Died on Wednesday, 17th December – Famous Deaths

17/12/2024

Igor Kirillov, Russian general (born 1970)

Igor Anatolyevich Kirillov was a Russian lieutenant general. He was the head of the Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear Defense Troops of the Russian Armed Forces. He held a Candidate of Military Sciences degree. He was awarded the title Hero of the Russian Federation and was a Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation (2021), becoming the first person to receive both honors.

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Marisa Paredes, Spanish film actress (born 1946)

María Luisa Paredes Bartolomé, known professionally as Marisa Paredes, was a Spanish actress with a 60-year long career. She acted in more than 75 films, 80 tv shows, and 15 plays.

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17/12/2023

Ronaldo Valdez, Filipino actor (born 1947)

James Ronald Dulaca Gibbs, popularly known by his screen name Ronaldo Valdez, was a Filipino actor whose career spanned almost five decades.

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James McCaffrey, American actor (born 1958)

James Perry McCaffrey was an American actor. He starred as the lead character in the short lived series Swift Justice, which was cancelled after only a season. Additionally, he had roles such as Jimmy Keefe on Rescue Me (2004–2011), and Captain Arthur O'Byrne in New York Undercover (1994–1997). He also had main roles and recurring roles in a number of television series as well as appearing in feature films. In addition, he did voice acting, such as his voice role as Max Payne in the Max Payne video game series.

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17/12/2020

Jeremy Bulloch, English actor (born 1945)

Jeremy Andrew Bulloch was an English actor. In a career that spanned six decades, he gained recognition for originating the physical portrayal of Boba Fett in the Star Wars franchise, appearing as the character in the films The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). Bulloch returned to the franchise for a cameo as Captain Colton in 2005's Revenge of the Sith.

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Allen Dines, American politician (born 1921)

Allen Dines was an American politician in the state of Colorado. He was a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 1957 to 1966, and the Colorado Senate from 1966 to 1974. From 1965 to 1966, Dines served as Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives after previously serving as House Majority Leader from 1961 to 1962, and Minority Leader from 1963 to 1964.

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17/12/2016

Benjamin A. Gilman, American soldier and politician (born 1922)

Benjamin Arthur Gilman was an American politician and Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Middletown, New York, from January 3, 1973, to January 3, 2003.

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Henry Heimlich, American doctor (born 1920)

Henry Judah Heimlich was an American thoracic surgeon and medical researcher. He is widely credited for the discovery of the Heimlich maneuver, a technique of abdominal thrusts for stopping choking, first described in 1974. He also invented the Micro Trach portable oxygen system for ambulatory patients and the Heimlich Chest Drain Valve, or "flutter valve", which drains blood and air out of the chest cavity.

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Gordon Hunt, American voice director (born 1929)

Gordon Edwynn Hunt was an American writer, director and actor who worked in television, film, theatre and voice work.

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17/12/2015

Hal Brown, American baseball player and manager (born 1924)

Hector Harold Brown was an American professional baseball player and right-handed pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball from 1951 through 1964 for the Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees and Houston Colt .45s. Brown was a knuckleballer with outstanding control who worked as both a starting pitcher and as a relief pitcher. He played for all or portions of eight seasons (1955–1962) with the Orioles, posting a 62–48 won–lost record, and was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame in 1991. He was a veteran of the United States Army Air Forces who served in the European theatre of World War II.

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Osamu Hayaishi, American-Japanese biochemist and academic (born 1920)

Osamu Hayaishi MJA , was a Japanese biochemist, physiologist, and military physician. He discovered Oxygenases at the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, National Institutes of Health in 1955.

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Michael Wyschogrod, German-American philosopher and theologian (born 1928)

Michael Wyschogrod was a Jewish German-American philosopher of religion, Jewish theologian, and activist for Jewish–Christian interfaith dialogue. During his academic career, he taught in philosophy and religion departments of several universities in the United States, Europe, and Israel.

