Died on Saturday, 31st May – Famous Deaths

31/05/2025

Stanley Fischer, Israeli-American economist (born 1943)

Stanley Fischer was an American and Israeli economist who served as the 20th vice chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2017. Fischer previously served as the 8th governor of the Bank of Israel from 2005 to 2013. Born in Northern Rhodesia, he held dual citizenship in Israel and the United States. He previously served as First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and as Chief Economist of the World Bank. On January 10, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Fischer to the position of Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve. On September 6, 2017, Fischer announced that he was resigning as vice-chair for personal reasons effective October 13, 2017. He was a senior advisor at BlackRock.

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31/05/2024

Robert Pickton, Canadian serial killer (born 1949)

Robert William Pickton, also known as the Pig Farmer Killer or the Butcher, was a Canadian pig farmer and serial killer. He is believed to have murdered at least 26 women, many of them sex workers from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He confessed to forty-nine murders to an undercover RCMP officer. In 2007, he was convicted on six counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years—the longest possible sentence for second-degree murder under Canadian law at the time.

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Marian Robinson, mother of Michelle Obama (born 1937)

Marian Lois Robinson was the mother of Michelle Obama, former first lady of the United States, and Craig Robinson, a basketball executive. She was the mother-in-law of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. She worked as a secretary and executive assistant before and after raising her children with her husband, Fraser Robinson, in Chicago. In retirement, she moved to the White House during her son-in-law's presidency, where she helped raise her grandchildren.

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31/05/2022

Colin Cantwell, American concept artist and director (born 1932)

Colin James Cantwell was an American concept artist and director known for his work on films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and WarGames, as well as the TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, but primarily for doing creating concept designs and models for a number of Star Wars vehicles, most notably the X-wing fighter, the TIE fighter, the Star Destroyer, the Y-Wing Fighter.

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Krishnakumar Kunnath, Indian singer (born 1968)

Krishnakumar Kunnath, popularly known as KK, was an Indian playback singer. KK is regarded as one of the most prolific playback singers in India. Noted for his versatility in a variety of music genres, he recorded songs primarily in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada language. KK was a recipient of several accolades including two Screen Awards, along with six Filmfare Awards nominations.

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Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, Colombian drug lord (born 1939)

Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela was a Colombian drug lord and one of the leaders of the Cali Cartel. Orejuela formed the cartel with his brother, Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela, José Santacruz Londoño, and Hélmer Herrera. The cartel emerged to prominence in the early 1990s, and was estimated to control about 80% of the American and 90% of the European cocaine markets in the mid-1990s. Rodríguez Orejuela was captured after a 1995 police campaign by Colombian authorities and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He obtained early release in 2002, and was re-arrested in 2003, after which he was extradited to the United States. There, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, where he died in 2022.

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Jim Parks, English cricketer (born 1931)

James Michael Parks was an English cricketer. He played in forty-six Tests for England, between 1954 and 1968. In those Tests, Parks scored 1,962 runs with a personal best of 108 not out, and took 103 catches and made 11 stumpings.

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31/05/2016

Mohamed Abdelaziz, President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (1976–2016) (born 1947)

Mohamed Abdelaziz ben Khalili ben Mohamed al-Bachir Er-Rguibi was the 3rd Secretary General of the Polisario Front, from 1976, and the President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic from 1982, until his death in 2016.

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Jan Crouch, American televangelist, co-founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (born 1938)

Janice Wendell Crouch was an American religious broadcaster. Crouch and her husband, Paul, founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) in 1973.

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Carla Lane, English television writer (born 1928)

Romana Barrack, known by the pseudonym Carla Lane, was an English screenwriter and animal rights campaigner. Lane was known for creating or co-creating successful British sitcoms such as The Liver Birds (1969–1979), Butterflies (1978–1983), and Bread (1986–1991).

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Rupert Neudeck, German journalist and humanitarian (born 1939)

Rupert Neudeck was a German theologican, journalist and aid worker, especially with refugees.

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31/05/2015

Gladys Taylor, Canadian author and publisher (born 1917)

Gladys Taylor was a Canadian writer and publisher.

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31/05/2014

Marilyn Beck, American journalist (born 1928)

Marilyn Beck was a syndicated Hollywood columnist and author.

