Died on Thursday, 19th February – Famous Deaths

19/02/2020

José Mojica Marins, Brazilian filmmaker, actor, composer, screenwriter, and television horror host (born 1936)

José Mojica Marins was a Brazilian filmmaker, actor, composer, screenwriter, and television horror host. Marins is also known for creating and playing the character Coffin Joe in a series of horror films; the character has since gone on to become his alter ego as well as a pop culture icon, a horror icon, and a cult figure. The popularity of Coffin Joe in Brazil has led to the character being referred to as "Brazil's National Boogeyman" and "Brazil's Freddy Krueger".

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Pop Smoke, American rapper (born 1999)

Bashar Barakah Jackson, known professionally as Pop Smoke, was an American rapper. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, he rose to fame with the release of his 2019 singles "Welcome to the Party" and "Dior". He frequently collaborated with UK drill artists and producers, who employed more minimal and aggressive instrumentation than American drill artists from Chicago, reintroducing the sound as Brooklyn drill.

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19/02/2019

Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer (born 1933)

Karl Otto Lagerfeld, also called Kaiser Karl, was a German fashion designer, photographer, and creative director.

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19/02/2017

Larry Coryell, American jazz guitarist (born 1943)

Larry Coryell was an American jazz guitarist, widely considered the "godfather of fusion". Alongside Gábor Szabó, he was a pioneer in melding jazz, country and rock music. Coryell was also a music teacher and a writer, penning a monthly column for Guitar Player magazine from 1977 to 1989. He collaborated with a number of other high-profile musicians, including John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Miroslav Vitouš, Billy Cobham, Lenny White, Emily Remler, Al Di Meola, Paco de Lucía, Steve Morse and others.

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19/02/2016

Umberto Eco, Italian novelist, literary critic, and philosopher (born 1932)

Umberto Eco was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel The Name of the Rose, a historical mystery combining semiotics in fiction with biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory, as well as Foucault's Pendulum, his 1988 novel which touches on similar themes.

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Harper Lee, American author (born 1926)

Nelle Harper Lee was an American novelist whose 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and became a classic of modern American literature. She assisted her close friend Truman Capote in his research for the book In Cold Blood (1966). An earlier draft of Mockingbird, set at a later date, Go Set a Watchman, was published in July 2015 as a sequel. A collection of her short stories and essays, The Land of Sweet Forever, was published on October 21, 2025.

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Chiaki Morosawa, Japanese anime screenwriter (born 1959)

Chiaki Morosawa was a Japanese anime screenwriter and the creator of the fictional universe of "Cosmic Era", the setting for the anime Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and its related series. She was born in Urawa, Saitama, in the Kantou Region of Japan. An older sister of film director Kazuyuki Morosawa, she was the wife of animation director and scriptwriter Mitsuo Fukuda, and the mother of their children.

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Samuel Willenberg, Polish-Israeli sculptor and painter (born 1923)

Samuel Willenberg, nom de guerre Igo, was a Polish-born Jewish Holocaust survivor, artist, and writer. He was a Sonderkommando at the Treblinka extermination camp and participated in the unit's planned revolt in August 1943. While 300 escaped, about 79 were known to survive the war. Willenberg reached Warsaw where, before war's end, he took part in the Warsaw Uprising. At his death, Willenberg was the last survivor of the August 1943 Treblinka prisoners' revolt.

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19/02/2015

Harold Johnson, American boxer (born 1928)

Harold Johnson was an American professional boxer. He held the NYSAC, NBA/WBA, and The Ring light heavyweight titles from 1962 to 1963.

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Nirad Mohapatra, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1947)

Nirad Narayan Mohapatra was an Indian film director. Mohapatra was born in the Indian state of Odisha. He directed the Oriya language film Maya Miriga, television soap operas and documentaries.

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Harris Wittels, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (born 1984)

Harris Lee Wittels was an American comedian. He was a writer for The Sarah Silverman Program, a writer and executive producer for Parks and Recreation, and a recurring guest on Comedy Bang! Bang! He coined the word humblebrag in 2010.

