Died on Wednesday, 21st May – Famous Deaths

21/05/2025

Gerry Connolly, American politician, U.S. Representative from Virginia's 11th congressional district (born 1950)

Gerald Edward Connolly was an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Virginia's 11th congressional district from 2009 until his death in 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected in 2008 to replace retiring Republican incumbent Tom Davis, who did not seek re-election and later resigned shortly after the election. The 11th district is situated in the suburbs of Northern Virginia. It is anchored in the affluent Fairfax County, where Connolly served on the county's board of supervisors before his election to Congress, and also includes the entirety of Fairfax City.

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21/05/2024

Jan A. P. Kaczmarek, Polish composer (born 1953)

Jan Andrzej Paweł Kaczmarek was a Polish composer. He wrote scores for more than 70 feature films and documentaries, including Finding Neverland (2004), for which he won an Oscar and a National Board of Review Award. Other notable scores were for Hachi: A Dog's Tale, Unfaithful, Evening, The Visitor, and Washington Square.

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21/05/2020

Alan Merten, fifth President of George Mason University (born 1941)

Alan Gilbert Merten was the fifth president of George Mason University.

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21/05/2019

Rik Kuypers, Belgian film director (born 1925)

Rik Kuypers was a Belgian film director. He directed 29 films between 1947 and 1981. He co-directed the film Seagulls Die in the Harbour, which was entered into the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.

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Binyavanga Wainaina, Kenyan writer (born 1971)

Kenneth Binyavanga Wainaina was a Kenyan author, journalist and 2002 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. In 2003, he became the founding editor of Kwani? literary magazine, launched in Kenya, East Africa. In April 2014, Time magazine included Wainaina in its annual Time 100 as one of the "Most Influential People in the World".

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21/05/2016

Nick Menza, American drummer and songwriter (born 1964)

Nicholas Menza was an American musician who was the drummer of the thrash metal band Megadeth from 1989 to 1998. He played drums on four of Megadeth's albums: Rust in Peace (1990), Countdown to Extinction (1992), Youthanasia (1994), and Cryptic Writings (1997).

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21/05/2015

Annarita Sidoti, Italian race walker (born 1969)

Annarita Sidoti was an Italian race walker.

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Twinkle, English singer-songwriter (born 1948)

Lynn Annette Ripley, better known by the stage name Twinkle, was an English singer-songwriter. She had chart success in the 1960s with her songs "Terry" and "Golden Lights".

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Jassem Al-Kharafi, Kuwaiti businessman and politician, 8th Kuwaiti Speaker of the National Assembly (born 1940)

Jassem Al-Kharafi, was a Kuwaiti oligarch who was the speaker of the Kuwaiti National Assembly from 1999 to 2011. In his capacity as Speaker in 2006, Al-Kharafi played a critical role in the ascension of Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah to the emirship of Kuwait by coordinating a no-confidence vote of the incumbent emir, Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah. During the reign of Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, his family conglomerate, M.A. Kharafi & Sons, dominated several sectors of the Kuwaiti economy, including construction, telecommunications and investment.

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Fred Gladding, American baseball player and coach (born 1936)

Fred Earl Gladding was an American professional baseball player and coach. He was a right-handed pitcher for all or parts of 13 seasons (1961–1973) with the Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros. He was born in Flat Rock, Michigan, and attended Flat Rock Community High School. He was listed at 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and 220 pounds (100 kg).

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Louis Johnson, American bass player and producer (born 1955)

Louis Johnson was an American bass guitarist. Johnson was best known for his work with the group the Brothers Johnson and his session playing on several hit albums of the 1970s and 1980s, including the best-selling album of all time, Michael Jackson's Thriller.

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21/05/2014

Tunku Annuar, Malaysian son of Badlishah of Kedah (born 1939)

Tunku Annuar ibni Almarhum Sultan Badlishah was a member of the Kedah royal family and the Chairman of the Regency Council of the Malaysian state of Kedah from December 2011 until his death in May 2014. He was the son of Sultan Badlishah and the half-brother of Sultan Abdul Halim.

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Johnny Gray, American baseball player (born 1926)

John Leonard Gray was an American professional baseball pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Athletics / Kansas City Athletics, Cleveland Indians, and Philadelphia Phillies in all or part of four baseball seasons. Listed at 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m), 226 lb (103 kg), he batted and threw right handed.

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Jaime Lusinchi, Venezuelan physician and politician, President of Venezuela (born 1924)

Jaime Ramón Lusinchi was the president of Venezuela from 1984 to 1989. His term was characterized by an economic crisis, growth of the external debt, populist policies, currency depreciation, inflation and corruption that exacerbated the crisis of the political system established in 1958.

