Did you know about Wolfgang Borchert
Wolfgang Borchert's most famous work is the drama Draußen vor der Tür (The Man Outside), which he wrote soon after the end of World War II.
Notable Deaths on November 20
November 20 has 139 recorded notable deaths across history, from 284 to 2024. This page lists every one of them, with the best-known people first.
1947 — Wolfgang Borchert
German author and playwright (born 1921)
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia · Report an error
Notable Deaths
139 source records
284 – 2024
Today in history
Major events on November 20
See what else happened on this day in history.
- 1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement. Source
- 1998 The first space station module component, Zarya, for the International Space Station is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Source
Did you know about Theoktistos
After Theophilos' death in 842, Theoktistos became a member of the regency council, but soon managed to sideline the other members and establish himself as the virtual ruler of the Empire.
Did you know about John Jellicoe
John Jellicoe fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Boxer Rebellion and commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 during the First World War.
Did you know about John Lyly
John Lyly has been credited by some scholars with writing the first English novel, and as being 'the father of English comedy'.
Did you know about Sir John Fowler
In the 1850s and 1860s, he was engineer for the world's first underground railway, London's Metropolitan Railway, built by the "cut-and-cover" method under city streets.
More major people who died on November 20
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
855
Theoktistos
Byzantine courtier
Theoktistos or Theoctistus was a leading Byzantine official during the second quarter of the 9th century and the de facto head of the regency for the underage emperor Michael III from 842 until his dismissal and murder in 855. A eunuch courtier, he assisted in the ascent of Michael II to the throne in 820, and was rewarded with the titles of patrikios and later magistros. He held the high posts of chartoularios tou kanikleiou and logothetēs tou dromou under Michael and his son Theophilos. After Theophilos' death in 842, Theoktistos became a member of the regency council, but soon managed to sideline the other members and establish himself as the virtual ruler of the Empire. Noted for his administrative and political competence, Theoktistos played a major role in ending the Byzantine Iconoclasm, and fostered the ongoing renaissance in education within the Empire. He also continued the persecution of the Paulician sect, but had mixed success in the wars against the Arabs. When Michael III came of age in 855, his uncle Bardas persuaded him to throw off the tutelage of Theoktistos and his mother, the Empress-dowager Theodora, and on 20 November 855, Theoktistos was assassinated by Bardas and his followers.
1935
John Jellicoe
Royal Navy officer and First Sea Lord (born 1859)
Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe was a Royal Navy officer. He fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Boxer Rebellion and commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 during the First World War. His handling of the fleet at that battle was controversial. Jellicoe made no serious mistakes and the German High Seas Fleet retreated to port, at a time when defeat would have been catastrophic for Britain, but the public was disappointed that the Royal Navy had not won a more dramatic victory given that they outnumbered the enemy. Jellicoe later served as First Sea Lord, overseeing the expansion of the Naval Staff at the Admiralty and the introduction of convoys, but was relieved at the end of 1917. He also served as the governor-general of New Zealand in the early 1920s.
1606
John Lyly
English poet and courtier
John Lyly was an English writer, playwright, courtier, and parliamentarian. He first achieved success with his two books Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578) and its sequel Euphues and His England (1580), and then became a dramatist, writing eight plays which survive, at least six of which were performed before Queen Elizabeth I. Lyly's distinctive and much imitated literary style, named after the title character of his two books, is known as euphuism. He is sometimes grouped with other professional dramatists of the 1580s and 1590s like Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, George Peele, and Thomas Lodge, as one of the so-called University Wits. He has been credited by some scholars with writing the first English novel, and as being 'the father of English comedy'.
1898
Sir John Fowler
1st Baronet, English engineer (born 1817)
Sir John Fowler, 1st Baronet, KCMG, LLD, FRSE was an English civil engineer specialising in the construction of railways and railway infrastructure. In the 1850s and 1860s, he was engineer for the world's first underground railway, London's Metropolitan Railway, built by the "cut-and-cover" method under city streets. In the 1880s, he was chief engineer for the Forth Bridge, which opened in 1890. Fowler's was a long and eminent career, spanning most of the 19th century's railway expansion, and he was engineer, adviser or consultant to many British and foreign railway companies and governments. He was the youngest president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, between 1865 and 1867, and his major works represent a lasting legacy of Victorian engineering.
1764
Christian Goldbach
Prussian mathematician and theorist (born 1690)
Christian Goldbach was a Prussian mathematician connected with some important research mainly in number theory; he also studied law and took an interest in and a role in the Russian court. After traveling around Europe in his early life, he landed in Russia in 1725 as a professor at the newly founded Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Goldbach jointly led the academy in 1737. However, he relinquished duties in the academy in 1742 and worked in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs until his death in 1764. He is remembered today for Goldbach's conjecture and the Goldbach–Euler theorem. He had a close friendship with famous mathematician Leonhard Euler, serving as inspiration for Euler's mathematical pursuits.
1889
August Ahlqvist
Finnish professor, poet, scholar of the Finno-Ugric languages, author, and literary critic (born 1826)
Karl August Engelbrekt Ahlqvist, who wrote as A. Oksanen, was a Finnish professor, poet, scholar of the Finno-Ugric languages, author, and literary critic. He served as professor of Finnish language and literature at the Imperial Alexander University from 1863 as the successor to Elias Lönnrot, and as the university's rector from 1884 to 1887. Ahlqvist is regarded as one of the founders of Finno-Ugric studies alongside Matthias Alexander Castrén, and as a poet under the pen name A. Oksanen he introduced several new verse forms into Finnish-language poetry. He is also remembered as the sharpest critic of the writer Aleksis Kivi, who later rose to the position of the national author of Finland.
