Died on Thursday, 26th February – Famous Deaths

26/02/2025

Michelle Trachtenberg, American actress (born 1985)

Michelle Christine Trachtenberg was an American actress. After beginning her career in commercials at age three, she made her television debut in her first credited role on the Nickelodeon series The Adventures of Pete & Pete (1994–1996) and her feature film debut in the 1996 comedy Harriet the Spy. As a child actress, Trachtenberg starred in several Nickelodeon productions. In 1997, she won a Young Artist Award for her performance in CBS's sitcom Meego. She also played Penny Brown in Disney's 1999 superhero comedy film Inspector Gadget.

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26/02/2017

Joseph Wapner, American judge and TV personality (born 1919)

Joseph Albert Wapner was an American judge and television personality. He is best known as the first presiding judge of the reality court show The People's Court. The show's first run in syndication, with Judge Wapner presiding as judge, ran from 1981 to 1993, for 12 seasons and 2,340 episodes. Although the show's second run was presided over by multiple judges, Wapner was the sole judge to preside during the show's first incarnation. His tenure on the program made him the first jurist of arbitration-based reality court shows, which evolved into the most popular trend in the judicial genre and continues to be to the present.

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26/02/2016

Andy Bathgate, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager (born 1932)

Andrew James Bathgate was a Canadian professional ice hockey right wing who played 17 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins between 1952 and 1971. In 2017 Bathgate was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players" in history.

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Don Getty, Canadian football player and politician, 11th Premier of Alberta (born 1933)

Donald Ross Getty was a Canadian athlete, businessman, and politician who served as the 11th premier of Alberta between 1985 and 1992.

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26/02/2015

Sheppard Frere, English historian and archaeologist (born 1916)

Sheppard Sunderland Frere, CBE, FSA, FBA was a British historian and archaeologist who studied the Roman Empire. He was a fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.

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Theodore Hesburgh, American priest, theologian, educator, and academic (born 1917)

Theodore Martin Hesburgh, C.S.C. was an American Catholic priest and academic who was a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross. He served as president of the University of Notre Dame for 35 years from 1952 to 1987, along with numerous appointed positions in the U.S. government, including as chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

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Earl Lloyd, American basketball player and coach (born 1928)

Earl Francis Lloyd was an American professional basketball player and coach. He was the first African American player to play a game in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

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Tom Schweich, American lawyer and politician, 36th State Auditor of Missouri (born 1960)

Thomas A. Schweich was an American politician, diplomat, attorney, and author. A member of the Republican Party, Schweich served as State Auditor of Missouri from 2011 until his death in 2015.

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26/02/2014

Sorel Etrog, Romanian-Canadian sculptor, painter, and illustrator (born 1933)

Sorel Etrog, was a Romanian-born Israeli-Canadian artist, writer, and primarily, a sculptor. He specialized in modern art works and contemporary sculpture. Etrog's works explore his first-hand experience of the Second World War, the renewal of sculptural traditions in modern art, such as the use of bronze as a medium, and the opposition between the mechanical and the organic. One of Canada's leading artists in the 1960s, Etrog contributed to the country's growing interest in sculpture.

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Phyllis Krasilovsky, American author and academic (born 1927)

Phyllis Louise Krasilovsky was an American writer of children's books.

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26/02/2013

Marie-Claire Alain, French organist and educator (born 1926)

Marie-Claire Geneviève Alain-Gommier was a French organist, scholar and teacher best known for her prolific recording career, with 260 recordings, making her the most-recorded classical organist in the world. She taught many of the world's prominent organists. She was a specialist in Bach, making three recordings of his complete organ works, as well as French organ music.

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Stéphane Hessel, German-French diplomat and author (born 1917)

Stéphane Frédéric Hessel was a French diplomat, ambassador, writer, concentration camp survivor, Resistance member and BCRA agent. Born German, he became a naturalised French citizen in 1939. He became an observer of the editing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. In 2011 he was named by Foreign Policy magazine in its list of top global thinkers. In later years his activism focused on economic inequalities, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and protection for the post–World War II social vision. His short book Time for Outrage! sold 4.5 million copies worldwide. Hessel and his book were linked and cited as an inspiration for the Spanish Indignados, the Arab Spring, the American Occupy Wall Street movement and other political movements.

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Simon Li, Hong Kong judge and politician (born 1922)

Simon Li Fook-sean was a Hong Kong senior judge and politician.

