Died on Thursday, 19th March – Famous Deaths

19/03/2026

Chuck Norris, American martial artist and actor (born 1940)

Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris was an American martial artist, actor, screenwriter, and author. He held black belts in karate, taekwondo, Tang Soo Do, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and judo. After serving in the United States Air Force, he won numerous martial arts championships and later founded his own discipline, Chun Kuk Do. Norris began working in the American film industry as a martial arts instructor for celebrities before making his screen debut with a minor role in The Wrecking Crew (1968). Friend and fellow martial artist Bruce Lee invited him to play one of the main villains in The Way of the Dragon (1972). While Norris continued acting, friend and student Steve McQueen suggested he take it seriously. Norris took the starring role in the action film Breaker! Breaker! (1977), which turned a profit. His second lead, Good Guys Wear Black (1978), became a hit, and he soon became a popular action film star.

---

19/03/2021

Glynn Lunney, American engineer (born 1936)

Glynn Stephen Lunney was an American NASA engineer. Lunney was an employee of NASA since its creation in 1958, a flight director during the Gemini and Apollo programs. Lunney was on duty during historic events such as the Apollo 11 lunar ascent and the pivotal hours of the Apollo 13 crisis. At the end of the Apollo program, he became manager of the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, the first collaboration in spaceflight between the United States and the Soviet Union. Later, he served as manager of the Space Shuttle program before leaving NASA in 1985 and later becoming a vice president of the United Space Alliance.

---

19/03/2019

William Whitfield, British architect (born 1920)

Sir William Whitfield was a British architect and town planner.

---

19/03/2016

Roger Agnelli, Brazilian banker and businessman (born 1959)

Roger Agnelli was a Brazilian investment banker and entrepreneur. He ran one of the largest mining companies in the world, Vale SA, and in 2013 was voted by Harvard Business Review as the world's fourth best-performing chief executive officer behind Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com and Yun Jong-Yong of Samsung. His clashes with Brazil's ruling Workers Party leadership, that began with the 2008 financial crisis and his firing of 2,000 workers, led to his ouster from Vale SA at the government's request in 2011. On March 19, 2016, he was killed, along with his wife, son, and daughter when their plane crashed in São Paulo, Brazil.

---

Jack Mansell, English footballer and manager (born 1927)

Jack Mansell was a professional football player and coach. He made 274 appearances in the Football League as a defender for Brighton & Hove Albion, Cardiff City and Portsmouth. After retiring as a player, he joined the coaching staff at Sheffield Wednesday. There, in early April 1964, he became interim manager after the sacking of Vic Buckingham. He coached many clubs with his longest spell being at Reading and had experience overseas with the likes of Blauw-Wit Amsterdam, Boston Beacons and the Israel national team. In 1982, Mansell was chosen to train Maccabi Haifa, after a year at the Israel national team. Mansell died on 19 March 2016.

---

19/03/2015

Gus Douglass, American farmer and politician (born 1927)

Gus R. Douglass was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party, who served as Agriculture Commissioner of West Virginia for 44 years. First elected to that post in 1964, he served from 1965 to 1989, when he left office having run unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Governor, and again from 1993 to 2013. He was the longest-serving Agriculture Commissioner in US history, having served for 44 years and under 8 different Governors.

---

Safet Plakalo, Bosnian author and playwright (born 1950)

Safet Plakalo was a Bosnian playwright and poet, theatre critic, journalist, and founder of the Sarajevo War Theatre. He was a prominent figure in Bosnian drama, known for his poetic and modernist theatrical works and his significant role in sustaining cultural life during the Siege of Sarajevo.

---

Danny Schechter, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1942)

Daniel Isaac Schechter was an American television producer, independent filmmaker, blogger, and media critic. He wrote and spoke about many issues including apartheid, civil rights, economics, foreign policy, journalistic control and ethics, and medicine. While attending the London School of Economics in the 1960s, Schechter became an anti-apartheid activist and made trips to South Africa on behalf of the African National Congress (ANC). Later he would help musician Steven Van Zandt assemble other performers to form Artists United Against Apartheid, who released the album Sun City in 1985. Schechter produced and directed six nonfiction films about Nelson Mandela from the time Mandela was a political prisoner to his election and service as President of South Africa.

