Died on Saturday, 9th August – Famous Deaths

09/08/2024

Susan Wojcicki, Polish-American technology executive (born 1968)

Susan Diane Wojcicki was an American business executive who was the chief executive officer of YouTube from 2014 to 2023. Her net worth was estimated at $765 million in 2022.

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09/08/2023

Robbie Robertson, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (born 1943)

Jaime Royal "Robbie" Robertson was a Canadian musician, composer, and producer. Robertson was the onetime lead guitarist for Bob Dylan's backing band. He was also the guitarist and primary songwriter of the Band from its inception until his 1976 departure. In his later solo career, Robertson released six albums.

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09/08/2021

Pat Hitchcock, English actress and producer (born 1928)

Patricia Alma Hitchcock O'Connell was a British-American actress and producer. She was the only child of English director Alfred Hitchcock and film editor Alma Reville, and had small roles in several of her father's films, with her most substantial appearance being in Strangers on a Train (1951).

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Killer Kau, South African rapper, dancer and record producer (born 1998)

Sakhile Hlatshwayo, known professionally as Killer Kau, was a South African singer, dancer and record producer best known for his hit songs "Tholukuthi Hey" and "Amaneighbour"

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Zairaini Sarbini, Malaysian voice actress (born 1972)

Zairaini binti Sarbini was a Malaysian freelance voice actress who dubbed for anime, foreign films, cartoons and TV programs in Malay that air on the Astro Ceria, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney Channel Malaysia. She was also the aunt of the young Malay voice dubbing actor, Arfalie Fikrie Razali. She was formerly a voice actress at Filem Karya Nusa.

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09/08/2016

Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, third-richest British citizen (born 1951)

Major General Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster was a British landowner, businessman, aristocrat, Territorial Army general, and peer. He was the son of Robert Grosvenor, 5th Duke of Westminster, and Viola Lyttelton. He was Chairman of the property company Grosvenor Group. In the first-ever edition of The Sunday Times Rich List, published in 1989, he was ranked as the second-richest person in the United Kingdom, with a fortune of £3.2 billion, with only Queen Elizabeth II above him.

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09/08/2015

Frank Gifford, American football player, sportscaster, and actor (born 1930)

Francis Newton Gifford was an American professional football player, actor, and television sports commentator. After a 12-year playing career as a halfback, flanker and safety for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL), he was a play-by-play announcer and commentator for 27 years on ABC's Monday Night Football.

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John Henry Holland, American computer scientist and academic (born 1929)

John Henry Holland was an American scientist and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan. He was a pioneer in what became known as genetic algorithms.

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Walter Nahún López, Honduran footballer (born 1977)

Walter Nahún López Cárdenas was a Honduran football player.

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David Nobbs, English author and screenwriter (born 1935)

David Gordon Nobbs was an English comedy writer, best known for writing the 1970s television series The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, adapted from his own novels.

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Kayyar Kinhanna Rai, Indian journalist, author, and poet (born 1915)

Kayyara Kinhanna Rai was an Indian independence activist, author, poet, journalist, teacher and farmer.

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Fikret Otyam, Turkish painter and journalist (born 1926)

Fikret Otyam was a Turkish painter and journalist.

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09/08/2014

J. F. Ade Ajayi, Nigerian historian and academic (born 1929)

Jacob Festus Adeniyi Ajayi, commonly known as J. F. Ade Ajayi, was a Nigerian historian and a member of the Ibadan school, a group of scholars interested in introducing African perspectives to African history and focusing on the internal historical forces that shaped African lives. Ade Ajayi favours the use of historical continuity more often than focusing on events only as powerful agents of change that can move the basic foundations of cultures and mould them into new ones. Instead, he sees many critical events in African life, sometimes as weathering episodes which still leave some parts of the core of Africans intact. He also employs a less passionate style in his works, especially in his early writings, using subtle criticism of controversial issues of the times.

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Andriy Bal, Ukrainian footballer and coach (born 1958)

Andriy Mykhaylovych Bal was a Soviet and Ukrainian professional footballer who played as a midfielder and football manager.

