Died on Sunday, 6th April – Famous Deaths

06/04/2025

Clem Burke, American drummer (born 1954)

Clement Anthony Burke was an American musician best known as the drummer for the band Blondie. He joined the band shortly after its formation in 1975 and remained with Blondie throughout the band's entire career until his death in 2025. He appeared on all of the band's albums with two of the founding members, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. He was drummer for the Ramones for a brief time in 1987 under the name Elvis Ramone, and played on albums by other artists, including Eurythmics, Bob Dylan and Iggy Pop. He was a member of the Romantics from 1990 until 2004.

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Jay North, American actor (born 1951)

Jay Waverly North Jr. was an American actor and later a corrections officer after retiring from acting. His career as a child actor began in the late 1950s, and he went on to appear in eight TV series, two variety shows, and three feature films. At age seven, he became a household name for his role as the good-natured but mischievous Dennis Mitchell on the CBS situation comedy Dennis the Menace (1959–1963), based on the comic strip created by Hank Ketcham.

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06/04/2024

Joseph E. Brennan, American politician, 70th Governor of Maine (born 1934)

Joseph Edward Brennan was an American lawyer and politician from Maine. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 70th governor of Maine from 1979 to 1987 and in the United States House of Representatives for Maine's 1st congressional district from 1987 to 1991. Brennan was a commissioner on the Federal Maritime Commission during the Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama administrations.

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06/04/2022

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Russian and Soviet politician (born 1946)

Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky was a Russian right-wing populist politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) from its creation in 1992 until his death in 2022.

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Jill Knight, British politician (born 1923)

Joan Christabel Jill Knight, Baroness Knight of Collingtree, was a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Edgbaston from 1966 to 1997. She was created a life peer as Baroness Knight of Collingtree, of Collingtree in the County of Northamptonshire, in 1997 after she had stood down at that year's general election, and retired from the House of Lords in 2016.

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06/04/2021

Hans Küng, Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and author (born 1928)

Hans Küng was a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and author. From 1995 he was president of the Foundation for a Global Ethic.

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Alcee Hastings, American politician (born 1936)

Alcee Lamar Hastings was an American politician and judge from the state of Florida.

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06/04/2020

Al Kaline, American baseball player, broadcaster and executive (born 1934)

Albert William Kaline, nicknamed "Mr. Tiger", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played his entire 22-season career in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers. For most of his career, Kaline played in the outfield, mainly as a right fielder where he won ten Gold Glove Awards and was known for his strong throwing arm. He was selected to 18 All-Star Games, including selections each year between 1955 and 1967. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980 in his first year of eligibility.

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06/04/2019

Michael O'Donnell, British physician, journalist, author and broadcaster (born 1928)

Michael O'Donnell was a British physician, journalist, author and broadcaster.

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06/04/2017

Don Rickles, American actor and comedian (born 1926)

Donald Jay Rickles was an American actor and stand-up comedian known primarily for his insult comedy. His film roles include Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), Enter Laughing (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), and Casino (1995). From 1976 to 1978, Rickles had a two-season starring role in the NBC television sitcom C.P.O. Sharkey, having previously starred in two eponymous half-hour programs, an ABC variety series titled The Don Rickles Show (1968) and a CBS sitcom identically titled The Don Rickles Show (1972). A veteran headline performer at Las Vegas hotel-casinos and peripheral member of the Rat Pack via friendship with Frank Sinatra, Rickles received widespread exposure as a frequent guest on talk and variety shows, including The Dean Martin Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and The Late Show with David Letterman, and voiced Mr. Potato Head in the first three films of the Toy Story franchise (1995–2010), with archive recordings used for Toy Story 4 (2019). He won a Primetime Emmy Award for the 2006 documentary Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project. In 2014, he was honored by fellow comedians in a show at the Apollo Theater, which was taped and released on Spike TV titled Don Rickles: One Night Only.

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06/04/2016

Merle Haggard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1937)

Merle Ronald Haggard was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential figures in country music, he was a central pioneer of the Bakersfield sound. With a career spanning over five decades, Haggard had 38 number-one hits on the US country charts, several of which also made the Billboard all-genre singles chart.

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06/04/2015

Giovanni Berlinguer, Italian lawyer and politician (born 1924)

Giovanni Berlinguer was an Italian politician, humanist, and professor of social medicine.

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James Best, American actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1926)

Jewel Franklin Guy, known professionally as James Best, was an American television, film, stage, and voice actor, as well as a writer, director, acting coach, artist, college professor, and musician. During a career that spanned more than 60 years, Best, who was known for his high-pitched, exasperated voice, performed not only in feature films, but also in scores of television series.

