Died on Thursday, 11th December – Famous Deaths

On 11th December, 95 remarkable people passed away — from 384 to 2024. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

On 11th December, the death records contain notable figures spanning centuries of history and achievement. Among those commemorated on this date is Nadir Afonso, the Portuguese painter and architect who passed away in 2013, leaving behind a significant legacy in modernist art and design. Another figure of considerable influence was Hans Wallat, the German conductor and director who died in 2014, having shaped classical music performance across Europe. These individuals represent the cultural contributions remembered each year on this particular date.

The historical record extends far deeper into the past, with some of the most significant deaths recorded across different eras and regions. Keith Chegwin, the British television presenter, died on this day in 2017, having entertained audiences throughout his broadcasting career. The list encompasses figures from various fields including science, politics, the arts, and athletics, demonstrating the wide-ranging human accomplishments marked by these annual commemorations.

December 11th carries weight in historical memory through the accumulated losses of influential people across multiple centuries. From medieval rulers such as Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the Welsh prince who died in 1282, to modern business figures and entertainers, the date marks diverse chapters in human history. These records provide a comprehensive overview of notable individuals whose deaths occurred on this day throughout recorded history, offering context to the significant contributions made by people across professions and nationalities.

DayAtlas provides comprehensive information about any date, displaying weather conditions, historical events, notable births and deaths for specific locations and calendar days.

See who passed away today 11th April.

11/12/2024

David Bonderman, American billionaire businessman (born 1942)

David Bonderman was an American billionaire businessman. He was the founding partner of TPG Inc., and its Asian affiliate, Newbridge Capital. He was also one of the minority owners of the NBA's Boston Celtics as well as the co-founder and co-majority owner of the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League. At the time of his death, Forbes estimated his net worth at US$7.4 billion, making him the 400th richest person in the world.


Khalil Haqqani, Afghan politician and warlord (born 1966)

Khalil Rahman Haqqani was an Afghan politician and military leader. A Pashtun mujahideen commander, he was designated Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the United States.


Purushottam Upadhyay, Indian musician, singer and composer (born 1934)

Purushottam Upadhyay was an Indian musician, singer and composer who primarily worked in Gujarati and Hindi languages. He was well known in Gujarati semi-classical music and composed music for over 20 films and 30 plays. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2017.


11/12/2023

Andre Braugher, American actor (born 1962)

Andre Keith Braugher ( BROW-ər; was an American actor known for his roles as Detective Frank Pembleton in the NBC police drama series Homicide: Life on the Street and Captain Raymond Holt in the Fox/NBC police comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine. He won two Primetime Emmy Awards and was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards.


11/12/2021

Anne Rice, American author (born 1941)

Anne Rice was an American author of Gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Bible fiction. She is best known for writing The Vampire Chronicles. She later adapted the first volume in the series into a commercially successful eponymous film, Interview with the Vampire (1994).


11/12/2020

James Flynn, New Zealand intelligence researcher. (born 1934)

James Robert Flynn was an American-born New Zealand moral philosopher and intelligence researcher. Originally from Washington, D.C., and educated at the University of Chicago, Flynn emigrated to Dunedin in 1963, where he taught political studies at the University of Otago. He was noted for his publications about the continued year-after-year increase of IQ scores throughout the world, which is now referred to as the Flynn effect. In addition to his academic work, he championed social democratic politics throughout his life.


11/12/2017

Keith Chegwin, British TV presenter (born 1957)

Keith Chegwin, also known by the nickname Cheggers, was an English television presenter and actor, appearing in several children's entertainment shows in the 1970s and 1980s, including Multi-Coloured Swap Shop and Cheggers Plays Pop.


11/12/2015

Abish Kekilbayev, Kazakh academic and politician (born 1939)

Äbış Kekılbaev was a Kazakh public and political figure, Hero of Labour of Kazakhstan (2009), People’s Writer of Kazakhstan (1992), and Honored Cultural Worker of the Kyrgyz Republic (1995). He is a laureate of the State Prize, a philologist, and an academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. He also holds the title of Honorary Professor at both Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University. Served as a Senator of Kazakhstan from 2002 to 2010, State Secretary of Kazakhstan from 1996 to 2002, and the Supreme Council Chairman from 1994 until its dissolution in 1995.


