Died on Saturday, 31st January – Famous Deaths

31/01/2018

Rasual Butler, American professional basketball player (born 1979)

Rasual Butler was an American professional basketball player. In his 14-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career, he played for the Miami Heat, New Orleans Hornets, Los Angeles Clippers, Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards and San Antonio Spurs. Butler was born in Philadelphia, and raised in the Point Breeze area of South Philadelphia. After playing college basketball with the La Salle Explorers, he was drafted in the second round of the 2002 NBA draft by the Heat. On January 31, 2018, Butler was behind the wheel when he and his girlfriend, Leah LaBelle, died in a single vehicle car crash in Los Angeles.

---

Leah LaBelle, American singer (born 1986)

Leah LaBelle Vladowski was an American singer. She rose to prominence in 2004 as a contestant on the third season of American Idol, placing twelfth in the season finals. In 2007, LaBelle began recording covers of R&B and soul music for her YouTube channel. These videos led to work as a backing vocalist starting in 2008 and a record deal in 2011 with Epic in partnership with I Am Other and So So Def Recordings. LaBelle released a sampler, three singles, and a posthumous extended play (EP).

---

31/01/2017

Rob Stewart, Canadian filmmaker (born 1979)

Rob Stewart was a Canadian photographer, filmmaker and shark conservationist. He was best known for making and directing the documentary films Sharkwater and Revolution. He drowned at the age of 37 while scuba diving in Florida, filming Sharkwater Extinction.

---

31/01/2016

Terry Wogan, Irish radio and television host (born 1938)

Sir Michael Terence Wogan was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in Britain for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekday breakfast programme Wake Up to Wogan regularly drew an estimated eight million listeners. He was believed to be the most listened-to radio broadcaster in Europe.

---

31/01/2015

Vic Howe, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1929)

Victor Stanley Howe was a Canadian professional ice hockey right wing. He played 33 games in the National Hockey League with the New York Rangers between 1951 and 1955. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1948 to 1957, was spent in various minor leagues. Howe's brother, Gordie, and nephews Mark and Marty all played in the NHL as well; both Gordie and Mark are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

---

Udo Lattek, German footballer, coach and journalist (born 1935)

Udo Lattek was a German professional football player and coach.

---

Lizabeth Scott, American actress (born 1922)

Lizabeth Virginia Scott was an American actress, singer, and model for the Walter Thornton Model Agency, known for her "smoky voice". She was called "the most beautiful face of film noir during the 1940s and 1950s". After understudying the role of Sabina in the original Broadway and Boston stage productions of The Skin of Our Teeth, she emerged in films including The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), Dead Reckoning (1947), Desert Fury (1947), and Too Late for Tears (1949). Of her 22 films, she was the leading lady in all but three. In addition to stage and radio, she appeared on television from the late 1940s to early 1970s.

---

Richard von Weizsäcker, German captain and politician, 6th President of Germany (born 1920)

Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker was a German politician (CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, he took his first public offices in the Protestant Church in Germany.

---

31/01/2014

Anna Gordy Gaye, American songwriter and producer, co-founded Anna Records (born 1922)

Anna Ruby Gaye was an American businesswoman, composer and songwriter. An elder sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy, she became a record executive in the mid-to-late 1950s distributing records released on Checker and Gone Records before forming the Anna label with Billy Davis and her sister Gwen Gordy Fuqua. Gordy later became known as a songwriter for several hits including the Originals' "Baby, I'm for Real", and "God Is Love" from Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album. The first wife of Gaye, their turbulent marriage later served as inspiration for Gaye's 14th studio album, Here, My Dear.

---

Abdirizak Haji Hussein, Somalian politician, 4th Prime Minister of Somalia (born 1924)

Abdirizak Haji Hussein was a Somali diplomat and politician. He was the Prime Minister of Somali Republic from 14 June 1964 to 15 July 1967.

---

Miklós Jancsó, Hungarian director and screenwriter (born 1921)

Miklós Jancsó was a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. Jancsó achieved international prominence starting in the mid-1960s with works including The Round-Up, The Red and the White, and Red Psalm.

---

31/01/2013

Rubén Bonifaz Nuño, Mexican poet and scholar (born 1923)

Rubén Bonifaz Nuño was a Mexican poet and classical scholar.

