Died on Sunday, 17th August – Famous Deaths

17/08/2025

Terence Stamp, English actor (born 1938)

Terence Henry Stamp was a British actor. His filmography included a mix of cult and mainstream performances, particularly sophisticated villain roles. He received various accolades including a Golden Globe Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award and two BAFTA Awards. He was named by Empire as one of the 100 Sexiest Film Stars of All Time in 1995.

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17/08/2024

Virginia Ogilvy, Countess of Airlie, British countess (born 1933)

Virginia Fortune Ogilvy, Countess of Airlie, was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth II. She was born in London to an American family, and grew up in the United States before returning to the United Kingdom. In 1973, she became the first American to be a lady-in-waiting.

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Silvio Santos, Brazilian media mogul and television host (born 1930)

Senor Abravanel, known professionally as Silvio Santos, was a Brazilian television presenter and business magnate. Widely regarded as the greatest personality in Brazilian television, he was the founder of the television network Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão (SBT) and the conglomerate Grupo Silvio Santos, which holds interests in media and real estate among other assets. Throughout his life, he was also involved in other areas such as music and politics. His net worth was estimated at $1.3 billion in 2013, making him the only Brazilian celebrity on Forbes' billionaires list.

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17/08/2016

Arthur Hiller, Canadian actor, director, and producer (born 1923)

Arthur Hiller, was a Canadian film and television director. He directed over 33 feature films during a 50-year career. He began his career directing television in Canada and later in the U.S. By the late 1950s, he was directing films, most often comedies, but also dramas and romantic subjects, such as in Love Story (1970), which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including for Best Director.

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17/08/2015

Yvonne Craig, American ballet dancer and actress (born 1937)

Yvonne Joyce Craig was an American actress best known for her role as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl in the 1960s television series Batman. Other notable roles in her career include Dorothy Johnson in the 1963 movie It Happened at the World's Fair, Azalea Tatum in the 1964 movie Kissin' Cousins, and the green-skinned Orion Marta in the Star Trek episode "Whom Gods Destroy" (1969). The Huffington Post called her "a pioneer of female superheroes" for television. Craig was a philanthropist and "an advocate for workers unions, free mammograms, and equal pay for women".

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Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, German businessman (born 1933)

Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, often called "MV", was the Vice President of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Prior to his UEFA career, Mayer-Vorfelder was a politician of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, and served in the state cabinet of Baden-Württemberg from 1976 to 1998. He was later president of German soccer club VfB Stuttgart, and the German Football Association.

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László Paskai, Hungarian cardinal (born 1927)

László Paskai, O.F.M. was a Hungarian cardinal of the Catholic Church, He served as the archbishop of Esztergom from 1987 to 2002.

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17/08/2014

Børre Knudsen, Norwegian minister and activist (born 1937)

Børre Arnold Knudsen (1937–2014) was a Norwegian Lutheran priest noted for his anti-abortion activism. Together with Ludvig Nessa, he staged protests at abortion clinics starting in the late 1980s, and he spent time in jail for refusing to pay fines received for his protests.

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Wolfgang Leonhard, German historian and author (born 1921)

Wolfgang Leonhard was a German political author and historian of the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic and Communism. A German Communist whose family had fled Hitler's Germany and who was educated in the Soviet Union, after World War II Leonhard became one of the founders and leaders of the German Democratic Republic until he became disillusioned and fled in 1949, first defecting to Yugoslavia and then moving to West Germany in 1950 and later to the United Kingdom. In 1956 he moved to the United States, where he was a popular and influential professor at Yale University from 1966 to 1987, teaching the history of communism and the Soviet Union, topics about which he wrote several books. After the Cold War ended, he returned to Germany.

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Sophie Masloff, American civil servant and politician, 56th Mayor of Pittsburgh (born 1917)

Sophie Masloff was an American politician. A long-time member of the Democratic Party and civil servant, she was elected to the Pittsburgh City Council and later served as the mayor of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 1994. She was the first and to date only woman and the first Jew to hold that office.

