Died on Tuesday, 23rd December – Famous Deaths

23/12/2024

Shyam Benegal, Indian director and screenwriter (born 1934)

Shyam Benegal was an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Often regarded as a pioneer of parallel cinema, he is considered as one of the greatest filmmakers post 1970s. He has received several accolades, including eighteen National Film Awards, a Filmfare Award and a Nandi Award. In 2005, he was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest award in the field of cinema. In 1976, he was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour of the country, and in 1991, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour for his contributions in the field of arts. He died on 23 December 2024, aged 90, at Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai, where he was receiving treatment for chronic kidney disease.

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Dési Bouterse, Surinamese general and politician, 9th President of Suriname (born 1945)

Desiré Delano Bouterse was a Surinamese military officer, politician, and convicted drug trafficker who served as the eighth president of Suriname from 2010 to 2020, having previously led the country twice as a military dictator from 1980 to 1987 and again from 1990 to 1991. He was the founding president of the National Democratic Party (NDP) from 1987 to 2024.

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Sophie Hediger, Swiss snowboarder (born 1998)

Sophie Anna Hediger was a Swiss snowboarder. She competed in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, in women's snowboard cross, and in the mixed team snowboard cross.

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23/12/2023

William Pope.L, American performance artist (born 1955)

William Pope.L, also known as Pope.L, was an accomplished American visual artist recognized for his contributions to performance art and interventionist public art. He also created pieces in painting, photography, and theater. He was featured in the 2002 Whitney Biennial and was the recipient of the Creative Capital Visual Arts Award, as well as a Guggenheim Fellow. Notably, Pope.L was also highlighted in the 2017 Whitney Biennial for his work.

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23/12/2022

Brandon Montrell, American TikTok personality and stand-up comedian (born 1979)

Brandon Montrell, known professionally as Boogie B, was a comedian from New Orleans, Louisiana.

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23/12/2021

Joan Didion, American writer (born 1934)

Joan Didion was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe.

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23/12/2020

Leslie West, American singer and guitarist (born 1945)

Leslie Abel West was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was the co-founder, guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Mountain. West was named the 245th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2023.

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23/12/2017

Maurice Hayes, Irish educator and politician (born 1927)

Maurice Hayes was an Irish public servant and, late in life, an independent member of both the 21st and 22nd Seanad. Hayes was nominated by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, in 1997 and re-nominated in 2002. He also served, at the Taoiseach's request, as Chairman of the National Forum on Europe in the Republic of Ireland.

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23/12/2015

Alfred G. Gilman, American pharmacologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1941)

Alfred Goodman Gilman was an American pharmacologist and biochemist. He and Martin Rodbell shared the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction in cells."

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Don Howe, English footballer and manager (born 1935)

Donald Howe was an English football player, coach, manager and pundit. As a right back Howe featured for clubs West Bromwich Albion and Arsenal together with the England national football team in his playing career. He also went on to manage sides West Brom, Arsenal, Galatasaray, Queens Park Rangers and Coventry City. Howe was also a successful coach and has been described as one of the most influential figures of the English footballing game.

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Jean-Marie Pelt, French biologist, pharmacist, and academic (born 1933)

Jean-Marie Pelt was a French biologist, botanist and pharmacist with degrees in both biology and pharmacy.

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Bülent Ulusu, Turkish admiral and politician, 18th Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1923)

Saim Bülend Ulusu was a Turkish admiral who was Prime Minister of Turkey from the time of the 1980 military coup to the time that elections were allowed in 1983.

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23/12/2014

Edward Greenspan, Canadian lawyer and author (born 1944)

Edward Leonard Greenspan, was one of Canada's most famous defence lawyers, and a prolific author of legal volumes. His fame was owed to numerous high-profile clients and to his national exposure on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio series Scales of Justice (1982–94).

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Robert V. Hogg, American statistician and academic (born 1924)

Robert Vincent Hogg was an American statistician and professor of statistics of the University of Iowa. Hogg is known for his widely used textbooks on statistics and on mathematical statistics. Hogg has received recognition for his research on robust and adaptive nonparametric statistics and for his scholarship on total quality management and statistics education.

