Died on Friday, 26th December – Famous Deaths

26/12/2025

Pate Mustajärvi, Finnish rock singer (born 1956)

Pauli Antero "Pate" Mustajärvi was a Finnish rock singer. He was known as the vocalist, frontman and until his death in late 2025 the only original member of Popeda as well as a solo artist. In his birthplace of Tampere he was known as "Ikurin turbiini".

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26/12/2024

Richard Parsons, American business executive (born 1948)

Richard Dean Parsons was an American business executive, notably the chairman of Citigroup and the chairman and CEO of Time Warner. He had also been the interim CEO of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the interim chairman of the board for CBS.

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Manmohan Singh, Indian economist and politician, 13th Prime Minister of India (born 1932)

Manmohan Singh was an Indian economist, bureaucrat, academician and statesman who served as the prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He was the fourth longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Narendra Modi. A member of the Indian National Congress, Singh was the first and remains the only Sikh prime minister of India. He was also the first prime minister since Nehru to be re-appointed after completing a full five-year term.

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26/12/2023

Lukas Enembe, Indonesian politician, Governor of Papua from 2013 to 2023 (born1967)

Lukas Enembe was an Indonesian politician from West Papua, who served as the 13th Governor of Papua Province from April 2013 to January 2023. He had previously served as Regent of Puncak Jaya Regency between 2007 and 2012, and Vice Regent of the same regency from 2001 until 2006.

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Tom Smothers, American comedian, actor, and activist (born 1937)

Thomas Bolyn Smothers III was an American comedian, actor, composer, and musician, widely known as half of the musical comedy duo the Smothers Brothers, alongside his younger brother Dick. In the 1960s they were known for their network comedy and variety shows, The Smothers Brothers Show and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

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26/12/2021

Giacomo Capuzzi, Italian Roman Catholic prelate, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lodi (born 1929)

Giacomo Capuzzi was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate, who served as a bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lodi.

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Paul B. Kidd, Australian author, journalist, and radio show host (born 1945)

Paul Benjamin Kidd was an Australian author, journalist, and radio show host. From 2001 until 2020, Kidd was the co-host of the 2UE George and Paul weekend show with George Moore; from 2020 until his death, he co-hosted Weekends with John and Paul with John Stanley on 2GB. Kidd was also a prolific true crime writer, having published a large number of books about high-profile murder cases across Australia and the world.

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Karolos Papoulias, Greek politician, President of Greece from 2005 to 2015 (born 1929)

Karolos Papoulias was a Greek politician who served as the president of Greece from 2005 to 2015.

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Desmond Tutu, South African Anglican bishop, theologian and anti-apartheid and human rights activist (born 1931)

Desmond Mpilo Tutu was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first Black African to hold the position. Theologically, he sought to fuse ideas from Black theology with African theology.

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Nell Hall Williams, American quilter (born 1933)

Nell Hall Williams was an American artist associated with the Gee's Bend group of quilters. Her work is included in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

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Edward O. Wilson, American biologist (born 1929)

Edward Osborne Wilson was an American biologist, naturalist, ecologist, and entomologist who developed the field of sociobiology.

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26/12/2020

Brodie Lee, American Professional Wrestler (born 1979)

Jonathan Huber, known professionally as Brodie Lee, was an American professional wrestler. Huber performed in WWE from 2012 to 2019 under the ring name Luke Harper and performed in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in 2020 under the name Mr. Brodie Lee.

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26/12/2017

Irv Weinstein, American broadcaster and television news anchor (born 1930)

Irwin B. "Irv" Weinstein was an American local television news anchor and occasional radio actor. He hosted WKBW-TV's Eyewitness News in Buffalo, New York, for 34 years, from 1964 to 1998, becoming an iconic broadcaster well known in both the Buffalo area and in Southern Ontario, which was within WKBW's broadcast area. Weinstein was known for his powerful delivery and sense of humor. Weinstein, weatherman Tom Jolls and sports anchor Rick Azar fronted the broadcast from 1965 until Azar's retirement in 1989. Weinstein was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1998 and the N.Y. State Broadcasters Association in 2006.

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26/12/2016

Ricky Harris, American comedian, actor (born 1962)

Richard George Harris II, known professionally as Ricky Harris, was an American producer, actor, and comedian. He was best known for his role as Malvo in the UPN/The CW sitcom Everybody Hates Chris.

