Notable Deaths on September 17

Sir Karl Raimund Popper was an Austrian–British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the classical inductivist views on the scientific method in favour of empirical falsification made possible by his falsifiability criterion, and for founding the Department of Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. According to Popper, a theory in the empirical sciences can never be proven, but it can be falsified, meaning that it can be scrutinised with decisive experiments. Popper was opposed to the classical justificationist account of knowledge, which he replaced with "the first non-justificational philosophy of criticism in the history of philosophy", namely critical rationalism.

Dred Scott was an enslaved African-American man who, along with his wife, Harriet Robinson Scott, unsuccessfully sued for the freedom of themselves and their two daughters, Eliza and Lizzie, in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as the "Dred Scott decision". The Scotts claimed they should be granted freedom because Dred had lived in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory for four years, where slavery was illegal, and laws in those jurisdictions said that slaveholders gave up their rights to slaves if they stayed for an extended period.

William Henry Fox Talbot was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries. His work in the 1840s on photomechanical reproduction led to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to photogravure. He was the holder of a controversial patent that affected the early development of commercial photography in Britain. He was also a noted photographer who contributed to the development of photography as an artistic medium. He published The Pencil of Nature (1844–1846), which was illustrated with original salted paper prints from his calotype negatives and made some important early photographs of Oxford, Paris, Reading, and York.

William Joseph Mosconi was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mosconi is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship nineteen times. For most of the 20th century, his name was essentially synonymous with pool in North America – he was nicknamed "Mr. Pocket Billiards" – and he was among the first Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame inductees. Mosconi pioneered and regularly employed numerous trick shots, set many records, and helped to popularize pool as a national recreation activity.

Larry Ellsworth Lake was an American-born Canadian composer, trumpeter, freelance writer on music, radio broadcaster, and record producer. As a composer, he was primarily known for his electronic music. His musical compositions are characterized by their integration of acoustic instruments with electronic ones in live performance. From 1985 until his death he served as artistic director of the Canadian Electronic Ensemble, a group of which he was a founding member. For nearly 30 years he hosted and served as music consultant for the CBC Radio program Two New Hours. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre (CMC), he was the chair of the CMC's Ontario Region Council and was an executive member of the CMC's national board. He was a member of both the Canadian Electroacoustic Community and the Canadian League of Composers. His compositions received multiple awards from the CMC and from the Major Armstrong Foundation. He received three Juno Award nominations for his work as a record producer.

Orélie-Antoine de Tounens was a French avoué and adventurer who proclaimed by two decrees on 17 and 20 November 1860 that Araucanía and Patagonia did not depend of any other states and that he himself was King of Araucanía and Patagonia. On 5 January 1862, he was arrested by the Chilean army and imprisoned. He was declared insane by the court of Santiago on 2 September 1862, and expelled to France on 28 October 1862. He tried three further times to go back to Araucanía to regain his "kingdom", but without success, and he died in poverty on 17 September 1878, in Tourtoirac, France.

Deng Shichang, courtesy name Zhengqing, posthumous name Zhuangjie, was an Imperial Chinese Navy officer who lived in the late Qing dynasty. He is best known for his service in the Beiyang Fleet during the First Sino-Japanese War as the captain of the protected cruiser Zhiyuan. He participated in the Battle of the Yalu River on 17 September 1894 against the Imperial Japanese Navy. After Zhiyuan was sunk in battle, he refused to be rescued and eventually went down with his ship. He was posthumously awarded the position of taizi shaobao by the Qing government and honoured as a hero in the Shrine of Loyalty in Beijing.

Walter Savage Landor was an English writer, poet, and activist. His best known works were the prose Imaginary Conversations, and the poem "Rose Aylmer," but the critical acclaim he received from contemporary poets and reviewers was not matched by public popularity. As remarkable as his work was, it was equalled by his rumbustious character and lively temperament. Both his writing and political activism, such as his support for Lajos Kossuth and Giuseppe Garibaldi, were imbued with his passion for liberal and republican causes. He befriended and influenced the next generation of literary reformers such as Charles Dickens and Robert Browning.

