Died on Friday, 23rd May – Famous Deaths

23/05/2024

Caleb Carr, American military historian and author (born 1955)

Caleb Carr was an American military historian and author. Carr was the second of three sons born to Lucien Carr and Francesca Von Hartz.

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Morgan Spurlock, American filmmaker (born 1970)

Morgan Valentine Spurlock was an American documentary filmmaker, writer and television producer. He directed 23 films and was the producer of nearly 70 films throughout his career. Spurlock received acclaim for directing the documentary Super Size Me (2004), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film. He produced What Would Jesus Buy? (2007) and directed Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? (2008), POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011), Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope (2011), and One Direction: This Is Us (2013).

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23/05/2021

Ron Hill, English long-distance runner (born 1938)

Ronald Hill MBE was a British runner and clothing entrepreneur. He was the second man to break 2:10 in the marathon; he set world records at four other distances, and laid claim to the marathon world record. He ran two Olympic Marathons, and achieved a personal marathon record of 2:09:28. In 1970, Hill won the 74th Boston Marathon in a course record 2:10:30. He also won gold medals for the marathon at the European Championships in 1969 and the Commonwealth Games in 1970. Hill laid claim to the longest streak of consecutive days running – every day for 52 years and 39 days from 1964 to 2017.

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Eric Carle, American children's book designer, illustrator, and writer best known for The Very Hungry Caterpillar (born 1929)

Eric Carle was an American author, designer and illustrator of children's books. His picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, first published in 1969, has been translated into more than 66 languages and sold more than 50 million copies. Carle's career as an illustrator and children's book author accelerated after he collaborated on Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?. Carle illustrated more than 70 books, most of which he also wrote, and more than 145 million copies of his books have been sold around the world.

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23/05/2020

Hana Kimura, Japanese professional wrestler (born 1997)

Hana Kimura was a Japanese professional wrestler. She worked for Japanese promotions such as World Wonder Ring Stardom and Wrestle-1, in addition to making appearances for foreign companies such as Ring of Honor, Pro-Wrestling: EVE, and some independent promotions in Mexico. She was a second-generation wrestler as the daughter of Kyoko Kimura.

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23/05/2017

Roger Moore, English actor (born 1927)

Sir Roger George Moore was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray Ian Fleming's fictional secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions/MGM Studios film series, playing the character in seven feature films: Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983) and A View to a Kill (1985). Moore's seven appearances as Bond are the most of any actor in the Eon-produced entries.

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23/05/2015

Anne Meara, American actress, comedian and playwright (born 1929)

Anne Meara was an American comedian and actress. Along with her husband Jerry Stiller, she was one-half of the prominent 1960s comedy team Stiller and Meara. Their son is actor, director, and producer Ben Stiller. She was also featured on stage, on television, and in numerous films and later became a playwright. During her career, Meara was nominated for four Emmy Awards and a Tony Award, and she won a Writers Guild Award as a co-writer for the television movie The Other Woman.

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Aleksey Mozgovoy, Pro-Russian Ukrainian separatist leader (born 1975)

Aleksey Borisovich Mozgovoy was a commander of the Russian-installed separatist Luhansk People's Republic in Ukraine. He was the leader of the pro-Russian Prizrak Brigade.

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Alicia Nash, Salvadoran-American physicist and engineer (born 1933)

Alicia Esther Nash was a Salvadoran-American physicist. The wife of mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr., she was a mental-health care advocate, who gave up her professional aspirations to support her husband and son, who were both diagnosed with schizophrenia.

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John Forbes Nash Jr., American mathematician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1928)

John Forbes Nash Jr., known and published as John Nash, was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory, real algebraic geometry, differential geometry, and partial differential equations. Nash and fellow game theorists John Harsanyi and Reinhard Selten were awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics. In 2015, Louis Nirenberg and he were awarded the Abel Prize for their contributions to the field of partial differential equations.

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23/05/2014

Mikhail Egorovich Alekseev, Russian linguist and academic (born 1949)

Mikhail Egorovich Alekseev was a Soviet and Russian linguist specializing in Nakh-Daghestanian languages.

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Madhav Mantri, Indian cricketer (born 1921)

Madhav Krishnaji Mantri was an Indian cricketer who played in four Test matches between 1951 and 1955. Born in Nasik, Maharashtra, he was a right-handed opening batsman and specialist wicket-keeper who represented Mumbai. He captained Mumbai to victory in three Ranji Trophy finals: 1951–52, 1955–56 and 1956–57. He captained Associated Cement Company to victory in the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament in 1962–63.

