Died on Thursday, 29th January – Famous Deaths

29/01/2025

Salwan Momika, Iraqi refugee and anti-Islam activist (born 1986)

Salwan Sabah Matthew Momika was an Iraqi refugee, and an ex-paramilitary member of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). While living in Sweden, he gained fame for being an anti-Islam demonstrator who organized public demonstrations where he burnt and desecrated the Qur'an. Momika was assassinated on 29 January 2025 during a live broadcast on TikTok.

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Richard Williamson, British Catholic traditionalist bishop (born 1940)

Richard Nelson Williamson was an English traditionalist Catholic prelate, conspiracy theorist and Holocaust denier who was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. He was formerly a member of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX).

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Victims in the 2025 Potomac River mid-air collision:

Vadim Vladimirovich Naumov was a Russian pair skater. With his wife Evgenia Shishkova, he was the 1994 world champion and the 1995–96 Champions Series Final champion.

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Victims in the 2025 Potomac River mid-air collision:

Evgenia Vasilievna Shishkova was a Russian figure skating coach and competitor. With her husband Vadim Naumov, she was the 1994 world champion and the 1995–96 Champions Series Final champion.

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Victims in the 2025 Potomac River mid-air collision:

Inna Volyanskaya was a Russian pair skater who competed for the Soviet Union. With Valery Spiridonov, she won six international medals, including gold at the 1982 Nebelhorn Trophy.

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Victims in the 2025 Potomac River mid-air collision:

Alexandr "Sasha" Kirsanov was an ice dancer who competed for the United States, Azerbaijan, and Russia. With Christie Moxley for the U.S., he was the 2003 Nebelhorn Trophy bronze medalist. He also competed with Barbara Hanley for Azerbaijan and with Olga Pogosian for Russia. Following his retirement from competition in 2004, he worked as a coach and choreographer in Delaware.

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29/01/2023

Hazel McCallion, Canadian businesswoman and politician, 5th Mayor of Mississauga (born 1921)

Hazel Mary Muriel McCallion was a Canadian politician who served as the fifth mayor of Mississauga. First elected in November 1978, McCallion was mayor for 36 years until her retirement in 2014, making her the longest-serving mayor in the city's history. She was a successful candidate in twelve municipal elections, having been acclaimed twice and re-elected ten times. She was nicknamed "Hurricane Hazel" for her outspoken political style with reference to the hurricane of 1954, which had a considerable impact. When the 1979 Mississauga train derailment occurred early in her tenure, she helped oversee evacuation of 200,000 residents from the resulting explosion, fire, and spill of hazardous chemicals.

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Will Steffen, American-Australian chemist (born 1947)

William Lee Steffen was an American-born Australian chemist. He was the executive director of the Australian National University (ANU) Climate Change Institute and a member of the Australian Climate Commission until its dissolution in September 2013. From 1998 to 2004, he was the executive director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, a coordinating body of national environmental change organisations based in Stockholm. Steffen was one of the founding climate councillors of the Climate Council, with whom he frequently co-authored reports, and spoke in the media on issues relating to climate change and renewable energy.

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Gero Storjohann, German politician (born 1958)

Gero Storjohann was a German politician who served in the Bundestag from 2002 until his death in 2023. A member of the Christian Democratic Union, Storjohann had served as the vice chairman of the Committee on Petitions from 2005. During his tenure, Storjohann was an advocate for improvements of transportation infrastructure, particularly for bicycles.

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29/01/2022

Howard Hesseman, American actor (born 1940)

Howard Hesseman was an American actor known for his television roles as burned-out disc jockey Dr. Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati and the lead role of history teacher Charlie Moore on Head of the Class. He appeared regularly on television and in film from the 1970s to 2010s, with his other noteworthy roles including Sam Royer in the last two seasons of One Day at a Time and a supporting role as Captain Pete Lassard in the film Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985).

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29/01/2021

Walker Boone, Canadian actor (born 1944)

Walker Boone was a Canadian actor. He was best known as the voice of the Nintendo character Mario in the DIC-produced animated series The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.

