Died on Thursday, 18th December – Famous Deaths

18/12/2025

Jim Hunt, American politician, 69th and 71st Governor of North Carolina (born 1937)

James Baxter Hunt Jr. was an American politician and attorney who was the 69th and 71st governor of North Carolina. He was the longest-serving governor in the state's history.

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Osman Hadi, Bangladeshi politician and activist (born 1993)

Sharif Osman Bin Hadi was a Bangladeshi political and cultural activist, writer and professor. He was the co-founder and spokesperson of Inqilab Moncho. After the July Uprising, he became a prominent figure in youth-led movements, noted for his opposition to what he termed "Indian hegemony in Bangladesh", his advocacy regarding the July martyrs, and his participation in the Awami League ban protests.

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18/12/2024

Slim Dunlap, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1951)

Robert Bruce "Slim" Dunlap was an American rock musician. He was a Minnesota-based guitarist and singer-songwriter who was best known as a member of the Replacements from 1987 to 1991, replacing original lead guitarist Bob Stinson. Dunlap also recorded two solo albums in the mid-1990s.

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John Marsden, Australian writer (born 1950)

John Marsden was an Australian writer and teacher. He wrote more than 40 books in his career, including his young adult novel Tomorrow, When the War Began, which began a series of seven books.

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18/12/2021

Sayaka Kanda, Japanese actress and singer (born 1986)

Sayaka Kanda , also known professionally as Sayaka, Lily, and Jun Uehara , was a Japanese actress, singer, and model. She was the only child of actor Masaki Kanda and pop singer Seiko Matsuda.

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18/12/2020

Jerry Relph, American politician and member of the Minnesota Senate (born 1944)

Jerry O. Relph was an American politician and member of the Minnesota Senate. A Republican, he represented District 14 in central Minnesota from 2017 until his death from COVID-19 complications in 2020. Six weeks before his death, he attended a superspreader event, along with several other Minnesota Republicans, where attendees did not comply with public health recommendations, such as wearing protective face masks.

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18/12/2017

Kim Jong-hyun, South Korean singer (born 1990)

Kim Jong-hyun, known mononymously as Jonghyun, was a South Korean singer-songwriter, record producer, radio host, and author under the SM Entertainment label. He was the vocalist of the South Korean boy band Shinee for nine years, releasing twelve albums with the group in both Korean and Japanese. He also participated in SM Entertainment's project group, SM the Ballad, for the release of two EP albums.

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18/12/2016

Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hungarian-American actress and socialite (born 1917)

Zsa Zsa Gabor was a Hungarian-American socialite and actress. Her sisters were socialite Magda Gabor and actress and businesswoman Eva Gabor.

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18/12/2015

Luc Brewaeys, Belgian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1959)

Luc Brewaeys was a Belgian composer, conductor, pianist and recording producer at the VRT. He studied composition with André Laporte in Brussels, with Franco Donatoni in Siena (Italy) and with Brian Ferneyhough in Darmstadt (Germany).

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Helge Solum Larsen, Norwegian businessman and politician (born 1969)

Helge Solum Larsen was a Norwegian businessman and politician for the Liberal Party. He served as deputy leader of the party from 2010 to 2012.

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18/12/2014

Donald J. Albosta, American soldier and politician (born 1925)

Donald Joseph Albosta was an American farmer, businessman, and politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. He served three terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1985.

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Gideon Ben-Yisrael, Israeli soldier and politician (born 1923)

Gideon Ben-Yisrael was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Mapai and Rafi in the 1950s and 1960s.

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Larry Henley, American singer-songwriter (born 1937)

Larry Joel Henley was an American singer and songwriter, best known for co-writing the 1989 hit record "Wind Beneath My Wings". He is also known for his distinctive falsetto singing voice, which he used prominently when in the Newbeats, a pop trio best known for their hit song "Bread and Butter".

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Virna Lisi, Italian actress (born 1936)

Virna Lisa Pieralisi, known as just Virna Lisi, was an Italian actress. Her international film appearances included How to Murder Your Wife (1965), Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966), The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969), Beyond Good and Evil (1977), and Follow Your Heart (1996). For the 1994 film La Reine Margot, she won Best Actress at Cannes and the César Award for Best Supporting Actress.

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Mandy Rice-Davies, English model and actress, central figure in the Profumo affair (born 1944)

Marilyn Foreman, better known as Mandy Rice-Davies, was a Welsh model and showgirl best known for her association with Christine Keeler and her role in the Profumo affair, which discredited the Conservative government of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1963.

