Died on Tuesday, 8th April – Famous Deaths

08/04/2025

Nelsy Cruz, Dominican politician, governor of Monte Cristi (born 1982)

Nelsy Milagros Cruz Martínez was a Dominican politician who served as governor of Monte Cristi Province from 2020 until her death in 2025. A member of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), she died after a nightclub roof collapse in Santo Domingo.

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08/04/2024

Keith Barnes, Welsh-Australian rugby league player and coach (born 1934)

William Keith Barnes AM, also known by the nickname of "Golden Boots", was a Welsh-born Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s and 1960s, and coached in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He was a fullback for the Australian national team and for the Balmain Tigers. He played in 14 tests between 1959 and 1966, as national captain on 12 occasions. He was known as "Golden Boots" due to his exceptional goal-kicking ability. After his playing days he became a referee and later co-commentated on the Amco Cup on Network Ten with Ray Warren in the 1970s. He is considered one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.

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Peter Higgs, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1929)

Peter Ware Higgs was a British theoretical physicist, professor at the University of Edinburgh, and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the mass of subatomic particles.

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Ralph Puckett, American Army officer, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1926)

Ralph Puckett Jr. was a United States Army officer. He led the Eighth Army Ranger Company during the Korean War and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions on November 25, 1950, when his company of 51 Rangers was attacked by several hundred Chinese soldiers at the battle for Hill 205. He later served in the Vietnam War and retired from the army in 1971 as a colonel. After being appointed on July 19, 1996, he served as the Honorary Colonel of the 75th Ranger Regiment.

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08/04/2022

Mimi Reinhardt, Jewish Austrian secretary (born 1915)

Mimi Reinhardt was an Austrian Jewish secretary. She worked for Oskar Schindler and typed his list of Jewish workers to recruit for his factory.

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08/04/2020

Rick May, American-Canadian voice actor (born 1940)

Richard James May was a Canadian-American actor, theatrical performer, director, and teacher. May provided the English-language voice for Peppy Hare and Andross in Star Fox 64, the Soldier in Team Fortress 2, and Dr. M in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, among other video game characters. He also played Inspector Lestrade in the long running radio show The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes from 1998 through 2020.

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Abdul Momin Imambari, Bangladeshi Islamic scholar (born 1930)

Abdul Momin Imambari was a Bangladeshi Islamic scholar, teacher and politician. He was the former president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Bangladesh.

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08/04/2019

Josine Ianco-Starrels, Romanian-born American art curator (born 1926)

Josine Ianco-Starrels was a Romanian-born American art curator who worked as a museum director in Los Angeles, California.

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08/04/2015

Jayakanthan, Indian journalist and author (born 1934)

D. Jayakanthan, popularly known as JK, was an Indian writer, journalist, orator, filmmaker, critic and activist. Born in Cuddalore, he dropped out of school at the age of 9 and went to Madras, where he joined the Communist Party of India. In a career spanning six decades, he authored around 40 novels, 200 short stories, apart from two autobiographies. Outside literature, he made two films. In addition, four of his other novels were adapted into films by others.

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Rayson Huang, Hong Kong chemist and academic (born 1920)

Rayson Lisung Huang,, was a Hong Kong chemist, who was an expert on radicals. He was the first Chinese Vice-Chancellor of The University of Hong Kong, a position in which he served from 1972 until 1986.

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Sergei Lashchenko, Ukrainian kick-boxer (born 1987)

Serhiy Lashchenko, also spelled as Sergii Lashchenko and Sergei Lascenko, was a Ukrainian kickboxer. He was a K-1 and Superkombat Heavyweight.

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David Laventhol, American journalist and publisher (born 1933)

David Abram Laventhol was an American newspaper editor and publisher at The Washington Post, Newsday and the Los Angeles Times. He was known for his work designing newspapers, most notably as first editor of the Style section of The Washington Post. He was also known for his shy and humble style, being called an "unlikely mogul".

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Jean-Claude Turcotte, Canadian cardinal (born 1936)

Jean-Claude Turcotte was a Canadian Roman Catholic cardinal who served as the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Montreal from 1990 to 2012.

