Died on Sunday, 22nd February – Famous Deaths

22/02/2026

Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (born 1966)

Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, commonly referred to by his alias "El Mencho", was a Mexican drug lord and head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), an organized crime group based in Jalisco. He was the most wanted person in Mexico and one of the most wanted in the United States at the time of his death. The U.S. government and the Mexican government were offering rewards of up to US$15 million and MXN$300 million, respectively, for information leading to his arrest.

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22/02/2024

John Lowe, English musician, pianist for The Quarrymen (born 1942)

John Charles "Duff" Lowe was an English pianist. In the late 1950s, he played piano for the Quarrymen, the group who would evolve into the Beatles.

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22/02/2021

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, American poet, painter (born 1919)

Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. An author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, and film narration, Ferlinghetti was best known for his second collection of poems, A Coney Island of the Mind (1958), which has been translated into nine languages and sold over a million copies. When Ferlinghetti turned 100 in March 2019, the city of San Francisco turned his birthday, March 24, into "Lawrence Ferlinghetti Day".

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22/02/2019

Brody Stevens, American comedian and actor (born 1970)

Steven James Brody, known professionally as Brody Stevens, was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He starred in the Comedy Central reality series Brody Stevens: Enjoy It!, and was known for appearances on Chelsea Lately and other comedy shows as well as roles in films such as The Hangover (2009) and Due Date (2010).

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Morgan Woodward, American actor (born 1925)

Thomas Morgan Woodward was an American actor who is best known for his recurring role as Marvin "Punk" Anderson on the television soap opera Dallas and for his portrayal of Boss Godfrey, the sunglasses-wearing "man with no eyes", in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke. On TV, he was a familiar guest star on cowboy shows. On the long-running Western Gunsmoke, he played 16 different characters in 19 episodes, most appearances of any actor on the show. He also had a recurring role on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.

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22/02/2015

Chris Rainbow, Scottish singer-songwriter and producer (born 1946)

Christopher James Harley, known by the stage name Chris Rainbow, was a Scottish pop rock singer and musician, known for his solo work and his significant contributions to The Alan Parsons Project from 1979, as well as his work as a backing and occasional lead vocalist for Camel in the 1980s. Rainbow also composed jingles for Radio One and Capital Radio.

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22/02/2014

Charlotte Dawson, New Zealand–Australian television host (born 1966)

Charlotte Dawson was a New Zealand–Australian television personality. She was known in New Zealand for her roles as host of Getaway, and in Australia as a host on The Contender Australia and as a judge on Australia's Next Top Model. In 2014, her death by suicide attracted Australasian-wide news coverage.

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Trebor Jay Tichenor, American pianist and composer (born 1940)

Trebor Jay Tichenor was a recognized authority on Scott Joplin and the ragtime era. He collected and published others' ragtime piano compositions and composed his own. He authored books about ragtime, and both on his own and as a member of The St. Louis Ragtimers, became a widely known ragtime pianist.

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Leo Vroman, Dutch-American hematologist, poet, and illustrator (born 1915)

Leo Vroman was a Dutch-American hematologist, a prolific poet mainly in Dutch and an illustrator.

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22/02/2013

Atje Keulen-Deelstra, Dutch speed skater (born 1938)

Atje Keulen-Deelstra was a Dutch speed skater, who was a four-time World Allround Champion between the age of 32 and 36.

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Jean-Louis Michon, French-Swiss scholar and translator (born 1924)

Jean-Louis Michon was a French traditionalist and translator who specialized in Islamic art and Sufism. He worked extensively with the United Nations to preserve the cultural heritage of Morocco.

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Wolfgang Sawallisch, German pianist and conductor (born 1923)

Wolfgang Sawallisch was a German conductor and pianist.

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22/02/2012

Sukhbir, Indian author and poet (born 1925)

Sukhbir, alias Balbir Singh, was a Punjabi novelist, short-story writer, poet and essayist. He wrote and published for fifty years. He wrote seven novels, 11 short story collections, and five poetry collections, and made many translations of world literature, essays, letters and book reviews.

