Died on Wednesday, 2nd April – Famous Deaths

02/04/2025

Khamtai Siphandone, Laotian politician, 4th President of Laos (born 1924)

General Khamtai Siphandone was a Laotian politician who served as the chairman of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party from 1992 to 2006 and as the fourth president of Laos from 1998 to 2006, when he was replaced by Choummaly Sayasone. He joined the Indochinese Communist Party in 1954 and became a member of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party in 1956.

---

02/04/2024

Jerry Abbott, American country music songwriter and record producer (born 1942)

Jerry Bob Abbott was an American country music songwriter and record producer. He was the father of heavy metal musicians Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell, both formerly of Pantera and Damageplan.

---

John Barth, American writer (born 1930)

John Simmons Barth was an American writer best known for his postmodern and metafictional fiction. His most highly regarded and influential works were published in the 1960s, and include The Sot-Weed Factor, a whimsical retelling of Maryland's colonial history; Giles Goat-Boy, a satirical fantasy in which a university is a microcosm of the Cold War world; and Lost in the Funhouse, a self-referential and experimental collection of short stories. He was co-recipient of the National Book Award in 1973 for his episodic novel Chimera.

---

Maryse Condé, Guadeloupean novelist, critic, and playwright (born 1934)

Maryse Condé was a French novelist, critic, and playwright from the French Overseas department and region of Guadeloupe. She was also an academic, whose teaching career took her to West Africa and North America, as well as the Caribbean and Europe. As a writer, Condé is best known for her novel Ségou (1984–1985).

---

Christopher Durang, American playwright (born 1949)

Christopher Ferdinand Durang was an American playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy. His work was especially popular in the 1980s, though his career seemed to get a second wind in the late 1990s.

---

Larry Lucchino, American attorney and baseball executive (born 1945)

Lawrence Lucchino was an American lawyer and Major League Baseball executive. He served as president of the Baltimore Orioles, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the San Diego Padres, and president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox. He was also chairman of the Worcester Red Sox, the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox; chairman of The Jimmy Fund, the philanthropic arm of the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute; and president and CEO emeritus of Fenway Sports Group, the parent company of the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool F.C. Lucchino played college basketball for the Princeton Tigers.

---

John Sinclair, American poet (born 1941)

John Alexander Sinclair Jr. was an American poet, writer, and political activist from Flint, Michigan. Sinclair's defining style is jazz poetry, and he released most of his works in audio formats. Most of his pieces include musical accompaniment, usually by a varying group of collaborators dubbed Blues Scholars.

---

Juan Vicente Pérez, Venezuelan supercentenarian (born 1909)

Juan Vicente Pérez Mora was a Venezuelan supercentenarian who, until his death aged 114 years, 311 days, was the world's oldest verified living man following the death of Spain's Saturnino de la Fuente García on 18 January 2022.

---

02/04/2022

Estelle Harris, American actress and comedian (born 1928)

Estelle Harris was an American actress and comedian, known for her exaggeratedly shrill voice. She was best known for her role as Estelle Costanza on Seinfeld. Her other roles included the voice of Mrs. Potato Head in the Toy Story franchise, Muriel in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, and Mama Gunda in Tarzan II. During her career, Harris starred in various television commercials.

---

02/04/2021

Simon Bainbridge, British composer (born 1952)

Simon Bainbridge was a British composer. He was also a professor and head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and visiting professor at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States.

---

02/04/2017

Alma Delia Fuentes, Mexican actress (born 1937)

Alma Delia Susana Fuentes González was a Mexican actress of film, television, and theatre.

---

02/04/2016

Gallieno Ferri, Italian comic book artist and illustrator (born 1929)

Gallieno Ferri was an Italian comic book artist and illustrator. He was born in Genoa.

---

Robert Abajyan, Armenian sergeant (born 1996)

Robert Abajyan was an Armenian junior sergeant in the Republic of Artsakh Defense Army. He was posthumously awarded the "Hero of Artsakh" which is the highest honorary title of the self-declared Republic of Artsakh.

