Died on Tuesday, 31st March – Famous Deaths

31/03/2025

Sian Barbara Allen, American television actress (born 1946)

Sian Barbara Allen was an American actress who mainly appeared on television throughout the 1970s. A native of Reading, Pennsylvania, Allen studied at the Pasadena Playhouse before appearing in her first screen role on the series O'Hara, U.S. Treasury in 1971. She went on to appear in numerous television series in the ensuing years, including recurring appearances on The Waltons, Gunsmoke, and Ironside.

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Betty Webb, English code breaker (born 1923)

Charlotte Elizabeth Webb was an English code breaker who worked at Bletchley Park during World War II from the age of 18. In 1941 she joined the British Auxiliary Territorial Service. She said, of joining the top-secret mission at Bletchley, "I wanted to do something more for the war effort than bake sausage rolls."

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31/03/2024

Barbara Rush, American actress (born 1927)

Barbara Rush was an American actress of stage, screen, and television. In 1954, she won the Golden Globe Award for most promising female newcomer for her role in the 1953 American science-fiction film It Came from Outer Space. Later in her career, Rush became a regular performer in the television series Peyton Place, and appeared in TV movies, miniseries, and a variety of other programs, including the soap opera All My Children and the family drama 7th Heaven, as well as starring in films such as The Young Philadelphians, The Young Lions, Robin and the 7 Hoods, and Hombre.

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31/03/2022

Shirley Burkovich, former American All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) player (born 1933)

Shirley Burkovich was an American professional baseball infielder, outfielder and pitcher who played from 1949 through 1951 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) and 150 pounds (68 kg), she batted and threw right-handed.

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Patrick Demarchelier, French fashion photographer (born 1943)

Patrick Demarchelier was a French fashion photographer.

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Moana Jackson, New Zealand lawyer specialising in constitutional law (born 1945)

Moana Jackson was a New Zealand lawyer specialising in constitutional law, the Treaty of Waitangi and international indigenous issues. He was an advocate and activist for Māori rights, arguing that the New Zealand criminal justice system was discriminatory and leading work on constitutional reforms. In 1987 he co-founded Ngā Kaiwhakamarama i Ngā Ture. He also supported the rights of indigenous people internationally – for example, through leading the working group that drafted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and sitting as a judge on the International Tribunal of Indigenous Rights in the 1990s.

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Tullio Moneta, Italian mercenary and actor (born 1937)

Tullio Moneta was an Italian actor and mercenary. He acted in 15 films between 1970 and 1990, starring in the feature film The Lion's Share. He also played a role in the Afrikaans language film Aanslag op Kariba in 1973, produced by Brigadiers Films. He was, together with Mike Hoare, the military advisor for the film The Wild Geese (1978).

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31/03/2021

Ken Reitz, American baseball player (born 1951)

Kenneth John Reitz was an American baseball third baseman who played 11 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed "Zamboni", he played for the St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, and Pittsburgh Pirates from 1972 to 1982. He won the Gold Glove Award in 1975 and was an All-Star in 1980. He retired with the highest all-time career fielding percentage for National League third basemen at .970 after leading the National League in fielding percentage a record six times.

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Muhammad Wakkas, Bangladeshi teacher and parliamentarian (born 1952)

Muhammad Wakkas was a Bangladeshi Islamic scholar, teacher, former Member of Parliament and State Minister. He was the founder of Jamia Imdadia Madaninagar Madrasa, the largest madrasa in South Bengal, accommodating roughly 2000 students.

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31/03/2020

Gita Ramjee, Ugandan-South African scientist and researcher (born 1956)

Gita Ramjee was a Ugandan-South African scientist and researcher in HIV prevention. In 2018, she was awarded the ‘Outstanding Female Scientist’ award from the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership. She died in uMhlanga, South Africa, from COVID-19 related complications.

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31/03/2019

Nipsey Hussle, American rapper (born 1985)

Ermias Joseph Asghedom, known professionally as Nipsey Hussle, was an American rapper, activist and entrepreneur. Emerging from the West Coast hip-hop scene in the mid-2000s, Hussle self-released his debut mixtape, Slauson Boy Volume 1, to moderate local success, leading him to sign with Cinematic Music Group and Epic Records.

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31/03/2018

Nick Newton, inventor of the Newton Starting Blocks (born 1933)

Milton "Nick" Newton was the inventor of the Newton Starting Blocks. Newton blocks are considered by many to be the best in the world, used at many major track meets like the Mt. SAC Relays.

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31/03/2017

Gilbert Baker, American artist and LGBT rights activist (born 1951)

Gilbert Baker was an American artist, designer, activist, and vexillographer, best known as the creator of the rainbow flag.

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James Rosenquist, American artist (born 1933)

James Albert Rosenquist was an American artist and one of the proponents of the pop art movement. Drawing from his background working in sign painting, Rosenquist's pieces often explored the role of advertising and consumer culture in art and society, utilizing techniques he learned making commercial art to depict popular cultural icons and mundane everyday objects. While his works have often been compared to those from other key figures of the pop art movement, such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, Rosenquist's pieces were unique in the way that they often employed elements of surrealism using fragments of advertisements and cultural imagery to emphasize the overwhelming nature of ads. He was a 2001 inductee into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.

