Died on Wednesday, 28th January – Famous Deaths

28/01/2026

Ajit Pawar, Indian politician, former Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra (born 1959)

Ajit Anantrao Pawar was an Indian politician who served as Maharashtra's longest-serving deputy chief minister for more than eight years, between 2010 and his death in 2026, for six terms. He held the office under various governments, including the cabinets of Prithviraj Chavan, Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray, and Eknath Shinde.

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28/01/2021

Cicely Tyson, American actress (born 1924)

Cecily Louise "Cicely" Tyson was an American actress. In a career spanning seven decades, she portrayed complex and strong-willed African American women. She received several awards including three Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award. She was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors in 2015, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2018.

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28/01/2019

Pepe Smith, Filipino rock musician (born 1947)

Joseph William Feliciano Smith was a Filipino-American singer-songwriter, drummer and guitarist. Known by his stage names Joey Smith and Pepe Smith, he gained prominence as drummer / lead vocalist of Speed, Glue & Shinki from Japan, and drummer / co-lead vocalist of Juan de la Cruz Band from The Philippines, which became pioneering figures in original Filipino rock music or "Pinoy rock".

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28/01/2017

Alexander Chancellor, British journalist (born 1940)

Alexander Surtees Chancellor, CBE was a British journalist and editor. He was the editor of The Spectator from 1975 to 1984.

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Geoff Nicholls, British musician (born 1948)

Geoffrey James Nicholls was an English guitarist and keyboardist, and longtime member of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath until 2004. Nicholls also played in the NWOBHM band Quartz before joining Black Sabbath. In the 1960s/early 1970s, Geoff played lead guitar/Keyboards for the Birmingham bands The Boll Weevils, The Seed, Johnny Neal and the Starliners, Bandy Legs, Jimmy Helms, Willie Basse and played keyboards for World of Oz.

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28/01/2016

Signe Toly Anderson, American singer (born 1941)

Signe Toly Anderson was an American singer who was one of the founding members of the American rock band Jefferson Airplane.

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Paul Kantner, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1941)

Paul Lorin Kantner was an American rock musician. He is best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and a secondary vocalist of Jefferson Airplane, a leading psychedelic rock band of the counterculture era. He continued these roles as a member of Jefferson Starship, Jefferson Airplane's successor band.

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Franklin Gene Bissell, American football player and coach (born 1926)

Franklin Gene Bissell was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Kansas Wesleyan University from 1952 to 1961 and again from 1963 to 1978, compiling a record of 115–119–7.

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Buddy Cianci, American lawyer and politician, 32nd Mayor of Providence (born 1941)

Vincent Albert "Buddy" Cianci Jr. was an American politician, attorney, radio talk show host, and political commentator who served as the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island from 1975 to 1984 and again from 1991 to 2002. Cianci was the longest-serving mayor of Providence, having held office for over 21 years.

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Bob Tizard, New Zealand lawyer and politician, 6th Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand (born 1924)

Robert James Tizard was a Labour politician from New Zealand. He served as the sixth deputy prime minister, the minister of Finance, minister of Health and minister of Defence.

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28/01/2015

Suraj Abdurrahman, Nigerian general, architect, and engineer (born 1954)

Suraj Alao Abdurrahman, was a Nigerian Army general who served as the Command Officer in Charge of the Armed Forces of Liberia, with former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as the Commander-in-Chief. According to then President Johnson Sirleaf, General Abdurrahman "was an exceedingly exceptional gentleman officer whose contributions lifted the Armed Forces of Liberia to professional greatness and emplace our military amongst UN peacekeepers”.

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Yves Chauvin, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1930)

Yves Chauvin was a French chemist and Nobel Prize laureate. He was honorary research director at the Institut français du pétrole and a member of the French Academy of Sciences. He was known for his work for deciphering the process of olefin metathesis for which he was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Robert H. Grubbs and Richard R. Schrock.

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Lionel Gilbert, Australian historian, author, and academic (born 1924)

Lionel Arthur Gilbert CF was an Australian historian, author, curator, lecturer, and biographer, specializing in applied, natural, and local history. Born in Burwood, New South Wales, he studied at Sydney Teachers College and, beginning in 1946, worked as a teacher and later a headmaster in state schools in various locations around New South Wales until 1961. In 1963 Gilbert graduated from the University of New England with a Bachelor of Arts in History. That same year, he was appointed a lecturer and curator at the Armidale Teachers' College Museum of Education, in which capacity he served until his retirement in 1984, overseeing several expansions of the museum and establishment of a historical research centre.

