Died on Thursday, 26th March – Famous Deaths

26/03/2026

James Tolkan, American actor (born 1931)

James Stewart Tolkan was an American character actor. He was best known for portraying the strict high school vice‑principal Mr. Strickland in Back to the Future (1985) and Back to the Future Part II (1989), and the character's ancestor, Marshal James Strickland, in Back to the Future Part III (1990). His other notable film credits included Serpico (1973), Love and Death (1975), Prince of the City (1981), Top Gun (1986), Masters of the Universe (1987), Viper (1988), Dick Tracy (1990), and Problem Child 2 (1991).

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26/03/2024

Esther Coopersmith, American diplomat, UNESCO goodwill ambassador (born 1930)

Esther Lipsen Coopersmith was an American diplomat, philanthropist, political lobbyist, and a champion for women's equality. For over 70 years, she organized gatherings, from small dinners to grand formal ones, across the world. Her guest list varied from politicians and visiting royals to academics and actors. In 2009, UNESCO named her a goodwill ambassador for "fostering intercultural dialogue".

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26/03/2023

María Kodama, Argentine writer and translator (born 1937)

María Kodama Schweizer was an Argentine writer and translator. The widow of author Jorge Luis Borges, she was the sole owner of his estate after his death in 1986. Borges had bequeathed to Kodama his rights as author in a will written in 1979, when she was his literary secretary, and bequeathed to her his whole estate in 1985. They were married in 1986, shortly before Borges' death.

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Innocent Vareed Thekkethala, Indian actor and politician (born 1948)

Innocent Vareed Thekkethala, known mononymously as Innocent, was an Indian actor, film producer, writer and politician, who in a career spanning almost five decades has appeared in over 700 films predominantly in Malayalam cinema in addition to a few Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and English films, mostly in comedic roles. Widely regarded as one of the greatest comedians in the history of Malayalam cinema, he is also known for his negative and highly nuanced character roles. He is also the recipient of several awards, including three Kerala State Film Awards, a Kerala Film Critics Award, a Filmfare Awards South and seven Asianet Film Awards. He also won the prestigious Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Humour in 2020, for his book Irinjalakudakku Chuttum. He is noted for his wit and impressive dialogue delivery in the typical Thrissur slang.

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Jacob Ziv, Israeli electrical engineer, developed the LZ family of compression algorithms (born 1931)

Jacob Ziv was an Israeli electrical engineer and information theorist who developed the LZ family of lossless data compression algorithms alongside Abraham Lempel. He is also a namesake of the Ziv–Zakai bound in estimation theory, with Moshe Zakai.

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26/03/2018

Fabrizio Frizzi, Italian television presenter (born 1958)

Fabrizio Frizzi was an Italian television presenter and voice actor. He often presented a mixture of variety shows, talent shows and game shows across Italy and he was also known as the Italian voice of Woody from the Toy Story franchise.

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26/03/2016

Jim Harrison, American novelist, essayist, and poet (born 1937)

James Harrison was an American poet, novelist, and essayist. He was a prolific and versatile writer publishing over three dozen books in several genres including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, children's literature, and memoir. He wrote screenplays, book reviews, literary criticism, and published essays on food, travel, and sport. Harrison indicated that, of all his writing, his poetry meant the most to him.

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26/03/2015

Dinkha IV, Iraqi patriarch (born 1935)

Mar Dinkha IV, born Dinkha Khanania was an Eastern Christian prelate who served as the 120th Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East. He was born in the village of Darbandokeh (Derbendoki), Iraq, and led the Church in exile in Chicago for most of his life. He was the first patriarch in 4 centuries not from the Shimun family.

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Friedrich L. Bauer, German mathematician, computer scientist, and academic (born 1924)

Friedrich Ludwig "Fritz" Bauer was a German pioneer of computer science and professor at the Technical University of Munich.

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Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish poet, translator, and psychologist Nobel Prize laureate (born 1931)

Tomas Gösta Tranströmer was a Swedish poet, psychologist and translator. His poems captured the long winters in Sweden, the rhythm of the seasons and the palpable, atmospheric beauty of nature. Tranströmer's work is also characterized by a sense of mystery and wonder underlying the routine of everyday life, a quality which often gives his poems a religious dimension. He has been described as a Christian poet.

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26/03/2014

Roger Birkman, American psychologist and author (born 1919)

Roger Winfred Birkman was an American organizational psychologist. He was the creator of The Birkman Method, a workplace psychological assessment. Birkman received his Ph.D. in psychology in 1961 from the University of Texas at Austin. He was the founder and chairman of the board of Birkman International, Inc.

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Dick Guidry, American businessman and politician (born 1929)

Richard P. Guidry, known as Dick Guidry was an American politician and businessman, who served as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives.

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Marcus Kimball, Baron Kimball, English politician (born 1928)

Marcus Richard Kimball, Baron Kimball was a British Conservative politician.

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26/03/2013

Tom Boerwinkle, American basketball player and sportscaster (born 1945)

Thomas F. Boerwinkle was an American National Basketball Association (NBA) center who spent his entire career with the Chicago Bulls.