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Miodrag Pavlović, Serbian poet and critic (born 1928)

Miodrag Pavlović was a Serbian poet, physician writer, critic and academic. Pavlović was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

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Pierre Vassiliu, French singer-songwriter (born 1937)

Pierre Vassiliu was a French singer, songwriter and actor.

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17/08/2013

Odilia Dank, American educator and politician (born 1938)

Odilia Mary Russo Dank was an American educator and politician from Oklahoma City who served as a Republican member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, from District 85. Dank was elected in 1994 and served until she was term limited in 2006.

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Jack Harshman, American baseball player (born 1927)

John Elvin Harshman was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the New York Giants, Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, and Cleveland Indians between 1948 and 1960. He batted and threw left-handed.

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John Hollander, American poet and critic (born 1929)

John Hollander was an American poet and literary critic. At the time of his death, he was Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University, having previously taught at Connecticut College, Hunter College, and CUNY Graduate Center.

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David Landes, Jewish-American historian and economist (born 1924)

David Saul Landes was a professor of economics and of history at Harvard University. He is the author of Bankers and Pashas, Revolution in Time, The Unbound Prometheus, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, and Dynasties. Such works have received both praise for detailed retelling of economic history, as well as scorn on charges of Eurocentrism, a charge he openly embraced, arguing that an explanation for an economic miracle that happened originally only in Europe must, by necessity, be a Eurocentric analysis.

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Frank Martínez, American painter (born 1924)

Francisco Alonzo "Frank" Martínez was an American artist. He painted murals of his Mexican American heritage.

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Gus Winckel, Dutch lieutenant and pilot (born 1912)

Willem Frederick August "Gus" Winckel was a Dutch military officer and pilot who flew for the Royal Netherlands East Indies Air Force (ML-KNIL) in World War II. During the attack on Broome, Western Australia, on 3 March 1942, Winckel managed to land his plane full of refugees safely on the Broome airstrip just before the Japanese attack. He then dismounted the plane's machine gun and shot down one of the Japanese fighters, the only Allied "kill" during the attack.

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17/08/2012

Aase Bjerkholt, Norwegian politician, Minister of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion (born 1915)

Aase Ingerid Nathalie Bjerkholt was a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. She was born in Oslo.

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Victor Poor, American engineer, developed the Datapoint 2200 (born 1933)

Victor "Vic" Poor was an American engineer and computer pioneer. At Computer Terminal Corporation, he co-created the architecture that was ultimately implemented in the first successful computer microprocessor, the Intel 8008. Subsequently, Computer Terminal Corporation created the first personal computer, the Datapoint 2200 programmable terminal.

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Patrick Ricard, French businessman (born 1945)

Patrick Ricard was a French entrepreneur and chairman and CEO of the liquor and wine group Pernod Ricard.

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John Lynch-Staunton, Canadian lawyer and politician (born 1930)

John George Lynch-Staunton was a Canadian senator, who served as interim leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, from December 2003 to March 2004. He represented the Senate division of Grandville, Quebec. Lynch-Staunton was the first Senator to lead a federal political party since Arthur Meighen from 1941 to 1942.

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17/08/2010

Francesco Cossiga, Italian lawyer and politician, 8th President of Italy (born 1928)

Francesco Maurizio Cossiga was an Italian politician who served as the president of Italy from 1985 to 1992. A member of Christian Democracy, he was Prime Minister of Italy from 1979 to 1980. Cossiga is widely considered one of the most prominent and influential politicians of the First Italian Republic.

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17/08/2008

Franco Sensi, Italian businessman and politician (born 1926)

Francesco Sensi, Cavaliere del lavoro was an Italian oil tycoon. He was born in Rome, where he lived throughout his entire life, though he also served time as mayor of Visso, the city where his family came from. He had been for fifteen years, until his death, chairman of Roma, the major football club of Rome. He took control of the club in May 1993, both with Pietro Mezzaroma, and he then became the chairman on 8 November 1993.

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17/08/2007

Bill Deedes, English journalist and politician (born 1913)

William Francis Deedes, Baron Deedes, was a British Conservative politician, army officer and journalist. He was the first person in Britain to have been both a member of the Cabinet and the editor of a major daily newspaper, The Daily Telegraph.

