Died on Thursday, 24th April – Famous Deaths

24/04/2025

Roy Phillips, British musician (born 1941)

Roy Godfrey Phillips was a British musician. He was a member of The Soundtracks, The Saints and The Peddlers.

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24/04/2024

Bob Cole, Canadian sports announcer (born 1933)

Robert Cecil Cole was a Canadian sports television announcer who worked for CBC and Sportsnet and a competitive curler. He was known primarily for his work on National Hockey League's Hockey Night in Canada and Olympic ice hockey.

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Terry Hill, Australian rugby league player (born 1972)

Terence Christopher Hill was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played as a centre in the 1990s and 2000s. He played in the NRL for the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Eastern Suburbs, Western Suburbs Magpies, Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and the Wests Tigers as well as representative football for New South Wales and Australia. He was also well known for his promotional television work with Lowes Menswear.

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Donald Payne Jr., American politician (born 1958)

Donald Milford Payne Jr. was an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for New Jersey's 10th congressional district from 2012 until his death in 2024. A member of the Democratic Party, Payne served as president of the Newark city council from 2010 to 2012.

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Mike Pinder, British musician (born 1941)

Michael Thomas Pinder was an English rock musician. He was a founding member and the original keyboard player of the rock group the Moody Blues. He left the group following the recording of their ninth album, Octave, in 1978. Pinder was renowned for his technological contributions to rock music, most notably in the development and emergence of the Mellotron in 1960s rock music. In 2018, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues.

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24/04/2023

Wang Xiaolong, Chinese Coast guardsman (born 1995)

Wang Xiaolong was a Chinese Coast Guard who was killed whilst intercepting a smuggling operation. He is the first China Coast Guard (CCG) member to be killed in the line of duty and the first CCG member to be made a martyr for heroism.

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24/04/2022

Andrew Woolfolk, American saxophonist (born 1950)

Andrew Paul Woolfolk II was an American saxophonist. Woolfolk was a longtime member of the band Earth, Wind & Fire from 1973 to 1985, and from 1987 to 1993. He also collaborated with artists such as Deniece Williams, Stanley Turrentine, Phil Collins, Twennynine, Philip Bailey, and Level 42.

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24/04/2017

Robert Pirsig, American author and philosopher (born 1928)

Robert Maynard Pirsig was an American writer and philosopher. He is the author of the philosophical books Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (1974) and Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (1991), and he co-authored On Quality: An Inquiry Into Excellence: Selected and Unpublished Writings (2022) along with his wife and editor, Wendy Pirsig.

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24/04/2016

Tommy Kono, American weightlifter and coach (born 1930)

Tamio "Tommy" Kono was an American weightlifter of Japanese descent. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, Kono set world records in four different weight classes: lightweight, middleweight, light-heavyweight and middle-heavyweight.

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24/04/2015

Władysław Bartoszewski, Polish journalist and politician, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1922)

Władysław Bartoszewski was a Polish professor of History, politician, social activist, journalist, writer, historian and insurgent. A former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner, he was a World War II resistance fighter as part of the Polish underground and participated in the Warsaw Uprising. After the war he was persecuted and imprisoned by the ruling Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) of the Polish People's Republic regime due to his membership in the Home Army and opposition activity.

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24/04/2014

Hans Hollein, Austrian architect, designed Haas House (born 1934)

Hans Hollein was an Austrian architect and designer and key figure of postmodern architecture. Some of his most notable works are the Haas House and the Albertina extension in the inner city of Vienna.

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Sandy Jardine, Scottish footballer and manager (born 1948)

William "Sandy" Pullar Jardine was a Scottish professional footballer who played for Rangers, Hearts and represented Scotland. He played over 1000 professional games and twice won the Scottish Football Writers Association Player of the Year award. He won several honours with Rangers, including two domestic trebles in 1976 and 1978, and was part of the Rangers team that won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1972. He won 38 caps for Scotland and played in the 1974 and 1978 World Cups. Jardine was also co-manager of Hearts with Alex MacDonald and later worked for Rangers.

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Shobha Nagi Reddy, Indian politician (born 1968)

Bhuma Shobha Nagi Reddy was an Indian politician from Andhra Pradesh, India. She represented the Allagadda constituency in the Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh for four terms until 2012 when she resigned due to political turmoil in her party. She served as the chairperson of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) and was the spokesperson for Prajarajyam party, having previously been General Secretary and also a state committee member in Telugu Desam Party. In 2012, she left the Prajarajyam party and joined the newly formed YSR Congress. Her husband Bhuma Nagi Reddy was also a politician who served twice as a Member of Legislative Assembly and thrice as a Member of Parliament.