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29/01/2019

George Fernandes, Indian politician (born 1930)

George Mathew Fernandes was an Indian politician, trade unionist, statesman, and journalist, who served as the Defence Minister of India from 1998 until 2004. A veteran socialist, he was a member of the Lok Sabha for over 30 years, starting from Bombay in 1967 till 2009 mostly representing constituencies from Bihar. He was the leader of the Samyukta Socialist Party and the Socialist Party, a key member of the Janata Party, the Janata Party (Secular) and the Janata Dal, and, finally, the founder of the Samata Party. Holding several prominent ministerial portfolios during his career, including communication, industry, railways, and defence, he was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, in 2020.

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James Ingram, American musician (born 1952)

James Edward Ingram was an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He was a two-time Grammy Award-winner and a two-time Academy Award nominee for Best Original Song. After beginning his career in 1973, Ingram charted eight top 40 hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart from the early 1980s until the early 1990s, as well as thirteen top 40 hits on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. In addition, he charted 20 hits on the Adult Contemporary chart. He had two number-one singles on the Hot 100: the first, a duet with fellow R&B artist Patti Austin, 1982's "Baby, Come to Me" topped the U.S. pop chart in 1983; "I Don't Have the Heart", which became his second number-one in 1990, was his only number-one as a solo artist.

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29/01/2016

Jean-Marie Doré, Guinean lawyer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Guinea (born 1938)

Jean-Marie Doré was a Guinean politician who was the prime minister of Guinea from January 2010 until December 2010. Doré, who was the president of the Union for the Progress of Guinea (UPG), was an opposition leader for years before being chosen to head a transitional government that was in place during the preparation and conduct of the 2010 presidential election.

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Jacques Rivette, French director, screenwriter, and critic (born 1928)

Jacques Rivette was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. He made twenty-nine films, including L'Amour fou (1969), Out 1 (1971), Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974), and La Belle Noiseuse (1991). His work is noted for its improvisation, loose narratives, and lengthy running times.

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29/01/2015

Colleen McCullough, Australian neuroscientist, author, and academic (born 1937)

Colleen McCullough was an Australian author. Raised in Sydney, she trained as a neurophysiologist and spent her early career working at hospitals and universities in Australia and overseas. In 1974, while working as a research assistant at the Yale School of Medicine, she published her first novel Tim. Her second novel, The Thorn Birds, was published in 1977 and became an international bestseller. It sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and was adapted into a successful television miniseries.

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Rod McKuen, American singer-songwriter and poet (born 1933)

Rodney Marvin McKuen was an American poet, singer-songwriter and composer. He was one of the best-selling poets in the United States during the late 1960s. Throughout his career, McKuen produced a wide range of recordings, which included popular music, spoken word poetry, film soundtracks and classical music. He earned two Academy Award nominations for his music compositions. McKuen's translations and adaptations of the songs of Jacques Brel were instrumental in bringing the Belgian songwriter to prominence in the English-speaking world. His poetry deals with themes of love, the natural world and spirituality. McKuen's songs sold over 100 million recordings worldwide and 60 million books of his poetry were sold as well.

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Alexander Vraciu, American commander and pilot (born 1918)

Alexander Vraciu was a United States Navy fighter ace, Navy Cross recipient, and Medal of Honor nominee during World War II. At the end of the war, Vraciu ranked fourth among the U.S. Navy's flying aces, with 19 enemy planes downed during flight and 21 destroyed on the ground. After the war, he served as a test pilot and was instrumental in forming the post-war Naval and Marine Air Reserve program. From 1956 to 1958 Vraciu led his own fighter squadron, VF-51, for twenty-two months. He retired from the U.S. Navy with the rank of commander on December 31, 1963. Vraciu later moved to Danville, California, and worked for Wells Fargo.

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29/01/2012

Ranjit Singh Dyal, Indian general and politician, 10th Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry (born 1928)

Lieutenant General Ranjit Singh Dyal, PVSM MVC was an Indian Army general and an administrator. As a soldier, Ranjit Singh led the capture of the Haji Pir pass by the Indian army during the 1965 war with Pakistan. He also drew up the plans for Operation Blue Star, and served as the General-Officer-Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Command. Later, he served as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

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Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, Italian lawyer and politician, 9th President of Italy (born 1918)

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro was an Italian politician who served as the president of Italy from 1992 to 1999. A member of Christian Democracy (DC), he became an independent politician after the DC's dissolution in 1992, and was close to the centre-left Democratic Party when it was founded in 2007. Before his election to the Presidency, he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies for Turin for 44 years from 1948 to 1992.