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Eddie Griffin, American basketball player (born 1982)

Eddie Jamaal Griffin was an American professional basketball player from Philadelphia. He last played for the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves, who waived him on March 13, 2007. Months later, he was killed in a car crash.

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17/08/2006

Shamsur Rahman, Bangladeshi poet and journalist (born 1929)

Shamsur Rahman was a Bangladeshi poet, columnist and journalist. A prolific writer, Rahman produced more than sixty books of poetry collection and is considered a key figure in Bengali literature from the latter half of the 20th century. He was regarded as the unofficial poet laureate of Bangladesh. Major themes in his poetry and writings include liberal humanism, human relations, romanticised rebellion of youth, the emergence of and consequent events in Bangladesh, and opposition to religious fundamentalism.

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17/08/2005

John N. Bahcall, American astrophysicist and academic (born 1934)

John Norris Bahcall was an American astrophysicist and the Richard Black Professor for Astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced Study. He was known for a wide range of contributions to solar, galactic and extragalactic astrophysics, including the solar neutrino problem, the development of the Hubble Space Telescope, and his leadership and development of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

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17/08/2004

Thea Astley, Australian author and educator (born 1925)

Thea Beatrice May Astley was an Australian novelist and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more Miles Franklin Awards, Australia's major literary award, than any other writer. As well as being a writer, she taught at all levels of education – primary, secondary and tertiary.

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17/08/2000

Jack Walker, English businessman (born 1929)

Jack Walker was a British industrialist and businessman. Walker built his fortune in the steel industry, amassing a personal fortune of £600 million. He then went on to become the owner and benefactor of Blackburn Rovers, which won the 1994–95 FA Premier League under his ownership.

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17/08/1998

Władysław Komar, Polish shot putter and actor (born 1940)

Władysław Stefan Komar was a Lithuanian-born Polish shot putter, actor and cabaretist. Competing in three Summer Olympics between 1964 and 1972, he won the gold medal at the Munich Games in 1972 with a throw of 21.18 metres. His nickname was "King Kong" Komar as attributed to a Sports Illustrated article.

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Tadeusz Ślusarski, Polish pole vaulter (born 1950)

Tadeusz Ślusarski was a Polish Olympic gold medalist in pole vault at the 1976 Olympics, as well as a silver medalist at the 1980 Olympics.

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17/08/1995

Howard E. Koch, American playwright and screenwriter (born 1902)

Howard E. Koch was an American playwright and screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood film studio bosses in the 1950s. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Sergeant York.

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Ted Whitten, Australian footballer and coach (born 1933)

Edward James Whitten Sr. OAM was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Footscray Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

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17/08/1994

Luigi Chinetti, Italian-American race car driver and businessman (born 1901)

Luigi Chinetti was an Italian-born racecar driver, who emigrated to the United States during World War II. He drove in 12 consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans races, taking three outright wins there and taking two more at the Spa 24 Hours race. Chinetti owned the North American Racing Team, which successfully ran privateer Ferraris in sports car and Formula One races. For many years he was the exclusive American importer of Ferrari automobiles to the United States.

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Jack Morrison, Australian rugby league player (born 1905)

Jack Morrison (1905−1994) was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1930s for South Sydney and Canterbury-Bankstown. Morrison was a foundation player for Canterbury-Bankstown and the club's first captain.

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Jack Sharkey, American boxer and referee (born 1902)

Jack Sharkey was a Lithuanian-American boxer who held the NYSAC, NBA, and The Ring heavyweight titles from 1932 to 1933.

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17/08/1993

Feng Kang, Chinese mathematician and academic (born 1920)

Feng Kang was a Chinese mathematician. He was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980. After his death, the Chinese Academy of Sciences established the Feng Kang Prize in 1994 to reward young Chinese researchers who made outstanding contributions to computational mathematics.

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17/08/1990

Pearl Bailey, American actress and singer (born 1918)

Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress, singer, comedian and author. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She received a Special Tony Award for the title role in the all-Black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968. In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale. Her rendition of "Takes Two to Tango" hit the top ten in 1952.