---

02/04/2015

Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1908)

Manoel Cândido Pinto de Oliveira was a Portuguese film director and screenwriter born in Cedofeita, Porto. He first began making films in 1927, when he and some friends attempted to make a film about World War I. In 1931, he completed his first film Douro, Faina Fluvial, a documentary about his home city Porto made in the city-symphony genre. He made his feature film debut in 1942 with Aniki-Bóbó and continued to make shorts and documentaries for the next 30 years, gaining a minimal amount of recognition without being considered a major filmmaker.

---

Robert H. Schuller, American pastor and author (born 1926)

Robert Harold Schuller was an American Christian televangelist, pastor, motivational speaker, and author. Over five decades, Schuller pastored his church in Garden Grove, California starting in 1955. The weekly broadcast of Hour of Power television program followed, which he hosted as a taped version of his weekly Sunday service, began in 1970, and he led until his retirement in 2006. His grandson, Bobby Schuller, carries on the Hour of Power, which has aired for over fifty years. During his time as a minister, Schuller oversaw the construction of two churches in Garden Grove, California. The first church built under his tenure was the Garden Grove Community Church chapel which seated 500, and the second was the much larger Crystal Cathedral, which has a capacity of 2,200.

---

Steve Stevaert, Belgian businessman and politician, Governor of Limburg (born 1954)

Steve Stevaert was a Belgian politician of the Flemish Socialist Party: the SP.A.

---

02/04/2014

Urs Widmer, Swiss author and playwright (born 1938)

Urs Widmer was a Swiss novelist, playwright, an essayist, and a short story writer.

---

02/04/2013

Fred, French author and illustrator (born 1931)

Frédéric Othon Théodore Aristidès, known by his pseudonym Fred, was a French cartoonist in the Franco-Belgian comics tradition. He is best known for his series Philémon.

---

Jesús Franco, Spanish director, screenwriter, producer, and actor (born 1930)

Jesús Franco Manera, also commonly known as Jess Franco, was a Spanish filmmaker, composer, and actor, known as a highly prolific director of low-budget exploitation and B-movies. He worked in many different genres during his career, but was best known for his horror and erotic films, often incorporating surrealist elements.

---

Milo O'Shea, Irish-American actor (born 1926)

Milo Donal O'Shea was an Irish actor. He received nomination for the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for his breakthrough role of Leopold Bloom in Ulysses (1967), and was twice nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lead Actor in a Play for his performances in Broadway productions of Staircase (1968) and Mass Appeal (1982).

---

02/04/2012

Jesús Aguilarte, Venezuelan captain and politician (born 1959)

Jesús Aguilarte was the Governor of Apure State in Venezuela from 1999 to 2000, and from 2004 to 2011. He died in a Maracay hospital on April 2, 2012, after being attacked by a gunman on March 24, 2012. He was 53.

---

Elizabeth Catlett, American-Mexican sculptor and illustrator (born 1915)

Elizabeth Catlett, born as Alice Elizabeth Catlett, also known as Elizabeth Catlett Mora was an American and Mexican sculptor and graphic artist best known for her depictions of the Black-American experience in the 20th century, which often focused on the female experience. She was born and raised in Washington, D.C., to parents working in education, and was the grandchild of formerly enslaved people. It was difficult for a black woman then to pursue a career as a working artist. Catlett devoted much of her career to teaching. However, a fellowship awarded to her in 1946 allowed her to travel to Mexico City, where she settled and worked with the Taller de Gráfica Popular for twenty years and became head of the sculpture department for the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas. In the 1950s, her main means of artistic expression shifted from print to sculpture, though she never gave up the former.

---

Mauricio Lasansky, American graphic designer and academic (born 1914)

Mauricio Leib Lasansky was an Argentine artist and educator known both for his advanced techniques in intaglio printmaking and for a series of 33 pencil drawings from the 1960s titled "The Nazi Drawings." Lasansky, who migrated to and became a citizen of the United States, established the program in printmaking at the University of Iowa, which offered the first Master of Fine Arts program in the field in the United States. Sotheby's identifies him as one of the fathers of modern printmaking.

