Died on Saturday, 17th May – Famous Deaths

17/05/2024

Bud Anderson, American World War II flying ace (born 1922)

Clarence Emil "Bud" Anderson was an officer in the United States Air Force and a triple ace of World War II. During the war he was the highest scoring flying ace in his P-51 Mustang squadron.

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Sid Going, New Zealand rugby union footballer (born 1943)

Sidney Milton Going was a New Zealand rugby union footballer. Dubbed Super Sid by his fans, he played 86 matches, including 29 tests, for the All Blacks between 1967 and 1977. He represented North Auckland domestically.

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17/05/2022

Vangelis, Greek musician, composer (born 1943)

Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, known professionally as Vangelis, was a Greek musician, composer, and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He composed the Academy Award-winning score to Chariots of Fire (1981), as well as scores for the films Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Alexander (2004), and the 1980 PBS documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan.

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17/05/2020

Lucky Peterson, American blues singer, keyboardist and guitarist (born 1964)

Judge Kenneth "Lucky" Peterson was an American musician who played contemporary blues, fusing soul, R&B, gospel and rock and roll. He was a vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist. Music journalist Tony Russell, in his book The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray has said, "he may be the only blues musician to have had national television exposure in short pants."

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17/05/2019

Herman Wouk, American author (born 1915)

Herman Wouk was an American author. He published 15 novels, many of them historical fiction such as The Caine Mutiny (1951), for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1952. Other well-known works included The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, the bildungsroman Marjorie Morningstar; and non-fiction such as This Is My God, an explanation of Judaism from a Modern Orthodox perspective, written for Jewish and non-Jewish readers. His books have been translated into 27 languages.

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17/05/2017

Todor Veselinović, Serbian football player and manager (born 1930)

Todor "Toza" Veselinović was a Yugoslav and Serbian football manager and player.

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17/05/2015

Lionel Pickens, American rapper (born 1983)

Lionel Du Fon Pickens, professionally known as Chinx, was an American rapper. He was a member of The Rockaway Riot Squad alongside fellow slain rapper Stack Bundles. Chinx later joined French Montana's Coke Boys Records, gaining recognition for his appearances on the Coke Boys mixtapes and the Cocaine Riot mixtape series. He was killed in a drive-by shooting in Jamaica, Queens on May 17, 2015. Two men have since been arrested in the case.

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17/05/2014

Gerald Edelman, American biologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1929)

Gerald Maurice Edelman was an American biologist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work with Rodney Robert Porter on the immune system. Edelman's Nobel Prize-winning research concerned discovery of the structure of antibody molecules. In interviews, he has said that the way the components of the immune system evolve over the life of the individual is analogous to the way the components of the brain evolve in a lifetime. There is a continuity in this way between his work on the immune system, for which he won the Nobel Prize, and his later work in neuroscience and in philosophy of mind.

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C. P. Krishnan Nair, Indian businessman, founded The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts (born 1922)

Captain Chittarath Poovakkatt Krishnan Nair was an Indian businessman who founded The Leela Group. He was a 2010 recipient of the Padma Bhushan, given by Government of India. He was sometimes popularly known as Captain Nair due to his service in the Indian Army.

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Douangchay Phichit, Laotian politician (born 1944)

Lieutenant general Douangchay Phichit was a Laotian politician from Attapeu and a Politburo member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party. He served as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense.

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Thongbanh Sengaphone, Laotian politician (born 1953)

Thongbanh Sengaphone was a Laotian politician and member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP). He served as Minister of Public Security and held seats in the LPRP's Central Committee and the Secretariat.

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17/05/2013

Philippe Gaumont, French cyclist (born 1973)

Philippe Gaumont was a French professional road racing cyclist. He earned a bronze medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics, 100 km team time trial. In 1997, he won the Belgian classic Gent–Wevelgem and he was twice individual pursuit French national champion, in 2000 and 2002. In 2004, Gaumont quit professional cycling and later ran a café in Amiens.

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Peter Schulz, German politician, Mayor of Hamburg (born 1930)

Peter Schulz was a German politician, member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and First Mayor of Hamburg.

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Ken Venturi, American golfer and sportscaster (born 1931)

Kenneth Paul Venturi was an American professional golfer and golf broadcaster. In a career shortened by injuries, he won 14 events on the PGA Tour including a major, the U.S. Open in 1964. Shortly before his death in 2013, Venturi was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

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Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentine Commander in Chief and dictator (born 1925)

General Jorge Rafael Videla was an Argentine military dictator and the President of Argentina from 1976 to 1981 during the National Reorganization Process. His rule, which was during the time of Operation Condor, was among the most infamous in Latin America during the Cold War due to its high level of human rights abuses including abductions, torture, executions and systematic kidnapping of children from female prisoners, as well as severe economic mismanagement.

