Died on Friday, 16th May – Famous Deaths

16/05/2025

Domingos Maubere, East Timorese Catholic priest and activist (born 1952)

Domingos da Silva Soares, popularly known as Padre Maubere or Amu Du, was an East Timorese Roman Catholic priest, activist, and independence leader. Born in Letefoho in what was then Portuguese Timor, he attended seminary in Portugal and was ordained in 1978. In 1980, he returned to East Timor and became involved in the resistance against the Indonesian occupation (1975–1999), often supporting the guerrillas and coordinating with the movement's leaders. As a pastor in Timor-Leste, he served in parishes in Ossu, Letefoho, Ermera, Suai, and Becora, Dili.

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16/05/2024

Dabney Coleman, American actor (born 1932)

Dabney Wharton Coleman was an American actor. He was recognized for his roles portraying egomaniacal and unlikeable characters in comedic performances. Throughout his career, he appeared in over 175 films and television programs and received awards for both comedic and dramatic performances.

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Eddie Gossage, American public speaker and businessman (born 1958)

William Edgar Gossage was an American motorsports executive and promoter. He was best known as the president of the Texas Motor Speedway, a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) banked racetrack in Fort Worth, Texas, which ran stock car racing and Indy car racing events throughout his tenure. He also was employed at other companies, holding various public relations positions.

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16/05/2023

Norm Green, American long-distance runner (born 1932)

Dr. Norman (Norm) Green was an American long-distance runner. He set numerous American and World records over his career. He still holds the current M55 American record for the 10,000 metres. In 1996 he was elected into the inaugural class of the USATF Masters Hall of Fame, the first long-distance runner. For more than a decade, Green was the director of the Hall of Fame.

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16/05/2021

Bruno Covas, Brazilian lawyer, politician (born 1980)

Bruno Covas Lopes was a Brazilian lawyer, economist, and politician who was a member of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) and served as the mayor of São Paulo from 2018 until his death in 2021.

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16/05/2019

Piet Blauw, Dutch politician (born 1937)

Pieter Marinus "Piet" Blauw was a Dutch politician for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). He was born in Alkmaar, North Holland and was a farmer by profession. Blauw was elected to the House of Representatives in 1981, serving until 1998.

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Bob Hawke, Australian politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia (born 1929)

Robert James Lee Hawke was an Australian politician and trade unionist who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991. He held office as the leader of the Labor Party (ALP), having previously served as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions from 1969 to 1980 and president of the Labor Party national executive from 1973 to 1978.

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I. M. Pei, Chinese-American architect (born 1917)

Ieoh Ming Pei was a Chinese-American architect.

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16/05/2015

Prashant Bhargava, American director and producer (born 1973)

Prashant Bhargava was an Indian-American filmmaker and designer. He died of a heart attack from a history of heart trouble. Bhargava's short film Sangam, described by Greg Tate of the Village Voice as "an elegant and poetic evocation of immigrant angst, memory and haunted spirituality", premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and PBS. His other directorial efforts include the documentary portrait of his grandmother Ammaji, experimental Super 8 short Backwaters and the poignant and meditative Kashmir, an audiovisual performance with band Dawn of Midi

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Moshe Levinger, Israeli rabbi and author (born 1935)

Moshe Levinger was an Israeli Religious Zionist activist and an Orthodox Rabbi who, since 1967, had been a leading figure in the movement to settle Jews in the territories occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. He is especially known for leading Jewish settlement in Hebron in 1968, and for being one of the principals of the now defunct settler movement Gush Emunim, founded in 1974, among whose ranks he assumed legendary status. Levinger was reportedly involved in violent acts against Palestinians.

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Flora MacNeil, Scottish Gaelic singer (born 1928)

Flora MacNeil, MBE was a traditional singer of Scottish Gaelic folk music. MacNeil gained prominence after meeting Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson during the early 1950s, and continued to perform into her later years.

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16/05/2014

Chris Duckworth, Zimbabwean-South African cricketer (born 1933)

Christopher Anthony Russell Duckworth was a Rhodesian cricketer who played in two Tests for South Africa in 1957.