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23/12/2013

Chryssa, Greek-American sculptor (born 1933)

Chryssa Vardea-Mavromichali was a Greek American artist who worked in a wide variety of media. An American art pioneer in light art and luminist sculpture, known for her neon, steel, aluminum and acrylic glass installations, she always used the mononym Chryssa professionally. She worked from the mid-1950s in New York City studios and worked since 1992 in the studio she established in Neos Kosmos, Athens, Greece.

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Mikhail Kalashnikov, Russian general and weapons designer, designed the AK-47 rifle (born 1919)

Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov was a Soviet and Russian lieutenant general, inventor, military engineer, writer, and small arms designer. He is most famous for developing the AK-47 assault rifle and its improvements, the AKM and AK-74, as well as the RPK light machine gun and PK machine gun.

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Yusef Lateef, American saxophonist, composer, and educator (born 1920)

Yusef Abdul Lateef was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and prominent figure among the Ahmadiyya Community in the United States.

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Ricky Lawson, American drummer and composer (born 1954)

William Riser III, better known as Ricky Lawson or Ricky Remo, was an American drummer and composer. A native of Detroit, Michigan, he worked extensively as a session musician, collaborating with Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, Steely Dan, Earl Klugh, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and other artists. He co-founded the jazz-fusion band Yellowjackets and won the 1987 Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance for "And You Know That" from their album Shades.

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G. S. Shivarudrappa, Indian poet and educator (born 1926)

Guggari Shanthaveerappa Shivarudrappa, or colloquially GSS, was an Indian Kannada poet, writer, and researcher who was awarded the title of Rashtrakavi by the Government of Karnataka in 2006.

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Robert W. Wilson, American philanthropist and art collector (born 1928)

Robert Warne Wilson was an American hedge fund manager, philanthropist, and art collector.

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23/12/2012

Jean Harris, American educator and murderer (born 1923)

Jean Struven Harris was the headmistress of The Madeira School for girls in McLean, Virginia, who made US news in the early 1980s when she was tried and convicted of the murder of her ex-lover, Herman Tarnower, a well-known cardiologist and author of the best-selling book The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet.

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Eduardo Maiorino, Brazilian mixed martial artist and kick-boxer (born 1979)

Eduardo "Morpheus" Maiorino was a Brazilian professional kickboxer and mixed martial artist. He was a three time Brazilian Heavyweight Muay Thai Champion, the K-1 Brazil 2004 Tournament finalist and champion, and a World Muay Thai Association (WMA) Super Heavyweight World Champion.

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23/12/2011

Aydın Menderes, Turkish economist and politician (born 1946)

Aydın Menderes was a Turkish politician. He was a deputy, who represented various parties from 1977 to 2002. He was the youngest son of former Prime Minister Adnan Menderes.

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23/12/2010

Fred Hargesheimer, American soldier and pilot (born 1916)

Major Fred Hargesheimer was a former pilot of the United States Army Air Forces who was shot down during World War II over Papua New Guinea in June 1943. He later became a philanthropist who helped out the village that had hidden him from the Japanese.

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K. Karunakaran, Indian lawyer and politician, 7th Chief Minister of Kerala (born 1918)

Kannoth Karunakaran was an Indian politician, political strategist, decision maker and statesman who served as the chief minister of Kerala in 1977, from 1981 to March 1982, from May 1982 to 1987 and from 1991 to 1995. He is the founder of the Indian National Congress (INC)-led United Democratic Front (UDF) coalition, which governed the state in the periods of 1982-87, 1991–96, 2001–06 and 2011–16; and currently is the main opposition in Kerala since 2016. He has also served as the Union Minister for Industry from 1995 to 1996 and served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Legislative Assembly for four terms- 1967 to 1969, 1978 to 1979, 1980 to 1981 and 1987 to 1991. He also has the distinction of being one of the longest serving Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Leaders in the country, holding that post from 1967 to 1995.

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23/12/2009

Robert L. Howard, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1939)

Robert Lewis Howard was a United States Army Special Forces officer and recipient of the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Vietnam War. He was wounded 14 times over 54 months of combat, was awarded the Medal of Honor, eight Purple Hearts, a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star, and four Bronze Stars.

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Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, Tibetan general and politician (born 1910)

Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme was a Tibetan senior official who assumed various military and political responsibilities both before and after 1951 in Tibet. He is often known simply as Ngapoi in English sources.

