Died on Wednesday, 7th January – Famous Deaths

07/01/2026

Glenn Hall, Canadian ice hockey goaltender (born 1931)

Glenn Henry Hall was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. During his National Hockey League career, which lasted from 1952 to 1971 with the Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Black Hawks, and St. Louis Blues, Hall set a record with 502 consecutive games played as a goaltender. He won the Vezina Trophy three times, was voted the first team All-Star goaltender seven times, and was awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy as best rookie in 1956. He also won the Stanley Cup with the Black Hawks in 1961. Nicknamed "Mr. Goalie", he was the first goaltender to use the butterfly style. In 2017, Hall was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history.

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07/01/2025

Jean-Marie Le Pen, French intelligence officer and politician (born 1928)

Jean Louis Marie Le Pen was a French politician. He founded the far-right National Front party and served as the party's president from 1972 to 2011 and as its honorary president from 2011 to 2015.

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Peter Yarrow, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1938)

Peter Yarrow was an American singer and songwriter who found fame as a member of the 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary along with Paul Stookey and Mary Travers.

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07/01/2024

Franz Beckenbauer, German footballer and manager (born 1945)

Franz Anton Beckenbauer was a German professional football player, manager, and official. Nicknamed der Kaiser, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential players of all time. Beckenbauer was a versatile player who started out as a midfielder, but made his name as a centre-back. He is often credited as having invented the role of the modern sweeper.

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07/01/2021

Michael Apted, English filmmaker (born 1941)

Michael David Apted was an English television and film director and producer.

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Tommy Lasorda, American baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1927)

Thomas Charles Lasorda was an American professional baseball pitcher and manager. He managed the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1976 through 1996. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager in 1997.

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Henri Schwery, Swiss cardinal (born 1932)

Henri Schwery was a Swiss prelate of the Catholic Church who was Bishop of Sion from 1977 to 1995. He was raised to the rank of cardinal in 1991.

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07/01/2020

Neil Peart, Canadian drummer, songwriter, and producer (born 1952)

Neil Ellwood Peart was a Canadian musician and author, who was the drummer, percussionist, and primary lyricist of the rock band Rush. He was nicknamed "the Professor", after the Gilligan's Island character of the same name. His drumming was renowned for its technical proficiency and his live performances for their exacting nature and stamina. Peart earned numerous awards for his musical performances, including an induction into the Modern Drummer Readers Poll Hall of Fame in 1983 at the age of 30, making him the youngest person ever so honoured.

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Silvio Horta, American screenwriter and television producer (born 1974)

Silvio Horta was an American screenwriter and television producer widely noted for adapting the hit Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea into the ABC series Ugly Betty. Horta served as head writer and executive producer on the series.

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Elizabeth Wurtzel, author and feminist (born 1967)

Elizabeth Lee Wurtzel was an American writer, journalist, and lawyer known for the confessional memoir Prozac Nation, which she published at the age of 27. Her work often focused on chronicling her personal struggles with depression, addiction, career, and relationships. Wurtzel's work drove a boom in confessional writing and the personal memoir genre during the 1990s, and she was viewed as a voice of Generation X. In her later life, Wurtzel worked briefly as an attorney before her death from breast cancer.

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07/01/2018

Jim Anderton, Former New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister (born 1938)

James Patrick Anderton was a New Zealand politician who led a succession of left-wing parties after leaving the Labour Party in 1989.

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France Gall, French singer (born 1947)

Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne Gall, known professionally as France Gall, was a French yé-yé and pop singer. In 1965, at the age of 17, she won the tenth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Poupée de cire, poupée de son", representing Luxembourg. Later in her career, she worked with singer-songwriter Michel Berger, whom she married in 1976. Her most successful singles include "Il jouait du piano debout", "Ella, elle l'a" and "Évidemment".

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07/01/2017

Mário Soares, Portuguese politician; 16th President of Portugal (born 1924)

Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares was a Portuguese statesman who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985 and subsequently as the president of Portugal from 1986 to 1996. He was the first secretary-general of the Socialist Party, from its foundation in 1973 to 1986. A major political figure in Portugal, he is considered the father of Portuguese democracy.

