Died on Thursday, 4th December – Famous Deaths

04/12/2024

Princess Birgitta of Sweden, Swedish royal (born 1937)

Princess Birgitta of Sweden was a member of the Swedish royal family. She was the second child of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and an elder sister of King Carl XVI Gustaf.

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04/12/2022

Bob McGrath, American singer and actor (born 1932)

Robert Emmett McGrath was an American actor, singer, and children's author best known for playing original human character and music teacher Bob Johnson on the educational television series Sesame Street from 1969 to 2016.

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Patrick Tambay, French race car driver (born 1949)

Patrick Daniel Tambay was a French racing driver, broadcaster and politician, who competed in Formula One from 1977 to 1986. Tambay won two Formula One Grands Prix across nine seasons.

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04/12/2017

Shashi Kapoor, Indian actor (born 1938)

Shashi Kapoor was an Indian actor and producer known primarily for his work in Hindi films. He is considered as one of the greatest actors in the history of Hindi cinema, and is a recipient of several accolades, including four National Film Awards and two Filmfare Awards. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2011, and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2014, for his contribution to Indian cinema.

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04/12/2016

Patricia Robins, British writer and WAAF officer (born 1921)

Patricia Robins was a British writer of short stories and over 80 novels, mainly romance, from 1934 to 2016. She also signed under the pseudonym Claire Lorrimer; she had sold more than ten million copies. She served as Women's Auxiliary Air Force officer during World War II tracking Nazi bombers.

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04/12/2015

Bill Bennett, Canadian lawyer and politician, 27th Premier of British Columbia (born 1932)

William Richards Bennett, was a Canadian politician who was the 27th premier of British Columbia from 1975 to 1986.

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Robert Loggia, American actor and director (born 1930)

Salvatore "Robert" Loggia was an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Jagged Edge (1985) and won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for Big (1988).

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Yossi Sarid, Israeli journalist and politician, 15th Israeli Minister of Education (born 1940)

Yossi Sarid was an Israeli politician and news commentator. He served as a member of the Knesset for the Alignment, Ratz and Meretz between 1974 and 2006. A former Minister of Education and Minister of the Environment, he led Meretz between 1996 and 2003 and served as Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003. Known for his determined moral stance and his willingness to pay the political price for that determination, Sarid was often referred to as Israel's moral compass.

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04/12/2014

Claudia Emerson, American poet and academic (born 1957)

Claudia Emerson was an American poet. She won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her collection Late Wife, and was named the Poet Laureate of Virginia by Governor Tim Kaine in 2008.

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V. R. Krishna Iyer, Indian lawyer and judge (born 1914)

Justice Vaidyanathapuram Rama Iyer Krishna Iyer was an Indian judge who became a pioneer of judicial activism. He pioneered the legal-aid movement in the country. Before that, he was a state minister and politician.

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Vincent L. McKusick, American lawyer and judge (born 1921)

Vincent Lee McKusick was an American attorney and Chief Justice of Maine. At the time of his death McKusick worked at the firm Pierce Atwood in Portland, Maine, as of Counsel.

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Jeremy Thorpe, English lawyer and politician (born 1929)

John Jeremy Thorpe was a British politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for North Devon from 1959 to 1979 and Leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 to 1976. In May 1979 he was tried at the Old Bailey on charges of conspiracy and incitement to murder his former boyfriend, Norman Scott. Thorpe was acquitted on all charges, but the case, and the scandal surrounding it, ended his political career.

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04/12/2013

Joana Raspall i Juanola, Spanish author and poet (born 1913)

Joana Raspall i Juanola was a Spanish writer and librarian. She was born in Barcelona and died in Sant Feliu de Llobregat.

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04/12/2012

Vasily Belov, Russian author, poet, and playwright (born 1932)

Vasily Ivanovich Belov was a Soviet and Russian writer, poet and dramatist, who published more than sixty books which sold seven million copies. A prominent member of the influential 1970s–1980s derevenschiki movement, Belov's best known novels include Business as Usual, Eves, The Best is Yet to Come and The Year of a Major Breakdown.

