Died on Tuesday, 2nd December – Famous Deaths

02/12/2024

Ed Botterell, Canadian Olympic sailor (born 1931)

Edward Botterell was a Canadian sailor who competed in the 1964 Summer Olympics.

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Helmut Duckadam, Romanian footballer (born 1959)

Helmut Duckadam was a Romanian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

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Neale Fraser, Australian tennis player (born 1933)

Neale Andrew Fraser, was an Australian champion tennis player. Fraser is the most recent man to have completed the triple crown, which he did in 1959 and 1960 at the U.S. National Championships. He won the 1960 Wimbledon championships. Fraser was ranked world No. 1 amateur tennis player in 1959 and 1960 by Lance Tingay and Ned Potter.

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Paul Maslansky, American film producer and writer (born 1933)

Paul Marc Maslansky was an American film producer and writer best known for the Police Academy franchise, and directing the Blaxploitation horror film Sugar Hill (1974).

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Debbie Mathers, Mother of Eminem (born 1955)

Marshall Bruce Mathers III, known professionally as Eminem, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and record executive. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, he is often credited with popularizing hip-hop in Middle America and the acceptance of white rappers. While much of his transgressive art during the late 1990s and early 2000s made him a controversial figure, Eminem has become a representation of popular angst in lower-income America and is noted for his conscious rap—including political criticism and social commentary—and rap flow.

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Israel Vázquez, Mexican boxer (born 1977)

Israel Vázquez Castañeda was a Mexican professional boxer who competed from 1995 to 2010. He was a three-time super bantamweight world champion, having held the IBF title from 2004 to 2005; and the WBC, The Ring titles twice from 2005 to 2008. Vázquez is best known for his series of four fights against fellow Mexican Rafael Márquez.

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02/12/2020

Pat Patterson, American wrestler (born 1941)

Pat Patterson was a Canadian-American professional wrestler and producer, widely known for his long tenure in the professional wrestling promotion WWE, first as a wrestler, then as a creative consultant and producer, or agent. He is recognized by the company as their first Intercontinental Champion and creator of the Royal Rumble match. He was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame as part of the class of 1996.

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02/12/2015

Sandy Berger, American lawyer and politician, 19th United States National Security Advisor (born 1945)

Samuel Richard "Sandy" Berger was a Democratic attorney who served as the 18th US National Security Advisor for U.S. President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001 after he had served as the Deputy National Security Advisor for the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1997.

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Will McMillan, American actor, director, and producer (born 1944)

William George McMillan was an American actor, producer, and director.

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George T. Sakato, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1921)

George Taro Sakato was an American combat soldier of World War II who received the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award for valor.

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02/12/2014

A. R. Antulay, Indian lawyer and politician, 8th Chief Minister of Maharashtra (born 1929)

Abdul Rahman Antulay was an Indian politician. Antulay was a union minister for Minority Affairs and a Member of Parliament in the 14th Lok Sabha of India. Earlier he had been the Chief Minister of the state of Maharashtra, but was forced to resign after being convicted by the Bombay High Court on charges that he had extorted money for a trust fund he managed. Later, the Supreme Court of India gave him a clean chit in that case.

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Jean Béliveau, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1931)

Joseph Arthur Jean Béliveau was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played parts of 20 seasons with the National Hockey League's (NHL) Montreal Canadiens from 1950 to 1971. Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972, "Le Gros Bill" Béliveau is widely regarded as one of the ten greatest NHL players of all time. Born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Béliveau first played professionally in the Quebec Major Hockey League (QMHL). He made his NHL debut with the Canadiens in 1950, but chose to remain in the QMHL full-time until 1953. From 1950 to 1971, he spent his entire NHL career with the Canadiens.

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Josie Cichockyj, English basketball player and coach (born 1964)

Josie Cichockyj was a British wheelchair athlete. Born in Huddersfield, she competed in the London Marathon women's wheelchair race for a number of years, finishing as runner-up to Kay McShane and Karen Davidson, before winning the 1989 race. Josie won further Marathons including the Leeds, Gloucester, Ottawa and Brussels Marathons. Plus several half Marathons including Great North Run and Reading.

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Bobby Keys, American saxophonist (born 1943)

Robert Henry Keys was an American saxophonist who performed as a member of several horn sections of the 1970s. He appears on albums by the Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Harry Nilsson, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Joe Ely, and other prominent musicians. Keys played on hundreds of recordings, and was a touring musician from 1956 until his death in 2014.

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Don Laws, American figure skater and coach (born 1929)

Don Laws was an American figure skater and coach.

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02/12/2013

William Allain, American soldier and politician, 58th Governor of Mississippi (born 1928)

William A. Allain was an American politician and lawyer who held office as the 59th governor of Mississippi as a Democrat from 1984 to 1988. Born in Adams County, Mississippi, he attended the University of Notre Dame and received a law degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1948.