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Vito Favero, Italian cyclist (born 1932)

Vito Favero was an Italian road racing cyclist. He was professional from 1956 to 1962. In the 1958 Tour de France, he finished second. Stage 14 of the 1958 Tour was won by Federico Bahamontes but Favero took over the Yellow Jersey. At that point, he was already the 8th different rider to lead the race, and he would hold his lead for four stages when Charly Gaul won stage 18 and Raphaël Géminiani took over as the 9th different rider to lead the race. Géminiani would hold the lead for three stages, but in stage 21, Favero retook the lead as Gaul added another stage win. Favero would remain in Yellow for another two stages until Gaul won the final time trial and became the record-setting eleventh rider to wear the Maillot Jaune in a single edition of the Tour.

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Bud Hollowell, American baseball player and manager (born 1943)

Buddy Ryan "Bud" Hollowell was an American professional baseball player and minor league manager. After his athletic career, he became an educator and author.

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Clyde Snow, American anthropologist and author (born 1928)

Clyde Snow was an American forensic anthropologist. Some of his skeletal confirmations include John F. Kennedy, victims of John Wayne Gacy, King Tutankhamun, victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, and Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.

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16/05/2013

Angelo Errichetti, American politician (born 1928)

Angelo Joseph Errichetti was an American Democratic Party politician who served as Mayor of Camden, New Jersey, and in the New Jersey Senate before being indicted during Abscam.

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Bryan Illerbrun, Canadian football player (born 1957)

Bryan Illerbrun was a professional Canadian football offensive lineman who played fourteen seasons in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for three teams. He was a part of the BC Lions' Grey Cup victory in 1985 and the Saskatchewan Roughriders' Grey Cup victory in 1989.

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Frankie Librán, Puerto Rican-American baseball player (born 1948)

Francisco Librán Rosas was a Puerto Rican athlete who distinguished himself for performing professionally on all three major sports in the island. Most notably, Librán played as an infielder in Major League Baseball during the late 60s. He batted and threw right-handed, and was listed at 6 ft (1.8 m) tall and 168 lb (76 kg). Librán also practiced track and field, and softball. Because of his versatility, he is usually referred to as "the most complete Puerto Rican athlete". He is survived by his two daughters Yeidie J. Librán and Yara E. Librán.

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Heinrich Rohrer, Swiss physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1933)

Heinrich Rohrer was a Swiss physicist who shared half of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gerd Binnig for the design of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). The other half of the Prize was awarded to Ernst Ruska. The Heinrich Rohrer Medal is presented triennially by the Surface Science Society of Japan with IBM Research – Zurich, Swiss Embassy in Japan, and Ms. Rohrer in his memory. The medal is not to be confused with the Heinrich Rohrer Award presented at the Nano Seoul 2020 conference.

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Paul Shane, British actor and comedian (born 1940)

George Frederick Speight, was a British actor and comedian. He was known for his television work, in particular for playing Ted Bovis in the 1980s BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi!.

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Dick Trickle, American race car driver (born 1941)

Richard Leroy Trickle was an American race car driver. He raced for decades around the short tracks of Wisconsin, winning many championships along the way. Trickle competed in the ASA, ARTGO, ARCA, All Pro, IMCA, NASCAR, and USAC.

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Bernard Waber, American author and illustrator (born 1921)

Bernard Waber was an American children's author most famous for the books The House on East 88th Street (1962), Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (1965) and the subsequent books in the Lyle series.

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16/05/2012

Patricia Aakhus, American author and academic (born 1952)

Patricia "Patty" Aakhus, also known by her maiden name and pseudonym Patricia McDowell, was an American novelist and director of International Studies at the University of Southern Indiana. She specialized in Irish themes and won Readercon's Best Imaginative Literature Award in 1990 and the Cahill Award for The Voyage of Mael Duin's Curragh.

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James Abdnor, American soldier and politician (born 1923)

Ellis James Abdnor was an American politician who served as a member of the United States Senate from South Dakota. He was also the 15th administrator of the Small Business Administration under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

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Chuck Brown, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1936)

Charles Louis Brown was an American guitarist, bandleader, and singer known as "The Godfather of Go-Go". Go-go is a subgenre of funk music developed around the Washington, D.C., area in the mid-1970s. While its musical classification, influences, and origins are debated, Brown is regarded as the fundamental force behind the creation of go-go music.