---

Hassan Habibi, Iranian lawyer and politician, 1st Vice President of Iran (born 1937)

Hassan Ebrahim Habibi was an Iranian politician, lawyer, scholar and the first vice president from 1989 until 2001 under Presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami. He was also a member of the High Council of Cultural Revolution and head of Academy of Persian Language and Literature from 2004 until his death in 2013.

---

31/01/2012

Mani Ram Bagri, Indian lawyer and politician (born 1920)

Ch. Mani Ram Bagri was an Indian parliamentarian and political activist. He served three terms in the Indian Parliament, first from 1962 to 1967, and then again from 1977 to 1984 [Consisting of two terms: 1977-1980 and 1980-1984]. He belonged to the league of parliamentary opposition socialists like Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan.

---

Dorothea Tanning, American painter and sculptor (born 1910)

Dorothea Margaret Tanning was an American painter, printmaker, sculptor, writer, and poet. Her early work was influenced by European Surrealism.

---

31/01/2011

Bartolomeu Anania, Romanian bishop and poet (born 1921)

Bartolomeu Anania was a Romanian Orthodox bishop, translator, writer, and poet. He was the Metropolitan of Cluj, Alba, Crișana and Maramureș.

---

31/01/2008

František Čapek, Czech canoeist (born 1914)

František Čapek was a Czech sprint canoeist who competed for Czechoslovakia from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s. He won a gold medal in the C-1 10000 m event at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London.

---

31/01/2007

Molly Ivins, American journalist and author (born 1944)

Mary Tyler "Molly" Ivins was an American newspaper columnist, author, and political commentator, known for her humorous and insightful writing, which often used satire and wit to critique political figures and policies.

---

Adelaide Tambo, South African activist and politician (born 1929)

Adelaide Frances Tambo was a South African anti-apartheid activist and former political exile.

---

31/01/2006

Moira Shearer, Scottish actress and ballerina (born 1926)

Moira Shearer King, Lady Kennedy was a Scottish ballet dancer and actress. She was famous for her performances in Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes (1948) and The Tales of Hoffman (1951), and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960).

---

31/01/2004

Eleanor Holm, American swimmer and actress (born 1913)

Eleanor Grace Theresa Holm was an American competition swimmer and Olympic gold medalist. An Olympian in 1928 and 1932, Holm was expelled from the 1936 Summer Olympics team by Avery Brundage under controversial circumstances. Holm went on to have a high-profile career as a socialite and interior designer and co-starred in a Hollywood Tarzan movie, Tarzan's Revenge.

---

Suraiya, Indian actress and playback singer (born 1929)

Suraiya Jamal Sheikh, mononymously known as Suraiya, was an Indian actress and playback singer who worked in Hindi films. Regarded as one of the greatest and finest actresses in the history of Indian cinema, she was known for her strong on-screen portrayals in a variety of genres. In a career spanning from 1936 to 1964, Suraiya acted in over 70 films and sang 338 songs. Suraiya was the most celebrated actress between the mid- to late 1940s and early 1950s and was paid more than her male counterparts.

---

31/01/2002

Gabby Gabreski, American colonel and pilot (born 1919)

Francis Stanley "Gabby" Gabreski was a Polish-American career pilot in the United States Air Force who retired as a colonel after 26 years of military service. He was the top American and United States Army Air Forces fighter ace over Europe during World War II and a jet fighter ace with the Air Force in the Korean War.

---

31/01/2001

Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian American author (born 1923)

Gordon Rupert Dickson was an American science fiction writer. He was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2000.

---

31/01/2000

Gil Kane, Latvian American author and illustrator (born 1926)

Gil Kane was a Latvian-born American comics artist whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s and virtually every major comics company and character.

---

31/01/1999

Giant Baba, Japanese wrestler and trainer, co-founded All Japan Pro Wrestling (born 1938)

Shohei Baba , best known by his ring name Giant Baba , was a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter, and professional baseball player. He is best known as a co-founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), a promotion he founded in 1972 along with Mitsuo Momota and Yoshihiro Momota, the sons of his mentor Rikidōzan. For the first 10 years of its existence, Baba was the top star of All Japan, while also serving as the booker, promoter, head trainer and president of the promotion from its inception in 1972 till his death in 1999. Baba was also responsible for recruiting much of the talent for All Japan, and was the public face of the promotion for much of his lifetime.