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31/03/2016

Ronnie Corbett, Scottish comedian, actor and screenwriter (born 1930)

Ronald Balfour Corbett was a Scottish comedian and actor. He had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the BBC Television comedy sketch show The Two Ronnies (1971–87), becoming known for his meandering chair monologues, and starred in sitcoms such as No – That's Me Over Here! (1967–70), Now Look Here (1971–73), and Sorry! (1981–88).

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Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German politician (born 1927)

Hans-Dietrich Genscher was a German statesman and a member of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), who served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 1969 to 1974, and as Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and Vice Chancellor of Germany from 1974 to 1992, making him the longest-serving occupant of either post and the only person to have held one of these positions under two different Chancellors of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1991 he was chairman of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

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Zaha Hadid, Iraqi-born English architect and academic, designed the Bridge Pavilion (born 1950)

Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid was an Iraqi and British architect, artist, and designer. She is recognised as a key figure in the architecture of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Hadid studied mathematics as an undergraduate and later enrolled at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in 1972. In search of an alternative to traditional architectural drawing, and influenced by Suprematism and the Russian avant-garde, Hadid adopted painting as a design tool and abstraction as a method to "reinvestigate the aborted and untested experiments of Modernism [...] to unveil new fields of building".

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Imre Kertész, Hungarian author, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1929)

Imre Kertész was a Hungarian author and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history". He was the first Hungarian to win the Nobel in Literature. His works deal with themes of the Holocaust, dictatorship, and personal freedom.

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Denise Robertson, British writer and television broadcaster (born 1932)

Denise Robertson was a British writer and television broadcaster. She made her television debut as the presenter of the Junior Advice Line segment of the BBC's Breakfast Time programme in 1985, though she is best known as the resident agony aunt on the ITV show This Morning from its first broadcast on 3 October 1988 until her death. In the course of her career, she dealt with over 200,000 letters from viewers seeking advice. In 2006 she was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to broadcasting.

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31/03/2015

Betty Churcher, Australian painter, historian, and curator (born 1931)

Elizabeth Ann Dewar Churcher was an Australian arts administrator, best known as director of the National Gallery of Australia from 1990 to 1997. She was also a painter in her own right earlier in her life.

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Cocoa Fujiwara, Japanese author and illustrator (born 1983)

Cocoa Fujiwara was a Japanese manga artist and illustrator from Fukuoka Prefecture. Her debut was with a work called Calling, which she made when she was fifteen. She chose not to go to high school so that she could draw manga. Fujiwara was a fan of RPGs such as Final Fantasy, which shows in her works. She was also good friends of Jun Mochizuki and Yana Toboso.

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Carlos Gaviria Díaz, Colombian lawyer and politician (born 1937)

Carlos Gaviria Díaz was a Colombian lawyer, professor and politician. He served as the 5th Chief Magistrate of the Constitutional Court of Colombia, where he served as a Magistrate from 1993 to 2001. After retiring from the Court he went into politics, becoming a Senator of Colombia in 2002, and running for President as an Alternative Democratic Pole candidate in the 2006 presidential election, ultimately losing to ex-president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who was seeking his second term in office.

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Dalibor Vesely, Czech-English historian, author, and academic (born 1934)

Dalibor Vesely was a Czech-born architectural historian and theorist who was influential through his teaching and writing in promoting the role of hermeneutics and phenomenology as part of the discourse of architecture and of architectural design.

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31/03/2014

Gonzalo Anes, Spanish economist, historian, and academic (born 1931)

Gonzalo Anes Álvarez de Castrillón was a Spanish economist, professor and historian. He was director of the Royal Academy of History.

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Roger Somville, Belgian painter (born 1923)

Roger Somville was a modern Belgian painter. He defended realism against modern abstract art, which he believed de-humanize human beings.

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31/03/2013

Charles Amarin Brand, French archbishop (born 1920)

Charles-Amarin Brand was a French prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.

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Ernie Bridge, Australian singer and politician (born 1936)

Ernest Francis Bridge, AM was an Australian parliamentarian and country music singer. He was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1980 to 2001, representing the electorate of Kimberley, first as a Labor Party representative (1980–1996) and then as a Labor Independent MP (1996–2001). He was the first indigenous Australian to be a Cabinet minister in any Australian government.

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Bob Clarke, American illustrator (born 1926)

Robert J. "Bob" Clarke was an American illustrator whose work appeared in advertisements and MAD Magazine. The label of the Cutty Sark bottle is his creation. Clarke was born in Mamaroneck, New York. He resided in Seaford, Delaware.

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Ahmad Sayyed Javadi, Iranian lawyer and politician, Iranian Minister of Interior (born 1917)

Ahmad Sayyed Javadi was an Iranian lawyer, political activist and politician, who served as interior minister and justice minister. He was the first interior minister after the 1979 revolution in Iran.

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Dmitri Uchaykin, Russian ice hockey player (born 1980)

Dmitri Viktorovich Uchaykin was a Russian ice hockey left-winger.

