Died on Tuesday, 26th August – Famous Deaths

26/08/2024

Sven-Göran Eriksson, Swedish footballer and manager (born 1948)

Sven-Göran Eriksson was a Swedish football player and manager. After a playing career as a right-back, Eriksson went on to experience major success in club management between 1977 and 2001, winning 18 trophies with a variety of league clubs in Sweden, Portugal, and Italy. In European competition, he won the UEFA Cup in 1982, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1999, the last edition of the tournament before its abolition, the UEFA Super Cup in 1999, and reached the European Cup final in 1990.

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Sid Eudy, American actor and professional wrestler (born 1960)

Sidney Raymond Eudy was an American professional wrestler, best known for his tenures in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring names Sid Justice, Sid Vicious, and Sycho Sid. He was a two-time WWF Champion and two-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion.

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26/08/2023

Bob Barker, American television game show host (born 1923)

Robert William Barker was an American media personality, game show host, and animal rights advocate. He hosted CBS's The Price Is Right, the longest-running game show in North American television history, from 1972 to 2007. Barker also hosted Truth or Consequences from 1956 to 1975.

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26/08/2020

Joe Ruby, American animator (born 1933)

Joseph Clemens Ruby was an American animator, writer, television producer, and music editor. He was best known as a co-creator of the animated Scooby-Doo franchise, together with Ken Spears. In 1977, they co-founded the television animation production company Ruby-Spears Productions. Ruby would work with Spears and would co-create several other shows including, Fangface, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, and Jabberjaw among others.

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26/08/2018

Neil Simon, American playwright and author (born 1927)

Marvin Neil Simon was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He received three Tony Awards and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for four Academy Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards. He was awarded a Special Tony Award in 1975, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1991, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995 and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2006.

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26/08/2017

Tobe Hooper, American film director (born 1943)

Willard Tobe Hooper was an American filmmaker, best known for his work in the horror genre. The British Film Institute cited Hooper as one of the most influential horror filmmakers of all time.

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26/08/2015

Amelia Boynton Robinson, American activist (born 1905)

Amelia Isadora Platts Boynton Robinson was an American activist and supercentenarian who was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama, and a key figure in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.

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Donald Eric Capps, American theologian, author, and academic (born 1939)

Donald Eric Capps was an American theologian and William Harte Felmeth Professor of Pastoral Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. He specialized in the psychology of religion.

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P. J. Kavanagh, English poet and author (born 1931)

P. J. Kavanagh FRSL was an English poet, lecturer, actor, broadcaster and columnist. His father was the ITMA scriptwriter Ted Kavanagh.

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Stefanos Manikas, Greek politician (born 1952)

Stefanos Manikas was a Greek politician of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) who was Minister of State. He died on 26 August 2015, at the age of 63, from cancer.

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Francisco San Diego, Filipino bishop (born 1935)

Francisco Capiral San Diego was a Filipino Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Pasig from 2003 to 2010. He previously served as Bishop of San Pablo from 1995 to 2003.

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26/08/2014

Christian Bourquin, French lawyer and politician (born 1954)

Christian Bourquin was a French politician, a member of the Socialist Party. He was the president of the Regional Council of Languedoc-Roussillon from 2010 to his death in August 2014.

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Peter Bacon Hales, American historian, photographer, and author (born 1950)

Peter Bacon Hales was an American historian, photographer, author and musician specializing in American spaces and landscapes, the history of photography and contemporary art.

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Caroline Kellett, English journalist (born 1960)

Caroline Kellett, usually known just as Kellett, was a British journalist who was fashion editor of Tatler and held a number of other positions in British fashion journalism.

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Chūsei Sone, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1937)

Chūsei Sone was a Japanese film director known for his stylish and popular Roman Porno films for Nikkatsu, particularly the first two installments of the Angel Guts series. Despite a somewhat uneven career, many mainstream critics consider Sone the best of Nikkatsu's Roman Porno directors.