---

31/01/1997

John Joseph Scanlan, Irish American bishop (born 1930)

John Joseph Scanlan was an Irish-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the second bishop of the Diocese of Honolulu in Hawaii from 1968 to 1981. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the same diocese from 1954 to 1968.

---

31/01/1990

Eveline Du Bois-Reymond Marcus, German zoologist and academic (born 1901)

Eveline du Bois-Reymond Marcus was a German zoologist and drawer.

---

Rashad Khalifa, Egyptian American biochemist and academic (born 1935)

Rashad Khalifa was an Egyptian-American biochemist, closely associated with the United Submitters International (USI), an organization that promotes the practice and study of "Quran, the Whole Quran, and Nothing But the Quran." Khalifa saw his role as purging the accretions that found their way into Islam via hadith and sunnah, which he claimed were corruptions. Similarly, he believed that previous revelations of God, such as the Bible, contained contradictions due to human interference . Instead, he believed that the beliefs and practices of Islam should be based on the Quran alone. He is also known for his claims regarding the existence of a Quran code, also known as The Number 19. In the last years of his life, Khalifa used the English words “Submission” and “Submitter” instead of the Arabic words ‘Islam’ and “Muslim”, and stated this in his publications and used it in his 1989 translation of the Qur'an.

---

31/01/1989

William Stephenson, Canadian captain and spy (born 1896)

Sir William Samuel Stephenson was a Canadian soldier, fighter pilot, businessman and spymaster who served as the senior representative of the British Security Coordination (BSC) for the Western Allies during World War II. He is best known by his wartime intelligence code name, Intrepid. Many people consider him to be one of the real-life inspirations for James Bond. Ian Fleming himself once wrote, "James Bond is a highly romanticised version of a true spy. The real thing is... William Stephenson."

---

31/01/1987

Yves Allégret, French director and screenwriter (born 1907)

Yves Allégret was a French film director, often working in the film noir genre. He was born in Asnières-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine and died in Paris.

---

31/01/1985

Reginald Baker, English Australian film producer (born 1896)

Reginald Poynton Baker, MC FCA FRSA was a British film producer and a major contributor to the development of the British film industry. Along with his younger brother Leslie Forsyth, he played a decisive role in establishing Ealing Studios. He was the father of Conservative MP Peter Baker. Baker died in Australia aged 89.

---

Tatsuzō Ishikawa, Japanese author (born 1905)

Tatsuzō Ishikawa was a Japanese writer. He was the first winner of the Akutagawa Prize.

---

31/01/1979

Olga Olgina, Polish opera singer and teacher (born 1904)

Olga Józefowicz, known professionally as Olga Olgina, was a Polish coloratura soprano, teacher and pianist. She made her debut in the title role of Verdi's La traviata at the Vilnius Opera in 1922 at age 18 and retired in 1977. She taught at the Łódź Conservatory, becoming dean of the institution. Teresa Żylis-Gara was one of her students.

---

31/01/1976

Ernesto Miranda, American criminal (born 1941)

Ernesto Arturo Miranda was an American laborer whose criminal conviction was set aside in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona, which ruled that criminal suspects must be informed of their right against self-incrimination and their right to consult with an attorney before being questioned by police. This warning is known as a Miranda warning. Miranda had been convicted of kidnapping, rape, and armed robbery charges based on his confession under police interrogation.

---

Evert Taube, Swedish author and composer (born 1890)

Axel Evert Taube was a Swedish singer, composer, and writer. He is widely regarded as one of Sweden's most respected musicians and the foremost troubadour of the Swedish ballad tradition in the 20th century.

---

31/01/1974

Samuel Goldwyn, Polish American film producer, co-founded Goldwyn Pictures (born 1882)

Samuel Goldwyn was a Polish-born American film producer and pioneer in the American film industry, who produced the United States's first major motion picture. He was best known for being the founding contributor and executive of several motion picture studios. He was awarded the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award (1973), the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (1947), and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (1958).

