Died on Sunday, 24th August – Famous Deaths

On 24th August, 104 remarkable people passed away — from 691 to 2024. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

Twenty-fourth August marks a significant date in the historical record for notable deaths across centuries. In 2024, Christoph Daum, the influential German footballer and manager who shaped Bundesliga football during his career, passed away at the age of seventy-one. Nearly a decade earlier, in 2016, Walter Scheel, who served as the fourth President of Germany and played a crucial role in Cold War diplomacy, died at ninety-seven years old. These figures represent just two entries in a much longer list of individuals whose contributions spanned sports, politics, science and the arts.

The span of notable deaths on this date extends far beyond recent decades. Historical records show that the day has seen the passing of influential figures including Rudolf Clausius, the German physicist whose thermodynamic principles remain foundational to modern science, who died in 1888. The long list encompasses artists, politicians, writers and practitioners of various disciplines, each leaving their own mark on their respective fields and generations.

On Sunday, 24th August 2025, the waning moon phase will be observable in the sky. The zodiac sign active at this time is Virgo, and temperatures are expected to remain moderate with partly cloudy conditions throughout the day. DayAtlas provides access to weather information, historical events, notable births and deaths for any date and location worldwide.

See who passed away today 18th April.

24/08/2024

Christoph Daum, German footballer and manager (born 1953)

Christoph Paul Daum was a German professional football manager and player. As a manager, he won eight trophies with clubs from Germany, Turkey and Austria. In 1992, he won the Bundesliga championship with VfB Stuttgart. In the Bundesliga, he also led 1. FC Köln to two and Bayer 04 Leverkusen to three second places. He won further national championships with the Turkish clubs Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe as well as Austria Wien. In 2000, a drug scandal prevented his appointment as German national coach.


24/08/2023

Bray Wyatt, American wrestler (born 1987)

Windham Lawrence Rotunda, better known by his ring name Bray Wyatt, was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his tenures in WWE from 2009 to 2021 and again from 2022 until his death in 2023.


24/08/2021

Charlie Watts, English musician (born 1941)

Charles Robert Watts was an English musician who was the drummer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 until his death in 2021.


24/08/2020

Gail Sheehy, American author, journalist, and lecturer (born 1936)

Gail Sheehy was an American author, journalist, and lecturer. She was the author of seventeen books and numerous high-profile articles for magazines such as New York and Vanity Fair. Sheehy played a part in the movement Tom Wolfe called the New Journalism, sometimes known as creative nonfiction, in which journalists and essayists experimented with adopting a variety of literary techniques such as scene setting, dialogue, status details to denote social class, and getting inside the story and sometimes reporting the thoughts of a central character.


24/08/2017

Jay Thomas, American actor, comedian, and radio talk show host (born 1948)

Jon "Jay" Thomas Terrell was an American actor, comedian, and radio personality. He was heard in New York from 1976 to 1979 on top-40 station 99X, and later on rhythmic CHR station 92KTU, and in Los Angeles beginning in 1986 on KPWR "Power 106", where he hosted the station's top-rated morning show until 1993. His notable television work included his co-starring role as Remo DaVinci on Mork & Mindy (1979–1981), the recurring role of Eddie LeBec, a Boston Bruins goalie on the downside of his career, on Cheers (1987–1989), the lead character of newspaper columnist Jack Stein on Love & War (1992–1995), and a repeat guest role as Jerry Gold, a talk-show host who becomes both an antagonist and love interest of the title character on Murphy Brown. He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 1990 and 1991 for portraying Gold.


24/08/2016

Walter Scheel, German politician, 4th President of Germany (born 1919)

Walter Scheel was a German statesman. A member of the Nazi Party who joined the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) in 1946, he first served in government as the Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development from 1961 to 1966 and later as President of Germany from 1974 to 1979. He led the FDP from 1968 to 1974.


24/08/2015

Charlie Coffey, American football player and coach (born 1934)

Charles Edward Coffey was an American football player and coach. A native of Shelbyville, Tennessee, Coffey attended the University of Tennessee to play football for Robert Neyland. While at the University of Tennessee he played guard, lettered from 1953 to 1955 and was selected as the team captain his senior year. Coffey also maintained the highest grade average for four years of any member of the UT squad. Coffey served as the head football coach at Virginia Tech from 1971 to 1973, compiling a record of 12–20–1.


