Died on Thursday, 17th July – Famous Deaths

17/07/2025

Felix Baumgartner, Austrian daredevil (born 1969)

Felix Baumgartner was an Austrian skydiver, extreme sportsman, and BASE jumper. He was widely known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon in the stratosphere on 14 October 2012 and landing in New Mexico, United States, as part of the Red Bull Stratos project. By doing so, he set world records for skydiving an estimated 39 km (24 mi), reaching an estimated top speed of 1,357.64 km/h (843.6 mph), or Mach 1.25. He became the first person to break the sound barrier relative to the surface without vehicular power on his descent. He broke skydiving records for exit altitude, vertical freefall distance without a drogue parachute, and vertical speed without a drogue. Although his name is still attached to the last two records, his exit altitude record was broken two years later, when on 24 October 2014, Alan Eustace jumped from 135,890 feet with a drogue.

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Alan Bergman, American songwriter (born 1925)

Alan Bergman and Marilyn Keith Bergman were an American songwriting duo. Married from 1958 until Marilyn's death, together they wrote music and lyrics for numerous celebrated television, film, and stage productions. The Bergmans enjoyed a successful career, honored with four Emmys, three Oscars, and two Grammys. They are in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

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Joanna Kołaczkowska, Polish cabaret performer (born 1966)

Joanna Dorota Kołaczkowska was a Polish cabaret performer, theatre actress, songwriter and radio presenter. She was widely recognized as one of the most prominent figures in Polish cabaret in the early 21st century, particularly through her long-standing involvement with the Hrabi Cabaret troupe, with which she performed from 2002 until 2025.

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17/07/2024

Cheng Pei-pei, Chinese actress (born 1946)

Cheng Pei-pei was a Hong Kong-American actress who was considered cinema's first female action hero. Popularly known as "Queen of Swords" and "Queen of Martial Arts Films", Cheng starred in numerous successful wuxia and martial arts films in Hong Kong, including the Shaw Brothers-produced Come Drink with Me (1966), which launched Cheng into stardom, Golden Swallow (1968), Lady Hermit (1971), Flirting Scholar (1993), and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). For the latter, she won a Hong Kong Film Award for Best Supporting Actress.

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Mary Gibby, British botanist and professor (born 1949)

Professor Mary Gibby was a British botanist, pteridologist and cytologist. She was an expert on ferns, becoming president of the British Pteridological Society and long-time editor of its journal, the Fern Gazette. Gibby particularly studied the cytology of the genera Dryopteris and Pelargonium.

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Bernice Johnson Reagon, American singer, songwriter and scholar (born 1942)

Bernice Johnson Reagon was an American song leader, composer, professor of American history, curator at the Smithsonian, and social activist. In the early 1960s, she was a founding member of the Freedom Singers, organized by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the Albany Movement for civil rights in Georgia. In 1973, she founded the all-black female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, based in Washington, D.C. She was the founder/the 1st member of Sweet Honey in the Rock from 1973 to 2006. Reagon, along with other members of the SNCC Freedom Singers, realized the power of collective singing to unify the disparate groups who began to work together in the 1964 Freedom Summer protests in the South."After a song", Reagon recalled, "the differences between us were not so great. Somehow, making a song required an expression of that which was common to us all.... This music was like an instrument, like holding a tool in your hand."

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Pat Williams, American basketball player (born 1940)

Patrick Livingston Murphy Williams was an American sports executive, who served as senior vice president of the Orlando Magic. Williams began his career as a minor league baseball player, and later joined the front office of his team. In the late 1960s he moved into basketball, with his biggest achievements being the 1983 title of the Philadelphia 76ers and being a partner in the creation of the Orlando Magic.

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17/07/2020

John Lewis, American civil rights activist and politician (born 1940)

John Robert Lewis was an American civil rights activist and statesman who served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020.

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Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya, Russian-Australian pair skater (born 2000)

Ekaterina Dmitriyevna Alexandrovskaya was a Russian-Australian pair skater. With her skating partner, Harley Windsor, she was the 2017 CS Tallinn Trophy champion, the 2017 CS Nebelhorn Trophy bronze medallist, the 2018 CS U.S. Classic bronze medallist, and a two-time Australian national champion.

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17/07/2019

Marie Sophie Hingst, German historian and blogger who falsely claimed to be descended from Holocaust survivors

Marie Sophie Hingst was a German historian and blogger who falsely claimed to be descended from Holocaust survivors. Born in Wittenberg to a Protestant family, she fabricated a Jewish background and sent documentation for 22 misrepresented or non-existent relatives, who she claimed were Holocaust victims, to the official Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem.

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17/07/2015

Bill Arnsparger, American football player and coach (born 1926)

William Stephen Arnsparger was an American college and professional football coach. He was born and raised in Paris, Kentucky, served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, and graduated from Miami University (Ohio) in 1950. Immediately upon graduation, Arnsparger was hired as an assistant coach with the Miami football program, beginning a long career in the profession.

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Jules Bianchi, French race car driver (born 1989)

Jules Lucien André Bianchi was a French racing driver who competed in Formula One from 2013 to 2014.

