Died on Saturday, 19th April – Famous Deaths

19/04/2024

Daniel Dennett, American philosopher and author (born 1942)

Daniel Clement Dennett III was an American philosopher and cognitive scientist. His research centered on philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science.

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19/04/2023

Moonbin, South Korean singer and actor (born 1998)

Moon Bin, also known professionally as Moonbin, was a South Korean singer, actor, and dancer under the label Fantagio. He was a member of the South Korean boy group Astro and its sub-unit Moonbin & Sanha.

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Ron Hamilton, American musician (born 1950)

Ronald Allen Hamilton, also known as "Patch the Pirate", was an American Christian musician, composer, preacher, and radio personality. He was president and owner of Majesty Music, a Christian music publisher, and the creator of the Patch the Pirate Adventure series. Hamilton became affectionately known as "Patch the Pirate" when he began wearing an eye patch after losing his left eye to cancer in 1978. He published hundreds of songs and hymns and wrote numerous cantatas, plays, and children's stories.

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19/04/2022

Kane Tanaka, Japanese supercentenarian (born 1903)

Kane Tanaka was a Japanese supercentenarian who, until her death at the age of 119 years, 107 days, was the world's oldest verified living person, following the death of Chiyo Miyako on 22 July 2018. She is the oldest verified Japanese person and the second-oldest verified person ever, after Jeanne Calment.

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19/04/2021

Walter Mondale, American politician, 42nd Vice President of the United States (born 1928)

Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale was the 42nd vice president of the United States, serving from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Minnesota in the United States Senate from 1964 to 1976, and was the Democratic nominee in the 1984 presidential election.

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Jim Steinman, American composer, lyricist (born 1947)

James Richard Steinman was an American composer, lyricist and record producer. He also worked as an arranger, pianist, and singer. His work included songs in the adult contemporary, rock, dance, pop, musical theater, and film score genres. He wrote albums for Bonnie Tyler and Meat Loaf, including Bat Out of Hell, and also wrote and produced Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell and Tyler's Faster Than the Speed of Night.

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19/04/2020

Ian Whitcomb, English singer-songwriter (born 1941)

Ian Timothy Whitcomb was an English entertainer, singer-songwriter, record producer, writer, broadcaster and actor. As part of the British Invasion, his hit song "You Turn Me On" reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1965.

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19/04/2017

Lu Chao-Hsuan, Taiwanese guitarist, performer and educator. (born 1929)

Lu Chao-Hsuan Chinese: 吕昭炫; pinyin: Lǚ Zhāoxuàn was a guitar composer, performer and educator. He was born in Guishan District, Taoyuan and attended the 21st International Guitarist Symposium in Japan in 1962, where he performed “Hometown” and “Willow,” which later became his representative works. In 2000, he was appointed as an honorary consultant of the Taiwan Guitar Society and has become a highly representative figure in the field of guitar in Taiwan.

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19/04/2016

Patricio Aylwin, Chilean politician (born 1918)

Patricio Aylwin Azócar was a Chilean politician, lawyer, author, professor and former senator who was the 30th president of Chile from 1990 to 1994. He was the first president to be elected after the end of Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship following the 1988 Chilean presidential referendum, marking the Chilean transition to democracy in 1990. He was from the Christian Democratic Party.

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19/04/2015

Raymond Carr, English historian and academic (born 1919)

Sir Albert Raymond Maillard Carr was an English historian specialising in the history of Spain, Latin America, and Sweden. From 1968 to 1987, he was Warden of St Antony's College, Oxford.

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Roy Mason, English miner and politician, Secretary of State for Defence (born 1924)

Roy Mason, Baron Mason of Barnsley,, was a British Labour Party politician and Cabinet minister who was Secretary of State for Defence and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the 1970s.

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19/04/2013

François Jacob, French biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1920)

François Jacob was a French biologist. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Jacques Monod and André Lwoff "for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis." He and Monod originated the idea that control of enzyme levels in all cells occurs through regulation of transcription. For his work in the French Resistance, he received the Cross of Liberation, the Légion d'honneur and Croix de guerre.