Joseph F. Traub, German-American computer scientist and academic (born 1932)

Joseph Frederick Traub was an American computer scientist. He was the Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He held positions at Bell Laboratories, University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon, and Columbia, as well as sabbatical positions at Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton, California Institute of Technology, and Technical University, Munich.


Justin Wilson, English racing driver (born 1978)

Justin Boyd Wilson was a British professional open-wheel racing driver who competed in Formula One (F1) in 2003, the Champ Car World Series (CCWS) from 2004 to 2007 and the IndyCar Series from 2008 to 2015. He won the first Formula Palmer Audi (FPA) in 1998, the International Formula 3000 Championship (IF3000) with Nordic Racing in 2001, and co-won the 2012 24 Hours of Daytona for Michael Shank Racing.


24/08/2014

Richard Attenborough, English actor, director, producer, and politician (born 1923)

Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough was an English actor, film director and producer.


Antônio Ermírio de Moraes, Brazilian businessman (born 1928)

Antônio Ermírio de Moraes was a Brazilian billionaire businessman and the chairman of the Votorantim Group, one of the country's largest companies, focused on metals, paper, cement and frozen orange juice. He was the grandfather of IndyCar Series driver Mario Moraes.


24/08/2013

Gerry Baker, American soccer player and manager (born 1938)

Gerard Austin Baker was an American soccer player. From 1955 until 1970, he played 16 seasons in either the Scottish or English first division. He earned seven caps with the US national team in 1968 and 1969, scoring two goals. His younger brother was the footballer Joe Baker.


Nílton de Sordi, Brazilian footballer and manager (born 1931)

Nílton de Sordi, sometimes known as just De Sordi, was a Brazilian footballer who played as a defender.


Julie Harris, American actress (born 1925)

Julia Ann Harris was an American actress. Renowned for her classical and contemporary roles, she earned numerous accolades including a record five Tony Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Play, as well as three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. She was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1979, received the National Medal of Arts in 1994, the Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 2002, and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2005.


Muriel Siebert, American businesswoman and philanthropist (born 1928)

Muriel Faye Siebert was an American businesswoman who was the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the first woman to head one of the NYSE's member firms. She joined the 1,365 male members of the exchange on December 28, 1967. Siebert is sometimes known as the "first woman of finance", despite being preceded in owning a brokerage by Victoria Woodhull.


24/08/2012

Dadullah, Pakistani Taliban leader (born 1965)

Jamal Said better known by the nom de guerre Mullah Dadullah and also Maulana Mohammad Jamal, was a senior member of the Pakistani Taliban. He was self-proclaimed Taliban leader in Pakistan's northern Bajaur Agency. He was killed in a NATO airstrike in the Shigal wa Sheltan District of Afghanistan's neighbouring Kunar Province on 24 August 2012. His deputy and ten Taliban fighters were also killed in the strike.


Pauli Ellefsen, Faroese surveyor and politician, 6th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (born 1936)

Joen Pauli Højgaard Ellefsen was a Faroese politician and member of the Union Party. He was Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands from 1981 to 1985.


Steve Franken, American actor (born 1932)

Stephen Robert Franken was an American actor who worked in film and television for over fifty years.


Félix Miélli Venerando, Brazilian footballer and manager (born 1937)

Félix Miélli Venerando was a Brazilian football player, more commonly known as Félix.


24/08/2011

Seyhan Erözçelik, Turkish poet and author (born 1962)

Seyhan Erözçelik was a Turkish poet.


Mike Flanagan, American baseball player, coach, and sportscaster (born 1951)

Michael Kendall Flanagan was an American professional baseball left-handed pitcher, front office executive, and color commentator. He spent 18 years as a player in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays (1987–1990).


24/08/2010

Satoshi Kon, Japanese director and screenwriter (born 1963)

Satoshi Kon was a Japanese film director, animator, screenwriter and manga artist from Sapporo, Hokkaido, and a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association (JAniCA). He was a graduate of the Graphic Design department of the Musashino Art University. He is best known for his acclaimed anime films Perfect Blue (1997), Millennium Actress (2001), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), and Paprika (2006), and the TV series Paranoia Agent (2004). In 2010, Kon died of pancreatic cancer at age 46.


24/08/2007

Andrée Boucher, Canadian educator and politician, 39th Mayor of Quebec City (born 1937)

Andrée Plamondon Boucher was a Canadian politician from the province of Quebec. She was the mayor of Quebec City from November 19, 2005, until her death. Previously, she had been the mayor of the city of Sainte-Foy, formerly a suburb of Quebec City, from 1985 until 2001, when the cities of Sainte-Foy and Quebec were merged. She was the first woman to become leader of a municipal political party in the province of Quebec.


