Died on Tuesday, 17th June – Famous Deaths

17/06/2021

Kenneth Kaunda, Zambian educator and politician, first president of Zambia (born 1924)

Kenneth Kaunda, also known as KK, was a Zambian politician who served as the first president of Zambia from 1964 to 1991. He was at the forefront of the campaign for independence from the British Empire, though he would subsequently establish himself as a dictator and oversee Zambia’s economic collapse once this was achieved. Dissatisfied with Harry Nkumbula's leadership of the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress, he broke away and founded the Zambian African National Congress, later becoming the head of the socialist United National Independence Party (UNIP).

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17/06/2020

Jean Kennedy Smith, American activist, humanitarian, author and diplomat (United States Ambassador to Ireland, 1993–1998) (born 1928)

Jean Ann Kennedy Smith was an American diplomat, activist, humanitarian, and author who served as United States Ambassador to Ireland from 1993 to 1998. A member of the Kennedy family, Kennedy was the eighth of nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Kennedy. Her siblings included President of the United States John F. Kennedy, United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, United States Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Rosemary Kennedy, and Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

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17/06/2019

Gloria Vanderbilt, American artist, author actress, fashion designer, heiress and socialite (born 1924)

Gloria Laura Vanderbilt was an American artist, author, actress, fashion designer, heiress, and socialite. During the 1930s, she was the subject of a high-profile child custody trial in which her mother, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, and her paternal aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, each sought custody of her and control over her trust fund. Called the "trial of the century" by the press, the court proceedings were the subject of wide and sensational press coverage, due to the wealth and prominence of the involved parties and the scandalous evidence presented to support Whitney's claim that Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt was an unfit parent.

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Mohamed Morsi, Egyptian professor and politician, first elected president of Egypt after Egyptian revolution (born 1951)

Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa Al-Ayyat was an Egyptian politician, engineer, and professor who served as the 5th president of Egypt from 2012 to 2013, when General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi removed him from office in a coup d'état after protests in June. Affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood organization, Morsi led the Freedom and Justice Party from 2011 to 2012.

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17/06/2017

Baldwin Lonsdale, president of Vanuatu (born 1948)

Baldwin Jacobson Lonsdale was a Vanuatuan politician and Anglican priest who served as the president of Vanuatu from 22 September 2014 until his death in 2017.

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17/06/2015

Ron Clarke, Australian runner and politician, Mayor of the Gold Coast (born 1937)

Ronald William Clarke was an Australian athlete, writer, and the Mayor of the Gold Coast from 2004 to 2012. He was one of the best-known middle- and long-distance runners in the 1960s, notable for setting seventeen world records.

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John David Crow, American football player and coach (born 1935)

John David Crow Sr. was an American professional football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He won the Heisman Trophy in 1957 as a halfback playing for the Texas A&M Aggies. After college, he played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Chicago / St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco 49ers from 1958 to 1968.

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Süleyman Demirel, Turkish engineer and politician, 9th President of Turkey (born 1924)

Sami Süleyman Gündoğdu Demirel was a Turkish politician, engineer, and statesman who served as the president of Turkey from 1993 to 2000. He previously served as the prime minister of Turkey seven times between 1965 and 1993. He was the leader of the Justice Party (AP) from 1964 to 1980 and the leader of the True Path Party (DYP) from 1987 to 1993.

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Roberto M. Levingston, Argentinian general and politician, 36th President of Argentina (born 1920)

Roberto Marcelo Levingston Laborda was an Argentine Army general who was the 36th President of Argentina from 1970 to 1971. His presidency was marked by a protectionist economic policy amid the country's financial struggles, and the imposition of the death penalty against terrorists and kidnappers.

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Clementa C. Pinckney, American minister and politician (born 1973)

Clementa "Clem" Carlos Pinckney was an American politician and pastor who served as a Democratic member of the South Carolina Senate, representing the 45th District from 2000 until his assassination in 2015. He was previously a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1997 through 2000.

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17/06/2014

Patsy Byrne, English actress (born 1933)

Patricia Anne Thirza Byrne was an English actress, best known for her role as "Nursie" in Blackadder II as well as Malcolm's domineering Mother, Mrs Stoneway in all seven series of the ITV comedy Watching  between 1987 and 1993.