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Al Neuharth, American journalist, author, and publisher, founded USA Today (born 1924)

Allen Harold "Al" Neuharth was an American businessman, author, and columnist born in Eureka, South Dakota. He was the founder of USA Today, The Freedom Forum, and its Newseum.

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19/04/2012

Levon Helm, American musician and actor (born 1940)

Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm was an American musician who achieved fame as the drummer and one of the three lead vocalists for The Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Helm was known for his deeply soulful, country-accented voice, multi-instrumental ability, and creative drumming style, highlighted on many of the Band's recordings, such as "The Weight", "Up on Cripple Creek", and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".

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19/04/2011

Elisabeth Sladen, English actress (born 1946)

Elisabeth Clara Miller, known professionally as Elisabeth Sladen, was an English actress. She was best known for her recurring role as Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who from 1973 to 1976, alongside Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, before reprising the role with David Tennant between 2006 and 2010 and in spin-offs K-9 and Company (1981) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011).

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19/04/2009

J. G. Ballard, English novelist, short story writer, and essayist (born 1930)

James Graham Ballard was an English novelist and short-story writer, satirist and essayist known for psychologically provocative works of fiction that explore the relations between human psychology, technology, sex and mass media. Ballard first became associated with New Wave science fiction for post-apocalyptic novels such as The Drowned World (1962). He later courted controversy with the short-story collection The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), which includes the 1968 story "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan", and later the novel Crash (1973), a story about car-crash fetishists.

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19/04/2007

Jean-Pierre Cassel, French actor (born 1932)

Jean-Pierre Cassel was a French actor and dancer. A popular star of French cinema, he was initially known for his comedy film appearances, though he also proved a gifted dramatic actor, and accrued over 200 film and television credits in a career spanning over 50 years.

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19/04/2006

Albert Scott Crossfield, American engineer, pilot, and astronaut (born 1921)

Albert Scott Crossfield was an American naval officer and test pilot. In 1953, he became the first pilot to fly at twice the speed of sound. Crossfield was the first of twelve pilots who flew the North American X-15, an experimental spaceplane jointly operated by the United States Air Force and NASA.He is the subject of a biography called "Always Another Dawn."

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19/04/2004

Norris McWhirter, English author and activist co-founded the Guinness World Records (born 1925)

Norris Dewar McWhirter was a British writer, right-wing political activist, co-founder of The Freedom Association, and a television presenter. He and his twin brother Ross were known internationally for founding the reference book The Guinness Book of Records which they wrote and updated annually together between 1955 and 1975. After Ross's assassination by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), Norris carried on alone as editor.

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John Maynard Smith, English biologist and geneticist (born 1920)

John Maynard Smith was a British theoretical and mathematical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Originally an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War, he took a second degree in genetics under the biologist J. B. S. Haldane. Maynard Smith was instrumental in the application of game theory to evolution with George R. Price, and theorised on other problems such as the evolution of sex and signalling theory.

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Jenny Pike, Canadian WWII servicewoman and photographer (born 1922)

Jenny Pike was a Canadian photographer and servicewoman. She worked in London during WWII, and was the only female photographer to help develop the first photos of the D-Day landings. After the war, she worked as a darkroom technician for the police in Victoria, British Columbia.

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19/04/2002

Reginald Rose, American writer (born 1920)

Reginald Rose was an American playwright and screenwriter. He wrote about controversial social and political issues. His realistic approach was particularly influential in the anthology programs of the 1950s.

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19/04/2000

Louis Applebaum, Canadian composer and conductor (born 1918)

Louis Applebaum was a Canadian film score composer, administrator, and conductor.

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19/04/1999

Hermine Braunsteiner, Austrian-German SS officer (born 1919)

Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan was an Austrian SS Helferin and female camp guard at Ravensbrück and Majdanek concentration camps. She was the first Nazi war criminal to be extradited from the United States to face trial in West Germany. Braunsteiner was known to prisoners of Majdanek concentration camp as "the Mare" because she was said to have kicked and stamped on prisoners, thrown children by their hair onto trucks that took them to be murdered in gas chambers, hanged young prisoners, and beaten prisoners to death.

