Did you know
He founded the literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935
Notable Deaths on September 15
110 people
921 – 2024
September 15 has seen 110 notable figures pass away throughout recorded history — from 921 – 2024. Below are the most significant names who died on this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
1989 — Robert Penn Warren
American novelist, poet, and literary critic (born 1905)
Did you know
He received the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel for All the King's Men (1946) and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1958 and 1979
Did you know
Yale awarded Warren an honorary Doctor of Letters degree in 1973.
Did you know
Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, literary critic and professor at Yale University
Czech martyr and saint (born 860)
Ludmila of Bohemia is a Czech saint and martyr venerated by Catholic and Orthodox Christians. She was born in Mělník as the daughter of the Sorbian prince Slavibor. Saint Ludmila was the grandmother of Saint Wenceslaus,…
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921
Duchess of Bohemia
Adelaide of Bohemia was the daughter of Prince Álmos of Hungary and his wife Predslava of Kiev, the daughter of Sviatopolk II great prince of Kiev. Adelaide's father was a son of King Géza I of Hungary and was Duke and…
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1140
1146
1231
Dmitry Mikhailovich, nicknamed the Fearsome Eyes or the Terrible Eyes, was Prince of Tver from 1318 and Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1322 until his death in 1326, when he was executed in Sarai by the Mongols. He was a…
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1326
Ethiopian monk and saint (born 1273)
Ewostatewos was an Ethiopian religious leader of the Orthodox Tewahedo during the early period of the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopian Empire. He was a forceful advocate for the observation of the Sabbath in Christianity.…
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1352
1397
4th Earl of Kent, English politician (born 1384)
Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent, 5th Baron Holand, KG was the Earl of Kent from 1400 to 1408. He was the 106th Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1403.
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1408
Lord Mayor of London (born c. 1440)
Sir Hugh Clopton was a Lord Mayor of London, a member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers and a benefactor of his home town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire.
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1496
English cardinal and academic (born 1420)
John Morton was an English cleric, civil lawyer and administrator during the period of the Wars of the Roses. He entered royal service under Henry VI and was a trusted councillor under Edward IV and Henry VII. Edward IV…
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1500
Electress of the Palatinate (born 1478)
Elisabeth of Bavaria was a member of the House of Wittelsbach and, by marriage, Electress of the Palatinate. After her father's death, she was also Duchess of Bavaria-Landshut.
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1504
Catherine of Genoa was an Italian saint and mystic, known for her work among the sick and the poor and remembered because of various writings describing both these actions and her mystical experiences. She was a member…
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1510
Queen of Hungary (born 1519)
Isabella Jagiellon was a princess of the Kingdom of Poland and of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and later also the Queen consort of Hungary. She was the oldest child of Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland and Grand Duke…
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1559
Baillie of Edinburgh, shot by rioting high school schoolchildren.
Baillie John MacMorran (1553-1595), a merchant and Baillie of Edinburgh, was killed during a riot at Edinburgh High School. His house at Riddle's Court is a valued monument on Edinburgh's Lawnmarket.
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1595
German physician and botanist (born 1535)
Leonhard Rauwolf was a German physician, botanist, and traveller. His main notability arises from a trip he made through the Levant and Mesopotamia in 1573–75. The motive of the trip was to search for herbal medicine…
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1596
English poet and author (born 1581)
Sir Thomas Overbury was an English poet and essayist, also known for being the victim of a murder which led to a scandalous trial. His poem A Wife, which depicted the virtues that a young man should demand of a woman,…
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1613
1st Earl of Cork, English-Irish politician, Lord High Treasurer of Ireland (born 1566)
Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, also known as 'the Great Earl of Cork', was an English politician who served as Lord Treasurer of the Kingdom of Ireland.
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1643
English priest and educator (born 1572)
John Floyd was an English Jesuit, known as a controversialist. He is known under the pseudonyms Daniel à Jesu, Hermannus Loemelius, and George White under which he published.
