Died on Wednesday, 23rd April – Famous Deaths

23/04/2024

Frank Field, British politician (born 1942)

Frank Ernest Field, Baron Field of Birkenhead, was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birkenhead for 40 years, from 1979 to 2019, serving as a Labour MP until 2018 and thereafter sitting as an independent. In 2019, he formed the Birkenhead Social Justice Party and stood unsuccessfully as its sole candidate in the 2019 election. After leaving the House of Commons, he was awarded a life peerage in 2020 and sat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.

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Helen Vendler, American Literary Critic (born 1933)

Helen Vendler was an American academic, writer and literary critic. She was a professor of English language and history at Boston University, Cornell, Harvard, and other universities.

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23/04/2022

Orrin Hatch, American politician, President pro tempore of the United States Senate (born 1934)

Orrin Grant Hatch was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019. Hatch's 42-year Senate tenure made him the longest-serving Republican U.S. senator in history, overtaking Ted Stevens, until Chuck Grassley surpassed him in 2023.

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23/04/2021

Dan Kaminsky, American internet security researcher (born 1979)

Daniel Kaminsky was an American computer security researcher. He was a co-founder and chief scientist of Human Security, a computer security company. He previously worked for Cisco, Avaya, and IOActive, where he was the director of penetration testing. The New York Times labeled Kaminsky an "Internet security savior" and "a digital Paul Revere".

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23/04/2019

Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick, American soprano singer and presenter (born 1983)

Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick was an American soprano and presenter. A recipient of two bilateral (double) lung transplants, she spoke and performed frequently at concerts, conferences and events around the United States.

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Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (born 1921)

Jean was Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1964 until his abdication in 2000. He was the first Grand Duke of Luxembourg of French agnatic descent.

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23/04/2016

Inge King, German-born Australian sculptor (born 1915)

Ingeborg Viktoria "Inge" King was a German-born Australian sculptor. She received many significant public commissions. Her work is held in public and private collections. Her best known work is Forward Surge (1974) at the Melbourne Arts Centre. She became a Member of the Order of Australia in January 1984.

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Banharn Silpa-archa, Thai politician, Prime Minister from 1995 to 1996 (born 1932)

Banharn Silpa-archa was a Thai politician who served as the Prime Minister of Thailand from 1995 to 1996. Banharn made a fortune in the construction business before he became a Member of Parliament representing his home province of Suphan Buri. He held different cabinet posts in several governments. In 1994, he became the leader of the Thai Nation Party. In 2008, the party was dissolved by the Constitutional Court and Banharn was banned from politics for five years.

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23/04/2015

Richard Corliss, American journalist and critic (born 1944)

Richard Nelson Corliss was an American film critic and magazine editor for Time. He focused on movies, with occasional articles on other subjects.

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Ray Jackson, Australian activist (born 1941)

Ray Jackson was an Australian Aboriginal activist and Wiradjuri elder. He was President of the Indigenous Social Justice Association (ISJA), and a prominent campaigner for the rights of Indigenous Australians.

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Pierre Claude Nolin, Canadian lawyer and politician, Speaker of the Canadian Senate (born 1950)

Pierre Claude Nolin was a Canadian politician and senator. A prominent member of the Conservative Party of Canada from 2004 until his death, he became an influential figure in the Party's parliamentary caucus.

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Jim Steffen, American football player (born 1936)

James William Steffen was an American professional football defensive back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Detroit Lions, Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys. He was drafted in the thirteenth round of the 1959 NFL draft. He played college football at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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Francis Tsai, American author and illustrator (born 1967)

Francis Tsai was an American comic book artist, illustrator, author and conceptual artist. He was of Taiwanese and Japanese ancestry.

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23/04/2014

Benjamín Brea, Spanish-Venezuelan saxophonist, clarinet player, and conductor (born 1946)

Benjamín Brea was a Spanish-born Venezuelan musician, arranger and teacher, mostly associated with jazz, even though he had the advantage to play several music genres in various bands as a soloist as well as sideman and conductor.

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Michael Glawogger, Austrian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer (born 1959)

Michael Glawogger was an Austrian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer, born in Graz.

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Jaap Havekotte, Dutch speed skater and producer of ice skates (born 1912)

Jaap Havekotte was a Dutch speed skater. He skated in several Dutch championships during the 1940s, but is best known as the founder of Viking Schaatsenfabriek, a Dutch producer of ice skates. The Viking ice skate proved to be very popular, and by 1972 every speed skating world record was skated on Viking ice skates. Viking was the first company to produce the clap skate on a large scale. Due to his significant influence on speed skating in the Netherlands, speed skaters from later generations spoke fondly of Havekotte and used to call him 'Oom Jaap'. Havekotte died on 23 April 2014 at the age of 102.

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Connie Marrero, Cuban baseball player and coach (born 1911)

Conrado Eugenio Marrero Ramos, nicknamed "Connie", was a Cuban professional baseball pitcher. The right-handed Marrero pitched in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1954 for the Washington Senators.