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17/08/1988

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistani general and politician, 6th President of Pakistan (born 1924)

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was a Pakistani military officer and politician who served as the sixth president of Pakistan from 1978 until his death in an airplane crash in 1988. He also served as the second chief of the army staff of the Pakistan Army from 1976 until his death. The country's longest-serving de facto head of state and chief of the army staff, Zia's political ideology is known as Ziaism.

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., American lawyer and politician (born 1914)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. was an American lawyer, politician, and businessman. He served as a United States congressman from New York from 1949 to 1955 and in 1963 was appointed United States Under Secretary of Commerce by President John F. Kennedy. Roosevelt was appointed as the first chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1965 to 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Roosevelt also ran for governor of New York twice. Just after World War II, he served on Harry S. Truman's President's Committee on Civil Rights. Roosevelt was a son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and served as an officer in the United States Navy during World War II.

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Victoria Shaw, Australian actress (born 1935)

Victoria Shaw was an Australian film and television actress.

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17/08/1987

Gary Chester, Italian drummer and educator (born 1924)

Gary Chester was an American studio drummer, author, and teacher. Beginning in the 1960s, he played on hundreds of records for bands such as the Coasters, the Monkees and the Lovin' Spoonful.

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Rudolf Hess, German soldier and politician, convicted Nuremberg war criminal (born 1894)

Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a German politician, convicted war criminal, and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Germany. Appointed Deputy to the Führer in 1933, Hess held that position until 1941, when he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate the United Kingdom's exit from the Second World War. He was taken prisoner and eventually convicted of crimes against peace. He was still serving his life sentence and 93 years old at the time of his suicide in 1987.

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Shaike Ophir, Israeli actor and screenwriter (born 1929)

Shaike Ophir was an Israeli actor, comedian, playwright, screenwriter, director, and the country's first mime.

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17/08/1983

Ira Gershwin, American songwriter (born 1896)

Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable English-language songs of the 20th century. With George, he wrote more than a dozen Broadway shows, featuring songs such as "I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You", "The Man I Love", and "Someone to Watch Over Me". He was also responsible, along with DuBose Heyward, for the libretto to George's opera Porgy and Bess.

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17/08/1979

John C. Allen, American roller coaster designer (born 1907)

John C. Allen was a roller coaster designer who was responsible for the revival of wooden roller coasters which began in the 1960s. He attended Drexel University. He started working for the Philadelphia Toboggan Company in 1934 as a coaster operator and rose to become president of the company by 1954. He designed more than 25 coasters and made significant contributions to roller coaster technology. He once said, "You don't need a degree in engineering to design roller coasters, you need a degree in psychology."

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Vivian Vance, American actress and singer (born 1909)

Vivian Vance was an American actress best known for playing landlady Ethel Mertz on the sitcom I Love Lucy (1951–1957), for which she won the 1953 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress, among other accolades. She also starred alongside Lucille Ball in The Lucy Show from 1962 until she left the series at the end of its third season in 1965. In 1991, she posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is most commonly identified as Lucille Ball’s longtime comedic foil from 1951 until her death in 1979.

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17/08/1977

Delmer Daves, American screenwriter, director and producer (born 1904)

Delmer Lawrence Daves was an American screenwriter, film director and film producer. He worked in many genres, including film noir and warfare, but he is best known for his Western movies, especially Broken Arrow (1950), The Last Wagon (1956), 3:10 to Yuma (1957) and The Hanging Tree (1959). He was required to work exclusively on studio-based films after heart trouble in 1959, one of which, A Summer Place (1959), was a huge commercial success.

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17/08/1973

Conrad Aiken, American novelist, short story writer, critic, and poet (born 1889)

Conrad Potter Aiken was an American writer and poet, honored with a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, and was United States Poet Laureate from 1950 to 1952. His published works include poetry, short stories, novels, literary criticism, a play, and an autobiography.

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Jean Barraqué, French pianist and composer (born 1928)

Jean-Henri-Alphonse Barraqué was a French composer and music writer. His relatively small œuvre is known for its serialism.