H. Arnold Steinberg, Canadian businessman, philanthropist, and academic (born 1933)

H. Arnold Steinberg, was a Canadian businessman, philanthropist and Chancellor of McGill University.


Hema Upadhyay, Indian painter and sculptor (born 1972)

Hema Upadhyay was an Indian visual artist, based in Mumbai. She was known for photography and sculptural installations. She was active from 1998 until her death in 2015.


John "Hot Rod" Williams, American basketball player (born 1962)

John "Hot Rod" Williams was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1986 to 1999.


Ken Woolley, Australian architect (born 1933)

Kenneth Frank Charles Woolley was an Australian architect. In a career spanning 60 years, he is best known for his contributions to project housing with Pettit and Sevitt, as well as for being a four-time winner of the Wilkinson Award, including three times for his own house, and his longstanding partnership with Sydney Ancher and Bryce Mortlock. He is regarded as being a prominent figure in the development of the Sydney School movement and in Australian vernacular building.


11/12/2014

Hans Wallat, German conductor and director (born 1929)

Hans Wallat was a German conductor, GMD in Bremen, at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, Theater Dortmund and Deutsche Oper am Rhein. A specialist for the stage works of Richard Wagner, he appeared at the Bayreuth Festival and internationally.


11/12/2013

Nadir Afonso, Portuguese painter and architect (born 1920)

Nadir Afonso, GOSE was a Portuguese geometric abstractionist painter. Formally trained in architecture, which he practiced early in his career with Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, Nadir Afonso later studied painting in Paris and became one of the pioneers of Kinetic art, working alongside Victor Vasarely, Fernand Léger, Auguste Herbin, and André Bloc.


Barbara Branden, Canadian-American author and academic (born 1929)

Barbara Joan Branden was a Canadian-American writer, editor, and lecturer, known for her relationship and subsequent break with novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand.


Javier Jáuregui (boxer), Mexican boxer (born 1973)

Javier Rogelio Jáuregui Delgadillo, also known as El Chatito, was a Mexican professional boxer in the lightweight division.


Sheikh Mussa Shariefi, Indian philosopher and scholar (born 1942)

Hujjatul Islam Sheikh Muhammad Mussa Shariefi was a senior Islamic Twelver Shia religious scholar/alim from the Kargil district of Ladakh. He was renowned for his philosophical and mystical Friday prayer sermons which were always attended by thousands of people from the length and breadth of Kargil. He became the Imam e Jumu'ah of Jamia Masjid Kargil after the death of the immensely popular Shia mystic and scholar, Hujjat ul Islam wal Muslimeen Aqa Sheikh Khanteypa. He gained immense popularity for his usage of the local dialect for delivering his Friday sermons. He was one of the last members of a group of religious scholars from Kargil who attained higher Islamic Studies in the Hawza 'Ilmiyya Najaf, before the rule of Ba'ath Party in Iraq. He is renowned for his piety and his role in propagating Islam and establishing numerous Islamic institutions in Kargil.


11/12/2012

Galina Vishnevskaya, Russian soprano and actress (born 1926)

Galina Pavlovna Vishnevskaya was a Russian soprano opera singer and recitalist who was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1966. She was the wife of cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, and mother to their two daughters, Olga and Elena Rostropovich.


Mendel Weinbach, Polish-Israeli rabbi and scholar (born 1933)

Chona Menachem Mendel (Mendel) Weinbach was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, educator, author, and speaker. As the co-founder and dean of Ohr Somayach Institutions, a Jerusalem-based yeshiva for newly-observant Jewish men, he was considered one of the fathers of the modern-day baal teshuva movement.


Ravi Shankar, Indian-American sitar player and composer (born 1920)

Pandit Ravi Shankar was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known exponent of Indian classical music in the second half of the 20th century, and influenced many musicians in India and throughout the world. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999. He is also the father of American singer Norah Jones and British-American musician and sitar player Anoushka Shankar.