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Jack Brooks, American colonel, lawyer, and politician (born 1922)

Jack Bascom Brooks was an American Democratic Party politician from the state of Texas who served 42 years in the United States House of Representatives, initially representing Texas's 2nd congressional district from 1953 through 1967, and then, after district boundaries were redrawn in 1966, the 9th district from 1967 to 1995. He had strong political ties to other prominent Texas Democrats, including Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and President Lyndon B. Johnson. For over fifteen years, he was the dean of the Texas congressional delegation.

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Miguel Calero, Colombian footballer and manager (born 1971)

Miguel Ángel Calero Rodríguez was a Colombian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played 50 times for the Colombia national team between 1995 and 2007.

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Anthony Deane-Drummond, English general (born 1917)

Major-General Anthony John Deane-Drummond, CB, DSO, MC & Bar was an officer of the Royal Signals in the British Army, whose career was mostly spent with airborne forces.

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04/12/2011

Sonia Pierre, Haitian-Dominican activist (born 1965)

Solange Pierre, known as Sonia Pierre, was a human rights advocate in the Dominican Republic who worked to end antihaitianismo, which is discrimination against individuals of Haitian origin either born in Haiti or in the Dominican Republic. For this work, she won the 2006 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.

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Sócrates, Brazilian footballer and manager (born 1954)

Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, simply known as Sócrates, was a Brazilian footballer who played as a midfielder. His medical degree and his political awareness, combined with style and quality of his play, earned him the nickname "Doctor Socrates". Easily recognizable for his beard and headband, Sócrates became the "symbol of cool for a whole generation of football supporters". In 1983, he was named South American Footballer of the Year. In 2004, he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time.

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Hubert Sumlin, American singer and guitarist (born 1931)

Hubert Charles Sumlin was a Chicago blues guitarist and singer, best known for his "wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic suspensions" as a member of Howlin' Wolf's band. He was ranked number 43 in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

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04/12/2010

King Curtis Iaukea, American wrestler (born 1937)

Curtis Piehu Iaukea III was an American professional wrestler better known as King Curtis Iaukea. Iaukea won championships in several of the major regional U.S. promotions, both as a single and in various tag team combinations, during the 1960s. He then competed in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) where he won the WWF Tag Team Championship with Baron Scicluna. He was also later The Master of the Dungeon of Doom in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Under the name "Iau Kea" he appeared in the film The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze with Moe Howard declaring "That's not a man! That's a committee!".

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04/12/2009

Liam Clancy, Irish singer, actor, and guitarist (born 1935)

Liam Clancy was an Irish folk singer from Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary. He was the youngest member of the influential folk group the Clancy Brothers, regarded as Ireland's first pop stars. They achieved global sales of millions and appeared in sold-out concerts at such prominent venues as Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall.

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04/12/2007

Pimp C, American rapper (born 1973)

Chad Lamont Butler, better known by his stage name Pimp C, was an American rapper and record producer. He was best known for his work with Bun B as one half of the hip-hop duo Underground Kingz (UGK).

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04/12/2006

K. Ganeshalingam, Sri Lankan accountant and politician, Mayor of Colombo (born 1938)

Kanagasabai Ganeshalingam was a Sri Lankan Tamil politician. He was Mayor of Colombo.

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Ross A. McGinnis, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1987)

Ross Andrew McGinnis was a United States Army soldier who was posthumously awarded the United States' highest decoration for bravery, the Medal of Honor, for his actions during the Iraq War.

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04/12/2005

Errol Brathwaite, New Zealand soldier and author (born 1924)

Errol Freeman Brathwaite was a New Zealand author.

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Gregg Hoffman, American film producer (born 1963)

Gregg Hoffman was a film producer responsible for developing Saw and Saw II. He studied communications, law and economics at American University in Washington, D.C. Hoffman was working on Saw III and Crawlspace when he died in a hospital in Hollywood, California of natural causes. He was 42 years old at his death. The movie Dead Silence (2007) was dedicated to him. He was also thanked in the film Gross Misconduct, mentioned as dedicatee for Saw III, and posthumously credited with producing the Saw films from 2007 through 2023.

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04/12/2004

Elena Souliotis, Greek soprano and actress (born 1943)

Elena Souliotis was a Greek operatic soprano.

