Died on Monday, 29th December – Famous Deaths

29/12/2024

Aaron Brown, American journalist and academic (born 1948)

Aaron Brown was an American broadcast journalist, most recognized for his coverage of the September 11 attacks for CNN. He was a longtime reporter for ABC, the founding co-anchor of ABC's World News Now, weekend anchor of World News Tonight, and the host of CNN's flagship evening program NewsNight with Aaron Brown. He was the anchor of the PBS documentary series Wide Angle from 2008 to 2009. He was a professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University from 2007 to 2014.

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Jimmy Carter, American politician, 39th President of the United States (born 1924)

James Earl Carter Jr. was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, Carter served from 1971 to 1975 as the 76th governor of Georgia and from 1963 to 1967 in the Georgia State Senate. He lived longer than any other president in US history, reaching age 100.

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Linda Lavin, American actress and singer (born 1937)

Linda Lavin was an American actress and singer. Known for her roles on stage and screen, she received several awards including three Drama Desk Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Obie Awards, and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for a Daytime Emmy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. She was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2010.

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Tomiko Itooka, Japanese supercentenarian (born 1908)

Tomiko Itooka was a Japanese supercentenarian who was recognized as the world's oldest verified living person in September 2024. She managed her family's textile business during World War II and lived to the age of 116 years and 220 days.

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29/12/2023

Gil de Ferran, French-born Brazilian racing driver, CART champion (2000, 2001), 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner (born 1967)

Gil de Ferran was a Brazilian professional racing driver and team owner. De Ferran was the 2000 and 2001 Champ Car champion driving for Team Penske and the winner of the 2003 Indianapolis 500. He also finished runner-up in the American Le Mans Series LMP1 class in 2009, with his own de Ferran Motorsports.

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29/12/2022

Pelé, Brazilian footballer (born 1940)

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known by his nickname Pelé, was a Brazilian professional footballer who played as a forward. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in history, he was among the most successful and popular sports figures of the 20th century. His 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, which includes friendlies, is recognised as a Guinness World Record. In 1999, he was named Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee and was included in the Time list of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. In 2000, Pelé was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) and was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the Century, alongside Diego Maradona.

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Edgar Savisaar, Estonian politician, Estonian Minister of the Interior (born 1950)

Edgar Savisaar was an Estonian politician, one of the founding members of Popular Front of Estonia and the Centre Party. He served as the acting Prime Minister of Estonia, Minister of the Interior, Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications, and twice mayor of Tallinn.

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Vivienne Westwood, English fashion designer (born 1941)

Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood was an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. In 2022, Sky Arts ranked her the 4th most influential artist in Britain of the past 50 years.

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29/12/2021

Peter Klatzow, South African composer (born 1945)

Peter James Leonard Klatzow was a South African composer and pianist known for his contributions to classical music in South Africa, particularly through his innovative use of tonality, his integration of diverse cultural influences, and his significant advancements in marimba music. He held academic positions at the University of Cape Town, where he became professor of composition and director of the South African College of Music.

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29/12/2020

Pierre Cardin, Italian-French fashion designer (born 1922)

Pietro Costante Cardin, known as Pierre Cardin, was an Italian-French fashion designer. He is known for what were his avant-garde style and Space Age designs. He preferred geometric shapes and motifs, often ignoring the female form. He advanced into unisex fashions, sometimes experimental, and not always practical. He founded his fashion house in 1950 and introduced the "bubble dress" in 1954.

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Joe Louis Clark, American educator (born 1937)

Joe Louis Clark was an American educator and administrator, who was best known for his tenure as principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey from 1982 to 1989. He gained national attention for his unconventional and controversial disciplinary measures while leading the school, and was the subject of the 1989 film Lean on Me, starring Morgan Freeman.

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Alexi Laiho, Finnish singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1979)

Alexi Laiho was a Finnish guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. He was the lead guitarist, lead vocalist and founding member of the melodic death metal band Children of Bodom, and a guitarist for Sinergy, the Local Band, Kylähullut, and Bodom After Midnight, which formed just prior to his death. Laiho had previously played with Thy Serpent and Impaled Nazarene on occasion, as well as Warmen and Hypocrisy.

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29/12/2019

Alasdair Gray, Scottish writer and artist (born 1934)

Alasdair James Gray was a Scottish writer and artist. He published novels, short stories, plays, poetry and translations, and wrote on politics and the history of English and Scots literature. His works of fiction combine realism, fantasy, and science fiction with the use of his own typography and illustrations, and won several awards.

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Neil Innes, English writer, comedian and musician (born 1944)

Neil James Innes was an English writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the comedy rock group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later became a frequent collaborator with the Monty Python troupe on their BBC television series and films, and is often called the "seventh Python" along with performer Carol Cleveland. He co-created the Rutles, a Beatles parody/pastiche project, with Python Eric Idle, and wrote the band's songs. He also wrote and voiced the 1980s ITV children's cartoon adventures of The Raggy Dolls.

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29/12/2018

Brian Garfield, American novelist, historian and screenwriter (born 1939)

Brian Francis Wynne Garfield was an Edgar Award-winning American novelist, historian and screenwriter. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, he wrote his first published book at the age of eighteen. Garfield went on to author more than seventy books across a variety of genres, selling more than twenty million copies worldwide. Nineteen were made into films or TV shows. He is best known for Death Wish (1972), which launched a lucrative franchise when it was adapted into the 1974 film of the same title.

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Rosenda Monteros, Mexican actress (born 1935)

Rosa Méndez Leza, known professionally as Rosenda Monteros, was a Mexican actress. She studied drama under Seki Sano. To American audiences, she is best known for her role as Petra in The Magnificent Seven. She had a prolific film career north and south of the U.S.–Mexican border.

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29/12/2017

Peggy Cummins, Irish actress (born 1925)

Peggy Cummins was an Irish actress, born in Wales, who is best known for her performance in Joseph H. Lewis's Gun Crazy (1950), playing a trigger-happy femme fatale, who robs banks with her lover. In 2020, she was listed at number 16 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.

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John C. Portman Jr., American neofuturistic architect and real estate developer (born 1924)

John Calvin Portman Jr. was an American neofuturistic architect and real estate developer widely known for popularizing hotels and office buildings with multi-storied interior atria. Portman also had a particularly large impact on the cityscape of his hometown of Atlanta, with the Peachtree Center complex serving as downtown's business and tourism anchor from the 1970s onward. The Peachtree Center area includes Portman-designed Hyatt, Westin, and Marriott hotels. Portman's plans typically dealt with primitives in the forms of symmetrical squares and circles.