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26/08/2013

Hélie de Saint Marc, French soldier (born 1922)

Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc or Hélie de Saint Marc, was a senior member of the French Resistance and a senior active officer of the French Army, having served in the French Foreign Legion, in particular at the heart and corps of the Foreign Airborne Battalions and Regiments, the heirs of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment 2ème REP, a part constituent of the 11th Parachute Brigade. Commandant by interim of the 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment 1er REP, Hélie assumed full responsibility for commanding exclusively his regiment towards the Generals' Putsch in April 1961 and would be charged for such action while also distancing accusations that would compromise the integrity of the men acting under his direct orders of command. He was rehabilitated within his civilian and military rights in 1978 and awarded the high distinction of the Grand-Croix of the Legion of Honor on 28 November 2011.

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John J. Gilligan, American soldier and politician, 62nd Governor of Ohio (born 1921)

John Joyce “Jack” Gilligan was an American World War II veteran, educator and Democratic politician from the state of Ohio who served as a U.S. representative and as the 62nd governor of Ohio from 1971 to 1975. He was the father of Kathleen Sebelius, who later served as governor of Kansas and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services.

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Bill Schmitz, American football player and coach (born 1954)

Bill Schmitz was an American football coach. He served as head football coach at the United States Coast Guard Academy from 1993 to 1996 and Austin Peay State University from 1997 to 2002, compiling a career college football record of 39–65.

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Jack Sinagra, American lawyer and politician (born 1950)

Jack G. Sinagra was an American Republican Party politician who was the mayor of East Brunswick, New Jersey, and served in the New Jersey Senate from 1992 to 2001, where he represented the 18th Legislative District.

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Clyde A. Wheeler, American soldier and politician (born 1921)

Clyde A. Wheeler was an American congressional relations expert, lobbyist, and member of the White House staff. After leaving the White House staff, he returned to Oklahoma, where he settled in Tulsa and became a lobbyist for Sun Oil Company. He retired from Sun in 1984 and returned to his ranch in his home town of Laverne, Oklahoma. He continued to do part-time work as a consultant for two Washington law firms until 1988. He died in Laverne in 2013.

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26/08/2012

Russ Alben, American composer and businessman (born 1929)

Bernard Russ Alben was an American advertising executive and composer. He served as the Vice President and Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather from the early 1970s until his retirement in December 1981. Alben is credited with writing the Good & Plenty's Choo Choo Charlie jingle and creating the Timex watch advertising slogan, "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking."

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Reginald Bartholomew, American academic and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Italy (born 1936)

Reginald Bartholomew was an American diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon (1983–1986), Spain (1986–1989), and Italy (1993–1997). He was also a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and Council on Foreign Relations. Additionally, he was also a member of the United States National Security Council staff (1977–1979).

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Jacques Bensimon, Canadian director and producer (born 1943)

Jacques Bensimon was a public film and television director, producer and executive in Canada, working primarily with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and TFO, the French-language network of TVOntario. From 2001 until 2006, he was president of the Cinémathèque québécoise in Montreal.

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Krzysztof Wilmanski, Polish-German physicist and academic (born 1940)

Krzysztof Wilmanski was a Polish-German scientist working in the fields of continuum mechanics and thermodynamics.

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26/08/2011

George Band, Taiwanese-English mountaineer and author (born 1929)

George Christopher Band was an English mountaineer. He was the youngest climber on the 1953 British expedition to Mount Everest on which Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first to ascend the mountain. In 1955, he and Joe Brown were the first climbers to ascend Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world.

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Patrick C. Fischer, American computer scientist and academic (born 1935)

Patrick Carl Fischer was an American computer scientist, a noted researcher in computational complexity theory and database theory, and a target of the Unabomber.

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John McAleese, Scottish sergeant (born 1949)

John Thomas "Mac" McAleese, MM was a Scottish soldier who took part in several late 20th century conflicts with the British Army's Royal Engineers and the Special Air Service. During his time in the Special Air Service, he notably had a role in the storming of the Iranian Embassy in London during a hostage-taking siege in May 1980.

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26/08/2010

Raimon Panikkar, Catalan priest and scholar (born 1918)

Raimon Panikkar Alemany, also known as Raimundo Panikkar and Raymond Panikkar, was a Spanish Catholic priest and a proponent of interfaith dialogue. As a scholar, he specialized in comparative religion.