---

19/03/2014

Patrick Joseph McGovern, American businessman, founded IDG (born 1937)

Patrick Joseph McGovern Jr. was an American businessman, and chairman and founder of International Data Group (IDG), a company with subsidiaries in technology publishing, research, event management and venture capital.

---

Fred Phelps, American lawyer, pastor, and activist, founded the Westboro Baptist Church (born 1929)

Fred Waldron Phelps Sr. was an American minister and disbarred lawyer who served as the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, worked as a civil rights attorney, and ran for statewide election in Kansas. A divisive and controversial figure, he gained national attention for his homophobic views and protests near the funerals of gay people, AIDS victims, military veterans, and disaster victims whom he believed were killed as a result of God punishing the U.S. for having "bankrupt values" and tolerating homosexuality. Phelps founded the Westboro Baptist Church, a Topeka, Kansas-based independent Primitive Baptist congregation, in 1955. It has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as "arguably the most obnoxious and rabid hate group in America". Its signature slogan, "God Hates Fags", remains the name of the group's principal website.

---

Heather Robertson, Canadian journalist and author (born 1942)

Heather Margaret Robertson was a Canadian journalist, novelist and non-fiction writer. She published her first book, Reservations are for Indians, in 1970, and her last book, Walking into Wilderness, in 2010. She was a founding member of the Writers' Union of Canada and the Professional Writers Association of Canada, and launched the Robertson v Thomson Corp class action suit regarding freelancers' retention of electronic rights to their work.

---

Robert S. Strauss, American diplomat, United States Ambassador to Russia (born 1918)

Robert Schwarz Strauss was an influential figure in American politics, diplomacy, and law whose service dated back to future President Lyndon Johnson's first congressional campaign in 1937. By the 1950s, he was associated in Texas politics with the faction of the Democratic Party that was led by Johnson and John Connally. He served as the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee between 1972 and 1977 and served under President Jimmy Carter as the U.S. Trade Representative and special envoy to the Middle East. He later served as the Ambassador to Russia under President George H. W. Bush. Strauss also served as the last United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union.

---

Lawrence Walsh, Canadian-American lawyer, judge, and politician, 4th United States Deputy Attorney General (born 1912)

Lawrence Edward Walsh was an American lawyer and judge who was United States Deputy Attorney General from 1957 to 1961 and a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was appointed Independent Counsel in December 1986 to investigate the Iran–Contra affair during the Reagan Administration.

---

Joseph F. Weis, Jr., American lawyer and judge (born 1923)

Joseph Francis Weis Jr. was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

---

19/03/2012

Jim Case, American director and producer (born 1927)

James W. Case was a director and producer for American television and film. He worked for NBC, CBS and various other media organizations throughout his career. He is most notable for his involvement in The Ragtime Era, a 1959 television series which he directed during his time with KRMA-TV. Other educational works directed by Case include the Redman's America series, Our Neighbor: The Moon, The Naturalists, Artists in America: James Salter and many others.

---

Ulu Grosbard, Belgian-American director and producer (born 1929)

Israel "Ulu" Grosbard was a Belgian-born, naturalized American theater and film director and film producer.

---

Hugo Munthe-Kaas, Norwegian intelligence agent (born 1922)

Hugo Conrad Munthe-Kaas DSM was a Norwegian intelligence agent and resistance fighter during World War II. He received most decorations in Norway for his war service. From the 1970s he was active in the Progress Party, where he was a city council member in Oslo and deputy MP. He was an honorary party member.

---

19/03/2011

Kym Bonython, Australian drummer and radio host (born 1920)

Hugh Reskymer "Kym" Bonython, was an Australian politician, World War Two veteran, musician, gallery owner, and racing driver.

