Died on Thursday, 29th May – Famous Deaths

29/05/2025

Bernie Kerik, American police officer, 40th Police Commissioner of New York City and interior minister of the Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority (born 1955)

Bernard Bailey Kerik was an American consultant, police officer and convicted felon who was the 40th Commissioner of the New York Police Department from 2000 to 2001.

---

29/05/2024

Bob Rogers, Australian radio and television host (born 1926)

Robert Barton Rogers OAM was an Australian disc jockey and radio broadcaster. He was noted for introducing Top 40 radio programming to Australia in 1958, on 2UE.

---

29/05/2022

Ronnie Hawkins, American rockabilly singer-songwriter and guitarist. (born 1935)

Ronald Cornett Hawkins was an American rock and roll singer, long based in Canada, whose career spanned 66 years. His career began in Arkansas, United States, where he was born and raised. He found success in Ontario, Canada, and lived there for most of his life. Hawkins was an institution of the Ontario music scene for over 40 years. He was influential in the evolution of rock music in Canada.

---

Sidhu Moosewala, Indian singer, rapper, actor and politician. (born 1993)

Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, known professionally as Sidhu Moose Wala, was an Indian singer and rapper. He worked predominantly in Punjabi-language music and cinema. Moose Wala is considered to be one of the most influential and successful Punjabi rappers of all time and to many, among the greatest Indian musicians of his generation.

---

29/05/2021

Gavin MacLeod, American actor, Christian activist, and author (born 1931)

Gavin MacLeod was an American actor best known for his roles as news writer Murray Slaughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and ship's captain Merrill Stubing on ABC's The Love Boat. After growing up Catholic, MacLeod became an evangelical Christian in 1984. His career, which spanned six decades, included work as a Christian television host, author, and guest on several talk, variety, and religious programs.

---

Mark Eaton, American basketball player and sportscaster (born 1957)

Mark Edward Eaton was an American professional basketball player who spent his entire career (1982–1993) with the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Named an NBA All-Star in 1989, he was twice voted the NBA Defensive Player of the Year and was a five-time member of the NBA All-Defensive Team. The 7-foot-4-inch (2.24 m) Eaton became one of the best defensive centers in NBA history. He led the league in blocks four times and holds the NBA single-season records for blocks (456) and blocked shots per game average (5.6), as well as career blocked shots per game (3.5). His No. 53 was retired by the Jazz.

---

B. J. Thomas, American singer (born 1942)

Billy Joe Thomas was an American singer widely known for his country, contemporary Christian, and pop hits of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

---

Cornelius Sim, Bruneian cardinal (born 1951)

Cornelius Sim DD was a Bruneian prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Vicar Apostolic of Brunei from 2004 until his death. He had previously served as the apostolic prefect of Brunei from 1997 to 2004.

---

29/05/2020

Maikanti Baru, Nigerian engineer, former chief of state oil firm. (born 1959)

Maikanti Kachalla Baru was a Nigerian engineer, crude oil marketer and the 18th Group Managing Director of the Nigeria's state oil firm, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). He served in the position from July 2016 to July 2019 and had previously served as the Group General Manager (GGM) of National Petroleum Investment Management Services. Baru was a fellow of Nigerian Society of Engineers and Nigerian Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

---

29/05/2017

Manuel Noriega, Panamanian general and politician, Military Leader of Panama (born 1934)

Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno was a Panamanian military officer and politician who was the de facto ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989. He never officially served as president of Panama, instead ruling as an unelected military dictator through puppet presidents. Amassing a personal fortune through drug trafficking operations by the Panamanian military, Noriega had longstanding ties with American intelligence agencies before the United States invasion of Panama removed him from power.

---

Mordechai Tzipori, Israeli Lieutenant General and minister (born 1924)

Mordechai Tzipori was an Israeli politician who served as Minister of Communications from 1981 until 1984.

---

Konstantinos Mitsotakis, Greek politician and prime minister (born 1918)

Konstantinos Mitsotakis was a Greek liberal politician and statesman. He served as prime minister of Greece from 1990 to 1993.

---

29/05/2015

Henry Carr, American football player and sprinter (born 1942)

Henry Carr was an American track and field athlete who won two gold medals at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

---

Doris Hart, American tennis player (born 1925)

Doris Hart was an American tennis player who was active in the 1940s and first half of the 1950s. She was ranked world No. 1 in 1951. She was the fourth player, and second woman, to win a Career Grand Slam in singles. She was the first of only three players to complete the career "Boxed Set" of Grand Slam titles, which is winning at least one title in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles at all four Grand Slam events. Only she and Margaret Court achieved this during the amateur era of the sport.

---

Betsy Palmer, American actress (born 1926)

Betsy Palmer was an American actress known for her many film and Broadway roles, television guest-starring appearances, as a panelist on the game show I've Got a Secret, and later for playing Pamela Voorhees, the antagonist and mother of Jason Voorhees, in the first Friday the 13th film (1980).

---

29/05/2014

Christine Charbonneau, Canadian singer-songwriter (born 1943)

Christine Charbonneau was a French Canadian singer and songwriter.

