Died on Monday, 19th May – Famous Deaths

19/05/2024

Christian Malanga, Congolese politician, businessman and military officer (born 1983)

Christian Malanga Musumari was a Congolese-American-French politician, businessman, and military officer. He was leader of the United Congolese Party (UCP), a national political party he formed in the United States after his experiences in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's widely disputed parliamentary elections in 2011. In 2017, he established the New Zaire Government in Exile and proclaimed himself its president. Malanga attempted to overthrow the government of the DRC on 19 May 2024. The attempt failed with Malanga being shot and killed and many other assailants, including his son Marcel, arrested.

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Victims in the 2024 Varzaqan helicopter crash:

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was an Iranian politician and diplomat who served as foreign minister of Iran from 2021 until his death in a helicopter crash in 2024. He was the deputy foreign minister for Arab and African Affairs between 2011 and 2016.

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Victims in the 2024 Varzaqan helicopter crash:

Ebrahim Raisolsadati, better known as Ebrahim Raisi, was an Iranian cleric and politician who served as the eighth president of Iran from 2021 until his death in a helicopter crash in 2024. A protégé of supreme leader Ali Khamenei and a Principlist, Raisi was the second and most recent Iranian president to die in office after Mohammad-Ali Rajai.

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19/05/2023

Andy Rourke, English bassist (born 1964)

Andrew Michael Rourke was an English musician best known as the bassist of the 1980s indie rock band the Smiths. Regarded as one of the greatest bassists of his generation, he was known for his melodic and funk-inspired approach to bass playing.

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19/05/2021

Paul Mooney, American comedian (born 1941)

Paul Gladney, better known by the stage name Paul Mooney, was an American comedian, writer, and actor. He collaborated with Redd Foxx, Eddie Murphy and Dave Chappelle, wrote for comedian Richard Pryor and the television series Sanford and Son, In Living Color and Chappelle's Show, and acted in The Buddy Holly Story (1978), the Spike Lee-directed satirical film Bamboozled (2000), and Chappelle's Show.

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19/05/2018

Zhengzhang Shangfang, Chinese linguist (born 1933)

Zhengzhang Shangfang was a Chinese linguist, known for his reconstruction of Old Chinese.

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19/05/2017

Nawshirwan Mustafa, General coordinator of the Movement for Change (Gorran) (born 1944)

Nawshirwan Mustafa was an Iraqi Kurdish politician who served as the General Coordinator of the Movement for Change and the leader of the opposition in the Kurdistan Region from 1 April 2009 to his death on 19 May 2017.

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Stanislav Petrov, Lt. Colonel in Soviet Air Defence Forces (born 1939)

Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov was a Russian lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces who played a key role in the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident. On 26 September 1983, three weeks after the Soviet military had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, Petrov was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system when the system reported that a missile had been launched from the United States, followed by up to four more. Petrov correctly judged the reports to be a false alarm.

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19/05/2016

Alan Young, English-born Canadian-American actor (born 1919)

Alan Young was a British actor. Young is best known for portraying Wilbur Post in the television comedy Mister Ed (1961–1966) and voicing Disney's Scrooge McDuck for over 40 years, beginning in the 1974 Disneyland Records album An Adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol, Performed by The Walt Disney Players. He again voiced Scrooge in the Academy Award-nominated short film Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) and continued in the role in various other films, television series and video games up until his death. He was considered by TV Guide to be "the Charlie Chaplin of television".

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Morley Safer, Canadian-born American journalist (born 1931)

Morley Safer was a Canadian-American broadcast journalist, reporter, and correspondent for CBS News. He was best known for his long tenure on the news magazine 60 Minutes, whose cast he joined in 1970 after its second year on television. He was the longest-serving reporter on 60 Minutes.

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19/05/2015

Bruce Lundvall, American businessman (born 1935)

Bruce Lundvall was an American record company executive, best known for his period as the President and CEO of the Blue Note Label Group, reporting directly to Eric Nicoli, the Chief Executive Officer of EMI Group.

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Ted McWhinney, Australian-Canadian lawyer and politician (born 1924)

Edward Watson McWhinney was a Canadian lawyer and academic specializing in constitutional and international law. He was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament from 1993 to 2000 for the electoral district of Vancouver Quadra.

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Happy Rockefeller, American philanthropist, socialite; 31st Second Lady of the United States (born 1926)

Margaretta Large "Happy" Rockefeller was a philanthropist who, as the wife of the 41st vice president of the United States, Nelson Rockefeller, served as second lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977. She was previously the first lady of New York from 1963 to 1973, during her husband's last three terms in office.

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Robert S. Wistrich, English historian, author, and academic (born 1945)

Robert Solomon Wistrich was a scholar of antisemitism, considered one of the world's foremost authorities on antisemitism.