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Jean-Claude Beton, Algerian-French engineer and businessman, founded Orangina (born 1925)

Jean-Claude Beton was a French businessman and entrepreneur. He was a key figure in the rise of the French soft drink maker Orangina, being credited with transforming the drink from a little-known citrus soda first manufactured by his father, Léon Beton, into a major global brand. Beton launched Orangina's iconic, signature 8-ounce bottle in 1951, which became a symbol of the brand. The bottle is shaped like an orange, with a glass texture designed to mimic the fruit. In 2009, Beton called Orangina the "champagne of soft drinks", saying that "It doesn't contain added colorants. It was and still is slightly sparkling. It had a little bulby bottle."

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Marcelo Déda, Brazilian lawyer and politician (born 1960)

Marcelo Déda Chagas was a Brazilian politician. He was the mayor of Aracaju from 2000 to 2006, and was elected in 2006 and 2010 as Governor of Sergipe.

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Junior Murvin, Jamaican singer-songwriter (born 1946)

Junior Murvin was a Jamaican reggae musician. He is best known for the single "Police and Thieves", produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry in 1976.

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02/12/2012

Tom Hendry, Canadian playwright, co-founded the Manitoba Theatre Centre (born 1929)

Tom Hendry was the co-founder of the Manitoba Theatre Centre in 1958 and, in 2008, the MTC Warehouse Theatre was officially dedicated to Hendry.

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Ehsan Naraghi, Iranian sociologist and author (born 1926)

Ehsān Narāghi was an Iranian sociologist, writer and Farah Pahlavi adviser

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02/12/2009

Foge Fazio, American football player and coach (born 1938)

Serafino Dante "Foge" Fazio was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Pittsburgh from 1982 to 1985. Fazio was an assistant coach with five teams in the National Football League (NFL) between 1988 and 2002.

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Eric Woolfson, Scottish singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (born 1945)

Eric Norman Woolfson was a Scottish songwriter, lyricist, vocalist, executive producer, pianist, and co-creator of the band The Alan Parsons Project, who sold over 50 million albums worldwide. Woolfson also pursued a career in musical theatre.

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02/12/2008

Odetta, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress (born 1930)

Odetta Holmes, known as Odetta, was an American singer, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals.

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Henry Molaison, American memory disorder patient (born 1926)

Henry Gustav Molaison, known widely as H.M., was an American epileptic man who in 1953 received a bilateral medial temporal lobectomy to surgically resect parts of his brain—the anterior two thirds of his hippocampi, parahippocampal cortices, entorhinal cortices, piriform cortices, and amygdalae—in an attempt to cure his epilepsy. Although the surgery was partially successful in controlling his epilepsy, a severe side effect was that he became unable to form new memories.

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Edward Samuel Rogers, Canadian lawyer and businessman (born 1933)

Edward Samuel "Ted" Rogers Jr., was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist who served as the president and CEO of Rogers Communications. He was the fifth-richest person in Canada in terms of net worth.

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Renato de Grandis, Italian composer, musicologist, and writer (born 1927)

Renato de Grandis was an Italian composer, musicologist, writer and Theosophist.

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02/12/2007

Jennifer Alexander, Canadian-American ballerina and actress (born 1972)

Jennifer Carrie Alexander was a Canadian ballet dancer.

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Elizabeth Hardwick, American literary critic, novelist, and short story writer (born 1916)

Elizabeth Bruce Hardwick was an American literary critic, novelist, and short story writer.

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02/12/2006

Mariska Veres, Dutch singer (born 1947)

Maria Elisabeth Ender, better known as Mariska Veres, was a Dutch singer who was best known as the lead singer of the rock group Shocking Blue. She was known for her sultry voice, eccentric performances, and her striking appearance which featured kohl-rimmed eyes, and high and long jet-black hair, which was actually a wig.

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02/12/2005

William P. Lawrence, American admiral and pilot (born 1930)

William Porter "Bill" Lawrence was a decorated United States Navy vice admiral and Naval Aviator who served as Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy from 1978 to 1981. Lawrence was a noted pilot, the first Naval Aviator to fly twice the speed of sound in a naval aircraft, and one of the final candidates for the Mercury space program. During the Vietnam War, Lawrence was shot down while on a combat mission and spent six years as a prisoner of war, from 1967 to 1973. During this time, he became noted for his resistance to his captors.

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Van Tuong Nguyen, Australian convicted drug trafficker (born 1980)

Van Tuong Nguyen, baptised Caleb, was an Australian from Melbourne, Victoria, convicted of drug trafficking in Singapore. A Vietnamese Australian, he was also addressed as Nguyen Tuong Van (阮祥雲) in Singaporean media, his name in Vietnamese custom like most customs in the Sinosphere.

