Died on Sunday, 29th March – Famous Deaths

29/03/2025

Richard Chamberlain, American actor (born 1934)

George Richard Chamberlain was an American actor and singer whose career on stage and in film and television spanned over 60 years. He was the recipient of many accolades, including three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, two Drama Desk Award nominations, and a Grammy Award nomination.

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29/03/2024

Gerry Conway, English folk and rock drummer/percussionist (born 1947)

Gerald Conway was an English rock drummer and percussionist. He performed with the backing band for Cat Stevens in the 1970s, with Jethro Tull during the 1980s, and was a member of Fairport Convention from 1998 to 2022. Conway also worked as a session musician. He was married to vocalist Jacqui McShee, the singer of the band Pentangle, of which he was also a member.

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Louis Gossett Jr., American actor (born 1936)

Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. was an American actor. He made his stage debut at age 17. Shortly thereafter, Gossett successfully auditioned for the Broadway play Take a Giant Step. He continued acting onstage in critically acclaimed plays including A Raisin in the Sun (1959), The Blacks (1961), Tambourines to Glory (1963), and The Zulu and the Zayda (1965). In 1977, Gossett appeared in the popular miniseries Roots, for which he won Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series at the Emmy Awards.

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29/03/2023

John Kerin, Australian politician (born 1937)

John Charles Kerin was an Australian economist and Labor Party politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1972 to 1975 and again from 1978 to 1993. He held a number of senior ministerial roles in both the Hawke and Keating governments, including six months as Treasurer of Australia and eight years as Minister for Primary Industries and Energy, holding the latter role for the longest period in Australian history.

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Vivan Sundaram, Indian contemporary artist (born 1943)

Vivan Sundaram was an Indian contemporary artist. He worked in many different media, including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, installation, and video art, and his work was politically conscious and highly intertextual in nature. His work constantly referred to social problems, popular culture, problems of perception, memory, identification and history. He was married to art historian and critic Geeta Kapur.

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29/03/2022

Charles Jeffrey, British botanist (born 1934)

Charles Jeffrey was a British botanist.

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Jennifer Wilson, English actress (born 1932)

Jennifer Wenda Wilson was an English actress. Beginning her on-screen acting career in the 1950s, she played Kate Nickleby in a BBC dramatisation of Nicholas Nickleby in 1957. Wilson's last acting roles were as Mrs. Bradbury in Coronation Street in 2014 and as Nancy Milne in three episodes of the BBC lunchtime soap Doctors between 2014 and 2015.

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29/03/2021

Bashkim Fino, Albanian politician, 29th Prime Minister of Albania (born 1962)

Bashkim Fino was an Albanian socialist politician who served as the 29th Prime Minister of Albania from March to July 1997.

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Sarah Onyango Obama, Kenyan educator and philanthropist (born 1921)

Sarah Onyango Obama was a Kenyan educator and philanthropist. She was the third wife of Hussein Onyango Obama, the paternal grandfather of U.S. president Barack Obama and helped raise his father, Barack Obama Sr. She was known by her short name as Sarah Obama and was sometimes referred to as Sarah Ogwel, Sarah Hussein Obama, or Sarah Anyango Obama. She lived in Nyang'oma Kogelo village, 48 km west of western Kenya's main city, Kisumu, on the edge of Lake Victoria.

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29/03/2020

Joe Diffie, American country music singer (born 1958)

Joe Logan Diffie was an American country music singer and songwriter. After working as a demonstration singer in the mid 1980s, he signed with Epic Records' Nashville division in 1990. Between then and 2004, Diffie charted 35 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, five of which peaked at number one - his debut release "Home", "If the Devil Danced ", "Third Rock from the Sun", "Pickup Man", and "Bigger Than the Beatles". In addition to these singles, he had 12 others reach the top 10 and 10 more reach the top 40 on the same chart. He also co-wrote singles for Holly Dunn, Tim McGraw, and Jo Dee Messina, and recorded with Mary Chapin Carpenter, George Jones, and Marty Stuart.

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Alan Merrill, American musician (born 1951)

Alan Merrill was an American vocalist, guitarist and songwriter. In the early 1970s, he was one of the few resident foreigners in Japan to achieve pop star status there. He wrote the song "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", and was the lead singer on the original recording of it, made by the band the Arrows in 1975. The song became a breakthrough hit for Joan Jett in 1982.