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Owen Chadwick, English rugby player, historian, and academic (born 1916)

William Owen Chadwick was a British Anglican priest, academic, rugby international, writer and prominent historian of Christianity. As a leading academic, Chadwick became Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History in 1958, serving until 1968, and from 1968 to 1983 was Regius Professor of History. Chadwick was elected master of Selwyn College, Cambridge, and served from 1956 to 1983.

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Van Miller, American sportscaster (born 1927)

Van Miller was an American radio and television sports announcer from Dunkirk, New York, where he began his career at Dunkirk radio station WFCB calling play-by-play for high school football games. In the 1950s, he moved to Buffalo where he became the chief play-by-play announcer for the Buffalo Bills Radio Network, the official radio broadcasting arm of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League from the team's inception as an AFL team in 1960 to 1971, and again from 1977 to 2003. At the time of his retirement in 2003, Miller was the longest-tenured commentator with one team in pro football history.

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John Taylor, English pianist and educator (born 1942)

John Taylor was a British jazz pianist, born in Manchester, England, who occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesizer. In his obituary, The Guardian described him as "one of the great jazz pianists and composers of his generation" and at a musical level comparable to Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner and Brad Meldhau.

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17/07/2014

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victims:

Liam Patrick Davison was an Australian novelist and reviewer. He was born in Melbourne, where, until 2007, he taught creative writing at the Chisholm Institute in Frankston.

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Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victims:

Shubashini "Shuba" Jeyaratnam, also known by stage names Shuba Jay and Shuba Jaya, was a Malaysian entrepreneur, stage performer, and actress who achieved popularity through her roles in several TV shows. Of Indian Tamil descent, she was killed, together with her husband and daughter, in the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

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Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victims:

Joseph Marie Albert "Joep" Lange was a Dutch clinical researcher specialising in HIV therapy. He served as the president of the International AIDS Society from 2002 to 2004. He was a passenger on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down on 17 July 2014 over Ukraine.

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Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victims:

Willem Johannes Witteveen was a Dutch legal scholar, politician, and author. He was a law professor at Tilburg University (1990–2014) and a Member of the Senate for the Labour Party. He was also the author of several books about law and politics. Witteveen was killed on 17 July 2014 when the flight he was travelling on, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, was shot down over eastern Ukraine.

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Henry Hartsfield, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (born 1933)

Henry Warren Hartsfield Jr. was a colonel in the United States Air Force and a NASA astronaut who logged over 480 hours in space. He was inducted into the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2006.

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Otto Piene, German sculptor and academic (born 1928)

Otto Piene was a German-American artist specializing in kinetic and technology-based art, often working collaboratively. He lived and worked in Düsseldorf, Germany; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Groton, Massachusetts.

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Elaine Stritch, American actress and singer (born 1925)

Elaine Stritch was an American actress, singer, and comedian, known for her work on Broadway and later, television. She made her professional stage debut in 1944 and appeared in numerous stage plays, musicals, feature films and television series. Stritch was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1995.

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17/07/2013

Henri Alleg, English-French journalist and author (born 1921)

Henri Alleg, born as Harry John Salem, was a French-Algerian journalist, director of the Alger républicain newspaper, and a member of the French Communist Party. After Editions de Minuit, a French publishing house, released his memoir La Question in 1958. Alleg gained international recognition for his stance against torture, specifically within the context of the Algerian War (1954–1962).

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Peter Appleyard, English-Canadian vibraphone player and composer (born 1928)

Peter Appleyard, was a British–Canadian jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and composer.

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Vincenzo Cerami, Italian screenwriter and producer (born 1940)

Vincenzo Cerami was an Italian screenwriter, novelist and poet.

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Don Flye, American tennis player (born 1933)

Donald Guy Flye was an American tennis player.

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Ian Gourlay, English general (born 1920)

General Sir Basil Ian Spencer Gourlay, was a Royal Marines officer who served as Commandant General Royal Marines from 1971 to 1975.

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David White, Scottish footballer and manager (born 1933)

David White was a Scottish football player and manager. He played as a wing half for Clyde for his whole career, before managing Clyde, Rangers and Dundee.

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17/07/2012

Richard Evatt, English boxer (born 1973)

Richard Evatt, also called 'tiger', was a British amateur and professional boxer in the super featherweight division who was unsuccessful in his only opportunity to win a world title. He hailed from Coventry, West Midlands, United Kingdom.

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Forrest S. McCartney, American general (born 1931)

Forrest Striplin McCartney was a United States Air Force lieutenant general and former director of NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center.

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İlhan Mimaroğlu, Turkish-American composer and producer (born 1926)

İlhan Kemaleddin Mimaroğlu was a Turkish American musician and electronic music composer.

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William Raspberry, American journalist and academic (born 1935)

William Raspberry was an American syndicated public affairs columnist. He was also the Knight Professor of the Practice of Communications and Journalism at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University. An African American, he frequently wrote on racial issues.

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Marsha Singh, Indian-English politician (born 1954)

Marsha Singh was a British Labour Party politician, and the member of parliament (MP) for Bradford West from 1997 to 2012. Singh stood down due to ill health.