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Ray Charles, American singer-songwriter and conductor (born 1918)

Ray Charles was an American musician, singer, songwriter, vocal arranger and conductor who was best known as organizer and leader of the Ray Charles Singers, who accompanied Perry Como on his records and television shows for 35 years and were also known for a series of 30 choral record albums produced in the 1950s and 1960s for the MGM, Essex, Decca and Command labels.

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Dollard St. Laurent, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1929)

Joseph Dollard Herve St. Laurent was a Canadian ice hockey defenceman.

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06/04/2014

Mary Anderson, American actress (born 1918)

Mary Bebe Anderson was an American actress, who appeared in 31 films and 22 television productions between 1939 and 1965. She was best known for her small supporting role in the film Gone With the Wind as well as one of the main characters in Alfred Hitchcock's 1944 film Lifeboat.

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Jacques Castérède, French pianist and composer (born 1926)

Jacques Castérède was a French composer and pianist.

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Liv Dommersnes, Norwegian actress (born 1922)

Liv Dommersnes was a Norwegian actress and reciter of poetry. She was a member of group that founded Studioteatret in 1945.

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Mickey Rooney, American soldier, actor, and dancer (born 1920)

Mickey Rooney was an American actor. In a career spanning nearly nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the silent-film era. He was the top box-office attraction from 1939 to 1941, and one of the best-paid actors of that era. At the height of a career ultimately marked by declines and comebacks, Rooney performed the role of Andy Hardy in a series of 16 films in the 1930s and 1940s that epitomized the mainstream United States self-image.

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Chuck Stone, American soldier, journalist, and academic (born 1924)

Charles Sumner "Chuck" Stone, Jr. was an American pilot, newspaper editor, journalism professor, and author. He was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II and was the first president of the National Association of Black Journalists, serving from 1975 to 1977. Passionate about racial issues and supportive of many liberal causes, he refused to follow any party line, "but called the issues as he saw them."

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Massimo Tamburini, Italian motorcycle designer, co-founded Bimota (born 1943)

Massimo Tamburini was an Italian motorcycle designer for Cagiva, Ducati, and MV Agusta, and one of the founders of Bimota. Tamburini's designs are iconic in their field, with one critic calling him the "Michelangelo of motorbike design". His Ducati 916 and MV Agusta F4 were included in the Guggenheim Museum's The Art of the Motorcycle exhibit of 1998–1999.

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06/04/2013

Hilda Bynoe, Grenadian physician and politician, 2nd Governor of Grenada (born 1921)

Dame Hilda Louisa Bynoe, DBE was the Governor of Grenada between 1968 and 1974.

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Bill Guttridge, English footballer and manager (born 1931)

William Henry Guttridge was an English professional football player and manager.

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Bigas Luna, Spanish director and screenwriter (born 1946)

José Juan Bigas Luna was a Spanish film director, designer and artist. His films are typically characterised by a strong emphasis on the erotic, often related to food, something for which he admitted a strong passion. His work often explores and parodies clichés of Spanish identity, but he had an international career and made films in Spanish, Catalan, Italian, French and English.

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Ottmar Schreiner, German lawyer and politician (born 1946)

Ottmar Schreiner was a German lawyer and left-wing politician. He was known as one of the leading leftists in his party, SPD.

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06/04/2012

Roland Guilbault, American admiral (born 1934)

Roland George "Gil" Guilbault was an American U.S. Navy rear admiral who commanded the USS Ticonderoga, the first Aegis cruiser. In 1987, he served as a battle force commander aboard the USS Eisenhower. He retired as a rear admiral in 1994.

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Thomas Kinkade, American painter and illustrator (born 1958)

William Thomas Kinkade III was an American painter of popular realistic, pastoral, and idyllic subjects. He is notable for achieving success during his lifetime with the mass marketing of his work as printed reproductions and other licensed products by means of the Thomas Kinkade Company. According to Kinkade's company, at one point one in every 20 American homes owned a copy of one of his paintings.

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Fang Lizhi, Chinese astrophysicist and academic (born 1936)

Fang Lizhi was a Chinese astrophysicist, vice-president of the University of Science and Technology of China, and activist whose liberal ideas inspired the pro-democracy student movement of 1986–87 and, finally, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Fang was considered as one of the leaders of the New Enlightenment in the 1980s. Because of his activism, he was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party in January 1987. For his work, Fang was a recipient of the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award in 1989, given each year. He was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980, but his position was revoked after 1989.