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Camilla Williams, American soprano and educator (born 1919)

Camilla Ella Williams was an American operatic soprano who performed nationally and internationally. After studying with renowned teachers in New York City, she was the first African American to receive a regular contract with a major American opera company, the New York City Opera. She had earlier won honors in vocal competitions and the Marian Anderson Fellowship in 1943–44.

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29/01/2011

Milton Babbitt, American composer, educator, and theorist (born 1916)

Milton Byron Babbitt was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He was a Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Fellowship recipient, recognized for his serial and electronic music. Babbitt's compositional approach was deeply inspired by Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique. He built a compositional system based on permutations of the total chromatic.

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29/01/2009

Hélio Gracie, Brazilian martial artist (born 1913)

Hélio Gracie was a Brazilian martial artist who together with his brothers Oswaldo, Gastao Jr, George and Carlos Gracie founded and developed the self-defense martial art system of Gracie jiu-jitsu, also known as Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ).

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John Martyn, British singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1948)

Iain David McGeachy, known professionally as John Martyn, was a British singer-songwriter and guitarist. Over a 40-year career, he released 23 studio albums and received frequent critical acclaim. The Times described him as "an electrifying guitarist and singer whose music blurred the boundaries between folk, jazz, rock and blues".

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29/01/2008

Margaret Truman, American singer and author (born 1924)

Mary Margaret Truman Daniel was an American classical soprano, actress, journalist, radio and television personality, writer, and New York socialite. She was the only child of President Harry S. Truman and First Lady Bess Truman. While her father was president during the years 1945 to 1953, Margaret regularly accompanied him on campaign trips, such as the 1948 countrywide whistle-stop campaign lasting several weeks. She also appeared at important White House and political events during those years and was a favorite with the media.

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29/01/2006

Nam June Paik, South Korean-American artist (born 1932)

Nam June Paik was a South Korean artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video art. He is credited with the first use (1974) of the term "electronic super highway" to describe the future of telecommunications.

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29/01/2005

Ephraim Kishon, Israeli author, screenwriter, and director (born 1924)

Ephraim Kishon was a Hungarian-born Israeli author, dramatist, screenwriter, and Oscar-nominated film director. He was one of the most widely read contemporary satirists in Israel and was also particularly popular in German-speaking countries.

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29/01/2004

Janet Frame, New Zealand author and poet (born 1924)

Janet Paterson Frame was a New Zealand author. She is internationally renowned for her work, which includes novels, short stories, poetry, juvenile fiction, and an autobiography, and received numerous awards including being appointed to the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civil honour.

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29/01/2003

Frank Moss, American lawyer and politician (born 1911)

Frank Edward "Ted" Moss was an American lawyer and politician. From 1959 to 1977 he served as a United States senator from Utah, and as of 2025 was the last Democrat to do so.

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29/01/2002

Harold Russell, Canadian-American soldier and actor (born 1914)

Harold John Avery Russell was an American World War II veteran and actor. After losing his hands during his military service, Russell was cast in the epic drama film The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), which earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was the first non-professional actor to win an Academy Award for acting and the first Oscar recipient to sell his award.

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29/01/1999

Lili St. Cyr, American model and dancer (born 1918)

Marie Frances Van Schaack, known professionally as Lili St. Cyr, was a prominent American burlesque dancer and stripper.

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29/01/1994

Ulrike Maier, Austrian skier (born 1967)

Ulrike Maier was a World Cup alpine ski racer from Austria, a two-time World Champion in super-G. She competed at the 1988 Winter Olympics and the 1992 Winter Olympics.

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29/01/1993

Adetokunbo Ademola, Nigerian lawyer and jurist, 2nd Chief Justice of Nigeria (born 1906)

Omoba Sir Adetokunbo Adegboyega Ademola SAN was a Nigerian jurist who was the Chief Justice of Nigeria from 1958 to 1972. He was appointed as Chief Justice on 1 April 1958, succeeding Sir Stafford Foster-Sutton, who was retiring. Ademola was a son of Oba Sir Ladapo Ademola II, the Alake of the Egba clan of Nigeria. He was the first chancellor of the University of Benin.

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29/01/1992

Willie Dixon, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1915)

William James Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he is perhaps best known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time. Next to Muddy Waters, Dixon is recognized as the most influential person in shaping the post–World War II sound of the Chicago blues.