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19/02/2014

Kresten Bjerre, Danish footballer and manager (born 1946)

Kresten Bjerre was a Danish footballer, who played professionally for Houston Stars in the United States, and European clubs PSV Eindhoven and R.W.D. Molenbeek.

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Dale Gardner, American captain and astronaut (born 1948)

Dale Allan Gardner was a NASA astronaut, and naval flight officer who flew two Space Shuttle missions during the mid 1980s.

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Valeri Kubasov, Russian engineer and astronaut (born 1935)

Valery Nikolaevich Kubasov was a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut who flew on two missions in the Soyuz programme as a flight engineer: Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 19, and commanded Soyuz 36 in the Intercosmos programme. On 21 July 1975, the Soyuz 7K-TM module used for ASTP landed in Kazakhstan at 5:51 p.m. and Kubasov was the first to exit the craft. Kubasov performed the first welding experiments in space, along with Georgy Shonin.

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19/02/2013

Armen Alchian, American economist and academic (born 1914)

Armen Albert Alchian was an American economist who made major contributions to microeconomic theory and the theory of the firm. He spent almost his entire career at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and is credited with turning its economics department into one of the country's best. He is also known as one of the founders of new institutional economics, and widely acknowledged for his work on property rights.

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Park Chul-soo, South Korean director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1948)

Park Chul-soo was a South Korean film director, producer, screenwriter and occasional actor. He was one of the most active filmmakers in Korean cinema in the 1980s and '90s.

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Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1937)

Robert Coleman Richardson was an American experimental physicist whose area of research included sub-millikelvin temperature studies of helium-3. Richardson, along with David Lee, as senior researchers, and then graduate student Douglas Osheroff, shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physics for their 1972 discovery of the property of superfluidity in helium-3 atoms in the Cornell University Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics.

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Donald Richie, American-Japanese author and critic (born 1924)

Donald Richie was an American author, journalist, and film critic. He was known for writing about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also directed a number of experimental films, the first when he was 17. He was awarded the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun in 2005.

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Eugene Whelan, Canadian farmer and politician, 22nd Canadian Minister of Agriculture (born 1924)

Eugene Francis "Gene" Whelan was a Canadian politician, sitting in the House of Commons from 1962 to 1984, and in the Senate from 1996 to 1999. He was also Minister of Agriculture under Pierre Trudeau from 1972 to 1984, and became one of Canada's best-known politicians. During his career, he would meet Queen Elizabeth II, help Canada beat U.S. president Richard Nixon to the punch in "opening up" China, and play a catalyzing role in the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of the Cold War. In an editorial immediately following his death, the Windsor Star said: He was folksy, flamboyant and colourful. He was the farmer in the iconic green Stetson. He was blunt and rough around the edges. At times he was the antithesis of all things politically correct. And, while nobody said it in so many words, he was also the guy who made being minister of agriculture seem almost sexy. Perhaps that's because being in a Pierre Trudeau government was sexy in itself. Regardless, Whelan is likely the only MP to hold that post and have his name remembered because of it.

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19/02/2012

Ruth Barcan Marcus, American philosopher and logician (born 1921)

Ruth Barcan Marcus was an American academic philosopher and logician best known for her work in modal and philosophical logic. She developed the first formal systems of quantified modal logic and in so doing introduced the schema or principle known as the Barcan formula. Marcus, who originally published as Ruth C. Barcan, was, as Don Garrett notes "one of the twentieth century's most important and influential philosopher-logicians". Timothy Williamson, in a 2008 celebration of Marcus' long career, states that many of her "main ideas are not just original, and clever, and beautiful, and fascinating, and influential, and way ahead of their time, but actually – I believe – true".

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Jaroslav Velinský, Czech author and songwriter (born 1932)

Jaroslav Velinský was a Czech science fiction and detective writer, publisher, songwriter and musician. In the folk arena and among sci-fi friends and fans he was known as Kapitán Kid.

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Vitaly Vorotnikov, Russian politician, 27th Prime Minister of Russia (born 1926)

Vitaly Ivanovich Vorotnikov was a Soviet politician and diplomat who was the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR between 1988 and 1990.