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04/12/2003

Iggy Katona, American race car driver (born 1916)

Egnatius "Iggy" Katona was an American stock car racing driver from Willis, Michigan. He is most famous for his performance in the ARCA series in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, where he won six championships and 79 races, both of which stood as series records until Frank Kimmel surpassed both; first in 2005 for championships and then in 2013 for wins. Other ARCA records held by Katona include most starts (630), oldest race winner and most consecutive seasons with a win

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04/12/2000

Henck Arron, Surinamese banker and politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Republic of Suriname (born 1936)

Henck Alphonsus Eugène Arron was a Surinamese politician who served as the first Prime Minister of Suriname after it gained independence in 1975. A member of the National Party of Suriname, he served from 24 December 1973 with the transition government, to 25 February 1980. He was overthrown in a coup d'état by the military, led by Dési Bouterse. Released in 1981 after charges of corruption were dropped, he returned to banking, his previous career. In 1987, Arron was elected as Vice President of Suriname and served until another coup in 1990 overthrew the government.

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04/12/1999

Rose Bird, American academic and judge, 25th Chief Justice of California (born 1936)

Rose Elizabeth Bird was the 25th Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. She was the first female law clerk of the Nevada Supreme Court, the first female deputy public defender in Santa Clara County, the first woman to serve in the California State Cabinet, and the first female Chief Justice of California.

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04/12/1993

Margaret Landon, American missionary and author (born 1903)

Margaret Landon was an American writer known for Anna and the King of Siam, her best-selling 1944 novel of the life of Anna Leonowens which eventually sold over a million copies and was translated into more than twenty languages. In 1950, Landon sold the musical play rights to Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who created the musical The King and I from her book. A later work, Never Dies the Dream, appeared in 1949.

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Frank Zappa, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1940)

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, songwriter, guitarist, conductor, actor, satirist, filmmaker, and activist. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works; he additionally produced nearly all the 60-plus albums he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. His discography is characterized by nonconformity, improvisation, sonic experimentation, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation.

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04/12/1992

Henry Clausen, American lawyer and author (born 1905)

Henry Christian Clausen was an American lawyer, and investigator. He authored the Clausen Report, an 800-page report on the Army Board's Pearl Harbor Investigation. He traveled over 55,000 miles over seven months in 1945, and interviewed nearly a hundred personnel, Army, Navy, British and civilian, as a Special Investigator for the Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson carrying out an investigation ordered by Congress.

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04/12/1988

Osman Achmatowicz, Polish chemist and academic (born 1899)

Osman Achmatowicz was a Polish chemist of Lipka Tatar descent, who studied alkaloid natural products. His son, Osman Achmatowicz Jr., is credited with the Achmatowicz reaction in 1971.

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04/12/1987

Arnold Lobel, American author and illustrator (born 1933)

Arnold Stark Lobel was an American author and illustrator of children's books, including the Frog and Toad series (1970–79) and Mouse Soup (1977). He also authored Fables, a 1981 Caldecott Medal winner for best-illustrated U.S. picture book. Lobel also illustrated books by other writers, including Sam the Minuteman by Nathaniel Benchley.

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Rouben Mamoulian, Armenian-American director and screenwriter (born 1897)

Rouben Zachary Mamoulian was an Armenian-American film and theater director.

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04/12/1984

Jack Mercer, American animator, screenwriter, voice actor, and singer (born 1910)

Winfield Bennett Mercer, known professionally as Jack Mercer, was an American voice actor. He is best known as the voice of cartoon characters Popeye the Sailor Man and Felix the Cat. The son of vaudeville and Broadway performers, he also performed on the vaudeville and legitimate stages.

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04/12/1981

Jeanne Block, American psychologist (born 1923)

Jeanne Lavonne Humphrey Block was an American psychologist and expert on child development. She conducted research on sex-role socialization and theories of personality. Block was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and conducted her research with the National Institute of Mental Health and the University of California, Berkeley. She retired in 1981 after being diagnosed with cancer, and died in December of the same year.

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04/12/1980

Francisco de Sá Carneiro, Portuguese lawyer and politician, 111th Prime Minister of Portugal (born 1934)

Francisco Manuel Lumbrales de Sá Carneiro was a Portuguese politician, who was one of the founders and the first leader of the Social Democratic Party. He served as Prime Minister of Portugal for eleven months during 1980, until his death in a plane crash in Camarate on 4 December 1980.