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29/01/1991

Yasushi Inoue, Japanese author and poet (born 1907)

Yasushi Inoue was a Japanese writer of novels, short stories, poetry and essays, noted for his historical and autobiographical fiction. His most acclaimed works include The Bullfight, The Roof Tile of Tempyō and Tun-huang.

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29/01/1989

Morton DaCosta, American theatre and film director, film producer, writer and actor (born 1914)

Morton DaCosta was an American theatre and film director, film producer, writer, and actor.

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29/01/1988

James Rhyne Killian, American educator, scientist and White House advisor (born 1904)

James Rhyne Killian Jr. was the 10th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from 1948 until 1959. He also held a number of government roles, such as Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board under John F. Kennedy.

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29/01/1987

Vincent R. Impellitteri, American politician and judge, 101st Mayor of New York City (born 1900)

Vincent Richard Impellitteri was an Italian-American politician and judge who served as the 102nd Mayor of New York City from 1950 to 1953. He was elected as a Democrat and president of the City Council in 1945 and reelected in 1949. When Mayor William O'Dwyer resigned in 1950, he became acting mayor. In the special election that year, party bosses denied him the Democratic nomination for the rest of the term but was subsequently elected mayor on a new ticket, the "Experience Party". He lost the Democratic primary when he ran for a full term in 1953 and became a judge in 1954.

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29/01/1984

Frances Goodrich, American actress, dramatist and screenwriter (born 1890)

Frances Goodrich was an American actress, dramatist, and screenwriter, best known for her collaborations with her partner and husband Albert Hackett. She received both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play with her husband for The Diary of Anne Frank which had premiered in 1955.

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John Macnaghten Whittaker, British mathematician (born 1905)

John Macnaghten Whittaker FRS FRSE LLD was a British mathematician and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield from 1953 to 1965.

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29/01/1983

Stuart H. Ingersoll, American naval aviator, USN vice admiral (born 1898)

Stuart Howe Ingersoll was a vice admiral of the United States Navy. He was a naval aviator whose career included service as an aircraft carrier commander during World War II and tours as commander-in-chief of the United States Seventh Fleet, President of the Naval War College, and Commandant of Midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy.

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29/01/1982

Rudolph Peters, British biochemist (born 1889)

Sir Rudolph Albert Peters MC MID FRS HFRSE FRCP LLD was a British biochemist. He led the research team at Oxford who developed British Anti-Lewisite (BAL), an antidote for the chemical warfare agent lewisite. His efforts investigating the mechanism of arsenic war gases were deemed crucial in maintaining battlefield effectiveness.

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Roger Stanier, Canadian microbiologist (born 1916)

Roger Yate Stanier was a Canadian microbiologist who was influential in the development of modern microbiology. As a member of the Delft School and former student of C. B. van Niel, he made important contributions to the taxonomy of bacteria, including the classification of blue-green algae as cyanobacteria. In 1957, he and co-authors wrote The Microbial World, an influential microbiology textbook which was published in five editions over three decades. In the course of 24 years at the University of California, Berkeley he reached the rank of professor and served as chair of the Department of Bacteriology before leaving for the Pasteur Institute in 1971. He received several awards over the course of his career, including the Leeuwenhoek Medal. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences and the Légion d’Honneur.

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Charles Sykes, British physicist and metallurgist (born 1905)

Sir Charles Sykes CBE, FRS was a British physicist and metallurgist.

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29/01/1981

Jack A. W. Bennett, New Zealander literary scholar (born 1911)

Jack Arthur Walter Bennett was a New Zealand–born literary scholar.

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John Glassco, Canadian poet, memoirist and novelist (born 1909)

John Glassco was a Canadian poet, memoirist and novelist. According to Stephen Scobie, "Glassco will be remembered for his brilliant autobiography, his elegant, classical poems, and for his translations". He is also remembered by some for his erotica.

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29/01/1980

Jimmy Durante, American entertainer (born 1893)

James Francis Durante was an American comedian, actor, singer, and pianist. His distinctive gravelly speech, Lower East Side accent, comic language-butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and prominent nose helped make him one of the United States' most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s. He often referred to his nose as the schnozzola, and the word became his nickname.

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29/01/1979

Sonny Payne, American jazz drummer (born 1926)

Sonny Payne was an American jazz drummer, best known for his work with Count Basie and Harry James.

