Died on Thursday, 31st July – Famous Deaths

31/07/2024

Paul Bucha, United States Army Medal of Honor recipient (born 1943)

Paul William Bucha was an American Vietnam War veteran and a recipient of the Medal of Honor. He was a foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

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Ismail Haniyeh, Palestinian politician, political leader of Hamas (born 1962/1963)

Ismail Haniyeh was a Palestinian politician who served as third chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from May 2017 until his assassination in July 2024. He also served as the prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority from March 2006 until June 2014 and the first Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip from June 2007 until February 2017, where he was succeeded by Yahya Sinwar.

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31/07/2023

Angus Cloud, American actor (born 1998)

Conor Angus Cloud Hickey was an American actor. He was best known for his role as Fezco in the HBO drama series Euphoria (2019–present), and had roles in the films North Hollywood (2021), The Line (2023), Abigail and The Garfield Movie. He also appeared in music videos by Noah Cyrus, Juice Wrld, Becky G, and Karol G. At age 25, Cloud died from an accidental overdose in Oakland, California.

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31/07/2022

Fidel V. Ramos, 12th President of the Philippines (born 1928)

Fidel Valdez Ramos, popularly known as FVR and Eddie Ramos, was a Filipino general and politician who served as the 12th president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. He was the only career military officer to reach the rank of five-star general. Rising from second lieutenant to commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Ramos is credited for revitalizing and renewing international confidence in the Philippine economy during his six years in office.

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Bill Russell, NBA Hall of Fame player and coach (born 1934)

William Felton Russell was an American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. He was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that played for 12 NBA championships and won 11 during his 13-year career. Russell is widely considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

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31/07/2020

Alan Parker, English filmmaker (born 1944)

Sir Alan William Parker was an English film director, screenwriter and producer. His early career, beginning in his late teens, was spent as a copywriter and director of television advertisements. After about ten years of filming adverts, many of which won awards for creativity, he began screenwriting and directing films.

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31/07/2019

Harold Prince, Broadway producer and director, who received more Tony awards than anyone else in history (born 1928)

Harold Smith Prince, commonly known as Hal Prince, was an American theater director and producer known for his work in musical theater.

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31/07/2018

Tony Bullimore, British sailor & businessman (born 1939)

Tony Bullimore was a British businessman and international yachtsman. During the 1996–97 Vendée Globe solo round-the-world yacht race, his vessel lost its keel and capsized in the Southern Ocean. He survived for four days inside the upturned hull before being located and rescued by the Australian Navy.

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31/07/2017

Jeanne Moreau, French actress (born 1928)

Jeanne Moreau was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, director, and socialite. She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française.

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31/07/2016

Chiyonofuji Mitsugu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 58th Yokozuna (born 1955)

Chiyonofuji Mitsugu , born Mitsugu Akimoto , was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler and the 58th yokozuna of the sport.

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Seymour Papert, South African mathematician (born 1928)

Seymour Aubrey Papert was a South African-born American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator, who spent most of his career teaching and researching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence, and of the constructionist movement in education. He was co-inventor, with Wally Feurzeig and Cynthia Solomon, of the Logo programming language.

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31/07/2015

Alan Cheuse, American writer and critic (born 1940)

Alan Stuart Cheuse was an American writer, editor, professor of literature, and radio commentator. A longtime NPR book commentator, he was also the author of five novels, five collections of short stories and novellas, a memoir and a collection of travel essays. In addition, Cheuse was a regular contributor to All Things Considered. His short fiction appeared in respected publications like The New Yorker, Ploughshares, The Antioch Review, Prairie Schooner, among other places. He taught in the Writing Program at George Mason University and the Community of Writers.

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Howard W. Jones, American surgeon and academic (born 1910)

Howard Wilbur Jones, Jr. was an American gynecological surgeon and in vitro fertilization (IVF) specialist. Jones and his wife, Georgeanna Seegar Jones, were two of the earliest reproductive medicine specialists in the United States. They established the reproductive medicine center that was responsible for the birth of the first IVF baby in the U.S. He wrote articles on the beginning of human personhood and testified before legislators on the same subject. He was one of the early physicians to perform sex reassignment surgeries.