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17/05/2012

Gideon Ezra, Israeli geographer and politician, Israeli Minister in the Prime Minister's Office (born 1937)

Gideon Ezra was an Israeli politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Likud and Kadima between 1996 and 2012 and also held several ministerial portfolios.

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Patrick Mafisango, Congolese-Rwandan footballer (born 1980)

Patrick Mutesa Mafisango was a Rwandan international footballer who played as a midfielder.

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Donna Summer, American singer-songwriter (born 1948)

Donna Adrian Gaines, known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the "Queen of Disco", while her music gained a global following.

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17/05/2011

Harmon Killebrew, American baseball player and sportscaster (born 1936)

Harmon Clayton Killebrew Jr., nicknamed "the Killer" and "Hammerin' Harmon", was an American professional baseball player as a first baseman, third baseman, and left fielder. He spent most of his 22-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Minnesota Twins. A prolific power hitter, Killebrew had the fifth-most home runs in major league history at the time of his retirement. He was second only to Babe Ruth in American League (AL) home runs, and was the AL career leader in home runs by a right-handed batter. Killebrew was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984.

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17/05/2010

Yvonne Loriod, French pianist, composer, and educator (born 1924)

Yvonne Louise Georgette Loriod-Messiaen was a French pianist, teacher, and composer, and the second wife of composer Olivier Messiaen. Her sister was the Ondes Martenot player Jeanne Loriod.

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Walasse Ting, Chinese-American painter and poet (born 1929)

Walasse Ting was a Chinese-American visual artist and poet. His colorful paintings have attracted critical admiration and a popular following. Common subjects include nude women and cats, birds and other animals.

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17/05/2009

Mario Benedetti, Uruguayan journalist, author, and poet (born 1920)

Mario Benedetti Farrugia, was a Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet and an integral member of the Generación del 45. Despite publishing more than 80 books and being published in twenty languages, he was not well known in the English-speaking world. In the Spanish-speaking world, he is considered one of Latin America's most important writers of the latter half of the 20th century.

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Jung Seung-hye, South Korean journalist and producer (born 1965)

Jung Seung-hye was a South Korean film producer.

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17/05/2007

Lloyd Alexander, American soldier and author (born 1924)

Lloyd Chudley Alexander was an American author of more than 40 books, primarily fantasy novels for children and young adults. Over his seven-decade career, Alexander wrote 48 books, and his work has been translated into 20 languages. His most famous work is The Chronicles of Prydain, a series of five high fantasy novels whose conclusion, The High King, was awarded the 1969 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature. He won U.S. National Book Awards in 1971 and 1982.

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T. K. Doraiswamy, Indian poet and author (born 1921)

T. K. Doraiswamy, also known by his pen name Nakulan, was an Indian poet, professor of English, novelist, translator and short fiction writer, who wrote both in Tamil and English, and is known for his surrealism and experimentation as well as free verse. He served as Professor of English, Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram for four decades.

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17/05/2006

Cy Feuer, American director, producer, and composer (born 1911)

Cyrus "Cy" Feuer was an American theatre producer, director, composer, musician, and half of the celebrated producing duo Feuer and Martin. He won three competitive Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, and a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award. He was also nominated for Academy Awards as the producer of Storm Over Bengal and Cabaret.

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17/05/2005

Frank Gorshin, American actor (born 1934)

Frank John Gorshin Jr. was an American actor, comedian and impressionist. He made many guest appearances on television variety and talk shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show, Tonight Starring Steve Allen, The Dean Martin Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

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17/05/2004

Jørgen Nash, Danish poet and painter (born 1920)

Jørgen Nash was a Danish artist, writer and central proponent of Situationism.

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Tony Randall, American actor (born 1920)

Anthony Leonard Randall was an American actor, comedian, director, producer and singer, active in film, television and stage.

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Ezzedine Salim, Iraqi politician (born 1943)

Ezzedine Salim, also known as Abdelzahra Othman Mohammed, was an Iraqi politician, author, educator, Islamist theorist and one of the leading members of the Iraqi Dawa Movement between 1980 and 2004. He served as the President of the Governing Council of Iraq in 2004.

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17/05/2002

László Kubala, Hungarian-Spanish footballer, coach, and manager (born 1927)

László Kubala was a professional footballer. He played as a forward for Ferencváros, Slovan Bratislava, Barcelona, and Espanyol, among other clubs. Regarded as one of the greatest players in history, Kubala is considered a hero of Barcelona. He was born in Hungary but also had Czechoslovak and Spanish citizenship, and played for the national teams of all three countries.