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Ernie Chan, Filipino-American illustrator (born 1940)

Ernesto Chan, born and sometimes credited as Ernie Chua, was a Filipino-American comics artist, known for work published by Marvel Comics and DC Comics, including many Marvel issues of series featuring Conan the Barbarian. Chan also had a long tenure on Batman and Detective Comics. Other than his work on Batman, Chan primarily focused on non-superhero characters, staying mostly in the genres of horror, war, and sword and sorcery.

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Kevin Hickey, American baseball player (born 1956)

Kevin John Hickey was an American left-handed pitcher who spent six seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Chicago White Sox (1981–1983) and Baltimore Orioles (1989–1991). It was with the White Sox that he was a reliever with the American League (AL) West titlist in 1983 and a batting practice pitcher for the 2005 World Series Champions.

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16/05/2011

Ralph Barker, English author (born 1917)

Ralph Hammond Cecil Barker was an English non-fiction author with over twenty-five books to his credit. He wrote mainly about the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and Royal Air Force (RAF) operations in the First and Second World Wars, and about cricket.

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Bob Davis, Australian footballer and coach (born 1928)

Robert "Bob" Davis was an Australian rules footballer who played in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

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Edward Hardwicke, English actor (born 1932)

Edward Cedric Hardwicke was an English actor who had a career on the stage and on-screen. He was best known for playing Captain Pat Grant in Colditz (1972–73), and Dr. Watson in Granada Television's Sherlock Holmes (1986–94).

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Kiyoshi Kodama, Japanese actor (born 1934)

Kiyoshi Kodama was a Japanese TV personality and actor. He hosted the Asahi Broadcasting Corporation quiz show Panel Quiz Attack 25 continuously for thirty-six years from its start in April 1975 until he was forced to step down due to poor health at the end of March 2011. His signature catchphrase on the show is "Attack Chance!"

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16/05/2010

Ronnie James Dio, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1942)

Ronald James Padavona, known professionally as Ronnie James Dio, was an American heavy metal singer. He fronted numerous bands throughout his career, including Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and Heaven & Hell.

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Hank Jones, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (born 1918)

Henry Jones Jr. was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians have described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored him with the NEA Jazz Masters Award. He was also honored in 2003 with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) Jazz Living Legend Award. In 2008, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. On April 13, 2009, the University of Hartford presented Jones with an honorary Doctorate of Music for his musical accomplishments.

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16/05/2008

Robert Mondavi, American winemaker, co-founded the Opus One Winery (born 1913)

Robert Gerald Mondavi was an American winemaker. His technical and marketing strategies brought worldwide recognition for the wines of the Napa Valley in California. From an early period, Mondavi promoted labeling wines varietally rather than generically, which became the standard for New World wines. The Robert Mondavi Institute (RMI) for Wine and Food Science at the University of California, Davis opened in October 2008 in his honor.

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16/05/2005

Andrew Goodpaster, American general (born 1915)

Andrew Jackson Goodpaster was a United States Army general who served as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR), from 1 July 1969, and Commander in Chief of the United States European Command (CINCEUR) from 5 May 1969 until his retirement 17 December 1974. As such, he was the commander of all NATO (SACEUR) and United States (CINCEUR) military forces stationed in Europe and the surrounding regions.

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16/05/2003

Mark McCormack, American lawyer and sports agent, founded IMG (born 1930)

Mark Hume McCormack was an American lawyer, sports agent and writer. He was the founder and chairman of International Management Group, now IMG, an international management organization serving sports figures and celebrities.

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16/05/2002

Alec Campbell, Australian soldier (born 1899)

Alexander William Campbell was the final surviving Australian participant of the Gallipoli campaign during the First World War. Campbell joined the Australian Army at the age of 16 in 1915, and served as a stores carrier for two months during the fighting at Gallipoli. He was invalided home and discharged in 1916. He later worked in a large number of roles, was twice married and had nine children. He is the great-grandfather of actress, singer, and model Ruby Rose.

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16/05/1997

Elbridge Durbrow, American diplomat (born 1903)

Elbridge Durbrow was a Foreign Service officer and diplomat who served as the Counselor of Embassy and Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow in the late 1940s and then as the US ambassador to South Vietnam from March 14, 1957, to April 16, 1961.