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Krzysztof Penderecki, Polish composer and conductor (born 1933)

Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki was a Polish composer and conductor. His best-known works include Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, Symphony No. 3, his St Luke Passion, Polish Requiem, Anaklasis and Utrenja. His oeuvre includes five operas, eight symphonies and other orchestral pieces, a variety of instrumental concertos, choral settings of mainly religious texts, as well as chamber and instrumental works.

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29/03/2019

Agnès Varda, French film director (born 1928)

Agnès Varda was a Belgian-born French filmmaker, artist, and photographer.

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29/03/2018

Anita Shreve, American author (born 1946)

Anita Hale Shreve was an American writer, chiefly known for her novels. One of her first published stories, Past the Island, Drifting, was awarded an O. Henry Prize in 1976.

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29/03/2017

Alexei Abrikosov, Russian physicist, 2003 Nobel laureate in Physics (born 1928)

Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov was a Soviet, Russian and American theoretical physicist whose main contributions are in the field of condensed matter physics. He was the co-recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics, with Vitaly Ginzburg and Anthony James Leggett, for theories about how matter can behave at extremely low temperatures.

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29/03/2016

Patty Duke, American actress (born 1946)

Anna Marie Duke, known professionally as Patty Duke, was an American actress. Over the course of her acting career, she was the recipient of an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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29/03/2015

William Delafield Cook, Australian-English painter (born 1926)

William Delafield Cook AM (1936–2015) was an Australian artist who was known for his photorealistic landscapes. He won a number of awards, including the Order of Australia.

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29/03/2014

Marc Platt, American actor and dancer (born 1913)

Marcel Emile Gaston LePlat, known professionally as Marc Platt, was an American ballet dancer, musical theatre performer, and actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Daniel Pontipee, one of the seven brothers in the film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

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29/03/2013

Reginald Gray, Irish-French painter (born 1930)

Reginald Gray was an Irish portrait artist. He studied at The National College of Art (1953) and then moved to London, becoming part of the School of London led by Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Frank Auerbach. In 1960, he painted a portrait of Bacon which is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London. He subsequently painted portraits from life of writers, musicians and artists such as Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Brendan Behan, Garech Browne, Derry O'Sullivan, Alfred Schnittke, Ted Hughes, Rupert Everett and Yves Saint Laurent. In 1993 Gray had a retrospective exhibition at UNESCO Paris and in 2006, his portrait "The White Blouse" won the Sandro Botticelli Prize in Florence, Italy.

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Brian Huggins, English-Canadian journalist and actor (born 1931)

Brian Edgar Huggins was a British-Canadian journalist and actor.

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Ralph Klein, Canadian journalist and politician, 12th Premier of Alberta (born 1942)

Ralph Philip Klein was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 12th premier of Alberta and leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta from 1992 until his retirement in 2006. Klein also served as the 32nd mayor of Calgary from 1980 to 1989.

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Art Phillips, Canadian businessman and politician, 32nd Mayor of Vancouver (born 1930)

Arthur Phillips served as the 32nd mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from 1973 to 1977. Prior to being elected to this post, he founded the Vancouver investment firm of Phillips, Hager & North. Phillips was instrumental in founding a reform-minded, centrist municipal-level political party, TEAM, in 1968. Also in that year, he was elected as an alderman to Vancouver City Council.

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29/03/2012

Pap Cheyassin Secka, Gambian lawyer and politician, 8th Attorney General of the Gambia (born 1942)

Pap Cheyassin Secka or Pap Cheyassin Ousman Secka was a Gambian lawyer and politician. He was the minister of justice and the former Attorney General of the Gambia.

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Bill Jenkins, American race car driver and engineer (born 1930)

William Tyler Jenkins, nicknamed "Grumpy" or "The Grump", was an engine builder and drag racer. Between 1965 and 1975, he won a total of thirteen NHRA events. Most of these wins were won with a four-speed manual transmission. In 1972 he recorded 250 straight passes without missing a shift.

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29/03/2011

Ângelo de Sousa, Portuguese painter and sculptor (born 1938)

Ângelo César Cardoso de Sousa was a Portuguese painter, sculptor, draftsman and professor, better known for continuously experimenting with new techniques in his works. He was seen as a scholar of light and colour who explored minimalism in new radical ways.