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26/02/2012

Richard Carpenter, English actor and screenwriter (born 1929)

Richard Michael "Kip" Carpenter was an English screenwriter, author and actor. He created a number of British television series, including Robin of Sherwood and Catweazle.

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26/02/2011

Arnošt Lustig, Czech author, playwright, and screenwriter (born 1926)

Arnošt Lustig was a Czech Jewish writer, playwright and screenwriter. His works have often involved the Holocaust.

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26/02/2010

Jun Seba, also known as "Nujabes", Japanese record producer, DJ, composer and arranger (born 1974)

Jun Seba , born Jun Yamada , better known by his stage name Nujabes, was a Japanese music producer best known for his atmospheric instrumental mixes sampling from hip-hop, soul, and jazz, as well as incorporating elements of trip hop, breakbeat, downtempo, and ambient music.

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26/02/2009

Johnny Kerr, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster (born 1932)

John Graham Kerr, also known as Red Kerr, was an American basketball player, coach, executive and broadcaster who devoted six decades to the sport at all levels. In 2009, he was honored with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to basketball.

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Wendy Richard, English actress (born 1943)

Wendy Richard was an English actress, best known for her television roles as Miss Shirley Brahms on the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served? from 1972 to 1985, and Pauline Fowler on the soap opera EastEnders from 1985 to 2006.

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Norm Van Lier, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster (born 1947)

Norman Allen Van Lier III was an American professional basketball player and television broadcaster who spent the majority of his career with the Chicago Bulls.

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26/02/2008

Bodil Udsen, Danish actress (born 1925)

Bodil Birgitte Udsen was a Danish actress.

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26/02/2006

Georgina Battiscombe, British biographer (born 1905)

Georgina Battiscombe was a British biographer, specialising mainly in lives from the Victorian era.

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26/02/2005

Jef Raskin, American computer scientist, created Macintosh (born 1943)

Jef Raskin was an American human–computer interface expert who conceived and began leading the Macintosh project at Apple in the late 1970s.

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26/02/2004

Adolf Ehrnrooth, Finnish general (born 1905)

Adolf Erik Ehrnrooth was a Finnish general who served during the Winter and Continuation wars. He also competed in two equestrian events at the 1948 Summer Olympics.

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Boris Trajkovski, Macedonian politician, 2nd President of the Republic of Macedonia (born 1956)

Boris Trajkovski was a Macedonian politician who served as the president of Macedonia from 1999 until his death in 2004 in a plane crash.

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26/02/2002

Lawrence Tierney, American actor (born 1919)

Lawrence James Tierney was an American film and television actor who is best known for his many screen portrayals of mobsters and "tough guys" in a career that spanned over fifty years. His roles mirrored his own frequent brushes with the law. In 2005, film critic David Kehr of The New York Times described "the hulking Tierney" as "not so much an actor as a frightening force of nature".

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26/02/2000

George L. Street III, American captain, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1913)

George Levick Street III was a submariner in the United States Navy. He received the Medal of Honor during World War II.

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Raosaheb Gogte, Indian industrialist (born 1916)

Balkrishna Mahadev Gogte, known colloquially as Raosaheb Gogte, was an Indian lawyer, industrialist, philanthropist and educationist.

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26/02/1998

Theodore Schultz, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1902)

Theodore William Schultz was an American agricultural economist and chairman of the University of Chicago Department of Economics. Schultz rose to national prominence after winning the 1979 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

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26/02/1997

David Doyle, American actor (born 1929)

David Fitzgerald Doyle was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of John Bosley on the 1970s TV series Charlie's Angels. Doyle and Jaclyn Smith were the only actors to appear in every episode of the show. Doyle also became known later as the first voice of Grandpa Lou on the Nickelodeon series Rugrats.

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26/02/1995

Jack Clayton, English director and producer (born 1921)

Jack Isaac Clayton was an English film director and producer, known for his skill directing literary adaptations. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for his feature-length debut, Room at the Top (1959), and three of his films were nominated for the Palme d'Or.

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26/02/1994

Bill Hicks, American comedian (born 1961)

William Melvin Hicks was an American stand-up comedian and satirist. His material— encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy— was controversial and often steeped in dark comedy.

