Died on Thursday, 8th January – Famous Deaths

08/01/2025

Mangkra Souvanna Phouma, Laotian prince (born 1938)

Prince Mangkra Souvanna Phouma was a royal in the Kingdom of Laos and the son of Prince Souvanna Phouma.

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08/01/2024

Adan Canto, Mexican actor (born 1981)

Adan Canto was a Mexican actor. He portrayed Sunspot in the 2014 superhero film X-Men: Days of Future Past, Paul Torres on the Fox drama series The Following, and A.J. Menendez in the ABC prime-time series Blood & Oil. He appeared as Rodrigo Lara Bonilla in the Netflix drama series Narcos, Aaron Shore in the ABC/Netflix political drama Designated Survivor, and starred on Fox's The Cleaning Lady until his death.

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08/01/2022

Michael Lang, American concert promoter and producer (born 1944)

Michael Scott Lang was an American concert promoter, producer, and artistic manager who was best known as a co-creator of the Woodstock Music & Art Festival in 1969. Lang was the organizer of the event, as well as the organizer for its follow-up events, Woodstock '94 and Woodstock '99. He later became a producer of records, films, and other concerts, as well as a manager for performing artists, an author, and a sculptor.

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08/01/2021

Iancu Țucărman, Romanian Holocaust survivor (born 1922)

Iancu Țucărman was a Romanian Jewish agricultural engineer and survivor of the Holocaust and the Iași pogrom. He was the penultimate survivor of the "Death's Train" that was used to deport Jews from the Iași railway station after Leonard Zăicescu. Țucărman was buried at the Giurgiului Jewish Cemetery of Bucharest on 11 January 2021.

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08/01/2020

Pat Dalton, Australian footballer (born 1942)

Patrick James Dalton was an Australian rules footballer who played 217 games for Perth in the WANFL from 1960-71. He was named on the interchange bench in Perth's official "Team of the Century". A regular for Perth during the 1960s, Dalton was almost always used as a centreman. He was a member of three consecutive premiership teams at Perth, in 1966, 1967 and 1968.

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Buck Henry, American actor, screenwriter, and director (born 1930)

Buck Henry was an American actor, screenwriter, and director. Henry's contributions to film included his work as a co-writer for Mike Nichols's The Graduate (1967) for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He appeared in acting roles in Nichols's Catch-22 (1970)—also co-written with Nichols—Herbert Ross's The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), and Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc? (1972). In 1978, he co-directed Heaven Can Wait (1978) with Warren Beatty, receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director. He later appeared in Albert Brooks's Defending Your Life (1991), and the Robert Altman films The Player (1992) and Short Cuts (1993).

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08/01/2017

Nicolai Gedda, Swedish operatic tenor (born 1925)

Harry Gustaf Nikolai Gädda, better known as Nicolai Gedda, was a Swedish operatic tenor. Debuting in 1951, Gedda had a long and successful career in opera until the age of 77 in June 2003, when he made his final operatic recording. Skilled at languages, he performed operas in French, Russian, German, Italian, English, Czech and Swedish, as well as one in Latin. In January 1958, he created the role of Anatol in the world premiere of Samuel Barber's Vanessa at the Metropolitan Opera. Having made some two hundred recordings, Gedda is one of the most widely recorded opera singers in history. His singing is best known for its beauty of tone, vocal control, and musical perception.

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James Mancham, Seychellois politician, President 1976-77 (born 1939)

Sir James Richard Marie Mancham KBE was a Seychellois politician who founded the Seychelles Democratic Party and was the first President of Seychelles from 1976 to 1977.

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Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iranian politician (born 1934)

Ali Akbar Hashemi Bahramani Rafsanjani was an Iranian Shia cleric and politician who was the fourth president of Iran from 1989 to 1997. One of the founding fathers of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Rafsanjani was the head of the Assembly of Experts from 2007 until 2011 when he decided not to nominate himself for the post. He was also the chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council.

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Peter Sarstedt, Indian-British singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1941)

Peter Eardley Sarstedt was a British singer-songwriter and instrumentalist. He was the brother of singers Eden Kane, a teenage pop idol, and Clive Sarstedt, with both of whom he also recorded and performed as The Sarstedt Brothers. The Sarstedts had the distinction of being the only family from which three siblings separately attained chart success without any of them ever charting as a combined act.

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08/01/2016

Maria Teresa de Filippis, Italian racing driver (born 1926)

Maria Teresa de Filippis was an Italian racing driver, and the first woman to race in Formula One. She participated in five World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 18 May 1958, but scored no championship points. Though her Formula One racing career was brief, she won races in other series and is remembered as a pioneer in the sport.

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German Moreno, Filipino television host, actor, comedian and talent manager (born 1933)

German Molina Moreno, also known as Kuya Germs and dubbed as "The Master Showman", was a Filipino television host, presenter, actor, comedian, talent manager, producer, writer, and director.

