Died on Saturday, 27th December – Famous Deaths

27/12/2024

Greg Gumbel, American sportscaster (born 1946)

Gregory Girard Gumbel was an American television sportscaster. He was best known for his various assignments for CBS Sports. Gumbel became the first African-American announcer to call play-by-play of a major sports championship in the United States when he announced Super Bowl XXXV for the CBS network in 2001. From 1998 through 2023, Gumbel was the studio host for CBS' men's college basketball coverage and was a play-by-play broadcaster for the NFL on CBS.

---

Olivia Hussey, Argentinian-English actress (born 1951)

Olivia Hussey was an Argentine and British actress. The daughter of Argentine singer Osvaldo Ribó, Hussey was born in Buenos Aires and spent most of her early life in her mother's native England. She aspired to become an actress at a young age and studied drama at London's Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.

---

Charles Shyer, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1941)

Charles Richard Shyer was an American filmmaker. Shyer's films are mainly comedies, often with a romcom overtone. His writing-directing credits include Private Benjamin (1980), Irreconcilable Differences (1984), Baby Boom (1987), Father of the Bride (1991), The Parent Trap (1998), The Affair of the Necklace (2001), and Alfie (2004).

---

27/12/2023

Lee Sun-kyun, South Korean actor (born 1975)

Lee Sun-kyun was a South Korean actor. Internationally, he was best known for his role in Bong Joon-ho's Academy Award–winning film Parasite (2019), for which he won a Screen Actors Guild Award along with his castmates. He received several other awards, including a nomination for an International Emmy Award.

---

Gaston Glock, Austrian firearm engineer and founder of Glock (born 1929)

Gaston Glock was an Austrian engineer and businessman. He founded the company Glock in 1963. When he entered the 1980 competition for a new Austrian service pistol, he hired two engineers who had worked on the development of HK's first two polymer-frame pistols, the VP70 and P9 models. The first Glock pistol, chambered in 9x19mm and named the Glock 17 because it was Glock's 17th patent, entered Austrian military and police service in 1982. It became one of the most influential and popular handguns of the 20th century, leading to a succession of other models in a variety of sizes and chamberings as well as an industry-wide trend toward polymer-frame, striker-fired pistols.

---

27/12/2019

Maria Creveling, American League of Legends player (born 1995)

Maria Creveling, better known as Remilia, was an American professional League of Legends player. She was the first woman and first transgender person to compete in the North American League of Legends Championship Series, debuting in the 2016 spring split as the support for Renegades. However, she took a sudden hiatus from professional play a few weeks into her debut season due to onstage pressure and online harassment. During her career she was particularly known for her mastery of the character Thresh, which earned her the nicknames "Thresh Queen" and "MadWife".

---

27/12/2018

Frank Blaichman, Polish resistance fighter (born 1922)

Frank Blaichman, also known as Ephraim Blaichman, occasionally spelled Frank Bleichman, and in Polish Franek or Franciszek Blajchman, was a Polish-Jewish leader of a communist armed organization during World War II and a Holocaust survivor. In post-war communist Poland, Blaichman was the head of the Prison and Camps Department at the Security Office in Kielce.

---

27/12/2016

Carrie Fisher, American actress, screenwriter, author, producer, and speaker (born 1956)

Carrie Frances Fisher was an American actress and writer. She is best known for playing Princess Leia in the original Star Wars films (1977–1983) and reprised the role in The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017)—a posthumous release that was dedicated to her—and The Rise of Skywalker (2019), the latter using unreleased footage from The Force Awakens. Her other film credits include Shampoo (1975), The Blues Brothers (1980), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), The 'Burbs (1989), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), Soapdish (1991), and The Women (2008). She was nominated twice for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her performances in the NBC sitcom 30 Rock (2007) and the Channel 4 series Catastrophe (2017).

---

Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Sri Lankan politician (born 1933)

Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was a Sri Lankan politician who served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2000 to 2001 and again from 2005 to 2010, and also served as the Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2002. He was a Member of Parliament representing the Horana electorate and later the Kalutara District.

---

27/12/2015

Stein Eriksen, Norwegian-American skier (born 1927)

Stein Eriksen was an alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Norway. Following his racing career, he was a ski school director and ambassador at various resorts in the United States.

---

Dave Henderson, American baseball player and sportscaster (born 1958)

David Lee Henderson, nicknamed "Hendu", was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, and Kansas City Royals during his 14-year career, primarily as an outfielder.

---

Ellsworth Kelly, American painter and sculptor (born 1923)

Ellsworth Kelly was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, color and form, similar to the work of John McLaughlin and Kenneth Noland. Kelly often employed bright colors. He lived and worked in Spencertown, New York.

---

Meadowlark Lemon, American basketball player and minister (born 1932)

Meadowlark Lemon was an American basketball player, actor, and Christian minister. For 22 years, he was known as the "Clown Prince" of the touring Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. He was a 2003 inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Ordained in 1986, in 1994 he started Meadowlark Lemon Ministries in Scottsdale, Arizona.