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George S. Irving, American actor, singer and dancer (born 1922)

George S. Irving was an American actor known primarily for his character roles on Broadway and as the voice of Heat Miser in the American Christmas television specials The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974) and A Miser Brothers' Christmas (2008).

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26/12/2015

Sidney Mintz, American anthropologist and academic (born 1922)

Sidney Wilfred Mintz was an American anthropologist best known for his studies of the Caribbean, creolization, and the anthropology of food. Mintz received his PhD at Columbia University in 1951 and conducted his primary fieldwork among sugar-cane workers in Puerto Rico. Later expanding his ethnographic research to Haiti and Jamaica, he produced historical and ethnographic studies of slavery and global capitalism, cultural hybridity, Caribbean peasants, and the political economy of food commodities. He taught for two decades at Yale University before helping to found the Anthropology Department at Johns Hopkins University, where he remained for the duration of his career. Mintz's history of sugar, Sweetness and Power, is considered one of the most influential publications in cultural anthropology and food studies.

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Jim O'Toole, American baseball player (born 1937)

James Jerome O'Toole was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox during his 10-year career.

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26/12/2014

Stanisław Barańczak, Polish-American poet, critic, and scholar (born 1946)

Stanisław Barańczak was a Polish poet, literary critic, scholar, editor, translator and lecturer. He is perhaps most well known for his English-to-Polish translations of the dramas of William Shakespeare and of the poetry of E.E. Cummings, Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, Wystan Hugh Auden, Seamus Heaney, Thomas Hardy, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Thomas Stearns Eliot, John Keats, Robert Frost, Edward Lear and others.

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James B. Edwards, American dentist, soldier, and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Energy (born 1927)

James Burrows Edwards was an American politician and administrator from South Carolina. He was the first Republican to be elected governor of South Carolina since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era in the 1870s. He later served as the U.S. secretary of energy under Ronald Reagan.

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Leo Tindemans, Belgian politician, 43rd Prime Minister of Belgium (born 1922)

Leonard Clemence "Leo" Tindemans was a Belgian politician. He served as the prime minister of Belgium from 25 April 1974 until he resigned as minister on 20 October 1978. He was a member of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party.

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26/12/2013

Paul Blair, American baseball player and coach (born 1944)

Paul L. D. Blair was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from 1964 through 1980, most notably as the center fielder for the Baltimore Orioles dynasty that won four American League pennants and two World Series championships between 1966 and 1971. He also played for the New York Yankees and the Cincinnati Reds.

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Marta Eggerth, Hungarian-American actress and singer (born 1912)

Marta Eggerth was a Hungary-born American actress and singer from "The Silver Age of Operetta". Many of the 20th century's most famous operetta composers, including Franz Lehár, Fritz Kreisler, Robert Stolz, Oscar Straus, and Paul Abraham, composed works especially for her.

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26/12/2012

Gerry Anderson, English director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1929)

Gerald Alexander Anderson was an English television and film producer, director, writer and occasional voice artist, who is known for his futuristic television programmes, especially his 1960s productions filmed with "Supermarionation".

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Gerald McDermott, American author and illustrator (born 1941)

Gerald McDermott was an American film-maker, creator of children's picture books, and expert on mythology. His creative works typically combine bright colors and styles with ancient imagery. His picture books feature folktales and cultures from all around the world.

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Ibrahim Tannous, Lebanese general (born 1929)

Ibrahim Tannous was a former commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces. General Tannous earned a reputation for honesty and was seen as “a general willing to get his uniform dirty to build a fighting Lebanese Army,” in the words of one Arab authority.

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26/12/2011

Houston Antwine, American football player (born 1939)

Houston J. "Twine" Antwine was an American football defensive tackle who played in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons.

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Pedro Armendáriz, Jr., Mexican-American actor and producer (born 1940)

Pedro Armendáriz Bohr, better known by his stage name Pedro Armendáriz Jr., was a Mexican actor.

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Sarekoppa Bangarappa, Indian politician, 15th Chief Minister of Karnataka (born 1932)

Sarekoppa Bangarappa was an Indian politician who was the 6th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1990 to 1992.

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Joe Bodolai, American screenwriter and producer (born 1948)

Joe Bodolai was an American film and television producer and writer.

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James Rizzi, American painter and illustrator (born 1950)

James Rizzi was an American pop artist who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.