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29/12/2016

Keion Carpenter, American football defensive back (born 1977)

Keion Eric Carpenter was an American professional football safety who played for the Buffalo Bills and the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League.

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LaVell Edwards, American football head coach (born 1930)

Reuben LaVell Edwards was an American college football head coach for Brigham Young University (BYU). With 257 career victories, he ranks as one of the most successful college football coaches of all time. Among his many notable accomplishments, Edwards guided BYU to a national championship in 1984 and coached Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer in 1990.

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29/12/2015

Om Prakash Malhotra, Indian general and politician, 25th Governor of Punjab (born 1922)

General Om Prakash Malhotra,, best known as OP Malhotra, was a senior army officer in the Indian Army who served as the 10th Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army from 1978 – 1981. Upon retiring from his military service in India, he served in the Indian Foreign Service when he tenured as the Indian Ambassador to Indonesia 1981–1984, and later served as a political administrator in India as the Governor of Punjab and Administrator of Chandigarh 1990–1991.

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Pavel Srníček, Czech footballer and coach (born 1968)

Pavel Srníček was a Czech football coach and former professional player who played as a goalkeeper.

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Kim Yang-gon, North Korean politician (born 1942)

Kim Yang-gon was a North Korean politician and a senior official of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

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29/12/2014

Syed Hamid, Indian academic and diplomat (born 1920)

Syed Hamid was an Indian educationist and diplomat. He was a member of Indian Administrative Service and also served as the Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University. He had also served in several important committees, including the Sachar Committee set up by the UPA government to probe the social and economic conditions of the Indian Muslim community.

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Hari Harilela, Indian-Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist (born 1922)

Hari Naroomal Harilela, was a Hong Kong Indian businessman, hotelier and philanthropist and the founder and chairman of the Harilela Group. The group runs businesses ranging from hotel and real estate investment to import and export trading. He was often dubbed the richest Indian in Hong Kong.

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Odd Iversen, Norwegian footballer (born 1945)

Odd "Ivers" Iversen was a Norwegian footballer who played as a striker; he is notable for his former record of 158 goals in Norwegian top tier football, as well as his still-standing record of 30 goals in a single season.

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Juanito Remulla, Sr., Filipino lawyer and politician, Governor of Cavite (born 1933)

Juanito "Johnny" Reyes Remulla Sr. was a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the longest sitting governor of Cavite.

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29/12/2013

C. T. Hsia, Chinese-American critic and scholar (born 1921)

Hsia Chih-tsing, or C. T. Hsia, was a Chinese historian and literary theorist. He contributed to the introduction of modern Chinese literature to the Western world by promoting the works of once marginalized writers in the 1960s. Today, C. T. Hsia is considered one of the most important critics of Chinese literature.

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Paul Comstive, English footballer (born 1961)

Paul Comstive was an English professional footballer who mainly played as a midfielder. He played in the Football League for seven different clubs and also played non-league football.

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Benjamin Curtis, American guitarist, drummer, and songwriter (born 1978)

Benjamin Curtis was an American guitarist and drummer. He was a member of bands Tripping Daisy, Secret Machines and School of Seven Bells.

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Connie Dierking, American basketball player (born 1936)

Conrad William Dierking was an American professional basketball player from 1958 to 1971.

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Wojciech Kilar, Polish classical and film music composer (born 1932)

Wojciech Kilar was a Polish classical and film music composer. One of his greatest successes came with his score to Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1992, which received the ASCAP Award and the nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Music. In 2003, he won the César Award for Best Film Music written for The Pianist, for which he also received a BAFTA nomination. In 2012, he became the recipient of Poland's highest distinction, the Order of the White Eagle.

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Besik Kudukhov, Russian wrestler (born 1986)

Besik Serodinovich Kudukhov was a Russian freestyle wrestler of Ossetian descent. He won a bronze medal in the 55 kg category at the 2008 Olympics. He also won a silver medal in the 60 kg category at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

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Jagadish Mohanty, Indian author and translator (born 1951)

Jagadish Mohanty was a renowned Odia writer, considered as a trendsetter in modern Odia fiction, has received the prestigious Sarala Award in 2003, Odisha Sahitya Akademi Award in 1990 for his novel Kanishka Kanishka, Dharitri Award in 1985, Jhankar Award, Prajatantra Award. Born in Gorumahisani, an iron-ore mines in northern periphery in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, he spent more than 30 years of his life working in the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited(MCL) in western periphery of Odisha. Though he kept himself away from the cultural capital of Odisha, but still his writings highlighted him in the mainstream of Odia literature and culture.

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Mike O'Connor, German-American journalist (born 1946)

Mike O'Connor was a German-born American journalist, war correspondent, and Mexico's representative for Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promote press freedom around the world. Born in Germany following World War II to Americans stationed in a refugee camp, O'Connor began his career as a journalist in the 1980s. As a foreign journalist, he covered civil wars and conflicts for NPR, The New York Times, CBS News, among others.

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29/12/2012

Mike Auldridge, American singer and guitarist (born 1938)

Mike Auldridge was an American Dobro player and a founding member of the bluegrass group The Seldom Scene. The New York Times described Auldridge as "one of the most distinctive dobro players in the history of country and bluegrass music while widening its popularity among urban audiences". He also worked as a graphic artist.

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Tony Greig, South African-Australian cricketer and sportscaster (born 1946)

Anthony William Greig was a South African–born cricketer and commentator. Greig qualified to play for the England cricket team by virtue of his Scottish father. He was a tall all-rounder who bowled both medium pace and off spin. Greig was captain of England from 1975 to 1977, and captained Sussex. His younger brother, Ian, also played Test cricket, while several other members of his extended family played at first-class level.

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Roland Griffiths-Marsh, Malaysian-Australian soldier and author (born 1923)

Roland Griffiths-Marsh, was an Australian soldier and author.

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Edward Meneeley, American painter and sculptor (born 1927)

Edward Meneeley was an American artist who created paintings, sculptures, and prints.

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Ben Overton, American jurist (born 1926)

Benjamin Frederick Overton was a justice of the Supreme Court of Florida.