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26/08/2009

Dominick Dunne, American journalist and novelist (born 1925)

Dominick John Dunne was an American writer, investigative journalist, and producer. He began his career in film and television as a producer of the pioneering gay film The Boys in the Band (1970) and as the producer of the drama film The Panic in Needle Park (1971). He turned to writing in the early 1970s. After the 1982 murder of his daughter Dominique, an actress who had her breakthrough role in the film Poltergeist that year, he began to write about the interaction of wealth and high society with the judicial system. Dunne was a frequent contributor to Vanity Fair, and, beginning in the 1980s, often appeared on television discussing crime.

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26/08/2007

Gaston Thorn, Luxembourger jurist and politician, 20th Prime Minister of Luxembourg (born 1928)

Gaston Egmond Thorn was a Luxembourgish politician who served in a number of high-profile positions, both domestically and internationally. He most prominently served as prime minister of Luxembourg (1974–1979), President of the United Nations General Assembly (1975), and president of the European Commission (1981–1985).

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26/08/2006

Rainer Barzel, Polish-German lawyer and politician, Minister of Intra-German Relations (born 1924)

Rainer Candidus Barzel was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as the eighth president of the Bundestag from 1983 to 1984.

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Clyde Walcott, Barbadian cricketer and coach (born 1926)

Sir Clyde Leopold Walcott OBE KA GCM was a West Indian cricketer. Walcott was a member of the "three W's", the other two being Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell: all were very successful batsmen from Barbados, born within a short distance of each other in Bridgetown, Barbados in a period of 18 months from August 1924 to January 1926; all made their Test cricket debut against England in 1948. In the mid-1950s, Walcott was arguably the best batsman in the world. He was the manager of the West Indian squads which won the 1975 Cricket World Cup and the 1979 Cricket World Cup. In later life, he had an active career as a cricket administrator, and was the first non-English and non-white chairman of the International Cricket Council.

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William Garnett, American landscape photographer (born 1916)

William A. Garnett was an American landscape photographer who specialized in aerial photography.

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26/08/2005

Denis D'Amour, Canadian guitarist and songwriter (born 1960)

Denis "Piggy" D'Amour was a Canadian guitarist. He was a member of the heavy metal band Voivod from its inception in 1982 until his death in 2005.

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Robert Denning, American art collector and interior designer (born 1927)

Robert Denning was an American interior designer whose lush interpretations of French Victorian decor became an emblem of corporate raider tastes in the 1980s.

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Moondog King, Canadian wrestler and politician (born 1949)

Edward John White was a Canadian professional wrestler, best known as Sailor White and as Moondog King of The Moondogs when he joined the World Wrestling Federation in the early-1980s. White won championships in Canada and around the globe. He also wrestled in South Africa as Big John Strongbo.

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26/08/2004

Laura Branigan, American singer-songwriter and actress (born 1952)

Laura Ann Kruteck was an American singer. Her signature song, the platinum-certified 1982 cover of Umberto Tozzi's single "Gloria," stayed on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for 36 weeks, then a record for a female artist, peaking at No. 2. It also reached number one in Australia and Canada. In 1984, she reached number one in Canada and Germany and No. 4 in the U.S. with "Self Control". "Gloria" and "Self Control" were also successful in the United Kingdom, each hitting the Top 10 in the UK singles chart.

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26/08/2003

Jim Wacker, American football player and coach (born 1937)

James Herbert Wacker was an American football coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Texas Lutheran University (1971–1975), North Dakota State University (1976–1978), Southwest Texas State University—now Texas State University (1979–1982), Texas Christian University (1983–1991), and the University of Minnesota (1992–1996), compiling a career college football record of 159–131–3. Wacker won two NAIA Division II National Championships with Texas Lutheran in 1974 and 1975, and two NCAA Division II Football Championships with Southwest Texas State, in 1981 and 1982.

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26/08/2001

Louis Muhlstock, Polish-Canadian painter and educator (born 1904)

Louis Muhlstock, LL.D. was a Canadian painter best known for his depictions of the Great Depression and for landscapes and urban scenes in and around Montreal.

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Marita Petersen, Faroese educator and politician, 8th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (born 1940)

Marita Petersen was the first and to date only female Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands and the first female speaker of the Løgting (Parliament). She was elected to the Løgting in 1988 for Javnaðarflokkurin . In January 1993, she was elected to the post of prime minister, which she held until September 1994. Later, she became chairman of the parliament from 1994 to 1995. She was Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands in a very difficult time with economic crisis. Marita Petersen died of cancer in 2001.