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Sheila Scotter, Australian fashion designer and journalist (born 1920)

Sheila Winifred Gordon Scotter, AM, MBE was an Australian businesswoman. She was a fashion designer and third editor of the Vogue Australia magazine. She also founded the Vogue Living magazine. She was famous for always wearing black and white clothing and leaving her hair silver. This earned her the nickname, the Silver Duchess. She was honoured for her journalism and her fundraising for opera.

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Reed Whittemore, American poet and critic (born 1919)

Edward Reed Whittemore Jr. was an American poet, biographer, critic, literary journalist and college professor. He was appointed the sixteenth and later the twenty-eighth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1964, and in 1984.

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06/04/2011

Gerald Finnerman, American director and cinematographer (born 1931)

Gerald Perry Finnerman was an American cinematographer who worked on TV series such as Moonlighting and the original Star Trek. He served as vice president of the American Society of Cinematographers, and won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography in Entertainment Programming for a Special.

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06/04/2010

Wilma Mankiller, American tribal leader (born 1945)

Wilma Pearl Mankiller was a Native American activist, social worker, community developer and the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, she lived on her family's allotment in Adair County, Oklahoma, until the age of 11, when her family relocated to San Francisco as part of a federal government program to urbanize Indigenous Americans. After high school, she married a well-to-do Ecuadorian and raised two daughters. Inspired by the social and political movements of the 1960s, Mankiller became involved in the Occupation of Alcatraz and later participated in the land and compensation struggles with the Pit River Tribe. For five years in the early 1970s, she was employed as a social worker, focusing mainly on children's issues.

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Corin Redgrave, English actor (born 1939)

Corin William Redgrave was an English actor.

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06/04/2009

J. M. S. Careless, Canadian historian and academic (born 1919)

James Maurice Stockford Careless was a Canadian historian. He taught history at the University of Toronto for 39 years, from 1945 until his retirement in 1984, and served as Chairman of the History Department from 1959 to 1967. He was known for his work in Canadian history, particularly his elaboration of the metropolitan-hinterland thesis and his studies on urban history. He twice won the Governor General's Awards for English-language non-fiction books for Canada: A Story of Challenge (1953) and his biography Brown of the Globe (1963).

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Shawn Mackay, Australian rugby player and coach (born 1982)

Shawn Mackay was an Australian rugby union player with the Canberra based Brumbies in the Super 14 competition. He was the son of former Eastern Suburbs rugby league player John Mackay.

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06/04/2007

Luigi Comencini, Italian director and producer (born 1916)

Luigi Comencini was an Italian film director. Together with Dino Risi, Ettore Scola, and Mario Monicelli, he was considered among the masters of the "commedia all'italiana" genre.

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06/04/2006

Maggie Dixon, American basketball player and coach (born 1977)

Margaret Mary Dixon was an American collegiate women's basketball coach.

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Francis L. Kellogg, American soldier and diplomat (born 1917)

Francis Leonard Kellogg was an American diplomat, a special assistant to the Secretary of State during the Nixon and Ford Administrations and a prominent socialite in New York City.

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Stefanos Stratigos, Greek actor and director (born 1926)

Stefanos Stratigos was a Greek actor in film and television.

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06/04/2005

Rainier III, Prince of Monaco (born 1923)

Rainier III was Prince of Monaco from 1949 to his death in 2005. Rainier ruled the Principality of Monaco for almost 56 years.

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Anthony F. DePalma, American orthopedic surgeon and professor (born 1904)

Anthony F. DePalma was an American orthopedic surgeon and professor at Thomas Jefferson University, as well as the founder of the orthopedic department at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. DePalma was a commander in the US Navy during World War II, an author of numerous medical manuscripts and textbooks, and the creator and first editor-in-chief of the medical journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research.

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06/04/2004

Lou Berberet, American baseball player (born 1929)

Louis Joseph Berberet was an American catcher in Major League Baseball who played for the New York Yankees, Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers between 1954 and 1960. He was born in Long Beach, California.

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Larisa Bogoraz, Russian linguist and activist (born 1929)

Larisa Iosifovna Bogoraz was a dissident in the Soviet Union.

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06/04/2003

David Bloom, American journalist (born 1963)

David Jerome Bloom was an American television journalist until his sudden death in 2003 after a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) became a pulmonary embolism at the age of 39.