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Iakovos Kambanellis, Greek author, poet, playwright, and screenwriter (born 1921)

Iakovos Kambanellis was a Greek poet, playwright, screenwriter, lyricist, and novelist.

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29/03/2009

Vladimir Fedotov, Russian footballer and manager (born 1943)

Vladimir Grigoryevich Fedotov was a Soviet and Russian football striker and manager who holds the all-time record of caps for CSKA Moscow. He was the son of famous Soviet football and ice hockey player Grigory Fedotov.

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Andy Hallett, American actor and singer (born 1975)

Andrew Alcott Hallett was an American actor and singer who became best known for playing the part of Lorne in the television series Angel (2000–2004). He used his singing talents often on the show, and performed two songs on the series' 2005 soundtrack album, Angel: Live Fast, Die Never.

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29/03/2007

Larry L'Estrange, English rugby player and soldier (born 1934)

Larry L'Estrange MBE TD was a British paratrooper and rugby player.

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29/03/2006

Salvador Elizondo, Mexican author and poet (born 1932)

Salvador Elizondo Alcalde was a Mexican writer of the 60s Generation of Mexican literature.

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29/03/2004

Lise de Baissac, Mauritian-born SOE agent (born 1905)

Lise Marie Jeanette de Baissac MBE CdeG, code names Odile and Marguerite, was a Mauritian agent in the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in France during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.

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Joel Feinberg, American philosopher and academic (born 1926)

Joel Feinberg was an American political and legal philosopher. He is known for his work in the fields of ethics, action theory, philosophy of law, and political philosophy as well as individual rights and the authority of the state. Feinberg was one of the most influential figures in American law, jurisprudence and political science over the last fifty years.

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29/03/2003

Carlo Urbani, Italian physician and microbiologist (born 1956)

Carlo Urbani was an Italian physician and microbiologist and the first to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as probably a new and dangerously contagious viral disease, and his early warning to the World Health Organization (WHO) triggered a swift and global response credited with saving numerous lives. Shortly afterwards, he himself became infected and died.

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29/03/2001

Helge Ingstad, Norwegian lawyer, academic, and explorer (born 1899)

Helge Marcus Ingstad was a Norwegian explorer. In 1960, after mapping some Norse settlements, Ingstad and his wife archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad found remnants of a Viking settlement in L'Anse aux Meadows in the province of Newfoundland in Canada. They were thus the first to prove conclusively that the Icelandic/Greenlandic Norsemen such as Leif Erickson had found a way across the Atlantic Ocean to North America, roughly 500 years before Christopher Columbus and John Cabot. He also thought that the mysterious disappearance of the Greenland Norse Settlements in the 14th and 15th centuries could be explained by their emigration to North America.

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John Lewis, American pianist and composer (born 1920)

John Aaron Lewis was an American jazz pianist, composer and arranger, best known as the founder and musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet.

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29/03/1999

Joe Williams, American jazz singer (born 1918)

Joe Williams was an American jazz singer. He sang with big bands, such as the Count Basie Orchestra and the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, and with small combos. He sang in two films with the Basie orchestra and sometimes worked as an actor.

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29/03/1997

Norman Pirie, British biochemist and virologist (born 1907)

Norman Wingate Pirie FRS, was a British biochemist and virologist who, along with Frederick Bawden, discovered that a virus can be crystallized by isolating tomato bushy stunt virus in 1936. This was an important milestone in understanding DNA and RNA.

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29/03/1996

Bill Goldsworthy, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1944)

William Alfred Goldsworthy was a Canadian professional ice hockey right winger who played for three teams in the National Hockey League for 14 seasons between 1964 and 1978, mostly with the Minnesota North Stars. He retired from playing after two partial seasons in the World Hockey Association.

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29/03/1995

Mort Meskin, American illustrator (born 1916)

Morton Meskin was an American comic book artist best known for his work in the 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books, well into the late-1950s and 1960s Silver Age.

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Terry Moore, American baseball player and coach (born 1912)

Terry Bluford Moore was an American professional baseball center fielder, manager, and coach. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals, and later coached for them. Moore managed the 1954 Philadelphia Phillies, taking the reins from Steve O’Neill, for the second half of the season.