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Robert Simpson, American meteorologist and author (born 1912)

Robert H. Simpson was an American meteorologist, hurricane specialist, first director of the National Hurricane Research Project (NHRP) from 1955 to 1959, and a former director (1967–1974) of the National Hurricane Center (NHC). He was the co-developer of the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale with Herbert Saffir. His wife was Joanne Simpson.

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18/12/2013

Ken Hutcherson, American football player (born 1952)

Kenneth Lee Hutcherson was an American professional football linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) and senior pastor at Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, Washington, where he had been since 1985. His nickname from his NFL days was "the Hutch".

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Graham Mackay, South African-English businessman (born 1949)

Ernest Arthur Graham Mackay was a South African businessman, former chief executive and chairman of SABMiller plc, a South African multinational brewing and beverage company registered on the London Stock Exchange, and the world's second-largest brewing company measured by revenues. He was succeeded as chief executive of SABMiller by Alan Clark in April 2013.

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18/12/2012

Frank Macchiarola, American lawyer and academic (born 1941)

Frank J. Macchiarola, was an American academic. His interests and expertise spanned the legal, academic, executive management and public service areas. From 2008 until his death, Macchiarola was the Chancellor of St. Francis College, after having been the college's president from 1996 to 2008. His grandson, Daniel Macchiarola, was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 2025.

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Mustafa Ould Salek, Mauritanian colonel and politician, President of Mauritania (born 1936)

Col. Mustafa Ould Salek was the president of Mauritania from 1978 to 1979.

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Jim Whalen, American football player (born 1943)

James Francis Whalen, Jr. was an American professional football player who was a tight end in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL).

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Anatoliy Zayaev, Ukrainian footballer, coach, and manager (born 1931)

Anatoliy Zayaev was a Soviet football player and a Ukrainian coach. Merited Coach of Ukraine.

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18/12/2011

Václav Havel, Czech poet, playwright, and politician, 1st President of the Czech Republic (born 1936)

Václav Havel was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 31 December, before he became the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003. He was the first democratically elected president of either country after the fall of communism. As a writer of Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays and memoirs.

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18/12/2010

Phil Cavarretta, American baseball player and manager (born 1916)

Philip Joseph Cavarretta was an American professional baseball first baseman, outfielder, and manager. He was known to friends and family as "Phil" and was also called "Philibuck", a nickname bestowed by Cubs manager Charlie Grimm.

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Jacqueline de Romilly, French philologist, author, and scholar (born 1913)

Jacqueline Worms de Romilly was a French philologist, classical scholar and fiction writer. She was the first woman nominated to the Collège de France, and in 1988, the second woman to enter the Académie française.

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Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Italian economist and politician, Italian Minister of Economy and Finances (born 1940)

Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, OMRI was an Italian banker and economist who served as Italy's Minister of Economy and Finance from 2006 to 2008. He previously served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 1998 to 2005. Padoa-Schioppa is considered as a founding father of the European single currency. He was a former member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group.

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James Pickles, English judge and journalist (born 1925)

James Pickles was an English barrister and circuit judge and who later became a tabloid newspaper columnist. He became known for his controversial sentencing decisions and press statements. His obituaries variously described him as forthright, colourful, and outspoken.

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18/12/2008

Majel Barrett, American actress and producer (born 1932)

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry was an American actress. She was best known for her roles as various characters in the Star Trek franchise: Nurse Christine Chapel, Number One, Lwaxana Troi, and the voice of most onboard computer interfaces throughout the series from 1966 to 2008.

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Mark Felt, American FBI agent, "Deep Throat" informant in the Watergate scandal (born 1913)

William Mark Felt Sr. was an American law enforcement officer who worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1942 to 1973 and was known for his role in uncovering the Watergate scandal. Felt was an FBI special agent who eventually rose to the position of Deputy Director, the Bureau's second-highest-ranking post. Felt worked in several FBI field offices prior to his promotion to the Bureau's headquarters. In 1980, he was convicted of having violated the civil rights of people thought to be associated with members of the Weather Underground, by ordering FBI agents to break into their homes and search the premises as part of an attempt to prevent bombings. He was ordered to pay a fine, but was pardoned by President Ronald Reagan during his appeal.