2003
David Dacko
African educator and politician, 1st President of the Central African Republic (born 1930)
David Dacko was a Central African politician who served as the first President of the Central African Republic from 14 August 1960 to 31 December 1965 and as the third President of the Central African Republic from 21 September 1979 to 1 September 1981. He also served as Prime Minister of the Central African Republic from 1 May 1959 to 14 August 1960. After his second removal from power in a coup d'état led by General André Kolingba, he pursued an active career as an opposition politician and presidential candidate with many loyal supporters; Dacko was an important political figure in the country for over 50 years.
1612
John Harington
English courtier and author (born 1561)
Sir John Harington was an English courtier, author and translator popularly known as the inventor of the flush toilet. Born in Kelston, Somerset, he became prominent at Queen Elizabeth I's court, and was known as her "saucy Godson", but his poetry and other writings caused him to fall in and out of favour with the Queen. He was the author of the description of a flush toilet forerunner installed in his Kelston house, which appeared in A New Discourse of a Stale Subject, called the Metamorphosis of Ajax (1596), a political allegory and coded attack on the monarchy which is nowadays his best-known work.
2015
Keith Michell
Australian actor (born 1926)
Keith Joseph Michell was an Australian actor who worked primarily in the United Kingdom, and was best known for his television and film portrayals of King Henry VIII. He appeared extensively in Shakespeare and other classics and musicals in Britain, and was also in several Broadway productions. He was an artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre in the 1970s and later had a recurring role on Murder, She Wrote as the charming thief Dennis Stanton. He was also known for illustrating a collection of Jeremy Lloyd's poems Captain Beaky, and singing the title song from the associated album.
1316
John I
king of France and Navarra (born 1316)
John I, called the Posthumous, was the King of France and Navarre, as the posthumous son and successor of Louis X, for the four days he lived in 1316. He is the youngest person to be king of France, the only one to have been king from birth, and the only one to hold the title for his entire life. His reign is the shortest of any undisputed French king. Although considered as a king today, his status was not recognized until chroniclers and historians in later centuries began numbering John II, thereby acknowledging John I's brief reign.
1903
Tom Horn
American scout, cowboy, soldier
Thomas Horn Jr., was an American cowboy, scout, soldier, range detective, rodeo performer, Pinkerton agent, and killer for hire in the 19th-century and early 20th-century American Old West. Believed to have committed 17 killings as a hired gunman throughout the West, Horn was convicted in 1902 of the murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell near Iron Mountain, Wyoming. Willie was the son of sheep rancher Kels Nickell, who had been involved in a range feud with neighbor and cattle rancher Jim Miller. On the day before his 42nd birthday, Horn was executed by hanging in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
996
Richard I
duke of Normandy (born 932)
Richard I, also known as Richard the Fearless, was the count of Rouen from 942 to 996. Dudo of Saint-Quentin, whom Richard commissioned to write the "De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum", called him a dux. However, this use of the word may have been in the context of Richard's renowned leadership in war, and not as a reference to a title of nobility. Richard either introduced feudalism into Normandy or he greatly expanded it. By the end of his reign, the most important Norman landholders held their lands in feudal tenure.
1907
Paula Modersohn-Becker
German painter (born 1876)
Paula Modersohn-Becker was a German Expressionist painter and draftswoman of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She is noted for the many self-portraits, including nudes. She is considered one of the most important representatives of early expressionism, producing more than 700 paintings and over 1000 drawings during her active painting life. She is recognized both as the first known woman painter to paint nude self-portraits, and the first woman to have a museum devoted exclusively to her art. Additionally, she is believed to be the first woman artist to depict herself pregnant.
2019
Wataru Misaka
American basketball player (born 1923)
Wataru Misaka was an American professional basketball player. A 5-foot-7-inch (1.70 m) point guard of Japanese descent, he broke a color barrier in professional basketball by being the first non-white player and the first player of Asian descent to play in the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The National Basketball Association (NBA), which was created in 1949 with the merger of the BAA and the NBL, later adopted the BAA's history and thus considers Misaka to be the first non-white player of the league.
1864
Albert Newsam
American painter and illustrator (born 1809)
Albert Newsam was an American lithographer and painter. He was born deaf in Steubenville, Ohio, and orphaned as a small child. He displayed artistic talent at an early age, was brought to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. He was an early practitioner of lithography in the United States and contributed numerous images to medical and sheet music books. His portrait work of prominent politicians, doctors, lawyers and businessmen raised the prominence of lithography in the United States.
2010
Chalmers Johnson
American author and scholar (born 1931)
Chalmers Ashby Johnson was an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics, and professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego. He served in the Korean War, was a consultant for the CIA from 1967 to 1973 and chaired the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley from 1967 to 1972. He was also president and co-founder with Steven Clemons of the Japan Policy Research Institute, an organization that promotes public education about Japan and Asia.
2012
Pete La Roca
American jazz drummer (born 1938)
Pete "La Roca" Sims was an American jazz drummer and attorney. Born and raised in Harlem by a pianist mother and a stepfather who played trumpet, he was introduced to jazz by his uncle Kenneth Bright, a major shareholder in Circle Records and the manager of rehearsal spaces above the Lafayette Theater. Sims studied percussion at the High School of Music and Art and at the City College of New York, where he played tympani in the CCNY Orchestra. He adopted the name La Roca early in his musical career, when he played timbales for six years in Latin bands. In the 1970s, during a hiatus from jazz performance, he resumed using his original surname. When he returned to jazz in the late 1970s, he usually inserted "La Roca" into his name in quotation marks to help audiences familiar with his early work identify him. He told The New York Times in 1982 that he did so only out of necessity:I can't deny that I once played under the name La Roca, but I have to insist that my name is Peter Sims with La Roca in brackets or in quotes. For 16 or 17 years, when I have not been playing the music, people have known me as Sims....When I was 14 or 15, I thought ["La Roca"] was clever; right now, it's an embarrassment. I thought that it would be something that people would probably remember - boy, was I ever right on that one! I can't make my conversion.