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Aşık Mahzuni Şerif, Turkish poet and composer (born 1940)

Şerif Cırık, popularly known as Aşık Mahsuni Şerif, was a Turkish ashik, folk musician, composer, poet, and author. Aşık is a title used to indicate his position as a respected musician and his relationship with Alevism.

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17/05/2001

Jacques-Louis Lions, French mathematician (born 1928)

Jacques-Louis Lions was a French mathematician who made contributions to the theory of partial differential equations and to stochastic control, among other areas. He received the SIAM's John von Neumann Lecture prize in 1986 and numerous other distinctions. Lions is listed as an ISI highly cited researcher.

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Frank G. Slaughter, American physician and author (born 1908)

Frank Gill Slaughter, pen-name Frank G. Slaughter, pseudonym C. V. Terry, was an American novelist and physician whose books sold more than 60 million copies. His novels drew on his own experience as a doctor and his interest in history and the Bible. Through his novels, he often introduced readers to new findings in medical research and new medical technologies.

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17/05/2000

Donald Coggan, English archbishop (born 1909)

Frederick Donald Coggan, Baron Coggan, was the 101st Archbishop of Canterbury from 1974 to 1980. As Archbishop of Canterbury, he "revived morale within the Church of England, opened a dialogue with Rome and supported women's ordination". He had previously been successively the Bishop of Bradford and the Archbishop of York.

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17/05/1999

Bruce Fairbairn, Canadian trumpet player and producer (born 1949)

Bruce Earl Fairbairn was a Canadian musician and record producer.

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Lembit Oll, Estonian chess Grandmaster (born 1966)

Lembit Oll was an Estonian chess grandmaster.

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17/05/1996

Kevin Gilbert, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1966)

Kevin Matthew Gilbert was an American singer, songwriter, musician, composer, and producer. He was best known for his solo progressive rock projects, Toy Matinee and his contributions to Tuesday Night Music Club (1993), the debut studio album of Sheryl Crow. Kevin Gilbert was found dead at his Los Angeles-area home on May 18, 1996, at the age of 29.

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17/05/1995

Toe Blake, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1912)

Joseph Hector "Toe" Blake was a Canadian ice hockey player and coach in the National Hockey League (NHL). Blake played in the NHL from 1935 to 1948 with the Montreal Maroons and Montreal Canadiens. He led the NHL in scoring in 1939, while also winning the Hart Trophy for most valuable player, and served as captain of the Canadiens from 1940 to his retirement. He won the Stanley Cup three times as a player: in 1935 with the Maroons, and in 1944 and 1946 with the Canadiens. While with the Canadiens Blake played on a line with Elmer Lach and Maurice Richard which was dubbed the Punch line, as all three were highly-skilled players. In 2017 Blake was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history. He was also known as "The Old Lamplighter" due to his skill for putting the puck in the net.

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17/05/1992

Lawrence Welk, American accordion player and bandleader (born 1903)

Lawrence Welk was an American accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1951 to 1982. The program was known for its light and family-friendly style, and the easy listening music featured became known as "champagne music" to his radio, television, and live-performance audiences.

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17/05/1987

Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish economist, sociologist, and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1898)

Karl Gunnar Myrdal was a Swedish economist and sociologist. In 1974, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences along with Friedrich Hayek for "their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena." When his wife, Alva Myrdal, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982, they became the fourth ever married couple to have won Nobel Prizes, and the first and only to win independent of each other.

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17/05/1985

Abe Burrows, American director, composer, and author (born 1910)

Abe Burrows was an American writer, composer, humorist, director for radio and the stage, and librettist for Broadway musicals. His versatile career in radio, Broadway, and television spanned many decades. He is best known for co-writing the book to the award-winning musicals Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

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17/05/1980

Gündüz Kılıç, Turkish football player and coach (born 1918)

"Baba" Gündüz Kılıç was a Turkish football player and coach. He was Ali Kılıç's son and Altemur Kılıç's brother.

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17/05/1977

Charles E. Rosendahl, American admiral and pilot (born 1892)

Charles Emery Rosendahl was a highly decorated vice admiral in the United States Navy, and an advocate of lighter-than-air flight.

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17/05/1974

Ernest Nash, German-American photographer and scholar (born 1898)

Ernest Nash was a student of Roman architecture and pioneer of archaeological photography. Nash was born as Ernst Nathan in Potsdam, Germany, but later changed his name to Nash when he was living in the United States between 1939 and 1952.