---

Alfredo Pacheco, Salvadoran footballer (born 1982)

Alfredo Alberto Pacheco, nicknamed "El Chele", was a Salvadoran footballer who had the record for most appearances on the El Salvador national football team when he was banned for life in 2013, for match-fixing while playing for the national team. He was murdered in Santa Ana on 27 December 2015.

---

Stevie Wright, English-Australian singer-songwriter (born 1947)

Stephen Carlton Wright was an Australian singer, songwriter, and musician. Called Australia's first international pop star, he is best known for being the lead singer of the Easybeats, who are widely regarded as the greatest Australian pop band of the 1960s.

---

27/12/2014

Ben Ammi Ben-Israel, American-Israeli religious leader, founded the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem (born 1939)

Ben Ammi Ben-Israel was an American-born Israeli spiritual leader. Inspired by the Black Hebrew Israelites in the United States, he founded the African Hebrew Israelite Nation of Jerusalem, which claims that African Americans originate from the Land of Israel. The community's initial members claimed Israelite descent and undertook a major initiative to immigrate to the State of Israel during and after the 1960s. Ben Ammi stated that Black people were descended from the Twelve Tribes of Israel and thus were the "true inheritors" of Israel, and created a new religious movement that he claimed was authentically Hebrew or Israelite in theology and practice. Though he was born a Baptist Christian, he denounced Judaism and Christianity as false religions, but maintained that the Jewish Bible was still divine.

---

Ulises Estrella, Ecuadorian poet and academic (born 1939)

Ulises Estrella Moya was an Ecuadorian poet and the co-founder of Tzantzismo, a literary movement of the 1960s, Ecuador. He was also a devoted film researcher and programmer, who headed the film cinematheque of the House of Ecuadorian Culture for over 30 years.

---

Ronald Li, Hong Kong accountant and businessman (born 1929)

Ronald Li Fook-shiu was the founder and former chairman of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and died of cancer.

---

Karel Poma, Belgian bacteriologist and politician (born 1920)

Karel Emiel Hubert, Baron Poma was a Belgian liberal and politician for the PVV.

---

27/12/2013

Richard Ambler, English-Scottish biologist and academic (born 1933)

Richard Penry Ambler was an English molecular biologist who conducted groundbreaking research into the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Ambler was the first scientist to publish an amino acid sequence of a bacterial protein, and had a long academic career at the University of Edinburgh.

---

Mohamad Chatah, Lebanese economist and politician, Lebanese Minister of Finance (born 1951)

Mohammad Chatah was a Lebanese economist and diplomat.

---

Gianna D'Angelo, American soprano and educator (born 1929)

Gianna D'Angelo was an American coloratura soprano, primarily active in the 1950s and 1960s.

---

John Matheson, Canadian colonel, lawyer, and politician (born 1917)

John Ross Matheson was a Canadian politician, lawyer, and judge, who helped develop both the national flag of Canada and the Order of Canada.

---

Farooq Sheikh, Indian actor, philanthropist and a popular television presenter (born 1948)

Farooq Sheikh was an Indian actor, philanthropist and television presenter. He was best known for his work in Hindi films from 1973 to 1993 and for his work in television between 1988 and 2002. He returned to acting in films in 2008 and continued to do so until his death on 28 December 2013. His major contribution was in Parallel Cinema or the New Indian Cinema. He worked with directors like Satyajit Ray, Sai Paranjpye, Muzaffar Ali, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Ayan Mukherjee and Ketan Mehta.

---

27/12/2012

Harry Carey, Jr., American actor, producer, and screenwriter (born 1921)

Henry George Carey Jr. was an American actor. He appeared in more than 90 films, including several John Ford Westerns, as well as numerous television series.

---

Lloyd Charmers, Jamaican singer, keyboard player, and producer (born 1938)

Lloyd Charmers was a Jamaican ska and reggae singer, keyboard player and record producer.

---

Tingye Li, Chinese-American physicist and engineer (born 1931)

Tingye Li was a Chinese-American scientist in the fields of microwaves, lasers and optical communications. His innovative work at AT&T pioneered the research and application of lightwave communication, and has had a far-reaching impact on information technology for over four decades.

---

Archie Roy, Scottish astronomer and academic (born 1924)

Archie Edmiston Roy FRSE, FRAS was Professor Emeritus of Astronomy in the University of Glasgow.

---

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., American general and engineer (born 1934)

Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. was a United States Army general. While serving as the commander of United States Central Command, he led all coalition forces in the Gulf War against Ba'athist Iraq.

---

Salt Walther, American race car driver (born 1947)

David "Salt" Walther was a driver in the USAC and CART Championship Car series. He also drove NASCAR stock cars and unlimited hydroplane boats, and was a car owner in USAC. Walther is best remembered for a crash at the start of the 1973 Indianapolis 500 that left him critically injured. He recovered from his injuries, returned in 1974, and placed 9th in the 1976 race. He also co-drove a car with Bob Harkey to 10th place in 1975.