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28/01/2014

John Cacavas, American composer and conductor (born 1930)

John Harry Cacavas was an American composer and conductor, best known for his television scores. He was the principal composer for Kojak (1973–78), also writing its second main title theme for its 5th and final season.

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Harry Gamble, American football player, coach, and manager (born 1930)

Harry T. Gamble was an American football coach and executive. He was the head coach at the Lafayette College and University of Pennsylvania and general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles.

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Dwight Gustafson, American composer and conductor (born 1930)

Dwight Leonard Gustafson was an American composer, conductor, and dean of the School of Fine Arts at Bob Jones University.

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Nigel Jenkins, Welsh poet, journalist, and geographer (born 1949)

Nigel Jenkins was an Anglo-Welsh poet. He was an editor, journalist, psychogeographer, broadcaster and writer of creative non-fiction, as well as being a lecturer at Swansea University and director of the creative writing programme there.

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Jorge Obeid, Argentinian engineer and politician, Governor of Santa Fe (born 1947)

Jorge Alberto Obeid was an Argentine Justicialist Party (PJ) politician who was twice governor of Santa Fe Province and thrice a member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies.

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28/01/2013

Florentino Fernández, Cuban-American boxer and coach (born 1936)

Florentino "the Ox" Fernández was a Cuban middleweight who fought from 1956 to 1972. His overall record was 50 wins, 16 losses and two draws. In the Cuban community, he was known both as "3 Toneles" and as "El Barbaro del Knock Out."

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Hattie N. Harrison, American educator and politician (born 1928)

Hattie N. Harrison was an American politician who served in the Maryland General Assembly from 1973. Harrison was the chairperson of the Maryland House of Delegates Rules and Executive Nominations Committee, and was the first African-American woman to chair a legislative committee in Maryland.

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Oldřich Kulhánek, Czech painter, illustrator, and stage designer (born 1940)

Oldřich Kulhánek was a Czech painter, graphic designer, illustrator, stage designer and pedagogue. Kulhánek created the design for the current Czech banknotes and postage stamps.

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28/01/2012

Roman Juszkiewicz, Polish astronomer and astrophysicist (born 1952)

Roman Juszkiewicz was a Polish astrophysicist whose work concerned fundamental issues of cosmology.

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Don Starkell, Canadian adventurer and author (born 1932)

Don Starkell was a Canadian adventurer, diarist and author, perhaps best known for his achievements in canoeing, in particular, paddling from Winnipeg to the mouth of the Amazon River and by kayak through the Northwest Passage.

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28/01/2009

Werner Flume, German jurist (born 1908)

Werner Flume was a German jurist and professor of Roman law, private law, tax law and a legal historian. He has significantly influenced the modern development of German private law and has been called a "lawyer of the century" for his contributions.

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Billy Powell, American keyboard player and songwriter (born 1952)

William Norris Powell was an American musician and the keyboardist of southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1972 until his death in 2009.

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28/01/2007

Carlo Clerici, Swiss cyclist (born 1929)

Carlo Clerici was a Swiss professional road bicycle racer.

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Robert Drinan, American priest, lawyer, and politician (born 1920)

Robert Frederick Drinan was an American Jesuit priest, lawyer, activist, and Democratic U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. He left office in 1981 to obey Pope John Paul II's prohibition on priests holding political office. Drinan was later a professor at Georgetown University Law Center for the last 26 years of his life.

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Yelena Romanova, Russian runner (born 1963)

Yelena Nikolaevna Romanova was a Russian distance runner. She won an Olympic gold medal in women's 3000 metres in 1992.

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Karel Svoboda, Czech composer (born 1938)

Karel Svoboda was a Czech composer of popular music. He wrote music for many TV series in the 1970s.

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28/01/2005

Jim Capaldi, English singer-songwriter and drummer (born 1944)

Nicola James Capaldi was an English singer-songwriter and drummer. His musical career spanned more than four decades. He co-founded the progressive rock band Traffic in 1967 with Steve Winwood, and the two of them co-wrote the majority of the band's material. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a part of Traffic's original lineup.