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08/04/2014

Emmanuel III Delly, Iraqi patriarch (born 1927)

Mar Emmanuel III Delly was an Iraqi Catholic prelate who served as Patriarch of Baghdad and primate of the Chaldean Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic sui juris particular church of the Catholic Church.

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Karlheinz Deschner, German author and activist (born 1924)

Karl Heinrich Leopold Deschner was a German researcher and writer who achieved public attention in Europe for his trenchant and fiercely critical treatment of Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular, as expressed in several articles and books, culminating in his 10 volume Christianity's Criminal History.

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Ivan Mercep, New Zealand architect, designed the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum (born 1930)

Ivan Mercep was a New Zealand architect. He received the NZIA Gold Medal in 2008.

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08/04/2013

Mikhail Beketov, Russian journalist (born 1958)

Mikhail Vasilyevich Beketov was a Russian journalist who came to widespread attention when he was attacked in an assault thought to be connected with his coverage of the planned destruction of the Khimki Forest to make way for the Moscow–Saint Petersburg motorway.

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Annette Funicello, American actress and singer (born 1942)

Annette Joanne Funicello was an American actress and singer. She began her professional career at age 12, becoming one of the most popular Mouseketeers on the original Mickey Mouse Club. In her teenage years, Funicello had a successful career as a pop singer recording under the name "Annette". Her most notable singles are "O Dio Mio", "First Name Initial", "Tall Paul", and "Pineapple Princess". During the mid-1960s, she established herself as a film actress, popularizing the successful "Beach Party" genre alongside co-star Frankie Avalon.

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Sara Montiel, Spanish-Mexican actress and singer (born 1928)

María Antonia Abad Fernández, known professionally as Sara Montiel, also Sarita Montiel, was a Spanish actress and singer. She began her career in the 1940s and became the most internationally popular and highest paid star of Spanish cinema in the 1960s. She appeared in nearly fifty films and recorded around 500 songs in five different languages.

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José Luis Sampedro, Spanish economist and author (born 1917)

José Luis Sampedro Sáez was a Spanish economist and writer who advocated an economy "more humane, more caring, able to help develop the dignity of peoples". Academician of the Real Academia Española since 1990, he was the recipient of the Order of Arts and Letters of Spain, the Menéndez Pelayo International Prize (2010) and the Spanish Literature National Prize (2011). He became an inspiration for the anti-austerity movement in Spain.

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Margaret Thatcher, English politician, first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1925)

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the position. As prime minister, she implemented policies that came to be known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady," a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.

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08/04/2012

Blair Kiel, American football player and coach (born 1961)

Blair Armstrong Kiel was an American professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL), Canadian Football League (CFL), and Arena Football League (AFL). He was a four-year starting quarterback and punter in college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from 1980 to 1983. He was inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1998.

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Jack Tramiel, Polish-American businessman, founded Commodore International (born 1928)

Jack Tramiel was a Polish-American businessman and Holocaust survivor, best known for founding Commodore International. The PET, VIC-20, and Commodore 64 are some home computers produced while he was running the company. Tramiel later formed Atari Corporation after he purchased the remnants of the original Atari, Inc. from its parent company. He was one of six people spotlighted when the computer was denoted "Machine of the Year" by Time magazine in 1982.

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Janusz K. Zawodny, Polish-American soldier, historian, and political scientist (born 1921)

Janusz Kazimierz Zawodny was a Polish-American historian, political scientist, and World War II soldier and resistance fighter of the Polish Underground State.

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08/04/2011

Hedda Sterne, Romanian-American painter and photographer (born 1910)

Hedda Sterne was a Romanian-born American artist who was an active member of the New York School of painters. Her work is often associated with Abstract Expressionism and Surrealism. She was also the only woman to appear in the famous photograph of abstract expressionist artists dubbed "The Irascibles", although the group included other women.

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08/04/2010

Antony Flew, English philosopher and academic (born 1923)

Antony Garrard Newton Flew was an English philosopher. Belonging to the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought, Flew worked on the philosophy of religion. During the course of his career he taught philosophy at the universities of Oxford, Aberdeen, Keele, and Reading in the United Kingdom, and at York University in Toronto, Canada.

