Died on Thursday, 15th January – Famous Deaths

15/01/2025

Paul Danan, English actor and television personality (born 1978)

Paul Louis Danan was an English actor and television personality, known for playing the role of Sol Patrick in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, between 1997 and 2001. In 2005, he appeared as a contestant on the first series of ITV's Celebrity Love Island and returned for the second series in 2006. He was also a housemate on the twentieth series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2017.

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David Lynch, American television and film director, visual artist and musician, complications from emphysema (born 1946)

David Keith Lynch was an American filmmaker, actor, painter, and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, with his films often characterized by a distinctive surrealist sensibility that gave rise to the adjective "Lynchian". In a career spanning more than five decades, he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Honorary Award, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival, a Palme d'Or and Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and a (posthumous) Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and nine Primetime Emmy Awards.

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Melba Montgomery, American country music singer-songwriter (born 1938)

Melba Joyce Montgomery was an American country music singer and songwriter. She was known for a series of duet recordings made with George Jones, Gene Pitney, and Charlie Louvin. She was also a solo artist, having reached the top of the country charts in 1974 with the song, "No Charge". Born in Tennessee but raised in Alabama, Montgomery had a musical upbringing. Along with her two brothers, she placed in a talent contest which brought her to the attention of Roy Acuff. For several years, she toured the country as part of his band until she signed with United Artists Records in 1963.

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Linda Nolan, Irish singer and actress (born 1959)

Linda Mary Hudson was an Irish singer, actress, and television personality.

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15/01/2022

Alexa McDonough, first female politician to lead a major provincial political party in Canada, former leader of the federal New Democratic Party. (born 1944)

Alexa Ann McDonough was a Canadian politician who was the first woman to lead a major, recognized political party in Canada, at any level, when she was the leader of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party (NSNDP) from 1980 to 1994. Subsequently, she served as leader of the federal New Democratic Party (NDP) from 1995 to 2003.

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15/01/2020

Rocky Johnson, Canadian professional wrestler (born 1944)

Rocky Johnson was a Canadian professional wrestler. Among many National Wrestling Alliance titles, he was the first Black NWA Georgia Heavyweight Champion as well as the NWA Television Champion. He won the WWF Tag Team Championship in 1983, along with his partner Tony Atlas, to become the first black tag team champions in WWE history. He was the father of actor and wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and the grandfather of wrestler Simone "Ava" Johnson.

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Lloyd Cowan, British athlete and coach (born 1962)

Lloyd Cowan was a British track and field athlete and coach.

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15/01/2019

Carol Channing, American actress (born 1921)

Carol Elaine Channing was an American actress, comedian, singer and dancer who starred in Broadway and film musicals. Each of her characters typically possessed a fervent expressiveness and an easily identifiable voice.

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Ida Kleijnen, Dutch chef (born 1936)

Ida Kleijnen was a Dutch Michelin-starred chef.

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15/01/2018

Dolores O'Riordan, Irish pop singer (born 1971)

Dolores Mary Eileen O'Riordan was an Irish musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band the Cranberries. O'Riordan was the principal songwriter of the band and also played acoustic and electric guitars. She became one of the most recognisable voices in alternative rock and was known for her lilting mezzo-soprano voice, signature yodel, use of keening, and strong Limerick accent.

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15/01/2017

Jimmy Snuka, Fijian professional wrestler (born 1943)

James Reiher Snuka was a Fijian and American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka.

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15/01/2016

Francisco X. Alarcón, American poet and educator (born 1954)

Francisco Xavier Alarcón was an American Chicano poet and educator. He was one of the few Chicano poets to have "gained recognition while writing mostly in Spanish" within the United States. His poems have been also translated into Irish and Swedish. He made many guest appearances at public schools so that he could help inspire and influence young people to write their own poetry especially because he felt that children are "natural poets."

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Ken Judge, Australian footballer and coach (born 1958)

Ken Judge was an Australian rules footballer and coach.

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Manuel Velázquez, Spanish footballer (born 1943)

Manuel Velázquez Villaverde was a Spanish footballer who played as a central midfielder.

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15/01/2015

Ervin Drake, American songwriter and composer (born 1919)

Ervin Drake was an American songwriter whose works include such American Songbook standards as "I Believe" and "It Was a Very Good Year". He wrote in a variety of styles and his work has been recorded by musicians around the world. In 1983, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

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Kim Fowley, American singer-songwriter, producer, and manager (born 1939)

Kim Vincent Fowley was an American record producer, songwriter, and musician who was behind a string of novelty and cult pop rock singles in the 1960s, and managed the Runaways in the 1970s. He has been described as "one of the most colorful characters in the annals of rock & roll", as well as "a shadowy cult figure well outside the margins of the mainstream".

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Ray Nagel, American football player and coach (born 1927)

Raymond Robert Nagel was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He was the head football coach at the University of Utah from 1958 to 1965 and the University of Iowa from 1966 to 1970, compiling a career college football coaching record of 58–71–3 (.455). After coaching, Nagel was the athletic director at Washington State University from 1971 to 1976 and the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 1976 to 1983. From 1990 to 1995, he was the executive director of the Hula Bowl, a college football invitational all-star game in Hawaii.

