Notable Deaths on November 26

November 26 has 111 recorded notable deaths across history, from 399 to 2024. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

Vivien Thomas

1985 — Vivien Thomas

American surgeon and academic (born 1910)

By · Wikipedia

Notable Deaths 111 source records 399 – 2024

Major events on November 26

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1924 The Mongolian People's Republic is officially established after a new constitution, passed by the first State Great Khural, abolishes the monarchy. Source
  2. 1991 National Assembly of Azerbaijan abolishes the autonomous status of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of Azerbaijan and renames several cities with Azeri names. Source

Did you know about Vivien Thomas

Without any education past high school, Thomas rose above poverty to become a cardiac surgery pioneer and a teacher of operative techniques to many of the country's most prominent surgeons.

Did you know about John Browning

John Browning made his first firearm at age 13 in his father's gun shop and was awarded the first of his 128 firearm patents on October 7, 1879, at the age of 24.

Did you know about Tommy Dorsey

Tommy Dorsey is best remembered for standards such as "Opus One", "This Love of Mine" featuring Frank Sinatra on vocals, "Song of India", "Marie", "On Treasure Island", and his biggest hit single, "I'll Never Smile Again".

Did you know about Paul Rand

Paul Rand developed an American Modernist style from European influences and was one of the first American commercial artists to embrace and practice the Swiss Style of graphic design.

Did you know about Tony Musante

Anthony Peter Musante Jr. was an American actor, best known for the TV series Toma as Detective David Toma, Nino Schibetta in Oz (1997), and Joe D'Angelo in As the World Turns (2000–2003).


More major people who died on November 26

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

1926 John Browning

John Browning

American weapons designer, founded the Browning Arms Company (born 1855)
John Moses Browning was an American firearm designer who developed many varieties of military and civilian firearms, cartridges, and gun mechanisms, many of which are still in use around the world. He made his first firearm at age 13 in his father's gun shop and was awarded the first of his 128 firearm patents on October 7, 1879, at the age of 24. He is regarded as one of the most successful firearms designers of the 19th and 20th centuries and a pioneer of modern repeating, semi-automatic, and automatic firearms.
1956 Tommy Dorsey

Tommy Dorsey

American trombonist, trumpet player, and composer (born 1905)
Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombone playing. His theme song was "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You". His technical skill on the trombone gave him renown among other musicians. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey. After Dorsey broke with his brother in the mid-1930s, he led an extremely successful band from the late 1930s into the 1950s. He is best remembered for standards such as "Opus One", "This Love of Mine" featuring Frank Sinatra on vocals, "Song of India", "Marie", "On Treasure Island", and his biggest hit single, "I'll Never Smile Again".
1996 Paul Rand

Paul Rand

American art director and graphic designer (born 1914)
Paul Rand was an American art director and graphic designer. He is known for his corporate logo designs, including logos for IBM, UPS, Enron, Morningstar, Inc., Westinghouse, ABC, and NeXT. He developed an American Modernist style from European influences and was one of the first American commercial artists to embrace and practice the Swiss Style of graphic design. Rand was a professor emeritus of graphic design at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he taught from 1956 to 1969, and from 1974 to 1985. He was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1972.
2013 Tony Musante

Tony Musante

American actor and screenwriter (born 1936)
Anthony Peter Musante Jr. was an American actor, best known for the TV series Toma as Detective David Toma, Nino Schibetta in Oz (1997), and Joe D'Angelo in As the World Turns (2000–2003). In movies, he achieved fame relatively early in his career, starring or having significant roles in such films as Once a Thief (1965), The Incident (1967), The Detective (1968) and The Last Run (1971), and also in a number of Italian productions, including The Mercenary (1968), Metti, una sera a cena (1969) and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970).
2003 Soulja Slim

Soulja Slim

American rapper (born 1977)
James Adarryl Tapp Jr., better known by his stage name Soulja Slim, was an American rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is best known for his appearance on Juvenile's 2004 single "Slow Motion", which peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100. Eight years prior, he signed with Master P's No Limit Records to release his debut studio album, Give It 2 'Em Raw (1998), which peaked at number 13 on the Billboard 200. It was followed by three albums until the single's posthumous release, which was in memory of his unsolved murder.
1928 Reinhard Scheer