11/12/2011

John Patrick Foley, American cardinal (born 1935)

John Patrick Foley was an American Catholic prelate who served as Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem from 2007 to 2011. He previously served as -president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications from 1984 to 2007. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 2007.


11/12/2010

Dick Hoerner, American football player (born 1922)

Lester Junior "Dick" Hoerner was an American professional football player who was a fullback for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL) from 1947 to 1951. He played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes in 1942 and 1946. He helped lead the Rams to three consecutive NFL championship games from 1949 to 1951, played for the 1951 Los Angeles Rams team that won the 1951 NFL Championship Game, and was selected to play in the inaugural 1951 Pro Bowl. He was the Rams' all-time leading rusher at the end of his playing career with the team. He concluded his professional football career as a member of the Dallas Texans in 1952.


11/12/2008

Bettie Page, American model (born 1923)

Bettie Mae Page was an American model who gained recognition in the 1950s for her pin-up photos. She was often referred to as the "Queen of Pinups": her long jet-black hair, blue eyes, and trademark bangs have influenced artists for generations. After her death, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner called her "a remarkable lady, an iconic figure in pop culture who influenced sexuality, taste in fashion, someone who had a tremendous impact on our society".


11/12/2004

José Luis Cuciuffo, Argentinian footballer (born 1962)

José Luis Cuciuffo was an Argentine professional footballer who played as a centre back and who was part of the 1986 FIFA World Cup-winning Argentina national team.


Arthur Lydiard, New Zealand runner and coach (born 1917)

Arthur Leslie Lydiard was a New Zealand runner and athletics coach. He has been lauded as one of the outstanding athletics coaches of all time and is credited with popularising the sport of running and making it commonplace across the sporting world. His training methods are based on a strong endurance base and periodisation.


11/12/2003

Ahmadou Kourouma, Ivorian author and playwright (born 1927)

Ahmadou Kourouma was an Ivorian novelist.


11/12/2001

Mainza Chona, Zambian lawyer and politician, first Prime Minister of Zambia (born 1930)

Mainza Mathias Chona was a Zambian politician and founder of UNIP who served as the third vice-president of Zambia from 1970 to 1973 and Prime Minister on two occasions: from 25 August 1973 to 27 May 1975 and from 20 July 1977 to 15 June 1978.


11/12/2000

Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah, Pakistani politician and diplomat (born 1915)

Begum Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah was a Pakistani politician, diplomat and author. She joined the Pakistani foreign service in 1948, and was the country's first female civil servant, as well as the first Muslim woman to earn a PhD from the University of London. She was Pakistan's ambassador to Morocco from 1964 to 1967, and a delegate to the United Nations, calling for a more gender-inclusive language in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.


David Lewis, American actor (born 1916)

David Lewis was an American actor. He was best known for being the original actor to portray Edward Quartermaine from 1978 to 1993 on the American soap opera General Hospital.


11/12/1998

André Lichnerowicz, French physicist and mathematician (born 1915)

André Lichnerowicz was a French differential geometer and mathematical physicist. He made pioneering contributions to the theory of the scalar curvature, holonomy groups, Kähler geometry, and the mathematical study of Einstein's equations. He also made contributions to symplectic geometry, and is considered the founder of modern Poisson geometry.


Lynn Strait, American singer-songwriter (born 1968)

James Lynn Strait II was an American singer. He was the lead vocalist and lyricist for the nu metal band Snot.


11/12/1997

Eddie Chapman, English spy (born 1914)

Edward Arnold Chapman was an English criminal and wartime spy. During the Second World War he offered his services to Nazi Germany as a spy and subsequently became a British double agent. His British Secret Service handlers codenamed him Agent Zigzag in acknowledgement of his erratic personal history.


Simon Jeffes, English guitarist and composer (born 1949)

Simon Harry Piers Jeffes was an English classically trained guitarist, composer and arranger. He formed, and was the primary performer of, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. He was the composer of the ballet Still Life at the Penguin Cafe, of the much-recorded piece Music For A Found Harmonium, and other music recorded by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.


11/12/1996

Willie Rushton, English cartoonist, author, and publisher, co-founded Private Eye (born 1937)

William George Rushton was an English cartoonist, comedian, actor and satirist who co-founded the satirical magazine Private Eye.