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1649
French gardener (born 1613)
André Le Nôtre, originally rendered as André Le Nostre, was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France. He was the landscape architect who designed the gardens of the Palace of…
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1700
French author and playwright (born 1638)
Edmé Boursault was a French dramatist and miscellaneous writer from the era of Louis XIV. He is known for his innovative theatrical trends, polemical writing, epistolary novels, and friendships with other writers such…
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1701
1707
1st Earl of Godolphin, English politician, Lord High Treasurer (born 1645)
Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, was a British Tory statesman. He was a Privy Councillor and Secretary of State for the Northern Department before he attained real power as First Lord of the Treasury. He was…
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1712
German organist and composer (born 1690)
Charles Theodore Pachelbel was a German composer, organist and harpsichordist of the late Baroque era. He was the son of the more famous Johann Pachelbel, composer of the popular Canon in D. He was one of the first…
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1750
American police officer and politician (born 1725)
Abraham Clark was an American Founding Father, politician, and Revolutionary War figure. Clark was a delegate for New Jersey to the Continental Congress where he signed the Declaration of Independence and later served…
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1794
Italian cardinal (born 1719)
Gian Francesco Albani was a Roman Catholic Cardinal. He was a member of the Albani family.
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1803
French general and engineer (born 1752)
Antoine Étienne de Tousard was a French general and military engineer during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He was also the last military engineer of the Order of Saint John. He is the brother of Louis de…
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1813
Canadian painter and sculptor (born 1759)
François Baillairgé was an architect and artist with expertise in drawing, painting, carpentry, sculpture, and church decoration. Baillairgé was the first artist from Quebec City to complete his education at the…
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1830
English financier and politician, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies (born 1770)
William Huskisson was a British statesman, financier, and Member of Parliament for several constituencies, including Liverpool.
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1830
Italian violinist and composer (born 1757)
Alessandro Rolla was an Italian viola and violin virtuoso, composer, conductor and teacher. His son, Antonio Rolla, was also a violin virtuoso and composer.
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1841
French violinist and composer (born 1771)
Pierre Marie François de Sales Baillot was a French violinist and composer born in Passy. He studied the violin under Giovanni Battista Viotti and taught at the Conservatoire de Paris together with Pierre Rode and…
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1842
Guatemalan general, lawyer, and politician, President of Central American Federation (born 1792)
José Francisco Morazán Quezada was a Central American politician, military officer, and caudillo who served as the president of the Federal Republic of Central America on three occasions between 1829 and 1839. He also…
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1842
German-Estonian philologist and academic (born 1770)
Johann Karl Simon Morgenstern was a German philologist in Livonia, the first director of the library of the Imperial University of Dorpat. He coined the term Bildungsroman.
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1852
English architect and engineer, designed the Great Western Railway (born 1806)
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engineering giants", and…
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1859
English soldier and explorer (born 1827)
John Hanning Speke was an English explorer and army officer who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa. He is most associated with the search for the source of the Nile and, with Richard Burton, was the first…
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1864
Swiss chocolatier (born 1790)
Charles-Amédée Kohler was a Swiss chocolatier and entrepreneur who founded Chocolat Kohler. He notably invented hazelnut chocolate, in his factory opened in 1830 in Lausanne. After his death the Kohler company continued…
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1874
Belgian physicist and academic (born 1801)
Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau was a Belgian physicist and mathematician. He was one of the first people to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. To do this, he used counterrotating disks with repeating drawn…
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1883
English engineer (born 1807)
Thomas Hawksley was an English civil engineer of the 19th century, particularly associated with early water supply and coal gas engineering projects. Hawksley was, with John Frederick Bateman, the leading British water…
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1893
English-American inventor (born c. 1838)
William Wales was an English-American optical instrument inventor specializing in the manufacture of objectives for use in microscopes. Wales's objective inventions were used frequently in contemporary microscopes and…
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1907
Canadian organist and composer (born 1834)
Ernest Gagnon was a Canadian folklorist, composer, and organist. He is best known for compiling a large amount of French Canadian folk music which he published as Chansons populaires du Canada in 1865–1867. He was…
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1915
Austrian-Russian general (born 1886)
Baron Nikolai Robert Maximilian Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg, often referred to as Roman von Ungern-Sternberg or Baron Ungern, was a Russian military leader in the Russian Civil War and then an independent warlord who…
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1921
German philosopher and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1846)
Rudolf Christoph Eucken was a German philosopher. He received the 1908 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his earnest search for truth, his penetrating power of thought, his wide range of vision, and the…
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1926
American actor and screenwriter (born 1882)
Milton George Gustavus Sills was an American stage and film actor of the early twentieth century.