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Alireza Soleimani, Iranian wrestler (born 1956)

Alireza Soleimani Karbalaei was an Iranian heavyweight freestyle wrestler. He was the first Iranian to win the world superheavyweight title, which he achieved in 1989. He served as the flag bearer for Iran at the 1992 Summer Olympics, where he placed sixth.

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21/05/2013

Count Christian of Rosenborg, member of the Danish royal family (born 1942)

Count Christian of Rosenborg was a member of the Danish royal family. Born Prince Christian of Denmark, from 1947 he was third in the line of line of succession until the constitution was changed in 1953 to allow females to inherit the crown, placing his branch of the dynasty behind that of his cousin Margrethe and her two younger sisters. He later gave up his princely rank and his rights to the throne in order to marry a commoner.

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Frank Comstock, American trombonist, composer, and conductor (born 1922)

Frank G. Comstock was an American composer, arranger, conductor, and trombonist. For television, Comstock wrote and arranged music for major situation comedies and variety shows. His theme and incidental music for Rocky and His Friends (1959–1964) are probably his best-remembered works. Additionally, his music for Adam-12 earned him a 1971 Emmy nomination.

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Cot Deal, American baseball player and coach (born 1923)

Ellis Ferguson "Cot" Deal was an American pitcher and coach in Major League Baseball. Listed at 5 ft 10.5 in (1.79 m), 185 lb (84 kg), Deal was a switch-hitter and threw right-handed. A native of Arapaho, Oklahoma, he grew up in Oklahoma City and was nicknamed "Cot" for his cotton-top hair color.

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Leonard Marsh, American businessman, co-founded Snapple (born 1933)

Leonard Marsh was an American businessman who co-founded the Snapple Beverage Corporation in 1972. Marsh co-founded Snapple, which was originally known as Unadulterated Food Products, with his brother-in-law, Hyman Golden, and childhood friend, Arnold Greenberg.

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Bob Thompson, American pianist and composer (born 1924)

Robert Lamar Thompson was a composer, arranger, and orchestra leader from the 1950s through the 1980s. Active in Los Angeles, Thompson was a recording artist for RCA Victor and Dot Records, scored film and television soundtracks, and wrote musical accompaniments for commercials. He composed, arranged, and conducted the orchestra for such wide-ranging artists as Rosemary Clooney, Mae West, Julie London, Bing Crosby, The Andrews Sisters, Chet Atkins, Duane Eddy, Judy Garland, Jerry Lewis, and Phil Ochs.

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Dominique Venner, French journalist and historian (born 1935)

Dominique Venner was a French journalist and essayist. Venner was a member of the Organisation armée secrète and later became a European nationalist, founding the neo-fascist Europe-Action, before withdrawing from politics to focus on a career as a historian. He specialized in military and political history. At the time of his death, he was the editor of the La Nouvelle Revue d'Histoire, a bimonthly history magazine.

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21/05/2012

Eddie Blazonczyk, American singer-songwriter (born 1941)

Eddie Blazonczyk, Sr. was an American polka musician and founder of the band The Versatones. He was inducted into the International Polka Hall of Fame in 1970, and was a 1998 National Heritage Fellowship recipient. He has been called "one of the most important figures in the creation of the contemporary Polish-American polka sound." He released more than 60 albums.

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Otis Clark, American butler and preacher, survivor of the Tulsa race riot (born 1903)

Otis Clark was an American butler who was one of the last survivors of the May 31, 1921, Tulsa race massacre, considered to be the worst racial massacre in American history. He had worked for movie stars such as Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, and Joan Crawford. Clark's wife lived at the Crawford residence working as the cook for Joan Crawford.

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Constantine of Irinoupolis, Metropolitan of Irinoupolis and Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA (born 1936)

Metropolitan Constantine was the Metropolitan of Irinoupolis, and Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, which is a jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the United States. The primatial cathedral is in Parma, Ohio, and the Church's head offices and Consistory are based in South Bound Brook, New Jersey.

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Roman Dumbadze, Georgian commander (born 1964)

Roman Dumbadze was a Georgian military commander, who led a mutiny during the 2004 crisis in Adjara. From 2008, he resided in Russia, where he was shot dead in 2012.

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Douglas Rodríguez, Cuban boxer (born 1950)

Douglas Rodríguez was an amateur boxer from Cuba, who represented his native country in the Men's Flyweight category at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany.

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Bill Stewart, American football player and coach (born 1952)

William L. Stewart, nicknamed "Stew", was an American football coach. He was named interim head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers after Rich Rodriguez left for Michigan in December 2007. After leading the Mountaineers to a 48–28 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl, he was named the school's 32nd head football coach on January 3, 2008. Stewart resigned in the summer of 2011. He was previously the head coach of Virginia Military Institute for three seasons.