---

27/12/2011

Catê, Brazilian footballer and manager (born 1973)

Marco Antônio Lemos Tozzi, commonly known as Catê, was a Brazilian professional footballer who played for clubs of Brazil, Chile, Italy, the United States and Venezuela.

---

Michael Dummett, English soldier, philosopher, and academic (born 1925)

Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett was an English academic described as "among the most significant British philosophers of the last century and a leading campaigner for racial tolerance and equality." He was, until 1992, Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford. He wrote on the history of analytic philosophy, notably as an interpreter of Frege, and made original contributions particularly in the philosophies of mathematics, logic, language and metaphysics.

---

Helen Frankenthaler, American painter and educator (born 1928)

Helen Frankenthaler was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades, she spanned several generations of abstract painters while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work. Frankenthaler began exhibiting her large-scale abstract expressionist paintings in contemporary museums and galleries in the early 1950s. She was included in the 1964 Post-Painterly Abstraction exhibition curated by Clement Greenberg that introduced a newer generation of abstract painting that came to be known as color field. Born in Manhattan, she was influenced by Greenberg, Hans Hofmann, and Jackson Pollock's paintings. Her work has been the subject of several retrospective exhibitions, including a 1989 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and been exhibited worldwide since the 1950s. In 2001, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

---

Johnny Wilson, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (born 1929)

John Edward Wilson was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and head coach. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Black Hawks, Toronto Maple Leafs, and New York Rangers between 1950 and 1962. With Detroit, Wilson won the Stanley Cup four times. After his playing career, he coached in the NHL with the Los Angeles Kings, Detroit, the Colorado Rockies, and Pittsburgh Penguins between 1969 and 1980. He also coached the Michigan Stags/Baltimore Blades and Cleveland Crusaders of the World Hockey Association between 1974 and 1976, and the Canadian national team at the 1977 World Championship. Wilson was born in Kincardine, Ontario, but grew up in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec.

---

27/12/2009

Isaac Schwartz, Ukrainian-Russian composer and educator (born 1923)

Isaac Iosifovich Schwartz, also known as Isaak Shvarts, was a Soviet composer.

---

27/12/2008

Delaney Bramlett, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1939)

Delaine Alvin "Delaney" Bramlett was an American singer and guitarist. He was best known for his musical partnership with his wife Bonnie Bramlett in the band Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, which included a wide variety of other musicians, many of whom were successful in other contexts.

---

Robert Graham, Mexican-American sculptor (born 1938)

Robert Graham was a Mexican-born American sculptor based in the state of California in the United States. His monumental bronzes commemorate the human figure, and are featured in public places across America.

---

27/12/2007

Benazir Bhutto, Pakistani politician, Prime Minister of Pakistan (born 1953)

Benazir Bhutto was a Pakistani politician and stateswoman who served as the prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman elected to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. Ideologically a liberal and a secularist, she chaired or co-chaired the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from the early 1980s until her assassination in 2007.

---

Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Polish director and screenwriter (born 1922)

Jerzy Franciszek Kawalerowicz was a Polish film director, screenwriter and politician, having been a member of Polish United Workers' Party from 1954 until its dissolution in 1990 and a deputy in Polish parliament since 1985 until 1989.

---

Jaan Kross, Estonian author and poet (born 1920)

Jaan Kross was an Estonian writer. He won the 1995 International Nonino Prize in Italy.

---

27/12/2004

Hank Garland, American guitarist (born 1930)

Walter Louis Garland, known professionally as Hank Garland, was an American guitarist and songwriter. He started as a country musician, played rock and roll as it became popular in the 1950s, and released a jazz album in 1960. His career was cut short when a car accident in 1961 left him unable to perform.

---

27/12/2003

Alan Bates, English actor (born 1934)

Sir Alan Arthur Bates was an English actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from Whistle Down the Wind to the kitchen sink drama A Kind of Loving.

---

Iván Calderón, Puerto Rican-American baseball player (born 1962)

Iván Calderón Pérez was a Puerto Rican professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for four teams from 1984 to 1993, and was named an All-Star in 1991. Listed at 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) and 220 pounds (100 kg), he batted and threw right-handed. Nicknamed "Ivan the Terrible", Calderón was killed in a shooting in Puerto Rico in December 2003.

---

27/12/2002

George Roy Hill, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1921)

George Roy Hill was an American film director. His films include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973), both starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Both films also earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director; he won for the latter.

---

27/12/1999

Michael McDowell, American author and screenwriter (born 1950)

Michael McEachern McDowell was an American novelist and screenwriter. He was described by Stephen King as "the finest writer of paperback originals in America today." His best-known work is the screenplay for the Tim Burton film Beetlejuice.