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Frank Carson, Irish-English comedian and actor (born 1926)

Hugh Francis Carson KSG was a comedian and actor from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was best known for being a regular face on television for many years from the 1970s onwards, appearing in series such as The Comedians and Tiswas. His trademark line was "It's the way I tell them!". Carson was a member of the entertainment charity the Grand Order of Water Rats.

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Marie Colvin, American journalist (born 1956)

Marie Catherine Colvin was an American journalist who worked as a foreign affairs correspondent for the British newspaper The Sunday Times from 1985 until her death. She was one of the most prominent war correspondents of her generation, widely recognized for her extensive coverage on the frontlines of various conflicts across the globe. On February 22, 2012, while she was covering the siege of Homs alongside the French photojournalist Rémi Ochlik, the pair were killed in a targeted attack by Syrian government forces.

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Rémi Ochlik, French photographer and journalist (born 1983)

Rémi Ochlik was a French photojournalist who was known for his photographs of war and conflict in Haiti and the Arab Spring revolutions. Ochlik died in the February 2012 bombardment of Homs during the Syrian uprising along with veteran war correspondent Marie Colvin. In 2025, the French government issued arrest warrants for Bashar al-Assad and other high ranking Ba’athist Syrian officials.

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22/02/2007

George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe, English politician, Leader of the House of Lords (born 1918)

George Patrick John Rushworth Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe, Baron Jellicoe of Southampton, was a British politician, diplomat and businessman.

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Dennis Johnson, American basketball player and coach (born 1954)

Dennis Wayne Johnson, nicknamed "DJ", was an American professional basketball player for the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Seattle SuperSonics, Phoenix Suns, and Boston Celtics. He was a coach of the Los Angeles Clippers and an alumnus of Dominguez High School, Los Angeles Harbor College and Pepperdine University.

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22/02/2006

S. Rajaratnam, Singaporean politician, 1st Senior Minister of Singapore (born 1915)

Sinnathamby Rajaratnam, better known as S. Rajaratnam, was a Singaporean statesman, journalist and diplomat. He served as the first Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1965 until 1980, and subsequently as the 2nd Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore from 1980 to 1985. Rajaratnam was pivotal in establishing Singapore's foreign policy framework during its early years of sovereignty, helping to secure the nation's position on the global stage in its early years. Alongside his foreign affairs portfolio, he also served as Minister for Culture from 1959 to 1965, Minister for Labour from 1968 to 1971, Deputy Prime Minister from 1980 to 1985 and Senior Minister from 1985 to 1988. Throughout his entire political career, he represented the constituency of Kampong Glam. Rajaratnam is widely recognised as one of the founding fathers of modern Singapore.

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22/02/2005

Lee Eun-ju, South Korean actress and singer (born 1980)

Lee Eun-ju was a South Korean actress. She was best known for the films Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000), Bungee Jumping of Their Own (2001), Lovers' Concerto (2002), and Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2004). She died by suicide at age 24.

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Simone Simon, French actress (born 1910)

Simone Thérèse Fernande Simon was a French film actress who began her film career in 1931. She is perhaps best remembered for her role in the American horror film Cat People and its sequel The Curse of the Cat People.

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22/02/2004

Andy Seminick, American baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1920)

Andrew Wasal Seminick was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Philadelphia Phillies between 1943 and 1951, and the Cincinnati Reds/Redlegs from 1952 through part of 1955, when he rejoined the Phillies for the rest of his career until his release at the end of the 1957 season. Seminick was an integral part of the 1950 "Whiz Kids" Phillies team that won their first pennant since 1915.

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22/02/2002

Chuck Jones, American animator, producer, and screenwriter (born 1912)

Charles Martin Jones was an American animator, filmmaker, painter, and voice actor, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of shorts. He wrote, produced, and/or directed many classic animated cartoon shorts starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Pepé Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, and Porky Pig, among others.