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Stanisława Walasiewicz, Polish-American runner (born 1911)

Stanisława Walasiewicz, also known as Stefania Walasiewicz, and Stella Walsh, was a Polish-American track and field athlete, who became a women's Olympic champion in the 100 metres. Born in Poland and raised in the United States, she became an American citizen in 1947.

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Don Warrington, Canadian football player (born 1948)

Don Warrington was a running back who played ten seasons in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for the Edmonton Eskimos. In his career, Warrington was a part of four Grey Cup championship teams. He was nicknamed "Jeep". He played college football for the Simon Fraser Clan.

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04/12/1976

Tommy Bolin, American guitarist and songwriter (born 1951)

Thomas Richard Bolin was an American rock guitarist and songwriter who played with Zephyr, the James Gang and Deep Purple, in addition to maintaining a career as a solo artist and session musician, notably for Billy Cobham on his 1973 album Spectrum.

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Benjamin Britten, English pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1913)

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces. His best-known works include the opera Peter Grimes (1945), the War Requiem (1962) and the orchestral showpiece The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1945).

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W. F. McCoy, Irish soldier, lawyer, and politician (born 1886)

William Frederick McCoy was an Ulster Unionist member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland for South Tyrone who went on to become an early supporter of Ulster nationalism.

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04/12/1975

Hannah Arendt, German-American historian, theorist, and academic (born 1906)

Hannah Arendt was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theorists of the twentieth century.

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04/12/1971

Shunryū Suzuki, Japanese-American monk and educator, founded the San Francisco Zen Center (born 1904)

Shunryu Suzuki was a Sōtō Zen monk and teacher who helped popularize Zen Buddhism in the United States, and is renowned for founding the first Zen Buddhist monastery outside Asia. Suzuki founded San Francisco Zen Center which, along with its affiliate temples, comprises one of the most influential Zen organizations in the United States. A book of his teachings, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, is one of the most popular books on Zen and Buddhism in the West.

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04/12/1969

Fred Hampton, American Black Panthers activist (born 1948)

Fredrick Allen Hampton Sr. was an African American activist and revolutionary socialist. He came to prominence in his late teens and early 20s in Chicago as deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party and chair of the Illinois chapter. He founded the anti-racist, anti-classist Rainbow Coalition, a prominent multicultural political organization that initially included Black Panthers, Young Patriots, and the Young Lords, and an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them end infighting and work for social change. Hampton was a Marxist–Leninist, and he considered fascism the greatest threat to African American communities.

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04/12/1967

Bert Lahr, American actor (born 1895)

Irving Lahrheim, known professionally as Bert Lahr, was an American actor and comedian. He was best known for his role as the Cowardly Lion, as well as his counterpart Kansas farmworker "Zeke", in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer adaptation of The Wizard of Oz (1939). He was well known for his quick-witted humor and his work in burlesque and vaudeville and on Broadway.

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04/12/1963

Constance Davey, Australian psychologist (born 1882)

Constance Muriel Davey was an Australian psychologist who worked in the South Australian Department of Education, where she introduced the state's first special education classes.

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04/12/1955

József Galamb, Hungarian-American engineer (born 1881)

József Galamb was a Hungarian mechanical engineer, most known as main-engineer for designing the Ford Model T.

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04/12/1954

George Shepherd, 1st Baron Shepherd (born 1881)

George Robert Shepherd, 1st Baron Shepherd PC, was a British Labour politician.

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04/12/1950

Jesse L. Brown, 1st African-American Naval aviator (born 1926)

Jesse LeRoy Brown was a United States Navy officer. He was the first African-American aviator to complete the United States Navy's basic flight training program, the first African-American naval officer killed in the Korean War, and a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross.

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04/12/1948

Frank Benford, American physicist and engineer (born 1883)

Frank Albert Benford Jr. was an American electrical engineer and physicist best known for rediscovering and generalizing Benford's Law, an earlier statistical statement by Simon Newcomb, about the occurrence of digits in lists of data.