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28/01/2004

Lloyd M. Bucher, American captain (born 1927)

Lloyd Mark "Pete" Bucher was a United States Navy officer best known as the captain of USS Pueblo, which was seized by North Korea on January 23, 1968.

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28/01/2003

Mieke Pullen, Dutch runner (born 1957)

Mieke Pullen née Hombergen was a Dutch long-distance runner who competed mainly in marathon races. She ran thirty races over the distance in her career, winning races in Eindhoven, Amsterdam, Enschede and Singapore. She was a four-time Dutch champion over the distance. She was killed in a traffic accident while training in Haaren, aged 45.

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28/01/2002

Gustaaf Deloor, Belgian cyclist and soldier (born 1913)

Gustaaf Deloor was a Belgian road racing cyclist and the winner of the first two editions of the Vuelta a España in 1935 and 1936. The 1936 edition remains the slowest winning finish time of the Vuelta in 150:07:54, the race consisted of 22 stages with a total length of 4,407 km. Gustaaf finished first and his older brother Alfons finished second overall.

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Astrid Lindgren, Swedish author and screenwriter (born 1907)

Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren was a Swedish writer of fiction and screenplays. She is most notable for several children's book series, featuring Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Lönneberga, Karlsson-on-the-Roof, and The Six Bullerby Children, and for the children's fantasy novels Mio, My Son; Ronia the Robber's Daughter; and The Brothers Lionheart. Lindgren worked on the Children's Literature Editorial Board at the Rabén & Sjögren publishing house in Stockholm and wrote more than 30 books for children. In 2017, she was calculated to be the world's 18th most translated author. Lindgren had by 2010 sold roughly 167 million books worldwide. In 1994, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "her unique authorship dedicated to the rights of children and respect for their individuality". Her campaigning for animal welfare led to a new law, Lex Lindgren, in time for her 80th birthday.

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Ayşe Nur Zarakolu, Turkish author and activist (born 1946)

Ayşe Nur Zarakolu was a Turkish author, publisher and human rights advocate. She was co-founder, with her husband Ragıp Zarakolu, of notable Turkish publishing house Belge and, in the 1980s, became the director of book-distribution company Cemmay, the first woman in the nation to hold such a position. Zarakolu's publications brought her into frequent conflict with Turkish press laws; in 1997, The New York Times identified Zarakolu as "one of the most relentless challengers to Turkey's press laws". Issues Zarakolu helped publicize in Turkey include the Armenian genocide and human rights of Kurdish people in Turkey. Imprisoned multiple times for her publications, she was designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International and her legacy continued to face legal challenge in Turkey after her death. She has received multiple awards and honors for her work and the Human Rights Association of Turkey bestows the Ayşe Zarakolu Freedom of Thought prize in her honor.

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28/01/2001

Ranko Marinković, Croatian author and playwright (born 1913)

Ranko Marinković was a Croatian novelist and dramatist.

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28/01/1999

Valery Gavrilin, Russian composer (born 1939)

Valery Aleksandrovich Gavrilin (Russian: Валерий Александрович Гаврилин, was a Soviet and Russian composer. People's Artist of the RSFSR.

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28/01/1998

Shotaro Ishinomori, Japanese author and illustrator (born 1938)

Shotaro Ishinomori , né Onodera , was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, writer and director. Known as the "King of Manga", he is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential manga artists of all time. Outside of manga he is also one of the most prolific creators in the history of anime, tokusatsu, and Japanese superhero fiction, creating several immensely popular long-running series such as Cyborg 009, the Super Sentai series, and the Kamen Rider series. He was twice awarded by the Shogakukan Manga Awards, in 1968 for Sabu to Ichi Torimono Hikae and in 1988 for Hotel and Manga Nihon Keizai Nyumon.

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28/01/1996

Joseph Brodsky, Russian-American poet and essayist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1940)

Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky, anglicized as Joseph, was a Russian and American poet and essayist.

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Burne Hogarth, American cartoonist and author (born 1911)

Burne Hogarth was an American artist and educator, best known for his work on the Tarzan newspaper comic strip and his series of anatomy books for artists.