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08/01/2015

Andraé Crouch, American singer-songwriter, producer, and pastor (born 1942)

Andraé Edward Crouch was an American gospel singer, songwriter, arranger, record producer and pastor. Referred to as "the father of modern gospel music" by contemporary Christian and gospel music professionals, Crouch was known for his compositions "The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power", "My Tribute " and "Soon and Very Soon". He collaborated on some of his recordings with famous and popular artists such as Stevie Wonder, El DeBarge, Philip Bailey, Chaka Khan, and Sheila E., as well as the vocal group Take 6, and many popular artists covered his material, including Bob Dylan, Barbara Mandrell, Paul Simon, Elvis Presley and Little Richard. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was known as the "go-to" producer for superstars who sought a gospel choir sound in their recordings; he appeared on a number of recordings, including Michael Jackson's "Man In the Mirror", Madonna's "Like a Prayer", and "The Power", a duet between Elton John and Little Richard. Crouch was noted for his talent of incorporating contemporary secular music styles into the gospel music he grew up with. His efforts in this area helped pave the way for early American contemporary Christian music during the 1960s and 1970s.

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Kep Enderby, Australian lawyer, judge, and politician, 23rd Attorney-General for Australia (born 1926)

Keppel Earl Enderby was an Australian politician and judge. Enderby was a member of the House of Representatives, representing the Australian Labor Party between 1970 and 1975 and became a senior cabinet minister in the Gough Whitlam government. After politics, he was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

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Patsy Garrett, American actress and singer (born 1921)

Virginia "Patsy" Garrett was an American actress and singer. Beginning her career as a radio performer at the age of seven, Garrett is best known for her seven years on Fred Waring's Pleasure Time radio show during the 1940s, as well as for her recurring television and film roles; as nosy neighbor Mrs. Florence Fowler on Nanny and the Professor (1970–1971), school secretary Miss Hogarth on Room 222 (1972–1973), as Mary Gruber in the Benji series of motion pictures beginning in 1974, and as a commercial spokesperson for Purina Cat Chow cat food.

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08/01/2014

Irma Heijting-Schuhmacher, Dutch-Australian swimmer (born 1925)

Irma Heijting-Schuhmacher was a freestyle swimmer from the Netherlands who won two medals at the Summer Olympics. After having claimed the bronze medal in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay in London (1948), she won the silver medal four years later in Helsinki, Finland, in the same event. Individually, she was sixth in the 100 m freestyle at both games. She also won two gold and two silver medals at the 1947 and 1950 European Championships.

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Antonino P. Roman, Filipino lawyer and politician (born 1939)

Antonino Pascual Roman Jr. was a Filipino politician from Bataan. A member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, he represented the 1st District of Bataan from 1998 until 2007, when his wife, Herminia Roman, took over the seat. Roman was an assemblyman from 1978 to 1986. He was also a Finance Deputy Minister under Finance Minister Cesar Virata, and Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) Secretary from 2010 to 2012 under President Benigno Aquino III.

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08/01/2013

Kenojuak Ashevak, Canadian sculptor and illustrator (born 1927)

Kenojuak Ashevak, was a Canadian Inuk artist. Born at Camp Kerrasak on southern Baffin Island, she later died in Cape Dorset, Nunavut. Known primarily for her drawings as a graphic artist, she had a diverse artistic experience, making sculpture and engraving and working with textiles and also on stained glass. She is celebrated as a leading figure of modern Inuit art and one of Canada's preeminent artists and cultural icons.

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Jeanne Manford, American educator and activist, co-founded PFLAG (born 1920)

Jeanne Sobelson Manford was an American schoolteacher and activist. She co-founded the support group organization, PFLAG, for which she was awarded the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal.

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Alasdair Milne, Indian-English director and producer (born 1930)

Alasdair David Gordon Milne was a British television producer and executive. He had a long career at the BBC, where he was eventually promoted to Director-General, and was described by The Independent as "one of the most original and talented programme-makers to emerge during television's formative years".

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08/01/2012

Dave Alexander, American singer and pianist (born 1938)

Dave Alexander, also known as Omar Sharriff, Omar Shariff, Omar Hakim Khayam, was an American West Coast blues singer and pianist.

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T. J. Hamblin, English haematologist and academic (born 1943)

Terence John Hamblin was a British academic and scientist who was professor of immunohaematology at the University of Southampton from 1987 until his death.

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Alexis Weissenberg, Bulgarian-French pianist and educator (born 1929)

Alexis Sigismund Weissenberg was a Bulgarian-born French pianist.

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08/01/2011

Jiří Dienstbier, Czech journalist and politician (born 1937)

Jiří Dienstbier was a Czech politician and journalist.