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F. Michael Rogers, American general (born 1921)

Felix Michael Rogers, usually known as Michael Rogers, was a general in the United States Air Force and the former commander of the Air Force Logistics Command, with headquarters at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The command mission is to provide worldwide technical logistics support to all Air Force active and Reserve force activities, Military Assistance Program countries, and designated United States Government agencies. He is a graduate of the National War College.

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Mark Shand, English conservationist and author (born 1951)

Mark Roland Shand, a brother of Queen Camilla, was an English travel writer and conservationist. Shand wrote four travel books, and as a BBC conservationist appeared in documentaries related to his journeys, most of which centred on the survival of elephants. His book Travels on My Elephant became a bestseller and won the Travel Writer of the Year Award at the British Book Awards in 1992. He was the chairman of Elephant Family, a wildlife foundation, which he co-founded in 2002.

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Patric Standford, English composer and educator (born 1939)

Patric Standford was an English composer, supporter of composers' rights, educationalist and author.

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23/04/2013

Bob Brozman, American guitarist (born 1954)

Bob Brozman was an American guitarist and ethnomusicologist.

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Robert W. Edgar, American educator and politician (born 1943)

Robert William Edgar was an American politician, administrator, and religious leader. A native of the Philadelphia area, he began his career as a Methodist pastor and chaplain. He served as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1987, representing the 7th district of Pennsylvania. He was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for United States Senate in Pennsylvania in 1986.

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Tony Grealish, English footballer (born 1956)

Anthony Patrick Grealish was a professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Born in England to Irish parents, he played for the Republic of Ireland at international level.

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Antonio Maccanico, Italian banker and politician (born 1924)

Antonio Maccanico was an Italian constitutional specialist and politician who served in various capacities in the Italian Parliament and federal administrations of Italy. He was the former general secretary of the Quirinal Palace from 1978 to 1987, and was several times minister and undersecretary to the Prime Minister under Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. He was also president of Mediobanca.

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Frank W. J. Olver, English-American mathematician and academic (born 1924)

Frank William John Olver was a professor of mathematics at the Institute for Physical Science and Technology and Department of Mathematics at the University of Maryland who worked on asymptotic analysis, special functions, and numerical analysis. He was the editor in chief of the NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions.

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Kathryn Wasserman Davis, American philanthropist and scholar (born 1907)

Kathryn Wasserman Davis was an American investor, painter, philanthropist, and political activist. She was a longtime promoter of women's rights and planning parenthood. She was committed to engaging local communities, particularly regarding the environment on the Hudson River and Maine coast, and also concerned with access to high-quality education. At the age of 94, she began an artistic adventure, producing more than 200 paintings.

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23/04/2012

Lillemor Arvidsson, Swedish trade union leader and politician, 34th Governor of Gotland (born 1943)

Maj Lillemor Arvidsson was a Swedish trade union leader and the Governor of Gotland from 1998 to 2004.

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Billy Bryans, Canadian drummer, songwriter and producer (born 1947)

William Taylor Bryans was a Canadian percussionist, songwriter, music producer and DJ, known as one of the founders of The Parachute Club, among other accomplishments in music. As a producer, he worked on projects for artists as diverse as Dutch Mason, Raffi, Lillian Allen and the Downchild Blues Band. He was born in Montreal, but spent most of his adult life in Toronto, and was particularly supportive of world music as both a promoter and publicist, focusing on bringing Caribbean, Cuban and Latin American music to a wider audience.

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Chris Ethridge, American bass player and songwriter (born 1947)

John Christopher Ethridge was an American country rock bass guitarist. He was a member of the International Submarine Band (ISB) and The Flying Burrito Brothers, and co-wrote several songs with Gram Parsons. Ethridge worked with Nancy Sinatra, Judy Collins, Leon Russell, Delaney Bramlett, Johnny Winter, Randy Newman, Graham Nash, Ry Cooder, Linda Ronstadt, The Byrds, Jackson Browne, and Willie Nelson.

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Raymond Thorsteinsson, Canadian geologist and paleontologist (born 1921)

Raymond Thorsteinsson, was a Canadian geologist who focused on the geology of the high Arctic. He was a Fellow of The Arctic Institute of North America, primarily known for his contribution to the geology of the Proterozoic and Paleozoic rocks.

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LeRoy T. Walker, American football player and coach (born 1918)

LeRoy T. Walker was an American track and field coach and the first African-American president of the United States Olympic Committee. In the 1996 Olympics, Walker was delegated to lead a 10,000 member group of the most talented athletes in the world. His goal was to make sure that American citizens have a feeling of ownership in the program, saying,We ought to keep them informed. We ought to let them know what the Olympic movement is all about and what’s happening to the dollars that they give.

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23/04/2011

James Casey, English comedian, radio scriptwriter and producer (born 1922)

James Casey, known professionally as Jim Casey, was at various times during his long career a Variety comedian on the English music-halls, a scriptwriter for BBC Radio's variety shows and situation comedies, and a senior BBC Radio Light Entertainment producer.

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Tom King, American guitarist and songwriter (born 1943)

Thomas R. King was an American songwriter, guitarist, and arranger. He founded the 1960s rock band The Outsiders, and co-wrote the band's biggest hit song, "Time Won't Let Me".

