Notable Deaths on October 18

Ludwig III was the last King of Bavaria, reigning from 1913 to 1918. Initially, he served in the Bavarian military as a lieutenant and went on to hold the rank of Oberleutnant during the Austro-Prussian War. He entered politics at the age of 18, as a member of the Bavarian parliament, and was a keen participant, supporting electoral reforms. Later in life, he served as regent and de facto head of state from 1912 to 1913, ruling for his incapacitated cousin, Otto. After the Bavarian parliament passed a law allowing him to do so, Ludwig deposed Otto and assumed the throne for himself. He led Bavaria during World War I. His short reign was seen as championing conservative causes and he was influenced by the Catholic encyclical Rerum novarum.

Leo Strauss was a German-American political philosopher and historian of philosophy whose work greatly influenced twentieth-century political theory in the United States and the study of classical political thought. He is known best for his interpretation of ancient and medieval philosophy, his account of classical natural right, and his claim that philosophers often wrote esoterically, presenting different teachings to general and specialist readers. Strauss argued that the modern turn in philosophy, beginning with Niccolò Machiavelli and culminating in historicism and relativism, marked a decisive break with the classical understanding of politics and the good life. His work sought to recover the questions and methods of ancient political philosophy as a corrective to the perceived crisis of modern thought.

John Norman Haynes was an English association footballer who played as an inside forward. He made 56 appearances for his country including 22 as captain. He was selected for three World Cup finals squads playing in the latter two of those. Nicknamed "the Maestro", his attacking play was noted for two-footed passing ability, vision and deftness of touch. Haynes is widely regarded as Fulham's greatest ever player, remaining loyal there for twenty years despite coming no nearer to a major trophy win than two FA Cup semi-final appearances. Immediately following the abolition of the £20 maximum wage in 1961, he became the first player to be paid £100 a week. He also had a spell on loan with Toronto City in 1961 and ended his playing days at Durban City, winning there the only trophy he won in his football career.

Alfred Binet, born Alfredo Binetti, was a French psychologist who together with Théodore Simon invented the first practical intelligence test, the Binet–Simon Intelligence Test. In 1904, Binet took part in a commission set up by the French Ministry of Education to decide whether school children with learning difficulties should be sent to a special boarding school attached to a lunatic asylum, as advocated by the French psychiatrist and politician Désiré-Magloire Bourneville, or whether they should be educated in classes attached to regular schools as advocated by the Société libre pour l'étude psychologique de l'enfant (SLEPE) of which Binet was a member. There was also debate over who should decide whether a child was capable enough for regular education. Bourneville argued that a psychiatrist should do this based on a medical examination. Binet and Simon wanted this to be based on objective evidence. This was the beginning of the IQ test. A preliminary version was published in 1905. The full version was published in 1908, and slightly revised in 1911, just before Binet's death.

Pierre Isaac Isidore Mendès France was a French politician who served as prime minister of France for eight months from 1954 to 1955. As a member of the Radical Party, he headed a government supported by a coalition of Gaullists (RPF), moderate socialists (UDSR), Christian democrats (MRP) and liberal-conservatives (CNIP). Pierre-Mendès France is primarily remembered as the French Prime Minister who was in office at the outbreak of the Algerian independence war in 1954. During his tenure, France initiated close military cooperation with Israel, selling arms and aircraft to the young state. Mendès-France laid the groundwork for France’s military nuclear program and the early transfer of nuclear technology to Israel.

Henri Michaux was a Belgian-born French experimental poet, writer and painter. Michaux is renowned for his strange, highly original poetry and prose, and also for his art: the Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York had shows of his work in 1978. His autobiographical texts that chronicle his psychedelic experiments with LSD and mescaline include Miserable Miracle and The Major Ordeals of the Mind and the Countless Minor Ones. He is recognised for his idiosyncratic travelogues and books of art criticism. Michaux is also known for his stories about Plume – "a peaceable man" – one of the most unenterprising heroes in literature, a character subject to many misfortunes.

Jacques "Jacob" Jordaens was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and a designer of tapestries and prints. He was a prolific artist who created biblical, mythological, and allegorical compositions, genre scenes, landscapes, illustrations of Flemish sayings and portraits. After the death of Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, he became the leading Flemish Baroque painter of his time. Unlike those illustrious contemporaries he never travelled abroad to study the Antique and Italian painting and, except for a few short trips to locations elsewhere in the Low Countries, he resided in Antwerp his entire life. He also remained largely indifferent to Rubens and van Dyck's intellectual and courtly aspirations. He expressed this attitude in his art by avoiding idealistic treatment of his subject in contrast to these contemporaries.

Yoshio Markino was a Japanese artist and author who from 1897 – 1942 was based in London. During the Edwardian years of 1903 – 1915 he was the most well known Japanese person living in London, and was widely praised for bridging the Japanese and Western artistic aesthetic in his artwork, particularly in his depiction of London's fog, gaslights and wet streets, which became his hallmark. Like his contemporaries Whistler and Monet, he viewed the London fog from an outsider's point of view and marvelled at the effect it had on light, both natural and artificial. Markino became known affectionately as Heiji of London Fog, and wrote: 'I think London without mists would be like a bride without a trousseau'. His autobiography A Japanese Artist in London, published in 1910 and written in an eccentric style, described his years of extreme poverty in London while trying to establish himself as an illustrator and artist. From his early years he was fascinated by Western culture and remained a committed Anglophile all his life.