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29/03/1994

Bill Travers, English actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1922)

William Inglis Lindon Travers was a British actor, screenwriter, director and animal rights activist. Before his show business career, he served in the British Army with Gurkha and special forces units.

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29/03/1992

Paul Henreid, American actor (born 1908)

Paul Henreid was an Austrian-American actor, director, producer, and writer. He is best remembered for several film roles during the Second World War, including Capt. Karl Marsen in Night Train to Munich (1940), Victor Laszlo in Casablanca (1942) and Jerry Durrance in Now, Voyager (1942).

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29/03/1991

Guy Bourdin, French photographer (born 1928)

Guy Bourdin was a French artist and fashion photographer known for his highly stylized and provocative images. From 1955, Bourdin worked mostly with Vogue as well as other publications including Harper's Bazaar. He shot ad campaigns for Chanel, Charles Jourdan, Pentax and Bloomingdale's.

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29/03/1988

Maurice Blackburn, Canadian composer and conductor (born 1914)

Joseph Albert Maurice Blackburn was a Canadian composer, conductor, sound editor for film, and builder of string instruments. He is known for his soundtracks for animated film.

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Ted Kluszewski, American baseball player and coach (born 1924)

Theodore Bernard Kluszewski, nicknamed "Big Klu", was an American professional baseball player, best known as a power-hitting first baseman for the Cincinnati Reds teams of the 1950s. He played from 1947 through 1961 with four teams in Major League Baseball (MLB), spending 11 of those 15 seasons with the Reds, and became famous for his bulging biceps and mammoth home runs.

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29/03/1985

Luther Terry, American physician and academic, 9th Surgeon General of the United States (born 1911)

Luther Leonidas Terry was an American physician and public health official. He was appointed the ninth Surgeon General of the United States from 1961 to 1965, and is best known for his warnings against the dangers and the impact of tobacco use on health.

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Janet Watson, British geologist (born 1923)

Janet Vida Watson FRS FGS (1923–1985) was a British geologist. She was a professor of Geology at Imperial College, a rapporteur for the International Geological Correlation Program (IGCP) (1977–1982) and a vice president of the Royal Society (1983–1984). In 1982 she was elected president of the Geological Society of London, the first woman to occupy that position. She is well known for her contribution to the understanding of the Lewisian complex and as an author and co-author of several books including Beginning Geology and Introduction to Geology.

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29/03/1982

Walter Hallstein, German academic and politician, 1st President of the European Commission (born 1901)

Walter Hallstein was a German academic, diplomat and statesman who was the first president of the Commission of the European Economic Community and one of the founding fathers of the European Union.

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Frederick George Mann, British organic chemist (born 1897)

Frederick George Mann was a British organic chemist.

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Carl Orff, German composer and educator (born 1895)

Carl Heinrich Maria Orff was a German composer and music educator, who composed the cantata Carmina Burana (1937). The concepts of his Schulwerk were influential for children's music education.

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Nathan Farragut Twining, American general (born 1897)

Nathan Farragut Twining was a United States Air Force general. He was the chief of Staff of the United States Air Force from 1953 until 1957, and the third chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1957 to 1960. He was the first member of the Air Force to serve as Chairman. Twining was a distinguished "mustang" officer, rising from private to four-star general and appointment to the highest post in the United States Armed Forces in the course of his 45-year career.

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29/03/1981

Eric Williams, Trinidadian historian and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (born 1911)

Eric Eustace Williams was a Trinidad and Tobago politician. He has been dubbed the "Father of the Nation", having led the then-British Colony of Trinidad and Tobago to majority rule on 28 October 1956, to independence on 31 August 1962, and republic status, on 1 August 1976, leading an unbroken string of general election victories with his political party, the People's National Movement, until his death in 1981. He represented Port of Spain South in the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago.

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29/03/1979

Nikos Petzaropoulos, Greece footballer (born 1927)

Nikos Pentzaropoulos was a Greek footballer, who played as a goalkeeper, mainly for Panionios. He earned the nickname "the Hero of Tampere" (Greek: ο Ήρωας του Τάμπερε), after his performance with the Greek Olympic team in 1952.

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29/03/1972

J. Arthur Rank, English businessman, founded Rank Organisation (born 1888)

Joseph Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank was an English industrialist who was head and founder of The Rank Organisation.