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Krzysztof Kozłowski, Polish journalist and politician, Polish Minister of Interior (born 1931)

Krzysztof Jan Kozlowski was a Polish journalist and politician. He served as Poland's Minister of the former Interior and Administration with the Cabinet of Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki from 1990 until 1991.. Kozlowski also served as the first Chief of the Urząd Ochrony Państwa (UOP) from 1990 to 1992 and was elected to the Senate of the Republic of Poland for four terms.

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Dave Leggett, American football player (born 1933)

William David Leggett was a National Football League (NFL) quarterback. He played collegiately at Ohio State University from 1952–1954. In 1954, he led Ohio State to an undefeated 10–0 season and a berth in the Rose Bowl, where Ohio State defeated USC and Leggett was named MVP. He was drafted by the Chicago Cardinals in the 7th round of the 1955 NFL draft.

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Don Payne, American screenwriter and producer (born 1964)

William Donald Payne was an American writer and producer. He wrote several episodes of The Simpsons after 2000, many of these with John Frink, whom he met while studying at the University of California, Los Angeles. The duo began their careers writing for the short-lived sitcom Hope and Gloria. Payne later moved into writing feature films, including My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), and co-wrote Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Thor (2011) and its sequel Thor: The Dark World (2013). Payne died from heart failure caused by bone cancer in March 2013.

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26/03/2012

Sisto Averno, American football player (born 1925)

Sisto Joseph "Joe" Averno was an American professional football guard and linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the original Baltimore Colts (1950) and the franchises which succeeded it, including the New York Yanks (1951), Dallas Texans (1952), and the second iteration of the Baltimore Colts (1953–1954).

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Michael Begley, Irish carpenter and politician (born 1932)

Michael Begley was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Minister of State at the Department of Trade, Commerce and Tourism from 1981 to 1982, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance from 1975 to 1977 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Local Government from 1973 to 1975. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Kerry South constituency from 1969 to 1989.

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Thomas M. Cover, American theorist and academic (born 1938)

Thomas M. Cover was an American information theorist and professor jointly in the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Statistics at Stanford University. He devoted almost his entire career to developing the relationship between information theory and statistics.

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David Craighead, American organist and educator (born 1924)

David Craighead was a noted American organist.

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Manik Godghate, Indian poet and educator (born 1937)

Manik Godghate, popularly known by his pen name Grace, was a Marathi prose writer and poet. He is most popular as lyricist of the Marathi song "Bhaya Ithale Sampat Nahi", which was sung by Lata Mangeshkar as the title track for the TV serial Mahashweta. His book Vaaryane Halte Raan was awarded the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 2011.

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Helmer Ringgren, Swedish theologian and academic (born 1917)

Karl Vilhelm Helmer Ringgren, was a Swedish theologian.

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26/03/2011

Roger Abbott, English-Canadian actor, producer, and screenwriter (born 1946)

Roger Abbott was an English-born Canadian sketch comedian who was a founding member of the long-lived Canadian comedy troupe Royal Canadian Air Farce, and remained one of its stars and writers until his death.

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Geraldine Ferraro, American lawyer and politician (born 1935)

Geraldine Anne Ferraro was an American politician, diplomat, and attorney who served in the United States House of Representatives, representing New York's 9th congressional district from 1979 to 1985. She was the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in the 1984 presidential election, running alongside presidential candidate and former vice president Walter Mondale; this made her the first female vice-presidential nominee representing a major American political party. She was also a journalist, author, and businesswoman.

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Diana Wynne Jones, English author (born 1934)

Diana Wynne Jones was a British novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and short story writer. She principally wrote fantasy and speculative fiction novels for children and young adults. Although usually described as fantasy, some of her work also incorporates science fiction themes and elements of realism. Jones's work often explores themes of time travel and parallel or multiple universes. Some of her better-known works are the Chrestomanci series, the Dalemark series, the three Moving Castle novels, Dark Lord of Derkholm, and The Tough Guide to Fantasyland.

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26/03/2010

Charles Ryskamp, American art collector and curator (born 1928)

Charles Ryskamp was an American art director. He headed both the Frick Collection and the Pierpont Morgan Library, was a longtime professor at Princeton University, and collected drawings and prints. He was born in East Grand Rapids, Michigan. At the time of his death the Yale Center for British Art had selections from his collection featured in the exhibition "Varieties of Romantic Experience: Drawings from the Collection of Charles Ryskamp". This exhibition, which was to be up from February 4 until April 25, 2010, included works from Ryskamp's collection by Romantic period artists such as J. M. W. Turner, William Blake, David Wilkie and Caspar David Friedrich. His collection of Danish Golden Age drawings with works by among others Christen Købke and Johan Thomas Lundbye was one of the finest in private hands.