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17/12/2014

Dieter Grau, German-American scientist and engineer (born 1913)

Dieter Grau was a German-born American aerospace engineer and member of the "von Braun rocket group", at Peenemünde (1939–1945) working on the V-2 rockets in World War II. He was among the engineers who surrendered to the United States and traveled there, providing rocketry expertise via Operation Paperclip, which took them first to Fort Bliss, Texas. Grau was sent by the U.S. Army to White Sands in 1946 to work on the assemblage and testing of the V-2. His wife joined him there in 1947. While von Braun was on standby at Fort Bliss, Grau and other German aerospace engineers busily launched V-2s for U.S. scientists to analyze. A total of 67 V-2s were launched at White Sands.

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Richard C. Hottelet, American journalist (born 1917)

Richard Curt Hottelet was an American broadcast journalist for the latter half of the twentieth century.

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Oleh Lysheha, Ukrainian poet and playwright (born 1949)

Oleh Lysheha was a Ukrainian poet, playwright, translator and intellectual. Lysheha entered Lviv University in 1968, where during his last year, he was expelled for his participation in an "unofficial" literary circle, Lviv Bohema. As punishment, Lysheha was drafted into the Soviet army and internally exiled. During the period 1972-1988, he was banned from official publication, but in 1989 his first book Great Bridge was published. For "The Selected Poems of Oleh Lysheha," Lysheha and his co-translator James Brasfield from Penn State University, received the 2000 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation published by the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. Lysheha is the first Ukrainian poet to receive the PEN award.

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Lowell Steward, American captain (born 1919)

Lowell Steward was born in Los Angeles and was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen who flew missions during World War II. For his service, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross and other medals.

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Ivan Vekić, Croatian colonel, lawyer, and politician, Croatian Minister of the Interior (born 1938)

Ivan Vekić was a Croatian politician and lawyer. He was one of the founders of the Croatian Democratic Union and served as the Croatian Minister of Interior during the Croatian War of Independence.

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17/12/2013

Fred Bruemmer, Latvian-Canadian photographer (born 1929)

Fred Bruemmer, D.Litt. was a Latvian Canadian nature photographer and researcher. He spent his life travelling extensively throughout the circumpolar regions and to other remote parts of the globe. His works have been centered mostly on the Arctic, its people and its animals. He also conducted research and published on animals in many other areas of the globe. He spoke nine languages and wrote more than a thousand articles for publications around the world, including Canadian Geographic, Natural History, National Geographic and Smithsonian. Fred Bruemmer lived in Montreal, Quebec.

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Ricardo María Carles Gordó, Spanish cardinal (born 1926)

Ricardo María Carles Gordó was a cardinal priest and Archbishop Emeritus of Barcelona in the Catholic Church.

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Richard Heffner, American historian and television host (born 1925)

Richard Douglas Heffner was the creator and host of The Open Mind, a public affairs television show first broadcast in 1956. He was a University Professor of Communications and Public Policy at Rutgers University and also taught an honors seminar at New York University.

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Tetsurō Kashibuchi, Japanese drummer, songwriter, and producer (born 1950)

Tetsurō Kashibuchi was a Japanese musician, composer, and record producer.

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Janet Rowley, American geneticist and biologist (born 1925)

Janet Davison Rowley was an American human geneticist and the first scientist to identify a chromosomal translocation as the cause of leukemia and other cancers, thus proving that cancer is a genetic disease. Rowley spent the majority of her life working in Chicago and received many awards and honors throughout her life, recognizing her achievements and contributions in the area of genetics.

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Conny van Rietschoten, Dutch sailor (born 1926)

Cornelis "Conny" van Rietschoten was a Dutch yacht skipper who was the only skipper to win the Whitbread Round the World Race twice: a feat that has not been matched since.

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17/12/2012

Richard Adams, Filipino-American activist (born 1947)

Richard Frank Adams was a Filipino-American gay rights activist. After his 1975 same-sex marriage was declared invalid for the purposes of granting his husband permanent residency, Adams filed the federal lawsuit Adams v. Howerton. This was the first lawsuit in America to seek recognition of a same-sex marriage by the federal government.

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James Gower, American priest and activist, co-founded the College of the Atlantic (born 1922)

Rev. James Gower was an American Roman Catholic priest and peace activist. Gower and his former high school classmate, businessman Les Brewer, co-founded the College of the Atlantic, a private, liberal arts college in Mount Desert Island, Maine, in 1969.