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Anita Borg, American computer scientist and educator; founded Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (born 1949)

Anita Borg was an American computer scientist celebrated for advocating for women’s representation and professional advancement in technology. She founded the Institute for Women and Technology and the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

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Gerald Emmett Carter, Canadian cardinal (born 1912)

Gerald Emmett Cardinal Carter was a Canadian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Toronto from 1978 to 1990, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1979.

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Babatunde Olatunji, Nigerian drummer, educator, and activist (born 1927)

Michael Babatunde Olatunji was a Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist, and recording artist.

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Dino Yannopoulos, Greek stage director of the Metropolitan Opera (born 1919)

Konstantinos "Dino" Yannopoulos was the principal stage director of the Metropolitan Opera between 1945 and 1977. One of his major works was a production of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca with Maria Callas on the title role. He founded the Athens Music Festival.

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06/04/2001

Charles Pettigrew, American singer-songwriter (born 1963)

Charles & Eddie was an American soul music duo composed of Charles Pettigrew and Eddie Chacon. Their single "Would I Lie to You?", taken from their 1992 debut album, Duophonic, won Ivor Novello Awards in 1993 in the Best Contemporary Song, Best-Selling Song and International Hit of the Year categories. From 1992 to 1995 they hit the top 40 three more times in the UK.

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06/04/2000

Habib Bourguiba, Tunisian politician, 1st President of Tunisia (born 1903)

Habib Bourguiba was a Tunisian politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of the Kingdom of Tunisia from 1956 to 1957, and then as the first president of Tunisia from 1957 to 1987. Prior to his presidency, he led the nation to independence from France, ending the 75-year-old protectorate and earning the title of "Supreme Combatant".

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06/04/1999

Red Norvo, American vibraphone player and composer (born 1908)

Red Norvo was an American musician, one of jazz's early vibraphonists, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone, marimba, and vibraphone as jazz instruments. His recordings included "Dance of the Octopus", "Bughouse", "Knockin' on Wood", "Congo Blues", and "Hole in the Wall".

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06/04/1998

Norbert Schmitz, German footballer (born 1958)

Norbert "Nobbi" Christian Schmitz was a German footballer who made a total of 89 2. Bundesliga appearances for Tennis Borussia Berlin and SC Fortuna Köln during his professional career.

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Tammy Wynette, American singer-songwriter (born 1942)

Tammy Wynette was an American country music singer and songwriter, considered among the genre's most influential and successful artists. Along with Loretta Lynn, Wynette helped bring a woman's perspective to the male-dominated country music field that helped other women find representation in the genre. Her characteristic vocal delivery has been acclaimed by critics, journalists and writers for conveying unique emotion. Twenty of her singles topped the US country chart during her career. Her signature song "Stand by Your Man" received both acclaim and criticism for its portrayal of women's loyalty to their husbands.

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06/04/1996

Greer Garson, English-American actress (born 1904)

Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson was a British and American actress and singer. Known for playing graceful, noble, and dignified women in period and war dramas, she quickly rose to popularity during the Golden Age of Hollywood. A top star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM), Garson was among the most popular stars of the 1940s, becoming one of the highest-paid actresses in the United States and Britain. From 1942 to 1946, Garson was consistently ranked by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America’s top box-office draws.

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06/04/1995

Ioannis Alevras, Greek banker and politician, President of Greece (born 1912)

Ioannis Alevras, sometimes spelled Yannis Alevras, was a Greek Panhellenic Socialist Movement politician and Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament, who served as acting President of Greece in March 1985.

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06/04/1994

Juvénal Habyarimana, Rwandan banker and politician, 3rd President of Rwanda (born 1937)

Juvénal Habyarimana was a Rwandan politician and military officer who was the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until his assassination in 1994. He was nicknamed Kinani, a Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible".

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Cyprien Ntaryamira, Burundian politician, 5th President of Burundi (born 1955)

Cyprien Ntaryamira was a Burundian politician who served as President of Burundi from 5 February 1994 until his assassination two months later in the context of the Burundian Civil War.

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06/04/1992

Isaac Asimov, American science fiction writer (born 1920)

Isaac Asimov was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. He wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. Best known for his hard science fiction, Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as popular science and other non-fiction, including guides to the Bible and Shakespeare.

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06/04/1983

Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri, Indian General who served as the Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army from 1962 to 1966 and the Military Governor of Hyderabad State from 1948 to 1949. (born 1908)

General Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri was an Indian army general who served as the 5th Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army from 1962 to 1966 and the Military Governor of Hyderabad State from 1948 to 1949. After his retirement from the Indian Army, he served as the Indian High Commissioner to Canada from 19 July 1966 until August 1969.