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15/01/2014

Curtis Bray, American football player and coach (born 1970)

Curtis Sidney Bray was an American football coach. He was a coach for Duquesne University, Western Kentucky University, Villanova University, the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University and Iowa State University.

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John Dobson, Chinese-American astronomer and author (born 1915)

John Lowry Dobson was an American amateur astronomer and is best known for the Dobsonian telescope, a portable, low-cost Newtonian reflector telescope. He was also known for his efforts to promote awareness of astronomy through public lectures including his performances of "sidewalk astronomy". Dobson was also the co-founder of the amateur astronomical group, the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers.

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Roger Lloyd-Pack, English actor (born 1944)

Roger Anthony Lloyd Pack was a British actor. He is best known for playing Trigger in Only Fools and Horses from 1981 to 2003, and Owen Newitt in The Vicar of Dibley from 1994 to 2007. He later starred as Tom in The Old Guys with Clive Swift. He is also well known for the role of Bartemius Crouch in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and for his appearances in Doctor Who as John Lumic in the episodes "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel".

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15/01/2013

Nagisa Oshima, Japanese director and screenwriter (born 1932)

Nagisa Ōshima was a Japanese film director, writer, and left-wing activist who is best known for his fiction films, of which he directed 23 features in a career spanning from 1959 to 1999. He is regarded as one of the greatest Japanese directors of all time, and as one of the most important figures of the Japanese New Wave, alongside Shōhei Imamura. His film style was bold, innovative and provocative. Common themes in his work include youthful rebellion, class and racial discrimination and taboo sexuality.

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John Thomas, American high jumper (born 1941)

John Curtis Thomas was an American track and field athlete who set several world records in the high jump using the straddle technique. As a youth, he earned the Eagle Scout award. At the age of 17, while a freshman at Boston University, Thomas became the first man to clear 7 feet (2.1 m) indoors. He subsequently pushed the world indoor record to 7 ft 1+1⁄2 in (2.172 m), and broke the world outdoor record three times, with a career best jump of 7 ft 3+3⁄4 in (2.229 m) in 1960, at the age of 19.

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15/01/2012

Ed Derwinski, American soldier and politician, first United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs (born 1926)

Edward Joseph Derwinski was an American politician who served as the first Cabinet-level United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs, serving under President George H. W. Bush from March 15, 1989 to September 26, 1992. He previously served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1959 to 1983, representing south and southwest suburbs of Chicago.

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Manuel Fraga Iribarne, Spanish lawyer and politician, third President of the Xunta of Galicia (born 1922)

Manuel Fraga Iribarne was a Spanish professor and politician during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, and one of the founders of the People's Alliance. Fraga was the Minister of Information and Tourism between 1962 and 1969, Ambassador to the United Kingdom between 1973 and 1975, Minister of the Interior in 1975, Second Deputy Prime Minister between 1975 and 1976.

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Carlo Fruttero, Italian journalist and author (born 1926)

Carlo Fruttero was an Italian writer, journalist, translator and editor of anthologies.

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Samuel Jaskilka, American general (born 1919)

Samuel Jaskilka was a U.S. Marine four-star general whose last assignment was Assistant Commandant of the United States Marine Corps (1975–1978). General Jaskilka was a highly decorated veteran of the Korean War, having led the landing at Inchon as a company commander with the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1978 after 36 years of service.

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Ib Spang Olsen, Danish author and illustrator (born 1921)

Ib Spang Olsen was a Danish writer and illustrator best known to generations of Danes for cartoons and illustrations, many of which appeared in children's publications. Those include a series of nursery rhyme books written by Halfdan Rasmussen, including "Halfdans ABC".

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Hulett C. Smith, American lieutenant and politician, 27th Governor of West Virginia (born 1918)

Hulett Carlson Smith was an American politician who served as the 27th governor of West Virginia from 1965 to 1969.

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15/01/2011

Nat Lofthouse, English footballer and manager (born 1925)

Nathaniel Lofthouse was an English professional footballer who played as a forward for Bolton Wanderers for his entire career. He won 33 caps for England between 1950 and 1958, scoring 30 goals, with one of the highest goals-per-game ratios of any England player.

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Pierre Louis-Dreyfus, French soldier, race car driver, and businessman (born 1908)

Pierre Louis-Dreyfus was a French Resistance fighter during World War II who later was CEO of the Louis Dreyfus Cie.

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Susannah York, English actress and activist (born 1939)

Susannah Yolande Fletcher, known professionally as Susannah York, was an English actress. Her appearances in various films of the 1960s, including Tom Jones (1963) and They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), formed the basis of her international reputation. An obituary in The Telegraph characterised her as "the blue-eyed English rose with the china-white skin and cupid lips who epitomised the sensuality of the swinging sixties", who later "proved that she was a real actor of extraordinary emotional range."

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15/01/2009

Lincoln Verduga Loor, Ecuadorian journalist and politician (born 1917)

Lincoln Savonarola Verduga Loor was an Ecuadorian journalist and politician known for a long career in public service in his country.