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19/04/1998

Octavio Paz, Mexican poet, philosopher, and academic Nobel Prize laureate (born 1914)

Octavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican philosopher, poet, and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature.

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19/04/1993

David Koresh, American cult leader (born 1959)

David Koresh was an American cult leader and preacher who played a central role in the Waco siege of 1993. As the head of the Branch Davidians, a religious sect, Koresh claimed to be its final prophet. His apocalyptic Biblical teachings, including interpretations of the Book of Revelation and the Seven Seals, attracted various followers.

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George S. Mickelson, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 28th Governor of South Dakota (born 1941)

George Speaker Mickelson was an American politician and Vietnam War veteran who served as the 28th governor of South Dakota from 1987 until his death in 1993 in a plane crash near Zwingle, Iowa.

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19/04/1992

Frankie Howerd, English actor and screenwriter (born 1917)

Francis Alick Howard, better known by his stage-name Frankie Howerd, was an English actor and comedian.

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19/04/1991

Stanley Hawes, English-Australian director and producer (born 1905)

Stanley Gilbert Hawes MBE, was a British-born documentary film producer and director who spent most of his career in Australia, though he commenced his career in England and Canada. He was born in London, England and died in Sydney, Australia. He is best known as the Producer-in-Chief (1946–1969) of the Australian Government's filmmaking body, which was named, in 1945, the Australian National Film Board, and then, in 1956, the Commonwealth Film Unit. In 1973, after he retired, it became Film Australia.

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19/04/1989

Daphne du Maurier, English novelist and playwright (born 1907)

Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, was an English novelist, biographer and playwright. Her parents were actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and his wife, actress Muriel Beaumont. Her grandfather George du Maurier was a writer and cartoonist.

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19/04/1988

Kwon Ki-ok, Korean pilot (born 1901)

Kwon Ki-ok was the first Korean female aviator, as well as one of the first female pilots in China. Her name in Chinese is Quan Jiyu. Kwon went into exile in China during the Japanese occupation of Korea and became a lieutenant colonel in the Republic of China's air force. She returned home after the liberation of Korea and became a founding member of the Republic of Korea Air Force.

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19/04/1975

Percy Lavon Julian, American chemist and academic (born 1899)

Percy Lavon Julian was an American research chemist and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. Julian was the first person to synthesize the natural product physostigmine, and a pioneer in industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of the human hormones progesterone and testosterone from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol. His work laid the foundation for the steroid drug industry's production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and artificial hormones that led to birth control pills.

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19/04/1971

Luigi Piotti, Italian race car driver (born 1913)

Luigi Piotti was a racing driver from Italy. He participated in nine Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on January 22, 1956. He scored no championship points.

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19/04/1967

Konrad Adenauer, German politician, 1st Chancellor of Germany (born 1876)

Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman and politician who served as the first chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a newly founded Christian democratic party, which became the dominant force in the country under his leadership. Adenauer is considered one of the founding fathers of the European Union.

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19/04/1966

Väinö Tanner, Finnish politician of Social Democratic Party of Finland; the Prime Minister of Finland (born 1881)

Väinö Alfred Tanner was a leading figure in the Social Democratic Party of Finland, and a pioneer and leader of the cooperative movement in Finland. He was Prime Minister of Finland in 1926–1927.

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19/04/1961

Max Hainle, German swimmer (born 1882)

Max Otto Hainle was a German swimmer who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics. He was born in Dortmund. As a member of the German swimming team he won the gold medal at the Paris Games. He also competed in the 1000 metre freestyle event and finished fourth.

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19/04/1960

Beardsley Ruml, American economist and statistician (born 1894)

Beardsley Ruml was an American statistician, economist, philanthropist, planner, businessman and man of affairs in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.

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19/04/1955

Jim Corbett, British-Indian colonel, hunter, and author (born 1875)

Edward James Corbett was an Anglo-Indian hunter and author. He gained fame through hunting and killing several man-eating tigers and leopards in Northern India, as detailed in his bestselling 1944 memoir Man-Eaters of Kumaon. In his later years, he became an outspoken advocate of the nascent conservation movement.

