Notable Deaths on November 16

November 16 has 123 recorded notable deaths across history, from 897 to 2024. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

Milton Friedman

2006 — Milton Friedman

American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1912)

By · — Wikipedia

Notable Deaths 123 source records 897 – 2024

Major events on November 16

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1988 In the first open election in more than a decade, voters in Pakistan elect populist candidate Benazir Bhutto to be Prime Minister of Pakistan. Source
  2. 2022 Artemis Program: NASA launches Artemis 1 on the first flight of the Space Launch System, the start of the program's future missions to the moon. Source

Did you know about Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy.

Did you know about William Goldman

William Goldman was an American novelist, screenwriter and playwright who wrote 16 novels and numerous screenplays in a career spanning seven decades.

Did you know about Saint Margaret of Scotland (born 1045)

Following the death of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, her brother Edgar Ætheling was elected King of England but never crowned.

Did you know about Sofonisba Anguissola

Sofonisba Anguissola later became an official court painter to the king, Philip II, and adapted her style to the more formal requirements of official portraits for the Spanish court.

Did you know about Melvin Laird

First elected in 1952, Laird was the last living former U.S. representative elected to the 83rd Congress at the time of his death and the last living representative to have served during the presidency of Harry Truman.

More major people who died on November 16

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

2018 William Goldman

William Goldman

American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter (born 1931)
William Goldman was an American novelist, screenwriter and playwright who wrote 16 novels and numerous screenplays in a career spanning seven decades. He received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Best Screenplay from the BAFTAs and Golden Globes for his first original screenplay, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and he received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for All the President's Men (1976). Both of these films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, along with The Princess Bride (1987) which he adapted from his 1973 novel, and all three were included on the 2006 list by the Writers Guild of America of the 101 Greatest Screenplays. Among his other accolades were three Writers Guild of America Awards, including the 1985 Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, two Edgar Awards for Best Motion Picture Screenplay, and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.
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1093 Saint Margaret of Scotland (born 1045)

Saint Margaret of Scotland (born 1045)

Saint Margaret of Scotland, also known as Margaret of Wessex, was Queen of Alba from 1070 to 1093 as the wife of King Malcolm III. Margaret was sometimes called "The Pearl of Scotland". She was a member of the House of Wessex and was born in the Kingdom of Hungary to the expatriate English prince Edward the Exile. She and her family returned to England in 1057. Following the death of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, her brother Edgar Ætheling was elected King of England but never crowned. After the family fled north, Margaret married Malcolm III of Scotland by the end of 1070.
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1625 Sofonisba Anguissola

Sofonisba Anguissola

Italian painter (born c. 1532)
Sofonisba Anguissola was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Cremona to a relatively poor noble family. She received a well-rounded education that included the fine arts, and her apprenticeship with local painters set a precedent for women to be accepted as students of art. As a young woman, Anguissola travelled to Rome where she was introduced to Michelangelo, who immediately recognized her talent, and to Milan, where she painted Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba. The Spanish queen, Elizabeth of Valois, was a keen amateur painter, and in 1559 Anguissola was recruited to go to Madrid as her tutor, with the rank of lady-in-waiting. She later became an official court painter to the king, Philip II, and adapted her style to the more formal requirements of official portraits for the Spanish court. After the Queen's death, Philip helped arrange an aristocratic marriage for her. She moved to Sicily, and later Pisa and Genoa, where she continued to practice as a leading portrait painter.
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2016 Melvin Laird

Melvin Laird

American politician and writer (born 1922)
Melvin Robert Laird Jr. was an American politician, writer and statesman. A member of the Republican Party, he served a member of the United States House of Representatives from Wisconsin from 1953 to 1969 representing Wisconsin's 7th congressional district before serving as United States Secretary of Defense from 1969 to 1973 under President Richard Nixon. Laird was instrumental in forming the administration's policy of withdrawing U.S. soldiers from the Vietnam War; he coined the expression "Vietnamization," referring to the process of transferring more responsibility for combat to the South Vietnamese forces. First elected in 1952, Laird was the last living former U.S. representative elected to the 83rd Congress at the time of his death and the last living representative to have served during the presidency of Harry Truman.
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2001 Tommy Flanagan