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04/12/1945

Thomas Hunt Morgan, American geneticist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1866)

Thomas Hunt Morgan was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist, embryologist, and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries elucidating the role that the chromosome plays in heredity.

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Richárd Weisz, Hungarian Olympic champion wrestler (born 1879)

Richárd Weisz was a Hungarian heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler. He competed at the 1906 Intercalated Games and at the 1908 Summer Olympics and won a gold medal in 1908.

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04/12/1944

Roger Bresnahan, American baseball player and manager (born 1879)

Roger Philip Bresnahan, nicknamed "the Duke of Tralee", was an American baseball player and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). As a major-league player, Bresnahan competed for the Washington Senators (1897), Chicago Orphans (1900), Baltimore Orioles (1901–02), New York Giants (1902–1908), St. Louis Cardinals (1909–1912) and Chicago Cubs (1913–1915). Bresnahan also managed the Cardinals (1909–1912) and Cubs (1915). He was a member of the 1905 World Series champions.

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04/12/1942

Juhan Kukk, Estonian politician, 3rd Head of State of Estonia (born 1885)

Juhan (Johann) Kukk was an Estonian politician.

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Fritz Löhner-Beda, Jewish Austrian librettist, lyricist and writer (born 1883)

Fritz Löhner-Beda, born Bedřich Löwy, was an Austrian librettist, lyricist and writer. Once nearly forgotten, many of his songs and tunes remain popular today. He was murdered in Auschwitz III Monowitz concentration camp.

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04/12/1938

Borghild Holmsen, Norwegian pianist, composer and music critic (born 1865)

Borghild Holmsen was a Norwegian pianist, teacher, music critic and composer. She is thought to be the first Norwegian woman to perform a concert featuring only her own compositions.

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Tamanishiki San'emon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 32nd Yokozuna (born 1903)

Tamanishiki San'emon was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Kōchi. He was the sport's 32nd yokozuna. He won a total of nine top division yūshō or tournament championships from 1929 to 1936, and was the dominant wrestler in sumo until the emergence of Futabayama. He died whilst still an active wrestler.

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04/12/1935

Johan Halvorsen, Norwegian violinist, composer, and conductor (born 1864)

Johan Halvorsen was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist.

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Charles Richet, French physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1850)

Charles Robert Richet was a French physiologist at the Collège de France and immunology pioneer. In 1913, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "in recognition of his work on anaphylaxis". Richet devoted many years to the study of paranormal and spiritualist phenomena, coining the term "ectoplasm". He believed in the inferiority of black people, was a proponent of eugenics, and presided over the French Eugenics Society towards the end of his life. The Richet line of professorships of medical science continued through his son Charles and his grandson Gabriel. Gabriel Richet was also one of the pioneers of European nephrology.

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04/12/1933

Stefan George, German-Swiss poet and translator (born 1868)

Stefan Anton George was a German symbolist poet and a translator of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Hesiod, and Charles Baudelaire. He is also known for his role as leader of the highly influential literary circle called the George-Kreis and for founding the literary magazine Blätter für die Kunst.

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04/12/1932

Edmund Wojtyła, Polish doctor (born 1906)

Edmund Antoni Wojtyła was a Polish doctor and the eldest brother of Karol Wojtyła.

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04/12/1926

Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian painter (born 1861)

Ivana Kobilca was a Slovene painter, and is considered the most prominent painter and a key figure of Slovene cultural identity. She was a realist painter who studied and worked in Vienna, Munich, Paris, Sarajevo, Berlin, and Ljubljana. She mostly painted oil paintings and pastels, whereas her drawings are few. The themes include still life, portraits, genre works, allegories, and religious scenes. She was a controversial person, criticized for following movements that had not developed further in later periods.

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04/12/1902

Charles Dow, American journalist and publisher, co-founded the Dow Jones & Company (born 1851)

Charles Henry Dow was an American journalist who co-founded Dow Jones & Company with Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser.

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04/12/1897

Griffith Rhys Jones, Welsh conductor (born 1834)

Griffith Rhys Jones, commonly known as Caradog, was a Welsh conductor of the famous 'Côr Mawr' of some 460 voices, which twice won first prize at The Crystal Palace choral competitions in London in 1872 and 1873.