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23/05/2013

Epy Guerrero, Dominican baseball player, coach, and scout (born 1942)

Epifanio Obdulio "Epy" Guerrero was a Dominican baseball scout who signed more than 50 Major League Baseball (MLB) players for the Houston Astros, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and Milwaukee Brewers. Epy was the brother of former shortstop Mario Guerrero, and had two sons, Epy Jr. (Sandy) and Mike, who played and Coached minor league ball.

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Hayri Kozakçıoğlu, Turkish police officer and politician, 15th Governor of Istanbul Province (born 1938)

Hayri Kozakçıoğlu was a Turkish high-ranking civil servant and politician. He served as district governor, police chief, province governor in various administrative divisions. He was known as the first regional governor in the state of emergency ("OHAL") imposed in the provinces of Southeastern Anatolia and governor of Istanbul Province. He was found dead on the morning of May 23, 2013, in his house at Sarıyer, Istanbul.

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Georges Moustaki, Egyptian-French singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1934)

Georges Moustaki was an Egyptian-French singer-songwriter of Greek-Jewish origin. He wrote about 300 songs for some of the most popular singers in France, including Édith Piaf, Dalida, Françoise Hardy, Yves Montand, Barbara, Brigitte Fontaine, Herbert Pagani, France Gall, Cindy Daniel, Juliette Gréco, Pia Colombo, and Tino Rossi, as well as for himself.

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Flynn Robinson, American basketball player (born 1941)

Flynn James Robinson was an American professional basketball player.

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23/05/2012

Paul Fussell, American historian, author, and academic (born 1924)

Paul Fussell Jr. was an American cultural and literary historian, author and university professor. His writings cover a variety of topics, from scholarly works on eighteenth-century English literature to commentary on America's class system. Fussell served in the 103rd Infantry Division during World War II and was wounded in fighting in France. Returning to the US, Fussell wrote extensively and held several faculty positions, most prominently at Rutgers University (1955–1983) and at the University of Pennsylvania (1983–1994). He is best known for his writings about World War I and II, which explore what he felt was the gap between the romantic myth and the reality of war; he made a "career out of refusing to disguise it or elevate it".

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23/05/2011

Xavier Tondo, Spanish cyclist (born 1978)

Xavier Tondo Volpini was a Spanish professional road racing cyclist who specialized in mountain stages of bicycle races.

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23/05/2010

José Lima, Dominican-American baseball player (born 1972)

José Desiderio Rodriguez Lima was a Dominican right-handed pitcher who spent 13 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros (1997–2001), Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Dodgers (2004) and New York Mets (2006). His best year in the majors was 1999, when he won 21 games for the Astros and pitched in his only All-Star Game.

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Simon Monjack, English director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1970)

Simon Mark Monjack was an English screenwriter, film director, producer and make-up artist. He was the husband and later widower of Brittany Murphy.

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23/05/2009

Roh Moo-hyun, South Korean soldier and politician, 9th President of South Korea (born 1946)

Roh Moo-hyun was a South Korean politician and lawyer who served as the ninth president of South Korea from 2003 to 2008.

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23/05/2008

Iñaki Ochoa de Olza, Spanish mountaineer (born 1967)

Iñaki Ochoa de Olza was a Spanish climber. Ochoa de Olza took part in more than thirty separate climbing expeditions in the Himalayas over the course of his career, and was involved in more than 200 expeditions as a guide. He climbed 12 of the world's 14 tallest mountains without using oxygen. Ochoa went on record as saying that he did not believe in using oxygen to climb mountains, claiming "if you use oxygen, you are not an alpinist; you are more of an astronaut or a scuba diver.". He died of pulmonary edema in May 2008 while climbing Annapurna.

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Utah Phillips, American singer-songwriter and poet (born 1935)

Bruce Duncan "Utah" Phillips was an American labor organizer, folk singer, storyteller and poet. He described the struggles of labor unions and the power of direct action, self-identifying as an anarchist. He often promoted the Industrial Workers of the World in his music, actions, and words.