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18/12/2007

Hans Billian, Polish-German actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1918)

Hans Billian was a German film director, screenwriter, and actor noted for the "sex comedies" he directed in the 1970s. He was also credited as Hans Billan, Phillip Halliday, and Christian Kessler.

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Gerald Le Dain, Canadian lawyer and judge (born 1924)

Gerald Eric Le Dain, was a Canadian lawyer and judge, who sat on the Supreme Court of Canada from 1984 to 1988.

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William Strauss, American author and playwright (born 1947)

William Strauss was an American author, lawyer, playwright, theater director, and lecturer. As an author, he is known for his work with Neil Howe on social generations. They created the Strauss–Howe generational theory and coined the term Millennials. He is also known as the co-founder and director of the satirical musical theater group the Capitol Steps, and as the co-founder of the Cappies, a critics and awards program for high school theater students.

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Alan Wagner, American businessman and critic (born 1931)

Alan Cyril Wagner was an American television executive, radio personality, writer, and opera historian and critic. He served as the East Coast vice president of programming at CBS from 1976 to 1982. After he left CBS, he became the first president of Disney Channel, but only served in the role for a year.

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18/12/2006

Joseph Barbera, American animator, director, and producer, co-founded Hanna-Barbera (born 1911)

Joseph Roland Barbera was an American animator and cartoonist. He co-founded the animation studio Hanna-Barbera alongside William Hanna.

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Ruth Bernhard, German-American photographer (born 1905)

Ruth Bernhard was a German-born American photographer.

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Shaukat Siddiqui, Pakistani author and activist (born 1923)

Shaukat Siddiqi was a Pakistani writer of fiction who wrote in Urdu language. He is best known for his novels Khuda Ki Basti and Jangloos, the former of which won the Adamjee Literary Award in 1960.

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18/12/2005

Alan Voorhees, American engineer and urban planner (born 1922)

Alan Manners Voorhees was an American transportation engineer and urban planner who designed many large public works in the United States and elsewhere. Voorhees was born in Highland Park, New Jersey.

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18/12/2004

Anthony Sampson, English journalist and author (born 1926)

Anthony Terrell Seward Sampson was a British writer and journalist. His most notable and successful book was Anatomy of Britain, which was published in 1962 and was followed by five more "Anatomies", updating the original book under various titles. He was the grandson of the linguist John Sampson, of whom he wrote a biography, The Scholar Gypsy: The Quest For A Family Secret (1997). He also gave Nelson Mandela advice on Mandela's famous 1964 defence speech at the trial which led to his conviction for life.

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18/12/2002

Necip Hablemitoğlu, Turkish historian and academic (born 1954)

Necip Hablemitoğlu was a Turkish historian and intellectual. He was assassinated in front of his home in 2002. The perpetrators of this assassination have still not been found. In Ergenekon trial testimony, however, detained suspects Osman Yıldırım claimed that Osman Gürbüz killed him by the motivation of detained suspects Veli Küçük and Muzaffer Tekin for a false flag operation.

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Ray Hnatyshyn, Canadian lawyer and politician, 24th Governor General of Canada (born 1934)

Ramon John "Ray" Hnatyshyn was a Canadian lawyer and statesman who served as the 24th governor general of Canada from 1990 to 1995.

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Wayne Owens, American lawyer and politician (born 1937)

Douglas Wayne Owens was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for Utah's 2nd congressional district from 1973 to 1975 and again from 1987 to 1993. He was posthumously inducted into the Hinckley Institute of Politics hall of Fame.

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Lucy Grealy, Irish-American author (born 1963)

Lucinda Margaret Grealy was an Irish-American poet and memoirist who wrote Autobiography of a Face in 1994. This critically acclaimed book describes her childhood and early adolescent experience with cancer of the jaw, which left her with some facial disfigurement. In a 1994 interview with Charlie Rose conducted right before she rose to the height of her fame, Grealy stated that she considered her book to be primarily about the issue of "identity."

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18/12/2001

Gilbert Bécaud, French singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (born 1927)

François Gilbert Léopold Silly, known professionally as Gilbert Bécaud, was a French singer, composer, pianist and actor, known as "Monsieur 100,000 Volts" for his energetic performances. His best-known hits are "Nathalie" and "Et maintenant", a 1961 release that became an English language hit as "What Now My Love". He remained a popular artist for nearly fifty years, identifiable in his dark blue suits, with a white shirt and "lucky tie"; blue with white polka dots. When asked to explain his gift he said, "A flower doesn't understand botany." His favourite venue was the Paris Olympia under the management of Bruno Coquatrix. He debuted there in 1954 and headlined in 1955, attracting 6,000 on his first night, three times the capacity. On 13 November 1997, Bécaud was present for the re-opening of the venue after its reconstruction.