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Paul Williams, American singer and choreographer (born 1939)

Paul Williams was an American baritone singer. He was noted for being one of the founding members and the original lead singer of the Motown group the Temptations. Personal problems and failing health forced Williams to retire in 1971, and he was found dead two years later as the result of an apparent suicide at age 34.

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17/08/1971

Maedayama Eigorō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 39th Yokozuna (born 1914)

Maedayama Eigorō was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Ehime Prefecture. He was the sport's 39th yokozuna.

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Wilhelm List, German field marshal (born 1880)

Siegmund Wilhelm Walther List was a German war criminal and Generalfeldmarschall of the Wehrmacht during World War II.

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17/08/1970

Rattana Pestonji, Thai director and producer (born 1908)

Rattana Pestonji was a Thai film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer and is regarded as the father of contemporary Thai film. Although his filmography was brief, his films placed Thai cinema on the world stage. He also pushed for innovations, and was one of the first Thai directors to use 35-mm film. He died just as he was giving a speech to government officials to call for support of a domestic industry he saw as coming under threat from Hollywood films.

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17/08/1969

Otto Stern, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1888)

Otto Stern was a German-American experimental physical chemist. He is the second most nominated person for a Nobel Prize, with 82 nominations during the years 1925–1945. In 1943, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton".

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17/08/1966

Ken Miles, English race car driver and engineer (born 1918)

Kenneth Henry Jarvis Miles was an English sports car racing engineer and driver best known for his motorsport career in the U.S. and with American teams on the international scene. He is an inductee to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. As an automotive engineer, he is known for developing, along with driver and designer Carroll Shelby, the Ford GT40, the car that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969. Miles and Shelby's efforts at Le Mans were dramatized in the 2019 Oscar-winning film Ford v Ferrari.

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17/08/1958

Arthur Fox, English-American fencer (born 1878)

Arthur George Fox was an English-American fencer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.

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17/08/1949

Gregorio Perfecto, Filipino journalist, jurist, and politician (born 1891)

Gregorio Milián Perfecto was a Filipino journalist, politician and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines from 1945 to 1949. A controversial figure who was described as an "apostle of liberal causes", Perfecto was notable for his libertarian views, his colorful writing style, and the frequency of his dissenting opinions while on the Supreme Court.

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17/08/1945

Reidar Haaland, Norwegian police officer and soldier (born 1919)

Reidar Haaland was a police officer and Waffen-SS member.

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17/08/1940

Billy Fiske, American soldier and pilot (born 1911)

William Meade Lindsley Fiske III was an American combat fighter pilot and Olympic bobsledder. At the 1928 and 1932 Winter Olympics, Fiske won gold as driver for the US bobsledding team, also acting as the American Olympic flagbearer in 1932.

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17/08/1936

José María of Manila, Spanish-Filipino priest and martyr (born 1880)

José María of Manila was a Criollo Catholic priest and friar of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. He was martyred in the early phase of the Spanish Civil War, and is the third Filipino to have been declared blessed by the Roman Catholic Church.

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17/08/1935

Adam Gunn, American decathlete (born 1872)

Adam Beattie Gunn was a Scottish-American athlete who competed mainly in the "All rounder", the forerunner of today's Decathlon. Gunn took first place in the Amateur Athletic Union's U.S. All-around championships in 1901 and 1902. The 1901 title was won in Buffalo, New York which Gunn adopted as his home town.

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American sociologist and author (born 1860)

Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman, also known by her first married name Charlotte Perkins Stetson, was an American humanist, novelist, writer, lecturer, early sociologist, and advocate for social reform. She was an early and leading figure in the women's rights movement in the United States. Her works were primarily focused on gender, specifically gendered labor division in society, and the problem of male domination. Gilman is best known for the semi-autobiographical short story The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), based on her experience with postpartum depression, her manifesto calling for women's economic independence, Women and Economics (1898), and the utopian feminist novel, Herland (1915). She has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

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17/08/1925

Ioan Slavici, Romanian journalist and author (born 1848)

Ioan Slavici was a Romanian writer and journalist from Austria-Hungary, later Romania.