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23/05/2006

Lloyd Bentsen, American colonel and politician, 69th United States Secretary of the Treasury (born 1921)

Lloyd Millard Bentsen Jr. was an American politician who served as the 69th United States secretary of the treasury under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1994. He served as a United States senator from Texas from 1971 to 1993 and was the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ticket.

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Kazimierz Górski, Polish footballer and manager (born 1921)

Kazimierz Klaudiusz Górski was a Polish professional football manager. He was also a football player, capped once for Poland.

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23/05/2002

Big Bill Neidjie, Australian activist and last speaker of the Gaagudju language (born c. 1920)

Big Bill Neidjie, nicknamed "Kakadu Man", was the last surviving speaker of the Gaagudju language, an Aboriginal Australian language from northern Kakadu, after which Kakadu National Park is named. He was an elder of the Gaagudju people and a custodian of the land, who cared deeply about preserving his culture and land.

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Sam Snead, American golfer and journalist (born 1912)

Samuel Jackson Snead was an American professional golfer who was one of the top players in the world for the better part of four decades and widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. Snead was awarded a record 94 gold medallions, for wins in PGA of America Tour events and later credited with winning a record 82 PGA Tour events tied with Tiger Woods, including seven majors. He never won the U.S. Open, though he was runner-up four times. Snead was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.

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23/05/1999

Owen Hart, Canadian-American wrestler (born 1965)

Owen James Hart was a Canadian professional wrestler who worked for several promotions including Stampede Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). He received most of his success in the WWF, where he wrestled under both his own name and the ring names The Blue Angel and The Blue Blazer.

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23/05/1998

Telford Taylor, American general and lawyer (born 1908)

Telford Taylor was an American lawyer and professor. Taylor was known for his role as lead counsel in the prosecution of war criminals after World War II, his opposition to McCarthyism in the 1950s, and his outspoken criticism of American actions during the Vietnam War.

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23/05/1996

Kronid Lyubarsky, Russian journalist and activist (born 1934)

Kronid Arkadyevich Lyubarsky was a Russian journalist, dissident, human rights activist and political prisoner.

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23/05/1994

Olav Hauge, Norwegian poet (born 1908)

Olav Håkonson Hauge was a Norwegian horticulturist, translator and poet.

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23/05/1992

Kostas Davourlis, Greek footballer (born 1948)

Konstantinos Davourlis born in Agyia, Patras, popularly nicknamed The Black Prince, was a former Greek footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. A gifted and talented player, he was voted by the Greek sports magazine "Ethnosport" as one of the 50 best Greek football players ever.

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Giovanni Falcone, Italian lawyer and judge (born 1939)

Giovanni Falcone was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the Maxi Trial in 1986–1987, on 23 May 1992, Falcone was assassinated by the Corleonesi Mafia in the Capaci bombing, on the A29 motorway near the town of Capaci.

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23/05/1991

Wilhelm Kempff, German pianist and composer (born 1895)

Wilhelm Walter Friedrich Kempff was a German pianist, teacher and composer. Although his repertoire included Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms, Kempff was particularly well known for his interpretations of the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert, recording the complete sonatas of both composers. He is considered to have been one of the chief exponents of the Germanic tradition during the 20th century and one of the greatest pianists of all time.

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Jean Van Houtte, Belgian academic and politician, 50th Prime Minister of Belgium (born 1907)

Jean Marie Joseph "Jan", Baron Van Houtte was a Belgian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Belgium from 1952 to 1954.

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Fletcher Markle, Canadian director, screenwriter, and producer (born 1921)

Fletcher Markle was a Canadian actor, screenwriter, television producer and director. Markle began a radio career in Canada, then worked in radio, film and television in the United States.

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23/05/1989

Georgy Tovstonogov, Russian director and producer (born 1915)

Georgy Aleksandrovich Tovstonogov was a Russian-Georgian theatre director.

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Karl Koch, German computer hacker (born 1965)

Karl Werner Lothar Koch was a German hacker in the 1980s, who called himself "hagbard", after Hagbard Celine. He was involved in a Cold War computer espionage incident.

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23/05/1986

Sterling Hayden, American actor (born 1916)

Sterling Walter Hayden was an American actor. A leading man for most of his career, he specialized in Westerns and film noir throughout the 1950s, in films such as John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar (1954), and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956). In the 1960s, he became noted for supporting roles, perhaps most memorably as General Jack D. Ripper in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).