Carlos Lamarca was a Brazilian Army Captain who deserted to join the armed struggle against the Brazilian military dictatorship. He was part of the Popular Revolutionary Vanguard and became, along with Carlos Marighella, one of the leaders of the armed struggle. Such groups were armed chiefly for self-protection from the right-wing dictatorship that unleashed state terrorism against any who opposed their regime, including students, the clergy, and the children of those who called for democracy. The kidnappings by a few armed groups were conducted to free comrades suffering extremely brutal torture in Brazil's prisons.

Air Marshal Sir Charles Frederick Read, KBE, CB, DFC, AFC was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served as Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) from 1972 to 1975. Born in Sydney, Read joined the RAAF in 1937, and began his career flying biplane fighters. As a Beaufighter pilot, he led No. 31 Squadron and No. 77 Wing in the South West Pacific during World War II. His achievements earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross and a mention in despatches, and he finished the war an acting group captain.

Sir David Valentine Willcocks was a British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator. He was particularly well known for his association with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, which he directed from 1957 to 1974, making frequent broadcasts and recordings. Several of the descants and carol arrangements he wrote for the annual service of Nine Lessons and Carols were published in the series of books Carols for Choirs which he edited along with Reginald Jacques and John Rutter. He was also director of the Royal College of Music in London.

Frankie Vaughan was an English singer and actor who became popular in the 1950s and 60s, recording more than 80 easy listening and traditional pop singles in his lifetime. He was known as "Mr. Moonlight" after his signature song "Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl". Two of Vaughan's singles topped the UK Singles Chart: "The Garden of Eden" (1957) and "Tower of Strength" (1961). He starred in several films, including a role opposite Marilyn Monroe in Let's Make Love (1960).

Hildegard of Bingen, also known as the "Sibyl of the Rhine", was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath, active during the High Middle Ages as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner of the Catholic Church. She is one of the best-known composers of sacred monophony, as well as the most recorded in modern history. A number of scholars have considered her to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.

Ettie Annie Rout was a Tasmanian-born New Zealander whose work among servicemen in Paris and the Somme during World War I made her a war hero among the French, yet through the same events she became persona non grata in New Zealand. She married Frederick Hornibrook on 3 May 1920, after which she was Ettie Hornibrook. They had no children and later separated. She died in 1936, apparently by suicide, and was buried in the Cook Islands.

Bruno Jasieński was a Polish poet, novelist, playwright, Catastrophist, and leader of the Polish Futurist movement in the interwar period. Jasieński was also a communist activist in Poland, France and the Soviet Union, where he was executed during the Great Purge. He is acclaimed by members of the various modernist art groups as their patron. An annual literary festival Brunonalia is held in Klimontów, Poland, his birthplace, where one of the streets is also named after him.

Hans Feige was a German career military officer who served in the Imperial German Army, the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht. He participated in both world wars and rose to the rank of General of the Infantry during World War II. He served as a corps commander in the Battle of France and in Finland during the invasion of the Soviet Union. After the failure of Operation Arctic Fox, he was removed from command in November 1941.

Robert W. Gore was an American engineer and scientist, inventor and businessman. Gore led his family's company, W. L. Gore & Associates, which was founded by his father Bill Gore, in developing applications of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) ranging from computer cables to medical equipment to the outer layer of space suits. His most significant breakthrough was likely the invention of Gore-Tex, a waterproof and breathable fabric popularly known for its use in sporting and outdoor gear.

Charles Robert Cockerell was an English architect, archaeologist and writer. He studied architecture under Robert Smirke and embarked on an extended Grand Tour lasting seven years, mainly in Greece. After returning to London he established a successful architectural practice. Appointed Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts, he served between 1839 and 1859. Cockerell wrote widely on archaeology and architecture, and in 1848 became the first recipient of the Royal Gold Medal.

Bahman Golbarnezhad was an Iranian Paralympic racing cyclist competing in C4 classification events and an earlier powerlifter. During his powerlifting career, he won twelve gold medals and one silver medal in international competitions. Golbarnezhad had represented Iran in two Summer Paralympic Games, first in 2012 in London and later in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. He was the only Iranian cyclist at the 2016 Paralympics. He was a veteran of the Iran–Iraq war.