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26/02/1993

Constance Ford, American model and actress (born 1923)

Constance Ford was an American actress and model. She portrayed Ada Lucas Hobson on the long-running daytime soap opera Another World, from 1967 until shortly before her death in 1993. She also appeared in nearly two dozen movies from 1956 to 1974, with her most noteworthy role being the matriarch Helen Jorgenson in A Summer Place (1959).

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26/02/1989

Roy Eldridge, American trumpet player (born 1911)

David Roy Eldridge, nicknamed "Little Jazz", was an American jazz trumpeter. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos exhibiting a departure from the dominant style of jazz trumpet innovator Louis Armstrong, and his strong impact on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most influential musicians of the swing era and a precursor of bebop.

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26/02/1985

Tjalling Koopmans, Dutch-American economist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1910)

Tjalling Charles Koopmans was a Dutch-American mathematician and economist. He was the joint winner with Leonid Kantorovich of the 1975 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on the theory of the optimum allocation of resources. Koopmans showed that on the basis of certain efficiency criteria, it is possible to make important deductions concerning optimum price systems.

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26/02/1981

Robert Aickman, English author and activist (born 1914)

Robert Fordyce Aickman was an English writer and conservationist. As a conservationist, he co-founded the Inland Waterways Association, a group which has preserved from destruction and restored England's inland canal system. As a writer, he is best known for his supernatural fiction, which he described as "strange stories". Aickman's fiction often relied on unsettling atmosphere and indirect suggestion, along with characters who experience "dislocation in time and space", rather than explicit depiction of supernatural or gory events.

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Howard Hanson, American composer, conductor, and educator (born 1896)

Howard Harold Hanson was an American composer, conductor, educator and music theorist. As director for forty years of the Eastman School of Music, he raised its quality and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American classical music. In 1944, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 4, and received numerous other awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Entertainment in Music in 1946.

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26/02/1969

Levi Eshkol, Israeli soldier and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Israel (born 1895)

Levi Eshkol, born Levi Yitzhak Shkolnik, was the prime minister of Israel from 1963 until his death from a heart attack in 1969. A founder of the Israeli Labor Party, he served in numerous senior roles, including Minister of Defense (1963–1967) and Minister of Finance (1952–1963).

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Karl Jaspers, German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher (born 1883)

Karl Theodor Jaspers was a German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry, and philosophy. His 1913 work General Psychopathology influenced many later diagnostic criteria, and argued for a distinction between "primary" and "secondary" delusions.

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26/02/1966

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Indian poet and politician (born 1883)

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was an Indian politician and ideologue. Savarkar developed the Hindu nationalist political ideology of Hindutva while confined at Ratnagiri in 1922. He was a leading figure in the Hindu Mahasabha.

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26/02/1961

Karl Albiker, German sculptor, lithographer, and educator (born 1878)

Karl Albiker was a German sculptor, lithographer and teacher of fine arts. Albiker studied with Auguste Rodin in Paris. From 1919 to 1945 he was a professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. His monumental statues, like those of Georg Kolbe, reflected National Socialist heroic realism. Albiker created the relay racers for Berlin's Reich Sports Field and various war monuments, including those in Karlsruhe, Freiburg im Breisgau, and Greiz.

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Mohammed V of Morocco (born 1909)

Mohammed al-Khamis bin Yusef bin Hassan al-Alawi, better known simply as Mohammed V, was the last Sultan of Morocco from 1927 to 1953 and from 1955 to 1957, and first King of Morocco from 1957 to 1961. A member of the 'Alawi dynasty, he played an instrumental role in restoring the independence of Morocco from the French and Spanish Protectorates.

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26/02/1952

Theodoros Pangalos, Greek general and politician, President of Greece (born 1878)

Theodoros Pangalos was a Greek general, politician and dictator, who ruled Greece from 24 June 1925 to 22 August 1926. A distinguished staff officer and an ardent Venizelist and anti-royalist, Pangalos participated in the Goudi coup in 1909, served with distinction in the Balkan Wars, Macedonian front of World War I, and the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), and played a leading role in the September 1922 revolt that deposed King Constantine I and in the establishment of the Second Hellenic Republic. In June 1925, Pangalos staged a bloodless coup d'État, and his assumption of power was recognised by the National Assembly, which named him prime minister. As a "constitutional dictator", he ruled the country until his overthrow in August 1926. From April 1926 until his deposition, he had also occupied the office of President of the Republic.