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26/03/2009

Shane McConkey, Canadian skier and BASE jumper (born 1969)

Shane McConkey was a professional skier and BASE jumper. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and eventually based himself in Olympic Valley, California. Due to an itinerant childhood, he never identified with a single place, but he was said to have come from Boulder, Colorado. It was from here that he started his professional skiing career. He did so after dropping out of the University of Colorado Boulder to pursue his dreams.

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Arne Bendiksen, Norwegian singer and composer (born 1926)

Arne Joachim Bendiksen was a Norwegian singer, composer, and producer, described as "the father of pop music" in Norway. He represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1964.

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26/03/2008

Robert Fagles, American poet and academic (born 1933)

Robert Fagles was an American translator, poet, and academic. He was best known for his many translations of ancient Greek and Roman classics, especially his acclaimed translations of the epic poems of Homer and Virgil. He taught English and comparative literature for many years at Princeton University.

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Manuel Marulanda, Colombian rebel leader (born 1930)

Pedro Antonio Marín Marín, known by his "nom de guerre" Manuel Marulanda Vélez, was the founder and main leader of the Marxist–Leninist FARC-EP. Marulanda was born in a coffee-growing region of west-central Colombia in the Quindío Department, to a peasant family politically aligned with the Liberal Party during conflicts in the 1940s and 1950s.

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26/03/2006

Anil Biswas, Indian journalist and politician (born 1944)

Anil Biswas, often referred to as Keru, was an Indian communist politician. He was the secretary of the West Bengal State Committee of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and member of the party's politburo beginning in 1998 until his death in 2006.

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Paul Dana, American racing driver (born 1975)

Paul Frederick Dana was an American racing driver who competed in the IndyCar Series.

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Nikki Sudden, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1956)

Adrian Nicholas Godfrey, known professionally as Nikki Sudden, was a prolific English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He co-founded the post-punk band Swell Maps with his brother, Epic Soundtracks, while attending Solihull School in Solihull.

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26/03/2005

James Callaghan, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1912)

Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, was a British statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980. Callaghan is the only person to have held all four Great Offices of State, having also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1964 to 1967, Home Secretary from 1967 to 1970 and Foreign Secretary from 1974 to 1976. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1987.

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Frederick Rotimi Williams, Nigerian lawyer and politician (born 1920)

Chief Frederick Rotimi Alade Williams, QC, SAN was a prominent Nigerian lawyer who was the first Nigerian to become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. In the 1950s, he was a member of the Action Group and subsequently became the minister for local government and justice. He was the president of the Nigerian Bar Association in 1959. He left politics in the 1960s, as a result of the political crisis in the Western Region of Nigeria.

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26/03/2004

Jan Sterling, American actress (born 1921)

Jan Sterling was an American film, television and stage actress. At her most active in films during the 1950s, Sterling received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The High and the Mighty (1954) as well as an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination. Her best performance is often considered to be opposite Kirk Douglas, as the opportunistic wife in Billy Wilder's 1951 Ace in the Hole. Although her career declined during the 1960s, she continued to play occasional television and theatre roles.

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26/03/2003

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, American sociologist and politician, 12th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (born 1927)

Daniel Patrick Moynihan was an American politician, diplomat and social scientist. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented New York in the United States Senate from 1977 until 2001 after serving as an adviser to President Richard Nixon, and as the United States' ambassador to India and to the United Nations.

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26/03/2002

Randy Castillo, American drummer and songwriter (born 1950)

Randolpho Francisco Castillo was an American musician. He was Ozzy Osbourne's drummer during the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, and he was the drummer for Mötley Crüe, from 1999 to 2000.

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26/03/2000

Alex Comfort, English physician and author (born 1920)

Alexander Comfort was a British scientist and physician, writer and activist, known best for his nonfiction sex manual, The Joy of Sex (1972). He was a poet and author of both fiction and nonfiction, as well as a gerontologist, geriatrician, sexologist, political theorist and commentator, anarchist, and pacifist.

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26/03/1996

Edmund Muskie, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, 58th United States Secretary of State (born 1914)

Edmund Sixtus Muskie was an American statesman and politician who served as the 58th United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1980 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a U.S. Senator from Maine from 1959 to 1980, the 64th governor of Maine from 1955 to 1959, and a member of the Maine House of Representatives from 1946 to 1951. Muskie was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in the 1968 presidential election.

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David Packard, American engineer and businessman, co-founded Hewlett-Packard (born 1912)

David Packard was an American electrical engineer and co-founder, with Bill Hewlett, of Hewlett-Packard (1939), serving as president (1947–64), CEO (1964–68), and chairman of the board of HP. He served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1969 to 1971 during the Nixon administration. Packard served as president of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) from 1976 to 1981 and chairman of its board of regents from 1973 to 1982. He was a member of the Trilateral Commission. Packard was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988 and is noted for many technological innovations and philanthropic endeavors.

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John Snagge, English journalist (born 1904)

John Derrick Mordaunt Snagge was a British newsreader and commentator on BBC Radio.

