Died on Thursday, 21st August – Famous Deaths

21/08/2024

Nell McCafferty, Northern Irish journalist, playwright and civil rights campaigner (born 1944)

Ellen Pamela McCafferty was an Irish journalist, playwright, civil rights campaigner and feminist. She wrote for The Irish Press, The Irish Times, Sunday Tribune, Hot Press and The Village Voice.

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Bill Pascrell, American politician (born 1937)

William James Pascrell Jr. was an American politician who was a U.S. representative from New Jersey from 1997 until his death in 2024. Pascrell was a member of the Democratic Party and native of Paterson. Before his election to the House of Representatives, Pascrell served in the New Jersey General Assembly for four terms beginning in 1988 and was elected to two terms as mayor of Paterson.

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John Amos, American actor (born 1939)

John Allen Amos Jr. was an American actor. He was best known for his role as James Evans Sr. on the CBS television series Good Times. His other well known roles were as the adult Kunta Kinte in the landmark miniseries Roots and for portraying Captain Meissner in Lock Up (1989) and Major Grant in Die Hard 2 (1990). His other television work includes The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a recurring role as Admiral Percy Fitzwallace on The West Wing, and the role of the Mayor of Washington DC Ethan Baker in the series The District. Amos was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and an NAACP Image Award. In film, he played numerous supporting roles in movies such as The Beastmaster (1982), Coming to America (1988), and Coming 2 America (2021).

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21/08/2019

Celso Piña, Mexican singer, composer, arranger, and accordionist (born 1953)

Celso Piña Arvizu was a Mexican singer, composer and accordionist, mainly in the genre of cumbia, being one of the most important musicians in the style of "cumbia rebajada".

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21/08/2018

Stefán Karl Stefánsson, Icelandic actor and singer (born 1975)

Stefán Karl Stefánsson was an Icelandic actor and singer. He was best known for portraying Robbie Rotten, the antagonist of the children's television series LazyTown.

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21/08/2017

Bajram Rexhepi, First Kosovan Prime Ministers of UN mission administration in Kosovo (born 1954)

Bajram Rexhepi, was a Kosovar politician who served as the first elected post-war Prime Minister of Kosovo, and later as interior minister and as a member of the Kosovo Assembly. He was a member of the second largest political party in Kosovo, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK).

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21/08/2015

Colin Beyer, New Zealand lawyer and businessman (born 1938)

Colin Andrew Nielsen Beyer was a New Zealand lawyer. He was a partner and then consultant with Simpson Grierson in Wellington. Also a prominent businessman with many governance positions, Beyer was a securities commissioner on the Securities Commission of New Zealand from 2001 until 2010. He was the stepfather of former Member of Parliament Georgina Beyer.

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Wang Dongxing, Chinese commander and politician (born 1916)

Wang Dongxing was a Chinese military commander and politician, famous for being the chief of Mao Zedong's personal bodyguard force, the 9th Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security. Wang held many important positions, both in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the government; he was Deputy Minister of Public Security in 1955–1958 and again in 1960–1970 and notably served as CCP Vice Chairman from 1977 to 1980, under Chairman Hua Guofeng.

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Jimmy Evert, American tennis player and coach (born 1924)

James Andrew "Jimmy" Evert was an American tennis coach and player. He was the father of Chris Evert, who was one of the world's top women tennis players in the 1970s and 1980s.

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21/08/2014

Gerry Anderson, Irish radio and television host (born 1944)

Gerald Michael Anderson was a Northern Irish radio and television broadcaster for BBC Northern Ireland. Renowned for his unique style and distinctive sense of humour, Anderson often referred to himself on his show, as "Turkey Neck", "Puppet Chin" or "Golf Mike Alpha".

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Helen Bamber, English psychotherapist and academic (born 1925)

Helen Rae Bamber OBE, née Helen Balmuth, was a British psychotherapist and human rights activist. She worked with Holocaust survivors in Germany after the concentration camps were liberated in 1945. In 1947, she returned to Britain and continued her work, helping to establish Amnesty International and later co-founding the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. In 2005, she created the Helen Bamber Foundation to help survivors of human rights violations.

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Steven R. Nagel, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut (born 1946)

Steven Ray Nagel, , was an American astronaut, aeronautical and mechanical engineer, test pilot, and a United States Air Force pilot. In total, he logged 723 hours in space. After NASA, he worked at the University of Missouri College of Engineering as an instructor in its Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department.

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Jean Redpath, Scottish singer-songwriter (born 1937)

Jean Redpath MBE was a Scottish folk singer.