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Malcolm McLaren, English singer-songwriter (born 1946)

Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English fashion designer, entrepreneur and music manager. He was a promoter and a manager for punk rock and new wave bands such as New York Dolls, Sex Pistols, Adam and the Ants, and Bow Wow Wow, and was an early influencer of the punk subculture.

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Teddy Scholten, Dutch singer (born 1926)

Dorothea Margaretha "Teddy" Scholten was a Dutch singer and television presenter. She is known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 1959 with the song "Een beetje", representing the Netherlands.

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08/04/2009

Richard de Mille, American Scientologist, author, investigative journalist, and psychologist (born 1922)

Richard de Mille was an American author.

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Piotr Morawski, Polish mountaineer (born 1976)

Piotr Morawski was a Polish mountaineer. He achieved the first successful winter ascent together with Simone Moro of Shishapangma on 14 January 2005. Morawski died aged 32 during an international Dhaulagiri/Manaslu expedition in Nepal. He fell into a crevasse at an elevation of 5500 m while acclimatizing.

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08/04/2008

Kazuo Shiraga, Japanese painter (born 1924)

Kazuo Shiraga was a Japanese abstract painter and the first-generation member of the postwar artists collective Gutai Art Association (Gutai). As a Gutai member, he was a prolific, inventive, and pioneering experimentalist who tackled a range of media: in addition to painting, he worked in performance art, three-dimensional object making, conceptual art, and installations, many of which are preserved only in documentary photos and films.

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08/04/2007

Sol LeWitt, American painter and sculptor (born 1928)

Solomon "Sol" LeWitt was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism.

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08/04/2006

Gerard Reve, Dutch author and poet (born 1923)

Gerard Kornelis van het Reve was a Dutch writer. He started writing as Simon Gerard van het Reve and adopted the shorter Gerard Reve in 1973. Together with Willem Frederik Hermans and Harry Mulisch, he is considered one of the "Great Three" of Dutch post-war literature. His 1981 novel De vierde man was the basis for Paul Verhoeven's 1983 film.

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08/04/2005

Onna White, Canadian choreographer and dancer (born 1922)

Onna White was a Canadian choreographer and dancer, nominated for eight Tony Awards.

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08/04/2004

Werner Schumacher, German actor (born 1921)

Werner Schumacher was a German actor. From 1971 until 1986 he starred in the Süddeutscher Rundfunk version of the popular television crime series Tatort.

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08/04/2002

María Félix, Mexican actress (born 1914)

María de los Ángeles Félix Güereña was a Mexican actress and singer. Along with Pedro Armendáriz and Dolores del Río, she was one of the most successful figures of Latin American cinema in the 1940s and 1950s. Considered one of the most beautiful actresses of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, her strong personality and taste for finesse garnered her the title of diva early in her career. She was known as La Doña, a name derived from her character in Doña Bárbara (1943), and María Bonita, thanks to the anthem composed exclusively for her as a wedding gift by her second husband, Agustín Lara. Her acting career consists of 47 films made in Mexico, Spain, France, Italy, and Argentina.

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Harvey Quaytman, American painter (born 1937)

Harvey Quaytman was a geometric abstraction painter best known for large modernist canvases with powerful monochromatic tones, in layered compositions, often with hard edges - inspired by Malevich and Mondrian. He had more than 60 solo exhibitions in his career, and his works are held in the collections of many top public museums.

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08/04/2000

František Šťastný, Czech motorcycle racer (born 1927)

František Šťastný was a Czech Grand Prix motorcycle road racer.

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Claire Trevor, American actress (born 1910)

Claire Trevor was an American actress. She appeared in 65 feature films from 1933 to 1982, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Key Largo (1948), and received nominations for her roles in The High and the Mighty (1954) and Dead End (1937). Trevor received top billing, ahead of John Wayne, for Stagecoach (1939).

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08/04/1997

Laura Nyro, American singer-songwriter and pianist (born 1947)

Laura Nyro was an American songwriter and singer. She achieved critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (1968) and New York Tendaberry (1969), and had commercial success with artists such as Barbra Streisand and the 5th Dimension recording her songs. Wider recognition for her artistry was posthumous, while her contemporaries such as Elton John idolized her. She was praised for her emotive three-octave mezzo-soprano voice.