---

27/12/1997

Brendan Gill, American journalist and essayist (born 1914)

Brendan Gill was an American journalist. He wrote for The New Yorker for more than 60 years. Gill also contributed film criticism for Film Comment, wrote about design and architecture for Architectural Digest, and authored fifteen books, including a popular memoir about his time at The New Yorker.

---

Billy Wright, Northern Irish loyalist leader (born 1960)

William Stephen Wright, known as King Rat, was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary leader who founded the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) during The Troubles. Wright had joined the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in his home town of Portadown around 1975. After spending several years in prison, he became a Protestant fundamentalist preacher. Wright resumed his UVF activities around 1986 and, in the early 1990s, replaced Robin Jackson as commander of that organisation's Mid-Ulster Brigade. According to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), Wright was involved in the sectarian killings of up to 20 Catholics but was never convicted for any.

---

27/12/1995

Shura Cherkassky, Ukrainian-American pianist (born 1909)

Shura Cherkassky was a Russian-American concert pianist known for his performances of the romantic repertoire. His playing was characterized by a virtuoso technique and singing piano tone. For much of his later life, Cherkassky resided in London.

---

Genrikh Kasparyan, Armenian chess player and composer (born 1910)

Genrikh Kasparyan was an Armenian chess player. He is considered to have been one of the greatest composers of chess endgame studies.

---

27/12/1994

Fanny Cradock, English author and critic (born 1909)

Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey, better known as Fanny Cradock, was an English restaurant critic, television cook and writer. She frequently appeared on television, at cookery demonstrations and in print with her fourth husband, Major Johnnie Cradock, who played the part of a slightly bumbling hen-pecked husband.

---

J. B. L. Reyes, Filipino lawyer and jurist (born 1902)

Jose Benedicto Luis Luna Reyes was a Filipino jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1954 to 1972.

---

27/12/1993

Feliks Kibbermann, Estonian chess player and philologist (born 1902)

Feliks (Felix) Kibbermann was an Estonian chess master, philologist of German, lexicographer, and pedagogue.

---

Evald Mikson, Estonian footballer (born 1911)

Evald Mikson was an Estonian athlete and police officer. A multi-sport athlete, he played basketball and football and was a goalkeeper for the Estonia national football team, winning seven caps between 1934 and 1938. During the 1941–1944 Nazi German occupation of Estonia, he has been accused of being a collaborator with Germany during his service in the police force of Estonian Self-Administration and of committing war crimes against Jews. He later emigrated to Iceland, where he became heavily involved in sports and is credited as one of the pioneers in introducing basketball to the nation.

---

André Pilette, Belgian racing driver (born 1918)

André Théodore Pilette, son of former Indy 500 participant Théodore Pilette, was a racing driver from Belgium. He participated in 14 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 17 June 1951.

---

27/12/1992

Kay Boyle, American novelist, poet, and educator (born 1902)

Kay Boyle was an American novelist, short story writer, educator, and political activist. Boyle is best known for her fiction, which often explored the intersections of personal and political themes. Her work contributed significantly to modernist literature, and she was an active participant in the expatriate literary scene in Paris during the 1920s. She was a Guggenheim Fellow and O. Henry Award winner.

---

27/12/1988

Hal Ashby, American director and producer (born 1929)

William Hal Ashby was an American film director and editor. His work exemplified the countercultural attitude of the era. He directed wide-ranging films featuring iconic performances. He is associated with the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking with filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Mike Nichols and Sidney Lumet.

---

27/12/1987

Rewi Alley, New Zealand writer and political activist (born 1897)

Rewi Alley was a New Zealand-born writer and political activist. A member of the Chinese Communist Party, he dedicated 60 years of his life to the cause and was a key figure in the establishment of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives and technical training schools, including the Bailie Schools and Peili Vocational Institute, both named after his mentor Joseph Bailie. Alley was a prolific writer about 20th century China, and especially the communist revolution. He also translated numerous Chinese poems.

---

27/12/1986

George Dangerfield, English-American historian and journalist (born 1904)

George Bubb Dangerfield was a British-born American journalist, historian, and the literary editor of Vanity Fair from 1933 to 1935. He is known primarily for his book The Strange Death of Liberal England (1935), a classic account of how the Liberal Party in Great Britain ruined itself in dealing with the House of Lords, women's suffrage, the Irish question, and labour unions, 1906–1914. His book on the United States in the early 19th century, The Era of Good Feelings, won the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for History.

---

Dumas Malone, American historian and author (born 1892)

Dumas Malone was an American historian, minister, and biographer. A professor by occupation, Malone spent the majority of his career teaching at the University of Virginia (UVA), where he served as the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History.

---

27/12/1985

Jean Rondeau, French racing driver (born 1946)

Jean Jacques Ferdinand Rondeau was a French race car driver and constructor, who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1980, in a car bearing his own name, an achievement which remains unique in the history of the race.