---

19/03/2009

Maria Bergson, Austrian-American architect and interior designer (born 1914)

Maria Bergson was an American interior designer, industrial designer, and architect best known for revolutionizing commercial office design. She specialized in the design of commercial interiors including offices, banks, hotels, hospitals, stores and the design of furniture and lighting fixtures. She was the first woman designer to be published in Who's Who in America (1956). In 1990, she was inducted in Interior Design magazine's Interior Design Hall of Fame and recognized as a pioneer in contract interiors and speaking out of the importance of professionalism.

---

19/03/2008

Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction writer (born 1917)

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke was an English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host.

---

Hugo Claus, Belgian author, poet, and playwright (born 1929)

Hugo Maurice Julien Claus was a leading Belgian author who published under his own name as well as various pseudonyms. Claus' literary contributions spanned the genres of drama, novels, and poetry; he also left a legacy as a painter and film director. He wrote primarily in Dutch, although he also wrote some poetry in English. He won the 2000 International Nonino Prize in Italy.

---

Paul Scofield, English actor (born 1922)

David Paul Scofield was an English actor. During a six-decade career, Scofield achieved the Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award for his work. Scofield established a reputation as one of the greatest Shakespearean performers. He declined the honour of a knighthood, but was appointed CBE in 1956 and became a CH in 2001.

---

19/03/2005

John DeLorean, American engineer and businessman, founded the DeLorean Motor Company (born 1925)

John Zachary DeLorean was an American engineer, inventor, and executive in the U.S. automobile industry. He is widely known as founder of the DeLorean Motor Company, as well as for his work at General Motors.

---

19/03/2004

Mitchell Sharp, Canadian economist and politician, 23rd Canadian Minister of Finance (born 1911)

Mitchell William Sharp was a Canadian civil servant and politician, most noted for his service as a Liberal Cabinet minister. He served in both the private and public sectors during his long career.

---

19/03/2003

Michael Mathias Prechtl, German soldier and illustrator (born 1926)

Michael Mathias Prechtl was a German artist, illustrator and cartoonist.

---

19/03/2000

Joanne Weaver, American baseball player (born 1935)

Joanne "Joltin' Jo" Weaver was a right fielder who played from 1951 through 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m), 142 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.

---

Shafiq-ur-Rahman, Pakistani physician and author (born 1920)

Shafiq-ur-Rahman was a Pakistani humorist and short-story writer of Urdu language.

---

19/03/1999

Tofilau Eti Alesana, Samoan politician, 5th Prime Minister of Samoa (born 1924)

Tofilau Eti Alesana was a Samoan politician who served as the fifth prime minister of Samoa from 1982 to 1985, and again from 1988 until his resignation in 1998.

---

19/03/1998

E. M. S. Namboodiripad, Indian theorist and politician, 1st Chief Minister of Kerala (born 1909)

Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad was an Indian communist politician, theorist, author and statesman who served as the first Chief Minister of Kerala in 1957–1959 and then again in 1967–1969. As a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI), he became the first Chief Minister in India not to be a member of the Indian National Congress. In 1964, he led a faction of the CPI that broke away to form the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

---

19/03/1997

Willem de Kooning, Dutch-American painter and educator (born 1904)

Willem de Kooning was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter Elaine Fried.

---

Eugène Guillevic, French poet and author (born 1907)

Eugène Guillevic was a French poet. Professionally, he went by the single name Guillevic.

---

19/03/1996

Lise Østergaard, Danish psychologist and politician (born 1924)

Anna Elisabeth "Lise" Østergaard was a Danish psychologist and a politician for the Social Democrats. Under Anker Jørgensen's leadership, she was Minister without Portfolio (1977–80) and Minister of Culture (1980–82). As a psychologist, she was head of psychology in Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet (1958) as well as the first woman to become professor of clinical psychology at the University of Copenhagen (1963), a position she resumed after her political career ended in the mid-1980s.

---

Alan Ridout, English composer and teacher. (born 1934)

Alan Ridout was a British composer and teacher.

---

Virginia Henderson, American nurse, researcher, theorist and author (born 1897)

Virginia Avenel Henderson was an American nurse, researcher, theorist, and writer.