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08/04/1996

Ben Johnson, American actor and stuntman (born 1918)

Francis Benjamin Johnson Jr. was an American film and television actor, stuntman, and world-champion rodeo cowboy. Johnson brought authenticity to many roles in Westerns with his droll manner and expert horsemanship.

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León Klimovsky, Argentinian-Spanish actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1906)

León Klimovsky Dulfán was an Argentine film director, screenwriter and producer notable for his work during the classical era of Argentine cinema. He was known mainly for his work in Spanish cinema during the 1960s and '70s.

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Mick Young, Australian politician (born 1936)

Michael Jerome Young was an Australian politician. He rose through the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to become its National Secretary, before serving as a Labor member of the House of Representatives from the 1974 election to 1988. He was a senior minister in the Hawke government, and was a prominent political figure during the 1970s and 1980s. Young was also President of the Australian Labor Party from 1986 to 1988.

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08/04/1994

François Rozet, French-Canadian actor (born 1899)

François Rozet, was a French-born Canadian actor.

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08/04/1993

Marian Anderson, American operatic singer (born 1897)

Marian Anderson was an American contralto. She performed a wide range of music, from opera to spirituals. Anderson performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the United States and Europe between 1925 and 1965.

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08/04/1992

Daniel Bovet, Swiss-Italian pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1907)

Daniel Bovet was a Swiss-born Italian pharmacologist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of drugs that block the actions of specific neurotransmitters. He is best known for his discovery in 1937 of antihistamines, which block the neurotransmitter histamine and are used in allergy medication. His other research included work on chemotherapy, sulfa drugs, the sympathetic nervous system, the pharmacology of curare, and other neuropharmacological interests.

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08/04/1991

Per Ohlin, Swedish musician (born 1969)

Per Yngve "Pelle" Ohlin, known professionally as Dead, was a Swedish musician, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem from 1988 until his death in 1991. Prior to Mayhem, he performed as the vocalist in the Swedish death/thrash band Morbid. Roadrunner Records ranked him No. 48 out of 50 of The Greatest Metal Front-Men of All Time.

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08/04/1990

Ryan White, American activist, inspired the Ryan White Care Act (born 1971)

Ryan Wayne White was an American teenager from Kokomo, Indiana, who became a national poster child for HIV/AIDS in the United States after his school barred him from attending classes following a diagnosis of AIDS.

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08/04/1985

John Frederick Coots, American pianist and composer (born 1897)

John Frederick Coots, better known as J. Fred Coots or Fred Coots, was an American songwriter. He composed more than 700 popular songs and more than a dozen Broadway shows. In 1934, Coots wrote the melody with his then chief collaborator, lyricist Haven Gillespie, for the biggest success of either man's career, "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town." The song became one of the biggest sellers in American history.

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08/04/1984

Pyotr Kapitsa, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1894)

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa or Peter Kapitza was a leading Soviet Russian physicist and Nobel laureate, whose research focused on low-temperature physics.

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08/04/1983

Isamu Kosugi, Japanese actor and director (born 1904)

Isamu Kosugi was a Japanese actor and film director.

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08/04/1981

Omar Bradley, American general (born 1893)

Omar Nelson Bradley was a senior officer of the United States Army during and after World War II, rising to the rank of General of the Army. He was the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and oversaw the U.S. military's policy-making in the Korean War.

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08/04/1979

Breece D'J Pancake, American short story writer (born 1952)

Breece Dexter John Pancake was an American short story writer, called "one of the greatest authors you've never heard of" in an article on his work in Study Breaks. Pancake was a native of West Virginia. Several of his short stories were published in The Atlantic Monthly and other periodicals during his lifetime.

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08/04/1974

James Charles McGuigan, Canadian cardinal (born 1894)

James Charles McGuigan was a Canadian prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the longest-serving Archbishop of Toronto, serving for almost 37 years from 1934 to 1971. He became the first English-speaking cardinal from Canada in 1946.

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08/04/1973

Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor (born 1881)

Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and the anti-war painting Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War. His career spanned more than 76 years, from his late teens to his death in 1973.

