Died on Friday, 27th February – Famous Deaths

27/02/2025

Boris Spassky, Russian chess grandmaster (born 1937)

Boris Vasilyevich Spassky was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky played three world championship matches: he lost to Tigran Petrosian in 1966; defeated Petrosian in 1969 to become world champion; then lost to Bobby Fischer in a famous match in 1972.

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27/02/2023

Gérard Latortue, Haitian prime minister (born 1934)

Gérard Latortue was a Haitian politician and diplomat who served as the prime minister of Haiti from 12 March 2004 to 9 June 2006. He was an official in the United Nations for many years, and briefly served as foreign minister of Haiti during the short-lived 1988 administration of Leslie Manigat.

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27/02/2021

Ng Man-tat, Hong Kong actor (born 1952)

Richard Ng Man-tat, commonly called Uncle Tat (達叔), was a Hong Kong actor originally from Fujian. He was a veteran with dozens of awards in the Hong Kong film industry, including Best Supporting Actor at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards for his role in A Moment of Romance. Ng was best known for his comedic roles alongside Stephen Chow and was a versatile actor with many memorable performances throughout his career.

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27/02/2019

France-Albert René, Seychellois politician, 2nd President of Seychelles (born 1935)

France-Albert René was a Seychellois lawyer and politician who served as the country’s second President of Seychelles from 1977 to 2004, following a coup d'état that ousted the country's founding president, James Mancham. He previously served as the nation’s second and final Prime Minister, from independence in 1976 until the abolition of the post in 1977. He was a leading figure of the Seychelles People’s Progressive Front, later known as United Seychelles.

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27/02/2018

Steve Folkes, Australian rugby league player and coach (born 1959)

Steven John Folkes was an Australian professional rugby league footballer and coach of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in the National Rugby League. He represented both New South Wales and Australia

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27/02/2016

Yi Cheol-seung, South Korean lawyer and politician (born 1922)

Lee Cheol-seung was a South Korean politician who served as Deputy Speaker for the 9th National Assembly of South Korea. He was a long-time lawmaker who served seven terms in the National Assembly, representing Jeonju. His art name was Soseok.

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James Z. Davis, American lawyer and judge (born 1943)

James Z. Davis was an American judge on the Utah Court of Appeals.

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27/02/2015

Boris Nemtsov, Russian academic and politician, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia (born 1959)

Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov was a Russian physicist, liberal politician, opposition leader and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. Early in his political career, he was involved in the introduction of reforms into the Russian post-Soviet economy. In the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin, he was the first governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (1991–1997). Later he worked in the government of Russia as Minister of Fuel and Energy (1997), Vice Premier of Russia and Security Council member from 1997 to 1998. In 1998, he founded the Young Russia movement. In 1998, he co-founded the coalition group Right Cause and in 1999, he co-formed Union of Right Forces, an electoral bloc and subsequently a political party. Nemtsov was also a member of the Congress of People's Deputies (1990), Federation Council (1993–97) and State Duma (1999–2003).

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Leonard Nimoy, American actor (born 1931)

Leonard Simon Nimoy was an American actor and director, famous for playing Spock in the Star Trek franchise for almost 50 years. This includes originating Spock in the original Star Trek series in 1966, then Star Trek: The Animated Series, the first six Star Trek films, Star Trek: The Next Generation, the 2009 Star Trek film, and Star Trek Into Darkness. Nimoy also directed films, including Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), and Three Men and a Baby (1987), and his career included roles in music videos and video games. In addition to acting and filmmaking, Nimoy was a photographer, author, singer, and songwriter.

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Julio César Strassera, Argentinian lawyer and jurist (born 1933)

Julio César Strassera was an Argentine lawyer and jurist. He served as Chief Prosecutor during the Trial of the Juntas in 1985.

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27/02/2014

Aaron Allston, American game designer and author (born 1960)

Aaron Dale Allston was an American game designer and author of many science fiction books, notably Star Wars novels. His works as a game designer include game supplements for role-playing games, several of which served to establish the basis for products and subsequent development of TSR's Dungeons & Dragons game setting Mystara. His later works as a novelist include those of the X-Wing series: Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, Solo Command, Starfighters of Adumar, and Mercy Kill. He wrote two entries in the New Jedi Order series: Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream and Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand. Allston wrote three of the nine Legacy of the Force novels: Betrayal, Exile, and Fury, and three of the nine Fate of the Jedi novels: Outcast, Backlash, and Conviction.

