Did you know
The early death of his father and elder brother meant that he became the comte de Montpensier in 1501
Notable Deaths on May 6
97 people
698 – 2024
May 6 has seen 97 notable figures pass away throughout recorded history — from 698 – 2024. Below are the most significant names who died on this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
1527 — Charles III
Duke of Bourbon, Count of Montpensier and Dauphin of Auvergne (born 1490)
Did you know
By this means he became the greatest feudal lord in the French kingdom
Did you know
He then secured a very advantageous marriage in 1505 to Suzanne de Bourbon, the heiress to the senior line of the house of Bourbon
Did you know
He participated in the expeditions of king Louis XII seeing combat at Genoa in 1507 and at the famous battle of Agnadello in 1509
Did you know
In 1512, he was established as the governor of Languedoc, and in the final years of Louis XII's reign he would fight the Spanish in Navarre and the English in Picardy.
698
850
932
988
1002
1187
Benedictine monk and chronicler
Roger of Wendover, probably a native of Wendover in Buckinghamshire, was an English chronicler of the 13th century.
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1236
English commander (born 1438)
Edmund Beaufort, styled 4th Duke of Somerset, 6th Earl of Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Dorset, 3rd Earl of Dorset,
was an English nobleman and military commander during the Wars of the Roses. He supported the Lancastrian…
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1471
Speaker of the House of Commons
Sir Thomas Tresham was an English politician, soldier and administrator. He was the son of Sir William Tresham and his wife Isabel de Vaux, daughter of Sir William Vaux of Harrowden. Thomas's early advancement was due…
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1471
Flemish painter (born 1415)
Dieric Bouts was an Early Netherlandish painter. Bouts may have studied under Rogier van der Weyden, and his work was influenced by van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck. He worked in Leuven from 1457 until his death in 1475.…
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1475
Korean regent (born 1418)
Queen Jeonghui, of the Papyeong Yun clan, was a posthumous name bestowed on the wife and queen of Yi Yu, King Sejo. She was Queen of Joseon from 1455 until her husband's death in 1468, after which she was honoured as…
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1483
English knight (born 1450)
Sir James Tyrrell was an English knight who was a trusted servant of King Richard III of England. He is known for allegedly confessing to the murders of the Princes in the Tower under Richard's orders. In his 1593 play…
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1502
Spanish scholar (born 1492)
Juan Luis Vives y March was a Spanish (Valencian) scholar and Renaissance humanist who spent most of his adult life in the southern Habsburg Netherlands. His beliefs on the soul, insight into early medical practice, and…
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1540
Flemish-Italian composer (born 1535)
Giaches de Wert was a Franco-Flemish composer of the late Renaissance, active in Italy. Intimately connected with the progressive musical center of Ferrara, he was one of the leaders in developing the style of the late…
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1596
1st Baronet, of Connington, English historian and politician, founded the Cotton library (born 1570)
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, 1st Baronet of Conington Hall in the parish of Conington in Huntingdonshire, England, was a Member of Parliament and an antiquarian who founded the Cotton library.
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1631
Dutch-French bishop and theologian (born 1585)
Cornelius Jansen was the Dutch Catholic bishop of Ypres in Flanders and the father of a theological movement known as Jansenism.
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1638
French-Canadian bishop (born 1623)
Francis-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval, commonly referred to as François de Laval, was considered the founder of the Catholic faith in New France. He was a French Catholic prelate who served as Apostolic Vicar of New…
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1708
2nd Duke of Grafton, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (born 1683)
Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton was a British peer and politician.
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1757
Prussian field marshal (born 1684)
Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall, one of the leading commanders under Frederick the Great.
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1757
1782
Colombian general and politician, 4th President of the Republic of the New Granada (born 1792)
Francisco José de Paula Santander y Omaña was a Neogranadine military and political leader who served as Vice-President of Gran Colombia between 1819 and 1826, and was later elected by Congress as the President of the…
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1840
German geographer and explorer (born 1769)
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister,…
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1859
American essayist, poet, and philosopher (born 1817)
Henry David Thoreau was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay…
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1862
American businessman and politician (born 1814)
Socrates Nelson was an American businessman, politician, and pioneer who served one term as a Minnesota State Senator from 1859 to 1861. He was a general store owner, lumberman, and real estate speculator associated…
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1867
Swedish-Finnish poet and hymn-writer (born 1804)
Johan Ludvig Runeberg was a Finnish priest, lyric and epic poet. He wrote exclusively in Swedish. He is considered a national poet of Finland. He is the author of the lyrics to Vårt land. Runeberg was also involved in…
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1877
Irish civil servant (born 1829)
Thomas Henry Burke was an Irish civil servant who served as Permanent Under Secretary at the Irish Office for many years before being assassinated during the Phoenix Park Murders on Saturday 6 May 1882. The…
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1882
British politician, Chief Secretary for Ireland (born 1836)
Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish was a British Liberal politician and protégé of the Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone. Cavendish was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland in May 1882 but was killed along with…
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1882
1888
English-Australian politician, 1st Premier of Queensland (born 1831)
Sir Robert George Wyndham Herbert,, was the first Premier of Queensland, Australia. At 28 years and 181 days of age, he was the youngest person ever to become premier of an Australian state.
