Died on Monday, 2nd February – Famous Deaths

02/02/2025

Brian Murphy, English comic actor (born 1932)

Brian Trevor John Murphy was an English comic actor. He was best known as the henpecked husband George Roper in the popular sitcom Man About the House and its spin-off series George and Mildred. He also played Alvin Smedley in Last of the Summer Wine. Other notable roles included Stan the shopkeeper in the 1990s children's series Wizadora, and Maurice in the comedy drama series The Booze Cruise.

---

02/02/2024

Don Murray, American actor (born 1929)

Donald Patrick Murray was an American actor, screenwriter, and film director. His debut film role as Bo Decker in Bus Stop (1956), opposite Marilyn Monroe, earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He subsequently had several major leading and supporting roles in films during the 1950s and '60s, including A Hatful of Rain (1957), Shake Hands with the Devil, One Foot in Hell, Advise & Consent, and Baby the Rain Must Fall.

---

Carl Weathers, American football player and actor (born 1948)

Carl Weathers was an American actor, director and gridiron football player. His prominent roles included boxer Apollo Creed in the first four Rocky films (1976–1985), Colonel Al Dillon in Predator (1987), Chubbs Peterson in Happy Gilmore (1996), and Combat Carl in the Toy Story franchise. He also starred in the 1988 film Action Jackson and portrayed Det. Beaudreaux in the television series Street Justice (1991–1993) and a fictionalized version of himself in the comedy series Arrested Development, and voiced Omnitraxus Prime in Star vs. the Forces of Evil (2017–2019). He had a recurring role as Greef Karga in the Star Wars series The Mandalorian (2019–2023), for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

---

02/02/2023

K. Viswanath, Indian actor, director and screenwriter (born 1930)

Kasinadhuni Viswanath was an Indian film director, screenwriter, lyricist and actor who predominantly worked in Telugu cinema. One of the greatest auteurs of Indian cinema, he received international recognition for his works, and is known for blending parallel cinema with mainstream cinema. He was honoured with the "Prize of the Public" at the "Besançon Film Festival of France" in 1981. In 1992, he received the Andhra Pradesh state Raghupathi Venkaiah Award, and the civilian honour Padma Shri for his contribution to the field of arts. In 2016, he was conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest award in Indian cinema. He is popularly known as "Kalatapasvi."

---

Butch Miles, American jazz drummer (born 1944)

Charles J. Thornton, Jr., known professionally as Butch Miles, was an American jazz drummer. He played with the Count Basie Orchestra, Dave Brubeck, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, and Tony Bennett.

---

02/02/2021

Captain Sir Tom Moore, British Army officer and charity campaigner (born 1920)

Captain Sir Thomas Moore, more popularly known as Captain Tom, was a British Army officer and fundraiser. He made international headlines in April 2020 when he raised money for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the COVID-19 pandemic. He served in India and the Burma campaign during the Second World War, and later became an instructor in armoured warfare. After the war, he worked as managing director of a concrete company and was an avid motorcycle racer.

---

02/02/2020

Bernard Ebbers, Canadian businessman, the co-founder and CEO of WorldCom (born 1941)

Bernard John Ebbers was a Canadian-American businessman and the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of WorldCom. Under his management, WorldCom grew rapidly but collapsed in 2002 amid revelations of accounting irregularities, making it at the time one of the largest accounting scandals in the United States. Ebbers blamed his subordinates but was convicted of fraud and conspiracy. In December 2019, Ebbers was released from Federal Medical Center, Fort Worth, due to declining health, having served 13 years of his 25-year sentence, and he died just over a month later.

---

Mad Mike Hoare, British-Irish military officer and mercenary (born 1919)

Thomas Michael "Mad Mike" Hoare was a British-Irish military officer and mercenary who fought during the Simba rebellion and was involved in carrying out the 1981 Seychelles coup d'état attempt.

---

02/02/2016

Bob Elliott, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter (born 1923)

Robert Brackett Elliott was an American comedian and actor, one-half of the comedy duo of Bob and Ray. He was the father of comedian/actor Chris Elliott and grandfather of actresses and comedians Abby Elliott and Bridey Elliott. He is most remembered for the character of radio reporter Wally Ballou.

---

02/02/2015

Joseph Alfidi, American pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1949)

Joseph Alfidi was an American pianist, composer, and conductor and initially a child prodigy. He was born in Yonkers, New York, as the son of American-born parents of Italian descent. His father, Frank Alfidi, was an accordion player who ran a music school in Yonkers. Known as "Joey" in his childhood, he was three when he started to play several instruments in his father's studio. By the age of four, he frequently improvised little compositions at the piano, and soon became fascinated by symphonic music as well.

---

Dave Bergman, American baseball player (born 1953)

David Bruce Bergman was an American Major League Baseball first baseman, designated hitter and left fielder who played between 1975 and 1992.

---

Andriy Kuzmenko, Ukrainian singer-songwriter and actor (born 1968)

Andriy Viktorovych "Kuzma" Kuzmenko was a Ukrainian singer, poet, writer, TV presenter, producer and actor. He was best known as the lead singer of the Ukrainian rock band Skryabin, founded in 1989.

---

Molade Okoya-Thomas, Nigerian businessman and philanthropist (born 1935)

Chief Molade Alexander Okoya-Thomas FCNA, MFR, OFR, KSS was a Nigerian businessman and philanthropist.

---

Stewart Stern, American screenwriter (born 1922)

Stewart Henry Stern was an American screenwriter. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the film Rebel Without a Cause (1955), starring James Dean.

---

The Jacka, American rapper and producer (born 1977)

Shaheed Akbar, better known by his stage name The Jacka, was an American rapper from Pittsburg, California. He began his career as part of the rap group Mob Figaz.

---

02/02/2014

Gerd Albrecht, German conductor (born 1935)

Gerd Albrecht was a German conductor.