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26/12/2010

Salvador Jorge Blanco, 48th President of the Dominican Republic (born 1926)

José Salvador Omar Jorge Blanco was a Dominican politician, lawyer and writer who served as the 48th president of the Dominican Republic from 1982 to 1986. He was a Senator running for the PRD party. He started his political career as a Committee Secretary for the Unión Cívica de Santiago in 1963 and joined the PRD in 1964.

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Edward Bhengu, South African activist (born 1934)

Edward "Sonnyboy" Bhengu was a South African activist and founding member of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania.

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Teena Marie, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1956)

Mary Christine Brockert, known professionally as Teena Marie, was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, and producer. She was known by her childhood nickname Tina before taking the stage name Teena Marie and later acquired the nickname Lady T, given to her by her collaborator and friend Rick James.

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26/12/2009

Felix Wurman, American cellist and composer (born 1958)

Felix Wurman was an American cellist and composer.

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26/12/2006

Gerald Ford, American commander, lawyer, and politician, 38th President of the United States (born 1913)

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was the 38th president of the United States. He assumed the presidency after the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974, and served until 1977. As the second vice president under Nixon, succeeding Spiro Agnew who resigned in 1973, Ford's presidency was overshadowed by the Watergate Scandal. Before his vice presidency, he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 24 years.

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Ivar Formo, Norwegian skier and engineer (born 1951)

Ivar Formo was a Norwegian cross-country skier and orienteer who competed during the 1970s.

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Munir Niazi, Pakistani poet (born 1923)

Munir Niazi, was a Pakistani poet. He mostly wrote in the Punjabi and Urdu languages and also wrote for newspapers, magazines and radio.

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26/12/2005

Muriel Costa-Greenspon, American soprano (born 1937)

Muriel Salina Costa-Greenspon was an American mezzo-soprano who had a lengthy career at the New York City Opera from 1963 to 1993.

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Ted Ditchburn, English footballer and manager (born 1921)

Edwin George Ditchburn was an English professional football goalkeeper who played for Northfleet United, Tottenham Hotspur, Romford, Brentwood Town and represented England on six occasions at international level.

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Kerry Packer, Australian publisher and businessman (born 1937)

Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling interest in both the Nine Network and the publishing company Australian Consolidated Press, which were later merged to form Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL). Outside Australia, Packer was best known for founding World Series Cricket. At the time of his death, he was the richest and one of the most influential men in Australia. In 2004, Business Review Weekly magazine estimated Packer's net worth at A$6.5 billion.

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Viacheslav Platonov, Russian volleyball player and coach (born 1939)

Viacheslav Platonov was a Russian volleyball player and coach. He led the Soviet men's national volleyball team to gold medals at the 1978 FIVB World Championship in Italy, 1982 FIVB World Championship in Argentina, and the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

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Vincent Schiavelli, American actor (born 1948)

Vincent Andrew Schiavelli was an American character actor noted for his work on stage, screen, and television. Described as an "instantly recognizable sad-faced actor", he was diagnosed with Marfan syndrome in childhood.

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Erich Topp, German commander (born 1914)

Erich Topp was a German U-boat commander of World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords of Nazi Germany. He sank 35 ships for a total of 197,460 gross register tons (GRT). After the war, he served with the Federal German Navy, in which he reached the rank of Konteradmiral. He later served in NATO.

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26/12/2004

Jonathan Drummond-Webb, South African surgeon and academic (born 1959)

Jonathan Drummond-Webb was a South African pediatric heart surgeon.

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Angus Ogilvy, English businessman (born 1928)

Sir Angus James Bruce Ogilvy was a British businessman, courtier, and philanthropist. He is best known as the husband of Princess Alexandra of Kent. Ogilvy is also remembered for his role in a business scandal, known as the Lonrho affair, involving the breaking of sanctions against Rhodesia during the 1970s. In later years, he was involved in charity work.

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Reggie White, American football player and wrestler (born 1961)

Reginald Howard White was an American professional football defensive end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons. White played college football for the Tennessee Volunteers, earning unanimous All-American honors. After playing two seasons for the Memphis Showboats of the United States Football League (USFL), he was selected in the first round of the 1984 NFL Supplemental Draft, and then played for the Philadelphia Eagles, the Green Bay Packers and the Carolina Panthers, becoming one of the most awarded defensive players in NFL history.

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26/12/2003

Virginia Coffey, American civil rights activist (born 1904)

Virginia Coffey (1904–2003), was an American social reformer and civil rights activist who worked for improved race relations in and around Cincinnati, Ohio. She advised and directed several organisations during her career, including a variety of boards and committees.