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Thorbjørn Svenssen, Norwegian footballer (born 1924)

Ole Thorbjørn Svenssen was a Norwegian footballer, who played a then record 104 international games for Norway, and captained the side 93 times. He was one of the first footballers who played 100 international games for their country. He was also part of Norway's squad at the 1952 Summer Olympics.

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08/01/2010

Art Clokey, American animator, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1921)

Arthur Charles Clokey was an American animator, director, producer, screenwriter and voice actor. He was a pioneer in the popularization of stop-motion clay animation, best known as the creator of the character Gumby and the original voice of Gumby's sidekick, Pokey. Clokey's career began in 1953 with a film experiment called Gumbasia, which was influenced by his professor, Slavko Vorkapich, at the University of Southern California. Clokey and his wife Ruth subsequently came up with the clay character Gumby and his horse Pokey, who first appeared in the Howdy Doody Show and later got their own series The Adventures of Gumby, from which they became a familiar presence on American television. The characters enjoyed a renewal of interest in the 1980s when American actor and comedian Eddie Murphy parodied Gumby in a skit on Saturday Night Live.

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08/01/2009

Lasantha Wickrematunge, Sri Lankan journalist (born 1958)

Lasantha Manilal Wickrematunge was a high-profile Sri Lankan journalist, politician, broadcaster, and human rights activist who was assassinated in January 2009.

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08/01/2008

George Moore, Australian jockey and trainer (born 1923)

George Thomas Donald Moore OBE was an Australian jockey and Thoroughbred horse trainer. He began his career in racing in 1939 in Brisbane where he quickly became one of the top apprentice jockeys and where in 1943 he won the Senior Jockeys' Premiership. He then relocated to Sydney and in 1949 went to work for trainer Tommy J. Smith with whom he would have considerable success.

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08/01/2007

Jane Bolin, American lawyer and judge (born 1908)

Jane Matilda Bolin was an American attorney and judge. She was the first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, the first to join the New York City Bar Association, and the first to join the New York City Law Department. Bolin became the first black woman to serve as a judge in the United States when she was sworn into the bench of the New York City Domestic Relations Court in 1939.

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Arthur Cockfield, Baron Cockfield, English lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (born 1916)

Francis Arthur Cockfield, Baron Cockfield PC, was by turns a civil servant, a company director, a Conservative Party politician, and a European Commissioner. He served as Minister of State at the Treasury from 1979 to 1982, as Secretary of State for Trade from 1982 until 1983, as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1983 until 1984, and a member of the European Commission from 1984 to 1988. He is known as 'The Father of the Single Market'.

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Yvonne De Carlo, Canadian-American actress and singer (born 1922)

Margaret Yvonne Middleton, known professionally as Yvonne De Carlo, was a Canadian-American actress, dancer and singer. She became a Hollywood film star and sex symbol in the 1940s and 1950s, made several musical recordings, and later acted on television and stage.

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David Ervine, Northern Irish politician and activist (born 1953)

David Ervine was a Northern Irish Ulster Loyalist and politician who served as leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) from 2002 to 2007 and was also a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Belfast East from 1998 to 2007. During his youth Ervine was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and was imprisoned for possessing bomb-making equipment, and planting a bomb on the Lisburn Road. Whilst in jail he became convinced of the benefits of a more political approach for loyalism and became involved with the PUP. As a leading PUP figure, Ervine helped to deliver the loyalist ceasefire of 1994.

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Iwao Takamoto, American animator, director, and producer (born 1925)

Iwao Takamoto was an American animator, character designer, television producer, and film director. After his family had been sent to the California internment camps in the early 1940s, Takamoto learned to draw, presented his sketchbook to Walt Disney Productions and was hired on the spot.

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08/01/2006

Tony Banks, Baron Stratford, Northern Irish broadcaster and politician, Minister for Sport and the Olympics (born 1942)

Anthony Louis Banks, Baron Stratford was a British politician who served as Minister for Sport from 1997 to 1999. A member of the Labour Party, he was a member of Parliament from 1983 to 2005 and subsequently as a member of the House of Lords. He was well known in the House of Commons for his acid tongue.

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08/01/2003

Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor (born 1925)

Ronald Alfred Goodwin was an English composer and conductor known for his film music. He scored over 70 films in a career lasting over fifty years. His most famous works included Where Eagles Dare, Battle of Britain, 633 Squadron, Margaret Rutherford's Murder, She Said films, and Frenzy.

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08/01/2002

Alexander Prokhorov, Australian-Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1916)

Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov was an Australian-born Soviet-Russian physicist and researcher whose work focused on quantum electronics. His most famous and well-known works were on optics and electromagnetic research. He was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 with Charles Hard Townes and Nikolay Basov for his fundamental work that led to the development of the laser and the maser.