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07/01/2016

Bill Foster, American basketball player and coach (born 1929)

William Edwin Foster was the head men's basketball coach at Rutgers University, University of Utah, Duke University, University of South Carolina, and Northwestern University. He is best known for guiding Duke to the NCAA championship game in 1978, and that year he was named national Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Foster was inducted into the Rutgers Basketball Hall of Fame and was the first NCAA coach to guide four teams to 20-win seasons. Foster was a graduate of Elizabethtown College.

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John Johnson, American basketball player (born 1947)

John Howard Getty "J. J." Johnson was an American professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

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Kitty Kallen, American singer (born 1921)

Katie "Kitty" Kallen was an American singer whose career spanned from the 1930s to the 1960s, including the Swing era of the Big Band years, the post-World War II pop scene, and the early years of rock 'n roll. Kallen performed with popular big band leaders of the 1940s, including Jimmy Dorsey and Harry James, before establishing a solo career.

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Judith Kaye, American lawyer and jurist (born 1938)

Judith Ann Kaye was an American lawyer, jurist and the longtime Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, serving in that position from 1993 to 2008.

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Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Indian lawyer and politician, Indian Minister of Home Affairs (born 1936)

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was an Indian politician who served as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir twice from November 2002 to November 2005 and from March 2015 until his death on January 7, 2016. He held various positions, including minister of Tourism in Rajiv Gandhi's cabinet and minister of Home Affairs in V. P. Singh's cabinet. Sayeed began his political career in the wing of the National Conference led by G. M. Sadiq, which later merged with the Indian National Congress. In 1987, he transitioned to the Janata Dal and subsequently founded the People's Democratic Party (PDP), a regional political party that remains influential in Jammu and Kashmir, currently led by his daughter, Mehbooba Mufti.

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07/01/2015

Mompati Merafhe, Botswana general and politician, Vice-President of Botswana (born 1936)

Mompati Sebogodi Merafhe was a Motswana politician who was Vice-President of Botswana from 2008 to 2012. He was a retired Lieutenant-General and served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 2008.

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Rod Taylor, Australian-American actor and screenwriter (born 1930)

Rodney Sturt Taylor was an Australian actor. He appeared in more than 50 feature films, including Young Cassidy (1965), Nobody Runs Forever (1968), The Train Robbers (1973), and A Matter of Wife... and Death (1975).

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Georges Wolinski, Tunisian-French cartoonist (born 1934)

Georges David Wolinski was a French cartoonist and comics writer. He was killed on 7 January 2015 in the Charlie Hebdo shooting.

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07/01/2014

Run Run Shaw, Chinese-Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist, founded Shaw Brothers Studio and TVB (born 1907)

Sir Run Run Shaw, also known as Shao Yifu and Siu Yat-fu, was a Hong Kong businessman, filmmaker, and philanthropist. He was one of the foremost influential movie moguls in the East Asian and Hong Kong entertainment industry. He founded the Shaw Brothers Studio, one of the largest film production companies in Hong Kong, and TVB, the dominant television company in Hong Kong.

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07/01/2012

Tony Blankley, British-born American child actor, journalist and pundit (born 1948)

Anthony David Blankley was an American political analyst who served as press secretary for Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and as a regular panelist on The McLaughlin Group. He later became an executive vice president at Edelman, a Washington, D.C.–based public relations firm.

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07/01/2008

Alwyn Schlebusch, South African academic and politician, Vice State President of South Africa (born 1917)

Alwyn Louis Schlebusch was a South African politician, the only holder of the title Vice State President of South Africa from 1 January 1981 to 14 September 1984. He was an Afrikaner with a surname of German origin. He was born in Lady Grey, Eastern Cape. He was the son of Charel Johannes Schlebusch and Elizabeth Cornelia Myburgh and eldest brother of Charel Johannes Schlebusch, Elsie Cornelia Schlebusch and Anna Christina Schlebusch.

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07/01/2007

Bobby Hamilton, American race car driver and businessman (born 1957)

Charles Robert Hamilton Sr. was an American stock car racing driver and racing team owner. A driver and owner in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series circuit and the winner of the 2004 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship, Hamilton owned Bobby Hamilton Racing. Hamilton's son, Bobby Hamilton Jr., was also a NASCAR driver.

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Magnus Magnusson, Icelandic journalist, author, and academic (born 1929)

Magnus Magnusson was an Icelandic-born Scottish journalist, translator, writer and television presenter. Born in Reykjavík, he lived in Scotland for almost all his life, although he never took British citizenship. He came to prominence as a BBC television journalist and was the presenter of the BBC television quiz programme Mastermind for 25 years.