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06/04/1979

Ivan Vasilyov, Bulgarian architect, designed the SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library (born 1893)

Ivan Vasilyov was a Bulgarian architect, born in 1893, deceased in 1979.

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06/04/1977

Kōichi Kido, Japanese politician, 13th Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan (born 1889)

Marquess Kōichi Kido was a Japanese statesman who served as Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan from 1940 to 1945, and was the closest advisor to emperor Hirohito throughout World War II. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment, of which he served 6 years before being released in 1953.

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06/04/1974

Willem Marinus Dudok, Dutch architect (born 1884)

Willem Marinus Dudok was a famous Dutch modernist architect. He was born in Amsterdam. He became City Architect for the town of Hilversum in 1928 where he was best known for the brick Hilversum Town Hall, completed in 1931. Not only did he design the building, but also the interior including the carpets, furniture and even the mayor's meeting hammer. He also designed and built about 75 houses, public buildings and entire neighborhoods.

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Hudson Fysh, Australian pilot and businessman, co-founded Qantas Airways Limited (born 1895)

Sir Wilmot Hudson Fysh was an Australian aviator and businessman. A founder of the Australian airline company Qantas, Fysh was born in Launceston, Tasmania. Serving in the Battle of Gallipoli and Palestine Campaign as a lieutenant of the Australian Light Horse Brigade, Fysh later became an observer and gunner to Paul McGinness in the AFC. He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross during the aftermath of the war for his services to aerial warfare.

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06/04/1971

Igor Stravinsky, Russian-American pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1882)

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian composer and conductor with French and American citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music.

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06/04/1970

Maurice Stokes, American basketball player (born 1933)

Maurice Stokes was an American professional basketball player. He played for the Cincinnati/Rochester Royals of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1955 to 1958. Stokes was a three-time NBA All-Star, a three-time All-NBA Second Team member and the 1956 NBA Rookie of the Year. His career – and later his life – was cut short by a debilitating brain injury and paralysis.

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06/04/1963

Otto Struve, Ukrainian-American astronomer and academic (born 1897)

Otto Lyudvigovich Struve was a Russian-American astronomer of Baltic German origin. Otto was the descendant of famous astronomers of the Struve family; he was the son of Ludwig Struve, grandson of Otto Wilhelm von Struve and great-grandson of Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve. He was also the nephew of Karl Hermann Struve.

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06/04/1961

Jules Bordet, Belgian microbiologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1870)

Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet was a Belgian immunologist and microbiologist. The bacterial genus Bordetella is named after him. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to him in 1919 for his discoveries relating to immunity.

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06/04/1959

Leo Aryeh Mayer, Polish-Israeli scholar and academic (born 1895)

Leo Aryeh Mayer OBE, was an Israeli scholar of Islamic art and rector of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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06/04/1953

Idris Davies, Welsh poet and author (born 1905)

Idris Davies was a Welsh poet. Born in Rhymney, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, he became a poet, originally writing in Welsh, but later writing exclusively in English.

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06/04/1950

Louis Wilkins, American pole vaulter (born 1882)

Louis Gary Wilkins was an American athlete who competed mainly in the pole vault. He competed for the United States in the 1904 Summer Olympics held in St Louis, United States in the pole vault where he won the bronze medal.

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06/04/1947

Herbert Backe, German agronomist and politician (born 1896)

Herbert Friedrich Wilhelm Backe was a German politician and SS-Obergruppenführer who served as State Secretary and Reichsminister in the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture. He was a doctrinaire racial ideologue, a long-time associate of Richard Walther Darré and a personal friend of Reinhard Heydrich. He developed and implemented the Hunger Plan that envisioned death by starvation of tens of millions of Slavic and Jewish "useless eaters" following Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.

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06/04/1944

Rose O'Neill, American cartoonist, illustrator, artist, and writer (born 1874)

Rose Cecil O'Neill was an American cartoonist, illustrator, artist, and writer. She rose to fame for her creation of the popular comic strip characters, Kewpies, in 1909, and was also the first published female cartoonist in the United States.

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06/04/1935

Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet and playwright (born 1869)

Edwin Arlington Robinson was an American poet and playwright. Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on three occasions and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times.

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06/04/1927

Florence Earle Coates, American poet (born 1850)

Florence Van Leer Nicholson Coates was an American poet whose prolific output was published in dozens of literary magazines, some of it set to music. She was mentored by the English poet Matthew Arnold, with whom she maintained a lasting friendship. She was famous for her many nature poems, inspired by the flora and fauna of the Adirondacks, where she and her husband Edward Hornor Coates maintained a summer camp. She was elected poet laureate by the State Federation of Women's Clubs (Pennsylvania) in 1915.