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Éric Dewailly, Canadian epidemiologist and academic (born 1954)

Éric Dewailly was a Canadian epidemiologist and medical researcher from Quebec. He was particularly notable for his research into human toxicology and the effect of contaminants on the environment in the Arctic. A professor of medicine at Laval University and the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec Research Center, he was also a scientific director of the World Health Organization's Collaborative Centre in Environmental Health.

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Stanley Marsh 3, American businessman and philanthropist (born 1938)

Stanley Marsh 3 was an American artist, businessman, philanthropist, and prankster from Amarillo, Texas. He is perhaps best known for having been the sponsor of the Cadillac Ranch, an unusual public art installation off historic Route 66, now Interstate 40, west of Amarillo.

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Arnold S. Relman, American physician and academic (born 1923)

Arnold Seymour Relman — known as Bud Relman to intimates — was an American internist and professor of medicine and social medicine. He was editor of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) from 1977 to 1991, where he instituted two important policies: one asking the popular press not to report on articles before publication and another requiring authors to disclose conflicts of interest. He wrote extensively on medical publishing and reform of the U.S. health care system, advocating non-profit delivery of single-payer health care. Relman ended his career as professor emeritus at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.

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Larry Zeidel, Canadian-American ice hockey player and sportscaster (born 1928)

Lazarus "Larry The Rock" Zeidel was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman, most notably for the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League, for whom he played nine seasons, and in the National Hockey League for the Chicago Black Hawks and the Philadelphia Flyers during a career that lasted from 1947 to 1969. He is considered one of the most violent players in hockey history, and at the time of his retirement, was the most penalized player in minor league history.

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17/06/2013

Michael Baigent, New Zealand-English theorist and author (born 1948)

Michael Baigent was a New Zealand writer who published a number of popular works questioning traditional perceptions of history and the life of Jesus. He is known best as a co-author of the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.

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Atiqul Haque Chowdhury, Bangladeshi playwright and producer (born 1930)

Atiqul Haque Chowdhury was a prominent media personality in Bangladesh. He significantly contributed to the development of Bangladesh television and radio.

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Pierre F. Côté, Canadian lawyer and civil servant (born 1927)

Pierre-Ferdinand Côté, was a Canadian civil servant and lawyer. Côté served as the first Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec from 1978 until 1997. The Chief Electoral Officer is the official responsible for the administration of the electoral and referendum system in the province of Quebec.

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Bulbs Ehlers, American basketball player (born 1923)

Edwin Sheffield "Bulbs" Ehlers was an American professional basketball player. Standing 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) and weighing 198 pounds (90 kg), he played the Shooting Guard positions. Ehlers was drafted third overall in the inaugural 1947 BAA draft by the Boston Celtics. In two seasons in the league, both with the Celtics, Ehlers averaged 8.1 points per game.

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James Holshouser, American politician, 68th Governor of North Carolina (born 1934)

James Eubert Holshouser Jr. was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 68th Governor of North Carolina from 1973 to 1977. He was the first Republican candidate to be elected as governor of the state since 1896. Born in Boone, North Carolina, Holshouser initially sought to become a sports journalist before deciding to pursue a law degree. While in law school he developed an interest in politics and in 1962 he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives where he focused on restructuring government and higher education institutions, and drug abuse legislation. Made chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party in March 1966, he established the organization's first permanent staff and gained prominence by opposing a cigarette tax.

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17/06/2012

Stéphane Brosse, French mountaineer (born 1971)

Stéphane Brosse was a French ski mountaineer.

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Patricia Brown, American baseball player (born 1931)

Patricia Irene Brown was a pitcher who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5' 5", 135 lb., she batted and threw right handed.

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Nathan Divinsky, Canadian mathematician and chess player (born 1925)

Nathan Joseph Harry Divinsky was a Canadian mathematician, university professor, chess master, writer, and politician. Divinsky was also known for being the former husband of the 19th prime minister of Canada, Kim Campbell. Divinsky and Campbell were married from 1972 to 1983.

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Rodney King, American victim of police brutality (born 1965)

Rodney Glen King was an African American victim of police brutality. On March 3, 1991, he was severely beaten by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) during his arrest after a high speed pursuit for driving while intoxicated on Interstate 210. An uninvolved resident, George Holliday, saw and filmed the incident from his nearby balcony and sent the footage, which showed King on the ground being beaten, to a local news station, KTLA. The station broadcast the film, which was rebroadcast by other stations, with this exposure precipitating riots.

