Died on Saturday, 28th February – Famous Deaths

28/02/2026

Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran (born 1939)

Ali Hosseini Khamenei was an Iranian politician and Shia cleric who served as the second supreme leader of Iran from 1989 until his assassination in the 2026 Iran war. He previously served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. He held the title Ayatollah, and his tenure as supreme leader, spanning 36 years and six months, made him the longest-serving head of state in West Asia at the time of his death.

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Aziz Nasirzadeh, Minister of Defense of the Islamic Republic of Iran (born 1964)

Aziz Nasirzadeh was an Iranian military officer who served as the Minister of Defence of Iran from 2024 to 2026. He previously served as the Deputy of Chief of Staff for the Iranian Armed Forces from September 2021 to August 2024, and was the commander of the Iranian Air Force (IRIAF) from August 2018 to September 2021, prior to that position. A veteran of the Iran–Iraq War, he graduated as a certified F-14 pilot, but never saw any combat. On 28 February 2026, the Israel Defense Forces announced that he had been killed during the 2026 Iran war.

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Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Islamic Republic of Iran (born 1961)

Mohammad Pakpour was an Iranian military officer who served as the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from 2025 until his death in 2026. He had previously served as head of IRGC Ground Forces. On 13 June 2025, he was appointed head of the IRGC following the death of his predecessor, Hossein Salami, in the Twelve-Day War. Pakpour was succeeded as commander of the Ground Forces by Mohammad Karami. On 28 February 2026, Israeli forces announced that he had been killed in the 2026 Iran war. Iranian state media IRNA later confirmed it.

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28/02/2025

David Johansen, American singer-songwriter and actor (born 1950)

David Roger Johansen was an American singer, songwriter, and actor best known as lead singer of the seminal proto-punk band the New York Dolls. He is also known for his work under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter and for playing the Ghost of Christmas Past in Scrooged (1988).

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Miguel Piñera, Chilean celebrity, night club owner and amateur musician (born 1954)

José Miguel Carlos "Negro" Piñera Echenique was a Chilean celebrity, night club owner and amateur musician who was the youngest brother of former Chilean President Sebastián Piñera and of economist José Piñera. He married Argentinian model Belén Hidalgo in 2004 but divorced in 2011. Negro Piñera was of Asturian and Basque descent.

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Joseph Wambaugh, American writer (born 1937)

Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh Jr. was an American writer known for his fictional and nonfictional accounts of police work in the United States. Many of his novels are set in Los Angeles and its surroundings and feature Los Angeles police officers as protagonists. He won three Edgar Awards, and was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.

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28/02/2024

Ahmed Salim, Bangladeshi convicted murderer (born 1989)

Ahmed Salim was a Bangladeshi painter who was convicted of murdering his Indonesian girlfriend Nurhidayati Wartono Surata on the evening of 30 December 2018 at a hotel in Geylang in Singapore. According to Ahmed, Nurhidayati met with Ahmed and expressed her intention to break up with him due to his arranged marriage and her finding a new boyfriend. Ahmed planned to kill Nurhidayati during that meeting itself if she rejected his request to break up with her new boyfriend.

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Héctor Ortiz, Puerto Rican baseball player and coach (born 1969)

Héctor Ortiz Montañez was a Puerto Rican professional baseball catcher and coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers. He also coached in MLB for the Texas Rangers.

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Cat Janice, American singer-songwriter (born 1993)

Catherine Janice Ipsan, known professionally as Cat Janice, was an American singer-songwriter. Janice wrote and sang "Dance You Outta My Head", which went viral on TikTok.

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28/02/2020

Joe Coulombe, founder of Trader Joe's (born 1930)

Joseph Hardin Coulombe was an American entrepreneur who founded the grocery store chain Trader Joe's in 1967 and served as its CEO until his retirement in 1988.

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Freeman Dyson, British-born American physicist and mathematician (born 1923)

Freeman John Dyson was a British-American theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrices, mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics, condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, and engineering. He was professor emeritus in the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and a member of the board of sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

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Sir Lenox Hewitt, Australian public servant (born 1917)

Sir Cyrus Lenox Simson Hewitt was an Australian public servant. His career in the Commonwealth Public Service spanned from 1939 to 1980, and included periods as a senior adviser and departmental secretary. His most prominent position was as secretary of the Prime Minister's Department during the Gorton government (1968–1971). He worked closely with Prime Minister John Gorton, although his initial appointment in place of John Bunting was seen as unconventional. Hewitt was also influential as secretary of the Department of Minerals and Energy during the Whitlam government (1972–1975), working under minister Rex Connor. He later served as chairman of Qantas (1975–1980).