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26/02/1951

Sabiha Kasimati, Albanian ichthyologist (born 1912) executed with 21 others

Sabiha Kasimati was an Albanian professor of biology and ichthyologist, cited as one of the first women scientists in Albania. She was arrested by the communist regime on 20 February 1951, after the bombing of the Soviet embassy, and a few days later was executed without trial along with 21 other intellectuals.

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26/02/1950

Harry Lauder, Scottish comedian and singer (born 1870)

Sir Harry Lauder was a Scottish singer, comedian and actor. Popular in both music hall and vaudeville theatre traditions; he achieved international success.

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26/02/1947

Heinrich Häberlin, Swiss judge and politician, President of the Swiss National Council (born 1868)

Heinrich Häberlin was a Swiss politician, judge and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1920–1934).

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26/02/1945

Sándor Szurmay, Minister of Defence of the Hungarian portion of Austria-Hungary (born 1860)

Vitéz Baron Sándor Szurmay de Uzsok was a Hungarian military officer and politician, who served as Minister of Defence for the Hungarian portion of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary between 1917 and 1918.

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26/02/1943

Potato Creek Johnny, American gold prospector (born c. 1866)

John Eli Perrett, better known as Potato Creek Johnny, was an American frontiersman and gold miner, best known for having discovered one of the largest gold nuggets ever discovered in the Black Hills in 1929. From then until the end of his life, Potato Creek Johnny became a local celebrity and promoted tourism to the Black Hills.

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Theodor Eicke, German general (born 1892)

Theodor Eicke was a German military officer who served as both a senior SS functionary and a Waffen-SS divisional commander in Nazi Germany. He was a key figure in the development of Nazi concentration camps. Eicke served as the second commandant of the Dachau concentration camp from June 1933 to July 1934, and together with his adjutant Michael Lippert, was one of the executioners of SA Chief Ernst Röhm during the Night of the Long Knives purge of 1934. He continued to expand and develop the concentration camp system as the first Concentration Camps Inspector.

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26/02/1936

February 26 Incident:

Viscount Takahashi Korekiyo was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1921 to 1922 and Minister of Finance when he was assassinated. He was also a member of the House of Peers and head of the Bank of Japan.

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February 26 Incident:

Viscount Saitō Makoto was a Japanese admiral and politician who was prime minister of Japan from 1932 to 1934. Upon distinguishing himself during his command of two cruisers in the First Sino-Japanese War, Saitō rose rapidly to the rank of rear admiral by 1900. He was promoted to vice admiral during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. After serving as Minister of the Navy from 1906 to 1914, Saitō held the position of Governor-General of Korea from 1919 to 1927 and again from 1929 to 1931. When Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated in May 1932, he took his place as prime minister and served one term in office. Saitō returned to public service as Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal in February 1935 but was assassinated only a year later during the February 26 Incident. Saitō along with Takahashi Korekiyo were the last former prime ministers of Japan to be assassinated until 2022, with the assassination of Shinzo Abe.

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February 26 Incident:

Jōtarō Watanabe was a general in the early Shōwa period Imperial Japanese Army, noted as one of the victims of the February 26 Incident.

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26/02/1931

Otto Wallach, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1847)

Otto Wallach was a German chemist and recipient of the 1910 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on alicyclic compounds.

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26/02/1930

Mary Whiton Calkins, American philosopher and psychologist (born 1863)

Mary Whiton Calkins was an American philosopher and psychologist, whose work informed theory and research of memory, dreams and the self. She developed the paired-associate learning technique and the theory of self-psychology. In 1903, Calkins was the twelfth in a listing of fifty psychologists with the most merit, chosen by her peers. In 1895 Calkins was refused a Ph.D. by Harvard University because of her gender even though she completed all the requirements. She was given honorary membership of the British Psychology Association in 1928.

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26/02/1921

Carl Menger, Polish-Austrian economist and academic (born 1840)

Carl Menger von Wolfensgrün was an Austrian economist who contributed to the marginal theory of value. Menger is considered the founder of the Austrian school of economics.

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26/02/1913

Felix Draeseke, German composer and academic (born 1835)

Felix August Bernhard Draeseke was a composer of the "New German School" admiring Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. He wrote compositions in most forms including eight operas and stage works, four symphonies, and much vocal and chamber music.