---

19/03/1993

Henrik Sandberg, Danish production manager and producer (born 1915)

Henrik Sandberg was a Danish film producer. He produced 39 films between 1955 and 1979. He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. His father was the Danish film director A. W. Sandberg.

---

19/03/1990

Andrew Wood, American singer-songwriter (born 1966)

Andrew Patrick Wood was an American musician who was the lead singer and lyricist for the alternative rock bands Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone. He formed Malfunkshun in 1980 with his older brother Kevin Wood on guitar and Regan Hagar on drums. The band used alter ego personas onstage; Wood performed as Landrew the Love Child. Though the band only released two songs before going on an extended hiatus, "With Yo' Heart " and "Stars-n-You", on the Deep Six compilation album, they are often cited as being among the originators of the Seattle grunge movement. While in Malfunkshun, Wood started using drugs, entering rehab in 1985.

---

19/03/1988

Bun Cook, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1904)

Frederick Joseph "Bun" Cook was a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and forward. He was an Allan Cup champion with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in 1924 before embarking on a 13-year professional career. He played for the Saskatoon Crescents in the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) and the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins in the National Hockey League (NHL). Cook was a member of two Stanley Cup championship teams with the Rangers, in 1928 and 1933, playing on the "Bread Line" with his brother Bill and Frank Boucher.

---

19/03/1987

Louis de Broglie, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1892)

Louis Victor Pierre Raymond, 7th Duc de Broglie was a French theoretical physicist and aristocrat known for his contributions to quantum theory. In his 1924 Ph.D. thesis, he postulated the wave nature of electrons and suggested that all matter has wave properties. This concept is known as the de Broglie hypothesis, an example of wave–particle duality, and forms a central part of the theory of quantum mechanics. In 1929, de Broglie won the Nobel Prize in Physics, after the wave-like behaviour of matter was experimentally confirmed in 1927. This confirmation earned George Paget Thomson and Clinton Davisson the Nobel in 1937.

---

19/03/1986

Sabino Barinaga, Spanish footballer and manager (born 1922)

Sabino Barinaga Alberdi was a Spanish football forward and manager.

---

19/03/1984

Garry Winogrand, American photographer (born 1928)

Garry Winogrand was an American street photographer, who portrayed U.S. life and its social issues in the mid-20th century. Photography curator, historian, and critic John Szarkowski called Winogrand the central photographer of his generation.

---

19/03/1982

J. B. Kripalani, Indian lawyer and politician (born 1888)

Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani, popularly known as Acharya Kripalani, was an Indian politician, noted particularly for holding the presidency of the Indian National Congress during the transfer of power in 1947 and the husband of Sucheta Kripalani. Kripalani was an environmentalist, mystic and independence activist who was long a Gandhian socialist. He himself founded the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party in 1951, that merged with the Socialist Party to form the Praja Socialist Party the following year. He joined the economically right wing Swatantra Party later in life.

---

Randy Rhoads, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer (born 1956)

Randall William Rhoads was an American guitarist. He was the co-founder and original guitarist of the heavy metal band Quiet Riot, and the guitarist and co-songwriter for Ozzy Osbourne's first two solo albums Blizzard of Ozz (1980) and Diary of a Madman (1981). Rhoads was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.

---

19/03/1978

M. A. Ayyangar, Indian lawyer and politician, 2nd Speaker of the Lok Sabha (born 1891)

Madabhushi Ananthasayanam Ayyangar was the first Deputy Speaker and then Speaker of the Lok Sabha in the Indian Parliament. He also served as the 5th Governor of Bihar.

---

19/03/1977

William L. Laurence, Lithuanian-born American journalist and author (born 1888)

William Leonard Laurence was a Jewish American science journalist best known for his work at The New York Times. Born in the Russian Empire, he won two Pulitzer Prizes. As the official historian of the Manhattan Project, he was the only journalist to witness the Trinity test and the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. He is credited with coining the iconic term "Atomic Age," which became popular in the 1950s. Infamously, he dismissed the destructive effects of radiation sickness as Japanese propaganda in The New York Times. Even though he had seen the effects first-hand, he moonlighted for the War Department's press office, and United States military officials instructed him to do so in order to discredit earlier reports by independent journalist Wilfred Burchett, the first Western reporter on-site after the bombings.