Aaron Russo, American director and producer (born 1943)

Aaron Russo was an American entertainment businessman, film producer, director, and political activist. He was best known for producing movies including Trading Places, Wise Guys, and The Rose. Later in life, he created various libertarian-leaning political documentaries like Mad as Hell and America: Freedom to Fascism.


24/08/2006

Rocco Petrone, American soldier and engineer (born 1926)

Rocco Anthony Petrone was an American mechanical engineer, U.S. Army officer and NASA official. He served as director of launch operations at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) from 1966 to 1969, as Apollo program director at NASA Headquarters from 1969 to 1973, as third director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center from 1973 to 1974, and as NASA Associate Administrator from 1974 until his retirement from NASA in 1975.


Léopold Simoneau, Canadian tenor and educator (born 1916)

Léopold Simoneau, was a French-Canadian lyric tenor, one of the outstanding Mozarteans of his time. In 1959 he became the first recipient of the Calixa-Lavallée Award.


24/08/2005

Jamshed Ansari, Pakistani film, television and radio actor (born 1942)

Jamshed Ansari was a Pakistani film, television and radio actor.


24/08/2004

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-American psychiatrist and academic (born 1926)

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was a Swiss and American psychiatrist, a pioneer in near-death studies, author, and developer of the five stages of grief, also known as the "Kübler-Ross model".


24/08/2003

Wilfred Thesiger, Ethiopian-English explorer and author (born 1910)

Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger, also known as Mubarak bin Landan, was a British military officer, explorer, and writer. Thesiger's travel books include Arabian Sands (1959), on his foot and camel crossing of the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula, and The Marsh Arabs (1964), on his time living with the Marsh Arabs of Iraq.


24/08/2002

Nikolay Guryanov, Russian priest and mystic (born 1909)

Nikolai Alekseievich Guryanov was a Russian Orthodox Christian and reputed myrrh-bearing starets and priest. Numerous miracles and healings are ascribed to him.


24/08/2001

Jane Greer, American actress (born 1924)

Jane Greer was an American film and television actress best known for her role as femme fatale Kathie Moffat in the 1947 film noir Out of the Past. In 2009, The Guardian named her one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.


Roman Matsov, Estonian violinist, pianist, and conductor (born 1917)

Roman Voldemarovich Matsov was a Soviet and Estonian violinist, pianist, and conductor.


24/08/2000

Andy Hug, Swiss martial artist and kick-boxer (born 1964)

Andreas "Andy" Hug was a Swiss karateka and kickboxer who competed in the heavyweight division. Considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight kickboxers of all time, Hug was renowned for his ability to execute numerous kicking techniques rarely seen in high-level competition. Although he was usually smaller than his opponents, standing at 1.80 m and being barely a heavyweight, weighing around 98.0 kg in his prime, he made up for his lack of size with his tremendous athleticism and speed. A southpaw, his trademark kicks included the axe kick and the "Hug Tornado", a low spinning heel kick targeting his opponents' thighs.


24/08/1999

Mary Jane Croft, American actress (born 1916)

Mary Jane Croft was an American actress best known for roles as Betty Ramsey on I Love Lucy, Miss Daisy Enright on the radio and television versions of Our Miss Brooks, Mary Jane Lewis on The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy, and Clara Randolph on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.


Alexandre Lagoya, Egyptian guitarist and composer (born 1929)

Alexandre Lagoya was a French classical guitarist and composer. His early career included boxing and guitar, and as he cites on the sleeve of a 1981 Columbia album, his parents hoped he would outgrow his predilection for both.


24/08/1998

E. G. Marshall, American actor (born 1910)

Everett Eugene Grunz, known professionally as E. G. Marshall, was an American actor. One of the first group of actors selected for the new Actors Studio, Marshall, by 1948, had performed in major plays on Broadway.


24/08/1997

Luigi Villoresi, Italian racing driver (born 1907)

Luigi "Gigi" Villoresi was an Italian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1950 to 1956.


24/08/1992

André Donner, Dutch academic and judge (born 1918)

Andreas Matthias Donner was a Dutch judge and the second President of the European Court of Justice, a position which he served between 1958 and 1964.


24/08/1991

Bernard Castro, Italian-American inventor (born 1904)

Bernard Castro was the inventor of the modern convertible couch.