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William Rees-Mogg, British newspaper journalist (born 1928)

William Rees-Mogg, Baron Rees-Mogg was a British newspaper journalist who was Editor of The Times from 1967 to 1981. In the late 1970s, he served as High Sheriff of Somerset, and in the 1980s was Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain and Vice-Chairman of the BBC's Board of Governors. He is the father of the politicians Jacob and Annunziata Rees-Mogg.

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Salvador Reyes Monteón, Mexican footballer and manager (born 1936)

Salvador Reyes Monteón was a Mexican professional footballer who played as a forward.

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Paulo Rocha, Portuguese director and screenwriter (born 1935)

Paulo Soares da Rocha was a Portuguese film director. Among his best-known films are A Ilha dos Amores and O Rio do Ouro. A Ilha dos Amores was entered into the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, O Desejado was entered into the main competition at the 44th edition of the Venice Film Festival, and O Rio do Ouro was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1998 Festival.

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Bruce Stark, American cartoonist (born 1933)

Bruce Stark was an American artist noted for his caricatures of entertainment and sports figures.

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Ignacy Tokarczuk, Polish archbishop (born 1918)

Ignacy Tokarczuk was a Polish prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.

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29/12/2011

Constance Bartlett Hieatt, American scholar (born 1928)

Constance Bartlett Hieatt was an American scholar with a broad interest in medieval languages and literatures, including Old Norse literature, Anglo-Saxon prosody and literature, and Middle English language, literature, and culture. She was an editor and translator of Karlamagnús saga, of Beowulf, and a scholar of Geoffrey Chaucer. She was particularly known as one of the world's foremost experts in English medieval cooking and cookbooks, and authored and co-authored a number of important books considered essential publications in the field.

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29/12/2010

Avi Cohen, Israeli footballer and manager (born 1956)

Avraham "Avi" Cohen was an Israeli footballer who played as a defender, and a manager. He was best known for his spells playing for two British clubs: Liverpool in England and Rangers in Scotland. After retirement from active football and management, he was the chairman of the Israel Professional Footballers Association for over five years until he was killed in a motorcycle crash. after his death Maccabi Tel Aviv retired the number 5 that he formerly wore.

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Bill Erwin, American actor and cartoonist (born 1914)

William Lindsey Erwin was an American actor with over 250 television and film credits. A veteran character actor, he is widely known for his 1993 Emmy Award-nominated performance on Seinfeld, portraying the embittered, irascible retiree Sid Fields. He also made notable appearances on shows such as I Love Lucy and Star Trek: The Next Generation. In cinema, his most recognized role is that of Arthur Biehl, a kindly bellman at the Grand Hotel, in Somewhere in Time (1980).

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29/12/2009

Janina Bauman, Polish journalist and writer (born 1926)

Janina Bauman was a Polish journalist and writer of Jewish origin.

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David Levine, American artist and illustrator (born 1926)

David Levine was an American artist and illustrator best known for his caricatures in The New York Review of Books. Jules Feiffer has called him "the greatest caricaturist of the last half of the 20th Century".

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Steve Williams, American football player and wrestler (born 1960)

Steven Franklin Williams, best known under the ring name "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, was an American collegiate and professional wrestler and collegiate football player. He was known for his tenures in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and is a three-time professional wrestling world heavyweight champion, having won both the Herb Abrams and Bill Watts versions of the UWF World Heavyweight Championship and the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship.

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29/12/2008

Freddie Hubbard, American trumpet player and composer (born 1938)

Frederick Dewayne Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He played bebop, hard bop, and post-bop styles from the early 1960s onwards. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives for modern jazz and bebop.

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Victor H. Krulak, American soldier (born 1913)

Victor Harold Krulak was a decorated United States Marine Corps officer who saw action in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Krulak, considered a visionary by fellow Marines, was the author of First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps and the father of the 31st Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Charles C. Krulak.

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29/12/2007

Phil O'Donnell, Scottish footballer (born 1972)

Philip O'Donnell was a Scottish professional footballer who played as a midfielder for Motherwell, Celtic and Sheffield Wednesday. He also earned one international cap for Scotland and twice won the PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year award. He died after suffering cardiac arrest while playing for Motherwell against Dundee United on 29 December 2007, aged 35.

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Phil Dusenberry, American advertising executive (born 1936)

Philip Bernard Dusenberry was an American advertising executive for the BBDO advertising agency.

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Kevin Greening, English radio host (born 1962)

Kevin Greening was a British radio presenter, who co-hosted BBC Radio 1's Breakfast Show with Zoe Ball from 13 October 1997 to 25 September 1998.

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29/12/2005

Gerda Boyesen, Norwegian-English psychotherapist and author (born 1922)

Gerda Boyesen was the founder of Biodynamic Psychology, a branch of body psychotherapy.

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Cyril Philips, British historian and academic director (born 1912)

Sir Cyril Henry Philips, FRAS, knighted in the 1974 New Years Honours List, was a noted British historian and academic director.

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Basil William Robinson, British art scholar and author (born 1912)

Basil William Robinson, FBA, FSA, FRAS was a British art scholar and author, specializing in Asian art and history.

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29/12/2004

Julius Axelrod, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1912)

Julius Axelrod was an American biochemist. He won a share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1970 along with Bernard Katz and Ulf von Euler. The Nobel Committee honored him for his work on the release and reuptake of catecholamine neurotransmitters, a class of chemicals in the brain that include epinephrine, norepinephrine, and, as was later discovered, dopamine. Axelrod also made major contributions to the understanding of the pineal gland and how it is regulated during the sleep-wake cycle.

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Ken Burkhart, American baseball player and umpire (born 1916)

Kenneth William Burkhart was an American right-handed pitcher and umpire in Major League Baseball. From 1945 through 1949 he played with the St. Louis Cardinals (1945–48) and Cincinnati Reds (1948–49), and served as a National League umpire from 1957 to 1973.

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Peter Davison, American poet, essayist, teacher, lecturer, editor and publisher (born 1928)

Peter Davison was an American poet, essayist, teacher, lecturer, editor, and publisher.

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Liddy Holloway, New Zealand actress and screenwriter (born 1947)

Elizabeth Brenda "Liddy" Holloway was a New Zealand actress and television scriptwriter.