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08/04/1969

Zinaida Aksentyeva, Ukrainian astronomer (born 1900)

Zinaïda Mikolaïevna Aksentieva was a Ukrainian/Soviet astronomer and geophysicist.

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08/04/1965

Lars Hanson, Swedish actor (born 1886)

Lars Mauritz Hanson was a Swedish film and stage actor, internationally mostly remembered for his motion picture roles during the silent film era.

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08/04/1962

Juan Belmonte, Spanish bullfighter (born 1892)

Juan Belmonte García was a Spanish bullfighter. He fought in a record number of bull fights and was responsible for changing the art of bullfighting. He had minor deformities in his legs which forced him to design new techniques and styles of bullfighting.

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08/04/1961

Joseph Carrodus, Australian public servant (born 1885)

Joseph Aloysius Carrodus was a senior Australian public servant.

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08/04/1959

Marios Makrionitis, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Athens (born 1913)

Marios Makrionitis, SJ was a Greek Jesuit prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as the Archbishop of Athens from 1953 until 1959, when he died from injuries caused by an automobile accident.

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08/04/1950

Vaslav Nijinsky, Polish dancer and choreographer (born 1890)

Vaslav or Vatslav Nijinsky was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry. He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century. He is often associated with the Ballets Russes and its impresario Sergei Diaghilev, for which he choreographed such influential ballets as L'après-midi d'un faune (1912), Le Sacre du Printemps (1913), Jeux (1913), and Till Eulenspiegel (1916). He was celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations. He could dance en pointe, a rare skill among male dancers at the time, and was admired for his seemingly gravity-defying leaps.

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08/04/1947

Olaf Frydenlund, Norwegian target shooter (born 1862)

Olaf Emil Frydenlund was a Norwegian sport shooter who competed in the early 20th century in rifle shooting. He participated in Shooting at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris and won the silver medal with the Norwegian Military Rifle team.

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08/04/1942

Kostas Skarvelis, Greek guitarist and composer (born 1880)

Kostas Skarvelis was a Greek composer of popular music, of the rembetiko (ρεμπέτικο) genre. He also wrote the lyrics for his songs and was an excellent guitar player, having participated in many recordings.

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08/04/1941

Marcel Prévost, French novelist and playwright (born 1862)

Marcel Prévost was a French author and dramatist.

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08/04/1936

Róbert Bárány, Austrian physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1876)

Robert Bárány was an Austrian-born otologist. He received the 1914 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the physiology and pathology of the vestibular apparatus.

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Božena Benešová, Czech poet and novelist (born 1873)

Božena Benešová, née Zapletalová, was a Czech author and poet whose work is considered to have been at the forefront of psychological prose. The greater part of her youth was spent in Uherské Hradiště and Napajedla, where in 1896 she married a railway clerk named Josef Beneš. In 1908 she and her husband moved to Prague.

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08/04/1931

Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish poet Nobel Prize laureate (born 1864)

Erik Axel Karlfeldt was a Swedish poet whose highly symbolist poetry masquerading as regionalism was popular and won him the 1931 Nobel Prize in Literature posthumously after he had been nominated by Nathan Söderblom, member of the Swedish Academy. Karlfeldt had been offered the award already in 1919 but refused to accept it, because of his position as permanent secretary to the Swedish Academy (1913–1931), which awards the prize.

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08/04/1920

Charles Griffes, American pianist and composer (born 1884)

Charles Tomlinson Griffes was an American composer for piano, chamber ensembles and voice. His initial works are influenced by German Romanticism, but after he relinquished the German style, his later works make him the most famous American representative of musical Impressionism, along with Charles Martin Loeffler. He was fascinated by the exotic, mysterious sound of the French Impressionists, and was compositionally much influenced by them while he was in Europe. He also studied the work of contemporary Russian composers such as Scriabin, whose influence is also apparent in his use of synthetic scales.

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08/04/1919

Loránd Eötvös, Hungarian physicist, academic, and politician, Hungarian Minister of Education (born 1848)

Baron Loránd Eötvös de Vásárosnamény, also called Baron Roland von Eötvös in English literature, was a Hungarian physicist. He is remembered today largely for his work on gravitation and surface tension, and the invention of the torsion pendulum.