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02/12/2004

Alicia Markova, English ballerina and choreographer (born 1910)

Dame Alicia Markova DBE was a British ballerina and a choreographer, director and teacher of classical ballet. Most noted for her career with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and touring internationally, she was widely considered to be one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of the twentieth century. She was the first British dancer to become the principal dancer of a ballet company and, with Dame Margot Fonteyn, is one of only two English dancers to be recognised as a prima ballerina assoluta. Markova was a founder dancer of the Rambert Dance Company, The Royal Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, and was co-founder and director of the English National Ballet.

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Mona Van Duyn, American poet and academic (born 1921)

Mona Jane Van Duyn was an American poet. She was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 1992.

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02/12/2003

Alan Davidson, British soldier, historian, and author (born 1924)

Alan Eaton Davidson CMG was a British diplomat and writer best known for his writing and editing on food and gastronomy.

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02/12/2002

Ivan Illich, Austrian priest and philosopher (born 1926)

Ivan Dominic Illich was an Austrian Catholic priest, theologian, philosopher, and social critic. His 1971 book Deschooling Society criticises modern society's institutional approach to education, an approach that he argued demotivates and alienates individuals from the process of learning. His 1975 book Medical Nemesis, importing to the sociology of medicine the concept of medical harm, in which he argues that industrialised society impairs quality of life through processes such as overmedicalisation, the pathologisation of normal conditions, and increased dependency on medical institutions. Illich called himself "an errant pilgrim."

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Arno Peters, German cartographer and historian (born 1916)

Arno Peters was a German historian who developed the Peters world map, based on the Gall–Peters projection.

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02/12/2000

Gail Fisher, American actress (born 1935)

Gail Fisher was an American actress who was one of the first Black women to play substantive roles in American television. She was best known for playing the role of secretary Peggy Fair on the television detective series Mannix from 1968 through 1975, a role for which she won two Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy Award; she was the first African-American woman to win those prestigious awards. She also won an NAACP Image Award in 1969. In addition to her acting career, Fisher was a successful jazz lyricist.

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02/12/1999

Charlie Byrd, American guitarist (born 1925)

Charlie Lee Byrd was an American jazz guitarist who played fingerstyle on a classical guitar. Byrd was best known for his association with Brazilian music, especially bossa nova. In 1962, he collaborated with Stan Getz on the album Jazz Samba, a recording which brought bossa nova into the mainstream of North American music.

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02/12/1997

Shirley Crabtree, English wrestler (born 1930)

Shirley Crabtree Jr., better known as Big Daddy, was an English professional wrestler. He worked for Joint Promotions and the original British Wrestling Federation. Initially appearing on television as a heel, he teamed with Giant Haystacks. After splitting with Haystacks, he became a fan favourite and the top star of Joint Promotions from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.

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Michael Hedges, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1953)

Michael Alden Hedges was an American acoustic guitarist and songwriter. He was known as a virtuoso who used unorthodox playing techniques, and much of his output was classified as new age music. Hedges died in an auto accident, and won a posthumous Grammy Award for his album Oracle.

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02/12/1995

Robertson Davies, Canadian author, playwright, and critic (born 1913)

William Robertson Davies was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", a term Davies gladly accepted for himself. Davies was the founding Master of Massey College, a graduate residential college associated with the University of Toronto.

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Roxie Roker, American actress (born 1929)

Roxie Albertha Roker was an American actress. She was best known for her portrayal of Helen Willis on the CBS sitcom The Jeffersons. In 1973, she performed as Mattie Williams in the Broadway play The River Niger, and was nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Play at the 28th Tony Awards. Roker is the mother of rock musician Lenny Kravitz and grandmother of actress Zoë Kravitz.

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Mária Telkes, Hungarian–American biophysicist and chemist (born 1900)

Mária Telkes was a Hungarian-American biophysicist, engineer, and inventor who worked on solar energy technologies.

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02/12/1993

Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord (born 1949)

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord, narcoterrorist, and politician who was the founder and leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed the "King of Cocaine", Escobar was one of the wealthiest conventional criminals in history, having amassed an estimated net worth of US$30 billion by his death, while his drug cartel monopolized the cocaine trade into the US in the 1980s and early 1990s.

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02/12/1990

Aaron Copland, American composer and conductor (born 1900)

Aaron Copland was an American composer, critic, writer, teacher, pianist, and conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as the "Dean of American Music". The open, slowly changing harmonies in much of his music are typical of what many consider the sound of American music, evoking the vast American landscape and pioneer spirit. He is best known for the works he wrote in the 1930s and 1940s in a deliberately accessible style often referred to as "populist" and which he called his "vernacular" style. Works in this vein include the ballets Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid and Rodeo, his Fanfare for the Common Man and Third Symphony. In addition to his ballets and orchestral works, he produced music in many other genres, including chamber music, vocal works, opera, and film scores.