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29/12/2003

Earl Hindman, American actor (born 1942)

Earl John Hindman was an American actor, best known for his roles as Bob Reid on the television soap opera Ryan's Hope from 1975—1984 and 1988–89, and as Wilson W. Wilson on the sitcom Home Improvement from 1991–1999.

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Dinsdale Landen, English actor (born 1932)

Dinsdale James Landen was an English actor. His television appearances included starring in the shows Devenish (1977) and Pig in the Middle (1980). The Independent named him an "outstanding actor with the qualities of a true farceur". He performed in many Shakespeare plays at Stratford-upon-Avon and Regent's Park Open Air Theatre.

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Bob Monkhouse, English comedian, actor, and game show host (born 1928)

Robert Alan Monkhouse was an English comedian, television presenter, writer and actor. He was the host of television game shows including The Golden Shot, Celebrity Squares, Family Fortunes and Wipeout.

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29/12/2002

Lloyd Barbee, American lawyer and politician (born 1925)

Lloyd Augustus Barbee was an American lawyer and politician who worked for civil rights. He led the effort to integrate the Milwaukee Public School system. He was a Democrat.

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Ralph Clanton, American actor (born 1914)

Ralph Woodward Clanton was an American character actor of film, stage, and television. His most seen performance was Comte De Guiche in the 1950 film Cyrano de Bergerac, the first sound version in English of Edmond Rostand's play, and the film for which José Ferrer won his only Academy Award for Best Actor. Besides Ferrer as Cyrano, Clanton was the only holdover from the cast of the 1946 Broadway revival of the play, and would play the role of De Guiche opposite him once more, in a New York City Center production in 1953.

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29/12/2001

Takashi Asahina, Japanese conductor (born 1908)

Asahina Takashi was a Japanese conductor.

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Cássia Eller, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1962)

Cássia Rejane Eller was a Brazilian singer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, regarded as one of the greatest representatives of Brazilian rock in the 1990s.

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György Kepes, Hungarian painter, photographer, designer, educator and art theorist (born 1906)

György Kepes was a Hungarian-born painter, photographer, designer, educator, and art theorist. After immigrating to the U.S. in 1937, he taught design at the New Bauhaus in Chicago. In 1967 he founded the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he taught until his retirement in 1974.

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29/12/1999

Leon Radzinowicz, Polish-English criminologist and academic (born 1906)

Sir Leon Radzinowicz, was a criminologist and academic. He was the founding director of the Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge.

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29/12/1998

Ralph Siu, American scholar, military and civil servant, and author (born 1917)

Ralph Gun Hoy Siu was an American scholar, military and civil servant, and author. Siu served as the first Director of the National Institute of Justice from 1968 to 1969.

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Don Taylor, American actor and film director (born 1920)

Donald Ritchie Taylor was an American actor and film director. He co-starred in 1940s and 1950s classics, including the 1948 film noir The Naked City, Battleground, Father of the Bride, Father's Little Dividend and Stalag 17. He later turned to directing films such as Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), Tom Sawyer (1973), Echoes of a Summer (1976), and Damien - Omen II (1978).

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29/12/1996

Pennar Davies, Welsh clergyman and author (born 1911)

William Thomas Pennar Davies was a Welsh clergyman and author.

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Mireille Hartuch, French singer-songwriter and actress (born 1906)

Mireille Hartuch was a French singer, composer, and actress. She was generally known by the stage name "Mireille," it being a common practice of the time to use a single name for the stage.

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Peggy Herbison, Scottish politician (born 1907)

Margaret McCrorie Herbison was a Scottish Labour politician who was Minister of Social Security from 1964 to 1967.

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29/12/1995

Lita Grey, American actress (born 1908)

Lita Grey, who was known for most of her life as Lita Grey Chaplin, was an American actress. She was the second wife of Charlie Chaplin, and appeared in his films The Kid, The Idle Class, and The Gold Rush.

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Hans Henkemans, Dutch pianist, composer and psychiatrist (born 1913)

Hans Henkemans was a Dutch pianist, teacher, composer of classical music and psychiatrist.

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29/12/1994

Frank Thring, Australian actor (born 1926)

Francis William Thring IV was an Australian character actor in radio, stage, television and film; as well as a theatre director. His early career started in London in theatre productions, before he starred in Hollywood film, where he became best known for roles in Ben-Hur in 1959 and King of Kings in 1961. He was known for always wearing black and styling his home in black decor.

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29/12/1993

Frunzik Mkrtchyan, Armenian actor (born 1930)

Mher Musheghi Mkrtchyan, better known by the name Frunzik, a diminutive of his official given name Frunze, in honor of Mikhail Frunze, was an Armenian stage and film actor. Mkrtchyan is widely considered one of the greatest actors of the Soviet period among Armenians and the USSR as a whole. He received the prestigious People's Artist of the USSR award in 1984.

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29/12/1992

Vivienne Segal, American actress and singer (born 1897)

Vivienne Sonia Segal was an American actress and singer.

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29/12/1989

Süreyya Ağaoğlu, Azerbaijani-Turkish lawyer and jurist (born 1903)

Süreyya Ağaoğlu was a Turkish-Azerbaijani writer, jurist, and the first female lawyer in Turkish history.

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29/12/1988

Mike Beuttler, Egyptian race car driver (born 1940)

Michael Simon Brindley Bream Beuttler was a British Formula One driver who raced privately entered March cars. He was born in Cairo, Egypt, the son of Colonel Leslie Brindley Bream Beuttler, Duke of Wellington's Regiment, O.B.E., and a descendant on his mother's side of the Scottish ornithologist William Robert Ogilvie-Grant, grandson of the 6th Earl of Seafield.

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Ieuan Maddock, Welsh scientist and nuclear researcher (born 1917)

Sir Ieuan Maddock was a Welsh scientist and nuclear researcher. He played a role in the nuclear weapons tests in Australia in the 1950s and the 1973 Partial Test-Ban treaty.

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29/12/1987

Jun Ishikawa, Japanese author (born 1899)

Kiyoshi Ishikawa, known by his pen name Jun Ishikawa, was a Japanese modernist author, translator and literary critic active during the Shōwa era.

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Wilbert E. Moore, American sociologist (born 1914)

Wilbert E. Moore was an American sociologist noted, with Kingsley Davis, for their explanation and justification for social stratification, based their idea of "functional necessity."

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29/12/1986

Harold Macmillan, English captain and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1894)

Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Nicknamed "Supermac", he was known for his pragmatism, wit, and unflappability.