1933
Augustine Birrell
British politician (born 1815)
Augustine Birrell KC was a British Liberal Party politician, who was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916. In this post, he was praised for enabling tenant farmers to own their property and for extending university education for Catholics. He was criticised for failing to take action against Irish rebels before the Easter Rising, leading to his subsequent resignation. A barrister by training, he was also an author noted for humorous essays.
2005
Chris Whitley
American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1960)
Christopher Becker Whitley was an American blues/rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. Whitley's sound was drawn from the traditions of blues, jazz and rock and he recorded songs by artists from many genres. During his 25-year career, he released 17 albums. While two songs landed in the top 50 of the Billboard mainstream rock charts and he received two Independent Music Awards, he remained on the fringes of both the blues and alternative-rock worlds.
1886
William Bliss Baker
American painter (born 1859)
William Bliss Baker was an American artist who began painting just as the Hudson River School was winding down. Baker began his studies in 1876 at the National Academy of Design, where he studied with Bierstadt and de Haas. He later maintained studios in Clifton Park, New York, and New York City, where he painted in oils and watercolors. He completed more than 130 paintings, including several in black and white.
1978
Giorgio de Chirico
Greek-Italian painter and sculptor (born 1888)
Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico was a Greek-Italian artist and writer born in Volos, Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the scuola metafisica art movement, which profoundly influenced the surrealists. His best-known works often feature Roman arcades, long shadows, mannequins, trains, and illogical perspective. His imagery reflects his affinity for the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer and of Friedrich Nietzsche, and for the mythology of his birthplace.
2006
Robert Altman
American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1925)
Robert Bernard Altman was an American filmmaker. He is considered an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, known for directing subversive and satirical films with overlapping dialogue and ensemble casts. Over his career he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Honorary Award, two BAFTAs, three Independent Spirit Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, a David di Donatello Award, and a Golden Globe, as well as nominations for seven competitive Academy Awards.
1997
Dick Littlefield
American baseball player (born 1926)
Richard Bernard Littlefield was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns / Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, Chicago Cubs and the Milwaukee Braves between 1950 and 1958. He batted and threw left-handed, and was listed as 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and 180 pounds (82 kg). He was born and died in Detroit.
2024
Jodi Rell
American politician, 87th Governor of Connecticut (born 1946)
Mary Carolyn "Jodi" Rell, known as M. Jodi Rell, was an American politician who served as the 87th governor of Connecticut from 2004 to 2011. Rell also had served as the state's 105th lieutenant governor of Connecticut from 1995 to 2004 under Governor John G. Rowland, and became governor after Rowland resigned from office. To date, Rell is the last Republican and last woman to serve as Governor of Connecticut.
1695
Zumbi
Brazilian king (born 1655)
Zumbi, also known as Zumbi dos Palmares, was a Brazilian quilombola leader and one of the pioneers of resistance to enslavement of Africans by the Portuguese in colonial Brazil. He was also the last of the kings of the Quilombo dos Palmares, a settlement of Afro-Brazilian people who liberated themselves from enslavement in the Captaincy of Pernambuco. He is revered in Afro-Brazilian culture as a symbol of African freedom.
1944
Maria Jacobini
Italian actress (born 1892)
Maria Jacobini was an Italian film actress and writer. She was born in Rome. She was married to the film director Gennaro Righelli and appeared in many of his silent films for the Vesuvio Film Company. She and her husband worked in the German film industry in the mid-1920s. She was the older sister of actress Diomira Jacobini. She died in Rome in 1944, at the age of 52.
1678
Karel Dujardin
Dutch Golden Age painter (born 1622)
Karel Dujardin was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Although he did a few portraits and a few history paintings of religious subjects, most of his work is small Italianate landscape scenes with animals and peasants, and other genre scenes. Dujardin spent two extended periods, at the beginning and end of his career, in Italy, and most of his paintings and landscape etchings have an Italian or Italianate setting.
1973
Allan Sherman
American actor, comedian, and producer (born 1924)
Allan Sherman was an American musician, comedian, and television producer who became known as a song parodist in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer (1962), became the fastest-selling record album up to that time. His biggest hit was "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh", a comic song in which a boy describes his summer camp experiences to the tune of Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours.
2007
Ian Smith
Rhodesian lieutenant and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Rhodesia (born 1919)
Ian Douglas Smith was a Rhodesian and Zimbabwean politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 1964 to 1979. He led the predominantly white-minority government that unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in November 1965 after rejecting British demands for a transition to majority rule. His premiership was marked by international non-recognition, United Nations sanctions, and the Rhodesian Bush War.
1946
I Gusti Ngurah Rai
Indonesian officer (born 1917)
I Gusti Ngurah Rai was an Indonesian military officer and participant in the Indonesian National Revolution. He was the founder and first commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces unit in the Lesser Sunda Islands, and the direct leader of armed anti-Dutch resistance in Bali. He was killed in November 1946 in a battle with Dutch troops near the village of Marga in central Bali.