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Jonas Savimbi, Angolan general, founded UNITA (born 1934)

Jonas Malheiro Sidónio Sakaita Savimbi was an Angolan revolutionary, politician, and rebel military leader who founded and led the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, also known as UNITA. UNITA was one of several groups which waged a guerrilla war against Portuguese colonial rule from 1966 to 1974. Once independence was achieved, it then became an anti-communist group, which confronted the ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, also known as the MPLA, during the Angolan Civil War. Savimbi was killed in a clash with government troops in 2002.

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22/02/1999

William Bronk, American poet and academic (born 1918)

William Bronk was an American poet. For his book, Life Supports (1981), he won the National Book Award for Poetry.

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Menno Oosting, Dutch tennis player (born 1964)

Menno Oosting was a professional tennis player from the Netherlands, who won seven ATP Tour doubles titles out of 18 finals in his career.

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22/02/1998

Abraham A. Ribicoff, American lawyer and politician, 4th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (born 1910)

Abraham Alexander Ribicoff was an American politician from the state of Connecticut. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Connecticut in the United States House of Representatives and Senate and was the 80th governor of Connecticut and secretary of health, education, and welfare in President John F. Kennedy's cabinet. He was Connecticut's first and to date only Jewish governor.

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22/02/1997

Joseph Aiuppa, American gangster (born 1907)

Joseph John Aiuppa, also known as "Joey O'Brien" and "Joey Doves", was an American mobster who became a leader of the Chicago Outfit from 1971 until his skimming conviction in 1986.

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22/02/1995

Ed Flanders, American actor (born 1934)

Edward Paul Flanders was an American actor. He is best known for playing Dr. Donald Westphall in the medical drama series St. Elsewhere (1982–1988). Flanders was nominated for eight Primetime Emmy Awards and won three times in 1976, 1977, and 1983.

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22/02/1994

Papa John Creach, American violinist (born 1917)

John Henry Creach, better known as Papa John Creach, was an American blues violinist who also played classical, jazz, R&B, pop and acid rock music. Early in his career, he performed as a journeyman musician with Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Stuff Smith, Charlie Christian, Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker, Nat King Cole and Roy Milton.

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22/02/1992

Markos Vafiadis, Greek general and politician (born 1906)

Markos Vafeiadis was a leading figure of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) during the Greek Resistance and the Greek Civil War.

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22/02/1987

David Susskind, American talk show host and producer (born 1920)

David Howard Susskind was an American producer of TV, movies, and stage plays and also a TV talk show host. His talk shows were innovative in the genre and addressed timely, controversial topics beyond the scope of others of the day.

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Andy Warhol, American painter and photographer (born 1928)

Andy Warhol was an American artist and filmmaker. Widely regarded as the most important artist of the second half of the 20th century, Warhol's work spanned various media, including painting, filmmaking, photography, publishing, and performance art. A leading figure in the pop art movement, his work explores the relationship between advertising, consumerism, mass media, and celebrity culture, transforming everyday consumer goods and familiar icons into renowned artworks. His embrace of mechanical reproduction challenged traditional boundaries between high and low culture. He is also credited with popularizing the expression "15 minutes of fame."

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22/02/1986

John Donnelly, Australian rugby league player (born 1955)

John "Dallas" Donnelly was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s. An Australian Kangaroos and New South Wales Blues representative, he played for Western Suburbs between 1975 and 1984 in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership.

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22/02/1985

Salvador Espriu, Spanish author, poet, and playwright (born 1913)

Salvador Espriu i Castelló was a Catalan poet from Spain.

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Efrem Zimbalist, Russian violinist, composer, and conductor (born 1889)

Efrem Zimbalist was a Russian and American concert violinist, composer, conductor and director of the Curtis Institute of Music.