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Terry Rand, American basketball player (born 1934)

Lynwood Terry Rand was an American basketball player, best known for his college career at Marquette University. Despite being drafted in the second round of the 1954 NBA draft, he never played in the NBA, instead choosing to play in the National Industrial Basketball League for six years. After retiring from basketball, he worked as a stockbroker with Rand Financial Advisors.

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27/02/2013

Van Cliburn, American pianist (born 1934)

Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. was an American pianist. At the age of 23, Cliburn achieved worldwide recognition when in 1958 he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

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Ramon Dekkers, Dutch mixed martial artist and kick-boxer (born 1969)

Ramon Dekkers was a Dutch professional Muay Thai fighter. He won multiple world and international titles in Muay Thai during the 1980s and 1990s. Nicknamed the "Turbine from Hell", he was a fan favorite due to his fast-paced, aggressive fighting style which resulted in many brutal fights and knockouts. He was also praised for his willingness to fight in Thailand, including challenging for the Lumpinee Stadium Lightweight title.

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Dale Robertson, American actor (born 1923)

Dayle Lymoine Robertson was an American actor best known for his starring roles on television. He played the roving investigator Jim Hardie in the television series Tales of Wells Fargo and railroad owner Ben Calhoun in Iron Horse. He often was presented as a deceptively thoughtful and modest Western hero. From 1968 to 1970, Robertson was the fourth and final host of the anthology series Death Valley Days. Described by Time magazine in 1959 as "probably the best horseman on television", for most of his career, Robertson played in Western films and television shows—well over 60 titles in all.

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Adolfo Zaldívar, Chilean lawyer and politician (born 1943)

Miguel Adolfo Gerardo Zaldívar Larraín was a Chilean politician and lawyer. He was senator for Aisén and from March 2008 until his death in February 2013 he had been President of the Chilean Senate. He was an historic member of the Christian Democratic Party, leading its right-wing faction until his expulsion from the political party in December 2007.

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27/02/2012

Ma Jiyuan, Chinese general (born 1921)

Ma Jiyuan was a Chinese Muslim Ma clique warlord in China during the Republic of China era, ruling the northwestern province of Qinghai. He was the son and only child of general Ma Bufang and commanded nationalist forces against the communists at the Heshui Campaign, Meridian Ridge Campaign, and the Lanzhou Campaign during the Chinese Civil War. Ma was 28 years old when he defeated 30,000 PLA soldiers in the Heshui campaign in 1948. He led the 82nd Cavalry Division, of which 30 percent of whom were Muslims, to charge the Communists with swords. Ma complained that the Kuomintang government was not resupplying him enough and that there was no more "revolutionary spirit". On the opposing side General Zhao Shoushan led the Communists, Zhao formerly attended the same school as Ma.

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Tina Strobos, Dutch physician and psychiatrist (born 1920)

Tina Strobos was a Dutch physician and psychiatrist from Amsterdam, known for her resistance work during World War II. While a young medical student, she worked with her mother and grandmother to rescue more than 100 Jewish refugees as part of the Dutch resistance during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Strobos provided her house as a hiding place for Jews on the run, using a secret attic compartment and warning bell system to keep them safe from sudden police raids. In addition, Strobos smuggled guns and radios for the resistance and forged passports to help refugees escape the country. Despite being arrested and interrogated nine times by the Gestapo, she never betrayed the whereabouts of a Jew.

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Helga Vlahović, Croatian journalist and producer (born 1945)

Helga Vlahović was a Croatian journalist, producer, and television personality, whose career spanned five decades in both SFR Yugoslavia and later Croatia. She was one of the most popular television presenters in the 1980s. Throughout her career, she was also credited as Helga Vlahović Pea and Helga Vlahović Brnobić during the times she was married.

