Died on Tuesday, 17th March – Famous Deaths

17/03/2025

John Hemingway, Irish fighter pilot, last surviving Battle of Britain pilot (born 1919)

Group Captain John Allman Hemingway, DFC, AE, known as Paddy Hemingway, was an Irish fighter pilot who served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War in the Battle of Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, the Allied invasion of Italy and the Invasion of Normandy. He was shot down four times during the war. Hemingway was the last surviving airman of the Battle of Britain.

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Lee Shau-kee, Hong Kong real estate billionaire (born 1928)

Lee Shau-kee was a Hong Kong business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He was a real estate tycoon and majority owner of Henderson Land Development, a property conglomerate with interests in property, hotels, restaurants and internet services in Hong Kong and other countries. In 2019, aged 91, Lee stepped down as chairman and managing director of the company, in favour of two of his sons, Peter and Martin Lee. He retained a role as an executive director.

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17/03/2023

Lance Reddick, American actor (born 1962)

Lance Solomon Reddick was an American actor. He portrayed Cedric Daniels in The Wire (2002–2008), Phillip Broyles in Fringe (2008–2013), and Chief Irvin Irving in Bosch (2014–2020). In film, he played Charon in the John Wick franchise (2014–2025) and General Caulfield in White House Down (2013).

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17/03/2021

John Magufuli, the fifth President of Tanzania (born 1959)

John Pombe Joseph Magufuli was a Tanzanian politician who served as the country's fifth president, serving from 2015 until his death in 2021. He served as Minister of Works, Transport and Communications from 2000 to 2005 and 2010 to 2015 and was chairman of the Southern African Development Community from 2019 to 2020.

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17/03/2018

Mike MacDonald, Canadian comedian (born 1954)

Michael Allan MacDonald was a Canadian stand-up comedian and actor. He wrote and appeared in several films, including Mr. Nice Guy. He appeared in such television shows as the Late Show with David Letterman and The Arsenio Hall Show.

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Phan Văn Khải, the fifth Prime Minister of Vietnam (born 1933)

Phan Văn Khải was a Vietnamese politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister of Vietnam from 25 September 1997 until his resignation on 27 June 2006. He was considered to be a technocratic, innovative and benevolent leader.

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17/03/2016

Meir Dagan, Israeli general (born 1945)

Aluf Meir Dagan was an Israel Defense Forces major general (reserve) and director of the Mossad.

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Zoltán Kamondi, Hungarian director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1960)

Zoltán Kamondi was a Hungarian film director, actor, screenwriter and producer. He was born in 1960 in Budapest, Hungary.

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17/03/2015

Frank Perris, Canadian motorcycle racer (born 1931)

Frank Perris was a Canadian Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and TT rider from Toronto. Perris was noticed by the Suzuki team after his third-place in the 1961 500 cc World Championship, becoming a contracted-rider from 1962 until 1966. His best season was in 1965 when he won two 125cc Grand Prix races aboard a Suzuki two-stroke, and finished the year in second place in the 125cc world championship behind Hugh Anderson.

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17/03/2014

Marek Galiński, Polish cyclist (born 1974)

Marek Galiński was a Polish professional mountain biker and road racing cyclist. During his sporting career, he won nine Polish national championship titles and a silver medal in men's cross-country racing at the 2003 UCI World Cup series in Sankt Wendel, Germany. Galinski also represented his nation Poland in four editions of the Olympic Games, where he competed in men's mountain biking from the time that it officially became an Olympic sport in 1996. Galinski raced professionally for more than five seasons on the JBG2 Professional MTB Team. After his retirement from the sport in 2011, Galinski worked as an assistant coach of both Polish and Russian mountain bike national teams. Upon his return from a training camp in Cyprus on 17 March 2014, Galinski was suddenly killed in a car accident near Jędrzejów.

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Joseph Kerman, American musicologist and critic (born 1924)

Joseph Wilfred Kerman was an American musicologist and music critic. Among the leading musicologists of his generation, his 1985 book Contemplating Music: Challenges to Musicology was described by Philip Brett in The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians as "a defining moment in the field". He was Professor Emeritus of Musicology at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Rachel Lambert Mellon, American gardener, philanthropist, art collector and political patron (born 1910)

Rachel Lambert "Bunny" Mellon was an American horticulturalist, gardener, philanthropist, and art collector. She designed and planted a number of significant gardens, including the White House Rose Garden, and assembled one of the largest collections of rare horticultural books. Mellon was the second wife of philanthropist and horse breeder Paul Mellon.