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26/02/1906

Jean Lanfray, Swiss convicted murderer (born 1874)

Jean Lanfray was a French labourer in Switzerland who was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and two children in a drunken rage on the afternoon of 28 August 1905 in Commugny, Switzerland. It was later revealed by police that he had drunk an excessive amount of wine and hard liquors that morning, along with two ounces of absinthe. However, due to the moral panic against absinthe in Europe at that time, his murders were blamed solely on the influence of absinthe, leading to a petition to ban absinthe in Switzerland shortly after the murders. The petition received 82,000 signatures and absinthe was banned in Vaud shortly thereafter. A 1908 constitutional referendum led to absinthe being banned in all of Switzerland in 1910, and absinthe was banned in most European countries before the outbreak of World War I.

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26/02/1903

Richard Jordan Gatling, American engineer, invented the Gatling gun (born 1818)

Richard Jordan Gatling was an American inventor. He is best known for having invented the Gatling gun, which is considered to be the first successful machine gun.

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26/02/1895

Kathinka Kraft, Norwegian memoirist (born 1826)

Kathinka Kraft was a Norwegian memoirist best known for her sole work Et og andet fra min Tid. Erindringer about her experiences growing up in Christiania and living in the countryside.

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26/02/1889

Karl Davydov, Russian cellist and composer (born 1838)

Karl Yulievich Davydov was a Russian cellist, described by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as the "czar of cellists". He was also a composer, mainly for the cello. His name also appears in various different spellings: Davydov, Davidoff, Davidov, and more, with his first name sometimes written as Charles or Carl.

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26/02/1887

Anandi Gopal Joshi, First Indian women physician (born 1865)

Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi was the first Indian female doctor of western medicine along with Kadambini Ganguly.

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26/02/1883

Alexandros Koumoundouros, Greek lawyer and politician, 56th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1817)

Alexandros Koumoundouros was a Greek politician and founder of the Nationalist Party, who served as Prime Minister of Greece ten times, from 1865 to 1867, 1870 to 1871, and from 1875 to 1882. Born in Kampos, on the Messenian side of the Mani Peninsula, he was the son of Spyridon-Galanis Koumoundouros, the bey of the area during the last period of the administration of the region by the Ottoman Empire.

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26/02/1869

Afzal-ud-Daulah, Asaf Jah V, 5th Nizam of Hyderabad State (born 1827)

Afzal ad-Dawlah, Asaf Jah V Mir Tahniyat Ali Khan Siddiqi was the fifth Nizam of Hyderabad, India, from 1857 to 1869.

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26/02/1864

Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, Canadian jurist and politician, 3rd Premier of Canada East (born 1807)

Sir Louis-Hippolyte Ménard dit La Fontaine, 1st Baronet, KCMG was a Canadian politician, jurist and statesman, who served as the first Premier of the United Province of Canada and the first head of a responsible government in Canada along side Robert Baldwin.

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26/02/1839

Sybil Ludington, American figure of the American Revolutionary War (born 1761)

Sybil Ludington was an alleged heroine of the American Revolution and daughter of Patriot colonel Henry Ludington. Relatives of Ludington have claimed that on April 26, 1777, at age 16, she made an all-night horseback ride 40 miles (64 km) to stir American militiamen to attack British forces near Danbury, Connecticut, though scholars largely reject this story. According to the legend, Ludington rode near the Connecticut–New York border after British forces raided and burned Danbury, rallying combatants for the Battle of Ridgefield the following day.

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26/02/1821

Joseph de Maistre, French lawyer and diplomat (born 1753)

Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre was a Savoyard lawyer, diplomat, and political philosopher. He is chiefly remembered as one of the intellectual forefathers of modern conservatism.

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26/02/1815

Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (born 1737)

Prince Frederick Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was a military commander in the army of the Holy Roman Empire. He began his career at the age of 18 in a cavalry regiment with which he took part in the Seven Years' War. Coburg's bravery allowed him to quickly rise through the ranks. Promoted to colonel in 1759, he became a general officer in the following years and, in this capacity, took command of an army corps during the Austro-Turkish War. Coburg campaigned successfully in Moldavia where he won the battles of Focşani, Rymnik and Martinestje against the Ottomans, which earned him the rank of field marshal in 1789.