---

19/03/1976

Albert Dieudonné, French actor and author (born 1889)

Albert Dieudonné was a French actor, screenwriter, film director and novelist.

---

Paul Kossoff, English guitarist and songwriter (born 1950)

Paul Francis Kossoff was an English guitarist, best known as the co-founder and guitarist of the rock band Free. In 2010, he was ranked number 51 in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

---

19/03/1951

Dmytro Doroshenko, Ukrainian historian and politician, Prime Minister of Ukraine (born 1882)

Dmytro Ivanovych Doroshenko was a prominent Ukrainian political figure during the revolution of 1917–1918 and a leading Ukrainian emigre historian during the inter-war period. Doroshenko was a supporter of federal ties with the Russian Republic and a member of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Federalists.

---

19/03/1950

Edgar Rice Burroughs, American soldier and author (born 1875)

Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American writer, recognized for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, he also wrote the Pellucidar series, the Amtor series, and the Caspak trilogy.

---

Norman Haworth, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1883)

Sir Walter Norman Haworth FRS was a British chemist best known for his groundbreaking work on ascorbic acid while working at the University of Birmingham. He received the 1937 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C". The prize was shared with Swiss chemist Paul Karrer for his work on other vitamins.

---

19/03/1949

James Somerville, English admiral and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Somerset (born 1882)

Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Fownes Somerville, was a Royal Navy admiral. He served in the First World War as fleet wireless officer for the Mediterranean Fleet where he was involved in providing naval support for the Gallipoli Campaign. He also served in the Second World War as commander of the newly formed Force H: after the French armistice with Germany, Winston Churchill gave Somerville and Force H the task of neutralizing the main element of the French battle fleet, then at Mers El Kébir in Algeria. After he had destroyed the French Battle fleet, Somerville played an important role in the pursuit and sinking of the German battleship Bismarck.

---

James Newland, Australian soldier and policeman (born 1881)

James Ernest Newland, VC was an Australian soldier, policeman and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. Newland was awarded the Victoria Cross following three separate actions in April 1917, during attacks against German forces retreating to the Hindenburg Line. While in command of a company, Newland successfully led his men in several assaults on German positions and repulsed subsequent counter-attacks.

---

19/03/1948

Maud Howe Elliott, American novelist (born 1854)

Maud Howe Elliott was an American novelist, most notable for her Pulitzer Prize-winning collaboration with her sisters, Laura E. Richards and Florence Hall, on their mother's biography The Life of Julia Ward Howe (1916). Her other works included A Newport Aquarelle (1883); Phillida (1891); Kasper Craig (1892); Mammon, later published as Honor: A Novel (1893); Roma Beata, Letters from the Eternal City (1903); Sun and Shadow in Spain (1908);The Eleventh Hour in the Life of Julia Ward Howe (1911); Three Generations (1923); Lord Byron's Helmet (1927); John Elliott, The Story of an Artist (1930); My Cousin, F. Marion Crawford (1934); and This Was My Newport (1944).

---

19/03/1947

James A. Gilmore, American businessman and baseball executive (born 1887)

James Alexander Gilmore was an American businessman who served as president of baseball's Federal League when it attempted to become a third major league, alongside the American League and National League, in 1914 and 1915.

---

19/03/1944

William Hale Thompson, American rancher and politician, 41st Mayor of Chicago (born 1869)

William Hale Thompson Jr. was an American politician who served as mayor of Chicago from 1915 to 1923 and again from 1927 to 1931. Known as "Big Bill", he is the most recent Republican to have served as mayor of Chicago. Historians rank him among the most unethical mayors in American history, mainly for his open alliance with Al Capone. However, others recognize the effectiveness of his political methods and publicity-oriented campaigning, acknowledging him as a "Political Chameleon" and the leader of an effective political machine.