---

Tommy Aquino, American motorcycle racer (born 1992)

Tommy Aquino was an American motorcycle racer who competed in the AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike Championship. His best result in the class was in 2011 when he finished third in the championship, with one win.

---

Nicholas Brooks, English historian (born 1941)

Nicholas Peter Brooks, was an English medieval historian.

---

Eduardo Coutinho, Brazilian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1933)

Eduardo de Oliveira Coutinho was a Brazilian documentary filmmaker, director, screenwriter, film producer and former reporter, known as one of the most important documentarists in Brazil.

---

Philip Seymour Hoffman, American actor, director, and producer (born 1967)

Philip Seymour Hoffman was an American actor. He was known for his distinctive supporting character roles—eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—and memorable leading roles in many films and theatrical productions, from the early 1990s until his early death in 2014. He was voted the greatest actor of the 21st century in a 2024 ranking by The Independent.

---

Luis Raúl, Puerto Rican comedian and actor (born 1962)

Luis Raúl Martínez Rodríguez, better known as Luis Raúl, was a Puerto Rican actor, comedian and television host. He was known for his stand-up comedy and his various characters. He also hosted TeleOnce's talk and variety show Anda Pa'l Cará from 2001 to 2003 and Telemundo Puerto Rico's game show Pa' Que Te Lo Goces in 2006. He died early in the morning of February 2, 2014, from kidney failure which in turn led to cardiac and respiratory arrest.

---

Bunny Rugs, Jamaican singer (born 1948)

William Alexander Anthony "Bunny Rugs" Clarke, OD, also known as Bunny Scott, was the lead singer of Jamaican reggae band Third World as well as a solo artist. He began his career in the mid-1960s, and was also at one time a member of Inner Circle and half of the duo Bunny & Ricky.

---

Nigel Walker, English footballer (born 1959)

Nigel Walker was an English professional football midfielder. He played in The Football League for six clubs as well as the North American Soccer League and Major Indoor Soccer League. Walker's death, from cancer, at the age of 54 was reported on 2 February 2014. After football, Nigel was a teacher at Greencroft Business and Enterprise Community School.

---

02/02/2013

Abraham Iyambo, Namibian politician (born 1961)

Abraham Iyambo was a Namibian politician. Iyambo was a member of the National Assembly of Namibia since 1995, serving as Minister of Fisheries from 1997 to 2010 and Minister of Education from 2010 until his death. Iyambo was a member of both the central committee and political bureau of the SWAPO Party and the chairperson of its think tank.

---

John Kerr, American actor and lawyer (born 1931)

John Grinham Kerr was an American actor and attorney.

---

Chris Kyle, American soldier and sniper (born 1974)

Christopher Scott Kyle was a United States Navy SEAL sniper. He served four tours in the Iraq War and was awarded the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and a Combat Action Ribbon. Despite Kyle’s claims of receiving two Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars, the Navy later stated that his retirement paperwork was inaccurate and clarified that he had been awarded one Silver Star and three Bronze Star Medals with "V" devices for valor.

---

Lino Oviedo, Paraguayan general and politician (born 1943)

Lino César Oviedo Silva was a Paraguayan army officer and politician, who was the leader of the National Union of Ethical Citizens, which split from the Colorado Party in 2002.

---

Pepper Paire, American baseball player (born 1924)

Lavone A. "Pepper" Paire Davis was a baseball catcher and infielder who played from 1944 through 1953 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m), 138 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.

---

P. Shanmugam, Indian politician, 13th Chief Minister of Puducherry (born 1927)

P. Shanmugam was the Chief Minister of the Union Territory of Pondicherry. He served from 22 March 2000 to 27 October 2001.

---

Walt Sweeney, American football player (born 1941)

Walter Francis Sweeney was an American professional football player who was a guard in the American Football League (AFL) and the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Syracuse Orange and was named to the school's all-century team. He also played in the North–South Bowl and the College All-Star Game. A first-round draft pick of the San Diego Chargers in 1963, Sweeney helped them win the AFL championship.

---

Guy F. Tozzoli, American architect (born 1922)

Guy Frederick Tozzoli was director of the World Trade Department of the Port of New York Authority in the 1960s. As such he was a driving force behind the development and building of the World Trade Center towers. Tozzoli was also a founder of the World Trade Centers Association, which fostered the development and operation of World Trade Centers globally. Tozzoli was the driving force from New York City, while his business associates Tadayoshi Yamada and Paul Fabry led the WTC effort in Tokyo and New Orleans respectively. Tozzoli graduated from Fordham University and later served his country as a lieutenant in World War II and the Korean War. Tozzoli was credited for hiring Minoru Yamasaki to design the World Trade Center complex which was dedicated in April, 1973. Tozzoli retired as Director of the World Trade Department for the Port Authority in 1987, but remained as president of the World Trade Centers Association until January 2011.

---

02/02/2012

Joyce Barkhouse, Canadian author (born 1913)

Joyce Carman Barkhouse was a Canadian children's writer best known for writing historical fiction. She is the aunt of Margaret Atwood, with whom she co-wrote the children's book Anna's Pet. Barkhouse achieved her greatest recognition for her novel Pit Pony.

---

Frederick William Danker, American lexicographer and scholar (born 1920)

Frederick William Danker was a Christ Seminary–Seminex Professor Emeritus of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Illinois. Danker was a noted New Testament scholar and the pre-eminent Koine Greek lexicographer for two generations, working with F. Wilbur Gingrich as an editor of the Bauer Lexicon starting in 1957 until the publication of the second edition in 1979, and as the only editor from 1979 until the publication of the 3rd edition, updating it with the results of modern scholarship, converting it to SGML to allow it to be easily published in electronic formats, and significantly improving the usability of the lexicon, as well as the typography.

---

George Esper, American journalist and academic (born 1932)

George Esper was an American journalist and academic known for his work as a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press during the Vietnam War.