---

31/01/1973

Ragnar Frisch, Norwegian economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1895)

Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch was an influential Norwegian economist and econometrician known for being one of the major contributors to establishing economics as a quantitative and statistically informed science in the early 20th century. He coined the term econometrics in 1926 for utilising statistical methods to describe economic systems, as well as the terms microeconomics and macroeconomics in 1933, for describing individual and aggregate economic systems, respectively. He was the first to develop a statistically informed model of business cycles in 1933. Later work on the model, together with Jan Tinbergen, won the first Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1969.

---

31/01/1971

Viktor Zhirmunsky, Russian historian and linguist (born 1891)

Viktor Maksimovich Zhirmunsky was a Soviet and Russian literary historian and linguist.

---

31/01/1969

Meher Baba, Indian spiritual master (born 1894)

Meher Baba was an Indian spiritual master who said he was the Avatar, or the total manifestation of God in human form. A spiritual figure of the 20th century, he had a following of hundreds of thousands of people, mostly in India, with a smaller number of followers in North America, Europe, South America, and Australia.

---

31/01/1967

Eddie Tolan, American sprinter and educator (born 1908)

Thomas Edward Tolan, nicknamed the "Midnight Express", was an American track and field athlete who competed in sprints. He set world records in the 100-yard dash and 100 meters event and Olympic records in the 100 meters and 200 meters events. He was the first non-Euro-American to receive the title of the "world's fastest human" after winning gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters events at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In March 1935, Tolan won the 75, 100 and 220-yard events at the World Professional Sprint Championships in Melbourne to become the first man to win both the amateur and professional world sprint championships. In his full career as a sprinter, Tolan won 300 races and lost only 7.

---

31/01/1966

Arthur Percival, English general (born 1887)

Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival, was a British Army officer. He saw service in the First World War and built a successful military career during the interwar period, but is best known for his defeat in the Second World War, when Percival commanded British Commonwealth forces during the Malayan campaign, which culminated in a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Singapore.

---

31/01/1961

Krishna Singh, Indian politician, 1st Chief Minister of Bihar (born 1887)

Shri Krishna Singh (Sinha) (21 October 1887 – 31 January 1961), also known as Shri Babu, was the first chief minister of the Indian state of Bihar (1946–61). Except for the period of World War II, Sinha was the chief minister of Bihar from the time of the first Congress Ministry in 1937 until his death in 1961. He led the Dalit entry into the Baidyanath Dham, Deoghar. He was the first chief minister in the country to abolish the zamindari system. He was imprisoned for a total of about eight years in British India. He held mass meetings at which he spoke. He was known as Bihar Kesari for his "lionlike roars" in public speaking.

---

31/01/1960

Auguste Herbin, French painter (born 1882)

Auguste Herbin was a French painter of modern art. He is best known for his Cubist and abstract paintings consisting of colorful geometric figures. He co-founded the groups Abstraction-Création and Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, which promoted non-figurative abstract art.

---

31/01/1958

Karl Selter, Estonian politician, 14th Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1898)

Karl Selter was an Estonian politician and a Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia. He served as Minister of Economic Affairs from 1933 to 1938 and as minister of Foreign affairs from 1938 to 1939. His historically most memorable act was to sign a non-aggression and mutual assistance treaty with the Soviet leaders in Moscow in September 1939. This was also his personal and national Estonian most tragic act. It followed a brutal ultimatum from the Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov on 24 September. Molotov said to Selter: Estonia gained sovereignty when the Soviet Union was powerless, but you “don’t think that this can last… forever… The Soviet Union is now a great power whose interests need to be taken into consideration. I tell you—the Soviet Union needs enlargement of her security guarantee system; for this purpose she needs an exit to the Baltic Sea … I ask you, do not compel us to use force against Estonia.” The enforced in this manner treaty gave the Soviet army a right to set up military bases in Estonia, and it significantly reduced Estonia's independence until Estonia was formally incorporated into the Soviet Union between June and August 1940. Selter left Estonia in November 1939, resigning both as Foreign Minister and as a member of Parliament. He moved to Geneva, Switzerland as a diplomat. After Germany occupied Estonia between 1941 and 1944, and after it was re-incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1944, he stayed in Switzerland as an exiled diplomat and politician.

---

31/01/1956

A. A. Milne, English author, poet and playwright, created Winnie-the-Pooh (born 1882)

Alan Alexander Milne was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winnie-the-Pooh overshadowed his previous work. He served as a lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in the First World War and as a captain in the Home Guard in the Second World War.