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04/12/1893

John Tyndall, Irish-English physicist and chemist (born 1820)

John Tyndall (; 2 August 1820 – 4 December 1893) was an Irish physicist. His scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he made discoveries in the realms of infrared radiation and the physical properties of air, proving the connection between atmospheric CO2 and what is now known as the greenhouse effect in 1859.

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04/12/1850

William Sturgeon, English physicist, invented the electric motor (born 1783)

William Sturgeon was an English electrical engineer and inventor who made the first electromagnet and the first practical electric motor.

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04/12/1845

Gregor MacGregor, Scottish soldier and explorer (born 1786)

Gregor MacGregor was a Scottish soldier, adventurer, and con man who attempted from 1821 to 1837 to draw British and French investors and settlers to "Poyais", a fictional Central American territory that he claimed to rule as "Cazique". Hundreds invested their savings in supposed Poyaisian government bonds and land certificates, while about 250 emigrated to MacGregor's invented country in 1822–23 to find only an untouched jungle; more than half of them died. MacGregor's Poyais scheme has been called one of the most brazen confidence tricks in history.

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04/12/1841

David Daniel Davis, Welsh-English physician and academic (born 1777)

David Daniel Davis M.D. F.R.C.P. was a British physician.

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04/12/1839

John Leamy, Irish–American merchant (born 1757)

John Leamy was an Irish-born American merchant who pioneered Philadelphia's trade with the Spanish colonies in the Americas. He was a founder of the Insurance Company of North America and the Hibernian Society. As an active Roman Catholic, he helped fund the construction of St. Augustine Church, was a trustee at St. Mary's and there participated in the Hogan schism.

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04/12/1828

Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1770)

Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, was a British Tory statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827. Before becoming prime minister he had been foreign secretary, home secretary and secretary of state for war and the colonies. He held the constituency of Rye from 1790 until 1803, when he was elevated to the House of Lords, where he was Leader 1803–1806 and 1807–1827.

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04/12/1798

Luigi Galvani, Italian physician, physicist, and philosopher (born 1737)

Luigi Galvani was an Italian physician, physicist, biologist and philosopher who studied animal electricity. In 1780, using a frog, he discovered that the muscles of dead frogs' legs twitched when struck by an electrical spark. This was an early study of bioelectricity, following experiments by John Walsh and Hugh Williamson.

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04/12/1732

John Gay, English poet and playwright (born 1685)

John Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peachum, became household names.

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04/12/1728

Richard Ferrier, English politician (born c. 1671)

Richard Ferrier was an English Tory politician who served as MP for Great Yarmouth from 1708 till 1715.

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04/12/1696

Empress Meishō of Japan (born 1624)

Okiko , posthumously honored as Empress Meishō , was the 109th monarch of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Her reign lasted from 1629 to 1643. Her reign officially began when she was five years old and continued for fifteen years. It is believed that Meishō's father actually ruled in her name until she abdicated in favor of her younger half-brother.

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04/12/1680

Thomas Bartholin, Danish physician, mathematician, and theologian (born 1616)

Thomas Bartholin was a Danish physician, mathematician, and theologian. He discovered the lymphatic system in humans and advanced the theory of refrigeration anesthesia, being the first to describe it scientifically.

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04/12/1679

Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher and theorist (born 1588)

Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher and political theorist, best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory. He is considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy.

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04/12/1649

William Drummond of Hawthornden, Scottish poet (born 1585)

William Drummond, called "of Hawthornden", was a Scottish poet.

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04/12/1642

Cardinal Richelieu, French cardinal and politician, Chief Minister to the French Monarch (born 1585)

Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu, commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French Catholic prelate and statesman who had an outsized influence in civil and religious affairs. He became known as the Red Eminence, a term derived from the style of Eminence applied to cardinals and their customary red robes.

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04/12/1637

Nicholas Ferrar, English trader (born 1592)

Nicholas Ferrar was an English scholar, courtier and businessman, who was ordained a deacon in the Church of England. He lost much of his fortune in the Virginia Company and retreated with his extended family in 1626 to the manor of Little Gidding, Huntingdonshire, for his remaining years, in an informal spiritual community following High Anglican practice. His friend the poet and Anglican priest George Herbert (1593–1633), on his deathbed, sent Ferrar the manuscript of The Temple, telling him to publish the poetry if it might "turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul." "If not, let him burn it; for I and it are less than the least of God's mercies." Ferrar published the verses in 1633; they remain in print.