---

02/04/2011

John C. Haas, American businessman and philanthropist (born 1918)

John Charles Haas was an American businessman and philanthropist, at one time considered the second richest man in Philadelphia. He was the chairman of global chemical company Rohm and Haas from 1974 to 1978. Under his leadership, the family's William Penn Foundation became a $2 billion grantmaking institution, ranking as one of the largest such institutions in the United States.

---

02/04/2010

Chris Kanyon, American wrestler (born 1970)

Christopher Morgan Klucsarits was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1994 to 2004, under the ring names Chris Kanyon, Kanyon, and Mortis.

---

02/04/2009

Albert Sanschagrin, Canadian bishop (born 1911)

Albert Sanschagrin, O.M.I. was Bishop Emeritus of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada, and the oldest Canadian bishop of the Roman Catholic Church at the time of his death.

---

Bud Shank, American saxophonist and flute player (born 1926)

Clifford Everett "Bud" Shank Jr. was an American alto saxophonist and flautist. He rose to prominence in the early 1950s playing lead alto and flute in Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra and throughout the decade worked in various small jazz combos. He spent the 1960s as a first-call studio musician in Hollywood. In the 1970s and 1980s, he performed regularly with the L. A. Four. Shank ultimately abandoned the flute to focus exclusively on playing jazz on the alto saxophone. He also recorded on tenor and baritone sax. His most famous recording is probably the version of "Harlem Nocturne" used as the theme song in Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. He is also known for the soundtrack recordings with his group to the surfing films of Bruce Brown in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and for the alto flute solo on the song "California Dreamin'" recorded by the Mamas & the Papas in 1965.

---

02/04/2008

Yakup Satar, Turkish World War I veteran (born 1898)

Yakup Satar was a Turkish and Ottoman soldier who is believed to have been the last Ottoman veteran of the First World War. He died at age 110.

---

02/04/2007

Henry L. Giclas, American astronomer and academic (born 1910)

Henry Lee Giclas was an American astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets and comets. best known for hiring Robert Burnham Jr. at the Lowell Observatory. He worked on a notable proper motion survey with several relatively nearby stars bearing his name such as Giclas 99-49.

---

02/04/2006

Lloyd Searwar, Guyanese anthologist and diplomat (born 1925)

Lloyd Searwar was a career Guyanese diplomat, and later the Director of the Foreign Service Institute in Guyana.

---

02/04/2005

Lillian O'Donnell, American crime novelist (born 1926)

Lillian O'Donnell was an American crime novelist notable for being one of the first to introduce a female police officer as the lead character in a book series.

---

Pope John Paul II (born 1920)

Pope John Paul II was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI in the 16th century, as well as the third-longest-serving pope in history, after St. Peter and Pius IX.

---

02/04/2004

John Argyris, Greek computer scientist, engineer, and academic (born 1913)

Johann Hadjiargyris FRS was a Greek pioneer of computer applications in science and engineering, among the creators of the finite element method (FEM), and later Professor at the University of Stuttgart and Director of the Institute of Structural Mechanics and Dynamics in Aerospace Engineering.

---

02/04/2003

Edwin Starr, American singer-songwriter (born 1942)

Charles Edwin Hatcher , known by his stage name Edwin Starr, was an American singer and songwriter. He is best remembered for his Norman Whitfield-produced Motown singles of the 1970s, most notably the number-one hit "War".

---

02/04/2002

Levi Celerio, Filipino composer and songwriter (born 1910)

Levi Celerio was a Filipino composer and lyricist who is credited with writing over 4,000 songs. Celerio was recognized as a National Artist of the Philippines for Music and Literature in 1997.

---

John R. Pierce, American engineer and author (born 1910)

John Robinson Pierce, was an American electrical engineer and author. He did extensive work concerning radio communication, microwave technology, computer music, psychoacoustics, and science fiction. Additionally to his professional career he wrote science fiction for many years using the names John Pierce, John R. Pierce, and J. J. Coupling. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, he earned his PhD from Caltech, and died in Sunnyvale, California, from complications of Parkinson's Disease.