1983
Marcel Dalio
French actor and playwright (born 1900)
Marcel Dalio, sometimes credited mononymously as Dalio, was a French actor. He began his career in the 1930s as a leading man, notably starring in Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939), before becoming known as in-demand character actor. His film career spanned nearly 200 productions released between 1931 and 1982, both in France and the United States.
1936
Buenaventura Durruti
Spanish mechanic and activist (born 1896)
José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange was a Spanish anarcho-syndicalist militant and a leading figure in Spanish anarchism before and during the Spanish Civil War. As a prominent member of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI), Durruti was a key participant in the Spanish Revolution of 1936, and is remembered as a hero and martyr by the anarchist movement.
1994
Jānis Krūmiņš
Latvian basketball player (born 1930)
Jānis Krūmiņš was a Soviet-Latvian professional basketball player. Helped by his height, he was the first giant center that dominated under European baskets, for years. As a player of the senior Soviet Union national basketball team, Krūmiņš won 3 gold medals at the 1959, 1961, and 1963 EuroBaskets, as well as 3 silver medals at the 1956, 1960, and 1964 Summer Olympic Games.
2018
James H. Billington
13th Librarian of Congress (born 1929)
James Hadley Billington was an American academic and author who taught history at Harvard and Princeton before serving for 42 years as CEO of four federal cultural institutions. He served as the 13th Librarian of Congress after being nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, and his appointment was approved unanimously by the U.S. Senate. He retired as Librarian on September 30, 2015.
2024
Andy Paley
American songwriter (born 1952)
Andrew Douglas Paley was an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer, and composer. During the 1970s, he performed around the Boston area with numerous bands and formed the Paley Brothers, a power pop duo, with his brother Jonathan Paley. Following the Paley Brothers' disbandment in 1979, Andy was briefly a member of the Modern Lovers and a longtime staff producer at Sire Records.
1983
Richard Loo
Chinese-American actor (born 1903)
Richard Kuen Loo was an American actor. He was one of the most familiar Asian American character actors during the Golden Age of Hollywood, appearing in numerous films of the 1930s through the 1950s. Though of Chinese ancestry, he often portrayed villainous Imperial Japanese military officers during the Second World War. Later in his career, he was active mainly on television.
2020
Jan Morris
Welsh historian, author and travel writer (born 1926)
Catharine Jan Morris was a Welsh historian, author and travel writer. She was known particularly for the Pax Britannica trilogy (1968–1978), a history of the British Empire, and for portraits of cities, including Oxford, Venice, Trieste, Hong Kong and New York City. She published under her birth name until 1972, when she had gender reassignment surgery, transitioning from male to female.
1559
Lady Frances Brandon
English noblewoman and claimant to the throne of England (born 1517)
Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, was an English noblewoman. She was the second child and eldest daughter of King Henry VIII's younger sister, Princess Mary, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. She was the mother of Lady Jane Grey, de facto Queen of England and Ireland for nine days, as well as Lady Katherine Grey and Lady Mary Grey.
1975
Francisco Franco
Spanish general and dictator, Prime Minister of Spain (born 1892)
Francisco Franco Bahamonde was a Spanish military general and the dictator of Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975. He had led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939. This period in Spanish history, from the Nationalist victory to Franco's death, is commonly known as Francoist Spain.
1704
Charles Plumier
French botanist and painter (born 1646)
Charles Plumier was a French botanist after whom the frangipani genus Plumeria is named. Plumier is considered one of the most important of the botanical explorers of his time. He made three botanizing expeditions to the West Indies, which resulted in a massive work Nova Plantarum Americanarum Genera (1703–1704) and was appointed botanist to King Louis XIV.
1999
Amintore Fanfani
Italian journalist and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Italy (born 1908)
Amintore Fanfani was an Italian politician and statesman who served as 32nd prime minister of Italy for five separate terms. He was one of the best-known Italian politicians after the Second World War and a historical figure of the left-wing faction of Christian Democracy. He is also considered one of the founders of the modern Italian centre-left.
1945
Francis William Aston
English chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1877)
Francis William Aston FRS was a British chemist and physicist who won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery, by means of his mass spectrograph, of isotopes in many non-radioactive elements and for his enunciation of the whole number rule. He was a fellow of the Royal Society and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
1952
Benedetto Croce
Italian philosopher and politician (born 1866)
Benedetto Croce, was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography, and aesthetics. A political liberal in most regards, he formulated a distinction between liberalism and "liberism". Croce had considerable influence on other Italian intellectuals, from Marxists to Italian fascists, such as Antonio Gramsci and Giovanni Gentile, respectively.
927
Xu Wen
Chinese general (born 862)
Xu Wen, courtesy name Dunmei (敦美), formally Prince Zhongwu of Qi (齊忠武王), later further posthumously honored Emperor Wu (武皇帝) with the temple name Yizu (義祖) by his adoptive son Xu Zhigao after Xu Zhigao founded the state of Southern Tang, was a major general and regent of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Wu. He took over the reins of the Wu state after assassinating, with his colleague Zhang Hao, Yang Wo, the first Prince of Hongnong, and then killing Zhang. Xu was in essence the decision-maker throughout the reign of Yang Wo's brother and successor Yang Longyan and the first part of the reign of Yang Longyan's brother and successor Yang Pu. After his death, Xu Zhigao inherited his position as regent, eventually seizing the Wu throne and establishing Southern Tang.
1940
Tim Coleman
English footballer (born 1881)
John George "Tim" Coleman MM was an English footballer who played as a forward for Kettering Town, Northampton Town, Woolwich Arsenal, Everton, Sunderland, Fulham, Nottingham Forest, Queen Park Rangers and Tunbridge Wells Rangers. He made a single appearance for the England national football team and later in life was a manager in the Netherlands.