---

Walter Jakob Gehring, Swiss biologist and academic (born 1939)

Walter Jakob Gehring was a Swiss developmental biologist who was a professor at the Biozentrum Basel of the University of Basel, Switzerland. He obtained his PhD at the University of Zurich in 1965 and after two years as a research assistant of Ernst Hadorn he joined Alan Garen's group at Yale University in New Haven as a postdoctoral fellow.

---

Peter Glaser, Czech-American scientist and engineer (born 1923)

Peter Edward Glaser was a Czechoslovak-born American scientist and aerospace engineer. He served as Vice President, Advanced Technology (1985–94), was employed at Arthur D. Little, Inc., Cambridge, MA (1955–94); subsequently he served as a consultant to the company (1994–2005). He was president of Power from Space Consultants (1994–2005). Glaser retired in 2005.

---

Miljenko Prohaska, Croatian composer and conductor (born 1925)

Miljenko Prohaska was a Croatian composer, music arranger and orchestra conductor.

---

William M. Roth, American businessman (born 1916)

William Matson Roth was an American shipping executive, special ambassador for trade, member of the ACLU executive committee, and Regent for the University of California. He is credited with the preservation of Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco.

---

29/05/2013

Richard Ballantine, American-English journalist and author (born 1940)

Richard Ballantine was a cycling writer, journalist and cycling advocate. Born in America, the son of Ian and Betty Ballantine of Ballantine Books, and educated at the Browning School in New York and Columbia University, he principally resided in London, England. He wrote the popular Richard's Bicycle Book (1972) and its subsequent editions. He was an editor at Rufus Publications and founded several magazines including Bicycle magazine.

---

Françoise Blanchard, French actress (born 1954)

Françoise Denise Aline Blanchard was a French actress. Her most notable work is that of her role in the 1982 French film La morte vivante, directed by Jean Rollin. Blanchard had collaborated with Rollin on several occasions in films Les trottoirs de Bangkok (1984), À la poursuite de Barbara (1991) and La nuit des horloges (2007). She had worked frequently with directors Richard Balducci and Jesús Franco. She was also known for her work as a voice artist, having dubbed films, such as, Robert Altman's Popeye (1980), The NeverEnding Story III (1994) and Hackers (1995), and animated television series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Totally Spies!

---

Andrew Greeley, American priest, sociologist, and author (born 1928)

Andrew Moran Greeley was an American Catholic priest, sociologist, journalist and novelist. He was a professor of sociology at the University of Arizona and the University of Chicago, and a research associate with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). For many years, Greeley wrote a weekly column for the Chicago Sun-Times and contributed regularly to The New York Times, the National Catholic Reporter, America and Commonweal.

---

Mulgrew Miller, American pianist and composer (born 1955)

Mulgrew Miller was an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. As a child he played in churches and was influenced on piano by Ramsey Lewis and then Oscar Peterson. Aspects of their styles remained in his playing, but he added the greater harmonic freedom of McCoy Tyner and others in developing as a hard bop player and then in creating his own style, which influenced others from the 1980s on.

---

Henry Morgentaler, Polish-Canadian physician and activist (born 1923)

Henekh "Henry" Morgentaler was a Polish-born Canadian physician and abortion rights advocate who fought numerous legal battles aimed at expanding abortion rights in Canada. As a Jewish youth during World War II, Morgentaler was imprisoned at the Łódź Ghetto and later at the Dachau concentration camp.

---

Franca Rame, Italian actress and playwright (born 1928)

Franca Rame was an Italian theatre actress, playwright and political activist. She was married to Nobel laureate playwright Dario Fo and is the mother of writer Jacopo Fo. Fo dedicated his Nobel Prize to her.

---

Ludwig G. Strauss, German physician and academic (born 1949)

Ludwig Georg Strauss was a German nuclear medicine physician and professor of radiology at the University of Heidelberg.

---

Wali-ur-Rehman, Pakistani commander (born 1970)

Wali-ur-Rehman was a senior Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander based in South Waziristan. Wali-ur-Rehman was formerly a spokesman for Baitullah Mehsud, the late leader of the TTP.

---

29/05/2012

Mark Minkov, Russian composer (born 1944)

Mark Anatolievich Minkov was a Soviet and Russian music composer. His music is featured in a number of operas, ballets, stage performances, and films.

---

Kaneto Shindo, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1912)

Kaneto Shindō was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, film producer, and writer, who directed 48 films and wrote scripts for 238. His best known films as a director include Children of Hiroshima, The Naked Island, Onibaba, Kuroneko and A Last Note. His screenplays were filmed by directors such as Kenji Mizoguchi, Kōzaburō Yoshimura, Kon Ichikawa, Keisuke Kinoshita, Seijun Suzuki, and Tadashi Imai.

---

Doc Watson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1923)

Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. He won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His fingerpicking and flatpicking skills, as well as his knowledge of traditional American music, were highly regarded. Blind from a young age, he performed publicly both in a dance band and solo, as well as for over 15 years with his son, guitarist Merle Watson, until Merle's death in 1985 in an accident on the family farm.