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Robert Cummings, American actor, director, and producer (born 1908)

Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings was an American film and television actor who appeared in roles in comedy films such as The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) and Princess O'Rourke (1943), and in dramatic films, especially two of Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers, Saboteur (1942) and Dial M for Murder (1954). He received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Single Performance in 1955. On February 8, 1960, he received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion picture and television industries, at 6816 Hollywood Boulevard and 1718 Vine Street. He used the stage name Robert Cummings from mid-1935 until the end of 1954 and was credited as Bob Cummings from 1955 until his death.

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02/12/1988

Karl-Heinz Bürger, German colonel (born 1904)

Karl-Heinz Bürger was a German SS functionary who held positions as SS and Police Leader during the Nazi era.

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Tata Giacobetti, Italian singer-songwriter (born 1922)

Giovanni "Tata" Giacobetti was an Italian singer and jazz musician. He is mostly known for being a member of the vocal quartet Quartetto Cetra.

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02/12/1987

Luis Federico Leloir, French-Argentinian physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1906)

Luis Federico Leloir was an Argentine physician and biochemist who received the 1970 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the metabolic pathways by which carbohydrates are synthesized and converted into energy in the body. Although born in France, Leloir received the majority of his education at the University of Buenos Aires and was director of the private research group Fundación Instituto Campomar until his death in 1987. His research into sugar nucleotides, carbohydrate metabolism, and renal hypertension garnered international attention and led to significant progress in understanding, diagnosing and treating the congenital disease galactosemia. Leloir is buried in La Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires.

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Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, Belarusian physicist, astronomer, and cosmologist (born 1914)

Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich, also known as YaB, was a leading Soviet physicist of Belarusian origin, who is known for his prolific contributions in physical cosmology, physics of thermonuclear reactions, combustion, and hydrodynamical phenomena.

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02/12/1986

Desi Arnaz, Cuban-American actor, singer, businessman, and television producer (born 1917)

Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III, known as Desi Arnaz, was a Cuban-American actor, musician, producer, and bandleader. He played Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom I Love Lucy, in which he co-starred with his wife Lucille Ball. Arnaz and Ball are credited as the innovators of the syndicated rerun, which they pioneered with the I Love Lucy series.

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John Curtis Gowan, American psychologist and academic (born 1912)

John Curtis Gowan was a psychologist who studied, along with E. Paul Torrance, the development of creative capabilities in children and gifted populations.

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02/12/1985

Philip Larkin, English poet, author, and librarian (born 1922)

Philip Arthur Larkin was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, The North Ship, was published in 1945, followed by two novels, Jill (1946) and A Girl in Winter (1947). He came to prominence in 1955 with the publication of his second collection of poems, The Less Deceived, followed by The Whitsun Weddings (1964) and High Windows (1974). He contributed to The Daily Telegraph as its jazz critic from 1961 to 1971, with his articles gathered in All What Jazz: A Record Diary 1961–71 (1985), and edited The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse (1973). His many honours include the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. He was offered, but declined, the position of Poet Laureate in 1984, following the death of Sir John Betjeman.

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02/12/1983

Fifi D'Orsay, Canadian-American actress and singer (born 1904)

Fifi D'Orsay was a Canadian and American actress and singer.

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02/12/1982

Marty Feldman, English actor and comedian (born 1934)

Martin Alan Feldman was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was known for his prominent, misaligned eyes.

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Giovanni Ferrari, Italian footballer and manager (born 1907)

Giovanni Ferrari was an Italian footballer who played as an attacking midfielder/inside forward on the left. He is regarded as one of the best players of his generation, having won Serie A 8 times, as well as two consecutive FIFA World Cup titles with the Italy national football team. Along with Giuseppe Meazza and Eraldo Monzeglio, he is one of only three Italian players to have won two World Cups.

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02/12/1981

Wallace Harrison, American architect, co-founded Harrison & Abramovitz (born 1895)

Wallace Kirkman Harrison was an American architect. Harrison started his professional career with the firm of Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, participating in the construction of Rockefeller Center. He is best known for executing large public projects in New York City and upstate, many of them the fruit of his long friendship with Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

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02/12/1980

Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, Indian-Pakistani lawyer and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Pakistan (born 1905)

Chaudhri Muhammad Ali was a Pakistani politician and statesman who served as the fourth prime minister of Pakistan from 1955 until his resignation in 1956. His government oversaw the promulgation of the first Pakistani constitution, transitioning Pakistan from a dominion to a republic.