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Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian director and screenwriter (born 1932)

Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet film director and screenwriter of Russian origin. He is widely considered one of the greatest directors in cinema history. His films explore spiritual and metaphysical themes and are known for their slow pacing and long takes, dreamlike visual imagery and preoccupation with nature and memory.

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29/12/1984

Indus Arthur, American actress and singer (born 1941)

Indus Arthur was an American film and television actress.

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P. H. Polk, American photographer (born 1898)

Prentice Herman Polk Sr. was an American photographer known for his portraits of African Americans. He also served for several years as head of the Tuskegee Institute's Department of Photography.

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Leo Robin, American composer, lyricist and songwriter (born 1900)

Leo Robin was an American composer, lyricist and songwriter. He is probably best known for collaborating with Ralph Rainger on the 1938 Oscar-winning song "Thanks for the Memory," sung by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross in the film The Big Broadcast of 1938, and with Jule Styne on "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend".

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29/12/1981

Philip Handler, American nutritionist, and biochemist (born 1917)

Philip Handler was an American nutritionist, and biochemist. He was President of the United States National Academy of Sciences for two terms from 1969 to 1981. He was also a recipient of the National Medal of Science.

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Miroslav Krleža, Croatian author, poet, and playwright (born 1893)

Miroslav Krleža was a Croatian writer who is widely considered to be the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century. He wrote notable works in all the literary genres, including poetry, theater, short stories, novels, and an intimate diary. His works often include themes of bourgeois hypocrisy and conformism in Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Krleža wrote numerous essays on problems of art, history, politics, literature, philosophy, and military strategy, and was known as one of the great polemicists of the century. His style combines visionary poetic language and sarcasm.

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29/12/1980

Tim Hardin, American singer-songwriter (born 1941)

James Timothy Hardin was an American folk music and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. In addition to his own success, his songs "If I Were a Carpenter", "Reason to Believe", "Misty Roses" and "The Lady Came from Baltimore" were hits for other artists.

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Nadezhda Mandelstam, Russian author and educator (born 1899)

Nadezhda Yakovlevna Mandelstam was a Soviet writer, translator, educator, linguist, and memoirist.

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Irvin F. Westheimer, American businessman and social reformer (born 1879)

Irvin Ferdinand Westheimer was an American businessman and social reformer, who is best remembered for being the founder of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

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29/12/1979

F. Edward Hébert, American journalist and politician (born 1901)

Felix Edward Hébert was an American journalist and politician from Louisiana. He represented the New Orleans–based 1st congressional district as a Democrat for 18 consecutive terms, from 1941 until his retirement in 1977. He remains Louisiana's longest-serving U.S. representative.

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Richard Tecwyn Williams, Welsh biochemist (born 1909)

Richard Tecwyn Williams FRS was a Welsh biochemist who founded the systematic study of xenobiotic metabolism with the publication of his book Detoxication mechanisms in 1947. This seminal book built on his earlier work on the role of glucuronic acid in the metabolism of borneol.

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29/12/1976

Ivo Van Damme, Belgian runner (born 1954)

Ivo Van Damme was a Belgian middle-distance runner.

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29/12/1975

Euell Gibbons, American author and naturalist (born 1911)

Euell Theophilus Gibbons was an outdoorsman and early health food advocate who promoted eating wild foods during the 1960s.

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29/12/1972

Joseph Cornell, American sculptor and director (born 1903)

Joseph Cornell was an American visual artist and filmmaker, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant-garde experimental filmmaker. He was largely self-taught in his artistic efforts, and improvised his own original style incorporating cast-off and discarded artifacts. He lived most of his life in relative physical isolation, caring for his mother and his disabled brother at home, but remained aware of and in contact with other contemporary artists.

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Chrysostomos Papasarantopoulos, Greek priest and missionary (born 1903)

Rev. Archimandrite Chrysóstomos Papasarantópoulos was a pioneering missionary of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Congo.

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29/12/1971

John Marshall Harlan II, American lawyer and jurist (born 1899)

John Marshall Harlan was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1955 to 1971. Harlan is usually called John Marshall Harlan II to distinguish him from his grandfather, John Marshall Harlan, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1877 to 1911.

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29/12/1970

William King Gregory, American zoologist and anatomist (born 1876)

William King Gregory was an American zoologist, primatologist, paleontologist, and functional and comparative anatomist. He was an expert on mammalian dentition, and a contributor to theories of evolution. He presented his ideas to students and the general public through books and museum exhibits.

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Marie Menken, American director and painter (born 1909)

Marie Menken was an American experimental filmmaker, painter, and socialite. She was noted for her unique filming style that incorporated collage. She was one of the first New York filmmakers to use a hand-held camera and trained Andy Warhol on its use. Her film Glimpse of the Garden was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

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29/12/1968

Austin Farrer, English theologian and philosopher (born 1904)

Austin Marsden Farrer was an English Anglican philosopher, theologian, and biblical scholar. His activity in philosophy, theology, and spirituality led many to consider him one of the greatest figures of 20th-century Anglicanism. He served as Warden of Keble College, Oxford, from 1960 to 1968.

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29/12/1967

Paul Whiteman, American violinist, composer, and conductor (born 1890)

Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American Jazz bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist.

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29/12/1965

Frank Nugent, American screenwriter, journalist and film reviewer (born 1908)

Frank Stanley Nugent was an American screenwriter, journalist, and film reviewer. He wrote 21 film scripts, 11 for director John Ford. He wrote almost a thousand reviews for The New York Times before leaving journalism for Hollywood. He was nominated for an Academy Award in 1953 and twice won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Comedy. The Writers Guild of America, West ranks his screenplay for The Searchers (1956) among the top 101 screenplays of all time.

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Kōsaku Yamada, Japanese composer and conductor (born 1886)

Kōsaku Yamada was a Japanese composer and conductor.

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29/12/1960

Eden Phillpotts, English author and poet (born 1862)

Eden Phillpotts was an English author, poet and dramatist. He was born in Mount Abu, India, was educated in Plymouth, Devon, and worked as an insurance officer for ten years before studying for the stage and eventually becoming a writer.

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29/12/1959

Robin Milford, English soldier and composer (born 1903)

Robin Humphrey Milford was an English composer and music teacher.