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Fauzia Wahab, Pakistani actress and politician (born 1956)

Fauzia Wahab was a Pakistani politician who served as the senior ex officio member and the secretary-general of the central executive committee of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

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17/06/2011

Rex Mossop, Australian rugby player and sportscaster (born 1928)

Rex Peers "Moose" Mossop was an Australian rugby union and rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s – a dual-code international, and an Australian television personality from 1964 until 1991.

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17/06/2009

Ralf Dahrendorf, German-English sociologist and politician (born 1929)

Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf, Baron Dahrendorf, was a German-British sociologist, philosopher, political scientist and liberal politician. A class conflict theorist, Dahrendorf was a leading expert on explaining and analysing class divisions in modern society. Dahrendorf wrote multiple articles and books, his most notable being Class and Conflict in Industrial Society (1959) and Essays in the Theory of Society (1968).

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Darrell Powers, American sergeant (born 1923)

Darrell Cecil "Shifty" Powers was a non-commissioned officer with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division during World War II. Powers was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by Peter Youngblood Hills.

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17/06/2008

Cyd Charisse, American actress and dancer (born 1922)

Cyd Charisse was an American dancer and actress.

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17/06/2007

Gianfranco Ferré, Italian fashion designer (born 1944)

Gianfranco Ferré was an Italian fashion designer also known as "the architect of fashion" for his background and his original attitude toward creating fashion design.

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Serena Wilson, American dancer and choreographer (born 1933)

Serena Wilson, often known just as "Serena", was a well-known dancer, choreographer, and teacher who helped popularize belly dance in the United States. Serena's work also helped legitimize the dance form and helped it to be perceived as more than burlesque or stripping. Serena danced in clubs in her younger years, opened her own studio, hosted her own television show, founded her own dance troupe, and was the author of several books about belly dance.

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17/06/2006

Bussunda, Brazilian comedian (born 1962)

Cláudio Besserman Vianna, commonly known as Bussunda, was a Brazilian humorist and TV comedian, member of the Casseta & Planeta troupe. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, where he lived and worked, having started his career in the 1980s as a writer for satirical magazine Casseta Popular. One of the most popular Brazilian comedians of his generation, the overweight Bussunda was famous for his impersonations of football striker Ronaldo and of Brazil's president Lula. He also did the voice of Shrek in the Brazilian Portuguese version of Shrek and Shrek 2. He was of Jewish descent.

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17/06/2004

Gerry McNeil, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1926)

Joseph Gerald George McNeil was a professional ice hockey goaltender who won three Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens between 1947 and 1956.

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17/06/2002

Willie Davenport, American sprinter and hurdler (born 1943)

William D. Davenport was an American sprint runner.

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Fritz Walter, German footballer (born 1920)

Friedrich "Fritz" Walter was a German footballer who spent his entire senior career at 1. FC Kaiserslautern. He usually played as an attacking midfielder or inside forward. In his time with the Germany and West Germany national teams, he appeared in 61 games and scored 33 goals, and was the captain of the team that won the 1954 FIFA World Cup. After his career, he was named honorary captain of the Germany national team.

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17/06/2001

Donald J. Cram, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1919)

Donald James Cram was an American chemist who shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Jean-Marie Lehn and Charles J. Pedersen "for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity." They were the founders of the field of host–guest chemistry.

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Thomas Winning, Scottish cardinal (born 1925)

Thomas Joseph Winning was a Scottish Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Glasgow from 1974 and President of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland from 1985 until his death. Winning was elevated to the cardinalate in 1994.

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17/06/2000

Ismail Mahomed, South African lawyer and jurist, 17th Chief Justice of South Africa (born 1931)

Ismail Mahomed SCOB SC was a South African lawyer and jurist who served as the first non-white Chief Justice of South Africa from January 1997 until his death in June 2000. He was also the Chief Justice of Namibia from 1992 to 1999 and the inaugural Deputy President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1995 to 1996.

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17/06/1999

Basil Hume, English cardinal (born 1923)

George Basil Hume was an English Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1976 until his death in 1999. A member of the Benedictines, he was made a cardinal in 1977.