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23/05/1981

Gene Green, American baseball player (born 1933)

Gene Leroy Green was an American Major League Baseball outfielder and catcher who played all or portions of seven MLB seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals (1957–1959), Baltimore Orioles (1960), Washington Senators (1961), Cleveland Indians (1962–1963) and Cincinnati Reds (1963). A right-handed batter and thrower, he stood 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall and weighed 200 pounds (91 kg).

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Rayner Heppenstall, English author and poet (born 1911)

John Rayner Heppenstall was a British novelist, poet, diarist, and a BBC radio producer.

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George Jessel, American actor, singer, and producer (born 1898)

George Albert "Georgie" Jessel was an American actor, singer, songwriter, and film producer. He was famous in his lifetime as a multitalented comedic entertainer, achieving a level of recognition that transcended his limited roles in movies. He was widely known by his nickname, the "Toastmaster General of the United States," for his frequent role as the master of ceremonies at political and entertainment gatherings. Jessel originated the title role in the stage production of The Jazz Singer.

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David Lewis, Belarusian-Canadian lawyer and politician (born 1909)

David Lewis was a Canadian labour lawyer and social democratic politician. He was national secretary of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from 1936 to 1950 and one of the key architects of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1961. In 1962, he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP), in the House of Commons of Canada, for York South. While an MP, he was elected the NDP's national leader and served from 1971 until 1975.

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23/05/1979

S. Selvanayagam, Sri Lankan geographer and academic (born 1932)

Somasundaram Selvanayagam was a Ceylon Tamil geographer, academic and head of the Department of Geography at the University of Jaffna.

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23/05/1975

Moms Mabley, American comedian and actor (born 1894)

Loretta Mary Aiken, known by her stage name Jackie "Moms" Mabley, was an American stand-up comedian and actress. Mabley began her career on the theater stage in the 1920s and became a veteran entertainer of the Chitlin' Circuit of black vaudeville. Mabley later recorded comedy albums and appeared in films and on television programs including The Ed Sullivan Show and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

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23/05/1965

David Smith, American sculptor (born 1906)

Roland David Smith was an American abstract expressionist sculptor and painter known for creating large steel abstract geometric sculptures.

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23/05/1963

August Jakobson, Estonian author and politician (born 1904)

August Jakobson was an Estonian writer and politician. He was one of the few Estonian playwright among his contemporaries whose plays were untouched by Soviet censorship and reached other Soviet states. He has been described as the leading Stalinist in Soviet Estonian drama. In the 1960s his work was described as "ideologically militant".

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23/05/1962

Louis Coatalen, French engineer (born 1879)

Louis Hervé Coatalen was an automobile engineer and racing driver born in Brittany who spent much of his adult life in Britain and took British nationality. He was a pioneer of the design and development of internal combustion engines for cars and aircraft.

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23/05/1960

Georges Claude, French engineer and inventor, created Neon lighting (born 1870)

Georges Claude was a French engineer and inventor. He is noted for his early work on the industrial liquefaction of air, for the invention and commercialization of neon lighting, and for a large experiment on generating energy by pumping cold seawater up from the depths. He has been considered by some to be "the Edison of France". The Claude process for manufacturing ammonia was named for him.

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23/05/1956

Gustav Suits, Latvian-Estonian poet and politician (born 1883)

Gustav Suits is considered one of the greatest Estonian poets. He was also an early leader of the literary movement group Noor-Eesti.

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23/05/1949

Jan Frans De Boever, Belgian painter and illustrator (born 1872)

Jan Frans De Boever was a Belgian Symbolist painter, known for his paintings of voluptuous nude women in morbid contexts. Skeletons, death and eroticism flood his oeuvre. He made illustrations in gouache for Charles Baudelaire's famous Les Fleurs du mal for the Ghent collector and art patron Léon Speltinckx with 157 gouaches. While he was a successful artist during most of his lifetime, his megalomaniac character made him a solitary and isolated individual.

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23/05/1947

Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, Swiss author and poet (born 1878)

Charles Ferdinand Ramuz was a French-speaking Swiss writer.

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23/05/1945

Heinrich Himmler, German commander and politician, Reich Minister of the Interior and head of the SS (born 1900)

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was a German Nazi politician and military leader. He was the 4th Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel from 1929 to 1945. He was a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful figures in Nazi Germany. He was also one of the main architects of the Holocaust, the genocide of Europe's Jewish population.