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17/07/2011

David Ngoombujarra, Australian actor (born 1967)

David Ngoombujarra was an Indigenous Australian actor of the Yamatji people. Born David Bernard Starr in Meekatharra, Western Australia, his acting career spanned over two decades from the late 1980s to 2010; he won three Australian Film Institute Awards. On 17 July 2011 he was found in a park in Fremantle, and taken to Fremantle Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

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Taiji Sawada, Japanese musician (born 1966)

Taiji Sawada , also known mononymously as Taiji, was a Japanese musician and songwriter. He is best known as bassist of the rock band X from 1986 to 1992. The band rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, credited as founders of the Japanese visual kei movement. After leaving X in January 1992, Taiji went on to work with many other recording acts, including Loudness and D.T.R.

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17/07/2010

Larry Keith, American actor (born 1931)

Larry Keith was an American television actor. He was best known for being a cast member on the ABC soap opera All My Children and was the first American to play the role of Henry Higgins in the Broadway production of My Fair Lady.

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17/07/2009

Walter Cronkite, American journalist and actor (born 1916)

Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll. Cronkite received numerous honors including two Peabody Awards, a George Polk Award, an Emmy Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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Leszek Kołakowski, Polish historian and philosopher (born 1927)

Leszek Kołakowski was a Polish Marxist humanist philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analysis of contemporary Marxist thought and theory, as in his three-volume history of Marxist philosophy Main Currents of Marxism (1976). In his later work, Kołakowski increasingly focused on religious questions. In his 1986 Jefferson Lecture, he asserted that "we learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are".

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17/07/2007

Grant Forsberg, American actor and businessman (born 1959)

Grant Forsberg was an American actor, born in Holden, Massachusetts.

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Júlio Redecker, Brazilian politician (born 1956)

Júlio César Redecker was a Brazilian politician and a member of the opposition party, Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB). Redecker was the leader of the minority in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. Redecker died aboard TAM Airlines Flight 3054, which crashed after landing in São Paulo on July 17, 2007. He was married and had three children.

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Paulo Rogério Amoretty Souza, Brazilian lawyer and businessman (born 1945)

TAM Airlines Flight 3054 was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by TAM Airlines from Porto Alegre to São Paulo, Brazil. On the evening of 17 July 2007, the Airbus A320-233 serving the flight from Porto Alegre overran runway 35L at São Paulo's Congonhas Airport after touching down during moderate rain and crashed into a nearby TAM Express warehouse adjacent to a gas station. The aircraft exploded on impact, killing all 187 passengers and crew on board, as well as 12 people on the ground. An additional 27 people in the warehouse were injured. The accident remains the deadliest aviation disaster in Brazilian and South American history, and was the deadliest involving the Airbus A320 series until the bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268 in 2015 killing 224 people. It was the last major fatal aviation accident in Brazil until 2024, when Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 crashed near São Paulo killing 62 people.

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17/07/2006

Sam Myers, American singer-songwriter (born 1936)

Samuel Joseph Myers was an American blues musician and songwriter. He was an accompanist on dozens of recordings by blues artists over five decades. He began his career as a drummer for Elmore James but was most famous as a blues vocalist and blues harp player. For nearly two decades he was the featured vocalist for Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets.

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Mickey Spillane, American crime novelist (born 1918)

Frank Morrison Spillane, better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American crime novelist, called the "king of pulp fiction". He was best-known for stories featuring his signature detective character, Mike Hammer.

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17/07/2005

Geraldine Fitzgerald, Irish-American actress (born 1913)

Geraldine Mary Wilma Fitzgerald was an Irish American actress. She received the Daytime Emmy Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. She was a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2020 she was listed at number 30 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.

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Edward Heath, English colonel and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1916)

Sir Edward Richard George Heath was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath also served for 51 years as a Member of Parliament from 1950 to 2001. Outside politics, Heath was a yachtsman, a musician, and an author.

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Joe Vialls, Australian journalist and theorist (born 1944)

Joe Vialls was an Australian conspiracy theorist and internet journalist based in Perth, Western Australia. His claims that major incidents such as the Port Arthur massacre, terror attacks in Bali and Jakarta and the 2004 Asian tsunami were the work of Israeli and American secret agents gained a measure of notoriety in Australia, America and Indonesia.

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17/07/2003

David Kelly, Welsh weapons inspector (born 1944)

David Christopher Kelly was a Welsh scientist and authority on biological warfare (BW). A former head of the Defence Microbiology Division working at Porton Down, Kelly was part of a joint US-UK team that inspected civilian biotechnology facilities in Russia in the early 1990s and concluded they were running a covert and illegal BW programme. He was appointed to the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) in 1991 as one of its chief weapons inspectors in Iraq and led ten of the organisation's missions between May 1991 and December 1998. He also worked with UNSCOM's successor, the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and led several of their missions into Iraq. During his time with UNMOVIC he was key in uncovering the anthrax production programme at the Salman Pak facility, and a BW programme run at Al Hakum.