Reinhard Scheer

German admiral (born 1863)
Carl Friedrich Heinrich Reinhard Scheer was an admiral in the Imperial German Navy. Scheer joined the navy in 1879 as an officer cadet and progressed through the ranks, commanding cruisers and battleships, as well as senior staff positions on land. At the outbreak of World War I, Scheer was the commander of the II Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet. He then took command of the III Battle Squadron, which consisted of the newest and most powerful battleships in the navy. In January 1916, he was promoted to admiral and given control of the High Seas Fleet. Scheer led the German fleet at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, one of the largest naval battles in history.
1952 Sven Hedin

Sven Hedin

Swedish geographer and explorer (born 1865)
Sven Anders Hedin, KNO1kl RVO, was a Swedish geographer, topographer, explorer, photographer, travel writer and illustrator of his own works. During four expeditions to Central Asia, he made the Transhimalaya known in the West and located sources of the Brahmaputra, Indus and Sutlej Rivers. He also mapped lake Lop Nur, and the remains of cities, grave sites and the Great Wall of China in the deserts of the Tarim Basin. In his book Från pol till pol, Hedin describes a journey through Asia and Europe between the late 1880s and the early 1900s. While traveling, Hedin visited Turkey, the Caucasus, Tehran, Iraq, lands of the Kyrgyz people and the Russian Far East, India, China and Japan. The posthumous publication of his Central Asia Atlas marked the conclusion of his life's work.
1991 Bob Johnson

Bob Johnson

American ice hockey player and coach (born 1931)
Robert Norman "Badger Bob" Johnson was an American college, international, and professional ice hockey coach. He coached the Wisconsin Badgers men's ice hockey team from 1966 to 1982, where he led the Badgers to seven appearances at the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championships, including three titles. During his time as the head coach at Wisconsin, Johnson also coached the United States men's national ice hockey team at the 1976 Winter Olympics and seven other major championships, including the Canada Cup and IIHF World Championships. He then coached the Calgary Flames for five seasons that included a Stanley Cup Final loss in 1986. Johnson achieved the peak of his professional coaching career in his only season as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1990–91, when the Penguins won the 1991 Stanley Cup Final, becoming the second American-born coach to win it and the first in 53 years. In August 1991, following hospitalization due to a brain aneurysm, Johnson was diagnosed with brain cancer. He died on November 26 of the same year.
2005 Takanori Arisawa

Takanori Arisawa

Japanese composer and conductor (born 1951)
Takanori Arisawa was a Japanese composer and arranger best known for composing the Sailor Moon and Digimon anime series. He wrote music for the series, including its video games. Born in Tokyo, Arisawa began to learn piano at the age of 20. After graduating from Senzoku Gakuen College, Arisawa started his career in 1980 by composing "Shinjuku Transfer". He worked for the Tokyo Broadcasting System and wrote several TV dramas. From the 1990s until his death, Arisawa began composing for anime series exclusively. His work on Sailor Moon was initially based on pop music, but gradually began to change to those found in classical music. Sailor Moon was successful and Arisawa won several awards for his work. After Sailor Moon, Arisawa composed music for several shows, including the Digimon series, until his death from bladder cancer in 2005.
2015 Guy Lewis

Guy Lewis

American basketball player and coach (born 1922)
Guy Vernon Lewis II was an American basketball player and coach. He served as the head men's basketball coach at the University of Houston from 1956 to 1986. Lewis led his Houston Cougars to five appearances in the Final Four of the NCAA tournament, in 1967, 1968, 1982, 1983, and 1984. His 1980s teams, nicknamed Phi Slama Jama for their slam dunks, were runners-up for the national championship in back-to-back seasons in 1983 and 1984. He was inducted into National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.
1267 Sylvester Gozzolini

Sylvester Gozzolini

Italian founder of the Sylvestrines (born 1177)
Silvestro Guzzolini was an Italian Catholic priest and the founder of the Silvestrini. He served as a canon in Osimo but respectful rebukes of his bishop's inappropriate conduct led him to leave for a hermitage before the bishop could strip him of his position. He remained in his hermitage with a determination to found a religious congregation and based it upon the Order of Saint Benedict after having a dream of Benedict of Nursia. His order received papal approval from Pope Innocent IV which allowed his order to expand across Italian cities to a significant degree.
1919 Felipe Ángeles