1972
Ennio Flaiano
Italian writer and journalist (born 1910)
Ennio Flaiano was an Italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist, and drama critic. Best known for his work with Federico Fellini, Flaiano co-wrote ten screenplays with the Italian director, including La Strada (1954), La Dolce Vita (1960), and 8½ (1963). He received the inaugural 1947 Strega Prize for his novel A Time to Kill.
1980
John McEwen
Australian lawyer and politician, 18th Prime Minister of Australia (born 1900)
Sir John McEwen was the 18th prime minister of Australia, serving from 1967 to 1968 in a caretaker capacity following the disappearance of prime minister Harold Holt. He was the leader of the Country Party from 1958 to 1971, serving as the inaugural deputy prime minister of Australia from 1968 to 1971.
2007
Kenneth S. Kleinknecht
NASA manager (born 1919)
Kenneth Samuel Kleinknecht worked for the United States National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics as an engineer and continued at NASA to become a manager of the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo CSM, Skylab, Shuttle, and Spacelab. After retiring from NASA, he worked for Lockheed Martin for 9 years.
2016
Gene Guarilia
American basketball player (born 1937)
Eugene Michael Guarilia was an American basketball player who played four seasons for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is historically the only NBA player with at least a three-year career to play on a championship team every season of his career.
1651
Mikołaj Potocki
Polish nobleman (born 1595)
Mikołaj "Bearpaw" Potocki was a Polish nobleman (szlachcic) and magnate who served as Field Crown Hetman of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1637 to 1646, Grand Hetman of the Crown from 1646 to 1651, governor of Bracław Voivodeship from 1636, and castellan of Kraków from 1646.
1918
John Bauer
Swedish painter and illustrator (born 1882)
John Albert Bauer was a Swedish painter and illustrator. His work is concerned with landscape and mythology, but he also composed portraits. He is best known for his illustrations of early editions of Bland tomtar och troll, an anthology of Swedish folklore and fairy tales.
1984
Faiz Ahmad Faiz
Pakistani journalist and poet (born 1911)
Faiz Ahmad Faiz was a Pakistani poet and author of Urdu and Punjabi literature. Faiz was one of the most well-known Urdu writers of his time and remains influential in Pakistan and India. He was also a teacher, military officer, journalist, trade unionist, and broadcaster.
1936
José Antonio Primo de Rivera
Spanish lawyer and politician (born 1903)
José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquis of Estella GE, often referred to simply as José Antonio, was a Spanish national syndicalist politician who founded the Falange Española, later Falange Española de las JONS.
2012
William Grut
Swedish pentathlete (born 1914)
William Oscar Guernsey Grut was a Swedish modern pentathlete. He competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, where he won the gold medal in modern pentathlon. Grut was a multiple Swedish swimming champion and received the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal in 1948.
2015
Kitanoumi Toshimitsu
Japanese sumo wrestler, the 55th Yokozuna (born 1953)
Kitanoumi Toshimitsu , born Toshimitsu Obata , was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Sōbetsu, Hokkaido. He entered professional sumo at the age of 13 and set several youth-related records, including promotion to the highest rank of yokozuna at the age of 21.
1940
Arturo Bocchini
Chief of Police under the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini (born 1880)
Arturo Bocchini was an Italian civil servant, who was appointed Chief of the Police under the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. Bocchini held the office from September 1926 until his death in November 1940, becoming a key figure in the Italian regime.
2004
Ancel Keys
American physiologist (born 1904)
Ancel Benjamin Keys was an American physiologist who studied the influence of diet on health. In particular, he hypothesized that replacing dietary saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat reduced cardiovascular diseases. Modern dietary recommendations by health organizations, and national health agencies corroborate this.
1941
Elmar Muuk
Estonian linguist and author (born 1901)
Elmar Muuk was an Estonian linguist, lexicographer, and author of a number of dictionaries and textbooks of the Estonian language, and was, together with Johannes Voldemar Veski and Johannes Aavik, responsible for development of Estonian as a modern European language.
2013
Sylvia Browne
American author (born 1936)
Sylvia Celeste Browne was an American writer and self-proclaimed medium and psychic. She appeared regularly on television and radio, including on The Montel Williams Show and Larry King Live, and hosted an hour-long online radio show on Hay House Radio.
1400
Elisabeth of Moravia
margravine of Meissen
Elisabeth of Moravia was the second daughter and third issue of John Henry of Moravia, and his second wife Margaret of Opava. She became Margravine consort of Meissen by her marriage to William I, Margrave of Meissen (1366).
1480
Eleanor of Scotland
Scottish princess (born 1433)
Eleanor of Scotland was an Archduchess of Austria by marriage to Sigismund, Archduke of Austria, a noted translator, and regent of Austria in 1455–58 and 1467. She was a daughter of James I of Scotland and Joan Beaufort.
2017
Peter Berling
German actor, film producer and writer (born 1934)
Peter Berling was a German actor, film producer, and writer. He has worked on several occasions with director Werner Herzog, among them his collaborations with actor Klaus Kinski like Aguirre, the Wrath of God; Fitzcarraldo, and Cobra Verde.
2018
Aaron Klug
Lithuanian-English chemist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1926)
Sir Aaron Klug was a British biophysicist and chemist. He was a winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes.
1593
Hans Bol
Flemish painter (born 1534)
Hans Bol or Jan Bol, was a Flemish painter, miniature painter, print artist and draftsman. He is known for his landscapes, allegorical and biblical scenes, and genre paintings executed in a late Northern Mannerist style.