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Alan Thorne, Australian anthropologist and academic (born 1939)

Alan Gordon Thorne was an Australian born anatomist who is considered an authority on interpretations of Aboriginal Australian origins and the human genome. Thorne first became interested in archaeology and human evolution as a lecturer in human anatomy at the University of Sydney and later joined the Australian National University (ANU) as a professor, where he taught biology and human anatomy. Over time, through many excavations such as Lake Mungo and Kow Swamp, Thorne made arguments that contradict traditionally accepted theories explaining the early dispersion of human beings.

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21/05/2006

Spencer Clark, American race car driver (born 1987)

Spencer Clark was an American stock car racing driver.

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Katherine Dunham, American dancer, choreographer, and author (born 1909)

Katherine Mary Dunham was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. One of the most renowned modern dance artists of the 20th century, she has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance."

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Cherd Songsri, Thai director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1931)

Cherd Songsri was a Thai film director, screenwriter and film producer. A maker of period films that sought to introduce international audiences to his vision of Thai culture, his best-known work is the 1977 romance film Plae Kao, which earned more box-office receipts than any Thai film before it. It won a prize at the 1981 Three Continents Festival in Nantes, France.

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Billy Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1929)

William Marvin Walker was an American country music singer and guitarist best known for his 1962 hit, "Charlie's Shoes". Nicknamed The Tall Texan, Walker had more than 30 charting records during a nearly 60-year career, and was a longtime member of the Grand Ole Opry.

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21/05/2005

Deborah Berger, American outsider artist (born 1956)

Deborah Berger was an American artist noted for her oeuvre of brightly colored textile works created in knitting and crochet. She is considered an outsider artist and a prodigy.

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Stephen Elliott, American actor (born 1918)

Elliott Pershing Stitzel, better known by his stage name Stephen Elliott, was an American actor. His best known roles were that of the prospective father-in-law, Burt Johnson, in the hit 1981 film Arthur and as Chief Hubbard in the 1984 blockbuster Beverly Hills Cop.

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Howard Morris, American actor and director (born 1919)

Howard Jerome Morris was an American actor, comedian, and director. He was best known for his role in The Andy Griffith Show as Ernest T. Bass, and as "Uncle Goopy" in a celebrated comedy sketch on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows (1954). He did voices for television shows such as The Flintstones (1962–1965), The Jetsons (1962–1987), The Atom Ant Show (1965–1966), Garfield and Friends (1988–1994), and Cow and Chicken (1997–1999).

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21/05/2003

Alejandro de Tomaso, Argentinian-Italian race car driver and businessman, founded De Tomaso (born 1928)

Alejandro de Tomaso was an Argentine racing driver and businessman. His name is sometimes seen in an Italianised form as Alessandro de Tomaso. He participated in two Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 13 January 1957, but scored no championship points. He later founded the Italian sports car company De Tomaso Automobili in 1959.

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Frank D. White, American captain, banker, and politician, 41st Governor of Arkansas (born 1933)

Frank Durward White was an American banker and politician who served as the 41st governor of Arkansas. He served a single two-year term from 1981 to 1983.

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21/05/2002

Niki de Saint Phalle, French-American sculptor and painter (born 1930)

Niki de Saint Phalle was a French American sculptor, painter, filmmaker, and author of colorful hand-illustrated books. Widely noted as one of the few female monumental sculptors, Saint Phalle was also known for her social commitment and work.

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21/05/2000

Barbara Cartland, English author (born 1901)

Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland was an English writer who published both contemporary and historical romance novels, the latter set primarily during the Victorian or Edwardian period. Cartland is one of the best-selling authors worldwide of the 20th century.

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John Gielgud, English actor (born 1904)

Sir Arthur John Gielgud was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. A member of the Terry family theatrical dynasty, he gained his first paid acting work as a junior member of his cousin Phyllis Neilson-Terry's company in 1922. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he worked in repertory theatre and in the West End before establishing himself at the Old Vic as an exponent of Shakespeare in 1929–31.

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Mark R. Hughes, American businessman, founded Herbalife (born 1956)

Mark R. Hughes was an American entrepreneur who was the founder, chairman, and CEO of Herbalife, a multi-level marketing company.

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21/05/1998

Robert Gist, American actor and director (born 1917)

Robert Marion Gist was an American actor and film director.

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21/05/1996

Paul Delph, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1957)

Paul Delph was a Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, producer, engineer, and studio musician whose catalog includes work with many well-known recording artists from the late 1970s through the mid-1990s. Delph died from complications of HIV/AIDS at his parents' home in Cincinnati, Ohio. His ashes are interred at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati. A panel in Delph's name is part of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.