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Arthur G. Cohen, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Arlen Realty and Development Corporation (born 1930)

Arthur George Cohen was an American businessman and real estate developer in New York City.

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Ed Nelson, American actor (born 1928)

Edwin Stafford Nelson was an American actor, best known for his role as Dr. Michael Rossi in the television series Peyton Place.

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09/08/2013

Harry Elliott, American baseball player and coach (born 1923)

Harry Lewis Elliott was an American professional baseball player who appeared in 92 games in Major League Baseball for the 1953 and 1955 St. Louis Cardinals. A 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m), 175 lb (79 kg) outfielder, Elliott threw and batted right-handed.

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Eduardo Falú, Argentinian guitarist and composer (born 1923)

Eduardo Falú was an Argentine folk music guitarist and composer.

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William Lynch, Jr., American lawyer and politician (born 1947)

William "Bill" Lynch Jr. was an American politician and political consultant, advising politicians from the Democratic Party. He was a prominent political figure in New York politics, especially within the African-American community. In 1999, Lynch founded the political consulting firm Bill Lynch Associates, LLC (BLA), where he served as chairman from its founding until his death.

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09/08/2012

Carl Davis, American record producer (born 1934)

Carl H. Davis Sr. was an American record producer and music executive, who was particularly active in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s. He was responsible for hit R&B records by Gene Chandler, Major Lance, Jackie Wilson, The Chi-Lites, Barbara Acklin, Tyrone Davis and others.

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Gene F. Franklin, American engineer, theorist, and academic (born 1927)

Gene F. Franklin was an American electrical engineer and control theorist known for his pioneering work towards the advancement of the control systems engineering – a subfield of electrical engineering. Most of his work on control theory was adapted immediately into NASA's U.S. space program, most famously in the control systems for the Apollo missions to the Moon in 1960s–1970s.

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Al Freeman, Jr., American actor, director, and educator (born 1934)

Albert Cornelius Freeman Jr. was an American actor, director, and educator. A life member of The Actors Studio, Freeman appeared in a wide variety of plays, ranging from Leroi Jones' Slave/Toilet to Joe Papp's revivals of Long Day's Journey Into Night and Troilus and Cressida, and films, including My Sweet Charlie, Finian's Rainbow, and Malcolm X, as well as television series The Mod Squad, Kojak, and Maude, and a long-running role on the soap opera One Life to Live.

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David Rakoff, Canadian-American actor and journalist (born 1964)

David Benjamin Rakoff was a Canadian and American essayist and humorist, born in Montreal and raised in Toronto, who spent his professional career in New York City. Rakoff was an essayist, journalist, and actor, and a regular contributor to WBEZ's This American Life. He described himself as a "New York writer" who also happened to be a "Canadian writer", a "mega Jewish writer", a "gay writer", and an "East Asian Studies major who has forgotten most of his Japanese" writer.

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Carmen Belen Richardson, Puerto Rican-American actress (born 1930)

Carmen Belén Richardson was a Puerto Rican actress and comedian.

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Mel Stuart, American director and producer (born 1928)

Mel Stuart was an American film director and producer who often worked with producer David L. Wolper, at whose production firm he worked for 17 years, before going freelance.

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09/08/2010

Calvin "Fuzz" Jones, American singer and bass player (born 1926)

Calvin "Fuzz" Jones was an American electric blues bassist and singer. He worked with many blues musicians, including Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, the Legendary Blues Band, Mississippi Heat, James Cotton, Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson, Little Walter and Elmore James.

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Ted Stevens, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (born 1923)

Theodore Fulton Stevens Sr. was an American politician and lawyer who served as a U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1968 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, he was the longest-serving Republican Senator in history at the time he left office. He was the president pro tempore of the United States Senate in the 108th and 109th Congresses from 2003 to 2007, and was the third U.S. Senator to hold the title of president pro tempore emeritus. He was previously Solicitor of the Interior Department from 1960 to 1961. Stevens has been described as one of the most powerful members of Congress and as the most powerful member of Congress from the Northwestern United States.