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26/08/2000

Akbar Adibi, Iranian engineer and academic (born 1939)

Akbar Adibi (1939–2000) was an Iranian electronic engineer, VLSI researcher, and university engineering professor.

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Bunny Austin, English tennis player (born 1906)

Henry Wilfred "Bunny" Austin was an English tennis player. For 74 years he was the last Briton to reach the final of the men's singles at the Wimbledon Championships, until Andy Murray did so in 2012. He was also a finalist at the 1937 French Championships and a championship winner at Queen's Club. Along with Fred Perry, he was a vital part of the British team that won the Davis Cup in three consecutive years (1933–1935). He is also remembered as the first tennis player to wear shorts.

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26/08/1998

Frederick Reines, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1918)

Frederick Reines was an American physicist. He was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics for his co-detection of the neutrino with Clyde Cowan in the neutrino experiment. He may be the only scientist in history "so intimately associated with the discovery of an elementary particle and the subsequent thorough investigation of its fundamental properties."

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26/08/1995

John Brunner, English-Scottish author and poet (born 1934)

John Kilian Houston Brunner was a British author of science fiction novels and stories. His 1968 novel Stand on Zanzibar, about an overpopulated world, won the 1969 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel and the BSFA Award the same year. The Jagged Orbit won the BSFA Award in 1970. His first novel, Galactic Storm, was written under the pen-name Gill Hunt when he was seventeen. He did not start writing full-time until 1958, some years after his military service.

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26/08/1993

Reima Pietilä, Finnish architect, co-designed the Kaleva Church (born 1923)

Frans Reima Ilmari Pietilä was a Finnish architect and theorist. He did most of his work together with his wife Raili Pietilä; after 1963 all their works were officially attributed to "Raili and Reima Pietilä". Reima Pietilä was a professor of architecture at the University of Oulu from 1973 to 1979.

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26/08/1992

Bob de Moor, Belgian author and illustrator (born 1925)

Robert Frans Marie De Moor, better known under his pen name Bob de Moor, was a Belgian comics creator. Chiefly noted as an artist, he is considered an early master of the Ligne claire style. He wrote and drew several comics series on his own, but also collaborated with Hergé on several volumes of The Adventures of Tintin. He completed the unfinished story Professor Sató's Three Formulae, Volume 2: Mortimer vs. Mortimer of the Blake and Mortimer series, after the death of the author Edgar P. Jacobs.

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26/08/1991

Mildred Albert, American fashion commentator, TV and radio personality, and fashion show producer (born 1905)

Mildred Elizabeth Albert was an American fashion commentator, modeling agency director, fashion show producer, radio and television personality, and society columnist. Known as the "Mighty Atom" and Boston's "First Lady of Fashion", she produced thousands of fashion shows during her career. She founded the Academie Moderne finishing school in 1936 and co-founded the Hart Model Agency in 1944. After selling both concerns in 1981, she remained active on the Boston fashion scene, covering fashion shows and hosting charity benefits, which earned her the title of "official grande dame" of Boston.

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26/08/1990

Tang Chang, Thai artist (born 1934)

Tang Chang was a self-taught artist, poet, writer and philosopher of Sino-Thai heritage.

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26/08/1989

Irving Stone, American author (born 1903)

Irving Stone was an American writer, chiefly known for his biographical novels of noted artists, politicians, and intellectuals. Among the best known are Lust for Life (1934), about the life of Vincent van Gogh, and The Agony and the Ecstasy (1961), about Michelangelo.

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26/08/1988

Carlos Paião, Portuguese singer-songwriter (born 1957)

Carlos Manuel de Marques Paião was a singer and songwriter from Portugal. He represented Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest 1981 with the song "Playback". Carlos Paião was also a doctor, having graduated in medicine in 1983.

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26/08/1987

John Goddard, Barbadian-English cricketer and manager (born 1919)

John Douglas Claude Goddard OBE was a cricketer from Barbados who captained the West Indies in 22 of his 27 Tests between 1948 and 1957.