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Geoffrey Russell, 4th Baron Ampthill, English businessman and politician (born 1921)

Geoffrey Denis Erskine Russell, 4th Baron Ampthill, was a British hereditary peer and businessman, whose paternity and succession to the peerage were disputed in the "Ampthill baby case".

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Max van der Stoel, Dutch politician and Minister of State (born 1924)

Maximilianus "Max" van der Stoel was a Dutch politician and diplomat, member of the Labour Party (PvdA) and activist who served as High Commissioner on National Minorities of the OSCE from 1 January 1993 until 1 July 2001.

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John Sullivan, English screenwriter and producer (born 1946)

John Richard Thomas Sullivan was an English television scriptwriter responsible for several British sitcoms, including Only Fools and Horses, Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends.

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23/04/2010

Peter Porter, Australian-born British poet (born 1929)

Peter Neville Frederick Porter OAM was a British-based Australian poet.

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23/04/2007

Paul Erdman, Canadian-American economist and author (born 1932)

Paul Emil Erdman was a Canadian-born American economist and banker who became known for writing novels based on monetary trends and international finance.

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David Halberstam, American journalist, historian and author (born 1934)

David Halberstam was an American writer, journalist, and historian, known for his work on the Vietnam War, politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, Korean War, and later, sports journalism. He won a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1964. Halberstam was killed in a car crash in 2007 while doing research for a book.

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Peter Randall, English sergeant (born 1930)

Peter John Randall, was a British Army soldier and a recipient of the George Medal, and the RSPCA's Margaret Wheatley Cross, for his actions on 8 October 1954 where he saved the life of a fellow soldier and a military dog from a burning truck.

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Boris Yeltsin, Russian politician, 1st President of Russia (born 1931)

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to 1990. He later stood as a political independent, during which time he was viewed as being ideologically aligned with liberalism.

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23/04/2006

Phil Walden, American record producer and manager, co-founder of Capricorn Records (born 1940)

Phil Walden was the American co-founder of the Macon, Georgia-based Capricorn Records, along with former Atlantic Records executive Frank Fenter.

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23/04/2005

Joh Bjelke-Petersen, New Zealand-Australian politician, 31st Premier of Queensland (born 1911)

Sir Johannes "Joh" Bjelke-Petersen was an Australian politician and farmer who served as premier of Queensland from 1968 to 1987 as leader of the Queensland National Party. He was renowned for his political longevity and the institutional corruption that pervaded his government.

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Robert Farnon, Canadian-English trumpet player, composer and conductor (born 1917)

Robert Joseph Farnon was a Canadian-born composer, conductor, musical arranger and trumpet player. As well as being a composer of original works, he was commissioned by film and television producers for theme and incidental music. In later life he composed a number of more serious orchestral works, including three symphonies, and was recognised with four Ivor Novello awards and the Order of Canada.

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Al Grassby, Australian journalist and politician (born 1928)

Albert Jaime Grassby, AM was an Australian politician who served as Minister for Immigration in the Labor Whitlam government. He completed reforms in immigration and human rights, and is often known as the father of Australian "multiculturalism". He gained notoriety by acting as an agent of influence for the Calabrian Mafia that murdered anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay.

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John Mills, English actor (born 1908)

Sir John Mills was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. He excelled on camera as an appealing British everyman who often portrayed guileless, wounded war heroes. In 1971, he received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Ryan's Daughter.

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Romano Scarpa, Italian author and illustrator (born 1927)

Romano Scarpa was one of the most famous Italian creators of Disney comics.

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Earl Wilson, American baseball player, coach and educator (born 1934)

Robert Earl Wilson was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played all or part of eleven seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers (1966–1970) and San Diego Padres (1970), primarily as a starting pitcher. Wilson batted and threw right-handed; he was born in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, and graduated from Greenville Park High School in Tangipahoa Parish.

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23/04/2004

Herman Veenstra, Dutch water polo player (born 1911)

Herman Alex Veenstra was a Dutch water polo player who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics. He was part of the Dutch team which finished fifth in the 1936 tournament. He played five matches as goalkeeper.

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23/04/2003

Fernand Fonssagrives, French-American photographer (born 1910)

Fernand Fonssagrives, born Fernand Vigoureux near Paris, was a photographer known for his 'beauty photography' in the early 1940s, and as the first husband of the model Lisa Fonssagrives. He died in 2003 at Little Rock, Arkansas, United States.

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23/04/1998

Konstantinos Karamanlis, Greek lawyer and politician, 172nd Prime Minister of Greece (born 1907)

Konstantinos G. Karamanlis was a Greek statesman who was the four-time Prime Minister of Greece and two-term president of the Third Hellenic Republic, serving in the former role from 1955 to 1963 and from 1974 to 1980. A towering figure of Greek politics, his political career spanned portions of seven decades, covering much of the latter half of the 20th century.