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17/06/1996

Thomas Kuhn, American historian and philosopher (born 1922)

Thomas Samuel Kuhn was an American historian and philosopher of science whose 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term paradigm shift, which has since become an English-language idiom.

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Curt Swan, American illustrator (born 1920)

Douglas Curtis Swan was an American comics artist. The artist most associated with Superman during the period fans call the Bronze Age of Comic Books, Swan produced hundreds of covers and stories from the 1950s through the 1980s.

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17/06/1987

Dick Howser, American baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1936)

Richard Dalton Howser was an American Major League Baseball shortstop, coach, and manager who was best known as the manager of the Kansas City Royals during the 1980s and for guiding them to the franchise's first World Series title in 1985.

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17/06/1986

Kate Smith, American singer (born 1907)

Kathryn Elizabeth Smith was an American contralto. Referred to as The First Lady of Radio, Smith became well known for her renditions of "God Bless America" and "When the Moon Comes over the Mountain". She began to use the descriptor The Songbird of the South in the late 1920s, while performing on the stage. This term was also used by other southern vocalists of that era; however, as the Washington D.C. Sunday Star noted, Smith was not really southern—born in Virginia, she had spent nearly all of her life in the D.C. area. But as Smith became nationally known, she became more identified with the term. By early 1929, she was being referred to that way on a regular basis: a version of the term, using "from" rather than "of," was seen in newspaper advertisements that promoted her stage performances. "Songbird of the South" was used when she appeared on the NBC Radio Network in April. Then, in the summer of that year, she starred in a Vitaphone short feature entitled "Songbird of the South," in which she sang two of her hit songs,"Bless You Sister" and "Carolina Moon."

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17/06/1985

John Boulting, English director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1913)

John Edward Boulting and Roy Alfred Clarence Boulting, known collectively as the Boulting brothers, were English filmmakers and identical twins who became known for their series of satirical comedies in the 1950s and 1960s. They produced many of their films through their own production company, Charter Film Productions, which they founded in 1937.

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17/06/1983

Peter Mennin, American composer and educator (born 1923)

Peter Mennin was a prominent American composer, teacher and administrator. In 1958, he was named Director of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, and in 1962 became President of the Juilliard School, a position he held until his death in 1983. Under his leadership, Juilliard moved from Claremont Avenue to its present location at Lincoln Center. Mennin is responsible for the addition of drama and dance departments at Juilliard. He also started the Master Class Program, and brought many artists to teach including Maria Callas, Pierre Fournier and others.

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17/06/1982

Roberto Calvi, Italian banker (born 1920)

Roberto Calvi was an Italian banker, dubbed "God's Banker" by the press because of his close business dealings with the Holy See. He was a native of Milan and was chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in one of Italy's biggest political scandals.

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17/06/1981

Richard O'Connor, Indian-English general (born 1889)

General Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor, was a senior British Army officer who fought in both the First and Second World Wars, and commanded the Western Desert Force in the early years of the Second World War. He was the field commander for Operation Compass, in which his forces destroyed a much larger Italian army – a victory which nearly drove the Axis from Africa, and in turn, led Adolf Hitler to send the Afrika Korps under Erwin Rommel to try to reverse the situation. O'Connor was captured by a German patrol on 6 April 1941 and spent over two years in an Italian prisoner of war camp. He eventually escaped after the fall of Mussolini in the autumn of 1943. In 1944 he commanded VIII Corps in the Battle of Normandy and later during Operation Market Garden. In 1945 he was General Officer in Command of the Eastern Command in India and then, in the closing days of British rule in the subcontinent, he headed Northern Command. His final job in the army was Adjutant-General to the Forces in London, in charge of the British Army's administration, personnel and organisation.

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Zerna Sharp, American author and educator (born 1889)

Zerna Addas Sharp was an American educator and book editor who is best known as the creator of the Dick and Jane series of beginning readers for elementary school-aged children. Published by Scott, Foresman and Company of Chicago, Illinois, the readers, which described the activities of her fictional siblings, "Dick," "Jane," "Sally," and other characters, were widely used in schools in the United States and many other English-speaking countries for nearly forty years. The series, which included such titles as We Look and See, We Come and Go, We Work and Play, and Fun with Dick and Jane, among others, was marketed until 1973 and used the look-say method of teaching reading.

