Died on Monday, 16th February – Famous Deaths

16/02/2026

Billy Steinberg, American songwriter (born 1950)

William Endfield Steinberg was an American songwriter. He achieved his greatest success in the 1980s with songwriting partner Tom Kelly, together they wrote or co-wrote the No. 1 hits "Like a Virgin" by Madonna (1984), "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper (1986), "Alone", "So Emotional" by Whitney Houston (1987) and "Eternal Flame". Steinberg and Kelly also wrote or co-wrote the hit songs "I Drove All Night", "I Touch Myself" by Divinyls (1990) and "I'll Stand by You" by The Pretenders (1994).

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Frederick Wiseman, American filmmaker (born 1930)

Frederick Wiseman was an American filmmaker, documentarian, theater director, editor, and actor. His work primarily explored American institutions. His most notable documentaries include Titicut Follies (1967), Hospital (1970), Welfare (1975), and In Jackson Heights (2015). His films were noted for their dramatic structure despite appearing to eschew narrative devices and for tackling social and economic issues in the United States.

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16/02/2025

Viktor Antonov, Bulgarian artist (born 1972)

Viktor Antonov was a Bulgarian artist, video game designer, writer, and worldbuilder who worked on numerous first-person shooter (FPS) games. In 2017, Blake Hester wrote for Vice that Antonov "has created disturbing, memorable, and unique worlds" which "conjure images of cyberpunk metropolises and grim London alleyways."

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16/02/2024

Alexei Navalny, Russian activist (born 1976)

Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny was a Russian opposition leader, anti-corruption activist and political prisoner. He founded the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) in 2011. He was recognised by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience and was awarded the Sakharov Prize for his work on human rights.

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16/02/2021

Gustavo Noboa, Ecuadorian politician, 42nd President of Ecuador (born 1937)

Gustavo José Joaquín Noboa Bejarano was an Ecuadorian politician who served as the 42nd president of Ecuador from 22 January 2000 to 15 January 2003. Previously he served as the 42nd vice president under President Jamil Mahuad from 1998 until 2000. From 1983 until 1984, he also was the Governor of the province of Guayas.

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16/02/2019

Bruno Ganz, Swiss actor (born 1941)

Bruno Ganz was a Swiss actor whose career in German stage, television and film productions spanned nearly 60 years. He was known for his collaborations with the directors Werner Herzog, Éric Rohmer, Francis Ford Coppola, Theo Angelopoulos and Wim Wenders, earning widespread recognition with his roles as Jonathan Zimmerman in The American Friend (1977), Jonathan Harker in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) and Damiel the Angel in Wings of Desire (1987).

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16/02/2016

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian politician and diplomat, 6th Secretary-General of the United Nations (born 1922)

Boutros Boutros-Ghali was an Egyptian politician and diplomat who served as the sixth secretary-general of the United Nations from 1992 to 1996. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Boutros-Ghali was the acting minister of foreign affairs of Egypt between 1977 and 1979. He oversaw the United Nations over a period coinciding with several world crises, including the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Rwandan genocide.

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16/02/2015

Lasse Braun, Algerian-Italian director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1936)

Lasse Braun was an Italian pornographer, film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist and researcher.

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Lesley Gore, American singer-songwriter (born 1946)

Lesley Gore was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. At the age of 16, she recorded her first hit song "It's My Party", a U.S. number one in 1963. She followed it up with ten further U.S. Billboard top 40 hits including "Judy's Turn to Cry" and "You Don't Own Me". Gore said she considered "You Don't Own Me" her signature song.

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R. R. Patil, Indian lawyer and politician, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra (born 1957)

Raosaheb Ramrao Patil, better known as R. R. Patil, was an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He was an MLA for Tasgaon vidhan sabha constituency from 1991 to 2015. He was an important leader of modern Maharashtra. He was a member of the Nationalist Congress Party. He became Home Minister of Maharashtra for the second time after the 2009 Maharashtra assembly election victory of the Congress-NCP alliance. He was also the former Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

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Lorena Rojas, Mexican actress and singer (born 1971)

Lorena Rojas was a Mexican actress and singer, best known for her leading roles in popular telenovelas.