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19/02/2011

Ollie Matson, American sprinter and football player (born 1930)

Ollie Genoa Matson II was an American Olympic medal winning sprinter and professional football player. He played as a halfback and return specialist in the National Football League (NFL) from 1952 to 1966 primarily for the Chicago Cardinals and the Los Angeles Rams. He played college football for the San Francisco Dons and was selected by the Cardinals in the first round of the 1952 NFL draft.

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19/02/2009

Kelly Groucutt, English singer and bass player (born 1945)

Kelly Groucutt was an English musician best known as the bassist and secondary vocalist for the rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) between 1974 and 1982.

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19/02/2008

Yegor Letov, Russian singer-songwriter (born 1964)

Igor "Yegor" Fyodorovich Letov (Russian: И́горь "Его́р" Фёдорович Ле́тов, IPA: [ˈiɡərʲ jɪˈɡor ˈfʲɵdərəvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲetəf]; was a Russian singer-songwriter, best known as the founder and leader of the post-punk/psychedelic rock band Civil Defense, as well as the founder of the conceptual art avant-garde project Communism and psychedelic rock outfit Yegor and Opizdinevshie. Letov collaborated with singer-songwriter Yanka Dyagileva and other Siberian underground artists as a record engineer and producer.

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Lydia Shum, Chinese-Hong Kong actress and singer (born 1945)

Lydia Shum Din-ha or Lydia Sum Tin-ha was a Hong Kong comedian, emcee, actress and singer. Known for her portly figure, signature dark-rimmed glasses and bouffant hairstyle, she was affectionately known to peers and fans as Fei-fei or Fei Jie.

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19/02/2007

Janet Blair, American actress and singer (born 1921)

Janet Blair was an American big-band singer who later became a popular film and television actress.

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Celia Franca, English-Canadian dancer and director, founded the National Ballet of Canada (born 1921)

Celia Franca was a co-founder of The National Ballet of Canada (1951) and its artistic director for 24 years.

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19/02/2003

Johnny Paycheck, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1938)

Johnny Paycheck was an American country music singer and songwriter. He is a notable figure in the outlaw movement in country music.

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19/02/2002

Sylvia Rivera, American transgender LGBT activist (born 1951)

Sylvia Rivera was an American gay liberation and transgender rights activist who was also a noted community worker in New York. Rivera, who identified as a drag queen for most of her life and later as a transgender person, participated in demonstrations with the Gay Liberation Front.

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19/02/2001

Liza 'N' Eliaz, Belgian, transgender, hardcore DJ (born 1958)

Liza Néliaz, known by her stage name Liza 'N' Eliaz, was a Belgian hardcore techno producer and disc jockey. Described as a "spiritual leader" in the free party movement in France, she was a DJ noted for her skill and use of four turntables.

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Stanley Kramer, American director and producer (born 1913)

Stanley Earl Kramer was an American film director and producer, responsible for making many of Hollywood's most famous "message films" and a liberal movie icon. As an independent producer and director, he brought attention to topical social issues that most studios avoided. Among the subjects covered in his films were racism, nuclear war, greed, creationism vs. evolution, and the causes and effects of fascism. His other films included High Noon, The Caine Mutiny, and Ship of Fools (1965).

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Charles Trenet, French singer-songwriter (born 1913)

Louis Charles Augustin Georges Trenet was a renowned French singer-songwriter who composed both the music and the lyrics for nearly 1,000 songs over a career that lasted more than 60 years. These songs include "Boum!" (1938), "La Mer" (1946) and "Nationale 7" (1955). Trenet is also noted for his work with musicians Michel Emer and Léo Chauliac, with whom he recorded "Y'a d'la joie" (1938) for the first and "La Romance de Paris" (1941) and "Douce France" (1947) for the latter. He was awarded an Honorary Molière Award in 2000.

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19/02/2000

Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian-New Zealand painter and illustrator (born 1928)

Friedrich Stowasser, better known by his pseudonym Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser, was an Austrian visual artist and architect who also worked in the field of environmental protection. He emigrated to the Far North of New Zealand in the 1970s, where he lived and worked for most of the rest of his life.