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Albert Reynolds, Irish businessman and politician, ninth Taoiseach of Ireland (born 1932)

Albert Martin Reynolds was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1992 to 1994. Between 1979 and 1991, he held several cabinet positions, including Minister for Finance from 1988 to 1991. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Longford–Roscommon from 1977 to 1992, and for Longford–Westmeath from 1992 to 2002.

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21/08/2013

Jean Berkey, American lawyer and politician (born 1938)

Jean Louise Berkey was an American politician who served as a Washington State Senator from Washington's 38th legislative district from 2005 to 2011. Her career ended due to the Moxie Media scandal: in the 2010 primary election, her fellow Democrat, Nick Harper, bankrolled ads for a third candidate in an effort to "Squeeze The Middle" and prevent the moderate incumbent Berkey from running in the general election. The state's election watchdog committee unanimously voted to refer the case to the state Attorney General Rob McKenna, who promptly "filed suit, alleging multiple campaign-finance violations." Berkey placed third in the primary, and despite a call several former state senators to hold another election, was prevented from running in the general election per Washington state's 'top two' primary system. Her term ended in January 2011.

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Sid Bernstein, American record producer (born 1918)

Sidney Bernstein was an American music promoter, talent manager, and author. Bernstein changed the American music scene in the 1960s by bringing the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, the Moody Blues, and the Kinks to America. He was the first impresario to organize rock concerts at sports stadiums.

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C. Gordon Fullerton, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut (born 1936)

Charles Gordon Fullerton was a United States Air Force colonel, a USAF and NASA astronaut, and a research pilot at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, California. His assignments included a variety of flight research and support activities piloting NASA's B-52 launch aircraft, the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), and other multi-engine and high performance aircraft.

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Fred Martin, Scottish footballer (born 1929)

Fred George Martin was a Scottish professional footballer, who played as a goalkeeper. His only senior club was Aberdeen, with whom he played for 14 years. He also represented Scotland during their first FIFA World Cup finals appearance in 1954.

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Enos Nkala, Zimbabwean politician, Zimbabwean Minister of Defence (born 1932)

Enos Mzombi Nkala was one of the founders of the Zimbabwe African National Union.

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21/08/2012

Georg Leber, German soldier and politician, Federal Minister of Defence for Germany (born 1920)

Georg Leber was a German Trades Union leader and a politician in the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

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J. Frank Raley Jr., American soldier and politician (born 1926)

John Frank Raley Jr. was a Maryland politician and an advocate for education, economic development and protection and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay.

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Don Raleigh, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1926)

James Donald Raleigh was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played centre with the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League between 1943 and 1956.

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Guy Spitaels, Belgian academic and politician, seventh Minister-President of Wallonia (born 1931)

Guy Gustave Arthur Ghislain Spitaels was a Belgian politician of the Socialist Party. He was the 7th Minister-President of Wallonia from 1992 to 1994 and president of his party for thirteen years, until he was succeeded by Philippe Busquin.

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William Thurston, American mathematician and academic (born 1946)

William Paul Thurston was an American mathematician. He was a pioneer in the field of low-dimensional topology and was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982 for his contributions to the study of 3-manifolds.

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21/08/2010

Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill, Argentinean sociologist and author (born 1941)

Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill, who normally went only by his surname, Fogwill, was an Argentine short story writer, novelist, and businessman. He was a distant relative of the novelist Charles Langbridge Morgan. He was the author of Malvinas Requiem, one of the first narratives to deal with the Falklands War. Fogwill died on August 21, 2010, from a pulmonary dysfunction.

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21/08/2009

Rex Shelley, Singaporean engineer and author (born 1930)

Rex Anthony Shelley was a Singaporean author. A graduate of the University of Malaya in Malaysia and Cambridge trained in engineering and economics, Shelley managed his own business and also worked as member of the Public Service Commission (PSC) for over 30 years. For his service, he was conferred the Bintang Bakti Masyarakat by the Government of Singapore in 1978, and an additional Bar the next year.

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21/08/2008

Jerry Finn, American engineer and producer (born 1969)

Jermone Gregory Finn, sometimes credited as "Huckle" Jerry Finn, was an American record producer and mix engineer. He worked with numerous punk rock and pop-punk artists such as Blink-182, AFI, Sum 41, Alkaline Trio, Green Day, MxPx, and Rancid. Finn was known for the warm guitar tone present on albums he produced as well as the "punchy" sound of his mixes. He was instrumental in developing the polished sound of pop-punk in its second wave of popularity between the mid-1990s and early 2000s.