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19/04/1952

Steve Conway, British singer (born 1921)

Steve Conway was a British singer who rose to fame in the 1940s, following the end of the Second World War. Known for romantic ballads, he made dozens of recordings for EMI's Columbia label, appeared regularly on BBC Radio and toured the UK, before his career was cut short by his early death, aged 31, resulting from a heart condition. He has been described as "Britain's first post-war male heart-throb, a masculine equivalent of Vera Lynn in his sincerity and clear diction."

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19/04/1950

Ernst Robert Curtius, French-German philologist and scholar (born 1886)

Ernst Robert Curtius was a German literary scholar, philologist, and Romance languages literary critic, best known for his 1948 study Europäische Literatur und Lateinisches Mittelalter, translated in English as European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages.

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19/04/1949

Ulrich Salchow, Danish-Swedish figure skater (born 1877)

Karl Emil Julius Ulrich Salchow was a Danish-born Swedish figure skater, who dominated the sport in the first decade of the 20th century.

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19/04/1941

Johanna Müller-Hermann, Austrian composer (born 1878)

Johanna Müller-Hermann was an Austrian composer and pedagogue.

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19/04/1940

Jack McNeela, Irish Republican Army, died on hunger strike

Jack McNeela was an Irish republican and a senior member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) from Ballycroy, County Mayo, Ireland. McNeela was one of 22 Irish republicans who died on hunger-strike. As a young man, McNeela was an athlete in County Mayo and participated in Gaelic games. He came from a family of four brothers and two sisters. His brother Paddy was also a leader in the IRA, holding the position of Quartermaster general in Dublin.

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19/04/1937

Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington, English cartographer and politician (born 1856)

William Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington,, known between 1895 and 1931 as Sir Martin Conway, was an English art critic, politician, cartographer and mountaineer, who made expeditions in Europe as well as in South America and Asia.

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William Morton Wheeler, American entomologist and zoologist (born 1865)

William Morton Wheeler was an American entomologist, myrmecologist and professor at Harvard University.

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19/04/1930

Georges-Casimir Dessaulles, Canadian businessman and politician (born 1827)

Georges-Casimir Dessaulles, was a Canadian businessman, statesman and senator. Dessaulles was one of the oldest serving politicians ever, only surpassed by Giovanni Battista Borea d'Olmo. Appointed to the Senate of Canada representing the Province of Quebec in 1907 at age 80, Dessaulles served for 23 years before dying at age 102.

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19/04/1926

Alexander Alexandrovich Chuprov, Russian-Swiss statistician and theorist (born 1874)

Alexander Alexandrovich Chuprov or Tschuprov was a Russian statistician who worked on mathematical statistics, sample survey theory and demography.

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19/04/1916

Ephraim Shay, American engineer, designed the Shay locomotive (born 1839)

Ephraim Shay was an American merchant, entrepreneur and self-taught railroad engineer who worked in the state of Michigan. He designed the Shay locomotive and patented the type. He licensed it for manufacture through what became known as Lima Locomotive Works in Ohio; from 1882 to 1892 some 300 locomotives of this type were sold.

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19/04/1915

Thomas Playford, English-Australian politician, 17th Premier of South Australia (born 1837)

Thomas Playford was an Australian politician who served two terms as Premier of South Australia. He subsequently entered federal politics, serving as a Senator for South Australia from 1901 to 1906 and as Minister for Defence from 1905 to 1907.

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19/04/1914

Charles Sanders Peirce, American mathematician and philosopher (born 1839)

Charles Sanders Peirce was an American scientist, mathematician, logician, and philosopher who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". According to philosopher Paul Weiss, writing in 1934, Peirce was "the most original and versatile of America's philosophers and America's greatest logician". Bertrand Russell wrote in 1959, "he was one of the most original minds of the later nineteenth century and certainly the greatest American thinker ever".