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James Earl Ray, American assassin of Martin Luther King Jr. (born 1928)

James Earl Ray was an American fugitive who was convicted of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. After the assassination, Ray, who had planned on living in exile in Rhodesia, fled to London and was captured there. Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty plea—thus forgoing a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentence—and was sentenced to 99 years of imprisonment. He later made many attempts to withdraw his guilty plea and to be tried by a jury, but was unsuccessful.

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Thanassis Skordalos, Greek singer-songwriter and lyra player (born 1920)

Thanassis Skordalos was a musician from Crete, noted for playing the lyra, the bowed string instrument of Crete and most popular surviving form of the medieval Byzantine lyra.

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23/04/1997

Denis Compton, English cricketer and footballer (born 1918)

Denis Charles Scott Compton was an English multi-sportsman. As a cricketer he played in 78 Test matches and spent his whole career with Middlesex. As a footballer, he played as a winger and spent most of his career at Arsenal, where he would win both the top flight and F.A. Cup.

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23/04/1996

Jean Victor Allard, Canadian general (born 1913)

General Jean Victor Allard was the first French Canadian to become Chief of the Defence Staff, the highest position in the Canadian Forces, from 1966 to 1969. He was also the first to hold the accompanying rank of general.

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P. L. Travers, Australian-English author and actress (born 1899)

Pamela Lyndon Travers was an Australian-British writer who spent most of her career in England. She is best known for the Mary Poppins series of books, which feature the eponymous magical nanny.

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23/04/1995

Douglas Lloyd Campbell, Canadian farmer and politician, 13th Premier of Manitoba (born 1895)

Douglas Lloyd Campbell was a Canadian politician in Manitoba. He served as the 13th premier of Manitoba from 1948 to 1958. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for 47 years, longer than anyone in the province's history.

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Howard Cosell, American lawyer and journalist (born 1918)

Howard William Cosell was an American sports journalist, broadcaster and author. Cosell became prominent and influential during his tenure with ABC Sports from 1953 until 1985.

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Riho Lahi, Estonian journalist (born 1904)

Riho Lahi was an Estonian writer, journalist and cartoonist, probably best known by his fictional character Kihva Värdi.

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John C. Stennis, American lawyer and politician (born 1904)

John Cornelius Stennis was an American politician who served as a U.S. senator from the state of Mississippi. He was a Democrat who served in the Senate for over 41 years, becoming its most senior member for his last eight years. He retired from the Senate in 1989, and is, to date, the last Democrat to have been a U.S. senator from Mississippi. At the time of his retirement, Stennis was the last senator to have served during the presidency of Harry S. Truman.

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23/04/1993

Cesar Chavez, American activist, co-founded the United Farm Workers (born 1927)

Cesario Estrada "Cesar" Chavez was an American labor unionist and political activist. Along with Dolores Huerta and Gilbert Padilla, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Ideologically, his worldview combined leftism with Catholic social teaching.

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23/04/1992

Satyajit Ray, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1921)

Satyajit Ray was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential film directors in the history of cinema. He is celebrated for works including The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959), The Music Room (1958), The Big City (1963), Charulata (1964), and the Goopy–Bagha trilogy (1969–1992).[a]

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Tanka Prasad Acharya, Nepalese politician, 27th Prime Minister of Nepal (born 1912)

Tanka Prasad Acharya, also known as Jeudo-Shahid, was a Nepali politician who served as the 19th Prime Minister of Nepal from 1956 to 1957. He was one of the founders and the leader of the Nepal Praja Parishad, the first political party in Nepal with the goal of removing the Rana Dynasty's dictatorship.

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23/04/1991

Johnny Thunders, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1952)

John Anthony Genzale, known professionally as Johnny Thunders, was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He came to prominence in the early 1970s as a member of New York Dolls. He later formed the Heartbreakers and played as a solo artist.

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23/04/1990

Paulette Goddard, American actress (born 1910)

Paulette Goddard was an American actress and socialite. She was a prominent leading actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

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23/04/1986

Harold Arlen, American composer (born 1905)

Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, including "Over the Rainbow", which won him the Oscar for Best Original Song, he was nominated as composer for 8 other Oscar awards. Arlen is a contributor to the Great American Songbook. "Over the Rainbow" was voted the 20th century's No. 1 song by the RIAA and the NEA.

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Jim Laker, English international cricketer and sportscaster; holder of world record for most wickets taken in a match (born 1922)

James Charles Laker was an English professional cricketer. A right-arm off break bowler, Laker is generally regarded as one of the greatest spin bowlers in cricket history.

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Otto Preminger, Ukrainian-American actor, director, and producer (born 1906)

Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austrian-American film and theatre director, film producer and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre, and was one of the most influential directors in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, twice for Best Director and once for Best Picture, among many other accolades.

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23/04/1985

Sam Ervin, American lawyer and politician (born 1896)

Samuel James Ervin Jr. was an American politician who served as a U.S. senator from North Carolina from 1954 to 1974. A Southern Democrat, he liked to call himself a "country lawyer", and often told humorous stories in his Southern drawl. During his Senate career, Ervin was at first a staunch defender of Jim Crow laws and racial segregation, as the South's constitutional expert during the congressional debates on civil rights. However, unexpectedly, he became a liberal hero for his support of civil liberties. He is remembered for his work in the investigation committees that brought down Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954 and especially for his leadership of the Senate committee's investigation of the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.