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31/03/2012

Judith Adams, New Zealand-Australian nurse and politician (born 1943)

Judith Anne Adams was a New Zealand-born Australian politician, midwife, nurse, and farmer, who served as a member of the Australian Senate between 2005 and 2012, representing the state of Western Australia.

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Dale R. Corson, American physicist and academic (born 1914)

Dale Raymond Corson was an American physicist and academic administrator who was the eighth president of Cornell University.

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Bernard O. Gruenke, American stained glass artist (born 1914)

Bernard Otto Gruenke was an American stained glass artist who produced one of the first faceted glass windows in the United States in 1949. He was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

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Jerry Lynch, American baseball player (born 1930)

Gerald Thomas Lynch, nicknamed "the Hat", "Lynch the Pinch" and "the Allison Park Sweeper", was an American professional baseball outfielder who ranked among the most prolific pinch hitters in Major League Baseball (MLB) history. He played 13 seasons (1954-1966) with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds.

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Alberto Sughi, Italian painter (born 1928)

Alberto Sughi was an Italian painter.

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Halbert White, American economist and academic (born 1950)

Halbert Lynn White Jr. was the Chancellor's Associates Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego, and a Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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31/03/2011

Gil Clancy, American boxer and trainer (born 1922)

Gilbert Thomas Clancy was a Hall of Fame boxing trainer and one of the most noted television boxing commentators of the 1980s and 1990s.

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Alan Fitzgerald, Australian journalist and author (born 1935)

Alan John Fitzgerald was an Australian author, journalist and satirist. He was known for his unwavering opposition to the Australian republican movement and worked alongside Tony Abbott during Abbott's tenure as president of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy (ACM) during the 1990s.

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Mary Greyeyes, the first First Nations woman to join the Canadian Armed Forces (born 1920)

Mary Greyeyes Reid was a Canadian World War II servicewoman. A Cree from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, she was the first First Nations woman to enlist in the Canadian Armed Forces. After joining the Canadian Women's Army Corps (CWAC) in 1942, she became the subject of an internationally famous army publicity photograph, and was sent overseas to serve in London, England, where she was introduced to public figures such as George VI and his daughter Elizabeth. Greyeyes remained in London until being discharged in 1946, after which she returned to Canada.

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Oddvar Hansen, Norwegian footballer and coach (born 1921)

Oddvar Ingolf Hansen was a Norwegian footballer and coach, who represented Brann in his hometown Bergen.

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Ishbel MacAskill, Scottish singer and actress (born 1941)

Isabella Margaret MacAskill was a heritage activist and traditional Scottish Gaelic singer and teacher, often referred to as the "Gaelic diva".

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Henry Taub, American businessman and philanthropist (born 1927)

Henry Taub was an American businessman and philanthropist of Hungarian-Jewish descent who was a co-founder of ADP.

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31/03/2010

Jerald terHorst, American journalist (born 1922)

Jerald Franklin terHorst was an American journalist who served as the 14th White House Press Secretary during the first month of Gerald Ford's presidency. His resignation in protest of Ford's unconditional pardon of former president Richard Nixon is still regarded as a rare act of conscience by a high-ranking public official.

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Roger Addison, Welsh rugby union player (born 1945)

Roger Addison was a Welsh rugby union player. A prop forward, he represented Wales at youth level and played club rugby for Pontypool RFC. He suffered a serious neck injury during a match in 1966 that left him paralysed. He lived in hospital for more than 40 years after the incident.

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31/03/2009

Raúl Alfonsín, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 46th President of Argentina (born 1927)

Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was an Argentine lawyer and statesman who served as president of Argentina from 10 December 1983 to 8 July 1989. He was the first democratically elected president after the National Reorganization Process. Ideologically, he identified as a radical and a social democrat, serving as the leader of the Radical Civic Union from 1983 to 1991, 1993 to 1995, 1999 to 2001. His political approach was known as "Alfonsinism".

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Choor Singh, Indian-Singaporean lawyer and judge (born 1911)

Choor Singh Sidhu, known professionally as Choor Singh, was a Singaporean lawyer who served as a judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore and, particularly after his retirement from the bench, a philanthropist and writer of books about Sikhism. Born to a family of modest means in Punjab, India, he came to Singapore at four years of age. He completed his secondary education in the top class at Raffles Institution in 1929, then worked as a clerk in a law firm before becoming a civil servant in the Official Assignee's office.

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31/03/2008

Jules Dassin, American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor (born 1911)

Julius "Jules" Dassin was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, where he continued his career. He was a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Screen Directors' Guild.

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Bill Keightley, American equipment manager (born 1926)

William Bond Keightley was the equipment manager for the University of Kentucky men's basketball team, a position he held for 48 years. Archived 2024-12-13 at the Wayback Machine Known affectionately to most as "Mr. Wildcat," players referred to him as "Mr. Bill" or "Big Smooth."