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Tadeusz Różewicz, Polish poet and playwright (born 1921)

Tadeusz Różewicz was a Polish poet, playwright, writer, and translator. Różewicz was in the first generation of Polish writers born after Poland regained its independence in 1918, following the century of foreign partitions. He was born in Radomsko, near Łódź, in 1921. He first published his poetry in 1938. During World War II, he served in the Polish underground Home Army. His elder brother, Janusz, also a poet, was executed by the Gestapo in 1944 for serving in the Polish resistance movement. His younger brother, Stanisław, became a noted film director and screenwriter.

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24/04/2011

Sathya Sai Baba, Indian guru and philanthropist (born 1926)

Sathya Sai Baba was an Indian godman and philanthropist. At the age of 14, he claimed to be the reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba and left his home for religious cause.

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24/04/2008

Jimmy Giuffre, American clarinet player, and saxophonist, and composer (born 1921)

James Peter Giuffre was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He is known for developing forms of jazz which allowed for free interplay between the musicians, anticipating forms of free improvisation.

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24/04/2006

Brian Labone, English footballer (born 1940)

Brian Leslie Labone was an English footballer who played for and captained Everton. A one-club man, Labone's professional career lasted from 1958 to 1971, during which he won the Football League championship twice and the FA Cup once. He also played 26 times for the England national team.

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Moshe Teitelbaum, Romanian-American rabbi and author (born 1914)

Moshe (Moses) Teitelbaum was a Hasidic rebbe and the world leader of the Satmar Hasidim.

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24/04/2005

Ezer Weizman, Israeli general and politician, 7th President of Israel (born 1924)

Ezer Weizman was an Israeli major general and politician who served as the president of Israel, first elected in 1993 and re-elected in 1998. Before the presidency, Weizman was commander of the Israeli Air Force and Minister of Defense.

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Fei Xiaotong, Chinese sociologist and academic (born 1910)

Fei Xiaotong or Fei Hsiao-tung was a Chinese anthropologist and sociologist. He was a pioneering researcher and professor of sociology and anthropology; he was also noted for his studies of China's ethnic groups as well as a social activist. Starting in the late 1930s, he and his colleagues established Chinese sociology and his works were instrumental in laying a foundation for the development of sociological and anthropological studies in China, as well as in introducing social and cultural phenomena of China to the international community. His last post before his death in 2005 was as Professor of Sociology at Peking University.

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24/04/2004

José Giovanni, French-Swiss director and producer (born 1923)

Joseph Damiani, known by the pen name José Giovanni, was a French-Swiss writer, filmmaker, and a convicted criminal. He was known for his realistic, gritty crime novels which drew upon his own personal experiences and knowledge of the French underworld.

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Estée Lauder, American businesswoman, co-founded Estée Lauder Companies (born 1906)

Estée Lauder was an American businesswoman. She co-founded her eponymous cosmetics company with her husband, Joseph Lauter. Lauder was the only woman on Time magazine's 1998 list of the 20 most influential business geniuses of the 20th century.

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24/04/2003

Nüzhet Gökdoğan, Turkish astronomer and mathematician (born 1910)

Hatice Nüzhet Gökdoğan was a Turkish astronomer, mathematician and academic. After studying mathematics and astronomy in France as a young adult, Gökdoğan joined the faculty of Istanbul University in 1934 and completed her PhD. She was elected Dean of the university's Faculty of Science in 1954, becoming the first Turkish woman to serve as a university dean, and she was later made Chair of the astronomy department, significantly expanding her department's capacity and working to improve national and international collaboration between astronomers.

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24/04/2002

Lucien Wercollier, Luxembourgish sculptor (born 1908)

Lucien Wercollier was a sculptor from Luxembourg. While he worked primarily in bronze and marble, some of his work is sculpted in wood, alabaster, stone and onyx. His public monuments in bronze and marble are of particular importance. Works by Wercollier can be found in public places and museums in Belgium, France, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the United States.

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24/04/2001

Josef Peters, German racing driver (born 1914)

Josef Peters was a racing driver from Düsseldorf, Germany. He participated in one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, on August 3, 1952. He failed to finish, scoring no championship points.