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Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichord player (born 1914)

Rosalyn Tureck was an American pianist and harpsichordist who was particularly associated with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. However, she had a wide-ranging repertoire that included works by composers Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms and Frédéric Chopin, as well as more modern composers such as David Diamond, Luigi Dallapiccola and William Schuman. Diamond's Piano Sonata No. 1 was inspired by Tureck's playing. She was one of the great pianists of the 20th Century and she is also known as the High Priestess of Bach.

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Walter Zapp, Latvian-Swiss inventor, invented the Minox (born 1905)

Walter Zapp was a Baltic German inventor. His best-known creation was the Minox subminiature camera. Over the course of his life, he was granted over 60 patents.

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17/07/2002

Joseph Luns, Dutch politician and Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1911)

Joseph Marie Antoine Hubert Luns was a Dutch politician, diplomat and jurist who served as the fifth Secretary General of NATO from 1971 to 1984, being the longest-serving officeholder since the office was established in 1952. Prior to this, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, starting in 1956. Luns was a member of the now-defunct Catholic People's Party (KVP), later merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).

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17/07/2001

Katharine Graham, American publisher (born 1917)

Katharine Meyer Graham was an American newspaper publisher. She led her family's newspaper, The Washington Post, from 1963 to 1991. Graham presided over the paper as it reported on the Watergate scandal, which eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. She was one of the first 20th-century female publishers of a major American newspaper and the first woman elected to the board of the Associated Press.

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17/07/1998

Lillian Hoban, American author and illustrator (born 1925)

Lillian Hoban was an American illustrator and children's writer best known for picture books created with her husband Russell Hoban. According to OCLC, she has published 326 works in 1,401 publications in 11 languages.

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17/07/1996

Victims of TWA Flight 800:

Michel Breistroff was a French professional ice hockey defenceman.

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Victims of TWA Flight 800:

Marcel Dadi was a Tunisian-born French virtuoso guitarist known for his finger-picking style which faithfully recreated the instrumental styles of American guitarists such as Chet Atkins, Merle Travis and Jerry Reed. He became a friend of country star Chet Atkins.

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Victims of TWA Flight 800:

H. David Hogan was an American composer and musical director of CIGAP, a choir composed of openly gay men.

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Victims of TWA Flight 800:

Jed Johnson was an American interior designer and film director. He first came to prominence through his close association with Pop artist Andy Warhol before becoming recognized for his influential design work. The New York Times hailed him as "one of the most celebrated interior designers of our time."

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Chas Chandler, English bass player and producer (born 1938)

Bryan James "Chas" Chandler was an English musician, record producer, manager and the original bassist in the Animals, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He also managed the band Slade and Jimi Hendrix.

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17/07/1995

Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentinian race car driver (born 1911)

Juan Manuel Fangio was an Argentine racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1950 to 1958. Nicknamed "el Chueco" and "el Maestro", Fangio won five Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles and—at the time of his retirement—held the record for most wins (24), pole positions (29), fastest laps (23), and podium finishes (35), among others.

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17/07/1994

Jean Borotra, French tennis player (born 1898)

Jean Laurent Robert Borotra was a French tennis champion. He was one of the "Four Musketeers" from his country who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Borotra was imprisoned in Itter Castle during the latter years of World War II and subsequently fought in the Battle for Castle Itter.

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Paul Tiulana, Iñupiat artist and dancer (born 1921)

Paul Tiulana was an Iñupiaq artist and dancer from Alaska. Originally from King Island, Tiulana was drafted in World War II and injured; his leg was broken and eventually amputated. He relocated to Nome during the 1950s and Anchorage in the 1960s, where he founded a dance group specializing in Iñupiat dancing. During the 1980s, he was made a Citizen of the Year by the Alaska Federation of Natives, given a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for his work in dance and art, and wrote a book about his life in Alaska.

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17/07/1991

John Patrick Spiegel, American psychiatrist and academic (born 1911)

John Patrick Spiegel was an American psychiatrist, and expert on violence and combat stress and the 103rd President of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). As president-elect of the APA in 1973, and a closeted homosexual at the time, he helped to change the definition of homosexuality in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) which had previously described homosexuality as sexual deviance and that homosexuals were pathological.

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17/07/1989

Itubwa Amram, Nauruan pastor and politician (born 1922)

The Reverend Alfred Itubwa Amram was a Nauruan pastor and political figure.

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17/07/1988

Bruiser Brody, American football player and wrestler (born 1946)

Frank Donald Goodish was an American professional wrestler who earned his greatest fame under the ring name Bruiser Brody. He also worked as King Kong Brody, the Masked Marauder, and Red River Jack. Over the years Brody became synonymous with the hardcore wrestling brawling style that often saw one or more of the participants bleeding by the time the match was over. In his prime he worked as a "special attraction" wrestler in North America, making select appearances for various promotions such as World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), Central States Wrestling (CSW), Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF), and the American Wrestling Association (AWA) among other events. He worked regularly in Japan for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW).

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17/07/1980

Don "Red" Barry, American actor and screenwriter (born 1912)

Don Barry, also known as Red Barry, was an American film and television actor. He was nicknamed "Red" after appearing as the first Red Ryder in the highly successful 1940 film Adventures of Red Ryder with Noah Beery Sr.; the character was played in later films by "Wild Bill" Elliott and Allan Lane. Barry went on to bigger budget films following Red Ryder, but none reached his previous level of success. He played Red Doyle in the 1964 Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Simple Simon".