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31/03/2007

Paul Watzlawick, Austrian-American psychologist and philosopher (born 1921)

Paul Watzlawick was an Austrian-American family therapist, psychologist, communication theorist, and philosopher. A theoretician in communication theory and radical constructivism, he commented in the fields of family therapy and general psychotherapy. Watzlawick believed that people create their own suffering in the very act of trying to fix their emotional problems. He was one of the most influential figures at the Mental Research Institute and lived and worked in Palo Alto, California.

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31/03/2006

Jackie McLean, American saxophonist and composer (born 1931)

John Lenwood McLean was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator. He is one of the few musicians to be elected to the DownBeat Hall of Fame in the year of their death.

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31/03/2005

Stanley J. Korsmeyer, American oncologist and academic (born 1951)

Stanley Joel Korsmeyer was an American research scientist known for his work on B cell lymphomas and apoptosis. Born and educated in the US state of Illinois, Korsmeyer spent most of his career as a professor at Washington University School of Medicine and later the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. He rose to prominence in the early 1980s as a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute. There he co-discovered the genetic cause of most cases of the cancer follicular lymphoma – the misregulation of the gene Bcl-2. Korsmeyer went on to start his own laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis, further studying the role of Bcl-2 in cell biology. His group's work expanded the paradigm of cancer-causing genes, providing the first example of how interfering with programmed cell death could lead to cancer development. Korsmeyer authored over 250 scientific papers over the course of his career. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences at the age of 45. Korsmeyer died of lung cancer in 2005, at the age of 54.

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Justiniano Montano, Filipino lawyer and politician (born 1905)

Justiniano Solis Montano Sr. was a Filipino lawyer and politician who was elected for one term to the Philippine Senate and for multiple terms as a member of the House of Representatives.

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Frank Perdue, American businessman (born 1920)

Franklin Parsons Perdue, born in Salisbury, Maryland, was for many years the president and CEO of Perdue Farms, now one of the largest chicken-producing companies in the United States.

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31/03/2004

Scott Helvenston, American soldier (born 1965)

Stephen "Scott" Helvenston was a US Navy SEAL. He was working as a security contractor for Blackwater Security when he was killed in the 31 March 2004 Fallujah ambush within days of arriving in Iraq.

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31/03/2003

Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter, English-Canadian mathematician and academic (born 1907)

Harold Scott MacDonald "Donald" Coxeter was a British-Canadian geometer and mathematician. He is regarded as one of the greatest geometers of the 20th century.

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Anne Gwynne, American actress (born 1918)

Anne Gwynne was an American actress who was known as one of the first scream queens because of her numerous appearances in horror films. Gwynne was also one of the most popular pin-ups of World War II. She was the maternal grandmother of actor Chris Pine.

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Tommy Seebach, Danish singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (born 1949)

Tommy Seebach, born Tommy Seebach Mortensen in Copenhagen, Denmark, was a popular Danish singer, composer, organist, pianist and producer. He is best known as front man of Sir Henry and his Butlers and for numerous contributions to the Danish qualifier for the Eurovision Song Contest, the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, which he won three times. He was the father of songwriter/producer Nicolai Seebach and singer/songwriter/producer Rasmus Seebach.

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31/03/2002

Barry Took, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter (born 1928)

Barry Took was an English writer, television presenter and comedian. His decade-and-a-half writing partnership with Marty Feldman led to the television series Bootsie and Snudge, the radio comedy Round the Horne and other projects.

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Moturu Udayam, Indian activist and politician (born 1924)

Moturu Udayam was an Indian politician and women's rights activist. She was the General Secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Mahila Sangham for eighteen years, and then the honorary president of the organisation between 1992 and 2001. She was also Vice President of the All India Democratic Women's Association, to which the APMS is affiliated, between 1981 and 2001.

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Carlos J. Gradin, Argentine Archaeologist (born 1913)

Carlos Joaquín Gradin, also known as Carlos Gradín, was an Argentine surveyor and archaeologist. He carried out numerous studies in the Patagonian region, and is known for his extensive studies of Cueva de las Manos. He was a member of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET).

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31/03/2001

David Rocastle, English footballer (born 1967)

David Carlyle Rocastle was an English professional footballer who played as a midfielder in the roles of a playmaker and a winger.

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Clifford Shull, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1915)

Clifford Glenwood Shull was an American physicist.

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31/03/2000

Gisèle Freund, German-born French photographer and photojournalist (born 1908)

Gisèle Freund was a German-born French photographer and photojournalist, famous for her documentary photography and portraits of writers and artists. Her best-known book, Photographie et société (1974), is a expanded edition of her seminal 1936 dissertation. It was the first sociohistorical study on photography as a democratic medium of self-representation in the age of technological reproduction. With this first doctoral thesis on photography at the Sorbonne, she was one of the first women habilitated there.

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Adrian Fisher, English guitarist and member of the band Toby (born 1952)

Adrian Fisher was an English guitarist and a member of the bands Toby, Sparks and Boxer. He played on Sparks' first two albums under Island Records, Kimono My House and Propaganda.

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31/03/1999

Yuri Knorozov, Russian linguist and ethnographer (born 1922)

Yuri Valentinovich Knorozov was a Soviet and Russian linguist, epigraphist, and ethnologist. He is best known for the key role he played in the decipherment of the Maya script, the writing system of the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.