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Frank Farrell, Australian rugby league player and policeman (born 1916)

Francis Michael "Bumper" Farrell was an Australian premiership winning and international representative rugby league footballer. A prop forward, his long club career with the Newtown Bluebags was from 1938 to 1951 with four Test appearances for the Australian national side between 1946 and 1948.

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23/04/1984

Red Garland, American pianist (born 1923)

William McKinley "Red" Garland Jr. was an American modern jazz pianist. Known for his work as a bandleader and during the 1950s with Miles Davis, Garland helped popularize the block chord style of playing in jazz piano.

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23/04/1983

Buster Crabbe, American swimmer and actor (born 1908)

Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe II was an American two-time Olympic swimmer and film and television actor. He won the 1932 Olympic gold medal for 400-metre freestyle swimming event, which launched his career on the silver screen and later television. He starred in a variety of popular feature films and movie serials released between 1933 and the 1950s, portraying the top three syndicated comic-strip heroes of the 1930s: Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers.

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23/04/1981

Josep Pla, Catalan journalist and author (born 1897)

Josep Pla i Casadevall was a Spanish journalist and a popular author. As a journalist he worked in France, Italy, Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union, from where he wrote political and cultural chronicles in Catalan and Spanish.

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23/04/1966

George Ohsawa, Japanese founder of the Macrobiotic diet (born 1893)

George Ohsawa was a Japanese author and proponent of alternative medicine who was the founder of the macrobiotic diet. When living in Europe he went by the pen names of Musagendo Sakurazawa, Nyoiti Sakurazawa, and Yukikazu Sakurazawa. He also used the French first name Georges while living in France, and his name is sometimes also given this spelling. He wrote about 300 books in Japanese and 20 in French. He defined health on the basis of seven criteria: lack of fatigue, good appetite, good sleep, good memory, good humour, precision of thought and action, and gratitude.

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23/04/1965

George Adamski, Polish-American ufologist and author (born 1891)

George Adamski was a Polish-American author who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he displayed numerous photographs in the 1940s and 1950s that he said were of alien spacecraft, claimed to have met with friendly Nordic alien or "Space Brothers", and claimed to have taken flights with them to the Moon and other planets.

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23/04/1959

Bak Jungyang, Korean politician (born 1872)

Pak Chungyang was a Korean bureaucrat and politician in the Japanese colonial government. His art names were Haeak (해악) and Ilso (일소), and his courtesy name was Wongeun (원근). He also had the Japanese names Shigeyō Hōchū (朴忠重陽), Jūyō Boku and Shin Yamamoto . Pak was Governor of the prefecture Kōkai Prefecture from 1921 to 1923 and in 1928. He was also governor of Chūseihoku Prefecture from 1923 to 1925.

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23/04/1951

Jules Berry, French actor and director (born 1883)

Jules Berry was a French actor.

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Charles G. Dawes, American banker and politician, 30th Vice President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (born 1865)

Charles Gates Dawes was the 30th vice president of the United States from 1925 to 1929 under President Calvin Coolidge. He was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925 for his work on the Dawes Plan for World War I reparations, and a member of the Republican Party.

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23/04/1936

Teresa de la Parra, French-Venezuelan author (born 1889)

Teresa de la Parra was a Venezuelan novelist.

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23/04/1915

Rupert Brooke, English poet (born 1887)

Rupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially "The Soldier". He was also known for his boyish good looks, which were said to have prompted the Irish poet W. B. Yeats to describe him as "the handsomest young man in England". He died of septicaemia following a mosquito bite whilst aboard a French hospital ship moored off the island of Skyros in the Aegean Sea.

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23/04/1907

Alferd Packer, American prospector and convicted cannibal (born 1842)

Alfred Griner Packer, also known as the "Colorado Cannibal", was an American prospector and self-proclaimed wilderness guide who confessed to cannibalism during the winter of 1874. Though no clear or definitive evidence has been found to this day, and despite in-depth research about proof of his deeds, he is one of the four persons historically convicted for cannibalism in the United States. After emerging as the sole survivor of a six-man party who had attempted to travel through the San Juan Mountains of the Colorado Territory, he eventually confessed to having lived off the flesh of his companions, giving more than one version of his account as to the circumstances.

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23/04/1905

Gédéon Ouimet, Canadian politician, 2nd Premier of Quebec (born 1823)

Gédéon Ouimet was a French-Canadian politician.

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23/04/1895

Carl Ludwig, German physician and physiologist (born 1815)

Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig was a German physician and physiologist. His work as both a researcher and teacher had a major influence on the understanding, methods and apparatus used in almost all branches of physiology.

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23/04/1889

Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly, French author and critic (born 1808)

Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly was a French novelist, poet, short story writer, and literary critic. He specialised in mystery tales that explored hidden motivation and hinted at evil without being explicitly concerned with anything supernatural. He had a decisive influence on writers such as Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Henry James, Léon Bloy, Marcel Proust and Carmelo Bene.