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07/01/2006

Heinrich Harrer, Austrian mountaineer, geographer, and author (born 1912)

Heinrich Harrer was an Austrian mountaineer, explorer, writer, sportsman, geographer, and an SS sergeant. He was a member of the four-man climbing team that made the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger, the "last problem" of the Alps, in July 1938. Harrer and the team flew the Nazi flag atop the mountain. Harrer had joined the Nazi Party shortly after the annexation of Austria in March 1938, and was personally received by Hitler after the climb. A year later in 1939, he and the climbing team went on an expedition to the Indian Himalayas, where they were arrested by British colonial authorities due to the outbreak of World War II. He eventually escaped to Tibet, staying there until 1951. He is the author of two autobiographical books, Seven Years in Tibet (1952) and The White Spider (1959).

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07/01/2005

Pierre Daninos, French author (born 1913)

Pierre Daninos was a French writer and humorist.

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07/01/2004

Ingrid Thulin, Swedish actress (born 1926)

Ingrid Lilian Thulin was a Swedish actress and director who collaborated with filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. She was often cast as harrowing and desperate characters, and earned acclaim from both Swedish and international critics. She won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her performance in Brink of Life (1958) and the inaugural Guldbagge Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Silence (1963), and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA for Cries and Whispers (1972).

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07/01/2002

Avery Schreiber, American comedian and actor (born 1935)

Avery Lawrence Schreiber was an American actor and comedian. He was a veteran of stage, television, and movies who came to prominence in the 1960s in a comedy duo with Jack Burns. He acted in an array of roles mostly on television sitcoms and a series of popular advertisements for Doritos tortilla chips.

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07/01/2001

James Carr, American singer (born 1942)

James Edward Carr was an American R&B and soul singer, described as "one of the greatest pure vocalists that deep Southern soul ever produced".

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07/01/2000

Gary Albright, American wrestler (born 1963)

Gary Mitchell Albright was an American professional wrestler best known for his work in Japan, first with UWF International (UWFi), and later All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). In AJPW, Albright was a two-time World Tag Team Champion. Albright was also known for his work with Stampede Wrestling in Canada, under his birth name as well as the ring name Vokhan Singh.

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07/01/1998

Owen Bradley, American record producer (born 1915)

William Owen Bradley was an American musician, bandleader and record producer who, along with Chet Atkins, Bob Ferguson, Bill Porter, and Don Law, was a chief architect of the 1950s and 60s Nashville sound in country music and rockabilly.

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Vladimir Prelog, Croatian-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1906)

Vladimir Prelog was a Croatian-Swiss organic chemist who received the 1975 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his research into the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions. Prelog was born, and spent his infancy, in Sarajevo, and youth in Zagreb, Osijek and Prague. He later lived and worked in Prague, Zagreb and Zürich.

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07/01/1996

Károly Grósz, Hungarian politician, 51st Prime Minister of Hungary (born 1930)

Károly Grósz was a Hungarian communist politician, who served as the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party from 1988 to 1989.

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07/01/1995

Murray Rothbard, American economist, historian, and theorist (born 1926)

Murray Newton Rothbard was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian movement, particularly its right-wing strands, and was a founder and leading theoretician of anarcho-capitalism. He wrote over twenty books on political theory, history, economics, and other subjects.

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07/01/1992

Richard Hunt, American puppeteer and voice actor (born 1951)

Richard Hunt was an American puppeteer, best known as a Muppet performer on Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and other projects for The Jim Henson Company. His roles on The Muppet Show included Scooter, Statler, Janice, Beaker, and Sweetums and characters on Sesame Street included Gladys the Cow, Don Music, Forgetful Jones and the right head of the Two-Headed Monster.

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07/01/1990

Bronko Nagurski, Canadian-American football player and wrestler (born 1908)

Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski was a Canadian-American professional football player who was a fullback and defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). Renowned for his strength and size, Nagurski was considered to be the most dangerous fullback of his era, and was also a successful professional wrestler, recognized as a multiple-time World Heavyweight Champion.

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07/01/1989

Hirohito, Japanese emperor (born 1901)

Emperor Shōwa , known colloquially by his personal name Hirohito, was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 1926 until his death in 1989. He remains the longest-reigning emperor in Japanese history and one of the longest-reigning monarchs in the world. As emperor during the Shōwa era, Hirohito presided over the rise of Japanese militarism, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Asia-Pacific theater of World War II, and the nation's postwar economic miracle.