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Dave Thomas, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Wendy's (born 1932)

Rex David Thomas was an American businessman, philanthropist, and fast-food tycoon who was the founder and chief executive officer of Wendy's, a fast-food restaurant chain specializing in hamburgers. In this role, Thomas appeared in more than 800 commercial advertisements for the chain from 1989 to 2002, more than any other company founder in television history.

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08/01/2000

Hilary Smart, American sailor (born 1925)

Hilary Hurlburt Smart was an American sailor and Olympic champion. He competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, where he received a gold medal in the star class with the boat Hilarius, together with his father, Paul Smart. He often described his Olympic victory by speaking about "the unbelievable feeling of watching the torch come in at the Olympic Stadium. It made me feel proud and responsible to think that my dad and I were the only Americans in our specialty since each country was allowed just a single two-man boat."

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08/01/1998

Michael Tippett, English composer and conductor (born 1905)

Sir Michael Kemp Tippett was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten as one of the leading British composers of the 20th century. Among his best-known works are the oratorio A Child of Our Time, the orchestral Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli, and the opera The Midsummer Marriage.

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08/01/1997

Melvin Calvin, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911)

Melvin Ellis Calvin was an American biochemist known for discovering the Calvin cycle along with Andrew Benson and James Bassham. He was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants". He spent most of his five-decade career at the University of California, Berkeley.

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08/01/1996

Metin Göktepe, Turkish photographer and journalist (born 1968)

Metin Göktepe was a Kurdish photojournalist who was tortured and murdered in police custody in Istanbul on January 8, 1996.

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François Mitterrand, French sergeant and politician, 21st President of France (born 1916)

François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was President of France from 1981 to 1995. He was the longest holder of that position in the history of France and the first left-wing politician to assume the presidency under the Fifth Republic.

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08/01/1994

Pat Buttram, American actor and comedian (born 1915)

Maxwell Emmett "Pat" Buttram was an American character actor. He was known for playing the sidekick of Gene Autry and for playing the character of Mr. Haney in the television series Green Acres. He is primarily remembered for his distinctive voice, which "has been described as sounding like a handful of gravel thrown in a Mix-Master."

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Harvey Haddix, American baseball player and coach (born 1925)

Harvey Haddix Jr. was an American professional baseball pitcher and pitching coach, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals (1952–1956), Philadelphia Phillies (1956–57), Cincinnati Redlegs (1958), Pittsburgh Pirates (1959–1963), and Baltimore Orioles (1964–65).

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08/01/1991

Steve Clark, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1960)

Stephen Maynard Clark was an English musician. He was a guitarist and songwriter for the hard rock band Def Leppard until his death in 1991. In 2007, Clark was ranked No. 11 on Classic Rock Magazine's "100 Wildest Guitar Heroes". In 2019, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Def Leppard.

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08/01/1990

Bernard Krigstein, American illustrator (born 1919)

Bernard Krigstein was an American illustrator and gallery artist who received acclaim for his innovative and influential approach to comic book art, notably in EC Comics. His artwork usually displayed the signature B. Krigstein. His best-known work in comic books is the eight-page story "Master Race", originally published in the debut issue of EC Comics' Impact.

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Terry-Thomas, English actor and comedian (born 1911)

Terry-Thomas was an English character actor and comedian who became internationally known through his films during the 1950s and 1960s. He often portrayed disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads, toffs and bounders, using his distinctive voice; his costume and props tended to include a monocle, waistcoat and cigarette holder. His striking dress sense was set off by a 1⁄3-inch (8.5 mm) gap between his two upper front teeth.

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08/01/1986

Pierre Fournier, French cellist and educator (born 1906)

Pierre Léon Marie Fournier was a French cellist who was called the "aristocrat of cellists" on account of his elegant musicianship and majestic sound.

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08/01/1983

Gerhard Barkhorn, German general and pilot (born 1919)

Gerhard "Gerd" Barkhorn was a German military aviator who was a renowned wing commander in the Luftwaffe during World War II. As a fighter ace, he was the second most successful fighter pilot of all time after fellow German Erich Hartmann. Other than Hartmann, Barkhorn is the only fighter ace to ever exceed 300 claimed victories. Following World War II, he became a high-ranking officer in the German Air Force of the Federal Republic of Germany.

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08/01/1982

Grégoire Aslan, Swiss-English actor and screenwriter (born 1908)

Grégoire Aslan was a Swiss-Armenian actor and musician.

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08/01/1980

John Mauchly, American physicist and academic (born 1907)

John William Mauchly was an American physicist who, along with J. Presper Eckert, designed ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, as well as EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer made in the United States.

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08/01/1976

Zhou Enlai, Chinese soldier and politician, 1st Premier of the People's Republic of China (born 1898)

Zhou Enlai was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from October 1949 until his death in January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman Mao Zedong and aided the Communist Party in rising to power, later helping consolidate its control, form its foreign policy, and develop the Chinese economy.