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17/08/1924

Tom Kendall, English-Australian cricketer and journalist (born 1851)

Thomas Kingston Kendall was an Australian cricketer, who played in two Test matches in 1877, including the inaugural Test which was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1877.

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17/08/1920

Ray Chapman, American baseball player (born 1891)

Raymond Johnson Chapman was an American baseball player. He spent his entire career as a shortstop for the Cleveland Indians of the American League.

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17/08/1918

Moisei Uritsky, Russian activist and politician (born 1873)

Moisei Solomonovich Uritsky, also known by his pen-name Boretsky, was a Bolshevik revolutionary leader in Russia. After the October Revolution, he was the head of the Petrograd Cheka from January 1918 until his death on 30 August 1918. Uritsky was assassinated by Leonid Kannegisser, a military cadet, who was executed shortly afterwards.

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17/08/1909

Madan Lal Dhingra, Indian activist (born 1883)

Madan Lal Dhingra was an Indian freedom fighter who, whilst a student at University College London in 1909, assassinated Sir William Hutt Curzon Wyllie, the political Aide-de-camp to the secretary of State for India, in London.

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17/08/1908

Radoje Domanović, Serbian satirist and journalist (born 1873)

Radoje Domanović was a Serbian journalist, writer and teacher, most famous for his satirical short stories. His adult years were a constant fight against tuberculosis. This circumstance of his life, and the affection which he inspired in all who knew him, created an aura of romanticism and sentimentality which stand in contrast to his literary accomplishments as a satirist and a powerful critic of the contemporary Serbian society.

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17/08/1903

Hans Gude, Norwegian-German painter and academic (born 1825)

Hans Fredrik Gude was a Norwegian romanticist painter and is considered along with Johan Christian Dahl to be one of Norway's foremost landscape painters. He has been called a mainstay of Norwegian National Romanticism. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting and is best known for landscapes of Norway’s mountains, fjords, and coast.

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17/08/1901

Edmond Audran, French organist and composer (born 1842)

Achille Edmond Audran was a French composer best known for several internationally successful comic operas and operettas.

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17/08/1897

William Jervois, English engineer and diplomat, 10th Governor of South Australia (born 1821)

Lieutenant-General Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois was a British military engineer and diplomat. After joining the British Army in 1839, he saw service, as a second captain, in South Africa. In 1858, as a major, he was appointed Secretary of a Royal Commission set up to examine the state and efficiency of British land-based fortifications against naval attack; and this led to further work in Canada and South Australia. From 1875 to 1888 he was, consecutively, Governor of the Straits Settlements, Governor of South Australia and Governor of New Zealand.

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17/08/1875

Wilhelm Bleek, German linguist and anthropologist (born 1827)

Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek was a German linguist who lived in the Cape Colony and developed a particular interest for the languages and culture of the San people. He is the author of A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages. His great project, jointly executed with Lucy Lloyd in collaboration with San individuals who came to stay at his house for months or years, is the Bleek and Lloyd Archive of ǀxam and ǃkun texts, which has been listed on UNESCO's Memory of the World register. A collection of these texts eventually reached press with Specimens of Bushman Folklore. Bleek was influenced by scientific racism and this is reflected in some of his scientific practices and theories.

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17/08/1870

Perucho Figueredo, Cuban poet and activist (born 1818)

Pedro Felipe Figueredo,, mostly known as Perucho, was a Cuban poet, musician, and freedom fighter of the 19th century. In the 1860s, he was active in the planning of the Cuban uprising against the Spanish known as the Ten Years' War.

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17/08/1861

Alcée Louis la Branche, American politician and diplomat, 1st United States Ambassador to Texas (born 1806)

Alcée Louis la Branche was an American politician who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the state of Louisiana. He served one term as a Democrat from 1843 to 1845.

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17/08/1850

José de San Martín, Argentinian general and politician, 1st President of Peru (born 1778)

José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras, nicknamed "the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru", was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and central parts of South America's successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire who served as the Protector of Peru. Born in Yapeyú, Corrientes, in modern-day Argentina, he left the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata at the early age of seven to study in Málaga, Spain.