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Romain Gary, Lithuanian-French author, director, and screenwriter (born 1914)

Romain Gary, also known by the pen name Émile Ajar, was a Lithuanian-born French novelist, diplomat, film director, and military aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt twice. He is considered a major writer of French literature of the second half of the 20th century.

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02/12/1976

Danny Murtaugh, American baseball player and manager (born 1917)

Daniel Edward Murtaugh was an American second baseman, manager, front-office executive, and coach in Major League Baseball (MLB). Murtaugh is best known for his 29-year association with the Pittsburgh Pirates, with whom he won two World Series as field manager. He also played 416 of his 767 career MLB games with the Pirates as their second baseman.

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02/12/1974

Sylvi Kekkonen, Finnish writer and wife of President of Finland Urho Kekkonen (born 1900)

Sylvi Kekkonen was a Finnish writer and the longest-serving First Lady of Finland.

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Max Weber, Swiss lawyer and politician (born 1897)

Max Weber was a Swiss politician.

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02/12/1969

José María Arguedas, Peruvian anthropologist, author, and poet (born 1911)

José María Arguedas Altamirano was a Peruvian novelist, poet, and anthropologist. Arguedas was an author of mestizo descent who was fluent in the Quechua language. That fluency was gained by Arguedas's living in two Quechua households from the age of 7 to 11. First, he lived in the Indigenous servant quarters of his stepmother's home, then, escaping her "perverse and cruel" son, with an Indigenous family approved by his father. Arguedas wrote novels, short stories, and poems in both Spanish and Quechua.

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Kliment Voroshilov, Ukrainian-Russian marshal and politician, 3rd Head of State of The Soviet Union (born 1881)

Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov, popularly known as Klim Voroshilov, was a prominent Soviet military officer and politician during the Stalin era (1924–1953). He was one of the original five Marshals of the Soviet Union, the second highest military rank of the Soviet Union, and served as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal Soviet head of state, from 1953 to 1960.

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02/12/1967

Francis Spellman, American cardinal (born 1889).

Francis Joseph Cardinal Spellman was a senior-ranking American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of New York from 1939 until his death in 1967. From 1932 to 1939, Spellman served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston. He was created a cardinal by Pope Pius XII in 1946.

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02/12/1966

L. E. J. Brouwer, Dutch mathematician and philosopher (born 1881)

Luitzen Egbertus Jan "Bertus" Brouwer was a Dutch mathematician and philosopher who worked in topology, set theory, measure theory and complex analysis. Regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, he is known as one of the founders of modern topology, particularly for establishing his fixed-point theorem and the topological invariance of dimension.

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Giles Cooper, Irish author, playwright, and screenwriter (born 1918)

Giles Stannus Cooper, OBE was an Anglo-Irish playwright and prolific radio dramatist, writing over sixty scripts for BBC Radio and television. He was awarded the OBE in 1960 for "Services to Broadcasting". A dozen years after his death at only 48 the Giles Cooper Awards for Radio Drama were instituted in his honour, jointly by the BBC and the publishers Eyre Methuen.

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02/12/1957

Harrison Ford, American actor (born 1884)

Harrison Ford was an early 20th-century American actor. He was a leading Broadway theater performer and a star of the silent film era.

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Manfred Sakel, Ukrainian-American neurophysiologist and psychiatrist (born 1902)

Manfred Joshua Sakel was an Austrian-American neurophysiologist and psychiatrist, credited with developing insulin shock therapy in 1927.

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02/12/1953

Reginald Baker, Australian rugby player (born 1884)

Reginald Leslie "Snowy" Baker was an Australian athlete, sports promoter, and actor. Born in Surry Hills, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Baker excelled at a number of sports, winning New South Wales swimming and boxing championships while still a teenager. Playing rugby union for Eastern Suburbs, he played several games for New South Wales against Queensland, and in 1904 represented Australia in two Test matches against Great Britain. At the 1908 London Olympics, Baker represented Australasia in swimming and diving, as well as taking part in the middleweight boxing event, in which he won a silver medal. He also excelled in horsemanship, water polo, running, rowing and cricket. However, "His stature as an athlete depends largely upon the enormous range rather than the outstanding excellence of his activities; it was as an entrepreneur-showman, publicist and businessman that he seems in retrospect to have been most important."

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Trần Trọng Kim, Vietnamese historian, scholar, and politician, Prime Minister of Vietnam (born 1883)

Trần Trọng Kim (Vietnamese: [t͡ɕən˨˩ t͡ɕawŋ͡m˧˨ʔ kim˧˧]; chữ Hán: 陳仲金, Kanji pronunciation: Chin Jūkin; Japanese: チャン・チョン・キム, romanized: Chan Chon Kimu; 1883 – December 2, 1953; courtesy name Lệ Thần was a Vietnamese scholar and politician who served as the Prime Minister of the short-lived Empire of Vietnam, a state established with the support of Imperial Japan in 1945 after Japan had seized direct control of Vietnam from Vichy France toward the end of World War II. He was an uncle of Bùi Diễm.