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Billy Pierce, American baseball player and sportscaster (born 1927)

Walter William Pierce was an American starting pitcher in Major League Baseball between 1945 and 1964 who played most of his career for the Chicago White Sox. He was the team's star pitcher in the decade from 1952 to 1961, when they posted the third best record in the major leagues, and received the Sporting News Pitcher of the Year Award for the American League (AL) in 1956 and 1957 after being runner-up in both 1953 and 1955. A seven-time All-Star, he led the AL in complete games three times despite his slight build, and in wins, earned run average (ERA) and strikeouts once each. He pitched four one-hitters and seven two-hitters in his career, and on June 27, 1958 came within one batter of becoming the first left-hander in 78 years to throw a perfect game.

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Roddy Piper, Canadian wrestler and actor (born 1954)

Roderick George Toombs, known by his ring name "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, was a Canadian professional wrestler and actor.

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Richard Schweiker, American soldier and politician, 14th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (born 1926)

Richard Schultz Schweiker was an American businessman and politician who served as the 14th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1983. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a U.S. Representative from 1961 to 1969 and a U.S. Senator from 1969 to 1981 from Pennsylvania. In 1976, Schweiker was Reagan's running mate during his unsuccessful presidential campaign.

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31/07/2014

Warren Bennis, American scholar, author, and academic (born 1925)

Warren Gamaliel Bennis was an American scholar, organizational consultant and author, widely regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary field of Leadership studies. Bennis was University Professor and Distinguished Professor of Business Administration and Founding Chairman of The Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California.

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Nabarun Bhattacharya, Indian journalist and author (born 1948)

Nabarun Bhattacharya was an Indian writer who wrote in the Bengali language. He was born at Berhampore, West Bengal. He was the only child of actor and playwright Bijon Bhattacharya and writer and activist Mahashweta Devi. His maternal grandfather was a writer from the Kallol era Manish Ghatak. Visionary filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak was his great-uncle.

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Jeff Bourne, English footballer (born 1948)

Jeffrey Albert Bourne was an English footballer who played as a striker. Born in Linton, Derbyshire, he spent most of his early career in the lower English divisions before moving to the United States, where he played six seasons in the North American Soccer League, two in the second division American Soccer League. He led the ASL in scoring in 1983.

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Wilfred Feinberg, American lawyer and judge (born 1920)

Wilfred Feinberg was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and previously was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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31/07/2013

Michael Ansara, Syrian-American actor (born 1922)

Michael George Ansara was a Syrian‐American actor. He was often cast in Arab and Native American roles. His work in both film and television spanned several genres, including historical epics, Westerns, and science fiction.

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Michel Donnet, English-Belgian general and pilot (born 1917)

Michel G. L. "Mike" Donnet, was a Belgian pilot who served in the Belgian Army and British Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He shot down four enemy aircraft confirmed, and achieved the RAF rank of wing commander. After the war, he returned to the Belgian Air Force, and held several important commands before retiring in 1975.

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John Graves, American captain and author (born 1920)

John Alexander Graves III was an American writer known for his book Goodbye to a River.

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Trevor Storer, English businessman, founded Pukka Pies (born 1930)

Trevor Storer was a British businessman and founder of the Pukka Pies company in 1963, which was originally called Trevor Storer's Home Made Pies. He was the author of Bread Salesmanship, which became the training manual for Allied Bakeries in the 1960s. Originally making his pies in his own home, he built the company up until retiring at the age of 65, but remained chairman until his death. As of his time of his death, the company turned over £40 million a year.

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31/07/2012

Mollie Hunter, Scottish author and playwright (born 1922)

Maureen Mollie Hunter McIlwraith was a Scottish writer known as Mollie Hunter. She wrote fantasy for children, historical stories for young adults, and realistic novels for adults. Many of her works are inspired by Scottish history, or by Scottish or Irish folklore, with elements of magic and fantasy.

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Alfredo Ramos, Brazilian footballer and coach (born 1924)

Alfredo Ramos Castilho, was a Brazilian footballer in the defense role. He was simply known as Alfredo or Polvo by fans.

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Gore Vidal, American novelist, screenwriter, and critic (born 1925)

Eugene Luther Gore Vidal was an American writer and public intellectual known for his cynical epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays criticized the social and sexual norms he perceived as driving American life. Vidal was heavily involved in politics, and unsuccessfully sought office twice as a Democratic Party candidate, first in 1960 to the United States House of Representatives, and later in 1982 to the United States Senate.