---

31/01/1955

John Mott, American activist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1865)

John Raleigh Mott was an American evangelist and long-serving leader of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF). He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 for his work in establishing and strengthening international Protestant Christian student organizations that worked to promote peace. He shared the prize with Emily Greene Balch. From 1895 until 1920 Mott was the General Secretary of the WSCF. Intimately involved in the formation of the World Council of Churches in 1948, that body elected him as a lifelong honorary President. He helped found the World Student Christian Federation in 1895, the 1910 World Missionary Conference and the World Council of Churches in 1948. His best-known book, The Evangelization of the World in this Generation, became a missionary slogan in the early 20th century.

---

31/01/1954

Edwin Howard Armstrong, American engineer, invented FM radio (born 1890)

Edwin Howard Armstrong was an American radio-frequency engineer and inventor who developed FM radio and the superheterodyne receiver system.

---

31/01/1944

Jean Giraudoux, French author and playwright (born 1882)

Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II.

---

31/01/1933

John Galsworthy, English novelist and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1867)

John Galsworthy was an English novelist and playwright. He is best known for his trilogy of novels collectively called The Forsyte Saga, and two later trilogies, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter. He was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in Literature.

---

31/01/1923

Eligiusz Niewiadomski, Polish painter and critic (born 1869)

Eligiusz Józef Niewiadomski was a Polish modernist painter and art critic who sympathized with the right-wing National Democracy movement. In 1922, he assassinated Poland's first President, Gabriel Narutowicz, in his first week in office as president.

---

31/01/1911

Paul Singer, German politician (born 1844)

Paul Singer was a leading Marxist in and representative of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Co-Chairmen of the SPD along with fellow Marxist August Bebel from 1890 until his death in 1911. His grave now forms part of the Memorial to the Socialists in the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery, Berlin.

---

31/01/1900

John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, Scottish nobleman (born 1844)

John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry was a British nobleman of the Victorian era, remembered for his atheism, his outspoken views, his brutish manner, for lending his name to the "Queensberry Rules" that form the basis of modern boxing, and for his role in the downfall of the Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde.

---

31/01/1892

Charles Spurgeon, English pastor and author (born 1834)

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was an English Particular Baptist preacher. Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations, to some of whom he is known as the "Prince of Preachers." He was a strong figure in the Baptist tradition, defending the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, and opposing the liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church of his day.

---

31/01/1888

John Bosco, Italian priest and educator, founded the Salesian Society (born 1815)

John Melchior Bosco, SDB, popularly known as Don Bosco, was an Italian Catholic priest, educator and writer. While working in Turin, where the population suffered many of the ill effects of industrialization and urbanization, he dedicated his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth. He developed teaching methods based on love rather than punishment, a method that became known as the Salesian Preventive System.

---

31/01/1870

Cilibi Moise, Moldavian Romanian journalist and author (born 1812)

Cilibi Moise or Cilibi Moisi was a Moldavian-born Wallachian and Romanian peddler, humorist, aphorist, and raconteur. He is best known for the aphorisms and anecdotes attributed to him, which, although recorded in Romanian, represent an important segment of the local secular Jewish culture and Jewish humor in the 19th century. Moise relied on others to record his own creations, and these often refer to him using the third person, which made him a stock character.

---

31/01/1856

11th Dalai Lama (born 1838)

The 11th Dalai Lama, Khedrup Gyatso was recognized by the Ganden Tripa as the 11th Dalai Lama of Tibet and enthroned in 1842. He enlarged the Norbulingka, studied at Sera Monastery, Drepung Monastery and Ganden Monastery, and taught students.

---

31/01/1844

Henri Gatien Bertrand, French general (born 1773)

Henri-Gatien Bertrand was a French general who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Under the Empire he was the third and last Grand marshal of the palace, the head of the Military Household of emperor Napoleon, whom he followed in both the exiles to Elba and Saint Helena.

---

31/01/1836

John Cheyne, English physician and author (born 1777)

John Cheyne FRSE FKQCPI was a British physician, surgeon, Professor of Medicine in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and author of monographs on a number of medical topics. He was one of the people to identify Cheyne–Stokes respiration.