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27/02/2011

Frank Buckles, American soldier (born 1901)

Frank Woodruff Buckles was a United States Army corporal and the last surviving American military veteran of World War I. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1917 aged 16 and served with a detachment from Fort Riley, driving ambulances and motorcycles near the front lines in Europe.

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Necmettin Erbakan, Turkish engineer and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1926)

Necmettin Erbakan was a Turkish politician and political theorist who served as the 23rd prime minister of Turkey from 1996 to 1997. He was pressured by the military to step down as prime minister and was later banned from politics by the Constitutional Court of Turkey for purportedly violating the separation of religion and state as mandated by the constitution.

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Duke Snider, American baseball player, manager, and sportscaster (born 1926)

Edwin Donald "Duke" Snider, nicknamed "the Duke of Flatbush", was an American professional baseball player. Primarily a center fielder, he spent most of his Major League Baseball (MLB) career playing for the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers (1947–1962), later playing one season each for the New York Mets (1963) and San Francisco Giants (1964).

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Gary Winick, American director and producer (born 1961)

Gary Scott Winick was an American filmmaker whose films as a director include Tadpole (2002) and 13 Going on 30 (2004), and who also produced such films as Pieces of April (2003) and November (2004) through his New York City-based independent film production company InDigEnt.

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27/02/2010

Nanaji Deshmukh, Indian educator and activist (born 1916)

Chandikadas Amritrao Deshmukh, better known as Nanaji Deshmukh, was an Indian social activist and politician. He worked in the fields of education, health, and rural self-reliance. He was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award in 2019 by the Government of India. He was a leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), the precursor to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alongside being a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindutva paramilitary organisation.

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27/02/2008

William F. Buckley, Jr., American author and journalist, founded the National Review (born 1925)

William Frank Buckley Jr. was an American conservative writer, public intellectual, political commentator and novelist.

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Myron Cope, American journalist and sportscaster (born 1929)

Myron Sidney Kopelman, known professionally as Myron Cope, was an American sports journalist, radio personality, and sportscaster. He is best known for being "the voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers".

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Ivan Rebroff, German vocalist of Russian descent with four and a half octave range (born 1931)

Ivan Rebroff was a German vocalist, allegedly of Russian ancestry, who rose to prominence for his distinct and extensive vocal range of four octaves, ranging "from a low F to a high F, one and a quarter octaves above C". An imposing figure on stage, usually bearded and dressed in Cossack clothing, his presence was enhanced by his height, being over 2 metres tall.

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27/02/2007

Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven, German general (born 1914)

Alexander Otto Hermann Wolfgang Bernd(t) Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven, was a Baltic German officer in the German Army during World War II. In 1956, he joined the West German Federal Armed Forces, the Bundeswehr, and rose to the rank of Generalleutnant.

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27/02/2006

Otis Chandler, American publisher (born 1927)

Otis Chandler was the publisher of the Los Angeles Times between 1960 and 1980, leading a large expansion of the newspaper and its ambitions. He was the fourth and final member of the Chandler family to hold the paper's top position.

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Robert Lee Scott, Jr., American general and author (born 1908)

Robert Lee Scott Jr. was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force and a flying ace of World War II, credited with shooting down 13 Japanese aircraft.

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Linda Smith, English comedian and author (born 1958)

Linda Helen Smith was an English comedian and comedy writer. She appeared regularly on Radio 4 panel games, and was voted "Wittiest Living Person" by listeners in 2002. From 2004 to 2006, she was head of the British Humanist Association.

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27/02/2004

Yoshihiko Amino, Japanese historian and academic (born 1928)

Yoshihiko Amino was a Japanese Marxist historian and public intellectual, perhaps most singularly known for his novel examination of medieval Japanese history.

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Paul Sweezy, American economist and journalist (born 1910)

Paul Marlor Sweezy was an American Marxist economist, political activist, publisher, and founding editor of the long-running magazine Monthly Review. He is best remembered for his contributions to economic theory as one of the leading Marxian economists of the second half of the 20th century.