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16/02/2014

Ken Farragut, American football player (born 1928)

Kenneth David Farragut Jr. was an American professional football player who was a center for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Ole Miss Rebels.

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Kralle Krawinkel, German guitarist (born 1947)

Gert "Kralle" Krawinkel was a German musician, best known as the guitarist of the 1980s pop group Trio.

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Michael Shea, American author (born 1946)

Michael Shea was an American fantasy, horror, and science fiction author. His novel Nifft the Lean won the World Fantasy Award, as did his novella Growlimb.

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16/02/2013

Colin Edwards, Guyanese footballer (born 1991)

Colin Edwards was a Guyanese international football player. He played in three friendly games for the Guyana national football team.

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Grigory Pomerants, Russian philosopher and author (born 1918)

Grigory Solomonovich Pomerants was a Russian philosopher and cultural theorist. He is the author of numerous philosophical works that circulated in samizdat and made an impact on the liberal intelligentsia in the 1960s and 1970s.

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Tony Sheridan, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1940)

Anthony Esmond Sheridan McGinnity, known professionally as Tony Sheridan, was an English rock and roll guitarist who spent much of his adult life in Germany. He was best known as an early collaborator of the Beatles, one of two non-Beatles to receive label performance credit on a record with the group, and the only non-Beatle to appear as lead singer on a Beatles recording which charted as a single.

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16/02/2012

Gary Carter, American baseball player and coach (born 1954)

Gary Edmund Carter was an American professional baseball catcher whose 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career was spent primarily with the Montreal Expos and New York Mets. Nicknamed "The Kid" for his youthful exuberance, Carter was named an All-Star 11 times and was a member of the 1986 World Series champion Mets.

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Elyse Knox, American model, actress, and fashion designer (born 1917)

Elyse Knox was an American actress, model, and fashion designer. She is the mother of actor Mark Harmon.

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John Macionis, American swimmer and lieutenant (born 1916)

John Joseph Macionis was an American competition swimmer who represented the United States at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

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Anthony Shadid, American journalist (born 1968)

Anthony Shadid was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times based in Baghdad and Beirut who won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting twice, in 2004 and 2010.

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16/02/2011

Len Lesser, American actor (born 1922)

Leonard King Lesser was an American character actor and comedian, best known for his recurring role as Uncle Leo on Seinfeld. He was also known for his role as Garvin on Everybody Loves Raymond.

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Justinas Marcinkevičius, Lithuanian poet and playwright (born 1930)

Justinas Marcinkevičius was a Lithuanian poet and playwright.

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16/02/2009

Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, South Korean cardinal (born 1921)

Stephen Kim Sou-hwan was a Korean prelate of the Catholic Church and the Korea's first elevated to the rank of cardinal. He is a former archbishop of Seoul, South Korea. Having been an iconic figure in South Korea's bloody and tumultuous transition from military rule to democracy, he was widely respected across all sections in South Korean society. He is venerated by the Roman Catholic Church having been declared Servant of God by Pope Francis.

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16/02/2006

Johnny Grunge, American wrestler (born 1966)

Michael Lynn Durham was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Johnny Grunge. He is known for his appearances with Eastern/Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation as one-half of the tag team The Public Enemy with Rocco Rock. In the course of his career, Grunge held championships such as the ECW World Tag Team Championship and WCW World Tag Team Championship.

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Ernie Stautner, German-American football player and coach (born 1925)

Ernest Alfred Stautner was a German-American professional football player and coach. He played as a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He also served as a coach for the Steelers, Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for the Boston College Eagles. Stautner was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1969.

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16/02/2004

Doris Troy, American singer-songwriter (born 1937)

Doris Troy was an American R&B singer and songwriter, known to her fans as "Mama Soul". Her biggest hit was "Just One Look", a top 10 hit in 1963.

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16/02/2003

Rusty Magee, American actor and composer (born 1955)

Benjamin Rush "Rusty" Magee was an American comedian, actor and composer/lyricist for theatre, television, film and commercials.