---

19/03/1942

Clinton Hart Merriam, American zoologist, ornithologist, and entomologist (born 1855)

Clinton Hart Merriam was an American zoologist, mammalogist, ornithologist, entomologist, ecologist, ethnographer, geographer, naturalist and physician. He was commonly known as the "father of mammalogy," a branch of zoology referring to the study of mammals.

---

19/03/1930

Arthur Balfour, Scottish-English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1848)

Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the Lloyd George ministry, he issued the Balfour Declaration of 1917 on behalf of the cabinet, which supported a "home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, and later issued the Balfour Declaration of 1926 as Lord of the Privy Council, which announced a co-equal relationship between the United Kingdom and its Dominions, laying the groundwork for the Statute of Westminster 1931 which granted full independence to the former colonies.

---

Henry Lefroy, Australian politician, 11th Premier of Western Australia (born 1854)

Sir Henry Bruce Lefroy was the eleventh Premier of Western Australia.

---

19/03/1919

Emma Bell Miles, American writer, poet, and artist of Appalachia (born 1879)

Emma Bell Miles was a writer, poet, and artist. Her works capture the essence of the natural world and the culture of southern Appalachia.

---

19/03/1914

Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian priest, geologist, and volcanologist (born 1850)

Giuseppe Mercalli was an Italian volcanologist and Catholic priest. He is known best for the Mercalli intensity scale for measuring earthquake intensity.

---

19/03/1900

John Bingham, American lawyer and politician, 7th United States Ambassador to Japan (born 1815)

John Armor Bingham was an American politician who served as a Republican representative from Ohio and as the United States ambassador to Japan. In his time as a congressman, Bingham served as both assistant Judge Advocate General in the trial of the Abraham Lincoln assassination and a House manager (prosecutor) in the impeachment trial of U.S. President Andrew Johnson. He was also the principal framer of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

---

Charles-Louis Hanon, French pianist and composer (born 1819)

Charles-Louis Hanon was a French piano pedagogue and composer. He is best known for his work The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises, which is still used today for modern piano teaching, but over the years the method has also faced criticisms.

---

19/03/1897

Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie, Irish-French geographer, ethnologist, linguist, and astronomer (born 1810)

Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie d'Arrast was a Basque-Irish explorer, geographer, ethnologist, linguist and astronomer, renowned for his expeditions in Ethiopia during the early 19th century. He was the elder brother of Arnaud-Michel d'Abbadie, who accompanied him on his travels.

---

19/03/1884

Elias Lönnrot, Finnish physician and philologist (born 1802)

Elias Lönnrot was a Finnish polymath, physician, philosopher, poet, musician, linguist, journalist, philologist and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry. He is best known for synthesizing the Finnish national epic, Kalevala from short ballads and lyric poems he gathered from Finnish oral tradition during several field expeditions in Finland, Russian Karelia, the Kola Peninsula and Baltic countries. In botany, he is remembered as the author of the 1860 Flora Fennica, the first scientific text written in Finnish rather than in Latin.

---

19/03/1871

Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist, geologist, and physicist (born 1795)

Wilhelm Karl Haidinger, ennobled as Wilhelm Ritter von Haidinger in 1864, was an Austrian mineralogist.

---

19/03/1816

Filippo Mazzei, Italian-American physician and philosopher (born 1730)

Philip Mazzei, originally Filippo Mazzei, and sometimes erroneously cited as Philip Mazzie, was an Italian physician, philosopher, diplomat, winemaker, merchant, and author. A neighbor of Thomas Jefferson, he was a supporter of the American Revolution and the American colonies' war for independence from Britain.

---

19/03/1797

Philip Hayes, English organist and composer (born 1738)

Philip Hayes was an English composer, organist, singer and conductor.

---

19/03/1790

Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Pasha, Ottoman general and politician, 182nd Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (born 1713)

Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Pasha or Algerian Hasan Pasha, nicknamed Ejder-i Bahrî, was an Ottoman Grand Admiral (1770–90), Grand Vizier (1790), and general in the late 18th century.

---

19/03/1783

Frederick Cornwallis, English archbishop (born 1713)

Frederick Cornwallis was a British clergy member who served as Archbishop of Canterbury after a career in the Church of England. He was born the seventh son of an aristocratic family.