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28/02/2019

André Previn, German-American pianist, conductor, and composer. (born 1929)

André George Previn was a German and American conductor, composer, and pianist. His career had three major genres: Hollywood films, jazz, and classical music. In each he achieved success, and the latter two were part of his life until the end. In movies, he arranged and composed music. In jazz, he was a celebrated pianist, accompanist to singers, and interpreter of songs from the "Great American Songbook". In classical music, he also performed as a pianist but gained television fame as a conductor, and during his last thirty years created his legacy as a composer.

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28/02/2016

George Kennedy, American actor (born 1925)

George Harris Kennedy Jr. was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 film and television productions. He played "Dragline" in Cool Hand Luke (1967), winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role and being nominated for the corresponding Golden Globe. He received a second Golden Globe nomination for portraying Joe Patroni in Airport (1970).

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28/02/2015

Yaşar Kemal, Turkish journalist and author (born 1923)

Yaşar Kemal was a leading Turkish writer of Kurdish descent, who wrote in Turkish and a human rights activist. He received 38 awards during his lifetime and had been a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature on the strength of his 1955 novel Memed, My Hawk.

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28/02/2014

Hugo Brandt Corstius, Dutch linguist and author (born 1935)

Hugo Brandt Corstius was a Dutch author, known for his achievements in both literature and science.

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28/02/2013

Donald A. Glaser, American physicist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1926)

Donald Arthur Glaser was an American physicist and biologist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1960 for his invention of the bubble chamber.

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28/02/2011

Annie Girardot, French actress (born 1931)

Annie Suzanne Girardot was a French actress. She often played strong-willed, independent, hard-working, and often lonely women, imbuing her characters with an earthiness and reality that endeared her to women undergoing similar daily struggles.

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28/02/2009

Paul Harvey, American radio host (born 1918)

Paul Harvey Aurandt was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast News and Comment on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous The Rest of the Story segments. From 1951 to 2008, his programs reached as many as 24 million people per week. Paul Harvey News was carried on 1,200 radio stations, on 400 American Forces Network stations, and in 300 newspapers.

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28/02/2007

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. American historian and critic (born 1917)

Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a specialist in American history, much of Schlesinger's work explored the history of 20th-century American liberalism. In particular, his work focused on leaders such as Harry S. Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy. In the 1952 and 1956 presidential campaigns, he was a primary speechwriter and adviser to the Democratic presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson II. Schlesinger served as special assistant and "court historian" to President Kennedy from 1961 to 1963. He wrote a detailed account of the Kennedy administration, from the 1960 presidential campaign to the president's state funeral, titled A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House, which won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.

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28/02/2006

Owen Chamberlain, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1920)

Owen Chamberlain was an American physicist who shared with Emilio Segrè the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the antiproton, a sub-atomic antiparticle.

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28/02/2005

Chris Curtis, English singer and drummer (born 1941)

Chris Curtis was an English musician. He was best known for being with the 1960s beat band The Searchers. He originated the concept behind Deep Purple and formed the band in its original incarnation of 'Roundabout'.

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28/02/2004

Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian and librarian (born 1914)

Daniel Joseph Boorstin was an American historian at the University of Chicago who wrote on many topics in American and world history. He was appointed the twelfth Librarian of the United States Congress in 1975 and served until 1987. He was instrumental in the creation of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress.

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28/02/2003

Chris Brasher, Guyanese-English runner and journalist, co-founded the London Marathon (born 1928)

Christopher William Brasher CBE was a British track and field athlete, Olympic champion, sports journalist and co-founder of the London Marathon.

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28/02/2002

Mary Stuart, American actress and singer (born 1926)

Mary Stuart was an American actress, guitarist, singer, and songwriter.

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Helmut Zacharias, German violinist and composer (born 1920)

Helmut Zacharias was a German violinist and composer who created over 400 works and sold 14 million records. He also appeared in a number of films, usually playing musicians.

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28/02/1998

Arkady Shevchenko, Ukrainian diplomat (born 1930)

Arkady Nikolayevich Shevchenko was a Soviet diplomat who was the highest-ranking Soviet official to defect to the West.

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28/02/1993

Ruby Keeler, Canadian-American actress and dancer (born 1909)

Ethel Ruby Keeler was a Canadian and American actress, dancer, and singer who was paired on-screen with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Bros., particularly 42nd Street (1933). From 1928 to 1940, she was married to actor and singer Al Jolson. She retired from show business in the 1940s, but made a widely publicized comeback on Broadway starring in the revival of the 1920s musical No, No, Nanette in 1971.