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19/05/2014

Simon Andrews, English motorcycle racer (born 1982)

Simon Neil Stuart Andrews was a British motorcycle racer. He competed in the British Superbike Championship for the MSS Kawasaki aboard a Kawasaki ZX10-R and RAF Reserves team, aboard a Honda CBR1000RR. He died as a result of a crash when racing on a road course in Northern Ireland.

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Jack Brabham, Australian race car driver (born 1926)

Sir John Arthur Brabham was an Australian racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from 1955 to 1970. Brabham won three Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in 1959, 1960 and 1966, and won 14 Grands Prix across 16 seasons. He co-founded Brabham in 1960, leading the team to two World Constructors' Championship titles, and remains the only driver to have won the World Drivers' Championship in an eponymous car.

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Sam Greenlee, American author and poet (born 1930)

Samuel Eldred Greenlee, Jr. was an American writer of fiction and poetry. He is best known for his novel The Spook Who Sat by the Door, first published in March 1969 in London by the recently founded small imprint Allison & Busby, having been rejected by dozens of mainstream publishers, and received much critical attention, including extracts being printed in The Observer newspaper. The novel was subsequently made into the 1973 movie of the same name, directed by Ivan Dixon and co-produced and written by Greenlee, that is now considered a cult classic.

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Vincent Harding, American historian and scholar (born 1931)

Vincent Gordon Harding was an African-American pastor, historian, and scholar of various topics with a focus on American religion and society. A social activist, he was perhaps best known for his work with and writings about Martin Luther King Jr., whom Harding knew personally. Besides having authored numerous books such as There Is A River, Hope and History, and Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero, he served as co-chairperson of the social unity group Veterans of Hope Project and as Professor of Religion and Social Transformation at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. When Harding died on May 19, 2014, his daughter, Rachel Elizabeth Harding, publicly eulogized him on the Veterans of Hope Project website. 

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Gabriel Kolko, American historian and author (born 1932)

Gabriel Morris Kolko was an American historian. His research interests included American capitalism and political history, the Progressive Era, and U.S. foreign policy in the 20th century. One of the best-known revisionist historians to write about the Cold War, he was also credited as "an incisive critic of the Progressive Era and its relationship to the American empire." U.S. historian Paul Buhle summarized Kolko's career when he described him as "a major theorist of what came to be called Corporate Liberalism...[and] a very major historian of the Vietnam War and its assorted war crimes."

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Zbigniew Pietrzykowski, Polish boxer (born 1934)

Zbigniew Jan Pietrzykowski was a Polish boxer.

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19/05/2013

G. Sarsfield Ford, American lawyer and jurist (born 1933)

G. Sarsfield Ford was an American jurist.

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Robin Harrison, English-Canadian pianist and composer (born 1932)

Robin Keith Harrison was a British-born Canadian musician. Known as a composer and pianist, he served for over 20 years as head of the piano division at the University of Saskatchewan. He recorded several classical music albums, including three solo albums, and was a repeat guest performer with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra.

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Neil Reynolds, Canadian journalist and politician (born 1940)

Neil Reynolds was a Canadian journalist, editor and former leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada.

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19/05/2012

Bob Boozer, American basketball player (born 1937)

Robert Louis Boozer was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Boozer won a gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics and won an NBA Championship as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks in 1971. Boozer was a member of the 1960 U.S. Olympic team, which was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a unit in 2010.

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Tamara Brooks, American conductor and educator (born 1941)

Tamara Brooks was an American choral conductor.

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Ian Burgess, English race car driver (born 1930)

Ian John Burgess was a British racing driver. He participated in 20 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 19 July 1958, and numerous non-Championship Formula One races. He scored no championship points.

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Gerhard Hetz, German-Mexican swimmer (born 1942)

Gerhard Hetz was a German Olympic swimmer. He competed in the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay and a bronze medal in the 400 m individual medley in 1964.

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Phil Lamason, New Zealand soldier and pilot (born 1918)

Phillip John Lamason, was a pilot in the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) during the Second World War, who rose to prominence as the senior officer in charge of 168 Allied airmen taken to Buchenwald concentration camp, Germany, in August 1944. Raised in Napier, he joined the RNZAF in September 1940, and by April 1942 was a pilot officer serving with the Royal Air Force in Europe. On 8 June 1944, Lamason was in command of a Lancaster heavy bomber that was shot down during a raid on railway marshalling yards near Paris. Bailing out, he was picked up by members of the French Resistance and hidden at various locations for seven weeks. While attempting to reach Spain along the Comet line, Lamason was betrayed by a double agent within the Resistance and seized by the Gestapo.