24/08/1990

Sergei Dovlatov, Russian-American journalist and author (born 1941)

Sergei Donatovich Dovlatov was a Soviet journalist and writer. Internationally, he is one of the most popular Russian writers of the late 20th century.


Gely Abdel Rahman, Sudanese-Egyptian poet and academic (born 1931)

Gely Abdel Rahman Arabic: جيلي عبد الرحمن was one of the leading Sudanese poets of the second half of the 20th century.


24/08/1987

Malcolm Kirk, English rugby player and wrestler (born 1936)

Malcolm Kirk was an English professional wrestler who went by the ring name of "King Kong" Kirk as well as Kojak Kirk, Killer Kirk and "Mucky" Mal Kirk. He started as a professional rugby league player before becoming a professional wrestler. Kirk died of a heart attack on 23 August 1987 after collapsing in the ring during a tag team match at the Hippodrome in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England. The wrestling event was run by Joint Promotions with the main event being a tag team match between Kirk and King Kendo against Big Daddy and Greg Valentine in front of 1,500 people.


24/08/1985

Paul Creston, American composer and educator (born 1906)

Paul Creston was an American composer of classical music. He composed six symphonies and several concertante works for violin, piano, accordion, marimba and saxophone.


24/08/1983

Kalevi Kotkas, Estonian-Finnish high jumper and discus thrower (born 1913)

Kalevi Kotkas was an Estonian-born Finnish athlete, specializing in high jump, discus throw and shot put. He became the first ever European champion in high jump, in 1934 in Turin, and competed in the 1932 and 1936 Summer Olympics. In 1936 he cleared the same height of 2.00 m as the medalists Dave Albritton and Delos Thurber, but made more attempts and was placed fourth.


Scott Nearing, American economist, educator, and activist (born 1883)

Scott Nearing was an American radical economist, educator, writer, political activist, pacifist, vegetarian and advocate of simple living. In 1915, he was dismissed from a teaching position at the Wharton School on account of his left-wing politics, becoming a cause célèbre of the American Left. His opposition to American entry into World War I led to his prosecution under the Espionage Act, for which he was found not guilty. After the war, he became a leading leftist intellectual associated with the Socialist Party of America, and later with the Communist Party USA. From the Great Depression until the end of his life, Nearing and his wife Helen lived a self-sufficient homesteading lifestyle. Together, they published Living the Good Life: How to Live Simply and Sanely in a Troubled World in 1954.


24/08/1982

Félix-Antoine Savard, Canadian priest and author (born 1896)

Félix-Antoine Savard, was a Canadian priest, academic, poet, novelist and folklorist.


24/08/1980

Yootha Joyce, English actress (born 1927)

Yootha Joyce Needham, known as Yootha Joyce, was a British actress best known for playing Mildred Roper opposite Brian Murphy in the sitcom Man About the House (1973–1976) and its spin-off George and Mildred (1976–1979).


24/08/1979

Hanna Reitsch, German soldier and pilot (born 1912)

Hanna Reitsch was a German aviator and test pilot. Reitsch was among the very last people to meet Adolf Hitler before his suicide in the Führerbunker in April 1945. Following her capture, she provided information about her departure from Berlin and denied that she might have helped Hitler escape.


24/08/1978

Louis Prima, American singer-songwriter, trumpet player, and actor (born 1910)

Louis Leo Prima was an American trumpeter, singer, entertainer, and bandleader. While rooted in New Orleans jazz, swing music, and jump blues, Prima touched on various genres throughout his career: he formed a seven-piece New Orleans–style jazz band in the late 1920s, fronted a swing combo in the 1930s and a big band group in the 1940s, helped to popularize jump blues in the late 1940s and early to mid 1950s, and performed frequently as a Vegas lounge act beginning in the 1950s.


24/08/1977

Buddy O'Connor, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1916)

Herbert William "Buddy" O'Connor was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre who played for the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers in the National Hockey League between 1941 and 1951. He won the Hart Trophy and Lady Byng Trophy in 1948.


24/08/1974

Alexander P. de Seversky, Russian-American pilot and businessman, co-founded Republic Aviation (born 1894)

Alexander Nikolaievich Prokofiev de Seversky was a Russian-American aviation pioneer, inventor, and influential advocate of strategic air power.


