Did you know
Jean-Claude Duvalier maintained a notoriously lavish lifestyle while poverty among his people remained the most widespread of any country in the Western Hemisphere.
Notable Deaths on October 4
2014 — Jean-Claude Duvalier
Haitian politician, 41st President of Haiti (born 1951)
October 4 has 100 recorded notable deaths across history, from 744 to 2024. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Notable Deaths
100 source records
744 – 2024
Today in history
Major events on October 4
See what else happened on this day in history.
- 1957 Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. Source
- 1992 The Rome General Peace Accords end a 16-year civil war in Mozambique. Source
- 1363 Battle of Lake Poyang: In one of the largest naval battles in history, Zhu Yuanzhang's rebels defeat rival Chen Youliang. Source
- 1993 Tanks bombard the Russian parliament, while demonstrators against President Yeltsin rally outside. Source
Did you know
Võ Nguyên Giáp was a Vietnamese general, communist revolutionary and politician.
Did you know
Anne Sexton won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book Live or Die.
Did you know
Gunpei Yokoi , sometimes transliterated as Gumpei Yokoi, was a Japanese toy maker and video game designer.
Did you know
Manuel de Godoy y Álvarez de Faria Ríos, 1st Prince of the Peace was First Secretary of State of the Kingdom of Spain from 1792 to 1797 and from 1801 to 1808.
More major people who died on October 4
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
2013
Võ Nguyên Giáp
Vietnamese general and politician, 3rd Minister of Defence for Vietnam (born 1911)
Võ Nguyên Giáp was a Vietnamese general, communist revolutionary and politician. Highly regarded as a military strategist, Giáp led Vietnamese communist military forces to victory in the decades long Indochina wars.
1974
Anne Sexton
American poet and author (born 1928)
Anne Sexton was an American poet known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book Live or Die.
1997
Gunpei Yokoi
Japanese game designer, created the Game Boy (born 1941)
Gunpei Yokoi , sometimes transliterated as Gumpei Yokoi, was a Japanese toy maker and video game designer.
1851
Manuel Godoy
Spanish general and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (born 1767)
Manuel de Godoy y Álvarez de Faria Ríos, 1st Prince of the Peace was First Secretary of State of the Kingdom of Spain from 1792 to 1797 and from 1801 to 1808.
1747
Amaro Pargo
Spanish corsair (born 1678)
Amaro Rodríguez-Felipe y Tejera Machado, also known as Amaro Pargo, was a Spanish privateer and merchant. He was one of the most well-known Spanish privateers during the Golden Age of Piracy.
1999
Art Farmer
American trumpet player and composer (born 1928)
Arthur Stewart Farmer was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet–flugelhorn combination especially designed for him.
2000
Michael Smith
English-Canadian biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1932)
Michael Smith was a British-Canadian biochemist and businessman. He shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Kary Mullis for his work in developing site-directed mutagenesis.
1852
James Whitcomb
American lawyer and politician, 8th Governor of Indiana (born 1795)
James Whitcomb was a United States senator and the eighth governor of Indiana. As governor during the Mexican–American War, he oversaw the formation and deployment of the state's levies.
1980
Pyotr Masherov
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia (born 1918)
Pyotr Mironovich Masherov was a Soviet partisan, statesman, and one of the leaders of the Belarusian resistance during World War II who governed the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic as First Secretary of the…
2015
Neal Walk
American basketball player (born 1948)
Neal Eugene Walk was an American college and professional basketball player who was a center in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for eight seasons during the late 1960s and 1970s, playing overseas afterward.
2024
Billy Shaw
American football player (born 1938)
William Lewis Shaw was an American professional football player who was a guard for the Buffalo Bills in the American Football League (AFL).
2013
Ulric Cross
Trinidadian navigator, judge, and diplomat (born 1917)
Philip Louis Ulric Cross was a Trinidadian jurist, diplomat and Royal Air Force (RAF) navigator, recognised as possibly the most decorated West Indian of World War II.
1743
John Campbell
2nd Duke of Argyll, Scottish commander and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Surrey (born 1678)
Field Marshal John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, 1st Duke of Greenwich,, styled Lord Lorne from 1680 to 1703, was a British army officer and politician.
1977
José Ber Gelbard
Argentinian activist and politician (born 1917)
José Ber Gelbard was a Polish-born Argentine activist and politician, and a member of the Argentine Communist Party.
2004
Gordon Cooper
American colonel, engineer, and astronaut (born 1927)
Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr. was an American aerospace engineer, test pilot, United States Air Force pilot, and the youngest of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first human space program of the United…
1871
Sarel Cilliers
South African spiritual leader and preacher (born 1801)
Charl (Sarel) Arnoldus Cilliers was a Voortrekker leader and a preacher. With Andries Pretorius, he led the Boers to a huge victory over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838.
1904
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi
French sculptor, designed the Statue of Liberty (born 1834)
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was a French sculptor and painter. He is best known for designing Liberty Enlightening the World, commonly known as the Statue of Liberty, in New York City, United States.
2022
Loretta Lynn
American singer-songwriter and musician (born 1932)
Loretta Lynn was an American country music singer and songwriter. In a career spanning six decades, Lynn released multiple gold albums.
1997
Otto Ernst Remer
German general (born 1912)
Generalmajor Otto Ernst Remer was a German Army officer who served during World War II and played a major role in stopping the 20 July plot in 1944 against Adolf Hitler.