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21/08/2007

Frank Bowe, American academic (born 1947)

Frank G. Bowe was a deaf American disability studies academic, activist, author, and the Dr. Mervin Livingston Schloss Distinguished Professor for the Study of Disabilities at Hofstra University. As a disability rights activist, author, and teacher, he accomplished a series of firsts for individuals with disabilities.

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Siobhan Dowd, British author (born 1960)

Siobhan Dowd was a British writer and activist. The last book she completed, Bog Child, posthumously won the 2009 Carnegie Medal from the professional librarians, recognising the year's best book for children or young adults published in the UK.

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Elizabeth P. Hoisington, American general (born 1918)

Elizabeth Paschel Hoisington was a United States Army officer who was one of the first two women to attain the rank of brigadier general.

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21/08/2006

Bismillah Khan, Indian musician, Bharat Ratna recipient (born 1916)

Ustad Bismillah Khan, often referred to by the title Ustad, was an Indian musician credited with popularizing the shehnai, a reeded woodwind instrument. His virtuosity made him a leading Hindustani classical music artist, indelibly linking his name with the woodwind instrument. While the shehnai had importance as a folk instrument played primarily by musicians schooled in traditional ceremonies, Khan elevated its status and brought it to the concert stage.

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Paul Fentener van Vlissingen, Dutch businessman and philanthropist (born 1941)

Paul Fentener van Vlissingen was a Dutch businessman and philanthropist who was CEO of SHV Holdings for three decades. He contributed to the development of game reserves in Africa and purchased the Letterewe estate in Scotland in 1978. He pledged the right to roam there prior to the passage of the Scottish Land Reform Act of 2003.

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21/08/2005

Martin Dillon, American tenor and educator (born 1957)

Martin Dillon was an American musician, operatic tenor, and professor of music at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey.

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Robert Moog, American businessman, founded Moog Music (born 1934)

Robert Arthur Moog was an American engineer and electronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthesizer, which debuted in 1964. In 1970, Moog released a more portable model, the Minimoog, described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history. Among Moog's honors are a Technical Grammy Award, received in 2002, and an induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

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Dahlia Ravikovitch, Israeli poet and translator (born 1936)

Dahlia Ravikovitch was an Israeli poet, translator and recipient of the Israel Prize for Poetry in 1998.

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Marcus Schmuck, Austrian mountaineer (born 1925)

Marcus Schmuck was an Austrian mountaineer. In 1957, together with Hermann Buhl he organized the expedition, firstly envisaged and initiated by Buhl, to climb the world's 12th highest peak, the Broad Peak (8,047 metres) in the Karakoram in Pakistan. The other members of the expedition were: Fritz Wintersteller and Kurt Diemberger. In his later years, he successfully organized and led 74 expeditions to the high mountains around the world.

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21/08/2004

Sachidananda Routray, Indian Oriya-language poet (born 1916)

Sachidananda Routray was an Indian poet, novelist and short-story writer who wrote in Odia. He received Jnanpith Award, the highest literary award of India, in 1986. He was popularly known as Biplabi Kabi Sachi Routray.

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21/08/2003

John Coplans, British artist (born 1920)

John Rivers Coplans was a British artist, art writer, curator, and museum director. A veteran of World War II and a photographer, he emigrated to the United States in 1960 and had many exhibitions in Europe and North America. He was on the founding editorial staff of Artforum from 1962 to 1971, and was Editor-in-Chief from 1972 to 1977.

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Kathy Wilkes, English philosopher and academic (born 1946)

Kathleen Vaughan Wilkes was an English philosopher and academic who played an important part in reform education systems of former Communist countries after 1990. She established her reputation as an academic with her contributions to the philosophy of mind in two major works and many articles in professional journals. As a conscientious college tutor, she won the respect and affection of her students and academic colleagues. Her most notable contribution lay in her clandestine activities behind the Iron Curtain, which led to the establishment of Underground University and academic networks in Communists Eastern Europe. For her work in support of this network President Václav Havel awarded her the Commemorative Medal of the President of the Czech Republic in October 1998.

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21/08/2001

Calum MacKay, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1927)

Calum "Baldy" MacKay was a Canadian professional ice hockey winger. He played in the National Hockey League with the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens between 1947 and 1955. With Montreal, he won the Stanley Cup in 1953. MacKay was born in Toronto, Ontario, but grew up in Port Arthur, Ontario.