Sinesio Baudillo García Fernández, commonly known by his pseudonym Diego Abad de Santillán, was a Spanish Argentine anarcho-syndicalist economist. Born in León, his family moved to Argentina while he was young. He returned to Spain for his higher education and became involved in the Spanish anarchist movement. After his studies, he went back to Argentina and became involved with the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA), co-founding the International Workers' Association (IWA). Following the 1930 Argentine coup d'état and the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic, he again went to Spain, becoming involved in the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI). During the Spanish Civil War, he served in the Catalan government as Minister of Economy. After the war, he returned to Argentina and largely ceased political activities, going back to Spain only after the Spanish transition to democracy.

Gaston Lachaise was a French-born sculptor, active in America in the early 20th century. A native of Paris, he is most noted for his robust female nudes such as his heroic Standing Woman. Gaston Lachaise was taught the fundamentals of European sculpture while living in France. While still a student, he met and fell in love with an older American woman, Isabel Dutaud Nagle, then followed her after she returned to America. There, he became profoundly impressed by the great vitality and promise of his adopted country. Those life-altering experiences clarified his artistic vision and inspired him to define the female nude in a new and powerful manner. His drawings, typically made as ends in themselves, also exemplify his remarkably new treatment of the female body.

Emperor Ming of Jin (simplified Chinese: 晋明帝; traditional Chinese: 晉明帝; pinyin: Jìn Míng Dì; Wade–Giles: Chin Ming-ti; 299 – 18 October 325, personal name Sima Shao, courtesy name Daoji, was an emperor of the Eastern Jin dynasty of China. During his brief reign, he led the weakened Jin out of domination by the warlord Wang Dun, but at his early death, the empire was left to his young son Emperor Cheng, and the fragile balance of power that he created was soon broken, leading to the Su Jun Disturbance and weakening the Jin state even further. Subsequent Eastern Jin emperors until Emperor Fei were his descendants, being either his sons or grandsons.

Viswanatha Satyanarayana was a 20th-century Telugu writer. His works included poetry, novels, dramatic play, short stories and speeches, covering a wide range of subjects such as analysis of history, philosophy, religion, sociology, political science, linguistics, psychology and consciousness studies, epistemology, aesthetics and spiritualism. He was a student of the illustrious Telugu writer Chellapilla Venkata Sastry, of the Tirupati Venkata Kavulu duo. Viswanatha's wrote in both a modern and classical style, in complex modes. His popular works include Ramayana Kalpavrukshamu, Kinnersani Patalu and the novel Veyipadagalu. Among many awards, he was awarded the Jnanpith Award in 1970, the first for a Telugu writer, and Padma Bhushan in 1971.

Colin Luther Powell was an American U.S. Army general, diplomat, and statesman who served as the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005, being the first Black American to hold the office, and was the highest-ranking Black American in the federal executive branch in American history until the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008. Initially politically independent, Powell joined the Republican Party in 1995, but left it in 2021 following the January 6 United States Capitol attack. He was the 15th national security advisor from 1987 to 1989, and the 12th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993.

Francis Preston Blair Sr. was an American journalist, newspaper editor, and influential figure in national politics advising various U.S. presidents across party lines. He was an early member of the Democratic Party, and a strong supporter of President Andrew Jackson, having helped him win Kentucky in the 1828 presidential election. From 1831 to 1845, Blair worked as Editor-in-Chief of the Washington Globe, which served as the primary propaganda instrument for the Democratic Party, and was largely successful. He was an influential advisor to President Jackson, and served prominently in a group of unofficial advisors and assistants known as the "Kitchen Cabinet".

Hugh, called the Great was the first count of Vermandois from the House of Capet. His wife, Adelaide de Vermandois was the heiress and holder of the title of Countess of Vermandois, holding the lineage rights, but Hugh ruled as Count of Vermandois jure uxoris from 1085 to 1101. He is known primarily for being one of the leaders of the First Crusade. His nickname Magnus is probably a bad translation into medieval Latin of an Old French nickname, le Maisné, meaning "the younger", referring to Hugh as younger brother of King Philip I of France.

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, known as Lord Palmerston, was an Anglo-Irish nobleman and statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to his death in 1865. A member of the Tory, Whig and Liberal parties, Palmerston was also the first Liberal prime minister. An ideologue of free trade and a major sponsor of the Opium Wars against the Chinese Empire and the war against Egypt, he dominated British foreign policy from 1830 to 1865 when Britain stood at the height of its imperial power.

Julie London was an American singer and actress whose career spanned more than 40 years. A torch singer noted for her contralto voice, London recorded over thirty albums of pop and jazz standards between 1955 and 1969. Her recording of "Cry Me a River", a song she introduced on her debut album Julie Is Her Name, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. In addition to her musical notoriety, London was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1974 for her portrayal of Nurse Dixie McCall in the television series Emergency!

Lieutenant-General John Manners, Marquess of Granby was a British Army officer and politician. The eldest son of John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland, as he did not outlive his father and inherit the dukedom, Manners was known by his father's subsidiary title, Marquess of Granby. He served in the military during the Jacobite rising of 1745 and the Seven Years' War, being subsequently rewarded with the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Forces. Manners was popular with the troops who served under him and many British pubs are still named after him today.

Lia Purcell Smith was an American student at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, who died by suicide on October 18, 2025, at the age of 21. She was reported missing by her father on October 19, 2025, and her body was found by the Vermont State Police near Middlebury College's organic farm in Cornwall, Vermont, on October 24, 2025. Smith, who was a transgender woman, was a member of the Middlebury Panthers women's swimming and diving team and experienced backlash, doxing, and deadnaming from critics of transgender women athletes.