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Lash LaRue, American actor and producer (born 1917)

Alfred "Lash" LaRue was a Western motion picture star of the 1940s and 1950s.

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Villem Raam, Estonian art historian, art critic and conservator (born 1910)

Villem Raam was an Estonian art historian, art critic and conservator-restorer. His work in documenting and preserving the cultural heritage of Estonia, not least during the Soviet occupation of Estonia, contributed significantly to the understanding of art history and cultural heritage in Estonia.

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21/05/1995

Les Aspin, American captain and politician, 18th United States Secretary of Defense (born 1938)

Leslie Aspin Jr. was an American Democratic Party politician and economist who served as the U.S. representative for Wisconsin's 1st congressional district from 1971 to 1993 and as the 18th United States Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1994.

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21/05/1991

Rajiv Gandhi, Indian politician, 6th Prime Minister of India (born 1944)

Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was an Indian politician and pilot who served as the prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989 for two terms. He took office after the assassination of his mother, then–prime minister Indira Gandhi, to become the youngest Indian prime minister at the age of 40. He served until his defeat at the 1989 election, and then became Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, resigning in December 1990, six months before his own assassination.

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21/05/1988

Sammy Davis Sr., American actor and dancer (born 1900)

Samuel George Davis Sr. was an American dancer and the father of entertainer Sammy Davis Jr.

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21/05/1984

Ann Little, American actress (born 1891)

Ann Little, also known as Anna Little, was an American film actress whose career was most prolific during the silent film era of the early 1910s through the early 1920s. Today, most of her films are lost, with only 12 known to survive.

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21/05/1983

Kenneth Clark, English historian and author (born 1903)

Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark was a British art historian, museum director and broadcaster. His expertise covered a wide range of artists and periods, but he is particularly associated with Italian Renaissance art, most of all that of Leonardo da Vinci. After running two art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television, presenting a succession of programmes on the arts from the 1950s to the 1970s, the largest and best known being the Civilisation series in 1969.

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21/05/1981

Raymond McCreesh, PIRA volunteer and Hunger Striker (born 1957)

Raymond McCreesh was an Irish volunteer in the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). In 1976, he and two other IRA volunteers were captured while attempting to ambush a British Army observation post. McCreesh was one of the ten Irish republicans who died during the 1981 Irish hunger strike in the Maze Prison. McCreesh was one of 22 Irish republicans who died on hunger-strike.

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Patsy O'Hara, INLA volunteer and Hunger Striker (born 1957)

Patsy O'Hara was an Irish republican hunger striker and member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). O'Hara was one of 22 Irish republicans who died in the 1981 hunger strike.

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21/05/1973

Vaughn Monroe, American singer, trumpet player, bandleader, and actor (born 1911)

Vaughn Wilton Monroe was an American baritone singer, trumpeter and big band leader who was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for recording and another for radio performance.

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Ivan Konev, Soviet Marshal and general (born 1897)

Ivan Stepanovich Konev was a Soviet general and Marshal of the Soviet Union who led Red Army forces on the Eastern Front during World War II, responsible for taking much of Axis-occupied Eastern Europe.

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21/05/1970

E. L. Grant Watson, English-Australian biologist and author (born 1885)

Elliot Lovegood Grant Watson was a writer and biologist. Among some 40 books and many essays and short stories he wrote six 'Australian' novels and several scientific-philosophical works that challenge Darwinism, or the mechanism of evolutionary theory, as an entire explanation for the development of life on earth.

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21/05/1968

Doris Lloyd, English actress (born 1896)

Hessy Doris Lloyd was a British actress. She appeared in The Time Machine (1960) and The Sound of Music (1965).

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21/05/1965

Marguerite Bise, French chef (born 1898)

Marguerite Valentine Bise was a French chef and restaurateur at her restaurant Auberge du Père Bise in Talloires, Haute-Savoie, France. In 1951, she became the third woman to win three Michelin stars.

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Geoffrey de Havilland, English pilot and engineer, designed the de Havilland Mosquito (born 1882)

Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, was an English aviation pioneer and aerospace engineer who founded the aircraft company de Havilland. The company produced the Mosquito, which has been considered the most versatile warplane ever built, and his Comet was the first jet airliner to go into production.

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21/05/1964

James Franck, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1882)

James Franck was a German–American physicist who shared the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gustav Hertz "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom."

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21/05/1957

Alexander Vertinsky, Ukrainian-Russian singer-songwriter, actor, and poet (born 1889)

Alexander Nikolayevich Vertinsky was a Russian and Soviet artist, poet, singer, composer, cabaret artist and actor who exerted seminal influence on the Russian tradition of artistic singing.