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Johnny Valentine, American wrestler (born 1928)

John Theodore Wisniski, better known by his ring name Johnny Valentine, was an American professional wrestler with a career spanning almost three decades. He has been inducted into four halls of fame for his achievements in wrestling. Wisniski is the father of professional wrestler Greg "The Hammer" Valentine.

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24/04/1997

Allan Francovich, American director and producer (born 1941)

Allan James Francovich was an American film maker. He is best known for creating a number of films critical of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), linking them to terrorist attacks during the Cold War in Africa, South America and Europe. The most notable of these are the Gladio (1992) series about Operation Gladio which featured on BBC's Timewatch and The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie (1994) about Pan Am Flight 103.

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Pat Paulsen, American comedian and activist (born 1927)

Patrick Layton Paulsen was an American comedian and satirist known for his roles on several of the Smothers Brothers television shows, and for his satirical campaigns for President of the United States between 1968 and 1996.

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Eugene Stoner, American engineer, designed the AR-15 rifle (born 1922)

Eugene Morrison Stoner was an American machinist and firearms designer who is most associated with the development of the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle that was redesigned and modified by Colt's Patent Firearm Company for the United States military as the M16 rifle.

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24/04/1995

Lodewijk Bruckman, Dutch painter (born 1903)

Lodewijk Karel "Loki" Bruckman was a Dutch magic realist painter. He lived and worked in the Netherlands, the United States, and Mexico. Museum de Oude Wolden in the village of Bellingwolde has a permanent exhibition of his paintings.

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24/04/1993

Oliver Tambo, South African lawyer and activist (born 1917)

Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo was a South African anti-apartheid politician and activist who served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1967 to 1991.

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Tran Duc Thao, Vietnamese philosopher and theorist (born 1917)

Trần Đức Thảo was a Vietnamese philosopher. His work attempted to unite phenomenology with Marxist philosophy. His work had some currency in France in the 1950s and 1960s, and was cited favorably by Jacques Derrida, Jean-François Lyotard and Louis Althusser.

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24/04/1986

Wallis Simpson, American socialite, Duchess of Windsor (born 1896)

Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, was an American socialite and the wife of Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor. Their intention to marry and her status as a divorcée caused a constitutional crisis that led to Edward's abdication.

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24/04/1984

Rafael Pérez y Pérez, Spanish author (born 1891)

Rafael Pérez y Pérez, was a popular Spanish writer of over 160 romantic novels from 1909 to 1971. He was one of the first writers to publish romance novels written in Spanish language. His novels have been translated into 22 languages, and had sold over 5 million copies by the year 1977, and some of his novels were adapted to film.

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24/04/1983

Erol Güngör, Turkish sociologist, psychologist, and academic (born 1938)

Erol Güngör was a Turkish social psychologist and writer. His work focused on the socially derived nature of language, morality, and values. Güngör wrote extensively on nationalism and culture at a time when Turkey was attempting to develop a national democratic identity.

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Rolf Stommelen, German racing driver (born 1943)

Rolf Johann Stommelen was a German racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1969 to 1978. In endurance racing, Stommelen was a four-time winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona with Porsche.

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24/04/1982

Ville Ritola, Finnish runner (born 1896)

Vilho "Ville" Eino Ritola was a Finnish long-distance runner. Known as one of the "Flying Finns", he won five Olympic gold medals and three Olympic silver medals in the 1920s. He holds the record of winning most athletics medals at a single Games – four golds and two silvers in Paris 1924 – and ranks second in terms of most athletics gold medals at a single Games.

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24/04/1980

Alejo Carpentier, Swiss-Cuban musicologist and author (born 1904)

Alejo Carpentier y Valmont was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of French and Russian parentage, Carpentier grew up in Havana, Cuba, and despite his European birthplace, he strongly identified as Cuban throughout his life. He traveled extensively, particularly in France, and to South America and Mexico, where he met prominent members of the Latin American cultural and artistic community. Carpentier took a keen interest in Latin American politics and often aligned himself with revolutionary movements, such as Fidel Castro's Communist Revolution in Cuba in the mid-20th century. Carpentier was jailed and exiled for his leftist political philosophies.