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19/05/2011

Garret FitzGerald, Irish lawyer and politician, 8th Taoiseach of Ireland (born 1926)

Garret Desmond FitzGerald was an Irish Fine Gael politician, economist, and barrister who served twice as Taoiseach, serving from 1981 to 1982 and 1982 to 1987. He served as Leader of Fine Gael from 1977 to 1987 and was twice Leader of the Opposition between 1977 and 1982; he was previously Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1973 to 1977. FitzGerald served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1969 to 1992 and was a Senator for the Industrial and Commercial Panel from 1965 to 1969.

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Jeffrey Catherine Jones, American artist (born 1944)

Jeffrey Catherine Jones was an American artist whose work is best known from the late 1960s through the 2000s. Jones created the cover art for more than 150 books through 1976, as well as venturing into fine art during and after this time. Fantasy artist Frank Frazetta supposedly described Jones as "the greatest living painter" and she included the quote on her website, but the source of the quote is unknown and Frazetta denied ever having said it when asked. Although Jones first achieved fame as simply Jeff Jones and later as Jeffrey Jones, she transitioned to female and added Catherine as a middle name in 1998.

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19/05/2009

Robert F. Furchgott, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1916)

Robert Francis Furchgott was an American Nobel Prize winning biochemist who contributed to the discovery of nitric oxide as a transient cellular signal in mammalian systems.

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Nicholas Maw, English composer and academic (born 1935)

John Nicholas Maw was a British composer. Among his works are the operas The Rising of the Moon (1970) and Sophie's Choice (2002).

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Clint Smith, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1913)

Clinton James "Snuffy" Smith was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and head coach best known for his time spent in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a player with the New York Rangers and the Chicago Black Hawks. Following Smith's 10-year NHL career, he served as both a head coach and player in the United States Hockey League (USHL) and American Hockey League (AHL).

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19/05/2008

Vijay Tendulkar, Indian playwright and screenwriter (born 1928)

Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar was an Indian playwright, movie and television writer, literary essayist, political journalist, and social commentator primarily in Marathi. His Marathi plays established him as a writer of plays with contemporary, unconventional themes. He is best known for his plays Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (1967), Ghashiram Kotwal (1972), and Sakharam Binder (1972). Many of Tendulkar's plays derived inspiration from real-life incidents or social upheavals, which provide clear light on harsh realities. He has provided guidance to students studying "play writing" in US universities. Tendulkar was a dramatist and theatre personality in Maharashtra for over five decades.

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19/05/2007

Bernard Blaut, Polish footballer and coach (born 1940)

Bernard Adolf Blaut was a Polish footballer and manager. He is most famous for his 1960s performances in both Legia Warsaw and the Poland national team.

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Dean Eyre, New Zealand politician (born 1914)

Dean Jack Eyre was a New Zealand politician of the National Party.

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19/05/2004

Mary Dresselhuys, Dutch actress and screenwriter (born 1907)

Mary Dresselhuys was primarily a Dutch stage actress, although she also appeared in a number of films. She was born in Tiel, the Netherlands, and died in Amsterdam. She and her husband, Cees Laseur, were the parents of actress Petra Laseur.

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19/05/2002

John Gorton, Australian lieutenant and politician, 19th Prime Minister of Australia (born 1911)

Sir John Grey Gorton was an Australian politician, farmer and airman who served as the 19th prime minister of Australia from 1968 to 1971. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, having previously served as a senator for Victoria. He was the first and only member of the upper house of the Parliament to assume the office of prime minister.

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Walter Lord, American historian and author (born 1917)

John Walter Lord Jr. was an American author, lawyer, copywriter and popular historian known for his 1955 account of the sinking of the Titanic, A Night to Remember.

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19/05/2001

Alexey Maresyev, Russian soldier and pilot (born 1916)

Aleksey Petrovich Maresyev was a Soviet and Russian military pilot who became a Soviet fighter ace during World War II despite becoming a double amputee.

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Susannah McCorkle, American singer (born 1946)

Susannah McCorkle was an American jazz singer.

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19/05/1998

Sōsuke Uno, Japanese soldier and politician, 75th Prime Minister of Japan (born 1922)

Sōsuke Uno was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan in 1989.

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19/05/1996

John Beradino, American baseball player and actor (born 1917)

John Beradino was an American Major League Baseball infielder and actor. Known as Johnny Berardino during his baseball career, he was also credited during his acting career as John Berardino, John Baradino, John Barardino or John Barradino.

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19/05/1994

Jacques Ellul, French sociologist, philosopher, and academic (born 1912)

Jacques Ellul was a French born philosopher, sociologist, lay theologian, resistance fighter and professor. Noted as a Christian anarchist, Ellul was a longtime professor of History and the Sociology of Institutions on the Faculty of Law and Economic Sciences at the University of Bordeaux. A prolific writer, he authored more than 60 books and more than 600 articles over his lifetime, many of which discussed propaganda, the impact of technology on society, and the interaction between religion and politics.