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21/05/1956

Harry Bensley, English businessman and adventurer (born 1877)

Harry Bensley was an English rake and adventurer, best remembered as the subject of an extraordinary wager between John Pierpont Morgan and Hugh Cecil Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale. How much of his story is based on fact is unclear.

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21/05/1952

John Garfield, American actor (born 1913)

John Garfield was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in New York City. In the early 1930s, he became a member of the Group Theatre. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner Bros.' stars. He received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Four Daughters (1938) and Body and Soul (1947).

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21/05/1949

Klaus Mann, German-American novelist, playwright, and critic (born 1906)

Klaus Heinrich Thomas Mann was a German writer and anti-fascist activist. He was the son of Thomas Mann, a nephew of Heinrich Mann and brother of Erika Mann and Golo Mann.

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21/05/1940

Billy Minter, English footballer and manager (born 1888)

William James Minter, was a footballer, trainer, manager and assistant secretary at Tottenham Hotspur. He scored 101 goals for Tottenham, and was for a time the top scorer for the club. He also managed the club for three years, and after he resigned as manager he stayed at the club until his death in 1940.

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21/05/1935

Jane Addams, American activist and author, co-founded Hull House, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1860)

Laura Jane Addams was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, philosopher, and author. She was a leader in the history of social work and women's suffrage. In 1889, Addams co-founded Hull House, one of America's most famous settlement houses, in Chicago, Illinois, providing extensive social services to poor, largely immigrant families. Philosophically a "radical pragmatist", she was arguably the first woman public philosopher in the United States. In the Progressive Era, when even presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson identified themselves as reformers and might be seen as social activists, Addams was one of the most prominent reformers.

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Hugo de Vries, Dutch botanist and geneticist (born 1848)

Hugo Marie de Vries was a Dutch botanist and one of the first geneticists. He is known chiefly for suggesting the concept of genes, rediscovering the laws of heredity in the 1890s while apparently unaware of Gregor Mendel's work, for introducing the term "mutation", and for developing a mutation theory of evolution.

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21/05/1932

Marcel Boulenger, French fencer and author (born 1873)

Marcel Jacques Amand Romain Boulenger was a French novelist and fiction writer. He was awarded the Prix Nee of the Académie Française in 1918 and the Prix Stendhal in 1919. He was also a fencer of international standard, competing in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries.

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21/05/1929

Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1847)

Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, 1st Earl of Midlothian, was a British Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from March 1894 to June 1895. Between the death of his father in 1851, and the death of his grandfather, the 4th Earl of Rosebery, in 1868, he was known by the courtesy title of Lord Dalmeny.

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21/05/1926

Ronald Firbank, English-Italian author (born 1886)

Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank was an innovative English novelist. His eight short novels, partly inspired by the London aesthetes of the 1890s, especially Oscar Wilde, consist largely of dialogue, with references to religion, social-climbing, and sexuality.

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21/05/1925

Hidesaburō Ueno, Japanese agriculturalist, guardian of Hachikō (born 1871)

Hidesaburō Ueno was a Japanese agricultural scientist, well-known as the guardian of Hachikō, a devoted Akita dog.

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21/05/1920

Venustiano Carranza, Mexican politician, 54th President of Mexico (born 1859)

José Venustiano Carranza de la Garza, known as Venustiano Carranza, was a Mexican land owner, revolutionary, and politician who served as the 44th President of Mexico from 1917 until his assassination in 1920, during the Mexican Revolution. He was previously Mexico's de facto head of state as Primer Jefe of the Constitutionalist faction from 1914 to 1917, and previously served as a senator and governor for Coahuila. He played the leading role in drafting the Constitution of 1917 and maintained Mexican neutrality in World War I.

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21/05/1919

Evgraf Fedorov, Russian mathematician, crystallographer, and mineralogist (born 1853)

Evgraf Stepanovich Fedorov was a Russian mathematician, crystallographer and mineralogist.

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21/05/1915

Leonid Gobyato, Russian general and engineer (born 1875)

Leonid Nikolaevich Gobyato was a lieutenant-general in the Imperial Russian Army and designer of the modern, man-portable mortar.

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21/05/1911

Williamina Fleming, Scottish-American astronomer and academic (born 1857)

Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming was a Scottish astronomer. At the Harvard College Observatory, she contributed to the photographic classification of stellar spectra, helping to develop a common designation system for stars. Fleming cataloged more than ten thousand stars, 59 gaseous nebulae, over 310 variable stars, and 10 novae, among other astronomical phenomena. She is credited with the discovery of the Horsehead Nebula in 1888, and she was a vocal supporter of women's representation in her field.