---

29/05/2011

Sergei Bagapsh, Abkhazian politician, 2nd President of Abkhazia (born 1949)

Sergei Uasyl-ipa Bagapsh was an Abkhaz politician who served as the second president of Abkhazia from 12 February 2005 until his death on 29 May 2011. He previously served as Prime Minister of Abkhazia from 1997 to 1999. He was re-elected in the 2009 presidential election. Bagapsh's term as prime minister included the 1998 war with Georgia, while he oversaw both the recognition of Abkhazia by Russia and the Russo-Georgian War during his presidency.

---

Bill Clements, American soldier and politician, 42nd Governor of Texas (born 1917)

William Perry Clements Jr. was an American businessman and Republican Party politician who served two nonconsecutive terms as the governor of Texas between 1979 and 1991. His terms bookended the sole term served by Mark Wells White, a Democrat who defeated Clements in the 1982 election only to lose his campaign for reelection in 1986.

---

Ferenc Mádl, Hungarian academic and politician, 14th President of Hungary (born 1931)

Ferenc Mádl was a Hungarian legal scholar, professor, and politician, who served as President of Hungary from 2000 until 2005. Prior to that he had been minister without portfolio from 1990 to 1993 then Minister of Education from 1993 to 1994 in the conservative cabinets of József Antall and Péter Boross.

---

29/05/2010

Dennis Hopper, American actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1936)

Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker, photographer and visual artist. He is considered one of the key figures of the New Hollywood era. He earned prizes from the Cannes Film Festival and Venice International Film Festival as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.

---

29/05/2008

Paula Gunn Allen, American writer (born 1939)

Paula Gunn Allen was an American poet, literary critic, activist, professor, and novelist. Of mixed-race European-American, Arab-American, and Native American descent, she identified with her mother's people, the Laguna Pueblo. Gunn Allen wrote numerous essays, stories and poetry with Native American and feminist themes, and two biographies of Native American women. She edited four collections of Native American traditional stories and contemporary writing.

---

Luc Bourdon, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1987)

Luc Bourdon was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who was a defenceman for the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 2006 until 2008. After overcoming childhood arthritis, he was selected third overall in the 2003 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) draft and played for the Val-d'Or Foreurs, Moncton Wildcats, and Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, spending four seasons in the QMJHL. The Canucks drafted Bourdon with their first selection, 10th overall, in the 2005 NHL entry draft, and he split his professional career with the Canucks and their American Hockey League affiliate, the Manitoba Moose. Noted as a strong defenceman who could contribute on offence, Bourdon represented Canada in three international tournaments, winning two gold medals at the IIHF World Junior Championship and a silver medal at the IIHF World U18 Championship.

---

Harvey Korman, American actor and comedian (born 1927)

Harvey Herschel Korman was an American actor and comedian who performed in television and film productions. He is best remembered as a main cast member alongside Carol Burnett, Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence on the CBS sketch comedy series The Carol Burnett Show (1967–1977) for which he won four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award.

---

29/05/2007

Dave Balon, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1938)

David Alexander Balon was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. Balon played 14 seasons in the National Hockey League between 1959 and 1973 before multiple sclerosis led to his retirement.

---

Lois Browne-Evans, Bermudian lawyer and politician (born 1927)

Dame Lois Marie Browne-Evans DBE JP was a lawyer and political figure in Bermuda. She led the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) in opposition before being appointed Bermuda's first female Attorney-General. She first gained recognition in 1953 as Bermuda's first female barrister. Browne-Evans died of a suspected stroke on 29 May 2007, at age 79.

---

29/05/2006

Jacques Bouchard, Canadian businessman (born 1930)

Jacques Bouchard, was a Canadian advertising executive and author. He was one of the founders of Quebec's first French creative advertising agency, BCP, and a pioneer in French-language advertising.

---

Katarína Kolníková, Slovak actress (born 1921)

Katarína Kolníková was a Slovak stage actress.

---

29/05/2005

John D'Amico, Canadian ice hockey player and referee (born 1937)

John David D'Amico was a Canadian National Hockey League (NHL) linesman and later supervisor of officials.

---

Hamilton Naki, South African surgeon (born 1926)

Hamilton Naki was a South African laboratory assistant known for his contributions to surgical research and medical training despite having no formal medical training. He worked with cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard at the University of Cape Town, where he was involved with organ transplant research on animals and trained medical students in surgical techniques. His contributions to medical science, particularly in an era of racial segregation and apartheid, have been recognized as remarkable.

---

George Rochberg, American soldier and composer (born 1918)

George Rochberg was an American composer of contemporary classical music. Long a serial composer, Rochberg abandoned the technique after his teenage son died in 1964, saying it had proved inadequate to express his grief and was empty of expressive power. By the 1970s, Rochberg's use of tonal passages in his music had provoked controversy among critics and fellow composers. A professor at the University of Pennsylvania until 1983, Rochberg chaired its music department until 1968. He became the first Annenberg Professor of the Humanities in 1978.