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17/03/2013

William B. Caldwell III, American general (born 1925)

William Burns Caldwell III was a United States Army general who retired as the Fifth United States Army commanding general at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. A combat veteran of wars in Korea and Vietnam, he was awarded the Silver Star on three separate occasions.

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Lawrence Fuchs, American scholar and academic (born 1927)

Lawrence Howard Fuchs was an American academic and author. He was a scholar of American studies and an expert on immigration policy who founded the American studies department at Brandeis University, where he was the Meyer and Walter Jaffe Professor of American Civilization and Politics.

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A.B.C. Whipple, American journalist and historian (born 1918)

Addison Beecher Colvin ("Cal") Whipple was an American journalist, editor, historian and author. He was born in Glens Falls, New York, on July 15, 1918, and spent most of his childhood in Suffield, Connecticut. He graduated from the Loomis School, from Yale University in 1940 and received an M.A. from Harvard University before being hired by Life Magazine. He had many positions at Time/Life and wrote a number of books about maritime history.

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17/03/2012

Shenouda III, pope of Alexandria (born 1923)

Pope Shenouda III was the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. His papacy lasted 40 years, 4 months, and 4 days, from 14 November 1971 until his death in 2012.

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Margaret Whitlam, Australian swimmer and author (born 1919)

Margaret Elaine Whitlam AO was an Australian social campaigner, author, and athlete. She was a representative of Australia in swimming at the 1938 British Empire Games in Sydney. Her husband was Gough Whitlam, the 21st prime minister of Australia from 1972 to 1975.

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17/03/2011

Michael Gough, English actor (born 1916)

Francis Michael Gough was a British character actor who made more than 150 film and television appearances. He is known for his roles in the Hammer horror films from 1958, with his first role as Sir Arthur Holmwood in Dracula, and for his recurring role as Alfred Pennyworth from 1989 to 1997 in the four Batman films directed by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher. He appeared in three more Burton films: Sleepy Hollow, voicing Elder Gutknecht in Corpse Bride and the Dodo in Alice in Wonderland.

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Ferlin Husky, American country music singer (born 1925)

Ferlin Eugene Husky was an American country music singer who was equally adept at honky-tonk, ballads, spoken recitations, rockabilly and pop tunes.

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17/03/2010

Alex Chilton, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1950)

William Alexander Chilton was an American musician, best known as the lead singer of the rock bands the Box Tops and Big Star. Chilton's early commercial success in the 1960s as a teen vocalist for the Box Tops was not matched by similar chart success in his later work with Big Star and in his subsequent solo career on independent record labels. However, he built a devoted following among indie and alternative musicians, and has been frequently cited as a seminal influence by influential rock artists and bands.

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Sid Fleischman, American author and screenwriter (born 1920)

Albert Sidney Fleischman was an American author of children's books, screenplays, novels for adults, and nonfiction books about stage magic. His works for children are known for their humor, imagery, zesty plotting, and exploration of the byways of American history. He won the Newbery Medal in 1987 for The Whipping Boy and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award in 1979 for Humbug Mountain. For his career contribution as a children's writer he was U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1994. In 2003, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators inaugurated the Sid Fleischman Humor Award in his honor, and made him the first recipient. The Award annually recognizes a writer of humorous fiction for children or young adults. He told his own tale in The Abracadabra Kid: A Writer's Life (1996).

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17/03/2009

Clodovil Hernandes, Brazilian television host and politician (born 1937)

Clodovil Hernandes was a Brazilian fashion designer, television presenter, and politician.

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17/03/2008

Roland Arnall, French-American businessman and diplomat, 63rd United States Ambassador to the Netherlands (born 1939)

Roland E. Arnall was an American businessman and diplomat. As the owner of ACC Capital Holdings, he became a billionaire with Ameriquest Mortgage. Additionally he funded, financed and was the visionary and co-founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and from 2006 until shortly before his death he was the United States Ambassador to the Netherlands. He was the originator of stated income loans, better known as sub-prime loans.