---

Dorothy Gilman, American author (born 1923)

Dorothy Edith Gilman was an American writer. She is best known for the Mrs. Pollifax series of spy novels, about spy and grandmother Emily Pollifax, who becomes a spy in her 60s. In 2010, Gilman was the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award recipient.

---

James F. Lloyd, American pilot and politician (born 1922)

James Fredrick Lloyd was an American military officer, businessman, and politician who served three terms as Democratic United States Representative from 1975 to 1981.

---

02/02/2011

Edward Amy, Canadian general (born 1918)

Brigadier-General Edward Alfred Charles Amy, DSO, OBE, MC, CD was a Canadian soldier who fought in World War II. He is one of Canada's most decorated soldiers.

---

Defne Joy Foster, Turkish actress (born 1975)

Defne Joy Foster was an American-Turkish actress, presenter and VJ.

---

Margaret John, Welsh actress (born 1926)

Margaret John was a BAFTA award-winning Welsh actress. She is often remembered for her later roles in TV comedies such as Doris O'Neill in Gavin & Stacey and Elsie "Mam" Hepplewhite in High Hopes.

---

02/02/2008

Barry Morse, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1918)

Herbert "Barry" Morse was a British-Canadian actor, writer, and director. He was known for playing Lt. Philip Gerard, the principal antagonist of the American television series The Fugitive (1963–67), as well as Dr. Victor Bergman on Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's science-fiction programme Space: 1999 (1975–76).

---

Katoucha Niane, Guinean model and author (born 1960)

Katoucha Niane was a Guinean model, activist and author. Nicknamed "The Peul Princess", she worked, and later wrote, under the single name "Katoucha". She was known as the muse of Yves Saint Laurent during the 1980s.

---

02/02/2007

Vijay Arora, Indian actor (born 1944)

Vijay Arora was an Indian actor in Hindi films and television serials who was known for Yaadon Ki Baaraat and as Indrajit in the television serial Ramayan.

---

Billy Henderson, American singer (born 1939)

William Henderson was an American singer, best known for being an original member and founder of The Spinners, a soul vocal group.

---

Joe Hunter, American pianist (born 1927)

Joseph Edward Hunter was an American musician and keyboardist, known for his recording session work with Motown Records' in-house studio band, the Funk Brothers. One of the original Funk Brothers, Hunter served as band director from 1959 until 1964, when he left Motown and was replaced by Earl Van Dyke.

---

Filippo Raciti, Italian police officer (born 1967)

On 2 February 2007, football violence occurred between football supporters and the police in Catania, Sicily, Italy. The clashes occurred during and after the Serie A match between the Catania and Palermo football clubs, also known as the Sicilian derby. Police officer Filippo Raciti was killed; in response Italian football was suspended for about a week.

---

Eric Von Schmidt, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1931)

Eric von Schmidt was an American folk musician and painter. He was associated with the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s and was a key part of the Cambridge folk music scene. As a singer and guitarist, he was considered to be the leading specialist in country blues in Cambridge at the time, the counterpart of Greenwich Village's Dave Van Ronk. Von Schmidt co-authored with Jim Rooney Baby, Let Me Follow You Down: The Illustrated Story of the Cambridge Folk Years.

---

Masao Takemoto, Japanese gymnast (born 1919)

Masao Takemoto was a Japanese artistic gymnast who won two world titles and seven Olympic medals.

---

02/02/2005

Birgitte Federspiel, Danish actress (born 1925)

Birgitte Federspiel was a Danish film, theater and TV actress. She won two Bodil Awards for best actress in 1955 (Ordet) and 1959.

---

Max Schmeling, German boxer (born 1905)

Maximilian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling was a German boxer who was heavyweight champion of the world between 1930 and 1932. His two fights with Joe Louis in 1936 and 1938 were worldwide cultural events because of their national associations. Schmeling is the only boxer to win the world heavyweight championship on a foul.

---

02/02/2004

Bernard McEveety, American director and producer (born 1924)

Bernard E. McEveety, Jr. was an American film and television director.

---

02/02/2003

Lou Harrison, American composer and educator (born 1917)

Lou Silver Harrison was an American composer, music critic, music theorist, painter, and creator of unique musical instruments. Harrison initially wrote in a dissonant, ultramodernist style similar to his former teacher and contemporary, Henry Cowell, but later moved toward incorporating elements of non-Western cultures into his work. Notable examples include a number of pieces written for Javanese style gamelan instruments, inspired after his introduction to noted gamelan musician Kanjeng Notoprojo. Harrison would create his own musical ensembles and instruments with his partner, William Colvig, who are now both considered founders of the American gamelan movement and world music; along with composers Harry Partch and Claude Vivier, and ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee.

---

02/02/2002

Paul Baloff, American singer-songwriter (born 1960)

Paul Nicholas Baloff was an American singer, best known as the original lead vocalist of the thrash metal band Exodus. He was fired from Exodus shortly after the release of the band's 1985 debut album Bonded by Blood, which is considered one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time. He sang with various other bands before rejoining Exodus in 1997. Baloff died of a stroke in 2002.

---

Claude Brown, American author (born 1937)

Claude Brown was the author of Manchild in the Promised Land, published to critical acclaim in 1965, which tells the story of his coming of age during the 1940s and 1950s in Harlem. He also published Children of Ham (1976).

---

02/02/1999

David McComb, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1962)

David Richard McComb was an Australian musician. He was the singer-songwriter and guitarist of the Australian bands, The Triffids (1976–89) and The Blackeyed Susans (1989–93). He also had a solo career including leading David McComb and The Red Ponies.

---

02/02/1998

Haroun Tazieff, German-French geologist and cinematographer (born 1914)

Haroun Tazieff was a Franco-Belgian volcanologist and geologist. He was a famous cinematographer of volcanic eruptions and lava flows, and the author of several books on volcanoes. He was also a government adviser and French cabinet minister. He also served in the Belgian resistance during World War II.