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15/01/2008

Robert V. Bruce, American historian, author, and academic (born 1923)

Robert Vance Bruce was an American historian specializing in the American Civil War, who won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book The Launching of Modern American Science, 1846–1876 (1987). After serving in the Army during World War II, Bruce graduated from the University of New Hampshire, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. He received his Master of Arts in history and his Doctor of Philosophy from Boston University, where he was later a professor. He also taught at the University of Bridgeport, Lawrence Academy at Groton, and the University of Wisconsin. Bruce was also a lecturer at the Fortenbaugh Lecture at Gettysburg College.

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Brad Renfro, American actor (born 1982)

Brad Barron Renfro was an American actor. He made his film debut at age 11 with a starring role in The Client (1994). Renfro went on to appear in 21 feature films, winning several awards.

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15/01/2007

Awad Hamed al-Bandar, Iraqi lawyer and judge (born 1945)

Awad Hamad al-Bandar (Arabic: عواد حمد البندر السعدون, romanized: ʿAwād Ḥamad al-Bandar al-Saʿdūn; was an Iraqi chief judge under Saddam Hussein's presidency. He was a member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and was the head of the Revolutionary Court which issued death sentences against 143 Dujail residents, in the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt on the president on 8 July 1982.

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Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Iraqi intelligence officer (born 1951)

Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, also known as Barzan Hassan, was an Iraqi politician, diplomat and intelligence officer. He was one of three half-brothers of Saddam Hussein and served as the leader of the Iraqi Intelligence Service (Mukhabarat).

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James Hillier, Canadian-American computer scientist and academic, co-invented the electron microscope (born 1915)

James Hillier, was a Canadian-American scientist and inventor who designed and built, with Albert Prebus, the first successful high-resolution electron microscope in North America in 1938.

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Pura Santillan-Castrence, Filipino educator and diplomat (born 1905)

Pura Santillan-Castrence was a Filipino writer and diplomat. Of Filipino women writers, she was among the first to gain prominence writing in the English language. She was named a Chevalier de Légion d'honneur by the French government.

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Bo Yibo, Chinese commander and politician, Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China (born 1908)

Bo Yibo (Chinese: 薄一波; pinyin: Bó Yībō; Wade–Giles: Po2 I1-po1; 17 February 1908 – 15 January 2007) was one of the most senior political figures in China during the 1980s and 1990s.

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15/01/2006

Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti ruler (born 1926)

Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, also known as Jaber III, was the Emir of Kuwait from 31 December 1977 until his death in 2006. The 13th ruler in his family's dynasty, Jaber's reign oversaw the transition of a relatively traditional society into a modernized state. He also led Kuwait through the Gulf War, defeating Ba'athist Iraq and Saddam Hussein with the support of the United States.

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15/01/2005

Victoria de los Ángeles, Spanish soprano and actress (born 1923)

Victoria de los Ángeles López García was a Spanish operatic lyric soprano and recitalist whose career began after the Second World War and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s.

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Walter Ernsting, German author (born 1920)

Walter Ernsting was a German science fiction and fantasy author who mainly published under the pseudonym Clark Darlton. He grew up in Koblenz and was drafted into the German Wehrmacht shortly after the beginning of World War II. He served in an intelligence unit in Norway and on the Eastern Front, where he was captured and spent several years as a prisoner of war in Siberia.

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Elizabeth Janeway, American author and critic (born 1913)

Elizabeth Janeway was an American author and critic.

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Ruth Warrick, American actress (born 1916)

Ruth Elizabeth Warrick was an American singer, actress and political activist, best known for her role as Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on All My Children, which she played regularly from 1970 until her death in 2005. She made her film debut in Citizen Kane, and years later celebrated her 80th birthday by attending a special screening of the film.

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15/01/2004

Olivia Goldsmith, American author (born 1949)

Olivia Goldsmith was an American author, known for her first novel The First Wives Club (1992), which was adapted into the 1996 film of the same name.

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15/01/2003

Doris Fisher, American singer-songwriter (born 1915)

Doris Fisher was an American singer and songwriter, collaborating both as lyricist and composer. She co-wrote many popular songs in the 1940s, including "Whispering Grass", "You Always Hurt the One You Love", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", "That Ole Devil Called Love", and "Put the Blame on Mame." Her songs were recorded by the Ink Spots, Louis Prima, Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, Pearl Bailey, the Mills Brothers and Ella Fitzgerald amongst others.

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15/01/2002

Michael Anthony Bilandic, American politician, 49th Mayor of Chicago (born 1923)

Michael Anthony Bilandic was an American Democratic politician, judge, and attorney who served as the 49th mayor of Chicago from 1976 to 1979, after the death of his predecessor, Richard J. Daley. Bilandic practiced law in Chicago for several years, having graduated from the DePaul University College of Law. Bilandic served as an alderman in Chicago City Council, representing the eleventh ward on the south-west side from June 1969 until he began his tenure as mayor in December 1976. After his mayoralty, Bilandic served on the Illinois Appellate Court from 1984 until being elected to the Illinois Supreme Court in 1990. He served on the state supreme court until 2000, and was the court’s chief Justice from 1994 to 1997.