1591
Christopher Hatton
English academic and politician, Lord Chancellor of England (born 1540)
Sir Christopher Hatton was an English politician, Lord Chancellor of England and a favourite of Elizabeth I of England. He was one of the judges who found Mary, Queen of Scots guilty of treason.
1923
Allen Holubar
American actor and director
Allen J. Holubar was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter of the silent film era. He appeared in 38 films between 1913 and 1917. He also directed 33 films between 1916 and 1923.
1954
Clyde Vernon Cessna
American pilot and engineer, founded the Cessna Aircraft Corporation (born 1879)
Clyde Vernon Cessna was an American aircraft designer, aviator, and early aviation entrepreneur. He is best known as the principal founder of the Cessna Aircraft Corporation, which he started in 1927 in Wichita, Kansas.
2024
John Prescott
British sailor and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1938)
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott was a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007.
284
Numerian
Roman emperor
Numerian was Roman emperor from 283 to 284 with his older brother Carinus. They were sons of Carus, a general raised to the office of praetorian prefect under Emperor Probus in 282.
1925
Alexandra of Denmark
Queen Consort of Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Empress Consort of India (born 1844)
Alexandra of Denmark was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910 as the wife of King Edward VII.
2000
Kalle Päätalo
Finnish author (born 1919)
Kaarlo (Kalle) Alvar Päätalo was a Finnish novelist, the most popular Finnish writer in the 20th century. His Iijoki series, comprising 26 novels, is one of the longest autobiographical works ever written.
2003
Robert Addie
English actor (born 1960)
Robert Alastair Addie was an English film and theatre actor, who came to prominence playing the role of Sir Guy of Gisburne in the 1980s British television drama series Robin of Sherwood.
2006
Zoia Ceaușescu
Romanian mathematician and academic (born 1950)
Zoia Ceaușescu was a Romanian mathematician, the daughter of Communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena and sister of Nicu Ceaușescu and Valentin Ceaușescu. She was also known as Tovarășa Zoia.
1737
Caroline of Ansbach
queen of England and Ireland (born 1683)
Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and Electress of Hanover from 11 June 1727 (O.S.) until her death in 1737 as the wife of King George II.
1910
Leo Tolstoy
Russian author and playwright (born 1828)
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time.
1998
Galina Starovoytova
Russian ethnographer and politician (born 1946)
Galina Vasilyevna Starovoitova was a Soviet dissident, Russian politician and ethnographer known for her work to protect ethnic minorities and promote democratic reforms in Russia. She was murdered in 1998.
1894
Anton Rubinstein
Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1829)
Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was the elder brother of Nikolai Rubinstein, who founded the Moscow Conservatory.
1989
Lynn Bari
American actress (born 1913)
Lynn Bari was an American film actress who specialized in playing sultry, statuesque man-killers in roughly 150 films for 20th Century Fox, from the early 1930s through the 1940s.
1995
Sergei Grinkov
Russian figure skater (born 1967)
Sergei Mikhailovich Grinkov was a Soviet and Russian pair skater. Together with his wife Ekaterina Gordeeva, he was the 1988 and 1994 Olympic Champion and a four-time World Champion.
1314
Albert II
German nobleman (born 1240)
Albert II, known as Albert the Degenerate, was Margrave of Meissen, Landgrave of Thuringia and Count Palatine of Saxony. He was a member of the House of Wettin.
1934
Willem de Sitter
Dutch mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (born 1872)
Willem de Sitter was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He is known for the de Sitter universe, which is a cosmological model that was named after him.
1773
Charles Jennens
English landowner and patron of the arts
Charles Jennens was an English landowner and art patron. As a friend of Handel, he helped author the libretti of several of his oratorios, most notably Messiah.
1880
Léon Cogniet
French painter (born 1794)
Léon Cogniet was a French history and portrait painter. He is probably best remembered as a teacher, with more than one hundred students, some of them notable.
1938
Edwin Hall
American physicist (born 1855)
Edwin Herbert Hall was an American physicist who discovered the Hall effect. He also conducted thermoelectric research and wrote numerous physics textbooks and laboratory manuals.
2006
Donald Hamilton
American author (born 1916)
Donald Bengtsson Hamilton was a Swedish/American writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction, but also crime fiction and westerns, such as The Big Country. He is known best for his long-running Matt Helm series (1960–1993), which chronicles the adventures of an undercover counter-agent/assassin working for a secret American government agency. The noted critic Anthony Boucher wrote: "Donald Hamilton has brought to the spy novel the authentic hard realism of Dashiell Hammett; and his stories are as compelling, and probably as close to the sordid truth of espionage, as any now being told."
763
Domnall Midi
High King of Ireland (born 743)
Domhnall Mac Murchada, called Domnall Midi, was High King of Ireland. He belonged to the Clann Cholmáin branch of the Uí Néill. Clann Cholmáin's pre-eminence among the southern Uí Néill, which would last until the rise of Brian Bóruma and the end of the Uí Néill dominance in Ireland, dates from his lifetime.
2016
William Trevor
Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer (born 1928)
William Trevor Cox was an Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of short stories in the English language. Trevor won the Whitbread Prize three times and was nominated five times for the Booker Prize, the last for his novel Love and Summer (2009), which was also shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award in 2011. His name was also mentioned in relation to the Nobel Prize in Literature.
2003
Eugene Kleiner
American businessman, co-founded Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (born 1923)
Eugene Kleiner was an Austrian-American engineer and venture capitalist. He is considered a pioneer of Silicon Valley. He was one of the original founders of Fairchild Semiconductor, part of the Traitorous Eight, and Kleiner Perkins, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm which later became Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The company was an early investor in more than 300 information technology and biotech firms, including Amazon.com, AOL, Brio Technology, Electronic Arts, Flextronics, Genentech, Google, Hybritech, Intuit, Lotus Development, LSI Logic, Macromedia, Netscape, Quantum, Segway, Sun Microsystems and Tandem Computers.