---

02/02/1997

Erich Eliskases, Austrian chess player (born 1913)

Erich Gottlieb Eliskases was a chess player who represented Austria, Germany and Argentina in international competition. In the late 1930s he was considered a potential contender for the World Championship. Eliskases was granted the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1952.

---

Sanford Meisner, American actor and coach (born 1904)

Sanford Meisner was an American actor and acting teacher who developed an approach to acting instruction that is now known as the Meisner technique. While Meisner was exposed to method acting at the Group Theatre, his approach differed markedly in that he completely abandoned the use of affective memory, a distinct characteristic of method acting. Meisner maintained an emphasis on "the reality of doing", which was the foundation of his approach.

---

02/02/1996

Gene Kelly, American actor, singer, dancer, and director (born 1912)

Eugene Curran Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, director and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style and sought to create a new form of American dance accessible to the general public, which he called "dance for the common man". He starred in, choreographed, and, with Stanley Donen, co-directed some of the best-regarded musical films of the 1940s and 1950s.

---

02/02/1995

Thomas Hayward, American tenor and actor (born 1917)

Thomas T. Hayward was an American operatic tenor. He was a cousin of opera singer Lawrence Tibbett.

---

Fred Perry, English tennis player (born 1909)

Frederick Towersey Perry was a British tennis and table tennis player and former world No. 1. He won 10 Majors, including eight Grand Slam tournaments and two Pro Slams single titles, as well as six Major doubles titles. Perry was the first player to win a "Career Grand Slam", lifting all four singles titles, which he completed at the age of 26 at the 1935 French Championships. He remains the only British player to achieve this feat.

---

Donald Pleasence, English-French actor (born 1919)

Donald Henry Pleasence was an English actor. He was known for his "bald head and intense, staring eyes," and played more than 250 stage, film, and television roles across a nearly 60-year career.

---

02/02/1994

Marija Gimbutas, Lithuanian-American archeologist (born 1921)

Marija Gimbutas was a Lithuanian archaeologist and anthropologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe" and for her Kurgan hypothesis, which located the Proto-Indo-European homeland in the Pontic Steppe.

---

02/02/1993

François Reichenbach, French director and screenwriter (born 1921)

François Arnold Reichenbach was a French film director, cinematographer, producer, and screenwriter. He directed 40 films between 1954 and 1993.

---

02/02/1992

Bert Parks, American actor, singer, television personality; Miss America telecast presenter (born 1914)

Bert Parks was an American actor, singer, and radio and television announcer, best known for hosting the annual Miss America telecast from 1955 to 1979.

---

02/02/1990

Paul Ariste, Estonian linguist and academic (born 1905)

Paul Ariste was an Estonian linguist renowned for his studies of the Finno-Ugric languages, Yiddish and Baltic Romani language.

---

Joe Erskine, Welsh boxer (born 1934)

Joseph Erskine was a professional boxer from the Butetown district of Cardiff, Wales. He was an Amateur Boxing Association Champion, Inter-Services Champion, and British Army Champion in 1953. He began fighting as a professional in 1954 and was trained by Archie Rule and Freddie Elvin. He held the British heavyweight title from August 1956 to June 1958. In all, he won 45 of his 54 professional bouts, losing 8, with one drawn. His best wins were against George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, Dick Richardson, Uli Ritter, Jack Bodell, Johnny Williams, Joe Bygraves, and Willie Pastrano.

---

02/02/1989

Ondrej Nepela, Slovak figure skater and coach (born 1951)

Ondrej Nepela was a Slovak figure skater who represented Czechoslovakia. He was the 1972 Olympic champion, a three-time World champion (1971–1973), and a five-time European champion (1969–1973). Later in his career, he performed professionally and became a coach.

---

Arnold Nordmeyer, New Zealand minister and politician, 30th New Zealand Minister of Finance (born 1901)

Sir Arnold Henry Nordmeyer was a New Zealand politician and Presbyterian minister. As a member of Parliament (MP) he played a crucial role in the Labour Party, serving from 1935 to 1969. He served as minister of finance (1957–1960) and later as leader of the Labour Party and leader of the Opposition (1963–1965). Although he was a prominent statesman, Nordmeyer never ascended to the role of prime minister.

---

02/02/1988

Marcel Bozzuffi, French actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1929)

Marcel Bozzuffi was a French film actor. Internationally, he appeared as a hitman in the Oscar-winning American film The French Connection. In 1963, he married French actress Françoise Fabian.

---

02/02/1987

Carlos José Castilho, Brazilian footballer and manager (born 1927)

Carlos José Castilho was a Brazilian football goalkeeper. He was born in Rio de Janeiro and played for Fluminense from 1947 to 1964 and for Brazil. He was a member of the Brazil squad in four World Cups: 1950, 1954, 1958 and 1962. Castilho has the all-time record of matches played in Fluminense FC history, with 699 appearances.

---

Alistair MacLean, Scottish novelist and screenwriter (born 1922)

Alistair Stuart MacLean was a Scottish novelist, who wrote popular thrillers and adventure stories. His books are estimated to have sold over 150 million copies, making him one of the best-selling fiction authors of all time.

---

02/02/1986

Anita Cobby, Australian murder victim (born 1959)

Anita Lorraine Cobby was a 26-year-old Australian woman from Blacktown, New South Wales, who was kidnapped while walking home from Blacktown railway station just before 10:00 p.m. on 2 February 1986, and subsequently sexually assaulted and murdered.

---

Gino Hernandez, American wrestler (born 1957)

Charles Eugene Wolfe Jr. was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Gino Hernandez. He is perhaps best known for his appearances with the Dallas, Texas-based promotion World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) between 1976 until his death in 1986. Hernandez's death was initially ruled a murder case, but police later concluded that he had died of a drug overdose. Despite this conclusion, those close to Hernandez and fans alike continue to speculate about the circumstances surrounding his death.

---

02/02/1983

Sam Chatmon, American singer and guitarist (born 1897)

Vivian "Sam" Chatmon was an American Delta blues guitarist and singer who was a member of the Mississippi Sheiks.