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29/01/1978

Tim McCoy, American actor and military officer (born 1891)

Colonel Tim McCoy was an American actor, military officer, and expert on American Indian life. McCoy is most noted for his roles in B-grade Western films. As a popular cowboy film star, he had his picture on the front of a Wheaties cereal box.

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Frank Nicklin, Australian politician, 28th Premier of Queensland (born 1895)

Sir George Francis Reuben Nicklin, was an Australian politician. He was the Premier of Queensland from 1957 to 1968, the first non-Labor Party premier since 1932.

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29/01/1977

Johnny Franz, English record producer and pianist (born 1922)

John Charles Franz was an English record producer and A&R man at the Philips label. He was one of Britain's most successful producers in the 1950s and 1960s. While his recordings encompassed several forms of mainstream popular music, his most enduring contributions were to British pop music of the mid-1960s on records by Dusty Springfield, the Walker Brothers, and the early solo recordings of Scott Walker. From 1973, he was responsible for the production of Peters & Lee recordings, which included their No. 1 chart hit "Welcome Home".

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Freddie Prinze, American comedian and actor (born 1954)

Freddie Prinze was an American stand-up comedian and actor, and the star of the NBC-TV sitcom Chico and the Man from 1974 until his death in 1977. He was described in a Vulture magazine article as "having blown up like no other comedian in history." Prinze is the father of actor Freddie Prinze Jr.

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29/01/1976

Jesse Fuller, American one-man band musician (born 1896)

Jesse Fuller was an American one-man band musician, best known for his song "San Francisco Bay Blues".

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29/01/1974

H. E. Bates, English writer (born 1905)

Herbert Ernest Bates, better known as H. E. Bates, was an English writer of novels and short stories. His best-known works include Love for Lydia, The Darling Buds of May and My Uncle Silas.

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29/01/1973

Johannes Paul Thilman, German composer (born 1903)

Johannes Paul Thilman was a German composer.

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29/01/1970

Lawren Harris, Canadian painter (born 1885)

Lawren Stewart Harris LL. D. was a Canadian painter, best known as one of the founding members of the Group of Seven. He played a key role as a catalyst in Canadian art, as a visionary in Canadian landscape art and in the development of modern art in Canada.

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B. H. Liddell Hart, French-English soldier, historian, and journalist (born 1895)

Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart, commonly known throughout most of his career as Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, was a British soldier, military historian, and military theorist. He wrote a series of military histories that proved influential among strategists. Arguing that frontal assault was bound to fail at great cost in lives, as proven in World War I, he recommended the "indirect approach" and reliance on fast-moving armoured formations.

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29/01/1969

Allen Dulles, American banker, lawyer, and diplomat, 5th Director of Central Intelligence (born 1893)

Allen Welsh Dulles was an American lawyer who was the first civilian director of central intelligence (DCI), and its longest serving director. As head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the early Cold War, he oversaw numerous activities, such as the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, the Project MKUltra mind control program, and the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. As a result of the failed invasion of Cuba, Dulles was forced to resign by President John F. Kennedy and was replaced with John McCone for the remainder of the Kennedy administration.

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Max Weinreich, Russian-American-Jewish linguist and cofounder of YIVO (born 1894)

Max Weinreich was a Russian-American-Jewish linguist, specializing in sociolinguistics and Yiddish, and the father of the linguist Uriel Weinreich.

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29/01/1967

Harold Munro Fox, English zoologist (born 1889)

Harold Munro Fox was an English zoologist.

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29/01/1966

Pierre Mercure, Canadian composer, TV producer, bassoonist and administrator (born 1927)

Pierre Mercure was a Canadian composer, TV producer, bassoonist, and administrator.

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29/01/1965

Jack Hylton, English pianist, composer, band leader and impresario (born 1892)

Jack Hylton was an English pianist, composer, band leader and impresario.

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29/01/1964

Vera Hall, American folk singer (born 1902)

Adell Hall Ward, better known as Vera Hall, was an American folk singer, born in Livingston, Alabama. Best known for her 1937 song "Trouble So Hard", she was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 2005.