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28/02/1978

Zara Cully, American actress (born 1892)

Zara Frances Cully was an American actress. Cully was best known for her role as Olivia "Mother Jefferson" Jefferson in the CBS sitcoms All in the Family and The Jeffersons. In the latter, she portrayed the character of George Jefferson's mother from 1975 until her death in 1978.

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28/02/1977

Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, American actor and comedian (born 1905)

Edmund Lincoln Anderson was an American actor and comedian. To a generation of early radio and television comedy audiences, he was known as "Rochester".

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28/02/1975

Neville Cardus, English cricket and music writer (born 1888)

Sir John Frederick Neville Cardus, CBE was an English writer and critic. From an impoverished home background, and mainly self-educated, he became The Manchester Guardian's cricket correspondent in 1919 and its chief music critic in 1927, holding the two posts simultaneously until 1940. His contributions to these two distinct fields in the years before the Second World War established his reputation as one of the foremost critics of his generation.

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28/02/1966

Charles Bassett, American captain, engineer, and astronaut (born 1931)

Charles Arthur Bassett II was an American electrical engineer and United States Air Force test pilot and astronaut. He went to Ohio State University for two years and later graduated from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. He joined the Air Force as a pilot and graduated from both the Air Force's Experimental Flight Test Pilot School and the Aerospace Research Pilot School. Bassett was married and had two children.

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Elliot See, American commander, engineer, and astronaut (born 1927)

Elliot McKay See Jr. was an American engineer, naval aviator, test pilot and NASA astronaut.

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28/02/1955

Isak Penttala, Finnish politician (born 1883)

Isak Penttala was a Finnish newspaper editor, politician and member of the Parliament of Finland, the national legislature of Finland. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he represented Vaasa Province South between March 1927 and July 1951. Prior to being elected, he was imprisoned for political reasons during and following the Finnish Civil War.

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28/02/1936

Charles Nicolle, French biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1866)

Charles Jules Henri Nicolle was a French bacteriologist who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his identification of lice as the transmitter of epidemic typhus.

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28/02/1932

Guillaume Bigourdan, French astronomer and academic (born 1851)

Camille Guillaume Bigourdan was a French astronomer.

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28/02/1929

Clemens von Pirquet, Austrian physician and immunologist (born 1874)

Clemens Peter Freiherr von Pirquet was an Austrian scientist and pediatrician best known for his contributions to the fields of bacteriology and immunology.

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28/02/1882

Adolf Zytogorski, Polish-British chess master and translator (born c. 1811/1812)

Adolf Żytogórski was a Polish-British chess master and translator.

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28/02/1857

André Dumont, Belgian geologist and academic (born 1809)

André Hubert Dumont was a Belgian geologist.

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28/02/1740

Pietro Ottoboni, Italian cardinal and patron of the arts (born 1667)

Pietro Ottoboni was an Italian cardinal and grandnephew of Pope Alexander VIII, who was also born Pietro Ottoboni. He is remembered especially as a great patron of music and art. Ottoboni was the last person to hold the curial office of cardinal-nephew, which was abolished by Alexander's successor, Pope Innocent XII, in 1692. Ottoboni '"loved pomp, prodigality, and sensual pleasure, but was in the same time kind, ready to serve, and charitable."

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28/02/1729

Lovro Šitović, Croatian Franciscan and grammarian (born c. 1682)

Lovro Šitović was a Croatian Franciscan friar, grammarian, preacher, and Baroque writer whose works significantly influenced Croatian literature and education in the early 18th century. Born Hasan Šitović in Ljubuški, Ottoman Bosnia and Herzegovina, to a Muslim family, he was kidnapped as a child during the Morean War by Catholic hajduks from Venetian Dalmatia. This exposed him to Catholicism, and in 1699, he converted, taking the name Stipan upon his baptism. He joined the Franciscans in 1701, adopting the religious name Lovro, and began a career that blended scholarly pursuits with pastoral service.

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28/02/1648

Christian IV, King of Denmark (born 1577)

Christian IV was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years and 330 days makes him the longest-reigning monarch in Scandinavian history.

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28/02/1621

Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (born 1590)

Cosimo II de' Medici was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1609 until his death. He was the elder son of Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Christina of Lorraine.

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28/02/0628

Khosrow II, Shah of Iran, Sasanian Empire (born c. 570)

Khosrow II, commonly known as Khosrow Parviz, is considered to be the last great emperor of pre-Islamic Iran, ruling the Sasanian Empire from 590 to 628, including an interruption of one year.

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