---

02/02/1982

Paul Desruisseaux, Canadian lawyer and politician (born 1905)

Paul Desruisseaux was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician.

---

02/02/1980

William Howard Stein, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911)

William Howard Stein was an American biochemist who collaborated in the determination of the ribonuclease sequence, as well as how its structure relates to catalytic activity, earning a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1972 for his work. Stein was also involved in the invention of the automatic amino acid analyzer, an advancement in chromatography that opened the door to modern methods of chromatography, such as liquid chromatography and gas chromatography.

---

02/02/1979

Jim Burke, Australian cricketer (born 1930)

James Wallace Burke was an Australian cricketer who played in 24 Test matches from 1951 to 1959. Burke holds the record for the most innings in a complete career without scoring a duck, with 44.

---

Sid Vicious, English singer and bass player (born 1957)

John Simon Ritchie, better known by his stage name Sid Vicious, was an English musician, best known as the second bassist for the punk rock band Sex Pistols. After his death in 1979 at the age of 21, he remained an icon of the punk subculture; one of his friends noted that he embodied "everything in punk that was dark, decadent and nihilistic."

---

02/02/1975

Gustave Lanctot, Canadian historian and academic (born 1883)

Gustave Lanctot, also spelled Gustave Lanctôt, was a Canadian historian and archivist.

---

02/02/1974

Imre Lakatos, Hungarian-English mathematician and philosopher (born 1922)

Imre Lakatos was a Hungarian philosopher of mathematics and science, known for his thesis of the fallibility of mathematics and its "methodology of proofs and refutations" in its pre-axiomatic stages of development, and also for introducing the concept of the "research programme" in his methodology of scientific research programmes.

---

02/02/1973

Hendrik Elias, Belgian academic and politician, 9th Mayor of Ghent (born 1902)

Hendrik Jozef Elias was a Belgian politician and Flemish nationalist, notable as the leader of the Vlaams Nationaal Verbond between 1942 and 1944.

---

02/02/1972

Natalie Clifford Barney, American author, poet, and playwright (born 1876)

Natalie Clifford Barney was an American writer who hosted a literary salon at her home in Paris that brought together French and international writers. She influenced other authors through her salon and also with her poetry, plays, and epigrams, often thematically tied to her lesbianism and feminism.

---

02/02/1970

Lawrence Gray, American actor (born 1898)

Lawrence Gray was an American actor of the 1920s and 1930s.

---

Bertrand Russell, English mathematician and philosopher, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1872)

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, was an English philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He influenced mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic philosophy.

---

Hannah Ryggen, Norwegian textile artist (born 1894)

Hannah Ryggen was a Swedish-born Norwegian textile artist. Self-trained, she worked on a standing loom constructed by her husband, the painter Hans Ryggen. She lived on a farm on a Norwegian Fjord and dyed her yarn with local plants.

---

02/02/1969

Boris Karloff, English actor (born 1887)

William Henry Pratt, known professionally as Boris Karloff, was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film Frankenstein (1931), his 82nd film, established him as a horror icon, and he reprised the role for the sequels Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). He also appeared as Imhotep in The Mummy (1932), and voiced the Grinch in, as well as narrating, the animated television special of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966), which won him a Grammy Award.

---

02/02/1968

Tullio Serafin, Italian conductor and director (born 1878)

Tullio Serafin was an Italian conductor who specialised in the operatic repertoire. He was Musical Director at La Scala on three occasions.

---

02/02/1966

Hacı Ömer Sabancı, Turkish businessman (born 1906)

Hacı Ömer Sabancı was a Turkish entrepreneur, who founded a number of companies, which later formed the second largest industrial and financial conglomerate of Turkey, the Sabancı Holding. He initiated the establishment of a dynasty of Turkey's wealthiest businesspeople.

---

02/02/1962

Shlomo Hestrin, Canadian-Israeli biochemist and academic (born 1914)

Shlomo Hestrin was an Israeli biochemist.

---

02/02/1957

Grigory Landsberg, Russian physicist and academic (born 1890)

Grigory Samuilovich Landsberg was a Soviet physicist who worked in the fields of optics and spectroscopy. Together with Leonid Mandelstam he co-discovered inelastic combinational scattering of light, which is known as Raman scattering.

---

02/02/1956

Charley Grapewin, American actor (born 1869)

Charles Ellsworth Grapewin was an American vaudeville and circus performer, writer, and stage and film actor.

---

Truxtun Hare, American football player and hammer thrower (born 1878)

Thomas Truxtun Hare was an American Olympic medalist who competed in track and field and the hammer throw. He also played football with the University of Pennsylvania and was selected first-team All-American all four years. Sports Illustrated wrote, "Few early 20th Century players were as revered as Hare, who played every minute of every game." He was selected as a charter member of the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.

---

Pyotr Konchalovsky, Russian painter (born 1876)

Pyotr or Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky was a Russian and Soviet painter. He was a founding member and Chairman of the Knave of Diamonds group.

---

02/02/1954

Hella Wuolijoki, Estonian-Finnish author and politician (born 1886)

Hella Wuolijoki, also known by the pen name Juhani Tervapää, was an Estonian-born Finnish writer known for her Niskavuori series.

---

02/02/1952

Callistratus of Georgia, Georgian patriarch (born 1866)

St. Callistratus was Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia from June 21, 1932, until his death. His full title was His Holiness and Beatitude, Archbishop of Mtskheta-Tbilisi and Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia.

---

02/02/1950

Constantin Carathéodory, Greek mathematician and academic (born 1873)

Constantin Carathéodory was a Greek mathematician who spent most of his professional career in Germany. He made significant contributions to real and complex analysis, the calculus of variations, and measure theory. He also created an axiomatic formulation of thermodynamics. Carathéodory is considered one of the greatest mathematicians of his era and the most renowned Greek mathematician since antiquity.