---

02/04/2001

Charles Daudelin, Canadian sculptor and painter (born 1920)

Charles Daudelin, was a French Canadian pioneer in modern sculpture and painting. He worked in a wide variety of media, including painting, metal and ceramic sculpture, jewelry, and marionettes which he made with his wife, Louise.

---

02/04/1998

Rob Pilatus, American-German singer-songwriter (born 1965)

Robert Pilatus was a German singer, dancer, and model. He was a member of the pop music duo Milli Vanilli with Fab Morvan.

---

02/04/1997

Tomoyuki Tanaka, Japanese director and producer (born 1910)

Tomoyuki "Yūkō" Tanaka was a Japanese film producer, best known as the creator of Godzilla. He produced most of the installments in the Godzilla series, beginning in 1954 with Godzilla and ending in 1995 with Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. He was one of the most prolific Japanese producers of all time, having worked on more than 200 films, including over 80 tokusatsu films and six of Akira Kurosawa's films, notably Yojimbo and Kagemusha.

---

02/04/1995

Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1908)

Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén was a Swedish electrical engineer, plasma physicist and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). He described the class of MHD waves now known as Alfvén waves. He was originally trained as an electrical power engineer and later moved to research and teaching in the fields of plasma physics and electrical engineering. Alfvén made many contributions to plasma physics, including theories describing the behavior of aurorae, the Van Allen radiation belts, the effect of magnetic storms on the Earth's magnetic field, the terrestrial magnetosphere, and the dynamics of plasmas in the Milky Way galaxy.

---

02/04/1994

Betty Furness, American actress, consumer advocate, game show panelist, television journalist and television personality (born 1916)

Elizabeth Mary Furness was an American actress, consumer advocate, and current affairs commentator.

---

Marc Fitch, British historian and philanthropist (born 1908)

Marcus Felix Brudenell Fitch , was an English historian and philanthropist.

---

02/04/1992

Juanito, Spanish footballer and manager (born 1954)

Juan Gómez González, known as Juanito, was a Spanish footballer who played as a forward.

---

Jan van Aartsen, Dutch politician (born 1909)

Johannes "Jan" van Aartsen was a Dutch jurist and politician of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP).

---

02/04/1989

Manolis Angelopoulos, Greek singer (born 1939)

Manolis Angelopoulos was a Greek singer of Gypsy origin.

---

02/04/1987

Buddy Rich, American drummer, songwriter, and bandleader (born 1917)

Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer, songwriter, conductor, and bandleader. He is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time.

---

02/04/1977

Walter Wolf, German academic and politician (born 1907)

Walter Wolf was a German politician and member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).

---

02/04/1974

Georges Pompidou, French banker and politician, 19th President of France (born 1911)

Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou was a French politician who served as President of France from 1969 until his death in 1974. He had previously served from 1962 to 1968 as Prime Minister of France under President Charles de Gaulle, with whom he was closely associated throughout his career.

---

02/04/1972

Franz Halder, German general (born 1884)

Franz Halder was a German general and the chief of staff of the Army High Command (OKH) in Nazi Germany from 1938 until September 1942. During World War II, he directed the planning and implementation of Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. Halder became instrumental in the radicalisation of warfare on the Eastern Front. He had his staff draft both the Commissar Order and the Barbarossa decree that allowed German soldiers to execute Soviet citizens for any reason without fear of later prosecution, leading to numerous war crimes and atrocities during the campaign. After the war, he had a decisive role in the development of the myth of the clean Wehrmacht.

---

Toshitsugu Takamatsu, Japanese martial artist and educator (born 1887)

Toshitsugu Takamatsu was a Japanese martial artist and teacher of Bujinkan founder Masaaki Hatsumi. He has been called "The Last Shinobi" by Bujinkan instructor Wolfgang Ettig.

---

02/04/1966

C. S. Forester, English novelist (born 1899)

Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, best known by his pen name C.S. Forester, was an English novelist known for writing tales of naval warfare, such as the 12-book Horatio Hornblower series depicting a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic Wars.

---

02/04/1954

Hoyt Vandenberg, US Air Force general (born 1899)

Hoyt Sanford Vandenberg was a United States Air Force general. He served as the second Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and the second Director of Central Intelligence.