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17/05/1964

Nandor Fodor, Hungarian-American psychologist and parapsychologist (born 1895)

Nandor Fodor was a British and American parapsychologist, psychoanalyst, author and journalist of Hungarian origin.

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17/05/1963

John Wilce, American football player, coach, and physician (born 1888)

John Woodworth Wilce was an American college football player and coach, physician, and university professor. He served as the head football coach at Ohio State University from 1913 to 1928, compiling a record of 78–33–9. Wilce coached Chic Harley and led Ohio State to their first win over rival Michigan, in 1919. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1954.

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17/05/1960

Jules Supervielle, Uruguayan-French poet and author (born 1884)

Jules Supervielle was a Franco-Uruguayan poet and writer born in Montevideo. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times.

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17/05/1951

William Birdwood, Anglo-Indian field marshal (born 1865)

Field Marshal William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood was a senior and highly decorated and distinguished British Indian Army officer. He saw active service in the Second Boer War on the staff of Lord Kitchener. Birdwood saw action again in the First World War, initially as commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915, leading the landings on the peninsula and then the evacuation later in the year, before becoming commander of the Australian Corps and the Fifth Army on the Western Front during the closing stages of the war. He then went on to be general officer commanding the Northern Army in India in 1920 and Commander-in-Chief, India, in 1925, and retired as a field marshal.

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17/05/1947

George Forbes, New Zealand farmer and politician, 22nd Prime Minister of New Zealand (born 1869)

George William Forbes was a New Zealand politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of New Zealand from 28 May 1930 to 6 December 1935. He was the last leader of the remnant of the Liberal Party having entered the House of Representatives in 1908 as a Radical in that Party. Forbes was a co-founder of the United Party in 1927. Later he was a founder of the New Zealand National Party in 1936 and the Party's first parliamentary leader.

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17/05/1943

Johanna Elberskirchen, German author and activist (born 1864)

Johanna Elberskirchen was a feminist writer and activist for the rights of women, gays and lesbians as well as blue-collar workers. She published books on women's sexuality and health among other topics. Her last known public appearance was in 1930 in Vienna, where she gave a talk at a conference organised by the World League for Sexual Reform. She was open about her own homosexuality which made her a somewhat exceptional figure in the feminist movement of her time. Her career as an activist was ended in 1933, when the Nazi Party rose to power. There is no public record of a funeral but witnesses report that Elberskirchen's urn was secretly put into the grave of Hildegard Moniac, who had been her life partner.

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17/05/1938

Jakob Ehrlich, Czech-Austrian academic and politician (born 1877)

Jakob Ehrlich was an early Zionist and leader of the Jewish Community in Vienna, Austria. Ehrlich represented the city's 180,000 Jewish citizens in the city government before World War II, and was among those deported in the "Prominententransport" to the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, soon after the German army entered Vienna in March 1938. He died in Dachau a few weeks later, from beatings. His wife, Irma Hutter Ehrlich emigrated to England, then the USA with their son where she was active in the rescue of Jewish children from Europe, working with WIZO and Hadassah.

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17/05/1936

Panagis Tsaldaris, Greek lawyer and politician, 124th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1868)

Panagis Tsaldaris was a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece twice. He was a revered conservative politician and leader for many years (1922–1936) of the conservative People's Party in the period before World War II. He was the husband of Lina Tsaldari, a Greek suffragist, member of Parliament, and the Minister for Social Welfare.

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17/05/1935

Paul Dukas, French composer, critic, and educator (born 1865)

Paul Abraham Dukas was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical and abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best-known work is the orchestral piece The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the fame of which has eclipsed that of his other surviving works, largely due to its usage in the 1940 Disney film Fantasia. Among these are the opera Ariane et Barbe-bleue, his Symphony in C and Piano Sonata in E-flat minor, the Variations, Interlude and Finale on a Theme by Rameau, and a ballet, La Péri.

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17/05/1934

Cass Gilbert, American architect (born 1859)

Cass Gilbert was an American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers, his works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court building, the state capitols of Minnesota, Arkansas, and West Virginia, the Detroit Public Library, the Saint Louis Art Museum and Public Library. His public buildings in the Beaux Arts style reflect the optimistic American sense that the nation was heir to Greek democracy, Roman law and Renaissance humanism. Gilbert's achievements were recognized in his lifetime; he served as president of the American Institute of Architects in 1908–09.

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17/05/1927

Harold Geiger, American pilot and lieutenant (born 1884)

Major Harold Geiger was an American military officer and pioneer U.S. Army aviator, who was killed in an airplane crash in 1927. He was U.S. military aviator number 6. He was also a balloonist. Spokane International Airport is designated with the International Air Transport Association airport code GEG in his memory.