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27/02/2003

John Lanchbery, English-Australian composer and conductor (born 1923)

John Arthur Lanchbery OBE was an English-Australian composer and conductor, famous for his ballet arrangements. He served as the Principal Conductor of the Royal Ballet from 1959 to 1972, Principal Conductor of the Australian Ballet from 1972 to 1977, and Musical Director of the American Ballet Theatre from 1978 to 1980. He continued to conduct regularly for the Royal Ballet until 2001.

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Fred Rogers, American minister and television host (born 1928)

Fred McFeely Rogers, known professionally as Mister Rogers, was an American television personality, Presbyterian minister, and author. He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001.

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27/02/2002

Spike Milligan, Irish soldier, actor, comedian, and author (born 1918)

Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan was an Anglo-Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright and actor. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British India, where he spent his childhood before relocating in 1931 to England, where he lived and worked for the majority of his life.

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27/02/1999

Horace Tapscott, American pianist and composer (born 1934)

Horace Elva Tapscott was an American jazz pianist and composer. He formed the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in 1961 and led the ensemble through the 1990s.

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27/02/1998

George H. Hitchings, American pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1905)

George Herbert Hitchings was an American medical doctor who shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sir James Black and Gertrude Elion "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment", Hitchings specifically for his work on chemotherapy.

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J. T. Walsh, American actor (born 1943)

James Thomas Patrick Walsh was an American character actor. He starred in many films of the 1980s and 1990s, which include Tin Men (1987), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), A Few Good Men (1992), Hoffa (1992), Nixon (1995), Sling Blade (1996), Breakdown (1997) and Pleasantville (1998).

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27/02/1993

Lillian Gish, American actress (born 1893)

Lillian Diana Gish was an American actress best known for her work in movies of the silent era. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was dubbed the "First Lady of the Screen" by Vanity Fair in 1927 and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Gish as the 17th-greatest female movie star of classical Hollywood cinema.

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27/02/1992

S. I. Hayakawa, Canadian-American linguist and politician (born 1906)

Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa was a Canadian-born American academic and politician of Japanese ancestry. A professor of English, he served as president of San Francisco State University and then as U.S. Senator from California from 1977 to 1983.

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27/02/1989

Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1903)

Konrad Zacharias Lorenz was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch. He is often regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology, the study of animal behavior. He developed an approach that began with an earlier generation, including his teacher Oskar Heinroth.

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27/02/1987

Bill Holman, American cartoonist (born 1903)

Bill Holman was an American cartoonist who drew the classic comic strip Smokey Stover from 1935 until he retired in 1973. Distributed through the Chicago Tribune syndicate, it had the longest run of any strip in the screwball genre. Holman signed some strips with the pseudonym Scat H. He once described himself as "always inclined to humor and acting silly."

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Franciszek Blachnicki, Polish priest (born 1921)

Franciszek Blachnicki was a Polish Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Light-Life movement, also known as the Oasis Movement, and the Secular Institute of the Immaculate Mother of the Church. He founded several other movements and religious congregations that would address a range of social and ethical issues. These issues included anti-alcoholism and human rights. His movements first came about after starting out as simple retreats designed for both altar servers and families that later began to address a series of issues in Poland at the time. His concern for human rights came during the communist era in Poland as well as his experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II in which he was incarcerated in Auschwitz and other concentration camps under the German Nazi regime.

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27/02/1986

Jacques Plante, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1929)

Joseph Jacques Omer Plante was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. During a career as a goaltender lasting from 1947 to 1975, he was considered to be one of the most important innovators in hockey. He played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1953 to 1963; during his tenure, the team won the Stanley Cup six times, including five consecutive wins. In 2017 Plante was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players" in history.

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27/02/1985

Ray Ellington, English singer and drummer (born 1916)

Henry Pitts Brown, better known by his stage name Ray Ellington, was an English jazz musician and bandleader. He is best known for his appearances on The Goon Show from 1951 to 1960. The Ray Ellington Quartet had a regular musical segment on the show, and Ellington also had a small speaking role in many episodes, often as a parodic African, Native American or Arab chieftain.

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Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., American politician and diplomat, 3rd United States Ambassador to the United Nations (born 1902)

Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. was an American diplomat and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate and served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations in the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1960, he was the Republican nominee for Vice President. Lodge later served as a diplomat in the administrations of Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Gerald Ford. Lodge was a presidential contender in the 1964 primary campaign.