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17/03/2007

John Backus, American mathematician and computer scientist, designed Fortran (born 1924)

John Warner Backus was an American computer scientist. He led the team that invented and implemented FORTRAN, the first widely used high-level programming language, and was the inventor of the Backus–Naur form (BNF), a widely used notation to define syntaxes of formal languages. He also contributed to the design of ALGOL, and later researched the function-level programming paradigm, presenting his findings in his influential 1977 Turing Award lecture "Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style?"

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17/03/2006

Oleg Cassini, French-American fashion designer (born 1913)

Oleg Cassini was a fashion designer born to an aristocratic Russian family with maternal Italian ancestry. He came to the United States as a young man after launching his career as a designer in Rome, and quickly secured a position with Paramount Pictures. Cassini established his reputation by designing for films.

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Ray Meyer, American basketball player and coach (born 1913)

Raymond Joseph Meyer was an American men's collegiate basketball coach from Chicago, Illinois. He was well known for coaching at DePaul University from 1942 to 1984, compiling a 724–354 record.

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İstemihan Taviloğlu, Turkish composer and educator (born 1945)

İstemihan Taviloğlu was a Turkish composer and a music educator. He's most known piece is the Clarinet Concerto which happens to be the first ever Clarinet Concerto composition from a Turkish composer. He is also the co-founder of the Musicology department in Ankara State Conservatory. He is also known as the teacher of all the musicians that came from conservatories in Turkey.

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17/03/2005

Royce Frith, Canadian lawyer, politician, and diplomat, Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (born 1923)

Royce Herbert Frith, was a Canadian diplomat, public servant, lawyer, broadcaster, and politician.

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George F. Kennan, American historian and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union (born 1904)

George Frost Kennan was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly histories of the relations between the USSR and the United States. He was also one of the group of foreign policy elders known as "The Wise Men".

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Andre Norton, American author (born 1912)

Andre Alice Norton was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name Andre Norton, but also under Andrew North and Allen Weston. She was the first woman to be Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy, to be SFWA Grand Master, and to be inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

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17/03/2002

Rosetta LeNoire, American actress and producer (born 1911)

Rosetta LeNoire was an American stage, film, and television actress. She was known to contemporary audiences for her work in television. She had regular roles on such series as Gimme a Break! and Amen ; she is particularly known for her role as Estelle "Mother" Winslow on Family Matters, which aired from 1989 to 1998. In 1999, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

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Văn Tiến Dũng, Vietnamese general and politician, 6th Minister of Defence for Vietnam (born 1917)

Văn Tiến Dũng was a Vietnamese general in the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), PAVN chief of staff (1954–1974); PAVN commander in chief (1975–1980); member of the Central Military–Party Committee (CMPC) (1984–1986) and Socialist Republic of Vietnam defense minister (1980–1987).

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Sylvester "Pat" Weaver, American television broadcaster and producer (born 1908)

Sylvester Laflin "Pat" Weaver Jr. was an American broadcasting executive who was president of NBC between 1953 and 1955. He has been credited with reshaping the format and philosophy of commercial broadcasting as radio gave way to television as America's dominant home entertainment medium. Actress Sigourney Weaver is his daughter.

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17/03/2001

Anthony Storr, English psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and author (born 1920)

Anthony Storr was an English psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and author.

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17/03/1999

Ernest Gold, Austrian-American composer (born 1921)

Ernst Sigmund Goldner, known professionally as Ernest Gold, was an Austrian-born American composer. He is most noted for his work on Exodus, a 1960 film.

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Jean Pierre-Bloch, French activist (born 1905)

Jean Pierre-Bloch was a French Resistant of the Second World War as an activist, being a former president of the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism.

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17/03/1997

Jermaine Stewart, American singer-songwriter and dancer (born 1957)

William Jermaine Stewart was an American R&B singer, best known for his 1986 hit single "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off", which peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100. It also peaked within the top ten of the charts in Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. His 1987 song "Say It Again" reached number seven in the United Kingdom.

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17/03/1996

René Clément, French director and screenwriter (born 1913)

René Clément was a French film director and screenwriter. He is known for directing the films The Battle of the Rails (1946), Forbidden Games (1952), Gervaise (1956), Purple Noon (1960), and Is Paris Burning (1966). He received numerous accolades including five prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and the Honorary César in 1984.

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Terry Stafford, American singer-songwriter (born 1941)

Terry LaVerne Stafford was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his 1964 US top-10 hit "Suspicion" and the 1973 country music hit "Amarillo by Morning". Stafford was also known for his Elvis Presley sound-alike voice.