11/12/1995

Greg Bahnsen, American minister and philosopher (born 1948)

Greg Bahnsen was an American Calvinist philosopher and Christian apologist. He was a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and a full-time Scholar in Residence for the Southern California Center for Christian Studies (SCCCS). He is also considered a contributor to the field of Christian apologetics, as he popularized the presuppositional method of Cornelius Van Til. He is the father of David Bahnsen, an American portfolio manager, author, and television commentator.


11/12/1994

Philip Phillips, American archaeologist and scholar (born 1900)

Philip Phillips was an influential archaeologist in the United States during the 20th century.


11/12/1991

Robert Q. Lewis, American actor, comedian, game show host/panelist, and television personality (born 1921)

Robert Q. Lewis was an American radio and television entertainer, comedian, game show host and actor. Although born with the Goldberg name, he grew up as Lewis, his father's professional name.


Artur Lundkvist, Swedish author and critic (born 1906)

Nils Artur Lundkvist was a Swedish writer, poet and literary critic. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1968.


11/12/1989

Louise Dahl-Wolfe, American photographer (born 1895)

Louise Emma Augusta Dahl-Wolfe was an American photographer. She is known primarily for her work for Harper's Bazaar, in association with fashion editor Diana Vreeland. At Harper's Bazaar she pioneered a new standard in color photography.


11/12/1987

G. A. Kulkarni, Indian author and academic (born 1923)

G. A. Kulkarni, or known simply as "GA", was an Indian Sahitya Akademi Award winner Marathi writer of short stories.


11/12/1984

Oskar Seidlin, German-American author, poet, and scholar (born 1911)

Oskar Seidlin was a Jewish emigre from Nazi Germany first to Switzerland and then to the U.S. He taught German language and literature as a professor at Smith College, Middlebury College, Ohio State University, and Indiana University from 1939 to 1979. He authored a number of fictional and non-fictional works.


George Waggner, American director, producer and actor (born 1894)

George Waggner was an American actor, director, producer and writer. He is best known for producing and directing the 1941 film The Wolf Man. For some unknown reason, Waggner sometimes configured his name in mostly lowercase letters but with his surname's two Gs capitalized ("waGGner"), including in the credits of some of the productions he directed.


11/12/1983

Neil Ritchie, Guyanese-English general (born 1897)

General Sir Neil Methuen Ritchie, was a British Army officer who served in the First and Second World Wars. During the Second World War he commanded the British Eighth Army in the North African campaign from November 1941 until he was dismissed in June 1942 after a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Gazala.


11/12/1979

James J. Gibson, American psychologist and author (born 1904)

James Jerome Gibson was an American psychologist and is considered to be one of the most important contributors to the field of visual perception. Gibson challenged the idea that the nervous system actively constructs conscious visual perception, and instead promoted ecological psychology, in which the mind directly perceives environmental stimuli without additional cognitive construction or processing. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked him as the 88th most cited psychologist of the 20th century, tied with John Garcia, David Rumelhart, Louis Leon Thurstone, Margaret Floy Washburn, and Robert S. Woodworth.


11/12/1978

Vincent du Vigneaud, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1901)

Vincent du Vigneaud was an American biochemist. He was recipient of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone," a reference to his work on the peptide hormone oxytocin.


Paul O'Dea, American baseball player and manager (born 1920)

Paul O'Dea was an American professional baseball player, manager and scout. He saw Major League service during World War II for the 1944 and 1945 Cleveland Indians. He threw and batted left-handed, stood 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and weighed 200 pounds (91 kg).


11/12/1975

Lee Wiley, American singer (born 1908)

Lee Wiley was an American jazz singer during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.


Nihal Atsız, Turkish philosopher, author, and poet (born 1905)

Hüseyin Nihâl Atsız was a prominent Turkish ultranationalist writer, novelist, and poet. Atsız self-identified as a racist, Pan-Turkist, Turanist, and was the ideologue of Atsızism. He was the author of over 30 books and numerous articles and was in strong opposition to the government of İsmet İnönü, which he criticized for co-operating with the communists. He was accused of being a sympathizer of Nazi Germany and plotting to overthrow the Turkish government.