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07/01/1988

Zara Cisco Brough, American Nipmuc Indian chief and fashion designer (born 1919)

Zara Cisco Brough, also called Princess White Flower, served as the Chief of the Nipmuc Nation, a state-recognized tribe in Massachusetts, from 1962 until 1987. She is best known for her work to preserve Nipmuc heritage.

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Trevor Howard, English actor (born 1913)

Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith was an English stage and screen actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved leading man star status in the film Brief Encounter (1945), followed by The Third Man (1949), portraying what BFI Screenonline called "a new kind of male lead in British films: steady, middle-class, reassuring…. but also capable of suggesting neurosis under the tweedy demeanour."

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07/01/1986

Juan Rulfo, Mexican author, screenwriter, and photographer (born 1917)

Juan Nepomuceno Carlos Pérez Rulfo Vizcaíno, best known as Juan Rulfo, was a Mexican writer, screenwriter, and photographer. He is best known for two literary works, the 1955 novel Pedro Páramo, and the collection of short stories El Llano en llamas. In spite of Rulfo's slim literary production, he is considered one of the greatest Mexican and Latin American writers of the twentieth century who has influenced many subsequent writers including the Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez.

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07/01/1984

Alfred Kastler, German-French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1902)

Alfred Kastler was a German-born French physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics. He is known for the development of optical pumping.

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07/01/1981

Alvar Lidell, English journalist and radio announcer (born 1908)

Tord Alvar Quan Lidell was an English radio announcer and newsreader for the BBC and compere. He joined BBC Birmingham as chief announcer in 1932 before moving to London the following year. Lidell was made deputy chief announcer of the BBC in 1937 and announced important events such as Edward VIII's abdication and Britain's declaration of war with Germany in 1939.

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Eric Robinson, Australian businessman and politician, 2nd Australian Minister for Finance (born 1926)

Eric Laidlaw Robinson was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Liberal Party and held ministerial office in the Fraser government, serving as Minister for the Capital Territory (1975–1976), Post and Telecommunications (1976–1977), and Finance. He represented the Queensland seat of McPherson in the House of Representatives from 1972 until his death in 1981.

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07/01/1972

John Berryman, American poet and scholar (born 1914)

John Allyn McAlpin Berryman was an American poet and scholar. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and is considered a key figure in the "confessional" school of poetry. His 77 Dream Songs (1964) won the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

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07/01/1968

J. L. B. Smith, South African chemist and academic (born 1897)

James Leonard Brierley Smith was a South African ichthyologist, organic chemist, and university professor. He was the first to identify a taxidermied fish as a coelacanth, at the time thought to be long extinct.

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07/01/1967

David Goodis, American author and screenwriter (born 1917)

David Loeb Goodis was an American writer of crime fiction noted for his output of short stories and novels in the noir fiction genre. Born in Philadelphia, Goodis alternately resided there and in New York City and Hollywood during his professional years. According to critic Dennis Drabelle, "Despite his [university] education, a combination of ethnicity (Jewish) and temperament allowed him to empathize with outsiders: the working poor, the unjustly accused, fugitives, criminals."

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Carl Schuricht, German-Swiss conductor (born 1880)

Carl Adolph Schuricht was a German conductor.

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07/01/1964

Reg Parnell, English racing driver and manager (born 1911)

Reginald Parnell was a racing driver and team manager from Derby, England. He participated in seven Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, achieving one podium, and scoring a total of nine championship points.

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07/01/1963

Arthur Edward Moore, New Zealand-Australian farmer and politician, 23rd Premier of Queensland (born 1876)

Arthur Edward Moore was an Australian politician. He was the Country and Progressive National Party Premier of Queensland, from 1929 to 1932. He was the only Queensland Premier not to come from the ranks of the Labor Party between 1915 and 1957. Although successful in achieving the unity of the conservative forces in Queensland for an extended period, Moore's abilities were tested by the onset of the Great Depression and like many other governments in Australia and elsewhere his was unable to endure the formidable challenges it posed.

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07/01/1960

Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers, English tennis player and coach (born 1878)

Dorothea Lambert Chambers was a British tennis player. She won seven Wimbledon women's singles titles and a gold medal at the 1908 Summer Olympics.