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Dimitris Dragatakis, Greek violinist and composer (born 1914)

Dimitris Dragatakis was a Greek composer of classical music and Greek art music.

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Marcel Mule, French saxophonist and educator (born 1901)

Marcel Mule was a French classical saxophonist. He was known worldwide as one of the greatest classical saxophonists ever, and many pieces were written for him, premiered by him, and arranged by him. Many of these pieces have become staples in the classical saxophone repertoire. He is considered to be the founder of the French Saxophone School and the most representative saxophone soloist of his time, being a fundamental figure in the development of the instrument.

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18/12/2000

Stan Fox, American race car driver (born 1952)

Stanley Cole Fuchs, known professionally as Stan Fox, was an American open wheel race car driver. Fox was one of the last links between the midget car racing world and the Indianapolis 500.

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Randolph Apperson Hearst, American businessman (born 1915)

Randolph Apperson Hearst was a newspaper publisher and member of the wealthy Hearst family. He was the fourth of the five sons of William Randolph Hearst and Millicent Hearst as well as the father of Patty Hearst.

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Kirsty MacColl, British singer-songwriter (born 1959)

Kirsty Anna MacColl was a British singer and songwriter. The daughter of folk singer Ewan MacColl, she recorded several pop hits in the 1980s and 1990s, including "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis" and cover versions of Billy Bragg's "A New England" and the Kinks' "Days". She also sang on a number of recordings produced by her husband Steve Lillywhite, most notably "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues. Her first single, "They Don't Know", would have chart success a few years later when covered by Tracey Ullman. Her death in 2000 led to the "Justice for Kirsty" campaign.

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18/12/1999

Robert Bresson, French director and screenwriter (born 1901)

Robert Bresson was a French filmmaker. Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson made a notable contribution to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, ellipses, and sparse use of scoring have led his works to be regarded as preeminent examples of minimalist film. Much of his work is known for being tragic in story and nature.

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18/12/1998

Lev Dyomin, Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut (born 1926)

Lev Stepanovich Dyomin was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 15 spaceflight in 1974. This spaceflight was intended to dock with the space station Salyut 3, but the docking failed.

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18/12/1997

Chris Farley, American comedian and actor (born 1964)

Christopher Crosby Farley was an American actor and comedian. Farley was a member of Chicago's Second City Theatre and later a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live for five seasons, from 1990 to 1995. He went on to pursue a film career, appearing in films such as Airheads, Tommy Boy, Black Sheep, Beverly Hills Ninja, and Almost Heroes.

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18/12/1996

Yulii Borisovich Khariton, Russian physicist and academic (born 1904)

Yulii Borisovich Khariton was a Russian physicist who was a leading scientist in the former Soviet program of nuclear weapons.

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Irving Caesar, American composer (born 1895)

Irving Caesar was an American lyricist and composer primarily for theater who wrote lyrics for numerous song standards, including "Swanee", "Sometimes I'm Happy", "Crazy Rhythm", and "Tea for Two", one of the most frequently recorded tunes ever written. In 1972, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

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18/12/1995

Brian Brockless, English organist, composer, and conductor (born 1926)

Brian Brockless was an English composer, organist and conductor and, for much of his life, was the Director of Music at the Priory Church of St Bartholomew-the-Great, Smithfield, London where he succeeded Paul Steinitz in 1961. He was a much respected Choral Trainer and his annual performances of Bach's St John Passion were noted for their musicality. He was the founder of Pro Cantione Antiqua, originally known as the St Bartholomew Singers.

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Ross Thomas, American author (born 1926)

Ross Thomas was an American writer of crime fiction. He is best known for his witty thrillers that expose the mechanisms of professional politics. He also wrote five novels under the pseudonym Oliver Bleeck about professional go-between Philip St. Ives.

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Konrad Zuse, German engineer, designed the Z3 computer (born 1910)

Konrad Ernst Otto Zuse was a German civil engineer, pioneering computer scientist, inventor and businessman. His greatest achievement was the world's first programmable computer; the functional program-controlled Turing-complete Z3 became operational in May 1941. Thanks to this machine and its predecessors, Zuse is regarded by some as the inventor and father of the modern computer.