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Georg Wittig, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1897)

Georg Wittig was a German chemist who reported a method for synthesis of alkenes from aldehydes and ketones using compounds called phosphonium ylides in the Wittig reaction. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Herbert C. Brown in 1979.

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26/08/1986

Ted Knight, American actor (born 1923)

Ted Knight was an American actor known for playing the comic roles of Ted Baxter in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Henry Rush in Too Close for Comfort and Judge Elihu Smails in Caddyshack.

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26/08/1981

Roger Nash Baldwin, American trade union leader, co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union (born 1884)

Roger Nash Baldwin was an American author, pacifist, and anti-communist who co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He served as executive director of the ACLU until 1950.

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Lee Hays, American singer-songwriter (born 1914)

Lee Elhardt Hays was an American folk singer and songwriter, best known for singing bass with the Weavers. Throughout his life, he was concerned with overcoming racism, inequality, and violence in society. He wrote or cowrote "Lonesome Traveller", "Wasn't That a Time?", "If I Had a Hammer", and "Kisses Sweeter than Wine", which became hits and Weavers' staples. He also familiarized audiences with songs of the 1930s labor movement, such as "We Shall Not Be Moved".

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26/08/1980

Rosa Albach-Retty, German-Austrian actress (born 1874)

Rosa Albach-Retty was an Austrian film and stage actress.

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Tex Avery, American animator, director, and voice actor (born 1908)

Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery was an American animator and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of American animation. His most significant work was for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, where he was crucial in the creation and evolution of famous animated characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd for Warner Bros. and Droopy, Butch Dog, Screwy Squirrel, The Wolf, Red Hot Riding Hood, and George and Junior for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

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26/08/1979

Mika Waltari, Finnish author, translator, and academic (born 1908)

Mika Toimi Waltari was a Finnish writer, best known for his best-selling novel The Egyptian. He was extremely productive; Besides his novels he also wrote poetry, short stories, crime novels, plays, essays, travel stories, film scripts, and rhymed texts for comic strips by Asmo Alho.

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26/08/1978

Charles Boyer, French-American actor, singer, and producer (born 1899)

Charles Boyer was a French-American actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in American films during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised, in romantic dramas such as The Garden of Allah (1936), Algiers (1938), and Love Affair (1939), as well as the mystery-thriller Gaslight (1944). He received four Oscar nominations for Best Actor. He also appeared as himself on the CBS sitcom I Love Lucy.

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José Manuel Moreno, Argentinian footballer and manager (born 1916)

José Manuel Moreno Fernández, nicknamed "El Charro", was an Argentine footballer who played as an inside forward for several clubs in Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia; for those who saw him play, he is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, even compared to Alfredo Di Stéfano, Pelé and Diego Maradona, and was the first footballer ever to have won first division league titles in four countries.

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26/08/1977

H. A. Rey, German-American author and illustrator, created Curious George (born 1898)

H. A. Rey was a German-born American illustrator and author, known best for the series of children's picture books that he and his wife Margret Rey created about Curious George.

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26/08/1976

Lotte Lehmann, German-American soprano (born 1888)

Charlotte "Lotte" Pauline Sophie Lehmann was a German-American dramatic soprano noted for her successful performances with international opera houses, on the recital stage and in teaching. She gave memorable appearances in the operas of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Puccini, Mozart, and Massenet. The Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Sieglinde in Die Walküre and the title-role in Fidelio are considered her greatest roles. During her long career, Lehmann also made almost five hundred recordings in both opera and art song.

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26/08/1975

Olaf Holtedahl, Norwegian geologist and academic (born 1885)

Olaf Holtedahl was a Norwegian geologist. He became a senior lecturer at the University of Oslo in 1914, and was Professor of Geology there from 1920 to 1956.

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26/08/1974

Charles Lindbergh, American pilot and explorer (born 1902)

Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris, a distance of 3,600 miles (5,800 km), flying alone for over 33 hours. His aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, was built to compete for the $25,000 Orteig Prize for the first flight between the two cities. Although not the first transatlantic flight, it was the first solo crossing of the Atlantic and the longest at the time by nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km), setting a new flight distance world record. The achievement garnered Lindbergh worldwide fame and stands as one of the most consequential flights in history, signalling a new era of air transportation between parts of the globe.