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1905
Maltese architect and civil engineer (born 1830)
Emanuele Luigi Galizia was a Maltese architect and civil engineer, who designed many public buildings and several churches. He is regarded as "the principal Maltese architect throughout the second half of the nineteenth…
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1907
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
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1910
French aviator (born 1880)
René Vallon was an early French aviator. Born in Paris, he travelled to Shanghai, China, in 1911 with a group of aviation enthusiasts to promote aircraft sales. He achieved the first aeroplane flight in China on 21…
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1911
American novelist (born 1856)
Lyman Frank Baum was an American author best known for his children's fantasy books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, part of a series. In addition to the 14 Oz books, Baum penned 41 other novels, 83 short…
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1919
Russian-French painter and illustrator (born 1869)
Konstantin Andreyevich Somov was a Russian painter and draughtsman during the Modernist period, best known as co-founding member of the Mir iskusstva society. After the Russian Revolution, he eventually emigrated to…
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1939
Belgian-French poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1862)
Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck, also known as Count/Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature…
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1949
French mathematician and physicist (born 1869)
Élie Joseph Cartan was an influential French mathematician who did fundamental work in the theory of Lie groups, differential systems, and differential geometry. He also made significant contributions to general…
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1951
Italian-Dutch physician and educator (born 1870)
Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori was an Italian physician and educator best known for her philosophy of education and her writing on scientific pedagogy. At an early age, Montessori enrolled in classes at an all-boys…
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1952
Polish actress (born 1881)
Maria Zofia Dulęba was a Polish stage and film actress. She made her stage debut in 1902 and performed in a number of films, mostly in the silent era. She later taught drama.
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1959
Estonian-American economist and academic (born 1907)
Ragnar Wilhelm Nurkse was an Estonian-American economist and policy maker mainly in the fields of international finance and economic development. He is considered the pioneer of Balanced Growth Theory.
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1959
Romanian poet, playwright, and philosopher (born 1895)
Lucian Blaga was a Romanian philosopher, poet, playwright, poetry translator and novelist. He is one of the most important philosophers and poets of Romania, and a prominent philosopher of the interwar period in Eastern…
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1961
Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, and engineer (born 1881)
Theodore von Kármán was a Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer, and physicist who worked in aeronautics and astronautics. He was responsible for crucial advances in aerodynamics characterizing supersonic…
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1963
1963
American raconteur, actor, and director (born 1888)
Edgar Montillion "Monty" Woolley was an American film and theater actor. At the age of 50, he achieved a measure of stardom for his role in the 1939 stage play The Man Who Came to Dinner and its 1942 film adaptation.…
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1963
Chinese author and translator (born 1885)
Zhou Zuoren was a Chinese writer, primarily known as an essayist and a translator. He was a major figure in the genre of prose essays. Zhou was a younger brother of Lu Xun, the second of three brothers.
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1967
Russian general (born 1879)
Alexander Pavlovich Rodzyanko was an officer of the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and lieutenant-general and a corps commander of the White Army during the Russian Civil War. He also competed at the 1912…
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1970
Canadian conductor and composer (born 1893)
Sir Ernest Alexander Campbell MacMillan, was a Canadian orchestral conductor, composer, organist, and Canada's only "Musical Knight". He is widely regarded as being Canada's pre-eminent musician from the 1920s through…
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1973
Hungarian cardinal (born 1892)
József Mindszenty was a Hungarian cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Esztergom and leader of the Catholic Church in Hungary from 1945 to 1973. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, for five…
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1975
Chilean writer (born 1910)
María Luisa Bombal Anthes was a Chilean novelist and poet. Her work incorporates erotic, surrealist, and feminist themes. She was a recipient of the Santiago Municipal Literature Award. In 1938 she published her most…
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1980
American author and illustrator (born 1916)
Ezra Jack Keats was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He is best known for The Snowy Day, which won the 1963 Caldecott Medal and is considered one of the most important American books of the 20th…
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1983
Danish-American trombonist and composer (born 1922)
Kai Chresten Winding was a Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is known for his collaborations with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson. His version of "More", the theme from the movie Mondo Cane, reached…
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1983
1984
1984
American politician, 13th Director of Central Intelligence (born 1913)
William Joseph Casey was an American lawyer who was the Director of Central Intelligence from 1981 to 1987. In this capacity he oversaw the entire United States Intelligence Community and personally directed the Central…
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1987
American football player and coach (born 1897)
Earl Henry "Red" Blaik was an American football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and United States Army officer. He served as the head football coach at Dartmouth College from 1934 to 1940 and at the…
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1989
American actor (born 1900)
Charles David Farrell was an American film actor and later Mayor of Palm Springs, serving from 1947 to 1955. Farrell was known for his onscreen romances with actress Janet Gaynor in more than a dozen films, including…
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1990
English actor (born 1903)
Wilfrid Hyde-White was an English actor. Described by Philip French as a "classic British film archetype", Hyde-White often portrayed droll and urbane upper-class characters. He had an extensive stage and screen career…
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1991
German-American actress and singer (born 1901)
Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich was a German and American actress and singer whose career spanned nearly seven decades. In 1920s Berlin, she performed on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as Lola Lola in…
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1992
1993
Northern Irish footballer (born 1956)
Noel Brotherston was an international footballer for Northern Ireland.