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17/05/1922

Dorothy Levitt, English racing driver and journalist (born 1882)

Dorothy Elizabeth Levitt was a British racing driver and journalist. She was the first British woman racing driver, holder of the world's first water speed record, the women's world land speed record holder, and an author. She was a pioneer of female independence and female motoring and taught Queen Alexandra and the Royal Princesses how to drive. In 1905, she established the record for the longest drive achieved by a lady driver by driving a De Dion-Bouton from London to Liverpool and back over two days, receiving the soubriquets in the press of the Fastest Girl on Earth, and the Champion Lady Motorist of the World.

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17/05/1921

Karl Mantzius, Danish actor and director (born 1860)

Karl Mantzius was a Danish actor, stage and film director, theatre scholar, and operatic baritone.

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17/05/1919

Guido von List, Austrian-German journalist, author, and poet (born 1848)

Guido Karl Anton List, better known as Guido von List, was an Austrian occultist, journalist, playwright, and novelist. He expounded a modern Pagan new religious movement known as Wotanism, which he claimed was the revival of the religion of the ancient German race, and which included an inner set of Ariosophical teachings that he termed Armanism.

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17/05/1917

Clara Ayres, American nurse (born 1880)

Clara Ayres was an American nurse who joined the United States Army during the First World War. Ayres and Helen Burnett Wood were the first two women to be killed while serving in the United States military, following an explosion on USS Mongolia on May 17, 1917.

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Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak (born 1829)

Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke was the head of state of Sarawak from 3 August 1868 until his death. He succeeded his uncle, James Brooke, who was the first of the so-called "White Rajahs" of Sarawak.

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17/05/1916

Boris Borisovich Golitsyn, Russian physicist and seismologist (born 1862)

Prince Boris Borisovich Golitsyn was a prominent Russian Empire physicist who invented the first electromagnetic seismograph in 1906. He was one of the founders of modern seismology. In 1911 he was chosen to be the president of the International Seismology Association.

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17/05/1911

Frederick August Otto Schwarz, German-American businessman, founded FAO Schwarz (born 1836)

Frederick August Otto Schwarz was a German-born American toy retailer known for founding FAO Schwarz.

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17/05/1888

Giacomo Zanella, Italian priest and poet (born 1820)

Giacomo Zanella was an Italian poet.

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17/05/1886

John Deere, American blacksmith and businessman, founded the Deere & Company (born 1804)

John Deere was an American blacksmith, businessman, inventor and politician. He founded Deere & Company, one of the largest and leading agricultural and construction-equipment manufacturers in the world. Born in Rutland, Vermont, Deere moved to Illinois and invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837.

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17/05/1880

Ziya Pasha, Greek author and translator (born 1826)

Ziya Pasha, the pseudonym of Abdul Hamid Ziyaeddin, was an Ottoman writer, translator and administrator. He was one of the most important authors during the Tanzimat period of the Ottoman Empire, along with İbrahim Şinasi and Namık Kemal.

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17/05/1879

Asa Packer, American businessman, founded Lehigh University (born 1805)

Asa Packer was an American businessman who pioneered railroad construction, was active in Pennsylvania politics, and founded Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was a conservative and religious man who reflected the image of the typical Connecticut Yankee. He served two terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1853 to 1857.

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17/05/1875

John C. Breckinridge, American lawyer and politician, 14th Vice President of the United States, Confederate States general (born 1821)

John Cabell Breckinridge was an American politician who served as the 14th vice president of the United States, with President James Buchanan, from 1857 to 1861, and as a general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Assuming office at the age of 36, Breckinridge is the youngest vice president in U.S. history. He was also the Southern Democratic candidate in the 1860 presidential election, losing to antislavery Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln.

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17/05/1868

Kondō Isami, Japanese commander (born 1834)

Kondō Isami was a Japanese swordsman and samurai of the late Edo period. He was the fourth generation master of Tennen Rishin-ryū and was famed for his role as commander of the Shinsengumi.

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17/05/1839

Archibald Alison, Scottish priest and author (born 1757)

Archibald Alison was a Scottish Anglican priest and essayist.

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17/05/1838

René Caillié, French explorer and author (born 1799)

Auguste René Caillié was a French explorer and the first European to return alive from the town of Timbuktu. Caillié had been preceded at Timbuktu by a British officer, Major Gordon Laing, who was murdered in September 1826 on leaving the city. Caillié was therefore the first to return alive.