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Alan Ladd, American actor (born 1913)

Alan Walbridge Ladd was an American actor and film producer. Ladd found success in film in the 1940s and early 1950s, particularly in films noir and Westerns. He was often paired with Veronica Lake in films noir, such as This Gun for Hire (1942), The Glass Key (1942), and The Blue Dahlia (1946). Whispering Smith (1948) was his first Western and color film, and Shane (1953) was noted for its contributions to the genre. Ladd also appeared in 10 films with William Bendix.

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29/01/1963

Robert Frost, American poet and playwright (born 1874)

Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New England in the early 20th century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes.

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29/01/1962

Fritz Kreisler, Austrian-American violinist and composer (born 1875)

Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born American violinist and composer. One of the most noted violin masters of his day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing, with marked portamento and rubato. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately recognizable as his own. Although it derived in many respects from the Franco-Belgian school, his style is nonetheless reminiscent of the gemütlich (cozy) lifestyle of pre-war Vienna.

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William Francis Gray Swann, Anglo-American physicist (born 1884)

W.F.G. Swann was an English physicist.

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29/01/1961

Angela Thirkell, English novelist (born 1890)

Angela Margaret Thirkell was an English and Australian novelist. She also published one novel, Trooper to Southern Cross, under the pseudonym Leslie Parker.

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29/01/1960

Mack Harrell, American operatic and concert baritone vocalist (born 1909)

Mack Kendree Harrell, Jr. was an American operatic and concert baritone vocalist who was regarded as one of the greatest American-born lieder singers of his generation.

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George S. Messersmith, American diplomat (born 1883)

George Strausser Messersmith was a United States ambassador to Austria, Cuba, Mexico, and Argentina. Messersmith also served as head of the consulate in Germany from 1930 to 1934, during the rise of the Nazi Party.

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29/01/1959

Pauline Smith, South African novelist, short story writer, memoirist and playwright (born 1882)

Pauline Janet Smith was a South African novelist, short story writer, memoirist and playwright.

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29/01/1956

H. L. Mencken, American journalist and critic (born 1880)

Henry Louis Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, and contemporary movements. His satirical reporting on the Scopes Trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial", also earned him attention. The term Menckenian has entered multiple dictionaries to describe anything of or pertaining to Mencken, including his combative rhetorical and prose styles.

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29/01/1955

Hans Hedtoft, Danish politician (born 1903)

Hans Hedtoft Hansen was a Danish politician of the Social Democrats who served as the prime minister of Denmark from 1947 to 1950 and again from 1953 until his death in 1955. He also served as the first president of the Nordic Council in 1953.

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29/01/1954

Walter Conrad Arensberg, American art collector, critic and poet (born 1878)

Walter Conrad Arensberg was an American art collector, critic and poet. His father was part owner and president of a crucible steel company. He majored in English and philosophy at Harvard University. With his wife Louise, he collected art and supported artistic endeavors.

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29/01/1951

James Bridie, Scottish playwright, screenwriter and physician (born 1888)

James Bridie was the pseudonym of a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and physician whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor. He took his pen-name from his paternal grandfather's first name and his grandmother's maiden name.

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29/01/1948

Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta (born 1900)

Prince Aimone, 4th Duke of Aosta, was a prince of Italy's reigning House of Savoy and an officer of the Royal Italian Navy. The second son of Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta, he was granted the title Duke of Spoleto on 22 September 1904. He inherited the title Duke of Aosta on 3 March 1942 following the death of his brother Prince Amedeo in a British prisoner of war camp in Nairobi.

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29/01/1946

Harry Hopkins, American businessman and politician, 8th United States Secretary of Commerce (born 1890)

Harold Lloyd Hopkins was an American statesman, public administrator, and presidential advisor. A trusted deputy to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hopkins directed New Deal relief programs before serving as the eighth United States secretary of commerce from 1938 to 1940 and as Roosevelt's chief foreign policy advisor and liaison to Allied leaders during World War II.

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Sidney Jones, English conductor and composer (born 1861)

James Sidney Jones, usually credited as Sidney Jones, was an English conductor and composer, who was most famous for composing the musical scores for a series of musical comedy hits in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. Jones's most famous musical was The Geisha, but several of his pieces were among the most popular shows of the era, enjoying long runs, international tours and revivals.

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29/01/1944

William Allen White, American journalist and author (born 1868)

William Allen White was an American newspaper editor, politician, author, and leader of the Progressive movement. Between 1896 and his death, White became a spokesman for middle America.