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08/01/1975

Richard Tucker, American operatic tenor (born 1913)

Richard Tucker was an American operatic tenor and cantor. Long associated with the Metropolitan Opera, Tucker's career was primarily centered in the United States.

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08/01/1963

Kay Sage, American painter (born 1898)

Katherine Linn Sage, usually known as Kay Sage, was an American Surrealist artist and poet active between 1936 and 1963. A member of the Golden Age and post-war periods of Surrealism, she is mostly recognized for her artistic works, which typically contain themes of an architectural nature.

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08/01/1961

Schoolboy Rowe, American baseball player and coach (born 1910)

Lynwood Thomas "Schoolboy" Rowe was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball, primarily for the Detroit Tigers (1932–42) and Philadelphia Phillies. He was a three-time All-Star and a member of three Tigers' World Series teams.

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08/01/1958

Mary Colter, American architect, designed the Desert View Watchtower (born 1869)

Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter was an American architect and designer. She was one of the very few female American architects in her day. She was the designer of many landmark buildings and spaces for the Fred Harvey Company and the Santa Fe Railroad, notably in Grand Canyon National Park. Her work had enormous influence as she helped to create a style, blending Spanish Colonial Revival and Mission Revival architecture with Native American motifs and Rustic elements, that became popular throughout the Southwest. Colter was a perfectionist, who spent a lifetime advocating and defending her aesthetic vision in a largely male-dominated field.

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08/01/1954

Eduard Wiiralt, Estonian-French painter and illustrator (born 1898)

Eduard Wiiralt was an Estonian graphic artist. In art history, Wiiralt is considered as the most remarkable master of Estonian graphic art in the first half of his century. The best-known of his works include "Inferno", "Hell", "Cabaret", "Heads of Negroes", "Sleeping Tiger", and "Head of a Camel".

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08/01/1953

Hugh Binney, English admiral and politician, 16th Governor of Tasmania (born 1883)

Admiral Sir Thomas Hugh Binney, was a senior officer in the Royal Navy and the 16th Governor of Tasmania from 1945 to 1951.

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08/01/1952

Antonia Maury, American astronomer and astrophysicist (born 1866)

Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Maury was an American astronomer who was the first to detect and calculate the orbit of a spectroscopic binary. She published an important early catalog of stellar spectra using her own system of stellar classification, which was later adopted by the International Astronomical Union. She also spent many years studying the binary star Beta Lyrae. Maury was part of the Harvard Computers, a group of female astronomers and human computers at the Harvard College Observatory. Dorrit Hoffleit described Maury as an "independent Renegade", suffering at the Observation for her Independence not agreeing with the way Edward Charles Pickering had them working for minimal credit.

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08/01/1950

Joseph Schumpeter, Czech-American economist and academic (born 1883)

Joseph Alois Schumpeter was an Austrian political economist. He served briefly as Finance Minister of Austria in 1919. In 1932, he emigrated to the United States to become a professor at Harvard University, where he remained until the end of his career, and in 1939 obtained American citizenship.

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08/01/1948

Kurt Schwitters, German painter and graphic designer (born 1887)

Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was a German artist. He was born in Hanover, Germany, but lived in exile from 1937.

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08/01/1945

Karl Ernst Krafft, Swiss astrologer and author (born 1900)

Karl Ernst Krafft was a Swiss astrologer, born in Basel. He worked in the fields of astrology and graphology.

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08/01/1944

William Kissam Vanderbilt II, American lieutenant and sailor (born 1878)

William Kissam Vanderbilt II was an American motor racing enthusiast and yachtsman, and a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family.

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08/01/1943

Andres Larka, Estonian general and politician, 1st Estonian Minister of War (born 1879)

Andres Larka VR I/1 was an Estonian military commander during the Estonian War of Independence and a politician.

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08/01/1942

Joseph Franklin Rutherford, American lawyer and religious leader (born 1869)

Joseph Franklin Rutherford, also known as Judge Rutherford, was an American religious leader and the second president of the incorporated Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. He played a primary role in the organization and doctrinal development of Jehovah's Witnesses, which emerged from the Bible Student movement established by Charles Taze Russell.

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08/01/1941

Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, English general and founder of the Scout movement (born 1857)

Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell,, was a British Army officer, writer, founder of The Boy Scouts Association and its first Chief Scout, and founder, with his sister Agnes, of The Girl Guides Association. Baden-Powell wrote Scouting for Boys, which with his previous books – such as his 1884 Reconnaissance and Scouting and his 1899 Aids to Scouting for N.-C.Os and Men, which was intended for the military, and The Scout magazine – helped the rapid growth of the Scout Movement.

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Vladimír Mandl, Czechoslovak lawyer (born 1899)

Vladimír Mandl was a Czech lawyer and university lecturer. In 1932, he authored Das Weltraum-Recht: Ein Problem der Raumfahrt, the first stand-alone treatise on space law, which preceded the launch of Sputnik 1 by 25 years. For this work, some scholars consider him as the "father of space law".