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26/08/1972

Francis Chichester, English pilot and sailor (born 1901)

Sir Francis Charles Chichester KBE was a British businessman, pioneering aviator and solo sailor.

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26/08/1968

Kay Francis, American actress (born 1905)

Kay Francis was an American stage and film actress. After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star and highest-paid actress at Warner Bros. studio. She adopted her mother's maiden name (Francis) as her professional surname.

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26/08/1966

W. W. E. Ross, Canadian geophysicist and poet (born 1894)

William Wrighton Eustace Ross [often misspelt William Wrightson Eustace Ross] was a Canadian geophysicist and poet. He was the first published poet in Canada to write Imagist poetry, and later the first to write surrealist verse, both of which have led some to call him "the first modern Canadian poet."

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26/08/1958

Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer and educator (born 1872)

Ralph Vaughan Williams was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century.

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26/08/1956

Alfred Wagenknecht, German-American activist (born 1881)

Alfred Wagenknecht was an American Marxist activist and political functionary. He is best remembered for having played a critical role in the establishment of the Communist Party USA in 1919 as a leader of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party. Wagenknecht served as executive secretary of the Communist Labor Party of America and the United Communist Party of America in 1919 and 1920, respectively.

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26/08/1946

Jeanie MacPherson, American actress and screenwriter (born 1887)

Abbie Jean MacPherson was an American silent actress, writer and director. She is known for her collaborations with directors D. W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille, and was a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

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26/08/1945

Franz Werfel, Austrian author and playwright (born 1890)

Franz Viktor Werfel was a Czech novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, a novel based on events that took place during the Armenian genocide of 1915, and The Song of Bernadette (1941), a novel about the life and visions of the French Catholic saint Bernadette Soubirous, which was made into a Hollywood film of the same name.

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26/08/1944

Adam von Trott zu Solz, German lawyer and diplomat (born 1909)

Friedrich Adam von Trott zu Solz was a German lawyer and diplomat who was involved in the conservative resistance to Nazism. A declared opponent of the Nazi regime from the beginning, he actively participated in the Kreisau Circle of Helmuth James Graf von Moltke and Peter Yorck von Wartenburg. Together with Claus von Stauffenberg and Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg, he conspired in the 20 July plot and was supposed to have been appointed Secretary of State in the German Foreign Office and lead negotiator with the Western Allies if the plot had succeeded.

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26/08/1943

Bîmen Şen, Turkish composer and songwriter (born 1873)

Bîmen Şen was a composer and lyricist of Armenian descent.

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26/08/1930

Lon Chaney, American actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1883)

Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney was an American actor and makeup artist. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted, characters and for his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. Chaney was known for his starring roles in such silent horror films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). His ability to transform himself using makeup techniques that he developed earned him the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Faces".

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26/08/1921

Matthias Erzberger, German publicist and politician (born 1875)

Matthias Erzberger was a German Centre Party politician who served as the minister of finance of Germany from 1919 to 1920.

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Sándor Wekerle, Hungarian jurist and politician, Prime Minister of Hungary (born 1848)

Sándor Wekerle was a Hungarian politician who served three times as prime minister. He was the first non-noble to hold the office in Hungary.

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Petro Petrenko, Ukrainian anarchist military commander (born 1890)

Petro Petrenko was a Ukrainian military commander in the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine.

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26/08/1910

William James, American psychologist and philosopher (born 1842)

William James was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th century, one of the most influential philosophers and is often dubbed the "father of American psychology". A Review of General Psychology analysis, published in 2002, ranked James as the 14th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century. A survey published in American Psychologist in 1991 ranked James's reputation in second place, after Wilhelm Wundt, who is widely regarded as the founder of experimental psychology.

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26/08/1878

Mariam Baouardy, Syrian Roman Catholic nun; later canonized (born 1846)

Mariam Baouardy, OCD, was a Palestinian Discalced Carmelite nun of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. Born to parents from the town of Hurfiesh in the upper Galilee, later moved to I’billin, she was known for her service to the poor. In addition, she became a Christian mystic who suffered the stigmata.

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26/08/1865

Johann Franz Encke, German astronomer and academic (born 1791)

Johann Franz Encke was a German astronomer. Among his activities, he worked on the calculation of the periods of comets and asteroids, measured the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and made observations of the planet Saturn.