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Daniel Inouye, American captain and politician (born 1924)

Daniel Ken Inouye was an American attorney, soldier, and statesman from the state of Hawaii. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Hawaii in the United States Senate from 1963 until his death. Prior to his Senate service, he served in the Hawaii Territorial Legislature and the United States House of Representatives. Inouye is a Medal of Honor recipient for his heroism during World War II, in which he lost his right arm while serving with the 442nd Infantry Regiment.

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Laurier LaPierre, Canadian historian, journalist, and politician (born 1929)

Laurier L. LaPierre was a Canadian Senator, professor, broadcaster, journalist and author. He was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.

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Frank Pastore, American baseball player and radio host (born 1957)

Frank Enrico Pastore was an American Major League Baseball player and radio host. He pitched for the Cincinnati Reds from 1979 until 1985 and for the Minnesota Twins in 1986, and was in the Texas Rangers organization in 1987.

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17/12/2011

Eva Ekvall, Venezuelan journalist and author, Miss Venezuela 2000 (born 1983)

Eva Mónica Anna Ekvall Johnson was a Venezuelan television news anchor, author, advocate in the fight against breast cancer, fashion model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Venezuela 2000. After winning the competition, she had a brief career in television before being diagnosed with advanced breast cancer.

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Kim Jong-il, North Korean commander and politician, second Supreme Leader of North Korea (born 1941)

Kim Jong Il was a North Korean politician and dictator who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from the death of his father Kim Il Sung in 1994 until his own death in 2011. Posthumously, Kim Jong Il was declared an Eternal Leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).

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17/12/2010

Captain Beefheart, American singer-songwriter (born 1941)

Don Van Vliet, known by his stage name Captain Beefheart, was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as the Magic Band, he recorded 13 studio albums between 1967 and 1982. His music blended elements of blues, free jazz, rock, and avant-garde composition with idiosyncratic rhythms, absurdist wordplay, and Vliet's gravelly singing voice with a wide vocal range.

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Walt Dropo, American basketball and baseball player (born 1923)

Walter Dropo, nicknamed "Moose", was an American college basketball standout and a professional baseball first baseman. During a 13-year career in Major League Baseball, he played for the Boston Red Sox (1949–1952), Detroit Tigers (1952–1954), Chicago White Sox (1955–1958), Cincinnati Redlegs (1958–1959) and Baltimore Orioles (1959–1961).

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Ralph Coates, English footballer (born 1946)

Ralph Coates was an English professional footballer who played as a winger. Coates played for Burnley, Tottenham Hotspur and Orient, making 480 appearances in the Football League. From 1970 to 1971, he played for the England national team, earning four caps.

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17/12/2009

Chris Henry, American football player (born 1983)

Christopher Henry was an American professional football player who was a wide receiver for five seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the West Virginia Mountaineers and was selected by the Bengals in the third round of the 2005 NFL draft.

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Jennifer Jones, American actress (born 1919)

Jennifer Jones, also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental-health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned more than five decades, she was nominated for an Academy Award five times, including one win for Best Actress, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.

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Alaina Reed Hall, American actress (born 1946)

Alaina Reed Hall was an American actress and singer who portrayed Olivia Robinson, Gordon's younger sister, on the PBS children's television series Sesame Street, and Rose Lee Holloway on the NBC sitcom 227.

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17/12/2008

Sammy Baugh, American football player and coach (born 1914)

Samuel Adrian Baugh was an American professional football quarterback who played 16 seasons with the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL). Baugh also played safety on defense and was the team's punter. He played college football for the TCU Horned Frogs, where he was a two time All-American prior to being selected by the Redskins in the first round of the 1937 NFL draft. With the Redskins, Baugh won NFL Championships in 1937 and 1942 and led the NFL in completion percentage eight times, passing yards four times, and passing touchdowns twice. In addition to being an outstanding quarterback, he led the NFL in punting average five times and in defensive interceptions with 11 in 1943.

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Freddy Breck, German singer-songwriter, producer, and journalist (born 1942)

Freddy Breck was a German schlager singer, composer, record producer, and news anchor.

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Dave Smith, American baseball player and coach (born 1955)

David Stanley Smith was an American Major League Baseball relief pitcher, primarily for the Houston Astros, for whom he pitched from 1980 to 1990. He also pitched for the Chicago Cubs.