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24/04/1976

Mark Tobey, American-Swiss painter and educator (born 1890)

Mark George Tobey was an American painter. His densely structured compositions, inspired by Asian calligraphy, resemble Abstract expressionism, although the motives for his compositions differ philosophically from most Abstract Expressionist painters. His work was widely recognized throughout the United States and Europe. Along with Guy Anderson, Kenneth Callahan, Morris Graves, and William Cumming, Tobey was a founder of the Northwest School. Senior in age and experience, he had a strong influence on the others; friend and mentor, Tobey shared their interest in philosophy and Eastern religions. Similar to others of the Northwest School, Tobey was mostly self-taught after early studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1921, Tobey founded the art department at The Cornish School in Seattle, Washington.

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24/04/1974

Bud Abbott, American comedian and producer (born 1897)

William Alexander "Bud" Abbott was an American comedian, actor and producer. He was best known as the straight man in the comedy duo Abbott and Costello.

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24/04/1972

Fernando Amorsolo, Filipino painter (born 1892)

Fernand Amorsolo y Cueto was a portraitist and painter of rural Philippine landscapes. Nicknamed the "Grand Old Man of Philippine Art," he was the first-ever to be recognized as a National Artist of the Philippines. He was recognized as such for his "pioneering use of impressionistic technique" as well as his skill in the use of lighting and backlighting in his paintings, "significant not only in the development of Philippine art but also in the formation of Filipino notions of self and identity."

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24/04/1970

Otis Spann, American singer and pianist (born 1930)

Otis Spann was an American blues musician many consider the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist.

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24/04/1968

Walter Tewksbury, American athlete (born 1876)

John Walter Beardsley Tewksbury was an American track and field athlete. At the 1900 Summer Olympics, he won five medals, including two golds.

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24/04/1967

Vladimir Komarov, Russian pilot, engineer, and cosmonaut (born 1927)

Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov was a Soviet test pilot, aerospace engineer, and cosmonaut. In October 1964, he commanded Voskhod 1, the first spaceflight to carry more than one crew member. He became the first Soviet cosmonaut to fly in space twice when he was selected as the solo pilot of Soyuz 1, its first crewed test flight. A parachute failure caused his Soyuz capsule to crash into the ground after re-entry on 24 April 1967, making him the first human to die in a space flight.

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Robert Richards, Australian politician, 32nd Premier of South Australia (born 1885)

Robert Stanley Richards was an Australian politician. He served as premier of South Australia for two months in 1933, leading the Parliamentary Labor faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in the aftermath of a major party split. His government was defeated in a landslide at the 1933 state election. He returned as leader of the reunited ALP from 1938 to 1949, leading the party to three consecutive electoral defeats as leader of the opposition in the face of severe electoral malapportionment. He later served as administrator of Nauru, a UN trust territory administered by Australia, from 1949 to 1951.

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24/04/1966

Simon Chikovani, Georgian poet and author (born 1902)

Simon Ivanes dze Chikovani was a prominent Georgian poet. He set out to be the leader of the Georgian Futurist movement and ended up as a Soviet establishment figure.

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24/04/1965

Louise Dresser, American actress (born 1878)

Louise Dresser was an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the many films in which she played the wife of Will Rogers, including State Fair and David Harum.

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24/04/1964

Gerhard Domagk, German pathologist and bacteriologist (born 1895)

Gerhard Johannes Paul Domagk was a German pathologist and bacteriologist.

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24/04/1962

Milt Franklyn, American composer (born 1897)

Milton J. Franklyn was an American musical composer and arranger who worked on the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated cartoons, working alongside and later succeeding Carl Stalling.

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24/04/1961

Lee Moran, American actor, director and screenwriter (born 1888)

Lee Moran was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter.

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24/04/1960

Max von Laue, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1879)

Max Theodor Felix von Laue was a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 "for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals."

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24/04/1954

Guy Mairesse, French racing driver (born 1910)

Guy Mairesse was a French racing driver. He participated in three Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 3 September 1950. He scored no championship points.

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24/04/1948

Jāzeps Vītols, Latvian composer (born 1863)

Jāzeps Vītols was a Latvian composer, pedagogue and music critic. He is considered one of the fathers of Latvian classical music.

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24/04/1947

Willa Cather, American novelist, short story writer, and poet (born 1873)

Willa Sibert Cather was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and My Ántonia. In 1923, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours, a novel set during World War I.

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24/04/1945

Ernst-Robert Grawitz, German physician (born 1899)

Ernst-Robert Grawitz was a German physician and an SS functionary during the Nazi era. Grawitz funded Nazi programs involving experimentation on inmates in Nazi concentration camps and was part of the group in charge of the murder of mentally ill and physically disabled people in the Aktion T4 programme. In April 1945, as the Soviet Red Army advanced on Berlin, Grawitz killed himself and his family.