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16/05/1996

Jeremy Michael Boorda, American admiral (born 1939)

Jeremy Michael Boorda was a United States Navy admiral who served as the 25th Chief of Naval Operations. Boorda is notable as the first person to have risen from the enlisted ranks to become Chief of Naval Operations, the highest-ranking billet in the United States Navy.

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16/05/1994

Alain Cuny, French actor (born 1908)

René Xavier Marie Alain Cuny was a French actor of stage and screen. He was closely linked with the works of Paul Claudel and Antonin Artaud, and for his performances for the Théâtre national populaire and Odéon-Théâtre de France.

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16/05/1993

Marv Johnson, American singer-songwriter and pianist (born 1938)

Marvin Earl Johnson was an American R&B singer, songwriter and pianist. He was influential in the development of the Motown style of music, primarily for the song "Come to Me," which was the first record issued by Tamla Records, the precursor to the famous label.

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16/05/1990

Sammy Davis Jr., American singer, dancer, and actor (born 1925)

Samuel George Davis Jr. was an American singer, actor, comedian, dancer, and musician.

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Jim Henson, American puppeteer, director, producer, and screenwriter, creator of The Muppets (born 1936)

James Maury Henson was an American puppeteer, actor, animator, creative producer, and director who achieved worldwide notability as the creator of the Muppets. Henson was also well known for creating Fraggle Rock (1983–1987) and as the director of The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986), as well as creating the Muppets for Sesame Street (1969–present).

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16/05/1989

Leila Kasra, Iranian poet and songwriter (born 1939)

Leila Kasra also known as Hedieh, was a prominent Iranian contemporary poet and lyricist who has written lyrics for notable artists including Ebi, Dariush, Sattar, Vigen, Moein, Mahasti, Andy, Homeyra, Morteza, Hassan Shamaizadeh, Siavash Shams and many more. She was best known for writing more than 30 songs for Hayedeh.

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16/05/1985

Margaret Hamilton, American actress (born 1902)

Margaret Brainard Hamilton was an American character actress, vaudevillian and educator, whose fifty-year career in entertainment spanned theater, film, radio and television. She often played villains and is best known to modern audiences for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West and her Kansas counterpart Almira Gulch in the 1939 MGM film classic The Wizard of Oz.

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16/05/1984

Andy Kaufman, American actor, comedian, and screenwriter (born 1949)

Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman was an American entertainer and performance artist. He has sometimes been called an "anti-comedian". He disdained telling jokes and engaging in comedy as it was traditionally understood, once saying in an interview, "I am not a comic, I have never told a joke. The comedian's promise is that he will go out there and make you laugh with him. My only promise is that I will try to entertain you as best I can."

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Irwin Shaw, American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short story writer (born 1913)

Irwin Shaw was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: The Young Lions (1948), about the fate of three soldiers during World War II, which was made into a film of the same name starring Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, and Rich Man, Poor Man (1970), about the fate of two brothers and a sister in the post-World War II decades, which in 1976 was made into a popular miniseries starring Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte, and Susan Blakely.

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16/05/1981

Ernie Freeman, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (born 1922)

Ernest Aaron Freeman was an American pianist, organist, bandleader, and arranger. He was responsible for arranging many successful rhythm and blues and pop records from the 1950s to the 1970s.

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Willy Hartner, German physician and academic (born 1905)

Willy Hartner was a German scientist and polymath. He studied at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, where he obtained his PhD in physics in 1928 and where he later served as professor from 1940, as ordinary professor [German academic terminology] from 1946.

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16/05/1979

A. Philip Randolph, American union leader and activist (born 1889)

Asa Philip Randolph was an American labor unionist and civil rights activist. In 1925, he organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful African-American-led labor union. In the early Civil Rights Movement and the Labor Movement, Randolph was a prominent voice. His continuous agitation with the support of fellow labor rights activists against racist labor practices helped lead President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802 in 1941, banning discrimination in the defense industries during World War II. The group then successfully maintained pressure, so that President Harry S. Truman proposed a new Civil Rights Act and issued Executive Orders 9980 and 9981 in 1948, promoting fair employment and anti-discrimination policies in federal government hiring, and ending racial segregation in the armed services.