1518
Pierre de la Rue
Belgian singer and composer (born 1452)
Pierre de la Rue was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of the Renaissance. His name also appears as Piersson or variants of Pierchon and his toponymic, when present, as various forms of de Platea, de Robore, or de Vico. A member of the same generation as Josquin des Prez, and a long associate of the Habsburg-Burgundian musical chapel, he ranks with Agricola, Brumel, Compère, Isaac, Obrecht, and Weerbeke as one of the most famous and influential composers in the Netherlands polyphonic style in the decades around 1500.
1008
Geoffrey I
duke of Brittany (born 980)
Geoffrey I, also known as Geoffrey of Rennes and Geoffrey Berengar, was Duke of Brittany from 992 until his death, and also Count of Rennes by right of succession. The eldest son of Duke Conan I of Brittany, he assumed the title of Duke of Brittany upon his father's death in 992. Brittany had long been an independent state, but he had little control over much of Lower Brittany.
1978
Vasilisk Gnedov
Russian soldier and poet (born 1890)
Vasily Ivanovich Gnedov, better known by the pen name Vasilisk Gnedov, was one of the most radically experimental poets of Russian Futurism, though not as prolific as his peers.
1997
Robert Palmer
American saxophonist, producer, and author (born 1945)
Robert Franklin Palmer Jr. was an American writer, musicologist, clarinetist, saxophonist, and blues producer. He is best known for his non-fictional writing on the field of music; his work as a music journalist for The New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine; his production work for blues recordings ; and his clarinet playing as a member of the 1960s jazz-based rock band the Insect Trust.
1684
Pedro Benedit Horruytiner
governor of Spanish Florida (1646–48, and 1651–54) (born 1613)
Pedro Benedit Horruytiner y Catalán was a Spanish soldier who served as interim co-governor of Spanish Florida between 1646 and 1648, and as governor between 1651 and 1654. When governor Benito Ruíz de Salazar Vallecilla was suspended from office in 1646, acting royal contador Horruytiner and Francisco Menendez Marquez served as co-governors until Salazar Vallecilla was returned to office in 1648.
1976
Martin D'Arcy
English Jesuit priest (born 1888)
Martin Cyril D'Arcy was an English Jesuit priest, philosopher of love, and a correspondent, friend, and adviser to a range of literary and artistic figures including Evelyn Waugh, Dorothy L. Sayers, W. H. Auden, Eric Gill and Sir Edwin Lutyens. He has been described as "perhaps England's foremost Catholic public intellectual from the 1930s until his death".
1940
Robert Lane
Canadian soccer player (born 1882)
Robert George Lane was a Canadian amateur soccer player who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. He was born in Galt, Ontario and died in Winnipeg. In 1904 he was a member of the Galt F.C. team, which won the gold medal in the soccer tournament. He played both matches as a midfielder.
2005
James King
American tenor (born 1925)
James King was an American operatic tenor who had an active international singing career in operas and concerts from the 1950s through 2000. Widely regarded as one of the finest American heldentenors of the post-war period, he excelled in performances of the works of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss.
2012
Kaspars Astašenko
Latvian ice hockey player (born 1975)
Kaspars Astašenko was a Latvian professional ice hockey player. Astašenko was born in Riga, Latvia. Astašenko was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 1999 NHL entry draft, 127th overall. Astašenko played parts of two seasons in the National Hockey League with the Lightning.
1758
Johan Helmich Roman
Swedish violinist and composer (born 1694)
Johan Helmich Roman was a Swedish Baroque composer. He has been called "the father of Swedish music" or "the Swedish Handel". He was the leader of the Swedish Royal Orchestra during the first decades of Sweden's Age of Liberty.
1981
Frank Sheed
Australian-British Catholic writer and apologist (born 1981)
Francis Joseph Sheed was an Australian-born lawyer, Catholic writer, publisher, speaker, and lay theologian. He and his wife Maisie Ward were the names behind the imprint Sheed & Ward and as forceful public lecturers in the Catholic Evidence Guild.
2024
Ursula Haverbeck
German Holocaust denier (born 1928)
Ursula Hedwig Meta Haverbeck-Wetzel was a German neo-Nazi activist. Between 2004 and her death in 2024, she had been the subject of multiple lawsuits and convictions for Holocaust denial, which is a criminal offense in Germany.
811
Li Fan
Chinese chancellor (born 754)
Li Fan (李藩), courtesy name Shuhan (叔翰), was an official of the Chinese dynasty Tang dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Xianzong.
869
Edmund the Martyr
English king (born 841)
Edmund the Martyr was king of East Anglia from about 855 until his death.
1022
Bernward of Hildesheim
German bishop (born c. 960)
Bernward was the thirteenth Bishop of Hildesheim from 993 until his death in 1022.
1662
Leopold Wilhelm
Austrian duke and governor (born 1614)
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, younger brother of Emperor Ferdinand III, was an Austrian soldier, administrator and patron of the arts.
1742
Melchior de Polignac
French cardinal and poet (born 1661)
Melchior Cardinal de Polignac was a French diplomat, Cardinal and Neo-Latin poet.
1778
Francesco Cetti
Italian priest, zoologist, and mathematician (born 1726)
Francesco Cetti was an Italian Jesuit priest, zoologist and mathematician.
