Died on Sunday, 14th December – Famous Deaths

14/12/2025

Rob Reiner, American filmmaker and actor (born 1947)

Robert Reiner was an American filmmaker, actor, and political activist. He directed a series of acclaimed studio films in a career that spanned comedy, drama, romance, and documentary. Reiner received numerous accolades, including winning two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Hugo Award, as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and nine Golden Globe Awards. He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999 and received the Chaplin Gala Tribute at the Film at Lincoln Center in 2014. Three of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry.

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14/12/2024

Isak Andic, Turkish-Spanish billionaire businessman (born 1953)

İsak Andiç Ermay was a Turkish-Spanish businessman, co-founder of clothing retailer Mango. As Mango's largest shareholder, Andiç was worth an estimated US$4.5 billion at the time of his death, making him the richest person in Catalonia and one of the richest in Spain. Also he was the second richest person in Turkey after Murat Ülker.

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14/12/2023

Tomáš Janovic, Slovak writer (born 1937)

Tomáš Janovic was a Slovak writer, songwriter, journalist and poet. He was best known as an aphorist.

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14/12/2022

Jean Franco, American academic and literary critic (born 1924)

Jean Franco was a British-born American academic and literary critic known for her pioneering work on Latin American literature. Educated at Manchester and London, she taught at London, Essex, and Stanford, and was latterly professor emerita at Columbia University.

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14/12/2020

Gérard Houllier, French Football manager (born 1947)

Gérard Paul Francis Houllier was a French professional football manager and player. Clubs he managed include Paris Saint-Germain, Lens and Liverpool, where he won the FA Cup, League Cup, FA Charity Shield, UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup in 2001. He then guided Lyon to two French titles, before announcing his resignation on 25 May 2007. He became manager of Aston Villa in September 2010. He also coached the France national team between 1992 and 1993. He assisted Aimé Jacquet in the 1998 FIFA World Cup, was part of UEFA's and FIFA's Technical Committee in the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cup finals, and technical director for the French Football Federation during the 2010 finals. In June 2011, he stepped down from club coaching, leaving his managerial role at Aston Villa, following frequent hospitalisation over heart problems.

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14/12/2019

Chuy Bravo, Mexican-American comedian and actor (born 1956)

Chuy Bravo was a Mexican-American actor and entertainer. He was the sidekick of host Chelsea Handler on the talk show Chelsea Lately during its run from 2007 to 2014. He usually provided comedic relief to Handler's show, and was the topic of many of her jokes.

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14/12/2017

Yu Kwang-chung, Chinese writer (born 1928)

Yu Kwang-chung, also romanised as Yu Guangzhong, was a Taiwanese writer, poet, educator and critic.

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14/12/2016

Paulo Evaristo Arns, Brazilian cardinal (born 1921)

Paulo Evaristo Arns OFM was a Brazilian Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of São Paulo from 1970 to 1998. He was named a cardinal in 1973 and later became protopriest. He was a member of the Order of Friars Minor.

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Bernard Fox, Welsh actor (born 1927)

Bernard Lawson, better known as Bernard Fox, was a Welsh actor. He is remembered for his roles as Dr. Bombay in the comedy fantasy series Bewitched (1964–1972) of which he was the last surviving adult cast member, Colonel Crittendon in the comedy series Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971), Malcolm Merriweather in The Andy Griffith Show (1963–1965), Max in Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977), and Archibald Gracie IV in the film Titanic (1997).

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14/12/2015

Terry Backer, American soldier and politician (born 1954)

Terry Backer, born Terrance Eddy Backer, was an American politician who served in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1993 until his death in 2015.

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Glen Sonmor, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1929)

Glen Robert Sonmor was a Canadian professional ice hockey player, scout and coach. He played 28 games in the National Hockey League with the New York Rangers from 1953 to 1955, though most of his career was spent in the minor American Hockey League. After his playing career, Sonmor turned to coaching. He led the University of Minnesota from 1966 to 1972, then went to the World Hockey Association, where he was the general manager, and occasional coach, of the Minnesota Fighting Saints and Birmingham Bulls between 1972 and 1978. He then moved to the NHL to coach the Minnesota North Stars from 1978 to 1987. Later in his career, Sonmor became a scout for the Minnesota Wild of the NHL.

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Vadym Tyshchenko, Ukrainian footballer and manager (born 1963)

Vadym Mykolayovych Tyshchenko or Vadim Nikolayevich Tishchenko was a Soviet and Ukrainian association football player and Ukrainian coach.

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Lillian Vernon, German-American businesswoman and philanthropist, founded the Lillian Vernon Company (born 1927)

Lillian Vernon was an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She founded the Lillian Vernon Corporation in 1951 and served as its chairwoman and CEO until July 1989, though she continued to serve as executive chairwoman until 2003, when the company was taken private by Zelnick Media. When it went public in 1987, Lillian Vernon Corporation was the first company traded on the American Stock Exchange founded by a woman. New York University's Lillian Vernon Writers House is named after her and houses the University's prestigious creative writing program.