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Gregoire, Congolese chimpanzee, oldest recorded (born 1942)

Gregoire was, up until his death, Africa's oldest known chimpanzee. For the last eleven years of his life, he was a resident of the Tchimpounga Sanctuary in the Republic of the Congo. He was observed to have a pair bond relationship with the chimpanzee Clara. Previously he had been confined by himself for more than 40 years in a cage at the Brazzaville Zoo before being rescued by staff of the Jane Goodall Institute and airlifted to the Sanctuary during a time of war.

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17/12/2006

Larry Sherry, American baseball player and coach (born 1935)

Lawrence Sherry was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed relief pitcher from 1958 to 1968, most prominently as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tigers. He was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1959 World Series as the Dodgers won their first championship since relocating from Brooklyn just two years earlier. After his playing career, Sherry managed in the minor leagues before serving as a major league coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the California Angels.

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17/12/2005

Jack Anderson, American journalist and author (born 1922)

Jack Northman Anderson was an American newspaper columnist, syndicated by United Features Syndicate, considered one of the founders of modern investigative journalism. Anderson won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his investigation on secret U.S. policy decision-making between the United States and Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. In addition to his newspaper career, Anderson also had a national radio show on the Mutual Broadcasting System, acted as Washington bureau chief of Parade magazine, and was a commentator on ABC-TV's Good Morning America for nine years.

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Marc Favreau, Canadian actor and poet (born 1929)

Marc Favreau, was a French Canadian humorist, film actor, and poet born in Montreal, Quebec. He is best known for developing and portraying the clown character Sol.

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Haljand Udam, Estonian orientalist and academic (born 1936)

Haljand Udam was an Estonian orientalist and translator.

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17/12/2004

Tom Wesselmann, American painter and sculptor (born 1931)

Thomas K. Wesselmann was an American artist associated with the pop art movement who worked in painting, collage and sculpture.

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17/12/2003

Otto Graham, American football player and coach (born 1921)

Otto Everett Graham Jr. was an American professional football player who was a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons. Graham is regarded by critics as one of the most dominant players of his era and one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, having taken the Browns to league championship games every year between 1946 and 1955, making ten championship appearances, and winning seven of them. With Graham at quarterback, the Browns posted a record of 105 wins, 17 losses, and 4 ties, including a 9–3 win–loss record in the AAFC and NFL playoffs. Long-time New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, a friend of Graham's, once called him "as great of a quarterback as there ever was."

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17/12/2002

K. W. Devanayagam, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, tenth Sri Lankan Minister of Justice (born 1910)

Deshamanya Kanapathipillai William "Bill" Devanayagam was a Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer, politician, government minister and Member of Parliament.

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17/12/1999

Rex Allen, American singer-songwriter and actor (born 1920)

Rex Elvie Allen Sr., known as "The Arizona Cowboy," was an American film and television actor, singer and songwriter; he was also the narrator of many Disney nature and Western productions. For his contributions to the film industry, Allen received a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1975, located at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard.

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Grover Washington Jr., American singer-songwriter and saxophonist (born 1943)

Grover Washington Jr. was an American jazz-funk and soul-jazz saxophonist and Grammy Award winner. Along with Wes Montgomery and George Benson, he is considered by many to be one of the founders and legends of the smooth jazz genre. He wrote some of his material and later became an arranger and producer.

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C. Vann Woodward, American historian and academic (born 1908)

Comer Vann Woodward was an American historian who focused primarily on the American South and race relations. He was long a supporter of the approach of Charles A. Beard, stressing the influence of unseen economic motivations in politics.

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17/12/1992

Günther Anders, German journalist and philosopher (born 1902)

Günther Anders was a German-born philosopher, journalist and critical theorist.

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Dana Andrews, American actor (born 1909)

Carver Dana Andrews was an American film actor who became a major star in what is now known as film noir and later in Western films. A leading man during the 1940s, he continued acting in less prestigious roles and character parts into the 1980s. He is best known for his portrayal of obsessed police detective Mark McPherson in the noir mystery Laura (1944) and his critically acclaimed performance as World War II veteran Fred Derry returning home in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).