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19/04/1909

Signe Rink, Greenland-born Danish writer and ethnologist (born 1836)

Nathalie Sophia Nielsine Caroline Rink was a Danish writer and ethnologist. Together with her husband Hinrich, she founded Greenland's first newspaper, Atuagagdliutit, in 1861. She is credited as being the first woman to publish works on Greenland and its culture.

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19/04/1906

Pierre Curie, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1859)

Pierre Curie was a French physicist and chemist, and a pioneer in crystallography and magnetism. He shared one half of the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife, Marie Curie, for their work on radioactivity. With their win, the Curies became the first married couple to win a Nobel Prize, launching the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes.

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Spencer Gore, English tennis player and cricketer (born 1850)

Spencer William Gore was an English tennis player who won the first Wimbledon tournament in 1877 and a first-class cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club (1874–1875).

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19/04/1903

Oliver Mowat, Canadian politician, third Premier of Ontario, eighth Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (born 1820)

Sir Oliver Mowat was a Canadian lawyer, politician, and Ontario Liberal Party leader. He served for nearly 24 years as the third premier of Ontario. He was the eighth lieutenant governor of Ontario and one of the Fathers of Confederation. He is best known for defending successfully the constitutional rights of the provinces in the face of the centralizing tendency of the national government as represented by his longtime Conservative adversary, John A. Macdonald. This longevity and power was due to his manoeuvring to build a political base around Liberals, Catholics, trade unions, and anti-French-Canadian sentiment.

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19/04/1901

Alfred Horatio Belo, American publisher, founded The Dallas Morning News (born 1839)

Alfred Horatio Belo was the founder of The Dallas Morning News newspaper in Dallas, Texas, along with business partner George Bannerman Dealey. The company A. H. Belo Corporation, owner of The Dallas Morning News, was named in his honor.

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19/04/1893

Martin Körber, Estonian-German pastor, composer, and conductor (born 1817)

Martin Georg Emil Körber was a Baltic German pastor, composer, writer and choir leader.

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19/04/1882

Charles Darwin, English biologist and theorist (born 1809)

Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental scientific concept. In a joint presentation with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history and was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey.

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19/04/1881

Benjamin Disraeli, English journalist and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1804)

Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, was a British statesman, Conservative politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party, defining its policies and its broad outreach. Disraeli is remembered for his influential voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal Party leader William Ewart Gladstone, and his one-nation conservatism or "Tory democracy". He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the British Empire and military action to expand it, both of which were popular among British voters. He is the only British prime minister to have been born Jewish.

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19/04/1854

Robert Jameson, Scottish mineralogist and academic (born 1774)

Robert Jameson FRS FRSE was a Scottish naturalist and mineralogist.

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19/04/1840

Jean-Jacques Lartigue, Canadian bishop (born 1777)

Jean-Jacques Lartigue, S.S., was a Canadian Sulpician, who served as the first Catholic Bishop of Montreal.

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19/04/1833

James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier, Bahamian-English admiral and politician, 36th Commodore Governor of Newfoundland (born 1756)

Admiral of the Fleet James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier, was a Royal Navy officer and colonial administrator. After seeing action at the capture of Charleston during the American Revolutionary War, he saw action again, as captain of the third-rate HMS Defence, at the battle of the Glorious First of June in 1794, during the French Revolutionary Wars, gaining the distinction of commanding the first ship to break through the enemy line.

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19/04/1831

Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger, German astronomer and mathematician (born 1765)

Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger was a German astronomer born at Simmozheim, Württemberg. He studied at the University of Tübingen. In 1798, he was appointed professor of mathematics and astronomy at the university.

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19/04/1824

Lord Byron, English-Scottish poet and playwright (born 1788)

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, was a British poet. He was one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest British poets. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narratives Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; many of his shorter lyrics in Hebrew Melodies also became popular.

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19/04/1813

Benjamin Rush, American physician and educator (born 1745)

Benjamin Rush was an American revolutionary, a Founding Father of the United States and signatory to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, educator, and the founder of Dickinson College. Rush was a Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress. He later described his efforts in support of the American Revolution, saying: "He aimed well." He served as Surgeon General of the Middle Department of the Continental Army and became a professor of chemistry, medical theory, and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania.