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21/08/2000

Tomata du Plenty, American singer-songwriter and playwright (born 1948)

David Xavier Harrigan, also Tomata du Plenty, was an American singer of the late 1970s and early 1980s Los Angeles electropunk band The Screamers. He was also the founder of Seattle's counterculture troupe Ze Whiz Kidz. During the later part of his life he focused on painting.

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Daniel Lisulo, Zambian politician, third Prime Minister of Zambia (born 1930)

Daniel Muchiwa Lisulo was the 3rd Prime Minister of Zambia from June 1978 until February 1981.

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Andrzej Zawada, Polish mountaineer and author (born 1928)

Andrzej Zawada was a Polish mountaineer, expedition leader and pioneer of winter Himalayism. Zawada was an organiser and leader of numerous high-mountains expeditions, author of movies and photographs from expeditions, and co-author of Alpinist books. He was an honorary member of the British Alpine Club, French Groupe de Haute Montagne and The Explorers Club in the United States.

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21/08/1996

Mary Two-Axe Earley, Canadian indigenous women's rights activist (born 1911)

Mary Two-Axe Earley was a Canadian Mohawk and Oneida women's rights activist from the reserve of Kahnawake in Quebec. After losing her legal Indian status due to marrying a non-status man, Two-Axe Earley advocated for changes to the Indian Act, which had promoted gender discrimination and stripped First Nations women of the right to participate in the political and cultural life of their home reserves.

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21/08/1995

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian-American astrophysicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1910)

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was an Indian-American theoretical physicist. He shared the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars." His mathematical treatment of stellar evolution yielded many of the current theoretical models of the later evolutionary stages of massive stars. The Chandrasekhar limit describes the maximum mass of a white dwarf. Above it, a stellar remnant will collapse to form a neutron star or black hole. Many concepts, institutions and inventions, including the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, are named after him.

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Chuck Stevenson, American race car driver (born 1919)

Charles Joseph Stevenson was an American racing driver who competed in various disciplines of motorsport. He is best known for winning the AAA National Championship in 1952. Stevenson also had two class victories in the Carrera Panamericana and won a NASCAR Grand National event.

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21/08/1993

Tatiana Troyanos, American soprano and actress (born 1938)

Tatiana Troyanos was an American mezzo-soprano remembered as "one of the defining singers of her generation". Her voice, "a paradoxical voice — larger than life yet intensely human, brilliant yet warm, lyric yet dramatic" — "was the kind you recognize after one bar, and never forget", wrote Cori Ellison in Opera News.

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21/08/1989

Raul Seixas, Brazilian singer-songwriter and producer (born 1945)

Raul Santos Seixas was a Brazilian singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, considered "Father of Brazilian Rock". His musical work consists of seventeen albums released during his 26-year career. His musical style is traditionally classified as rock and baião, and he did indeed manage to unite both genres in songs like "Let me Sing, Let me Sing". His debut album, Raulzito e os Panteras (1968), was produced when he was part of the group Raulzito e os Panteras, but he only gained critical and public acclaim with songs like "Ouro de Tolo", "Mosca na Sopa" and "Metamorfose Ambulante," from the album Krig-ha, Bandolo! (1973). Raul Seixas had a musical style that was called "rebellious and mystical". This is due to the ideals he championed, such as the Alternative Society presented in the album Gita (1974), influenced by figures like the British occultist Aleister Crowley.

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21/08/1988

Teodoro de Villa Diaz, Filipino guitarist and songwriter (born 1963)

Teodoro "Teddy" de Villa Diaz was a Filipino musician and songwriter, best known as the founder and original guitarist of the Dawn.

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Ray Eames, American architect, co-designed the Eames House (born 1912)

Charles Eames Jr. and Ray-Bernice Eames were an American married couple of industrial designers who made significant historical contributions to the development of modern architecture and furniture through the work of the Eames Office. They also worked in the fields of industrial and graphic design, fine art, and film. Charles was the public face of the Eames Office, but Ray and Charles worked together as creative partners and employed a diverse creative staff. Among their most recognized designs is the Eames Lounge Chair and the Eames Fiberglass Armchair.

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21/08/1983

Benigno Aquino Jr., Filipino journalist and politician (born 1932)

Benigno Simeón "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., was a Filipino politician and journalist who served as a senator of the Philippines (1967–1972) and governor of the province of Tarlac (1963–1967). Aquino was the husband of Corazon Aquino, who became the 11th president of the Philippines after his assassination, and father of Benigno Aquino III, who became the 15th president of the Philippines. Aquino, together with Gerry Roxas and Jovito R. Salonga, helped form the leadership of the Liberal Party-based coalition against ex-President Ferdinand Marcos. Aquino was a significant emotional leader, who, together with the intellectual leader Sen. Jose W. Diokno, led the overall opposition.