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Marinho Chagas, Brazilian footballer and coach (born 1952)

Francisco das Chagas Marinho, generally known as Marinho Chagas or Francisco Marinho, was a Brazilian professional footballer. One of the best left-backs of his era, he is best known for his flowing curly blond hair and his performance at the 1974 FIFA World Cup, in which Brazil finished fourth. At club level he is mostly associated with Botafogo FR of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo FC, but he played for numerous other teams, as well as in the North American Soccer League, in a career which spanned from 1969 to 1987.

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Hoss Ellington, American race car driver (born 1935)

Charles Everett "Hoss" Ellington was an American NASCAR driver and team owner. He married Betty Frances Hunt on April 17, 1959, at the Mount Pleasant Methodist Parsonage. They had three daughters: Monica Dale Ellington, Trellace Hunt Ellington, and Charla Frances Ellington. He made 31 starts as a driver between 1968 and 1970 in the Grand National Series, finishing in the top 10 four times, all in 1969. He later became a successful team owner, with five wins, four of them by Donnie Allison and the other one by David Pearson. His team also collected 52 top-fives and 92 top-ten finishes. He fielded cars for drivers such as Pearson, Fred Lorenzen, Cale Yarborough, A. J. Foyt, Donnie Allison, Kyle Petty, and Dale Jarrett, among others.

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Martha Hyer, American actress (born 1924)

Martha Hyer was an American actress who played Gwen French in Some Came Running (1958), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her autobiography, Finding My Way: A Hollywood Memoir, was published in 1990.

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Lewis Katz, American businessman and philanthropist (born 1942)

Lewis Katz was an American businessman, philanthropist, and newspaper publisher, who was a co-owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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Mary Soames, Baroness Soames, English author (born 1922)

Mary Soames, Baroness Soames was an English author. The youngest of the five children of Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine, she worked for public organisations including the Red Cross and the Women's Voluntary Service from 1939 to 1941, and joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1941. She was the wife of Conservative politician Christopher Soames.

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31/05/2013

Gerald E. Brown, American physicist and academic (born 1926)

Gerald Edward Brown was an American theoretical physicist who worked on nuclear physics and astrophysics. Since 1968 he had been a professor at the Stony Brook University. He was a distinguished professor emeritus of the C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook University.

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Frederic Lindsay, Scottish author and educator (born 1933)

Frederic Lindsay was a Scottish crime writer, who was born in Glasgow and lived in Edinburgh. He was a full-time writer from 1979 and previously worked as a lecturer, teacher and library assistant. He was active in a number of literary organisations including the Society of Authors, International PEN and the Scottish Arts Council. In addition to novels he also wrote for TV, radio and the theatre. Two of his novels have been made into films.

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Miguel Méndez, American author and poet (born 1930)

Miguel Méndez was the pen name for Miguel Méndez Morales, a Mexican American author best known for his novel Peregrinos de Aztlán. He was a leading figure in the field of Chicano literature.

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Tim Samaras, American engineer and storm chaser (born 1957)

Timothy Michael Samaras was an American engineer and storm chaser best known for his field research on tornadoes and time on the Discovery Channel show Storm Chasers. He died in the 2013 El Reno tornado that occurred on May 31, 2013.

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Jairo Mora Sandoval, Costa Rican environmentalist (born 1987)

Jairo Mora Sandoval was a Costa Rican environmentalist who was murdered while attempting to protect leatherback turtle nests. Just before midnight on May 30, 2013, Mora and four female volunteers were abducted by a group of masked men. The women eventually escaped and informed the police. Mora's bound and beaten body was found on the beach the next morning. An autopsy determined he died by asphyxiation after suffering a blow to the head.

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Jean Stapleton, American actress (born 1923)

Jean Stapleton was an American character actress of stage, television and film. Stapleton is best known for her portrayal of Edith Bunker, the perpetually optimistic and devoted wife of Archie Bunker, on the 1970s sitcom All in the Family. The role earned her three Emmys and two Golden Globes for Best Actress in a comedy series.

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31/05/2012

Christopher Challis, English cinematographer (born 1919)

Christopher George Joseph Challis BSC, FRPS was an English cinematographer. He was well-known for his collaborations with the directing duo of Powell and Pressburger, and worked on more than 70 feature films from the 1940s onwards. He won a BAFTA Award for his work on Arabesque (1966), among four total nominations.