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08/04/1906

Auguste Deter, German woman, first person diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (born 1850)

Auguste Deter was a German woman notable for being the first person to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

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08/04/1894

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Indian journalist, author, and poet (born 1838)

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was an Indian Bengali novelist, poet, essayist and journalist.

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08/04/1877

Bernardino António Gomes, Portuguese physician and naturalist (born 1806)

Bernardino António Gomes was a Portuguese physician and scientist. He is perhaps most widely remembered for his pioneering work in Portugal in the field of anaesthesiology, as the first physician in the country to use chloroform in a surgical procedure ; he is also credited with the popularization of the use of creosote and of the first ether inhalers.

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08/04/1870

Charles Auguste de Bériot, Belgian violinist and composer (born 1802)

Charles Auguste de Bériot was a Belgian violinist, artist and composer.

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08/04/1861

Elisha Otis, American businessman, founded the Otis Elevator Company (born 1811)

Elisha Graves Otis was an American industrialist and founder of the Otis Elevator Company. In 1853, he invented a safety device that prevents elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails. On March 23, 1857, he installed the first safety elevator for passenger service in the store of E.V. Haughwout & Co. in New York City.

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08/04/1860

István Széchenyi, Hungarian statesman and reformer (born 1791)

Count István Széchenyi de Sárvár-Felsővidék was a Hungarian politician, political theorist, and writer. Widely considered one of the greatest statesmen in his nation's history, within Hungary he is still known to many as "the Greatest Hungarian".

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08/04/1848

Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (born 1797)

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer, best known for his over 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the bel canto opera style during the first half of the nineteenth century and a probable influence on other composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy. At an early age he was taken up by Simon Mayr who enrolled him with a full scholarship in a school which he had set up. There he received detailed musical training. Mayr was instrumental in obtaining a place for Donizetti at the Bologna Academy, where, at the age of 19, he wrote his first one-act opera, the comedy Il Pigmalione, which may never have been performed during his lifetime.

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08/04/1735

Francis II Rákóczi, Hungarian prince (born 1676)

Francis II Rákóczi was a Hungarian nobleman and leader of the Rákóczi's War of Independence against the Habsburgs in 1703–1711 as the prince of the Estates Confederated for Liberty of the Kingdom of Hungary. He was also Prince of Transylvania, an Imperial Prince, and a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Today he is considered a national hero in Hungary.

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08/04/1725

John Wise, American minister (born 1652)

John Wise was a Congregationalist reverend and political leader in Massachusetts during the American colonial period. Wise was noted for his political activism, specifically his protests against British taxation, for which he was once jailed As the pastor of the Chebacco Parish from 1680 to his death in 1725, Wise lived in Ipswich, Massachusetts, often called "the birthplace of American independence."

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08/04/1709

Wolfgang Dietrich of Castell-Remlingen, German nobleman (born 1641)

Wolfgang Dietrich of Castell-Remlingen was a German nobleman. From 1668 until his death he was the ruler of the county of Castell-Remlingen, sharing power with his brother Friedrich Magnus of Castell-Remlingen. He also held other offices in the Margraviate of Ansbach and the Electoral Palatinate.

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08/04/1704

Hiob Ludolf, German orientalist and philologist (born 1624)

Hiob or Job Ludolf, also known as Job Leutholf, was a German orientalist, born at Erfurt. Edward Ullendorff rates Ludolf as having "the most illustrious name in Ethiopic scholarship".

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Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney, English colonel and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (born 1641)

Lieutenant-General Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney was an English Army officer and Whig politician who served as Master-General of the Ordnance from 1693 to 1702. He is best known as one of the Immortal Seven, a group of seven Englishmen who drafted an invitation to William of Orange, which led to the November 1688 Glorious Revolution and subsequent deposition of James II of England.

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08/04/1697

Niels Juel, Norwegian-Danish admiral (born 1629)

Admiral Niels Juel was a Danish naval officer who served as supreme commander of the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy during the late 17th century and oversaw its development into a blue-water navy. His victory against Sweden at the Battle of Køge Bay (1677) is regarded as the greatest victory in Danish naval history. He also won, one month earlier, the Battle of Møn.