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22/02/1983

Adrian Boult, English conductor (born 1889)

Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH was a British conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra in 1924. When the British Broadcasting Corporation appointed him director of music in 1930, he established the BBC Symphony Orchestra and became its chief conductor. The orchestra set standards of excellence that were rivalled in Britain only by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), founded two years later.

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Romain Maes, Belgian cyclist (born 1913)

Romanus Maes was a Belgian cyclist who won the 1935 Tour de France after wearing the yellow jersey of leadership from beginning to end. Maes was the 13th child in his family. He started racing when he was 17. He turned professional in 1933 and won the Tour de l'Ouest. The following year he started the Tour de France and twice finished stages in second place. He then crashed on the day from Digne to Nice and left the race in an ambulance.

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22/02/1982

Josh Malihabadi, Indian-Pakistani poet and author (born 1898)

Josh Malihabadi popularly known as Shayar-e-Inqalab was a Pakistani Urdu poet.

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22/02/1980

Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian painter, poet and playwright (born 1886)

Oskar Kokoschka was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright and teacher, best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the Viennese Expressionist movement.

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22/02/1976

Angela Baddeley, English actress (born 1904)

Madeleine Angela Clinton-Baddeley was an English stage and television actress, widely remembered for her role as household cook Mrs. Bridges in the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs. Her stage career spanned seven decades.

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Florence Ballard, American singer (born 1943)

Florence Glenda Chapman was an American singer and a founding member of the Motown vocal female group the Supremes. She sang on 16 top 40 singles with the group, including nine number-one hits. After being removed from the Supremes in 1967, Ballard tried an unsuccessful solo career with ABC Records, before she was dropped from the label at the end of the decade. After struggling with alcoholism, depression and poverty for several years, she was in the midst of a musical comeback when she died of a heart attack in February 1976 at the age of 32. Ballard's death was considered by one critic as "one of rock's greatest tragedies". Ballard was the first woman posthumously inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Supremes in 1988.

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22/02/1973

Jean-Jacques Bertrand, Canadian lawyer and politician, 21st Premier of Quebec (born 1916)

Jean-Jacques Bertrand was a Canadian politician and lawyer who served as the 21st premier of Quebec, from October 2, 1968, to May 12, 1970. He led the Union Nationale party.

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Elizabeth Bowen, Anglo-Irish author (born 1899)

Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen was an Anglo-Irish novelist and short story writer notable for her books about "the Big House" of Irish landed Protestants as well as her fiction about life in wartime London.

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Katina Paxinou, Greek actress (born 1900)

Katina Paxinou was a Greek film and stage actress.

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Winthrop Rockefeller, American colonel and politician, 37th Governor of Arkansas (born 1912)

Winthrop Rockefeller was an American politician and philanthropist. Rockefeller was the fourth son and fifth child of American financier John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. He was one of the grandchildren of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. As an entrepreneur in Arkansas, he financed many local projects, including a number of new medical clinics in poorer areas, before being elected state governor in 1966, as the first Republican governor of Arkansas since the Reconstruction era. Despite accusations of lacking insight into the concerns of low-income voters, Rockefeller was re-elected in 1968, and went on to complete the integration of Arkansas schools.

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22/02/1971

Frédéric Mariotti, French actor (born 1883)

Frédéric Mariotti was a French stage and film actor whose career spanned more than four decades through the early silent film era into the early 1950s.

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22/02/1965

Felix Frankfurter, Austrian-American lawyer and jurist (born 1882)

Felix Frankfurter was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 until 1962, advocating judicial restraint.

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22/02/1961

Nick LaRocca, American trumpet player and composer (born 1889)

Dominic James "Nick" LaRocca, was an American early jazz cornetist and trumpeter and the leader of the Original Dixieland Jass Band, who is credited by some as being "the father of modern jazz". He is the composer of one of the most recorded jazz classics of all-time, "Tiger Rag". He was part of what is generally regarded as the first recorded jazz band, a band which recorded and released the first jazz recording, "Livery Stable Blues" in 1917.