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1995
Australian ecologist and academic (born 1920)
Gordon Lee McClymont AO was an Australian agricultural scientist, ecologist, and educationist. The originator of the term "sustainable agriculture", McClymont is known for his multidisciplinary approach to farm ecology.…
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2000
Canadian violinist, composer, conductor, and educator (born 1906)
Murray Adaskin, was a Canadian violinist, teacher, and composer.
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2002
American singer-songwriter and pianist (born 1932)
Otis Blackwell was an American songwriter whose work influenced rock and roll. His compositions include "Fever", "Great Balls of Fire" and "Breathless", "Don't Be Cruel", "All Shook Up", and "Return to Sender", and…
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2002
Dutch sociologist, academic, and politician (born 1948)
Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn, was a Dutch politician, author, civil servant, businessman, sociologist and academic who founded the party Pim Fortuyn List in 2002.
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2002
Norwegian saxophonist (born 1940)
Bjørn John Johansen was a Norwegian jazz musician, known from a number of recordings and international cooperation. He has been one of the most influential Norwegian saxophonists of all time and has been the inspiration…
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2002
American baseball player and journalist (born 1927)
Arthur Joseph Houtteman was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for 12 seasons in the American League with the Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians and Baltimore Orioles. In 325 career…
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2003
American actress and singer (born 1925)
Eliza "Virginia" Capers was an American actress. She won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical in 1974 for her performance as Lena Younger in Raisin, a musical version of Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin…
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2004
American monk and educator (born 1912)
Philip Kapleau was an American Zen Buddhist teacher. He trained in the Harada–Yasutani tradition, which is rooted in Japanese Sōtō and incorporates Rinzai-school koan study. He established Rochester Zen Center, which…
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2004
American guitarist and composer (born 1923)
Barney Kessel was an American jazz guitarist. Known in particular for his knowledge of chords and inversions and chord-based melodies, he was a member of many prominent jazz groups as well as a "first call" guitarist…
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2004
Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1958)
Grant William McLennan was an Australian alternative rock singer-songwriter-guitarist. He co-founded the Go-Betweens with Robert Forster in Brisbane in 1977 and issued four solo albums: Watershed (1991), Fireboy (1992),…
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2006
Canadian journalist (born 1958)
Lorne Saxberg was a Canadian broadcast journalist for CBC Radio and CBC Newsworld. Saxberg was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario and first joined the CBC's radio arm. As host of Ontario Morning in the late 1980s, he was…
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2006
Brazilian physician and politician (born 1938)
Enéas Ferreira Carneiro was a Brazilian polymath, cardiologist, physicist, mathematician, professor, writer, military serviceman and politician. He represented the state of São Paulo in the National Chamber of Deputies…
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2007
American actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1926)
Gene Curtis Harrington was an American film and television director, screenwriter, and producer. He emerged in the experimental film scene of the 1940s and ‘50s, notably as a collaborator of Kenneth Anger, before…
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2007
American race car driver (born 1978)
Kevin Grubb was an American race car driver from Mechanicsville, Virginia. He was the younger brother of former race car driver Wayne Grubb. He was under suspension from NASCAR competition due to two violations in…
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2009
American baseball player, coach, and sportscaster (born 1926)
Robin Evan Roberts was an American Major League Baseball starting pitcher who pitched primarily for the Philadelphia Phillies (1948–1961). He spent the latter part of his career with the Baltimore Orioles (1962–1965),…
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2010
American lieutenant, lawyer, and judge (born 1918)
James Robert Browning was an American attorney and jurist who served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
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2012
American director and producer (born 1960)
James Isaac was an American film director and visual effects supervisor.