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09/08/2008

Bernie Mac, American comedian, actor, screenwriter, and producer (born 1957)

Bernard Jeffrey McCullough, known professionally as Bernie Mac, was an American stand-up comedian, actor and film producer. His most noted film roles were as Frank Catton in the Ocean's film series from 2001 through 2007 and as the title character of Mr. 3000. Mac joined Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and D. L. Hughley as one of the "Big Four" comedians in the film The Original Kings of Comedy. After briefly hosting the HBO show Midnight Mac, Mac appeared in several films in smaller roles. He was the star of The Bernie Mac Show, which ran from 2001 through 2006, earning him two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. His other films included starring roles in The Players Club, Head of State, Bad Santa, Guess Who, Pride, and Soul Men. Mac died at 50 years old on August 9, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois from complications of pneumonia.

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Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian author and poet (born 1941)

Mahmoud Darwish was a Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as Palestine's national poet.

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09/08/2007

Joe O'Donnell, American photographer and journalist (born 1922)

Joseph Roger O'Donnell was an American documentarian, photojournalist and a photographer for the United States Information Agency.

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09/08/2006

Philip E. High, English author (born 1914)

Philip Empson High was an English science fiction author.

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James Van Allen, American physicist and academic (born 1914)

James Alfred Van Allen was an American space physicist at the University of Iowa who was instrumental in establishing the field of magnetospheric research in space. His discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts in 1958, zones of energetic charged particles trapped by Earth's magnetic field, was the first major scientific finding of the Space Age. As principal investigator for scientific instruments on 24 Earth satellites and planetary missions, Van Allen provided the first in situ measurements of the magnetospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, pioneered the use of energetic particle absorption signatures to detect planetary rings and satellites, and carried out a multi-decade program of cosmic ray observations that established the radial gradient of galactic cosmic ray intensity from 1 AU to beyond 65 AU in the heliosphere.

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09/08/2005

Judith Rossner, American author (born 1935)

Judith Rossner was an American novelist, best known for her acclaimed best sellers Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1975) and August (1983).

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09/08/2004

Robert Lecourt, French lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of France (born 1908)

Robert Lecourt was a French politician and lawyer, judge and the fourth President of the European Court of Justice.

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Tony Mottola, American guitarist and composer (born 1918)

Anthony C. "Tony" Mottola was an American jazz guitarist who released dozens of solo albums. He was born in Kearny, New Jersey, and died in Denville.

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David Raksin, American composer and educator (born 1912)

David Raksin was an American composer noted for his work in film and television. Raksin had more than 100 film scores and 300 television scores to his credit. Some sources called him the "Grandfather of Film Music".

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09/08/2003

Jacques Deray, French director and screenwriter (born 1929)

Jacques Deray was a French film director and screenwriter. Deray is prominently known for directing many crime and thriller films.

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Ray Harford, English footballer and manager (born 1945)

Raymond Thomas Harford was an English footballer, better known for his successes as a coach and manager than as a player. He is considered to have been one of the top coaches of his generation.

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Gregory Hines, American actor, dancer, and choreographer (born 1946)

Gregory Oliver Hines was an American dancer, actor, choreographer, and singer. He is one of the most celebrated tap dancers of all time. As an actor, he is best known for History of the World, Part I (1981), Wolfen (1981), The Cotton Club (1984), White Nights (1985), Running Scared (1986), A Rage in Harlem (1991), The Gregory Hines Show (1997–98), playing Ben on Will & Grace (1999–2000), and for voicing Big Bill on the Nick Jr. animated children's television program Little Bill (1999–2004).

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R. Sivagurunathan, Sri Lankan lawyer, journalist, and academic (born 1931)

Kalasuri Ratnadurai Sivagurunathan was a Sri Lankan journalist, lawyer, academic and editor of Thinakaran.