---

02/02/1948

Thomas W. Lamont, American banker and philanthropist (born 1870)

Thomas William Lamont Jr. was an American banker.

---

Bevil Rudd, South African runner and journalist (born 1894)

Bevil Gordon D'Urban Rudd was a South African athlete, the 1920 Olympic Champion in the 400 metres.

---

02/02/1945

Alfred Delp, German priest and philosopher (born 1907)

Alfred Friedrich Delp was a German Jesuit religious priest and philosopher of the German Resistance. A member of the inner Kreisau Circle resistance group, he is considered a significant figure in Catholic resistance to Nazism. Falsely implicated in the failed 1944 July Plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler, Delp was arrested and sentenced to death. He was executed in 1945.

---

Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, German economist and politician (born 1884)

Carl Friedrich Goerdeler was a German conservative politician, monarchist, executive, economist, civil servant and opponent of the Nazi regime. He opposed anti-Jewish policies while he held office and was opposed to the Holocaust.

---

Johannes Popitz, German lawyer and politician (born 1884)

Hermann Eduard Johannes Popitz was a Prussian lawyer, finance minister and a member of the German Resistance against the government of Nazi Germany. He was the father of Heinrich Popitz, an important German sociologist.

---

02/02/1942

Ado Birk, Estonian lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Estonia (born 1883)

Ado Birk, was an Estonian politician who was the Estonian Prime Minister for the shortest time.

---

Daniil Kharms, Russian poet and playwright (born 1905)

Daniil Ivanovich Kharms was a Russian avant-gardist and absurdist poet, writer and dramatist in the early Soviet era.

---

Hugh D. McIntosh, Australian businessman (born 1876)

Hugh Donald "Huge Deal" McIntosh was an Australian theatrical entrepreneur, sporting promoter and newspaper proprietor

---

02/02/1939

Amanda McKittrick Ros, Irish author and poet (born 1860)

Anna Margaret Ross, known by her pen-name Amanda McKittrick Ros, was an Irish writer. She published her first novel Irene Iddesleigh at her own expense in 1897. However, it was reprinted by Nonesuch Press in 1926; the reprint sold out immediately. She wrote poetry and a number of novels. She has been described as a "writer with an immense power of words but uncertain use of them."

---

Bernhard Gregory, Estonian-German chess player (born 1879)

Bernhard Gregory was a Baltic German chess master.

---

02/02/1932

Agha Petros, Assyrian general and politician (born 1880)

Petros Elia of Baz, better known as Agha Petros, was an Assyrian military leader and warlord, best known for his role during World War I. He commanded both Assyrian and Armenian forces that defeated Ottoman, Kurdish, and Qajar armies in multiple battles across Mesopotamia and Persia, and he also led ethnic conflicts against Kurdish tribes within the region.

---

02/02/1926

Vladimir Sukhomlinov, Russian general and politician (born 1848)

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sukhomlinov was a Russian general in the Imperial Russian Army who served as the Chief of the General Staff from 1908 to 1909 and the Minister of War from 1909 to 1915.

---

02/02/1925

Antti Aarne, Finnish historian and academic (born 1867)

Antti Amatus Aarne was a Finnish folklorist.

---

Jaap Eden, Dutch speed skater and cyclist (born 1873)

Jacobus Johannes "Jaap" Eden was a Dutch athlete. He is the only male athlete to win world championships in both speed skating and bicycle racing.

---

02/02/1919

Julius Kuperjanov, Estonian lieutenant (born 1894)

Julius Kuperjanov VR I/2, VR II/2 and VR II/3 was an Estonian military officer who helped to liberate Tartu during the War of Independence, and was the commander of the Tartumaa Partisan Battalion, posthumously renamed the Kuperjanov Infantry Battalion.

---

02/02/1918

John L. Sullivan, American boxer (born 1858)

John Lawrence Sullivan was an American professional boxer. Nicknamed the "Boston Strong Boy" and known as John L. among his admirers, he is recognized as the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing, de facto reigning from 7 February 1882 to 7 September 1892. He is also generally recognized as the last heavyweight champion of bare-knuckle boxing under the London Prize Ring Rules, being a cultural icon of the late 19th century America, arguably the first boxing superstar and one of the world's highest-paid athletes of his era.

---

02/02/1913

Gustaf de Laval, Swedish engineer (born 1845)

Karl Gustaf Patrik de Laval was a Swedish engineer and inventor who made important contributions to the design of steam turbines and centrifugal separation machinery for dairy.

---

02/02/1909

Carlo Acton, Italian pianist and composer (born 1829)

Carlo Eduardo Acton was an Italian composer and concert pianist. He is particularly remembered for his opera Una cena in convitto and for his sacred music compositions of which his Tantum ergo is the most well-known.

---

02/02/1907

Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist and academic (born 1834)

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was a Russian chemist known for formulating the periodic law and creating a version of the periodic table of elements. He used the periodic law not only to correct the then-accepted properties of some known elements, such as the valence and atomic weight of uranium, but also to predict the properties of three elements that were yet to be discovered. The synthetic element mendelevium is named in his honor.

---

02/02/1905

Henri Germain, French banker and politician, founded Le Crédit Lyonnais (born 1824)

Henri Germain was a French banker and politician who founded Crédit Lyonnais.

---

02/02/1904

Ernest Cashel, American-Canadian criminal (born 1882)

Ernest Cashel was an American-born Canadian outlaw who became famous for his repeated escapes from custody.

---

William Collins Whitney, American financier and politician, 31st United States Secretary of the Navy (born 1841)

William Collins Whitney was an American political leader and financier and a prominent member of the Whitney family. He served as Secretary of the Navy in the first administration of President Grover Cleveland from 1885 through 1889. A conservative reformer, he was considered a Bourbon Democrat.

---

02/02/1881

Henry Parker, English-Australian politician, 3rd Premier of New South Wales (born 1808)

Sir Henry Watson Parker, was Premier of New South Wales. He fitted into colonial society and politics in the era before responsible government, but his style was not suited to the democratic politics that began to develop in 1856.