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19/04/1791

Richard Price, Welsh-English preacher and philosopher (born 1723)

Richard Price was a Welsh moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer and pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the French and American Revolutions. He was well-connected and fostered communication between many people, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, Mirabeau and the Marquis de Condorcet. According to the historian John Davies, Price was "the greatest Welsh thinker of all time".

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19/04/1776

Jacob Emden, German rabbi and author (born 1697)

Jacob Emden, also known as the Yaʿavetz, was a leading German rabbi and talmudist who championed traditional Judaism in the face of the growing influence of the Sabbatean movement. He was widely acclaimed for his extensive knowledge.

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19/04/1768

Canaletto, Italian painter and etcher (born 1697)

Giovanni Antonio Canal, commonly known as Canaletto, was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school.

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19/04/1739

Nicholas Saunderson, English mathematician and academic (born 1682)

Nicholas Saunderson was a blind English scientist and mathematician. According to one historian of statistics, he may have been the earliest discoverer of Bayes' theorem. He worked as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, a post also held by Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage and Stephen Hawking.

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19/04/1733

Elizabeth Hamilton, countess of Orkney (born 1657)

Elizabeth Hamilton, Countess of Orkney was an English courtier from the Villiers family and the reputed mistress of William III, King of England and Scotland, from 1680 until 1695. She was a lady-in-waiting to his wife and co-monarch, Queen Mary II of England.

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19/04/1689

Christina, queen of Sweden (born 1626)

Christina, a member of the House of Vasa, was Queen of Sweden from 1632 until her abdication in 1654. Her conversion to Catholicism and refusal to marry led her to relinquish her throne and move to Rome.

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19/04/1686

Antonio de Solís y Ribadeneyra, Spanish historian and playwright (born 1610)

Antonio de Solís y Ribadeneyra was a Spanish dramatist and historian. His work includes drama, poetry, and prose, and he has been considered one of the last great writers of Spanish Baroque literature.

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19/04/1629

Sigismondo d'India, Italian composer (born 1582)

Sigismondo d'India was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was one of the most accomplished contemporaries of Monteverdi, and wrote music in many of the same forms as the more famous composer.

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19/04/1619

Jagat Gosain, Mughal empress (born 1573)

Manavati Bai, also spelled as Manvati Bai,, better known by her title, Jagat Gosain, was the second wife and the empress consort of the fourth Mughal emperor Jahangir and the mother of his successor, Shah Jahan.

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19/04/1618

Thomas Bastard, English priest and author (born 1566)

The Reverend Thomas Bastard was an English clergyman famed for his published English language epigrams.

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19/04/1608

Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, English poet, playwright, and politician, Lord High Treasurer (born 1536)

Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset was an English statesman, poet, and dramatist. He was the son of Richard Sackville, a cousin to Anne Boleyn. He was a Member of Parliament and Lord High Treasurer.

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19/04/1588

Paolo Veronese, Italian painter (born 1528)

Paolo Caliari, known as Paolo Veronese, was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as The Wedding at Cana (1563) and The Feast in the House of Levi (1573). Included with Titian, a generation older, and Tintoretto, a decade senior, Veronese is one of the "great trio that dominated Venetian painting of the cinquecento" and the Late Renaissance in the 16th century. Known as a supreme colorist, and after an early period with Mannerism, Paolo Veronese developed a naturalist style of painting, influenced by Titian.

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19/04/1578

Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese samurai and warlord (born 1530)

Nagao Kagetora , later known as Uesugi Kenshin , was a Japanese daimyō (magnate). He was born in Nagao clan, and after adoption into the Uesugi clan, ruled Echigo Province in the Sengoku period of Japan. He was one of the most powerful daimyō of the Sengoku period. Known as the "Dragon of Echigo", while chiefly remembered for his prowess on the battlefield as a military genius and war hero, Kenshin is also regarded as an extremely skillful administrator who fostered the growth of local industries and trade, as his rule saw a marked rise in the standard of living of Echigo.