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07/01/1951

René Guénon, French-Egyptian philosopher and author (born 1886)

René Jean-Marie-Joseph Guénon, also known as Abdalwahid Yahia, was a French-Egyptian intellectual who wrote on topics ranging from esotericism, "sacred science" and "traditional studies" to symbolism and initiation.

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07/01/1943

Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American inventor and engineer (born 1856)

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American engineer, futurist, and inventor. He is known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

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07/01/1941

Charles Finger, English journalist and author (born 1869)

Charles Joseph Finger was a British born American writer. He also directed an orchestra and taught piano.

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07/01/1936

Guy d'Hardelot, French pianist and composer (born 1858)

Guy d'Hardelot was the pen name of Helen Rhodes, a French composer, pianist and teacher.

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07/01/1932

André Maginot, French sergeant and politician (born 1877)

André Maginot was a French civil servant, soldier and Member of Parliament. He is best known for his advocacy of the string of forts known as the Maginot Line.

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07/01/1931

Edward Channing, American historian and author (born 1856)

Edward Perkins Channing was an American historian and an author of a monumental History of the United States in six volumes, for which he won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for History. His thorough research in printed sources and judicious judgments made the book a standard reference for scholars for decades. Channing taught at Harvard 1883–1929 and trained many PhD's who became professors at major universities.

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07/01/1927

Nikolaos Kalogeropoulos, Greek politician, 99th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1851)

Nikolaos Kalogeropoulos was a Greek politician and briefly Prime Minister of Greece.

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07/01/1920

Edmund Barton, Australian judge and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Australia (born 1849)

Sir Edmund "Toby" Barton was an Australian politician, barrister and jurist who served as the first prime minister of Australia from 1901 to 1903. He held office as the leader of the Protectionist Party, before resigning in 1903 to become a founding justice of the High Court of Australia, on which he served until his death in 1920. Barton is regarded as a founding father of Australia, a principal leader in the federation of the Australian colonies and a drafter of the Commonwealth Constitution.

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07/01/1919

Henry Ware Eliot, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Washington University in St. Louis (born 1843)

Henry Ware Eliot was an American industrialist and philanthropist who lived in St. Louis, Missouri. He was the father of poet T. S. Eliot.

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07/01/1912

Sophia Jex-Blake, English physician and feminist (born 1840)

Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake was an English physician, teacher, and feminist. She led the campaign to secure women access to a university education, when she began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869. She was the first practising female doctor in Scotland, and one of the first in the wider United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; a leading campaigner for medical education for women, she was involved in founding two medical schools for women, in London and Edinburgh, at a time when no other medical schools were training women.

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07/01/1893

Josef Stefan, Slovenian physicist and mathematician (born 1835)

Josef Stefan was a Carinthian Slovene physicist, mathematician, and poet of the Austrian Empire.

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07/01/1892

Tewfik Pasha, Egyptian ruler (born 1852)

Mohamed Tewfik Pasha, also known as Tawfiq of Egypt, was khedive of Egypt and the Sudan between 1879 and 1892 and the sixth ruler from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty. He inherited a state suffering under the financial and political mismanagement of his predecessor Isma'il. Disaffection in the Egyptian army as well as Anglo-French control of the state in the 1880s culminated in the anti-foreign Urabi revolt. Tewfik also took interest in matters concerning irrigation, education and justice; as well as selling his father's female slaves and closing the court's harem quarters.

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07/01/1888

Golam Ali Chowdhury, Bengali landlord and philanthropist (born 1824)

Mia Golam Ali Chowdhury Sahib, also known as Chowdhuri Golam Ali, was a 19th-century Bengali Muslim zamindar and philanthropist from Faridpur in eastern Bengal.

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07/01/1864

Caleb Blood Smith, American journalist and politician, 6th U.S. Secretary of the Interior (born 1808)

Caleb Blood Smith was a United States representative from Indiana, the 6th U.S. secretary of the interior and a district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Indiana.

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07/01/1858

Mustafa Reşid Pasha, Ottoman politician, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (born 1800)

Mustafa Reşid Pasha was an Ottoman Turkish statesman and diplomat, known best as the chief architect behind the imperial Ottoman government reforms known as Tanzimat.

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07/01/1830

John Thomas Campbell, Irish-Australian public servant and politician (born 1770)

John Thomas Campbell (1770–1830) was a public servant and politician in the New South Wales Legislative Council during the early Australian colonial period.