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29/12/1958

Doris Humphrey, American dancer and choreographer (born 1895)

Doris Batcheller Humphrey was an American dancer and choreographer of the early twentieth century. Along with her contemporaries Martha Graham and Katherine Dunham, Humphrey was one of the second generation modern dance pioneers who followed their forerunners – including Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn – in exploring the use of breath and developing techniques still taught today. As many of her works were annotated, Humphrey continues to be taught, studied and performed.

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29/12/1956

Miles Vandahurst Lynk, American physician and author (born 1871)

Miles Vandahurst Lynk was an American physician and author noted for his efforts to create opportunities for African Americans in science, specifically for medical doctors. He was known both as the founder, editor and publisher of Medical and Surgical Observer, as well as founding the University of West Tennessee College of Medicine and Surgery.

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29/12/1954

William Merriam Burton, American chemist (born 1865)

William Merriam Burton was an American chemist who developed the widely used Burton process of thermal cracking for crude oil.

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29/12/1952

Fletcher Henderson, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (born 1897)

James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. He was one of the most prolific black musical arrangers and, along with Duke Ellington, is considered one of the most influential arrangers and bandleaders in jazz history. Henderson's influence was vast. He helped bridge the gap between the Dixieland and the swing eras. He was often known as "Smack" Henderson.

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Beryl Rubinstein, American pianist, composer and teacher (born 1898)

Beryl Rubinstein was an American pianist, composer, and teacher. He was the father of social historian David Rubinstein.

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29/12/1949

Tyler Dennett, American historian and author (born 1883)

Tyler Dennett was an American historian and educator. He received the 1934 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for his 1933 book John Hay: From Poetry to Politics.

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29/12/1948

Harry Farjeon, British composer and music teacher (born 1878)

Harry Farjeon was a British composer and an influential teacher of harmony and composition at the Royal Academy of Music for more than 45 years.

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29/12/1946

Mirko Breyer, Croatian writer, bibliographer, and antiquarian (born 1863)

Mirko Breyer was a known Croatian writer, bibliographer and antiquarian.

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Camillo Schumann, German composer and organist (born 1872)

Camillo Schumann was a German late Romantic composer and organist.

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29/12/1945

Beulah Dark Cloud, American actress (born 1887)

Beulah Dark Cloud was a Native American actress and performer who appeared in several silent films by D. W. Griffith.

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29/12/1944

Khasan Israilov, Chechen rebel (born 1910)

Hasan Israilov was a Chechen nationalist, Faschist, guerrilla fighter, journalist, and poet who led Chechen and Ingush resistance and a rebellion against the Soviet Union from 1940 until his death in 1944. Israilov is regarded as one of the most influential Chechen resistance leaders during World War II, and he is considered by many Chechens to be a national hero. His name is also sometimes transliterated to Latin alphabet as Hassan Izrailov.

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29/12/1943

Art Young, American cartoonist and writer (born 1866)

Arthur Henry Young was an American cartoonist and writer. He is best known for his socialist cartoons, especially those drawn for the left-wing political magazine The Masses between 1911 and 1917.

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29/12/1941

Louis Eilshemius, American painter (born 1864)

Louis Michel Eilshemius was an American painter, primarily of landscapes and nudes. He also wrote musical compositions, verse, novels, short stories, and published periodicals.

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Tullio Levi-Civita, Italian mathematician and scholar (born 1873)

Tullio Levi-Civita, was an Italian mathematician, most famous for his work on absolute differential calculus and its applications to the theory of relativity, but who also made significant contributions in other areas. He was a pupil of Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro, the inventor of tensor calculus. His work included foundational papers in both pure and applied mathematics, celestial mechanics, analytic mechanics and hydrodynamics.

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29/12/1940

Stephen Birch, American businessman (born 1873)

Stephen Birch was an American mining executive who served as president of the Kennecott Copper Company, and would eventually control a major share of the world's copper production.

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29/12/1939

Kelly Miller, American mathematician, sociologist, essayist, newspaper columnist and author (born 1863)

Kelly Miller was an African-American mathematician, sociologist, essayist, newspaper columnist, author, and an important figure in the intellectual life of black America for close to half a century. He was known as "the Bard of the Potomac".

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Madeleine Pelletier, French psychiatrist, feminist and political activist (born 1874)

Madeleine Pelletier was a French psychiatrist, first-wave feminist, and political activist. Born in Paris, Pelletier frequented socialist and anarchist groups in her adolescence. She became a doctor in her twenties, overcoming a large educational gap, and was France's first woman to receive a doctorate in psychiatry. Pelletier joined freemasonry, the French Section of the Workers' International, and came to lead a feminist association. She set out to join the October Revolution but returned disillusioned. In France, she continued to advocate for feminist and communist causes, and wrote numerous articles, essays, and literary works, even following a stroke in 1937 which made her hemiplegic. Pelletier was charged with having performed an abortion in 1939 despite her condition precluding her ability to perform this act. She was placed in a mental asylum where her health deteriorated and she died of a second stroke later that year.

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29/12/1937

Don Marquis, American journalist, author, and playwright (born 1878)

Donald Robert Perry Marquis was an American humorist, journalist, and author. He was variously a novelist, poet, newspaper columnist, and playwright. He is remembered best for creating the characters Archy and Mehitabel, Archy being a supposed author of humorous verse. During his lifetime he was equally famous for creating another fictitious character, "the Old Soak," who was the subject of two books, a hit Broadway play (1922–23), a silent film (1926) and a talkie (1937).

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Alma Tell, American actress (born 1898)

Alma Tell was an American stage and motion picture actress whose career in cinema began in 1915 and lasted into the sound films of the early 1930s.

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29/12/1936

Willem Siebenhaar, Dutch-Australian activist (born 1863)

Willem Siebenhaar was a social activist and writer in Western Australia from the 1890s until he left Australia in 1924. His literary contributions and opposition to policies such as conscription were his most notable contributions to the history of the state.

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29/12/1929

Wilhelm Maybach, German engineer and businessman, founded Maybach (born 1846)

Wilhelm Maybach was an early German engine designer and industrialist. During the 1890s he was hailed in France, then the world centre for car production, as the "King of Designers".