---

27/12/1982

Jack Swigert, American pilot, astronaut, and politician (born 1931)

John Leonard Swigert Jr. was an American NASA astronaut, test pilot, mechanical engineer, aerospace engineer, United States Air Force pilot, and politician. In April 1970, as command module pilot of Apollo 13, he became one of 24 Apollo astronauts who reached the Moon. Due to the "slingshot" route around the Moon they chose to safely return to Earth, the Apollo 13 astronauts flew farther away from Earth than any other astronauts until the Artemis II lunar flyby in 2026, though they had to abort the Moon landing.

---

27/12/1981

Hoagy Carmichael, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (born 1899)

Hoagland Howard Carmichael was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor, author and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s and 1940s, and was among the first singer-songwriters in the age of mass media to use new communication technologies such as radio broadcasts, television, microphones, and sound recordings.

---

27/12/1979

Hafizullah Amin, Afghan educator and politician, 2nd General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (born 1929)

Hafizullah Amin was an Afghan revolutionary and communist head of state, who served in that position for a little over three months, from September 1979 until his assassination. He organized the Saur Revolution of 1978 and co-founded the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA), ruling Afghanistan as General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party.

---

27/12/1978

Chris Bell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1951)

Christopher Branford Bell was an American musician and singer-songwriter. Along with Alex Chilton, he led the power pop band Big Star through its first album #1 Record (1972). He also pursued a solo career throughout the mid-1970s, resulting in the posthumous I Am the Cosmos LP.

---

Houari Boumediene, Algerian colonel and politician, 2nd President of Algeria (born 1932)

Houari Boumédiène was an Algerian military officer, revolutionary and politician who was the second head of state of independent Algeria from 1965 until his death in 1978. He served as Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of Algeria from 19 June 1965 until 12 December 1976 and thereafter as president of Algeria until his death.

---

Bob Luman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1937)

Robert Glynn Luman was an American country and rockabilly singer.

---

27/12/1974

Vladimir Fock, Russian physicist and mathematician (born 1898)

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock was a Soviet physicist, who did foundational work on quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics.

---

Amy Vanderbilt, American author (born 1908)

Amy Osborne Vanderbilt was an American authority on etiquette. In 1952 she published the best-selling book Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette. The book, later retitled Amy Vanderbilt's Etiquette, has been updated and is still in circulation. Its longtime popularity has led to it being considered a standard of etiquette writing.

---

27/12/1972

Lester B. Pearson, Canadian historian and politician, 14th Prime Minister of Canada, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1897)

Lester Bowles Pearson was a Canadian politician, diplomat, and scholar who served as the 14th prime minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968. He also served as leader of the Liberal Party from 1958 to 1968 and as leader of the Official Opposition from 1958 to 1963.

---

27/12/1965

Edgar Ende, German painter (born 1901)

Edgar Karl Alfons Ende was a German surrealist painter and father of the children's novelist Michael Ende.

---

27/12/1956

Lambert McKenna, Irish priest and lexicographer (born 1870)

Lambert McKenna S.J. was a Jesuit priest and writer.

---

27/12/1955

Alfred Carpenter, English admiral, Victoria Cross recipient (born 1881)

Vice-Admiral Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter, VC was a Royal Navy officer who was selected by his fellow officers and men to receive the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

---

27/12/1953

Şükrü Saracoğlu, Turkish soldier and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1887)

Mehmet Şükrü Saracoğlu was a Turkish politician, the fifth prime minister of Turkey and the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs during the early stages of World War II. He signed the German–Turkish Treaty of Friendship in 1941, which would prevent Turkish involvement in the war. He was also the chairman of the Turkish sports club Fenerbahçe S.K. for 16 years between 1934 and 1950, including holding that post concurrently with his time as Prime Minister from 1942 to 1946.

---

Julian Tuwim, Polish poet and author (born 1894)

Julian Tuwim, known also under the pseudonym Oldlen as a lyricist, was a Polish poet, born in Łódź, then part of the Russian Partition. He was educated in Łódź and in Warsaw where he studied law and philosophy at Warsaw University. After Poland's return to independence in 1918, Tuwim co-founded the Skamander group of experimental poets with Antoni Słonimski and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. He was a major figure in Polish literature, admired also for his contribution to children's literature. He was a recipient of the prestigious Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature in 1935.

---

27/12/1952

Patrick Joseph Hartigan, Australian priest, author, and educator (born 1878)

Monsignor Patrick Joseph Hartigan was an Australian Roman Catholic priest, educator, author and poet, writing under the name John O'Brien.

---

27/12/1950

Max Beckmann, German-American painter and sculptor (born 1884)

Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920s, he was associated with the New Objectivity, an outgrowth of Expressionism that opposed its introverted emotionalism. Even when dealing with light subject matter like circus performers, Beckmann often had an undercurrent of moodiness or unease in his works. By the 1930s, his work became more explicit in its horrifying imagery and distorted forms with combination of brutal realism and social criticism, coinciding with the rise of Nazism in Germany.