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14/12/2014

Theo Colborn, American zoologist and academic (born 1927)

Theodora Emily Colborn was Founder and President Emerita of The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TEDX), based in Paonia, Colorado, and Professor Emerita of Zoology at the University of Florida, Gainesville. She was an environmental health analyst, and best known for her studies on the health effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals. She died in 2014.

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Irene Dalis, American soprano and pianist (born 1925)

Irene Dalis was an American mezzo-soprano singer, who had a long international career at the highest levels of world opera. In 1946, she received her bachelor's degree from San Jose State College, where she regarded herself not as a singer, but as a pianist.

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Louis Alphonse Koyagialo, Congolese politician, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (born 1947)

Louis Alphonse Daniel Koyagialo Ngbase te Gerengbo was a Congolese politician. He was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with responsibility for the Ministry of Postal Services, Telephones, and Telecommunications in the second cabinet of Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito. Following the resignation of Prime Minister Muzito, Koyagialo was Acting Prime Minister from 6 March to 18 April 2012, prior to the appointment of Augustin Matata Ponyo.

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Bess Myerson, American model, activist, game show panelist and television personality; Miss America 1945 (born 1924)

Bess Myerson was an American politician, model, and television actress who in 1945 became the first Miss America who was Jewish. Her achievement, in the aftermath of the Holocaust, was seen as an affirmation of the Jewish place in American life. She was a heroine to parts of the Jewish community, where "she was the most famous pretty girl since Queen Esther".

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Fred Thurston, American football player (born 1933)

Frederick Charles "Fuzzy" Thurston was an American professional football player who was an offensive guard for the Baltimore Colts and Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Valparaiso.

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14/12/2013

Janet Dailey, American author (born 1944)

Janet Anne Haradon Dailey was an American author of numerous romance novels as Janet Dailey. Her novels have been translated into nineteen languages and have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide.

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C. N. Karunakaran, Indian painter and illustrator (born 1940)

C. N. Karunakaran was an Indian painter, illustrator and art director from Kerala. He was the Chairman of the Kerala Lalitakala Academy and a recipient of several honours including the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi Award which he won thrice. The Akademi honoured him again with the fellowship in 2005.

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Dennis Lindley, English statistician and academic (born 1923)

Dennis Victor Lindley was an English statistician, decision theorist and leading advocate of Bayesian statistics.

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Peter O'Toole, British-Irish actor (born 1932)

Peter James O'Toole was an English and Irish actor known for his leading roles on stage and screen. His numerous accolades include the Academy Honorary Award, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and four Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for a Grammy Award and a Laurence Olivier Award.

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George Rodrigue, American painter (born 1944)

George Rodrigue was an American artist who in the late 1960s began painting Louisiana landscapes, followed soon after by outdoor family gatherings and southwest Louisiana 19th-century and early 20th-century genre scenes. His paintings often include moss-clad oak trees, which are common to an area of French Louisiana known as Acadiana. In the mid-1990s Rodrigue's Blue Dog paintings, based on a Cajun legend called Rougarou, catapulted him to worldwide fame.

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14/12/2012

John Graham, English general (born 1923)

Major-General John David Carew Graham, was a British Army officer who was instrumental in the installation of Qaboos bin Said as Sultan of Oman in the 1970 Omani coup d'état.

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Edward Jones, American police officer and politician (born 1950)

Edward Walter "Ed" Jones was a North Carolina Democratic politician who represented the state's 4th Senate district in the North Carolina Senate.

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Victoria Leigh Soto, American educator (born 1985)

Victoria Leigh Soto was an American teacher who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. After the gunman, Adam Lanza, entered the school, she hid her students in her classroom. When Lanza entered Soto's classroom, Soto claimed that the students were in the gym room. Lanza then shot Soto, causing the students to run from their hiding places. She was reportedly shot four times by Lanza and died trying to shield them with her body. She has since been hailed as a hero. She is a posthumous recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal.

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14/12/2011

Joe Simon, American author and illustrator (born 1913)

Joseph Henry Simon was an American comic book writer, artist, editor, and publisher. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s–1940s Golden Age of Comic Books and served as the first editor of Timely Comics, the company that would evolve into Marvel Comics.

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Billie Jo Spears, American singer-songwriter (born 1937)

Billie Jo Spears was an American country music singer. She was known for a series of singles whose characters often represented women in assertive positions. Among these recordings was a song about sexual harassment, and a song about rekindling sexual desire ".