1824
Carl Axel Arrhenius
Swedish chemist (born 1757)
Carl Axel Arrhenius was a Swedish military officer, geologist, and chemist. He is best known for his discovery of the mineral ytterbite in 1787.
1856
Farkas Bolyai
Romanian-Hungarian mathematician and academic (born 1775)
Farkas Bolyai was a Hungarian mathematician, mainly known for his work in geometry.
1866
Otto Karl Berg
German botanist and pharmacist (born 1815)
Otto Karl Berg was a German botanist and pharmacist. The official abbreviation of his name, in botany, is O. Berg.
1882
Henry Draper
American doctor and astronomer (born 1837)
Henry Draper was an American medical doctor and amateur astronomer. He is best known today as a pioneer of astrophotography.
1903
Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat
French race car driver (born 1867)
Count Charles-François Gaston Louis Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat was a French aristocrat and race car driver.
1908
Albert Dietrich
German composer and conductor (born 1829)
Albert Hermann Dietrich, was a German composer and conductor. In addition to his work, he is remembered for his friendship with Johannes Brahms.
1908
Georgy Voronoy
Ukrainian mathematician and academic (born 1868)
Georgy Feodosevich Voronoy was an Imperial Russian mathematician of Ukrainian descent noted for defining the Voronoi diagram.
1923
Denny Barry Irish Republican
died on hunger Strike 1923 Irish hunger strikes (born 1883)
Denis Barry was an Irish Republican who died during the 1923 Irish hunger strikes, shortly after the Irish Civil War.
1924
Ebenezer Cobb Morley
English sportsman and the father of the Football Association and modern football (born 1831)
Ebenezer Cobb Morley was an English sportsman. He is regarded as one of the fathers of the Football Association (FA) and modern football.
1930
Bill Holland
American track and field athlete (born 1874)
William Joseph Holland was an American track and field athlete.
1938
Maud of Wales
queen of Norway (born 1869)
Maud of Wales was Queen of Norway from 18 November 1905 until her death in 1938 as the wife of King Haakon VII.
1950
Francesco Cilea
Italian composer (born 1866)
Francesco Cilea was an Italian composer. Today he is particularly known for his operas L'arlesiana and Adriana Lecouvreur.
1957
Mstislav Dobuzhinsky
Russian-Lithuanian painter and illustrator (born 1875)
Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky or Dobujinsky was a Russian-Lithuanian artist noted for his cityscapes conveying the explosive growth and decay of the early 20th-century city.
1959
Sylvia Lopez
French model and actress (born 1933)
Sylvia Lopez was a French model and actress.
1960
Ya'akov Cahan
Israeli writer and translator (born 1881)
Ya'akov Cahan or Kahan was an Israeli poet, playwright, translator, writer and Hebrew linguist.
1976
Trofim Lysenko
Ukrainian-Russian biologist and agronomist (born 1898)
Trofim Denisovich Lysenko was a Soviet agronomist. He rejected Mendelian genetics in favour of his own idiosyncratic, pseudoscientific ideas later termed Lysenkoism.
1984
Carlo Campanini
Italian actor, singer and comedian (born 1904)
Carlo Campanini was an Italian actor, singer and comedian. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1939 and 1969.
1984
Kristian Djurhuus
Faroese politician, 2nd Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (born 1895)
Kristian Djurhuus was a Faroese politician. He was a member of the Union Party.
1992
Raul Renter
Estonian economist and chess player (born 1920)
Raul Renter was an Estonian economist and chess player, who twice won the Estonian Chess Championship.
1995
Robie Macauley
American editor, novelist and critic (born 1919)
Robie Mayhew Macauley was an American editor, novelist and critic whose literary career spanned more than 50 years.
1998
Roland Alphonso
Jamaican saxophonist (born 1931)
Roland Alphonso OD or Rolando Alphonso a.k.a. "The Chief Musician" was a Jamaican tenor saxophonist, and one of the founding members of the Skatalites.
2000
Barbara Sobotta
Polish athlete (born 1936)
Barbara Sobotta-Janiszewska, née Barbara Lerczak, was a Polish athlete who mainly competed in the women's sprint events during her career.
2000
Mike Muuss
American computer programmer, created Ping (born 1958)
Michael John Muuss was the American author of the freeware network tool ping, as well as the first interactive ray tracing program.
2002
Kakhi Asatiani
Georgian footballer (born 1947)
Kakhi Asatiani was a Georgian association football player and manager.
2005
Manouchehr Atashi
Iranian journalist and poet (born 1931)
Manouchehr Atashi was a Persian poet, writer, and journalist of Kurdish descent.
2009
Lino Lacedelli
Italian mountaineer (born 1925)
Lino Lacedelli was an Italian mountaineer. Together with Achille Compagnoni, on 31 July 1954 he was the first to reach the summit of K2.
2012
2013
Dieter Hildebrandt
Polish-German actor and screenwriter (born 1927)
Dieter Hildebrandt was a German Kabarett artist.
2014
Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart
18th Duchess of Alba (born 1926)
María del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva, 18th Duchess of Alba GE was a Spanish aristocrat.
2015
Jim Perry
American-Canadian singer and game show host (born 1933)
James Edward Perry was a Canadian television game show host, singer, announcer, and performer in the 1970s and 1980s.
2016
Gabriel Badilla
Costa Rican footballer (born 1984)
Gabriel Badilla Segura was a Costa Rican footballer who played as a defender.
2016
Konstantinos Stephanopoulos
Greek statesman (born 1926)
Konstantinos "Kostis" Stephanopoulos was a Greek conservative politician who served two consecutive terms as the president of Greece from 1995 to 2005.