24/08/1967

Henry J. Kaiser, American businessman, founded Kaiser Shipyards and Kaiser Aluminum (born 1882)

Henry John Kaiser was an American industrialist who became known for his shipbuilding and construction projects, then later for his involvement in fostering modern American health care. Prior to World War II, Kaiser was involved in the construction industry; his company was one of those that built the Hoover Dam. He established the Kaiser Shipyards, which built Liberty ships during World War II, after which he formed Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Steel. Kaiser organized Kaiser Permanente health care for his workers and their families. He led Kaiser-Frazer followed by Kaiser Motors, automobile companies known for the safety of their designs. Kaiser was involved in large construction projects such as civic centers and dams, and invested in real estate, later moving into television broadcasting with Kaiser Broadcasting.


24/08/1958

Paul Henry, Irish painter and educator (born 1876)

Paul Henry was an Irish artist noted for depicting the West of Ireland landscape in a spare Post-Impressionist style.


24/08/1957

Ronald Knox, English Catholic priest (born 1888)

Ronald Arbuthnott Knox was an English Catholic priest, theologian, author, and radio broadcaster. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned a high reputation as a classicist, Knox was ordained as a priest of the Church of England in 1912. He was a fellow and chaplain of Trinity College, Oxford until he resigned from those positions following his conversion to Catholicism in 1917. Knox became a Catholic priest in 1918, continuing in that capacity his scholarly and literary work.


24/08/1956

Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese director and screenwriter (born 1898)

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese filmmaker who directed roughly one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939), The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953), and Sansho the Bailiff (1954), with the latter three all being awarded at the Venice International Film Festival. A recurring theme of his films was the oppression of women in historical and contemporary Japan. Together with Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu, Mizoguchi is seen as a representative of the "golden age" of Japanese cinema.


24/08/1954

Getúlio Vargas, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 14th President of Brazil (born 1882)

Getúlio Dornelles Vargas was a Brazilian military officer, lawyer, and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 until his suicide in 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazil's provisional, constitutional, dictatorial and democratic leader, he is considered by historians as the most influential Brazilian politician of the 20th century.


24/08/1946

James Clark McReynolds, American lawyer and judge, 48th United States Attorney General (born 1862)

James Clark McReynolds was an American lawyer and judge from Tennessee who served as United States Attorney General under President Woodrow Wilson and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He served on the Court from 1914 to his retirement in 1941. McReynolds is best known today for his sustained opposition to the domestic programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and for his abrasive and dislikeable personality, which his contemporaries mostly viewed negatively and included documented elements of overt antisemitism and racism.


24/08/1943

Antonio Alice, Argentinian painter and educator (born 1886)

Antonio Alice was an Argentine portrait painter. He was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1904.


Ettore Muti Italian aviator, adventurer and politician (born 1902)

Ettore Muti was an Italian aviator and Fascist politician. He was party secretary of the National Fascist Party from October 1939 until shortly after the entry of Italy into World War II on 10 June 1940.


Simone Weil, French philosopher and activist (born 1909)

Simone Adolphine Weil was a French philosopher, mystic and political activist. Despite her short life, her ideas concerning religion, spirituality and politics have remained widely influential in contemporary philosophy.


24/08/1940

Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, Polish-German technician and inventor, invented the Nipkow disk (born 1860)

Paul Julius Gottlieb Nipkow was a German electrical engineer and inventor. He invented the Nipkow disk, which laid the foundation of television, since his disk was a fundamental component in the first televisions. Hundreds of stations experimented with television broadcasting using his disk in the 1920s and 1930s, until it was superseded by all-electronic systems in the 1940s.


24/08/1939

Frederick Carl Frieseke, American painter and educator (born 1874)

Frederick Carl Frieseke was an American Impressionist painter who spent most of his life as an expatriate in France. An influential member of the Giverny art colony, his paintings often concentrated on various effects of dappled sunlight.


24/08/1932

Kate M. Gordon, American activist (born 1861)

Kate M. Gordon was an American suffragist, civic leader, and one of the leading advocates of women's voting rights in the Southern United States. Gordon was the organizer of the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference and directed the 1918 campaign for woman suffrage in the state of Louisiana, the first such statewide effort in the American South.


24/08/1930

Tom Norman, English businessman and showman (born 1860)

Tom Norman, born Thomas Noakes, was an English businessman, showman and the last exhibitor of Joseph Merrick who was otherwise known as the "Elephant Man". Among his later exhibits were a troupe of little people, a "Man in a Trance", "John Chambers, the armless Carpenter", and the "World's Ugliest Woman".