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J. Pat O'Malley, English-American actor and singer (born 1904)

James Rudolph O'Malley was an English actor and singer who appeared in many American films and television programmes from the 1940s to 1982, using the stage name J. Pat O'Malley. He also appeared on the Broadway stage in Ten Little Indians (1944) and Dial M for Murder (1954).

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27/02/1980

George Tobias, American actor (born 1901)

George Tobias was an American theater, film and television actor. He had character parts and supporting roles in several major films of Hollywood's Golden Age. He is also known for his role as Abner Kravitz on the TV sitcom Bewitched from 1964 to 1971.

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27/02/1977

John Dickson Carr, American author and playwright (born 1905)

John Dickson Carr was an American author of detective stories, who also published using the pseudonyms Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson, and Roger Fairbairn.

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27/02/1973

Bill Everett, American author and illustrator (born 1917)

William Blake Everett was an American comic book writer and artist best known for creating Namor the Sub-Mariner, as well as co-creating Daredevil and the zombie Simon Garth with writer Stan Lee for Marvel Comics.

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27/02/1969

Marius Barbeau, Canadian ethnographer and academic (born 1883)

Charles Marius Barbeau,, also known as C. Marius Barbeau, or more commonly simply Marius Barbeau, was a Canadian ethnographer and folklorist who is today considered a founder of Canadian anthropology. A Rhodes Scholar, he is best known for an early championing of Québecois folk culture, and for his exhaustive cataloguing of the social organization, narrative and musical traditions, and plastic arts of the Tsimshianic-speaking peoples in British Columbia, and other Northwest Coast peoples. He developed unconventional theories about the peopling of the Americas.

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27/02/1968

Frankie Lymon, American singer-songwriter (born 1942)

Franklin Joseph Lymon was an American rock and roll/rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, dancer and composer best known as the boy soprano lead singer of the New York City-based early rock and roll doo-wop group the Teenagers. The group was composed of five boys, all in their early to mid-teens. The original lineup of the Teenagers, an integrated group, included three African-American members, Lymon, Jimmy Merchant, and Sherman Garnes; and two Puerto Rican members, Joe Negroni and Herman Santiago. The Teenagers' first single, 1956's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", was also their biggest hit. After Lymon went solo in mid-1957, both his career and that of the Teenagers fell into decline. In 1968, Lymon was found dead at age 25 from a heroin overdose. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 as a member of the Teenagers. Lymon's life was dramatized in the 1998 film Why Do Fools Fall in Love.

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27/02/1964

Orry-Kelly, Australian-American costume designer (born 1897)

Orry-Kelly was the professional name of Orry George Kelly, an Australian-American Hollywood costume designer. Until being overtaken by Catherine Martin in 2014, he was the most prolific Australian-born Oscar winner, having won three Academy Awards for Best Costume Design.

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27/02/1956

Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar, Indian lawyer and politician, 1st Speaker of the Lok Sabha (born 1888)

Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar popularly known as Dadasaheb, was an Indian politician and independence activist who served as the President of the Central Legislative Assembly, then Speaker of the Constituent Assembly of India, and later the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India. His son Purushottam Mavalankar was later elected to the Lok Sabha twice from Gujarat.

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27/02/1943

Kostis Palamas, Greek poet and playwright (born 1859)

Kostis Palamas was a Greek poet who wrote the words to the Olympic Hymn. He was a central figure of the Greek literary generation of the 1880s and one of the cofounders of the so-called New Athenian School along with Georgios Drosinis and Ioannis Polemis.

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27/02/1937

Charles Donnelly (poet), Irish Republican, died in the Spanish Civil War (born 1914)

Charles Patrick Donnelly was an Irish poet, Irish Republican and left wing political activist. He was killed fighting on the republican side during the Spanish Civil War.