---

29/05/2004

Archibald Cox, American lawyer and politician, 31st United States Solicitor General (born 1912)

Archibald Cox Jr. was an American legal scholar who served as U.S. Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy and as a special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal. During his career, he was a pioneering expert on labor law and was also an authority on constitutional law. The Journal of Legal Studies has identified Cox as one of the most cited legal scholars of the 20th century.

---

Samuel Dash, American academic and politician (born 1925)

Samuel Joseph Dash was an American lawyer. He was chief counsel for the Senate Watergate Committee during the Watergate scandal. Dash became famous for his televised interrogations during the hearings held by the United States Congress on the Watergate incident.

---

29/05/2003

David Jefferies, English motorcycle racer (born 1972)

Allan David Jefferies was an English professional motorcycle racer. He died after crashing during practice for the 2003 Isle of Man TT races.

---

29/05/1998

Barry Goldwater, American general, activist, and politician (born 1909)

Barry Morris Goldwater was an American politician and major general in the Air Force Reserve who served as a United States senator from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987, and was the Republican Party's nominee for president in 1964.

---

29/05/1997

Jeff Buckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1966)

Jeffrey Scott Buckley was an American musician. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, he attracted a following in the early 1990s performing at venues in the East Village, Manhattan. He signed with Columbia and released his only studio album, Grace, in 1994. Buckley toured extensively to promote Grace, with concerts in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Australia.

---

29/05/1996

Tamara Toumanova, American ballerina and actress (born 1919)

Tamara Toumanova was a Russian-born Georgian-American prima ballerina and actress. A child of exiles in Paris after the Russian Revolution of 1917, she made her debut at the age of 10 at the children's ballet of the Paris Opera.

---

29/05/1994

Erich Honecker, German lawyer and politician (born 1912)

Erich Ernst Paul Honecker was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the posts of General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and Chairman of the National Defence Council; in 1976, he replaced Willi Stoph as Chairman of the State Council, the official head of state. As the leader of East Germany, Honecker was viewed as a dictator. During his leadership, the country had close ties to the Soviet Union, which maintained a large army in the country.

---

Lady May Abel Smith, member of the British Royal Family (born 1906)

Lady May Helen Emma Abel Smith was a member of the British royal family. On her mother's side, she was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and on her father's side, a great-great-granddaughter of King George III and the niece of Queen Mary. She led a private life in Britain. From 1958 until 1966, she lived in Brisbane, while her husband, Sir Henry Abel Smith, served as the governor of Queensland.

---

29/05/1993

Billy Conn, American boxer (born 1917)

William David Conn was an American professional boxer and Light Heavyweight Champion famed for his fights with Joe Louis. He had a professional boxing record of 63 wins, 11 losses and 1 draw, with 14 wins by knockout. His nickname, throughout most of his career, was "The Pittsburgh Kid." He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 1990.

---

29/05/1992

Rogério Lemgruber, Brazilian criminal, founder of Comando Vermelho (born 1952)

Rogério Lemgruber also known as Bagulhão, was a Brazilian bank robber, murderer, kidnapper, and drug trafficker. He founded the criminal organization Falange Vermelha, the predecessor of the group now known as Comando Vermelho, whose full name pays tribute to him. His brother, Sebastião Lemgruber, alias Tiguel, and his nephew, Rondinelli, were also members of the organization.

---

29/05/1991

Margaret Barr (choreographer), Australian choreographer and teacher of dance-drama (born 1904)

Margaret Barr was an Australian choreographer and teacher of dance-drama who worked in the United States, England, New Zealand and Australia. During a career of more than sixty years, she created over eighty works.

---

29/05/1989

George C. Homans, American sociologist and academic (born 1910)

George Caspar Homans was an American sociologist, founder of behavioral sociology, the 54th president of the American Sociological Association, and one of the architects of social exchange theory. Homans is best known in science for his research in social behavior and his works The Human Group, Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms, his contributions to exchange theory, and the different propositions he developed to explain social behavior. He is also the third great-grandson of the second President of the United States, John Adams.

---

29/05/1988

Salem bin Laden, Saudi Arabian businessman (born 1946)

Salem bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian investor and billionaire businessman.

---

29/05/1987

Charan Singh, Indian politician, 5th Prime Minister of India (born 1902)

Chaudhary Charan Singh was an Indian politician, peasant leader, author and an independence activist who briefly served as the prime minister of India from July 1979 to January 1980. Singh was principally known for his land and agricultural reform initiatives, and was Member of Parliament (MP) for Baghpat. During his premiership, he was a member of the Janata Party (Secular). He served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh as a member of Bharatiya Kranti Dal. He also briefly served as the deputy prime minister of India from January 1979 to July 1979 as a member of the Janata Party. Singh is widely regarded as the "Champion of Farmers", dedicated to advocating for the well being and rights of farmers.

---

29/05/1983

Arvīds Pelše, Latvian-Russian historian and politician (born 1899)

Arvīds Pelše was a Latvian Soviet politician, functionary, and historian.