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23/05/1942

Panagiotis Toundas, Greek composer and conductor (born 1886)

Panagiotis Toundas was a Greek composer of the early 20th century.

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23/05/1938

Frederick Ruple, Swiss-American painter (born 1871)

Frederick Ruple was a 20th-century Swiss-American painter, primarily of portraits. He was commissioned to paint Confederate Civil War battle scenes and murals. At times Ruple lived in Arkansas and Oklahoma where he traveled to study American Indians and early settlement in the Midwest. The Oklahoma Land Run of 1889 inspired Ruple to create his most famous painting "The Spirit of '89".

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23/05/1937

John D. Rockefeller, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Standard Oil Company and Rockefeller University (born 1839)

John Davison Rockefeller Sr. was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern history. Rockefeller was born into a large family in Upstate New York who moved several times before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. He became an assistant bookkeeper at age 16 and went into several business partnerships beginning at age 20, concentrating his business on oil refining. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He ran it until 1897 and remained its largest shareholder. In his retirement, he focused his energy and wealth on philanthropy, especially regarding education, medicine, higher education, and modernizing the Southern United States.

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23/05/1934

Clyde Barrow, American criminal (born 1909)

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut "Champion" Barrow were American outlaws who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, committing a series of criminal acts such as bank robberies, kidnappings, and murders between 1932 and 1934. The couple were known for their bank robberies and multiple murders, although they preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. Their exploits captured the attention of the American press and its readership during what is occasionally referred to as the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934. On May 23, 1934, they were ambushed and killed on Louisiana Highway 154 in Bienville Parish, Louisiana by a law enforcement posse led by retired Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. They are believed to have murdered at least nine police officers and three civilians.

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Mihkel Martna, Estonian journalist and politician (born 1860)

Mihkel Martna was an Estonian politician and journalist.

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Bonnie Parker, American criminal (born 1910)

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut "Champion" Barrow were American outlaws who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, committing a series of criminal acts such as bank robberies, kidnappings, and murders between 1932 and 1934. The couple were known for their bank robberies and multiple murders, although they preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. Their exploits captured the attention of the American press and its readership during what is occasionally referred to as the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934. On May 23, 1934, they were ambushed and killed on Louisiana Highway 154 in Bienville Parish, Louisiana by a law enforcement posse led by retired Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. They are believed to have murdered at least nine police officers and three civilians.

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23/05/1921

August Nilsson, Swedish shot putter and tug of war competitor (born 1872)

August Nilsson was a Swedish track and field athlete and tug of war competitor who competed at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.

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23/05/1920

Svetozar Boroević, Croatian-Austrian field marshal (born 1856)

Svetozar Boroević von Bojna was an Austro-Hungarian field marshal who was described as one of the finest defensive strategists of the First World War. He commanded Austro-Hungarian forces in the Isonzo front, for which he was nicknamed the "Lion of Isonzo".

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23/05/1908

François Coppée, French poet and author (born 1842)

François Edouard Joachim Coppée was a French poet and novelist.

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23/05/1906

Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian director, playwright, and poet (born 1828)

Henrik Johan Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright. He is considered one of the world's pre-eminent writers of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama". He pioneered theatrical realism but also wrote lyrical epic works. His major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, Emperor and Galilean, A Doll's House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder, and When We Dead Awaken. In 2014 Ibsen was considered the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare. Store norske leksikon describes him as "the center of the Norwegian literary canon".

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23/05/1895

Franz Ernst Neumann, German mineralogist, physicist, and mathematician (born 1798)

Franz Ernst Neumann was a German mineralogist and physicist. He devised the first formulas to calculate inductance. He also formulated Neumann's law for molecular heat. In electromagnetism, he is credited for introducing the magnetic vector potential.

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23/05/1893

Anton von Schmerling, Austrian politician (born 1805)

Anton Ritter von Schmerling was an Austrian statesman.

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23/05/1886

Leopold von Ranke, German historian and academic (born 1795)

Leopold von Ranke was a German historian and a founder of modern source-based history. He was able to implement the seminar teaching method in his classroom and focused on archival research and the analysis of historical documents. Building on the methods of the Göttingen school of history, he was the first to establish a historical seminar. Ranke set the standards for much of later historical writing, introducing such ideas as reliance on primary sources (empiricism), an emphasis on narrative history and especially international politics (Außenpolitik). He was ennobled in 1865, with the addition of a "von" to his name.