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17/12/1987

Bernardus Johannes Alfrink, Dutch cardinal (born 1900)

Bernardus Johannes Alfrink was a Dutch Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Utrecht from 1955 to 1975, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1960.

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Linda Wong, American porn actress (born 1951)

Linda Wong was an American pornographic actress, and one of the first Asian Americans to become a star in the American adult film industry. In 1999, she was inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame. She was Japanese by ethnicity.

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Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-American author and poet (born 1903)

Marguerite Yourcenar was a Belgian-born French novelist and essayist who became a US citizen in 1947. Winner of the Prix Femina and the Erasmus Prize, she was the first woman elected to the Académie Française, in 1980. In 1965, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

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17/12/1986

Guillermo Cano Isaza, Colombian journalist (born 1925)

Guillermo Cano Isaza was a Colombian journalist. The editor of El Espectador from 1952 until 1986, he was assassinated in Bogotá in what was widely seen as an attack related to his criticism of Colombia's drug barons.

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17/12/1982

Homer S. Ferguson, American lawyer, judge, and politician (born 1889)

Homer Samuel Ferguson was an American attorney, professor, judge, United States senator from Michigan, ambassador to the Philippines, and later a judge on the United States Court of Military Appeals.

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17/12/1981

Antiochos Evangelatos, Greek composer and conductor (born 1903)

Antiochos Evangelatos was a Greek classical composer and conductor.

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17/12/1978

Don Ellis, American trumpet player, composer, and bandleader (born 1934)

Donald Johnson Ellis was an American jazz trumpeter, drummer, composer, and bandleader. He is best known for his extensive musical experimentation, particularly in the area of time signatures. Later in his life he worked as a film composer, contributing a score to 1971's The French Connection and 1973's The Seven-Ups.

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17/12/1970

Oliver Waterman Larkin, American historian, author, and educator (born 1896)

Oliver Waterman Larkin was an American art historian and educator. He won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book Art and Life in America.

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17/12/1967

Harold Holt, Australian lawyer and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Australia (born 1908)

Harold Edward Holt was an Australian politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia from 1966 until his disappearance and presumed death in 1967. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and held various ministerial positions from 1949 to 1966 in the governments of Robert Menzies and Arthur Fadden.

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17/12/1964

Victor Francis Hess, Austrian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1883)

Victor Franz Hess was an Austrian–American experimental physicist who shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics with Carl David Anderson for his discovery of cosmic rays.

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17/12/1962

Thomas Mitchell, American actor (born 1892)

Thomas John Mitchell was an American actor, writer, and theatre director. He is considered one of the great character actors of Golden Age of Hollywood and a leading man on Broadway.

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17/12/1957

Dorothy L. Sayers, English author, poet, and playwright (born 1893)

Dorothy Leigh Sayers was an English crime novelist, playwright, translator and critic.

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17/12/1956

Eddie Acuff, American actor (born 1903)

Edward DeKalb Acuff was an American stage and film actor. He frequently was cast as a droll comic relief, in the support of the star. His best-known recurring role is that of Mr. Beasley, the postman, in the Blondie movie series that starred Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake.

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17/12/1947

Christos Tsigiridis, Greek engineer (born 1877)

Christos Tsigiridis was a Greek electrical engineer and technological pioneer of his era. He is mainly known for setting up the first radio station in Greece and the wider Balkans based in Thessaloniki.

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17/12/1942

Allen Bathurst, Lord Apsley, English lieutenant and politician (born 1895)

Allen Algernon Bathurst, Lord Apsley, DSO, MC, TD, DL was a British Army officer and Conservative Party politician.

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17/12/1940

Alicia Boole Stott, Anglo-Irish mathematician and academic (born 1860)

Alicia Boole Stott was a British mathematician. She made a number of contributions to the field and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Groningen. She grasped four-dimensional geometry from an early age, and introduced the term "polytope" for a convex solid in four or more dimensions.

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17/12/1935

Lizette Woodworth Reese, American poet (born 1856)

Lizette Woodworth Reese was an American poet and teacher. Born in Maryland, she taught English for almost five decades in the schools of Baltimore. Though Reese was successful in prose as well as in poetry, the latter was her forte; she was named Poet Laureate of Maryland in 1931.