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26/12/2002

Herb Ritts, American photographer and director (born 1952)

Herbert Ritts Jr. was an American fashion photographer and music video director known for his photographs of celebrities, models, and other cultural figures throughout the 1980s and 1990s. His work concentrated on black and white photography and portraits, often in the style of classical Greek sculpture, which emphasized the human shape.

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Armand Zildjian, American businessman, founded the Avedis Zildjian Company (born 1921)

Armand Zildjian was an American manufacturer of cymbals and the head of the Avedis Zildjian Company.

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26/12/2001

Nigel Hawthorne, English actor (born 1929)

Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne was an English actor. He is known for his stage acting and his portrayal of Sir Humphrey Appleby, the permanent secretary in the 1980s sitcom Yes Minister and the Cabinet Secretary in its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister. For this role, he won four for British Academy Television Awards for Best Entertainment Performance.

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26/12/2000

Jason Robards, American actor (born 1922)

Jason Nelson Robards Jr. was an American actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he gained a reputation as an interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill. Robards received numerous accolades and is one of 24 performers to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting having earned competitive wins for two Academy Awards, a Tony Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. In addition to these plaudits, Robards was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Laurel Award and a Grammy Award. He was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1979, earned the National Medal of Arts in 1997, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1999.

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26/12/1999

Curtis Mayfield, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1942)

Curtis Lee Mayfield was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Dubbed the Gentle Genius, he is considered one of the most influential musicians of soul and socially conscious African-American music. Mayfield first achieved success and recognition with the vocal group the Impressions during the civil rights movement of the late 1950s and the 1960s, and later worked as a solo artist.

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Shankar Dayal Sharma, Indian academic and politician, 9th President of India (born 1918)

Shankar Dayal Sharma was an Indian lawyer and politician who served as the president of India from 1992 to 1997 and vice president of India from 1987 to 1992.

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26/12/1998

Ram Swarup, Indian writer on Hindu philosophy and religion (born 1920)

Ram Swarup, born Ram Swarup Agarwal, was an Indian Hindutva author.

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26/12/1997

Cahit Arf, Turkish mathematician and academic (born 1910)

Cahit Arf was a Turkish mathematician. He is known for the Arf invariant of a quadratic form in characteristic 2 in topology, the Hasse–Arf theorem in ramification theory, Arf semigroups and Arf rings.

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Cornelius Castoriadis, Greek economist and philosopher (born 1922)

Cornelius Castoriadis was a Greek-French philosopher, sociologist, social critic, economist, psychoanalyst, author of The Imaginary Institution of Society, and co-founder of the Socialisme ou Barbarie collective.

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26/12/1994

Sylva Koscina, Italian actress (born 1933)

Sylva Koscina was a Yugoslav-born Italian actress, best known for her role as Iole, the bride of Hercules in Hercules (1958) and Hercules Unchained (1960). She also played Paul Newman's romantic interest in The Secret War of Harry Frigg (1968).

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26/12/1990

Gene Callahan, American art director and production designer (born 1923)

Gene Callahan was an American art director as well as set and production designer who contributed to over fifty films and more than a thousand TV episodes. He received nominations for the British Academy Film Award and four Oscars, including two wins.

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26/12/1989

Doug Harvey, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1924)

Douglas Norman Harvey was a Canadian professional hockey defenceman. Widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders in National Hockey League (NHL) history, Harvey was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1973 and was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history in 2017. Individually he won the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the best defenceman seven times, and was named to the end of season NHL All-Star team as a First All-Star 10 times. He played from 1947 until 1964, and from 1966 until 1969. Best known for playing with the Montreal Canadiens, Harvey also played for the New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings, and St. Louis Blues, as well as several teams in the minor leagues. He also served as the player-coach of the Rangers for one season, and served a similar role for the minor-league Kansas City Blues. He was also a coach.

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26/12/1988

Glenn McCarthy, American businessman, founded the Shamrock Hotel (born 1907)

Glenn Herbert McCarthy was an American oil tycoon. The media often referred to him as "Diamond Glenn" and "The King of the Wildcatters". McCarthy was an oil prospector and entrepreneur who owned many businesses in various sectors of the economy. McCarthy founded the Shamrock Hotel in Houston, which garnered him national fame and inspired the fictional character Jett Rink in Edna Ferber's 1952 novel Giant which, in 1956, became a film, which starred James Dean in the role.