---

02/04/1953

Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal (born 1885)

Hugo Wilhelm Sperrle was a German military aviator in World War I and a Generalfeldmarschall in the Luftwaffe during World War II.

---

02/04/1948

Sabahattin Ali, Turkish journalist, author, and poet (born 1907)

Sabahattin Ali was a Turkish novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist.

---

02/04/1942

Édouard Estaunié, French novelist (born 1862)

Édouard Estaunié was a French novelist. Estaunié trained as a scientist and engineer, working at the Post and Telegraph service and training further in Holland, before turning to the novel in 1891. In 1904, he devised the word "telecommunication" in his Traité pratique de télécommunication électrique. He was elected to the Académie française in 1923. He was also a reviewer, critic, and homme de lettres as well as a novelist.

---

02/04/1936

Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne, French general (born 1860)

Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne was a general of artillery and a specialist in military engineering, one of the founders of modern French artillery and French military aviation, and the creator of the French tank arm. He is considered by many in France to be the Père des Chars.

---

02/04/1933

Ranjitsinhji, Indian cricketer (born 1872)

Colonel Kumar Sri Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji II, often known as Ranji or K. S. Ranjitsinhji, was an Indian cricketer who later became ruler of his native Indian princely state of Nawanagar, from 1907 to 1933. The main part of his cricket career was from 1893 to 1904 when, as one of the greatest batsmen of his time, he played for Cambridge University, Sussex, London County and, in 15 Test matches, for England.

---

02/04/1930

Zewditu I of Ethiopia (born 1876)

Zewditu was Empress of Ethiopia from 1916 until her death in 1930. She officially adopted the regnal name "Zewditu" at the beginning of her reign, which was triggered by the dethroning of Lij Iyasu in 1916. Her coronation was held on February 11, 1917, in the Cathedral of St. George in Addis Ababa—a capital founded by her father. Forty years old and childless when crowned, she is the first and only empress regnant of the Ethiopian Empire. Described as the first modern female head of a nation in Africa, she was the last female Ethiopian head of state until the 2018 election of Sahle-Work Zewde as president. Her reign, which she is said to have closely patterned after the legacy of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, is noted for the reforms of her Regent and heir apparent Ras Tafari Makonnen – changes which she was at best ambivalent and often stridently opposed to, due to her staunch conservatism and strong religiosity.

---

02/04/1928

Theodore William Richards, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1868)

Theodore William Richards was an American physical chemist and the first American scientist to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, earning the award "in recognition of his exact determinations of the atomic weights of a large number of the chemical elements."

---

02/04/1923

Topal Osman, Turkish colonel (born 1883)

Hacı Topal Osman Ağa, was a Turkish officer, a militia leader of the National Forces, a volunteer regiment commander of the Turkish army during the Turkish War of Independence who eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was a perpetrator of the Armenian and Pontic genocides. Besides the Greeks and Armenians, he also terrorised the local Muslim population who opposed him.

---

02/04/1917

Bryn Lewis, Welsh international rugby player (born 1891)

Major Brinley Lewis, known as Bryn Lewis, was a Welsh international rugby union wing who played club rugby for Newport and Cambridge University. He is one of twelve Welsh internationals to have died in active duty during World War I.

---

02/04/1914

Paul Heyse, German author, poet, and translator, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1830)

Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse was a German writer and translator. A member of two important literary societies, the Tunnel über der Spree in Berlin and Die Krokodile in Munich, he wrote novels, poetry, 177 short stories, and about sixty dramas. The sum of Heyse's many and varied productions made him a dominant figure among German men of letters. He was awarded the 1910 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories." Wirsen, one of the Nobel judges, said that "Germany has not had a greater literary genius since Goethe." Heyse is the fifth oldest laureate in literature, after Alice Munro, Jaroslav Seifert, Theodor Mommsen and Doris Lessing.

---

02/04/1896

Theodore Robinson, American painter and academic (born 1852)

Theodore Robinson was an American painter best known for his Impressionist landscapes. He was one of the first American artists to take up Impressionism in the late 1880s, visiting Giverny and developing a close friendship with Claude Monet. Several of his works are considered masterpieces of American Impressionism.