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09/08/2002

Paul Samson, English guitarist (born 1953)

Paul Samson was an English guitarist, closely associated with the new wave of British heavy metal.

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09/08/2000

John Harsanyi, Hungarian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1920)

John Charles Harsanyi was a Hungarian-American economist who spent most of his career at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1994.

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Nicholas Markowitz, American murder victim (born 1984)

Nicholas Samuel Markowitz was an American teenager who was kidnapped and murdered at the age of 15 after a feud over drug money between his half-brother Benjamin Markowitz and Jesse James Hollywood.

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09/08/1999

Helen Rollason, English sports journalist and sportscaster (born 1956)

Helen Frances Rollason was a British sports journalist and television presenter, who in 1990 became the first female presenter of the BBC's sports programme Grandstand. She was also a regular presenter of Sport on Friday, and of the children's programme Newsround during the 1980s.

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Fouad Serageddin, Egyptian journalist and politician (born 1910)

Fouad Pasha Serageddin was an Egyptian liberal politician and leader of Egypt's old Wafd Party and new Wafd party. He was the grandfather of the Egyptian writer Samia Serageldin.

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09/08/1996

Frank Whittle, English soldier and engineer, invented the jet engine (born 1907)

Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, was an English engineer, inventor and Royal Air Force (RAF) air officer. He is credited with co-creating the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 for a similar invention which was technically unfeasible at the time. Whittle's jet engines were developed some years earlier than those of Germany's Hans von Ohain, who designed the first-to-fly turbojet engine as well as Austria’s Anselm Franz.

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09/08/1995

Jerry Garcia, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1942)

Jerome John Garcia was an American musician who was the lead guitarist and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence during the counterculture of the 1960s. Although he disavowed the role, Garcia was viewed by many as the leader of the band. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 as a member of the Grateful Dead.

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09/08/1992

Fereydoun Farrokhzad, Iranian singer and actor (born 1938)

Fereydoun Farrokhzad was an Iranian showman, host, poet, actor, political activist, singer, humanitarian, and writer. He is best known for his television variety show, The Silver Carnation, which introduced and featured many artists, such as Ebi, Leila Forouhar, Shohreh, Sattar, Hayedeh, and many more.

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09/08/1990

Joe Mercer, English footballer and manager (born 1914)

Joseph Mercer was an English footballer and manager. He played as a defender for Everton and Arsenal and managed Aston Villa and Manchester City, and served as caretaker manager of the England national football team.

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09/08/1988

M. Carl Holman, American author, educator, poet, and playwright (born 1919)

M. Carl Holman was an American author, poet, playwright, and civil rights advocate. In 1968, Ebony listed him as one of the 100 most influential Black Americans.

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Giacinto Scelsi, Italian composer (born 1905)

Giacinto Francesco Maria Scelsi, count d'Ayala Valva was an Italian composer who also wrote surrealist poetry in French.

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09/08/1986

Eoin McNamee (Irish republican), Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army (born 1914)

Eoin McNamee was an Irish Republican and Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army.

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09/08/1985

Clive Churchill, Australian rugby league player and coach (born 1927)

Clive Bernard Churchill AM was an Australian professional rugby league footballer and coach in the mid-20th century. An Australian international and New South Wales and Queensland interstate representative fullback, he played the majority of his club football with and later coached the South Sydney Rabbitohs. He won five premierships with the club as a player and three more as coach. Retiring as the most capped Australian Kangaroos player ever, Churchill is thus considered one of the game's greatest ever players and the prestigious Clive Churchill Medal for man-of-the-match in the NRL grand final bears his name. Churchill's attacking flair as a player is credited with having changed the role of the fullback.

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09/08/1981

Max Hoffman, Austrian-born car importer and businessman (born 1904)

Maximilian Edwin Hoffman, was an Austrian-born, New York-based importer of luxury European automobiles during the 1950s.