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19/04/1567

Michael Stifel, German monk and mathematician (born 1487)

Michael Stifel or Styfel was a German monk, Protestant reformer and mathematician. He was an Augustinian who became an early supporter of Martin Luther. He was later appointed professor of mathematics at Jena University.

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19/04/1560

Philip Melanchthon, German theologian and reformer (born 1497)

Philip Melanchthon was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, an intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and influential designer of educational systems. Along with Luther and John Calvin, he played a major role in shaping Protestantism.

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19/04/1431

Adolph III, count of Waldeck (born 1362)

Adolph III, Count of Waldeck was Count of Waldeck-Landau from 1397 until his death. He was the founder of the elder Waldeck-Landau line.

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19/04/1405

Thomas West, 1st Baron West, English nobleman (born 1335)

Thomas West, 1st Baron West was an English nobleman and member of parliament.

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19/04/1390

Robert II, king of Scotland (born 1316)

Robert II was King of Scots from 1371 to his death in 1390. The son of Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland, and Marjorie, daughter of King Robert the Bruce, he was named Robert Stewart. Upon the death of his uncle David II, Robert succeeded to the throne as the first monarch of the House of Stuart.

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19/04/1321

Gerasimus I, patriarch of Constantinople

Gerasimus I of Constantinople was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1320 to 1321.

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19/04/1054

Leo IX, pope of the Catholic Church (born 1002)

Pope Leo IX was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 February 1049 to his death in 1054. Leo IX is considered to be one of the most historically significant popes of the Middle Ages; he was instrumental in the precipitation of the Great Schism of 1054, considered the turning point in which the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches formally separated.

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19/04/1044

Gothelo I, duke of Lorraine

Gothelo, called the Great, was the duke of Lower Lorraine from 1023 and of Upper Lorraine from 1033. He was also the margrave of Antwerp from 1005 and count of Verdun. Gothelo was the youngest son of Godfrey I, Count of Verdun, and Matilda, daughter of Herman, Duke of Saxony. On his father's death, he received the march of Antwerp and became a vassal of his brother, Godfrey II, who became duke of Lower Lorraine in 1012. Gothelo succeeded his brother in 1023 with the support of the Emperor Henry II, but was opposed until Conrad II forced the rebels to submit in 1025. When the House of Bar, which ruled in Upper Lorraine, became extinct in 1033, with the death of his cousin Frederick II, Conrad made Gothelo duke of both duchies, so that he could assist in the defence of the territory against Odo II, count of Blois, Meaux, Chartres and Troyes. It was during this time 1033-1034, that Gothelo clashed with Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders, concerning the march of Ename.

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19/04/1013

Hisham II, Umayyad caliph of Córdoba (born 966)

Hisham II or Abu'l-Walid Hisham II al-Mu'ayyad bi-llah was the third Umayyad Caliph of Spain, in Al-Andalus from 976 to 1009, and from 1010 to 1013.

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19/04/1012

Ælfheah of Canterbury, English archbishop and saint (born 954)

Ælfheah, more commonly known today as Alphege, was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Winchester, later Archbishop of Canterbury from 1006 to 1012. He became an anchorite before being elected abbot of Bath Abbey. His reputation for piety and sanctity led to his promotion to the episcopate and, eventually, to his becoming archbishop. Ælfheah furthered the cult of Dunstan and also encouraged learning. He was captured by Viking raiders in 1011 during the siege of Canterbury and killed by them the following year after refusing to allow himself to be ransomed. Ælfheah was canonised as a saint in 1078. Thomas Becket, a later Archbishop of Canterbury, prayed to Ælfheah just before his murder in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170.

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19/04/0843

Judith of Bavaria, Frankish empress

Judith of Bavaria was the Carolingian empress as the second wife of Louis the Pious. Marriage to Louis marked the beginning of her rise as an influential figure in the Carolingian court. She had two children with Louis, Gisela and Charles the Bald. The birth of her son led to a major dispute over the imperial succession, and tensions between her and Charles' half-brothers from Louis' first marriage. She eventually fell from grace when Charles' wife, Ermentrude of Orléans, rose to power. She was buried in 843 in Tours.

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