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26/02/1813

Robert R. Livingston, American lawyer and politician, 1st United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs (born 1746)

Robert Robert Livingston was an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat from New York, as well as a Founding Father of the United States. He was known as "The Chancellor" after the high New York state legal office he held for 25 years. He was a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, along with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Roger Sherman, but was recalled by the state of New York before he could sign the document. Livingston administered the oath of office to George Washington when he assumed the presidency April 30, 1789. Livingston was also elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1801.

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26/02/1806

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, Haitian-French general (born 1762)

Army-General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French Army officer who served in the French Revolutionary Wars.

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26/02/1802

Esek Hopkins, American admiral (born 1718)

Commodore Esek Hopkins was a Continental Navy officer and privateer. He served as the only commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War, when the Continental Congress appointed him to the position in December 1775. Hopkins is known for carrying out the successful raid of Nassau in the Bahamas, which captured large amounts of military supplies. His legacy today has become controversial due to Hopkins' involvement in the Atlantic slave trade and for torturing British prisoners of war.

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26/02/1790

Joshua Rowley, English admiral (born 1730)

Vice-Admiral Sir Joshua Rowley, 1st Baronet was a Royal Navy officer who was the fourth son of Admiral Sir William Rowley. Sir Joshua was from an ancient English family, originating in Staffordshire (England) and was born on 1 May 1734. Rowley served with distinction in a number of battles throughout his career and was highly praised by his contemporaries. Unfortunately whilst his career was often active he did not have the opportunity to command any significant engagements and always followed rather than led. His achievements have therefore been eclipsed by his contemporaries such as Keppel, Hawke, Howe and Rodney. Rowley however remains one of the stalwart commanders of the wooden walls that kept Britain safe for so long.

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26/02/1770

Giuseppe Tartini, Italian violinist and composer (born 1692)

Giuseppe Tartini was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era born in Pirano in the Republic of Venice. Tartini was a prolific composer, composing over a hundred pieces for the violin, the majority of them violin concertos. He is best remembered for his Violin Sonata in G Minor.

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26/02/1726

Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria (born 1662)

Maximilian II, also known as Max Emanuel or Maximilian Emanuel, was a Wittelsbach ruler of Bavaria and a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire. He was also the last governor of the Spanish Netherlands and Duke of Luxembourg. An able soldier, his ambition led to conflicts that limited his ultimate dynastic achievements.

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26/02/1723

Thomas d'Urfey, English poet and playwright (born 1653)

Thomas d'Urfey was an English writer and playwright. He wrote plays, songs, jokes, and poems. He was an important innovator and contributor in the evolution of the ballad opera.

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26/02/1638

Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac, French mathematician and linguist (born 1581)

Claude Gaspar Bachet Sieur de Méziriac was a French mathematician and poet born in Bourg-en-Bresse, at that time belonging to Duchy of Savoy. He wrote Problèmes plaisans et délectables qui se font par les nombres, Les éléments arithmétiques, and a Latin translation of the Arithmetica of Diophantus. He also discovered means of solving indeterminate equations using continued fractions, a method of constructing magic squares, and a proof of Bézout's identity.

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26/02/1630

William Brade, English violinist and composer (born 1560)

William Brade was an English composer, violinist, and viol player of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras, mainly active in northern Germany. He was the first Englishman to write a canzona, an Italian form, and probably the first to write a piece for solo violin.

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26/02/1625

Anna Vasa of Sweden, Polish and Swedish princess (born 1568)

Anna Vasa of Sweden was a Swedish princess heavily involved in the politics of that country and of Poland. She was starosta of Brodnica and Golub. The youngest child of King John III of Sweden and Catherine Jagiellon, she was close to her brother Sigismund Vasa, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania (1587–1632) and King of Sweden (1592–1599). Raised a Catholic, Anna converted to Lutheranism in 1584. Though she had several suitors, she remained unmarried.

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26/02/1611

Antonio Possevino, Italian priest and diplomat (born 1533)

Antonio Possevino was a Jesuit protagonist of Counter-Reformation, serving as a papal diplomat, Jesuit controversialist, polemicist, encyclopedist, and bibliographer. He was the first Jesuit to visit Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Livonia, Hungary, Pomerania, and Saxony in amply documented papal missions between 1578 and 1586 where he championed the enterprising policies of Pope Gregory XIII.

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26/02/1608

John Still, English bishop (born 1543)

John Still was Master of two Cambridge colleges and then, from 1593, Bishop of Bath and Wells. He enjoyed considerable fame as an English preacher and disputant. He was formerly reputed to be the author of an early English comedy drama, Gammer Gurton's Needle.