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04/12/1609

Alexander Hume, Scottish poet (born 1560)

Alexander Hume was a Scottish poet who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in the early 17th century.

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04/12/1603

Maerten de Vos, Flemish painter and draughtsman (born 1532)

Maerten de Vos, Maerten de Vos the Elder or Marten de Vos was a Flemish painter, known mainly for his history and allegorical paintings and portraits. He was, together with the brothers Ambrosius Francken I and Frans Francken I, one of the leading history painters in the Spanish Netherlands after Frans Floris's career slumped in the second half of the sixteenth century as a result of the Iconoclastic fury of the Beeldenstorm.

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04/12/1585

John Willock, Scottish minister and reformer (born 1515)

John Willock was a Scottish reformer. He appears to have been a friar of the Franciscan House at Ayr. Having joined the party of reform before 1541, he fled for his life to England. There he became noted as a zealous and taking preacher. This led to his arrest for heresy under an Act of Henry VIII., "for abolishing diversity of opinion" in matters of religion. He was found guilty of preaching against purgatory, holy water, priestly confession, and prayer to the saints, and of holding that priests might lawfully be married, he was for some time confined in the Fleet prison. After the accession of Edward VI he was chaplain to Henry, Duke of Suffolk, who had married King Henry's niece, and is best known as the father of Lady Jane Grey. He preached for a time in London, in St Katherine's Church, when both he and John Knox, his fast friend, were granted general license to preach anywhere in England. Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, presented him to the rectory of Loughborough in Leicestershire, a living which he continued to hold during King Edward's reign, and again during that of Queen Elizabeth for the rest of his life. Thus in his later years he was in the unique position of being at the same time a parish minister in both England and Scotland. When Mary Tudor came to the English throne in 1553, Willock fled to Embden, in the Protestant Duchy of Friesland. There he practised as a physician with much success, and rose to some eminence. In 1555, and again in 1556, the Duchess Anne of Friesland sent him to Scotland as her Commissioner on matters of trade. In 1558 he returned home, and preached for some time in Dundee, with much acceptance among the friends of reform. In 1559, when John Knox had to leave Edinburgh in peril of his life, Willook took his place as the evangelist of the Reformation. It was then that he conducted in St Giles what is believed to have been the earliest public celebration of the Holy Communion in Scotland after the reformed ritual. In 1560, when Queen Mary of Guise lay dying, the Earls of Argyll and Moray, and other Lords of the Congregation advised her to "send for a godly, learned man of whom she might receive instruction"; and Willock was chosen to minister to her, which he faithfully did. That same year he was made Superintendent of Glasgow and the West. He was also one of the six Johns entrusted with the drawing up of the First Book of Discipline, the others being John Knox, John Winram, John Spottiswood, John Douglas, and John Row. Sometime in that year he went to England, and brought home his wife, Katherine Picknavell, an English lady. He was chosen Moderator of the General Assembly in 1563, 1564, 1565, and 1568. In 1565 Queen Mary endeavoured to put a stop to his activity by having him imprisoned in Dumbarton Castle; but the Reformers were now too strong for her, and she had to depart from her purpose.

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04/12/1576

Georg Joachim Rheticus, Austrian-Slovak mathematician and cartographer (born 1514)

Georg Joachim de Porris, also known as Rheticus, was a mathematician, astronomer, cartographer, navigational-instrument maker, medical practitioner, and teacher. He is perhaps best known for his trigonometric tables and as Nicolaus Copernicus's sole pupil. He facilitated the publication of his master's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.

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04/12/1459

Adolphus VIII, Count of Holstein (born 1401)

Adolphus XI of Schauenburg, as Adolph I Duke of Schleswig, and as Adolph VIII Count of Holstein-Rendsburg, was the mightiest vassal of the Danish realm.

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04/12/1456

Charles I, Duke of Bourbon (born 1401)

Charles de Bourbon was the oldest son of John I, Duke of Bourbon, and Marie, Duchess of Auvergne.