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17/08/1838

Lorenzo Da Ponte, Italian playwright and poet (born 1749)

Lorenzo Da Ponte was an Italian, later American librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest. He wrote the libretti for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's most celebrated operas: The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790).

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17/08/1834

Husein Gradaščević, Ottoman general (born 1802)

Husein Gradaščević (Husein-kapetan), also known as Zmaj od Bosne, was an Ottoman Bosnian military commander who led an uprising against the Tanzimat, a system of political reforms with aim to modernise the Ottoman Empire. Born into a Bosnian noble family, Gradaščević became the captain of Gradačac in the early 1820s, succeeding his relatives in the position. He grew up surrounded by a political climate of turmoil in the western reaches of the Ottoman Empire. With the Russo-Turkish war (1828–29), Gradaščević's importance rose; the Bosnian governor gave him the task of mobilising an army between the Drina and Vrbas.

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17/08/1814

John Johnson, English architect and surveyor (born 1732)

John Johnson was an English architect and surveyor to the county of Essex. He is best known for designing the Shire Hall, Chelmsford.

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17/08/1809

Matthew Boulton, English businessman and engineer, co-founded Boulton and Watt (born 1728)

Matthew Boulton was an English businessman, inventor, mechanical engineer, and silversmith. He was a business partner of the Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines, which were a great advance on the state of the art, making possible the mechanisation of factories and mills. Boulton applied modern techniques to the minting of coins, striking millions of pieces for Britain and other countries, and supplying the Royal Mint with up-to-date equipment.

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17/08/1786

Frederick the Great, Prussian king (born 1712)

Frederick II was the monarch of Prussia from 1740 until his death in 1786. He was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled King in Prussia, declaring himself King of Prussia after annexing Royal Prussia from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772. His most significant accomplishments include military successes in the Silesian wars, reorganisation of the Prussian Army, the First Partition of Poland, and patronage of the arts and the Enlightenment. Prussia greatly increased its territories and became a major military power in Europe under his rule. He became known as Frederick the Great and was nicknamed "Old Fritz".

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17/08/1785

Jonathan Trumbull, English-American merchant and politician, 16th Governor of Connecticut (born 1710)

Jonathan Trumbull Sr. was an American politician who served as the governor of Connecticut during the American Revolution. Trumbull and Nicholas Cooke of Rhode Island were the only men to serve as governor of both a British colony and a U.S. state, and he was the only governor to take up the Patriot cause at the start of the Revolutionary War. Trumbull College at Yale University, the town of Trumbull, Connecticut, Trumbull County, Ohio, and Jonathan the Husky the UConn mascot are all named for him. Trumbull was the father of John Trumbull, the noted artist, and Jonathan Trumbull Jr., Governor of Connecticut and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

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17/08/1768

Vasily Trediakovsky, Russian poet and playwright (born 1703)

Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky was a Russian poet, essayist and playwright who helped lay the foundations of classical Russian literature.

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17/08/1723

Joseph Bingham, English scholar and academic (born 1668)

Joseph Bingham was an English scholar and divine, who wrote on ecclesiastical history.

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17/08/1720

Anne Dacier, French scholar and translator (born 1654)

Anne Le Fèvre Dacier, better known during her lifetime as Madame Dacier, was a French scholar, translator, commentator and editor of the classics, including the Iliad and the Odyssey. She sought to champion ancient literature and used her great capabilities in Latin and Greek for this purpose as well as for her own financial support, producing a series of editions and translations from which she earned her living. She was the dedicatee of Gilles Ménage's Historia mulierum philosopharum, whose characterisation of her and of Anna Maria van Schurman was used to provide leading examples in treatises arguing for female education across the following centuries.

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17/08/1676

Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, German author (born 1621)

Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen was a German author. He is best known for his 1669 picaresque novel Simplicius Simplicissimus and the accompanying Simplician Scriptures series, including The Life of Courage.