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26/03/1995

Eazy-E, American rapper and producer (born 1964)

Eric Lynn Wright, known professionally as Eazy-E, was an American rapper who propelled West Coast rap and gangsta rap by leading the group N.W.A and its label, Ruthless Records. Wright is often referred to as the "Godfather of Gangsta Rap".

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26/03/1993

Louis Falco, American dancer and choreographer (born 1942)

Louis Falco was an American dancer and choreographer.

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26/03/1992

Barbara Frum, American-Canadian journalist and radio host (born 1937)

Barbara Frum, OC was an American-born Canadian radio and television journalist, acclaimed for her interviews for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

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26/03/1990

Halston, American fashion designer (born 1932)

Roy Halston Frowick, known mononymously as Halston, was an American fashion designer. His minimalist, fluid designs helped define the look of 1970s American style. Halston was known for creating a relaxed urban lifestyle for women.

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26/03/1987

Eugen Jochum, German conductor (born 1902)

Eugen Jochum was a German conductor, best known for his interpretations of the music of Anton Bruckner and Johannes Brahms, among others. He was principal conductor for the Berlin Radio (1932–1944), Bavarian (1949–1960) and Bamberg (1969–1973) symphony orchestras.

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Walter Abel, American actor (born 1898)

Walter Abel was an American stage, film, and radio actor whose career spanned nearly seven decades.

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26/03/1984

Ahmed Sékou Touré, Guinean politician, 1st President of Guinea (born 1922)

Ahmed Sékou Touré was a Guinean political leader and African statesman who was the first president of Guinea from 1958 until his death in 1984. Touré was among the primary Guinean nationalists involved in gaining independence of the country from France. He would later die in the United States in 1984.

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26/03/1983

Anthony Blunt, English historian and spy (born 1907)

Anthony Frederick Blunt, styled Sir Anthony Blunt from 1956 until November 1979, was a leading British art historian and a Soviet spy.

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26/03/1980

Roland Barthes, French linguist and critic (born 1915)

Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular culture. His ideas explored a diverse range of fields, including structuralism, anthropology, literary theory, and post-structuralism, and influenced the development of multiple schools of theory.

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26/03/1979

Beauford Delaney, American-French painter (born 1901)

Beauford Delaney was an American modernist painter. He is remembered for his work with the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as his later works in abstract expressionism following his move to Paris in the 1950s. Beauford's younger brother, Joseph, was also a noted painter.

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Jean Stafford, American author and academic (born 1915)

Jean Stafford was an American short story writer and novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford in 1970.

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26/03/1973

Noël Coward, English playwright, actor, and composer (born 1899)

Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".

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Johnny Drake, American football player (born 1916)

John William "Zero" Drake was an American professional football player who was a running back for the Cleveland Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Purdue Boilermakers. Drake was the first round pick by the Rams, their first ever draft pick, in the 1937 NFL draft. He led the NFL in touchdowns in the 1939 and 1940 seasons.

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26/03/1969

John Kennedy Toole, American novelist (born 1937)

John Kennedy Toole was an American novelist from New Orleans, Louisiana, whose posthumously published novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. At 16 in 1954, he wrote his first novel, The Neon Bible, which he shelved in the same year, not finding a willing publisher; he later dismissed it as "adolescent". Toole was a successful and popular professor, first at University of Southwestern Louisiana, then Hunter College, and finally St. Mary's Dominican College in New Orleans. Having persuaded Simon & Schuster, however, to accept A Confederacy of Dunces, he was unable to resolve editorial disputes. Due in part to the novel's failure, he suffered from paranoia and depression, dying by suicide at the age of 31.

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26/03/1966

Victor Hochepied, French swimmer (born 1883)

Victor Fernand Hochepied was a French freestyle swimmer who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics.

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Cyril Hume, American novelist and screenwriter (born 1900)

Cyril Hume was an American novelist and screenwriter. Hume was a graduate of Yale University, where he edited campus humor magazine The Yale Record. He was an editor of the collection The Yale Record Book of Verse: 1872–1922 (1922).

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26/03/1965

Alice Herz, German peace activist who self-immolated in protest of U.S. imperialism (born 1882) 1

Alice Jeanette Herz was a German feminist, anti-fascist and peace activist. She was the first person in the United States known to have immolated herself in protest of the escalating Vietnam War, following the example of Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức who immolated himself in protest of the oppression of Buddhists under the South Vietnamese government of Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem.

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26/03/1959

Raymond Chandler, American crime novelist and screenwriter (born 1888)

Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a pulp magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime. All but Playback have been made into motion pictures, some more than once.