---

29/05/1982

Romy Schneider, German-French actress (born 1938)

Rosemarie Magdalena Albach, known professionally as Romy Schneider, was a German and French actress. She is regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses of all time and became a cult figure due to her role as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the Sissi trilogy in the mid-1950s. She later reprised the role in a more mature version in Luchino Visconti's Ludwig (1973). She began her career in the German Heimatfilm genre in the early 1950s when she was 15. Schneider moved to France, where she made successful and critically acclaimed films with some of the most notable film directors of that era. Coco Chanel called Romy "the ultimate incarnation of the ideal woman". Bertrand Tavernier remarked: "Sautet is talking about Mozart with regard to Romy. Me, I want to talk of Verdi, Mahler..."

---

29/05/1981

Nina Negri, Argentine-French painter and engraver (born 1901)

Nina Negri was an Argentine-French surrealist painter and engraver who was a part of the art studio Atelier 17.

---

29/05/1979

Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress, producer, and screenwriter, co-founder of United Artists (born 1892)

Gladys Louise Smith, baptised as Gladys Marie Smith, known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian American film actress and producer. A pioneer in the American film industry with a Hollywood career spanning five decades, Pickford was one of the most popular actresses of the silent film era. Beginning her film career in 1909, Pickford became Hollywood's first millionaire by 1916, and, at the height of her career, had complete creative control of her films and was one of the most recognizable women in the world. Due to her popularity, unprecedented international fame, and success as an actress and businesswoman, she was known as the "Queen of the Movies". She was a significant figure in the development of film acting and is credited with having defined the ingénue type in cinema, a persona that also earned her the nickname "America's Sweetheart".

---

John H. Wood Jr., American lawyer and judge (born 1916)

John Howland Wood Jr. was an American lawyer and judge from Texas. He served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas in 1970 until his assassination in 1979. His murder was the first assassination of a federal judge in the 20th century.

---

29/05/1977

Ba Maw, Burmese politician, Prime Minister of Burma (born 1893)

Ba Maw, known honorifically as Dr. Ba Maw, was a Burmese lawyer and politician, active during the interwar period and Second World War. He was the first Burma Premier (1937–1939) and head of State of Burma from 1943 to 1945.

---

29/05/1976

Radoslav Andrea Tsanoff, Bulgarian‑American philosopher and author (born 1887)

Radoslav Andrea Tsanoff was a philosopher, teacher, and author who was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 1903, he traveled to the United States at age 16 and spent a year at Robert College, after leaving Bulgaria. He then went to Oberlin College which is where he got his PhD in philosophy. He joined Rice University in Houston as an assistant professor of philosophy in 1914.

---

29/05/1973

George Harriman, English businessman (born 1908)

Sir George William Harriman CBE was a leading figure in the British motor industry in the 1960s.

---

29/05/1972

Moe Berg, American baseball player, coach, and spy (born 1902)

Morris Berg was an American professional baseball catcher and coach in Major League Baseball who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. He played 15 seasons in the major leagues, almost entirely for four American League teams, though he was never more than an average player and was better known for being "the brainiest guy in baseball." Casey Stengel once described Berg as "the strangest man ever to play baseball."

---

Stephen Timoshenko, Ukrainian-American engineer and academic (born 1878)

Stepan Prokopovich Timoshenko, later known as Stephen Timoshenko, was a Ukrainian and later an American engineer and academician.

---

29/05/1970

John Gunther, American journalist and author (born 1901)

John Gunther was an American journalist and writer.

---

Eva Hesse, American artist (born 1936)

Eva Hesse was a German-born American sculptor known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. She is one of the artists who ushered in the postminimal art movement in the 1960s.

---

29/05/1968

Arnold Susi, Estonian lawyer and politician, Estonian Minister of Education (born 1896)

Arnold Susi was a lawyer and the Minister of Education in the Estonian government of Otto Tief established on 18 September 1944 during WWII. In 1945, Susi befriended Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in a Soviet prison. In the 1960s, when writing The Gulag Archipelago Solzhenitsyn hid at Susi's country house in Estonia. Solzhenitsyn also briefly describes his meeting with Arnold Susi in that book. Susi also wrote his memoirs of World War I in Doom of the Russian Empire, which he wrote while in Abakan. He died in Tallinn, aged 72.

---

29/05/1966

Ignace Lepp, Estonian-French priest and psychologist (born 1909)

Ignace Lepp, was a French writer of Estonian origin.

---

29/05/1963

Netta Muskett, English author (born 1887)

Netta Muskett was a British writer of more than 60 romance novels from 1927 to 1963, who also wrote under the pseudonym Anne Hill. Her novels have been translated to several languages, including: Spanish, French, Portuguese, Finnish, Swedish and Danish.

---

29/05/1958

Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish poet and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1881)

Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which in the Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistic purity". One of Jiménez's most important contributions to modern poetry was his advocacy of the concept of "pure poetry".