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16/02/2002

Walter Winterbottom, English footballer and manager (born 1913)

Sir Walter Winterbottom was an English football player and coach. He was the first manager of the England national team (1946–1962) and Director of Coaching for The Football Association. He resigned from the FA in 1962 to become General Secretary of the Central Council of Physical Recreation (CCPR) and was appointed as the first director of the Sports Council in 1965. He was knighted for his services to sport in 1978 when he retired. The Football Association marked the 100th anniversary of Winterbottom's birth by commissioning a bust which was unveiled by Roy Hodgson at St George's Park on 23 April 2013 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of English football.

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16/02/2001

Howard W. Koch, American director and producer (born 1916)

Howard Winchel Koch was an American film producer and director. He served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and as head of film production at Paramount Pictures, and directed and produced numerous films, including The Manchurian Candidate (1962), The Odd Couple (1968), Airplane! (1980) and its 1982 sequel, and Ghost (1990). At the 62nd Academy Awards, he was honored the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his "outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes". He also received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations, three of which were for producing Academy Awards ceremonies.

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William Masters, American gynecologist and sexologist (born 1915)

William Howell Masters was an American gynecologist and the senior member of the Masters and Johnson human sexuality research team. Along with his partner Virginia E. Johnson, he pioneered research into the nature of human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunctions and disorders from 1957 until the 1990s.

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16/02/2000

Marceline Day, American actress (born 1908)

Marceline Day was an American motion picture actress whose career began as a child in the 1910s and ended in the 1930s.

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Lila Kedrova, Russian-French actress and singer

Yelizaveta Nikolaevna Kedrova, known as Lila Kedrova, was a Russian-French actress of the screen and stage. For her portrayal of Madame Hortense in Zorba the Greek (1964), she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. For reprising the same role in the musical stage adaptation on Broadway in 1984, she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical.

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Karsten Solheim, Norwegian-American businessman, founded PING (born 1911)

Karsten Solheim was a golf club designer and businessman. He founded Karsten Manufacturing, a golf club maker better known by the name of PING, and the Solheim Cup, the premier international team competition in women's golf.

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16/02/1998

Mary Amdur, American toxicologist and public health researcher (born 1908)

Mary Ochsenhirt Amdur was an American toxicologist and public health researcher who worked primarily on pollution. She was charged with studying the effects of the 1948 Donora smog, specifically looking into the effects of inhaling sulfuric acid by experimenting on guinea pigs. Her findings on the respiratory effects related to sulfuric acid led to her being threatened, her funding being pulled, and her losing her job at the Harvard School of Public Health in 1953. Undeterred, she carried on her research in a different role at Harvard, and subsequently at MIT and New York University. Despite the early controversy related to her work, it was used in the creation of standards in air pollution, and towards the end of her life she received numerous awards and accolades.

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Sheu Yuan-dong, Taiwanese politician (born 1927)

Sheu Yuan-dong was a Taiwanese politician who was the 15th governor of Taiwan's central bank from 1995 until his death in 1998. Born in then-Japanese-occupied Taiwan, Sheu attended Taipei City Success High School and graduated from the Department of Political Science at the National Taiwan University. He held senior positions in Taiwan's financial sector. On 16 February 1998, he was killed in the crash of China Airlines Flight 676 along with his wife, Huang Mian-mei, and three other officials of the central bank.

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16/02/1997

Chien-Shiung Wu, Chinese-American physicist and academic (born 1912)

Chien-Shiung Wu, also known as Madame Wu, was a Chinese-American particle and experimental physicist who made significant contributions in the fields of nuclear and particle physics. Wu worked on the Manhattan Project, where she helped develop the process for separating uranium into uranium-235 and uranium-238 isotopes by gaseous diffusion. She is best known for conducting the Wu experiment, which proved that parity is not conserved. This discovery resulted in her colleagues Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang winning the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics, while Wu herself was awarded the inaugural Wolf Prize in Physics in 1978. Her expertise in experimental physics evoked comparisons to Marie Curie. Her nicknames include the "First Lady of Physics", the "Chinese Marie Curie" and the "Queen of Nuclear Research".