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06/04/1913

Somerset Lowry-Corry, 4th Earl Belmore (born 1835)

Somerset Richard Lowry-Corry, 4th Earl Belmore,, styled as Viscount Corry from 1841 to 1845, was an Irish nobleman and Conservative politician who served as Governor of New South Wales from 1868 to 1872.

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06/04/1906

Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author, playwright, and politician, 6th County Governor of Møre og Romsdal (born 1849)

Alexander Lange Kielland was a Norwegian realistic writer of the 19th century. He is one of the so-called "The Four Greats" of Norwegian literature, along with Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Jonas Lie.

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06/04/1899

Alvan Wentworth Chapman, American physician and botanist (born 1809)

Alvan Wentworth Chapman was an American physician and pioneering botanist in the study of flora of the American Southeast. He wrote Flora of the Southern United States, the first comprehensive description of U.S. plants in any region beyond the northeastern states.

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06/04/1886

William Edward Forster, English businessman, philanthropist, and politician, Chief Secretary for Ireland (born 1818)

William Edward Forster, PC, FRS was an English industrialist, philanthropist and Liberal Party statesman. As a minister in Gladstone's government, he steered through the Elementary Education Act 1870 which was the foundation of compulsory national free education for children in the UK. However his reputation was later greatly tarnished by his coercive policies as Chief Secretary for Ireland during the Land War. His purported advocacy of the Irish Constabulary's use of lethal force against the National Land League earned him the nickname Buckshot Forster from Irish nationalists.

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06/04/1883

Benjamin Wright Raymond, American merchant and politician, 3rd Mayor of Chicago (born 1801)

Benjamin Wright Raymond was an American politician who twice served as mayor of Chicago, Illinois for the Whig Party.

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06/04/1862

Albert Sidney Johnston, American general (born 1803)

General Albert Sidney Johnston was an American military officer who served as a general officer in three different armies: the Texian Army, the United States Army, and the Confederate States Army. He saw extensive combat during his 34-year military career, fighting actions in the Black Hawk War, the Texas-Indian Wars, the Mexican–American War, the Utah War, and the American Civil War, where he died on the battlefield.

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06/04/1860

James Kirke Paulding, American author and politician, 11th United States Secretary of the Navy (born 1778)

James Kirke Paulding was an American writer and, for a time, the United States Secretary of the Navy. Paulding's early writings were satirical and violently anti-British, as shown in The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan (1812). He wrote numerous long poems and serious histories. Among his novels are Konigsmarke, the Long Finne (1823) and The Dutchman's Fireside (1831). He is best known for creating the inimitable Nimrod Wildfire, the "half horse, half alligator" in The Lion of the West (1831), and as collaborator with William Irving and Washington Irving in Salmagundi. (1807–08). Paulding was also, by the mid-1830s, an ardent and outspoken defender of slavery who later endorsed southern secession from the United States.

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06/04/1838

José Bonifácio de Andrada, Brazilian poet, academic, and politician (born 1763)

José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva was a Brazilian statesman, naturalist, mineralist, professor and poet, born in Santos, São Paulo, then part of the Portuguese Empire.

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06/04/1833

Adamantios Korais, Greek philosopher and scholar (born 1748)

Adamantios Korais or Koraïs was a Greek scholar credited with laying the foundations of modern Greek literature and a major figure in the Greek Enlightenment. His activities paved the way for the Greek War of Independence and the emergence of a purified form of the Greek language, known as Katharevousa. Encyclopædia Britannica asserts that "his influence on the modern Greek language and culture has been compared to that of Dante on Italian and Martin Luther on German".

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06/04/1829

Niels Henrik Abel, Norwegian mathematician and theorist (born 1802)

Niels Henrik Abel was a Norwegian mathematician who made pioneering contributions in a variety of fields. His most famous single result is the first complete proof demonstrating the impossibility of solving the general quintic equation in radicals. This question was one of the outstanding open problems of his day, and had been unresolved for over 250 years. He was also an innovator in the field of elliptic functions and the discoverer of Abelian functions. He made his discoveries while living in poverty and died at the age of 26 from tuberculosis.

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06/04/1827

Nikolis Apostolis, Greek naval commander during the Greek War of Independence (born 1770)

Nikolis Apostolis was a Greek naval commander, leader of the Psarian fleet during the Greek War of Independence.