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31/03/1998

Bella Abzug, American lawyer, activist, and politician (born 1920)

Bella Abzug, nicknamed "Battling Bella", was an American lawyer, politician, social activist, and a leader in the women's movement. In 1971, Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, and Betty Friedan to found the National Women's Political Caucus. She was a leading figure in what came to be known as ecofeminism.

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Tim Flock, American race car driver (born 1924)

Julius Timothy Flock was an American stock car racer. He was a two-time NASCAR series champion. His brothers Bob and Fonty Flock also raced in NASCAR, as did his sister Ethel Mobley, NASCAR's second female driver.

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Joel Ryce-Menuhin, American pianist (born 1933)

Joel Ryce-Menuhin was an American pianist, who later became a Jungian psychologist in private practice.

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31/03/1997

Stephen Kalong Ningkan, first Chief Minister of Sarawak, Malaysia.

Stephen Kalong Ningkan was a Malaysian politician who served as the first Chief Minister of Sarawak from 1963 to 1966.

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31/03/1996

Dante Giacosa, Italian automobile designer and engineer (born 1905)

Dante Giacosa was an Italian automobile designer and engineer responsible for a range of Italian automobile designs — and for refining the front-wheel drive layout to an industry-standard configuration. He has been called the deus ex machina of Fiat.

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Jeffrey Lee Pierce, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1958)

Jeffrey Lee Pierce was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and author. He was one of the founding members of the post-punk band the Gun Club, and released material as a solo artist.

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31/03/1995

Selena, American singer-songwriter (born 1971)

Selena Quintanilla-Pérez was an American singer-songwriter. Known as the "Queen of Tejano Music", she is known for her contributions to popular music and fashion, which made her one of the most celebrated Mexican-American entertainers of the late 20th century. Media outlets called her the "Tejano Madonna" for her clothing choices. She also ranks among the most influential Latin artists of all time and is credited for catapulting the Tejano genre into the mainstream market.

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31/03/1993

Brandon Lee, American actor and martial artist (born 1965)

Brandon Bruce Lee was an American actor and martial artist. Establishing himself as a rising action star in the early 1990s, Lee landed what was to be his breakthrough role as Eric Draven in the supernatural superhero film The Crow (1994). However, Lee's career and life were cut short by his accidental death during the film's production.

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Mitchell Parish, Lithuanian-American songwriter (born 1900)

Mitchell Parish was an American lyricist, notably as a writer of songs for stage and screen.

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31/03/1991

Theofylaktos Papakonstantinou, Greek columnist, political and social analyst and historian (born 1905)

Theofylaktos Papakonstantinou was a Greek columnist, political and social analyst and historian. He used the pen name Petros Monastiriotis.

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31/03/1988

William McMahon, Australian lawyer and politician, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (born 1908)

Sir William McMahon was an Australian politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Australia from 1971 to 1972. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, and previously held various ministerial positions from 1951 to 1971, the longest continuous service in Australian history.

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31/03/1986

Jerry Paris, American actor and director (born 1925)

William Gerald Paris was an American actor and director best known for playing Jerry Helper, the dentist and next-door neighbor of Rob and Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, and for directing the majority of the episodes of the sitcom Happy Days.

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31/03/1983

Christina Stead, Australian author and academic (born 1902)

Christina Stead was an Australian novelist and short-story writer acclaimed for her satirical wit and penetrating psychological characterisations. Christina Stead was a committed Marxist, although she was never a member of the Communist Party. She spent much of her life outside Australia, although she returned before her death.

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31/03/1981

Enid Bagnold, English author and playwright (born 1889)

Enid Algerine Bagnold, Lady Jones, was a British writer and playwright best known for the 1935 story National Velvet.

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31/03/1980

Vladimír Holan, Czech poet and author (born 1905)

Vladimír Holan was a Czech poet. He was known for employing obscure language, dark topics and pessimistic views in his poems. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in the late 1960s.

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Jesse Owens, American sprinter and long jumper (born 1913)

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete who made history at the 1936 Olympic Games by winning four gold medals, setting Olympic records in each event. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes in track and field history.

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31/03/1978

Astrid Allwyn, American actress (born 1905)

Astrid Allwyn was an American stage and film actress.

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Charles Best, American-Canadian physiologist and biochemist, co-discovered Insulin (born 1899)

Charles Herbert Best, was an American-Canadian medical scientist and one of the co-discoverers of insulin with Frederick Banting. He served as the chair of the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research at the University of Toronto and was further involved in research concerning choline and heparin.

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31/03/1976

Paul Strand, American photographer and director (born 1890)

Paul Strand was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. In 1936, he helped found the Photo League, a cooperative of photographers who banded together around a range of common social and creative causes. His diverse body of work, spanning six decades, covers numerous genres and subjects throughout the Americas, Europe, and Africa.

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31/03/1975

Percy Alliss, English golfer (born 1897)

Percy Alliss was one of the leading English professional golfers in the 1920s and 1930s, winning many tournaments in Britain and Continental Europe. He was also the father of commentator and former golfer Peter Alliss.