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Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, American journalist, 37th First Lady of the United States (born 1929)

Jacqueline Lee "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis was the first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States. She redefined the mostly ceremonial role into a platform for arts and culture, by hosting multiple high-profile events at the White House and leading its restoration into a historical site. Through her fashion and cultural literacy, she improved the global standing of the United States during the politically volatile Cold War. Her personal style became known as the "Jackie Look", which inspired worldwide fashion trends during the 1960s.

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Luis Ocaña, Spanish cyclist (born 1945)

Jesús Luis Ocaña Pernía was a Spanish road bicycle racer who won the 1973 Tour de France and the 1970 Vuelta a España. During the 1971 Tour de France he launched an amazing solo breakaway that put him into the Yellow Jersey and stunned the rest of the main field, including Tour champion Eddy Merckx, but he abandoned in the fourteenth stage after a crash on the descent of the Col de Menté. Ocaña would abandon many Tours, but he finished every Vuelta a España he entered except for his first, and finished in the top 5 seven times in a row.

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19/05/1989

Yiannis Papaioannou, Greek composer and educator (born 1910)

Yiannis Papaioannou was a Greek composer and teacher of the Modern Era.

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19/05/1987

James Tiptree, Jr., American psychologist and author (born 1915)

Alice Bradley Sheldon, better known as James Tiptree Jr., was an American science fiction and fantasy author. It was not publicly known until 1977 that James Tiptree Jr. was a pen name of a woman, which she used from 1967 until her death. From 1974 to 1985, she also occasionally used the pen name Raccoona Sheldon. Tiptree was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2012.

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19/05/1986

Jimmy Lyons, American saxophonist (born 1931)

Jimmy Lyons was an American alto saxophone player. He is best known for his long tenure in the Cecil Taylor Unit. Lyons was the only constant member of the band from the mid-1960s until his death. Taylor never worked with another musician as frequently as he did with Lyons. Lyons' playing, influenced by Charlie Parker, kept Taylor's avant-garde music tethered to the jazz tradition.

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19/05/1985

Maqbular Rahman Sarkar, Bangladeshi academic (born 1928)

Maqbular Rahman Sarkar, popularly known as M. R. Sarkar, was a Bangladeshi academic who served as the tenth vice-chancellor of the University of Rajshahi.

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19/05/1984

John Betjeman, English poet and academic (born 1906)

Sir John Betjeman was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and first president of The Hackney Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, helping to save St Pancras railway station from demolition. He began his career as a journalist and ended it as one of the most popular British Poets Laureate and a much-loved figure on British television.

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19/05/1983

Jean Rey, Belgian lawyer and politician, 2nd President of the European Commission (born 1902)

Jean Rey was a Belgian Liberal politician who served as the second president of the European Commission from 1967 to 1970. He served as European Commissioner for External Relations from 1958 to 1967. The 1983–1984 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour.

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19/05/1980

Joseph Schull, Canadian playwright and historian (born 1906)

Joseph Schull was a Canadian playwright and historian who wrote more than two dozen books and 200 plays for radio and television.

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19/05/1978

Albert Kivikas, Estonian-Swedish journalist and author (born 1898)

Albert Kivikas was an Estonian writer and journalist. He is best known as the author of the book Names in Marble, the subject of which is the Estonian War of Independence.

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19/05/1971

Ogden Nash, American poet (born 1902)

Frederic Ogden Nash was an American poet well known for his light verse, of which he wrote more than 500 pieces. With his unconventional rhyming schemes, he was declared by The New York Times to be the country's best-known producer of humorous poetry.

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19/05/1969

Coleman Hawkins, American saxophonist and clarinet player (born 1901)

Coleman Randolph Hawkins, nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. One of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument, as Joachim E. Berendt explained: "There were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn." Hawkins biographer John Chilton described the prevalent styles of tenor saxophone solos prior to Hawkins as "mooing" and "rubbery belches". Hawkins denied being first and noted his contemporaries Happy Caldwell, Stump Evans, and Prince Robinson, although he was the first to tailor his method of improvisation to the saxophone rather than imitate the techniques of the clarinet. Hawkins's virtuosic, arpeggiated approach to improvisation, with his characteristic rich, emotional, and vibrato-laden tonal style, was the main influence on a generation of tenor players that included Chu Berry, Charlie Barnet, Tex Beneke, Ben Webster, Vido Musso, Herschel Evans, Buddy Tate, and Don Byas, and through them the later tenormen, Arnett Cobb, Illinois Jacquet, Flip Phillips, Ike Quebec, Al Sears, Paul Gonsalves, and Lucky Thompson. While Hawkins became known with swing music during the big band era, he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s.

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19/05/1963

Walter Russell, American painter, sculptor, and author (born 1871)

Walter Bowman Russell was an American impressionist painter, sculptor, and author. Russell wrote extensively on science topics, but his ideas were rejected by scientists.