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Pablo Sorozábal, German-Spanish composer and conductor (born 1897)

Pablo Sorozábal Mariezcurrena was a Spanish composer of zarzuelas, operas, symphonic works, and the popular romanza, "No puede ser".

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26/12/1987

Dorothy Bliss, American invertebrate zoologist, curator at the American Museum of Natural History (born 1916)

Dorothy Elizabeth Bliss was an American carcinologist and curator of invertebrates at the American Museum of Natural History, with which she was associated for over 30 years. She was known as a pioneer in the field of hormonal control in crustaceans. She was editor-in-chief of the 10-volume series The Biology of Crustacea and author of the popular book Shrimps, Lobsters and Crabs. She served as president of the American Society of Zoologists and was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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26/12/1986

Elsa Lanchester, English-American actress (born 1902)

Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was a British actress with a long career in theatre, film and television.

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26/12/1983

Hans Liska, Austrian-German artist (born 1907)

Hans Liska was an Austrian artist, painter, commercial artist and illustrator.

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26/12/1981

Amber Reeves, New Zealand-English author and scholar (born 1887)

Amber Blanco White was a New Zealand–born British feminist writer and scholar.

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Suat Hayri Ürgüplü, Turkish politician, Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1903)

Ali Suat Hayri Ürgüplü was a Turkish politician who served a brief term as Prime Minister of Turkey in 1965. He was also the last Prime Minister to be born outside the territory of present-day Turkey, being born in Damascus, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire.

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Savitri, Indian actress, playback singer, dancer, director and producer (born 1936)

Nissankara Savitri was an Indian actress and filmmaker who predominantly worked in Telugu and Tamil films. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in the history of Indian cinema, she was popularly known by the epithets Mahanati in Telugu, and Nadigaiyar Thilagam in Tamil. Savitri was among the highest-paid in South Indian cinema during the 1950s and 1960s and is often considered the "Queen of Telugu cinema".

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26/12/1980

Tony Smith, American sculptor and educator (born 1912)

Anthony Peter Smith was an American sculptor, painter, architectural designer, and a noted art theorist. As a leading sculptor in the 1960s and 1970s, Smith is often associated with the minimalist art movement.

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Richard Chase, American cannibalistic serial killer and necrophile (born 1950)

Richard Trenton Chase was an American serial killer, cannibal and necrophile known as the Vampire of Sacramento, the Dracula Killer and the Vampire Killer, who killed six people between December 1977 and January 1978 in Sacramento, California.

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26/12/1977

Howard Hawks, American director and screenwriter (born 1896)

Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era. The critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is not a household name." Roger Ebert called Hawks "one of the greatest American directors of pure movies, and a hero of auteur critics because he found his own laconic values in so many different kinds of genre material." He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for Sergeant York (1941) and earned the Honorary Academy Award in 1974.

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26/12/1974

Farid al-Atrash, Syrian-Egyptian singer-songwriter, oud player, and actor (born 1915)

Farid al-Atrash, also spelled Farid El-Atrache, was a Syrian-Egyptian singer, oudist, composer, and actor. Although born in Syria, he immigrated to Egypt at the age of nine with his mother and siblings, where he eventually became one of the most noted figures in 20th-century Arabic music.

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Jack Benny, American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, and violinist (born 1894)

Jack Benny was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success as a violinist on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century with a highly popular comedic career in radio, television, and film.

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Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton, Scottish admiral (born 1890)

Sir Frederick Hew George Dalrymple-Hamilton, KCB was a British admiral who served in World War I and World War II. He was captain of HMS Rodney when it engaged the Bismarck on 27 May 1941.

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26/12/1973

Harold B. Lee, American religious leader, 11th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (born 1899)

Harold Bingham Lee was an American religious leader and educator who served as the 11th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from July 1972 until his death in December 1973.

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26/12/1972

Harry S. Truman, American colonel and politician, 33rd President of the United States (born 1884)

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequently, Truman implemented the Marshall Plan in the aftermath of World War II to rebuild the economy of Western Europe, and established both the Truman Doctrine and NATO to contain the expansion of Soviet communism. A member of the Democratic Party, he proposed numerous New Deal coalition liberal domestic reforms, but few were enacted by the conservative coalition that dominated the United States Congress.

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26/12/1970

Lillian Board, South African-English runner (born 1948)

Lillian Barbara Board, was a British athlete. She won the silver medal in the 400 metres at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, and two gold medals at the 1969 European Championships in Athletics in Athens. Her career was cut short in 1970 when she developed the colorectal cancer that within months would claim her life at the age of 22.