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19/02/1999

Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, Iraqi cleric (born 1943)

Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammed al-Sadr was a prominent Iraqi Twelver Shiite cleric and marja'. He called for government reform and the release of detained Shia leaders during the rule of Saddam Hussein. The growth of his popularity, often referred to as the followers of the local Hawza, also put him in competition with other Shi'a leaders, including Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim who was exiled in Iran.

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19/02/1998

Grandpa Jones, American singer-songwriter and banjo player (born 1913)

Louis Marshall Jones, known professionally as Grandpa Jones, was an American banjo player and old time/country music singer. He was inducted as a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1978.

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19/02/1997

Leo Rosten, Polish-American author and academic (born 1908)

Leo Calvin Rosten was an American writer and humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism, and Yiddish lexicography.

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Deng Xiaoping, Chinese politician, paramount leader and 1st Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China (born 1904)

Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 1978 to 1989. Emerging as China's most influential figure after Mao Zedong's death in 1976, Deng consolidated political power and guided the country into an era of reform and opening up that transitioned the nation toward a socialist market economy. Credited as the "Architect of Modern China", he is recognized for shaping both socialism with Chinese characteristics and Deng Xiaoping Theory.

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19/02/1996

Charlie Finley, American businessman (born 1918)

Charles Oscar Finley, nicknamed "Charlie O" or "Charley O", was an American businessman who owned Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics. Finley purchased the franchise while it was located in Kansas City, moving it to Oakland in 1968. He is also known as a short-lived owner of the National Hockey League's California Golden Seals and the American Basketball Association's Memphis Tams.

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19/02/1994

Derek Jarman, English director and set designer (born 1942)

Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English artist, film maker, stage designer, writer, gardener, and gay rights activist, regarded as one of the most influential figures associated with the new queer cinema. Trained originally as a painter, he moved into stage and production design in the late 1960s, including work on Ken Russell's controversial historical 1971 film The Devils, before turning to filmmaking as a director.

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19/02/1992

Tojo Yamamoto, American wrestler and manager (born 1927)

Harold Watanabe, better known by his ring name Tojo Yamamoto, was an American professional wrestler.

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19/02/1988

André Frédéric Cournand, French-American physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1895)

André Frédéric Cournand was a French-American physician and physiologist.

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19/02/1983

Alice White, American actress (born 1904)

Alice White was an American film actress. She first came to the public’s attention during the late silent era as a rival to Clara Bow, before starring in First National/Warner Brothers films Broadway Babies, Naughty Baby, Hot Stuff, and Sweet Mama.

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19/02/1980

Bon Scott, Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter (born 1946)

Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott was an Australian singer who was the second lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980. In the July 2004 issue of Classic Rock, Scott was ranked number one in a list of the "100 Greatest Frontmen of All Time". Hit Parader ranked Scott as fifth on their 2006 list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Vocalists of all time.

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19/02/1977

Anthony Crosland, English author and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (born 1918)

Charles Anthony Raven Crosland was a British Labour Party politician and author. A social democrat on the right wing of the Labour Party, he was a prominent socialist intellectual. His influential book The Future of Socialism (1956) argued against many Marxist notions and the traditional Labour Party doctrine that expanding public ownership was essential to make socialism work, arguing instead for prioritising the end of poverty and improving public services. He offered positive alternatives to both the right wing and left wing of the Labour Party.

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Mike González, Cuban baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1890)

Miguel Ángel González Cordero was a Cuban catcher, coach and interim manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) during the first half of the 20th century. Along with Adolfo Luque, González was one of the first Cubans or Latin Americans to have a long career in the American major leagues.

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19/02/1973

Joseph Szigeti, Hungarian violinist (born 1892)

Joseph Szigeti was a Hungarian violinist.

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19/02/1972

John Grierson, Scottish director and producer (born 1898)

John Grierson was a Scottish filmmaker, film theorist, and critic, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Flaherty's Moana. In 1939, Grierson established the all-time Canadian film institutional production and distribution company The National Film Board of Canada controlled by the Government of Canada.

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Lee Morgan, American trumpet player and composer (born 1938)

Edward Lee Morgan was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. One of the key hard bop musicians of the 1960s and a cornerstone of the Blue Note label, Morgan came to prominence in his late teens, recording with bandleaders like John Coltrane, Curtis Fuller, Dizzy Gillespie, Hank Mobley, and Wayne Shorter, and playing in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.