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Edward Schillebeeckx, Belgian theologian and academic (born 1914)

Edward Cornelis Florentius Alfonsus Schillebeeckx was a Belgian Catholic theologian born in Antwerp. He taught at the Catholic University of Nijmegen. He was a member of the Dominican Order. His books on theology have been translated into many languages, and his contributions to the Second Vatican Council made him known throughout the world.

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23/12/2007

William Francis Ganong, Jr., American physiologist and academic (born 1924)

William Francis Ganong Jr. was an American physiologist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and was one of the first scientists to trace how the brain controls important internal functions of the body.

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Michael Kidd, American dancer and choreographer (born 1915)

Michael Kidd was an American film and stage choreographer, dancer and actor, whose career spanned five decades, and who staged some of the leading Broadway and film musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Kidd, strongly influenced by Charlie Chaplin and Léonide Massine, was an innovator in what came to be known as the "integrated musical", in which dance movements are integral to the plot.

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Oscar Peterson, Canadian pianist and composer (born 1925)

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. As a virtuoso who is considered to be one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, and received numerous other awards and honours. He played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, simply "O.P." by his friends, and was informally known in the jazz community as "the King of inside swing".

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23/12/2006

Charlie Drake, English actor (born 1925)

Charles Edward Springall, known professionally as Charlie Drake, was an English comedian, actor, writer and singer.

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Timothy J. Tobias, American pianist and composer (born 1952)

Timothy John Tobias was an American composer and musician. He died aged 54 of lymphoma.

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Johnny Vincent, English footballer (born 1947)

John Victor Vincent was an English professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or inside forward. He made nearly 300 appearances and scored 59 goals in the Football League. After a spell in non-League football he finished his playing career in the United States.

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23/12/2005

Lajos Baróti, Hungarian footballer and manager (born 1914)

Lajos Baróti was a Hungarian football player and manager. With eleven major titles he is one of the most outstanding coaches of his time.

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Yao Wenyuan, Chinese writer and politician, member of the Gang of Four (born 1931)

Yao Wenyuan was a Chinese literary critic, politician, and member of the Gang of Four during China's Cultural Revolution.

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23/12/2004

P. V. Narasimha Rao, Indian lawyer and politician, 9th Prime Minister of India (born 1921)

Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao was an Indian independence activist, lawyer, and statesman from the Indian National Congress who served as the prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996. He was the first person from South India and the second person from a non-Hindi speaking background to be prime minister. He is known for his role in initiating India's economic liberalisation following an economic crisis in 1991, a process that has been sustained and expanded by every successive prime minister of the country.

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23/12/2001

Bola Ige, Nigerian lawyer and politician, 3rd Governor of Oyo State (born 1930)

Chief James Ajibola Idowu Ige SAN ; 13 September 1930 – 23 December 2001), popularly known as Bola Ige, was a Nigerian lawyer and politician. He served as Federal Minister of Justice of Nigeria from January 2000 until his assassination in December 2001. He had previously served as governor of Oyo State from 1979 to 1983 during the Nigerian Second Republic.

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23/12/2000

Billy Barty, American actor (born 1924)

Billy Barty was an American actor and activist. In adult life, he stood 3 ft 9 in (1.14 m) tall because of cartilage–hair hypoplasia dwarfism and so was often cast in films opposite taller performers for comic effect. He specialized in outspoken or wisecracking characters. During the 1950s, he became a television actor, appearing regularly in the Spike Jones ensemble. In the early 1970s, he appeared often in a variety of roles in children's TV programs produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. As an activist for people with dwarfism, he founded the Little People of America organization in 1957.

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Victor Borge, Danish-American comedian, pianist, and conductor (born 1909)

Børge Rosenbaum, known professionally as Victor Borge, was a Danish-American actor, comedian, and pianist who achieved great popularity in radio and television in both North America and Europe. His blend of music and comedy earned him the nicknames "The Clown Prince of Denmark," "The Unmelancholy Dane," and "The Great Dane."

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23/12/1998

Joe Orlando, Italian-American author and illustrator (born 1927)

Joseph Orlando was an Italian-American illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist during a lengthy career spanning six decades. He was the associate publisher of Mad and the vice president of DC Comics, where he edited numerous titles and ran DC's Special Projects department.