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08/01/1938

Johnny Gruelle, American author and illustrator (born 1880)

John Barton Gruelle was an American artist, political cartoonist, children's book and comics author, illustrator, and storyteller. He is best known as the creator of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls and as the author/illustrator of dozens of books. He also created the Beloved Belindy doll. Gruelle also contributed cartoons and illustrations to at least ten newspapers, four major news syndicates, and more than a dozen national magazines. He was the son of Hoosier Group painter Richard Gruelle.

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08/01/1934

Andrei Bely, Russian novelist, poet, and critic (born 1880)

Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev, better known by the pen name Andrei Bely or Biely, was a Russian and Soviet novelist, Symbolist poet, theorist and literary critic. He was a committed anthroposophist and follower of Rudolf Steiner. His novel Petersburg (1913/1922) was regarded by Vladimir Nabokov as the third-greatest masterpiece of modernist literature. The Andrei Bely Prize, one of the most important prizes in Russian literature, was named after him. His poems were set to music and performed by Russian singer-songwriters.

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Alexandre Stavisky, Ukrainian-French financier (born 1886)

Serge Alexandre Stavisky was a French financier and embezzler whose actions created a political scandal that became known as the Stavisky Affair.

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08/01/1925

George Bellows, American painter (born 1882)

George Wesley Bellows was an American realist painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City. He became, according to the Columbus Museum of Art, "the most acclaimed American artist of his generation".

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08/01/1920

Josef Josephi, Polish-born singer and actor (born 1852)

Josef Ichhäuser (1852–1920), known by the stage name Josef Josephi (also spelled Joseffy), was an Austrian Empire-born singer (tenor-baritone) and actor.

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08/01/1918

Ellis H. Roberts, American journalist and politician, 20th Treasurer of the United States (born 1827)

Ellis Henry Roberts was an American politician who served as a Representative from New York and 20th Treasurer of the United States.

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08/01/1916

Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (born 1884)

Rembrandt Bugatti was an Italian sculptor, known primarily for his bronze sculptures of wildlife subjects. During World War I, he volunteered for paramedical work at a military hospital in Antwerp, an experience that triggered in Bugatti the onset of depression, aggravated by financial problems, which eventually caused him to commit suicide on 8 January 1916 in Paris, France when he was 31 years old.

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Ada Rehan, Irish-American actress (born 1860)

Ada Rehan was an American actress and comedian who typified the "personality" style of acting in the nineteenth century.

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08/01/1914

Simon Bolivar Buckner, American general and 30th Governor of Kentucky (born 1823)

Simon Bolivar Buckner was an American soldier, Confederate military officer, and politician. He fought in the United States Army in the Mexican–American War. He later fought in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he served as the 30th governor of Kentucky.

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08/01/1896

William Rainey Marshall, American banker and politician, 5th Governor of Minnesota (born 1825)

William Rainey Marshall was an American politician. He was the fifth governor of Minnesota from January 8, 1866, to January 9, 1870, and was a member of the Republican party. He served as the Colonel of the 7th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and Dakota War of 1862, eventually achieving the rank of brevet Brigadier General.

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Paul Verlaine, French poet and writer (born 1844)

Paul Marie Verlaine was a French poet, writer and critic associated with the Symbolist, Parnassianist and Decadent movements. He is considered one of the paramount exponents of the fin de siècle in French and international poetry.

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08/01/1883

Miska Magyarics, Slovene-Hungarian poet (born 1825)

Miska Magyarics, official name Mihály Magyarics, was a Hungarian Slovene poet.

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08/01/1880

Emperor Norton, English-American businessman (born 1811)

Joshua Abraham Norton was a resident of San Francisco, California, who in 1859 declared himself "Emperor of these United States" in a proclamation that he signed "Norton I., Emperor of the United States". Commonly known as Emperor Norton, he took the secondary title "Protector of Mexico" in 1866.

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08/01/1878

Nikolay Nekrasov, Russian poet and critic (born 1821)

Nikolay Alexeyevich Nekrasov was a Russian poet, writer, critic and publisher, whose deeply compassionate poems about the Russian peasantry made him a hero of liberal and radical circles in the Russian intelligentsia of the mid-nineteenth century, particularly as represented by Vissarion Belinsky and Nikolay Chernyshevsky. He is credited with introducing ternary meters and the technique of dramatic monologue to Russian poetry. As the editor of several literary journals, notably Sovremennik, Nekrasov was also singularly successful and influential.