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16/02/1996

Roberto Aizenberg, Argentinian painter and sculptor (born 1922)

Roberto Aizenberg, nicknamed "Bobby", was an Argentine painter and sculptor. He was considered the best-known orthodox surrealist painter in Argentina.

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Roger Bowen, American actor and author (born 1932)

Roger Wendell Bowen was an American comedic actor and novelist, best known for his portrayal of Lt. Col. Henry Blake in the 1970 film M*A*S*H.

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Pat Brown, American lawyer and politician, 32nd Governor of California (born 1905)

Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 32nd governor of California from 1959 to 1967. His first elected office was as district attorney for San Francisco, and he was later elected attorney general of California in 1950, before becoming the state's governor after the 1958 election.

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Brownie McGhee, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1915)

Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee was an American folk and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry.

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16/02/1992

Angela Carter, English novelist, short story writer (born 1940)

Angela Olive Pearce, who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realist, and picaresque works. She is mainly known for her book The Bloody Chamber (1979). In 1984, her short story "The Company of Wolves" was adapted into a film of the same name. In 2008, The Times ranked Carter tenth in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". In 2012, Nights at the Circus was selected as the best ever winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

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Jânio Quadros, Brazilian politician, 22nd President of Brazil (born 1917)

Jânio da Silva Quadros was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd president of Brazil from 31 January to 25 August 1961, when he resigned from office. He also served as the 24th and 36th mayor of São Paulo, and the 18th governor of the state of São Paulo. Quadros was known for his populist style of government and eccentric behavior.

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Herman Wold, Norwegian-Swedish economist and statistician (born 1908)

Herman Ole Andreas Wold was a Norwegian-born econometrician and statistician who had a long career in Sweden. Wold was known for his work in mathematical economics, in time series analysis, and in econometric statistics.

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16/02/1991

Enrique Bermúdez, Nicaraguan lieutenant and engineer (born 1932)

Enrique Bermúdez Varela, known as Comandante 380, was a Nicaraguan soldier and rebel who founded and commanded the Nicaraguan Contras. In this capacity, he became a central global figure in one of the most prominent conflicts of the Cold War.

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16/02/1990

Keith Haring, American painter and activist (born 1958)

Keith Allen Haring was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his work includes sexual allusions that turned into social activism by using the images to advocate for safe sex and AIDS awareness. In addition to solo gallery exhibitions, he participated in renowned national and international group shows such as documenta in Kassel, the Whitney Biennial in New York, the São Paulo Biennial, and the Venice Biennale. The Whitney Museum held a retrospective of his art in 1997.

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16/02/1988

Ye Shengtao, Chinese writer, educator, and politician (born 1894)

Ye Shengtao also known as Ye Shaojun, was a Chinese writer, journalist, educator, publisher and politician. He was a founder of the Association for Literary Studies (文學研究會), the first literature association during the May Fourth Movement in China. He served as the Vice-Minister of Culture of the People's Republic of China.

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16/02/1984

M. A. G. Osmani, Bangladeshi general (born 1918)

Muhammad Ataul Gani Osmani was a Bangladeshi military officer, revolutionary and politician. His military career spanned three decades, beginning with his service in the British Indian Army in 1939. He fought in the Burma Campaign during World War II, and after the partition of India in 1947, he joined the Pakistan Army and served in the East Bengal Regiment, retiring as a colonel in 1967. Osmani joined the Provisional Government of Bangladesh in 1971 as the commander-in-chief of the nascent Bangladesh Forces. Regarded as the founder of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, Osmani retired as a four star general from the Bangladesh Army in 1972.

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16/02/1980

Erich Hückel, German physicist and chemist (born 1895)

Erich Armand Arthur Joseph Hückel was a German physicist and physical chemist. He is mainly known for the Debye–Hückel theory of electrolytic solutions and the Hückel method of approximate molecular orbital (MO) calculations on π electron systems.