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Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, French politician, Prime Minister of France (born 1754)

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, 1st Prince of Benevento, then Prince of Talleyrand, was a French secularized clergyman, statesman, and leading diplomat. After studying theology, he became Agent-General of the Clergy in 1780. In 1789, just before the French Revolution, he became Bishop of Autun. He worked at the highest levels of successive French governments, most commonly as foreign minister or in some other diplomatic capacity. He served as the French representative to the Congress of Vienna. His career spanned the regimes of Louis XVI, the years of the French Revolution, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, Charles X, and Louis Philippe I. Those Talleyrand served often distrusted him but found him extremely useful. The name "Talleyrand" has become a byword for crafty and cynical diplomacy.

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17/05/1829

John Jay, American politician and diplomat, 1st Chief Justice of the United States (born 1745)

John Jay was an American statesman, diplomat, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served from 1789 to 1795 as the first chief justice of the United States and from 1795 to 1801 as the second governor of New York. Jay directed U.S. foreign policy for much of the 1780s and was an important leader of the Federalist Party after the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788.

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17/05/1822

Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, French general and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of France (born 1766)

Armand Emmanuel Sophie Septimanie de Vignerot du Plessis, 5th Duke of Richelieu and Fronsac, was a French statesman during the Bourbon Restoration. He was known by the courtesy title of Count of Chinon until 1788, then Duke of Fronsac until 1791, when he succeeded his father as Duke of Richelieu.

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17/05/1809

Leopold Auenbrugger, Austrian physician (born 1722)

Josef Leopold Auenbrugger or Avenbrugger, also known as Leopold von Auenbrugger, was an Austrian physician who invented percussion as a diagnostic technique. On the strength of this discovery, he is considered one of the founders of modern medicine.

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17/05/1807

John Gunby, American general (born 1745)

John Gunby was an American planter and soldier from Somerset County, Maryland, who is considered by many to be "one of the most gallant officers of the Maryland Line under Gen. Smallwood". He entered service volunteering as a minuteman in 1775 and fought for the American cause until the end earning praise as probably the most brilliant soldier whom Maryland contributed to the War of Independence. Gunby was also the grandfather of Senator Ephraim King Wilson II.

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17/05/1801

William Heberden, English physician and scholar (born 1710)

William Heberden FRS was an English physician.

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17/05/1797

Michel-Jean Sedaine, French playwright and composer (born 1719)

Michel-Jean Sedaine was a French dramatist and librettist, especially noted for his librettos for opéras comiques, in which he took an important and influential role in the advancement of the genre from the period of Charles-Simon Favart to the beginning of the Revolution.

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17/05/1765

Alexis Clairaut, French mathematician, astronomer, and geophysicist (born 1713)

Alexis Claude Clairaut was a French mathematician, astronomer, and geophysicist. He was a prominent Newtonian whose work helped to establish the validity of the principles and results that Sir Isaac Newton had outlined in the Principia of 1687. Clairaut was one of the key figures in the expedition to Lapland that helped to confirm Newton's theory for the figure of the Earth. In that context, Clairaut worked out a mathematical result now known as "Clairaut's theorem". He also tackled the gravitational three-body problem, being the first to obtain a satisfactory result for the apsidal precession of the Moon's orbit. In mathematics he is also credited with Clairaut's equation and Clairaut's relation.

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17/05/1729

Samuel Clarke, English clergyman and philosopher (born 1675)

Samuel Clarke was an English philosopher and Anglican priest. He is considered the major British figure in philosophy between John Locke and George Berkeley. Clarke's altered, Nontrinitarian revision of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer continues to influence worship among modern Unitarians.

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17/05/1727

Catherine I of Russia (born 1684)

Catherine I was Empress of Russia from 8 February 1725 until her death in 1727. She was previously empress consort of Russia from 1721 to 1725 as the second wife of Peter the Great, and tsaritsa consort from 1712 to 1721.

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17/05/1643

Giovanni Picchi, Italian organist and composer (born 1571)

Giovanni Picchi was an Italian composer, organist, lutenist, and harpsichordist of the early Baroque era. He was a late follower of the Venetian School, and was influential in the development and differentiation of instrumental forms which were just beginning to appear, such as the sonata and the ensemble canzona; in addition he was the only Venetian of his time to write dance music for harpsichord.

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17/05/1626

Joan Pau Pujol, Catalan organist and composer (born 1570)

Joan Pau Pujol was a Catalan and Spanish composer and organist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque. While best known for his sacred music, he also wrote popular secular music.

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17/05/1607

Anna d'Este, French princess (born 1531)

Anna d'Este was an important princess with considerable influence at the court of France and a central figure in the French Wars of Religion. In her first marriage, she was Duchess of Aumale, then of Guise, in her second marriage, Duchess of Nemours and Genevois.