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21/05/1901

Joseph Olivier, French rugby player (born 1874)

Joseph Adolphe Théophile Olivier was a French rugby union player who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics. He was a member of the French rugby union team, which won the gold medal.

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21/05/1895

Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer and conductor (born 1819)

Franz von Suppé, born Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo de Suppé was an Austrian composer of light operas and other theatre music. He came from the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Austro-Hungarian Empire. A composer and conductor of the Romantic period, he is notable for his four dozen operettas, including the first operetta to a German libretto. Some of them remain in the repertory, particularly in German-speaking countries, and he composed a substantial quantity of church music, but he is now chiefly known for his overtures, which remain popular in the concert hall and on record. Among the best-known are Poet and Peasant, Light Cavalry, Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna and Pique Dame.

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21/05/1894

Émile Henry, French anarchist (born 1872)

Émile Henry, nicknamed 'the Saint-Just of Anarchy', was an individualist and illegalist anarchist militant and terrorist. He is best known for his terrorist actions and is considered one of the main founders of modern terrorism.

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August Kundt, German physicist and academic (born 1839)

August Adolf Eduard Eberhard Kundt was a German physicist known for developing Kundt's tube, an appartus used to measure the speed of sound in gases and solids.

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21/05/1879

Arturo Prat, Chilean lawyer and commander (born 1848)

Agustín Arturo Prat Chacón was a Chilean Navy officer and lawyer. He was killed in the Battle of Iquique, during the War of the Pacific. During his career, Prat had taken part in several naval engagements, including battles at Papudo (1865), and at the Abtao (1866). Following his death, his name became a rallying cry for Chilean forces, and Arturo Prat has since been considered a national hero.

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21/05/1862

John Drew, Irish-American actor and manager (born 1827)

John Drew was an Irish-American stage actor and theatre manager.

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21/05/1858

José de la Riva Agüero, Peruvian soldier and politician, 1st President of Peru and 2nd President of North Peru (born 1783)

José Mariano de la Cruz de la Riva Agüero y Sánchez Boquete was a Peruvian soldier and politician who was the first president of Peru and the second president of North Peru, a constituent country of the Peru–Bolivian Confederation. A leading figure of the Peruvian War of Independence, he was president of Peru in 1823, being the first head of state to serve as President of the Republic and to wear the two-color presidential sash as a symbol of the power he exercised. Although this power was de facto, that is, born from a coup d'état and not by popular will expressed in elections, since it was imposed by the Peruvian Army through the so-called Balconcillo mutiny, which ordered Congress to dismiss the Supreme Governing Junta headed by José de La Mar. He governed for four months before being replaced by the Marquis of Torre Tagle. He was a supporter of liberalism.

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21/05/1844

Giuseppe Baini, Italian priest and composer (born 1775)

Abbate Giuseppe Baini was an Italian priest, music critic, conductor, and composer of church music.

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21/05/1829

Sikandar Jah, 3rd Nizam (born 1768)

Sikander Jah, Asaf Jah III Mir Akbar Ali Khan Siddiqi, was the 3rd Nizam of Hyderabad, India from 1803 to 1829. He was born in Chowmahalla Palace in the Khilwath, the second son of Asaf Jah II and Tahniat un-nisa Begum.

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21/05/1810

Chevalier d'Eon, French diplomat and spy (born 1728)

Charlotte d'Éon de Beaumont, usually known as the Chevalière d'Éon or the Chevalier d'Éon, was a French diplomat, spy, and soldier. D'Éon fought in the Seven Years' War, and spied for France while in Russia and England. Assigned male at birth, D'Éon had androgynous physical characteristics and natural abilities as a mimic and spy. She appeared publicly as a man and pursued masculine occupations for the first half of her life, except for when she successfully infiltrated the court of Empress Elizabeth of Russia by presenting as a woman. Starting in 1777, d'Éon lived as a woman and was officially recognised as such by King Louis XVI.

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21/05/1790

Thomas Warton, English poet and critic (born 1728)

Thomas Warton was an English literary historian, critic, and poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1785, following the death of William Whitehead.

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21/05/1786

Carl Wilhelm Scheele, German-Swedish chemist and pharmacist (born 1742)

Carl Wilhelm Scheele was a German-Swedish pharmaceutical chemist.

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21/05/1771

Christopher Smart, English actor, playwright, and poet (born 1722)

Christopher Smart was an English poet. He was a major contributor to two popular magazines, The Midwife and The Student, and a friend to influential cultural icons like Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding. Smart, a high church Anglican, was widely known throughout London.

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21/05/1762

Alexander Joseph Sulkowski, Polish and Saxon general (born 1695)

Aleksander Józef Sułkowski was a Polish general and the progenitor of the Sułkowski noble line. He was politically active in Poland, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and in the Electorate of Saxony.