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08/01/1874

Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, French historian and archaeologist (born 1814)

Abbé Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg was a noted French writer, ethnographer, historian, archaeologist, and Catholic priest. He became a specialist in Mesoamerican studies, travelling extensively in the region. His writings, publications, and recovery of historical documents contributed much to knowledge of the region's languages, writing, history and culture, particularly those of the Maya and Aztec civilizations. However, his speculations concerning relationships between the ancient Maya and the lost continent of Atlantis inspired Ignatius L. Donnelly and encouraged the pseudo-science of Mayanism.

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08/01/1865

Aimé, duc de Clermont-Tonnerre, French general and politician, French Minister of Defence (born 1779)

Aimé-Marie-Gaspard, comte de Clermont-Tonnerre was a French general and statesman.

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08/01/1854

William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, English field marshal and politician, Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance (born 1768)

William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, was a British army officer and politician. A general in the British Army and a Marshal in the Portuguese Army, he fought alongside the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War and held the office of Master-General of the Ordnance in 1828 in the First Wellington ministry. He led the 1806 failed British invasion of Buenos Aires.

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08/01/1825

Eli Whitney, American engineer and theorist, invented the cotton gin (born 1765)

Eli Whitney Jr. was an American inventor, widely known for inventing the cotton gin in 1793, one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the economy of the Antebellum South. Whitney's invention made upland short cotton into a profitable crop, which strengthened the economic foundation of slavery in the United States and prolonged the institution. Despite the social and economic impact of his invention, Whitney lost much of his profits in legal battles over patent infringement for the cotton gin. Thereafter, he turned his attention to securing contracts with the government in the manufacture of muskets for the newly formed United States Army. He continued making arms and inventing until his death in 1825.

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08/01/1815

Edward Pakenham, Anglo-Irish general and politician (born 1778)

Major-General Sir Edward Michael Pakenham, was a British Army officer and politician. He was the son of the Baron Longford and the brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington, with whom he served in the Peninsular War. During the War of 1812, he was the commander of British forces attempting to take the Southern port of New Orleans (1814–15). On 8 January 1815, Pakenham was killed in action while leading his men at the Battle of New Orleans.

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08/01/1794

Justus Möser, German lawyer and jurist (born 1720)

Justus Möser was a German jurist, social theorist, and conservative commentator best known for his innovative history of Osnabrück which stressed social and cultural themes. Möser is generally seen as the founder of German Conservatism

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08/01/1789

Jack Broughton, English boxer (born 1703)

John Broughton was an English bare-knuckle boxer. He was the first person to codify a set of boxing rules; prior to this the "rules" that existed were very loosely defined and tended to vary from contest to contest. His seven rules were widely used in boxing for nearly a century, until they were replaced by the London Prize Ring rules in 1838. Pierce Egan characterised Broughton as the "Father of the English School of Boxing".

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08/01/1775

John Baskerville, English printer and type designer (born 1706)

John Baskerville was an English businessman, in areas including japanning and papier-mâché, but he is best remembered as a printer and type designer. He was also responsible for inventing "wove paper", which was considerably smoother than "laid paper", allowing for sharper printing results.

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08/01/1713

Arcangelo Corelli, Italian violinist and composer (born 1653)

Arcangelo Corelli was an Italian composer, musician, and violinist of the middle Baroque era. His music was key in the development of the modern genres of sonata and concerto, in establishing the preeminence of the violin, and as the first coalescing of modern tonality and functional harmony.

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08/01/1707

John Dalrymple, 1st Earl of Stair, Scottish soldier and politician, Scottish Secretary of State (born 1648)

John Dalrymple, 1st Earl of Stair PC was a Scottish politician and lawyer. As Joint Secretary of State in Scotland 1691–1695, he played a key role in suppressing the Jacobite rising of 1689 and was forced to resign in 1695 for his part in the Massacre of Glencoe. Restored to favour under Queen Anne in 1702 and made Earl of Stair in 1703, he was closely involved in negotiations over the 1707 Acts of Union that created the Kingdom of Great Britain but died on 8 January 1707, several months before the Act became law.

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08/01/1642

Galileo Galilei, Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher (born 1564)

Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei, commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei, was an Italian astronomer, physicist, and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. He was born in the city of Pisa, then part of the Duchy of Florence. Galileo has been called the father of observational astronomy, modern-era classical physics, the scientific method, and modern science.

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08/01/1598

John George, Elector of Brandenburg (born 1525)

John George of Brandenburg was a prince-elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg (1571–1598).

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08/01/1570

Philibert de l'Orme, French sculptor and architect, designed the Château d'Anet (born 1510)

Philibert de l'Orme was a French architect and writer, and one of the great masters of French Renaissance architecture. His surname is also written De l'Orme, de L'Orme, or Delorme.

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08/01/1557

Albert Alcibiades, margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (born 1522)

Albert II was the margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (Brandenburg-Bayreuth) from 1527 to 1553. He was a member of the Franconian branch of the House of Hohenzollern. Because of his bellicose nature, Albert was given the cognomen Bellator during his lifetime. Posthumously, he became known as Alcibiades.