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02/12/1950

Dinu Lipatti, Romanian pianist and composer (born 1917)

Constantin "Dinu" Lipatti was a Romanian classical pianist and composer whose career was cut short by his death from effects related to Hodgkin's disease at age 33. He was elected posthumously to the Romanian Academy. He composed few works, all of which demonstrated a strong influence from Hungarian composer Béla Bartok.

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02/12/1944

Josef Lhévinne, Russian pianist and educator (born 1874)

Josef Lhévinne was a Russian pianist and piano teacher. Lhévinne wrote a short book in 1924 that is considered a classic: Basic Principles in Pianoforte Playing.

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Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Egyptian-Italian poet and composer (born 1876)

Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti was an Italian poet, editor, art theorist and founder of the Futurist movement. He was associated with the utopian and Symbolist artistic and literary community Abbaye de Créteil between 1907 and 1908. Marinetti is best known as the author of the Manifesto of Futurism, which was written and published in 1909, and as a co-author of the Fascist Manifesto, in 1919.

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Eiji Sawamura, Japanese baseball player and soldier (born 1917)

Eiji Sawamura was a Japanese professional baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, he played in Japan for the Yomiuri Giants. He is one of just two pitchers in Japanese baseball history to throw three no-hitters and the only one to do so for thirty years. He is one of just six numbers to be retired by the Giants in their history.

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02/12/1943

Nordahl Grieg, Norwegian journalist and author (born 1902)

Johan Nordahl Brun Grieg was a Norwegian poet, novelist, dramatist, journalist and political activist. He was a popular author and a controversial public figure. He served in World War II as a war correspondent and was killed while covering a bombing mission to Berlin.

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02/12/1936

John Ringling, American businessman, co-founded Ringling Brothers Circus (born 1866)

John Nicholas Ringling was an American entrepreneur who is the best known of the seven Ringling brothers, five of whom merged the Barnum & Bailey Circus with their own Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows to create a virtual monopoly of traveling circuses and helped shape the modern circus. In addition to owning and managing many of the largest circuses in the United States, he was also a rancher, a real estate developer and art collector. He was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 1987.

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02/12/1931

Vincent d'Indy, French composer and educator (born 1851)

Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy was a French composer and teacher. His influence as a teacher, in particular, was considerable. He was a co-founder of the Schola Cantorum de Paris and also taught at the Paris Conservatoire. His students included Albéric Magnard, Albert Roussel, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Yvonne Rokseth, and Erik Satie, as well as Cole Porter.

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02/12/1927

Paul Heinrich von Groth, German scientist who systematically classified minerals and founded the journal Zeitschrift für Krystallographie und Mineralogie (born 1843)

Paul Heinrich Ritter von Groth was a German mineralogist. His most important contribution to science was his systematic classification of minerals based on their chemical compositions and crystal structures.

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02/12/1924

Kazimieras Būga, Lithuanian linguist and philologist (born 1879)

Kazimieras Būga was a Lithuanian linguist and philologist. He was a professor of linguistics, who mainly worked on the Lithuanian language.

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02/12/1918

Edmond Rostand, French poet and playwright (born 1868)

Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century. Another of Rostand's works, Les Romanesques (1894), was adapted to the 1960 musical comedy The Fantasticks.

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02/12/1899

Gregorio del Pilar, Filipino general and politician, 1st Governor of Bulacan (born 1875)

Gregorio Hilario del Pilar y Sempio was a Filipino general of the Philippine Revolutionary Army during the Philippine–American War.

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02/12/1892

Jay Gould, American businessman and financier (born 1836)

Jay Gould was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who founded the Gould business dynasty. He is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made him one of the wealthiest men of the late 19th century. Gould was an unpopular figure during his life and remains controversial.

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02/12/1888

Namık Kemal, Turkish journalist, poet, and playwright (born 1840)

Namık Kemal was an Ottoman writer, poet, democrat, intellectual, reformer, journalist, playwright, and political activist who was influential in the formation of the Young Ottomans and their struggle for governmental reform in the Ottoman Empire during the late Tanzimat period, which led to the First Constitutional Era in the Empire in 1876. Kemal championed notions of freedom and fatherland in his plays and poems, and his works had a significant impact on the establishment of and future reform movements in Turkey, as well as other former Ottoman territories. He is often regarded as being instrumental in redefining Western concepts like natural rights and constitutional government.