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17/06/1979

Hubert Ashton, English cricketer and politician (born 1898)

Sir Hubert Ashton was an English first-class cricketer, footballer and politician.

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Duffy Lewis, American baseball player and manager (born 1888)

George Edward "Duffy" Lewis was an American professional baseball left fielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees, and the Washington Senators from 1910 to 1921.

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17/06/1975

James Phinney Baxter III, American historian and academic (born 1893)

James Phinney Baxter III was an American historian, educator, and academic, who won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book Scientists Against Time (1946). He was also the author of The Introduction of the Ironclad Warship (1933).

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17/06/1974

Refik Koraltan, Turkish lawyer and politician, 8th Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (born 1889)

Refik Koraltan was a Turkish politician, having served as the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) from 22 May 1950 to 27 May 1960.

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17/06/1968

José Nasazzi, Uruguayan footballer and manager (born 1901)

José Nasazzi Yarza was a Uruguayan footballer who played as a right-back or centre-back. He captained his country when they won the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930.

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17/06/1963

Aleksander Kesküla, Estonian politician (born 1882)

Aleksander Eduard Kesküla was an Estonian politician and revolutionary.

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17/06/1961

Jeff Chandler, American actor (born 1918)

Jeff Chandler was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Cochise in Broken Arrow (1950), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was one of Universal Pictures' more popular male stars of the 1950s. His other credits include Sword in the Desert (1948), Deported (1950), Female on the Beach (1955), and Away All Boats (1956). He also performed as a radio actor and as a singer.

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17/06/1957

Dorothy Richardson, English journalist and author (born 1873)

Dorothy Miller Richardson was a British author and journalist. Author of Pilgrimage, a sequence of 13 semi-autobiographical novels published between 1915 and 1967—though Richardson saw them as chapters of one work—she was one of the earliest modernist novelists to use stream of consciousness as a narrative technique. Richardson also emphasises in Pilgrimage the importance and distinct nature of female experiences. The title Pilgrimage alludes not only to "the journey of the artist ... to self-realisation but, more practically, to the discovery of a unique creative form and expression".

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J. R. Williams, Canadian-American cartoonist (born 1888)

James Robert Williams was a Canadian cartoonist who signed his work J. R. Williams. He was best known for his long-run daily syndicated panel Out Our Way. As noted by Coulton Waugh in his 1947 book The Comics, anecdotal evidence indicated that more Williams' cartoons were clipped and saved than were other newspaper comics. A newspaper promotion of 1930 compared him to poets Eugene Field and James Whitcomb Riley.

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17/06/1956

Percival Perry, 1st Baron Perry, English businessman (born 1878)

Percival Lea Dewhurst Perry, 1st Baron Perry KBE was an English motor vehicle manufacturer who served as chairman of Ford Motor Company Limited in Britain for 20 years from its incorporation in 1928, completing almost a lifetime's work with Henry Ford. He also led the establishment of Segro.

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Paul Rostock, German surgeon and academic (born 1892)

Paul Rostock was a German physician, official, and university professor. He was chief of the Office for Medical Science and Research under Third Reich Commissioner and war criminal Karl Brandt and a full professor, medical doctorate, medical superintendent of the University of Berlin Surgical Clinic.

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Bob Sweikert, American race car driver (born 1926)

Robert Charles Sweikert was an American racing driver, best known as the winner of the 1955 Indianapolis 500 and the 1955 National Championship, as well as the 1955 Midwest Sprint car championship – the only driver in history to sweep all three during a single racing season.

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17/06/1954

Danny Cedrone, American guitarist and bandleader (born 1920)

Donato Joseph "Danny" Cedrone was an American guitarist and bandleader, best known for his work with Bill Haley & His Comets on their epochal "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954.

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17/06/1952

Jack Parsons, American chemist and engineer (born 1914)

John Whiteside Parsons was an American rocket engineer, chemist, and Thelemite occultist. Parsons was one of the principal founders of both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Aerojet. He invented the first rocket engine to use a castable, composite rocket propellant, and pioneered the advancement of both liquid-fuel and solid-fuel rockets.

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17/06/1942

Charles Fitzpatrick, Canadian lawyer and politician, 5th Chief Justice of Canada (born 1853)

Sir Charles Fitzpatrick, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Justice of Canada, as Chief Justice of Canada and then as Lieutenant Governor of Quebec.