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14/12/2010

Timothy Davlin, American politician, Mayor of Springfield (born 1957)

Timothy J. Davlin was the mayor of the U.S. city of Springfield, Illinois, from April 2003 until his suicide in December 2010 at age 53. Although the mayor's office is officially non-partisan, the Illinois capital has a strong tradition of partisanship, including municipal races. Both major parties of Sangamon County endorse candidates. Davlin had the backing of the Democratic Party.

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Neva Patterson, American actress (born 1920)

Neva Louise Patterson was an American actress.

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Dale Roberts, English footballer (born 1986)

Dale Roberts was an English footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

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14/12/2009

Alan A'Court, English footballer and manager (born 1934)

Alan A'Court was an English professional footballer who mostly played for Liverpool. He gained five caps for England and represented the nation at the 1958 FIFA World Cup.

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14/12/2006

Anton Balasingham, Sri Lankan-English strategist and negotiator (born 1938)

Anton Balasingham Stanislaus was a Sri Lankan journalist, rebel and chief political strategist and chief negotiator for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist Tamil militant organisation in Sri Lanka.

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Ahmet Ertegun, Turkish-American composer and producer, co-founded Atlantic Records (born 1923)

Ahmet Ertegun was a Turkish-American businessman, songwriter, record executive and philanthropist.

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Mike Evans, American actor and screenwriter (born 1949)

Michael Jonas Evans was an American actor and television writer, best known as Lionel Jefferson on both All in the Family and The Jeffersons. Evans was a creator/writer of the series Good Times (1974–79). He was also a guest celebrity panelist on the TV game show Match Game.

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14/12/2004

Rod Kanehl, American baseball player (born 1934)

Roderick Edwin Kanehl was an American second baseman and outfielder in Major League Baseball who played his entire career with the New York Mets (1962–1964). Beloved by Mets fans, his attitude was exemplary for a team that lost a modern-era record 120 games in its inaugural season. Kanehl hit the first grand slam in Mets history on July 6, 1962, at the Polo Grounds.

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Fernando Poe Jr., Filipino actor, director, producer, and politician (born 1939)

Fernando Poe Jr. was a Filipino actor, director and screenwriter. Nicknamed "Da King" and often referred to by his initials FPJ, he has been described as a cultural icon, having dominated the Philippine box-office from the 1960s to 1990s through his leading roles in action films. For his career that spanned nearly five decades, he has received numerous honors including the Order of National Artists of the Philippines in 2006 and the CCP Centennial Honors for the Arts in 1999.

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14/12/2003

Jeanne Crain, American actress (born 1925)

Jeanne Elizabeth Crain was an American actress. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for the title role in Pinky (1949). She also starred in the films In the Meantime, Darling (1944), State Fair (1945), Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Centennial Summer (1946), Margie (1946), Apartment for Peggy (1948), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), People Will Talk (1951), Man Without a Star (1955), Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), The Fastest Gun Alive (1956), and The Joker Is Wild (1957).

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Blas Ople, Filipino journalist and politician, 21st President of the Senate of the Philippines (born 1927)

Blas Fajardo Ople was a Filipino journalist and politician who held several high-ranking positions in the executive and legislative branches of the Philippine government, including as Senate President from 1999 to 2000, and as Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2002 until his death. Perceived as a leftist-nationalist at the onset of his career in public service, Ople was, in his final years, a vocal supporter for allowing a limited United States military presence in the Philippines, and for American initiatives in the war on terror including the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

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Frank Sheeran, American union leader and mobster (born 1920)

Francis Joseph Sheeran, also known as "The Irishman", was an American labor union official and enforcer for Jimmy Hoffa and Russell Bufalino. He was accused of having links to the Bufalino crime family in his capacity as a high-ranking official in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), the president of Local 326.

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14/12/2001

W. G. Sebald, German novelist, essayist, and poet (born 1944)

Winfried Georg Sebald, known as W. G. Sebald or Max Sebald, was a German writer and academic. At the time of his death at the age of 57, he was according to The New Yorker "widely recognized for his extraordinary contribution to world literature."

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14/12/1998

Norman Fell, American actor and comedian (born 1924)

Norman Fell was an American actor of film and television, most famous for his role as landlord Mr. Roper on the sitcom Three's Company and its spin-off, The Ropers, and his film roles in Ocean's 11 (1960), The Graduate (1967), and Bullitt (1968). Early in his career, he was billed as Norman Feld.

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A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., American lawyer, judge, and activist (born 1928)

Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham Jr. was an American civil rights advocate, historian, presidential adviser, and federal court judge. From 1990 to 1991, he served as chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Originally nominated to the bench by President Kennedy in 1963, Higginbotham was the seventh African-American Article III judge appointed in the United States, and the first African-American United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He was elevated to the Third Circuit in 1977, serving as a federal judge for nearly 30 years in all. In 1995, President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Higginbotham used the name "Leon" informally.