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19/05/1962

Gabriele Münter, German painter (born 1877)

Gabriele Münter was a German expressionist painter who was at the forefront of the Munich avant-garde in the early 20th century. She studied and lived with the painter Wassily Kandinsky and was a founding member of the expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter.

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19/05/1958

Jadunath Sarkar, Indian historian (born 1870)

Sir Jadunath Sarkar, was a prominent Indian historian and a specialist on the Mughal dynasty.

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Archie Scott Brown, Scottish race car driver (born 1927)

William Archibald Scott Brown, known as Archie, was a British Formula One and sports car racing driver from Scotland who had a prodigious racing ability despite having the fingers of his right hand missing and having to use his palm to drive.

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Ronald Colman, English actor (born 1891)

Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor who started his career in theatre and silent film in his native country, then emigrated to the United States, where he had a highly successful Hollywood film career. Colman starred in silent films and successfully transitioned to sound, aided by his distinctive, pleasing voice. He was most popular during the 1930s and 1940s. Colman received Oscar nominations for Bulldog Drummond (1929), Condemned (1929) and Random Harvest (1942). He starred in several classic films, including A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Lost Horizon (1937) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). Colman also played the starring role in the Technicolor classic Kismet (1944), with Marlene Dietrich. In 1947, he won an Academy Award for Best Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film A Double Life.

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19/05/1954

Charles Ives, American composer and educator (born 1874)

Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer, actuary and businessman. Ives was among the earliest renowned American composers to achieve recognition on a global scale. His music was largely ignored during his early career, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Later in life, the quality of his music was publicly recognized through the efforts of contemporaries like Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison, and he came to be regarded as an "American original".

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19/05/1950

Daniel Ciugureanu, Romanian physician and politician, Prime Minister of Moldova (born 1884)

Daniel Ciugureanu was a Romanian politician from Bessarabia, deputy in Sfatul Țării from Chișinău, Prime Minister of the Moldavian Democratic Republic from 29 January [O.S. 16 January] 1918–21 April [O.S. 8 April] 1918, Minister for Bessarabia in four Romanian Governments, Deputy and Senator, vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies, vice-president and President of the Senate of Kingdom of Romania.

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19/05/1946

Booth Tarkington, American novelist and dramatist (born 1869)

Newton Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and Alice Adams (1921). He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, along with William Faulkner, John Updike, and Colson Whitehead. In the 1910s and 1920s he was considered the greatest living author in the United States. Several of his stories were adapted to film.

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19/05/1945

Philipp Bouhler, German soldier and politician (born 1889)

Philipp Bouhler was a German senior Nazi Party functionary who was both a Reichsleiter and Chief of the Chancellery of the Führer of the NSDAP. He was also the SS official responsible for the Aktion T4 euthanasia program that killed more than 250,000 disabled adults and children in Nazi Germany, as well as co-initiator of Aktion 14f13, also called Sonderbehandlung, that killed 15,000–20,000 concentration camp prisoners.

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19/05/1943

Kristjan Raud, Estonian painter and illustrator (born 1865)

Kristjan Raud was an Estonian symbolist painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Estonian National Museum. Folklore elements figure heavily in his subject matter and his style is reminiscent of Primitivism.

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19/05/1939

Ahmet Ağaoğlu, Azerbaijani-Turkish journalist and publicist (born 1869)

Ahmet Ağaoğlu, also known as Ahmed Bey Aghaoghlu (Azerbaijani: Əhməd bəy Ağaoğlu; or Ahmed Akif Aghaoghlu was a public and political figure of Azerbaijan and Turkey, thinker, publicist, educator, writer, Turkologist, and the founder of liberal Kemalism.

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19/05/1936

Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, British Islamic scholar (born 1875)

Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall was an English Islamic scholar noted for his 1930 English translation of the Quran, called The Meaning of the Glorious Koran. His translation of the Quran is one of the most widely known and used in the English-speaking world. A convert from Christianity to Islam, Pickthall was a novelist, esteemed by D. H. Lawrence, H. G. Wells, and E. M. Forster, as well as journalists, political and religious leaders. He declared his conversion to Islam in dramatic fashion after delivering a talk on 'Islam and Progress' on 29 November 1917, to the Muslim Literary Society in Notting Hill, West London.

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19/05/1935

T. E. Lawrence, British colonel and archaeologist (born 1888)

Thomas Edward Lawrence was a British Army officer, archaeologist, diplomat and writer known for his role during the Arab Revolt and Sinai and Palestine campaign against the Ottoman Empire in the First World War. The breadth and variety of his activities and associations, and Lawrence's ability to describe them vividly in writing, earned him international fame as Lawrence of Arabia, a title used for the 1962 film based on his wartime activities.