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Tony Sly, American musician, singer-songwriter (born 1970)

Anthony James Sly was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as the lead singer and lead guitarist of the punk rock band No Use for a Name. In his later years he also gained attention for his acoustic solo work, with two acoustic split albums he released with Lagwagon front man Joey Cape and two solo albums.

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31/07/2009

Bobby Robson, English footballer and manager (born 1933)

Sir Robert William Robson was an English football player and coach. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich Town.

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Harry Alan Towers, English-Canadian screenwriter and producer (born 1920)

Harry Alan Towers was a British radio and independent film producer and screenwriter. He wrote numerous screenplays for the films he produced, often under the pseudonym Peter Welbeck. He produced over 80 feature films and continued to write and produce well into his eighties. Towers was married to the actress Maria Rohm, who appeared in many of his films.

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31/07/2005

Wim Duisenberg, Dutch economist and politician, 1st President of the European Central Bank (born 1935)

Willem Frederik "Wim" Duisenberg was a Dutch politician, economist and senior official who served as the first President of the European Central Bank from 1998 to 2003. A member of the Labour Party (PvdA), he previously was Minister of Finance from 1973 to 1977 and presided over De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the Dutch central bank, from 1982 to 1997.

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31/07/2004

Virginia Grey, American actress (born 1917)

Virginia Grey was an American actress who appeared in over 100 films and several radio and television shows from the 1930s to the early 1980s. She was romantically involved with Clark Gable for several years, after his wife, Carole Lombard's, untimely death.

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31/07/2003

Guido Crepax, Italian author and illustrator (born 1933)

Guido Crepax, was an Italian comics artist. He is most famous for his character Valentina, created in 1965 and very representative of the spirit of the 1960s. The Valentina series of books and strips became noted for Crepax's sophisticated drawing, and for the psychedelic, dreamlike storylines, generally involving a strong dose of eroticism. His work was often politically motivated too, inspired by his Communist convictions. A film based on his work called Baba Yaga, featuring the character Valentina, was made in 1973.

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31/07/2001

Francisco da Costa Gomes, Portuguese general and politician, 15th President of Portugal (born 1914)

Francisco da Costa Gomes, ComTE GOA was a Portuguese military officer and politician who was the president of Portugal from 1974 to 1976. Earlier on, he had been deployed to Angola as part of the Portuguese Colonial War.

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Friedrich Franz, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (born 1910)

Friedrich Franz, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was the heir apparent to the throne of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and a member of the Waffen-SS.

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31/07/2000

William Keepers Maxwell Jr., American editor, novelist, short story writer, and essayist (born 1908)

William Keepers Maxwell Jr. was an American editor, novelist, short story writer, essayist, children's author, and memoirist. He served as a fiction editor at The New Yorker from 1936 to 1975. An editor devoted to his writers, Maxwell became a mentor and confidant to many authors.

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31/07/1997

Bảo Đại, Vietnamese emperor (born 1913)

Bảo Đại, born Nguyễn Phúc (Phước) Vĩnh Thụy, was the 13th and final emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of Vietnam. From 1926 to 1945, he was de jure emperor of Annam and Tonkin, which were then protectorates in French Indochina, covering the present-day central and northern Vietnam. Bảo Đại ascended the throne in 1932.

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31/07/1993

Baudouin, King of Belgium (born 1930)

Baudouin was King of the Belgians from 17 July 1951 until his death in 1993. He was the last Belgian king to be sovereign of the Congo, before it became independent in 1960 and became the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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31/07/1992

Leonard Cheshire, English captain and pilot (born 1917)

Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire,, was a British Royal Air Force pilot, officer and philanthropist.

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31/07/1990

Albert Leduc, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1902)

Joseph Albert Florimond Leduc was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman. He played in the National Hockey League from 1925 to 1935. with the New York Rangers, Ottawa Senators, and Montreal Canadiens. He won Stanley Cup twice, in 1930, and 1931, both with Montreal.

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31/07/1987

Joseph E. Levine, American film producer (b, 1905)

Joseph Edward Levine was an American film distributor, financier and producer. At the time of his death, it was said he was involved in one or another capacity with 497 films. Levine was responsible for the American releases of Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, Attila and Hercules, which helped revolutionize American film marketing, and was founder and president of Embassy Pictures.