11/12/1971

Maurice McDonald, American businessman, co-founded McDonald's (born 1902)

Richard James McDonald and Maurice James "Mac" McDonald, known as the McDonald brothers, were American entrepreneurs who founded the fast food company McDonald's.


11/12/1968

Richard Sagrits, Estonian painter and author (born 1910)

Richard Sagrits was an Estonian painter.


Arthur Hays Sulzberger, American publisher (born 1891)

Arthur Hays Sulzberger was publisher of The New York Times from 1935 to 1961. During that time, daily circulation rose from 465,000 to 713,000 and Sunday circulation from 745,000 to 1.4 million; the staff more than doubled, reaching 5,200; advertising linage grew from 19 million to 62 million column inches per year; and gross income increased almost sevenfold, reaching $117 million.


11/12/1966

Augusta Fox Bronner, American psychologist, specialist in juvenile psychology (born 1881)

Augusta Fox Bronner was an American psychologist and criminologist, best known for her work in juvenile psychology. She co-directed the first child guidance clinic, and her research shaped psychological theories about the causes behind child delinquency, emphasizing the need to focus on social and environmental factors over inherited traits.


11/12/1964

Sam Cooke, American singer-songwriter (born 1931)

Samuel Cooke was an American soul singer and songwriter. Considered one of the most influential artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred to as the "King of Soul" for his distinctive vocals, pioneering contributions to the genre, and significance in popular music. During his eight-year career, Cooke released 29 singles that charted in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as 20 singles in the Top 10 of Billboard's Black Singles chart. In 1964, he was shot and killed by the manager of a motel in Los Angeles. After an inquest and investigation, the courts ruled Cooke's death to be a justifiable homicide. His family has since questioned the circumstances of his death. His legacy inspired the likes of Tina Turner, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Steve Perry. In 2015, Cooke was ranked number 28 in Billboard magazine's list of the "35 Greatest R&B Artists of All Time".


Percy Kilbride, American actor (born 1888)

Percy William Kilbride was an American character actor. He made a career of playing country "hicks," most memorably as Pa Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle series of feature films.


11/12/1959

Jim Bottomley, American baseball player and manager (born 1900)

James Leroy Bottomley was an American professional baseball player, scout and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a first baseman from 1922 to 1937, most prominently as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals where he helped lead the team to four National League pennants and two World Series titles.


11/12/1957

Musidora, French actress, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1889)

Jeanne Roques, known professionally as Musidora, was a French actress, film director, and writer. She is known for her acting in silent films, and rose to fame for roles in the Louis Feuillade serials Les Vampires as Irma Vep and in Judex as Marie Verdier.


11/12/1953

Sedat Simavi, Turkish journalist and director (born 1896)

Sedat Simavi was a Turkish journalist, writer and film director. He established many newspapers and magazines.


11/12/1951

Mustafa Muğlalı, Turkish general (born 1882)

Mustafa Muğlalı was an officer of the Ottoman Army and the general of the Turkish Army. He served as an officer in World War I and the Turkish War of Independence. As a General of the Third Army, he took part in the defense of Diyarbakır during the Sheikh Said Rebellion in 1925.


Hijri Dede, Iraqi Turkmen poet and writer (born 1881)

Mahmud ibn Ali ibn Naziri known by his pen name Hijri and his title Dede/Dade was an Iraqi Turkmen poet and writer.Born in Kirkuk, he grew up into a Kakaie family and was taught by them. He started working as a teacher in his hometown and in Baghdad. In 1927, he was assigned to manage Jaridat al Karkuk, after which he was appointed health inspector in the municipality department in 1928. He died in his hometown. He wrote primarily in Turkish, but also in Persian and Kurdish. He worked in translation and history writing as well. The poet was usually quite secretive about his religious beliefs and practices: when asked by outsiders, he would often claim to be Orthodox Sunni or, sometimes, Twelver Shi'a. According to some sources, Hijri Dede died in 1952.