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17/05/1606

False Dmitriy I, pretender to the Russian throne (born 1582)

False Dmitry I or Pseudo-Demetrius I reigned as the Tsar of all Russia from 10 June 1605 until his death on 17 May 1606 under the name of Dmitriy Ivanovich. According to historian Chester S. L. Dunning, Dmitry was "the only Tsar ever raised to the throne by means of a military campaign and popular uprisings".

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17/05/1575

Matthew Parker, English archbishop and academic (born 1504)

Matthew Parker was an English bishop. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England from 1559 to his death. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder of a distinctive tradition of Anglican theological thought.

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17/05/1558

Francisco de Sá de Miranda, Portuguese poet (born 1485)

Francisco de Sá de Miranda was a Portuguese poet of the Renaissance.

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17/05/1551

Shin Saimdang, South Korean poet and calligraphist (born 1504)

Shin Saimdang was a Korean artist, writer, calligraphist, and poet, who lived during the Joseon period. She was born in Gangneung, Gangwon Province. Her birth home, Ojukheon, which is also her maternal family's home, is well-preserved to this day. She was the mother of the Korean Confucian scholar Yi I. Often held up as a model of Confucian ideals, her respectful nickname was Eojin. Her real name was Shin In-seon. Her pen names were Saim, Saimdang, Inimdang, and Imsajae.

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17/05/1546

Philipp von Hutten, German explorer (born 1511)

Philipp von Hutten was a German adventurer and an early European explorer and conquistador of Venezuela. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Venedig, the concession of Venezuela Province to the Welser banking family by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain.

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17/05/1536

George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford, English courtier and diplomat, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (born 1504)

George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford was an English courtier and nobleman who played a prominent role in the politics of the early 1530s as the brother of Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII. George was the maternal uncle of Queen Elizabeth I, although he died long before his niece ascended the throne. Following his father's promotion in the peerage in 1529 to Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond, he adopted his father's junior title Viscount Rochford as a courtesy title. He was accused of incest with his sister Anne during the period of her trial for high treason, as a result of which both were executed.

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William Brereton, English courtier (born 1487)

William Brereton, c. 1487/1490 – 17 May 1536, was a member of a prominent Cheshire family who served as a courtier to Henry VIII. In May 1536, Brereton was accused of committing adultery with Anne Boleyn, the king's second wife, and executed for treason along with her brother George Boleyn, Henry Norris, Francis Weston and a musician, Mark Smeaton. Most historians are now of the opinion that Anne Boleyn, Brereton and their co-accused were innocent.

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Henry Norris, English courtier (born 1482)

Henry Norris was an English courtier who was Groom of the Stool in the privy chamber of King Henry VIII. While a close servant of the King, he also supported the faction in court led by Queen Anne Boleyn, and when Anne fell out of favour, he was among those accused of treason and adultery with her. He was found guilty and executed, together with the Queen's brother, George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, Sir Francis Weston, William Brereton and Mark Smeaton. Most historical authorities argue that the accusations were untrue and part of a plot to get rid of Anne.

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17/05/1521

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, Welsh politician, Lord High Constable of England (born 1478)

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham was an English nobleman. He was the son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Katherine Woodville and nephew of Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward IV. Thus, Edward Stafford was a first cousin once removed of King Henry VIII. He frequently attended the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII. He was convicted of treason and executed on 17 May 1521.

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17/05/1510

Sandro Botticelli, Italian painter (born 1445)

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli or simply Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when he was rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites who stimulated a reappraisal of his work. Since then, his paintings have been seen to represent the linear grace of late Italian Gothic and some Early Renaissance painting, even though they date from the latter half of the Italian Renaissance period.

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17/05/1464

Thomas de Ros, 9th Baron de Ros, English politician (born 1427)

Thomas Ros or Roos, 9th Baron Ros of Helmsley was a follower of the House of Lancaster during the Wars of the Roses.

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17/05/1395

Konstantin Dejanović/Constantine Dragaš, Serbian ruler (born 1355)

Konstantin (Kostadin) Dejanović or Konstantin Dragaš was a Serbian magnate that ruled a large province in eastern Macedonia under Ottoman suzerainty, during the fall of the Serbian Empire. He succeeded his older brother Jovan Dragaš, who had been an Ottoman vassal since the Battle of Maritsa (1371) which had devastated part of the Serbian nobility. The brothers had their own government and minted coins according to the Nemanjić style. His daughter Jelena married Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos in 1392. He fell at the Battle of Rovine, serving the Ottomans against Wallachia, fighting alongside Serbian magnates Stefan Lazarević and Marko Mrnjavčević.