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23/04/1865

Silas Soule, American soldier and whistleblower of the Sand Creek Massacre (born 1838)

Silas Stillman Soule was an American abolitionist, teenage conductor on the Underground Railroad, military officer, and early example of what would later be called a "whistleblower". He is honored as a hero for disobeying orders to participate in a massacre of Native Americans, and then giving evidence against his commander despite threats on his life.

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23/04/1850

William Wordsworth, English poet and author (born 1770)

William Wordsworth was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads (1798).

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John Joel Glanton, American outlaw, soldier, mercenary, and Texas ranger (born ~1819)

John Joel Glanton was an early settler of Arkansas Territory. He was also a Texas Ranger and a soldier in the Mexican–American War and the leader of a notorious gang of scalp-hunters in Northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States during the mid-19th century. Contemporary sources also describe him as a murderous outlaw and prominent participant in the Texas Revolution. He appears as a violent figure in the works of the prominent Western writers Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy.

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23/04/1839

Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, French admiral and explorer (born 1768)

Counter-Admiral Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin was a French Navy officer and explorer. He fought in numerous naval engagements during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and conducted several exploratory voyages in the Indian Ocean and Southern Ocean.

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23/04/1827

Georgios Karaiskakis, Greek general (born 1780)

Georgios Karaiskakis, born Georgios Karaiskos, was a Greek military commander and a leader of the Greek War of Independence.

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23/04/1794

Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, French lawyer and politician (born 1721)

Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, often referred to as Malesherbes or Lamoignon-Malesherbes, was a French statesman and minister in the Ancien Régime, and later counsel for the defense of Louis XVI. He is known for his vigorous criticism of royal abuses as President of the Cour des aides and his role, as director of censorship, in helping with the publication of the Encyclopédie. Despite his committed monarchism, his writings contributed to the development of liberalism during the French Age of Enlightenment.

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23/04/1792

Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, German theologian and author (born 1741)

Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, also spelled Carl Friedrich Bahrdt, was an unorthodox German Protestant biblical scholar, theologian, and polemicist. Controversial during his day, he is sometimes considered an "enfant terrible" and one of the most immoral characters in German learning.

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23/04/1784

Solomon I of Imereti (born 1735)

Solomon I the Great was a king (mepe) of Imereti from 1752 to 1765 and again from 1767 until his death in 1784.

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23/04/1781

James Abercrombie, Scottish general and politician (born 1706)

General James Abercrombie was a British Army officer and Whig politician who represented Banffshire in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1734 to 1754. He served as Commander-in-Chief, North America during the French and Indian War, and is best known for commanding the British defeat in the 1758 Battle of Carillon.

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23/04/1702

Margaret Fell, English religious leader, founded the Religious Society of Friends (born 1614)

Margaret Fell or Margaret Fox was a founder and leading member of the Religious Society of Friends. Known popularly as the "mother of Quakerism," she is considered one of the Valiant Sixty early Quaker preachers and missionaries. Her daughters Isabel (Fell) Yeamans and Sarah Fell were also leading Quakers.

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23/04/1695

Henry Vaughan, Welsh poet and author (born 1621)

Henry Vaughan was a Welsh metaphysical poet, author and translator writing in English, and a medical physician. His religious poetry appeared in Silex Scintillans in 1650, with a second part in 1655. In 1646 his Poems, with the Tenth Satire of Juvenal Englished was published. Meanwhile he had been persuaded by reading the religious poet George Herbert to renounce "idle verse". The prose Mount of Olives and Solitary Devotions (1652) show his authenticity and depth of convictions. Two more volumes of secular verse followed, ostensibly without his sanction, but it is his religious verse that has been acclaimed. He also translated short moral and religious works and two medical works in prose. In the 1650s he began a lifelong medical practice.

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23/04/1625

Maurice, Prince of Orange (born 1567)

Maurice of Orange was stadtholder of all the provinces of the Dutch Republic—except Friesland—from 1585 until his death. Prior to inheriting the title Prince of Orange from his elder half-brother, Philip William, in 1618, he was known as Maurice of Nassau.

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23/04/1620

Hayyim ben Joseph Vital, Jewish scholar (born 1542)

Hayyim ben Joseph Vital was a rabbi in Safed and the foremost disciple of Isaac Luria. He recorded much of his master's teachings. After Vital's death, his writings began to spread and led to a "powerful impact on various circles throughout the Jewish world."

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23/04/1616

William Shakespeare, English playwright and poet (born 1564)

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" or simply "the Bard". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

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Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Spanish writer and historian (born 1539)

Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, born Gómez Suárez de Figueroa and known as El Inca, was a chronicler and writer born in the Viceroyalty of Peru. Sailing to Spain at 21, he was educated informally there, where he lived and worked the rest of his life. The natural son of a Spanish conquistador and an Inca noblewoman born in the early years of the conquest, he is known primarily for his chronicles of Inca history, culture, and society. His work was widely read in Europe, influential and well received. It was the first literature by an author born in the Americas to enter the western canon.