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23/05/1868

Kit Carson, American general (born 1809)

Christopher Houston Carson, popularly known as Kit Carson, was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent and U.S. Army officer.

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23/05/1857

Augustin-Louis Cauchy, French mathematician and academic (born 1789)

Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy was a French mathematician, engineer, and physicist. He was one of the first to rigorously state and prove the key theorems of calculus, pioneered the field complex analysis, and the study of permutation groups in abstract algebra. Cauchy also contributed to a number of topics in mathematical physics, notably continuum mechanics.

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23/05/1855

Charles Robert Malden, English lieutenant and explorer (born 1797)

Charles Robert Malden was a nineteenth-century British naval officer, surveyor and educator. He is the discoverer of Malden Island in the central Pacific, which is named in his honour. He also founded Windlesham House School at Brighton, England.

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23/05/1841

Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher and theologian (born 1765)

Franz von Baader, born Benedikt Franz Xaver Baader, was a Catholic theologian, philosopher, and mining engineer from Germany. Resisting the empiricism of his day, he denounced most Western philosophy since Descartes as trending into atheism and has been considered a revival of the Scholastic school. He was an important theorist of androgyny.

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23/05/1815

Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg, American clergyman and botanist (born 1753)

Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg was an American clergyman and botanist.

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23/05/1813

Géraud Duroc, French general and diplomat (born 1772)

Géraud Christophe Michel Duroc, Duke of Frioul, was a French general and diplomat who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was noted for his friendship with Napoleon Bonaparte, who appointed him as the first Grand marshal of the palace, the head of the Emperor's military household. He is sometimes referred to as ‘Napoleon's shadow’.

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23/05/1783

James Otis Jr., American lawyer and politician (born 1725)

James Otis Jr. was an American lawyer, politician, and activist who was an early supporter of patriotic causes in the Province of Massachusetts Bay at the beginning of the American Revolution. Otis was a fervent opponent of the writs of assistance introduced in 1761 which allowed law enforcement officials to search private property without cause. He later criticized British plans to introduce new taxes in the Thirteen Colonies. As a result, Otis is often credited with coining the slogan "taxation without representation is tyranny".

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23/05/1754

John Wood, the Elder, English architect, designed The Circus and Queen Square (born 1704)

John Wood, the Elder was an English architect, working mainly in Bath.

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23/05/1752

William Bradford, English-American printer (born 1663)

William Bradford was an early American colonial printer and publisher in British America. Bradford is best known for establishing the first printing press in the Middle Colonies of the Thirteen Colonies, founding the first press in Pennsylvania in 1685 and the first press in New York in 1693. Bradford operated continuously printing establishments for sixty-two years, heading a family that would include printers and publishers for 140 years. He was also known for controversies regarding freedom of the press. Starting his printing career in London, Bradford emigrated to America in 1685. He established, with others, the first paper mill to appear in the Thirteen American Colonies.

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23/05/1749

Abraham ben Abraham, Polish martyr (born 1700)

Abraham ben Abraham, also known as Count Valentine Potocki, was a Polish nobleman (szlachta) of the Potocki family who converted to Judaism and was burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church for apostasy. According to Jewish oral traditions, he was known to the revered Talmudic sage, the Vilna Gaon, and his ashes were interred in the relocated grave of the Vilna Gaon in Vilna's new Jewish cemetery. Although the Orthodox Jewish community accepts the teachings about Abraham ben Abraham, including the involvement of the Vilna Gaon, secular scholars have so far concluded the story is apocryphal.

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23/05/1701

William Kidd, Scottish pirate (born 1645)

William Kidd, also known as Captain William Kidd or simply Captain Kidd, was a Scottish privateer. Conflicting accounts exist regarding his early life, but he was likely born in Dundee and later settled in New York City. By 1690, Kidd had become a highly successful privateer, commissioned to protect English interests in the Thirteen Colonies in North America and the West Indies.

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23/05/1691

Adrien Auzout, French astronomer and instrument maker (born 1622)

Adrien Auzout French pronunciation: [ozu.(t‿)] was a French astronomer.