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Hosteen Klah, Navajo artist, medicine man, and weaver (born 1867)

Hosteen Klah was a Navajo artist, medicine person, and ceremonial practitioner. Known for combining traditional Navajo weaving with sacred sandpainting imagery, Klah played a significant role in preserving and documenting different aspects of Navajo religion and culture. As a nádleehi, a gender role recognized within Navajo society, Klah occupied both masculine and feminine social and ceremonial roles.

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Emily Malbone Morgan, American saint, foundress of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross (born 1862)

Emily Malbone Morgan was a prominent social and religious leader in the Episcopal Church in the United States who helped found the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross as well as the Colonel Daniel Putnam Association.

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27/02/1936

Joshua W. Alexander, American judge and politician, 2nd United States Secretary of Commerce (born 1852)

Joshua Willis Alexander was United States secretary of commerce from December 16, 1919, to March 4, 1921, in the administration of President Woodrow Wilson.

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Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1849)

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist and physiologist known for his discovery of classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs. Pavlov also conducted significant research on the physiology of digestion, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904.

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27/02/1931

Chandra Shekhar Azad, Indian revolutionary (born 1906)

Chandra Shekhar Sitaram Tiwari, popularly known as Chandra Shekhar Azad, was an Indian revolutionary who reorganised the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) under its new name of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) after the death of its founder, Ram Prasad Bismil, and three other prominent party leaders, Roshan Singh, Rajendra Nath Lahiri and Ashfaqulla Khan. He hailed from Bardarka village in Unnao district of United Provinces and his parents were Sitaram Tiwari and Jagrani Devi. He often used the pseudonym "Balraj" while signing pamphlets issued as the commander-in-chief of the HSRA.Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru worked closely with him as his pupil.

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27/02/1921

Schofield Haigh, English cricketer and umpire (born 1871)

Schofield Haigh was a Yorkshire and England cricketer. He played for nineteen seasons for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, sporadically for England from 1898–99 to 1912, and was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1901.

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27/02/1902

Harry "Breaker" Morant, English-Australian lieutenant (born 1864)

Harry Harbord "Breaker" Morant was an English horseman, bush balladist, military officer and war criminal who was convicted and executed for murdering nine prisoners-of-war (POWs) and three captured civilians in three separate incidents during the Second Boer War.

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27/02/1892

Louis Vuitton, French fashion designer and businessman, founded Louis Vuitton (born 1821)

Louis Vuitton was a French malletier and businessman. He was the founder of the Louis Vuitton brand of leather goods now owned by LVMH. Prior to this, he had been appointed as trunk-maker to Eugénie de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III.

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27/02/1887

Alexander Borodin, Russian composer and chemist (born 1833)

Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was one of the prominent 19th-century composers known as "The Five", a group dedicated to producing a "uniquely Russian" kind of classical music. Borodin is known best for his symphonies, his two string quartets, the symphonic poem In the Steppes of Central Asia and his opera Prince Igor.

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27/02/1844

Nicholas Biddle, American banker and politician (born 1786)

Nicholas Biddle was an American financier who served as the third and last president of the Second Bank of the United States. Throughout his life Biddle worked as an editor, diplomat, author, and politician who served in both houses of the Pennsylvania state legislature. He is best known as the chief opponent of Andrew Jackson in the Bank War.

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27/02/1795

Tanikaze Kajinosuke, Japanese sumo wrestler (born 1750)

Tanikaze Kajinosuke was a Japanese sumo wrestler from the Edo period. Officially recognized as the fourth yokozuna, he was however effectively the first, as he was the first to be awarded the title during his lifetime. He achieved great fame and, though championships from this period are unofficial, he achieved the equivalent of 21 tournament championships. He was also the coach of Raiden Tameemon.

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27/02/1784

Count of St. Germain, European adventurer (born 1710)

The Count of St. Germain whose real name and origins remain unknown, was a European adventurer who had interests and achievements in science, alchemy, philosophy, and the arts. He rose to prominence in the European high society of the mid-18th century due to his works and interests. He associated himself with some of the top contemporary figures, including Casanova, Voltaire and Mozart.

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27/02/1735

John Arbuthnot, Scottish physician and polymath (born 1667)

John Arbuthnot FRS, often known simply as Dr Arbuthnot, was a Scottish physician, satirist and polymath in London. He is best remembered for his contributions to mathematics, his membership in the Scriblerus Club, and for inventing the figure of John Bull.