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23/04/1605

Boris Godunov, Russian ruler (born 1551)

Boris Feodorovich Godunov was the de facto regent of Russia from 1585 to 1598 and then tsar from 1598 to 1605 following the death of Feodor I, the last of the Rurik dynasty. After the end of Feodor's reign, Russia descended into the Time of Troubles.

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23/04/1554

Gaspara Stampa, Italian poet (born 1523)

Gaspara Stampa was an Italian poet. She is considered to have been the greatest woman poet of the Italian Renaissance, and she is regarded by many as the greatest Italian woman poet of any age.

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23/04/1501

Domenico della Rovere, Catholic cardinal (born 1442)

Domenico della Rovere was an Italian cardinal and patron of the arts.

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23/04/1407

Olivier de Clisson, French soldier (born 1326)

Olivier V de Clisson, nicknamed "The Butcher", was a Breton soldier, the Constable of France, and the son of Olivier IV de Clisson. His father had been put to death by the French in 1343 on the suspicion of having willingly given up the city of Vannes to the English.

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23/04/1400

Aubrey de Vere, 10th Earl of Oxford, English politician and nobleman (born c. 1338)

Aubrey de Vere, 10th Earl of Oxford was the third son of John de Vere, 7th Earl of Oxford and Maud de Badlesmere, daughter of Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Lord Badlesmere.

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23/04/1266

Gilles of Saumur, French archbishop*1307 – Joan of Acre (born 1272)

Gilles of Saumur was an Angevin cleric and preacher who was the first archbishop of Damietta during the Seventh Crusade, and the archbishop of Tyre from 1253 to 1266. As archbishop of Tyre he was an important administrator and mediator in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. At the end of his life he returned to Europe where he was responsible for preaching and organizing a new crusade.

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23/04/1262

Aegidius of Assisi, companion of Saint Francis of Assisi

Giles of Assisi, was one of the original companions of Francis of Assisi and holds a leading place among them. St. Francis called him "The Knight of our Round Table".

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23/04/1217

Inge II of Norway (born 1185)

Inge II was King of Norway from 1204 to 1217. His reign was within the later stages of the period known in Norwegian history as the age of civil wars. Inge was the king of the birkebeiner faction. The conclusion of the settlement of Kvitsøy with the bagler faction in 1208 led to peace for the last nine years of Inge's reign, at the price of Inge and the birkebeiner recognising bagler rule over Viken.

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23/04/1200

Zhu Xi, Chinese philosopher (born 1130)

Zhu Xi, formerly romanized Chu Hsi, was a Chinese philosopher, historian, politician, poet, and calligrapher of the Southern Song dynasty. As a leading figure in the development of Neo-Confucianism, Zhu Xi played a pivotal role in shaping the intellectual foundations of later imperial China. He sought to integrate moral self-cultivation, classical interpretation, ritual practice, and cosmological theory into a coherent framework, emphasizing disciplined study and ethical cultivation while criticizing approaches—particularly within contemporary Buddhist traditions—that claimed immediate insight detached from ritual, learning, and moral practice. His extensive commentaries and editorial work on the Four Books became the core texts of the imperial civil service examinations from 1313 until their abolition in 1905. He advanced a rigorous philosophical methodology known as the "investigation of things" (格物) and emphasized meditation as an essential practice for moral and intellectual self-cultivation. Zhu Xi's thought exerted profound influence, becoming the official state ideology of China from the Yuan dynasty onward, and was later adopted in other East Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. In these regions, his Neo-Confucian doctrines were institutionalized through educational systems and civil service examinations, shaping political ideologies, social hierarchies, and cultural values for centuries.

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23/04/1196

Béla III of Hungary (born c. 1148)

Béla III was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1172 and 1196. He was the second son of King Géza II and Géza's wife, Euphrosyne of Kiev. Around 1161, Géza granted Béla a duchy, which included Croatia, central Dalmatia and possibly Sirmium. In accordance with a peace treaty between his elder brother, Stephen III, who succeeded their father in 1162, and the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, Béla moved to Constantinople in 1163. He was renamed to Alexios, and the emperor granted him the newly created senior court title of despotes. He was betrothed to the Emperor's daughter, Maria. Béla's patrimony caused armed conflicts between the Byzantine Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary between 1164 and 1167, because Stephen III attempted to hinder the Byzantines from taking control of Croatia, Dalmatia and Sirmium. Béla-Alexios, who was designated as Emperor Manuel's heir in 1165, took part in three Byzantine campaigns against Hungary. His betrothal to the emperor's daughter was dissolved after her brother, Alexios, was born in 1169. The emperor deprived Béla of his high title, granting him the inferior rank of kaisar.

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23/04/1170

Minamoto no Tametomo, Japanese samurai (born 1139)

Minamoto no Tametomo , also known as Chinzei Hachirō Tametomo , was a Japanese samurai who fought in the Hōgen Rebellion of 1156.

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23/04/1151

Adeliza of Louvain (born 1103)

Adeliza of Louvain was Queen of England from 1121 to 1135 as the second wife of King Henry I.