Felipe Ángeles

Mexican general (born 1868)
Felipe Ángeles Ramírez (1868–1919) was a Mexican military officer and revolutionary during the era of the Mexican Revolution. Having risen to the rank of colonel of artillery in the Federal Army of the Porfiriato, Ángeles was promoted to general during the brief presidency of Francisco I. Madero. After the Ten Tragic Days, he became unique in the history of the revolution by becoming the only Federal general to join the revolutionary cause in northern Mexico, serving with General Pancho Villa's División del Norte.
1971 Giacomo Alberione

Giacomo Alberione

Italian priest and publisher (born 1884)
James Alberione, SSP, was an Italian Catholic priest, and the founder of the Society of St. Paul, of the Daughters of St. Paul, of the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master, of the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master, of the Sisters of Jesus the Good Shepherd, of the Sisters of Mary Queen of the Apostles, and other religious institutes, which form the Pauline Family. The first two groups are best known for promoting the Catholic faith through various forms of modern media.
1504 Isabella I

Isabella I

queen of Castile and León (born 1451)
Isabella I, also known as Isabella the Catholic, was Queen of Castile and León from 1474 until her death in 1504. She was also Queen of Aragon from 1479 until her death as the wife of King Ferdinand II. Reigning together over a dynastically unified Spain, Isabella and Ferdinand are known as the Catholic Monarchs. Her reign marked the end of the Reconquista and also the start of the Spanish Empire, allowing Spain to become a major force in European politics.
1994 Arturo Rivera y Damas

Arturo Rivera y Damas

Salvadoran archbishop (born 1923)
Arturo Rivera y Damas was the ninth Bishop and fifth Archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador. Msgr. Rivera's term as archbishop (1983–1994) coincided with the Salvadoran Civil War. He was the immediate successor of Archbishop Óscar Romero. During Romero's archbishopric (1977–1980), Rivera was Romero's key ally. He had been the auxiliary of Romero's long-reigning predecessor, Luis Chávez y González (1938–1977). He was also a friend of Mother Teresa, who stayed at his family home on her visit to El Salvador.
2006 Isaac Gálvez

Isaac Gálvez

Spanish cyclist (born 1975)
Isaac Gálvez López was a Spanish track and road racing cyclist who rode for Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears in the UCI ProTour. He died during the 66th Six Days of Ghent cycling event in Belgium after colliding with Dimitri De Fauw and crashing against the railing. He died from internal bleeding. At the time of the accident, he had only been married for three weeks. After this, De Fauw suffered from depression and he committed suicide on 6 November 2009.
1977 Yoshibayama Junnosuke

Yoshibayama Junnosuke

Japanese sumo wrestler, the 43rd Yokozuna (born 1920)
Yoshibayama Junnosuke , real name Ikeda Junnosuke , was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Atsuta District, Hokkaido. He was the sport's 43rd yokozuna. He suffered a number of injuries and only won one tournament championship, but was a popular wrestler. He was a runner-up five times, and earned three special prizes and two gold stars in his top division career. After his retirement in 1958 he revived and led the Miyagino stable until his death in 1977.
1855 Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Mickiewicz

Polish poet and playwright (born 1798)
Adam Bernard Mickiewicz was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as a national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. He also largely influenced Ukrainian literature and affected Russian literature. A principal figure in Polish Romanticism, he is one of Poland's "Three Bards" and is widely regarded as Poland's greatest poet. He is also considered one of the greatest Slavic and European poets and has been dubbed a "Slavic bard".
1943 Edward O'Hare

Edward O'Hare

American lieutenant and pilot (born 1914)
Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry O'Hare was an American naval aviator of the United States Navy, who on February 20, 1942, became the Navy's first fighter ace of the war when he single-handedly attacked a formation of nine medium bombers approaching his aircraft carrier. Although he had a limited amount of ammunition, O'Hare was credited with shooting down five enemy bombers and became the first naval aviator recipient of the Medal of Honor in World War II.

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