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08/01/1538

Beatrice of Portugal, duchess of Savoy (born 1504)

Infanta Beatrice of Portugal was a Portuguese princess by birth and a Duchess of Savoy by marriage to Charles III, Duke of Savoy. She was the ruling countess of Asti from 1531 to 1538.

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08/01/1456

Lawrence Giustiniani, Italian bishop and saint (born 1381)

Lawrence Justinian was a Venetian Catholic priest and bishop who became the first Patriarch of Venice. He is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church.

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08/01/1424

Stephen Zaccaria, archbishop of Patras

Stephen Zaccaria was the youngest brother of the last Prince of Achaea, Centurione II Zaccaria, and Latin Archbishop of Patras from 1404 until his death in 1424.

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08/01/1354

Charles de la Cerda, French nobleman (born 1327)

Charles de la Cerda, commonly known as Charles of Spain, was a Franco-Castilian nobleman and soldier, the son of Alfonso de la Cerda of Spain and Isabelle d'Antoing, and grandson of Alfonso de la Cerda the disinherited (1270–1333). He was a distant cousin of John II of France.

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08/01/1337

Giotto, Italian painter and architect, designed Scrovegni Chapel and Giotto's Campanile (born 1266)

Giotto di Bondone, known mononymously as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic and Proto-Renaissance period. Giotto's contemporary, the banker and chronicler Giovanni Villani, wrote that Giotto was "the most sovereign master of painting in his time, who drew all his figures and their postures according to nature" and of his publicly recognized "talent and excellence". Giorgio Vasari described Giotto as making a decisive break from the prevalent Byzantine style and as initiating "the great art of painting as we know it today, introducing the technique of drawing accurately from life, which had been neglected for more than two hundred years".

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08/01/1198

Celestine III, pope of the Catholic Church (born 1106)

Pope Celestine III, born Giacinto Bobone, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 30 March or 10 April 1191 to his death in 1198. He had a tense relationship with several monarchs, including Emperor Henry VI, King Tancred of Sicily, and King Alfonso IX of León.

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08/01/1107

Edgar, King of Scotland (born 1074)

Edgar or Étgar mac Maíl Choluim, nicknamed Probus, "the Valiant", was King of Alba (Scotland) from 1097 to 1107. He was the fourth son of Malcolm III and Margaret of Wessex but the first to be considered eligible for the throne after the death of his father.

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08/01/1079

Adèle of France, countess of Flanders (born 1009)

Adela of France, known also as Adela the Holy or Adela of Messines; was, by marriage, Duchess of Normandy, and Countess of Flanders (1035–1067).

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08/01/0926

Athelm, archbishop of Canterbury

Athelm was an English churchman, who was the first Bishop of Wells, and later Archbishop of Canterbury. His translation, or moving from one bishopric to another, was a precedent for later translations of ecclesiastics, because prior to this time period such movements were considered illegal. While archbishop, Athelm crowned King Æthelstan, and perhaps wrote the coronation service for the event. He was the uncle of Dunstan, a later Archbishop of Canterbury, Athelm helped promote Dunstan's early career. After Athelm's death, he was considered a saint, with his feast day being on 8 January.

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08/01/0871

Bagsecg, Viking warrior and leader

Bagsecg, also known as Bacgsecg, was a viking and a leader of the Great Army, which invaded England. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bagsecg and Healfdene were "heathen kings" and joint commanders of the Great Army that invaded the Kingdom of Wessex during the northern winter of 870/71.

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08/01/0482

Severinus of Noricum, Italian apostle and saint

Severinus of Noricum is a saint, known as the "Apostle to Noricum". It has been speculated that he was born in either Southern Italy or in the Roman province of Africa. Severinus himself refused to discuss his personal history before his appearance along the Danube in Noricum, after the death of Attila in 453. However, he did mention experiences with eastern desert monasticism, and his vita draws connections between Severinus and Saint Anthony of Lerins.

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08/01/0307

Hui of Jin, Chinese emperor (born 259)

Emperor Hui of Jin, personal name Sima Zhong (司馬衷), courtesy name Zhengdu (正度), was the second emperor of the Western Jin dynasty. Emperor Hui was a developmentally disabled ruler, and throughout his reign, there was constant internecine fighting between regents, imperial princes, and his wife Empress Jia Nanfeng for the right to control him, causing great suffering for the people and greatly undermining the stability of the Western Jin dynasty, eventually leading to rebellions of the Five Barbarians that led to Jin's loss of northern and central China and the establishment of the competing Sixteen Kingdoms. He was briefly deposed by his granduncle Sima Lun, who usurped the throne himself, in February 301, but later that year was restored to the throne and continued to be the emperor until January 307, when he was poisoned, likely by his last regent Sima Yue.

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