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Annette Strauss, American philanthropist and politician, Mayor of Dallas (born 1924)

Annette Louise Greenfield Strauss was an American philanthropist and politician who served as the 54th mayor of Dallas. The Annette Strauss Artist Square in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas is named in honor of her. She was the second female mayor and the second Jewish mayor of Dallas. She was also the first woman elected to the post in her own right; Harrison served as a caretaker for the last months of Wes Wise's term after Wise resigned to run for Congress.

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14/12/1997

Stubby Kaye, American actor and comedian (born 1918)

Bernard Shalom Kotzin, known professionally as Stubby Kaye, was an American actor, comedian, vaudevillian and singer, known for his appearances on Broadway and in film musicals.

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Emily Cheney Neville, American author (born 1919)

Emily Cheney Neville was an American author. Her first book, It's Like This, Cat (1963), won the Newbery Medal in 1964.

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Kurt Winter, Canadian guitarist and songwriter (born 1946)

Kurt Frank Winter was a Canadian guitarist and songwriter, best known as a member of The Guess Who.

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14/12/1996

Gaston Miron, Canadian poet and author (born 1928)

Gaston Miron was an important Canadian poet, writer, and editor of Quebec's Quiet Revolution. His classic L'homme rapaillé has sold over 100,000 copies and is one of the most widely read texts of the Quebecois literary canon. Committed to his people's separation from Canada and to the establishment of an independent French-speaking nation in North America, Gaston Miron remains the most important literary figure of Quebec's nationalist movement.

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14/12/1995

G. C. Edmondson, American soldier and author (born 1922)

G. C. Edmondson was the working name of science fiction author Garry Edmonson. According to the obituary published in Locus Magazine, Edmondson was born in Washington state During World War II he served as a U. S. Marine.

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14/12/1994

Orval Faubus, American soldier and politician, 36th Governor of Arkansas (born 1910)

Orval Eugene Faubus was an American politician who served as the 36th governor of Arkansas from 1955 to 1967, as a member of the Democratic Party. He is best known for the 1957 Little Rock Crisis, when he refused to comply with a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, and ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent black students from attending Little Rock Central High School. He was elected to six two-year terms as governor.

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14/12/1993

Jeff Alm, American football player (born 1968)

Jeffrey Lawrence Alm was an American professional football defensive tackle for the Houston Oilers of the National Football League (NFL). He played four seasons with the Oilers until his suicide in 1993.

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Myrna Loy, American actress (born 1905)

Myrna Loy was an American film, television and stage actress. As a performer, she was known for her ability to adapt to her screen partner's acting style.

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14/12/1991

Robert Eddison, Japanese-English actor (born 1908)

Robert Leadam Eddison, OBE was a British actor, who despite his lengthy career as a classical stage actor, is probably most widely remembered in the role of the Grail Knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He also played Merlin in the BBC television series The Legend of King Arthur, and the tragic ferryman in The Storyteller episode "The Luck Child".

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14/12/1990

Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss author and playwright (born 1921)

Friedrich Dürrenmatt was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant-garde dramas, philosophical crime novels, and macabre satire. Dürrenmatt was a member of the Gruppe Olten, a group of left-wing Swiss writers who convened regularly at a restaurant in the city of Olten.

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Paula Nenette Pepin, French composer, pianist and lyricist (born 1908)

Antonietta Paule Pepin Fitzpatrick, also known as Nenette, was a French composer, pianist and lyricist.

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14/12/1989

Jock Mahoney, American actor and stuntman (born 1919)

Jacques Joseph O'Mahoney, known professionally as Jock Mahoney, was an American actor and stuntman. He starred in two action/adventure television series, The Range Rider and Yancy Derringer. He played Tarzan in two feature films and was associated in various capacities with several other Tarzan productions. He was credited variously as Jacques O'Mahoney, Jock O'Mahoney, Jack Mahoney, and finally Jock Mahoney.

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Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1921)

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet physicist and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which he was awarded in 1975 for emphasizing human rights around the world.

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14/12/1988

Jean Schramme, Belgian mercenary, farmer, and convicted murderer (born 1929)

Jean "Black Jack" Schramme was a Belgian mercenary and planter. He managed a vast estate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo until 1967.

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14/12/1985

Catherine Doherty, Russian-Canadian activist, founded the Madonna House Apostolate (born 1896)

Catherine de Hueck Doherty was a Russian-born Catholic activist who founded the Madonna House Apostolate in 1947. She was a pioneer in the struggle for interracial justice, spiritual writer, lecturer, and spiritual mother to priests and laity.

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Roger Maris, American baseball player and coach (born 1934)

Roger Eugene Maris was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He is best known for setting a new MLB single-season home run record with 61 home runs in 1961.