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Boris Delaunay, Russian mathematician and academic (born 1890)

Boris Nikolayevich Delaunay or Delone was a Soviet and Russian mathematician, mountain climber, and the father of physicist, Nikolai Borisovich Delone. He is best known for the Delaunay triangulation.

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17/07/1975

Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian author (born 1893)

Konstantine Gamsakhurdia was a Georgian writer and public figure. Educated and first published in Germany, he married Western European influences to purely Georgian thematic to produce his best works, such as The Right Hand of the Grand Master and David the Builder. Hostile to the Soviet rule, he was, nevertheless, one of the few leading Georgian writers to have survived the Stalin-era repressions, despite exile to a White Sea island and several arrests. His works are noted for their character portrayals of great psychological insight. Another major feature of Gamsakhurdia's writings is a new subtlety he infused into Georgian diction, imitating an archaic language to create a sense of classicism.

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17/07/1974

Dizzy Dean, American baseball player and sportscaster (born 1910)

Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean, also known as Jerome Herman Dean, was an American professional baseball pitcher. During his Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he played for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Browns.

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17/07/1967

John Coltrane, American saxophonist and composer (born 1926)

John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.

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17/07/1961

Ty Cobb, American baseball player and manager (born 1886)

Tyrus Raymond Cobb, nicknamed "the Georgia Peach", was an American professional baseball center fielder. A native of rural Narrows, Georgia, Cobb played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent 22 years with the Detroit Tigers and served as the team's player-manager for the last six, and he finished his career with the Philadelphia Athletics. In 1936, Cobb received the most votes of any player on the inaugural ballot for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, receiving 222 out of a possible 226 votes (98.2%); no other player received a higher percentage of votes until Tom Seaver in 1992. In 1999, the Sporting News ranked Cobb third on its list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players."

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Emin Halid Onat, Turkish architect and academic (born 1908)

Emin Halid Onat was a Turkish architect and former rector of Istanbul Technical University.

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17/07/1960

Maud Menten, Canadian physician and biochemist (born 1879)

Maud Leonora Menten was a Canadian physician and chemist. As a bio-medical and medical researcher, she made significant contributions to enzyme kinetics and histochemistry, and invented a procedure that remains in use. She is primarily known for her work with Leonor Michaelis on enzyme kinetics in 1913. The paper has been translated from its written language of German into English.

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17/07/1959

Billie Holiday, American singer (born 1915)

Billie Holiday was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday made significant contributions to jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly influenced by jazz instrumentalists, inspired a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Holiday was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills.

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Eugene Meyer, American businessman and publisher (born 1875)

Eugene Isaac Meyer was an American banker, businessman, financier, and newspaper publisher. He was the fifth chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1930 to 1933. Meyer purchased The Washington Post in 1933, and was its publisher from 1933 to 1946, with the paper staying in his family throughout the rest of the 20th century. He was the first president of the World Bank Group from June to December 1946.

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17/07/1950

Evangeline Booth, English 4th General of The Salvation Army (born 1865)

Evangeline Cory Booth OF was a British evangelist and the fourth General of The Salvation Army from 1934 to 1939. She was the first woman to hold the post.

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Antonie Nedošinská, Czech actress (born 1885)

Antonie Nedošinská was a Czech film actress. She appeared in 89 films between 1916 and 1947.

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17/07/1946

Florence Fuller, South African-born Australian artist (born 1867)

Florence Ada Fuller was a South African-born Australian artist. Originally from Port Elizabeth, Fuller migrated as a child to Melbourne with her family. There she trained with her uncle Robert Hawker Dowling and teacher Jane Sutherland and took classes at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, becoming a professional artist in the late 1880s. In 1892 she left Australia, travelling first to South Africa, where she met and painted for Cecil Rhodes, and then on to Europe. She lived and studied there for the subsequent decade, except for a return to South Africa in 1899 to paint a portrait of Rhodes. Between 1895 and 1904 her works were exhibited at the Paris Salon and London's Royal Academy.

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Draža Mihailović, Serbian and Yugoslav general (born 1893)

Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović was a Yugoslav Serb general during World War II. He was the leader of the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army (Chetniks), a royalist and nationalist movement and guerrilla force established following the German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941.

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17/07/1945

Ernst Busch, German field marshal (born 1885)

Ernst Bernhard Wilhelm Busch was a German Generalfeldmarschall during World War II who commanded the 16th Army and Army Group Centre.

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17/07/1944

William James Sidis, American mathematician and anthropologist (born 1898)

William James Sidis was an American child prodigy whose exceptional abilities in mathematics and languages made him one of the most famous intellectual prodigies of the early 20th century. Born to Boris Sidis, a prominent psychiatrist, and Sarah Mandelbaum Sidis, a physician, Sidis demonstrated extraordinary intellectual capabilities from infancy. Enrolled at Harvard University at age 11, he delivered a widely publicized lecture on four-dimensional geometry at age 12 and graduated cum laude in 1914 at 16.