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22/02/1960

Paul-Émile Borduas, Canadian-French painter and critic (born 1905)

Paul-Émile Borduas was a Canadian artist known for his abstract paintings. He was the leader of the avant-garde Automatiste movement and the chief author of the Refus Global manifesto of 1948. Borduas had a profound impact on the development of the arts and of thought, both in the province of Quebec and in Canada.

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22/02/1958

Abul Kalam Azad, Indian scholar and politician, Indian Minister of Education (born 1888)

Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin, better known as Maulana Azad and sometimes referred to as Abul Kalam Azad, was an Indian writer, activist of the Indian independence movement and statesman. A senior leader of the Indian National Congress, following India's independence, he became the first Minister of Education in the Indian government. His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is recognised by celebrating his birthday as National Education Day across India.

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22/02/1945

Osip Brik, Russian avant garde writer and literary critic (born 1888)

Osip Maksimovich Brik was a Russian avant garde writer, literary critic and lawyer, known for being an important member of the Russian formalist school, though he also identified himself as one of the Futurists.

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22/02/1944

Kasturba Gandhi, Indian activist (born 1869)

Kasturba Mohandas Gandhi was an Indian political activist who was involved in the Indian independence movement during British India. She was married to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi. National Safe Motherhood Day is observed in India annually on 11 April, coinciding with Kasturba's birthday.

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Fritz Schmenkel, anti-Nazi German who joined Soviet partisans (born 1916)

Fritz Paul Schmenkel was a German communist and resistance fighter against Nazism, who fought alongside the Soviet partisans in German-occupied Byelorussia during World War II.

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22/02/1943

Christoph Probst, German activist (born 1919)

Christoph Ananda Probst (6 November 1919 – 22 February 1943) was a German medical student and member of the anti-Nazi resistance group White Rose. Although less publicly known than Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl, Probst played a key intellectual role in the group’s efforts to oppose the Nazi regime through nonviolent means.

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Hans Scholl, German activist (born 1918)

Hans Fritz Scholl was, along with Alexander Schmorell, one of the two founding members of the White Rose resistance movement in Nazi Germany. The principal author of the resistance movement's literature, he was found guilty of high treason for distributing anti-Nazi material and was executed by the Nazi regime in 1943 during World War II.

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Sophie Scholl, German activist (born 1921)

Sophia Magdalena Scholl was a German student and anti-Nazi political activist, active in the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany.

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22/02/1942

Stefan Zweig, Austrian journalist, author, and playwright (born 1881)

Stefan Zweig was an Austrian writer. At the height of his literary career in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most widely translated and popular writers in the world.

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22/02/1939

Antonio Machado, Spanish-French poet and author (born 1875)

Antonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz, known as Antonio Machado, was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation of '98. His work, initially modernist, evolved towards an intimate form of symbolism with romantic traits. He gradually developed a style characterised by both an engagement with humanity on one side and an almost Taoist contemplation of existence on the other, a synthesis that, according to Machado, echoed the most ancient popular wisdom. In Gerardo Diego's words, Machado "spoke in verse and lived in poetry."

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22/02/1932

Harriet Converse Moody, American businesswoman and arts patron (born 1857)

Harriet Converse Moody was an American businesswoman and arts patron. Moody began her career in Chicago in 1889, working as a schoolteacher and then forming a successful restaurant and catering business that operated for almost 40 years. After her brief marriage to the poet William Vaughn Moody, which ended upon his death of brain cancer, she became a patron to artists, particularly poets.

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22/02/1923

Théophile Delcassé, French politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1852)

Théophile Delcassé was a French politician who served as foreign minister from 1898 to 1905. He is best known for his hatred of Germany and efforts to secure alliances with Russia and the United Kingdom that became the Entente Cordiale. He belonged to the Radical Party and was a protege of Léon Gambetta.

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22/02/1913

Ferdinand de Saussure, Swiss linguist and author (born 1857)

Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the founders of 20th-century linguistics and one of two major founders of semiotics, or semiology, as Saussure called it.