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26/03/1958

Phil Mead, English cricketer and footballer (born 1887)

Charles Phillip Mead was an English professional cricketer who played in seventeen Test matches for England and had an extensive domestic career with Hampshire in English county cricket, spanning 31 years. Mead was born in Battersea. Overlooked by Surrey, he joined Hampshire in 1903 and made his debut for the county in first-class cricket in 1905. He established himself in the Hampshire team as a left-handed batsman the following season. After passing 2,000 runs in a season for the first time in 1911, Mead was chosen as one of five Wisden Cricketers of the Year. He was subsequently selected to tour Australia in 1911–12, making his Test debut against Australia. After success in the 1912 season, he toured South Africa, scoring his first Test century during the tour. Mead's appearances at Test level were infrequent, spanning seventeen matches across five series between 1911 and 1928. He scored nearly 1,200 runs in Tests, making four centuries. The paucity of his appearances at Test level were attributed to hostility toward his status as a professional batsman by England captain Plum Warner, playing for an "unfashionable" county, and an abundance of strong batsmen in county cricket competing for limited spaces in the England team. Despite the end of his Test career in 1928, Mead continued to play first-class cricket until 1936, when he was released by Hampshire at the age of 49. He then played two seasons of minor counties cricket for Suffolk in 1938 and 1939, whilst employed as a cricket coach at Framlingham College.

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26/03/1957

Édouard Herriot, French politician, Prime Minister of France (born 1872)

Édouard Marie Herriot was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic who served three times as Prime Minister and twice as President of the Chamber of Deputies. He led the first Cartel des Gauches. Under the Fourth Republic, he served as President of the National Assembly until 1954. A historian by occupation, Herriot was elected to the Académie Française's eighth seat in 1946. He served as Mayor of Lyon for more than 45 years, from 1905 until his death, except for a brief period from 1940 to 1945, when he saw his movements variously restricted for opposing the Vichy regime.

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Max Ophüls, German-American director and screenwriter (born 1902)

Maximillian Oppenheimer, known as Max Ophüls, was a German and French film director, screenwriter and art director. He was known for his opulent and lyrical visual style, with heavy use of tracking shots, and his melancholic, romantic themes. The Harvard Film Archive has called Ophüls "a supreme stylist of the cinema and a master storyteller".

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26/03/1954

Charles Perrin, French rower (born 1875)

Charles Jean Baptiste Perrin was a French rower who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics.

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26/03/1951

James F. Hinkle, American banker and politician, 6th Governor of New Mexico (born 1864)

James Fielding Hinkle was an American banker, politician and the sixth governor of New Mexico.

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26/03/1945

David Lloyd George, English-Welsh lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1863)

David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leading the United Kingdom during the First World War, for social-reform policies, for his role in the Paris Peace Conference, and for negotiating the establishment of the Irish Free State.

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26/03/1942

Jimmy Burke, American baseball player and manager (born 1874)

James Timothy Burke was an American Major League Baseball third baseman, coach, and manager. He played for the Cleveland Spiders, St. Louis Perfectos, Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago White Stockings, Pittsburgh Pirates, and St. Louis Cardinals.

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Carolyn Wells, American novelist and poet (born 1862)

Carolyn Wells was an American mystery author, poet, humorist, and children's writer. Over her career, she authored more than 170 books, spanning genres including detective fiction, poetry, humor, and young adult literature. Known for her prolific output, Wells was a prominent figure in early 20th-century American literature, particularly in the mystery genre, where she created the long-running Fleming Stone series. Despite her contemporary success, her work fell into obscurity after her death, a phenomenon explored in recent biographies.

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26/03/1940

Wilhelm Anderson, German-Estonian astrophysicist (born 1880)

Wilhelm Robert Karl Anderson was a Russian-Estonian astrophysicist of Baltic German descent who studied the physical structure of the stars.

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Spyridon Louis, Greek runner (born 1873)

Spyridon Louis, commonly known as Spyros Louis, was a Greek water carrier who won the first modern-day Olympic marathon at the 1896 Summer Olympics. Following his victory, he was celebrated as a national hero.

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26/03/1934

John Biller, American jumper and discus thrower (born 1877)

John Arthur Biller was an American athlete who competed mainly in standing jumps.

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26/03/1932

Henry M. Leland, American machinist, inventor, engineer, automotive entrepreneur and founder of Cadillac and Lincoln (born 1843)

Henry Martyn Leland was an American machinist, inventor, engineer, and automotive entrepreneur. He founded the two premier American luxury automotive marques, Cadillac and Lincoln.

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26/03/1931

Joseph Dutton, assisted Father Damien on the island of Molokai for 45 years.

Joseph Dutton was an American Civil War veteran and Union Army lieutenant, who converted to Catholicism and later worked as a missionary with Saint Damien of Molokai. He was a Third Order Secular Franciscan. His cause for canonization was opened in 2022.

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26/03/1926

Constantin Fehrenbach, German lawyer and politician, Chancellor of Germany (born 1852)

Constantin Fehrenbach, sometimes erroneously Konstantin Fehrenbach,, was a German politician who was one of the major leaders of the Catholic Centre Party. He served as president of the Reichstag in 1918 and then as president of the Weimar National Assembly from 1919 to 1920. In June 1920, Fehrenbach became Chancellor of Germany. During his time in office, the central issue he had to face was German compliance with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. He resigned in May 1921 when his cabinet was unable to reach a consensus on war reparations payments to the Allies. Fehrenbach remained in the Reichstag and headed the Centre Party's contingent there from 1923 until his death in 1926.