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17/07/1942

Robina Nicol, New Zealand photographer and suffragist (born 1861)

Robina Nicol was a Scottish-born New Zealand photographer and suffragist.

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17/07/1935

George William Russell, Irish poet and painter (born 1867)

George William Russell, who wrote with the pseudonym Æ, was an Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, painter and Irish nationalist. He was also a writer on mysticism, and a central figure in the group of devotees of theosophy which met in Dublin for many years.

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17/07/1932

Rasmus Rasmussen, Norwegian actor, singer, and director (born 1862)

Rasmus Rasmussen was a Norwegian actor, folk singer and theatre director.

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17/07/1928

Giovanni Giolitti, Italian politician, 13th Prime Minister of Italy (born 1842)

Giovanni Giolitti was an Italian statesman who was the prime minister of Italy five times between 1892 and 1921. He is the longest-serving democratically elected prime minister in Italian history, and the second-longest serving overall after Benito Mussolini. A prominent leader of the Historical Left and the Liberals, he is widely considered one of the most wealthy, powerful and important politicians in Italian history; due to his dominant position in Italian politics, Giolitti was accused by critics of being an authoritarian leader and a parliamentary dictator.

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Álvaro Obregón, Mexican general and politician, 39th President of Mexico (born 1880)

Álvaro Obregón Salido was a Mexican general, inventor and politician who served as the 46th President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. Obregón was re-elected to the presidency in 1928 but was assassinated before he could take office.

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17/07/1925

Lovis Corinth, German painter (born 1858)

Lovis Corinth was a German artist and writer whose mature work as a painter and printmaker realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism.

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17/07/1918

Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Nicholas II was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until his abdication in 1917. He was the last monarch of Russia before the Russian Revolution, and oversaw the Russian Empire's participation in World War I. In 1918, the Romanovs were murdered, putting an end to the dynasty.

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Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Alexandra Feodorovna was the last empress of Russia as the consort of Nicholas II from their marriage on 26 November [O.S. 14 November] 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March [O.S. 2 March] 1917. A granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Alexandra was one of the most famous royal carriers of hemophilia and passed the condition to her only son, Alexei.

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Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia was the eldest child and daughter of the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II, and his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

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Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia was the second daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last monarch of Russia, and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. She was born at Peterhof Palace, near Saint Petersburg.

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Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia was the third daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. Her murder following the Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in her canonization as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.

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Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia, and his wife, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna.

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Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Alexei Nikolaevich was the last Russian tsesarevich. He was the youngest child and only son of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. He was born with haemophilia, which his parents tried treating with the methods of peasant faith healer Grigori Rasputin.

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Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Anna Stepanovna Demidova was a lady's maid in the service of Empress Alexandra of Russia. She stayed with the Romanov family when they were arrested, and was murdered together with Alexandra and the Romanov family on 17 July 1918.

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Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Ivan Mikhailovich Kharitonov was the Head Cook at the court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

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Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Aloise "Alexei" Yegorovich Trupp was the Latvian head footman in the household of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

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Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Yevgeny Sergeyevich Botkin, commonly known as Eugene Botkin, was the court physician since 1908 for Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra. He sometimes treated the Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia for haemophilia-related complications, like in Spala in 1912.

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17/07/1912

Henri Poincaré, French mathematician, physicist, and engineer (born 1854)

Jules Henri Poincaré was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The Last Universalist", since he excelled in all fields of the discipline as it existed during his lifetime. He has further been called "the Gauss of modern mathematics". Due to his success in science, along with his influence in philosophy, he has also been called "the philosopher par excellence of modern science".

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17/07/1907

Hector Malot, French author and critic (born 1830)

Hector-Henri Malot was a French writer born in La Bouille, Seine-Maritime. He studied law in Rouen and Paris, but eventually literature became his passion. He worked as a dramatic critic for Lloyd Francais and as a literary critic for L'Opinion Nationale.

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17/07/1900

Thomas McIlwraith, Scottish-Australian politician, 8th Premier of Queensland (born 1835)

Sir Thomas McIlwraith was for many years the dominant figure of colonial politics in Queensland. He was Premier of Queensland from 1879 to 1883, again in 1888, and for a third time in 1893. In common with most politicians of his era, McIlwraith was an influential businessman, who combined his parliamentary career with a prosperous involvement in the pastoral industry.

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17/07/1894

Leconte de Lisle, French poet and translator (born 1818)

Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle was a French poet of the Parnassian movement. He is traditionally known by his surname only, Leconte de Lisle.

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Josef Hyrtl, Austrian anatomist and biologist (born 1810)

Josef Hyrtl was an Austrian anatomist. His work in German, including the publication of Lehrbuch der Anatomie des Menschen in 1846, which was considered the German equivalent of Gray's Anatomy.

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17/07/1893

Frederick A. Johnson, American banker and politician (born 1833)

Frederick Avery Johnson was an American politician and banker who served a U.S. Representative from New York from 1883 to 1887. He was a member of the Republican Party and a resident of Glens Falls, New York.

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17/07/1885

Jean-Charles Chapais, Canadian farmer and politician, 1st Canadian Minister of Agriculture (born 1811)

Jean-Charles Chapais, was a Canadian Conservative politician, and considered a Father of Canadian Confederation for his participation in the Quebec Conference to determine the form of Canada's government.