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24/04/1944

Charles Jordan, American magician (born 1888)

Charles Thorton Jordan was an American magician.

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24/04/1942

Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian author (born 1874)

Lucy Maud Montgomery, published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a collection of novels, essays, short stories, and poetry beginning in 1908 with Anne of Green Gables.

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24/04/1941

Karin Boye, Swedish author and poet (born 1900)

Karin Maria Boye was a Swedish poet and novelist. In Sweden, she is acclaimed as a poet, but internationally, she is best known for the dystopian science fiction novel Kallocain (1940).

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24/04/1939

Louis Trousselier, French cyclist (born 1881)

Louis Trousselier was a French racing cyclist who won the 1905 Tour de France. His other major wins were Paris–Roubaix, also in 1905, and the 1908 Bordeaux–Paris. He came third in the 1906 Tour de France and won 13 stages of the Tour de France over his career. He also competed in the men's 25 kilometres event at the 1900 Summer Olympics and won a bronze medal in the Men's points race.

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24/04/1938

George Grey Barnard, American sculptor (born 1863)

George Grey Barnard, often written George Gray Barnard, was an American sculptor who trained in Paris. He is especially noted for his heroic sized Struggle of the Two Natures in Man at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, his twin sculpture groups at the Pennsylvania State Capitol, and his Lincoln statue in Cincinnati, Ohio. His major works are largely symbolical in character. His personal collection of medieval architectural fragments became a core part of The Cloisters in New York City.

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24/04/1935

Anastasios Papoulas, Greek general (born 1857)

Anastasios Papoulas was a Greek general, most notable as the Greek commander-in-chief during most of the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–22. Originally a firm royalist, after 1922 he shifted towards the republican Venizelists, and was executed in 1935 for supporting a failed republican coup.

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24/04/1931

David Kldiashvili, Georgian author and playwright (born 1862)

David Kldiashvili was a Georgian prose-writer whose novels and plays are concentrated on the degeneration of the country’s gentry and the miseries of the peasantry, boldly exposing the antagonisms of Georgian society.

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24/04/1924

G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist and academic (born 1844)

Granville Stanley Hall was an American psychologist and educator who earned the first doctorate in psychology awarded in the United States of America at Harvard University in the nineteenth century. His interests focused on human life span development and evolutionary theory. Hall was the first president of the American Psychological Association and the first president of Clark University. A 2002 survey by Review of General Psychology ranked Hall as the 72nd most cited psychologist of the 20th century, in a tie with Lewis Terman.

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24/04/1891

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, German field marshal (born 1800)

Graf Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall. The chief of staff of the Prussian Army for thirty years, he is regarded as the creator of a new, more modern method of directing armies in the field and one of the finest military minds of his generation. He commanded troops in Europe and the Middle East, in the Second Schleswig War, Austro-Prussian War, and Franco-Prussian War. He is described as embodying "Prussian military organization and tactical genius". He was fascinated with railways and pioneered their military use. He is often referred to as Moltke the Elder to distinguish him from his nephew Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, who commanded the German army at the outbreak of the First World War. He is notably the earliest-born human whose recorded voice is preserved, being born in the year 1800. He made four recordings; two that were recorded in October 1889 are preserved to this day.

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24/04/1889

Zulma Carraud, French author (born 1796)

Zulma Carraud was a French author. She is best known for her children's books and textbooks particularly La Petite Jeanne ou le devoir and Maurice ou le travail.

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24/04/1852

Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet and translator (born 1783)

Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky was the foremost Russian poet of the 1810s and a leading figure in Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century. He held a high position at the Romanov court as tutor to the Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna and later to her son, the future tsar Alexander II.

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24/04/1794

Axel von Fersen the Elder, Swedish field marshal and politician (born 1719)

Count Fredrik Axel von Fersen was a Swedish statesman and soldier of Baltic German descent. He served as Lord Marshal of the Riksdag of the Estates, and although he worked closely with King Gustav III before and through the Revolution of 1772, he later opposed the king.