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1930
American novelist (born 1900)
Thomas Clayton Wolfe was an American novelist and short story writer. He is known largely for his first novel, Look Homeward, Angel (1929), and for the short fiction that appeared during the last years of his life. He…
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1938
American lawyer and politician, 47th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (born 1874)
William Brockman Bankhead was an American politician who served as the 42nd speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1936 to 1940, representing Alabama's 10th and later 7th congressional districts as a…
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1940
French journalist and politician, 97th Prime Minister of France (born 1876)
André Pierre Gabriel Amédée Tardieu was three times Prime Minister of France and a dominant figure of French political life in 1929–1932. He was a moderate conservative with a strong intellectual reputation, but became…
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1945
Austrian composer and conductor (born 1883)
Anton Webern was an Austrian composer, conductor, and musicologist whose modernist music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonal and twelve-tone techniques.…
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1945
American librarian and author (born 1881)
Linnie Marsh Wolfe was an American librarian. She won the 1946 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for her 1945 biography of John Muir titled Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir.
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1945
Estonian author and playwright (born 1883)
Hugo Raudsepp was an influential and prolific Estonian playwright and politician. In 1951 he was deported to the Irkutsk region by the Soviet authorities, where he died.
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1952
American bassist (born 1890)
Theodore "Steve" Brown was a jazz musician best known for his work on string bass. Like many New Orleans bassists, he played both string bass and tuba professionally.
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1965
Turkish composer and educator (born 1906)
Ulvi Cemal Erkin was a member of the pioneer group of symphonic composers in Turkey, born in the period 1904–1910, who later came to be called The Turkish Five. These composers, all trained in Europe took on the…
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1972
1972
English archbishop and academic (born 1887)
Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Baron Fisher of Lambeth, was an English Anglican priest, and 99th Archbishop of Canterbury, serving from 1945 to 1961.
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1972
Gustaf VI Adolf was King of Sweden from 29 October 1950 until his death in 1973. He was the eldest son of Gustaf V and his wife, Victoria of Baden. Before Gustaf Adolf acceded to the throne, he was crown prince for…
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1973
Italian race car driver and pilot (born 1913)
Franco Bordoni-Bisleri was an Italian aviator and racing car driver. He is one of the top-scoring aces of the Regia Aeronautica, with 19 air victories. His nickname was "Robur" and was painted on most of his aircraft…
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1975
Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician (born 1921)
Robert Cliche was a Canadian lawyer, politician and judge.
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1978
English writer and composer (born 1921)
Robert Bruce Montgomery was an English crime writer and composer. Known as a composer as Bruce Montgomery, he published his detective novels under the pseudonym Edmund Crispin.
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1978
German engineer and academic, designed the Messerschmitt Bf 109 (born 1898)
Wilhelm Emil "Willy" Messerschmitt was a German aircraft designer and manufacturer who designed a number of prominent aircraft for the Luftwaffe and civil aviation.
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1978
American pianist and composer (born 1929)
William John Evans was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His extensive use of impressionist harmony, block chords, innovative chord voicings, and trademark…
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1980
Mexican trumpet player and composer (born 1906)
Rafael Méndez was a Mexican virtuoso solo trumpeter. He is known as the "Heifetz of the Trumpet."
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1981
Jamaican DJ and producer (born 1944)
Prince Far I was a Jamaican reggae deejay and producer, and a Rastafarian. He was known for his gruff voice and critical assessment of the Jamaican government. His track "Heavy Manners" used lyrics about government…
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1983
American trumpet player (born 1910)
Charles Melvin "Cootie" Williams was an American jazz, jump blues, and rhythm and blues trumpeter.
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1985
American soprano (born 1933)
Jan (Janice) DeGaetani was an American mezzo-soprano known for her performances of contemporary classical vocal compositions.
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1989
Polish-American fashion designer (born 1916)
Olga Erteszek was a Polish-American undergarment designer and lingerie company owner. She was famous for her nightgowns with full, flowing skirt width and generous sweep.
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1989
1991
Canadian journalist and author (born 1932)
Warner Troyer was a Canadian broadcast journalist and writer.
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1991
Italian priest and martyr (born 1937)
Giuseppe "Pino" Puglisi was an Italian Roman Catholic priest who openly challenged the Sicilian Mafia controlling his Palermo neighbourhood of Brancaccio. The Mafia killed him on his 56th birthday. His life story has…
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1993
South African cricketer (born 1901)
Harry Lawton Calder was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1918, then a 17 year old schoolboy. Calder is the youngest person to receive this accolade, one of the game's top honours, and the only Wisden Cricketer…
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1995
Swedish footballer and manager (born 1921)
Nils Gunnar Nordahl was a Swedish professional footballer. A highly prolific, powerful, and physically strong striker, with an eye for goal, he is best known for his spell at AC Milan from 1949 to 1956, in which he won…
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1995
American wrestler (born 1933)
Richard T. Gland, better known by his ring name Dick "Bulldog" Brower, was an American professional wrestler.