24/08/1923

Kate Douglas Wiggin, American author and educator (born 1856)

Kate Douglas Wiggin was an American educator, author and composer. She wrote children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and composed collections of children's songs. She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878. With her sister Nora during the 1880s, she also established a training school for kindergarten teachers. Wiggin devoted her adult life to the welfare of children in an era when children were commonly thought of as cheap labor.


24/08/1895

Albert F. Mummery, English mountaineer and author (born 1855)

Albert Frederick Mummery, was an English mountaineer and author. Although most notable for his many and varied first ascents put up in the Alps, Mummery, along with J. Norman Collie, Geoffrey Hastings, and two Gurkhas are also the first men in recorded history to have attempted to summit one of the Himalayan eight-thousanders.


24/08/1888

Rudolf Clausius, German physicist and mathematician (born 1822)

Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius was a German physicist and mathematician and is considered one of the central founding fathers of the science of thermodynamics. By his restatement of Sadi Carnot's principle known as the Carnot cycle, he gave the theory of heat a truer and sounder basis. His most important paper, "On the Moving Force of Heat", published in 1850, first stated the basic ideas of the second law of thermodynamics. In 1865 he introduced the concept of entropy. In 1870 he introduced the virial theorem, which applied to heat.


24/08/1841

Theodore Hook, English civil servant and composer (born 1788)

Theodore Edward Hook was an English writer, intellectual, prankster and briefly a civil servant in Mauritius. One of the first writers of the English fashionable novel, he is best known for his practical jokes, particularly the Berners Street hoax in 1810. The world's first postcard was received by Hook in 1840; he likely posted it to himself.


John Ordronaux, French-American soldier (born 1778)

John Ordronaux was a French-born privateer and businessman. Born in Nantes, Brittany, he eventually moved to the United States. During the War of 1812, Ordronaux captained two ships, Marengo and Prince de Neufchatel, and conducted several privateering cruises with both vessels. He captured or burnt approximately 30 British merchantmen and seized a total volume of goods worth between $250,000 and $300,000 during the war. Following the end of the conflict in 1815, Ordronaux settled in New York City in 1816 and married, having five children, including a son named John. After allegedly working in the sugar industry, he died at Cartagena, Colombia, South America in 1841.


24/08/1838

Ferenc Kölcsey, Hungarian poet, critic, and politician (born 1790)

Ferenc Kölcsey was a Hungarian poet, literary critic, orator, and politician, noted for his support of the liberal current in Hungary regarding the politics involving the Austrian Empire. He wrote Himnusz, the national anthem of Hungary in 1823.


24/08/1832

Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, French physicist and engineer (born 1796)

Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot was a French military engineer and physicist. A graduate of the École polytechnique, Carnot served as an officer in the Engineering Arm of the French Army. He also pursued scientific studies, and in June 1824 published an essay titled Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire. In that book, which would be his only publication, Carnot developed the first successful theory of the maximum efficiency of heat engines.


Richard Weymouth, British Royal Navy commander (born 1780/81)

Richard Weymouth was a Royal Navy commander, notable as compiler of the Naval, Military, and Village Hymn Book, published in the year of his death and designed for non-denominational use: thus it aimed to exclude hymns which promulgated 'controverted doctrines'. The work also reflected his dislike of the practice of singing long hymns.


24/08/1821

John William Polidori, English writer and physician (born 1795)

John William Polidori was an English writer and medical doctor. He is known for his associations with the Romantic movement and credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction.


24/08/1818

James Carr, American lawyer and politician (born 1777)

James Carr, son of U.S. Congressman Francis Carr, was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Maine, then a District of Massachusetts.


24/08/1804

Peggy Shippen, American wife of Benedict Arnold and American Revolutionary War spy (born 1760)

Margaret Shippen was the second wife of General Benedict Arnold. She has been described as "the highest-paid spy in the American Revolution".


24/08/1798

Thomas Alcock, English priest and author (born 1709)

Thomas Alcock was a clergyman in the Church of England, a pluralist and an author.


24/08/1779

Cosmas of Aetolia, Greek monk and saint (born 1714)

Kosmas the Aetolian, sometimes Cosmas the Aetolian or Patrokosmas "Father Kosmas" was a monk, who is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is recognized as one of the originators of the twentieth-century religious movements in Greece. He is also noted for his prophesies.