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18/12/1994

Roger Apéry, Greek-French mathematician and academic (born 1916)

Roger Apéry (French: [apeʁi]; 14 November 1916 – 18 December 1994) was a Greek-French mathematician most remembered for Apéry's theorem, which states that ζ(3) is an irrational number. Here, ζ(s) denotes the Riemann zeta function.

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Lilia Skala, Austrian-American actress (born 1896)

Lilia Skala was an Austrian and American architect and actress known for her role in the film Lilies of the Field (1963), for which she received critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomination. During her career, Skala was also nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.

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18/12/1993

Helm Glöckler, German race car driver (born 1909)

Helmut Erik "Helm" Glöckler was a German amateur racing driver.

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Sam Wanamaker, American-English actor, director, and producer (born 1919)

Samuel Wanamaker was an American actor and director, whose career on stage and in film and television spanned five decades. He began his career on Broadway, but spent most of his professional life in the United Kingdom, where he emigrated after becoming fearful of being blacklisted in Hollywood due to his communist views in the 1950s.

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18/12/1992

Mark Goodson, American game show producer, created Family Feud and The Price Is Right (born 1915)

Mark Leo Goodson was an American television producer who specialized in game shows, most frequently with his business partner Bill Todman, with whom he created Goodson-Todman Productions.

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18/12/1991

George Abecassis, English race car driver (born 1913)

George Edgar Abecassis was a British racing driver, and co-founder of the HWM Formula One team.

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18/12/1990

Anne Revere, American actress (born 1903)

Anne Revere was an American actress and a member of the board of the Screen Actors Guild. She was best known for her work on Broadway and her portrayals of mothers in a series of critically acclaimed films. An outspoken critic of the House Un-American Activities Committee, her name appeared in Red Channels: The Report on Communist Influence in Radio and Television in 1950 and she was subsequently blacklisted.

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Paul Tortelier, French cellist and composer (born 1914)

Paul Tortelier was a French cellist and composer. After an outstanding student career at the Conservatoire de Paris he played in orchestras in France and the US before the Second World War. After the war he became a well-known soloist, playing in countries round the globe. He taught at music schools in France, Germany and China, and gave televised masterclasses in England. He was particularly associated with the solo part in Richard Strauss's Don Quixote, cello concertos by Elgar and others, and Bach's Cello Suites.

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Joseph Zubin, Lithuanian-American psychologist and academic (born 1900)

Joseph Zubin was a Lithuanian-born American educational psychologist and an authority on schizophrenia who is commemorated by the Joseph Zubin Awards. He was the founder of the Biometrics Research Department of New York State Psychiatric Institute.

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18/12/1988

Niyazi Berkes, Turkish Cypriot-English sociologist and academic (born 1908)

Niyazi Berkes was a Turkish Cypriot sociologist.

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18/12/1987

Conny Plank, German keyboard player and producer (born 1940)

Konrad "Conny" Plank was a German record producer and musician. He is known for his innovative work as a sound engineer and producer in Germany's krautrock and kosmische music scene in the 1970s. Plank was involved in releases by Neu!, Kraftwerk, Cluster, Harmonia, Ash Ra Tempel, Guru Guru, Kraan, and other German groups of the era. He later produced for new wave acts such as D.A.F., Eurythmics, Ultravox, Killing Joke, and Play Dead. He was influential to producer Martin Hannett.

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18/12/1985

Xuân Diệu, Vietnamese poet and author (born 1916)

Ngô Xuân Diệu was a Vietnamese poet, journalist, short-story writer, and literary critic, best known as one of the prominent figures of the twentieth-century Thơ mới Movement. Heralded by critics as "the newest of the New Poets", Xuân Diệu rose to popularity with the collection Thơ thơ (1938), which demonstrates a distinct voice influenced by Western literature, notably French symbolism. Between 1936 and 1944, his poetry was characterized by a desperation for love, juxtaposed with a desire to live and to experience the beauty of the world. After joining the Vietnamese Communist Party in 1945, the themes of his works shifted towards the Party and their resistance against the French and the Americans. When he died in 1985, he left behind about 450 poems, as well as several short stories, essays, and literary criticisms.

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18/12/1982

Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German colonel and pilot (born 1916)

Hans-Ulrich Rudel was a German ground-attack pilot during World War II and a post-war neo-Nazi activist.

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18/12/1980

Dobriša Cesarić, Croatian poet and translator (born 1902)

Dobriša Cesarić was a Croatian poet and translator. In 1951, he became a member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts.