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17/06/1941

Johan Wagenaar, Dutch organist and composer (born 1862)

Johan Wagenaar was a Dutch composer and organist.

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Đorđe Bogić, protopresbyter of the Serbian Orthodox Church, victim of Genocide of Serbs (born 1911)

Georgije Bogić was a Serbian Orthodox protopresbyter and the parish priest of the Orthodox church in Našice; who was martyred by the Ustaše during the Second World War, for which he was canonized as Saint George of Slavonia, being recognised as a new martyr and hieromartyr.

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17/06/1940

Arthur Harden, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1865)

Sir Arthur Harden, FRS was a British biochemist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929 with Hans Karl August Simon von Euler-Chelpin for their investigations into the fermentation of sugar and fermentative enzymes. He was a founding member of the Biochemical Society and editor of the Biochemical Journal for 25 years.

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17/06/1939

Allen Sothoron, American baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1893)

Allen Sutton Sothoron was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager. As a player, he was a spitball pitcher who spent 11 years in the major leagues playing for the St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians and the St. Louis Cardinals. Born in Bradford, Ohio, Sothoron threw and batted right-handed, stood 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall and weighed 182 pounds (83 kg). He attended Albright College and Juniata College.

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Eugen Weidmann, German criminal (born 1908)

Eugen Weidmann was a German criminal and serial killer who was executed by guillotine in France in June 1939, the last public execution in France.

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17/06/1936

Julius Seljamaa, Estonian journalist, politician, and diplomat, Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1883)

Julius Friedrich Seljamaa was an Estonian politician, diplomat and journalist. From 1933 to 1936, he was the Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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17/06/1914

Julien Félix, French military officer and aviator (born 1869)

Major Julien-Alexandre Félix was the director of manoeuvres in the French Military Aviation School, École militaire de Pau. He set the altitude record on August 5, 1911 in Étampes in France by climbing to 11,330 feet in 63 minutes, breaking the record of Georges Legagneux.

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17/06/1904

Nikolay Bobrikov, Russian soldier and politician, Governor-General of Finland (born 1839)

Nikolay Ivanovich Bobrikov was a Russian general and politician. He served as Governor-General of Finland and the Finnish Military District from 29 August [O.S. 17 August] 1898 until his death, during the early reign of Emperor Nicholas II, and was responsible for promoting Russification policies in Finland. After his appointment as governor-general, he quickly became very unpopular and was assassinated by Eugen Schauman, a Finnish nationalist born in Kharkov.

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17/06/1898

Edward Burne-Jones, English soldier and painter (born 1833)

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, was an English painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter.

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17/06/1889

Lozen, Chiracaua Apache warrior woman (born ~1840)

Lozen was a warrior and prophet of the Chihenne Chiricahua Apache. She was the sister of Victorio, a prominent chief. Born into the Chihenne band during the 1840s, Lozen was, according to legends, able to use her powers in battle to learn the movements of the enemy. According to James Kaywaykla, Victorio introduced her to Nana, "Lozen is my right hand ... strong as a man, braver than most, and cunning in strategy. Lozen is a shield to her people".

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17/06/1866

Joseph Méry, French poet and author (born 1798)

Joseph Méry was a French writer, journalist, novelist, poet, playwright and librettist.

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17/06/1839

Lord William Bentinck, English general and politician, 14th Governor-General of India (born 1774)

Lieutenant-General Lord William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck,, known as Lord William Bentinck, was a British military commander and politician who served as the governor of the Fort William (Bengal) presidency from 1828 to 1834 and the first governor-general of India from 1834 to 1835.

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17/06/1821

Martín Miguel de Güemes, Argentinian general and politician (born 1785)

Martín Miguel de Güemes was a military leader and popular caudillo who defended northwestern Argentina from the Spanish royalist army during the Argentine War of Independence.

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17/06/1813

Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, Scottish-English admiral and politician (born 1726)

Admiral Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, PC was a Royal Navy officer and politician. As a junior officer he saw action during the Seven Years' War. Middleton was given command of a guardship at the Nore, a Royal Navy anchorage in the Thames Estuary, at the start of the American War of Independence, and was subsequently appointed Comptroller of the Navy. He went on to be First Naval Lord and then First Lord of the Admiralty.