---

19/03/1721

Pope Clement XI (born 1649)

Pope Clement XI, born Giovanni Francesco Albani, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 November 1700 to his death in March 1721.

---

19/03/1717

John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, Scottish soldier (born 1636)

John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, known as Sir John Campbell, 5th Baronet from 1670 to 1681, was a Scottish politician. Heavily involved in the Glorious Revolution and Jacobite risings, he was known as "Slippery John". An astutely political man, Campbell was one of the men implicated in the Massacre of Glencoe.

---

19/03/1711

Thomas Ken, English bishop and hymn-writer (born 1637)

Thomas Ken was an English cleric who was considered the most eminent of the English non-juring bishops, and one of the developers of modern English hymnody. He is the writer of the hymn Awake My Soul and with the Sun.

---

19/03/1697

Nicolaus Bruhns, German organist and composer (born 1665)

Nicolaus Bruhns was a Danish-German organist, violinist, and composer. He was one of the most prominent organists and composers of his generation.

---

19/03/1687

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, French-American explorer (born 1643)

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was a French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, and the Mississippi River. He is best known for an early 1682 expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico; there, on April 9, 1682, he claimed the Mississippi River basin for France after giving it the name La Louisiane, in honor of Saint Louis and Louis XIV. One source states that "he acquired for France the most fertile half of the North American continent". A later, ill-fated expedition in 1684 to the Gulf coast of Mexico gave the United States a putative claim to Texas in the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803; La Salle was assassinated during that expedition.

---

19/03/1683

Thomas Killigrew, English playwright and manager (born 1612)

Thomas Killigrew was an English dramatist and theatre manager. He was a witty, dissolute figure at the court of King Charles II of England.

---

19/03/1649

Gerhard Johann Vossius, German scholar and theologian (born 1577)

Gerrit Janszoon Vos, often known by his Latin name Gerardus Vossius, was a Dutch classical scholar, theologian, and polymath.

---

19/03/1637

Péter Pázmány, Hungarian cardinal (born 1570)

Péter Pázmány de Panasz, S.J., was a Hungarian Jesuit who was a noted philosopher, theologian, cardinal, pulpit orator and statesman. He was an important figure in the Counter-Reformation in Royal Hungary.

---

19/03/1612

Sophia Olelkovich Radziwill, Belarusian saint (born 1585)

Zofia Radziwiłł, also Zofia of Słuck is a Polish-Lithuanian Orthodox Christian saint. She was the last descendant of the Olelkowicz–Słucki family – princes of Slutsk and Kopyl – who were descended from Lithuanian Grand Duke Algirdas. She was canonized by the Orthodox Church in 1983. The church of St. Sophia of Slutsk in Minsk is named in her honour.

---

19/03/1581

Francis I, duke of Saxe-Lauenburg (born 1510)

Francis I of Saxe-Lauenburg was the eldest child and only son of Duke Magnus I of Saxe-Lauenburg and Catherine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, daughter of Duke Henry IV the Elder of Brunswick and Lunenburg (Wolfenbüttel). Francis I succeeded his father in 1543 as duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, but resigned in favour of his major son Magnus II in 1571. Two years later he reascended and was succeeded by Francis II in 1581.

---

19/03/1568

Elizabeth Seymour, Lady Cromwell, English noblewoman (bornc. 1518)

Elizabeth Seymour was a younger daughter of Sir John Seymour of Wulfhall, Wiltshire and Margery Wentworth. Elizabeth and her sister Jane served in the household of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. The Seymours rose to prominence after the king's attention turned to Jane. In May 1536, Anne Boleyn was accused of treason and adultery, and subsequently executed. On 30 May 1536, eleven days after Anne's execution, Henry VIII and Jane were married. Elizabeth was not included in her sister's household during her brief reign, although she would serve two of Henry VIII's later wives, Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard. Jane died 24 October 1537, twelve days after giving birth to a healthy son, Edward VI.