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21/08/1981

Kaka Kalelkar, Indian Hindi Writer(born 1885)

Dattatreya Balkrishna Kalelkar, popularly known as Kaka Kalelkar, was an Indian independence activist, social reformer, journalist and an eminent follower of the philosophy and methods of Mahatma Gandhi.

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21/08/1979

Giuseppe Meazza, Italian footballer and manager (born 1910)

Giuseppe Meazza was an Italian football manager and player. Throughout his career, he played mainly for Inter Milan in the 1930s, scoring 284 goals in 408 games for the club, and winning three Serie A titles, as well as the Coppa Italia; he later also played for two seasons for local rivals Milan, as well as Turin rivals Juventus for one season, in addition to his spells with Varese and Atalanta. At the international level, he led Italy to win two consecutive World Cups: in 1934 on home soil, and in 1938 as captain, being named to the All-star Team. He is widely regarded as one of the best players of the 20th century, and one of the greatest Italian strikers in the history of the sport.

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21/08/1978

Charles Eames, American architect, co-designed the Eames House (born 1907)

Charles Eames Jr. and Ray-Bernice Eames were an American married couple of industrial designers who made significant historical contributions to the development of modern architecture and furniture through the work of the Eames Office. They also worked in the fields of industrial and graphic design, fine art, and film. Charles was the public face of the Eames Office, but Ray and Charles worked together as creative partners and employed a diverse creative staff. Among their most recognized designs is the Eames Lounge Chair and the Eames Fiberglass Armchair.

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21/08/1974

Buford Pusser, American police officer (born 1937)

Buford Hayse Pusser was an American police officer and politician who served as the sheriff of McNairy County, Tennessee from 1964 to 1970 and constable of Adamsville from 1970 to 1972. His time in office inspired several books, songs, and movies, most notably Walking Tall. He was also a wrestler known as "Buford the Bull" in the Mid-South.

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Kirpal Singh, Indian spiritual master (born 1894)

Kirpal Singh was a spiritual master (satguru) in the tradition of Radha Soami.

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21/08/1971

George Jackson, American activist and author, co-founded the Black Guerrilla Family (born 1941)

George Lester Jackson was an American author, prisoner, and revolutionary. While serving an indeterminate sentence for stealing $71 at gunpoint from a gas station in 1960, Jackson became involved in the Black power movement and inspired the creation of a far-left prison gang, the Black Guerrilla Family.

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21/08/1968

Germaine Guèvremont, Canadian journalist and author (born 1893)

Germaine Guèvremont, born Grignon was a Canadian writer, who was a prominent figure in Quebec literature.

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21/08/1964

Palmiro Togliatti, Italian journalist and politician, Italian Minister of Justice (born 1893)

Palmiro Michele Nicola Togliatti was an Italian politician and statesman who led the Italian Communist Party for nearly forty years, from 1927 until his death. Born into a middle-class family, Togliatti received an education in law at the University of Turin, later served as an officer and was wounded in World War I, and became a tutor. Described as "severe in approach but extremely popular among the Communist base" and "a hero of his time, capable of courageous personal feats", his supporters gave him the nickname il Migliore. In 1930, Togliatti renounced Italian citizenship, and he became a citizen of the Soviet Union; upon his death, a Soviet city was named after him. Considered one of the founding fathers of the Italian Republic, he led Italy's Communist party from a few thousand members in 1943 to two million members in 1946.

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21/08/1960

David B. Steinman, American engineer, designed the Mackinac Bridge (born 1886)

David Barnard Steinman was an American civil engineer. He was the designer of the Mackinac Bridge and many other notable bridges, and a published author. He grew up in New York City's lower Manhattan, and lived with the ambition of making his mark on the Brooklyn Bridge that he lived under. In 1906 he earned a bachelor's degree from City College and in 1909, a Master of Arts from Columbia University and a Doctorate in 1911. He also received an honorary Doctor of Science in Engineering on 15 April 1952 from degree mill Sequoia University, but would distance himself from it soon after a 1957 inquiry raised doubts over its legitimacy, and did not mention the qualifications in his biographies. He was awarded the Franklin Institute's Louis E. Levy Medal in 1957.

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21/08/1957

Mait Metsanurk, Estonian author and playwright (born 1879)

Mait Metsanurk was an Estonian writer who led the neo-realist school of Estonian literature.