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Eugène Brands, Dutch painter (born 1913)

Eugène Brands was a Dutch painter, an early member of the COBRA avant-garde art movement.

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Jeanne Voltz, American food journalist and cookbook writer (born 1920)

Jeanne Voltz was an American food journalist, editor, and cookbook author. She was food editor for the Miami Herald and the Los Angeles Times, two of the most influential food sections in the country during her tenure in the 1950s and 1960s. She won three James Beard awards for her cookbooks.

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15/01/2001

Leo Marks, English cryptographer, playwright, and screenwriter (born 1920)

Leopold Samuel Marks, was an English writer, screenwriter, and cryptographer. During the Second World War he headed the codes office supporting resistance agents in occupied Europe for the secret Special Operations Executive organisation. After the war, Marks became a playwright and screenwriter, writing scripts that frequently utilised his war-time cryptographic experiences. He wrote the script for Peeping Tom, the controversial film directed by Michael Powell that had a disastrous effect on Powell's career, but was later described by Martin Scorsese as a masterpiece. In 1998, towards the end of his life, Marks published a personal history of his experiences during the war, Between Silk and Cyanide, which was critical of the leadership of SOE.

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15/01/2000

Georges-Henri Lévesque, Canadian-Dominican priest and sociologist (born 1903)

Georges-Henri Lévesque was a Canadian Dominican priest and sociologist and a liberal figure during the conservative Duplessis era in Quebec.

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15/01/1999

Betty Box, English film producer (born 1915)

Betty Evelyn Box was a British film producer, usually credited as Betty E. Box.

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15/01/1998

Gulzarilal Nanda, Indian economist and politician, Prime Minister of India (born 1898)

Gulzarilal Nanda was an Indian politician and economist who specialised in labour issues. He served as the acting Prime Minister of India for two 13-day tenures following the deaths of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964 and Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966 respectively. Both his terms ended after the ruling Indian National Congress's parliamentary party elected a new prime minister. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, in 1997.

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Junior Wells, American singer-songwriter and harmonica player (born 1934)

Junior Wells was an American singer, harmonica player, and recording artist. He is best known for his signature song "Messin' with the Kid" and his 1965 album Hoodoo Man Blues, described by the critic Bill Dahl as "one of the truly classic blues albums of the 1960s". Wells himself categorized his music as rhythm and blues.

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15/01/1996

Les Baxter, American pianist and composer (born 1922)

Leslie Thompson Baxter was an American composer, conductor, and musician. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica, and scored over 250 radio, television and motion pictures numbers.

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Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho (born 1938)

Moshoeshoe II, previously known as Constantine Bereng Seeiso, was the Paramount Chief of Basutoland, succeeding paramount chief Seeiso from 1960 until the country gained full independence from Britain in 1966. He was King of Lesotho from 1966 until his exile in 1990, and from 1995 until his death in 1996.

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15/01/1994

Georges Cziffra, Hungarian-French pianist and composer (born 1921)

Christian Georges Cziffra was a Hungarian-French virtuoso pianist and composer. He is considered to be one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of the twentieth century. Among his teachers was Ernő Dohnányi, a pupil of István Thoman, who was a favourite pupil of Franz Liszt.

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Harry Nilsson, American singer-songwriter (born 1941)

Harry Edward Nilsson III, sometimes credited as Nilsson, was an American singer-songwriter who reached the peak of his success in the early 1970s. His work is characterized by pioneering vocal overdub experiments, a return to the Great American Songbook, and fusions of Caribbean sounds. Nilsson was one of the few major pop-rock recording artists to achieve significant commercial success without performing major public concerts or touring regularly.

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Harilal Upadhyay, Indian author, poet, and astrologist (born 1916)

Harilal Upadhyay was a Gujarati novelist and poet. He wrote more than 100 books.

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15/01/1993

Sammy Cahn, American songwriter (born 1913)

Samuel Cohen, known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles area. He and his collaborators had a series of hit recordings with Frank Sinatra during the singer's tenure at Capitol Records, but also enjoyed hits with Dean Martin, Doris Day and many others. He played the piano and violin, and won an Oscar four times for his songs, including the popular hit "Three Coins in the Fountain".

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15/01/1990

Gordon Jackson, Scottish-English actor (born 1923)

Gordon Cameron Jackson was a Scottish actor. He is best remembered for his roles as the butler Angus Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs and as George Cowley, the head of CI5, in The Professionals. He also portrayed Capt Jimmy Cairns in Tunes of Glory, and Flt. Lt. Andrew MacDonald, "Intelligence", in The Great Escape.

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Peggy van Praagh, English ballerina, choreographer, and director (born 1910)

Dame Margaret van Praagh was a British ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher, repetiteur, producer, advocate and director, who spent much of her later career in Australia.

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15/01/1988

Seán MacBride, Irish republican activist and politician, Minister for External Affairs, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1904)

Seán MacBride was an Irish Republican activist, politician, and diplomat who served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951, Leader of Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965 and Chief of Staff of the IRA from 1936 to 1937. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1947 to 1957.