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06/04/1825

Vladimir Borovikovsky, Ukrainian-Russian painter and educator (born 1757)

Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky was a Russian artist of Ukrainian Cossack origin. He served at the court of Catherine the Great and dominated portraiture in Russia at the turn of the 19th century.

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06/04/1790

Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (born 1719)

Louis IX of Hesse-Darmstadt was Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1768 to 1790.

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06/04/1755

Richard Rawlinson, English minister and historian (born 1690)

Richard Rawlinson FRS was an English clergyman and antiquarian collector of books and manuscripts, which he bequeathed to the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

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06/04/1707

Willem van de Velde the Younger, Dutch-English painter (born 1633)

Willem van de Velde the Younger was a Dutch painter who specialised in marine art. He was the son of Willem van de Velde the Elder, who also specialised in marine art. His brother, Adriaen van de Velde, was a landscape painter.

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06/04/1686

Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey, Irish-English politician (born 1614)

Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey, PC was an Anglo-Irish royalist statesman. After short periods as President of the Council of State and Treasurer of the Navy, he served as Lord Privy Seal between 1673 and 1682 for Charles II. He succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount Valentia in 1660, and he was created Earl of Anglesey in 1661.

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06/04/1676

John Winthrop the Younger, English politician, 1st Governor of Connecticut (born 1606)

John Winthrop the Younger, FRS, was an English-born physician, colonial administrator, and alchemist. He was an early governor of the Connecticut Colony who played a large role in the unification of numerous settlements and obtaining a royal charter for the unified colony.

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06/04/1670

Leonora Baroni, Italian composer (born 1611)

Leonora Baroni was an Italian singer, theorbist, lutenist, viol player, and composer of the Baroque period.

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06/04/1655

David Blondel, French minister, historian, and scholar (born 1591)

David Blondel was a French Protestant clergyman, historian and classical scholar.

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06/04/1641

Domenico Zampieri (Domenichino), Italian painter (born 1581)

Domenico Zampieri, known by the diminutive Domenichino after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters.

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06/04/1621

Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (born 1539)

Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Baron Beauchamp, KG, of Wulfhall and Totnam Lodge in Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, of Hatch Beauchamp in Somerset, of Netley Abbey, Hampshire, and of Hertford House, Cannon Row in Westminster, is most noted for incurring the displeasure of Queen Elizabeth I by taking part in more than one clandestine marriage.

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06/04/1605

John Stow, English historian and author (born 1525)

John Stow was an English historian and antiquarian. He wrote a series of chronicles of English history, published from 1565 onwards under such titles as The Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles, The Chronicles of England, and The Annales of England; and also A Survey of London. A. L. Rowse has described him as "one of the best historians of that age; indefatigable in the trouble he took, thorough and conscientious, accurate – above all things devoted to truth".

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06/04/1593

Henry Barrowe, English Puritan and separatist (born 1550)

Henry Barrow was an English Separatist Puritan, or Brownist, who was executed for his views. He led the London underground church from 1587 to 1593; spent most of that time in prison; and wrote numerous works of Brownist apologetics, most notably A Brief Discoverie of the False Church.

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06/04/1590

Francis Walsingham, English politician and diplomat, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (born 1532)

Sir Francis Walsingham was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster".

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06/04/1571

John Hamilton, Scottish archbishop and academic (born 1512)

John Hamilton, Scottish prelate and politician, was an illegitimate son of The 1st Earl of Arran.

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06/04/1551

Joachim Vadian, Swiss scholar and politician (born 1484)

Joachim Vadian, born as Joachim von Watt, was a humanist, scholar, mayor and reformer in the free city of St. Gallen.

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06/04/1528

Albrecht Dürer, German painter, engraver, and mathematician (born 1471)

Albrecht Dürer, sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. Born in Nuremberg, Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints. He was in contact with the major Italian artists of his time, including Raphael, Giovanni Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci, and from 1512 was patronized by Emperor Maximilian I.

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06/04/1523

Henry Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, English nobleman (born 1479)

Henry Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire was an English peer.

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06/04/1520

Raphael, Italian painter and architect (born 1483)

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, now generally known in English as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.