---

02/04/1894

Achille Vianelli, Italian painter and academic (born 1803)

Achille Vianelli or Vianelly was an Italian painter of landscapes with genre scenes, often in watercolor.

---

02/04/1891

Albert Pike, American lawyer and general (born 1809)

Albert Pike was an American author, poet, orator, editor, lawyer, jurist and Confederate States Army general who served as an associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court in exile from 1864 to 1865. He had previously served as a senior officer of the Confederate States Army, commanding the District of Indian Territory in the Trans-Mississippi Theater. A prominent member of the Freemasons, Pike served as the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council, Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction from 1859 to 1891.

---

Ahmed Vefik Pasha, Greek playwright and politician, 249th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (born 1823)

Ahmed Vefik Pasha was an Ottoman statesman, diplomat, scholar, playwright, and translator during the Tanzimat and First Constitutional Era periods. He was commissioned with top-rank governmental duties, including presiding over the first Ottoman Parliament in 1877. He also served as Prime Minister for two brief periods. He also established the first Ottoman theatre and initiated the first Western style theatre plays in Bursa and translated Molière's major works. His portrait was depicted on the Turkish postcard stamp dated 1966.

---

02/04/1872

Samuel Morse, American painter and academic, invented the Morse code (born 1791)

Samuel Finley Breese Morse was an American inventor and painter. After establishing his reputation as a portrait painter, Morse, in his middle age, contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system based on European telegraphs. He was a co-developer and the namesake of Morse code in 1837 and helped to develop the commercial use of telegraphy.

---

02/04/1865

A. P. Hill, American general (born 1825)

Ambrose Powell Hill Jr. was a Confederate general who was killed in the American Civil War. He is usually referred to as A. P. Hill to differentiate him from Confederate general Daniel Harvey Hill, who was unrelated.

---

02/04/1845

Philip Charles Durham, Scottish admiral and politician (born 1763)

Admiral Sir Philip Charles Henderson Calderwood Durham, GCB was a Royal Navy officer whose service in the American War of Independence, French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic Wars was lengthy, distinguished and at times controversial.

---

02/04/1827

Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus, German physician and educator (born 1776)

Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus Latinized as Ludovicus Henricus Bojanus was a Franco-German physician, comparative anatomist, and naturalist who spent most of his active career teaching veterinary medicine at Vilnius University in Vilnius, then within the Russian Empire. His greatest work was a two-volume folio on the anatomy of the turtle Emys orbicularis published in 1819 and 1821. The Organ of Bojanus of molluscs is named after him. The Triassic mammal Lisowicia bojani was named in his honour in 2019.

---

02/04/1817

Johann Heinrich Jung, German author and academic (born 1740)

Johann Heinrich Jung, better known by his assumed name Heinrich Stilling, was a German author. He is often called by both surnames as "Jung-Stilling".

---

02/04/1803

Sir James Montgomery, 1st Baronet, Scottish judge and politician (born 1721)

Sir James Montgomery, 1st Baronet Stanhope, FRSE was a Scottish advocate, judge, country landowner, agriculturalist and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1766 to 1775. In 1783 he was a joint founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

---

02/04/1801

Thomas Dadford, Jr., English engineer (born 1761)

Thomas Dadford Jr. was an English canal engineer, who came from a family of canal engineers. He first worked with his father in the north of Britain on the Stour and the Trent, but later independently, contributing to a number of canal schemes, mainly in Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire but also in Montgomeryshire and Ellesmere, before dying at the age of 40.

---

02/04/1791

Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, French journalist and politician (born 1749)

Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Count of Mirabeau was a French writer, orator, and statesman, and a prominent figure of the early stages of the French Revolution.

---

02/04/1787

Thomas Gage, English general and politician, Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (born 1719)

General Thomas Gage was a British Army officer and colonial administrator best known for his many years of service in North America, including serving as Commander-in-Chief, North America during the early days of the American Revolution.