11/12/1950

Leslie Comrie, New Zealand astronomer and author (born 1893)

Leslie John Comrie FRS was an astronomer and a pioneer in mechanical computation.


11/12/1945

Charles Fabry, French physicist and academic (born 1867)

Marie Paul Auguste Charles Fabry was a French physicist working on optics. Together with Alfred Pérot he invented the Fabry–Pérot interferometer. He is also one of the co-discoverers of the ozone layer.


11/12/1941

John Gillespie Magee, Jr., American pilot and poet (born 1922)

John Gillespie Magee Jr. was a World War II Anglo-American Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot and war poet, who wrote the sonnet "High Flight". He was killed in an accidental mid-air collision over England in 1941.


Émile Picard, French mathematician and academic (born 1856)

Charles Émile Picard was a French mathematician. He was elected the fifteenth member to occupy seat 1 of the Académie française in 1924.


11/12/1938

Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian historian and educator, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1869)

Christian Lous Lange was a Norwegian historian, teacher, and political scientist. He was one of the world's foremost exponents of the theory and practice of internationalism.


11/12/1937

Jaan Anvelt, Estonian theorist and politician (born 1884)

Jaan Anvelt, was an Estonian Bolshevik revolutionary and writer. He served the Russian SFSR, was a leader of the Communist Party of Estonia, the first premier of the Soviet Executive Committee of Estonia, and the chairman of the Council of the Commune of the Working People of Estonia. Imprisoned during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge in 1937, he died from the injuries sustained during a beating by Aleksandr Langfang while in NKVD custody.


Hugh Thackeray Turner, English architect and painter (born 1853)

Hugh Thackeray Turner was an English Arts and Crafts architect and also an amateur china painter.


11/12/1936

Myron Grimshaw, American baseball player (born 1875)

Myron Frederick "Moose" Grimshaw was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1905 through 1907 for the Boston Americans. Listed at 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m), 173 lb., Grimshaw was a switch-hitter and threw right-handed. He was born in St. Johnsville, New York, but was raised in Canajoharie, New York.


11/12/1928

Juho Kekkonen, Finnish forestry manager and tenant farmer (born 1873)

Juho Kekkonen was Finnish head of forestry, logging caretaker and tenant farmer. He was also known as the father of Urho Kekkonen, the 8th President of Finland.


11/12/1920

Olive Schreiner, South African author and activist (born 1855)

Olive Schreiner was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel The Story of an African Farm (1883), which has been highly acclaimed. It deals boldly with such contemporary issues as agnosticism, existential independence, individualism, the professional aspirations of women, and the elemental nature of life on the colonial frontier.


11/12/1918

Ivan Cankar, Slovenian author, poet, and playwright (born 1876)

Ivan Cankar was a Slovene writer, playwright, essayist, poet, and political activist. Together with Oton Župančič, Dragotin Kette, and Josip Murn, he is considered as the beginner of modernism in Slovene literature. He is regarded as the greatest writer in Slovene, and has sometimes been compared to Franz Kafka and James Joyce.


11/12/1913

Carl von In der Maur, Governor of Liechtenstein (born 1852)

Carl Josef Anton von In der Maur auf Strelburg und zu Freifeld was an Austrian aristocrat and statesman who twice served in the court of Johann II as the Governor of Liechtenstein from 1884 until 1892 and again from 1897 until 1913.


11/12/1909

Ludwig Mond, German-born chemist and British industrialist who discovered the metal carbonyls (born 1839)

Ludwig Mond FRS was a German-born British chemist and industrialist. He discovered an important, previously unknown, class of compounds called metal carbonyls.


11/12/1906

Charles Townsend, American fencer, engineer, and academic (born 1872)

Samuel George Fitzhugh Townsend was an American fencer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. He competed under the name Fitzhugh Townsend. It was known that Fitzhugh was his middle name and was thought for a long time that his first name was Charles. However his graduation program from Columbia University, his death announcement in the Columbia alumni newsletter, and his tombstone in the Trinity Cemetery in New York City all give his full name as Samuel George Fitzhugh Townsend.