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04/12/1408

Valentina Visconti, wife of Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans

Valentina Visconti was a countess of Vertus, and duchess consort of Orléans as the wife of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, the younger brother of King Charles VI of France. As duchess of Orléans, she was at court and acquired the enmity of the Queen of France, Isabeau of Bavaria, and was subsequently banned from the court and had to leave Paris. Due to political animosity, Valentina's husband was murdered in 1407. She died on 4 December 1408.

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04/12/1341

Janisław, Archbishop of Gniezno

Janisław was an Archbishop of Gniezno 1317–41, having in 1317 succeeded Borzysław I. Janisław unconditionally supported the policy of reunification of Polish lands carried out by Władysław I the Elbow-high, whom he crowned King of Poland on 20 January 1320.

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04/12/1340

Henry Burghersh, English bishop and politician, Lord Chancellor of England (born 1292)

Henry Burghersh, was Bishop of Lincoln (1320-1340) and served as Lord Chancellor of England (1328–1330). He was a younger son of Robert de Burghersh, 1st Baron Burghersh, and a nephew of Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere. He was educated in France.

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04/12/1334

Pope John XXII (born 1249)

Pope John XXII, born Jacques Duèze, was head of the Catholic Church from 7 August 1316 to his death, in December 1334. He was the second and longest-reigning Avignon Pope, elected by the Conclave of Cardinals, which was assembled in Lyon. Like his predecessor, Clement V, Pope John centralized power and income in the Papacy and lived a princely life in Avignon.

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04/12/1270

Theobald II of Navarre (born 1238)

Theobald II was King of Navarre and also, as Theobald V, Count of Champagne and Brie, from 1253 until his death. He was the son and successor of Theobald I and the second Navarrese monarch of the House of Blois. After he died childless, the throne of Navarre passed to his younger brother, Henry I.

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04/12/1260

Aymer de Valence, Bishop of Winchester (born 1222)

Aymer de Valence was a Bishop of Winchester around 1250.

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04/12/1214

William the Lion, Scottish king (born 1143)

William the Lion, sometimes styled William I and also known by the nickname Garbh, 'the Rough', reigned as King of Alba from 1165 to 1214. His almost 49-year-long reign was the longest for a Scottish monarch before the Union of the Crowns in 1603.

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04/12/1131

Omar Khayyám, Persian poet, astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher (born 1048)

Omar Khayyam (1048–1131) was a Persian poet and polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and Persian literature. He was born in Nishapur, Iran and lived during the Seljuk era, around the time of the First Crusade.

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04/12/1075

Anno II, German archbishop and saint (born 1010)

Anno II was Archbishop of Cologne from 1056 until his death. From 1063 to 1065 he acted as regent of the Holy Roman Empire for the minor Emperor Henry IV. Anno is venerated as a saint of the Catholic Church.

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04/12/0870

Suairlech ind Eidnén mac Ciaráin, Irish bishop

Suairlech ind Eidnén mac Ciaráin was an Irish abbot and bishop. Little is known about him, but he is mentioned in the Annals of Inisfallen as the abbot of Bennchor. He was also known to have been Abbot of Clonard at somepoint during the 9th century.

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04/12/0771

Carloman I, Frankish king (born 751)

Carloman I, German Karlmann, Karlomann, was king of the Franks from 768 until his death in 771. He was the second surviving son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon and was a younger brother of Charlemagne. His death allowed Charlemagne to take all of Francia.

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04/12/0749

John of Damascus, Syrian priest and saint (born 676)

John of Damascus or John Damascene, born Yūḥana ibn Manṣūr ibn Sarjūn, was a Christian monk, priest, hymnographer, and apologist. He was born and raised in Damascus c. AD 675 or AD 676; the precise date and place of his death is not known, though tradition places it at his monastery, Mar Saba, near Jerusalem, on 4 December AD 749. A polymath whose fields of interest and contribution included law, theology, philosophy, and music, he was given the by-name of Chrysorroas. He wrote works expounding the Christian faith, and composed hymns which are still used both liturgically in Eastern Christian practice throughout the world as well as in western Lutheranism at Easter.

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