---

02/04/1754

Thomas Carte, English historian and author (born 1686)

Thomas or John Carte (1686–1754) was an English historian with Jacobite sympathies, who served as a Church of England clergyman.

---

02/04/1747

Johann Jacob Dillenius, German-English botanist and mycologist (born 1684)

Johann Jacob Dillen Dillenius was a German botanist. He is known for his Hortus Elthamensis on the rare plants around Eltham, London, and for his Historia muscorum, a natural history of lower plants including mosses, liverworts, hornworts, lycopods, algae, lichens and fungi.

---

02/04/1742

James Douglas, Scottish physician and anatomist (born 1675)

James Douglas was a Scottish physician and anatomist, and Physician Extraordinary to Queen Caroline.

---

02/04/1720

Joseph Dudley, English politician, Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (born 1647)

Joseph Dudley was a colonial administrator, a native of Roxbury in Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the son of one of its founders. He had a leading role in the administration of the Dominion of New England (1686–1689), which was overthrown in the 1689 Boston revolt. He served briefly on the council of the Province of New York, from which he oversaw the trial which convicted Jacob Leisler, the ringleader of Leisler's Rebellion. He then spent eight years in England in the 1690s as Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Wight, including one year as a Member of Parliament for Newtown. In 1702, he returned to New England after being appointed governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and Province of New Hampshire, posts that he held until 1715.

---

02/04/1672

Pedro Calungsod, Filipino missionary and saint (born 1654)

Pedro Calungsod, also known as Peter Calungsod and Pedro Calonsor, was a Catholic Filipino-Visayan migrant, sacristan and missionary catechist who, along with the Spanish Jesuit missionary Diego Luis de San Vitores, proselytized and forcefully converted the indigenous people of Guam, in many cases without consent, which led to both missionaries being martyred in 1672.

---

Diego Luis de San Vitores, Spanish Jesuit missionary (born 1627)

Diego Luis de San Vitores, SJ was a Spanish Jesuit missionary who founded the first Catholic church on the island of Guam. He is responsible for establishing the Christian presence in the Mariana Islands. He and his right-hand man Pedro Calungsod are controversial figures in some circles due to their role in the Spanish–Chamorro Wars, as well as the colonization and genocide of the Chamorro people.

---

02/04/1657

Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1608)

Ferdinand III was Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary and Croatia from 1625, King of Bohemia from 1627 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1637 to his death.

---

Jean-Jacques Olier, French priest, founded the Society of Saint-Sulpice (born 1608)

Jean-Jacques Olier, S.S. was a French Catholic priest and the founder of the Sulpicians. He also helped to establish the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal, which organised the settlement of a new town called Ville-Marie in the colony of New France.

---

02/04/1640

Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, Polish author and poet (born 1595)

Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, was a Polish poet. He is considered Europe's most prominent Latin poet of the 17th century, and a renowned theoretician of poetics.

---

02/04/1511

Bernard VII, Lord of Lippe, German nobleman (born 1428)

Bernard VII of Lippe was the ruler of the Lordship of Lippe from 1429 until his death. Because of the many bloody feuds in which he was involved, he was nicknamed "the Bellicose". He is the longest-ever ruling European monarch.

---

02/04/1507

Francis of Paola, Italian friar and saint, founded the Order of the Minims (born 1416)

Francis of Paola, O.M., was a Roman Catholic friar from the town of Paola in Calabria who founded the Order of Minims. He was named after Francis of Assisi and like him Francis of Paola was never ordained a priest.

---

02/04/1502

Arthur, prince of Wales (born 1486)

Arthur, Prince of Wales was the eldest son of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and an older brother to the future King Henry VIII. He was Duke of Cornwall from birth, and he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in 1489. As the heir apparent of his father, Arthur was viewed by contemporaries as the great hope of the newly established House of Tudor. His mother was the daughter of the Yorkist king, Edward IV, and his birth cemented the union between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.

---

02/04/1416

Ferdinand I, king of Aragon (born 1379)

Ferdinand I named Ferdinand of Antequera and also the Just was king of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca, Sardinia and (nominally) Corsica and king of Sicily, duke (nominal) of Athens and Neopatria, and count of Barcelona, Roussillon and Cerdanya (1412–1416). He was also regent of Castile (1406–1416). He was the first Castillian ruler of the Crown of Aragon.