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17/03/1995

Sunnyland Slim, American blues pianist (born 1906)

Albert Luandrew, known as Sunnyland Slim, was an American blues pianist born in the Mississippi Delta and moved to Chicago, helping to make that city a center of postwar blues.

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17/03/1994

Charlotte Auerbach, German-Jewish Scottish folklorist, geneticist, and zoologist (born 1899)

Charlotte "Lotte" Auerbach FRS FRSE was a German geneticist who contributed to founding the science of mutagenesis. She became well known after 1942 when she discovered, with A. J. Clark and J. M. Robson, that mustard gas could cause mutations in fruit flies. She wrote 91 scientific papers, and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Royal Society of London.

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Mai Zetterling, Swedish-English actress and director (born 1925)

Mai Elisabeth Zetterling was a Swedish film director, novelist and actress.

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17/03/1993

Helen Hayes, American actress (born 1900)

Helen Hayes MacArthur was an American actress. Often referred to as the "First Lady of American Theatre", she was the second person and first woman to win the EGOT, and the first person to win the Triple Crown of Acting. Hayes also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, from President Ronald Reagan in 1986. In 1988, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

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17/03/1992

Grace Stafford, American actress (born 1903)

Grace Lantz, also known by her stage name Grace Stafford, was an American actress and the wife of animation producer Walter Lantz. Stafford is best known for providing the voice of Woody Woodpecker, a creation of Lantz's, from 1950 to 1991.

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17/03/1990

Capucine, French model and actress (born 1928)

Germaine Hélène Irène Lefebvre, known by her mononym stage name Capucine, was a French fashion model and actress known for her comedic roles in The Pink Panther (1963) and What's New Pussycat? (1965). She appeared in 36 films and 17 television productions between 1948 and 1990.

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Dinkar G. Kelkar, Indian art collector (born 1896)

Dinkar Gangadhar Kelkar was an Indian writer, editor, art collector and historian. He is best remembered for establishing the Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum in Pune.

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17/03/1986

Clarence D. Lester, African-American fighter pilot (born 1923)

Clarence D. "Lucky" Lester was an American fighter pilot who served in the 332nd Fighter Group, commonly known as the Tuskegee Airmen, during World War II. He was one of the first African-American military aviators in the United States Army Air Corps, the United States Army Air Forces and later the United States Air Force.

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17/03/1983

Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1903)

Haldan Keffer Hartline was an American physiologist who was a co-recipient of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in analyzing the neurophysiological mechanisms of vision.

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Louisa E. Rhine, American botanist and parapsychologist (born 1891)

Louisa Ella Rhine was an American doctor of botany and is known for her work in parapsychology. At the time of her death, she was recognized as the foremost researcher of spontaneous psychic experiences, and has been referred to as the "first lady of parapsychology."

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17/03/1981

Paul Dean, American baseball player (born 1913)

Paul Dee Dean, nicknamed "Daffy", was an American Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. Born in Lucas, Arkansas, he pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals (1934–1939), the New York Giants (1940–1941), and the St. Louis Browns (1943).

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17/03/1976

Luchino Visconti, Italian director and screenwriter (born 1906)

Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo was an Italian filmmaker, theatre and opera director, and screenwriter. He was one of the fathers of cinematic neorealism but later moved towards luxurious, sweeping epics dealing with themes of beauty, decadence, death, and European history, especially the decay of the nobility and the bourgeoisie. Critic Jonathan Jones wrote that "no one did as much to shape Italian cinema as Luchino Visconti.”

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17/03/1974

Louis Kahn, American architect and academic, designed Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban (born 1901)

Louis Isadore Kahn was an Estonian-born American architect based in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. While continuing his private practice, he served as a design critic and professor of architecture at Yale School of Architecture from 1947 to 1957. From 1957 until his death, he was a professor of architecture at the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania.

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17/03/1965

Amos Alonzo Stagg, American football player and coach (born 1862)

Amos Alonzo Stagg was an American athlete and college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football. He introduced many innovations to American football. Stagg served as the head football coach at the International YMCA Training School (1890–1891), the University of Chicago (1892–1932), and the College of the Pacific (1933–1946), compiling a career college football record of 314–199–35 (.605). His undefeated Chicago Maroons teams of 1905 and 1913 were recognized as national champions. He was also the head basketball coach for one season at Chicago (1920–1921), and the Maroons' head baseball coach for twenty seasons.