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14/12/1984

Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish poet and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1898)

Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo was a Spanish poet who was born in Seville. Aleixandre received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977 "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates man's condition in the cosmos and in present-day society, at the same time representing the great renewal of the traditions of Spanish poetry between the wars". He was part of the Generation of '27.

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14/12/1980

Elston Howard, American baseball player and coach (born 1929)

Elston Gene Howard was an American professional baseball player who was a catcher and a left fielder. During a 14-year baseball career, he played in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1948 through 1968, primarily for the New York Yankees. A 12-time All-Star, he also played for the Kansas City Monarchs and the Boston Red Sox. Howard served on the Yankees' coaching staff from 1969 to 1979.

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14/12/1978

Salvador de Madariaga, Spanish historian and diplomat, co-founded the College of Europe (born 1886)

Salvador de Madariaga y Rojo was a Spanish "eminent liberal", diplomat, writer, historian and pacifist who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize and awarded the Charlemagne Prize in 1973.

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14/12/1975

Arthur Treacher, English-American entertainer (born 1894)

Arthur Veary Treacher, Jr. was an English film and stage actor active from the 1920s to the 1960s, and known for playing English types, especially butler and manservant roles, such as the P. G. Wodehouse valet character Jeeves and the kind butlers opposite Shirley Temple in Curly Top (1935) and Heidi (1937). In the 1960s, he became well known on American television as an announcer and sidekick to talk show host Merv Griffin, and as the support character Constable Jones in Disney's Mary Poppins (1964). He lent his name to the Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips chain of restaurants.

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14/12/1974

Walter Lippmann, American journalist and author (born 1889)

Walter Lippmann was an American journalist. With a career spanning 60 years, he is famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of the Cold War, coining the term "stereotype" in the modern psychological meaning, as well as critiquing media and democracy in his newspaper column and several books, most notably his 1922 Public Opinion.

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14/12/1971

Mufazzal Haider Chaudhury, Bangladeshi linguist and scholar (born 1926)

Mufazzal Haider Chaudhury was a prominent Bengali essayist, prized scholar of Bengali literature, educator and linguist of the Bengali language.

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Munier Choudhury, Bangladeshi author, playwright, and critic (born 1925)

Abu Naeem Mohammad Munier Choudhury was a Bangladeshi educationist, playwright, literary critic and political dissident. He was a victim of the mass killing of Bangladeshi intellectuals in 1971.

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Shahidullah Kaiser, Bangladeshi journalist and author (born 1927)

Shahidullah Kaiser was a Bangladeshi novelist and writer. He was awarded Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1969, Ekushey Padak in 1983, and the Independence Day Award in 1998.

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14/12/1970

Franz Schlegelberger, German judge and politician, German Reich Minister of Justice (born 1876)

Louis Rudolph Franz Schlegelberger was State Secretary in the German Reich Ministry of Justice (RMJ) who served as Justice Minister during the Third Reich. He was the highest-ranking defendant at the Judges' Trial in Nuremberg.

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14/12/1964

William Bendix, American actor (born 1906)

William Bendix was an American film, radio, and television actor, known for his portrayals of rough, blue-collar characters. He gained significant recognition for his role in Wake Island, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Bendix is also remembered for playing Chester A. Riley, the earnest and clumsy aircraft plant worker, in both the radio and television versions of The Life of Riley. Additionally, he portrayed baseball legend Babe Ruth in The Babe Ruth Story. Bendix frequently co-starred with Alan Ladd, appearing in ten films together; both actors died in 1964.

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14/12/1963

Dinah Washington, American singer and pianist (born 1924)

Dinah Washington was an American singer and pianist, one of the most popular Black female recording artists of the 1950s. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of "Queen of the Blues". She was also known as "Queen of the Jukeboxes". She was a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

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14/12/1956

Juho Kusti Paasikivi, Finnish lawyer and politician, 7th President of Finland (born 1870)

Juho Kusti Paasikivi was a Finnish politician who served as the president of Finland from 1946 to 1956. Representing the Finnish Party until its dissolution in 1918 and then the National Coalition Party, he previously served as senator, member of parliament, envoy to Stockholm (1936–1939) and Moscow (1940–1941), and Prime Minister of Finland. He also held several other positions of trust, and was an influential figure in Finnish economics and politics for over fifty years.

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14/12/1953

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, American author and academic (born 1896)

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was an American writer who lived in rural Florida and wrote novels with rural themes and settings. Her best known work, The Yearling—about a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn—won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1939 and was later made into a movie of the same name. The book was written before the concept of young adult fiction arose but is now commonly included in teen reading lists.

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14/12/1947

Stanley Baldwin, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1867)

Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who was prominent in the political leadership of the United Kingdom between the world wars. He was prime minister on three occasions, from May 1923 to January 1924, from November 1924 to June 1929 and from June 1935 to May 1937.

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Edward Higgins, English-American 3rd General of The Salvation Army (born 1864)

Edward John Higgins was the third General of The Salvation Army (1929–1934).