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Nels Stewart, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1902)

Robert Nelson "Old Poison" Stewart was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played for the Montreal Maroons, New York Americans and Boston Bruins in the National Hockey League. He is an Honoured Member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was the first player to win the NHL's Hart Trophy multiple times, and is considered the NHL's greatest goalscorer in the pre-World War II era, holding the league record for career goals from 1937 to 1952.

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Harald Sverdrup, Norwegian meteorologist and oceanographer (born 1888)

Harald Ulrik Sverdrup was a Norwegian oceanographer and meteorologist. He served as director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Norwegian Polar Institute.

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21/08/1951

Constant Lambert, English composer and conductor (born 1905)

Leonard Constant Lambert was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founding music director of the Royal Ballet, and he was a major figure in the establishment of the English ballet as a significant artistic movement.

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21/08/1947

Ettore Bugatti, Italian-French engineer and businessman, founded Bugatti (born 1881)

Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti was an Italian-French automobile designer and manufacturer. He received French citizenship in 1946 and is remembered as the founder and proprietor of the automobile manufacturing company Automobiles E. Bugatti, which he founded in 1909 in the then German town of Molsheim in the Alsace region of what is now France. Bugatti died in Paris and is buried in Dorlisheim, France.

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21/08/1943

Henrik Pontoppidan, Danish journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1857)

Henrik Pontoppidan was a Danish realist writer who shared with Karl Gjellerup the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1917 for "his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark." Pontoppidan's novels and short stories — informed with a desire for social progress but despairing, later in his life, of its realization — present an unusually comprehensive picture of his country and his epoch. As a writer he was an interesting figure, distancing himself both from the conservative environment in which he was brought up and from his socialist contemporaries and friends. He was the youngest and in many ways the most original and influential member of the Modern Break-Through.

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21/08/1940

Hermann Obrecht, Swiss lawyer and politician (born 1882)

Hermann Obrecht was a Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1935–1940).

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Ernest Thayer, American poet and author (born 1863)

Ernest Lawrence Thayer was an American writer and poet who wrote the poem "Casey", which is "the single most famous baseball poem ever written" according to the Baseball Almanac, and "the nation’s best-known piece of comic verse—a ballad that began a native legend as colorful and permanent as that of Johnny Appleseed or Paul Bunyan".

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Leon Trotsky, Russian theorist and politician, founded the Red Army (born 1879)

Lev Davidovich Trotsky, better known as Leon Trotsky, was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician and political theorist. He was a key figure in the 1905 Revolution, the October Revolution of 1917, the Russian Civil War, and the establishment of the Soviet Union, from which he was exiled in 1929 before his assassination in 1940. Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin were widely considered the two most prominent figures in the Soviet state from 1917 until Lenin's death in 1924. Ideologically a Marxist and a Leninist, Trotsky's ideas and beliefs inspired a school of Marxism known as Trotskyism.

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21/08/1935

John Hartley, English tennis player (born 1849)

Rev. John Thorneycroft Hartley was a tennis player from England, and the only clergyman to win Wimbledon.

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21/08/1919

Laurence Doherty, English tennis player (born 1875)

Hugh Laurence Doherty was a British tennis player and the younger brother of tennis player Reginald Doherty. He was a six-time Grand Slam champion and a double Olympic Gold medalist at the 1900 Summer Olympics in singles and doubles. In 1903 he became the first non-American player to win the U.S. National Championships.

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21/08/1911

Mahboob Ali Khan, sixth Nizam of Hyderabad State (born 1866)

Asaf Jah VI, also known as Sir Mir Mahboob Ali Khan Siddiqi, was the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad. He ruled Hyderabad State, one of the princely states of India, between 1869 and 1911.

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21/08/1910

Bertalan Székely, Hungarian painter and academic (born 1835)

Bertalan Székely was a Hungarian history and portrait painter who worked in the Romantic and Academic styles.

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21/08/1905

Alexander von Oettingen, Estonian theologian and statistician (born 1827)

Alexander Konstantin von Oettingen was a Baltic German Lutheran theologian and statistician.

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21/08/1888

James Farnell, Australian politician, eighth Premier of New South Wales (born 1825)

James Squire Farnell was an Australian politician and Premier of New South Wales.

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21/08/1870

Ma Xinyi, Chinese general and politician, Viceroy of Liangjiang (born 1821)

Ma Xinyi, courtesy name Gushan (穀山), art names Yanmen (燕門) and Tiefang (鐵舫), posthumous name Duanmin (端敏), was a Chinese Muslim official and military general of the Qing dynasty of China.