---

02/04/1412

Ruy González de Clavijo, Spanish explorer and author

Ruy González de Clavijo was a Castilian traveler and writer. In 1403–1405, Clavijo was the ambassador of Henry III of Castile to the court of Timur, founder and ruler of the Timurid Empire. A diary of the journey, perhaps based on detailed notes kept while traveling, was later published in Spanish in 1582 and in English in 1859.

---

02/04/1335

Henry of Bohemia (born 1265)

Henry of Gorizia, a member of the House of Gorizia, was Duke of Carinthia and Landgrave of Carniola and Count of Tyrol from 1295 until his death, as well as King of Bohemia, Margrave of Moravia and titular King of Poland in 1306 and again from 1307 until 1310. After his death, the Habsburgs took over Carinthia and Carniola and held them almost without interruption until 1918.

---

02/04/1272

Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, English husband of Sanchia of Provence (born 1209)

Richard was an English prince who was King of the Romans from 1257 until his death in 1272. He was the second son of John, King of England, and Isabella, Countess of Angoulême. Richard was nominal Count of Poitou from 1225 to 1243, and he also held the title Earl of Cornwall from 1225. He was one of the wealthiest men in Europe and joined the Barons' Crusade, where he achieved success as a negotiator for the release of prisoners and assisted with the building of the citadel in Ascalon.

---

02/04/1244

Henrik Harpestræng, Danish botanical and medical author

Henrik Harpestræng was a Danish botanical and medical author. He was a canon at the Roskilde Cathedral. His name literally means harp string. His greatest work was an urtebog, written in Danish. The book consists of 150 chapters dealing with plants and plant parts. The main body of text is probably translations from two Latin works, De Viribus Herbarum by a person who calls himself Aemilius Macer, but is rather Odo Magdunensis, and De gradibus liber by Constantinus Africanus. However, there are a good many sections of which Henrik Harpestræng is undoubtedly the original author. The book is also an invaluable source for Danish medieval plant names. The best preserved copy of this manuscript dates from the 13th century - now kept in Stockholm.

---

02/04/1118

Baldwin I, king of Jerusalem

Baldwin I was the first count of Edessa from 1098 to 1100 and king of Jerusalem from 1100 to his death in 1118. He was the youngest son of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne, and Ida of Lorraine and married a Norman noblewoman, Godehilde of Tosny. He received the County of Verdun in 1096, but he soon joined the crusader army of his brother Godfrey of Bouillon and became one of the most successful commanders of the First Crusade.

---

02/04/0991

Bardas Skleros, Byzantine general

Bardas Skleros or Sclerus was a Byzantine general who led a wide-scale Asian rebellion against Emperor Basil II during the years 976 to 979.

---

02/04/0968

Yuan Dezhao, Chinese chancellor (born 891)

Yuan Dezhao (元德昭), probably né Wei Dezhao (危德昭), courtesy name Mingyuan (名遠), was an official of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Wuyue, serving as a chancellor during the rule of Qian Hongzong and Qian Chu.

---

02/04/0872

Muflih al-Turki, Turkish general

Muflih al-Turki was a Turkish military officer of the Abbasid Caliphate in the mid-9th century. He played a prominent role in the events known as the Anarchy at Samarra and was later killed in battle against the Zanj rebels of southern Iraq.

---

02/04/0870

Æbbe the Younger, Frankish abbess

Saint Æbbe of Coldingham, also known as Æbbe the Younger, was an Abbess of Coldingham Priory in south-east Scotland.

---

02/04/0670

Hasan ibn Ali the second Shia Imam (born 624)

Hasan ibn Ali was an Alid political and religious leader. The eldest son of Ali and Fatima and a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Hasan briefly ruled as caliph from January 661 until August 661. He is considered as the second Imam in Shia Islam, succeeding Ali and preceding his brother Husayn. As a grandson of the prophet, he is part of the ahl al-bayt and the ahl al-kisa, and also participated in the event of the mubahala.

---