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21/05/1742

Lars Roberg, Swedish physician and academic (born 1664)

Lars Roberg was a Swedish physician and natural science researcher. He served as a professor of anatomy and medicine at Uppsala University.

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21/05/1724

Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (born 1661)

Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, KG, PC, FRS was a British statesman of the late Stuart and early Georgian periods. He began his career as a Whig, before defecting to a new Tory ministry. He was raised to the peerage of Great Britain as an earl in 1711. Between 1711 and 1714 he served as Lord High Treasurer, effectively Queen Anne's chief minister. He has been called a prime minister, although it is generally accepted that the de facto first minister to be a prime minister was Robert Walpole in 1721.

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21/05/1719

Pierre Poiret, French mystic and philosopher (born 1646)

Pierre Poiret Naudé was a prominent French mystic and Christian philosopher. He was born in Metz and died in Rijnsburg.

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21/05/1690

John Eliot, English-American minister and missionary (born 1604)

John Eliot was a Puritan missionary to Native Americans who some called "the apostle to the Indians", and the founder of Roxbury Latin School in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1645. In 1660 he completed the enormous task of translating the Eliot Indian Bible into the Massachusett language, producing more than two thousand completed copies.

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21/05/1686

Otto von Guericke, German physicist and inventor of the Magdeburg Hemispheres (born 1602)

Otto von Guericke was a German scientist, inventor, mathematician, and physicist. His pioneering scientific work, the development of experimental methods and repeatable demonstrations on the physics of the vacuum, atmospheric pressure, electrostatic repulsion, his advocacy for the reality of "action at a distance" and of "absolute space" were noteworthy contributions for the advancement of the Scientific Revolution.

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21/05/1670

Niccolò Zucchi, Italian astronomer and physicist (born 1586)

Niccolò Zucchi was an Italian Jesuit, astronomer, and physicist.

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21/05/1664

Elizabeth Poole, English settler, founded Taunton, Massachusetts (born 1588)

Elizabeth Poole or Pole was an English settler in Plymouth Colony who founded the town of Taunton, Massachusetts. She was the first woman known to have founded a town in the Americas.

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21/05/1650

James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish general and politician (born 1612)

James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish nobleman, poet, soldier and later viceroy and captain general of Scotland. Montrose initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed. From 1644 to 1646, and again in 1650, he fought in the civil war in Scotland on behalf of the King. He is referred to as the Great Montrose.

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21/05/1647

Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch poet and playwright (born 1581)

Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft - Knight in the Order of Saint Michael - was a Dutch historian, poet and playwright who lived during the Dutch Golden Age in literature.

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21/05/1639

Tommaso Campanella, Italian astrologer, theologian, and poet (born 1568)

Tommaso Campanella, baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet.

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21/05/1619

Hieronymus Fabricius, Italian anatomist (born 1537)

Girolamo Fabrici d'Acquapendente, also known as Girolamo Fabrizio or Hieronymus Fabricius, was a pioneering anatomist and surgeon known in medical science as "The Father of Embryology".

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21/05/1617

Luis Fajardo, Spanish admiral and nobleman (born c. 1556)

Luis Fajardo y Ruíz de Avendaño,, known simply as Luis Fajardo, was a Spanish admiral and nobleman who had an outstanding naval career in the Spanish Navy. He is considered one of the most reputable Spanish militaries of the last years of the reign of Philip II and the reign of Philip III. He held important positions in the navy and carried out several military operations in which he had to fight against English, Dutch, French and Barbary forces in the Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. He is known for the conquest of La Mamora in 1614.

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21/05/1607

John Rainolds, English scholar and academic (born 1549)

John Rainolds was an English academic and churchman, of Puritan views. He is remembered for his role in the Authorized Version of the Bible, a project of which he was initiator.

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21/05/1563

Martynas Mažvydas, Lithuanian writer (born 1510)

Martynas Mažvydas was a Protestant author who edited the first printed book in the Lithuanian language.

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21/05/1542

Hernando de Soto, Spanish-American explorer (born 1496)

Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador, who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, but is best known for leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States. He is the first European documented as having crossed the Mississippi River.

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21/05/1524

Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, English soldier and politician, Lord High Treasurer (born 1443)

Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, styled Earl of Surrey from 1483 to 1485 and again from 1489 to 1514, was an English nobleman, soldier and statesman who served four monarchs. He was the eldest son of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, by his first wife, Catharina de Moleyns. The Duke was the grandfather of both Queen Anne Boleyn and Queen Catherine Howard and the great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I. In 1513, he led the English to victory over the Scots at the decisive Battle of Flodden, for which he was richly rewarded by King Henry VIII, then away in France.