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17/05/1365

Louis II, Elector of Brandenburg (born 1328)

Louis the Roman was the eldest son of Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV by his second wife, Margaret II, Countess of Hainaut, and a member of the House of Wittelsbach. Louis was Duke of Upper Bavaria as Louis VI (1347–1365) and Margrave of Brandenburg (1351–1365) as Louis II. As of 1356, he also served as Prince-Elector of Brandenburg.

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17/05/1336

Go-Fushimi, emperor of Japan (born 1288)

Emperor Go-Fushimi was the 93rd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1298 to 1301.

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17/05/1299

Daumantas of Pskov, Lithuanian prince (born c. 1240)

Daumantas was a Lithuanian nobleman who reigned as Prince of Pskov from 1266 until he died in 1299. Originally a Duke of Nalšia in the Kingdom of Lithuania, Daumantas fled internal political conflict and sought refuge in Pskov, eventually becoming its ruler. Under his leadership, Pskov asserted greater political autonomy and achieved de facto independence from Novgorod.

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17/05/1296

Agnes of Bohemia, Duchess of Austria (born 1269)

Agnes of Bohemia was a Bohemian princess, Countess of Habsburg, and Duchess of Austria.

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17/05/0946

Al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah, Fatimid caliph (born 893)

Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh, better known by his regnal name al-Qāʾim (القائم) or al-Qāʾim bi-Amr Allāh, was the twelfth Isma'ili Imam and second caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, ruling in Ifriqiya from 934 to 946, succeeding his father Abd Allah al-Mahdi Billah.

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17/05/0924

Li Maozhen, Chinese warlord and king (born 856)

Li Maozhen, born Song Wentong (宋文通), courtesy name Zhengchen (正臣), formally Prince Zhongjing of Qin (秦忠敬王), was the only ruler of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Qi (901–924). He had become a powerful warlord during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang, the penultimate emperor of the preceding Tang dynasty, with his power centered on his capital Fengxiang, and at times had effective control of Emperor Zhaozong. However, his power gradually waned due to defeats at the hands of fellow warlords Wang Jian and Zhu Quanzhong. After Zhu usurped the Tang throne and established Later Liang, Li Maozhen refused to submit and continued to use the Tang-bestowed title of Prince of Qi as well as maintain the Tang era name, but his territory became even more reduced due to wars with Former Shu and Later Liang. After Later Liang was conquered by Later Tang, whose Emperor Zhuangzong claimed to be a legitimate successor of Tang, Li Maozhen submitted as a subject and was created the Prince of Qin in 924. He died soon thereafter, and was succeeded as by his son Li Jiyan as the military governor (Jiedushi) of Fengxiang, but as Li Jiyan was not made the Prince of Qi or Qin at that point, this was typically viewed as the end of Qi as an independent state.

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17/05/0896

Liu Jianfeng, Chinese warlord

Liu Jianfeng, courtesy name Ruiduan (銳端), was a Chinese military general and politician during the Tang dynasty. He controlled Wu'an Circuit from 894 to his death in 896.

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17/05/0528

Empress Dowager Hu of Northern Wei

Empress Dowager Hu, formally Empress Ling (靈皇后), was an empress dowager of the Xianbei-led Chinese Northern Wei dynasty (515–528). She was a concubine of Emperor Xuanwu, and she became regent and empress dowager after her son Emperor Xiaoming became emperor after Emperor Xuanwu's death in 515. She was considered to be intelligent but overly lenient, and during her regency, many agrarian rebellions occurred while corruption raged among imperial officials. In 528, she was believed to have poisoned her son Emperor Xiaoming after he tried to have her lover Zheng Yan (鄭儼) executed. This caused the general Erzhu Rong to attack and capture the capital Luoyang. Erzhu threw her into the Yellow River to drown.

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Yuan Yong, imperial prince of Northern Wei

Yuan Yong (元雍), né Tuoba Yong (拓跋雍), courtesy name Simu (思穆), formally Prince Wenmu of Gaoyang (高陽文穆王), was an imperial prince of the Xianbei-led Chinese Northern Wei dynasty. He was very powerful during the reign of his grandnephew Emperor Xiaoming, and by corrupt means grew very rich. This, however, drew resentment from the populace, and after Emperor Xiaoming's death in 528 and the subsequent overthrowing of Emperor Xiaoming's mother Empress Dowager Hu by the general Erzhu Rong, Erzhu had him and over 2,000 other officials slaughtered at Heyin.

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Yuan Zhao, emperor of Northern Wei (born 526)

Yuan Zhao, also known in historiography as Youzhu of Northern Wei, was briefly an emperor of the Xianbei-led Chinese Northern Wei dynasty.

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