---

27/12/1943

Ants Kurvits, Estonian general and politician, 10th Estonian Minister of War (born 1887)

Ants Kurvits or Hans Kurvits was an Estonian military commander, reaching rank of major general. He participated in the Estonian War of Independence and later became the founder and long-time leader of the Estonian Border Guard. Kurvits also served briefly as Minister of War.

---

27/12/1939

Rinaldo Cuneo, American painter (born 1877)

Rinaldo Cuneo, was an American artist known for his landscape paintings and murals. He was dubbed "the Painter of San Francisco".

---

27/12/1938

Calvin Bridges, American geneticist and academic (born 1889)

Calvin Blackman Bridges was an American scientist known for his contributions to the field of genetics. Along with Alfred Sturtevant and Hermann Joseph Muller, Bridges was part of Thomas Hunt Morgan's famous "Fly Room" at Columbia University.

---

Osip Mandelstam, Polish-Russian poet and critic (born 1891)

Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam was a Russian and Soviet poet. He was one of the foremost members of the Acmeist school.

---

Zona Gale, American novelist, short story writer, and playwright (born 1874)

Zona Gale, also known by her married name, Zona Gale Breese, was an American novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. The close relationship she had with her parents influenced both her writing and personal life. Her books, based on her hometown, were noted for their charm and intimate realism, capturing the underlying emotions and motivations of her characters. All of her works were published under her maiden name, Zona Gale.

---

27/12/1936

Mehmet Akif Ersoy, Turkish poet, academic, and politician (born 1873)

Mehmet Akif Ersoy was a Turkish poet, writer, academic, politician, and the author of the Turkish National Anthem. Widely regarded as one of the premiere literary minds of his time, Ersoy is noted for his command of the Turkish language, as well as his patriotism and role in the Turkish War of Independence.

---

27/12/1924

Agda Meyerson, Swedish nurse and healthcare activist (born 1866)

Agda Meyerson was a Swedish nurse who became an activist to improve the education, pay and working conditions of her profession. She served as vice chair of the Swedish Nursing Association in 1910 and on the board of numerous nursing facilities. She is recognized as one of the pioneers of the profession in Sweden.

---

27/12/1923

Gustave Eiffel, French architect and engineer, co-designed the Eiffel Tower (born 1832)

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was a French civil engineer. A graduate of École Centrale des Arts et Métiers, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway network, most famously the Garabit Viaduct. He is best known for the Eiffel Tower, designed by his company and built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, and his contribution to building the Statue of Liberty in New York. After his retirement from engineering, Eiffel focused on research into meteorology and aerodynamics, making significant contributions in both fields.

---

27/12/1919

Achilles Alferaki, Russian-Greek composer and politician, Governor of Taganrog (born 1846)

Achilles Nikolayevich Alferaki was a Russian composer and politician of Greek descent. His brother was Sergei Alphéraky. He served as the mayor of Taganrog from 1880 to 1888.

---

27/12/1914

Charles Martin Hall, American chemist and engineer (born 1863)

Charles Martin Hall was an American inventor, businessman, and chemist. He is best known for his invention in 1886 of an inexpensive method for producing aluminium, which became the first metal to attain widespread use since the prehistoric discovery of iron. He was one of the founders of Alcoa, along with Alfred E. Hunt; Hunt's partner at the Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory, George Hubbard Clapp; Hunt's chief chemist, W. S. Sample; Howard Lash, head of the Carbon Steel Company; Millard Hunsiker, sales manager for the Carbon Steel Company; and Robert Scott, a mill superintendent for the Carnegie Steel Company. Together they raised $20,000 to launch the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, which was later renamed Aluminum Company of America and then shortened to Alcoa.

---

27/12/1900

William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong, English engineer and businessman, founded Armstrong Whitworth (born 1810)

William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong, was an English engineer and industrialist who founded the Armstrong Whitworth manufacturing concern on Tyneside. He was also an eminent scientist, inventor and philanthropist. In collaboration with the architect Richard Norman Shaw, he built Cragside in Northumberland, the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity. He is regarded as the inventor of modern artillery.

---

27/12/1896

John Brown, English businessman and politician (born 1816)

Sir John Brown, British industrialist, was born in Sheffield. He was known as the Father of the South Yorkshire Iron Trade.

---

27/12/1895

Eivind Astrup, Norwegian explorer (born 1871)

Eivind Astrup was a Norwegian explorer and writer. Astrup participated in Robert Peary's expedition to Greenland in 1891–92 and mapped northern Greenland. In the follow-up Greenland expedition by Peary during 1893–94 he explored and mapped Melville Bay on the north-west coast of Greenland. Among his works is Blandt Nordpolens Naboer from 1895. He was awarded the Knight of the Order of St. Olav in 1892.

---

27/12/1858

Alexandre Pierre François Boëly, French pianist and composer (born 1785)

Alexandre Pierre-François Boëly was a French composer, organist, pianist, and violist.

