacob August Riis was a Danish-American social reformer, "muck-raking" journalist, and social documentary photographer. He contributed significantly to the cause of urban reform in the United States of America at the turn of the 20th century. He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City; those impoverished New Yorkers were the subject of most of his prolific writings and photography.
1925 William H. Shockley

William H. Shockley

American mining engineer, amateur photographer, and hobbyist botanist (born 1855)
William Hillman Shockley was an American engineer, photographer, and botanist. After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Shockley worked as a mining engineer in Florida and Nevada, collecting plant specimens during his time in the American West. Fluent in multiple languages, Shockley's engineering work took him to Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and South America. Across these regions, he took thousands of photographs documenting both local mining and society.
1969 Paul Hawkins

Paul Hawkins

Australian racing driver (born 1937)
Robert Paul Hawkins was an Australian motor racing driver. The son of a racing motorcyclist-turned-church minister, Hawkins was a capable single-seater driver but really made his mark as an outstanding sports car competitor driving Ford GT40s and Lola T70s. In 1969 Hawkins was included in the FIA list of graded drivers, an elite group of 27 drivers who by their achievements were rated the best in the world.
2013 Ray Barnhart

Ray Barnhart

American businessman and politician (born 1928)
Ray Anderson Barnhart was an American businessman and politician who served as Federal Highway Administrator from 1981 to 1987. He started his career as City Councilman in Pasadena, Texas. He was a member of the Texas House of Representatives 100th district from and served from January 9, 1973 to January 14, 1975. He was an Eagle Scout. He also served as Chairman of the Texas State Republican Party.
1512 Bayezid II

Bayezid II

Ottoman sultan (born 1447)
Bayezid II was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512. During his reign, Bayezid consolidated the Ottoman Empire, thwarted a pro-Safavid rebellion and finally abdicated his throne to his son, Selim I. Bayezid evacuated Sephardi Jews from Spain following the fall of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada and the proclamation of the Alhambra Decree and resettled them throughout Ottoman lands, especially in Salonica.

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