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19/05/1918

Gervais Raoul Lufbery, French-American soldier and pilot (born 1885)

Gervais Raoul Victor Lufbery was a French and American fighter pilot and flying ace in World War I. Because he served in both the French Air Force, and later the United States Army Air Service in World War I, he is sometimes listed alternately as a French ace or as an American ace. All but one of his 17 confirmed combat victories came while flying in French units.

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19/05/1915

John Simpson Kirkpatrick, English-Australian soldier (born 1892)

John Kirkpatrick, commonly known as John Simpson, was a stretcher bearer with the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance during the Gallipoli campaign – the Allied attempt to capture Constantinople, capital of the Ottoman Empire, during the First World War.

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19/05/1912

Bolesław Prus, Polish journalist and author (born 1847)

Aleksander Głowacki, better known by his pen name Bolesław Prus, was a Polish journalist, novelist, a leading figure in the history of Polish literature and philosophy, and a distinctive voice in world literature.

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19/05/1907

Benjamin Baker, English engineer, designed the Forth Bridge (born 1840)

Sir Benjamin Baker was an English civil engineer who worked in mid to late Victorian era. He helped develop the early underground railways in London with Sir John Fowler, but he is best known for his work on the Forth Bridge. He made many other notable contributions to civil engineering, including his work as an expert witness at the public inquiry into the Tay Bridge disaster. Later, he helped design and build the first Aswan Dam.

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19/05/1906

Gabriel Dumont, Canadian Métis leader (born 1837)

Gabriel Dumont (1837–1906) was a Métis political figure best known for being a prominent leader of the Métis people. Dumont was well known for his movements within the North-West Rebellion at the battles of Batoche, Fish Creek, and Duck Lake as well as for his role in the signing of treaties with the Blackfoot tribe, the traditional main enemy of the Métis.

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19/05/1904

Auguste Molinier, French librarian and historian (born 1851)

Auguste Molinier was a French historian.

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Jamsetji Tata, Indian businessman, founded Tata Group (born 1839)

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata was an Indian industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate. He established the city of Jamshedpur.

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19/05/1903

Arthur Shrewsbury, English cricketer (born 1856)

Arthur Shrewsbury was an English cricketer and rugby football administrator. He was widely rated as competing with W. G. Grace for the accolade of best batsman of the 1880s; Grace himself, when asked whom he would most like in his side, replied simply, "Give me Arthur". An opening batsman, Shrewsbury played his cricket for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and played 23 Test matches for England, captaining them in 7 games, with a record of won 5, lost 2. He was the last professional to be England captain until Len Hutton was chosen in 1952. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1890. He also organised the first British Isles rugby tour to Australasia in 1888.

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19/05/1901

Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, South African general and politician, 1st President of the South African Republic (born 1819)

Marthinus Wessel Pretorius was a South African political leader. An Afrikaner, he helped establish the South African Republic, was the first president of the ZAR, and also compiled its constitution.

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19/05/1898

William Ewart Gladstone, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1809)

William Ewart Gladstone was a British statesman and Liberal politician, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party. In a career lasting more than 60 years, he was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for 12 years, spread over four non-consecutive terms, beginning in 1868 and ending in 1894. He also was Chancellor of the Exchequer four times, for more than 12 years. Gladstone was also Leader of the House of Commons. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for 60 years, from 1832 to 1845 and from 1847 to 1895; during that time he represented a total of five constituencies.

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19/05/1895

José Martí, Cuban journalist, poet, and philosopher (born 1853)

José Julián Martí Pérez was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the liberation of his country from Spain. He was also an important figure in Latin American literature. He was a political activist and is considered an important philosopher and political theorist. Through his writings and political activity, he became a symbol of Cuba's bid for independence from the Spanish Empire in the 19th century and is referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence". From adolescence on, he dedicated his life to the promotion of liberty, political independence for Cuba, and intellectual independence for all Spanish Americans; his death was used as a cry for Cuban independence from Spain by both the Cuban revolutionaries and those Cubans previously reluctant to start a revolt.

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19/05/1885

Peter W. Barlow, English engineer (born 1809)

Peter William Barlow was an English civil engineer, particularly associated with railways, bridges, the design of tunnels and the development of tunnelling techniques. In 1864 he patented a design for a cylindrical tunnelling shield, and obtained a provisional patent in 1868 for an improved design.

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19/05/1876

Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer, Dutch historian and politician (born 1801)

Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer, was a Dutch politician and historian.

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19/05/1872

John Baker, English-Australian politician, 2nd Premier of South Australia (born 1813)

John Baker was an early South Australian pastoralist and politician. He was the second Premier of the colony of South Australia, succeeding Boyle Travers Finniss; however, he only held office for 12 days from 21 August to 1 September 1857 before being succeeded by the third Premier of the colony, Robert Torrens.