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02/12/1885

Allen Wright, Principal chief of the Choctaw Nation (1866–1870); proposed the name "Oklahoma", from Choctaw words okra and umma, meaning "Territory of the Red People". (born 1826)

Allen Wright was Principal Chief of the Choctaw Republic from late 1866 to 1870. He had been ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1852 after graduating from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He was very active in the Choctaw government, holding several elected positions. He has been credited with the name Oklahoma for the land that would become the state.

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02/12/1881

Jenny von Westphalen, German author (born 1814)

Johanna Bertha Julie Jenny Edle von Westphalen was a German theatre critic and political activist. She married the philosopher and political economist Karl Marx in 1843.

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02/12/1859

John Brown, American abolitionist (born 1800)

John Brown was an American abolitionist in the decades preceding the Civil War. First reaching national prominence in the 1850s for his radical abolitionism and fighting in Bleeding Kansas, Brown was captured, tried, and executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia for a raid and incitement of a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859.

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02/12/1849

Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (born 1792)

Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Queen of Hanover from 26 June 1830 to 20 June 1837 as the wife of King William IV. Adelaide was the daughter of George I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, and Luise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, is named after her.

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02/12/1844

Eustachy Erazm Sanguszko, Polish general and politician (born 1768)

Prince Eustachy Erazm Sanguszko (1768–1844) was a Polish nobleman, general, military commander, diplomat and politician.

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02/12/1814

Marquis de Sade, French philosopher, author, and politician (born 1740)

Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French writer, libertine, political activist, and nobleman best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy, and pornography. His works include novels, short stories, plays, dialogues, and political tracts. Some of these were published under his own name during his lifetime, but most appeared anonymously or posthumously.

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02/12/1774

Johann Friedrich Agricola, German organist and composer (born 1720)

Johann Friedrich Agricola was a German composer, organist, singer, pedagogue, and writer on music. He sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Flavio Anicio Olibrio.

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02/12/1748

Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, English politician, Lord President of the Council (born 1662)

Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, KG, PC,, known by the epithet "The Proud Duke", was an English aristocrat and courtier. He rebuilt Petworth House in Sussex, the ancient Percy seat inherited from his wife, in the palatial form which survives today. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, he was a remarkably handsome man, and inordinately fond of taking a conspicuous part in court ceremonial. His vanity, which earned him the sobriquet of "the proud duke", was a byword among his contemporaries and was the subject of numerous anecdotes; Macaulay described him as "a man in whom the pride of birth and rank amounted almost to a disease".

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02/12/1747

Vincent Bourne, English poet and scholar (born 1695)

Vincent Bourne, familiarly known as Vinny Bourne, was an English classical scholar and Neo-Latin poet.

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02/12/1726

Samuel Penhallow, English-American historian and author (born 1665)

Samuel Penhallow was a Cornish colonist, historian, and militia leader in present-day Maine during Queen Anne's War and Dummer's War. He was the commander at Fort Menaskoux and was attacked during the Northeast Coast Campaign (1724).

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02/12/1723

Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (born 1674)

Philippe, duc d'Orléans, who was known as the Regent, was a French prince, soldier, and statesman who served as Regent of the Kingdom of France from 1715 to 1723. He is referred to in French as le Régent. He was the son of Philippe I, Duke of Orleans, and Elisabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orléans. Born at his father's palace at Saint-Cloud, he was known from birth by the title of Duke of Chartres.

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02/12/1719

Pasquier Quesnel, French theologian and author (born 1634)

Pasquier Quesnel, CO was a French Jansenist theologian.

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02/12/1694

Pierre Puget, French painter, sculptor, and architect (born 1622)

Pierre Paul Puget was a French Baroque painter, sculptor, architect and engineer. His sculpture expressed emotion, pathos and drama, setting it apart from the more classical and academic sculpture of the Style Louis XIV.

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02/12/1665

Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet, French author (born 1588)

Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet, known as Madame de Rambouillet, was a society hostess and a major figure in the literary history of 17th-century France.

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02/12/1615

Louis des Balbes de Berton de Crillon, French general (born 1541)

Louis des Balbes de Berton de Crillon was a French soldier, called the Man without Fear and, by Henry IV the Brave of the Brave.

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02/12/1594

Gerardus Mercator, Flemish mathematician, cartographer, and philosopher (born 1512)

Gerardus Mercator was a Flemish geographer, cosmographer and cartographer. He is most renowned for creating the 1569 world map based on a new projection which represented sailing courses of constant bearing as straight lines—an innovation that is still employed in nautical charts.