---

19/03/1563

Arthur Brooke, English poet

Arthur Brooke was an English poet who wrote and created various works including The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562), considered to be William Shakespeare's chief source for his tragedy Romeo and Juliet.

---

19/03/1539

Lord Edmund Howard, English nobleman (born c. 1478)

Lord Edmund Howard was the third son of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, and his first wife, Elizabeth Tilney. His sister, Elizabeth, was the mother of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn, and he was the father of the king's fifth wife, Katherine Howard. His first cousin, Margery Wentworth, was the mother of Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour.

---

19/03/1534

Michael Weiße, German theologian (born c. 1488)

Michael Weiße or Weisse was a German theologian, Protestant reformer and hymn writer. First a Franciscan, he joined the Bohemian Brethren. He published the most extensive early Protestant hymnal in 1531, supplying most hymn texts and some tunes himself. One of his hymns was used in Johann Sebastian Bach's St John Passion.

---

19/03/1533

John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, English baron and statesman (born 1467)

John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners was an English soldier, statesman and translator.

---

19/03/1372

John II, marquess of Montferrat (born 1321)

John II Palaeologus was the Margrave of Montferrat from 1338.

---

19/03/1330

Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, English politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (born 1301)

Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, whose seat was Arundel Castle in Sussex, was the sixth and youngest son of King Edward I of England, and the second son of his second wife Margaret of France, and was a younger half-brother of King Edward II. Edward I had intended to make substantial grants of land to Edmund, but when the king died in 1307, Edward II refused to respect his father's intentions, mainly due to his favouritism towards Piers Gaveston. Edmund remained loyal to his brother, and in 1321 he was created Earl of Kent. He played an important part in Edward's administration as diplomat and military commander and in 1321–22 helped suppress a rebellion.

---

19/03/1286

Alexander III, king of Scotland (born 1241)

Alexander III was King of Alba (Scotland) from 6 July 1249 until his death. He concluded the Treaty of Perth, by which Scotland acquired sovereignty over the Western Isles and the Isle of Man. His heir and only grandchild, Margaret, Maid of Norway, died before she could be crowned.

---

19/03/1279

Zhao Bing, Chinese emperor (born 1271)

Zhao Bing, also known as Emperor Bing of Song or Bing, Emperor of Song (宋帝昺), was the 18th and last emperor of the Song dynasty of China, who ruled as a minor between 6 and 7 years of age.

---

19/03/1263

Hugh of Saint-Cher, French cardinal (born 1200)

Hugh of Saint-Cher, O.P. was a French Dominican friar who became a cardinal and noted biblical commentator.

---

19/03/1238

Henry the Bearded, Polish duke and son of Bolesław I the Tall (born 1163)

Henry the Bearded was a Polish duke from the Piast dynasty.

---

19/03/0968

Emma of Paris, duchess of Normandy (born 943)

Emma of Paris, was a duchess consort of Normandy, married to Richard I, Duke of Normandy. She was the daughter of Count Hugh the Great of Paris and Hedwige of Saxony and sister of Hugh Capet, king of France.

---

19/03/0953

al-Mansur bi-Nasr Allah, caliph of the Fatimid Caliphate (born 913)

Abu Tahir Isma'il, better known by his regnal name al-Mansur Billah, was the thirteenth Isma'ili imam and third caliph of the Fatimid Caliphate in Ifriqiya, ruling from 946 until his death. He succeeded his father, al-Qa'im, after the latter's death, in what was likely a bloodless palace coup. At the time of al-Mansur's accession, most of the Fatimid mainland realm in Ifriqiya had been lost to a large-scale anti-Fatimid revolt led by the Kharijite preacher Abu Yazid, who was laying siege to al-Qa'im's fortified coastal palace city of al-Mahdiya. Unlike his father he was an active and publicly visible monarch, but plagued by illness, which led to his early death.

---

19/03/0235

Severus Alexander, Roman emperor (born 208)

Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander, also known as Alexander Severus, was Roman emperor from 222 until 235. He was the last emperor from the Severan dynasty and was the youngest sole emperor of the united Roman Empire.

---