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29/01/1941

Ioannis Metaxas, Greek general and politician, 130th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1871)

Ioannis Metaxas was a Greek military officer and politician who was the dictator of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941. He governed constitutionally for the first four months of his tenure, and thereafter as the strongman leader of the 4th of August Regime following his appointment by King George II.

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29/01/1940

Edward Harkness, American philanthropist (born 1874)

Edward Stephen Harkness was an American philanthropist. Given privately and through his family's Commonwealth Fund, Harkness' gifts to private hospitals, art museums, and educational institutions in the Northeastern United States were among the largest of the early twentieth century. He was a major benefactor to Columbia University, Yale University, Harvard University, Phillips Exeter Academy, St. Paul's School, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1934.

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29/01/1935

Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh, American explorer (born 1853)

Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh was an American explorer.

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29/01/1934

Fritz Haber, Polish-German chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1868)

Fritz Jakob Haber was a German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber process, a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas. This invention is important for the large-scale synthesis of fertilizers and explosives. It is estimated that a third of annual global food production uses ammonia from the Haber–Bosch process, and that this food supports nearly half the world's population. For this work, Haber has been called one of the most important scientists and industrial chemists in human history. Haber also, along with Max Born, proposed the Born–Haber cycle as a method for evaluating the lattice energy of an ionic solid.

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Dukinfield Henry Scott, British botanist (born 1854)

Dukinfield Henry Scott FRS HFRSE LLD was a British botanist and paleobotanist. The standard author abbreviation D.H.Scott is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name. He conducted research on plant fossils and examined the evolution of plants. His textbook Studies in Fossil Biology and his lectures on paleobotany at University College, London, influenced and helped grow paleobotany.

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29/01/1933

Sara Teasdale, American poet (born 1884)

Sara Trevor Teasdale was an American lyric poet. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and used the name Filsinger after her 1914 marriage. In 1918, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her 1917 poetry collection Love Songs.

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29/01/1929

Jacques Bouhy, Belgian baritone (born 1848)

Jacques-Joseph-André Bouhy was a Belgian baritone, most famous for being the first to sing the "Toreador Song" in the role of Escamillo in the opera Carmen.

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Charles Fox Parham, American preacher and evangelist (born 1873)

Charles Fox Parham was an American preacher and evangelist. Together with William J. Seymour, Parham was one of the two central figures in the development and initial spread of early Pentecostalism, known as Holiness Pentecostalism. It was Parham who associated glossolalia with the baptism in the Holy Spirit, a theological connection crucial to the emergence of Pentecostalism as a distinct movement. Parham was the first preacher to articulate Pentecostalism's distinctive doctrine of evidential tongues, and to expand the movement.

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29/01/1928

Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, Scottish field marshal (born 1861)

Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, was a senior officer of the British Army. During the First World War he commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front from late 1915 until the end of the war.

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29/01/1923

Elihu Vedder, American symbolist painter, book illustrator and poet (born 1836)

Elihu Vedder was an American symbolist painter, book illustrator and poet from New York City. He is best known for his fifty-five illustrations for Edward FitzGerald's translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

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29/01/1917

Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer, British statesman, diplomat and colonial administrator (born 1841)

Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer, was a British statesman, diplomat and colonial administrator. He served as the British controller-general in Egypt during 1879, part of the international control which oversaw Egyptian finances after the Egyptian bankruptcy of 1876. He later became the agent and consul-general in Egypt from 1883 to 1907 during the British occupation, prompted by the Urabi revolt. This position gave Baring de facto control over Egyptian finances and governance.

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29/01/1916

Sibylle von Olfers, German art teacher, author and nun (born 1881)

Sibylle von Olfers was a German art teacher and a nun who worked as an author and illustrator of children's books. In 1906 she published her best-known work, The Root Children.

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29/01/1912

Herman Bang, Danish journalist and author (born 1857)

Herman Joachim Bang was a Danish journalist and author, one of the men of the Modern Breakthrough.

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29/01/1910

Édouard Rod, French-Swiss novelist (born 1857)

Édouard Rod was a French-Swiss novelist.

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29/01/1906

Christian IX of Denmark (born 1818)

Christian IX was King of Denmark from 15 November 1863 until his death in 1906. From 1863 to 1864, he was concurrently Duke of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg.