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Francisco I. Madero, Mexican president and author (born 1873)

Francisco Ignacio Madero González was a Mexican businessman, revolutionary, writer, politician and statesman who served as the 37th president of Mexico from 1911 until he was deposed and assassinated in a coup d'état in February 1913. He came to prominence as an advocate for democracy and as an opponent of President and dictator Porfirio Díaz. After Díaz claimed to have won the fraudulent election of 1910 despite promising a return to democracy, Madero started the Mexican Revolution to oust Díaz. The Mexican revolution would continue until 1920, well after Madero and Díaz's deaths, with hundreds of thousands dead.

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22/02/1904

Leslie Stephen, English historian, author, and critic (born 1832)

Sir Leslie Stephen was an English author, critic, historian, biographer, mountaineer, and an Ethical movement activist. He was also the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell and the founder of England's Dictionary of National Biography.

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22/02/1903

Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (born 1860)

Hugo Philipp Jacob Wolf was an Austrian composer, particularly noted for his art songs, or Lieder. He brought to this form a concentrated expressive intensity which was unique in late Romantic music, somewhat related to that of the Second Viennese School in concision but diverging greatly in technique.

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22/02/1898

Heungseon Daewongun, Korean king (born 1820)

Heungseon Daewongun was the title of Yi Ha-eung, the regent of Joseon during the minority of Emperor Gojong in the 1860s. Until his death, he was a key political figure of late Joseon Korea. He was also called the Daewongun, Guktaegong, or later Internal King Heonui, and also known to contemporary western diplomats as Prince Gung.

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22/02/1897

Charles Blondin, French tightrope walker and acrobat (born 1824)

Charles Blondin was a French tightrope walker and acrobat who achieved international fame in the mid-19th Century. Known for crossing the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope, he toured the United States and beyond.

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22/02/1890

John Jacob Astor III, American businessman and philanthropist (born 1822)

John Jacob Astor III was an American financier, philanthropist and a soldier during the American Civil War. He was a prominent member of the Astor family, becoming the wealthiest member in his generation.

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Carl Bloch, Danish painter and academic (born 1834)

Carl Heinrich Bloch was a Danish painter.

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22/02/1888

Anna Kingsford, English physician and activist (born 1846)

Anna Kingsford was an English anti-vivisectionist, Theosophist, a proponent of vegetarianism and a women's rights campaigner.

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22/02/1875

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French painter and illustrator (born 1796)

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, or simply Camille Corot, was a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching. A pivotal figure in landscape painting, his vast output simultaneously referenced the Neo-Classical tradition and anticipated the plein-air innovations of Impressionism.

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Charles Lyell, Scottish geologist (born 1797)

Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known today for his association with Charles Darwin and as the author of Principles of Geology (1830–33), which presented to a wide public audience the idea that the earth was shaped by the same natural processes still in operation today, operating at similar intensities. The philosopher William Whewell dubbed this gradualistic view "uniformitarianism" and contrasted it with catastrophism, which had been championed by Georges Cuvier and was better accepted in Europe. The combination of evidence and eloquence in Principles convinced a wide range of readers of the significance of "deep time" for understanding the earth and environment.

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22/02/1816

Adam Ferguson, Scottish historian and philosopher (born 1723)

Adam Ferguson, also known as Ferguson of Raith, was a Scottish philosopher and historian of the Scottish Enlightenment.

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22/02/1799

Heshen, Chinese politician (born 1750)

Heshen (Manchu: ᡥᡝᡧᡝᠨ, romanized: Hešen; Chinese: 和珅; pinyin: Héshēn; Wade–Giles: Ho2-shen1; 1 July 1750 – 22 February 1799) of the Manchu Niohuru clan, was an official of the Qing dynasty. Favored by the Qianlong Emperor, he was described as the most corrupt official in Chinese history, having acquired an estimated 1.1 billion taels of silver, equal to roughly US$270 billion, during his career. After the death of Qianlong, the Jiaqing Emperor confiscated Heshen's wealth and forced him to commit suicide. Heshen is remembered as one of the richest men in history.