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Edward Christopher Williams, American librarian (born 1871)

Edward Christopher Williams was the first African-American professionally trained librarian in the United States. His sudden death in 1929 ended his career the year he was expected to receive the first Ph.D. in librarianship. Williams was born on February 11, 1871, in Cleveland, Ohio, to an African-American father and an Irish mother. Upon his graduation with distinction from Adelbert College of Western Reserve University in 1892, he was appointed Assistant Librarian of Hatch Library at WRU. Two years later, he was promoted to librarian of Hatch Library until 1909, when he resigned to assume the responsibility of the Principal of M Street High School in Washington, D.C. He continued his career as University Librarian of Howard University until his death on December 24, 1929. Williams was rediscovered as a Harlem Renaissance author with the 2004 publication of his novel When Washington Was in Vogue, considered among the earliest epistolary novels by an African American.

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29/12/1926

Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian poet and author (born 1875)

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke, known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet. Acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as a significant writer in the German language. His work is viewed by critics and scholars as possessing undertones of mysticism, exploring themes of subjective experience and disbelief. His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry, several volumes of correspondence and a few early novellas.

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29/12/1925

Félix Vallotton, Swiss-French painter (born 1865)

Félix Édouard Vallotton was a Swiss and French painter and printmaker associated with the group of artists known as Les Nabis. He was an important figure in the development of the modern woodcut. He painted portraits, landscapes, nudes, still lifes, and other subjects in an unemotional, realistic style.

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29/12/1924

Carl Spitteler, Swiss poet and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1845)

Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler was a Swiss poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1919 "in special appreciation of his epic Olympian Spring". His work includes both pessimistic and heroic poems.

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29/12/1921

Hermann Paul, German philologist, linguist and lexicographer (born 1846)

Hermann Otto Theodor Paul was a German philologist, linguist and lexicographer.

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29/12/1919

William Osler, Canadian physician and professor (born 1849)

Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet, was a Canadian physician and one of the "Big Four" founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Osler created the first residency program for specialty training of physicians. He has frequently been described as the Father of Modern Medicine and one of the "greatest diagnosticians ever to wield a stethoscope". In addition to being a physician he was a bibliophile, historian, author, and renowned practical joker. He was passionate about medical libraries and medical history, having founded the History of Medicine Society, at the Royal Society of Medicine, London. He was also instrumental in founding the Medical Library Association of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Association of Medical Librarians along with three other people, including Margaret Charlton, the medical librarian of his alma mater, McGill University. He left his own large history of medicine library to McGill, where it became the Osler Library.

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29/12/1918

Abby Leach, American educator (born 1855)

Abby Leach was as an American educator and professor of Greek and Latin at Vassar College. She was appointed as the first female president of the American Philological Association in 1899.

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29/12/1915

Tom Shevlin, collegiate athlete and businessman (born 1883)

Thomas Leonard Shevlin was an American college football player and coach at Yale University and a businessman. He was a consensus All-American for three of his four years, selected a first-team All-American by some selector in all. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954.

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29/12/1911

Rosamund Marriott Watson, English poet, author and critic (born 1860)

Rosamund Marriott Watson was an English poet, nature writer and critic, who early in her career wrote under the pseudonyms Graham R. Tomson and Rushworth Armytage.

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29/12/1910

Samuel Butcher, Anglo-Irish classical scholar and politician (born 1850)

Samuel Henry Butcher DCL LLD was an Anglo-Irish writer and classical scholar. He was best known for his edition of Homer's Odyssey alongside fellow writer Andrew Lang, which they co-authored in 1879. His edition transformed The Odyssey into prose, similar to Samuel Butler's version in 1900. Although Butler's version is more popular today, Butcher and Lang's version was popular in its time. In addition to being a writer, he was a Professor of Greek at the University of Edinburgh and a politician.

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Reginald Doherty, English tennis player (born 1872)

Reginald "Reggie" or "R. F." Frank Doherty was a British tennis player and the older brother of tennis player Laurence Doherty. He was known in the tennis world as "R.F." rather than "Reggie". He was a four-time Wimbledon singles champion and a triple Olympic Gold medalist in doubles and mixed doubles.

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29/12/1905

Charles Yerkes, American financier (born 1837)

Charles Tyson Yerkes Jr. was an American financier. He played a part in developing mass-transit systems in Chicago and London.

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29/12/1900

John Henry Leech, English entomologist (born 1862)

John Henry Leech was an English entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera and Coleoptera.

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29/12/1898

Ilia Solomonovich Abelman, Russian astronomer (born 1866)

Ilia Solomonovich Abelman was a Russian astronomer.

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29/12/1897

William James Linton, English-American painter, author, and activist (born 1812)

William James Linton was an English-born American wood-engraver, landscape painter, political reformer and author of memoirs, novels, poetry and non-fiction.

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29/12/1896

Jacob ben Moses Bachrach, Polish apologist (born 1824)

Jacob ben Moses Bachrach was a noted apologist of Rabbinic Judaism. He was descended from Rabbi Yair Chayim Bacharach, and in turn from the Maharal of Prague.

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29/12/1894

Christina Rossetti, English poet and hymn-writer (born 1830)

Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English writer of romantic and devotional poems, including "Goblin Market" and "Remember".

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29/12/1891

Leopold Kronecker, Polish-German mathematician and academic (born 1823)

Leopold Kronecker was a German mathematician who worked on number theory, abstract algebra and logic, and criticized Georg Cantor's work on set theory. Heinrich Weber quoted Kronecker as having said, "Die ganzen Zahlen hat der liebe Gott gemacht, alles andere ist Menschenwerk" . Kronecker was a student and life-long friend of Ernst Kummer.

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29/12/1890

Spotted Elk, American tribal leader (born 1826)

Spotted Elk was a chief of the Miniconjou, Lakota Sioux. He was a son of Miniconjou chief Lone Horn and became a chief upon his father's death. He was a highly renowned chief with skills in war and negotiations. A United States Army soldier, at Fort Bennett, coined the nickname Big Foot – not to be confused with Oglala Big Foot.

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Octave Feuillet, French novelist and dramatist (born 1821)

Octave Feuillet was a French novelist and dramatist. His work stands midway between the romanticists and the realists. He is renowned for his "distinguished and lucid portraiture of life", depictions of female characters, analyses of characters' psychologies and feelings, and his reserved but witty prose style. His most popular work remains his 1858 novel Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre, which has been adapted for film many times by Italian, French, and Argentinian directors.