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16/02/1977

Janani Luwum, bishop, Church of Uganda, martyr (born c.1922)

Janani Jakaliya Luwum was a Ugandan Anglican bishop. He was the archbishop of the Church of Uganda from 1974 to 1977 and one of the most influential leaders of the modern church in Africa. He was arrested in February 1977 and died shortly after. Although the official account describes a car crash, it is generally accepted that he was murdered on the orders of then-president Idi Amin.

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Rózsa Péter, Hungarian mathematician (born 1905)

Rózsa Péter, until January 1934 Rózsa Politzer, was a Hungarian mathematician and logician. She is best known as the "founding mother of recursion theory".

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16/02/1975

Morgan Taylor, American hurdler and coach (born 1903)

Frederick Morgan Taylor was an American hurdler and the first athlete to win three Olympic medals in the 400 m hurdles. He was the flag bearer for the United States at his last Olympics in 1932.

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16/02/1974

John Garand, Canadian-American engineer, designed the M1 Garand Rifle (born 1888)

Jean Cantius Garand, also known as John C. Garand, was a Canadian-American designer of firearms who created the M1 Garand, a semi-automatic rifle that was widely used by the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and the Korean War.

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16/02/1967

Smiley Burnette, American singer-songwriter and actor (born 1911)

Lester Alvin Burnett, better known as Smiley Burnette, was an American country music performer and a comedic actor in Western films and on radio and TV, playing sidekick to Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and other B-movie cowboys. He was also a prolific singer-songwriter who is reported to have played proficiently over 100 musical instruments, sometimes more than one simultaneously. His career, beginning in 1934, spanned four decades, including a regular role on CBS-TV's Petticoat Junction in the 1960s.

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16/02/1964

James M. Canty, American educator, school administrator, and businessperson (born 1865)

James Munroe Canty was an American educator, school administrator, and businessperson. Canty was an acting principal of the West Virginia Colored Institute in 1898 and is considered by West Virginia State as an acting president. Canty also served as the superintendent of Mechanical Industries for West Virginia Colored Institute from 1893 through 1914.

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16/02/1961

Dazzy Vance, American baseball player (born 1891)

Charles Arthur "Dazzy" Vance was an American professional baseball player. He played as a pitcher for five different franchises in Major League Baseball (MLB) in a career that spanned 16 seasons over 21 years. A late bloomer, Vance pitched his first full season in 1922 at age 31 and, aided by his impressive fastball, became the only pitcher to lead the National League in strikeouts for seven consecutive seasons. Vance was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955.

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16/02/1957

Josef Hofmann, Polish-American pianist and composer (born 1876)

Josef Casimir Hofmann was a Polish-American pianist, composer, music teacher, and inventor.

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16/02/1944

Dadasaheb Phalke, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1870)

Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke, was an Indian producer, director and screenwriter, widely regarded as "the Father of Indian cinema".

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16/02/1941

Frida Felser, German opera singer and actress (born 1872)

Frida Felser was a German soprano opera singer and actress.

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16/02/1932

Ferdinand Buisson, French academic and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1841)

Ferdinand Édouard Buisson was a French educational public servant, pacifist, and Radical-Socialist politician. He presided over the League of Education from 1902 to 1906 and over the Human Rights League (LDH) from 1914 to 1926. In 1927, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to him jointly with Ludwig Quidde. A philosopher and educator, he was Director of Primary Education. He was the author of a thesis on Sebastian Castellio, in whom he saw a "liberal Protestant" in his image. Ferdinand Buisson was the president of the National Association of Freethinkers. In 1905, he chaired the parliamentary committee to implement the separation of church and state. Famous for his fight for secular education through the League of Education, he coined the term laïcité ("secularism").

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Edgar Speyer, American-English financier and philanthropist (born 1862)

Sir Edgar Speyer, 1st Baronet was an American-born financier and philanthropist. He became a British subject in 1892 and was chairman of Speyer Brothers, the British branch of the Speyer family's international finance house, and a partner in the German and American branches. He was chairman of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London from 1906 to 1915, a period during which the company opened three underground railway lines, electrified a fourth and took over two more.