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19/05/1865

Sengge Rinchen, Mongolian general (born 1811)

Sengge Rinchen or Senggelinqin was a Mongol nobleman and general who served under the Qing dynasty during the reigns of the Daoguang, Xianfeng and Tongzhi emperors. He is best known for his role at the Battle of Taku Forts and at the Battle of Baliqiao during the Second Opium War and his contributions in helping the Qing Empire suppress the Taiping and Nian rebellions.

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19/05/1864

Nathaniel Hawthorne, American novelist and short story writer (born 1804)

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.

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19/05/1831

Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, Estonian-German physician, botanist, and entomologist (born 1793)

Johann Friedrich Gustav von Eschscholtz was a Baltic German physician, naturalist, and entomologist. He was one of the earliest scientific explorers of the Pacific region, making significant collections of flora and fauna in Alaska, California, and Hawaii.

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19/05/1825

Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon, French philosopher and theorist (born 1760)

Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon, better known as Henri de Saint-Simon, was a French political, economic and socialist theorist and businessman whose thought had a substantial influence on politics, economics, sociology and the philosophy of science. He was a younger relative of the famous memoirist the Duc de Saint-Simon.

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19/05/1821

Camille Jordan, French lawyer and politician (born 1771)

Camille Jordan was a French politician born in Lyon of a well-to-do mercantile family.

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19/05/1798

William Byron, 5th Baron Byron, English lieutenant and politician (born 1722)

William Byron, 5th Baron Byron, was a British nobleman, peer, politician, and great-uncle of the poet George Gordon Byron who succeeded him in the title. As a result of a number of stories that arose after a duel, and then because of his financial difficulties, he became known after his death as "the Wicked Lord" and "the Devil Byron".

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19/05/1795

Josiah Bartlett, American physician and politician, 4th Governor of New Hampshire (born 1729)

Josiah Bartlett was an American Founding Father, physician, statesman, a delegate to the Continental Congress for New Hampshire, and a signatory to the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation. He was a member of the convention which framed the Constitution of the United States in 1787. He served as the fourth governor of New Hampshire and chief justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court of Judicature, now the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

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James Boswell, Scottish biographer (born 1740)

James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck, was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, Life of Samuel Johnson, which is commonly said to be the greatest biography written in the English language. A great mass of Boswell's diaries, letters, and private papers were recovered from the 1920s to the 1950s, and their publication by Yale University significantly elevated his standing among modern scholars.

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19/05/1786

John Stanley, English organist and composer (born 1712)

Charles John Stanley was an English composer and organist.

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19/05/1777

Button Gwinnett, British-born American politician and signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (born 1735)

Button Gwinnett was a British-born American Founding Father who, as a representative of Georgia to the Continental Congress, was one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence. Gwinnett was briefly the provisional president of Georgia in 1777, and Gwinnett County was named for him. He was named in honor of his mother’s cousin, Barbara Button, who became his godmother. Gwinnett was killed in a duel by rival Lachlan McIntosh following a dispute after a failed invasion of East Florida.

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19/05/1715

Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, English poet and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (born 1661)

Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax was a British politician and poet. He was the grandson of the 1st Earl of Manchester and was eventually ennobled himself, first as Baron Halifax in 1700 and later as Earl of Halifax in 1714. As one of the four members of the so-called Whig Junto, Montagu played a major role in English politics under the reigns of King William III and Queen Anne. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1694 to 1699 and as First Lord of the Treasury from 1714 until his death the following year. He was also president of the Royal Society and a patron of the scientist Isaac Newton.

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19/05/1637

Isaac Beeckman, Dutch scientist and philosopher (born 1588)

Isaac Beeckman was a Dutch philosopher and scientist, who, through his studies and contact with leading natural philosophers, may have "virtually given birth to modern atomism".

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19/05/1623

Mariam-uz-Zamani, Empress of the Mughal Empire (born 1542)

Mariam-uz-Zamani, commonly known by the misnomer Jodha Bai, was the chief consort, principal wife and the favourite wife of the third Mughal emperor, Akbar. She was also the longest-serving Hindu empress of the Mughal Empire with a tenure of forty-three years (1562–1605).

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19/05/1610

Thomas Sanchez, Spanish priest and theologian (born 1550)

Tomás Sánchez was a 16th-century Spanish Jesuit and famous casuist.

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19/05/1609

García Hurtado de Mendoza, 5th Marquis of Cañete (born 1535)

García Hurtado de Mendoza y Manrique, 5th Marquis of Cañete was a Spanish Governor of Chile, and later Viceroy of Peru. He is often known simply as "Marquis of Cañete". Belonging to an influential family of Spanish noblemen Hurtado de Mendoza successfully fought in the Arauco War during his stay as Governor of Chile. The city of Mendoza is named after him. In his later position as Viceroy of Peru he sponsored Álvaro de Mendaña's transpacific expedition of 1595, who named the Marquesas Islands after him.