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17/07/1883

Tự Đức, Vietnamese emperor (born 1829)

Tự Đức was the fourth emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam, and the country's last pre-colonial monarch. Ruling for about 36 years from 1847 to 1883, this made him the longest reigning Nguyễn emperor.

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17/07/1881

Jim Bridger, American scout and explorer (born 1804)

James Felix Bridger was an American mountain man, trapper, Army scout, and wilderness guide who explored and trapped in the Western United States in the first half of the 19th century. He was known as Old Gabe in his later years. He was from the Bridger family of Virginia, English settlers who had arrived in North America in the early colonial period.

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17/07/1879

Maurycy Gottlieb, Ukrainian-Polish painter (born 1856)

Maurycy Gottlieb (; 21 February 1856 – 17 July 1879) was a Polish-Jewish realist painter of the Romantic period. Considered one of the most talented students of Jan Matejko, Gottlieb died at the age of 23.

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17/07/1878

Aleardo Aleardi, Italian poet and politician (born 1812)

Aleardo Aleardi, born Gaetano Maria, was an Italian poet who belonged to the so-called Neo-romanticists.

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17/07/1871

Karl Tausig, Polish virtuoso pianist, arranger and composer (born 1841)

Karl Tausig was a Polish virtuoso pianist, arranger, and composer. He is widely regarded as Franz Liszt's greatest pupil and one of the greatest pianists of all time.

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17/07/1845

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1764)

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey was a British Whig politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834. His government enacted the Reform Acts of 1832, which expanded the electorate in the United Kingdom, and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, which abolished slavery in the British Empire.

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17/07/1794

John Roebuck, English chemist and businessman (born 1718)

John Roebuck of Kinneil FRS FRSE was an English industrialist, inventor, mechanical engineer, and physician who played an important role in the Industrial Revolution and who is known for developing the industrial-scale manufacture of sulphuric acid.

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17/07/1793

Charlotte Corday, French murderer (born 1768)

Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont, known as Charlotte Corday, was a figure of the French Revolution who assassinated revolutionary and Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat on 13 July 1793. Corday was a sympathiser of the Girondins, a moderate faction of French revolutionaries in opposition to the Jacobins. She held Marat responsible for the September Massacres of 1792 and, believing that the Revolution was in jeopardy from the more radical course the Jacobins had taken, she decided to assassinate Marat.

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17/07/1791

Martin Dobrizhoffer, Austrian missionary and author (born 1717)

Martin Dobrizhoffer was an Austrian Roman Catholic missionary and writer.

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17/07/1790

Adam Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher (born 1723)

Adam Smith was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by many as the "father of economics", or the "father of capitalism", he is primarily known for two classic works: The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, often abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is regarded as his magnum opus, marking the inception of modern economic scholarship as a comprehensive system and an academic discipline. Smith refuses to explain the distribution of wealth and power in terms of divine will and instead appeals to natural, political, social, economic, legal, environmental and technological factors, as well as the interactions among them. The work is notable for its contribution to economic theory, particularly in its exposition of the concept of absolute advantage.

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17/07/1762

Peter III of Russia (born 1728)

Peter III Fyodorovich was Emperor of Russia from 5 January 1762 until 9 July of the same year, when his wife, Catherine II "the Great", overthrew him in a palace coup d'état. He implemented many notable reforms during his reign, though he is criticised for undoing Russian gains in the Seven Years' War by forming an alliance with Prussia.

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17/07/1725

Thomas King, English and British soldier, MP for Queenborough, lieutenant-governor of Sheerness (born before 1660?).

Thomas King was an English professional soldier, lieutenant governor of Sheerness, Kent, and Member of Parliament for Queenborough, in Kent.

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17/07/1709

Robert Bolling, English planter and merchant (born 1646)

Robert Bolling was an English-born merchant, planter and politician. He was the founder of the Bolling family of Virginia, one of the First Families of Virginia, with at least fifteen descendants serving in the Virginia General Assembly as well as holding local offices, as did he.

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17/07/1704

Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, French fur trader and explorer (born 1657)

Pierre-Charles Le Sueur was a French fur trader and explorer in North America, recognized as the first known European to explore the Minnesota River valley.

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17/07/1645

Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, English-Scottish politician, Lord Chamberlain of the United Kingdom (born 1587)

Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, was a politician, and favourite of King James VI and I.

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17/07/1642

William, Count of Nassau-Siegen, German count, field marshal of the Dutch State Army (born 1592)

William, Count of Nassau-Siegen, German: Wilhelm Graf von Nassau-Siegen, official titles: Graf zu Nassau, Katzenelnbogen, Vianden und Diez, Herr zu Beilstein, was Count of Nassau-Siegen, a part of the County of Nassau from 1624 to 1642. A member of the House of Nassau-Siegen, a cadet branch of the Ottonian Line of the House of Nassau, he was a professional soldier who served in the armies of the Hanseatic League and the Republic of Venice, then with the Dutch States Army during the Eighty Years War. Promoted field marshal in 1633, he was successively governor of Emmerich, Heusden and Sluis.