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29/03/1971

Dhirendranath Datta, Pakistani lawyer and politician (born 1886)

Dhirendranath Datta was a Bengali lawyer and politician from East Bengal who was a member of the 1st Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. He is best known for proposing Bengali for the national language of Pakistan in the Assembly. He was also active in the politics of undivided Bengal in pre-partition India.

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29/03/1970

Anna Louise Strong, American journalist and author (born 1885)

Anna Louise Strong was an American journalist and activist, best known for her reporting on and support for communist movements in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. She wrote over 30 books and varied articles.

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29/03/1966

Stylianos Gonatas, Greek Army officer and Prime Minister of Greece (born 1876)

Stylianos Gonatas was an officer of the Hellenic Army, Venizelist politician, and Prime Minister of Greece from 1922 to 1924.

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29/03/1963

Gaspard Fauteux, Canadian dentist and politician, 19th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (born 1898)

Gaspard Fauteux, was a Canadian parliamentarian, Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada (1945–1949), and the 19th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (1950–1958).

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Frances Jenkins Olcott, American author and librarian (born 1872)

Frances Jenkins Olcott was the first head librarian of the children's department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in 1898. She also wrote many children's books and books for those in the profession of providing library service to children and youth.

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29/03/1959

Barthélemy Boganda, African priest and politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (born 1910)

Barthélemy Boganda was a Central African politician and independence activist. Boganda was active prior to his country's independence, during the period when the area, part of French Equatorial Africa, was administered by France under the name of Oubangui-Chari. He served as the first Premier of the Central African Republic as an autonomous territory.

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29/03/1957

Joyce Cary, Anglo-Irish novelist (born 1888)

Arthur Joyce Lunel Cary, known as Joyce Cary, was an Anglo-Irish novelist and colonial official. His most notable novels include Mister Johnson and The Horse's Mouth.

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29/03/1953

Väinö Kivisalo, Finnish politician (born 1882)

Väinö Kivisalo was a Finnish politician and member of the Parliament of Finland, the national legislature of Finland. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he represented Häme Province South between August 1929 and July 1948. Prior to being elected, he was imprisoned for political reasons following the Finnish Civil War.

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Arthur Fields, Jewish-American singer and composer (born 1888)

Arthur Fields was an American baritone and songwriter.

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29/03/1948

Harry Price, English parapsychologist and author (born 1881)

Harry Price was a British psychic researcher and author, who gained public prominence for his investigations into psychical phenomena and exposing fraudulent spiritualist mediums. He is best known for his well-publicised investigation of the purportedly haunted Borley Rectory in Essex, England.

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29/03/1940

Alexander Obolensky, Russian-English rugby player and soldier (born 1916)

Prince Alexander Sergeevich Obolensky was a Rurikid prince of Russian aristocratic descent who became a naturalised Briton, having spent most of his life in England, and who went on to represent England in international rugby union. He was, and remains, popularly known as "The Flying Prince", "The Flying Slav", or simply as "Obo" to many sports fans.

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29/03/1937

Karol Szymanowski, Polish pianist and composer (born 1882)

Karol Maciej Szymanowski was a Polish composer, pianist and writer. He was a member of the modernist Young Poland movement that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century.

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29/03/1934

Otto Hermann Kahn, German-American banker and philanthropist (born 1867)

Otto Hermann Kahn was a German-born American investment banker, collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. Kahn was a well-known figure, appearing on the cover of Time magazine and was sometimes referred to as the "King of New York". In business, he was best known as a partner at Kuhn, Loeb & Co. who reorganized and consolidated railroads. In his personal life, he was a great patron of the arts, where among things, he served as the chairman of the Metropolitan Opera.

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29/03/1924

Charles Villiers Stanford, Irish composer and conductor (born 1852)

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Anglo-Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was educated at the University of Cambridge before studying music in Leipzig and Berlin. He was instrumental in raising the status of the Cambridge University Musical Society, attracting international stars to perform with it.

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29/03/1921

John Burroughs, American naturalist and nature essayist (born 1837)

John Burroughs was an American naturalist and nature essayist, active in the conservation movement in the United States. The first of his essay collections was Wake-Robin in 1871.