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31/03/1970

Semyon Timoshenko, Soviet Commander during the Winter War and the Eastern Front of World War II (born 1894)

Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko was a Soviet military commander, Marshal of the Soviet Union, and one of the most prominent Red Army commanders during the Second World War.

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31/03/1968

Grover Lowdermilk, American baseball player (born 1885)

Grover Cleveland "Slim" Lowdermilk was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox between 1909 and 1920. Lowdermilk batted and threw right-handed. He was born in Sandborn, Indiana.

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31/03/1961

Pyrros Spyromilios, officer of the Greek Navy and director of the Greek Radio Orchestra (born 1913)

Pyrros Spyromilios was a Greek officer of the Greek Navy in World War II and later director of the Greek Radio Orchestra.

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31/03/1956

Ralph DePalma, Italian-American race car driver and actor (born 1884)

Raffaele "Ralph" DePalma was an American racing driver who won the 1915 Indianapolis 500. DePalma won the 1908, 1909, 1910, and 1911 American AAA national dirt track championships and is credited with winning 25 American Championship car races. He won the Canadian national championship in 1929. DePalma estimated that he had earned $1.5 million by 1934 after racing for 27 years. He is inducted in numerous halls of fame. He competed on boards and dirt road courses and ovals.

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Nellah Massey Bailey, American politician and librarian (born 1893)

Nellah Izora Massey Bailey was an American politician and librarian. She was the first lady of Mississippi from 1944 to 1946 and the Mississippi state tax collector from 1948 to 1956. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first woman elected to statewide office in Mississippi.

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31/03/1952

Wallace H. White, Jr., American lawyer and politician (born 1877)

Wallace Humphrey White Jr. was an American politician and Republican leader in the United States Congress from 1917 until 1949. White was from the U.S. state of Maine and served in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S. Senate, where he was Senate Minority Leader and later Majority Leader before his retirement.

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31/03/1950

Robert Natus, Estonian architect (born 1890)

Robert Natus was an Estonian architect of Baltic German descent.

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31/03/1945

Frank Findlay, New Zealand banker and politician (born 1884)

Frank Findlay was a New Zealand politician of the National Party.

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Hans Fischer, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1881)

Hans Fischer was a German organic chemist and the recipient of the 1930 Nobel Prize for Chemistry "for his researches into the constitution of haemin and chlorophyll and especially for his synthesis of haemin."

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31/03/1944

Mineichi Koga, Japanese admiral (born 1885)

Mineichi Koga was a Japanese Marshal Admiral and commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet.

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31/03/1939

Ioannis Tsangaridis, Greek general (born 1887)

Ioannis Tsangaridis was a Greek Cypriot General of the Hellenic Army.

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31/03/1935

Georges V. Matchabelli, Georgian-American businessman and diplomat, founded Prince Matchabelli perfume (born 1885)

Prince Georges Vasili Matchabelli was a Georgian perfumer. A nobleman and diplomat, he emigrated to the United States after the 1921 Soviet invasion of Georgia.

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31/03/1931

Knute Rockne, American football player and coach (born 1888)

Knute Kenneth Rockne was a Norwegian-American football player and coach at the University of Notre Dame. Leading Notre Dame for 13 seasons, Rockne accumulated over 100 wins and three national championships.

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31/03/1930

Ludwig Schüler, German politician, Mayor of Marburg (born 1836)

Ludwig Schüler was a German politician and from 17 September 1884 until 20 May 1907 mayor of Marburg. In January 1911 he was appointed honorary citizen.

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31/03/1927

Kang Youwei, Chinese scholar and political reformer (born 1858)

Kang Youwei was a Chinese political thinker and reformer in the late Qing dynasty. His increasing closeness to and influence over the young Guangxu Emperor sparked conflict between the emperor and his adoptive mother, the regent Empress Dowager Cixi. His ideas were influential in the abortive Hundred Days' Reform. Following the coup by Cixi that ended the reform, Kang was forced to flee. He continued to advocate for a Chinese constitutional monarchy after the founding of the Republic of China.

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31/03/1924

George Charles Haité, English painter and illustrator (born 1855)

George Charles Haité was an English designer, painter, illustrator and writer. His most famous work is the iconic cover design of the Strand Magazine, launched in 1891, which helped popularise the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. Haité was also a founder member and the first president of the London Sketch Club.

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31/03/1920

Abdul Hamid Madarshahi, Bengali Islamic scholar and author (born 1869)

Abdul Hamid was a Bengali Islamic scholar, author and educationist. He was one of the pioneers of introducing the Deobandi movement in Bengal and is noted for being one of the founding fathers of Al-Jamiatul Ahlia Darul Ulum Moinul Islam in Hathazari.

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31/03/1917

Emil von Behring, German physiologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1854)

Emil von Behring, was a German physiologist. In 1901, he received the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his work on serum therapy, especially its application against diphtheria, by which he has opened a new road in the domain of medical science and thereby placed in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and deaths". He was widely known as a "saviour of children", as diphtheria used to be a major cause of child death. His work with the disease, as well as tetanus, has come to bring him most of his fame and acknowledgment. He was honoured with Prussian nobility in 1901, henceforth being known by the surname "von Behring".