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1997
Canadian economist, 3rd Governor of the Bank of Canada (born 1908)
Louis Rasminsky was a Canadian economist who served as the third governor of the Bank of Canada from 1961 to 1973, succeeding James Coyne. He was succeeded by Gerald Bouey.
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1998
Australian actress and author (born 1932)
June Marie Salter was an Australian actress and author prominent in theatre and television. She is best known for her character roles, in particular as schoolteacher Elizabeth McKenzie in the soap opera The Restless…
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2001
American evangelist and author (born 1930)
Garner Ted Armstrong was an American evangelist and the son of Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God, at the time a Sabbatarian organization that taught observance of seventh-day Sabbath and…
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2003
American guitarist and songwriter (born 1948)
John William Cummings, better known by his stage name Johnny Ramone, was an American musician who was the guitarist and a founding member of the Ramones, a band that helped pioneer the punk movement. The band was…
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2004
Canadian journalist and author (born 1931)
Walter Douglas Stewart was an outspoken Canadian writer, editor and journalism educator, a veteran of newspapers and magazines and author of more than twenty books, several of them bestsellers. The Globe and Mail…
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2004
2005
American manager and producer (born 1915)
Michael Sidney Luft was an American producer and businessman, the second husband of actress Lynn Bari, and later the third husband of actress and singer Judy Garland.
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2005
English television host and author (born 1922)
Raymond Frederic Baxter OBE was an English television presenter, commentator and writer. He is best known for being the first presenter of the BBC Television science programme Tomorrow's World, continuing for 12 years,…
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2006
Italian journalist and author (born 1929)
Oriana Fallaci was an Italian journalist and author. As a teenager she joined the Italian resistance movement during World War II, and later had a long and successful journalistic career. Fallaci became famous worldwide…
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2006
2006
Scottish race car driver (born 1968)
Colin Steele McRae was a British rally driver. He was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion, and in 1995 became the first British driver to win the World Rally Championship Drivers' title.
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2007
English general (born 1928)
Major-General Sir John Jeremy Moore, was a British senior Royal Marines officer who served as the commander of the British land forces during the Falklands War in 1982. Moore received the surrender of the Argentine…
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2007
Venezuelan pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1928)
Aldemaro Romero was a Venezuelan pianist, composer, arranger and orchestral conductor. He was born in Valencia, Carabobo State.
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2007
Canadian-American actress and singer (born 1924)
Brett Somers was a Canadian-American game-show personality, actress, and singer. Somers was best known as a panelist on the 1970s game show Match Game and for her recurring role as Blanche Madison opposite her real-life…
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2007
English singer-songwriter and keyboard player (born 1943)
Richard William Wright was an English keyboardist, singer, and songwriter who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd. He appeared on almost every Pink Floyd album and performed on all of their tours. He was inducted into…
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2008
Scottish-English screenwriter (born 1932)
Troy Kennedy Martin was a Scottish-born film and television screenwriter. He created the long-running BBC TV police series Z-Cars (1962–1978), and the award-winning 1985 anti-nuclear drama Edge of Darkness. He also…
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2009
2010
Canadian-American actress (born 1919)
Frances Evelyn Bay was a Canadian and American character actress and comedian. In a career that spanned 80 years, she acted in a variety of roles both in film and television. Bay was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame…
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2011
Hungarian volleyball player and diplomat, Ambassador of Hungary to the United Kingdom (born 1930)
Tibor Antalpéter was a Hungarian volleyball player who played for Csepel SC and the Hungarian national team. He served as Hungarian Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1990 to 1995.
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2012
Northern Irish rugby player (born 1990)
Nevin Spence was a Northern Irish rugby union player for Ulster in the Pro12. He played as a centre, but could also play wing. He was educated firstly at Dromore High School, where he was introduced to rugby, and then…
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2012
Pakistani writer (born 1930)
Hajra Masroor was a Pakistani writer who established herself with her short fiction stories, known as afsana in Urdu literature. Her elder sister, Khadija Mastoor, was also an accomplished short-story writer and…
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2012
Indonesian cleric and scholar (born 1973)
Habib Munzir bin Fuad Al-Musawa was an Indonesian Islamic cleric, teacher, da'i and founder of the Majelis Rasulullah religious organization.