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24/04/1779

Eleazar Wheelock, American minister and academic, founded Dartmouth College (born 1711)

Eleazar Wheelock was an American Congregational minister, orator, and educator in present-day Columbia, Connecticut, for 35 years before founding Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He had tutored Samson Occom, a Mohegan who became a Presbyterian minister and the second Native American to publish writings in English. Before founding Dartmouth, Wheelock founded and ran the Moor's Charity School in Connecticut to educate Native Americans. The college was primarily for the sons of American colonists.

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24/04/1748

Anton thor Helle, German-Estonian clergyman and translator (born 1683)

Anton Thor Helle was a Baltic German Lutheran clergyman, linguist and Bible translator in Estonia. He led the initiative and served as chief editor of the first complete translation of the Bible into Estonian (1739), translating some parts and collating the whole text.

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24/04/1731

Daniel Defoe, English journalist, novelist, and spy (born 1660)

Daniel Defoe was an English writer, journalist, merchant and spy. He is famous for his novels Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders (1722) and Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress (1724). He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the English novel, and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson.

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24/04/1692

Johannes Zollikofer, Swiss vicar (born 1633)

Johannes Zollikofer was a Swiss reformed vicar.

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24/04/1656

Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (born 1561)

Thomas Fincke was a Danish mathematician and physicist, and a professor at the University of Copenhagen for more than 60 years.

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24/04/1622

Fidelis of Sigmaringen, German friar and saint (born 1577)

Fidelis of Sigmaringen, OFM Cap. was a German Capuchin friar who was involved in the Catholic Counter-Reformation. He was martyred by his opponents at Seewis im Prättigau, now part of Switzerland. Fidelis was canonized in 1746.

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24/04/1617

Concino Concini, Italian-French politician, Prime Minister of France (born 1575)

Concino Concini, 1st Marquis d'Ancre was an Italian politician, best known for being a minister of Louis XIII of France, as the favourite of Louis's mother, Marie de Medici, Queen regent of France. In 1617, he was killed at the behest of the King.

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24/04/1513

Şehzade Ahmet, Ottoman prince (born 1465)

Şehzade Ahmed was a Şehzade (prince) of the Ottoman Empire, the eldest surviving son of Sultan Bayezid II. He fought against his younger brother, Selim, in the Ottoman Civil War of 1509–1513 to succeed their father, and was a central figure in the Şahkulu rebellion. Ahmed ultimately lost the war against his brother, and was executed by Selim's order after the latter usurped the throne.

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24/04/1479

Jorge Manrique, Spanish poet (born 1440)

Jorge Manrique was a major Castilian poet, whose main work, the Coplas por la muerte de su padre , is still read today. He was a supporter of the queen Isabel I of Castile, and actively participated on her side in the civil war that broke out against her half-brother, Enrique IV, when the latter attempted to make his daughter, Juana, crown princess. Jorge died in 1479 during an attempt to take the castle of Garcimuñoz, defended by the Marquis of Villena, after Isabel gained the crown.

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24/04/1338

Theodore I, Marquess of Montferrat (born 1291)

Theodore I Palaiologos or Palaeologus was Marquis of Montferrat from 1306 until his death.

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24/04/1288

Gertrude of Austria (born 1226)

Gertrude of Austria was a member of the House of Babenberg, Duchess of Mödling and later titular Duchess of Austria and Styria. She was the niece of Duke Frederick II of Austria, the last male member of the Babenberg dynasty. She was, according to the Privilegium Minus decree the first in line to inherit the Duchies of Austria and Styria after the death of childless Frederick, but these claims were disputed by her aunt Margaret of Austria, Queen of Bohemia.

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24/04/1149

Petronille de Chemillé, abbess of Fontevrault

Petronilla of Chemillé was the first abbess of the double monastery of Fontevrault in western France, which she headed from 1115 to 1149 following her second widowhood. She is honored as Venerable by the Catholic Church.

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24/04/0624

Mellitus, saint and archbishop of Canterbury

Mellitus was the first bishop of London in the Saxon period, the third archbishop of Canterbury, and a member of the Gregorian mission sent to England to convert the Anglo-Saxons from their native paganism to Christianity. He arrived in 601 AD with a group of clergy sent to augment the mission, and was consecrated as Bishop of London in 604. Mellitus was the recipient of a famous letter from Pope Gregory I known as the Epistola ad Mellitum, preserved in a later work by the medieval chronicler Bede, which suggested the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons be undertaken gradually, integrating pagan rituals and customs. In 610, Mellitus returned to Italy to attend a council of bishops and returned to England bearing papal letters to some of the missionaries.

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