---

29/05/1957

James Whale, English director (born 1889)

James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor, who spent the greater part of his career in Hollywood. He is best remembered for several horror films: Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), all considered classics. Whale also directed films in other genres, including the 1936 film version of the musical Show Boat.

---

29/05/1953

Morgan Russell, American painter and educator (born 1886)

Morgan Russell was a modern American artist. With Stanton Macdonald-Wright, he was the founder of Synchromism, a provocative style of abstract painting that dates from 1912 to the 1920s. Russell's "synchromies," which analogized color to music, were an early American contribution to the rise of Modernism.

---

29/05/1951

Fanny Brice, American singer and comedian (born 1891)

Fania Borach, known professionally as Fanny Brice or Fannie Brice, was an American comedian, illustrated song model, singer, and actress who made many stage, radio, and film appearances. She is known as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series The Baby Snooks Show.

---

Dimitrios Levidis, Greek-French soldier and composer (born 1885)

Dimitrios Levidis was a Greek composer, later naturalized French (1929).

---

29/05/1948

May Whitty, English actress (born 1865)

Dame Mary Louise Webster, known professionally as May Whitty and later, for her charity work, Dame May Whitty, was an English stage and film actress. She was one of the first two women entertainers to become a Dame. The British actors' union Equity was established in her home in 1930.

---

29/05/1946

Martin Gottfried Weiss, German SS officer (born 1905)

Martin Gottfried Weiss, alternatively spelled Weiß, but best known as The Demon of Dachau was the commandant of the Dachau concentration camp in 1945 at the time of his arrest. He also served from April 1940 until September 1942 as the commandant of Neuengamme concentration camp, and later, from November 1943 until May 1944, as the fourth commandant of Majdanek concentration camp. He was executed for war crimes.

---

29/05/1942

John Barrymore, American actor (born 1882)

John Barrymore was an American actor on stage, screen, and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage and briefly attempted a career as a visual artist, but appeared on stage together with his father, Maurice, in 1900, and then his sister Ethel the following year. He began his career in 1903 and first gained attention as a stage actor in light comedy, then high drama, culminating in productions of Justice (1916), Richard III (1920), and Hamlet (1922); his portrayal of Hamlet led to him being called the "greatest living American tragedian".

---

29/05/1941

Léo-Pol Morin, Canadian pianist, composer, and educator (born 1892)

Léo-Pol Morin was a Canadian pianist, music critic, composer, and music educator. He composed under the name James Callihou, with his most well known works being Suite canadienne (1945) and Three Eskimos for piano. He also composed works based on Canadian and Inuit folklore/folk music and harmonized a number of French-Canadian folksongs. Victor Brault notably transcribed his Inuit folklore inspired Chants de sacrifice for choir and 2 pianos.

---

29/05/1939

Ursula Ledóchowska, Austrian-Polish nun and saint, founded the Congregation of the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus (born 1865)

Julia Ledóchowska, USAHJ, in religion Maria Ursula of Jesus, was a Polish Catholic religious sister who founded the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus.

---

29/05/1935

Josef Suk, Czech violinist and composer (born 1874)

Josef Suk was a Czech composer, violinist, and Olympic silver medalist. He studied under Antonín Dvořák, whose daughter he married.

---

29/05/1921

Abbott Handerson Thayer, American painter and educator (born 1849)

Abbott Handerson Thayer was an American painter, naturalist, and teacher. As a painter of portraits, figures, animals, and landscapes, he enjoyed a certain prominence during his lifetime, and his paintings are represented in major American art collections. He is perhaps best known for his 'angel' paintings, some of which use his children as models.

---

29/05/1920

Carlos Deltour, French rower (born 1864)

Carlos Deltour, also known as Charles Deltour, was a Mexican-born French rower who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics.

---

29/05/1919

Robert Bacon, American colonel and politician, 39th United States Secretary of State (born 1860)

Robert Bacon was an American athlete, banker, businessman, statesman, diplomat and Republican Party politician who served as the 39th United States Secretary of State in the Theodore Roosevelt administration from January to March 1909. He also served as Assistant Secretary of State from 1905 to 1909 and Ambassador to France from 1909 to 1912.

---

29/05/1917

Kate Harrington, American poet and educator (born 1831)

Kate Harrington, born Rebecca Harrington Smith and later known as Rebecca Smith Pollard, was an American teacher, writer and poet.

---

29/05/1914

Laurence Sydney Brodribb Irving, English author and playwright (born 1871)

Laurence Sydney Brodribb Irving was an English dramatist and actor. He died along with his wife, Mabel, in the Empress of Ireland disaster in 1914.

---

Henry Seton-Karr, English explorer, hunter, and author (born 1853)

Sir Henry Seton-Karr was an English explorer, hunter and author and a Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1906.

---

29/05/1911

W. S. Gilbert, English playwright and poet (born 1836)

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with the composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most famous of these include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre, The Mikado. The popularity of these works was supported for over a century by year-round performances of them, in Britain and abroad, by the repertory company that Gilbert, Sullivan and their producer Richard D'Oyly Carte founded, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. These Savoy operas are still frequently performed in the English-speaking world and beyond.