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23/12/1995

Patric Knowles, English actor (born 1911)

Patric Knowles was an English film actor. Born in Horsforth, West Riding of Yorkshire, he later changed his name to reflect his Irish heritage. He made his film debut in 1932, and played either first or second film leads throughout his career. He appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1970s.

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23/12/1994

Sebastian Shaw, English actor, director, and playwright (born 1905)

Sebastian Lewis Shaw was an English actor, theatre director, novelist, playwright and poet. During his seven-decade career, he appeared in dozens of stage performances and more than 40 film and television productions.

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23/12/1992

Vincent Fourcade, French interior designer (born 1934)

Vincent Gabriel Fourcade was a French interior designer and the business and life partner of Robert Denning. "Outrageous luxury is what our clients want," he once said.

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23/12/1984

Joan Lindsay, Australian author and playwright (born 1896)

Joan à Beckett Weigall, Lady Lindsay was an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and visual artist. Trained in her youth as a painter, she published her first literary work in 1936 at age forty under a pseudonym, a satirical novel titled Through Darkest Pondelayo. Her second novel, Time Without Clocks, was published nearly thirty years later, and was a semi-autobiographical account of the early years of her marriage to artist Sir Daryl Lindsay.

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23/12/1983

Colin Middleton, Irish painter and illustrator (born 1910)

Colin Middleton was a Northern Irish landscape artist, figure painter, and surrealist. Middleton's prolific output in an eclectic variety of modernist styles is characterised by an intense inner vision, augmented by his lifelong interest in documenting the lives of ordinary people. He has been described as 'Ireland's greatest surrealist.'

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23/12/1982

Jack Webb, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1920)

John Randolph Webb was an American actor, television producer, director, and screenwriter, most famous for his role as Joe Friday in the Dragnet franchise, which he created. He was also the founder of his own production company, Mark VII Limited.

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23/12/1979

Peggy Guggenheim, American-Italian art collector (born 1898)

Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim was an American art collector, bohemian, and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with the Titanic in 1912, and the niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim, who established the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Guggenheim collected art in Europe and America between 1938 and 1946. She exhibited this collection as she built it. In 1949, she settled in Venice, where she lived and exhibited her collection for the rest of her life. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is a modern art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, and is one of the most visited attractions in the city.

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23/12/1973

Irna Phillips, American screenwriter, created Guiding Light and As the World Turns (born 1901)

Irna Phillips was an American scriptwriter, screenwriter, casting agent, and actress who pioneered a style of daytime soap opera in the United States geared specifically toward women. Phillips created, produced, and wrote several radio and television daytime serials throughout her career, including Guiding Light, As the World Turns, and Another World. She was also a mentor to several other pioneers of the American daytime soap opera, including Agnes Nixon, William J. Bell and Ted Corday.

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23/12/1972

Andrei Tupolev, Russian engineer, designed the Tupolev Tu-95 and Tupolev Tu-104 (born 1888)

Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev was a Russian and later Soviet aeronautical engineer known for his pioneering aircraft designs as the director of the Tupolev Design Bureau.

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23/12/1970

Charles Ruggles, American actor (born 1886)

Charles Sherman Ruggles was an American comic character actor. In a career spanning six decades, Ruggles appeared in close to 100 feature films, often in mild-mannered and comic roles. He was also the elder brother of director, producer, and silent film actor Wesley Ruggles (1889–1972).

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Aleksander Warma, Estonian lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of Estonia in exile (born 1890)

Aleksander Warma VR I/3 was an Estonian navy officer, diplomat, and painter.

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23/12/1961

Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, American author (born 1875)

Carolyn Sherwin Bailey was an American children's author.

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Kurt Meyer, German SS general and convicted war criminal (born 1910)

Kurt Meyer was an SS commander and convicted war criminal of Nazi Germany. He served in the Waffen-SS and participated in the Battle of France, Operation Barbarossa, and other engagements during World War II. Meyer commanded the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend during the Allied invasion of Normandy, and was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords.

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23/12/1954

René Iché, French soldier and sculptor (born 1897)

René Iché was a 20th-century French sculptor.