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26/12/1968

Weegee, Ukrainian-American photographer and journalist (born 1898)

Ascher Fellig, known by his pseudonym Weegee, was a photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography in New York City.

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26/12/1966

Ina Boudier-Bakker, Dutch author (born 1875)

Klaziena "Ina" Boudier-Bakker was a Dutch novelist. Her most famous work is De klop op de deur, written in 1930.

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Herbert Otto Gille, German general (born 1897)

Herbert Otto Gille was a high-ranking German SS general, and divisional & corps commander of the Waffen-SS. He commanded the SS Division Wiking during World War II. Gille was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, making him the most highly decorated Waffen-SS member of the war. After the war, Gille opened a book store and became active in HIAG, a lobby group and a revisionist veteran's organisation founded by former high-ranking Waffen-SS personnel in West Germany in 1951.

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Guillermo Stábile, Argentinian footballer and manager (born 1905)

Guillermo Stábile was an Argentine professional football player and manager who played as a centre forward. At club level, Stábile won two national championships with Huracán and played in Italy and France. He was the top scorer of the 1930 FIFA World Cup, the inaugural iteration of the tournament. As manager, he led Argentina to victory at six South American Championships and Racing Club to three league titles.

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26/12/1963

Gorgeous George, American wrestler (born 1915)

George Raymond Wagner, known by his ring name Gorgeous George, was an American professional wrestler. In the United States, during the "First Golden Age" of professional wrestling (1940s–1950s), Gorgeous George was one of the biggest stars of the sport, gaining media attention for his outrageous character, which was described as flamboyant and charismatic. He was a major national celebrity at his peak, and was a pioneer of early entertainment television. He was posthumously inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2002 and the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2010.

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26/12/1960

Tetsuro Watsuji, Japanese historian and philosopher (born 1889)

Tetsurō Watsuji was a Japanese historian and moral philosopher.

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26/12/1959

Jack Tresadern, English footballer and manager (born 1890)

John Tresadern was an English professional football player and manager. He played twice for the England national team.

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26/12/1933

Mary Ann Bevan, English nurse who, after developing acromegaly, toured the circus sideshow circuit as "the ugliest woman in the world" (born 1874)

Mary Ann Bevan was an English nurse, who, after developing acromegaly, toured the circus sideshow circuit as "the ugliest woman in the world".

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Anatoly Lunacharsky, Russian journalist and politician (born 1875)

Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Soviet People's Commissar (minister) of Education, as well as an active playwright, critic, essayist, and journalist throughout his career.

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Henry Watson Fowler, English lexicographer and educator (born 1858)

Henry Watson Fowler was an English schoolmaster, lexicographer and commentator on the usage of the English language. He is notable for both A Dictionary of Modern English Usage and his work on the Concise Oxford Dictionary, and was described by The Times as "a lexicographical genius".

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26/12/1931

Melvil Dewey, American librarian and educator, created the Dewey Decimal Classification (born 1851)

Melville Louis Kossuth "Melvil" Dewey was an American librarian and educator who invented the Dewey Decimal system of library classification. He was a founder of the Lake Placid Club, a chief librarian at Columbia College, founder of what would later become the Columbia University School of Library Service, and a founding member of the American Library Association. Although Dewey's contributions to the modern library are widely recognized, his legacy is marred by his sexual harassment of female colleagues, as well as his racism and antisemitism.

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26/12/1929

Albert Giraud, Belgian poet (born 1860)

Albert Giraud was a Belgian poet who wrote in French.

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26/12/1925

Jan Letzel, Czech architect, designed the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (born 1880)

Jan Letzel was a Czech architect who was active in early 20th century Japan. He is most famous for designing the Hiroshima Products Exhibition Hall that was partially destroyed in the atomic bombing of the city. The ruins of the Exhibition Hall is now the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, also known as the A-Bomb Dome, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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26/12/1923

Dietrich Eckart, German journalist, poet, and politician (born 1868)

Dietrich Eckart was a German völkisch poet, playwright, journalist, publicist, and political activist who was one of the founders of the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the Nazi Party. Eckart was a key influence on Adolf Hitler in the early years of the Party, the original publisher of the party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter, and the lyricist of the first party anthem, "Sturmlied". He was a participant in the failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 and died on 26 December of that year, shortly after his release from Landsberg Prison, of a heart attack.