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Thomas Lawrence, English painter and educator (born 1769)

Sir Thomas Lawrence was an English painter who served as the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at the Bear Hotel in the Market Square. At age ten, having moved to Bath, he was supporting his family with his pastel portraits.

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07/01/1812

Joseph Dennie, American journalist and author (born 1768)

Joseph Dennie was an American author and journalist who was one of the foremost men of letters of the Federalist Era. A Federalist, Dennie is best remembered for his series of essays entitled The Lay Preacher and as the founding editor of The Port Folio, a journal espousing classical republican values. Port Folio was the most highly regarded and successful literary publication of its time, and the first important political and literary journal in the United States. Timothy Dwight IV once referred to Dennie as "the Addison of America" and "the father of American Belles-Lettres."

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07/01/1770

Carl Gustaf Tessin, Swedish politician and diplomat (born 1695)

Count Carl Gustaf Tessin was a Swedish count and politician and son of architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger and Hedvig Eleonora Stenbock. He was one of the most brilliant personages of his day, and the most prominent representative of French culture in Sweden. He was also often considered a fine orator.

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07/01/1767

Thomas Clap, American minister and academic (born 1703)

Thomas Clap or Thomas Clapp was an American academic and educator, a Congregational minister, and college administrator. He was both the fifth rector and the earliest official to be called "president" of Yale College (1740–1766). He is best known for his successful reform of Yale in the 1740s, partnering with the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson to restructure the forty-year-old institution along more modern lines. He convinced the Connecticut Assembly to exempt Yale from paying taxes. He opened a second college house and doubled the size of the college.

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07/01/1758

Allan Ramsay, Scottish poet and playwright (born 1686)

Allan Ramsay was a Scottish poet, playwright, publisher, librarian and impresario of early Enlightenment Edinburgh. Ramsay's influence extended to England, foreshadowing the reaction that followed the publication of Percy's Reliques. He was on close terms with the leading men of letters in Scotland and England. He corresponded with William Hamilton of Bangour, William Somervile, John Gay and Alexander Pope.

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07/01/1715

François Fénelon, French archbishop, theologian, and poet (born 1651)

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, P.S.S., more commonly known as François Fénelon, was a French Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer. Today, he is remembered mostly as the author of The Adventures of Telemachus, first published in 1699. He was a member of the Sulpician Fathers.

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07/01/1700

Raffaello Fabretti, Italian scholar and author (born 1618)

Raphael Fabretti was an Italian antiquarian.

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07/01/1694

Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire (born 1618)

Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, PC was an English aristocrat, soldier and courtier. He fought as a Royalist during the English Civil War, before spending a period in exile under the Commonwealth. After returning to England upon the Stuart Restoration in 1660, he was made Earl of Macclesfield by Charles II in 1679. He later fell out of royal favour and was declared an outlaw, but after a second period on the continent, he returned to England in 1688 in the retinue of William of Orange. He received several offices under the crown, including serving as the last Lord President of Wales in 1689.

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07/01/1658

Theophilus Eaton, American farmer and politician, 1st Governor of the New Haven Colony (born 1590)

Theophilus Eaton was a New England colonist, politician, merchant and financier, who took part in organizing and financing the Great Puritan Migration to America. He was a founder of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and a founder and eventual governor of New Haven Colony. He also cofounded Boston, Massachusetts, Greenwich, Connecticut and Eaton's Neck in New York.

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07/01/1655

Pope Innocent X (born 1574)

Pope Innocent X, born Giovanni Battista Pamphili), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 September 1644 to his death, in January 1655.

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07/01/1625

Ruggiero Giovannelli, Italian composer and author (born 1560)

Ruggiero Giovannelli was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was a member of the Roman School, and succeeded Palestrina at St. Peter's.

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07/01/1619

Nicholas Hilliard, English painter and goldsmith (born 1547)

Nicholas Hilliard was an English goldsmith and limner best known for his portrait miniatures of members of the courts of Elizabeth I and James I of England. He mostly painted small oval miniatures, but also some larger cabinet miniatures, up to about 10 inches tall, and at least two famous half-length panel portraits of Elizabeth. He enjoyed continuing success as an artist, and continuing financial troubles, for forty-five years. His paintings still exemplify the visual image of Elizabethan England, very different from that of most of Europe in the late sixteenth century. Technically he was very conservative by European standards, but his paintings are superbly executed and have a freshness and charm that has ensured his continuing reputation as "the central artistic figure of the Elizabethan age, the only English painter whose work reflects, in its delicate microcosm, the world of Shakespeare's earlier plays."