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23/12/1953

Lavrentiy Beria, Soviet general and politician, head of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (born 1899)

Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph Stalin's secret police chiefs, serving as head of the NKVD from 1938 to 1945 during the country's involvement in the Second World War. He was also a serial rapist and had killed some of his victims. His victims were primarily young women and girls.

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23/12/1950

Vincenzo Tommasini, Italian composer (born 1878)

Vincenzo Tommasini was an Italian composer.

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23/12/1948

Executions resulting from convictions at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

Kenji Doihara was a Japanese general and intelligence officer. He was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the establishment of Manchukuo.

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Executions resulting from convictions at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

Kōki Hirota was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1936 to 1937. He was executed for war crimes committed during the Second Sino-Japanese War at the Tokyo Trials.

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Executions resulting from convictions at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

General Seishirō Itagaki was a Japanese military officer and politician who served as a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II and War Minister from 1938 to 1939.

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Executions resulting from convictions at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

Heitarō Kimura was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging.

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Executions resulting from convictions at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

Iwane Matsui was a Japanese general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the commander of the expeditionary force sent to China in 1937. He was convicted of war crimes and executed by the Allies for his involvement in the Nanjing Massacre.

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Executions resulting from convictions at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

Akira Mutō was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He was convicted of war crimes and was executed by hanging. Mutō was implicated in both the Nanjing Massacre and the Manila massacre.

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Executions resulting from convictions at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

Hideki Tojo was a Japanese military officer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1941 to 1944 during World War II. His leadership was marked by widespread state violence and mass killings perpetrated in the name of Japanese nationalism.

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23/12/1946

John A. Sampson, American gynecologist and academic (born 1873)

John Albertson Sampson was a gynecologist who studied endometriosis.

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23/12/1939

Anthony Fokker, Indonesia-born Dutch pilot and engineer, designed the Fokker Dr.I and Fokker D.VII (born 1890)

Anton Herman Gerard "Anthony" Fokker was a Dutch aviation pioneer, aviation entrepreneur, aircraft designer, and aircraft manufacturer. He produced fighter aircraft in Germany during the First World War such as the Eindecker monoplanes, the Dr.1 triplane and the D.VII biplane.

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23/12/1931

Wilson Bentley, American meteorologist and photographer (born 1865)

Wilson Alwyn Bentley, also known as Snowflake Bentley, was an American meteorologist and photographer, who was the first known person to take detailed photographs of snowflakes and record their features. He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet such that their images could be captured before they either melted or sublimated, and elaborated the theory that no two snowflakes are identical.

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23/12/1930

Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay, Turkish lieutenant and educator (born 1906)

Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay was a Turkish military officer and teacher. He is a symbolic figure of the series of events known as the Kubilay Incident, which began with the killing of lieutenant Kubilay, guard Hasan, and guard Şevki by an anti-republican group in Menemen on December 23, 1930. The events continued with the trial of the perpetrators and spanned the months of January and February 1931.

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23/12/1926

Swami Shraddhanand, Indian monk, missionary, and educator (born 1856)

Shraddhanand, born Munshi Ram, was an Indian independence activist and Arya Samaj sannyasi who propagated the teachings of Dayananda Saraswati. This included the establishment of educational institutions, like the Gurukul Kangri University, and played a key role on the Sangathan and the Shuddhi (purification), a Hindu reform movement in the 1920s.

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23/12/1912

Otto Schoetensack, German anthropologist and academic (born 1850)

Otto Karl Friedrich Schoetensack was a German industrialist and later professor of anthropology, having retired from the chemical firm which he had founded. During a 1908 archeological dig, he oversaw the worker Daniel Hartmann who found the lower jaw of a hominid, the oldest human fossil then known, which Schoetensack later described formally as Homo heidelbergensis.

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23/12/1906

Mdungazwe Ngungunyane Nxumalo, last emperor of the Gaza Empire (born c.1850)

Ngungunyane, also known as Mdungazwe Ngungunyane Nxumalo, N'gungunhana, or Gungunhana Reinaldo Frederico Gungunhana, was a king of the Gaza Empire and vassal of the Portuguese Empire, who rebelled, was defeated by General Joaquim Mouzinho de Albuquerque and lived out the rest of his life in exile, first in Lisbon, but later on the island of Terceira, in the Azores.