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02/12/1547

Hernán Cortés, Spanish general and explorer (born 1485)

Hernán Cortés, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish conquistador, military commander, explorer, captain general, and writer who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish explorers and conquistadors who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

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02/12/1515

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Spanish general (born 1453)

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba was a Spanish general and statesman. He led military campaigns during the Conquest of Granada and the Italian Wars, after which he served as Viceroy of Naples. For his extensive political and military success, he was made Duke of Santángelo (1497), Terranova (1502), Andría, Montalto and Sessa (1507), and earned the nickname El Gran Capitán.

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02/12/1510

Muhammad Shaybani, Khan of Bukhara (born 1451)

Muhammad Shaybani Khan was an Uzbek leader who consolidated various Uzbek tribes and laid the foundations for their ascendance in Transoxiana and the establishment of the Khanate of Bukhara. He was a Shaybanid or descendant of Shiban. He was the son of Shah-Budag, thus a grandson of the Uzbek conqueror Abu'l-Khayr Khan.

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02/12/1469

Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, Italian banker and politician (born 1416)

Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, known as Piero the Gouty, was the de facto ruler of the Republic of Florence from 1464 to 1469, during the Italian Renaissance.

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02/12/1463

Albert VI, Archduke of Austria (born 1418)

Albert VI, a member of the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria from 1424, elevated to Archduke in 1453. As a scion of the Leopoldian line, he ruled over the Inner Austrian duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola from 1424, from 1457 also over the Archduchy of Austria until his death, rivalling with his elder brother Emperor Frederick III. According to tradition, Albert, later known as the Prodigal, was the exact opposite of Frederick: energetic and inclined to thoughtlessness.

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02/12/1455

Isabel of Coimbra, queen of Portugal (born 1432)

Infanta Isabel of Coimbra was a Portuguese infanta and Queen of Portugal as the first wife of King Afonso V of Portugal.

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02/12/1381

John of Ruusbroec, Flemish priest and mystic (born 1293)

John of Ruusbroec or Jan van Ruusbroec, sometimes modernized Ruysbroeck, was an Augustinian canon and one of the most important of the medieval mystics of the Low Countries. Some of his main literary works include The Kingdom of the Divine Lovers, The Twelve Beguines, The Spiritual Espousals, A Mirror of Eternal Blessedness, The Little Book of Enlightenment, and The Sparkling Stone. Some of his letters also survive, as well as several short sayings. He wrote in the Dutch vernacular, the language of the common people of the Low Countries, rather than in Latin, the language of the Catholic Church liturgy and official texts, in order to reach a wider audience.

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02/12/1348

Emperor Hanazono of Japan (born 1297)

Emperor Hanazono was the 95th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1308 through 1318.

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02/12/1340

Geoffrey le Scrope, Chief Justice of King Edward III of England

Sir Geoffrey le Scrope was an English lawyer, and Chief Justice of the King's Bench for four periods between 1324 and 1338.

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02/12/1255

Muhammad III of Alamut, Nizari Ismaili Imam

ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad III, more commonly known as ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, son of Jalāl al-Dīn Ḥasan III, was the 26th Nizāri Isma'ilism Imām. He ruled the Nizari Ismaili state from 1221 to 1255. By some accounts, he was considered a respected scholar and the spiritual and worldly leader of the Nisari Ismailis. The intellectual life of Persia has been described as having flourished during his 34-year reign. Allegedly, he was known for his tolerance and pluralism. His reign witnessed the beginnings of the Mongol conquests of Persia and the eastern Muslim world. He was assassinated by an unknown perpetrator on 1 December 1255, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Rukn al-Din Khurshah, in 1255.

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02/12/1022

Elvira Menéndez, queen of Alfonso V of Castile (born 996)

Elvira Menéndez was a queen consort of Leon by marriage to King Alfonso V.

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02/12/0949

Odo of Wetterau, German nobleman

Odo of Wetterau was a prominent German nobleman of the 10th century.

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02/12/0930

Ma Yin, Chinese warlord, king of Chu (Ten Kingdoms) (born 853)

Ma Yin, courtesy name Batu (霸圖), also known by his posthumous name as the King Wumu of Chu (楚武穆王), was a Chinese military general and politician who became the founding ruler of the Chinese Ma Chu dynasty during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. He was the only monarch who carried the title of "king" in his dynasty. He initially took control of the Changsha region in 896 after the death of his predecessor Liu Jianfeng, and subsequently increased his territorial hold to roughly modern Hunan and northeastern Guangxi, which became the territory of Ma Chu.

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02/12/0537

Pope Silverius

Pope Silverius was bishop of Rome from 8 June 536 to his deposition in 537, a few months before his death. His rapid rise to prominence from a deacon to the papacy coincided with the efforts of Ostrogothic king Theodahad, who intended to install a pro-Gothic candidate just before the Gothic War. Later deposed by Byzantine general Belisarius, he was tried and sent to exile on the desolated island of Palmarola, where he starved to death in 537.

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