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07/01/1566

Louis de Blois, Flemish monk and author (born 1506)

Louis de Blois was a Flemish monk and mystical writer, generally known under the name of Blosius.

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07/01/1536

Catherine of Aragon (born 1485)

Catherine of Aragon was Queen of England as the first wife of Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until its annulment on 23 May 1533. She had previously been Princess of Wales as the wife of Henry's elder brother Arthur, Prince of Wales for a short time before his death.

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07/01/1529

Peter Vischer the Elder, German sculptor (born 1455)

Peter Vischer the Elder was a German sculptor, the son of Hermann Vischer, and the most notable member of the Vischer Family of Nuremberg.

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07/01/1451

Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy a.k.a. Antipope Felix V (born 1383)

Amadeus VIII, nicknamed the Peaceful, was Count of Savoy from 1391 to 1416 and Duke of Savoy from 1416 to 1440. He was the first to hold the ducal title, granted by Emperor Sigismund. Known for his diplomatic temperament and administrative reforms, he strengthened the state's institutions and fostered internal peace.

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07/01/1400

John Montagu, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, English Earl (born 1350)

John Montagu, 3rd Earl of Salisbury and 5th and 2nd Baron Montagu, KG was an English nobleman, one of the few who remained loyal to Richard II after Henry IV became king.

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07/01/1355

Inês de Castro, Castilian noblewoman (born 1325)

Inês de Castro was a Galician noblewoman and courtier, best known as the lover and posthumously recognized wife of King Pedro I of Portugal. The dramatic circumstances of her relationship with Pedro, which was forbidden by his father Afonso IV of Portugal, her murder at the orders of Afonso, Pedro's bloody revenge on her killers, and the legend of the coronation of her exhumed corpse by Pedro, have made Inês de Castro a frequent subject of art, music, drama and poetry through the ages.

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07/01/1325

Denis of Portugal (born 1261)

Denis, called the Farmer King and the Poet King, was King of Portugal from 1279 until his death in 1325.

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07/01/1285

Charles I of Naples (born 1226)

Charles I, commonly called Charles of Anjou or Charles d'Anjou, was King of Sicily from 1266 to 1285. He was a member of the Capetian dynasty and the founder of the House of Anjou-Sicily. Between 1246 and 1285, he was Count of Provence and Forcalquier in the Holy Roman Empire and Count of Anjou and Maine in France. In 1272, he was proclaimed King of Albania; in 1277, he purchased a claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem; and in 1278, he became Prince of Achaea after the previous ruler, William of Villehardouin, died without heirs.

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07/01/1131

Canute Lavard, Danish prince and saint (born 1096)

Saint Knud, also known as Canute Lavard was a Danish prince. Later he was the first Duke of Schleswig and the first border prince who was both a Danish and a German vassal, a position leading towards the historical double position of Southern Jutland. He was killed by his cousin Magnus the Strong, who saw him as a rival to the Danish throne. Canute Lavard was canonized in 1170.

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07/01/0856

Aldric, bishop of Le Mans

Saint Aldric was Bishop of Le Mans in the time of Louis the Pious.

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07/01/0838

Babak Khorramdin, Iranian leader of the Khurramite uprising against the Abbasid Caliphate

Bābak Khorramdin was one of the main Iranian revolutionary leaders of the Iranian Khorram-Dinān, which was a local freedom movement fighting the Abbasid Caliphate. Khorramdin appears to be a compound analogous to durustdin "orthodoxy" and Behdin "Good Religion" (Zoroastrianism), and are considered an offshoot of neo-Mazdakism. Babak's Iranianizing rebellion, from its base in Azerbaijan in northwestern Iran, called for a return of the political glories of the Iranian past. The Khorramdin rebellion of Babak spread to the western and central parts of Iran and lasted more than twenty years before it was defeated when Babak was betrayed. Babak's uprising showed the continuing strength of ancestral Iranian local feelings in the region.

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07/01/0312

Lucian of Antioch, Christian martyr, saint, and theologian (born 240)

Saint Lucian of Antioch, known as Lucian the Martyr, was a Christian presbyter, theologian, and martyr. He was noted for both his scholarship and ascetic piety.

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