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Jerry Siegel, American author and illustrator, co-created Superman (born 1914)

Jerome "Jerry" Siegel was an American comic book writer. He was the co-creator of Superman, in collaboration with his friend Joe Shuster, published by DC Comics. They also created Doctor Occult, who was later featured in The Books of Magic. Siegel and Shuster were inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1993. With Bernard Baily, Siegel also co-created the long-running DC character The Spectre. Siegel created ten of the earliest members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, one of DC's most popular team books, which is set in the 30th Century. Siegel also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter and Jerry Ess.

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28/01/1993

Helen Sawyer Hogg, Canadian astronomer and academic (born 1905)

Helen Battles Sawyer Hogg was an American-Canadian astronomer who pioneered research into globular clusters and variable stars. She was the first female president of several astronomical organizations and a scientist when many universities would not award scientific degrees to women. Her dedication to sharing astronomy with the wider public led to scientific advocacy and journalism, including columns in the Toronto Star and the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. She was considered a "great scientist and a gracious person" over a career of sixty years.

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28/01/1989

Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama (born 1938)

Lobsang Trinley Lhündrub Chökyi Gyaltsen was the tenth Panchen Lama, officially the 10th Panchen Erdeni, of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. According to Tibetan Buddhism, Panchen Lamas are living emanations of the buddha Amitabha. He was often referred to simply as Choekyi Gyaltsen.

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28/01/1988

Klaus Fuchs, German physicist, politician, and atomic spy (born 1911)

Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs was a German theoretical physicist, atomic spy, and communist who supplied information from the American, British, and Canadian Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union during and shortly after World War II. While at the Los Alamos Laboratory, Fuchs was responsible for many significant theoretical calculations relating to the first nuclear weapons and, later, early models of the hydrogen bomb. After his conviction in 1950, he served nine years in prison in the United Kingdom, then migrated to East Germany where he resumed his career as a physicist and scientific leader.

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28/01/1986

Space Shuttle Challenger crew

Gregory Bruce Jarvis was an American engineer and astronaut who died during the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, where he was serving as payload specialist for Hughes Aircraft.

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Space Shuttle Challenger crew

Sharon Christa McAuliffe was an American teacher and astronaut from Concord, New Hampshire, who died on the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, where she was serving as a payload specialist.

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Space Shuttle Challenger crew

Ronald Erwin McNair was an American NASA astronaut and physicist. He died at the age of 35 during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, in which he was serving as one of three mission specialists in a crew of seven.

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Space Shuttle Challenger crew

Ellison Shoji Onizuka was an American astronaut, engineer, and U.S. Air Force flight test engineer from Kealakekua, Hawaii, who successfully flew into space with the Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-51-C. He died in the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger, on which he was serving as Mission Specialist for mission STS-51-L. Onizuka was the first Asian American and the first person of Japanese ancestry to reach space.

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Space Shuttle Challenger crew

Judith Arlene Resnik was an American electrical engineer, software engineer, biomedical engineer, pilot and NASA astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. She was the fourth woman, the second American woman and the first Jewish woman of any nationality to fly in space, logging 145 hours in orbit.

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Space Shuttle Challenger crew

Francis Richard "Dick" Scobee was an American pilot, engineer, and astronaut. He was killed while commanding the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986, which suffered catastrophic booster failure during launch of the STS-51-L mission.

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Space Shuttle Challenger crew

Michael John Smith, was an American engineer and astronaut. He served as the pilot of the Space Shuttle Challenger when it was destroyed during the STS-51-L mission, breaking up 73 seconds into the flight, and at an altitude of 48,000 feet (14.6 km), killing all seven crew members. Smith's voice was the last one heard on the Challenger voice recorder.

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28/01/1983

Billy Fury. English pop star (born 1940)

Ronald Wycherley, known professionally as Billy Fury, was an English musician. An early star of rock and roll, he spent 332 weeks on the UK singles chart. His hit singles include "Wondrous Place", "Halfway to Paradise" and "Jealousy". Fury also maintained a film career, notably playing rock performers in Play It Cool in 1962 and That'll Be the Day in 1973.

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Frank Forde, Australian educator and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Australia (born 1890)

Francis Michael Forde was an Australian politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Australia from 6 to 13 July 1945, in a caretaker capacity following the death of John Curtin. He was deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1932 to 1946 and is the shortest-serving prime minister in Australia's history.