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31/07/1986

Chiune Sugihara, Japanese diplomat (born 1900)

Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania. During the Second World War, Sugihara helped thousands of Jews flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through Japanese territory, risking his career and the lives of his family. The fleeing Jews were refugees from German-occupied Western Poland and Soviet-occupied Eastern Poland, as well as residents of Lithuania.

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31/07/1985

Eugene Carson Blake, American religious leader (born 1906)

Eugene Carson Blake was an American Presbyterian Church leader.

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31/07/1981

Omar Torrijos, Panamanian general and politician, Military Leader of Panama (born 1929)

Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera was a Panamanian military officer, politician and revolutionary who was the military leader of Panama, as well as the Commander of the Panamanian National Guard from 1968 to his death in 1981. Torrijos was never officially the president of Panama, but instead held self-imposed and all-encompassing titles including "Maximum Leader of the Panamanian Revolution". Torrijos took power in a coup d'état and instituted a number of social reforms.

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31/07/1980

Pascual Jordan, German physicist, author, and academic (born 1902)

Ernst Pascual Jordan was a German theoretical and mathematical physicist who made significant contributions to quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. He contributed much to the mathematical form of matrix mechanics, and developed canonical anticommutation relations for fermions. He introduced Jordan algebras in an effort to formalize quantum field theory; the algebras have since found numerous applications within mathematics.

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Mohammed Rafi, Indian playback singer (born 1924)

Mohammed Rafi was an Indian playback singer. He is considered to have been one of the greatest and most influential singers of the Indian subcontinent. Rafi was notable for his versatility and range of voice; his songs varied from fast, peppy numbers to patriotic songs, sad numbers to highly romantic songs, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans to classical songs. He was known for his ability to mould his voice to the persona and style of the actor lip-syncing the song on screen in the movie. He received six Filmfare Awards and one National Film Award in India. In 1967, the Government of India honored him with the fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri. In 2001, Rafi was honoured with the "Best Singer of the Millennium" title by Hero Honda and Stardust magazine. In 2013, Rafi was voted for the Greatest Voice in Hindi Cinema in a CNN-IBN poll.

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31/07/1979

Beatrix Lehmann, English actress and director (born 1903)

Beatrix Alice Lehmann was a British actress, theatre director, writer and novelist.

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31/07/1973

Azumafuji Kin'ichi, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 40th Yokozuna (born 1921)

Azumafuji Kin'ichi was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Taitō, Tokyo. He was the sport's 40th yokozuna, and later a professional wrestler.

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31/07/1972

Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian politician, 40th Prime Minister of Belgium, 1st President of the United Nations General Assembly (born 1899)

Paul-Henri Charles Spaak was an influential Belgian Socialist politician, diplomat and statesman who thrice served as the prime minister of Belgium and later as the second secretary general of NATO. Nicknamed "Mr. Europe", he was a leader in the formation of the institutions that evolved into the current European Union, along with Robert Schuman, Alcide De Gasperi and Konrad Adenauer.

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31/07/1971

Walter P. Carter, American soldier and activist (born 1923)

Walter Percival Carter was an activist and central figure in Baltimore, Maryland during the Civil Rights Movement. He earned that designation by organizing demonstrations against discrimination throughout Maryland. Carter is best known for his work as the chairman of the Baltimore chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) from 1960 to 1963 and as the Maryland coordinator for the 1963 March on Washington. A hospital, an elementary school, a recreation center, a college library, and a day-care center in Baltimore have been named in his memory.

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31/07/1968

Jack Pizzey, Australian politician, 29th Premier of Queensland (born 1911)

Jack Charles Allan Pizzey was a Queensland Country Party politician. He was Premier of Queensland, in a coalition with the Liberal Party, from 17 January 1968 until his death on 31 July that year. To date, he is the most recent premier of an Australian state to die in office.

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31/07/1966

Bud Powell, American pianist (born 1924)

Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American jazz pianist and composer. A pioneer in the development of bebop and its associated contributions to jazz theory, Powell's application of complex phrasing to the piano influenced both his contemporaries and later pianists including Walter Davis Jr., Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Barry Harris.