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Alexei Kosygin, Russian soldier and politician, 8th Premier of the Soviet Union (born 1904)

Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin was a Soviet statesman who served as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1964 to 1980. Following Khrushchev's removal from power, he briefly led the Soviet Union as part of a triumvirate in the mid-to-late 1960s.

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18/12/1977

Michio Nishizawa, Japanese baseball player and manager (born 1921)

Michio Nishizawa was a prominent Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball player who excelled as both a pitcher and a position player. Playing with the Chunichi Dragons franchise for most of his career, Nishizawa became one of Japan's most beloved athletes. His number 15 jersey is one of only two retired by the team.

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Louis Untermeyer American poet, anthologist, critic (born 1885)

Louis Untermeyer was an American poet, anthologist, critic, and editor. He was appointed the fourteenth Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1961.

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18/12/1975

Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ukrainian geneticist and biologist (born 1900)

Theodosius Grigorievich Dobzhansky was a Russian-born American geneticist and evolutionary biologist. He was a central figure in the field of evolutionary biology for his work in shaping the modern synthesis and also popular for his support and promotion of theistic evolution as a practicing Christian. Born in the Russian Empire, Dobzhansky immigrated to the United States in 1927 at the age of 27.

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18/12/1974

Harry Hooper, American baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1887)

Harry Bartholomew Hooper was an American professional baseball right fielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB). Hooper batted left-handed and threw right-handed. Hooper was born in Bell Station, California, and he graduated from Saint Mary's College of California. He played for major league teams between 1909 and 1925, spending most of that time with the Boston Red Sox and finishing his career with the Chicago White Sox.

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18/12/1973

Allamah Rasheed Turabi, Indian-Pakistani religious leader and philosopher (born 1908)

Raza Hussain also known as Allama Rasheed Turabi (9 July 1908 – 18 December 1973) was an Islamic scholar, religious leader, public speaker, poet and philosopher.

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18/12/1972

Neilia Hunter Biden, first wife of Joe Biden (born 1942)

Neilia Hunter Biden was an American teacher and the first wife of Joe Biden, who later became the 46th president of the United States. She died in a car crash with their one-year-old daughter, Naomi; their two sons, Beau and Hunter, were injured but survived the incident. Her death occurred six weeks after her husband's election to the U.S. Senate.

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18/12/1971

Bobby Jones, American golfer and lawyer (born 1902)

Robert Tyre Jones Jr. was an American amateur golfer who was one of the most influential figures in the history of the sport; he was also a lawyer by profession. Jones founded and helped design the Augusta National Golf Club, and co-founded the Masters Tournament. The innovations that he introduced at the Masters have been copied by virtually every professional golf tournament in the world.

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Diana Lynn, American actress (born 1926)

Diana Marie Lynn was an American actress. She built her career by starring in Paramount Pictures films and various television series during the 1940s and 1950s. Two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame are dedicated to her name.

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18/12/1969

Charles Dvorak, American pole vaulter and coach (born 1878)

Charles Edward Dvorak was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the pole vault. He attended the University of Michigan where he competed for the Michigan Wolverines men's track and field team from 1900 to 1904. He participated in the 1900 Summer Olympics where he was a favorite in the pole vault. However, he missed the competition after being told by officials that the finals would be held on a Sunday. He won a special silver medal in a consolation competition. In 1903, he set a world's record in the pole vault with a jump of 11 feet, 11 inches.(This mark doesn't appear in the progression of World or American Records). Dvorak returned to international competition and won the gold medal in the pole vault at the 1904 Summer Olympics. Dvorak later served as a high school football, basketball and track coach in Seattle, Washington, where he died in 1969 at age 91.

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18/12/1961

Leo Reisman, American violinist and bandleader (born 1897)

Leo F. Reisman was an American violinist and bandleader in the 1920s and 1930s. Born and reared in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, Inspired by the Russian-American violinist Jascha Heifetz, Reisman studied violin as a young man. After being rejected by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he formed his own band in 1919. He became famous for having over 80 hits on the popular charts during his career. Jerome Kern called Reisman's orchestra "The String Quartet of Dance Bands".