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17/03/1961

Susanna M. Salter, American activist and politician (born 1860)

Susanna Madora Salter was an American politician and activist. From 1887 to 1888, she was mayor of Argonia, Kansas, becoming the first woman to serve in that role in the United States and one of the earliest in any U.S. political office.

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17/03/1958

John Pius Boland, Irish tennis player and politician (born 1870)

John Mary Pius Boland was an Irish Nationalist politician, and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party for South Kerry from 1900 to 1918. He was also noteworthy as a gold medallist tennis player at the first modern Olympics.

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Bertha De Vriese, Belgian physician (born 1877)

Bertha De Vriese was a Belgian physician. When she earned her degree as a doctor of medicine at Ghent University, where she was the first woman to conduct research and the first woman physician to graduate from the school. Although she was not allowed to pursue an academic career, De Vriese opened a private pediatric clinic and served as the director of the Children's Ward at the Bijloke Hospital in Ghent. In 1914, she married Josef Vercouillie, also a physician.

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17/03/1957

Ramon Magsaysay, Filipino captain and politician, 7th President of the Philippines (born 1907)

Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay Sr. was a Filipino politician and military officer who was the seventh president of the Philippines, serving from 1953 until his death in 1957. An automobile mechanic by profession, Magsaysay was appointed military governor of Zambales after his outstanding service as a guerrilla leader during the Pacific War. He then served two terms as Liberal Party congressman for Zambales's at-large district before being appointed Secretary of National Defense by President Elpidio Quirino. He was eventually elected as president under the banner of the Nacionalista Party, the youngest to be elected to the position, and second youngest overall. He was the first Philippine president born in the 20th century and the first to be born after the Spanish colonial era. Magsaysay died in a plane crash on March 17, 1957, in Cebu. His successor, Carlos P. Garcia, assumed the presidency. He is the most recent Philippine president to have died in office.

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17/03/1956

Fred Allen, American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and author (born 1894)

John Florence Sullivan, known professionally as Fred Allen, was an American comedian. His absurdist, topically pointed radio program The Fred Allen Show (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the Golden Age of American radio.

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Irène Joliot-Curie, French physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1897)

Irène Joliot-Curie was a French chemist and physicist who received the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, for their discovery of induced radioactivity. They were the second married couple, after her parents, to win the Nobel Prize, adding to the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. This made the Curies the family with the most Nobel laureates to date.

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17/03/1949

Aleksandra Ekster, Russian-French painter and set designer (born 1882)

Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster, also known as Alexandra Exter, was a Russian and French painter and designer.

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17/03/1947

Mike, American Wyandotte chicken, lived 18 months following decapitation (h. 1945)

Mike the Headless Chicken was a male Wyandotte chicken that lived for 18 months after he was beheaded, surviving because most of his brain stem remained intact, and a blood clot prevented him from bleeding to death. After the beheading, Mike achieved national fame; he died in March 1947. In his hometown, Fruita, Colorado, U.S., an annual "Mike the Headless Chicken Day" is held in May. Mike has the record for the longest surviving chicken without a head in Guinness World Records.

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17/03/1946

Dai Li, Chinese general (born 1897)

Dai Li, courtesy name Yunong, was a Chinese lieutenant general and spymaster. Dai was born in Jiangshan, Zhejiang and later studied at the Whampoa Military Academy, where Chiang Kai-shek served as Chief Commandant, and later became head of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (BIS) within the Nationalist government of the Republic of China (ROC).

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17/03/1942

Nada Dimić, People's Hero of Yugoslavia, victim of Genocide of Serbs (born 1923)

Nada Dimić was a Yugoslav Partisan who died in World War II and was proclaimed a People's Hero of Yugoslavia.

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17/03/1940

Philomène Belliveau, Canadian artist (born 1854)

Philomène Belliveau was a Canadian artist of Acadian descent.

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17/03/1934

Bede Jarrett, English Dominican priest (born 1881)

Bede Jarrett OP was an English Dominican friar and Catholic priest who was also a noted historian and author. Known for works including Mediæval Socialism and The Emperor Charles IV, Jarrett also founded Blackfriars Priory at the University of Oxford in 1921, formally reinstating the Dominican Order at that university for the first time since the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII.