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17/12/1933

13th Dalai Lama (born 1876)

The 13th Dalai Lama was the 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet enthroned during a turbulent modern era. He presided during the collapse of the Qing dynasty, and is referred to as "the Great Thirteenth", responsible for redeclaring Tibet's national independence, and for his national reform and modernization initiatives.

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17/12/1932

Charles Winckler, Danish discus thrower, shot putter, and tug of war competitor (born 1867)

Charles Gustav Wilhelm Winckler was a Danish thrower, swimmer, and tug of war competitor. He was set to compete in three swimming events at the 1896 Summer Olympics but did not start in any. He then competed at the 1900 Summer Olympics in the men's discus throw and men's shot put on behalf of Denmark, though he did not reach the finals of either event. Alongside Swedish competitors, he won the gold medal in the tug of war tournament at the games.

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17/12/1930

Peter Warlock, Welsh composer and critic (born 1894)

Philip Arnold Heseltine, known by the pseudonym Peter Warlock, was a British composer and music critic. The Warlock name, which reflects Heseltine's interest in occult practices, was used for all his published musical works. He is best known as a composer of songs and other vocal music; he also achieved notoriety in his lifetime through his unconventional and often scandalous lifestyle.

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17/12/1929

Manuel de Oliveira Gomes da Costa, Portuguese general and politician, tenth President of Portugal (born 1863)

Manuel de Oliveira Gomes da Costa was a Portuguese army officer and politician who served as president of Portugal in 1926. He was the second president of the Ditadura Nacional.

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17/12/1928

Frank Rinehart, American photographer (born 1861)

Frank Albert Rinehart was an American photographer who captured Native American personalities and scenes, especially portrait settings of leaders and members of the delegations who attended the 1898 Indian Congress in Omaha.

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17/12/1927

Rajendra Lahiri, Indian activist (born 1892)

Rajendra Nath Lahiri, known simply as Rajendra Lahiri, was an Indian revolutionary, who was a mastermind behind the Kakori conspiracy and Dakshineshwar bombing. He was an active member of the Hindustan Republican Association, aimed at ousting the British from India.

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17/12/1917

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, English physician and activist (born 1836)

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was an English physician and suffragist. She is known for being the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon and as a co-founder and dean of the London School of Medicine for Women, which was the first medical school in Britain to train women as doctors. She was the first female dean of a British medical school, the first woman in Britain to be elected to a school board and, as mayor of Aldeburgh, the first female mayor in Britain.

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17/12/1909

Leopold II of Belgium (born 1835)

Leopold II was the second king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908.

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17/12/1907

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Irish-Scottish physicist and engineer (born 1824)

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer.

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17/12/1904

William Shiels, Irish-Australian politician, 16th Premier of Victoria (born 1848)

William Shiels was an Australian colonial-era politician, serving as the 16th Premier of Victoria.

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17/12/1891

José María Iglesias, Mexican politician and interim President (1876–1877) (born 1823)

José María Juan Nepomuceno Crisóforo Iglesias Inzáurraga was a Mexican lawyer, professor, journalist and liberal politician. He is known as author of the Iglesias law, an anticlerical law regulating ecclesiastical fees and aimed at preventing the impoverishment of the Mexican peasantry.

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17/12/1857

Francis Beaufort, Irish hydrographer and officer in the Royal Navy (born 1774)

Sir Francis Beaufort was an Irish hydrographer and naval officer who created the Beaufort cipher and the Beaufort scale.

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17/12/1847

Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma (born 1791)

Marie Louise was Duchess of Parma from 11 April 1814 until her death in 1847. She was Napoleon's second wife and as such Empress of the French and Queen of Italy from their marriage on 2 April 1810 until his abdication on 6 April 1814.

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17/12/1833

Kaspar Hauser, German feral child (born 1812?)

Kaspar Hauser was a German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell. His claims, and his subsequent death from a stab wound, sparked much debate and controversy both in Nuremberg and abroad. Theories propounded at the time identified Hauser as a member of the grand ducal House of Baden, hidden away because of dynastic intrigue. However, there were also allegations that Hauser was an impostor. In 2024, a scientific study ruled out Hauser's princely descent by comparing mitochondrial DNA haplotypes with the House of Baden.