---

27/12/1836

Stephen F. Austin, American soldier and politician (born 1793)

Stephen Fuller Austin was an American-born empresario, i.e. a person granted the right to settle on land in exchange for recruiting and taking responsibility for settling the eastern areas of the Tejas region of Mexico in the early nineteenth century. Known as the "Father of Texas" and the founder of Anglo Texas, he led the second and, ultimately, the successful colonization of the region by bringing 300 families and their slaves from the United States in 1825.

---

27/12/1834

Charles Lamb, English essayist and poet (born 1775)

Charles Lamb was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his Essays of Elia and for the children's book Tales from Shakespeare, co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764–1847).

---

27/12/1812

Joanna Southcott, English religious leader (born 1750)

Joanna Southcott was a British self-described religious prophetess from Devon. A "Southcottian" movement continued in various forms after her death.

---

27/12/1800

Hugh Blair, Scottish minister and author (born 1718)

Hugh Blair FRSE was a Scottish minister of religion, author and rhetorician, considered one of the first great theorists of written discourse.

---

27/12/1782

Henry Home, Lord Kames, Scottish judge and philosopher (born 1697)

Henry Home, Lord Kames was a Scottish writer, philosopher and judge who played a major role in Scotland's Agricultural Revolution. A central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, he was a founding member of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh and active in The Select Society. Home acted as patron to some of the most influential thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, including philosopher David Hume, economist Adam Smith, writer James Boswell, philosopher William Cullen and naturalist John Walker.

---

27/12/1776

Johann Rall, Hessian colonel (born c. 1726)

Johann Gottlieb Rall was a German colonel best known for his command of Hessian troops at the Battle of Trenton during the American Revolutionary War.

---

27/12/1771

Henri Pitot, French engineer, invented the Pitot tube (born 1695)

Henri Pitot was a French hydraulic engineer and the inventor of the pitot tube.

---

27/12/1743

Hyacinthe Rigaud, French painter (born 1659)

Jacint Rigau-Ros i Serra, known in French as Hyacinthe Rigaud, was a Catalan-French baroque painter most famous for his portraits of Louis XIV and other members of the French nobility.

---

27/12/1737

William Bowyer, English printer (born 1663)

William Bowyer the elder, English printer, was apprenticed to a Miles Flesher in 1679, made a liveryman of The Stationers' and Newspaper Makers' Company in 1700, and nominated as one of the twenty printers allowed by the Star Chamber.

---

27/12/1707

Jean Mabillon, French monk and scholar (born 1632)

Dom Jean Mabillon, was a French Benedictine monk and scholar of the Congregation of Saint Maur. He is considered the founder of the disciplines of palaeography and diplomatics.

---

Robert Leke, 3rd Earl of Scarsdale, English earl, politician (born 1654)

Robert Leke, 3rd Earl of Scarsdale was an English politician and courtier, styled Lord Deincourt from 1655 to 1681.

---

27/12/1704

Hans Albrecht von Barfus, Prussian field marshal and politician (born 1635)

Hans Albrecht von Barfus was a field marshal in the service of Brandenburg and Prussia, serving briefly as prime minister under King Frederick I.

---

27/12/1694

Henrik Span, naval officer in the Dutch (born 1634)

Henrik Span was a naval officer in the Dutch, Venetian and Danish navies. He reached the rank of Admiral in the Royal Danish Navy in 1683 and headed the Royal Danish Naval Dockyard in Copenhagen from 1690. In 1692, he was granted Hørbygaard at Holbæk and raised to the peerage by Christian V of Denmark.

---

27/12/1693

Henri de Villars, French prelate (born 1621)

Henri de Villars was a French prelate, latterly Archbishop of Vienne from 1662 to his death.

---

27/12/1689

Gervase Bryan, English clergyman (born 1622)

Gervase Bryan was an English clergyman, an ejected minister of 1662.

---

27/12/1683

Maria Francisca of Savoy, Queen consort of Portugal (born 1646)

Dona Maria Francisca Isabel of Savoy was Queen of Portugal during her marriage to King Dom Afonso VI from 2 August 1666 to 24 March 1668 and, as the wife of Afonso's brother King Dom Peter II, from 12 September 1683 until her death in December that year. She married Afonso VI at the age of 20; because the marriage was never consummated, she was able to obtain an annulment. On 28 March 1668, she married the King's brother Infante Dom Peter, Duke of Beja, who was appointed prince regent the same year due to Afonso's perceived incompetence. She became queen a second time when Afonso died and Peter succeeded his brother, but she herself died three months later.

---

27/12/1672

Jacques Rohault, French philosopher (born 1618)

Jacques Rohault was a French philosopher, physicist and mathematician, and a follower of Cartesianism.

---

27/12/1663

Christine of France, Duchess of Savoy (born 1606)

Christine of France was Duchess of Savoy from 26 July 1630 to 7 October 1637 as the consort of Duke Victor Amadeus I. She was the daughter of Henry IV of France and sister of Louis XIII. Following her husband's death in 1637, she acted as regent of Savoy between 1637 and 1648.