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19/02/1970

Ralph Edward Flanders, US Senator from Vermont (born 1890)

Ralph Edward Flanders was an American mechanical engineer, industrialist and politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Vermont. He grew up on subsistence farms in Vermont and Rhode Island and was an apprentice machinist and draftsman before training as a mechanical engineer. He spent five years in New York City as an editor for a machine tool magazine. After moving back to Vermont, he managed and then became president of a successful machine tool company. Flanders used his experience as an industrialist to advise state and national commissions in Vermont, New England and Washington, D.C., on industrial and economic policy. He was president of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank for two years before being elected U.S. Senator from Vermont.

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19/02/1969

Madge Blake, American actress (born 1899)

Madge Blake was an American character actress best remembered for her role as Larry Mondello's mother, Margaret Mondello, on the CBS/ABC sitcom Leave It to Beaver, as Flora MacMichael on the ABC/CBS sitcom The Real McCoys, and as Aunt Harriet Cooper in 96 episodes of ABC's Batman. Gene Kelly had a special affection for her and included her in each of his films following her role in An American in Paris.

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19/02/1962

Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek-American pathologist, invented the Pap smear (born 1883)

Georgios Nikolaou Papanikolaou was a Greek physician, zoologist and microscopist who was a pioneer in cytopathology and early cancer detection, and inventor of the pap smear for detection of cervical cancer.

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19/02/1959

Willard Miller, American sailor, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1877)

Willard Dwight Miller was a United States Navy sailor and a recipient of America's highest military decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in the Spanish–American War.

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19/02/1957

Maurice Garin, Italian-French cyclist (born 1871)

Maurice-François Garin was an Italian-French road bicycle racer best known for winning the inaugural Tour de France in 1903, and for being stripped of his title in the second Tour in 1904 along with eight others, for cheating. He was of Italian origin but adopted French nationality on 21 December 1901.

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19/02/1953

Richard Rushall, British businessman (born 1864)

Captain Richard Boswell Rushall was a British sea captain and businessman who served as mayor of Rangoon, Burma, during the 1930s. He was the first Englishman to hold this position. Born in Braunston, Northamptonshire, Rushall was the eldest of eight children. After finishing school he left for sea, joined the UK's Merchant Navy, and became a ship's captain. He spent 20 years with the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, of which 17 were in command of steamships belonging to the company. He settled in Rangoon with his family, resigned from the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company and founded Rushall & Co. Ltd., a stevedoring and contracting business that employed between 3,000 and 4,000 men.

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19/02/1952

Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1859)

Knut Hamsun was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to consciousness, subject, perspective and environment. He published more than 23 novels, a collection of poetry, some short stories and plays, a travelogue, works of non-fiction and some essays.

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19/02/1951

André Gide, French novelist, essayist, and dramatist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1869)

André Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author whose writing spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his beginnings in the symbolist movement to criticising imperialism between the two World Wars. Author of more than 50 books, he was described in his New York Times obituary as "France's greatest contemporary man of letters" and "judged the greatest French writer of this century by the literary cognoscenti."

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19/02/1945

John Basilone, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1916)

John Basilone was a United States Marine Corps gunnery sergeant who received the Medal of Honor for actions during the Battle for Henderson Field in the Guadalcanal campaign, and the Navy Cross posthumously for extraordinary heroism during the Battle of Iwo Jima. He was the only enlisted Marine to receive both of these decorations in World War II.

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19/02/1936

Billy Mitchell, American general and pilot (born 1879)

William Lendrum Mitchell was a United States Army officer who had a major role in the creation of the United States Air Force.

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19/02/1928

George Howard Earle Jr., American lawyer and businessman (born 1856)

George Howard Earle Jr. was an American lawyer and businessman from Philadelphia who worked as a receiver and rescued multiple businesses from financial hardship. He was a political reformer and a member of the Committee of One Hundred in Philadelphia which worked to end bossism politics in the city.