11/12/1892

William Milligan, Scottish theologian and scholar (born 1821)

William Milligan was a renowned Scottish theologian. He studied at the University of Halle in Germany, and eventually became a professor at the University of Aberdeen. He is best known for his commentary on the Revelation of St. John. He also wrote two other well-known books that are classics: The Resurrection of our Lord and The Ascension of our Lord.


11/12/1880

Oliver Winchester, American businessman, founded the Winchester Repeating Arms Company (born 1810)

Oliver Fisher Winchester was an American businessman and politician, best known as being the founder of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.


11/12/1872

Kamehameha V of Hawaii (born 1830)

Kamehameha V, reigned as the fifth monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi from 1863 to 1872. His motto was "Onipaʻa": immovable, firm, steadfast, or determined; he is said to have worked diligently for his people and kingdom, being described as the last great traditional chief.


11/12/1840

Emperor Kōkaku of Japan (born 1771)

Emperor Kōkaku was the 119th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Kōkaku reigned from 1779 until his abdication in 1817 in favor of his son, Emperor Ninkō. After his abdication, he ruled as Daijō Tennō also known as a Jōkō (上皇) until his death in 1840. The next emperor to abdicate was Akihito, 202 years later.


11/12/1826

Maria Leopoldina of Austria (born 1797)

Dona Maria Leopoldina of Austria was the first Empress of Brazil as the wife of Emperor Dom Pedro I from 12 October 1822 until her death. She was also Queen of Portugal during her husband's brief reign as King Dom Pedro IV from 10 March to 2 May 1826.


11/12/1797

Richard Brocklesby, English physician (born 1722)

Richard Brocklesby, an English physician, was born at Minehead, Somerset.


11/12/1747

Edmund Curll, English bookseller and publisher (born 1675)

Edmund Curll was an English bookseller and publisher. His name has become synonymous, through the attacks on him by Alexander Pope, with unscrupulous publication and publicity. Curll rose from poverty to wealth through his publishing, and he did this by approaching book printing in a mercenary and unscrupulous manner. By cashing in on scandals, publishing pornography, offering up patent medicine, using all publicity as good publicity, he managed a small empire of printing houses. He would publish high and low quality writing alike, so long as it sold. He was born in the West Country, and his late and incomplete recollections say that his father was a tradesman. He was an apprentice to a London bookseller in 1698 when he began his career.


11/12/1737

John Strype, English priest, historian, and author (born 1643)

John Strype was an English clergyman, historian and biographer from London. He became a merchant when settling in Petticoat Lane. In his twenties, he became perpetual curate of Theydon Bois, Essex and later became curate of Leyton; this allowed him direct correspondence with several highly notable ecclesiastical figures of his time. He wrote extensively in his later years.


11/12/1694

Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma (born 1630)

Ranuccio II Farnese was the sixth Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1646 until his death nearly 50 years later. He was also the Duke of Castro from 1646 until 1649.


11/12/1686

Louis, Grand Condé, French general (born 1621)

Louis II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, known as le Grand Condé, was a French military commander. A tactician and strategist, he is regarded as one of France's greatest generals, particularly celebrated for his triumphs in the Thirty Years' War and his campaigns during the Franco-Dutch War.


11/12/1610

Adam Elsheimer, German artist working in Rome (born 1578)

Adam Elsheimer was a German Baroque painter who worked in Rome. Though his career was short, his relatively few paintings were very influential in the early 17th century. His works were nearly all small oils on copper plates, of the type often known as cabinet paintings. They include a variety of light effects, and an innovative treatment of landscape. He was an influence on many other artists, including Rembrandt and Peter Paul Rubens.


11/12/1582

Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, Spanish general and politician, 12th Constable of Portugal (born 1508)

Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, 3rd Duke of Alba, known as the Grand Duke of Alba in Spain and Portugal and as the Iron Duke or shortly 'Alva' in the Netherlands and Belgium, was a Spanish military officer, statesman and diplomat.


11/12/1532

Pietro Accolti, Italian cardinal (born 1455)

Pietro Accolti, known as the "cardinal of Ancona", was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal and judge of the Roman Rota.