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17/12/1830

Simón Bolívar, Venezuelan general and politician, second President of Venezuela (born 1783)

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios Ponte y Blanco was a Venezuelan military officer and statesman who led what are currently the countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela to independence from the Spanish Empire. He is known colloquially as El Libertador, or the Liberator of America.

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17/12/1721

Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough, English soldier and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (born 1640)

Lieutenant-General Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough was an English Army officer and Whig politician best known for his role in the Glorious Revolution.

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17/12/1663

Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba (born 1583)

Nzinga or Njinga Ana de Sousa Mbande was a southwest African paramount ruler who ruled as a queen of the Ambundu Kingdoms of Ndongo (1624–1663) and Matamba (1631–1663), located in present-day northern Angola. Born into the ruling family of Ndongo, her grandfather Ngola Kilombo Kia Kasenda was the king of Ndongo, succeeded by her father.

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17/12/1562

Eleonora di Toledo, Grand Duchess of Tuscany (born 1522)

Eleanor of Toledo was a Spanish noblewoman who became Duchess of Florence as the first wife of Cosimo I de' Medici. A keen businesswoman, she financed many of her husband's political campaigns and important buildings like the Pitti Palace. She ruled as regent of Florence during his frequent absences: Eleanor ruled during Cosimo's military campaigns in Genoa in 1541 and 1543, his illness from 1544 to 1545, and again at times during the war for the conquest of Siena (1551–1554). She founded many Jesuit churches. She is credited with being the first modern first lady or consort.

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17/12/1559

Irene di Spilimbergo, Italian Renaissance poet and painter (born 1538)

Irene di Spilimbergo was an Italian Renaissance painter and poet.

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17/12/1471

Infanta Isabel, Duchess of Burgundy (born 1397)

Isabella of Portugal was Duchess of Burgundy from 1430 to 1467 as the third wife of Duke Philip the Good. Their son was Charles the Bold, the last Valois Duke of Burgundy.

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17/12/1419

William Gascoigne, Chief Justice of England

Sir William Gascoigne was an English judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of England during the reign of King Henry IV. He was renowned for his integrity and independence, upholding the principle that even the monarch was subject to the law.

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17/12/1316

Juan Fernández, bishop-elect of León

Juan Fernández was the bishop-elect of León in 1315–1316.

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17/12/1273

Rumi, Persian jurist, theologian, and poet (born 1207)

Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, commonly known as Rumi, was a Sufi mystic, poet, and founder of the Islamic brotherhood known as the Mevlevi Order. His family hailed from Balkh. Rumi is an influential figure in Sufism, and his thought and works loom large both in Persian literature and mystic poetry in general. Today, his translated works are enjoyed all over the world.

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17/12/1195

Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut (born 1150)

Baldwin V of Hainaut was count of Hainaut (1171–1195), margrave of Namur as Baldwin I (1189–1195) and count of Flanders as Baldwin VIII (1191–1195).

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17/12/1187

Pope Gregory VIII (born 1100)

Pope Gregory VIII, born Alberto di Morra, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States for two months in 1187. Becoming Pope after a long diplomatic career as Apostolic Chancellor, he was notable in his brief reign for reconciling the Papacy with the estranged Holy Roman Empire and for initiating the Third Crusade.

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17/12/0942

William I, duke of Normandy

William Longsword was the second ruler of Normandy, from 927 until his assassination in 942.

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17/12/0908

al-Abbas ibn al-Hasan al-Jarjara'i, Abbasid vizier

Al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Ḥasan al-Jarjarāʾī was a senior Abbasid official and vizier from October 904 until his murder on 16 December 908.

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Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz, Abbasid prince and poet, anti-caliph for one day

Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz was the son of the caliph al-Mu'tazz and a political figure, but is better known as a leading Arabic poet and the author of the Kitab al-Badi, an early study of Arabic forms of poetry. This work is considered one of the earliest works in Arabic literary theory and literary criticism.

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17/12/0779

Sturm, abbot of Fulda

Sturm, also called Sturmius or Sturmi, was a disciple of Boniface and founder and first abbot of the Benedictine monastery and abbey of Fulda in 742 or 744. Sturm's tenure as abbot lasted from 747 until 779.

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