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19/02/1927

Robert Fuchs, Austrian composer and educator (born 1847)

Robert Fuchs was an Austrian composer and music teacher. As Professor of music theory at the Vienna Conservatory, Fuchs taught many notable composers, while he was himself a highly regarded composer in his lifetime.

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19/02/1916

Ernst Mach, Austrian-Czech physicist and philosopher (born 1838)

Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach was an Austrian-Czech physicist and philosopher who contributed to the understanding of the physics of shock waves. The ratio of the speed of a flow or object to that of sound is named the Mach number in his honor. As a philosopher of science, he was a major influence on logical positivism and American pragmatism. Through his criticism of Isaac Newton's theories of space and time, he foreshadowed Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.

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19/02/1915

Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Indian philosopher and politician (born 1866)

Gopal Krishna Gokhale was an Indian political leader and a social reformer during the Indian independence movement, and political mentor of Indian freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi. Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and the founder of the Servants of India Society. Through the Society as well as the Congress and other legislative bodies he served in, Gokhale campaigned for Indian self-rule and social reforms. He was the leader of the moderate faction of the Congress that advocated reforms by working with existing government institutions, and a major member of the Poona Association or the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha.

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19/02/1897

Karl Weierstrass, German mathematician and academic (born 1815)

Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass was a German mathematician often cited as the "father of modern analysis". Despite leaving university without a degree, he studied mathematics and trained as a school teacher, eventually teaching mathematics, physics, botany and gymnastics. He later received an honorary doctorate and became professor of mathematics in Berlin.

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19/02/1887

Multatuli, Dutch-German author and civil servant (born 1820)

Eduard Douwes Dekker, better known by his pen name Multatuli, was a Dutch writer best known for his satirical novel Max Havelaar (1860), which denounced the abuses of colonialism in the Dutch East Indies. He is considered one of the Netherlands' greatest authors.

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19/02/1837

Georg Büchner, German-Swiss poet and playwright (born 1813)

Karl Georg Büchner was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose, considered part of the Young Germany movement. He was also a revolutionary and the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchner. His literary achievements, though limited, are generally held in great esteem in Germany. Despite his brief career, his plays profoundly influenced naturalism, expressionism, and later developments in European theater.

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Thomas Burgess, English bishop and philosopher (born 1756)

Thomas Burgess was an English author, philosopher, Bishop of St Davids and Bishop of Salisbury, who was greatly influential in the development of the Church in Wales. He founded St David's College, Lampeter, was a founding member of the Odiham Agricultural Society, helped establish the Royal Veterinary College in London, and was the first president of the Royal Society of Literature.

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19/02/1806

Elizabeth Carter, English poet and translator (born 1717)

Elizabeth Carter was an English poet, classicist, writer, translator, and linguist. As one of the Bluestocking Circle that surrounded Elizabeth Montagu, she earned respect for the first English translation of the 2nd-century Discourses of Epictetus. She also published poems and translated from French and Italian, and corresponded profusely. Among her many eminent friends were Elizabeth Montagu, Hannah More, Hester Chapone and other Bluestocking members. Also close friends were Anne Hunter, a poet and socialite, and Mary Delany. She befriended Samuel Johnson, editing some editions of his periodical The Rambler.

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19/02/1799

Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, and sailor (born 1733)

Jean-Charles, chevalier de Borda was a French mathematician, physicist, and Navy officer.

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19/02/1789

Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and politician, 7th Governor of Delaware (born 1738)

Nicholas Van Dyke was an American Founding Father, lawyer, and politician from New Castle in New Castle County, Delaware. He served in the Delaware General Assembly, in the Continental Congress, where he signed the Articles of Confederation, and as president of Delaware.

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19/02/1785

Mary, Countess of Harold, English aristocrat and philanthropist (born 1701)

Mary, Countess of Harold was an English aristocrat and philanthropist.

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19/02/1716

Dorothe Engelbretsdatter, Norwegian author and poet (born 1634)

Dorothe Engelbretsdatter was a Norwegian author. She principally wrote hymns and poems which were strongly religious. She has been described as Norway's first recognized female author as well as Norway's first feminist before feminism became a recognized concept.