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09/08/1980

Jacqueline Cochran, American pilot (born 1906)

Jacqueline Cochran was an American pilot and business executive. She pioneered women's aviation and was the first woman to break the sound barrier on 18 May 1953. Cochran was the wartime head of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (1943–1944), which employed about 1,000 civilian American women in a non-combat role to ferry planes from factories to port cities. Later on, Cochran was initially a sponsor of the Mercury 13 women astronaut program, before testifying against it in a congressional subcommittee.

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Ruby Hurley, American civil rights activist (born 1909)

Ruby Hurley was an American civil rights activist. She was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and administrator for the NAACP, and was known as the "queen of civil rights".

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09/08/1979

Walter O'Malley, American businessman, owner of baseball's Dodgers (born 1903)

Walter Francis O'Malley was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1979. In 1958, as owner of the Dodgers, he brought major league baseball to the West Coast, moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles despite the Dodgers being the second most profitable team in baseball from 1946 to 1956, and coordinating the move of the New York Giants to San Francisco at a time when there were no teams west of Kansas City, Missouri. In 2008, O'Malley was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his contributions to and influence on the game of baseball.

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Raymond Washington, American gang leader, founded the Crips (born 1953)

Raymond Lee Washington was an American gangster, known as the founder of the Crips gang in Los Angeles. Washington formed the Crips as a minor street gang in the late 1960s in South Los Angeles, becoming a prominent local crime boss. In 1971, Washington formed an alliance with Stanley "Tookie" Williams, establishing the Crips as the first major African-American street gang in Los Angeles, and served as one of the co-leaders. In 1974, Washington was convicted of robbery and received a five-year prison sentence, during which his leadership and influence in the Crips declined.

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09/08/1978

James Gould Cozzens, American novelist and short story writer (born 1903)

James Gould Cozzens was a Pulitzer prize-winning American writer whose work enjoyed an unusual degree of popular success and critical acclaim for more than three decades. His 1949 Pulitzer win was for the WWII race novel Guard of Honor, which more than one critic considered one of the most important accounts of the war. His 1957 Pulitzer nomination was for the best-selling novel By Love Possessed, which was later made into a popular 1961 film.

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09/08/1975

Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian pianist and composer (born 1906)

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer.

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09/08/1974

Bill Chase, American trumpet player and bandleader (born 1934)

Bill Chase was an American trumpeter and leader of the jazz-rock band Chase.

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09/08/1972

Sıddık Sami Onar, Turkish lawyer and academic (born 1897)

Sıddık Sami Onar was a Turkish academic specialized in administrative law at the Istanbul University.

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09/08/1970

Jimmy Steele (Irish republican), lifelong militant and editor (born 1907)

Jimmy Steele was an Irish republican militant. He was one of the most prominent Irish Republican Army (IRA) men in Belfast after the Irish Civil War who held practically every senior position in the Northern Command of the IRA. Later in life Steele publicly denounced the leadership of the IRA which was a prelude to the split in the IRA. Steele founded and edited several Irish Republican publications. Steele spent a large portion of his life in jails as a result of his actions against British security forces.

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09/08/1969

C. F. Powell, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1903)

Cecil Frank Powell was a British experimental physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1950 for heading the team that developed the photographic method of studying nuclear processes, and for the resulting discovery of the pion (pi-meson).

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09/08/1967

Joe Orton, English author and playwright (born 1933)

John Kingsley Orton, known by the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist.

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09/08/1963

Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, American son of John F. Kennedy (born 1963)

Patrick Bouvier Kennedy was the youngest child of United States president John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. His elder siblings were Caroline, John Jr., and Arabella.

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09/08/1962

Hermann Hesse, German-born Swiss poet, novelist, and painter, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1877)

Hermann Karl Hesse was a German-Swiss poet and novelist, and winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature. His interest in Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions, combined with his involvement with Jungian analysis, helped to shape his literary work. His best-known novels include Demian, Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, Narcissus and Goldmund, and The Glass Bead Game, each of which explores an individual's search for authenticity, self-knowledge, and spirituality.