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06/04/1490

Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary and Croatia from 1458 to 1490 (born 1443)

Matthias Corvinus was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1458 to 1490, as Matthias I. He is often given the epithet "the Just". After conducting several military campaigns, he was elected King of Bohemia in 1469 and adopted the title Duke of Austria in 1487. He was the son of John Hunyadi, Regent of Hungary, who died in 1456. In 1457, Matthias was imprisoned along with his older brother, Ladislaus Hunyadi, on the orders of King Ladislaus the Posthumous. Ladislaus Hunyadi was executed, causing a rebellion that forced King Ladislaus to flee Hungary. After the King died unexpectedly, Matthias's uncle Michael Szilágyi persuaded the Estates to unanimously proclaim the 14-year-old Matthias as king on 24 January 1458. He began his rule under his uncle's guardianship, but he took effective control of government within two weeks.

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06/04/1376

Preczlaw of Pogarell, Cardinal and Bishop of Wrocław (born 1310)

Przecław of Pogorzela was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Bishop of Wrocław and Duke of Nysa from 1342–1376.

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06/04/1362

James I, count of La Marche (born 1319)

James I of Bourbon, was a French prince du sang, and the son of Louis I, Duke of Bourbon and Mary of Avesnes. He was Count of Ponthieu from 1351 to 1360, and Count of La Marche from 1341 to his death.

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06/04/1340

Basil, emperor of Trebizond (Turkey)

Basil Megas Komnenos was Emperor of Trebizond from August 1332 until his death in 1340. Although Basil's reign was a period of stability during the civil war that dominated the pocket empire during the second quarter of the 14th century, some of that conflict had its origins in his marital actions.

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06/04/1252

Peter of Verona, Italian priest and saint (born 1206)

Peter of Verona, also known as Saint Peter Martyr and Saint Peter of Verona, was a 13th-century Italian Catholic priest. He was a Dominican friar and a celebrated preacher. He served as Inquisitor in Lombardy, was killed by an assassin, and was canonised as a Catholic saint 11 months after his death — the fastest canonisation in history.

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06/04/1250

Guillaume de Sonnac, Grand Master of the Knights Templar

Guillaume de Sonnac was Grand Master of the Knights Templar from 1247 to 1250.

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06/04/1231

William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke

William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke was a medieval English nobleman and one of the sureties of Magna Carta. He fought during the First Barons' War and was present at the Battle of Lincoln (1217) alongside his father William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, who led the English troops. He commissioned the first biography of a medieval knight to be written, called L'Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal, in honour of his father.

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06/04/1199

Richard I, king of England (born 1157)

Richard I, known as Richard the Lionheart or Richard Cœur de Lion because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior, was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, and Gascony; Lord of Cyprus; Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes; and was overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period. He was the third of five sons of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and was therefore not expected to become king, but his two elder brothers predeceased their father.

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06/04/1174

Umara al-Yamani, Yemeni poet and historian (born 1121)

Najm al-Dīn Umāra al-Ḥakamī al-Yamanī was a Sunni historian, jurist and poet of Yemen of great repute who was closely associated with the late Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. He was executed by order of Saladin at Cairo on April 6, 1174 for his part in a conspiracy to restore Fatimid rule. His Tarikh al-Yaman is the earliest, and in respects the most important, history of Yemen from the Islamic era.

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06/04/1147

Frederick II, duke of Swabia (born 1090)

Frederick II, called the One-Eyed, was Duke of Swabia from 1105 until his death, the second from the Hohenstaufen dynasty. His younger brother Conrad was elected King of the Romans in 1138.

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06/04/0943

Liu Churang, Chinese general and chief of staff (born 881)

Liu Churang, courtesy name Deqian (德謙), was a general of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period states Later Tang and Later Jin, serving as a chief of staff (Shumishi) during the reign of Later Jin's founding emperor Shi Jingtang.

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Nasr II, ruler (amir) of the Samanid Empire (born 906)

Nasr ibn Ahmad or Nasr II, nicknamed "the Fortunate", was the ruler (amir) of Transoxiana and Khurasan as the head of the Samanid dynasty from 914 to 943. His reign marked the high point of the Samanid dynasty's fortunes. He was the son of Ahmad ibn Isma’il.

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06/04/0887

Pei Che, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty

Pei Che (裴澈), courtesy name Shenyuan (深源), was an official of the late Tang dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reigns of Emperor Xizong and the pretender to the throne Li Yun. After Li Yun was defeated and executed, Pei was also executed for his service under Li Yun.

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06/04/0885

Saint Methodius, Byzantine missionary and saint (born 815)

Cyril and Methodius were brothers, Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries. For their work evangelizing the Slavs, they are known as the "Apostles to the Slavs".

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06/04/0861

Prudentius, bishop of Troyes

Prudentius was bishop of Troyes, a chronicler and an opponent of Hincmar of Reims in the controversy on predestination.

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