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21/08/1867

Juan Álvarez, Mexican general and president (1855) (born 1790)

Juan Nepomuceno Álvarez Hurtado de Luna, generally known as Juan Álvarez, was a general, long-time caudillo in southern Mexico, and president of Mexico for two months in 1855, following the liberals' ouster of Antonio López de Santa Anna. His presidency inaugurated the pivotal era of La Reforma.

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21/08/1854

Thomas Clayton, American lawyer and politician (born 1777)

Thomas Clayton was an American lawyer and politician from Dover in Kent County, Delaware. He was a member of the Federalist Party and later the National Republican Party and the Whig Party. He served in the Delaware General Assembly, as Attorney General of Delaware, as Secretary of State of Delaware, as Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, as U.S. Representative from Delaware, and as U.S. Senator from Delaware. In 1846 he was one of two members of the United States Senate to vote against declaring war on Mexico.

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21/08/1853

Charles Tristan, marquis de Montholon, French general (born 1783)

Charles Tristan, Marquis de Montholon was a French general during the Napoleonic Wars. He chose to go into exile on Saint Helena with the ex-emperor after Napoleon's second abdication.

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21/08/1838

Adelbert von Chamisso, German botanist and poet (born 1781)

Adelbert von Chamisso was a German poet, writer and botanist. He was commonly known in French as Adelbert de Chamisso de Boncourt, a name referring to the family estate at Boncourt.

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21/08/1836

Claude-Louis Navier, French physicist and engineer (born 1785)

Claude-Louis Navier was a French civil engineer, affiliated with the French government, and a physicist who specialized in continuum mechanics.

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21/08/1835

John MacCulloch, Scottish geologist and academic (born 1773)

John MacCulloch FRS was a Scottish geologist. He was the first geologist to be employed by the government in Britain and is best known for his pioneering texts on geology and for producing the first geological maps of Scotland. He introduced the word "malaria" into the English language.

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21/08/1814

Benjamin Thompson, American-English physicist and colonel (born 1753)

Colonel Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, FRS, was an American-born British military officer, scientist and inventor. Born in Woburn, Massachusetts, he supported the Loyalist cause during the American War of Independence, commanding the King's American Dragoons during the conflict. After the war ended in 1783, Thompson moved to London, where he was recognised for his administrative talents and received a knighthood from George III in 1784.

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21/08/1796

John McKinly, American physician and politician, first Governor of Delaware (born 1721)

John McKinly was an American physician and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. He was a veteran of the French and Indian War, served in the Delaware General Assembly, was the first elected president of Delaware, and for a time was a member of the Federalist Party.

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21/08/1775

Zahir al-Umar, Arabian ruler (born 1690)

Daher al-Umar al-Zaydani, alternatively spelled Zahir al-Umar or Dahir al-Umar, was the paramount sheikh of the Zayadina family and the strongman over northern Palestine from the 1730s until his death in 1775, during Ottoman rule. At the zenith of his power in 1774, his control extended across the Syrian coast from Jaffa to Sidon, though formal recognition of his status was limited to that of a multazim.

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21/08/1763

Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (born 1710)

Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont, PC, of Orchard Wyndham in Somerset, Petworth House in Sussex, and of Egremont House in Mayfair, London, was a British statesman who served as Secretary of State for the Southern Department from 1761 to 1763.

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21/08/1762

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, English author, poet, and playwright (born 1689)

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was an English aristocrat, medical pioneer, writer, and poet. Born in 1689, Lady Mary spent her early life in England. In 1712, Lady Mary married Edward Wortley Montagu, who later served as the British ambassador to the Sublime Porte. Lady Mary joined her husband on the Ottoman excursion, where she was to spend the next two years of her life. During her time there, Lady Mary wrote extensively on her experience as a woman in Ottoman Constantinople. After her return to England, Lady Mary devoted her attention to the upbringing of her family before dying of cancer in 1762.

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21/08/1689

William Cleland, Scottish poet and soldier (born 1661)

William Cleland was a Scottish poet and soldier.

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21/08/1673

Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford, English soldier (born 1599)

Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford, known as the Lord Grey of Groby from 1614 to 1628, was an English nobleman and military leader. He was the eldest son of Sir John Grey and Elizabeth Nevill. His mother was probably a daughter of Edward Nevill, 8th Baron Bergavenny and his wife Rachel Lennard.