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31/07/1964

Jim Reeves, American singer-songwriter (born 1923)

James Travis Reeves was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. One of the earliest pioneers and practitioners of the Nashville sound, he played a central role in the sonic development of country music in the 1960s. Known as "Gentleman Jim", his songs continued to chart for years after his death in a plane crash. He is a member of both the Country Music and Texas Country Music Halls of Fame.

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31/07/1958

Eino Kaila, Finnish philosopher and psychologist, attendant of the Vienna circle (born 1890)

Eino Sakari Kaila was a Finnish philosopher, critic and teacher. He worked in numerous fields including psychology, physics and theater, and attempted to find unifying principles behind various branches of human and natural sciences.

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31/07/1954

Onofre Marimón, Argentine race car driver (born 1923)

Onofre Agustín Marimón was an Argentine racing driver, who competed in Formula One at 12 Grands Prix between 1951 and 1954.

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31/07/1953

Robert A. Taft, American soldier and politician (born 1889)

Robert Alphonso Taft Sr. was an American politician, lawyer, and scion of the Republican Party's Taft family. Taft represented Ohio in the United States Senate, briefly served as Senate majority leader, and was a leader of the conservative coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats who blocked expansion of the New Deal. Often referred to as "Mr. Republican", he co-sponsored the Taft–Hartley Act of 1947, which banned closed shops, created the framework of right-to-work states, and tightened other regulations on labor unions and practices.

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31/07/1951

Cho Ki-chon, North Korean poet (born 1913)

Cho Ki-chon was a Soviet-born North Korean poet. He is regarded as a national poet and "founding father of North Korean poetry" whose distinct Soviet-influenced style of lyrical epic poetry in the socialist realist genre became an important feature of North Korean literature. He was nicknamed "Korea's Mayakovsky" after the writer whose works had had an influence on him and which implied his breaking from the literature of the old society and his commitment to communist values. Since a remark made by Kim Jong Il on his 2001 visit to Russia, North Korean media has referred to Cho as the "Pushkin of Korea".

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31/07/1944

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French pilot and poet (born 1900)

Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, vicomte de Saint-Exupéry, known simply as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, was a French writer, poet, journalist and aviator.

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31/07/1943

Hedley Verity, English cricketer and soldier (born 1905)

Hedley Verity was a professional cricketer who played for Yorkshire and England between 1930 and 1939. A slow left-arm orthodox bowler, he took 1,956 wickets in first-class cricket at an average of 14.90 and 144 wickets in 40 Tests at an average of 24.37.

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31/07/1942

Francis Younghusband, British Army Officer, explorer and spiritual writer (born 1863)

Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, was a British Army officer, explorer and spiritual writer. He is remembered for his travels in the Far East and Central Asia; especially the 1904 British expedition to Tibet, led by him, and for his writings on Asia and foreign policy. Younghusband held positions including British commissioner to Tibet and president of the Royal Geographical Society.

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31/07/1940

Udham Singh, Indian activist (born 1899)

Udham Singh was an Indian revolutionary belonging to Ghadar Party and HSRA, best known for assassinating Michael O'Dwyer, the former lieutenant governor of the Punjab in India, on 13 March 1940. The assassination was done in revenge for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar in 1919, for which O'Dwyer was responsible and of which Singh himself was a survivor. Singh was subsequently tried and convicted of murder and hanged in July 1940. While in custody, he used the name Ram Mohammad Singh Azad, which represents the three major religions in India and his anti-colonial sentiment.

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31/07/1920

Ion Dragoumis, Greek philosopher and diplomat (born 1878)

Ion Dragoumis was a Greek diplomat, philosopher, writer and revolutionary.

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31/07/1917

Francis Ledwidge, Irish soldier and poet (born 1881)

Francis Edward Ledwidge was a 20th-century Irish poet. From Slane, County Meath, and sometimes known as the "poet of the blackbirds", he was later also known as a First World War war poet. He befriended the established writer Lord Dunsany, who helped with the publication of his works. He was killed in action at Ypres in 1917.

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Hedd Wyn, Welsh language poet (born 1887)

Hedd Wyn was a Welsh-language poet who was killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele during World War I. He was posthumously awarded the bard's chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod. Evans, who had been awarded several chairs for his poetry, was inspired to take the Bardic name Hedd Wyn from the way sunlight penetrated the mist in the Meirionnydd valleys.