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17/03/1926

Aleksei Brusilov, Georgian-Russian general (born 1853)

Aleksei Alekseyevich Brusilov was a Russian and later Soviet general most noted for the development of new offensive tactics used in the 1916 Brusilov offensive, which was his greatest achievement.

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17/03/1917

Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist (born 1838)

Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Josef Brentano was a German philosopher and psychologist. His 1874 Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint, considered his magnum opus, is credited with having reintroduced the medieval scholastic concept of intentionality into contemporary philosophy.

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17/03/1902

John Houlding, English businessman, founded Liverpool Football Club (born 1833)

John Houlding was an English businessman and local politician, most notable for being, the founder of Liverpool Football Club and later Lord Mayor of Liverpool. Formerly he was Everton FC Club President and member.

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17/03/1893

Jules Ferry, French lawyer and politician, 44th Prime Minister of France (born 1832)

Jules François Camille Ferry was a French statesman and republican philosopher. He was one of the leaders of the Moderate Republicans and served as Prime Minister of France from 1880 to 1881 and 1883 to 1885. He was a promoter of laicism and colonial expansion. Under the Third Republic, Ferry made primary education free and compulsory through several new laws. However, he was forced to resign following the Sino-French War in 1885 due to his unpopularity and public opinion against the war.

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17/03/1875

Ferdinand Laub, Czech violinist and composer (born 1832)

Ferdinand Laub was a Czech violinist and composer.

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17/03/1871

Robert Chambers, Scottish geologist and publisher, co-founded Chambers Harrap (born 1802)

Robert Chambers was a Scottish publisher, geologist, evolutionary thinker, author and journal editor who, like his elder brother and business partner William Chambers, was highly influential in mid-19th-century scientific and political circles.

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17/03/1853

Christian Doppler, Austrian physicist and mathematician (born 1803)

Christian Andreas Doppler was an Austrian mathematician and physicist. He formulated the principle – now known as the Doppler effect – that the observed frequency of a wave depends on the relative speed of the source and the observer.

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17/03/1849

William II, Dutch sovereign prince and king (born 1792)

William II was King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Duke of Limburg. He reigned for nearly nine years, making him the shortest-reigning monarch in Dutch history.

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17/03/1846

Friedrich Bessel, German astronomer, mathematician, and physicist (born 1784)

Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel was a German astronomer, mathematician, physicist, and geodesist. He was the first astronomer who determined reliable values for the distance from the Sun to another star by the method of parallax. Certain important mathematical functions were first studied systematically by Bessel and were named Bessel functions in his honour.

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17/03/1830

Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, French general and politician (born 1764)

Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, 1st Marquis of Gouvion-Saint-Cyr was a French military leader of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was a made a Marshal of the Empire in 1812 by Emperor Napoleon, who regarded him as his finest general in defensive warfare.

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17/03/1829

Sophia Albertina, princess-abbess of Quedlinburg (born 1753)

Princess Sophia Albertina of Sweden was the last Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg Abbey, and as such reigned as vassal monarch of the Holy Roman Empire.

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17/03/1828

James Edward Smith, English botanist and entomologist (born 1759)

Sir James Edward Smith was an English botanist and founder of the Linnean Society.

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17/03/1782

Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-Swiss mathematician and physicist (born 1700)

Daniel Bernoulli was a Swiss mathematician and physicist and was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family from Basel. He is particularly remembered for his applications of mathematics to mechanics, especially fluid mechanics, and for his pioneering work in probability and statistics. His name is commemorated in the Bernoulli's principle, a particular example of the conservation of energy, which describes the mathematics of the mechanism underlying the operation of two important technologies of the 20th century: the carburetor and the aeroplane wing.

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17/03/1764

George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, English astronomer and politician (born 1695)

George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, FRS was a British politician and astronomer.

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17/03/1741

Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French poet and playwright (born 1671)

Jean-Baptiste Rousseau was a French playwright and poet, particularly noted for his cynical epigrams.

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17/03/1715

Gilbert Burnet, Scottish bishop and historian (born 1643)

Gilbert Burnet was a Scottish philosopher and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was highly respected as a cleric, a preacher, an academic, a writer and a historian. He was always closely associated with the Whig party, and was one of the few close friends in whom King William III confided.