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16/02/1928

Eddie Foy Sr., American actor and dancer (born 1856)

Edwin Fitzgerald, known professionally as Eddie Foy and Eddie Foy Sr., was an American actor, comedian, dancer and vaudevillian.

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16/02/1919

Vera Kholodnaya, Ukrainian actress (born 1893)

Vera Vasilyevna Kholodnaya was a Russian cinema actress. She was the first star of Imperial Russian silent cinema. Only five of her films still exist, and the total number she acted in is unknown, with speculation ranging from 50 to 100.

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16/02/1917

Octave Mirbeau, French journalist, novelist, and playwright (born 1848)

Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau was a French novelist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, journalist and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, whilst still appealing to the literary and artistic avant-garde with highly transgressive novels that explored violence, abuse and psychological detachment. His work has been translated into 30 languages.

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16/02/1912

Nicholas of Japan, Russian-Japanese monk and saint (born 1836)

Nicholas of Japan, Equal-to-the-Apostles, Archbishop of Japan, born Ivan Dmitrovich Kasatkin was a Russian Orthodox priest, monk, and bishop. He introduced the Eastern Orthodox Church to Japan. The Orthodox cathedral of Tokyo, Tokyo Resurrection Cathedral, was informally named after him as Nikorai-do, first by the local community, and today nationwide, in remembrance of his work.

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16/02/1907

Giosuè Carducci, Italian poet and educator, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1835)

Giosuè Alessandro Giuseppe Carducci was an Italian poet, writer, literary critic and teacher. He was noticeably influential, and was regarded as the official national poet of modern Italy. In 1906, he became the first Italian to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy awarded him the prize "not only in consideration of his deep learning and critical research, but above all as a tribute to the creative energy, freshness of style, and lyrical force which characterize his poetic masterpieces."

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16/02/1899

Félix Faure, French merchant and politician, 7th President of France (born 1841)

Félix François Faure was President of France from 1895 until his death in 1899. A native of Paris, he worked as a tanner in his younger years. Faure became a member of the Chamber of Deputies for Seine-Inférieure in 1881. He rose to prominence in national politics up until unexpectedly assuming the presidency, during which time France's relations with Russia improved.

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16/02/1898

Thomas Bracken, Irish-New Zealand journalist, poet, and politician (born 1843)

Thomas Bracken was an Irish-born New Zealand poet, journalist and politician. He wrote "God Defend New Zealand", one of the two national anthems of New Zealand, and was the first person to publish the phrase "God's Own Country" as applied to New Zealand. He also won the Otago Caledonian Society's prize for poetry.

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16/02/1862

William Pennington, American lawyer and politician, 13th Governor of New Jersey, 23rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (born 1796)

William Pennington was an American politician and lawyer. He was the 13th governor of New Jersey from 1837 to 1843. He served one term in the United States House of Representatives, during which he served as the first Republican Speaker of the House from 1860 to 1861.

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16/02/1820

Georg Carl von Döbeln, Swedish general (born 1758)

Georg Carl von Döbeln was a Swedish friherre (baron), Lieutenant general and above all known for his efforts on the Swedish side during the Finnish War.

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16/02/1754

Richard Mead, English physician (born 1673)

Richard Mead, FRS, FRCP Archived 6 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine, was an English physician. His work, A Short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Method to be used to prevent it (1720), was of historic importance in advancing the understanding of transmissible diseases.

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16/02/1721

James Craggs the Younger, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (born 1686)

James Craggs the Younger, was an English politician.

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16/02/1710

Esprit Fléchier, French bishop and author (born 1632)

Esprit Fléchier was a French preacher and author, Bishop of Nîmes from 1687 to 1710.

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16/02/1645

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Spanish general and politician, 24th Governor of the Duchy of Milan (born 1585)

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Cardona-Anglesola was one of the main Spanish military leaders during the Eighty Years' War, Thirty Years' War, and the War of the Mantuan Succession.