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17/07/1603

Mózes Székely, Hungarian noble (born 1553)

Moses Székely was Prince of Transylvania in 1603.

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17/07/1588

Mimar Sinan, Ottoman architect and engineer, designed the Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque and Süleymaniye Mosque (born 1489)

Mimar Sinan also known as Koca Mi'mâr Sinân Âğâ, was the chief Ottoman architect, engineer and mathematician for sultans Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II and Murad III. He was responsible for the construction of more than 300 major structures, including the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, the Kanuni Sultan Suleiman Bridge in Büyükçekmece, and the Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad, as well as other more modest projects such as madrasa's, külliyes, and bridges. His apprentices would later design the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul and the Stari Most bridge in Mostar.

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17/07/1571

Georg Fabricius, German poet and historian (born 1516)

Georg Fabricius was a Protestant German poet, historian and archaeologist who wrote in Latin during the German Renaissance.

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17/07/1531

Hosokawa Takakuni, Japanese commander (born 1484)

Hosokawa Takakuni was the most powerful military commander in the Muromachi period under Ashikaga Yoshiharu, the twelfth shōgun. His father was Hosokawa Masaharu, a member of the branch of the Hosokawa clan. His childhood name was Rokuro (六郎).

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17/07/1453

Dmitry Shemyaka, Grand Prince of Moscow

Dmitriy Yurievich Shemyaka was the second son of Yury of Zvenigorod by Anastasia of Smolensk and grandson of Dmitri Donskoi. His hereditary patrimony was the rich northern town Galich-Mersky. When his uncle prince Vasily I of Moscow died in 1425, he and his 10-year-old nephew Vasily started fighting over the right to the throne, causing the Muscovite War of Succession (1425–1453). Intermittently, Shemyaka managed to be recognised twice as Prince of Moscow.

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John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, English commander and politician (born 1387)

John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, 1st Earl of Waterford, 7th Baron Talbot, KG, known as "Old Talbot" and "Terror of the French" was an English nobleman and a noted military commander during the Hundred Years' War. He was the most renowned in England and most feared in France of the English captains in the last stages of the conflict. Known as a tough, cruel, and quarrelsome man, Talbot distinguished himself militarily in a time of decline for the English. Called "the English Achilles", he is lavishly praised in the plays of Shakespeare. The manner of his death, leading an ill-advised charge against field artillery, has come to symbolize the passing of the age of chivalry. He also held the subsidiary titles of 10th Baron Strange of Blackmere and 6th Baron Furnivall.

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17/07/1399

Jadwiga, queen of Poland (born 1374)

Jadwiga, also known as Hedwig, was the first female monarch of the Kingdom of Poland, as well as its last hereditary ruler. She reigned from 16 October 1384 until her death. Born in Buda, she was the youngest daughter of Louis I of Hungary and Poland and his wife, Elizabeth of Bosnia. Jadwiga was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou, and had forebears among the Polish Piasts.

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17/07/1304

Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer (born 1251)

Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer of Wigmore was the second son and eventual heir of Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer of Wigmore. His mother was Maud de Braose.

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17/07/1210

Sverker II, king of Sweden (born 1210)

Sverker the Younger, also known as Sverker II or Sverker Karlsson, was King of Sweden from 1195 or 1196 to 1208 when he was defeated in the Battle of Lena by Erik Knutsson. Sverker died in the 1210 Battle of Gestilren where his forces battled those of King Erik Knutsson.

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17/07/1119

Baldwin VII, count of Flanders (born 1093)

Baldwin VII was Count of Flanders from 1111 to 1119.

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17/07/1085

Robert Guiscard, Norman adventurer

Robert Guiscard, also referred to as Robert de Hauteville, was a Norman adventurer remembered for his conquest of southern Italy and Sicily in the 11th century.

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17/07/1070

Baldwin VI, count of Flanders (born 1030)

Baldwin VI, also known as Baldwin the Good, was the count of Hainaut from 1051 to 1070 and count of Flanders from 1067 to 1070.

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17/07/0961

Du, empress dowager of the Song dynasty

Empress Dowager Du was an empress dowager of imperial China's Song dynasty. She was the wife of general Zhao Hongyin and the mother of Emperor Taizu of Song, who founded the Song dynasty.

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17/07/0952

Wu Hanyue, Chinese noblewoman (born 913)

Lady Wu Hanyue (吳漢月), formally the Lady Dowager Gongyi of Wuyue (吳越國恭懿太夫人), was the mother of Qian Chu, the fifth and final king of the Chinese state Wuyue of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

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17/07/0855

Leo IV, pope of the Catholic Church (born 790)

Pope Leo IV was the bishop of Rome and leader of the Papal States from 10 April 847 to his death in 855. He is remembered for repairing Roman churches that had been damaged during the Arab raid against Rome, and for building the Leonine Wall around Vatican Hill to protect the city. Pope Leo organized a league of Italian cities who fought and won the sea Battle of Ostia against the Saracens.

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17/07/0521

Magnus Felix Ennodius, Gallo-Roman bishop

Magnus Felix Ennodius was Bishop of Pavia in 514, and a Latin rhetorician and poet.

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