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18/12/1939

Ernest Lawson, Canadian-American painter (born 1873)

Ernest Lawson was a Canadian-American painter and exhibited his work at the Canadian Art Club and as a member of the American group The Eight, artists who formed a loose association in 1908 to protest the narrowness of taste and restrictive exhibition policies of the conservative, powerful National Academy of Design. Though Lawson was primarily a landscape painter, he also painted a small number of realistic urban scenes. His painting style is heavily influenced by the art of John Henry Twachtman, J. Alden Weir, and Alfred Sisley. Though considered a Canadian-American Impressionist, Lawson falls stylistically between Impressionism and realism.

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18/12/1936

Andrija Mohorovičić, Croatian meteorologist and seismologist (born 1857)

Andrija Mohorovičić was a Croatian geophysicist and academic. He is best known for the eponymous Mohorovičić discontinuity and is considered one of the founders of modern seismology. He is also considered among the greatest Croatian natural scientists.

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18/12/1932

Eduard Bernstein, German theorist and politician (born 1850)

Eduard Bernstein was a German social democratic politician and socialist theorist. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Bernstein is best known for his reformist challenge to Marxism known as evolutionary socialism or revisionism, in which he questioned the revolutionary predictions of Karl Marx and advocated for a gradual, parliamentary path to socialism. His political and theoretical work played a significant role in the development of social democracy and democratic socialism.

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18/12/1925

Hamo Thornycroft, English sculptor and academic (born 1850)

Sir William Hamo Thornycroft was an English sculptor, responsible for some of London's best-known statues, including the statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Palace of Westminster. He was a keen student of classical sculpture and was one of the youngest artists to be elected to the Royal Academy, in 1882, the same year the bronze cast of Teucer was purchased for the British nation under the auspices of the Chantrey Bequest.

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18/12/1922

Sir Carl Meyer, 1st Baronet, German-English banker and businessman (born 1851)

Sir Carl Ferdinand Meyer, 1st Baronet was a British banker and mining magnate.

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18/12/1919

John Alcock, English captain and pilot (born 1892)

Captain Sir John William Alcock was a British Royal Navy and later Royal Air Force officer who, with navigator Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown, piloted the first non-stop transatlantic flight from St. John's, Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland in June 1919. He died in a flying accident in France in December later that same year.

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18/12/1892

Richard Owen, English biologist, anatomist, and paleontologist (born 1804)

Sir Richard Owen was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils.

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18/12/1880

Michel Chasles, French mathematician and academic (born 1793)

Michel Floréal Chasles was a French mathematician.

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18/12/1869

Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American pianist and composer (born 1829)

Louis Moreau Gottschalk was a Louisiana Creole and Jewish-American composer, pianist, and virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States.

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18/12/1864

José Justo Corro, Mexican politician, President of Mexico (1836–1837) (born 1794)

José Justo Corro y Silva was a Mexican lawyer and statesman who was made president of Mexico on 2 March 1836, after the sudden death of President Miguel Barragán. During his administration, he oversaw the transition from the First Mexican Republic to the Centralist Republic of Mexico and the publication of the new constitution: the Siete Leyes. The nation also faced the ongoing Texas Revolution, and Mexican independence was recognized by Spain and by the Holy See.

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18/12/1848

Bernard Bolzano, Bohemian priest and mathematician (born 1781)

Bernard Bolzano was a Bohemian mathematician, logician, philosopher, theologian and Catholic priest of Italian extraction, also known for his liberal views.

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18/12/1843

Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch, Scottish-English general and politician (born 1748)

General Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch, was a British Army officer and politician. After his education at Oxford, he inherited a substantial estate in Scotland, married and settled down to a quiet career as a landowning gentleman. However, with the death of his wife, when he was aged 42, he immersed himself in a military career, during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The historian James Taylor described Graham as "tall, square-shouldered, and erect, his limbs sinewy and remarkably strong. His complexion was dark, with full eyebrows, firm-set lips, and an open, benevolent air. His manners and address were frank, simple, and polished".

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18/12/1829

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, French soldier, biologist, and academic (born 1744)

Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck, often known simply as Lamarck, was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biological evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws, though the mechanism he suggested has been refuted at large.

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18/12/1803

Johann Gottfried Herder, German philosopher, theologian, and poet (born 1744)

Johann Gottfried von Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, pastor, poet, and literary critic. Herder is associated with the Age of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism. He was a Romantic philosopher and poet who argued that true German culture was to be discovered among the common people. He also stated that it was through folk songs, folk poetry, and folk dances that the true spirit of the nation was popularized. He is credited with establishing or advancing a number of important disciplines: hermeneutics, linguistics, anthropology, and "a secular philosophy of history."