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23/12/1902

Frederick Temple, English archbishop and academic (born 1821)

Frederick Temple was an English academic, teacher and churchman, who served as Bishop of Exeter (1869–1885), Bishop of London (1885–1896) and Archbishop of Canterbury (1896–1902).

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23/12/1892

Frederick Tracy Dent, Brigadier General in the Regular United States Army, brother in law to President Ulysses S. Grant.

Frederick Tracy Dent was an American general.

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23/12/1889

Constance Naden, English poet and philosopher (born 1858)

Constance Caroline Woodhill Naden was an English writer, poet and philosopher. She studied, wrote and lectured on philosophy and science, alongside publishing two volumes of poetry. Several collected works were published following her death at the young age of 31. In her honour, Robert Lewins established the Constance Naden Medal and had a bust of her installed at Mason Science College. William Ewart Gladstone considered her one of the nineteenth century's foremost female poets.

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23/12/1884

John Chisum, American businessman and poker player (born 1824)

John Simpson Chisum was a wealthy cattle baron on the frontier in the American West in the mid-to-late 19th century. He was born in Hardeman County, Tennessee, and moved with his family southwest across the Mississippi River to the newly independent Republic of Texas the year after the Texas Revolution in 1837, later finding work as a building contractor. He also served as a county clerk in Lamar County, Texas. He was of Scottish, English, and Welsh descent.

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23/12/1834

Thomas Robert Malthus, English economist and demographer (born 1766)

Thomas Robert Malthus was an English economist, cleric, and scholar influential in the fields of political economy and demography.

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23/12/1805

Pehr Osbeck, Swedish explorer and author (born 1723)

Pehr Osbeck was a Swedish explorer, naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. He was born in the parish of Hålanda on Västergötland and studied at Uppsala with Carolus Linnaeus.

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23/12/1795

Henry Clinton, English general and politician (born 1730)

General Sir Henry Clinton, KB was a British Army officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons of Great Britain between 1772 and 1795. He is best known for his service as a general during the American War of Independence. He arrived in Boston in May 1775 and was the British Commander-in-Chief in America from 1778 to 1782. He was a Member of Parliament for many years due to the influence of his cousin Henry Pelham-Clinton, 2nd Duke of Newcastle. Late in life, he was named Governor of Gibraltar, but he died before assuming the post.

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23/12/1789

Charles-Michel de l'Épée, French priest and educator (born 1712)

Charles-Michel de l'Épée was an 18th-century French Catholic priest and philanthropic educator who advocated for sign language as the preferred method of teaching deaf people, and has become known as the "Father of the Deaf". He founded the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris, the first public school for the deaf, in 1760.

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23/12/1779

Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, English admiral and politician, Chief Secretary for Ireland (born 1724)

Vice-Admiral Augustus John Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, PC was a Royal Navy officer and politician. He commanded the sixth-rate HMS Phoenix at the Battle of Minorca in May 1756 as well as the third-rate HMS Dragon at the Capture of Belle Île in June 1761, the Invasion of Martinique in January 1762 and the Battle of Havana in June 1762 during the Seven Years' War. He went on to be Chief Secretary for Ireland and then First Naval Lord.

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23/12/1771

Marie-Marguerite d'Youville, Canadian nun and saint, founded Grey Nuns (born 1701)

Marguerite d'Youville, SGM was a French Canadian widow who founded the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, commonly known as the "Grey Nuns". She was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1990, becoming the first native-born Canadian to be declared a saint.

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23/12/1761

Alastair Ruadh MacDonnell, Scottish spy (born 1725)

Alastair Roy MacDonell of Glengarry (ca 1725–1761; Scottish Gaelic: Alasdair Ruadh MacDomhnaill, was the 13th chief of Clan MacDonell of Glengarry. Brought up as a Catholic and largely educated in France, he was arrested in November 1745 on his way to join the 1745 Jacobite Rising.

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23/12/1722

Pierre Varignon, French mathematician and academic (born 1654)

Pierre Varignon was a French mathematician. He was educated at the Jesuit College and the University of Caen, where he received his M.A. in 1682. He took Holy Orders the following year.