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22/02/1770

Christopher Seider, first American killed in the American Revolution (born 1758)

Christopher Seider was a boy who is considered to be the first American killed in the American Revolution. He was 11 years old when he was shot and killed by British customs officer Ebenezer Richardson in Boston on February 22, 1770. His funeral became a major political event, with his death heightening tensions that erupted into the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770.

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22/02/1732

Francis Atterbury, English bishop (born 1663)

Francis Atterbury was an English man of letters, politician and bishop. A High Church Tory and Jacobite, he gained patronage under Queen Anne, but was mistrusted by the Hanoverian Whig ministries, and banished for communicating with the Old Pretender in the Atterbury Plot. He was a noted wit and a gifted preacher.

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22/02/1731

Frederik Ruysch, Dutch physician and anatomist (born 1638)

Frederik Ruysch was a Dutch botanist and anatomist. He is known for developing techniques for preserving anatomical specimens, which he used to create dioramas or scenes incorporating human parts. His anatomical preparations included over 2,000 anatomical, pathological, zoological, and botanical specimens, which were preserved by either drying or embalming. Ruysch is also known for his proof of valves in the lymphatic system, the vomeronasal organ in snakes, and arteria centralis oculi. He was the first to describe the disease that is today known as Hirschsprung's disease, as well as several pathological conditions, including intracranial teratoma, enchondromatosis, and Majewski syndrome.

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22/02/1690

Charles Le Brun, French painter and theorist (born 1619)

Charles Le Brun was a French painter, physiognomist, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. He served as a court painter to Louis XIV, who declared him "the greatest French artist of all time". Le Brun was a dominant figure in 17th-century French art and was influenced by Nicolas Poussin.

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22/02/1680

La Voisin, French occultist (born 1640)

Catherine Monvoisin, or Montvoisin, née Deshayes, known as "La Voisin", was a French fortune teller, commissioned poisoner, accused of witchcraft. She was the head of a network of fortune tellers in Paris providing poison, aphrodisiacs, abortion, with clients among the aristocracy and became the central figure in the famous affaire des poisons. Her purported organization of commissioned black magic and poison murder was suspected to have killed 1,000 people, but it is believed that upwards of 2,500 people might have been murdered.

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22/02/1674

Jean Chapelain, French poet and critic (born 1595)

Jean Chapelain was a French poet and critic during the Grand Siècle, best known for his role as an organizer and founding member of the Académie française. Chapelain acquired considerable prestige as a literary critic, but his own major work, an epic poem about Joan of Arc called "La Pucelle," (1656) was lampooned by his contemporary Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux.

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22/02/1627

Olivier van Noort, Dutch explorer (born 1558)

Olivier van Noort was a Dutch merchant captain and the first Dutchman to circumnavigate the world.

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22/02/1512

Amerigo Vespucci, Italian cartographer and explorer (born 1454)

Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Florence after whom America is named.

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22/02/1511

Henry, Duke of Cornwall (born 1511)

Henry, Duke of Cornwall was the first living child of King Henry VIII of England and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and though his birth was celebrated as that of the heir apparent, he died within weeks. His death and the failure of Henry VIII and Catherine to produce another surviving male heir led to succession and marriage crises that affected the relationship between the Church of England and Roman Catholicism, giving rise to the English Reformation.

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22/02/1500

Gerhard VI, German nobleman (born 1430)

Gerhard VI, Count of Oldenburg was a Count of Oldenburg and regent of Bad Zwischenahn in 1440–1482.

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22/02/1452

William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas (born 1425)

William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas, 2nd Earl of Avondale was a late Medieval Scottish nobleman, Lord of Galloway, and Lord of the Regality of Lauderdale, and the most powerful magnate in Southern Scotland. He was killed by James II of Scotland.