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17/06/1797

Mohammad Khan Qajar, Persian tribal chief (born 1742)

Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, also known by his regnal name of Agha Mohammad Shah, was the founder of the Qajar dynasty of Iran, ruling as Shah from 1789 to 1797.

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17/06/1775

John Pitcairn, Scottish-English soldier (born 1722)

Major John Pitcairn was a British military officer. Born in Dysart, Fife, he enlisted in the Chatham Marine Division of the British Naval Service at the age of 23. He served in North America during the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. Arriving in Boston in 1774 with the rank of major, he fought in the 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord during the outbreak of the American War of Independence. Two months later in June, Pitcairn was killed in action during the Battle of Bunker Hill. Respected by both his men and his American opponents, he was buried at Boston's Old North Church. At the time of his death Pitcairn was serving alongside his son Thomas, also a marine officer in the same division, who helped to carry his mortally wounded father from the battlefield.

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17/06/1771

Daskalogiannis, Greek rebel leader (born 1722)

Ioannis Vlachos, better known as Daskalogiannis, was a wealthy shipbuilder and shipowner who led a Cretan revolt against Ottoman rule in the 18th century.

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17/06/1762

Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, French poet and playwright (born 1674)

Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon was a French poet and tragedian.

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17/06/1740

Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (born 1687)

Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet, of Orchard Wyndham in Somerset, was an English Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1710 to 1740. He served as Secretary at War in 1712 and Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1713 during the reign of the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne (1702–1714). He was a Jacobite leader firmly opposed to the Hanoverian succession and was leader of the Tory opposition in the House of Commons during the reign of King George I (1714–1727) and during the early years of King George II (1727–1760).

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17/06/1734

Claude Louis Hector de Villars, French general and politician, French Secretary of State for War (born 1653)

Claude Louis Hector de Villars, Prince of Martigues, Marquis then (1st) Duke of Villars, Viscount of Melun was a French military commander and an illustrious general of Louis XIV. He was one of only six Marshals to have been promoted Marshal General of France. Villars is considered one of the great military commanders produced by his time.

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17/06/1719

Joseph Addison, English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician (born 1672)

Joseph Addison was a British writer and politician. He was the eldest son of Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine. His simple prose style marked the end of the mannerisms and conventional classical images of the 17th century. Addison is also famous for his play Cato, a Tragedy.

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17/06/1696

John III Sobieski, Polish king (born 1629)

John III Sobieski was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696.

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17/06/1694

Philip Howard, English cardinal (born 1629)

Philip Howard was an English Roman Catholic cardinal.

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17/06/1674

Jijabai, Dowager Queen, mother of Shivaji (born 1598)

Jijabai, was the mother of Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Kingdom. She was a daughter of Lakhujirao Jadhav of Sindkhed Raja. He belonged to the lineage of Devagiri Yadavas.

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17/06/1649

Injo of Joseon, Korean king (born 1595)

Injo, personal name Yi Jong, was the 16th monarch of the Joseon dynasty of Korea. He was a grandson of King Seonjo and the eldest son of Prince Jeongwon. He ascended to the throne after leading a coup d'état against his uncle, Gwanghaegun, in 1623. Today, Injo is considered a weak and incompetent king, as during his reign the country experienced Yi Gwal's Rebellion, the Later Jin invasion, the Qing invasion, and an economic recession, while the government was corrupt and ineffective.

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17/06/1631

Mumtaz Mahal, Mughal princess (born 1593)

Mumtaz Mahal was the empress consort of Mughal Empire from 1628 to 1631 as the chief consort of the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan. The Taj Mahal in Agra, often cited as one of the Wonders of the World, was commissioned by her husband to act as her tomb.

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17/06/1565

Ashikaga Yoshiteru, Japanese shōgun (born 1536)

Ashikaga Yoshiteru , also known as Yoshifushi or Yoshifuji, was a Japanese samurai, daimyo and the 13th shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1546 to 1565 during the late Muromachi period of Japan. He was the eldest son of the 12th shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshiharu, and his mother was a daughter of Konoe Hisamichi. When he became shogun in 1546 at age 11, Yoshiteru's name was Yoshifushi ; but some years later in 1554, he changed his name to the one by which he is conventionally known today. His childhood name was Kikubemaru (菊童丸). His younger brother Ashikaga Yoshiaki became the fifteenth shōgun.