---

02/02/1861

Théophane Vénard, French Catholic missionary (born 1829)

Jean-Théophane Vénard was a French Catholic missionary to Indo-China. He was a member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society. He was beatified in company with thirty-three other Catholic martyrs, most of whom were natives of Tonkin, Cochin-China, or China. Pope John Paul II canonized him, with nineteen other martyrs, in 1988.

---

02/02/1836

Letizia Ramolino, Italian noblewoman (born 1750)

Maria-Letizia Bonaparte, commonly known as Letizia Bonaparte, was a Corsican noblewoman and the mother of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. Due to her status as the Emperor's mother, she was granted the title "Madame Mère".

---

02/02/1831

Vincenzo Dimech, Maltese sculptor (born 1768)

Vincenzo Dimech was a Maltese sculptor. He is best known for his religious sculptures, which include the titular statues of Gudja and Floriana. He also sculpted monuments or architectural features in Valletta and Corfu.

---

02/02/1804

George Walton, American lawyer and politician, Governor of Georgia (born 1749)

George Walton was a Founding Father of the United States who signed the United States Declaration of Independence while representing Georgia in the Continental Congress. Walton also served briefly as the second chief executive of Georgia in 1779 and was again named governor in 1789–1790. In 1795, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate, to complete the unexpired term of a senator who had resigned.

---

02/02/1802

Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip, English politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (born 1713)

Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip, PC, FRS was a British politician who represented Cricklade, Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, Aylesbury and Petersfield in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1741 to 1794 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Mendip. He held a number of political offices, including briefly serving as Secretary for the Colonies in 1782 during the American War of Independence.

---

02/02/1798

Ferdinand Ashmall, English centenarian, Catholic priest, died in 73rd year of his ministry (born 1695)

Ferdinand Ashmall was an English centenarian and Catholic priest for the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

---

02/02/1769

Pope Clement XIII (born 1693)

Pope Clement XIII, born Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 July 1758 to his death in February 1769. He was installed on 16 July 1758.

---

02/02/1768

Robert Smith, English mathematician and theorist (born 1689)

Robert Smith was an English mathematician.

---

02/02/1723

Antonio Maria Valsalva, Italian anatomist and physician (born 1666)

Antonio Maria Valsalva was an Italian anatomist born in Imola. His research focused on the anatomy of the ears. He coined the term Eustachian tube and he described the aortic sinuses of Valsalva in his writings, published posthumously in 1740. His name is associated with the Valsalva antrum of the ear and the Valsalva maneuver, which is used as a test of circulatory function. Anatomical structures bearing his name are Valsalva’s muscle and taeniae Valsalvae. He observed that when weakness of one side of the body is caused by a lesion in the brain, the culprit lesion tends to be on the side opposite (contralateral) to the weak side; this finding is named the "Valsalva doctrine" in his honor.

---

02/02/1714

John Sharp, English archbishop (born 1643)

John Sharp was an English divine who served as Archbishop of York.

---

02/02/1712

Martin Lister, English physician and geologist (born 1639)

Martin Lister was an English naturalist and physician. His daughters Anne and Susanna were two of his illustrators and engravers.

---

02/02/1704

Guillaume de l'Hôpital, French mathematician and academic (born 1661)

Guillaume François Antoine, Marquis de l'Hôpital was a French mathematician. His name is firmly associated with l'Hôpital's rule for calculating limits involving indeterminate forms 0/0 and ∞/∞. Although the rule did not originate with l'Hôpital, it appeared in print for the first time in his 1696 treatise on the infinitesimal calculus, entitled Analyse des Infiniment Petits pour l'Intelligence des Lignes Courbes. This book was a first systematic exposition of differential calculus. Several editions and translations to other languages were published and it became a model for subsequent treatments of calculus.

---

02/02/1688

Abraham Duquesne, French admiral (born 1610)

Vice-Admiral Abraham Duquesne, marquis du Bouchet was a French naval officer, who also saw service as an admiral in the Swedish navy. He was born in Dieppe, a seaport, in 1610, and was a Huguenot. He was the son of a naval officer and therefore became a sailor himself, spending his early years in merchant service.

---

02/02/1675

Ivan Belostenec, Croatian linguist and lexicographer (born 1594)

Ivan Belostenec was a Croatian linguist, lexicographer and poet.

---

02/02/1661

Lucas Holstenius, German geographer and historian (born 1596)

Lucas Holstenius, born Lucas Holstein, was a German Catholic humanist, geographer, historian, and librarian.

---

02/02/1660

Gaston, Duke of Orléans (born 1608)

Monsieur Gaston, Duke of Orléans, was the third son of King Henry IV of France and his second wife, Marie de' Medici. As a son of the king, he was born a Fils de France. He later acquired the title Duke of Orléans, by which he was generally known during his adulthood. As the eldest surviving brother of King Louis XIII, he was known at court by the traditional honorific Monsieur.

---

Govert Flinck, Dutch painter (born 1615)

Govert Teuniszoon Flinck was a Dutch painter of the Dutch Golden Age.

---

02/02/1648

George Abbot, English author and politician (born 1603)

George Abbot or Abbott was an English lay writer, known as "The Puritan", and a politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1640 and 1649. He is known also for his part in defending Caldecote House against royalist forces in the early days of the English Civil War.

---

02/02/1594

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Italian composer and educator (born 1525)

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian composer of late Renaissance music. The central representative of the Roman School, with Orlande de Lassus and Tomás Luis de Victoria, Palestrina is considered the leading composer of late 16th-century Europe. Palestrina was one of the few Renaissance composers never entirely forgotten, but it was the so-called "Palestrinian style" of counterpoint—especially as codified by Johann Joseph Fux—rather than his individual compositions that exerted the greatest influence.