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14/12/1944

Lupe Vélez, Mexican actress (born 1908)

María Guadalupe "Lupe" Villalobos Vélez was a Mexican actress, singer, and dancer during the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.

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14/12/1943

John Harvey Kellogg, American physician and businessman, co-invented corn flakes (born 1852)

John Harvey Kellogg was an American businessman, inventor, physician, and advocate of the Progressive Movement. He was the director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, founded by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It combined aspects of a European spa, a hydrotherapy institution, a hospital, and a high-class hotel. Kellogg treated the rich and famous, as well as the poor who could not afford other hospitals. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, his "development of dry breakfast cereals was largely responsible for the creation of the flaked-cereal industry, with the founding and the culmination of the global conglomeration brand of Kellogg's."

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14/12/1940

Anton Korošec, Slovenian priest and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (born 1872)

Anton Korošec was a Slovene Yugoslav politician, a prominent member of the conservative People's Party, a Roman Catholic priest and a noted orator.

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14/12/1937

Fabián de la Rosa, Filipino painter and educator (born 1869)

Don Fabián de la Rosa y Cueto was a Filipino painter. He was the uncle and mentor to the Philippines' national artist in painting, Fernando Amorsolo, and to his brother Pablo. He is regarded as a "master of genre" in Philippine art.

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14/12/1935

Stanley G. Weinbaum, American author (born 1902)

Stanley Grauman Weinbaum was an American science fiction writer. His first story, "A Martian Odyssey", was published to great acclaim in July 1934; the alien Tweel was arguably the first character to satisfy John W. Campbell's challenge: "Write me a creature who thinks as well as a man, or better than a man, but not like a man." Weinbaum wrote more short stories and a few novels, but died from lung cancer less than a year and a half later.

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14/12/1929

Henry B. Jackson, British admiral (born 1855)

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Bradwardine Jackson, was a British Royal Navy officer. After serving in the Anglo-Zulu War he established an early reputation as a pioneer of ship-to-ship wireless technology. Later he became the first person to achieve ship-to-ship wireless communications and demonstrated continuous communication with another vessel up to three miles away. He went on to be Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy, then Director of the Royal Naval War College and subsequently Chief of the Admiralty War Staff. He was advisor on overseas expeditions planning attacks on Germany's colonial possessions at the start of the First World War and was selected as the surprise successor to Admiral Lord Fisher upon the latter's spectacular resignation in May 1915 following the failure of the Gallipoli Campaign. He had a cordial working relationship with First Lord of the Admiralty Arthur Balfour, but largely concerned himself with administrative matters and his prestige suffered when German destroyers appeared in the Channel, as a result of which he was replaced in December 1916.

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14/12/1927

Julian Sochocki, Russian mathematician and academic (born 1842)

Julian Karol Sochocki was a Polish-Russian mathematician. His name is sometimes transliterated from Russian in several different ways.

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14/12/1920

George Gipp, American football player (born 1895)

George Gipp, nicknamed "the Gipper", was an American college football player at the University of Notre Dame under head coach Knute Rockne. Gipp was selected as Notre Dame's first Walter Camp All-American and played several positions, particularly halfback, quarterback, and punter.

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14/12/1917

Phil Waller, Welsh rugby player (born 1889)

Phillip Dudley Waller was an English-born international rugby union forward who played club rugby for Newport and Johannesburg. He won six caps for Wales and also played for the British Isles in their 1910 tour of South Africa.

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14/12/1915

Eva Gouel, French choreographer and girlfriend of Pablo Picasso

Eva Gouel was a French choreographer and the second girlfriend of the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso during the early 1910s. She was the inspiration for several of his paintings, including Ma Jolie (1912).

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14/12/1912

Belgrave Edward Sutton Ninnis, English lieutenant and explorer (born 1887)

Belgrave Edward Sutton Ninnis was an English officer in the Royal Fusiliers and an Antarctic explorer who was a member of Douglas Mawson's 1911 Australasian Antarctic Expedition.

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14/12/1878

Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (born 1843)

Princess Alice was Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine from 13 June 1877 until her death in 1878 as the wife of Grand Duke Louis IV. She was the third child and second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Alice was the first of Queen Victoria's nine children to die and one of three to predecease their mother.

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14/12/1873

Louis Agassiz, Swiss-American zoologist and geologist (born 1807)

Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history.

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14/12/1865

Johan Georg Forchhammer, Danish geologist and mineralogist (born 1794)

Johan Georg Forchhammer was a Danish mineralogist and geologist.

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14/12/1861

Albert, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom (born 1819)

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the husband of Queen Victoria and consort of the British monarch from their marriage on 10 February 1840 until his death in 1861. Victoria granted him the title Prince Consort in 1857.