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31/03/1915

Wyndham Halswelle, English-Scottish runner and captain (born 1882)

Wyndham Halswelle was a British athlete. He won the controversial 400 m race at the 1908 Summer Olympics, becoming the only athlete to win an Olympic title by a walkover.

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31/03/1913

J. P. Morgan, American banker and financier (born 1837)

John Pierpont Morgan Sr. was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known as JPMorgan Chase & Co., he was a driving force behind the wave of industrial consolidations in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century.

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31/03/1910

Jean Moréas, Greek poet, essayist and art critic (born 1856)

Jean Moréas was a Greek poet, essayist, and art critic, who wrote mostly in the French language but also in Greek during his youth.

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31/03/1907

Galusha A. Grow, American lawyer and politician, 28th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (born 1823)

Galusha Aaron Grow was the 24th speaker of the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1861 to 1863. Elected as a Democrat in the 1850 congressional elections, he switched to the newly organized Republican Party in the mid-1850s when the Democratic Party tried to force the extension of slavery into western territories.

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31/03/1885

Franz Abt, German composer and conductor (born 1819)

Franz Wilhelm Abt was a German composer and choral conductor. He composed roughly 3,000 individual works mostly in the area of vocal music. Several of his songs were at one time universally sung, and have obtained a more or less permanent place in the popular repertory. Abt was a renowned choral conductor, and he spent much of the last three decades of his life working as a guest conductor with choirs throughout Europe and in the United States.

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31/03/1880

Henryk Wieniawski, Polish violinist and composer (born 1835)

Henryk Wieniawski was a Polish virtuoso violinist, composer, and pedagogue, who is regarded amongst the most distinguished violinists in history. His younger brother Józef Wieniawski and nephew Adam Tadeusz Wieniawski were also accomplished musicians, as was his daughter Régine, who became a naturalised British subject upon marrying into the peerage and wrote music under the name Poldowski.

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31/03/1877

Antoine Augustin Cournot, French mathematician and philosopher (born 1801)

Antoine Augustin Cournot was a French philosopher and mathematician who contributed to the development of economics.

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31/03/1855

Charlotte Brontë, English novelist and poet (born 1816)

Charlotte Nicholls, commonly known by her maiden name Charlotte Brontë, was an English novelist and poet, and was the elder sister of Emily, Anne and Branwell Brontë. She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, which was first published under the pseudonym Currer Bell. Jane Eyre was a great success on publication, and has since become known as a classic of English literature.

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31/03/1850

John C. Calhoun, American lawyer and politician, 7th Vice President of the United States (born 1782)

John Caldwell Calhoun was an American statesman and political theorist who served as the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. Calhoun began his political career as a nationalist, modernizer and proponent of a strong federal government and protective tariffs. In the late 1820s, his views shifted, and he became a leading proponent of states' rights, limited government, nullification, and opposition to high tariffs, and distinguished himself as an outspoken defender of American slavery. Calhoun saw Northern acceptance of those policies as a condition of the South remaining in the Union. His beliefs heavily influenced the South's secession from the Union in 1860 and 1861. Calhoun was the first of two vice presidents to resign from the position, the second being Spiro Agnew, who resigned in 1973.

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31/03/1837

John Constable, English painter and educator (born 1776)

John Constable was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, the area on the borderland of Suffolk and north Essex surrounding his home – now known as "Constable Country" – which he invested with an intensity of affection. "I should paint my own places best", he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, "painting is but another word for feeling".

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31/03/1797

Olaudah Equiano, Nigerian merchant, author, and activist (born 1745)

Olaudah Equiano, known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa, was a writer and abolitionist. According to his memoir, he was from the village of Essaka, presumed to be in present-day southern Nigeria. Enslaved as a child in West Africa, he was shipped to the Caribbean and sold to a Royal Navy officer. He was sold twice more before purchasing his freedom in 1766.

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31/03/1741

Pieter Burman the Elder, Dutch scholar and author (born 1668)

Pieter Burman, also known as Peter or Pieter Burmann and posthumously distinguished from his nephew as "the Elder", was a Dutch classical scholar.

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31/03/1723

Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, English soldier and politician, 14th Colonial Governor of New York (born 1661)

Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, styled Viscount Cornbury between 1674 and 1709, was an English Army officer, politician and colonial administrator. He was propelled into the forefront of English politics when he and part of his army defected from the Catholic King James II to support the newly arrived Protestant contender, William III of Orange. These actions were part of the beginning of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Cornbury's choice to support his cousin Anne instead of William after the rebellion cost him his military commission. However, Cornbury's support of King William's reign eventually earned him the governorship of the provinces of New York and New Jersey; he served between 1701 and 1708.

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31/03/1671

Anne Hyde, wife of James II of England (born 1637)

Anne Hyde was the first wife of James, Duke of York, who later became King James II and VII.

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31/03/1631

John Donne, English lawyer and poet (born 1572)

John Donne was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London (1621–1631). He is considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His poetical works are noted for their metaphorical and sensual style and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs and satires. He is also known for his sermons.