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26/03/1923

Sarah Bernhardt, French actress and screenwriter (born 1844)

Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils, Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, Fédora and La Tosca by Victorien Sardou, and L'Aiglon by Edmond Rostand. She played female and male roles, including Shakespeare's Hamlet. Rostand called her "the queen of the pose and the princess of the gesture", and Hugo praised her "golden voice". She made several theatrical tours worldwide and was one of the early prominent actresses to make sound recordings and act in motion pictures. She was also an accomplished visual artist, as a painter and particularly as a sculptor.

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26/03/1920

William Chester Minor, American surgeon and lexicographer (born 1834)

William Chester Minor was an American army surgeon, psychiatric hospital patient, and lexicographical researcher.

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26/03/1910

Auguste Charlois, French astronomer (born 1864)

Auguste Honoré Charlois was a French astronomer who discovered 99 asteroids while working at the Nice Observatory in southeastern France.

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26/03/1905

Maurice Barrymore, American actor (born 1849)

Herbert Arthur Chamberlayne Blyth, known professionally by his stage name Maurice Barrymore, was an Indian-born British stage actor. He is the patriarch of the Barrymore acting family, and the father of John, Lionel, and Ethel.

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26/03/1902

Cecil Rhodes, English-South African colonialist, businessman and politician, 6th Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (born 1853)

Cecil John Rhodes was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He and his British South Africa Company founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia, which the company named after him in 1895. He also devoted much effort to realizing his vision of a Cape to Cairo Railway through British territory. Rhodes set up the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate.

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26/03/1892

Walt Whitman, American poet, essayist, and journalist (born 1819)

Walter Whitman Jr. was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his writings and is often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality.

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26/03/1888

Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar (born 1837)

Sayyid Barghash bin Said al-Busaidi, an Afro-Omani Sultan and the son of Said bin Sultan, was the second Sultan of Zanzibar. He ruled Zanzibar from 7 October 1870 to 26 March 1888.

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26/03/1885

Anson Stager, American general and businessman, co-founded Western Union (born 1825)

Anson Stager was the co-founder of Western Union, the first president of Western Electric Manufacturing Company and a Union Army officer, where he was head of the Military Telegraph Department during the American Civil War.

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26/03/1881

Roman Sanguszko, Polish general and activist (born 1800)

Prince Roman Adam Stanisław Sanguszko (1800–1881) was a Polish aristocrat, patriot, political and social activist.

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Old Abe, 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment Mascot (born 1861)

Old Abe was a bald eagle who was the mascot of the 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the American Civil War. Later, his image was adopted as the eagle appearing on a globe in Case Corporation's logo and as the screaming eagle on the insignia of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division.

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26/03/1862

Uriah P. Levy, American commander (born 1792)

Uriah Phillips Levy was a naval officer, real estate investor, and philanthropist. He was a veteran of the War of 1812 and the first Jewish Commodore of the United States Navy. He was instrumental in helping to end the Navy's practice of flogging, and during his half-century-long service prevailed against the antisemitism he faced among some of his fellow naval officers.

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26/03/1858

John Addison Thomas, American lieutenant, engineer, and politician, 3rd United States Assistant Secretary of State (born 1811)

John Addison Thomas was an American engineer and military officer who served in the United States Army, and later served as United States Assistant Secretary of State.

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26/03/1827

Ludwig van Beethoven, German pianist and composer (born 1770)

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers and a bridge from the Classical to the Romantic periods.

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26/03/1814

Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, French physician and politician (born 1738)

Joseph-Ignace Guillotin was a French physician, politician, and freemason who proposed on 10 October 1789 the use of a device to carry out executions in France, as a less painful method of execution than existing methods. Although he did not invent the guillotine and opposed the death penalty, his name became an eponym for it. The actual inventor of the prototype was a French physician, Antoine Louis.

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26/03/1797

James Hutton, Scottish geologist and physician (born 1726)

James Hutton was a Scottish geologist, agriculturalist, chemical manufacturer, naturalist and physician. Often referred to as the "Father of Modern Geology," he played a key role in establishing geology as a modern science.

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26/03/1793

John Mudge, English physician and engineer (born 1721)

John Mudge was a British physician and amateur creator of telescope mirrors. He won the Copley Medal in 1777 for a paper on reflecting telescopes.

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26/03/1780

Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (born 1713)

Charles, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, reigned as Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1735 until his death.

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26/03/1776

Samuel Ward, American politician, 31st and 33rd Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (born 1725)

Samuel Ward Sr. was an American farmer, politician, Rhode Island Supreme Court justice, governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and delegate to the Continental Congress where he signed the Continental Association. He was the son of Rhode Island Governor Richard Ward, was well-educated, and grew up in a large family in Newport, Rhode Island. He and his wife received property in Westerly, Rhode Island from his father-in-law, and the couple settled there and took up farming. He entered politics as a young man and soon took sides in the hard money vs. paper money controversy, favoring hard money or specie. His primary rival over the money issue was Providence politician Stephen Hopkins, and the two men became bitter rivals; the two also alternated as governors of the colony for several terms.