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2012
French psychoanalyst and author (born 1924)
Jean Laplanche was a French author, psychoanalyst and winemaker. Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development and Sigmund Freud's seduction theory, and wrote more than a dozen books on psychoanalytic…
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2012
Italian journalist and politician, 41st Prime Minister of Italy (born 1919)
Giulio Andreotti was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments. He was leader of the Christian Democracy party and its conservative faction; he was the…
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2013
Peruvian bishop (born 1923)
Severo Aparicio Quispe, O. de M., was a Peruvian friar of the Mercedarian Order who was made a bishop of the Catholic Church. He wrote a number of works on the history of the Catholic Church and of his Order in Peru.
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2013
Italian-Canadian lawyer and politician (born 1949)
Michelangelo 'Michael' Spensieri was an Italian-Canadian politician and lawyer in Ontario. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1981 to 1985, as a member of the Ontario Liberal Party.
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2013
Dutch economist and politician, Dutch Minister of Social Affairs (born 1925)
Willem Albeda was a Dutch politician of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) and later of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and economist.
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2014
American pilot, engineer, and astronaut (born 1930)
William Harvey Dana was an American aeronautical engineer, U.S. Air Force pilot, NASA test pilot, and astronaut. He was one of twelve pilots who flew the North American X-15, an experimental spaceplane jointly operated…
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2014
American boxer (born 1940)
James Albert Ellis was an American professional boxer. He won the vacant WBA heavyweight title in 1968 by defeating Jerry Quarry, making one successful title defense in the same year against Floyd Patterson, before…
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2014
American baseball player and scout (born 1928)
William Harrell was an American reserve infielder in Major League Baseball who played between 1955 and 1961 for the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox (1961). Listed at 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m), 180 pounds (82 kg),…
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2014
English pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1921)
Antony Hopkins was a composer, pianist, and conductor, as well as a writer and radio broadcaster. He was widely known for his books of musical analysis and for his radio programmes Talking About Music, broadcast by…
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2014
Austrian painter and academic (born 1919)
Maria Lassnig was an Austrian artist known for her painted self-portraits and her theory of "body awareness". In 1980, she became a professor for Painting at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where she taught until…
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2014
Canadian environmentalist and author (born 1921)
Farley McGill Mowat was a Canadian writer and environmentalist. His works were translated into 52 languages, and he sold more than 17 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Canadian…
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2014
Bangladeshi sculptor (born 1930)
Novera Ahmed was a Bangladeshi modern sculptor. She was awarded the Ekushey Padak medal by the government of Bangladesh in 1997 and Independence Award in 2025. Artist Zainul Abedin described her work saying "What Novera…
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2015
American race car driver and journalist (born 1927)
Denise McCluggage was an American auto racing driver, journalist, author and photographer. McCluggage was a pioneer of equality for women in the U.S., both in motorsports and in journalism. She was born in El Dorado,…
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2015
American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 56th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (born 1922)
James Claude Wright Jr. was a liberal American politician who served as the 48th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 1989. He represented Texas' 12th congressional district as a Democrat…
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2015
Cameroonian footballer (born 1990)
Patrick Claude Ekeng Ekeng was a Cameroonian professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. He had two international caps for his country's national team, whom he represented at the 2015 Africa Cup of…
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2016
Australian businessman (born 1923)
Reginald Roy Grundy was an Australian entrepreneur and media mogul, best known for his numerous television productions. He was the producer of various Australian game shows, such as Blankety Blanks and Wheel of Fortune…
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2016
Japanese manga artist (born 1966)
Kentaro Miura was a Japanese manga artist. He was best known for his dark fantasy series Berserk, which began serialization in 1989. By 2023, Berserk had over 60 million copies in circulation, making it one of the…
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2021
American comic book artist and writer (born 1954)
George Pérez was an American comic book artist and writer, who worked primarily as a penciller. He came to prominence in the 1970s penciling Fantastic Four and The Avengers for Marvel Comics. In the 1980s, he penciled…
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2022
French journalist, interviewer and host (born 1935)
Bernard Pivot was a French journalist, interviewer and host of cultural television programmes. He was chairman of the Académie Goncourt from 2014 to 2020.
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2024
Australian actor (born 1929)
Brian Thomas Wenzel was an Australian actor, comedian, director and singer. He was in the entertainment business for 60 years, including circus, stage, television and film.
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2024
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Notable deaths
Who died on May 6?
Charles III — French general and nobleman (1490–1527)
FeaturedCharles III
Death year1527
Known forThe son of Gilbert de Bourbon and Clara Gonzaga, he was born into a junior branch of the royal house of France
Deaths on this date97 (698 – 2024)
Explore May 6
Jump between the main pages for this date to compare events, people, and the daily quiz.
Also on May 6 in History
2023
The coronation of Charles III and Camilla as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms is held in Westminster Abbey, London. Wikipedia →
2023
Eight people are killed and seven injured in a mass shooting in Allen, Texas. The perpetrator is killed by a police officer. Wikipedia →
2013
See all events on May 6
Three women, kidnapped and missing for more than a decade, are found alive in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. Wikipedia →
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