Tommy Flanagan

American pianist and composer (born 1930)
Thomas Lee Flanagan was an American jazz pianist and composer. He grew up in Detroit, initially influenced by such pianists as Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, and Nat King Cole, and then by bebop musicians. Within months of moving to New York in 1956, he had recorded with Miles Davis and on Sonny Rollins' album Saxophone Colossus. Recordings under various leaders, including Giant Steps of John Coltrane, continued well into 1962, when he became the full-time accompanist to Ella Fitzgerald. He worked with Fitzgerald for three years until 1965, and then in 1968 returned to be her pianist and musical director, this time for a decade.
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1745 James Butler

James Butler

2nd Duke of Ormonde, Irish general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (born 1665)
James FitzJames Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, was an Irish statesman and army officer. He was the third of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom of Ormond. Like his grandfather, the 1st Duke, he was raised as a Protestant, unlike his extended family who held to Roman Catholicism. He served in the campaign to put down the Monmouth Rebellion, in the Williamite War in Ireland, in the Nine Years' War and in the War of the Spanish Succession but was accused of treason and went into exile after the Jacobite rising of 1715.
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2015 Bert Olmstead

Bert Olmstead

Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1926)
Murray Albert Olmstead was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who was a left winger for the Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Black Hawks and Toronto Maple Leafs in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 13 seasons. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1985. Olmstead began his career with the Black Hawks in 1949. In December 1950, he was traded to the Montreal Canadiens via Detroit. Olmstead had his best statistical years playing for Montreal, leading the league in assists in 1954–55 with 48, and setting a league record for assists with 56 the following season. During this time he frequently played on Montreal's top line with Jean Beliveau and Bernie Geoffrion. Olmstead was claimed in the 1958 NHL Intra-League Draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs, and played there until his retirement in 1962.
Wikipedia source
2014 Ian Craig

Ian Craig

Australian cricketer (born 1935)
Ian David Craig was an Australian cricketer who represented the Australian national team in 11 Tests between 1953 and 1958. A right-handed batsman, Craig holds the records for being the youngest Australian to make a first-class double century, appear in a Test match, and captain his country in a Test match. Burdened by the public expectation of being the "next Bradman", Craig's career did not fulfil its early promise. In 1957, he was appointed Australian captain, leading a young team as part of a regeneration plan following the decline of the national team in the mid-1950s, but a loss of form and illness forced him out of the team after one season. Craig made a comeback, but work commitments forced him to retire from first-class cricket at only 26 years of age.
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2012 Patrick Edlinger

Patrick Edlinger

French mountaineer (born 1960)
Patrick Edlinger was a professional French rock climber. Edlinger is considered a pioneer and a legend of sport climbing and free solo climbing. He was the second-ever climber in history to redpoint routes of grade 7c (5.12d) with Nymphodalle (1979), and grade 7c+ (5.13a) with Le Toit (1981). He was the first-ever climber in history to onsight routes of grade 7b+ (5.12c) with Captain crochet (1982), and grade 7c (5.12d) with La Polka des Ringards (1982) and his free solo ascent of Orange Mécanique at Cimaï (1989). Nicknamed "Le Blond", "the Blond Angel", "God" or "Captain Maximum" in some circles, Edlinger remains an absolute reference in free soloing and in aesthetic and ethical climbing.
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1939 Pierce Butler

Pierce Butler

American lawyer and jurist (born 1866)
Pierce Butler was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1923 until his death in 1939. He is notable for being the first Supreme Court justice from Minnesota, and for being a Democrat appointed by a Republican president. He was a staunch conservative and was regarded as a part of the Four Horsemen, the conservative bloc that dominated the Supreme Court during the 1930s. A devout Catholic, he was also the sole dissenter in the case Buck v. Bell, though he did not write an opinion.
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1911 A. A. Ames

A. A. Ames

American physician and politician, 9th Mayor of Minneapolis (born 1842)
Albert Alonzo "Doc" Ames was an American physician and politician who held four non-consecutive terms as mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota. His fourth term was marked by multiple prosecutions for political corruption, extortion, and racketeering in a scandal which was publicized nationwide by muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens in a 1903 article in McClure's Magazine titled The Shame of Minneapolis. Ames was found guilty of corruption, but after a successful appeal and multiple mistrials the charges were dropped. Erik Rivenes, however, has called the downfall of Mayor Ames, "one of the greatest political scandals in Minnesota history."
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2005 Henry Taube