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26/03/1772

Charles Pinot Duclos, French author and politician (born 1704)

Charles Pinot Duclos was a French writer and contributor to the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers.

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26/03/1726

John Vanbrugh, English playwright and architect, designed Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard (born 1664)

Sir John Vanbrugh was an English architect, dramatist and herald, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restoration comedies, The Relapse (1696) and The Provoked Wife (1697), which have become enduring stage favourites but originally occasioned much controversy. He was knighted in 1714.

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26/03/1697

Godfrey McCulloch, Scottish politician (born 1640)

Sir Godfrey McCulloch, 2nd Baronet of Myretoun was a Scottish politician who was executed for murder.

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26/03/1679

Johannes Schefferus, Swedish historian and author (born 1621)

Johannes Schefferus was one of the most important Swedish humanists of his time. He was also known as Angelus and is remembered for writing hymns.

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26/03/1649

John Winthrop, English lawyer and politician, 2nd Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

John Winthrop was an English Puritan lawyer and a leading figure in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of colonists from England in 1630 and served as governor for 12 of the colony's first 20 years. His writings and vision of the colony as a Puritan "city upon a hill" dominated New England colonial development, influencing the governments and religions of neighboring colonies in addition to those of Massachusetts.

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26/03/1625

Giambattista Marini, Italian poet (born 1569)

Giambattista Marino was an Italian poet who was born in Naples. He is most famous for his epic L'Adone.

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26/03/1566

Antonio de Cabezón, Spanish organist and composer (born 1510)

Antonio de Cabezón was a Spanish Renaissance composer and organist. Blind from childhood, he quickly rose to prominence as a performer and was eventually employed by the royal family. He was among the most important composers of his time and the first major Iberian keyboard composer.

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26/03/1546

Thomas Elyot, English scholar and diplomat (born 1490)

Sir Thomas Elyot was an English diplomat and scholar. He is best known as one of the first proponents of the use of the English language for literary purposes.

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26/03/1535

Georg Tannstetter, Austrian mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer (born 1482)

Georg Tannstetter, also called Georgius Collimitius, was a humanist teaching at the University of Vienna. He was a medical doctor, mathematician, astronomer, cartographer, and the personal physician of the emperors Maximilian I and Ferdinand I. He also wrote under the pseudonym of "Lycoripensis". His Latin name "Collimitius" is derived from limes meaning "border" and is a reference to his birth town: "Rain" is a German word for border or boundary.

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26/03/1517

Heinrich Isaac, Flemish composer (born 1450)

Heinrich Isaac was a Netherlandish composer of south Netherlandish origin during the Renaissance era. He wrote masses, motets, songs, and instrumental music. A significant contemporary of Josquin des Prez, Isaac influenced the development of music in Germany. Several variants exist of his name: Ysaac, Ysaak, Henricus, Arrigo d'Ugo, and Arrigo il Tedesco among them.

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26/03/1437

Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl, Scottish nobleman and regicide

Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl, Strathearn and Caithness was a Scottish nobleman, the son of Robert II of Scotland. Stewart advocated for the ransom and return to Scotland of the future king in exile, James I, in 1424. In 1425 he served as a member of the jury of 21 which tried and executed his nephew Murdoch Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany. Eventually, however, Atholl turned against the King and conspired in his assassination in 1437. He was tried for murder and was executed after three days of torture.

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26/03/1402

David Stewart, Duke of Rothesay, heir to the throne of Scotland (born 1378)

David Stewart was the eldest son of Robert III of Scotland and his wife, Annabella Drummond. The heir apparent to the Scottish throne from 1390 until his death, David held the titles of Prince of Scotland, Duke of Rothesay, and Earl of Carrick. David was named by a general council to rule Scotland as regent, on behalf of his infirm and politically ineffective father, in 1399. He was responsible for the defense of Scotland during the English invasion in 1400. After coming into conflict with his uncle, Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, David was arrested and removed from power in late 1401. He died in mysterious circumstances at Falkland Palace shortly afterwards. David's younger brother, James, eventually succeeded their father as King of Scots.

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26/03/1350

Alfonso XI of Castile (born 1312)

Alfonso XI, called the Avenger, was King of Castile and León. He was the son of Ferdinand IV of Castile and Constance of Portugal. Upon his father's death in 1312, several disputes ensued over who would hold regency, which were resolved in 1313.

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26/03/1326

Alessandra Giliani, anatomist (born c. 1307)

Alessandra Giliani is known as the first woman to be recorded in historical documents as practicing anatomy and pathology. She's reputed to have worked as a prosector, preparing corpses for anatomical study, under the famed anatomist Mondino de Luzzi at the University of Bologna; although all evidence of her work has been either lost or destroyed. Due to the lack of records on Giliani, a number of modern historians, such as Paula Findlan, argue that Giliani was invented by notorious forger and pseudo-historian Alessandro Macchiavelli in the 18th Century; indeed, doubts had been expressed as early as 1857 in Michele Medici's History of the Bolognese School of Anatomy. If real, however, Giliani's purported contributions to the study of anatomy would be significant.