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08/04/1691

Carlo Rainaldi, Italian architect, designed the Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto (born 1611)

Carlo Rainaldi was an Italian architect of the Baroque period.

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08/04/1612

Anne Catherine of Brandenburg (born 1575)

Anne Catherine of Brandenburg was Queen of Denmark and Norway from 1597 to 1612 as the first spouse of King Christian IV of Denmark.

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08/04/1608

Magdalen Dacre, English noble (born 1538)

Magdalen Dacre, Viscountess Montagu was an English noblewoman. She was the daughter of William Dacre, 3rd Baron Dacre of Gilsland, and the second wife of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu. Magdalen, a Roman Catholic, was a Maid of Honour to Mary I of England and was bridesmaid at Mary's wedding to Philip II of Spain in Winchester Cathedral. Despite being Catholic, she managed to remain in high regard with Elizabeth I, the Protestant half-sister who succeeded Mary.

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08/04/1586

Martin Chemnitz, Lutheran theologian and reformer (born 1522)

Martin Chemnitz was an eminent second-generation German, Evangelical Lutheran, Christian theologian, and a Protestant reformer, churchman, and confessor. In the Evangelical Lutheran tradition he is known as Alter Martinus, the "Second Martin": Si Martinus non fuisset, Martinus vix stetisset goes a common saying concerning him. He is listed and remembered in the Calendar of Saints and Commemorations in the Liturgical Church Year as a pastor and confessor by both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

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08/04/1551

Oda Nobuhide, Japanese warlord (born 1510)

Oda Nobuhide was a Japanese daimyō and magistrate of the Sengoku period known as "Tiger of Owari" and also the father of Oda Nobunaga, the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobuhide was a deputy shugo (Shugodai) of lower Owari Province and head of the Oda clan which controlled most of Owari.

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08/04/1492

Lorenzo de' Medici, Italian ruler (born 1449)

Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, was an Italian statesman, de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, and the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Lorenzo held the balance of power within the Italic League, an alliance of states that stabilized political conditions on the Italian Peninsula for decades, and his life coincided with the mature phase of the Italian Renaissance and the golden age of Florence. As a patron, he is best known for his sponsorship of artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. On the foreign policy front, Lorenzo manifested a clear plan to stem the territorial ambitions of Pope Sixtus IV, in the name of the balance of the Italic League of 1454. For these reasons, Lorenzo was the subject of the Pazzi conspiracy (1478), in which his brother Giuliano was assassinated. The Peace of Lodi of 1454 that he supported among the various Italian states collapsed with his death. He is buried in the Medici Chapel in Florence.

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08/04/1461

Georg von Peuerbach, German mathematician and astronomer (born 1423)

Georg von Peuerbach was an Austrian astronomer, poet, mathematician and instrument maker, best known for his streamlined presentation of Ptolemaic astronomy in the Theoricae Novae Planetarum. Peuerbach was instrumental in making astronomy, mathematics and literature simple and accessible for Europeans during the Renaissance and beyond.

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08/04/1450

Sejong the Great, Korean king (born 1397)

Sejong, commonly known as Sejong the Great, was the fourth monarch of the Koreanic state Joseon. He ruled from 1418 to his death in 1450. He is widely regarded as the greatest king in Korean history, and is remembered for the creation of Hangul, the native alphabet of the Korean language.

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08/04/1364

John II, French king (born 1319)

John II, called John the Good, was King of France from 1350 until his death in 1364. When he came to power, France faced several disasters: the Black Death, which killed between a third and a half of its population; popular revolts known as Jacqueries; free companies of routiers who plundered the country; and English aggression that resulted in catastrophic military losses, including the Battle of Poitiers of 1356, in which John was captured.

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08/04/1338

Stephen Gravesend, bishop of London

Stephen Gravesend was a medieval Bishop of London.

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08/04/1321

Thomas of Tolentino, Italian-Franciscan missionary (born c. 1255)

Thomas of Tolentino, OFM was an Italian Franciscan missionary who was martyred with his three companions in Thane, India, for blaspheming Muhammad. His relics were removed to Quanzhou, China, and Tolentino, Italy, by Odoric of Pordenone. He was canonized in 1321, with his feast day now held on April 9.