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29/03/1915

William Wallace Denslow, American illustrator and caricaturist (born 1856)

William Wallace Denslow was an American illustrator and caricaturist remembered for his work in collaboration with author L. Frank Baum, especially his illustrations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Denslow was an editorial cartoonist with a strong interest in politics, which has fueled political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

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29/03/1912

Henry Robertson Bowers, Scottish lieutenant and explorer (born 1883)

Henry Robertson Bowers was one of Robert Falcon Scott's polar party on the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition of 1910–1913, all of whom died during their return from the South Pole.

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Robert Falcon Scott, English lieutenant and explorer (born 1868)

Captain Robert Falcon Scott was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery expedition of 1901–04 and the Terra Nova expedition of 1910–13.

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Edward Adrian Wilson, English physician and explorer (born 1872)

Edward Adrian Wilson was an English polar explorer, ornithologist, natural historian, physician and artist.

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29/03/1911

Alexandre Guilmant, French organist and composer (born 1837)

Félix-Alexandre Guilmant was a French organist and composer. He was the organist of La Trinité from 1871 until 1901. A noted pedagogue, performer, and improviser, Guilmant helped found the Schola Cantorum de Paris. He was appointed as Professor of Organ in the Conservatoire de Paris in 1896.

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29/03/1906

Slava Raškaj, Croatian painter (born 1878)

Slava Raškaj was a Croatian painter, considered to be the greatest Croatian watercolorist of the late 19th and early 20th century. Deaf since birth, Raškaj was schooled in Vienna and Zagreb, where her mentor was the renowned Croatian painter Bela Čikoš Sesija. In the 1890s her works were exhibited around Europe, including at the 1900 Expo in Paris. In her twenties Raškaj was diagnosed with acute depression and was institutionalised for the last three years of her life before dying in 1906 from tuberculosis in Zagreb. The value of her work was largely overlooked by art historians in the following decades, but in the late 1990s and early 2000s interest in her work was revived.

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29/03/1903

Gustavus Franklin Swift, American business executive (born 1839)

Gustavus Franklin Swift, Sr. was an American business executive. He founded a meat-packing empire in the Midwest during the late 19th century, over which he presided until his death. He is credited with the development of the first practical ice-cooled railroad car, which allowed his company to ship dressed meats to all parts of the country and abroad, ushering in the "era of cheap beef." Swift pioneered the use of animal by-products for the manufacture of soap, glue, fertilizer, various types of sundries, and even medical products.

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29/03/1891

Georges Seurat, French painter (born 1859)

Georges Pierre Seurat was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough surface.

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29/03/1888

Charles-Valentin Alkan, French pianist and composer (born 1813)

Charles-Valentin Alkan was a French composer and virtuoso pianist. At the height of his fame in the 1830s and 1840s he was, alongside his friends and colleagues Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt, among the leading pianists in Paris, a city in which he spent virtually his entire life.

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29/03/1866

John Keble, English priest and poet (born 1792)

John Keble was an English Anglican priest and poet who was one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement. Keble College, Oxford, is named after him.

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29/03/1848

John Jacob Astor, German-American businessman (born 1763)

John Jacob Astor was a German-born American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor. Astor made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by exporting opium into the Chinese Empire, and by investing in real estate in or around New York City during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States.

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29/03/1830

James Rennell, English geographer, historian and oceanography pioneer (born 1742)

Major James Rennell was an English geographer, historian and a pioneer of oceanography. Rennell produced some of the first accurate maps of Bengal at one inch to five miles as well as accurate outlines of India and served as Surveyor General of Bengal. Rennell has been called the Father of Oceanography. In 1830, he was one of the founders of the Royal Geographical Society in London.

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29/03/1826

Johann Heinrich Voss, German poet, translator and academic (born 1751)

Johann Heinrich Voss was a German classicist and poet, known mostly for his translation of Homer's Odyssey (1781) and Iliad (1793) into German.

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29/03/1824

Hans Nielsen Hauge, Norwegian lay minister, social reformer and author (born 1771)

Hans Nielsen Hauge was a 19th-century Norwegian Lutheran lay minister, spiritual leader, business entrepreneur, social reformer and author. He led a noted Pietism revival known as the Haugean movement. Hauge is also considered to have been influential in the early industrialization of Norway.

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29/03/1822

Johann Wilhelm Hässler, German pianist and composer (born 1747)

Johann Wilhelm Hässler, was a German composer, organist and pianist.