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2013
American radio and television host (born 1936)
Jerry G. Bishop was an American radio and television personality who is known for being Chicago's original "Svengoolie", and for his award-winning twelve-year stint on Sun-Up San Diego.
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2013
American businessman and philanthropist (born 1925)
Gerard Leon Cafesjian was a businessman and philanthropist who founded the Cafesjian Family Foundation (CFF), the Cafesjian Museum Foundation (CMF) and the Cafesjian Center for the Arts.
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2013
English singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1944)
John Richard Lomax was an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. He is best known for his association with George Harrison, who produced Lomax's recordings for the Beatles' Apple record label in the late 1960s.
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2013
American lawyer and politician, 36th Governor of Kansas (born 1917)
John Anderson Jr. was an American politician who served as the 36th governor of Kansas, from 1961 until 1965. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the 33rd attorney general of Kansas from 1956 until 1961.
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2014
American physicist and engineer (born 1930)
Eugene Irving Gordon was an American physicist. He was Director of the Lightwave Devices Laboratory of Bell Labs.
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2014
Prince of Russia (born 1922)
Nicholas Romanovich Romanov was a claimant to the headship of the House of Romanov and president of the Romanov Family Association. Although undoubtedly a descendant of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, his claimed titles…
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2014
Swiss psychotherapist and author (born 1936)
Jürg Schubiger was a Swiss psychotherapist and writer of children's books. He won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1996 for Als die Welt noch jung war.
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2014
Canadian anthologist, author, and critic (born 1947)
Wayne Tefs was a Canadian novelist, writer, editor, critic, and anthologist.
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2014
Israeli physicist and academic (born 1921)
Harry Jeannot Lipkin, also known as Zvi Lipkin, was an Israeli theoretical physicist specializing in nuclear physics and elementary particle physics. He is a recipient of the prestigious Wigner Medal.
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2015
Israeli commander, historian, and politician (born 1926)
Meir Pa'il was an Israeli politician, military historian and a former colonel in the Israel Defense Forces.
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2015
Belgian cyclist (born 1941)
Bernard Van de Kerckhove was a Belgian professional road bicycle racer from 1962 to 1971. The highlights of his career were stage win in the 1964 Tour de France, which resulted in him wearing the yellow jersey for two…
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2015
American actor (born 1926)
Harry Dean Stanton was an American actor. In a career that spanned more than six decades, Stanton played supporting roles in films including Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Dillinger (1973), The Godfather…
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2017
British singer (born 1916)
Helen Clare was a British singer who was well known in the 1930s and 1940s through her work in variety, radio, television and recording. Clare worked extensively in light entertainment, appearing on BBC Radio and…
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2018
American musician (born 1944)
Richard Theodore Otcasek, known as Ric Ocasek, was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was the primary lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, songwriter, and frontman for the American new wave…
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2019
Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1938)
Louis Frederick Angotti was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach who played ten seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). He played for the New York Rangers, Chicago Black Hawks, Philadelphia Flyers,…
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2021
Colombian painter and sculptor (born 1932)
Fernando Botero Angulo was a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor. His signature style, also known as "Boterismo", depicts people and figures in large, exaggerated volume, which can represent political criticism or…
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2023
American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1953)
Toriano Adaryll "Tito" Jackson was an American musician. He was a founding member of the Jackson 5, a group who rose to fame in the late 1960s and 1970s with the Motown label and had continued success on the Epic label…
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2024
Lebanese intellectual, playwright and novelist (born 1948)
Elias Khoury was a Lebanese novelist and advocate of the Palestinian cause. His novels and literary criticism have been translated into several languages. In 2000, he won the Prize of Palestine for his book Gate of the…
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2024
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Notable deaths
Who died on September 15?
Robert Penn Warren — American poet, novelist, and literary critic (1905–1989)
FeaturedRobert Penn Warren
Death year1989
Known forHe was one of the founders of New Criticism
Deaths on this date110 (921 – 2024)
Explore September 15
Jump between the main pages for this date to compare events, people, and the daily quiz.
Also on September 15 in History
2020
Signing of the Bahrain–Israel normalization agreement occurs in Washington, D.C., normalizing relations between Israel and two Arab nations, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Wikipedia →
2017
The Parsons Green bombing takes place in London. Wikipedia →
2011
See all events on September 15
Four miners are killed in the Gleision Colliery mining accident in the Swansea Valley, Wales. Wikipedia →
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