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26/08/1850

Louis Philippe I of France (born 1773)

Louis Philippe I, nicknamed the Citizen King, was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, the penultimate monarch of France, the last French monarch to bear the title "King", and the only French monarch to descend from the Orléans branch of the Bourbon family. He abdicated from his throne during the French Revolution of 1848, which led to the foundation of the French Second Republic.

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26/08/1813

Theodor Körner, German soldier and author (born 1791)

Carl Theodor Körner was a German poet and soldier. After having lived for some time in Vienna, where he wrote some light comedies and other works for the Burgtheater, he became a soldier and joined the Lützow Free Corps in the German uprising against Napoleon. During this time, he displayed personal courage in many fights, and inspired his comrades by fiery patriotic lyrics he composed. One of these was the "Schwertlied", composed during a lull in fighting, only a few hours before his death, and "Lützow's wilde Jagd", each set to music by both Carl Maria von Weber and Franz Schubert. He was often called the "German Tyrtaeus".

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26/08/1810

Santiago de Liniers, 1st Count of Buenos Aires, French-Spanish sailor and politician, 10th Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (born 1753)

Santiago Antonio María de Liniers y Bremond, 1st Count of Buenos Aires, KOM, OM was a Spanish military officer and a viceroy of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. Although born Jacques de Liniers in France, he is more widely known by the Spanish form of his name.

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26/08/1785

George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, English soldier and politician, 3rd Secretary of State for the Colonies (born 1716)

Major-General George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, PC was a British Army officer and politician who served as Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1775 to 1782. Serving in the North ministry during the American War of Independence, he was a hardliner, "the chief architect of the American War in Britain," receiving significant blame for Britain's defeat.

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26/08/1778

Johan Augustin Mannerheim, Swedish nobleman and military leader (born 1706)

Baron Johan Augustin Mannerheim was a Swedish nobleman, the Artillery Colonel and the Gothenburg Commandant. He was a great-great-grandfather of Baron C. G. E. Mannerheim, the Marshal of Finland.

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26/08/1723

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch microscopist and biologist (born 1632)

Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch microbiologist and microscopist in the Golden Age of Dutch art, science and technology. A largely self-taught man in science, he is commonly known as "the Father of Microbiology", and one of the first microscopists and microbiologists. Van Leeuwenhoek is best known for his pioneering work in microscopy and for his contributions toward the establishment of microbiology as a scientific discipline.

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26/08/1714

Constantin Brâncoveanu, Ruler of Wallachia (born 1654)

Constantin Brâncoveanu was Prince of Wallachia between 1688 and 1714.

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Edward Fowler, English bishop and author (born 1632)

Edward Fowler was an English churchman, Bishop of Gloucester from 1691 until his death.

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26/08/1666

Frans Hals, Dutch painter and educator (born 1580)

Frans Hals the Elder was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He lived and worked in Haarlem, a city in which the local authority of the day frowned on religious painting in places of worship but citizens liked to decorate their homes with works of art. Hals was highly sought after by wealthy burgher commissioners of individual, married-couple, family, and institutional-group portraits. He also painted tronies for the general market.

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26/08/1595

António, Prior of Crato (born 1531)

António, Prior of Crato, sometimes called "The Determined", "The Fighter", "The Independentist" or "The Resistant", was a grandson of King Manuel I of Portugal who claimed the Portuguese throne during the 1580 dynastic crisis. According to some historians, he was King of Portugal for 33 days in 1580. Philip II of Spain prevailed in the succession struggle, but António claimed the throne until 1583. He was a disciple of Bartholomew of Braga.

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26/08/1572

Petrus Ramus, French philosopher and logician (born 1515)

Petrus Ramus was a French humanist, logician, and educational reformer. A prominent and controversial academic and professor in Paris' College De France, Ramus became famous for his iconoclastic critiques of Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian. Ramus argued that dialectic should be removed or separated from the purview of rhetoric, a stance which significantly narrowed rhetorical theory's scope. A Protestant convert, he was a victim of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.

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26/08/1551

Margaret Leijonhufvud, queen of Gustav I of Sweden (born 1516)

Margaret Leijonhufvud or Margareta Eriksdotter was Queen of Sweden from 1536 to 1551 by marriage to King Gustav I. She played a political role as the advisor and intermediary to her spouse.