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28/01/1978

Ward Moore, American author (born 1903)

Joseph Ward Moore was an American science fiction writer. According to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, "he contributed only infrequently to the field, [but] each of his books became something of a classic."

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28/01/1976

Marcel Broodthaers, Belgian painter and poet (born 1924)

Marcel Broodthaers was a Belgian poet, filmmaker, and visual artist.

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28/01/1973

John Banner, Austrian actor (born 1910)

John Banner was an Austrian-born American actor, best known for his role as Sergeant Schultz in the situation comedy Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971). Schultz, constantly encountering evidence that inmates of his stalag were actively conducting anti-German espionage and sabotage activities, frequently feigned ignorance with the catchphrase, "I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing!".

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28/01/1971

Donald Winnicott, English paediatrician and psychoanalyst (born 1896)

Donald Woods Winnicott was an English paediatrician and psychoanalyst who was especially influential in the field of object relations theory and developmental psychology. He was a leading member of the British Independent Group of the British Psychoanalytical Society, President of the British Psychoanalytical Society twice, and a close associate of British writer and psychoanalyst Marion Milner.

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28/01/1965

Tich Freeman, English cricketer (born 1888)

Alfred Percy "Tich" Freeman was an English first-class cricketer. A leg spin bowler for Kent County Cricket Club and England, he is the only man to take 300 wickets in an English season, and is the second most prolific wicket-taker in first-class cricket history.

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Maxime Weygand, Belgian-French general (born 1867)

Maxime Weygand was a French military commander in World War I and World War II, as well as a high ranking member of the Vichy regime.

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28/01/1963

Gustave Garrigou, French cyclist (born 1884)

Cyprien Gustave Garrigou was one of the best professional racing cyclists of his era. He rode the Tour de France eight times and won once. Of 117 stages, he won eight, came in the top ten 96 times and finished 65 times in the first five.

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28/01/1960

Zora Neale Hurston, American novelist, short story writer, and folklorist (born 1891)

Zora Neale Hurston was an American writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and documentary filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on Hoodoo and Caribbean Vodou. The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, an autobiography, ethnographies, and many essays. Some of her work, namely Tell My Horse (1937), explored ethnomusicological methods of study long before there were formal boundaries for the discipline, especially not boundaries that included the respectful study of communities of color. Hurston's unique background and exceptional approach to anthropology laid key foundations for the growth of ethnography, literature, and Africana Studies.

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28/01/1959

Walter Beall, American baseball player (born 1899)

Walter Esau Beall was an American baseball player who played for the New York Yankees on several championship teams in the 1920s.

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28/01/1953

James Scullin, Australian journalist and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Australia (born 1876)

James Henry Scullin was an Australian politician and trade unionist who served as the ninth prime minister of Australia from 1929 to 1932. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), having briefly served as treasurer of Australia during his time in office from 1930 to 1931. His time in office was primarily categorised by the Wall Street crash of 1929 which transpired just two days after his swearing in, thus heralding the beginning of the Great Depression in Australia. Scullin remained a leading figure in the Labor movement throughout his lifetime, and was an éminence grise in various capacities for the party until his retirement from federal parliament in 1949. He was the first Catholic to serve as prime minister.

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Neyzen Tevfik, Turkish philosopher and poet (born 1879)

Tevfik Kolaylı, better known by his pen name Neyzen Tevfik, was a Turkish poet, satirist, and neyzen. Tevfik was born in Bodrum and died in Istanbul. In addition to his satire, he composed taksims and saz semais. He used satire against tyranny during the Ottoman period and against those who opposed revolutions during the Republic years. He wrote poems criticising injustice and corruption. He was frequently arrested.

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28/01/1950

Nikolai Luzin, Russian mathematician and academic (born 1883)

Nikolai Nikolayevich Luzin was a Soviet and Russian mathematician known for his work in descriptive set theory and aspects of mathematical analysis with strong connections to point-set topology. He was the eponym of Luzitania, a loose group of young Moscow mathematicians of the first half of the 1920s. They adopted his set-theoretic orientation, and went on to apply it in other areas of mathematics.

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28/01/1949

Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (born 1908)

Jean-Pierre Wimille was a French racing driver and a member of the French Resistance during World War II. He was a two-time victor of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, winning in 1937 and 1939. He is generally regarded as one of the best French drivers of his era. In 1949, he was killed when he crashed his car into a tree while practicing for a race.