---

02/02/1580

Bessho Nagaharu, Japanese daimyō (born 1558)

Bessho Nagaharu was a Japanese daimyō of the Sengoku period. He was the eldest son of Bessho Yasuharu.

---

02/02/1529

Baldassare Castiglione, Italian soldier and diplomat (born 1478)

Baldassare Castiglione, Count of Casatico, was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissance author.

---

02/02/1512

Hatuey, Caribbean tribal chief

Hatuey, also Hatüey, was a Taíno Cacique (chief) of the Hispaniolan cacicazgo of Guanaba. He lived from the late 15th until the early 16th century. Chief Hatuey and many of his tribesmen travelled from present-day La Gonave by canoe to Cuba to warn the Taíno in Cuba about the Spaniards that were arriving to conquer the island.

---

02/02/1461

Owen Tudor, Welsh founder of the Tudor dynasty (born c. 1400)

Sir Owen Tudor was a Welsh courtier and the second husband of Queen Catherine of Valois (1401–1437), widow of King Henry V of England. He was the grandfather of Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty.

---

02/02/1448

Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Egyptian jurist and scholar (born 1372)

Ibn Hajar al Asqalani ., or simply ibn Ḥajar, was a classic Islamic scholar "whose life work constitutes the final summation of the science of hadith." He authored some 150 works on hadith, history, biography, exegesis, poetry, and the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence, the most valued of which being his commentary of Sahih al-Bukhari, titled Fath al-Bari. He is known by the honorific epithets Hafiz al-Asr, Shaykh al-Islam, and Amir al-Mu'minin fi al-Hadith.

---

02/02/1446

Vittorino da Feltre, Italian humanist (born 1378)

Vittorino da Feltre was an Italian humanist and teacher. He was born in Feltre, Belluno, Republic of Venice and died in Mantua. His real name was Vittorino Rambaldoni. It was in Vittorino that the Renaissance idea of the complete man, or l'uomo universale — health of body, strength of character, wealth of mind — reached its first formulation.

---

02/02/1435

Joan II of Naples, Queen of Naples (born 1371)

Joanna II was Queen of Naples from 1414 until her death in 1435, marking the extinction of the senior line of the Capetian House of Anjou. In addition to her primary title, she also claimed several other royal titles, including titular queen of Jerusalem, Hungary, Sicily, Dalmatia, Croatia, and Rama.

---

02/02/1416

Racek Kobyla of Dvorce

Racek Kobyla of Dvorce was a Bohemian landowner, hetman of Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia, and burgrave of Stříbrná Skalice and Vyšehrad during the Late Middle Ages.

---

02/02/1348

Narymunt, Prince of Pinsk

Narimantas or Narymunt was a Lithuanian duke and the second eldest son of Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania. During various periods of his life, he ruled Pinsk and Polotsk. In 1333 he was invited by Novgorod's nobles to rule and protect territories in the north, Ladoga, Oreshek and Korela. He started the tradition of Lithuanian mercenary service north of Novgorod on the Swedish border that lasted until Novgorod's fall to Moscow in 1477.

---

02/02/1347

Thomas Bek, Bishop of Lincoln, was the bishop of Lincoln (born 1282)

Thomas Bek was the Bishop of Lincoln from 1341 until his death. He was a member of the same family as Antony Bek, Bishop of Durham, and Thomas Bek, Bishop of St David's.

---

02/02/1294

Louis II, Duke of Bavaria (born 1229)

Louis the Strict was Duke of Upper Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1253. He is known as Louis II or Louis VI following an alternative numbering. Born in Heidelberg, he was a son of Otto II Wittelsbach, Duke of Bavaria and Agnes of the Palatinate.

---

02/02/1250

Eric XI of Sweden (born 1216)

Erik Eriksson, sometimes known as Erik XI or with the epithet the Lisp and Lame, was King of Sweden from 1222 to 1229 and again from 1234 to 1250. Being the last ruler of the House of Erik, he stood in the shadow of a succession of powerful jarls, especially his brother-in-law Birger Jarl, whose descendants ruled as kings after his death.

---

02/02/1237

Joan, Lady of Wales

Joan, Lady of Wales and Lady of Snowdon, also known by her Welsh name Siwan was an illegitimate daughter of King John of England, and the wife of Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales, effective ruler of all of Wales. Joan, or Siwan in Welsh, has been referred to as both "Lady of Wales" and "Princess of Wales".

---

02/02/1218

Konstantin of Rostov (born 1186)

Konstantin Vsevolodovich was the eldest son of Vsevolod the Big Nest and Maria Shvarnovna.

---

02/02/1124

Bořivoj II, Duke of Bohemia (born 1064)

Bořivoj II was the duke of Bohemia from 25 December 1100 until May 1107 and from December 1117 until 16 August 1120. He was the younger half-brother and successor of Bretislaus II. His father was Vratislav II of Bohemia, his mother Świętosława of Poland.

---

02/02/0880

Bruno, duke of Saxony

Bruno, also called Brun or Braun, a member of the Ottonian dynasty, was Duke of Saxony from 866 until his death in 880. He is rated as an ancestor of the Brunonids, a cadet branch of the Ottonians, though an affiliation is uncertain. Bruno was killed fighting against Norse warriors in the Battle of Lüneburg Heath and is venerated as one of the Ebsdorf Martyrs.

---

02/02/0619

Laurence of Canterbury, English archbishop and saint

Laurence was the second Archbishop of Canterbury, serving from about 604 to 619. He was a member of the Gregorian mission sent from Italy to England to Christianise the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism, although the date of his arrival is disputed. He was consecrated archbishop by his predecessor, Augustine of Canterbury, during Augustine's lifetime, to ensure continuity in the office. While archbishop, he attempted unsuccessfully to resolve differences with the native British bishops by corresponding with them about points of dispute. Laurence faced a crisis following the death of King Æthelberht of Kent, when the king's successor abandoned Christianity; he eventually reconverted. Laurence was revered as a saint after his death in 619.

---