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14/12/1860

George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Scottish-English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1784)

George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, styled Lord Haddo from 1791 to 1801, was a British statesman, diplomat and landowner, successively a Tory, Conservative and Peelite politician and specialist in foreign affairs. He served as Prime Minister from 1852 until 1855 in a coalition between the Whigs and Peelites, with Radical and Irish support. The Aberdeen ministry was filled with powerful and talented politicians, whom Aberdeen was largely unable to control and direct. Despite his efforts to avoid this happening, his ministry took Britain into the Crimean War, and fell when the war's conduct became unpopular. Subsequently, Aberdeen retired from politics.

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14/12/1842

Ben Crack-O, king of several tribes around Cape Palmas

Ben Crack-O was a king of the Crack-O tribe in the region around Cape Palmas, in the present day border area of Liberia and the Ivory Coast, in the 1840s. He was killed by men under Commodore Matthew C. Perry during the Ivory Coast Expedition.

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14/12/1838

Jean-Olivier Chénier, Canadian physician (born 1806)

Jean-Olivier Chénier was a medical doctor in Lower Canada. Born in Lachine. During the Lower Canada Rebellion, he commanded the Patriote forces in the Battle of Saint-Eustache. Trapped with his men in a church by the government troops who set fire to the building, he was shot to death while attempting to escape through a window. He died to shouts of "Remember Weir!", a reference to George Weir, a government spy executed by the Patriotes. The government forces mutilated Chénier's corpse to intimidate the remaining Patriote supporters:

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14/12/1831

Martin Baum, American businessman and politician, 5th Mayor of Cincinnati (born 1765)

Martin Baum was an American businessman and politician.

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14/12/1799

George Washington, American general and politician, 1st President of the United States (born 1732)

George Washington was a Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War against the British Empire. He is commonly known as the Father of His Country for his role in bringing about American independence.

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14/12/1788

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German pianist and composer (born 1714)

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German composer and musician of the Baroque and Classical eras. He was the fifth child and second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach.

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Charles III of Spain (born 1716)

Charles III was King of Spain from 1759 until his death in 1788. He was also Duke of Parma and Piacenza as Charles I (1731–1735), King of Naples as Charles VII and King of Sicily as Charles III (1735–1759). He was the fourth son of Philip V of Spain and the eldest son of Philip's second wife, Elisabeth Farnese. During his reign, Charles was a proponent of enlightened absolutism and regalism in Europe.

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14/12/1785

Giovanni Battista Cipriani, Italian painter and engraver (born 1727)

Giovanni Battista Cipriani was an Italian painter and engraver, who lived in England from 1755. He is also called Giuseppe Cipriani by some authors. Much of his work consisted of designs for prints, many of which were engraved by his friend Francesco Bartolozzi.

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14/12/1741

Charles Rollin, French historian and educator (born 1661)

Charles Rollin was a French historian and educator.

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14/12/1735

Thomas Tanner, English bishop and historian (born 1674)

Thomas Tanner was an English antiquary and prelate. He was Bishop of St Asaph from 1732 to 1735.

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14/12/1715

Thomas Tenison, English archbishop (born 1636)

Thomas Tenison was an English church leader, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1694 until his death. During his primacy, he crowned two British monarchs.

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14/12/1651

Pierre Dupuy, French historian and scholar (born 1582)

Pierre Dupuy, otherwise known as Puteanus, was a French scholar, the son of the humanist and bibliophile Claude Dupuy.

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14/12/1624

Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, English politician, Lord High Admiral of England (born 1536)

Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham, KG, known as Lord Howard of Effingham, was an English statesman and Lord High Admiral under Elizabeth I and James I. He commanded the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588 and was chiefly credited with securing the victory that safeguarded England from invasion by the Spanish Empire. According to Britannica, "Although he was not as talented a seaman as his subordinates Sir Francis Drake and John Hawkins, Howard's able leadership contributed greatly to this important English victory."

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14/12/1595

Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon (born 1535)

Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon was an English Puritan nobleman. Educated alongside the future Edward VI, he was briefly imprisoned by Mary I, and later considered by some as a potential successor to Elizabeth I. He hotly opposed the scheme to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Duke of Norfolk, and was entrusted by Elizabeth to see that the Scottish queen did not escape at the time of the threatened uprising in 1569. He served as President of the Council of the North from 1572 until his death in 1595.

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14/12/1591

John of the Cross, Spanish priest and saint (born 1542)

St. John of the Cross was a Spanish Catholic priest, mystic, and Carmelite friar. He is a major figure of the Counter-Reformation in Spain, and he is one of the 38 Doctors of the Church.