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17/03/1704

Menno van Coehoorn, Dutch soldier and engineer (born 1641)

Menno, Baron van Coehoorn, March 1641 to 17 March 1704, was a Dutch States Army officer and engineer, regarded as one of the most significant figures in Dutch military history. In an era when siege warfare dominated military campaigns, he and his French counterpart Vauban were the acknowledged experts in designing, taking and defending fortifications.

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17/03/1680

François de La Rochefoucauld, French author (born 1613)

François de La Rochefoucauld, 2nd Duke of La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac was an accomplished French moralist of the era of French Classical literature and author of Maximes and Memoirs, the only two works of his dense literary œuvre published. His Maximes portrays the callous nature of human conduct, with a cynical attitude towards putative virtue and avowals of affection, friendship, love, and loyalty. Leonard Tancock regards Maximes as "one of the most deeply felt, most intensely lived texts in French literature", with his "experience, his likes and dislikes, sufferings and petty spites ... crystallized into absolute truths".

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17/03/1663

Jerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland, English diplomat (born 1605)

Jerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland was an English diplomat and landowner who held the presidency of Munster, Kingdom of Ireland.

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17/03/1649

Gabriel Lalemant, French missionary and saint (born 1610)

Gabriel Lalemant was a French Jesuit missionary in New France beginning in 1646. Caught up in warfare between the Huron and nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, he was killed in St. Ignace by Mohawk warriors and is one of the eight Canadian Martyrs.

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17/03/1640

Philip Massinger, English playwright (born 1583)

Philip Massinger was an English dramatist. His plays, including A New Way to Pay Old Debts, The City Madam, and The Roman Actor, are noted for their satire and realism, and their political and social themes.

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17/03/1620

John Sarkander, Polish-Moravian priest and saint (born 1576)

Jan Sarkander was a Polish-Czech Roman Catholic priest. Sarkander was married for a short period of time before he became widowed and pursued a path to the priesthood where he became active in defence of Catholicism during a period of anti-Catholic sentiment and conflict. He himself was arrested on false accusations as a means of silencing him and he refused to give in to his tormenters who tortured him for around a month before he died.

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17/03/1611

Sophia of Sweden, duchess of Saxe-Lauenburg (born 1547)

Princess Sophia of Sweden, also Sofia Gustavsdotter Vasa, was a Swedish princess, daughter of King Gustav Vasa of Sweden and Margareta Leijonhufvud. She was formally Duchess consort of Saxe-Lauenburg by her marriage to Duke Magnus II of Saxe-Lauenburg.

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17/03/1565

Alexander Ales, Scottish theologian and academic (born 1500)

Alexander Ales or Alexander Alesius was a Scottish theologian who emigrated to Germany and became a Lutheran supporter of the Augsburg Confession.

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17/03/1527

Rana Sanga, Indian ruler (born 1482)

Sangram Singh I, most commonly known as Rana Sanga, was the Maharana of Mewar from 24 May 1509 until his death in 1528. A member of the Sisodia dynasty, he controlled parts of present-day Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Sindh, and Uttar Pradesh from his capital at Chittorgarh.

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17/03/1516

Giuliano de' Medici, Italian nobleman (born 1479)

Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici was an Italian nobleman, the third son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and a ruler of Florence.

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17/03/1425

Ashikaga Yoshikazu, Japanese shōgun (born 1407)

Ashikaga Yoshikazu was the fifth shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1423 to 1425 during the Muromachi period of medieval Japan. Yoshikazu was the son of the fourth shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimochi.

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17/03/1406

Ibn Khaldun, Tunisian sociologist, historian, and scholar (born 1332)

Ibn Khaldun was an Arab scholar, historian, philosopher, and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and is considered by a number of scholars to be a major forerunner of historiography, sociology, economics, and demography studies.

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17/03/1394

Louis of Enghien, French nobleman

Louis of Enghien titular Duke of Athens, Count of Brienne and Lord of Enghien in 1381–1394, Count of Conversano in 1356–1394.

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17/03/1361

An-Nasir Hasan, Mamluk sultan of Egypt

Al-Nasir Badr ad-Din Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Qalawun, better known as al-Nasir Hasan, was the Mamluk sultan of Egypt, he was of Turkic origin. the seventh son of al-Nasir Muhammad to hold office, reigning twice in 1347–1351 and 1354–1361. During his first reign, which he began at age 12, senior Mamluk emirs formerly belonging to al-Nasir Muhammad, dominated his administration, while al-Nasir Hasan played a ceremonial role. He was toppled in 1351 when he attempted to assert executive authority to the chagrin of the senior emirs. He was reinstated three years later during a coup against his brother Sultan al-Salih Salih by emirs Shaykhu and Sirghitmish.