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29/12/1887

Ferdinand Johann Wiedemann, Estonian-Russian linguist and botanist (b. 1805)

Ferdinand Johann Wiedemann was an Governorate of Estonia linguist who researched Uralic languages, mostly Estonian. Wiedemann was also a botanist.

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29/12/1838

Søren Christian Sommerfelt, Norwegian priest and botanist (born 1794)

Søren Christian Sommerfelt was a Norwegian priest and botanist, best known for his study of spore plants (cryptogams).

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29/12/1834

Thomas Robert Malthus, English economist (born 1766)

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

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29/12/1825

Jacques-Louis David, French painter and illustrator (born 1748)

Jacques-Louis David was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away from Rococo frivolity toward classical austerity, severity, and heightened feeling, which harmonized with the moral climate of the final years of the Ancien Régime.

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29/12/1815

Sarah Baartman, Khoikhoi woman (b. 1789)

Sarah Baartman, also spelled Sara, sometimes in the Dutch diminutive form Saartje, or Saartjie, and Bartman, Bartmann, was a Khoikhoi woman who was exhibited as a freak show attraction in 19th-century Europe under the name Hottentot Venus, a name that was later attributed to at least one other woman similarly exhibited. The women were exhibited for their steatopygic body type – uncommon in Northwestern Europe – that was perceived as a curiosity at that time, and became subject of scientific interest as well as of erotic projection.

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29/12/1807

Diogo de Carvalho e Sampayo, Portuguese diplomat and scientist (born 1750)

Diogo de Carvalho e Sampayo was a Portuguese nobleman, magistrate, diplomat and scientist. A knight of the Order of Malta and a judge by profession, Carvalho e Sampayo became notable as an amateur scientist who authored two important works on the subject of chromatics.

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29/12/1785

Johann Heinrich Rolle, German composer (born 1716)

Johann Heinrich Rolle was a German pre-classical composer.

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Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian-Danish poet and playwright (born 1742)

Johan Herman Wessel was an 18th-century Danish-Norwegian poet, satirist and playwright. His written work was characterized by the use of parody and satiric wit.

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29/12/1772

Ernst Johann von Biron, 7th duke of Courland and Semigallia (born 1690)

Ernst Johann von Biron was the duke of Courland and Semigallia from 1737 to 1740 and again from 1763 to 1769. He was also briefly the regent of the Russian Empire in 1740.

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29/12/1737

Joseph Saurin, French minister and mathematician (b. 1659)

Joseph Saurin was a French mathematician and a converted Protestant minister. He was the first to show how the tangents at the multiple points of curves could be determined by mathematical analysis. He was accused in 1712 by Jean-Baptiste Rousseau of being the actual author of defamatory verses that gossip had attributed to Rousseau.

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29/12/1731

Brook Taylor, English mathematician and theorist (born 1685)

Brook Taylor was an English mathematician and barrister best known for several results in mathematical analysis. Taylor's most famous developments are Taylor's theorem and the Taylor series, essential in the infinitesimal approach of functions in specific points.

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29/12/1720

Maria Margaretha Kirch, German astronomer and educator (born 1670)

Maria Margaretha Kirch was a German astronomer. She was one of the first famous astronomers of her period due to her writing on the conjunction of the sun with Saturn, Venus, and Jupiter in 1709 and 1712 respectively.

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29/12/1689

Thomas Sydenham, English physician and author (born 1624)

Thomas Sydenham was an English physician. He was the author of Observationes Medicae (1676) which became a standard textbook of medicine for two centuries so that he became known as 'The English Hippocrates'. Among his many achievements was the discovery of a disease, Sydenham's chorea, also known as St Vitus' Dance. To him is attributed the prescient dictum, "A man is as old as his arteries."

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29/12/1661

Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant, French poet (born 1594)

Antoine Girard, sieur de Saint-Amant was a French poet.

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29/12/1634

John Albert Vasa, Polish cardinal (b. 1612)

John Albert Vasa was a Polish cardinal, and a Prince-Bishop of Warmia and Kraków. He was the son of Sigismund III Vasa and Constance of Austria.

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29/12/1606

Stephen Bocskai, Prince of Transylvania (born 1557)

Stephen Bocskai or Bocskay was Prince of Transylvania and Hungary from 1605 to 1606. He was born to a Hungarian noble family. His father's estates were located in the eastern regions of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, which developed into the Principality of Transylvania in the 1570s. He spent his youth in the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian, who was also the ruler of Royal Hungary.

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29/12/1563

Sebastian Castellio, French preacher and theologian (born 1515)

Sebastian Castellio was a French preacher and theologian; and one of the first Reformed Christian proponents of religious toleration, freedom of conscience and thought.

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29/12/1550

Bhuvanaikabahu VII, King of Kotte (born 1468)

Bhuvanaikabahu VII was King of Kotte in the sixteenth century, who ruled from 1521 to 1550. He was the eldest son of Vijayabahu VI of Kotte, whom he succeeded, and his chief queen Anula Kahatuda. He was born in 1468 and his brothers were Mayadunne of Sitawaka and Rayigam Bandara. After his father married a second time, his new queen brought a son from another relationship called Deva Rajasinghe, who the king intended to pass on the crown to, and Bhuvanaikabahu and his two brothers responded by fleeing the kingdom, and on their return they had an army given by the King of Kandy.

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29/12/1380

Elizabeth of Poland, queen consort of Hungary (born 1305)

Elizabeth of Poland was Queen of Hungary by marriage to Charles I of Hungary, and regent of Poland from 1370 to 1376 during the reign of her son Louis I.

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29/12/1208

Emperor Zhangzong of Jin (born 1168)

Emperor Zhangzong of Jin, personal name Madage, sinicized name Wanyan Jing, was the sixth emperor of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty of China. He reigned from 20 January 1189 to 29 December 1208.

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29/12/1170

Thomas Becket, English archbishop and saint (born 1118)

Thomas Becket, also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket, was an English cleric and statesman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his death in 1170. He is known for his conflict with King Henry II over the rights and privileges of the Church and was murdered by followers of the king in Canterbury Cathedral. He was canonised by Pope Alexander III two years after his death. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion.

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29/12/0721

Empress Genmei of Japan (b. 660)

Empress Genmei , also known as Empress Genmyō, was the 43rd monarch of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Genmei's reign spanned the years 707 through 715. She established the capital at Heijō-kyō in 710, marking the beginning of the Nara period.

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