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19/05/1601

Costanzo Porta, Italian composer (born 1528)

Costanzo Porta was an Italian composer of the Renaissance, and a representative of what is known today as the Venetian School. He was highly praised throughout his life both as a composer and a teacher, and had a reputation especially as an expert contrapuntist.

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19/05/1536

Anne Boleyn, Queen of England (1533–1536); second wife of Henry VIII of England

Anne Boleyn was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading for treason, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.

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19/05/1531

Jan Łaski, Polish archbishop and diplomat (born 1456)

Jan Łaski was a Polish nobleman, Grand Chancellor of the Crown (1503–10), diplomat, from 1490 secretary to Poland's King Casimir IV Jagiellon and from 1508 coadjutor to the Archbishop of Lwów.

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19/05/1526

Emperor Go-Kashiwabara of Japan (born 1464)

Emperor Go-Kashiwabara was the 104th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He reigned from November 16, 1500, to May 19, 1526. His personal name was Katsuhito (勝仁). His reign marked the nadir of Imperial authority during the Ashikaga shogunate.

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19/05/1396

John I of Aragon (born 1350)

John I, called by posterity the Hunter or the Lover of Elegance, or the Abandoned in his lifetime, was the King of Aragon from 1387 until his death.

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19/05/1389

Dmitry Donskoy, Grand Prince of Muscovy (born 1350)

Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy was Prince of Moscow from 1359 and Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1363 until his death. He was the heir of Ivan II.

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19/05/1319

Louis, Count of Évreux (born 1276)

Louis of Évreux was a Capetian prince and count of Évreux. He was the only son of King Philip III of France and his second wife Marie of Brabant, and thus a half-brother of King Philip IV.

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19/05/1303

Saint Ivo of Kermartin, French canon lawyer (born 1253)

Ivo of Kermartin, TOSF, also known as Yvo, Yves, or Ives, was a parish priest among the poor of Louannec, the only one of his station to be canonized in the Middle Ages. He is the patron of Brittany, lawyers, and abandoned children. His feast day is 19 May. Poetically, he is referred to as "advocate of the poor".

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19/05/1296

Pope Celestine V (born 1215)

Pope Celestine V, born Pietro Angelerio, also known as Pietro da Morrone, Peter of Morrone, and Peter Celestine, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States for five months from 5 July to 13 December 1294, when he abdicated. He was also a monk and hermit who founded the order of the Celestines as a branch of the Benedictine order.

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19/05/1218

Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Otto IV was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1209 until his death in 1218.

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19/05/1164

Saint Bashnouna, Egyptian saint and martyr

Bashnouna was a Coptic saint and martyr.

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19/05/1125

Vladimir II Monomakh, Grand Prince of Kiev

Vladimir II Monomakh was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1113 to 1125. Prince Monomakh distinguished himself in 83 large-scale campaigns into Polovtsian lands (Cumania), which made Polovtsians (Cumans) and their Khans fear him. He is considered a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and is commemorated on May 6, along with 122 other saints of Ukraine and Russia as well as Saint Andrew. He is not to be confused with Saint Vladimir the Great.

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19/05/1102

Stephen, Count of Blois (born 1045)

Stephen Henry was the count of Blois and Chartres. He led an army during the First Crusade, was at the surrender of the city of Nicaea, and directed the siege of Antioch. Returning home without fulfilling his crusader vows, Stephen joined the crusade of 1101. Making his way to Jerusalem, he fought in the Second Battle of Ramla, where he was captured and later executed.

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19/05/0988

Dunstan, English archbishop and saint (born 909)

Dunstan was an English bishop and Benedictine monk. He was successively Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury, later canonised. His work restored monastic life in England and reformed the English Church. His 11th-century biographer Osbern, himself an artist and scribe, states that Dunstan was skilled in "making a picture and forming letters", as were other clergy of his age who reached senior rank.

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19/05/0956

Robert, archbishop of Trier

Robert, also spelled Ruotbert or Rotbert, was the archbishop of Trier from 931 until his death. He played a leading role in the politics of both Germany and France, and especially of the Lotharingian territory in between. He was a patron of scholars and writers and a reformer of monasteries.

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19/05/0804

Alcuin, English monk and scholar (born 735)

Alcuin of York, also called Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin, was an Anglo-Latin scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Archbishop Ecgbert at York. At the invitation of Charlemagne, he became a leading scholar and teacher at the Carolingian court, where he remained a figure in the 780s and 790s. Before that, he was also a court chancellor in Aachen. "The most learned man anywhere to be found", according to Einhard's Life of Charlemagne, he is considered among the most important intellectual architects of the Carolingian Renaissance. Among his pupils were many of the dominant intellectuals of the Carolingian era.

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