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29/03/1803

Gottfried van Swieten, Dutch-Austrian librarian and diplomat (born 1733)

Gottfried Freiherr van Swieten was a Dutch-born diplomat, librarian, and government official who served the Holy Roman Empire during the 18th century. He was an enthusiastic amateur musician and is best remembered today as the patron of several great composers of the Classical era, including Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

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29/03/1800

Marc René, marquis de Montalembert, French general and engineer (born 1714)

Maréchal de camp Marc René, marquis de Montalembert was a French Royal Army officer and writer best known for his work on fortifications and writings on military engineering.

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29/03/1792

Gustav III, Swedish king (born 1746)

Gustav III, also called Gustavus III, was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden.

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29/03/1788

Charles Wesley, English missionary and poet (born 1707)

Charles Wesley was an English Anglican cleric and a principal leader of the Methodist movement. Wesley was a prolific hymnwriter who wrote over 6,500 hymns during his lifetime. His works include "And Can It Be", "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing", "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today", "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling", the carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", and "Lo! He Comes With Clouds Descending".

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29/03/1777

Johann Heinrich Pott, Prussian physician and chemist (born 1692)

Johann Heinrich Pott was a Prussian physician, chemist, and a glass and porcelain technologist. He is considered a pioneer of pyrochemistry. He examined the elements bismuth and manganese apart from attempting improvements to glass and porcelain production.

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29/03/1772

Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish astronomer, philosopher, and theologian (born 1688)

Emanuel Swedenborg was a Swedish polymath; a scientist, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, Christian theologian, philosopher, and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, Heaven and Hell (1758).

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29/03/1751

Thomas Coram, English captain and philanthropist, founded Foundling Hospital (born 1668)

Captain Thomas Coram was an English sea captain and philanthropist who created the London Foundling Hospital in Lamb's Conduit Fields, Bloomsbury, to look after abandoned children on the streets of London. It is said to be the world's first incorporated charity.

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29/03/1703

George Frederick II, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, (born 1678)

George Frederick II, also called George Frederick the Younger, was Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach from 6 October 1692 until his death in 1703. He was the third son of John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach by his first wife Joanna Elisabeth of Baden-Durlach. George Frederick succeeded his elder brother Christian Albert as Margrave in 1692.

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29/03/1697

Nicolaus Bruhns, Danish-German organist, violinist, 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.

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29/03/1629

Jacob de Gheyn II, Dutch painter and engraver (born 1565)

Jacob de Gheyn II was a Dutch painter and engraver, whose work shows the transition from Northern Mannerism to Dutch realism over the course of his career.

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29/03/1628

Tobias Matthew, English archbishop and academic (born 1546)

Tobias Matthew, was an Anglican bishop who was President of St John's College, Oxford, from 1572 to 1576, before being appointed Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1579 to 1583, and Matthew would then become Dean of Durham from 1583 to 1595. All three positions, plus others, were appointed to Matthew by Elizabeth I. Eventually, he was appointed Archbishop of York in 1606 by Elizabeth's successor, James I.

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29/03/1461

Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, English politician (born 1421)

Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, was an English magnate.

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Lionel Welles, 6th Baron Welles (c. 1406)

Lionel de Welles, 6th Baron Welles, KG was an English peer who served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Joint Deputy of Calais. He was slain fighting on the Lancastrian side at the Battle of Towton, and was attainted on 21 December 1461. As a result of the attainder, his son, Richard Welles, 7th Baron Welles, did not succeed him in the barony of Welles until the attainder was reversed by Parliament in June 1467.

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29/03/1058

Pope Stephen IX (born 1020)

Pope Stephen IX was the Bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 3 August 1057 to his death on 29 March 1058. He was a member of the Ardenne-Verdun family, who ruled the Duchy of Lorraine, and started his ecclesiastical career as a canon in Liège. He was invited to Rome by Pope Leo IX, who made him chancellor in 1051 and one of three legates to Constantinople in 1054. The failure of their negotiations with Patriarch Michael I Cerularius of Constantinople and Archbishop Leo of Ohrid led to the permanent East–West Schism. He continued as chancellor to the next pope, Victor II, and was elected abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Montecassino.

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29/03/0500

Gwynllyw, Welsh king and religious figure

Year 500 (D) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Patricius and Hypatius. The denomination 500 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. The year 500 AD is considered the beginning of the Middle Ages, approximately.

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