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21/05/1512

Pandolfo Petrucci, Italian ruler (born 1452)

Pandolfo Petrucci was the lord of Siena during the Renaissance.

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21/05/1481

Christian I, king of Denmark (born 1426)

Christian I (Christiern I) was a German noble and Scandinavian monarch under the Kalmar Union. He was king of Denmark (1448–1481), Norway (1450–1481) and Sweden (1457–1464). From 1460 to 1481, he was also duke of Schleswig and count of Holstein. He was the first king of the House of Oldenburg.

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21/05/1471

Henry VI, king of England (born 1421)

Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and claimant to the French throne from 1422 to 1453 under the terms of the Treaty of Troyes. He became king of England at the age of nine months following the death of his father, Henry V, and inherited the French claim upon the death of his maternal grandfather, Charles VI of France.

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21/05/1416

Anna of Celje, queen consort of Poland (born 1386)

Anna of Cilli or Anne of Celje was Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess consort of Lithuania from 1402 to 1416. She was the second wife of Jogaila, King of Poland and Supreme Duke of Lithuania. Their marriage was politically motivated to strengthen Jogaila's ties with the Piast dynasty and his claims to the Polish throne. Their marriage was rather distant and during fourteen years Anna bore only one daughter, Hedwig Jagiellon, who died without issue.

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21/05/1254

Conrad IV, king of Germany (born 1228)

Conrad, a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was the only son of Emperor Frederick II from his second marriage with Queen Isabella II of Jerusalem. He inherited the title of King of Jerusalem upon the death of his mother in childbirth. Appointed Duke of Swabia in 1235, his father had him elected King of Germany and crowned King of Italy in 1237. After the emperor was deposed and died in 1250, he ruled as King of Sicily until his death.

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21/05/1237

Olaf the Black, Manx son of Godred II Olafsson

Óláfr Guðrøðarson, also known as Olaf the Black, was a thirteenth-century King of the Isles, and a member of the Crovan dynasty. He was a son of Guðrøðr Óláfsson, King of the Isles and Fionnghuala Nic Lochlainn. Óláfr was a younger son of his father; Óláfr's elder brother, Rǫgnvaldr, probably had a different mother. According to the Chronicle of Mann, Guðrøðr appointed Óláfr as heir since he had been born "in lawful wedlock". Whether or not this is the case, after Guðrøðr's death in 1187 the Islesmen instead appointed Rǫgnvaldr as king, as he was a capable adult and Óláfr was a mere child. Rǫgnvaldr ruled the island-kingdom for almost forty years, during which time the half-brothers vied for the kingship.

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21/05/1086

Wang Anshi, Chinese statesman and poet (born 1021)

Wang Anshi, courtesy name Jiefu, was a Chinese economist, philosopher, poet, and politician during the Song dynasty. He served as chancellor and attempted major and controversial socioeconomic reforms known as the New Policies. These reforms constituted the core concepts of the Song-dynasty Reformists, in contrast to their rivals, the Conservatives, led by the Chancellor Sima Guang.

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21/05/1075

Richeza of Poland, queen of Hungary (born 1013)

Richeza of Poland was Queen of Hungary by marriage to Béla I, King of Hungary.

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21/05/0987

Louis V, king of West Francia (born c. 966)

Louis V, also known as Louis the Lazy, was a king of West Francia from 979 to his early death in 987. During his reign, the nobility essentially ruled the country. Dying childless, Louis V was the last Carolingian monarch in West Francia.

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21/05/0954

Feng Dao, Chinese prince and chancellor (born 882)

Feng Dao, courtesy name Kedao, posthumous title the Wenyi Prince of Ying, was a Chinese inventor, printer, and official. He was a government official during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, who served Jie Yan and the Later Tang, the Later Jin, the Liao, the Later Han, and the Later Zhou dynasties. He was chancellor of the Later Tang, Later Jin, and Later Zhou dynasties.

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21/05/0252

Sun Quan, Chinese emperor of Eastern Wu (born 182)

Sun Quan, courtesy name Zhongmou (仲謀), posthumously known as Emperor Da of Wu, was the founder of Eastern Wu, one of the Three Kingdoms of China. He inherited control of the warlord regime established by his elder brother, Sun Ce, in 200 AD. He declared formal independence and ruled from November 222 to May 229 as the King of Wu and from May 229 to May 252 as the Emperor of Wu. Unlike his rivals Cao Cao and Liu Bei, Sun Quan was much younger and governed his state mostly separate of politics and ideology. He is sometimes portrayed as neutral considering he adopted a flexible foreign policy between his two rivals with the goal of pursuing the greatest interests for the country.

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