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23/04/1124

Alexander I of Scotland (born 1078)

Alexander I, posthumously nicknamed The Fierce, was the King of Alba (Scotland) from 1107 to his death. He was the fifth son of Malcolm III and his second wife, Margaret, sister of Edgar Ætheling, a prince of the pre-conquest English royal house.

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23/04/1016

Æthelred the Unready, English son of Edgar the Peaceful (born 968)

Æthelred II, known as Æthelred the Unready, was King of the English from March 978 to December 1013 and again from February 1014 until his death. The epithet "Unready" is a pun on his name in Old English, Æthel (noble) and ræd (counsel). He was the son of King Edgar and Queen Ælfthryth.

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23/04/1014

Brian Boru, Irish king (born 941)

Brian Boru was the High King of Ireland from 1002 to 1014. He ended the domination of the High Kingship of Ireland by the Uí Néill, and is likely responsible for ending Viking invasions of Ireland. Brian Boru is mentioned in the Annals of Inisfallen and in Chronicon Scotorum as "Brian mac Cennétig". The name Brian of Bóruma or Brian Boru was given to him posthumously. Brian built on the achievements of his father, Cennétig mac Lorcain, and especially his elder brother, Mathgamain. Brian first made himself king of Munster, then subjugated Leinster, eventually becoming High King of Ireland. He was the founder of the O'Brien dynasty, and is widely regarded as one of the most successful and unifying monarchs in medieval Ireland.

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Domnall mac Eimín, Mormaer of Mar

Domnall mac Eimín meic Cainnig was an eleventh-century Mormaer of Mar. He is attested by numerous accounts of the Battle of Clontarf in which he is said to have lost his life supporting the cause of Brian Bóruma mac Cennétig, High King of Ireland, a king whose forces fought against those of Sitriuc mac Amlaíb, King of Dublin, Máel Mórda mac Murchada, King of Leinster and Sigurðr Hlǫðvisson, Earl of Orkney. Domnall is the first Mormaer of Mar on record, and the Irish sources that note him are the earliest sources to note the province of Mar. Domnall is the only Scottish combatant recorded to have fought in the Battle of Clontarf. His motivations for fighting are uncertain.

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23/04/0997

Adalbert of Prague, Czech bishop, missionary, and saint (born 956)

Adalbert of Prague, known in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia by his birth name Vojtěch, was a Czech missionary and Christian saint. He was the Bishop of Prague and a missionary to the Hungarians, Poles, and Prussians, who was martyred in his efforts to convert the Baltic Prussians to Christianity. He is said to be the composer of the oldest Czech hymn Hospodine, pomiluj ny and Bogurodzica, the oldest known Polish anthem but his authorship of them has not been confirmed.

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23/04/0990

Ekkehard II, Swiss monk and abbot

Ekkehard II, called Palatinus, was a monk of the Abbey of Saint Gall who became known for his sequence poetry.

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23/04/0944

Wichmann the Elder, Saxon nobleman

Wichmann I the Elder was a member of the Saxon House of Billung. He was a brother of Amelung, Bishop of Verden, and Herman, Duke of Saxony.

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23/04/0915

Yang Shihou, Chinese general

Yang Shihou (楊師厚), formally the Prince of Ye (鄴王), was a major general of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Later Liang, serving as the main obstacle to the expansion of Later Liang's archenemy Jin during latter parts of the reign of Emperor Taizu and the early parts of the reign of Emperor Taizu's son Zhu Zhen.

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23/04/0871

Æthelred of Wessex (born 837)

Æthelred I was King of Wessex from 865 until his death in 871. He was the fourth of five sons of King Æthelwulf of Wessex, four of whom in turn became king. Æthelred succeeded his elder brother Æthelberht and was followed by his youngest brother, Alfred the Great. Æthelred had two sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold, who were passed over for the kingship on their father's death because they were still infants. Æthelwold later unsuccessfully disputed the throne with Alfred's son and successor, Edward the Elder.

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23/04/0725

Wihtred of Kent

Wihtred was king of Kent from about 690 or 691 until his death. He was a son of Ecgberht I and a brother of Eadric. Wihtred ascended to the throne after a confused period in the 680s, which included a brief conquest of Kent by Cædwalla of Wessex, and subsequent dynastic conflicts. His immediate predecessor was Oswine, who was probably descended from Eadbald, though not through the same line as Wihtred. Shortly after the start of his reign, Wihtred issued a code of laws—the Law of Wihtred—that has been preserved in a manuscript known as the Textus Roffensis. The laws pay a great deal of attention to the rights of the Church, including punishment for irregular marriages and for pagan worship. Wihtred's long reign had few incidents recorded in the annals of the day. He was succeeded in 725 by his sons, Æthelberht II, Eadberht I, and Alric.

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23/04/0711

Childebert III, Frankish king (born 670)

Year 711 (DCCXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 711 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

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23/04/0303

Saint George, Roman soldier and martyr

Year 303 (CCCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. It was known in the Roman Empire as the Year of the Consulship of Diocletian and Maximian. The denomination 303 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

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