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15/01/1987

Ray Bolger, American actor, singer, and dancer (born 1904)

Raymond Wallace Bolger was an American actor, dancer, singer, vaudevillian, and stage performer who started his movie career in the silent-film era. Bolger was a major Broadway performer in the 1930s and beyond. He is best known for his roles in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie The Wizard of Oz (1939) as Hunk and the Scarecrow and in Walt Disney's holiday musical fantasy Babes in Toyland in 1961 as the villainous Barnaby.

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15/01/1984

Fazıl Küçük, Cypriot journalist and politician (born 1906)

Fazıl Küçük was a Turkish Cypriot politician and a medical doctor who served as the first Vice President of the Republic of Cyprus.

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15/01/1983

Armin Öpik, Estonian-Australian paleontologist and geologist (born 1898)

Armin Aleksander Öpik was an Estonian paleontologist who spent the second half of his career at the Bureau of Mineral Resources in Australia.

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Shepperd Strudwick, American actor (born 1907)

Shepperd Strudwick was an American actor of film, television, and stage. He was also billed as John Shepperd for some of his films and for his acting on stage in New York.

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15/01/1982

Red Smith, American journalist (born 1905)

Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith was an American sportswriter. Smith’s journalistic career spanned over five decades and his work influenced an entire generation of writers. In 1976, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Author David Halberstam called Smith "the greatest sportswriter of two eras."

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15/01/1981

Graham Whitehead, English race car driver (born 1922)

Alfred Graham Whitehead was a British racing driver from England. He participated in one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, on 19 July 1952. He finished 12th, scoring no championship points. He also competed in several non-Championship Formula One races. He began racing his half-brother Peter's ERA, in 1951 and then drove his Formula Two Alta in the 1952 British Grand Prix. He finished second at 1958 24 Hours of Le Mans only weeks before the accident on the Tour de France in which Peter was killed. Graham escaped serious injury and later raced again with an Aston Martin and Ferrari 250GT before stopping at the end of 1961.

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15/01/1974

Harold D. Cooley, American lawyer and politician (born 1897)

Harold Dunbar Cooley was an American politician of the Democratic Party. He represented the Fourth Congressional district of North Carolina from 1934 to 1966.

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15/01/1973

Coleman Francis, American actor, director, and producer (born 1919)

Coleman Chambers Francis was an American actor, writer, producer and director. He was best known for his film trilogy consisting of The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961), The Skydivers (1963) and Red Zone Cuba (1966), all three of which were filmed in the general vicinity of Santa Clarita, California.

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Ivan Petrovsky, Russian mathematician and academic (born 1901)

Ivan Georgiyevich Petrovsky was a Soviet mathematician working mainly in the field of partial differential equations. He greatly contributed to the solution of Hilbert's 19th and 16th problems, and discovered what are now called Petrovsky lacunas. He also worked on the theories of boundary value problems, probability, and on the topology of algebraic curves and surfaces.

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15/01/1972

Daisy Ashford, English author (born 1881)

Margaret Mary Julia Devlin, known as Daisy Ashford, was an English writer who is most famous for writing The Young Visiters, a novella concerning the upper class society of late 19th century England, when she was nine years old. The novella was published in 1919, preserving her juvenile spelling and punctuation. She wrote the title as "Viseters" in her manuscript, but it was published as "Visiters".

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15/01/1970

Frank Clement, English race car driver (born 1886)

Frank Charles Clement was a British racing driver who, along with Canadian John Duff, won the 1924 24 Hours of Le Mans.

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William T. Piper, American engineer and businessman, founded Piper Aircraft (born 1881)

William Thomas Piper Sr. was an American aviation and oil industry businessman. He was the founding president of the Piper Aircraft Corporation and led the company from 1929 until his death in 1970. He graduated from Harvard University in 1903 and later became known as "the Henry Ford of aviation".

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15/01/1968

Bill Masterton, Canadian-American ice hockey player (born 1938)

William John Masterton was a Canadian–American professional ice hockey player who was a centre in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Minnesota North Stars in 1967–68. He is the only player in NHL history to die as a direct result of injuries suffered during a game: massive head trauma following a hit during a January 13, 1968, contest against the Oakland Seals.

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15/01/1967

David Burliuk, Ukrainian author and illustrator (born 1882)

David Davidovich Burliuk was a Ukrainian poet, artist and publicist associated with the Futurist and Neo-Primitivist movements. Burliuk has been described as "the father of Russian Futurism."

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15/01/1964

Jack Teagarden, American singer-songwriter and trombonist (born 1905)

Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden was an American jazz trombonist and singer. He led both of his bands himself and was a sideman for Paul Whiteman's orchestra. From 1946 to 1951, he played in Louis Armstrong's All-Stars.

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15/01/1962

Yos Sudarso, Indonesian naval officer (born 1925)

Yosaphat "Yos" Sudarso was an Indonesian naval officer killed at the Battle of Arafura Sea. At the time of his death, Yos Sudarso was deputy chief of staff of the Indonesian Navy and in charge of an action to infiltrate Dutch New Guinea. He was promoted to vice admiral posthumously.