24/08/1770

Thomas Chatterton, English poet and prodigy (born 1752)

Thomas Chatterton was an English poet who committed suicide at age 17. He was an influence on Romantic artists of the period such as Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth and Coleridge.


24/08/1759

Ewald Christian von Kleist, German poet and soldier (born 1715)

Ewald Christian von Kleist was a German poet and cavalry officer. His vast family was well-established in Farther Pomerania; 58 male members of his family fought in Frederick the Great's army of the Seven Years' War. Kleist was born at Zeblin, near Köslin (Koszalin) in Farther Pomerania, to the von Kleist family of cavalry leaders.


24/08/1683

John Owen, English theologian and academic (born 1616)

John Owen was an English Puritan Nonconformist church leader, theologian, and vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford. One of the most prominent theologians in England during his lifetime, Owen was a prolific author who wrote articles, treatises, Biblical commentaries, poetry, children's catechisms, and other works. Many of Owen's works reflect the Reformed tradition of Christianity. Owen is still widely read by Reformed Christians today, and is known particularly for his writings on sin and human depravity.


24/08/1680

Thomas Blood, Irish colonel (born 1618)

Thomas Blood was an Anglo-Irish army officer and self-styled colonel best known for his attempt to steal the Crown Jewels of England from the Tower of London in 1671. Described in an American source as a "noted bravo and desperado," he was also known for his attempt to kidnap and, later, to kill his enemy, the 1st Duke of Ormond.


Ferdinand Bol, Dutch painter and etcher (born 1616)

Ferdinand Bol was a Dutch painter, etcher and draftsman. Although his surviving work is rare, it displays Rembrandt's influence; like his master, Bol favored historical subjects, portraits, numerous self-portraits, and single figures in exotic finery.


24/08/1679

Jean François Paul de Gondi, French cardinal and author (born 1614)

Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz was a French churchman, writer of memoirs, and agitator in the Fronde.


24/08/1647

Nicholas Stone, English sculptor and architect (born 1586)

Nicholas Stone was an English sculptor and architect. In 1619 he was appointed master-mason to James I, and in 1626 to Charles I.


24/08/1617

Rose of Lima, Peruvian saint (born 1586)

Rose of Lima, TOSD, was a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic in Lima, Peru, Spanish Empire, who became known for both her life of severe penance and her care of the poverty stricken of the city through her own private efforts.


24/08/1595

Thomas Digges, English mathematician and astronomer (born 1546)

Thomas Digges was an English mathematician and astronomer. He was the first to expound the Copernican system in English but discarded the notion of a fixed shell of immoveable stars to postulate infinitely many stars at varying distances. He was also first to postulate the "dark night sky paradox".


24/08/1572

Gaspard II de Coligny, French admiral (born 1519)

Gaspard de Coligny, seigneur de Châtillon, was a French nobleman, Admiral of France, and Huguenot leader during the French Wars of Religion. He served under kings Francis I and Henry II during the Italian Wars, attaining great prominence both due to his military skill and his relationship with his uncle, the king's favourite Anne de Montmorency. During the reign of Francis II he converted to Protestantism, becoming a leading noble advocate for the Reformation during the early reign of Charles IX.


Charles de Téligny, French soldier and diplomat (born 1535)

Charles de Téligny was a French soldier and diplomat.


24/08/1542

Gasparo Contarini, Italian cardinal (born 1483)

Gasparo Contarini was an Italian diplomat, cardinal, and Bishop of Belluno. He advocated for dialogue with Protestants during the Reformation. Born in Venice, he served as the Republic's ambassador to Charles V during its war with him. He was the first to explain the time discrepancy in the Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation due to Earth's rotation. He participated in diplomatic efforts and reconciliations, and became a cardinal, even though he was initially a layman. Contarini was a leader in the reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church. He played a role in the papal approval of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He was also involved in attempts to restore religious unity in Germany.


24/08/1540

Parmigianino, Italian painter and etcher (born 1503)

Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino, was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, Bologna, and his native city of Parma. His work is characterized by a "refined sensuality" and often elongation of forms and includes Vision of Saint Jerome (1527) and the iconic if somewhat anomalous Madonna with the Long Neck (1534), and he remains the best known artist of the first generation whose whole careers fall into the Mannerist period.


24/08/1507

Cecily of York, English princess (born 1469)

Cecily of York, also known as Cecelia, was the third daughter of King Edward IV of England and his queen consort Elizabeth Woodville.