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14/12/1542

James V of Scotland (born 1512)

James V was King of Scotland from 9 September 1513 until his death in 1542. He was crowned on 21 September 1513 at the age of seventeen months. James was the son of King James IV and Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England. During his childhood, Scotland was governed by regents, firstly by his mother until she remarried, and then by his first cousin once removed, John Stewart, Duke of Albany. James's personal rule began in 1528, when he finally escaped the custody of his stepfather, Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus. His first action was to exile Angus and confiscate the lands of the Douglases.

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14/12/1510

Friedrich of Saxony (born 1473)

Duke Frederick of Saxony, also known as Friedrich von Sachsen or Friedrich von Wettin, was the 36th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, serving from 1498–1510. He was the third son of Albert III, Duke of Saxony, and Sidonie of Poděbrady, daughter of George of Podebrady.

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14/12/1503

Sten Sture the Elder, regent of Sweden (born 1440)

Sten Sture the Elder was a Swedish statesman and regent of Sweden from 1470 to 1497 and again from 1501 to 1503. As the leader of the victorious Swedish separatist forces against the royal unionist forces led by Danish king Christian I during the Battle of Brunkeberg in 1471, he weakened the Kalmar Union considerably and became the effective ruler of Sweden as Lord Regent for most of his remaining life.

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14/12/1480

Niccolò Perotti, humanist scholar (born 1429)

Niccolò Perotti, also Perotto or Nicolaus Perottus was an Italian humanist and the author of one of the first modern Latin school grammars.

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14/12/1460

Guarino da Verona, Italian scholar and translator (born 1370)

Guarino Veronese or Guarino da Verona was an Italian classical scholar, humanist, and translator of ancient Greek texts during the Renaissance. In the republics of Florence and Venice he studied under Manuel Chrysoloras, renowned professor of Greek and ambassador of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, the first scholar to hold such courses in medieval Italy.

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14/12/1417

John Oldcastle, English Lollard leader

Sir John Oldcastle was an English Lollard leader. From 1409 to 1413, he was summoned to parliament as Baron Cobham, in the right of his wife.

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14/12/1359

Cangrande II della Scala, Lord of Verona (born 1332)

Cangrande II della Scala was Lord of Verona from 1351 until his death.

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14/12/1332

Rinchinbal Khan, Mongolian emperor (born 1326)

Rinchinbal, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Ningzong of Yuan, was a son of Kuśala who was briefly installed to the throne of the Yuan dynasty of Mongol, but died soon after he was installed to the throne. Apart from Emperor of China, he is also considered the 14th Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, although it was only nominal due to the division of the empire.

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14/12/1311

Margaret of Brabant, German queen consort (born 1276)

Margaret of Brabant, was the daughter of John I, Duke of Brabant and Margaret of Flanders. She was the wife of Henry, Count of Luxembourg, and after his election as King of Germany in 1308, she became Queen of Germany.

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14/12/1293

Al-Ashraf Khalil, Mamluk sultan of Egypt

Al-Malik Al-Ashraf Salāh ad-Dīn Khalil ibn Qalawūn was the eighth Turkic Bahri Mamluk sultan, succeeding his father Qalawun. He served from 12 November 1290 until his assassination in December 1293. He was well known for conquering the last of the Crusader states in Palestine after the siege of Acre in 1291. While walking with a friend, Khalil was attacked and assassinated by Baydara and his followers, who was then killed under the orders of Kitbugha.

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14/12/1077

Agnes of Poitou, Holy Roman Empress and regent (born c. 1025)

Agnes of Poitou was the queen of Germany from 1043 and empress of the Holy Roman Empire from 1046 until 1056 as the wife of Emperor Henry III. From 1056 to 1061, she ruled the Holy Roman Empire as regent during the minority of their son Henry IV.

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14/12/0872

Pope Adrian II (born 792)

Pope Adrian II was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 867 to his death on 14 December 872. He continued the policy of his predecessor, Nicholas I. Despite seeking good relations with Louis II of Italy, he was placed under surveillance, and his wife and daughters were killed by Louis' supporters.

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14/12/0704

Aldfrith, king of Northumbria (or 705)

Aldfrith was king of Northumbria from 685 until his death. He is described by early writers such as Bede, Alcuin and Stephen of Ripon as a man of great learning. Some of his works and some letters written to him survive. His reign was relatively peaceful, marred only by disputes with Bishop Wilfrid, a major figure in the early Northumbrian church.

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14/12/0648

John III of the Sedre, Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch

John III of the Sedre was the Patriarch of Antioch and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 631 until his death in 648. He is commemorated as a saint by the Syriac Orthodox Church, and his feast day is 14 December.

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14/12/0618

Xue Rengao, emperor of Qin

Xue Rengao, also known as Xue Renguo (薛仁果), was an emperor of the short-lived state of Qin, established by his father Xue Ju at the end of the Chinese Sui dynasty. Xue Rengao was regarded as a fierce general but overly cruel, and he was only emperor for three months before he was forced to surrender to the Tang dynasty general Li Shimin and was executed.

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