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16/05/1977

Modibo Keïta, Malian politician, 1st President of Mali (born 1915)

Modibo Keïta was a Malian politician who served as the first President of Mali from 1960 to 1968. He espoused a form of African socialism. He was deposed in a coup d'état in 1968 by Moussa Traoré.

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16/05/1961

George A. Malcolm, American lawyer and jurist (born 1881)

George Arthur Malcolm was an American lawyer who emerged as an influential figure in the development of the practice of law in the Philippines in the 20th century. Constitutional scholar and academic Joaquin Bernas described Malcolm as "the man who more than any single American contributed most to early constitutional development in the Philippines." At age 35, he was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, where he would serve for 19 years. His most enduring legacy perhaps lies in his role in the establishment of the College of Law at the University of the Philippines.

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16/05/1957

Eliot Ness, American federal agent (born 1903)

Eliot Ness was an American Prohibition agent known for his efforts to bring down Al Capone while enforcing Prohibition in Chicago. He was leader of a team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables, handpicked for their incorruptibility. The release of his memoir The Untouchables, months after his death, launched several screen portrayals establishing a posthumous fame for Ness as an incorruptible crime fighter.

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16/05/1956

H. B. Reese, American candy-maker and businessman, created Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (born 1876)

Harry Burnett Reese was an American inventor and businessman known for creating Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and founding the H. B. Reese Candy Company. In 2009, he was posthumously inducted into the Candy Hall of Fame.

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16/05/1955

James Agee, American novelist, screenwriter, and critic(born 1909)

James Rufus Agee was an American novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, writing for Time, he was one of the most influential film critics in the United States. His autobiographical novel, A Death in the Family (1957), won the author a posthumous 1958 Pulitzer Prize. Agee is also known as a co-writer of the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men and as the screenwriter of the film classics The African Queen and The Night of the Hunter.

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Manny Ayulo, American race car driver (born 1921)

Manuel Leaonedas Ayulo was an American racecar driver. His efforts, along with those of friend and teammate Jack McGrath, helped establish track roadsters as viable race cars. Ayulo was killed in practice for the 1955 Indianapolis 500 when his car crashed straight into a concrete wall. He was found to have not been wearing a seat belt and his pockets "were filled with wrenches".

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16/05/1954

Clemens Krauss, Austrian conductor and manager (born 1893)

Clemens Heinrich Krauss was an Austrian conductor and opera impresario, particularly associated with the music of Richard Strauss, Johann Strauss and Richard Wagner. He founded the New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic and conducted it until 1954.

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16/05/1953

Django Reinhardt, Belgian guitarist and composer (born 1910)

Jean Reinhardt, known by his Romani nickname Django, was a Belgian-born Romani jazz guitarist and composer who lived most of his life in France. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents.

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16/05/1947

Frederick Gowland Hopkins, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1861)

Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins was an English biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929, with Christiaan Eijkman, for the discovery of vitamins. He also discovered the amino acid tryptophan, in 1901. He was President of the Royal Society from 1930 to 1935.

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Kalle Hakala, Finnish politician (born 1880)

Kalle Juhonpoika Hakala was a Finnish newspaper editor, politician and member of the Parliament of Finland, the national legislature of Finland. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), he represented Mikkeli Province between October 1934 and May 1947. He had previously represented Mikkeli Province from February 1911 to May 1918 and from May 1924 to August 1933. He was imprisoned for a year following the end of the Finnish Civil War.

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Zhang Lingfu, Chinese general (born 1903)

Zhang Lingfu was a high-ranking general of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army. He successfully fought against the Communists and the Imperial Japanese Army. In 1947, his unit was surrounded by Chinese communist forces commanded by Field Marshal Chen Yi and General Su Yu. Zhang was unable to breakout from the communist encirclement because the relief efforts headed by his nationalist colleagues did not arrive in time, and he was killed in action in the Menglianggu Campaign on May 16, 1947.

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16/05/1946

Bruno Tesch, German chemist and businessman (born 1890)

Bruno Emil Tesch was a German chemist and entrepreneur. Together with Gerhard Peters and Walter Heerdt, he invented the insecticide Zyklon B. He was the owner of Tesch & Stabenow, a pest control company he co-founded in 1924 with Paul Stabenow in Hamburg, Germany. During the Holocaust, Tesch sold vast quantities of Zyklon B, utilising his pesticide as a way to commit genocide. Over 1.1 million people were murdered by the Nazis using Zyklon B. A former employee of Tesch later said he was motivated not by ideology, but financial gain.