24/08/1497

Sophie of Pomerania, Duchess of Pomerania (born 1435)

Sophia of Pomerania-Stolp, was a Duchess of Pomerania by birth, and married to Eric II, Duke of Pomerania.


24/08/1372

Casimir III, Duke of Pomerania (born 1348)

Casimir or Kasimir III (IV) (1348 – 24 August 1372), oldest son of Barnim III, was one of the Dukes of Pomerania-Stettin (Szczecin). He died during a campaign against the Margraviate of Brandenburg during the siege of Königsberg (Neumark) in 1372.


24/08/1313

Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1275)

Henry VII, also known as Henry of Luxembourg, King of Germany and King of Italy numbering is Heinrich VIII, was Count of Luxembourg, King of Germany from 1308 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1312. He was the first emperor of the House of Luxembourg. During his brief career he reinvigorated the imperial cause in Italy, which was racked with the partisan struggles between the divided Guelph and Ghibelline factions, and inspired the praise of Dino Compagni and Dante Alighieri. He was the first emperor since the death of Frederick II in 1250, ending the Great Interregnum of the Holy Roman Empire; however, his premature death threatened to undo his life's work. His son, John of Bohemia, failed to be elected as his successor, and there was briefly another anti-king, Frederick the Fair, who contested the rule of Louis IV.


24/08/1217

Eustace the Monk, French pirate (born 1170)

Eustace the Monk, born Eustace Busket, was a French pirate and mercenary, one of the most famous pirates of the early 13th century, in the grand tradition of medieval outlaws. The birthplace of Eustace was not far from Boulogne, France. A 1243 document mentions a Guillaume le Moine, seigneur de Course, which indicates that the family lived in that vicinity.


24/08/1103

Magnus Barefoot, Norwegian king (born 1073)

Magnus III Olafsson, better known as Magnus Barefoot, was the King of Norway from 1093 until his death in 1103. His reign was marked by aggressive military campaigns and conquest, particularly in the Norse-dominated parts of Ireland and Britain, where he extended his rule to the Kingdom of the Isles and Dublin.


24/08/1042

Michael V Kalaphates, Byzantine emperor (born 1015)

Michael V Kalaphates was Byzantine emperor for four months in 1041–1042. He was the nephew and successor of Michael IV and the adoptive son of Michael IV's wife Empress Zoe. He was popularly called "the Caulker" (Kalaphates) in accordance with his father's original occupation.


24/08/0948

Zhang Ye, Chinese general and chancellor

Zhang Ye (張業), né Zhang Zhiye (張知業), was a general and official of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period states Later Tang and Later Shu, serving as a chancellor during the reign of Later Shu's second emperor Meng Chang.


24/08/0942

Liu, empress dowager of Later Jin

Empress Dowager Liu was an empress dowager of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Later Jin.


24/08/0927

Doulu Ge, chancellor of Later Tang

Doulu Ge was an official of China's Former Jin and Later Tang dynasties. He served as a chancellor during the reigns of the Later Tang's first two emperors Li Cunxu and Li Siyuan. As a chancellor commissioned by Li Cunxu, he did not fit in with the officials trusted by Li Siyuan, and was eventually exiled and forced to commit suicide.


Wei Yue, chancellor of Later Tang

Wei Yue (韋說) was an official of the Chinese Tang dynasty, and Tang's successor states Later Liang and Later Tang of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, serving as a chancellor during the reigns of Later Tang's first two emperors Li Cunxu and Li Siyuan. As a chancellor commissioned by Li Cunxu, he did not fit in with the officials trusted by Li Siyuan, and was eventually exiled and forced to commit suicide.


24/08/0895

Guthred, king of Northumbria

Guthred Hardacnutsson was the second viking king of Northumbria from circa 883 until his death.


24/08/0842

Saga, Japanese emperor (born 786)

Emperor Saga was the 52nd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Saga's reign lasted from 809 to 823.


24/08/0691

Fu Youyi, official of the Tang Dynasty

Fu Youyi (傅遊藝), known as Wu Youyi (武遊藝) during the reign of Wu Zetian, was an official of the Chinese Tang dynasty and Wu Zetian's Zhou dynasty, serving as a chancellor briefly after she took the throne in 690. He was known for being the first official to publicly petition her to take the throne and establish her own dynasty and was awarded for his public stance by being promoted within a year from a low-level official to the upper echelon of the imperial administration. In 691, however, he was accused of having even greater ambitions and arrested; he committed suicide.