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31/03/1622

Gonzalo Méndez de Canço, Royal Governor of La Florida (born 1554)

Gonzalo Méndez de Canço y Donlebún was a Spanish admiral who served as the seventh governor of the Spanish province of La Florida (1596–1603). He fought in the Battle of San Juan (1595) against the English admiral Francis Drake. During his tenure as governor of Florida, he dealt severely with a rebellion known as Juanillo's revolt among the Native Americans in Guale, forcing them, as well as other tribes in Florida, to submit to Spanish domination. De Canço was best known, however, for promoting the cultivation of maize in the province, and for introducing its cultivation to Asturias, Spain, where it eventually became an important crop.

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31/03/1621

Philip III, Spanish king (born 1578)

Philip III was King of Spain and Portugal during the period known as the Iberian Union, reigning from 1598 until his death in 1621. He was also King of Naples and Sicily, Duke of Milan, and Lord of the Seventeen Provinces. A member of the House of Habsburg, he was born in Madrid to King Philip II of Spain and his fourth wife, Anna of Austria. The family was heavily inbred; Philip II and Anna were uncle and niece, as well as cousins.

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31/03/1567

Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse (born 1504)

Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, nicknamed der Großmütige, was a German nobleman and a champion of the Protestant Reformation, notable for being one of the most important of the early Protestant rulers in Germany. He was also one of the main belligerents in the War of the Katzenelnbogen Succession.

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31/03/1547

Francis I, French king (born 1494)

Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed and father-in-law Louis XII, who died without a legitimate son.

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31/03/1491

Bonaventura Tornielli, Italian Roman Catholic priest (born 1411)

Bonaventura Tornielli was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed friar from the Servite Order. Tornielli was born into a noble household and was a noted preacher in which he visited numerous Italian cities such as Florence and Perugia - Pope Sixtus IV held him in high esteem and even named him the "Apostolic Preacher". He also held various positions of leadership within his order.

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31/03/1462

Isidore II of Constantinople, patriarch of Constantinople

Isidore II of Constantinople was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1456 to 1462.

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31/03/1342

Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro, Italian Augustinian friar

Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro OESA was an Augustinian friar who was at one time Petrarch's confessor, and who taught Boccaccio at the beginning of his education in the humanities. He was Bishop of Monopoli in Apulia. He was surnamed, not uncommonly for the trecento, for the town in which he was born, now Sansepolcro in Tuscany. His family name was de' Roberti, which no longer exists. Dionigi is the Italian form of Dennis, Latin Dionysius.

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31/03/1340

Ivan I of Moscow, Russian Grand Duke (born 1288)

Ivan I Danilovich Kalita was Prince of Moscow from 1325 and Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1331 until his death in 1340.

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31/03/1251

William of Modena, Italian bishop and diplomat

William of Modena, also known as William of Sabina, Guglielmo de Chartreaux, Guglielmo de Savoy, Guillelmus, was an Italian clergyman and papal diplomat. He was frequently appointed a legate, or papal ambassador by the popes Honorius III and Gregory IX, especially in Livonia in the 1220s and in the Prussian questions of the 1240s. Eventually he resigned his see to devote himself to these diplomatic issues. On 28 May 1244 he was created Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina by Pope Innocent IV. For a short time (1219–1222) he served also as Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church.

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31/03/1241

Pousa, voivode of Transylvania

Pousa, son of Sólyom was a Hungarian nobleman, who served as voivode of Transylvania twice, in 1227 and 1235 to 1241.

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31/03/0963

Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Muhammad, Saffarid emir (born 906)

Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Muhammad was the amir of Sistan from 923 until his death in 963. He is responsible for restoring Saffarid rule over Sistan, and was a great patron of the arts.

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31/03/0528

Xiaoming, emperor of Northern Wei (born 510)

Emperor Xiaoming of (Northern) Wei ( 魏孝明帝), personal name Yuan Xu (元詡), was an emperor of the Xianbei-led Chinese Northern Wei dynasty. He ascended the throne in 515 at the age of five, and governmental matters were dominated by his mother Empress Dowager Hu. In 528, Emperor Xiaoming tried to curb his mother's powers and kill her lover Zheng Yan (鄭儼) by conspiring with the general Erzhu Rong. As a result, the 18-year-old emperor was poisoned by his mother, who was soon overthrown by Erzhu. From that point on, Northern Wei royal lineage had no actual power. The next ruler, Emperor Xiaozhuang (507–531) was established by Erzhu. After Erzhu was assassinated by Emperor Xiaozhuang in November 530, rival generals Yuwen Tai and Gao Huan enthroned two royal offsprings, causing the country to split into two rival polities, Western Wei and Eastern Wei, both of which did not last long on the political map of the Northern and Southern dynasties.

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01/01/1970

Titus Pomponius Atticus, Roman nobleman of the Equestrian order (born 109 BC)

Titus Pomponius Atticus was a Roman editor, banker, and literary patron, best known for his correspondence and close friendship with the famous Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. Atticus was from a wealthy family of the equestrian class and had close ties to many other Roman aristocrats, most prominently Cicero.

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