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29/01/1901

Eugène Louis-Marie Jancourt, French bassoonist, composer and pedagogue (born 1815)

Eugène Louis-Marie Jancourt was a French bassoonist, composer, and pedagogue. A virtuoso bassoonist and teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, Jancourt is mostly known for his method books and the system innovations he made to the “Buffet” style bassoon. He, along with his contemporary and fellow bassoonist Julius Weissenborn, is considered by many scholars to be one of the most important bassoonists of the 19th century.

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29/01/1899

Alfred Sisley, French-English painter (born 1839)

Alfred Sisley was a French-Born British Impressionist landscape painter who was born to British parents, but spent most of his life in France. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedication to painting landscape en plein air. He deviated into figure painting only rarely and, unlike Renoir and Pissarro, he found that Impressionism fulfilled his artistic needs.

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29/01/1888

Edward Lear, English poet and illustrator (born 1812)

Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised but which term he never used.

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29/01/1870

Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (born 1797)

Leopold II was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1824 to 1859. He married twice; firstly Maria Anna of Saxony, and after her death in 1832 Maria Antonia of the Two-Sicilies. By the latter, he had a son, Ferdinand, who later succeeded him. Leopold was recognised contemporarily as a liberal monarch, authorising the Tuscan Constitution of 1848, and allowing a degree of press freedom.

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29/01/1829

Paul Barras, French captain and politician (born 1755)

Paul François Jean Nicolas, Vicomte de Barras, commonly known as Paul Barras, was a French politician of the French Revolution, and the main executive leader of the Directory regime of 1795–1799.

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29/01/1820

George III of the United Kingdom (born 1738)

George III was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Great Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with George as its king. He was concurrently duke and prince-elector of Hanover in the Holy Roman Empire before becoming King of Hanover on 12 October 1814. He was the first monarch of the House of Hanover who was born in Great Britain, spoke English as his first language, and never visited Hanover.

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29/01/1763

Juan José Eguiara y Eguren, Mexican bishop and Catholic scholar (born 1696)

Juan José Eguiara y Eguren was a Mexican Catholic scholar and bishop. He is the author of Bibliotheca mexicana, "a pioneering bibliographical work for Mexico."

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Louis Racine, French poet (born 1692)

Louis Racine was a French poet of the Age of the Enlightenment.

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29/01/1743

André-Hercule de Fleury, French cardinal (born 1653)

André-Hercule de Fleury was a French Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Fréjus and as the chief minister of Louis XV. He was created a cardinal in 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII.

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29/01/1737

George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, Scottish-English field marshal and politician, Colonial Governor of Virginia (born 1666)

Field Marshal George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney,, styled Lord George Hamilton from 1666 to 1696, was a British army officer and the first officer of the British Army to be promoted to the rank of field marshal. After commanding a Scots Army regiment for the cause of William of Orange during the Williamite War in Ireland, he commanded another Scottish regiment in the Low Countries during the Nine Years' War.

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29/01/1706

Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, English poet and courtier (born 1643)

Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset was an English politician, courtier and poet.

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29/01/1678

Jerónimo Lobo, Portuguese missionary and author (born 1593)

Jerónimo Lobo was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary. He took part in the unsuccessful efforts to convert Ethiopia from the native Ethiopian church to Roman Catholicism until the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1643. Afterwards he wrote an account of his time in Ethiopia, Itinerário, which is an important source for the history and culture of that country.

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29/01/1647

Francis Meres, English priest and author (born 1565)

Francis Meres was an English churchman and author. His 1598 commonplace book includes the first critical account of poems and plays by Shakespeare.

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29/01/1597

Elias Ammerbach, German organist and composer (born 1530)

Elias Nikolaus Ammerbach was a German organist and arranger of organ music of the Renaissance. He published the earliest printed book of organ music in Germany and is grouped among the composers known as the Colorists.

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29/01/1119

Pope Gelasius II (born 1060)

Pope Gelasius II, born Giovanni Caetani or Giovanni da Gaeta, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 January 1118 to his death in 1119. A monk of Monte Cassino and chancellor of Pope Paschal II, Caetani was unanimously elected to succeed him. In doing so, he also inherited the conflict with Emperor Henry V over investiture. Gelasius spent a good part of his brief papacy in exile.

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29/01/0757

An Lushan, Chinese general (born 703)

Year 757 (DCCLVII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 757 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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