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09/08/1957

Carl Clauberg, German Nazi physician (born 1898)

Carl Clauberg was a German gynecologist who conducted medical experiments on Jewish and Romani women at Auschwitz concentration camp. He worked with Horst Schumann in X-ray sterilization experiments at Auschwitz concentration camp.

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09/08/1949

Edward Thorndike, American psychologist and academic (born 1874)

Edward Lee Thorndike was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on comparative psychology and the learning process led to his "theory of connectionism" and helped lay the scientific foundation for educational psychology. He also worked on solving industrial problems, such as employee exams and testing.

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09/08/1948

Hugo Boss, German fashion designer, founded Hugo Boss (born 1885)

Hugo Ferdinand Boss was a German businessman who founded the fashion house Hugo Boss. He was an active member of the Nazi Party from 1931, and remained so until Nazi Germany's capitulation. His clothing company also utilized forced labour drawn from German-occupied territories and prisoner-of-war camps to manufacture military uniforms for the Schutzstaffel and Wehrmacht.

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09/08/1946

Bert Vogler, South African cricketer (born 1876)

Albert Edward Ernest Vogler was a South African cricketer. A leading all-rounder skilled both at batting and bowling, Vogler played cricket in South Africa prior to becoming eligible to play for Middlesex County Cricket Club in England after serving on the ground staff of the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's. He rose to prominence during the 1906 home Test series and then in England the following year: he was described during the latter as the best bowler in the world by Tip Foster, and named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year.

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09/08/1945

Robert Hampton Gray, Canadian lieutenant and pilot, Victoria Cross recipient (born 1917)

Robert Hampton "Hammy" Gray, was a Canadian naval officer, pilot, and recipient of the Victoria Cross during World War II. He and Eugene Esmonde are the only personnel of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm to be decorated the VC in the war. Gray is the last Canadian to be awarded the Victoria Cross.

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Harry Hillman, American runner and coach (born 1881)

Harry Livingston Hillman Jr. was one of the longest serving Dartmouth Track and Field Coaches from 1910–45, and an American track and field athlete who won three gold medals at the 1904 Summer Olympics and a silver at the 1908 Summer Olympics.

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09/08/1943

Chaïm Soutine, Belarusian-French painter and educator (born 1893)

Chaïm Soutine was a French painter of Belarusian-Jewish origin of the School of Paris, who made a major contribution to the Expressionist movement while living and working in Paris.

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09/08/1942

Edith Stein, German nun and saint (born 1891)

Edith Stein was a German philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a Discalced Carmelite nun. She was murdered in the gas chamber at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp on 9 August 1942, and is canonized as a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church; she is also one of six patron saints of Europe.

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09/08/1941

Richard Goss, Executed Irish Republican (born 1915)

Richard (Richie) Goss (1915–1941) was an executed Irish Republican born to Patrick Goss and Margaret Clinton who had married at Inniskeen Roman Catholic Church In 1909. His parents were both Roman Catholic as is shown in the 1911 census despite the misinformation that he himself was one of the few Protestant members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the 1940s. Goss was a leader in a major bombing and sabotage campaign in England (1939–40), known as the S-Plan

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09/08/1932

John Charles Fields, Canadian mathematician, founder of the Fields Medal (born 1863)

John Charles Fields, FRS, FRSC was a Canadian mathematician and the founder of the Fields Medal for outstanding achievement in mathematics.

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09/08/1920

Samuel Griffith, Welsh-Australian politician, 9th Premier of Queensland (born 1845)

Sir Samuel Walker Griffith was an Australian judge and politician who served as the inaugural Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1903 to 1919. He also served a term as Chief Justice of Queensland and two terms as Premier of Queensland, and played a key role in the drafting of the Australian Constitution.

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09/08/1919

Ruggero Leoncavallo, Italian composer and educator (born 1857)

Ruggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Throughout his career, Leoncavallo produced numerous operas and songs, but it is his 1892 opera Pagliacci that remained his lasting contribution, despite attempts to escape the shadow of his greatest success.