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18/12/1799

Jean-Étienne Montucla, French mathematician and historian (born 1725)

Jean-Étienne Montucla was a French mathematician and historian.

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18/12/1787

Soame Jenyns, English poet and politician (born 1704)

Soame Jenyns was an English writer and Member of Parliament. He was an early advocate of the ethical consideration of animals.

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18/12/1737

Antonio Stradivari, Italian instrument maker (born 1644)

Antonio Stradivari was an Italian luthier and a craftsman of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas and harps. The Latinized form of his surname, Stradivarius, as well as the colloquial Strad are terms often used to refer to his instruments. It is estimated that Stradivari produced 1,116 instruments, of which 960 were violins. Around 650 instruments survive, including 450 to 512 violins. His instruments are considered some of the finest ever made, and are extremely valuable collector's items.

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18/12/1692

Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, German scholar and politician (born 1626)

Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff or Seckendorf, German statesman and scholar, was a member of the House of Seckendorff, a noble family which took its name from the village of Seckendorf between Nuremberg and Langenzenn. The family was divided into eleven distinct lines, widely distributed throughout Prussia, Württemberg, and Bavaria.

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18/12/1651

William Brabazon, 1st Earl of Meath, English lawyer and politician (born 1580)

William Brabazon, 1st Earl of Meath was an Anglo-Irish peer.

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18/12/1645

Nur Jahan, empress consort of the Mughal Empire (born 1577)

Nur Jahan, born Mehr-un-Nissa, was the twentieth wife and chief consort of the Mughal emperor Jahangir.

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18/12/1577

Anna of Saxony, Princess consort of Orange (born 1544)

Anna of Saxony was the daughter of Maurice, Elector of Saxony, and Agnes of Hesse. Her wealth drew many suitors; she ultimately accepted the proposal of widowed William the Silent, and they were married on 25 August 1561. They had to flee the Netherlands in 1567 in the face of the Habsburg army dispatched to suppress the Dutch Revolt.

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18/12/1495

Alfonso II of Naples (born 1448)

Alfonso II was Duke of Calabria and ruled as King of Naples from 25 January 1494 to 23 January 1495. He was a soldier and a patron of Renaissance architecture and the arts.

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18/12/1442

Pierre Cauchon, French Catholic bishop (born 1371)

Pierre Cauchon was a French Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Beauvais from 1420 to 1432. He was a partisan of Burgundian and English interests in France during the latter years of the Hundred Years' War. In 1431, he served as judge in the trial of Joan of Arc, which found her guilty of heresy, and played a key role in her execution. In 1432, he was appointed as the Bishop of Lisieux, serving until his death in 1442. He was buried in Lisieux Cathedral. The Catholic Church overturned the verdict of Joan of Arc's trial in 1456.

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18/12/1290

Magnus Ladulås, king of Sweden (born 1240)

Magnus Ladulås or Magnus Birgersson was King of Sweden from 1275 until his death in 1290.

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18/12/1133

Hildebert, French poet and scholar (born 1055)

Hildebert is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It may refer to:Hildebert Hildebert, Count of Ivois Hildebert Hildebert Hildebert I of Mont-Saint-Michel, abbot Hildebert II of Mont-Saint-Michel, abbot Hildebert of Lavardin, bishop of Le Mans, archbishop of Tours and theologian Hildebert and Everwin, Moravian artists

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18/12/1075

Edith of Wessex (born 1025)

Edith of Wessex was Queen of England through her marriage to Edward the Confessor from 1045 until Edward's death in 1066. Unlike most English queens in the 10th and 11th centuries, she was crowned. The principal source on her life is a work she herself commissioned, the Vita Ædwardi Regis or the Life of King Edward who rests at Westminster, which is inevitably biased.

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18/12/0933

Yaonian Yanmujin, Chinese empress dowager

Yaonian Yanmujin or Xiao Yanmujin, formally Empress Xuanjian (宣簡皇后), was an empress dowager of the Khitan-led Chinese Liao dynasty. She was the mother of Liao's founder Emperor Taizu of Liao and the wife of his father Yelü Saladi (耶律薩剌的). During the reign of Emperor Taizu's son Emperor Taizong, she was grand empress dowager.

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18/12/0919

Lady Wu, wife of Qian Liu (born 858)

Lady Wu, formally Lady Zhuangmu of Wuyue (吳越莊穆夫人), was the wife of Qian Liu, the first king of the Chinese state Wuyue of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

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