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16/02/1579

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, Spanish explorer (born 1509)

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada y Rivera, also spelled as Ximénez and De Quezada, was a Spanish explorer and conquistador in northern South America, territories currently known as Colombia. He explored the territory named by him, New Kingdom of Granada, and founded its capital, Santafé de Bogotá. As a well-educated lawyer he was one of the intellectuals of the Spanish conquest. He was an effective organizer and leader, designed the first legislation for the government of the area, and was its historian. He was governor of Cartagena between 1556 and 1557, and after 1569 he undertook explorations toward the east, searching for the elusive El Dorado. The campaign didn't succeed and Jiménez then returned to New Granada in 1573. He has been suggested as a possible model for Cervantes' Don Quixote.

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16/02/1560

Jean du Bellay, French cardinal and diplomat (born 1493)

Jean du Bellay was a French diplomat and cardinal, a younger brother of Guillaume du Bellay, and cousin and patron of the poet Joachim du Bellay. He was bishop of Bayonne by 1526, a member of the Conseil privé of King Francis I from 1530, and bishop of Paris from 1532. He became Bishop of Ostia and Dean of the College of Cardinals in 1555.

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16/02/1531

Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician and astronomer (born 1452)

Johannes Stöffler was a German mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, priest, maker of astronomical instruments and professor at the University of Tübingen.

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16/02/1391

John V Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (born 1332)

John V Palaiologos or Palaeologus was Byzantine emperor from 1341 to 1391, with interruptions. His long reign was marked by constant civil war, the spread of the Black Death and several military defeats to the Ottoman Turks, who rose as the dominant power of the region.

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16/02/1390

Rupert I, Elector Palatine (born 1309)

Rupert I "the Red", Elector Palatine was Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1353 to 1356, and Elector Palatine from 10 January 1356 to 16 February 1390.

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16/02/1281

Gertrude of Hohenberg, queen consort of Germany (born c. 1225)

Gertrude Anne of Hohenberg was German queen from 1273 until her death, by her marriage with King Rudolf I of Germany. As queen consort, she became progenitor of the Austrian House of Habsburg.

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16/02/1279

Afonso III of Portugal (born 1210)

Afonso III, called the Boulonnais, was King of Portugal and the first to use the title King of Portugal and the Algarve, from 1249. He was the second son of King Afonso II of Portugal and Urraca of Castile; he succeeded his brother, King Sancho II of Portugal, who died on 4 January 1248.

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16/02/1247

Henry Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia (born 1204)

Henry Raspe was the Landgrave of Thuringia from 1231 until 1239 and again from 1241 until his death. In 1246, with the support of the Papacy, he was elected King of Germany in opposition to Conrad IV, but his contested reign lasted a mere nine months.

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16/02/1184

Richard of Dover, Archbishop of Canterbury

Richard was a medieval Benedictine monk and Archbishop of Canterbury. Employed by Thomas Becket immediately before Becket's death, Richard arranged for Becket to be buried in Canterbury Cathedral and eventually succeeded Becket at Canterbury in a contentious election. Much of Richard's time as archbishop was spent in a dispute with Roger de Pont L'Evêque, the Archbishop of York over the primacy of England, and with St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury over the archbishop's jurisdiction over the abbey. Richard had better relations with King Henry II of England than Becket had and was employed by the king on diplomatic affairs. Richard also had the trust of the papacy and served as a judge for it. Several of his questions to Pope Alexander III were collected into the Decretals, a collection of ecclesiastical laws, and his patronage of canon lawyers did much to advance the study of canon law in England.

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16/02/0902

Mary the Younger, Byzantine saint (born 875)

Saint Mary the Younger was a Byzantine saint of Armenian origin, the daughter of an Armenian noble. Some details of her life, including her following after the mid-10th century, are not known for certain; the text documenting some of her most noteworthy accomplishments was most likely written after 1025. It has been suggested that the Life of Mary is a parody of Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Macrina.

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16/02/0549

Zhu Yi, Chinese general (born 483)

Zhu Yi, courtesy name Yanhe (彥和), was an official of the Chinese dynasty Liang dynasty in the Northern and Southern dynasties period. He was greatly trusted by Emperor Wu in Emperor Wu's old age. He is often depicted by historians as corrupt and duplicitous, as well as a reason for Liang's downfall.

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