Henry Taube

Canadian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1915)
Henry Taube was a Canadian-born American chemist who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "his work in the mechanisms of electron-transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes." He was the second Canadian-born chemist to win the Nobel Prize, and remains the only Saskatchewanian-born Nobel laureate. Taube completed his undergraduate and master's degrees at the University of Saskatchewan, and his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. After finishing graduate school, Taube worked at Cornell University, the University of Chicago and Stanford University.
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1322

Nasr

Sultan of Granada (born 1287)
Nasr, full name Abu al-Juyush Nasr ibn Muhammad, was the fourth Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada from 14 March 1309 until his abdication on 8 February 1314. He was the son of Muhammad II al-Faqih and Shams al-Duha. He ascended the throne after his brother Muhammad III was dethroned in a palace revolution. At the time of his accession, Granada faced a three-front war against Castile, Aragon and the Marinid Sultanate, triggered by his predecessor's foreign policy. He made peace with the Marinids in September 1309, ceding to them the African port of Ceuta, which had already been captured, as well as Algeciras and Ronda in Europe. Granada lost Gibraltar to a Castilian siege in September, but successfully defended Algeciras until it was given to the Marinids, who continued its defense until the siege was abandoned in January 1310. James II of Aragon sued for peace after Granadan defenders defeated the Aragonese siege of Almería in December 1309, withdrawing his forces and leaving the Emirate's territories by January. In the ensuing treaty, Nasr agreed to pay tributes and indemnities to Ferdinand IV of Castile and yield some border towns in exchange for seven years of peace.
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1802 André Michaux

André Michaux

French botanist and explorer (born 1746)
André Michaux was a French botanist and explorer. He is most noted for his study of North American flora. In addition Michaux collected specimens in England, Spain, France, and even Persia. His work was part of a larger European effort to gather knowledge about the natural world. Michaux's contributions include Histoire des chênes de l'Amérique and Flora Boreali-Americana which continued to be botanical references well into the 19th century. His son, François André Michaux, also became an authoritative botanist.
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1601 Charles Neville

Charles Neville

6th Earl of Westmorland (born 1542)
Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland was an English nobleman, politician and Roman Catholic rebel leader, who led the Rising of the North against Elizabeth I in 1569. After the failure of the Rising, he fled first to Scotland but then went into exile in the Spanish Netherlands, fearing the same fate as his fellow rebellion leader, Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, who had been captured by the Elizabethan government and executed for treason in August 1572.
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1878 Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine (born 1874)

Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine (born 1874)

Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine was a Hessian and Rhenish princess, a member of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt. She was the youngest child and fifth daughter of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom. Her mother was the second daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Marie died of diphtheria and was buried with her mother, who died a few weeks later of the same disease.
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2007 Grethe Kausland

Grethe Kausland

Norwegian actress and singer (born 1947)
Grethe Kausland was a Norwegian singer, performer and actress. As a child star she was one of Norway's most popular singers, and she participated in several films as a child. She represented Norway in the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest, singing "Småting" with Benny Borg. From 1973 she performed regularly with the musical group Dizzie Tunes. Awarded "Spellemannprisen" 1978 for the album A Taste of Grethe Kausland, and "Leonardstatuetten" 1991 for her achievements on the revue scene.
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2013 Louis D. Rubin

Louis D. Rubin

Jr., American author, critic, and academic (born 1923)
Louis Decimus Rubin Jr. was a noted American literary critic, writer, teacher, and publisher. He is credited with helping to establish Southern literature as a recognized area of study within the field of American literature, as well as serving as a teacher and mentor for writers at Hollins College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and for founding Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, a publishing company nationally recognized for fiction by Southern writers.
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1688 Bengt Gottfried Forselius

Bengt Gottfried Forselius

Swedish-Estonian scholar and author (born 1660)
Bengt Gottfried Forselius was a founder of public education in Estonia, author of the first ABC-book in the Estonian language, and creator of a spelling system which made the teaching and learning of Estonian easier. Forselius and Johann Hornung were mainly responsible for making a start at reforming the Estonian literary language in the late 17th century. Some German constructions were abandoned, and a strict spelling system was adopted which still relied on German orthography.
Wikipedia source

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