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26/03/1324

Marie de Luxembourg, Queen of France (born 1304)

Marie of Luxembourg was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Charles IV and I.

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26/03/1242

William de Forz, 3rd Earl of Albemarle

William de Forz, 3rd Earl of Albemarle was an English nobleman. He is described by William Stubbs as "a feudal adventurer of the worst type".

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26/03/1212

Sancho I of Portugal (born 1154)

Sancho I also referred to as Sancho the Populator, was King of Portugal from 1185 until his death in 1211. He was the second king of Portugal.

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26/03/1132

Geoffrey of Vendôme, French cardinal and theologian (born 1065)

Geoffrey of Vendôme was a French Benedictine monk, writer and cardinal. He was born and died at Angers.

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26/03/1130

Sigurd the Crusader, Norwegian king (born 1090)

Sigurd the Crusader, also known as Sigurd Magnusson and Sigurd I, was King of Norway from 1103 to 1130. His rule, together with his half-brothers King Øystein and King Olaf, has been regarded by historians as a golden age for the medieval Kingdom of Norway. He is known as the Crusader King, being the one of three co-regents that took part in the Norwegian Crusade (1107–1110), earning him the eponym "the Crusader". He is regarded to be the first King to take part in a crusade.

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26/03/1091

Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, Andalusian poet

Wallada bint al-Mustakfi was an Andalusian poet and the daughter of the Umayyad Caliph Muhammad III of Córdoba.

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26/03/0983

'Adud al-Dawla, Iranian ruler (born 936)

Fannā (Panāh) Khusraw, better known by his laqab of ʿAḍud al-Dawla was an emir of the Buyid dynasty, ruling from 949 to 983. At the height of his power, he ruled an empire stretching from Makran to Yemen and the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. He is widely regarded as the greatest monarch of the Buyid dynasty, and by the end of his reign he was the most powerful ruler in the Middle East.

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26/03/0973

Guntram ("the Rich"), Frankish nobleman

Guntram the Rich was a count in Breisgau, member of the noble family of the Etichonids, and possibly the progenitor of the House of Habsburg.

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26/03/0929

Wang Du, Chinese warlord and governor (jiedushi)

Wang Du, born Liu Yunlang, was a Chinese warlord during the early Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period who ruled as the military governor of Yiwu around modern Dingzhou in Hebei. He seized control of Yiwu from his adoptive father Wang Chuzhi in a coup and subsequently ruled it semi-independently as a vassal of Jin and Jin's successor state Later Tang. In 928, the Later Tang emperor Mingzong, believing that Wang was about to openly rebel, ordered a general campaign against him and, after a lengthy siege, Wang killed himself and his family by self-immolation as his capital was falling.

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26/03/0922

Mansur Al-Hallaj, Persian mystic and poet (born 858)

Mansour al-Hallaj or Mansour Hallaj was a mystic, poet, and teacher of Sufism. He was best known for his saying, "I am the Truth" ("Ana'l-Ḥaqq"), which many saw as a claim to divinity, while others interpreted it as an instance of annihilation of the ego, which allowed God to speak through him. Al-Hallaj gained a wide following as a preacher before he became implicated in power struggles of the Abbasid court and was executed after a long period of confinement on religious and political charges. Although most of his Sufi contemporaries disapproved of his actions, Hallaj later became a major figure in the Sufi tradition.

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26/03/0908

Ai, emperor of the Tang Dynasty (born 892)

Emperor Ai of Tang, also known as Emperor Zhaoxuan of Tang (唐昭宣帝), born Li Zuo, later known as Li Chu, was the last emperor of the Tang dynasty of China. He reigned—as a puppet ruler—from 904 to 907. Emperor Ai was the son of Emperor Zhaozong. He was murdered by Zhu Wen.

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26/03/0903

Sugawara no Michizane, Japanese poet

Sugawara no Michizane , or Kankō , was a scholar, poet, and politician of the Heian period of Japan. He is regarded as an excellent poet, particularly in waka and kanshi poetry, and is today revered in Shinto as the god of learning, Tenman-Tenjin . In the famed poem anthology Hyakunin Isshu, he is known as Kanke (菅家), and in kabuki drama he is known as Kan Shōjō (菅丞相). Along with Taira no Masakado and Emperor Sutoku, he is often called one of the “Three Great Onryō of Japan.”.

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26/03/0809

Ludger, Frisian missionary

Ludger was a missionary among the Frisians and Saxons, founder of Werden Abbey and the first Bishop of Münster in Westphalia. He has been called the "Apostle of Saxony".

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26/03/0752

Pope-elect Stephen

Pope-elect Stephen, before 1961 previously known as Pope Stephen II, was a Roman cardinal-priest and presbyter selected on 22 March 752 to succeed Pope Zachary. Because he died before his episcopal consecration, Stephen is merely considered a pope-elect rather than a legitimate pope.

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