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28/01/1948

Hans Aumeier, German SS officer (born 1906)

Hans Aumeier was an SS commander during the Nazi era who was the commandant of Vaivara concentration camp and the deputy commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp. One of the most important criminals at Auschwitz, Aumeier was extradited to Poland, where he was convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed in 1948.

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28/01/1947

Reynaldo Hahn, Venezuelan-French composer, conductor, and critic (born 1875)

Reynaldo Hahn de Echenagucia was a French composer, conductor, music critic, and singer. He is best known for his songs – mélodies – of which he wrote more than 100.

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28/01/1945

Roza Shanina, Russian sergeant and sniper (born 1924)

Roza Georgiyevna Shanina was a Soviet sniper during World War II who was credited with over 50 kills. Shanina volunteered for the military after the death of her brother in 1941 and chose to be a sniper on the front line. Praised for her shooting accuracy, Shanina was capable of precisely hitting enemy personnel and making doublets.

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28/01/1942

Edward Siegler, American gymnast and triathlete (born 1881)

Edward Victor Siegler was an American gymnast and track and field athlete who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. In 1904 he won the bronze medal in the team event. He was also 12th in athletics' triathlon event, 32nd in gymnastics all-around event and 53rd in gymnastics' triathlon event.

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28/01/1939

W. B. Yeats, Irish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1865)

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and, along with John Millington Synge and Lady Gregory, founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. He was awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature and later served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State.

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28/01/1938

Bernd Rosemeyer, German race car driver (born 1909)

Bernd Rosemeyer was a German racing driver and speed record holder. He is often considered one of the greatest racing drivers of his era.

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28/01/1937

Anastasios Metaxas, Greek architect and target shooter (born 1862)

Anastasios Metaxas was a Greek architect and shooter.

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28/01/1935

Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, Russian composer and conductor (born 1859)

Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov was a Russian and Soviet composer, conductor and teacher. His music ranged from the late-Romantic era into the 20th century era.

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28/01/1930

Emmy Destinn, Czech soprano and poet (born 1878)

Emmy Destinn was a Czech operatic dramatic soprano. She had a career both in Europe and at the New York Metropolitan Opera. She was one of the greatest opera singers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

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28/01/1921

Mustafa Suphi, Turkish journalist and politician (born 1883)

Mustafa Suphi or Mustafa Subhi was a Turkish revolutionary and communist during the period of dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

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28/01/1918

John McCrae, Canadian soldier, physician, and author (born 1872)

Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae was a Canadian poet, physician, author, artist and soldier during World War I and a surgeon during the Second Battle of Ypres, in Belgium. He is best known for writing the famous war memorial poem "In Flanders Fields". McCrae died of pneumonia near the end of the war. His famous poem is a threnody, a genre of lament.

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28/01/1912

Gustave de Molinari, Belgian economist and theorist (born 1819).

Gustave de Molinari was a Belgian political economist and French Liberal School theorist associated with French laissez-faire economists such as Frédéric Bastiat and Hippolyte Castille.

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Eloy Alfaro, former president of Ecuador (born 1842)

José Eloy Alfaro Delgado often referred to as "The Old Warrior," was an Ecuadorian politician who served as the President of Ecuador from 1895 to 1901 and from 1906 to 1911. Eloy Alfaro emerged as the leader of the Liberal Party and defined the party while he lived. He became one of the strongest opponents of the pro-Catholic conservative President Gabriel García Moreno (1821–1875). Alfaro played a central role in the Liberal Revolution of 1895 and fought against political conservatism in Ecuador for almost 30 years.

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28/01/1903

Augusta Holmès, French pianist and composer (born 1847)

Augusta Mary Anne Holmès was a French composer of Irish descent. In 1871, while living with the poet Catulle Mendès, Holmès became a French national and added the accent to her last name. She also published music under the name Hermann Zenta. She wrote the texts to almost all of her vocal music herself, including songs, oratorios, the libretto of her opera La Montagne noire and the programmatic poems for her symphonic poems including Irlande and Andromède.

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28/01/1873

John Hart, English-Australian politician, 10th Premier of South Australia (born 1809)

Captain John Hart CMG was a South Australian politician and a Premier of South Australia.