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08/04/1150

Gertrude of Babenberg, duchess of Bohemia (born 1118)

Gertrude of Babenberg, a member of the House of Babenberg, was Duchess consort of Bohemia from 1140 until her death, by her marriage to the Přemyslid duke Vladislaus II.

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08/04/1143

John II Komnenos, Byzantine emperor (born 1087)

John II Komnenos or Comnenus was Byzantine emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as "John the Beautiful" or "John the Good", he was the eldest son of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina and the second emperor to rule during the Komnenian restoration of the Byzantine Empire. As he was born to a reigning emperor, he had the status of a porphyrogennetos. John was a pious and dedicated monarch who was determined to undo the damage his empire had suffered following the Battle of Manzikert, half a century earlier.

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08/04/0967

Mu'izz al-Dawla, Buyid emir (born 915)

Ahmad ibn Buya, after 945 better known by his laqab of Mu'izz al-Dawla, was the first of the Buyid emirs of Iraq, ruling from 945 until his death.

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08/04/0956

Gilbert, Frankish nobleman

Gilbert of Chalon was count of Chalon, Autun, Troyes, Avallon and Dijon, and duke of Burgundy between 952 and 956. He became the ruler of the Duchy of Burgundy de facto. By his wife Ermengarde, he had two daughters: Adelais and Liutgarde. Gilbert never managed to maintain the independence of the duchy in the struggles for power of 10th-century France. In 952, he became a vassal of Hugh the Great, count of Paris, and married his oldest daughter, Liutgard, to Hugh's son Otto of Paris. Adelais married Robert of Vermandois.

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08/04/0944

Wang Yanxi, Chinese emperor

Wang Yanxi, known as Wang Xi (王曦) during his reign, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Jingzong of Min (閩景宗), was an emperor of Min during China's Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. He became Min's ruler after a coup that overthrew his nephew Wang Jipeng in 939. With his reign being a cruel one, the imperial guard officers Zhu Wenjin and Lian Chongyu assassinated him and slaughtered the imperial Wang clan. Zhu thereafter claimed the title of Emperor of Min.

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08/04/0894

Adalelm, Frankish nobleman

Adalelm was the Count of Troyes from 886 to his death. He was a son of Emenon, Count of Poitou, and a Robertian.

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08/04/0632

Charibert II, Frankish king (born 607)

Charibert II, a son of Clotaire II and his junior wife Sichilde, was the first King of Aquitaine from 629 to his death, with his capital at Toulouse. There are no direct statements about when Charibert was born exactly, the only known fact being that he was "a few years younger" than his half-brother Dagobert. His father Clotaire evidently had a bigamous marriage and he was the offspring of the junior wife.

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08/04/0622

Shōtoku, Japanese prince (born 572)

Prince Shōtoku , also known as Prince Umayado or Prince Kamitsumiya , was a semi-legendary regent and a politician of the Asuka period in Japan who served under Empress Suiko. He was the son of Emperor Yōmei and his consort, Princess Hashihito no Anahobe, who was also Yōmei's younger half-sister. But later, he was adopted by Prince Shōtoken. His parents were relatives of the ruling Soga clan and also he was involved in the defeat of the rival Mononobe clan. The primary source of the life and accomplishments of Prince Shōtoku comes from the Nihon Shoki. The Prince is renowned for modernizing the government administration and for promoting Buddhism in Japan. He also had two different families that fought over his custody.

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08/04/0217

Caracalla, Roman emperor (born 188)

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, better known by his nickname Caracalla, was Roman emperor from 198 to 217 AD, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father and then ruling alone after 211 AD. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Emperor Septimius Severus and Empress Julia Domna. Severus proclaimed Caracalla co-ruler in 198, doing the same with his other son Geta in 209. The two brothers briefly shared power after their father's death in 211, but Caracalla soon had Geta murdered by the Praetorian Guard and became sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Julia Domna had a significant share in governance, since Caracalla found administration to be mundane. His reign featured domestic instability and external invasions by the Germanic peoples.

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