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26/02/1603

Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress, spouse of Maximilian II (born 1528)

Maria of Austria or Maria of Spain, also known as Isabel, was the empress consort and queen consort of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia and Hungary. She served as regent of Spain in the absence of her father Emperor Charles V from 1548 until 1551 and was one of the most powerful empresses of the Holy Roman Empire.

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26/02/1577

Eric XIV of Sweden (born 1533)

Erik XIV or Eric XIV became King of Sweden following the death of his father, Gustav I, on 29 September 1560. During a 1568 rebellion against him, Erik was incarcerated by his half-brother John III. He was formally deposed by the Riksdag on 26 January 1569. Erik was also ruler of Estonia, after it placed itself under Swedish protection in 1561.

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26/02/1548

Lorenzino de' Medici, Italian writer and assassin (born 1514)

Lorenzino de' Medici, also known as Lorenzaccio, was an Italian politician, writer, and dramatist, and a member of the Medici family. He became famous for assassinating his cousin, Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence in 1537. He was in turn murdered in 1548 in retaliation for his deed.

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26/02/1462

John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, English politician (born 1408)

John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, was the son of Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Alice Sergeaux (1386–1452). A Lancastrian loyalist during the latter part of his life, he was convicted of high treason and executed on Tower Hill on 26 February 1462.

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26/02/1360

Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March, English commander (born 1328)

Roger de Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March, 4th Baron Mortimer of Wigmore, KG was an English nobleman and military commander during the Hundred Years' War.

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26/02/1349

Fatima bint al-Ahmar, Nasrid princess in the Emirate of Granada (born c.1260)

Fatima bint Muhammad bint al-Ahmar was a Nasrid princess of the Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula. A daughter of Sultan Muhammad II and an expert in the study of barnamaj, she married her father's cousin and trusted ally, Abu Said Faraj. Their son Ismail I became sultan after deposing her half-brother, Nasr. She was involved in the government of her son but was especially politically active during the rule of her grandsons, Muhammad IV and Yusuf I, both of whom ascended the throne at a young age and were placed under her tutelage. Later Granadan historian Ibn al-Khatib wrote an elegy for her death stating that "She was alone, surpassing the women of her time / like the Night of Power surpasses all the other nights". Modern historian María Jesús Rubiera Mata compared her role to that of María de Molina, her contemporary who became regent to Castilian kings. Professor Brian A. Catlos attributed the survival of the dynasty, and eventual success, as being partly due to her "vision and constancy."

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26/02/1275

Margaret of England, Queen consort of Scots (born 1240)

Margaret of England was Queen of Alba (Scotland) by marriage to King Alexander III.

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26/02/1266

Manfred, King of Sicily (born 1232)

Manfred was the last King of Sicily from the Hohenstaufen dynasty, reigning from 1258 until his death. The natural son of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, Manfred became regent over the Kingdom of Sicily on behalf of his nephew Conradin in 1254. As regent he subdued rebellions in the kingdom, until in 1258 he usurped Conradin's rule. After an initial attempt to appease Pope Innocent IV, he took up the ongoing conflict between the Hohenstaufens and the papacy through combat and political alliances. He defeated the papal army at Foggia on 2 December 1254. Excommunicated by three successive popes, Manfred was the target of a Crusade (1255–1266) called first by Pope Alexander IV and then by Urban IV. Nothing came of Alexander's call, but Urban enlisted the aid of Charles of Anjou in overthrowing Manfred. Manfred was killed during his defeat by Charles at the Battle of Benevento, and Charles assumed kingship of Sicily.

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26/02/1154

Roger II of Sicily (born 1095)

Roger II or Roger the Great was King of Sicily and Africa, son of Roger I of Sicily and successor to his brother Simon. He began his rule as Count of Sicily in 1105, became Duke of Apulia and Calabria in 1127, then King of Sicily in 1130 and King of Africa in 1148.

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26/02/0943

Muirchertach mac Néill, King of Ailech (Ireland)

Muirchertach mac Néill, called Muirchertach of the Leather Cloaks, was a King of Ailech.

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26/02/0420

Porphyry of Gaza, Greek bishop and saint (born 347)

Year 420 (CDXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Theodosius and Constantius. The denomination 420 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

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