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23/12/1675

Caesar, duc de Choiseul, French general and diplomat (born 1602)

César de Choiseul, 1st Duke of Choiseul, comte du Plessis-Praslin was a Marshal of France and French diplomat, generally known for the best part of his life as the Maréchal (Marshal) du Plessis-Praslin.

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23/12/1652

John Cotton, English minister and theologian (born 1585)

John Cotton was a clergyman in England and the American colonies, and was considered the preeminent minister and theologian of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He studied for five years at Trinity College, Cambridge, and nine years at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He had already built a reputation as a scholar and outstanding preacher when he accepted the position of minister at St. Botolph's Church, Boston, in Lincolnshire, in 1612.

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23/12/1646

François Maynard, French poet and academic (born 1582)

François Maynard, sometimes seen as "de Maynard" was a French poet who spent much of his life in Toulouse.

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23/12/1638

Barbara Longhi, Italian painter (born 1552)

Barbara Longhi was an Italian painter. She was much admired in her lifetime as a portraitist, although most of her portraits are now lost or unattributed. Her work, such as her many Madonna and Child paintings, earned her a fine reputation as an artist.

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23/12/1631

Michael Drayton, English poet and playwright (born 1563)

Michael Drayton was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era, continuing to write through the reign of James I and into the reign of Charles I. Many of his works consisted of historical poetry. He was also the first English-language author to write odes in the style of Horace. He died in 1631 in London.

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23/12/1588

Henry I, duke of Guise (born 1550)

Henri I de Lorraine, Duke of Guise, Prince of Joinville, Count of Eu, sometimes called Le Balafré ('Scarface'), was the eldest son of François, Duke of Guise, and Anna d'Este. His maternal grandparents were Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and Renée of France. Through his maternal grandfather, he was a descendant of Lucrezia Borgia and Pope Alexander VI.

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23/12/1575

Akiyama Nobutomo, Japanese samurai (born 1531)

Akiyama Nobutomo was a samurai during the Sengoku period in Japan. He is known as one of the "Twenty-Four Generals of Takeda Shingen". Nobutomo also served under Shingen's son, Takeda Katsuyori.

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23/12/1572

Johann Sylvan, German theologian (executed; date of birth unknown)

Johann Sylvan was a Reformed German theologian who was executed for his heretical Antitrinitarian beliefs.

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23/12/1556

Nicholas Udall, English cleric, playwright, and educator (born 1504)

Nicholas Udall was an English playwright, cleric, schoolmaster, the author of Ralph Roister Doister, generally regarded as the first comedy written in the English language.

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23/12/1392

Isabella of Castile, duchess of York (born 1355)

Isabella of Castile, Duchess of York was the daughter of King Peter and his mistress María de Padilla. She accompanied her elder sister, Constance, to England after Constance's marriage to John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and married Gaunt's younger brother, Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York.

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23/12/1384

Thomas Preljubović, ruler of Epirus

Thomas Preljubović was ruler of the Despotate of Epirus in Ioannina from 1367 to his death in 1384. Thomas was an unpopular ruler and is appraised very negatively by his contemporaries. On December 23, 1384 he was stabbed to death by his guards at dawn. The conspiracy of the faction which overthrew him involved his wife Maria Angelina who succeeded him.

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23/12/1383

Beatrice of Bourbon, Queen of Bohemia (born 1320)

Beatrice of Bourbon was by marriage Queen of Bohemia and Countess of Luxembourg. Initially betrothed to Philip, Despot of Romania, she later married King John of Bohemia. By 1337 she had given birth to a son, Wenceslaus, and then promptly left Prague, residing in Luxembourg. After being widowed in 1346, Beatrice married Eudes II, Lord of Grancey in 1347. She died 27 December 1383 and was buried at the Couvent des Jacobins.

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23/12/1304

Matilda of Habsburg, duchess regent of Bavaria (born 1253)

Matilda of Habsburg or Melchilde was a duchess consort of Bavaria. She was regent of Upper Bavaria during the minority of her younger son, Louis IV in 1294–1301.

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23/12/1230

Berengaria of Navarre, queen of England (born 1165)

Berengaria of Navarre was Queen of England as the wife of Richard I of England. She was the eldest daughter of Sancho VI of Navarre and Sancha of Castile. As is the case with many of the medieval English queens, little is known of her life.