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16/05/1944

George Ade, American journalist, author, and playwright (born 1866)

George Ade was an American writer, syndicated newspaper columnist, librettist, and playwright who gained national notoriety at the turn of the 20th century with his "Stories of the Streets and of the Town", a column that used street language and slang to describe daily life in Chicago, and a column of his fables in slang, which were humorous stories that featured vernacular speech and the liberal use of capitalization in his characters' dialog.

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Filip Mișea, Aromanian activist, physician and politician (born 1873)

Filip Mișea was an Aromanian activist, physician and politician. Mișea became an Ottoman deputy, with him and Nicolae Constantin Batzaria being the only Aromanians to ever enter the Ottoman parliament. He would later move to Romania and devote himself to medicine there.

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16/05/1943

Alfred Hoche, German psychiatrist and academic (born 1865)

Alfred Erich Hoche was a German psychiatrist known for his writings about eugenics and euthanasia and his later recanting thereof.

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Nigger, black labrador retriever belonging to Wing Commander Guy Gibson of the Royal Air Force, and the mascot of No. 617 Squadron.

Nigger was a male black labrador retriever belonging to Wing Commander Guy Gibson of the Royal Air Force, and the mascot of No. 617 Squadron. Gibson owned the dog when he was previously a member of 106 Squadron. Nigger often accompanied Gibson on training flights and was a great favourite of the members of both 106 and 617 Squadrons. He was noted for his liking of beer, which he drank from his own bowl in the Officers' Mess.

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16/05/1938

Joseph Strauss, American engineer, co designed The Golden Gate Bridge (born 1870)

Joseph Baermann Strauss was an American structural engineer who revolutionized the design of bascule bridges. He was the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.

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16/05/1936

Leonidas Paraskevopoulos, Greek general and politician (born 1860)

Leonidas Paraskevopoulos was a Greek military officer and politician. He played a major role in Greece's war effort during the First World War, and was the commander-in-chief of the Army of Asia Minor during the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). In his later life, he was a member of the Greek Senate and served as its speaker in 1930–32.

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16/05/1926

Mehmed VI, the 36th and last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (born 1861)

Mehmed VI Vahideddin, also known as Şahbaba among the Osmanoğlu family, was the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the penultimate Ottoman caliph, reigning from 4 July 1918 until 1 November 1922, when the Ottoman Sultanate was abolished and replaced by the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923.

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16/05/1920

Levi P. Morton, American politician, 22nd United States Vice President (born 1824)

Levi Parsons Morton was the 22nd vice president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He also served as United States ambassador to France, as a U.S. representative from New York, and as the 31st governor of New York.

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16/05/1913

Louis Perrier, Swiss architect and politician (born 1849)

Frédéric-François-Louis Perrier was a Swiss architect and politician who was a Federal Councillor from 1912 until his death in 1913. As of 2009, he is the member with the shortest time in office.

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16/05/1910

Henri-Edmond Cross, French Neo-Impressionist painter (born 1856)

Henri-Edmond Cross, born Henri-Edmond-Joseph Delacroix, was a French painter and printmaker. He is most acclaimed as a master of Neo-Impressionism and he played an important role in shaping the second phase of that movement. He was a significant influence on Henri Matisse and many other artists. His work was instrumental in the development of Fauvism.

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16/05/1891

Ion C. Brătianu, Romanian politician, 14th Prime Minister of Romania (born 1821)

Ion Constantin Brătianu was one of the major political figures of 19th-century Romania. He was the son of Dincă Brătianu and the younger brother of Dumitru Brătianu, as well as the father of Ion I. C. Brătianu, Dinu Brătianu and Vintilă Brătianu.

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16/05/1890

Mihkel Veske, Estonian poet, linguist and theologist (born 1843)

Mihkel Veske was an Estonian poet and linguist.

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16/05/1882

Reuben Chapman, American lawyer and politician, 13th Governor of Alabama (born 1799)

Reuben Chapman was an American lawyer and politician. He served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1835 to 1847, and as the 13th governor of Alabama from 1847 to 1849.