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17/03/1272

Go-Saga, emperor of Japan (born 1220)

Emperor Go-Saga was the 88th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. This reign spanned the years 1242 through 1246.

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17/03/1270

Philip of Montfort, French knight and nobleman

Philip Ι of Montfort was lord of La Ferté-Alais and Castres-en-Albigeois 1228–1270, lord of Tyre 1246–1270, and lord of Toron aft. 1240–1270. He was the son of Guy of Montfort and Helvis of Ibelin.

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17/03/1267

Pierre de Montreuil, French architect

Pierre de Montreuil was a French architect. The name formerly given to him by architectural historians, Peter of Montereau, is a misnomer. It was based on his tombstone inscription Musterolo natus, a place name that was mistakenly identified as Montereau rather than Montreuil.

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17/03/1199

Jocelin of Glasgow, Scottish monk and bishop (born 1130)

Jocelin was a Scottish Cistercian monk and cleric who became the fourth Abbot of Melrose before becoming Bishop of Glasgow, Scotland. He was probably born in the 1130s, and in his teenage years became a monk of Melrose Abbey. He rose in the service of Abbot Waltheof, and by the time of the short abbacy of Waltheof's successor Abbot William, Jocelin had become prior. Then in 1170 Jocelin himself became abbot, a position he held for four years. Jocelin was responsible for promoting the cult of the emerging Saint Waltheof, and in this had the support of Enguerrand, Bishop of Glasgow.

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17/03/1058

Lulach, king of Scotland

Lulach mac Gille Coemgáin was King of Alba (Scotland) between 15 August 1057 and 17 March 1058.

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17/03/1040

Harold Harefoot, king of England

Harold I, commonly known as Harold Harefoot, was King of England from 1037 to 1040. His nickname "Harefoot" is first recorded as "Harefoh" or "Harefah" in the twelfth century in the history of Ely Abbey, and according to some late medieval chroniclers it meant that he was "fleet of foot".

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17/03/1008

Kazan, emperor of Japan (born 968)

Emperor Kazan was the 65th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.

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17/03/0905

Li Yu, Prince of De, prince and emperor of the Tang Dynasty

Li Yu, né Li You, briefly Li Zhen, formally the Prince of De (德王), was an imperial prince of the Chinese Tang dynasty. He was the oldest son of the penultimate emperor Emperor Zhaozong and Empress He and was crown prince from 897 to 900. In 900, Emperor Zhaozong was briefly forced by the eunuch Liu Jishu to abdicate in Li Yu's favor; after Emperor Zhaozong was restored, Li Yu was no longer Crown Prince but remained a favored son. After Emperor Zhaozong was assassinated by the powerful warlord Zhu Quanzhong in 904, Li Yu, whom Zhu was apprehensive of, was bypassed in favor of his younger brother Emperor Ai, and in 905, Zhu had Li Yu, along with eight of his younger brothers, killed. As Li Yu's brief reign was under duress from a eunuch, he is not typically considered a true emperor of Tang.

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17/03/0836

Haito, bishop of Basel

Haito was the bishop of Basel from 802 and simultaneously abbot of Reichenau Abbey from 806.

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17/03/0659

Gertrude of Nivelles, Frankish abbess

Gertrude of Nivelles, OSB was an abbess who, with her mother Itta, founded the Abbey of Nivelles, now in Belgium. She is venerated in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions.

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17/03/0180

Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor (born 121)

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace, calm, and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 BC to 180 AD. He served as Roman consul in 140, 145, and 161.

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01/01/1970

Titus Labienus, Roman general (born 100 BC)

Titus Labienus was a high-ranking military officer in the late Roman Republic. He served as tribune of the Plebs in 63 BC. Although mostly remembered as one of Julius Caesar's best lieutenants in Gaul and mentioned frequently in the accounts of his military campaigns, Labienus chose to oppose him during the Civil War and was killed at Munda. He was the father of Quintus Labienus.

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Publius Attius Varus, Roman governor of Africa

Publius Attius Varus was the Roman governor of Africa during the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey. He declared against Caesar, and initially fought Gaius Scribonius Curio, who was sent against him in 49 BC.

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