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27/02/1720

Samuel Parris, English-American minister (born 1653)

Samuel Parris was a Puritan minister in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Also a businessman and one-time plantation owner, he gained notoriety for being the minister of the church in Salem Village, Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials of 1692. Accusations by Parris and his daughter against an enslaved woman precipitated an expanding series of witchcraft accusations.

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27/02/1712

Sir William Villiers, 3rd Baronet, English politician (born 1645)

Sir William Villiers, 3rd Baronet was an English politician from the Villiers family.

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27/02/1706

John Evelyn, English gardener and author (born 1620)

John Evelyn, an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, has become best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society.

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27/02/1699

Charles Paulet, 1st Duke of Bolton, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire (born 1625)

Charles Paulet, 1st Duke of Bolton was an English politician who represented Winchester and Hampshire in the House of Commons of England from 1660 to 1675. He was the son of John Paulet, 5th Marquess of Winchester, and his first wife, Jane Savage.

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27/02/1659

Henry Dunster, English-American clergyman and academic (born 1609)

Henry Dunster was a New England Puritan clergyman who served as the first president of Harvard College from 1640 to 1654. Brackney says Dunster was "an important precursor" of the Baptist denomination in America, especially regarding infant baptism, soul freedom, religious liberty, congregational governance, and a radical biblicism.

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27/02/1641

Pau Claris, Catalan lawyer, clergyman and President of the Generalitat, founder of the Catalan Republic (born 1586)

Pau Claris i Casademunt was a Catalan lawyer, clergyman and 94th President of the Deputation of the General of Catalonia at the beginning of the Catalan Revolt. On 16 January 1641 he proclaimed the Catalan Republic under the protection of France.

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27/02/1558

Johann Faber of Heilbronn, controversial Catholic preacher (born 1504)

Johann Faber of Heilbronn, also known as Johannes Fabri, was a controversial 16th century Catholic preacher.

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Kunigunde of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, German Noblewoman (born 1524)

Kunigunde of Brandenburg-Kulmbach was a princess of Brandenburg-Kulmbach by birth and by marriage Margravine of Baden-Durlach.

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27/02/1483

William VIII of Montferrat (born 1420)

William VIII Palaiologos was the Marquis of Montferrat from 1464 until his death.

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27/02/1425

Prince Vasily I of Moscow (born 1371)

Vasily I Dmitriyevich was Grand Prince of Vladimir and Moscow from 1389. He was the heir of Dmitry Donskoy, who reigned from 1359 to 1389.

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27/02/1416

Eleanor of Castile, queen consort of Navarre (born c. 1363)

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27/02/1167

Robert of Melun, English theologian and bishop

Robert of Melun was an English scholastic Christian theologian who taught in France, and later became Bishop of Hereford in England. He studied under Peter Abelard in Paris before teaching there and at Melun, which gave him his surname. His students included John of Salisbury, Roger of Worcester, William of Tyre, and possibly Thomas Becket. Robert was involved in the Council of Reims in 1148, which condemned the teachings of Gilbert de la Porrée. Three of his theological works survive, and show him to have been strictly orthodox.

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27/02/0956

Theophylact, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (born 917)

Theophylact Lekapenos was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 2 February 933 to his death in 956.

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27/02/0906

Conrad the Elder, Frankish nobleman

Conrad, called the Old or the Elder, was the Duke of Thuringia briefly in 892–93. He was the namesake of the Conradiner family and son of Udo of Neustria. His mother (probably) was a daughter of Conrad I of Logenahe (832–860). He was the count of the Oberlahngau (886), Hessengau (897), Gotzfeldgau (903), Wetterau (905), and Wormsgau (906). He united all of Hesse under his political control and under his heirs this territory became the Duchy of Franconia.

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27/02/0640

Pepin of Landen, Frankish lord (born 580)

Pepin I of Landen, also called the Elder or the Old, was the Mayor of the palace of Austrasia under the Merovingian King Dagobert I from 623 to 629. He was also the Mayor for Sigebert III from 639 until his death.

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