11/12/1474

Henry IV of Castile, King of the Crown of Castile (born 1425)

Henry IV of Castile, nicknamed the Impotent, was King of Castile and León and the last of the weak late-medieval kings of Castile and León. During Henry's reign, the nobles became more powerful and the nation became less centralised.


11/12/1282

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Welsh prince (born 1223)

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, also known as Llywelyn II and Llywelyn the Last, was Prince of Gwynedd from 1255 to 1282. After successful campaigns across Wales in 1257, Llywelyn proclaimed himself Prince of Wales in 1258, and was recognised as such by Henry III of England in 1267 as part of the Treaty of Montgomery. He remained in this position until his death in an ambush at Cilmeri in 1282, one of the final events in Edward I’s conquest of Wales.


Michael VIII Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (born 1225)

Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus reigned as Byzantine emperor from 1261 until his death in 1282, and previously as the co-emperor of the Empire of Nicaea from 1259 to 1261. Michael VIII was the founder of the Palaiologan dynasty that would rule the Byzantine Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. He recovered Constantinople from the Latin Empire in 1261 and transformed the Empire of Nicaea into a restored Byzantine Empire. His reign saw considerable recovery of Byzantine power, including the enlargement of the Byzantine army and navy. It also included the reconstruction of the city of Constantinople, and the increase of its population. His re-establishment of the University of Constantinople contributed to the Palaeologan Renaissance, a cultural flowering between the 13th and 15th centuries.


11/12/1241

Ögedei Khan, Mongolian emperor (born 1186)

Ögedei Khan was the second khan of the Mongol Empire. The third son of Genghis Khan, he continued the expansion of the empire that his father had begun.


11/12/1198

Averroes, Spanish astronomer, physicist, and philosopher (born 1126)

Ibn Rushd, Latinized as Averroes, was an Andalusian polymath and jurist who was proficient in a variety of intellectual fields, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psychology, mathematics, neurology, Islamic jurisprudence and law, and linguistics. The author of more than 100 books and treatises, his philosophical works include numerous commentaries on Aristotle, for which he was known in the Western world as "The Commentator" and "Father of Rationalism".


11/12/1121

Al-Afdal Shahanshah, Egyptian political adviser (born 1066)

Al-Afdal Shahanshah, born Abu al-Qasim Shahanshah bin Badr al-Jamali, was a vizier of the Fatimid caliphs of Egypt. According to a later biographical encyclopedia, he was surnamed al-Malik al-Afdal, but this is not supported by contemporary sources.


11/12/0969

Nikephoros II Phokas, Byzantine emperor (born 912)

Nikephoros II Phokas, Latinized Nicephorus II Phocas, was Byzantine emperor from 963 to 969. His career, not uniformly successful in matters of statecraft or of war, nonetheless greatly contributed to the resurgence of the Byzantine Empire during the 10th century. In the east, Nikephoros completed the conquest of Cilicia and retook the islands of Crete and Cyprus, opening the path for subsequent Byzantine incursions reaching as far as Upper Mesopotamia and the Levant; these campaigns earned him the sobriquet "pale death of the Saracens."


11/12/0861

Al-Fath ibn Khaqan, chief confidant and councillor to al-Mutawakkil

Al-Fatḥ ibn Khāqān was an Abbasid official and one of the most prominent figures of the court of the Caliph al-Mutawakkil. The son of a Turkic general of Caliph al-Mu'tasim, al-Fath was raised at the caliphal palace alongside the future al-Mutawakkil and adopted by al-Mu'tasim at age seven. With the accession of al-Mutawakkil, he occupied a series of official posts, including governor of Egypt and the Syrian provinces, but his power stemmed mainly from his close relationship to al-Mutawakkil, whose main adviser and confidant he was. A well-educated man and ardent bibliophile, al-Fath was himself a writer and a patron of writers, and assembled a large library at his palace at Samarra. He was assassinated by the Turkic guard alongside al-Mutawakkil.


11/12/0384

Pope Damasus I (born c.304)

Pope Damasus I, also known as Damasus of Rome, was the bishop of Rome from October 366 to his death in 384. He presided over the Council of Rome of 382, which established the canon, or official list, of sacred scripture.