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22/02/1371

David II, King of Scotland (born 1324)

David II was King of Scotland from 1329 until his death in 1371. Upon the death of his father, Robert the Bruce, David succeeded to the throne at the age of five and was crowned at Scone in November 1331, becoming the first Scottish monarch to be anointed at his coronation. During his childhood, David was governed by a series of guardians, and Edward III of England sought to take advantage of David's minority by supporting an invasion of Scotland by Edward Balliol, beginning the Second War of Scottish Independence. Following the English victory at the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333, King David, Queen Joan and the rump of his government were evacuated to France, where he remained in exile until it was safe for him to return to Scotland in 1341.

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22/02/1297

Margaret of Cortona, Italian penitent (born 1247)

Margaret of Cortona was an Italian penitent of the Third Order of Saint Francis. She was born in Laviano, near Perugia, and died in Cortona. She was canonised in 1728.

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22/02/1111

Roger Borsa, King of Sicily (born 1078)

Roger Borsa was the Norman Duke of Apulia and Calabria and effective ruler of southern Italy from 1085 until his death.

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22/02/1079

John of Fécamp, Italian Benedictine abbot

John of Fécamp, was an Italian-Norman Benedictine who was the most widely read of early medieval spiritual writers before the Imitation of Christ became popular, during a period called the Golden Age of Monasticism and of Scholasticism, and the height of the Papacy. Writing under the name of famous writers, he wrote the very popular book Meditations of St. Augustine and the book Meditations. He was born near Ravenna and died at Fécamp Normandy, as the Abbot of the Abbey of Fécamp. He was nicknamed 'Jeannelin' or 'Little John' on account of his diminutive stature.

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22/02/1072

Peter Damian, Italian cardinal

Peter Damian was an Italian reforming Benedictine monk and cardinal in the circle of Pope Leo IX. Dante placed him in one of the highest circles of Paradiso as a great predecessor of Francis of Assisi and he was declared a Doctor of the Church on 27 September 1828. His feast day is 21 February.

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22/02/1071

Arnulf III, Count of Flanders

Arnulf III was Count of Flanders from 1070 until his death at the Battle of Cassel in 1071.

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22/02/0978

Lambert, Count of Chalon (born 930)

Lambert of Chalon was the count of Chalon from 956 to 978, and viscount of Autun.

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22/02/0970

García I, King of Pamplona

García Sánchez I, was the king of Pamplona from 925 until his death in 970. He was the second king of the Jiménez dynasty, succeeding his father when he was merely six years old.

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22/02/0965

Otto, Duke of Burgundy (born 944)

Otto of Burgundy was Duke of Burgundy from 956 to his death.

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22/02/0954

Guo Wei, Chinese Emperor (born 904)

Guo Wei, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Later Zhou (後周太祖), was the founding emperor of the Chinese Later Zhou dynasty during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, reigning from 951 until his death in 954.

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22/02/0845

Wang, Chinese Empress dowager

Empress Dowager Wang, formally Empress Gongxi, known during her lifetime at times as Empress Dowager Baoli (寶曆太后) then as Empress Dowager Yi'an (義安太后), was an empress dowager of the Chinese Tang dynasty. She was the mother of Emperor Jingzong and a concubine of Emperor Muzong.

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22/02/0793

Sicga, Anglo-Saxon nobleman and regicide

Sicga was a nobleman in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria.

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22/02/0606

Sabinian, Pope of the Catholic Church

Pope Sabinian was the bishop of Rome from 13 September 604 to his death on 22 February 606. His pontificate occurred during the Eastern Roman domination of the papacy. He was the fourth former apocrisiarius to Constantinople to be elected pope.

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22/02/0556

Maximianus, Bishop of Ravenna (born 499)

Maximianus of Ravenna, or Maximian was bishop of Ravenna in Italy. Ravenna was then the capital of the Byzantine Empire's territories in Italy, and Maximianus's role may have included secular political functions.

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