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17/08/1673

Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (born 1641)

Regnier de Graaf, original Dutch spelling Reinier de Graaf, or Latinized Reijnerus de Graeff, was a Dutch physician, physiologist and anatomist who made key discoveries in reproductive biology. He specialized in iatrochemistry and iatrogenesis, and was the first to develop a syringe to inject dye into human reproductive organs so that he could understand their structure and function.

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17/08/1547

Katharina von Zimmern, Swiss sovereign abbess (born 1478)

Katharina von Zimmern, also known as the imperial abbess of Zürich and Katharina von Reischach, was the last abbess of the Fraumünster Abbey in Zürich.

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17/08/1510

Edmund Dudley, English politician, Speaker of the House of Commons (born 1462)

Edmund Dudley was an English administrator and a financial agent of King Henry VII. He served as a leading member of the Council Learned in the Law, Speaker of the House of Commons and President of the King's Council. After the accession of Henry VIII in 1509, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed the next year on a treason charge. While waiting for his execution he wrote The Tree of Commonwealth. Edmund Dudley was both the father of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, Edward VI's second Regent and the grandfather of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, a favourite of Henry VIII's daughter, Elizabeth I.

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Richard Empson, English statesman

Sir Richard Empson, minister of Henry VII, was a son of Peter Empson. Educated as a lawyer, he soon attained considerable success in his profession, and in 1491 was a Knight of the shire for Northamptonshire in Parliament, and Speaker of the House of Commons.

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17/08/1424

John Stewart, Earl of Buchan (born c. 1381)

John Stewart, Earl of Buchan was a Scottish nobleman and soldier who fought alongside the Kingdom of France during the Hundred Years War. In 1419, he was sent to France by his father the Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, with a Scottish army of 6,000 men. Stewart led the combined Franco-Scottish army at the Battle of Baugé on 21 March 1421, where he comprehensively routed an English force under Thomas of Lancaster, Duke of Clarence.

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17/08/1338

Nitta Yoshisada, Japanese samurai (born 1301)

Nitta Yoshisada also known as Minamoto no Yoshisada was a samurai lord of the Nanboku-chō period Japan. He was the head of the Nitta clan in the early fourteenth century, and supported the Southern Court of Emperor Go-Daigo in the Nanboku-chō period. He famously marched on Kamakura, besieging and capturing it from the Hōjō clan in 1333.

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17/08/1324

Irene of Brunswick (born 1293)

Irene of Brunswick, born Adelheid, was the first wife of Andronikos III Palaiologos, and by marriage Byzantine empress, although she died before her husband became senior emperor.

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17/08/1304

Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan (born 1243)

Emperor Go-Fukakusa was the 89th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. This reign spanned the years 1246 through 1260.

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17/08/1153

Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne (born 1130)

Eustace IV ruled the County of Boulogne from 1146 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Stephen of England and Countess Matilda I of Boulogne. When his father seized the English throne on Henry I's death in 1135, he became heir apparent to the English throne but predeceased his father.

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17/08/0949

Li Shouzhen, Chinese general and governor

Li Shouzhen was a Chinese military general, monarch, and politician of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period states Later Jin and Later Han, as well as (briefly) the Khitan Liao dynasty. During the reign of Later Han's second emperor Liu Chengyou, he became concerned that he was being targeted by the officials assisting the young emperor, and therefore rebelled. His rebellion was defeated by the Later Han general Guo Wei, however, and he committed suicide.

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17/08/0754

Carloman, mayor of the palace of Austrasia

Carloman was the eldest son of Charles Martel, mayor of the palace and duke of the Franks, and his wife Chrotrud of Treves. On Charles's death (741), Carloman and his brother Pepin the Short succeeded to their father's legal positions, Carloman in Austrasia, and Pepin in Neustria. He was a member of the family later called the Carolingians and it can be argued that he was instrumental in consolidating their power at the expense of the ruling Merovingian kings of the Franks. He withdrew from public life in 747 to take up the monastic habit, "the first of a new type of saintly king", according to Norman Cantor, "more interested in religious devotion than royal power, who frequently appeared in the following three centuries and who was an indication of the growing impact of Christian piety on Germanic society".

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