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28/01/1864

Émile Clapeyron, French physicist and engineer (born 1799)

Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron was a French engineer and physicist, one of the founders of thermodynamics.

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28/01/1859

F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1782)

Frederick John Robinson, 1st Earl of Ripon, styled The Honourable F. J. Robinson until 1827 and known between 1827 and 1833 as the Viscount Goderich, the name by which he is best known to history, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1827 to 1828.

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28/01/1832

Augustin Daniel Belliard, French general (born 1769)

Augustin Daniel Belliard, comte Belliard et de l'Empire was a French general.

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28/01/1782

Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, French geographer and cartographer (born 1697)

Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville was a French geographer and cartographer who greatly improved the standards of map-making. D'Anville became cartographer to the king, who purchased his cartographic materials, the largest collection in France. He made more than 200 maps during his lifetime, which are characterized by a careful, accurate work largely based on original research. In particular, D'Anville left unknown areas of continents blank and noted doubtful information as such, contrary to the lavish maps of his predecessors. His maps remained the reference point in cartography throughout the 19th century and were used by numerous explorers and travellers.

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28/01/1754

Ludvig Holberg, Norwegian-Danish historian and philosopher (born 1684)

Ludvig Holberg, Baron of Holberg was a writer, essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright born in Bergen, Norway, during the time of the Dano–Norwegian dual monarchy. He was influenced by Humanism, the Enlightenment and the Baroque. Holberg is considered the founder of modern Danish and Norwegian literature. He was also a prominent Neo-Latin author, known across Europe for his writing. He is best known for the comedies he wrote in 1722–1723 for the Lille Grønnegade Theatre in Copenhagen. Holberg's works about natural and common law were widely read by many Danish law students over two hundred years, from 1736 to 1936.

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28/01/1697

Sir John Fenwick, 3rd Baronet, English general and politician (born 1645)

Sir John Fenwick, 3rd Baronet was an English Army officer and politician. He succeeded to the Fenwick baronetcy after the death of his father, Sir William Fenwick. A supporter of the Jacobite cause, Fenwick was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate William III of England, and was executed by beheading in 1697 as a result.

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28/01/1688

Ferdinand Verbiest, Flemish Jesuit missionary in China (born 1623)

Ferdinand Verbiest, was a Flemish Jesuit missionary in China during the Qing dynasty. He was born in Pittem near Tielt in the County of Flanders. He is known as Nan Huairen in Chinese.

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28/01/1687

Johannes Hevelius, Polish astronomer and politician (born 1611)

Johannes Hevelius was a councillor and chairman of the city council of the Old Town, Gdańsk. As an astronomer, he gained a reputation as "the founder of lunar topography", and described ten new constellations, seven of which are still used by astronomers.

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28/01/1681

Richard Allestree, English priest and academic (born 1619)

Richard Allestree or Allestry was an English Royalist churchman and provost of Eton College from 1665.

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28/01/1672

Pierre Séguier, French politician, Lord Chancellor of France (born 1588)

Pierre Séguier was a French statesman who was the chancellor of France from 1635.

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28/01/1666

Tommaso Dingli, Maltese architect and sculptor (born 1591)

Tommaso Dingli was a Maltese architect and sculptor. One of the last Renaissance architects on the island, he designed several parish churches, most notably those of Attard and Birkirkara.

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28/01/1621

Pope Paul V (born 1550)

Pope Paul V, born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death, in January 1621. In 1611, he honored Galileo Galilei as a member of the papal Accademia dei Lincei and supported his discoveries. In 1616, Pope Paul V instructed Cardinal Robert Bellarmine to inform Galileo that the Copernican theory could not be taught as fact, but Bellarmine's certificate allowed Galileo to continue his studies in search for evidence and use the geocentric model as a theoretical device. That same year Paul V assured Galileo that he was safe from persecution so long as he, the Pope, should live. Bellarmine's certificate was used by Galileo for his defense at the trial of 1633.

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28/01/1613

Thomas Bodley, English diplomat and scholar, founded the Bodleian Library (born 1545)

Sir Thomas Bodley was an English diplomat and scholar who founded the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

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28/01/1547

Henry VIII, king of England (born 1491)

Henry VIII was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. After the pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry passed legislation that severed England and Ireland from the Roman Catholic Church and established the monarch as Supreme Head of the Church of England, initiating the English Reformation. He subsequently married five more times; two marriages were annulled and two wives were executed.