---

31/01/1828

Alexander Ypsilantis, Greek general (born 1792)

Alexandros Ypsilantis was a Greek nationalist politician who was member of a prominent Phanariot Greek family, a prince of the Danubian Principalities, a senior officer of the Imperial Russian cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars, and a leader of the Filiki Etaireia, a secret organization that coordinated the beginning of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire.

---

31/01/1815

José Félix Ribas, Venezuelan soldier (born 1775)

José Félix Ribas was a Venezuelan independence leader and hero of the Venezuelan War of Independence.

---

31/01/1811

Manuel Alberti, Argentinian priest and journalist (born 1763)

Manuel Maximiliano Alberti was an Argentine priest from Buenos Aires when the city was part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. He had a curacy at Maldonado, Uruguay during the British invasions of the River Plate, and returned to Buenos Aires in time to take part in the May Revolution of 1810. He was chosen as one of the seven members of the Primera Junta, considered the first national government of Argentina. Alberti supported most of the proposals of Mariano Moreno and worked at the Gazeta de Buenos Ayres newspaper. Internal disputes among Junta members had a negative effect on Alberti's health, and he died of a heart attack in 1811.

---

31/01/1794

Mariot Arbuthnot, English admiral and politician, 12th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia (born 1711)

Admiral of the Blue Mariot Arbuthnot was a Royal Navy officer who served in the American War of Independence.

---

31/01/1790

Thomas Lewis, Irish-born American lawyer and surveyor (born 1718)

Thomas Lewis was an Irish-American surveyor, lawyer, politician and pioneer of early western Virginia. He was among the signers of the Fairfax Resolves, represented Augusta County at four of the five Virginia Revolutionary Conventions and the first session of the Virginia House of Delegates during the American War for Independence, and after the conflict, represented newly established Rockingham County at the Virginia Ratification Convention, as well as contributed to the settlement of Kanawha County that, long after his death, become part of West Virginia.

---

31/01/1736

Filippo Juvarra, Italian architect and set designer, designed the Basilica of Superga (born 1678)

Filippo Juvarra or Juvara was an Italian architect, scenographer, engraver and goldsmith. He was active in a late-Baroque architecture style, working primarily in Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

---

31/01/1729

Jacob Roggeveen, Dutch explorer (born 1659)

Jacob Roggeveen was a Dutch explorer who was sent to find Terra Australis and Davis Land, but instead found Easter Island. Jacob Roggeveen was the first European to find Bora Bora and Maupiti of the Society Islands, as well as Samoa. He planned the expedition along with his brother Jan Roggeveen, who stayed in the Netherlands.

---

31/01/1720

Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, English politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (born 1654)

Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, PC was an English politician.

---

31/01/1686

Jean Mairet, French playwright (born 1604)

Jean (de) Mairet was a classical French dramatist who wrote both tragedies and comedies.

---

31/01/1665

Johannes Clauberg, German philosopher and theologian (born 1622)

Johannes Clauberg was a German philosopher and theologian. Clauberg was the founding Rector of the first University of Duisburg, where he taught from 1655 to 1665. He is known as a "scholastic cartesian".

---

31/01/1632

Jost Bürgi, Swiss clockmaker and mathematician (born 1552)

Jost Bürgi, active primarily at the courts in Kassel and Prague, was a Swiss clockmaker, mathematician, and writer. Burgi was the brother-in-law and adoptive father of Benjamin Bramer.

---

31/01/1615

Claudio Acquaviva, Italian priest, 5th Superior General of the Society of Jesus (born 1543)

Claudio Acquaviva, SJ was an Italian Jesuit priest. Elected in 1581 as the fifth Superior General of the Society of Jesus, he has been referred to as the second founder of the Jesuit order.

---

31/01/1606

Guy Fawkes, English conspirator, leader of the Gunpowder Plot (born 1570)

Guy Fawkes, also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated in York; his father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic.

---

Ambrose Rookwood, English Gunpowder Plot conspirator (born 1578)

Ambrose Rookwood was a member of the failed 1605 Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy to replace the Protestant King James I with a Catholic sovereign. Rookwood was born into a wealthy family of Catholic recusants, and educated by Jesuits in Flanders. His older brother became a Franciscan, and his two younger brothers were ordained as Catholic priests. Rookwood became a horse-breeder. He married the Catholic Elizabeth Tyrwhitt, and had at least two sons.