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15/01/1959

Regina Margareten, Hungarian businesswoman (born 1863)

Regina Margareten was a Hungarian-American entrepreneur, who became known as the "Matzoh Queen" of New York City. She immigrated to the United States in 1883, where the family set up a business which grew into kosher food manufacturers Horowitz Brothers and Margareten Company. She was profiled several times by The New York Times, and continued to attend to the business until two weeks prior to her death.

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15/01/1955

Yves Tanguy, French-American painter (born 1900)

Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy, known as just Yves Tanguy, was a French Surrealist painter, known for his abstract landscapes.

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15/01/1952

Ned Hanlon, Australian sergeant and politician, 26th Premier of Queensland (born 1887)

Edward Michael Hanlon was an Australian politician and soldier, who was Premier of Queensland from 1946 until his death in 1952.

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15/01/1951

Ernest Swinton, British Army officer (born 1868)

Major General Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton, was a British Army officer who played a part in the development and adoption of the tank during the First World War. He was also a war correspondent and author of several short stories on military themes. He is credited, along with fellow officer Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Dally Jones, with having initiated the use of the word "tank" as a code-name for the first British, tracked, armoured fighting vehicles.

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Nikolai Vekšin, Estonian-Russian captain and sailor (born 1887)

Nikolai Vekšin was a Russian and Estonian sailor and helmsman of the bronze-medallist Estonian team at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games.

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15/01/1950

Henry H. Arnold, American general (born 1886)

Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold was an American general officer holding the ranks of General of the Army and later, General of the Air Force. Arnold was an aviation pioneer, Chief of the Air Corps (1938–1941), commanding general of the United States Army Air Forces, the only United States Air Force general to hold five-star rank, and the only officer to hold a five-star rank in two different U.S. military services. Arnold was also the founder of Project RAND, which evolved into one of the world's largest non-profit global policy think tanks, the RAND Corporation, and was one of the founders of Pan American World Airways.

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15/01/1948

Josephus Daniels, American publisher and diplomat, 41st United States Secretary of the Navy (born 1862)

Josephus Daniels was a newspaper editor, Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson, and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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15/01/1945

Wilhelm Wirtinger, Austrian-German mathematician and theorist (born 1865)

Wilhelm Wirtinger was an Austrian mathematician, working in complex analysis, geometry, algebra, number theory, Lie groups, and knot theory.

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15/01/1939

Kullervo Manner, Finnish Speaker of the Parliament, the Prime Minister of the FSWR and the Supreme Commander of the Red Guards (born 1880)

Kullervo Achilles Manner was a Finnish and Soviet politician. He was one of the leaders of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic.

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15/01/1937

Anton Holban, Romanian author, theoretician, and educator (born 1902)

Anton Holban was a Romanian novelist. He was the nephew of Eugen Lovinescu.

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15/01/1936

Henry Forster, 1st Baron Forster, English cricketer and politician, seventh Governor-General of Australia (born 1866)

Henry William Forster, 1st Baron Forster, was a British politician and first-class cricketer who served as the seventh Governor-General of Australia from 1920 to 1925. He was previously a government minister under Arthur Balfour, Herbert Asquith, and David Lloyd George.

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15/01/1929

George Cope, American painter (born 1855)

George Cope was an American painter who specialized in landscapes and still lifes. His works are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brandywine River Museum of Art.

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15/01/1926

Enrico Toselli, Italian pianist and composer (born 1883)

Enrico Toselli, Count of Montignoso, was an Italian pianist and composer. Born in Florence, he studied piano with Giovanni Sgambati and composition with Giuseppe Martucci and Reginaldo Grazzini. He embarked on a career as a concert pianist, playing in Italy, European capital cities, Alexandria and North America.

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15/01/1919

Karl Liebknecht, German politician (born 1871)

Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht was a German socialist politician and revolutionary. A leader of the far-left wing of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Liebknecht was a co-founder of both the Spartacus League and Communist Party of Germany (KPD) along with Rosa Luxemburg.

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Rosa Luxemburg, German economist, theorist, and philosopher (born 1871)

Rosa Luxemburg was a Polish and naturalised-German Marxist theorist and revolutionary. She was a leading theorist of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and later co-founded the anti-war Spartacus League, which evolved into the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). An influential member of the international socialist movement, she is remembered for her writings on imperialism and revolution, and as a champion of socialist democracy who famously stated, "Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently."

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15/01/1916

Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian playwright and translator (born 1850)

Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian dramatist, opera librettist and translator.

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15/01/1909

Arnold Janssen, German priest and missionary (born 1837)

Arnold Janssen, was a German-Dutch Catholic priest and missionary who is venerated as a saint. He founded the Society of the Divine Word, a Catholic missionary religious congregation, also known as the Divine Word Missionaries, as well as two congregations for women. In 1889 he founded in Steyl, Netherlands, the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit and in 1896 at the same place the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters. He was canonized on 5 October 2003, by Pope John Paul II.

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15/01/1905

George Thorn, Australian politician, sixth Premier of Queensland (born 1838)

George Henry Thorn (junior) was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly and a Premier of Queensland, Australia.