---

29/05/1910

Mily Balakirev, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1837)

Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor known today primarily for his work promoting musical nationalism and his encouragement of more famous Russian composers, notably Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He began his career as a pivotal figure, extending the fusion of traditional folk music and experimental classical music practices begun by composer Mikhail Glinka. In the process, Balakirev developed musical patterns that could express overt nationalistic feeling. After a nervous breakdown and consequent sabbatical, he returned to classical music but did not wield the same level of influence as before.

---

29/05/1903

Bruce Price, American architect, designed the Château Frontenac and American Surety Building (born 1845)

Bruce Price was an American architect and an innovator in the Shingle Style. The stark geometry and compact massing of his cottages in Tuxedo Park, New York, influenced Modernist architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright and Robert Venturi.

---

29/05/1896

Gabriel Auguste Daubrée, French geologist and academic (born 1814)

Gabriel Auguste Daubrée MIF FRS FRSE was a French geologist, best known for applying experimental methods to structural geology. He served as the director of the École des Mines as well as the president of the French Academy of Sciences.

---

29/05/1892

Bahá'u'lláh, Persian religious leader, founded the Baháʼí Faith (born 1817)

Baháʼu'lláh was an Iranian religious leader who founded the Baháʼí Faith. He was born to an aristocratic family in Iran and was exiled due to his adherence to the messianic Bábism. In 1863, in Ottoman Iraq, he first announced his claim to a revelation from God and spent the rest of his life in further imprisonment in the Ottoman Empire. His teachings revolved around the principles of unity and religious renewal, ranging from moral and spiritual progress to world governance.

---

29/05/1873

Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine (born 1870)

Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine was a son of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, and was the grandson of Queen Victoria. He was the maternal great-uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, through his eldest sister, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine.

---

29/05/1866

Winfield Scott, American general, lawyer, and politician (born 1786)

Winfield Scott was an American military commander and a presidential candidate. He served as Commanding General of the United States Army from 1841 to 1861, and was a veteran of the War of 1812, American Indian Wars, Mexican–American War, and the early stages of the American Civil War. Scott was the Whig Party's presidential nominee in the 1852 election but was defeated by Democrat Franklin Pierce. He was known as Old Fuss and Feathers for his insistence on proper military etiquette and the Grand Old Man of the Army for his many years of service.

---

29/05/1862

Franz Mirecki, Polish composer, music conductor, and music teacher (born 1791)

Franciszek (also spelled Franz) Wincenty Mirecki (1791–1862) was a Polish composer, music conductor, and music teacher.

---

29/05/1847

Emmanuel de Grouchy, Marquis de Grouchy, French general (born 1766)

Emmanuel de Grouchy, marquis de Grouchy was a French military leader who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was the last Marshal of the Empire to be created by Napoleon, and is best known for his actions during the Waterloo campaign.

---

29/05/1829

Humphry Davy, English-Swiss chemist and academic (born 1778)

Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for the first time: potassium and sodium in 1807 and calcium, strontium, barium, magnesium and boron the following year, as well as for discovering the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine. Davy also studied the forces involved in these separations, inventing the new field of electrochemistry. He is credited with discovering clathrate hydrates.

---

29/05/1814

Joséphine de Beauharnais, French empress, first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte (born 1763)

Joséphine Bonaparte was the first wife of Emperor Napoleon I and as such Empress of the French from 18 May 1804 until their marriage was annulled on 10 January 1810. As Napoleon's consort, she was also Queen of Italy from 26 May 1805 until the 1810 annulment. She is widely known as Joséphine de Beauharnais or Empress Joséphine.

---

29/05/1796

Carl Fredrik Pechlin, Swedish general and politician (born 1720)

Baron Carl Fredrik Pechlin was a Swedish politician and demagogue.

---

29/05/1790

Israel Putnam, American general (born 1718)

Israel Putnam, popularly known as "Old Put", was an American military officer and landowner who served in the French and Indian War and American Revolutionary War. He was an officer in Rogers' Rangers during the French and Indian War, during which Putnam was captured by Mohawk warriors. He was saved from the ritual burning given to enemies by the intervention of French captain named Molang, with whom the Mohawks were allied. Putnam's exploits became known far beyond his home of Connecticut's borders through the circulation of folk legends in the American colonies and states celebrating his exploits.

---

29/05/1691

Cornelis Tromp, Dutch admiral (born 1629)

Cornelis Maartenszoon Tromp, Count of Sølvesborg was a Dutch naval officer who served as lieutenant-admiral general in the Dutch Navy, and briefly as a general admiral in the Royal Danish-Norwegian Navy. Tromp is one of the most celebrated and controversial figures in Dutch naval history due to his actions in the Anglo-Dutch Wars and the Scanian War. His father was the renowned Lieutenant Admiral Maarten Tromp.