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19/02/1709

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shōgun (born 1646)

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was a Japanese samurai, daimyo and the fifth shōgun of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan. He was the younger brother of Tokugawa Ietsuna, the son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, the grandson of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

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19/02/1672

Charles Chauncy, English-American minister, theologian, and academic (born 1592)

Charles Chauncy was an Anglo-American Congregational clergyman, educator, and secondarily, a physician who served as the second president of Harvard College from 1654 to 1672.

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19/02/1622

Henry Savile, English scholar and politician (born 1549)

Sir Henry Savile was an English scholar and mathematician, Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and Provost of Eton. He endowed the Savilian chairs of Astronomy and of Geometry at Oxford University, and was one of the scholars who translated the New Testament from Greek into English. He was a Member of the Parliament of England for Bossiney in Cornwall in 1589, and Dunwich in Suffolk in 1593.

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19/02/1605

Orazio Vecchi, Italian composer (born 1550)

Orazio Vecchi was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance. He is most famous for his madrigal comedies, particularly L'Amfiparnaso.

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19/02/1602

Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercœur (born 1558)

Philippe-Emmanuel de Lorraine, Duke of Mercœur and of Penthièvre was a French soldier, a prince of the Holy Roman Empire and a prominent member of the Catholic League, who fought for Breton political independence from the House of Bourbon.

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19/02/1553

Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician (born 1511)

Erasmus Reinhold was a German astronomer and mathematician, considered to be the most influential astronomical pedagogue of his generation. He was born and died in Saalfeld, Saxony.

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19/02/1491

Enno I, Count of East Frisia, German noble (born 1460)

Enno I of East Frisia, count of East Frisia was the eldest son of Ulrich I of East Frisia and Theda Ukena, of a chiefly East Frisian family.

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19/02/1445

Eleanor of Aragon, queen of Portugal (born 1402)

Eleanor of Aragon was Queen of Portugal from 1433 to 1438 as the spouse of King Edward. After Edward's death, she served as regent in 1438-1440 for her son Afonso V. She was the daughter of Ferdinand I of Aragon and Eleanor of Alburquerque.

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19/02/1414

Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury (born 1353)

Thomas Arundel was an English clergyman who served as Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of York during the reign of Richard II, as well as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1397 and from 1399 until his death, an outspoken opponent of the Lollards. He was instrumental in the usurpation of Richard by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, who became Henry IV.

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19/02/1408

Thomas Bardolf, 5th Baron Bardolf, English rebel

Thomas Bardolf, 5th Baron Bardolf was an English baron who was the Lord of Wormegay in Norfolk, of Shelford and Stoke Bardolph in Nottinghamshire, and of Hallaton (Hallughton) in Leicestershire, among others, and was "a person of especial eminence in his time".

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19/02/1300

Munio of Zamora, General of the Dominican Order

Munio of Zamora, O.P., was a Spanish Dominican friar who became the seventh Master General of the Dominican Order in 1285, and later a bishop.

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19/02/1275

Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Sufi philosopher and poet (born 1177)

Sayyid Uthman al-Marwandi , popularly known as Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, was a Sufi saint and poet who is revered in South Asia.

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19/02/1133

Irene Doukaina, Byzantine wife of Alexios I Komnenos (born 1066)

Irene Doukaina or Ducaena was a Byzantine empress by marriage to the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. She was the mother of Emperor John II Komnenos and the historian Anna Komnene. She was initially heavily overshadowed and humiliated in influence and power by her mother-in-law Anna Dalassene, but after her retirement and death, Irene was able to exert increasing influence over her husband Alexios I Komnenos, and became powerful towards the end of his reign. But even so, she could not arrange his successor according to her wishes, which favoured her daughter Anna Komnene over her son John II Komnenos.

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19/02/0446

Leontius of Trier, Bishop of Trier

Leontius of Trier was bishop of Trier from 414 to 445.

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19/02/0197

Clodius Albinus, Roman usurper (born 150)

Decimus Clodius Albinus was a Roman imperial pretender between 193 and 197. He was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Britain and Hispania after the murder of Pertinax in 193. Initially Albinus cooperated with another contender for the throne, Septimius Severus, but the two turned on each other in 196 and commenced a civil war. Albinus died in battle the following year.

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