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16/05/1862

Edward Gibbon Wakefield, English politician (born 1796)

Edward Gibbon Wakefield was an English politician in colonial Canada and New Zealand. He is considered a key figure in the establishment in the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s of British colonies in Australia and New Zealand. He also played a role in the history of Canada, being involved in the drafting of Lord Durham's Report and serving as a member of the Parliament of the Province of Canada for a short time.

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16/05/1861

John Stevens Henslow, British priest, geologist and doctoral advisor to Charles Darwin (born 1796)

John Stevens Henslow was an English Anglican priest, botanist and geologist. He is best remembered as friend and mentor to Charles Darwin.

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16/05/1830

Joseph Fourier, French mathematician and physicist (born 1768)

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier was a French mathematician and physicist born in Auxerre, Burgundy and best known for initiating the investigation of Fourier series, which eventually developed into Fourier analysis and harmonic analysis, and their applications to problems of heat transfer and vibrations. The Fourier transform and Fourier's law of conduction are also named in his honour. Fourier is also generally credited with the discovery of the greenhouse effect.

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16/05/1823

Grace Elliott, Scottish courtesan and spy (born c. 1754)

Grace Dalrymple Elliott was a Scottish courtesan, writer and spy resident in Paris during the French Revolution. She was an eyewitness to events detailed in her memoirs, Journal of my life during the French Revolution published posthumously in 1859. She was mistress, first to the future George IV, by whom she is said to have borne an illegitimate daughter, and then to the Duke of Orléans. Elliott trafficked correspondence and helped condemned Royalists and members of the French nobility escape from the First French Republic during the Reign of Terror. She was arrested several times but managed to avoid the guillotine, and was released following the military coup that ended the Terror and resulted in the execution of Robespierre.

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16/05/1818

Matthew Lewis, English author and playwright (born 1775)

Matthew Gregory Lewis was an English novelist and dramatist, whose writings are often classified as "Gothic horror". He was frequently referred to as "Monk" Lewis, because of the success of his 1796 Gothic novel The Monk. He also worked as a diplomat, politician and an estate owner in Jamaica.

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16/05/1790

Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire (born 1720)

Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, PC, FRS, styled Viscount Royston between 1754 and 1764, was a British politician and writer.

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16/05/1778

Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (born 1718)

Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness,, known before 1721 as Lord Darcy and Conyers, was a British diplomat and politician who served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department from 1754 to 1761.

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16/05/1703

Charles Perrault, French author and academic (born 1628)

Charles Perrault was a French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales, published in his 1697 book Histoires ou contes du temps passé. The best known of his tales include "Little Red Riding Hood", "Cinderella", "Puss in Boots", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Bluebeard".

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16/05/1696

Mariana of Austria, Queen consort of Spain (born 1634)

Mariana of Austria was Queen of Spain from 1649 until her husband Philip IV of Spain died in 1665. Appointed Regent for their infant son Charles II, she remained an influential figure until her own death in 1696.

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16/05/1691

Jacob Leisler, German-American politician, 8th Colonial Governor of New York (born 1640)

Jacob Leisler was a German-born politician and colonial administrator in the Province of New York. He gained wealth in New Amsterdam in the North American fur trade and tobacco business. In what became known as Leisler's Rebellion following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, he took control of the city, and ultimately the entire province, from appointees of deposed King James II, in the name of the Protestant accession of William III and Mary II.

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16/05/1669

Pietro da Cortona, Italian painter and architect, designed the Santi Luca e Martina (born 1596)

Pietro da Cortona was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important designer of interior decorations.

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16/05/1667

Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, English politician, Lord High Treasurer (born 1607)

Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, KG, styled Lord Wriothesley before 1624, was an English statesman, a staunch supporter of King Charles II who after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 rose to the position of Lord High Treasurer, which term began with the assumption of power by the Clarendon Ministry. He "was remarkable for his freedom from any taint of corruption and for his efforts in the interests of economy and financial order", a noble if not a completely objective view of his work as the keeper of the nation's finances. He died before the impeachment of Lord Clarendon, after which the Cabal Ministry took over government.