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28/01/1501

John Dynham, 1st Baron Dynham, English baron and Lord High Treasurer (born 1433)

John Dynham, 1st Baron Dynham, of Nutwell in the parish of Woodbury and of Hartland, both in Devon, was an English peer and politician. He served as Lord High Treasurer of England and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He was one of the few men to have served as councillor to Kings Edward IV, Richard III and Henry VII and was trusted by all of them.

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28/01/1443

Robert le Maçon, French diplomat (born 1365)

Robert le Maçon was chancellor of France, advisor to Charles VII and supporter of Joan of Arc.

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28/01/1290

Dervorguilla of Galloway, Scottish noble, mother of king John Balliol of Scotland (born c. 1210)

Dervorguilla of Galloway was a "lady of substance" in 13th-century Scotland. She was the wife, from 1223, of John de Balliol and the mother of King John Balliol.

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28/01/1271

Isabella of Aragon, Queen of France (born 1247)

Isabella of Aragon, was Queen of France from 1270 to 1271 by marriage to Philip III of France.

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28/01/1256

William II, Count of Holland, King of Germany (born 1227)

William II was the Count of Holland and Zeeland from 1234 until his death. He was elected anti-king of Germany in 1248 and ruled as sole king from 1254 onwards.

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28/01/1142

Yue Fei, Chinese general (born 1103)

Yue Fei, courtesy name Pengju (鵬舉), was a Chinese military general of the Song dynasty and is remembered as a patriotic national hero, known for leading its forces in the wars in the 12th century between Southern Song and the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in northern China. Because of his warlike stance, he was put to death by the Southern Song government in 1142 under a frameup, after a negotiated peace was achieved with the Jin dynasty. He was posthumously pardoned. Yue Fei is depicted in the Wu Shuang Pu by Jin Guliang.

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28/01/1061

Spytihněv II, Duke of Bohemia (born 1031)

Spytihněv II, a member of the Přemyslid dynasty, was Duke of Bohemia from 1055 until his death in 1061.

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28/01/0947

Jing Yanguang, Chinese general (born 892)

Jing Yanguang, courtesy name Hangchuan (航川), was a general and official of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period Later Jin state. He was instrumental in the enthronement of Later Jin's second emperor Shi Chonggui, and therefore became a powerful chancellor early in Shi Chonggui's reign. Under his advocacy, Shi Chonggui turned away from the peaceful, submissive relationship that Later Jin had with its northern neighbor Liao and became confrontational against Liao. The adversarial relationship continued even after Jing's removal as chancellor, such that Later Jin was eventually destroyed by a Liao invasion. Emperor Taizong took Jing captive, intending to deliver him to Liao proper, but Jing committed suicide.

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28/01/0929

Gao Jixing, founder of Chinese Jingnan (born 858)

Gao Jixing, born Gao Jichang (高季昌), known for some time as Zhu Jichang (朱季昌), courtesy name Yisun (貽孫), also known by his posthumous name as the Prince Wuxin of Chu (楚武信王), was the founding prince of Jingnan during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of China.

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28/01/0919

Zhou Dewei, Chinese general

Zhou Dewei (周德威), courtesy name Zhenyuan (鎮遠), nickname Yangwu (陽五), was a Chinese military general and politician of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Jin.

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28/01/0814

Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor (born 742)

Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian Empire from 800. He united most of Western and Central Europe and was the first recognised emperor to rule from the west after the fall of the Western Roman Empire approximately three centuries earlier. Charlemagne's reign was marked by political and social changes that had lasting influence on Europe throughout the Middle Ages.

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28/01/0724

Yazid II, Umayyad caliph (born 687)

Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, commonly known as Yazid II, was the ninth Umayyad caliph, ruling from 720 until his death in 724. Although he lacked administrative or military experience, he derived prestige from his lineage, being a descendant of both ruling branches of the Umayyad dynasty, the Sufyanids who founded the Umayyad Caliphate in 661 and the Marwanids who succeeded them in 684. He was designated by his half-brother, Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik, as second-in-line to the succession after their cousin Umar, as a compromise with the sons of Abd al-Malik.

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