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26/12/1909

Frederic Remington, American painter and illustrator (born 1861)

Frederic Sackrider Remington was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United States in the last quarter of the 19th century and featuring such images as cowboys, Native Americans, and the US Cavalry.

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26/12/1902

Mary Hartwell Catherwood, American author and poet (born 1849)

Mary Hartwell Catherwood was an American writer of popular historical romances, short stories, and poetry. Early in her career she published under her birth name, Mary Hartwell, and under the pseudonym Lewtrah. She was known for setting her works in the Midwest, for a strong interest in American dialects, and for bringing a high standard of historical accuracy to the period detail of her novels.

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26/12/1890

Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist, businessman and author (born 1822)

Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann was a German businessman and an influential archaeologist. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeological excavator of Hisarlık, now presumed to be the site of Troy, along with the Mycenaean sites Mycenae and Tiryns. His work lent weight to the idea that Homer's Iliad reflects historical events. Schliemann's excavation of nine layers of archaeological remains has been criticized as destructive of significant historical artefacts, including the layer that is believed to be the Homeric Troy.

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26/12/1869

Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille, French physician and physiologist (born 1797)

Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille was a French physicist and physiologist.

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26/12/1863

Francis Caulfeild, 2nd Earl of Charlemont, Irish politician, Lord Lieutenant of Tyrone (born 1775)

Francis William Caulfeild, 2nd Earl of Charlemont, styled Viscount Caulfeild until 1799, was an Irish peer and politician.

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26/12/1786

Gasparo Gozzi, Italian playwright and critic (born 1713)

Gasparo, count Gozzi was a Venetian critic and dramatist.

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26/12/1784

Seth Warner, American colonel (born 1743)

Seth Warner was an American soldier. He was a Revolutionary War officer from Vermont who rose to the rank of Continental colonel and was often given the duties of a brigade commander. He is best known for his leadership in the capture of Fort Crown Point, the Battle of Longueuil, the siege of Quebec, the retreat from Canada, and the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington.

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26/12/1780

John Fothergill, English physician and botanist (born 1712)

John Fothergill FRS was an English physician, plant collector, philanthropist and Quaker. His medical writings were influential, and he built up a sizeable botanic garden in what is now West Ham Park in London.

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26/12/1771

Claude Adrien Helvétius, French philosopher and activist (born 1715)

Claude Adrien Helvétius was a French philosopher, freemason and littérateur.

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26/12/1731

Antoine Houdar de la Motte, French author (born 1672)

Antoine Houdar de la Motte was a French writer.

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26/12/1646

Henri de Bourbon, prince of Condé (born 1588)

Henri II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé was a French prince who was the head of the House of Bourbon-Condé, the senior-most cadet branch of the House of Bourbon. From the age of 2 to 12, Henri was the presumptive heir to the French throne. Henri was the father of general Louis, le Grand Condé.

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26/12/1574

Charles de Lorraine, French cardinal (born 1524)

Charles de Lorraine, Duke of Chevreuse, was a French Cardinal, a member of the powerful House of Guise. He was known at first as the Cardinal of Guise, and then as the second Cardinal of Lorraine, after the death of his uncle, Jean, Cardinal of Lorraine (1550). He was the protector of François Rabelais and Pierre de Ronsard and founded Reims University. He is sometimes known as the Cardinal de Lorraine.

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26/12/1530

Babur, Mughal emperor (born 1483)

Babur was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother respectively. He was also given the posthumous name of Firdaws Makani.

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26/12/1476

Galeazzo Maria Sforza, duke of Milan (born 1444)

Galeazzo Maria Sforza was the fifth Duke of Milan from 1466 until 1476. He was born to Francesco Sforza, a popular condottiero and ally of Cosimo de' Medici who would gain the Duchy of Milan in 1450, and Bianca Maria Visconti, Duchess of Milan on her own right. Sforza was betrothed into the Gonzaga family; after the engagement with Dorotea Gonzaga was called off, he married Bona of Savoy.

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26/12/1458

Arthur III, duke of Brittany (born 1393)

Arthur III, more commonly known as Arthur de Richemont, was briefly Duke of Brittany from 1457 until his death. He is noted primarily, however, for his role as a leading military commander during the Hundred Years' War. Although Richemont briefly sided with the English once, he otherwise remained firmly committed to the House of Valois. He fought alongside Joan of Arc, and was appointed Constable of France. His military and administrative reforms in the French state were an important factor in assuring the final defeat of the English in the Hundred Years' War.