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15/01/1896

Mathew Brady, American photographer and journalist (born 1822)

Mathew B. Brady was an American photographer. Known as one of the earliest and most famous photographers in American history, he is best known for his scenes of the American Civil War. He studied under inventor Samuel Morse, who pioneered the daguerreotype technique in America. Brady opened his own studio in New York City in 1844, and went on to photograph U.S. presidents John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Millard Fillmore, Martin Van Buren, and other public figures.

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15/01/1893

Fanny Kemble, English actress (born 1809)

Frances Anne Kemble was an English actress from a theatre family in the early and mid-nineteenth century. She was a well-known and popular writer and abolitionist whose published works included plays, poetry, eleven volumes of memoirs, travel writing, and works about the theatre. She lived for many years in the United States, primarily in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Lenox, Massachusetts.

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15/01/1880

Carl Georg von Wächter, German jurist (born 1797)

Carl Joseph Georg Sigismund Wächter, from 1835 von Wächter, was a leading German jurist in the 19th century. For a brief period he served as president of the Oberappellationsgericht der vier Freien Städte.

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15/01/1876

Eliza McCardle Johnson, American wife of Andrew Johnson, 18th First Lady of the United States (born 1810)

Eliza McCardle Johnson was the first lady of the United States from 1865 to 1869 as the wife of President Andrew Johnson. She also served as the second lady of the United States from March until April 1865 when her husband was vice president. Johnson was relatively inactive as first lady, and she stayed out of public attention for the duration of her husband's presidency. She was the youngest first lady to wed, doing so at the age of 16.

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15/01/1866

Massimo d'Azeglio, Piedmontese-Italian statesman, novelist and painter (born 1798)

Massimo Taparelli, Marquess of Azeglio, commonly called Massimo d'Azeglio, was a Piedmontese-Italian statesman, novelist, and painter. He was Prime Minister of Sardinia for almost three years until succeeded by his rival Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour. A moderate liberal and member of the Moderate Party associated with the Historical Right, d'Azeglio hoped for a federal union between Italian states.

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15/01/1864

Isaac Nathan, English-Australian composer and journalist (born 1792)

Isaac Nathan was a Jewish, English composer, musicologist, journalist and self-publicist, who has been called the "father of Australian music", having assisted the careers of numerous colonial musicians during his twenty year residence in Australia. He is best known for the success of his Hebrew Melodies (1815–1840) in London. However, he made significant contributions as a singing teacher and music historian and as a composer of opera in the Royal Theatres (1823–1833). After emigrating to Australia in 1840, Nathan wrote Australia's first operas and Australia's first contemporary song cycle which entangled fragments of Aboriginal songlines with European musical traditions. Nathan tailored compositions to the unique individual singing needs of his students and community choirs while using the Neapolitan bel canto pedagogical tradition that he inherited in London. Nathan's students include Dame Marie Carandini.

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15/01/1855

Henri Braconnot, French chemist and pharmacist (born 1780)

Henri Braconnot was a French chemist and pharmacist.

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15/01/1854

Jiang Zhongyuan, Chinese scholar and soldier (born 1812)

Jiang Zhongyuan, courtesy name Changrui, (常孺) was a scholar and soldier from Hunan who fought for the Qing and against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom during the Taiping Rebellion.

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15/01/1815

Emma, Lady Hamilton, English-French mistress of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (born 1761)

Emma, Lady Hamilton, was an English model, dancer and actress. She began her career in London's demi-monde, becoming the mistress of a series of wealthy men, culminating in the naval hero Lord Nelson, and was the favourite model and muse of the portraitist George Romney.

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15/01/1813

Anton Bernolák, Slovak linguist and priest (born 1762)

Anton Bernolák was a Slovak linguist and Catholic priest, and the author of the first Slovak language standard.

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15/01/1804

Dru Drury, English entomologist and author (born 1725)

Dru Drury was a British collector of natural history specimens and an entomologist. He received specimens collected from across the world through a network of ship's officers and collectors including Henry Smeathman. His collections were utilized by many entomologists of his time to describe and name new species and he is best known for his book Illustrations of Natural History which includes the names and descriptions of many insects, published in parts from 1770 to 1782 with most of the copperplate engravings done by Moses Harris.

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15/01/1790

John Landen, English mathematician and theorist (born 1719)

John Landen was an English mathematician.

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15/01/1783

Lord Stirling, American Revolutionary War Major General (born 1726)

Major General William Alexander, also known as Lord Stirling was a Continental Army officer who served in the American Revolutionary War. He held a claim to be the male heir to the Scottish title of Earl of Stirling through Scottish lineage, and he sought the title sometime after 1756. His claim was initially granted by a Scottish court in 1759; however, the House of Lords ultimately overruled the court and denied the title in 1762. He continued to hold himself out as "Lord Stirling" regardless.

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15/01/1775

Giovanni Battista Sammartini, Italian organist and composer (born 1700)

Giovanni Battista Sammartini was an Italian composer, violinist, organist, choirmaster and teacher. He counted Gluck among his students, and was highly regarded by younger composers including Johann Christian Bach. It has also been noted that many stylizations in Joseph Haydn's compositions are similar to those of Sammartini, although Haydn denied any such influence. Sammartini is especially associated with the formation of the concert symphony through both the shift from a brief opera-overture style and the introduction of a new seriousness and use of thematic development that prefigure Haydn and Mozart. Some of his works are described as galant, a style associated with Enlightenment ideals, while "the prevailing impression left by Sammartini's work... [is that] he contributed greatly to the development of a Classical style that achieved its moment of greatest clarity precisely when his long, active life was approaching its end".