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17/06/1501

John I Albert, Polish king (born 1459)

John I Albert was King of Poland from 1492 to his death and Duke of Głogów from 1491 to 1498. He was the fourth Polish sovereign from the Jagiellonian dynasty and the son of Casimir IV and Elizabeth of Austria.

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17/06/1463

Catherine of Portugal, Portuguese princess (born 1436)

Infanta Catarina ; was a Portuguese infanta (princess), daughter of King Edward of Portugal and Eleanor of Aragon.

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17/06/1400

Jan of Jenštejn, archbishop of Prague (born 1348)

Jan of Jenštejn was a Bohemian archbishop, composer and poet. From 1379 to 1396 he was the Archbishop of Prague. He studied in Bologna, Padua, Montpellier and Paris.

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17/06/1361

Ingeborg of Norway, princess consort and regent of Sweden (born 1301)

Ingeborg of Norway was a Norwegian princess and by marriage a Swedish royal duchess with a position in the regency governments in Norway (1319–1327) and Sweden (1319–1326) during the minority of her son, King Magnus Eriksson. In 1318–1319, she was Sweden's de facto ruler, and from 1319 until 1326, she was Sweden's first de jure female regent. Her role in northern European history is considered of major importance.

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17/06/1219

David of Scotland, 8th Earl of Huntingdon

David of Scotland was a Scottish prince and Earl of Huntingdon. He was the grandson of David I and the younger brother of two Scottish kings, Malcolm the Maiden and William the Lion.

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17/06/1207

Daoji, Chinese buddhist monk (born 1130)

Daoji, popularly known as Jigong, was a Chan Buddhist monk who lived in the Southern Song. He purportedly possessed supernatural powers through Buddhist practice, which he used to help the poor and stand up to injustice. However, he was also known for his wild and eccentric behavior and did not follow Buddhist monastic rules by consuming alcohol and meat. By the time of his death, Daoji had become a legend in Chinese culture and a deity in Chinese folk religion. He is mentioned by Buddhists in folktales and gong'an, and sometimes invoked by oracles to assist in worldly affairs.

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17/06/1091

Dirk V, count of Holland (born 1052)

Dirk V was Count of Holland from 1061 to 1091.

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17/06/1025

Bolesław I the Brave, Polish king (born 967)

Bolesław I the Brave, less often known as Bolesław the Great, was Duke of Poland from 992 to 1025 and the first King of Poland in 1025. He was also Duke of Bohemia between 1003 and 1004 as Boleslaus IV. A member of the Piast dynasty, Bolesław was a capable monarch and a strong mediator in Central European affairs. He continued to proselytise Western Christianity among his subjects and raised Poland to the rank of a kingdom, thus becoming the first Polish ruler to hold the title of rex, Latin for king.

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17/06/0900

Fulk, French archbishop and chancellor

Fulk the Venerable was archbishop of Reims from 883 until his death. He was a key figure in the political conflicts of the West Frankish kingdom that followed the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire in the late ninth century.

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17/06/0850

Tachibana no Kachiko, Japanese empress (born 786)

Tachibana no Kachiko , also known as Empress Danrin , was a Japanese empress, the chief consort of Emperor Saga and the daughter of Tachibana no Kiyotomo. She was de facto ruler of the empire between 833 and 850.

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17/06/0811

Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, Japanese shōgun (born 758)

Sakanoue no Tamuramaro was a court noble, general and shōgun of the early Heian period of Japan. He served as Dainagon, Minister of War and Ukon'e no Taisho. He held the kabane of Ōsukune and the court rank of Junior Second Rank and was awarded the Order of Second Class.

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17/06/0676

Adeodatus, pope of the Catholic Church

Pope Adeodatus II, sometimes called Deodatus, was the bishop of Rome from 672 to his death on 17 June 676. He devoted much of his papacy to improving churches and fighting monothelitism.

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17/06/0656

Uthman, caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate (born 579)

Uthman ibn Affan was the third caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruling from 644 until his assassination in 656. Uthman, a second cousin, son-in-law, and senior companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, played a major role in early Islamic history. During his reign as caliph, he was known for ordering the official compilation of the standardized version of the Quran, known as the Uthmanic codex, which is still used today.

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