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26/12/1441

Niccolò III d'Este, marquess of Ferrara

Niccolò III d'Este was Marquess of Ferrara from 1393 until his death. He was also a condottiero.

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26/12/1413

Michele Steno, doge of Venice (born 1331)

Michele Steno was a Venetian statesman who served as the 63rd Doge of Venice from 1 December 1400 until his death. He is remembered as the ruler crucial for establishing the Domini di Terraferma, in the aftermath of the War of Padua.

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26/12/1360

Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent, English commander (born 1314)

Thomas Holland, 2nd Baron Holand, and jure uxoris 1st Earl of Kent, KG was an English nobleman and military commander during the Hundred Years' War. By the time of the Crécy campaign, he had apparently lost one of his eyes.

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26/12/1352

John, 3rd Earl of Kent, English politician (born 1330)

John, an English nobleman, was the Earl of Kent (1331–1352) and 4th Baron Wake of Liddell (1349–1352). His promising career was cut short by an untimely death at the age of twenty-two.

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26/12/1350

Jean de Marigny, French archbishop

Jean de Marigny, French bishop, was a younger brother of Enguerrand de Marigny.

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26/12/1331

Philip I, Prince of Taranto, titular Latin Emperor (born 1278)

Philip II, also known as Philip I of Taranto, was titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople by marriage to Catherine of Valois–Courtenay, Despot of Romania, King of Albania, Prince of Achaea and Taranto.

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26/12/1302

Valdemar, king of Sweden (born 1239)

Valdemar Birgersson, also Waldemar, was King of Sweden from 1250 to 1275.

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26/12/1191

Reginald Fitz Jocelin, archbishop-elect of Canterbury

Reginald Fitz Jocelin was a medieval Bishop of Bath and an Archbishop of Canterbury-elect in England. A member of an Anglo-Norman noble family, he was the son of a bishop, and was educated in Italy. He was a household clerk for Thomas Becket, but by 1167 he was serving King Henry II of England. He was also a favourite of King Louis VII of France, who had him appointed abbot of the Abbey of Corbeil. After Reginald angered Becket while attempting to help negotiate a settlement between Becket and the king, Becket called him "that offspring of fornication, that enemy to the peace of the Church, that traitor." When he was elected as a bishop, the election was challenged by King Henry's eldest son, Henry the Young King, and Reginald was forced to go to Rome to be confirmed by Pope Alexander III. He attended the Third Lateran Council in 1179, and spent much of his time administering his diocese. He was elected Archbishop of Canterbury in 1191, but died before he could be installed.

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26/12/1006

Gao Qiong, Chinese general (born 935)

Gao Qiong was a Northern Song dynasty general and Zhong-Wu military governor. Gao conducted many military exploits.

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26/12/0893

Masrur al-Balkhi, Abbasid general

Masrur al-Balkhi was a senior military officer in the late-9th century Abbasid Caliphate.

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26/12/0865

Zheng, empress of the Tang Dynasty

Empress Dowager Zheng, formally Empress Xiaoming, was an empress dowager of the Chinese dynasty Tang dynasty. She was a concubine to Emperor Xianzong and, after her son Emperor Xuānzong became emperor, she became empress dowager and continued to serve in that role until her death, during the reign of her grandson Emperor Yizong.

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26/12/0831

Euthymius of Sardis, Byzantine bishop and saint (born 754)

Euthymius of Sardis or Euthymius the Confessor was metropolitan bishop of Sardis between ca. 785 and ca. 804, and a leading iconophile during the period of Byzantine Iconoclasm. Martyred in 831, he is a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, celebrated on 26 December and March 8.

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26/12/0418

Zosimus, pope of the Catholic Church

Pope Zosimus was the bishop of Rome from 18 March 417 to his death on 26 December 418. He was born in Mesoraca, Calabria. Zosimus took a decided part in the protracted dispute in Gaul as to the jurisdiction of the See of Arles over that of Vienne, giving energetic decisions in favour of the former, but without settling the controversy. His fractious temper coloured all the controversies in which he took part, in Gaul, Africa and Italy, including Rome, where at his death the clergy were very much divided.

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26/12/0268

Dionysius, pope of the Catholic Church

Pope Dionysius was the Bishop of Rome from 22 July 259 to 26 December 268. His pontificate oversaw the transition from Valerian's persecutions to the toleration issued by Gallienus in 260. During this period, he reorganized the Roman church, assigning presbyters to individual parishes.

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