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16/05/1657

Andrew Bobola, Polish missionary and martyr (born 1591)

Andrew Bobola, SJ was a Polish missionary and martyr of the Society of Jesus, known as the "Apostle of Lithuania" and the "hunter of souls". He was beaten and tortured to death during the Khmelnytsky Uprising. He was canonized in 1938 by Pope Pius XI.

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16/05/1620

William Adams, English sailor and navigator (born 1564)

William Adams, better known in Japan as Miura Anjin , was an English navigator who, in 1600, became the first Englishman to reach Japan. He was later granted samurai status, and was recognised as one of the most influential foreigners in Japan during the early 17th century.

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16/05/1561

Jan Tarnowski, Polish noble and statesman (born 1488)

Jan Amor Tarnowski was a Polish nobleman, knight, military commander, military theoretician, and statesman of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. He was Grand Crown Hetman from 1527, and was the founder of the city of Tarnopol, where he built the Ternopil Castle and the Ternopil Pond. The first Count of the Holy Roman Empire in the Tarnowski family (1547).

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16/05/1412

Gian Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan (born 1388)

Gian Maria Visconti was the second Visconti Duke of Milan, the son of Gian Galeazzo Visconti and Caterina Visconti. He was known to be cruel and was eventually assassinated. He had no children.

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16/05/1375

Liu Bowen, Chinese military strategist, officer, statesman and poet (born 1311)

Liu Ji, courtesy name Bowen, better known as Liu Bowen, was a Chinese military strategist, philosopher, and politician who lived in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. He was born in Qingtian County. He served as a key advisor to Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dynasty, in the latter's struggle to overthrow the Yuan dynasty and unify China proper under his rule. Liu is also known for his prophecies and has been described as the "Divine Chinese Nostradamus". He and Jiao Yu co-edited the military treatise known as the Huolongjing.

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16/05/1265

Simon Stock, English-French saint (born 1165)

Simon Stock, OCarm was an English Catholic priest and saint who lived in the 13th century and was an early prior of the Carmelite Order. The Blessed Virgin Mary is traditionally said to have appeared to him and given him the Brown Scapular. Popular devotion to Saint Simon Stock is usually associated with devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

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16/05/1182

John Komnenos Vatatzes, Byzantine general (born 1132)

John Komnenos Vatatzes, or simply John Komnenos or John Vatatzes in the sources, was a major military and political figure in the Byzantine Empire during the reigns of Manuel I Komnenos and Alexios II Komnenos. He was born c. 1132, and died of natural causes during a rebellion he raised against Andronikos I Komnenos in 1182.

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16/05/1115

Lambert of Arras, Flemish bishop

Lambert of Guînes was the bishop of Arras (1094–1115). He was a major regional player and an active proponent of the Cluniac reform movement.

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16/05/0995

Fujiwara no Michitaka, Japanese nobleman (born 953)

Fujiwara no Michitaka , the first son of Kaneie, was a Kugyō of the Heian period. He served as regent (Sesshō) for the Emperor Ichijō, and later as Kampaku. Ichijō married Michitaka's daughter Teishi (Sadako), thus continuing the close ties between the Imperial family and the Fujiwara.

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16/05/0934

Meng Hanqiong, eunuch official of Later Tang

Meng Hanqiong, was a eunuch of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Later Tang. He became powerful late in the reign of its second emperor Li Siyuan, in association with Li Siyuan's favorite concubine Consort Wang, and continued to be during the reign of Li Siyuan's son and successor Li Conghou. He was killed by Li Conghou's adoptive brother Li Congke, who overthrew Li Conghou.

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16/05/0895

Qian Kuan, Chinese nobleman

Qian Kuan, courtesy name Hongdao, was the father of the warlord Qian Liu who founded the Wuyue kingdom.

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16/05/0290

Emperor Wu of Jin, Chinese emperor (born 236)

Emperor Wu of Jin, personal name Sima Yan, courtesy name Anshi (安世), was a grandson of Sima Yi, nephew of Sima Shi and son of Sima Zhao. He became the first emperor of the Jin dynasty after forcing Cao Huan, last emperor of the state of Cao Wei, to abdicate to him. He reigned from 266 to 290, and after conquering the state of Eastern Wu in 280, was the emperor of a reunified China. Emperor Wu was also known for his extravagance and sensuality, especially after the unification of China; legends boasted of his incredible potency among ten thousand concubines.

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