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23/05/1670

Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (born 1610)

Ferdinando II de' Medici was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1621 to 1670. He was the eldest son of Cosimo II de' Medici and Maria Maddalena of Austria. Remembered by his contemporaries as a man of culture and science, he actively participated in the Accademia del Cimento, the first official scientific society in Italy, formed by his younger brother, Leopoldo de' Medici. His 49-year rule was punctuated by the beginning of Tuscany's long economic decline, which was further exacerbated by his successor, Cosimo III de' Medici. He married Vittoria della Rovere, a first cousin, with whom he had two children who reached adulthood: the aforementioned Cosimo III, and Francesco Maria de' Medici, Duke of Rovere and Montefeltro, a cardinal.

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23/05/1662

John Gauden, English bishop (born 1605)

John Gauden was an English cleric. He was Bishop of Exeter then Bishop of Worcester. He was also a writer, and the reputed author of the important Royalist work Eikon Basilike.

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23/05/1591

John Blitheman, English organist and composer (born 1525)

John Blitheman was an English composer and organist.

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23/05/1524

Ismail I, First Emperor of Safavid Empire (born 1487)

Ismail I was the founder and first shah of Safavid Iran, ruling from 1501 until his death in 1524. His reign is one of the most vital in the history of Iran, and the Safavid era is often considered the beginning of modern Iranian history. Under Ismail, Iran was unified under native rule for the first time since the Islamic conquest of the country eight-and-a-half centuries earlier.

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23/05/1523

Ashikaga Yoshitane, Japanese shōgun (born 1466)

Ashikaga Yoshitane , also known as Ashikaga Yoshiki , was the 10th shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate who headed the shogunate first from 1490 to 1493 and then again from 1508 to 1521 during the Muromachi period of Japan.

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23/05/1498

Girolamo Savonarola, Italian friar and preacher (born 1452)

Girolamo Savonarola, OP, also referred to as Jerome Savonarola, was an ascetic Dominican friar from Ferrara and a preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He became known for his prophecies of civic glory, his advocacy of the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule, and the exploitation of the poor.

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23/05/1423

Antipope Benedict XIII (born 1328)

Pedro Martínez de Luna y Pérez de Gotor, known as el Papa Luna or Pope Luna, was an Aragonese nobleman who was antipope with the regnal name Benedict XIII during the Western Schism.

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23/05/1370

Toghon Temür, Mongol emperor (born 1320)

Toghon Temür, also known by his temple name as Emperor Huizong of Yuan and by his posthumous name as Emperor Shun of Yuan, was the last emperor of the Yuan dynasty and the first emperor of the Northern Yuan dynasty. He was a son of Kusala.

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23/05/1338

Alice de Warenne, Countess of Arundel, English noble (born 1287)

Alice de Warenne, Countess of Arundel was an English noblewoman and heir apparent to the Earldom of Surrey. In 1305, she married Edmund FitzAlan, 2nd Earl of Arundel.

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23/05/1304

Jehan de Lescurel, French poet and composer

Jehan de Lescurel was a composer-poet of late medieval music. Jehan's extensive surviving oeuvre is an important and rare examples of the formes fixes before the time of Guillaume de Machaut; it consists of 34 works: 20 ballades, 12 rondeaus and two long narrative poems, diz entés. All but one of his compositions is monophonic, representing the end of the trouvère tradition and the beginning of the polyphonic ars nova style centered around the formes fixes.

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23/05/1125

Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1086)

Henry V was King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor, as the fourth and last ruler of the Salian dynasty. He was made co-ruler by his father, Henry IV, in 1098.

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23/05/0962

Guibert of Gembloux, Frankish abbot (born 892)

Wicbert or Guibert was a nobleman who became a hermit and founded Gembloux Abbey. He was canonized as a saint in 1211. Saint Guibert's feast day is observed on 23 May.

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23/05/0922

Li Sizhao, Chinese general and governor

Li Sizhao, né Han (韓), known at one point as Li Jintong (李進通), courtesy name Yiguang (益光), formally the Prince of Longxi (隴西王), was a Chinese military general and politician. He served as major general under Li Keyong and Li Keyong's son and successor Li Cunxu, the princes of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Jin. He was an adoptive nephew of Li Keyong's, and served Li Keyong both before and after the destruction of the Tang dynasty.

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23/05/0230

Urban I, pope of the Catholic Church

Pope Urban I, also known as Saint Urban (175?–230), was the bishop of Rome from 222 to 23 May 230. He was born in Rome and succeeded Callixtus I, who had been martyred. It was believed for centuries that Urban I was also martyred. However, recent historical discoveries now lead scholars to believe that he died of natural causes.

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