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26/08/1500

Philipp I, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg (born 1449)

Count Philipp I of Hanau-Münzenberg, nicknamed Philipp the Younger, was a son of Count Reinhard III of Hanau and Countess Palatine Margaret of Mosbach. He was the Count of Hanau from 1452 to 1458. The county was then divided between him and his uncle Philipp the Elder. Philipp the Younger received Hanau-Münzenberg and ruled there from 1458 until his death.

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26/08/1486

Ernest, Elector of Saxony (born 1441)

Ernest, known in German as Ernst, was Elector of Saxony from 1464 to 1486. He established the Ernestine line of Saxon princes.

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26/08/1462

Catherine Zaccaria, Despotess of the Morea

Catherine Asenina Zaccaria or Catherine Palaiologina was the daughter of the Prince of Achaea, Centurione II Zaccaria and a Byzantine lady hailing from the prestigious houses of Asen-Palaiologos and the house of Tzamblakon. In September 1429 she was betrothed to the Byzantine Despot of the Morea Thomas Palaiologos, and married him in January 1430 at Mystras.

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26/08/1399

Mikhail II, Grand Prince of Tver (born 1333)

Mikhail Alexandrovich was Grand Prince of Tver and briefly held the title of Grand Prince of Vladimir. He was one of only two Tver princes after 1317 to hold the grand princely title, which was almost the exclusive purview of the Muscovite princes.

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26/08/1349

Thomas Bradwardine, English archbishop, mathematician, and physicist (born 1290)

Thomas Bradwardine was an English cleric, scholar, mathematician, physicist, courtier and, very briefly, Archbishop of Canterbury. As a celebrated scholastic philosopher and doctor of theology, he is often called Doctor Profundus.

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26/08/1346

Charles II, Count of Alençon (born 1297)

Charles II, called the Magnanimous was Count of Alençon and Count of Perche (1325–1346), as well as Count of Chartres and Count of Joigny (1335–1336) as husband of Joan of Joigny.

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Louis I, Count of Flanders (born 1304)

Louis I was Count of Flanders, Nevers and Rethel.

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Louis II, Count of Blois

Louis II of Châtillon, son of Guy I, Count of Blois and Margaret of Valois, was count of Blois and lord of Avesnes from 1342 to 1346.

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Rudolph, Duke of Lorraine (born 1320)

Rudolph, called the Valiant, was the Duke of Lorraine from 1328 to his death. He was the son and successor of Frederick IV, Duke of Lorraine and Elisabeth of Austria, the daughter of King Albert I of Germany of the House of Habsburg. Though he was but nine years of age when his father died and he succeeded to the duchy under the regency of his mother, he was a warrior prince, taking part in four separate wars in Lorraine, France, Brittany, and Iberia. He was killed at the Battle of Crécy.

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John of Bohemia (born 1296)

John of Bohemia, also called the Blind or of Luxembourg, was the Count of Luxembourg from 1313 and King of Bohemia from 1310 and titular King of Poland. He is well known for having died while fighting in the Battle of Crécy at age 50, after having been blind for a decade. In his home country of Luxembourg, he is considered a national hero. Comparatively, in the Czech Republic, Jan Lucemburský is often recognized for his role as the father of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, one of the more significant Kings of Bohemia and one of the leading Holy Roman Emperors.

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26/08/1278

Ottokar II of Bohemia (born 1233)

Ottokar II, the Iron and Golden King, was a member of the Přemyslid dynasty who reigned as King of Bohemia from 1253 until his death in 1278. He also held the titles of Margrave of Moravia from 1247, Duke of Austria from 1251, and Duke of Styria from 1260, as well as Duke of Carinthia and landgrave of Carniola from 1269.

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26/08/1214

Michael IV of Constantinople

Michael IV Autoreianos Ancient Greek: Μιχαὴλ Αὐτωρειανός; died 26 August 1212) was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1208 to his death in 1212.

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26/08/0887

Kōkō, emperor of Japan (born 830)

Emperor Kōkō was the 58th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Kōkō reigned from 884 to 887.

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26/08/0787

Arechis II, duke of Benevento

Year 787 (DCCLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 787 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

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