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31/07/1914

Jean Jaurès, French journalist and politician (born 1859)

Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès, commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès, was a French socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became a social democrat and one of the first possibilists and in 1902 the leader of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. The two parties merged in 1905 into the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO). An antimilitarist, he was assassinated in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I but remains one of the main historical figures of the French Left. As a heterodox Marxist, Jaurès rejected the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat and tried to conciliate idealism and materialism, individualism and collectivism, democracy and class struggle, and patriotism and internationalism.

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31/07/1913

John Milne, British geologist and mining engineer. (born 1850)

John Milne was a British geologist and mining engineer who worked on a horizontal seismograph.

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31/07/1891

Jean-Baptiste Capronnier, Belgian stained glass painter (born 1814)

Jean-Baptiste Capronnier was a Belgian stained glass painter. Born in Brussels in 1814, he had much to do with the modern revival of glass-painting, and first made his reputation by his study of the old methods of workmanship, and his clever restorations of old examples, and copies made for the Brussels archaeological museum. He carried out windows for various churches in Brussels, Bruges, Amsterdam, the UK and elsewhere, and his work was commissioned also for France, Italy and England. At the Paris Exhibition of 1855 he won the only medal given for glasspainting. He died in Schaerbeek in 1891.

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31/07/1886

Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1811)

Franz Liszt was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most prolific and influential composers of his era, and his piano works continue to be widely performed and recorded.

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31/07/1884

Kiến Phúc, Vietnamese emperor (born 1869)

Kiến Phúc was a child emperor of Vietnam, who reigned for less than 8 months, 1883–1884, as the 7th emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty.

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31/07/1875

Andrew Johnson, American general and politician, 17th President of the United States (born 1808)

Andrew Johnson was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. The 16th vice president, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a War Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket in the 1864 presidential election, coming to office as the American Civil War concluded. Johnson favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union without protection for the newly freed people who were formerly enslaved, as well as pardoning ex-Confederates. This led to conflict with the Republican Party-dominated U.S. Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1868. He was acquitted in the Senate by one vote.

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31/07/1864

Louis Christophe François Hachette, French publisher (born 1800)

Louis Christophe François Hachette was a French publisher who established a Paris publishing house designed to produce books and other material to improve the system of school instruction. Publications were initially focused on the classics and subsequently expanded to include books and magazines of all types. The firm is currently part of a global publishing house.

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31/07/1805

Dheeran Chinnamalai, Indian soldier (born 1756)

Dheeran Chinnamalai was a chieftain who ruled the odanilai region of the present day western Tamil Nadu. He fought against the British East India Company, was later captured and hanged by the British. He is also the protagonist of the "Kongu Mandala Udukkai Kadhaigal" novel written by Kaarmega Konar.

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31/07/1784

Denis Diderot, French philosopher and critic (born 1713)

Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the Encyclopédie along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominent figure during the Age of Enlightenment.

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31/07/1781

John Bligh, 3rd Earl of Darnley, British parliamentarian (born 1719)

John Bligh, 3rd Earl of Darnley, styled The Honourable John Bligh between 1721 and 1747, lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, was a British parliamentarian.

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31/07/1762

Luis Vicente de Velasco e Isla, Spanish sailor and commander (born 1711)

Commandant Luis Vicente de Velasco e Isla was a Spanish Navy officer who served in the Anglo-Spanish War. He was killed in action during the British siege of Havana in 1762.

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31/07/1750

John V, king of Portugal (born 1689)

Dom John V, known as the Magnanimous and the Portuguese Sun King, was King of Portugal from 9 December 1706 until his death in 1750. His reign saw the rise of Portugal and its monarchy to new levels of prosperity, wealth, and prestige among European courts.

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31/07/1726

Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician and theorist (born 1695)

Nicolaus II Bernoulli was a Swiss mathematician as were his father Johann Bernoulli and one of his brothers, Daniel Bernoulli. He was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family.

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31/07/1693

Willem Kalf, Dutch still life painter (born 1619)

Willem Kalf was one of the most prominent Dutch still-life painters of the 17th century, the Dutch Golden Age. We first get acquainted with Willem Kalf through Arnold Houbraken, in his Groot Schilderboek, who speaks very highly of him. In fact, Kalf was a highly regarded and celebrated artist during his own lifetime. This was due to his extensive art knowledge and what we gain from Houbraken, his affable personality. His claim to fame now rests mostly on his mature still lifes, pronkstilleven in Dutch, which feature the most exotic and luxurious objects. This can be seen in for example, Still life with nautilus beaker and porcelain lidded bowl from 1662, which became an iconic piece of western art.