---

29/05/1660

Frans van Schooten, Dutch mathematician and academic (born 1615)

Frans van Schooten Jr. also rendered as Franciscus van Schooten was a Dutch mathematician who is most known for popularizing the analytic geometry of René Descartes. He translated La Géométrie in Latin and wrote commentaries and explanations to it. Because most contemporary scientists and mathematicians in Europe knew the invention of analytic geometry through Van Schooten's edition, with its extensive commentaries by Johannes Hudde, Johan de Witt, and Hendrik van Heuraet, he had a significant influence on the science and mathematics of Europe at the time; especially on the invention of calculus by Gottfried Leibniz and Isaac Newton.

---

29/05/1593

John Penry, Welsh martyr (born 1559)

John Penry was executed for high treason during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He is Wales' most famous Protestant Separatist martyr.

---

29/05/1546

David Beaton, Scottish cardinal and politician, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (born 1494)

David Beaton was Archbishop of St Andrews and the last Scottish cardinal prior to the Reformation.

---

29/05/1500

Bartolomeu Dias, Portuguese explorer and navigator (born 1451)

Bartolomeu Dias was a Portuguese mariner and explorer. In February 1488, he became the first European navigator to round the southern tip of Africa and to demonstrate that the most effective southward route for ships is in the open ocean, well to the west of the African coast. His discoveries were later used by Vasco da Gama to establish a sea route between Europe and Asia.

---

Thomas Rotherham, English cleric and minister (born 1423)

Thomas Rotherham, also known as Thomas (Scot) de Rotherham, was an English cleric and statesman. He served as bishop of several dioceses, most notably as Archbishop of York and, on two occasions as Lord Chancellor. He is considered a venerable figure in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, his town of birth.

---

29/05/1453

Ulubatlı Hasan, Ottoman commander (born 1428)

Ulubatlı Hasan, also known as Baba Hasan Ağa the Standard Bearer or Baba Hasan-ı ‘Alemî, was the sekbanbaşı who erected the first standard on the Byzantine walls during the Conquest of Constantinople.

---

Constantine XI Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (born 1404)

Constantine XI Dragases Palaiologos or Dragaš Palaeologus was the last reigning Byzantine emperor from 23 January 1449 until his death in battle at the fall of Constantinople on 29 May 1453. Constantine's death marked the definitive end of the Eastern Roman Empire, which traced its origin to Constantine the Great's foundation of Constantinople as the Roman Empire's new capital in 330.

---

29/05/1425

Hongxi Emperor of China (born 1378)

The Hongxi Emperor, personal name Zhu Gaochi, was the fourth emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1424 to 1425. He was the eldest son of the Yongle Emperor and Empress Renxiaowen and the grandson of both the Hongwu Emperor and Xu Da, Prince of Zhongshan. He ascended the throne after the death of his father, but his reign lasted less than a year.

---

29/05/1405

Philippe de Mézières, French soldier and author (born 1327)

Philippe de Mézières, a French soldier and author, was born at the chateau of Mézières in Picardy.

---

29/05/1379

Henry II of Castile (born 1334)

Henry II, called Henry of Trastámara or the Fratricidal, was the first King of Castile and León from the House of Trastámara. He became king in 1369 by defeating his half-brother King Peter the Cruel, after numerous rebellions and battles. As king he was involved in the Fernandine Wars and the Hundred Years' War.

---

29/05/1327

Jens Grand, Danish archbishop (born c. 1260)

Jens Grand, the Firebug was a Danish archbishop of Lund (1289–1302), titular Archbishop of Riga and Terra Mariana (1304–1310), and Prince-Archbishop of Bremen, known as the central figure of the second ecclesiastical struggle in Denmark in the late 13th century. He was an outstanding jurist of canon law.

---

29/05/1320

Pope John VIII of Alexandria, Coptic pope

John VIII ibn Qiddis was the 80th pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church from 14 February 1300 until his death.

---

29/05/1311

James II of Majorca (born 1243)

James II was King of Majorca and Lord of Montpellier from 1276 until his death. He was the second son of James I of Aragon and his wife, Violant, daughter of Andrew II of Hungary. In 1279, by the Treaty of Perpignan, he became a vassal of the Crown of Aragon.

---

29/05/1259

Christopher I of Denmark (born 1219)

Christopher I was King of Denmark between 1252 and 1259. He was the son of Valdemar II of Denmark by his second wife, Berengaria of Portugal. He succeeded his brothers Eric IV Plovpenning and Abel of Denmark on the throne. Christopher was elected king upon the death of his older brother Abel in the summer of 1252. He was crowned at Lund Cathedral on Christmas Day 1252.

---

29/05/1040

Renauld I, Count of Nevers

Renauld I was a French nobleman. He was the Count of Nevers and Count of Auxerre from 1028 until his death at the battle of Seignelay against Robert I, Duke of Burgundy.

---

29/05/0931

Jimeno Garcés of Pamplona

Jimeno Garcés, sometimes Jimeno II, was the King of Pamplona from 925 until his death. He was the brother of King Sancho I Garcés and son of García Jiménez by his second wife, Dadildis of Pallars. When his brother died, Sancho's only son, García Sánchez, was still a child and Jimeno succeeded his brother, becoming the second ruler of the Jiménez dynasty.

---