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23/12/1193

Thorlak, patron saint of Iceland (born 1133)

Thorlak Thorhallsson is the patron saint of Iceland. He was Bishop of Skálholt from 1178 until his death. Thorlak's relics were translated to the Cathedral of Skalholt in 1198, not long after his successor, Páll Jónsson, announced at the Althing that vows could be made to Thorlak.

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23/12/1172

Ugo Ventimiglia, Italian cardinal

Ugo Ventimiglia was an Italian cardinal. His name is listed also as Ottone. He was born in Ventimiglia. He was ordained Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina by Pope Alexander III in the consistory celebrated in Sens in 1164. Several catalogs of the bishops of Palestrina do not mention him because he does not appear among signatories of any papal bulls issued during his cardinalate.

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23/12/0940

Ar-Radi, Abbasid caliph (born 909)

Abu'l-Abbas Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Muqtadir, usually simply known by his regnal name al-Radi bi'llah, was the twentieth Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate, reigning from 934 to his death. He died on 23 December 940 at the age of 31. His reign marked the end of the caliph's political power and the rise of military strongmen, who competed for the title of amir al-umara.

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23/12/0918

Conrad I, king of East Francia (born 890)

Conrad I, called the Younger, was the king of East Francia from 911 to 918. He was the first king not of the Carolingian dynasty, the first to be elected by the nobility and the first to be anointed. He was chosen as the king by the rulers of the East Frankish stem duchies after the death of young King Louis the Child. Ethnically Frankish, prior to this election he had ruled the Duchy of Franconia from 906.

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23/12/0910

Naum of Preslav, Bulgarian missionary and scholar

Naum, also known as Naum of Ohrid or Naum of Preslav, was a medieval Bulgarian writer and missionary among the Slavs, considered one of the Seven Apostles of the First Bulgarian Empire. He was among the disciples of Cyril and Methodius and is associated with the creation of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic script. Naum was among the founders of the Pliska Literary School. Afterwards Naum worked at the Ohrid Literary School. He was among the first saints declared by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church after its foundation in the 9th century. The mission of Naum played significant role by transformation of the local Early Slavs into Bulgarians.

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23/12/0889

Solomon II, bishop of Constance

Solomon II was the Bishop of Constance from 875 until his death. He was a relative of his predecessor and namesake Solomon I and stood in the middle of an "episcopal dynasty." He was commended for his life when the Annales Fuldenses record his death. He was succeeded by his own namesake and another relative, Solomon III.

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23/12/0761

Gaubald, Frankish bishop (born 700)

Gaubald was the first bishop of Regensburg after the foundation of the diocese of Regensburg. He has been beatified. His name is also spelled Gawibald, Geupald, or Gaibald.

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23/12/0679

Dagobert II, Frankish king (probable; b. 650)

Year 679 (DCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 679 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

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23/12/0668

Gabriel of Beth Qustan, bishop and saint (born 594)

Saint Gabriel of Beth Qustan, also known as Saint Gabriel of Qartmin, was the Bishop of Tur Abdin until his death in 648. He is venerated as a saint in the Oriental Orthodox Church and his feast day is 23 December.

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23/12/0484

Huneric, Vandal king

Huneric, Hunneric or Honeric was King of the North African Vandal Kingdom and the oldest son of Gaiseric. He abandoned the imperial politics of his father and concentrated mainly on internal affairs. He was married to Eudocia, daughter of western Roman Emperor Valentinian III and Licinia Eudoxia. The couple had one child, a son named Hilderic.

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23/12/0423

Ming Yuan Di, ruler of Northern Wei (born 392)

Emperor Mingyuan of Northern Wei ( 魏明元帝), Chinese name Tuoba Si (拓跋嗣), Xianbei name Mumo (木末), was an emperor of the Xianbei-led Northern Wei dynasty of China. He was the oldest son of the founding emperor Emperor Daowu. During his reign, Northern Wei's territory did not expand as much as it did under either his father's reign or the reign of his son Emperor Taiwu, but he helped the state stabilize over northern China, and started the tradition of meeting with important imperial officials to listen to their advice and make final decisions. He is generally regarded by historians to be an intelligent and rational ruler.

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