---

Thomas Wintour, English Gunpowder Plot conspirator (born 1571)

Robert Wintour and Thomas Wintour, also spelt Winter, were members of the Gunpowder Plot, a failed conspiracy to assassinate King James I. They were brothers, and related to other conspirators, such as their cousin, Robert Catesby; a half-brother, John Wintour, also joined them following the plot's failure. Thomas was an intelligent and educated man, fluent in several languages and trained as a lawyer, but chose instead to become a soldier, fighting for England in the Low Countries, France, and possibly in Central Europe. By 1600, however, he changed his mind and became a fervent Catholic. On several occasions he travelled to the continent and entreated Spain on behalf of England's oppressed Catholics, and suggested that with Spanish support a Catholic rebellion was likely.

---

31/01/1580

Henry, king of Portugal (born 1512)

Henry, dubbed the Chaste and the Cardinal-King, was King of Portugal and an inquisitor and cardinal of the Catholic Church, who ruled Portugal between 1578 and 1580. As a clergyman, he was bound to celibacy, and as such, had no children to succeed him, and thus put an end to the reigning House of Aviz. His death led to the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580 and ultimately to the 60-year Iberian Union that saw Portugal share a monarch with Habsburg Spain. The next independent monarch of Portugal would be John IV, who restored the throne after 60 years of Spanish rule. He was the only cardinal to have served as a monarch.

---

31/01/1561

Bairam Khan, Mughalan general (born 1501)

Muhammad Bairam Khan, commonly known as Bairam Khan or Bayram Khan was an important military commander, and later commander-in-chief of the Mughal army, a powerful statesman and regent at the court of the Mughal Emperors Humayun and Akbar. He was also the guardian, chief mentor, adviser, teacher and the most trusted ally of Akbar. Akbar honoured him as Khan-i-Khanan, which means "King of Kings". Bairam was originally called Bairam "Beg", but later became honoured as Khan. Bairam Khan was an aggressive general who was determined to restore Mughal authority in India.

---

Menno Simons, Dutch minister and theologian (born 1496)

Menno Simons was a Roman Catholic priest from the Friesland region of the Low Countries who was excommunicated from the Catholic Church and became an influential Anabaptist religious leader. Simons was a contemporary of the Protestant Reformers and it is from his name that his followers became known as Mennonites.

---

31/01/1435

Xuande, emperor of China (born 1398)

The Xuande Emperor, personal name Zhu Zhanji, was the fifth emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1425 to 1435. He was the son and successor of the Hongxi Emperor.

---

31/01/1418

Mircea I, prince of Wallachia (born 1355)

Mircea the Elder was the Voivode of Wallachia from 1386 until his death in 1418. He was the son of Radu I of Wallachia and brother of Dan I of Wallachia, after whose death he inherited the throne.

---

31/01/1398

Sukō, emperor of Japan (born 1334)

Emperor Sukō was the third of the Emperors of Northern Court during the Period of the Northern and Southern Courts in Japan. According to pre-Meiji scholars, his reign spanned the years from 1348 through 1351.

---

31/01/1216

Theodore II, patriarch of Constantinople

Theodore II of Constantinople, also known as Theodore Kopas or Koupas (Κωπᾶς/Κουπᾶς), was a high-ranking Byzantine official and chief minister during most of the reign of the Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos. After the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade, he fled to the Empire of Nicaea, where he became a monk and served as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in exile in 1213–1216.

---

31/01/1030

William V, duke of Aquitaine (born 969)

William the Great was duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitou from 990 until his death. Upon the death of the emperor Henry II, he was offered the kingdom of Italy but declined to contest the title against Conrad II.

---

31/01/0985

Ryōgen, Japanese monk and abbot (born 912)

Ryōgen was the 18th chief abbot of Enryaku-ji in the 10th century.

---

31/01/0876

Hemma of Altdorf, Frankish queen

Emma of Altdorf, also known as Hemma, a member of the Elder House of Welf, was Queen consort of East Francia by marriage to King Louis the German, from 843 until her death.

---

31/01/0632

Máedóc of Ferns, Irish bishop and saint (born 550)

Saint Máedóc of Ferns, also known as Saint Aidan, Saint Madoc or Saint Mogue, was an Irish saint. He was the first Bishop of Ferns in County Wexford, and the founder of thirty churches.

---