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15/01/1683

Philip Warwick, English politician (born 1609)

Sir Philip Warwick, English writer and politician, born in Westminster, was the son of Thomas Warwick, or Warrick, a musician.

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15/01/1672

John Cosin, English bishop and academic (born 1594)

John Cosin was an English bishop.

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15/01/1623

Paolo Sarpi, Italian lawyer, historian, and scholar (born 1552)

Paolo Sarpi, O.S.M. was an Italian Servite friar and Catholic priest who was a notable historian, scientist, canon lawyer, polymath and statesman active on behalf of the Venetian Republic during the period of its successful defiance of the papal interdict (1605–1607) and its war (1615–1617) with Austria over the Uskok pirates. His writings, frankly polemical and highly critical of the Catholic Church and its Scholastic tradition, "inspired both Hobbes and Edward Gibbon in their own historical debunkings of priestcraft." Sarpi's major work, the History of the Council of Trent (1619), was published in London in 1619; other works: a History of Ecclesiastical Benefices, History of the Interdict and his Supplement to the History of the Uskoks, appeared posthumously. Organized around single topics, they are early examples of the genre of the historical monograph.

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15/01/1584

Martha Leijonhufvud, Swedish noblewoman (born 1520)

Martha Eriksdotter Leijonhufvud, known as Kung Märta, was a politically active Swedish noblewoman. She was the sister of Queen Margaret Leijonhufvud and sister-in-law of King Gustav I of Sweden: she was also the maternal aunt of Queen Catherine Stenbock and the daughter-in-law of the regent Christina Gyllenstierna. In 1568, she financed the deposition of King Eric XIV of Sweden, which placed her nephew John III of Sweden on the throne.

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15/01/1569

Catherine Carey, lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth I of England (born 1524)

Catherine Carey, after her marriage Catherine Knollys and later known as both Lady Knollys and Dame Catherine Knollys, was chief Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth I, who was her first cousin.

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15/01/1568

Nicolaus Olahus, Romanian archbishop (born 1493)

Nicolaus Olahus ; 10 January 1493 – 15 January 1568) was the Archbishop of Esztergom, Primate of Hungary, and a distinguished Catholic prelate, humanist and historiographer.

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15/01/1477

Adriana of Nassau-Siegen, German countess (born 1449)

Countess Adriana of Nassau-Siegen, German: Adriana Gräfin von Nassau-Siegen, official titles: Gräfin zu Nassau, Vianden und Diez, Frau zu Breda, was a countess from the House of Nassau-Siegen, a cadet branch of the Ottonian Line of the House of Nassau, and through marriage Countess of Hanau-Münzenberg.

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15/01/1149

Berengaria of Barcelona, queen consort of Castile (born 1116)

Berengaria of Barcelona, called in Spanish Berenguela de Barcelona and also known as Berengaria of Provence, was Queen consort of Castile, León and Galicia. She was the daughter of Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, and Douce I, Countess of Provence.

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15/01/0950

Wang Jingchong, Chinese general

Wang Jingchong was an official and general of China's Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Shu dynasties during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. During the reign of Emperor Yin of Later Han, Wang Jingchong, fearing defamation by the official Hou Yi (侯益), rebelled against the Later Han dynasty in conjunction with Li Shouzhen and Zhao Siwan (趙思綰), and submitted to the Later Shu dynasty. After repeated defeats, however, he committed suicide.

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15/01/0936

Rudolph of France (born 880)

Rudolph, sometimes called Ralph, was the king of West Francia (France) from 923 until his death in 936. He was elected to succeed his father-in-law, Robert I, and spent much of his reign defending his realm from Viking raids.

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15/01/0849

Theophylact, Byzantine emperor (born 793)

Theophylact or Theophylaktos was the eldest son of the Byzantine emperor Michael I Rangabe and grandson, on his mother's side, of Nikephoros I. He was junior co-emperor alongside his father for the duration of the latter's reign, and was tonsured, castrated, and exiled to Plate Island after his overthrow, under the monastic name Eustratius.

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15/01/0570

Íte of Killeedy, Irish nun and saint (born 475)

Íte ingen Chinn Fhalad, also known as Íde, Ita, Ida or Ides, was an early Irish nun and patron saint of Killeedy. She was known as the "foster mother of the saints of Erin". The name "Ita" was conferred on her because of her saintly qualities. Her feast day is 15 January.

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15/01/0378

Chak Tok Ich'aak I, Mayan ruler

Chak Tok Ichʼaak I also known as Great Paw, Great Jaguar Paw, and Toh Chak Ichʼak was an ajaw of the Maya city of Tikal. He took the throne on 7 August 360 and reigned until his death in 378, apparently at the hands of invaders from central Mexico.

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15/01/0069

Galba, Roman emperor (born 3 BC)

AD 69 (LXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the consulship of Galba and Vinius. The denomination AD 69 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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