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31/07/1653

Thomas Dudley, English soldier and politician, 3rd Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (born 1576)

Thomas Dudley was a New England colonial magistrate who served several terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Dudley was the chief founder of Newtowne, later Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built the town's first home. He provided land and funds to establish the Roxbury Latin School and signed Harvard College's new charter during his 1650 term as governor. Dudley was a devout Puritan who opposed religious views not conforming with his. In this, he was more rigid than other early Massachusetts leaders like John Winthrop, but less confrontational than John Endecott.

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31/07/1638

Sibylla Schwarz, German poet (born 1621)

Sibylla Schwarz, also known as Sibylle Schwartz was a German poet of the Baroque era.

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31/07/1616

Roger Wilbraham, Solicitor-General for Ireland (born 1553)

Sir Roger Wilbraham was a prominent English lawyer who served as Solicitor-General for Ireland, under Elizabeth I and was judged one of her few really competent Law Officers. He held a number of positions at court under James I, including Master of Requests and surveyor of the Court of Wards and Liveries. He bought an estate at Dorfold in the parish of Acton, near his birthplace of Nantwich in Cheshire. He was active in charitable works locally, including founding two sets of almshouses for impoverished men. He also founded almshouses in Monken Hadley, Middlesex, where he is buried.

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31/07/1556

Ignatius of Loyola, Spanish priest and theologian, founded the Society of Jesus (born 1491)

Ignatius of Loyola, venerated as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, was a Spanish Catholic priest and theologian, who, with six companions, founded the religious order of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and became its first Superior General, in Paris in 1541.

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31/07/1508

Na'od, Ethiopian emperor

Na'od was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1494 to 31 July 1507, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. His regnal name was Anbasa Bazar. His reign was marked by internal tension between territories with the assistance of Queen Eleni. He began construct an extravagant church in Amhara province, called Mekane Selassie. The church was completed by his successor Dawit II in 1530.

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31/07/1396

William Courtenay, English archbishop and politician, Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom (born 1342)

William Courtenay was Archbishop of Canterbury (1381–1396), having previously been Bishop of Hereford and Bishop of London.

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31/07/1358

Étienne Marcel, French rebel leader (born 1302)

Étienne Marcel was provost of the merchants of Paris under King John II of France, called John the Good. He distinguished himself in the defence of the small craftsmen and guildsmen who made up most of the city population.

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31/07/1098

Hugh of Montgomery, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury

Hugh of Montgomery, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury, was an Anglo-Norman aristocrat and member of the House of Bellême. He was also known as Hugh the Red.

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31/07/0975

Fu Yanqing, Chinese general (born 898)

Fu Yanqing (符彥卿), né Li Yanqing (李彥卿), courtesy name Guanhou (冠侯), formally the Prince of Wei (魏王), nicknamed Fu Disi, was a Chinese military general, monarch, and politician of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Zhou states, as well as the Liao dynasty and Song dynasty. He was one of the most celebrated generals of the period, and he was also the father of three daughters who received empress titles — two as successive empresses of the Later Zhou emperor Guo Rong, and one (posthumously) as a wife of Zhao Guangyi, who would become the second emperor of Song.

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31/07/0910

Feng Xingxi, Chinese warlord

Feng Xingxi (馮行襲), courtesy name Zhengchen (正臣), formally Prince Zhongjing of Changle (長樂忠敬王), was a warlord late in the Chinese Tang dynasty who later became a subject of the succeeding Later Liang state. He was tall and strong and known as "Green Face Feng" for his green birthmark on his face.

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31/07/0450

Peter Chrysologus, Italian bishop and saint (born 380)

Peter Chrysologus was an Italian Christian prelate who served as Bishop of Ravenna from about 433 until his death. He is known as the "Doctor of Homilies" for the concise but theologically rich reflections he delivered during his time as the Bishop of Ravenna.

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01/01/1970

Aurelia Cotta, Roman mother of Gaius Julius Caesar (born 120 BC)

Aurelia was the mother of the Roman general and statesman Julius Caesar.

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