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09/08/1910

Huo Yuanjia, Chinese martial artist, co-founded the Chin Woo Athletic Association (born 1868)

Huo Yuanjia, courtesy name Jùnqīng, was a Chinese martial artist and co-founder of the Chin Woo Athletic Association, a martial arts school in Shanghai. A practitioner of the martial art Mizongyi, Huo is considered a hero in China for defeating foreign fighters in highly publicised matches at a time when Chinese sovereignty was being eroded by foreign imperialism, concessions and spheres of influence. Due to his heroic status, the legends and myths surrounding the events in his life are difficult to distinguish from facts.

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09/08/1886

Samuel Ferguson, Irish lawyer and poet (born 1810)

Sir Samuel Ferguson was an Irish poet, barrister, antiquarian, artist and public servant. He was an acclaimed 19th-century Irish poet, and his interest in Irish mythology and early Irish history can be seen as a forerunner of William Butler Yeats and the other poets of the Irish Literary Revival.

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09/08/1861

Vincent Novello, English composer and publisher (born 1781)

Vincent Novello, was an English musician and music publisher born in London. He was an organist, chorister, conductor and composer, but he is best known for bringing to England many works now considered standards, and with his son he created a major music publishing house.

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09/08/1816

Johann August Apel, German jurist and author (born 1771)

Johann August Apel was a German writer and jurist. Apel was born and died in Leipzig.

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09/08/1744

James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, English academic and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire (born 1673)

James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, was a British landowner and politician who represented Hereford in the English and British House of Commons from 1698 until 1714, when he succeeded to his father's peerage as Baron Chandos and started sitting in the House of Lords. He was subsequently created Earl of Carnarvon, and then Duke of Chandos in 1719.

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09/08/1720

Simon Ockley, English orientalist and academic (born 1678)

Simon Ockley was a British Orientalist.

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09/08/1634

William Noy, English lawyer and judge (born 1577)

William Noy was an English jurist.

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09/08/1601

Michael the Brave, Romanian prince (born 1558)

Michael the Brave, born as Mihai Pătrașcu, was the Prince of Wallachia, Prince of Moldavia (1600) and de facto ruler of Transylvania (1599–1600). He is considered one of Romania's greatest national heroes. Since the 19th century, Michael the Brave has been regarded by Romanian nationalists as a symbol of Romanian unity, as his reign marked the first time in history all principalities inhabited by Romanians were under the same ruler.

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09/08/1580

Metrophanes III of Constantinople (born 1520)

Metrophanes III of Constantinople was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople two times, from 1565 to 1572 and from 1579 to 1580.

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09/08/1534

Thomas Cajetan, Italian cardinal and philosopher (born 1470)

Thomas Cajetan, also known as Gaetanus or Cajetanus, commonly Tommaso de Vio or Thomas de Vio, was an Italian philosopher, theologian, the Master of the Order of Preachers 1508 to 1518, and cardinal from 1517 until his death. He was a leading theologian of his day who is now best known as the spokesman for Catholic opposition to the teachings of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation while he was the Pope's legate in Augsburg, and among Catholics for his extensive commentary on the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas.

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09/08/1516

Hieronymus Bosch, Early Netherlandish painter (born circa 1450)

Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on oak wood, mainly contains fantastic illustrations of religious concepts and narratives. Within his lifetime, his work was collected in the Netherlands, Austria, and Spain, and widely copied, especially his macabre and nightmarish depictions of hell.

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09/08/1420

Pierre d'Ailly, French theologian and cardinal (born 1351)

Pierre d'Ailly was a French theologian, astrologer and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

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09/08/1354

Stephen, Duke of Slavonia, Hungarian prince (born 1332)

Stephen was a Hungarian royal prince of the Capetian House of Anjou. He was the youngest son of Charles I of Hungary and Elizabeth of Poland to survive childhood. He was styled as duke of Slavonia from 1339 to 1346, but he had no role in the government of the province. Stephen's separate household was set up in 1349. In this year, he received the counties of Szepes and Sáros from his brother, Louis I of Hungary. Louis made him duke of Transylvania in late 1349, but soon appointed him to administer Slavonia.