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21/08/1627

Jacques Mauduit, French composer and academic (born 1557)

Jacques Mauduit was a French composer of the late Renaissance. He was one of the most innovative French composers of the late 16th century, combining voices and instruments in new ways, and importing some of the grand polychoral style of the Venetian School from Italy; he also composed a famous Requiem for the funeral of Pierre de Ronsard.

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21/08/1622

Juan de Tassis, 2nd Count of Villamediana, Spanish poet and politician (born 1582)

Don Juan de Tassis y Peralta, 2nd Count of Villamediana was a Spanish poet of the Baroque Culteranismo school. In Spain he is simply known as Conde de Villamediana.

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21/08/1614

Elizabeth Báthory, Hungarian countess and purported serial killer (born 1560)

Countess Elizabeth Báthory of Ecsed was a Hungarian noblewoman and alleged serial killer from the powerful House of Báthory, who owned land in the Kingdom of Hungary. Báthory and four of her servants were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls and women from 1590 to 1610. Bathory and her cohorts were charged for 80 counts of murder and were convicted. Her servants were put on trial and executed, whereas Báthory was imprisoned within the Castle of Csejte (Čachtice) until she died in her sleep in 1614.

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21/08/1568

Jean Parisot de Valette, 49th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (born 1495)

Fra' Jean "Parisot" de (la) Valette was a French nobleman and 49th Grand Master of the Order of Malta, from 21 August 1557 to his death in 1568. As a Knight Hospitaller, joining the order in the Langue de Provence, he fought with distinction against the Turks at Rhodes. As Grand Master, Valette became the Order's hero and most illustrious leader, commanding the resistance against the Ottomans at the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, sometimes regarded as one of the greatest sieges of all time.

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21/08/1534

Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, 44th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (born 1464)

Fra' Philippe de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam was a prominent member of the Knights Hospitaller at Rhodes and later Malta. Having risen to the position of Prior of the Langue of Auvergne, he was elected 44th Grand Master of the Order in 1521.

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21/08/1271

Alphonse, Count of Poitiers (born 1220)

Alphonse was the Count of Poitou from 1225 and Count of Toulouse from 1249. As count of Toulouse, he also governed the Marquisate of Provence.

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21/08/1245

Alexander of Hales, English theologian

Alexander of Hales —known also as Doctor Irrefragibilis, or "Irrefutable Teacher", and as Theologorum Monarcha —was a Franciscan friar, theologian, and philosopher instrumental to the development of scholasticism.

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21/08/1157

Alfonso VII of León and Castile (born 1105)

Alfonso VII, called the Emperor, became the King of Galicia in 1111 and King of León and Castile in 1126. Alfonso, born Alfonso Raimúndez, first used the title Emperor of All Spain, alongside his mother Urraca, once she vested him with the direct rule of Toledo in 1116. Alfonso later held another investiture in 1135 in a grand ceremony reasserting his claims to the imperial title. He was the son of Urraca of León and Raymond of Burgundy, the first of the House of Ivrea to rule in the Iberian Peninsula.

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21/08/1148

William II, Count of Nevers (born c. 1089)

William II, Count of Nevers, was a crusader in the Crusade of 1101.

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21/08/1131

King Baldwin II of Jerusalem

Baldwin II, also known as Baldwin of Bourcq, was the count of Edessa from 1100 to 1118 and the king of Jerusalem from 1118 until his death. He accompanied his kinsmen, the brothers Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin of Boulogne, to the Holy Land during the First Crusade. He became the second count of Edessa when the first count, Baldwin of Boulogne, left the county for Jerusalem following Godfrey's death. He was captured at the Battle of Harran in 1104. He was held first by Sökmen of Mardin, then by Jikirmish of Mosul, and finally by Jawali Saqawa. During Baldwin's captivity, Prince Tancred of Antioch and Richard of Salerno governed Edessa as his regents.

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21/08/0913

Tang Daoxi, Chinese general

Tang Daoxi (唐道襲) was an official and general of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Former Shu. He was a close associate of Former Shu's founding emperor Wang Jian and held great power during Wang Jian's reign. This brought him into conflict with Wang Jian's son and crown prince Wang Yuanying. In 913, with both he and Wang Yuanying suspecting the other of being ready to launch a mutiny, their forces engaged in a battle at the Former Shu capital Chengdu. He was defeated by Wang Yuanying and killed in battle.

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21/08/0784

Alberic, archbishop of Utrecht

Saint Alberic of Utrecht, Dutch: Alberik I van Utrecht, was a Benedictine monk and bishop of Utrecht, in what is today the Netherlands.

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21/08/0672

Emperor Kōbun of Japan (born 648)

Emperor Kōbun was the 39th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.

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