---

27/12/1660

Hervey Bagot, English politician (born 1591)

Sir Hervey Bagot, 1st Baronet was an English MP.

---

27/12/1656

Andrew White, English Jesuit missionary (born 1579)

Andrew White was an English Jesuit Catholic missionary who was involved in the founding of the Maryland colony. A chronicler of Colonial Maryland, his writings remain a primary source on the land, the Native Americans and the Jesuit mission in North America.

---

27/12/1642

Herman op den Graeff, Dutch bishop (born 1585)

Herman op den Graeff, also Hermann, was a Mennonite community leader from Krefeld.

---

27/12/1641

Francis van Aarssens, Dutch diplomat (born 1572)[citation needed]

Baron Francis van Aarssens or Baron François van Aerssen, from 1611 on lord of Sommelsdijk, was a diplomat and statesman of the United Provinces.

---

27/12/1637

Vincenzo Giustiniani, Italian banker (born 1564)

Vincenzo Giustiniani was an aristocratic Italian banker, art collector and intellectual of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, known today largely for the Giustiniani art collection, assembled at the Palazzo Giustiniani, near the Pantheon, in Rome, and at the family palazzo at Bassano by Vincenzo and his brother, Cardinal Benedetto, and for his patronage of the artist Caravaggio.

---

27/12/1603

Thomas Cartwright, English minister and theologian (born 1535)

Thomas Cartwright was an English Puritan preacher and theologian.

---

27/12/1548

Francesco Spiera, Italian lawyer and jurist (born 1502)

Francesco Spiera was a Protestant Italian jurist. The manner of his death has been the subject of numerous religious tracts.

---

27/12/1543

George, margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (born 1484)

George of Brandenburg-Ansbach, known as George the Pious, was a margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach from the House of Hohenzollern.

---

27/12/1518

Mahmood Shah Bahmani II, sultan of the Bahmani Sultanate (born c. 1470)

Mahmood Shah or Shihab-Ud-Din Mahmud was the sultan of the Bahmani Sultanate from 1482 until his death in 1518. His long rule is noted for the disintegration of the sultanate and the creation of the independent Deccan sultanates.

---

27/12/1381

Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March, English politician (born 1352)

Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March and Earl of Ulster was an English magnate who was appointed Lieutenant of Ireland, but died after only two years in the post.

---

27/12/1087

Bertha of Savoy, Holy Roman Empress (born 1051)

Bertha of Savoy, also called Bertha of Turin, was Queen of Germany from 1066 and Holy Roman Empress from 1084 until 1087 as the first wife of Emperor Henry IV.

---

27/12/1076

Sviatoslav II, Grand Prince of Kiev (born 1027)

Sviatoslav II Iaroslavich or Sviatoslav II Yaroslavich was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1073 until his death in 1076. He was a younger son of Yaroslav the Wise, the grand prince of Kiev. He is the progenitor of the Sviatoslavichi branch of Rurikids.

---

27/12/1005

Nilus the Younger, Byzantine abbot (born 910)

Nilus the Younger, also called Neilos of Rossano was a Griko monk and abbot from Calabria, Italy. He was the founder of Italo-Byzantine monasticism in southern Italy. He is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches, and his feast day is celebrated on September 26 in both the Byzantine calendar and the Roman Martyrology.

---

27/12/1003

Emma of Blois, French duchess and regent

Emma of Blois was Duchess of Aquitaine by marriage to William IV, Duke of Aquitaine. She ruled Aquitaine as regent for her son, William V, Duke of Aquitaine, from 996 until 1004.

---

27/12/0975

Balderic, bishop of Utrecht (born 897)

Balderic of Cleves was a long-reigning and influential Bishop of Utrecht from 918 to 975.

---

27/12/0870

Aeneas of Paris, Frankish bishop

Aeneas of Paris was bishop of Paris from 858 to 870. He is best known as the author of one of the controversial treatises against the Byzantines ("Greeks"), called forth by the encyclical letters of Photius. His comprehensive Liber adversus Græcos deals with the procession of the Holy Spirit, the marriage of the clergy, fasting, the consignatio infantium, the clerical tonsure, the Roman primacy, and the elevation of deacons to the see of Rome. He declares that the accusations brought by the Greeks against the Latins are "superfluous questions having more relation to secular matters than to spiritual."

---

27/12/0683

Gaozong of Tang, 3rd emperor of the Chinese Tang dynasty (born 628)

Emperor Gaozong of Tang, personal name Li Zhi, was the third emperor of the Chinese Tang dynasty, ruling from 649 to 683; after January 665, he handed power over the empire to his second wife Empress Wu, and her decrees were carried out with greater force than the decrees of Emperor Gaozong's. Emperor Gaozong was the youngest son of Emperor Taizong and Empress Zhangsun; his elder brothers were Li Chengqian and Li Tai.

---