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09/08/1341

Eleanor of Anjou, queen consort of Sicily (born 1289)

Eleanor of Anjou was Queen of Sicily as the wife of King Frederick III of Sicily. She was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou by birth.

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09/08/1296

Hugh, Count of Brienne, French crusader

Hugh, Count of Brienne and Lecce was the second surviving son of Count Walter IV of Brienne and Marie de Lusignan of Cyprus.

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09/08/1260

Walter of Kirkham, Bishop of Durham

Walter of Kirkham was a medieval English official who held the positions of Keeper of the Wardrobe, Dean of York, and Bishop of Durham. He was elected bishop over Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, the brother of King Henry III. As bishop, he was instrumental in the founding of Balliol College in the University of Oxford.

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09/08/1211

William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber, exiled Anglo-Norman baron (born 1144/53)

William de Braose,, 4th Lord of Bramber, court favourite of King John of England, at the peak of his power was also Lord of Gower, Abergavenny, Brecknock, Builth, Radnor, Kington, Limerick, Glamorgan, Skenfrith, Briouze in Normandy, Grosmont, and White Castle.

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09/08/1173

Najm ad-Din Ayyub, Kurdish soldier and politician

al-Malik al-Afdal Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb ibn Shādhi ibn Marwān, or simply Najmadin, was a Kurdish mercenary and politician from Dvin, and the father of Saladin. He is the eponymous ancestor of the Ayyubid dynasty.

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09/08/1107

Emperor Horikawa of Japan (born 1079)

Emperor Horikawa was the 73rd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.

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09/08/1048

Pope Damasus II

Pope Damasus II was the Bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 17 July 1048 to his death on 9 August that same year. He was the second of the German pontiffs nominated by Emperor Henry III. A native of Bavaria, he was the third German to become pope and had one of the shortest papal reigns.

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09/08/0833

Al-Ma'mun, Iraqi caliph (born 786)

Abū al-ʿAbbās Abd Allāh ibn Hārūn al-Maʾmūn, better known by his regnal name al-Ma'mun, was the seventh Abbasid caliph, who reigned from 813 until his death in 833. His leadership was marked by the power and prosperity of the Abbasid Caliphate, al-Ma'mun promoted the Graeco-Arabic translation movement, the flowering of learning and the sciences in Baghdad, and the publishing of al-Khwarizmi's book now known as "Algebra", making him one of the most important caliphs in the Islamic Golden Age. He is also known as a proponent of the rational Islamic theology of Mu'tazilism.

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09/08/0803

Irene of Athens, Byzantine ruler (born 752)

Irene of Athens, surname Sarantapechaena, was Byzantine empress consort to Emperor Leo IV from 775 to 780, regent during the childhood of their son Constantine VI from 780 until 790, co-ruler from 792 until 797, and finally empress regnant and sole ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire from 797 to 802. A member of the politically prominent Sarantapechos family, she was selected as Leo IV's bride for unknown reasons in 768. Even though her husband was an iconoclast, she harbored iconophile sympathies. During her regency, in 787, she called the Second Council of Nicaea which condemned iconoclasm as heretical and brought an end to the first iconoclast period (730–787). Irene's concluding five years of sole rule were unprecedented in Roman and Byzantine history. Her public figure in this period was polarizing, due to the setbacks faced by the Empire and her iconophilic stances, often attributed to her gender and the influence of her retinue.

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09/08/0378

Traianus, Roman general

Traianus was a Roman general under Emperor Valens, with whom he died in the Battle of Adrianople.

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Valens, Roman emperor (born 328)

Valens was Roman emperor from 364 to 378. Following a largely unremarkable military career, he was named co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, who gave him the eastern half of the Roman Empire to rule. In 378, Valens was defeated and killed at the Battle of Adrianople against the invading Goths, which astonished contemporaries and marked the beginning of barbarian encroachment into Roman territory.

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