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Randall B. Kester, American lawyer and judge (born 1916)

Randall Blair Kester was an American attorney and judge in the state of Oregon. He was the 69th justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, serving from 1957 to 1958. He later taught at what became the Lewis & Clark Law School and was in private practice in Portland, Oregon, decades after leaving the bench.

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Paul Pietsch, German race car driver and publisher (born 1911)

Paul Pietsch was a racing driver, journalist and publisher from Germany, who founded the magazine Das Auto and published many other as his Motor Presse Stuttgart became the largest publisher in the European market for technology and special interest magazines.

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Orlando Woolridge, American basketball player and coach (born 1959)

Orlando Vernada Woolridge was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1981 to 1994. He was known for his scoring ability, especially on slam dunks. He played college basketball for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

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31/05/2011

Pauline Betz, American tennis player (born 1919)

Pauline May Betz Addie was an American professional tennis player. She won five Grand Slam singles titles and was the runner-up on three other occasions. Jack Kramer called her the second best female tennis player he ever saw, behind Helen Wills Moody.

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Jonas Bevacqua, American fashion designer, co-founded the Lifted Research Group (born 1977)

Jonas Bevacqua was an American clothing designer and entrepreneur.

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Derek Hodge, Virgin Islander lawyer and politician, Lieutenant Governor of the United States Virgin Islands (born 1941)

Derek Michael Hodge was an American Virgin Islander politician and lawyer who served as the sixth lieutenant governor of the United States Virgin Islands for two terms from 1987 to 1995 under Governor Alexander Farrelly. The Virgin Islands Daily News called him a "towering figure in local politics," referring to his political career, which spanned several decades.

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Hans Keilson, German-Dutch psychoanalyst and author (born 1909)

Hans Alex Keilson was a German-Dutch novelist, poet, psychoanalyst and child psychologist. He was best known for his novels set during the Second World War, during which he was an active member of the Dutch resistance.

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John Martin, English admiral and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey (born 1918)

Vice-Admiral Sir John Edward Ludgate Martin, was a Royal Navy officer and Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey.

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Andy Robustelli, American football player and manager (born 1925)

Andrew Richard Robustelli was an American professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Los Angeles Rams and the New York Giants. He played college football at Arnold College and was selected in the nineteenth round of the 1951 NFL draft. Robustelli was a six-time first-team All-Pro selection and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971.

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31/05/2010

Louise Bourgeois, French-American sculptor and painter (born 1911)

Louise Joséphine Bourgeois was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a variety of themes over the course of her long career including domesticity and the family, sexuality and the body, as well as death and the unconscious. These themes connect to events from her childhood which she considered to be a therapeutic process. Although Bourgeois exhibited with the abstract expressionists and her work has a lot in common with Surrealism and feminist art, she was not formally affiliated with a particular artistic movement.

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Brian Duffy, English photographer and producer (born 1933)

Brian Duffy was an English photographer and film producer, best remembered for his fashion and portrait photography of the 1960s and 1970s.

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William A. Fraker, American director, producer, and cinematographer (born 1923)

William Ashman Fraker, ASC, BSC was an American cinematographer and director.

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Rubén Juárez, Argentinian singer-songwriter and bandoneón player (born 1947)

Rubén Juárez was an Argentine bandoneonist and singer-songwriter of tango.

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Merata Mita, New Zealand director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1942)

Merata Mita was a New Zealand filmmaker, producer, and writer, and a key figure in the growth of the Māori screen industry. Mita was the first indigenous woman and the first woman in New Zealand to solely write and direct a dramatic feature film Mauri (1988).

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31/05/2009

Danny La Rue, Irish-British drag queen performer and singer (born 1927)

Danny La Rue was an entertainer best known for on-stage theatrical productions, television shows and films where he customarily performed in drag.

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George Tiller, American physician (born 1941)

George Richard Tiller was an American physician and abortion provider from Wichita, Kansas. He gained national attention as the medical director of Women's Health Care Services, which, at the time, was one of only three abortion clinics nationwide that provided late-term abortions.

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31/05/2006

Miguel Ortiz Berrocal, Spanish sculptor (born 1933)

Miguel Ortiz Berrocal was a Spanish figurative and abstract sculptor. He is best known for his puzzle sculptures, which can be disassembled into many abstract pieces. These works are also known for the miniature artworks and jewelry incorporated into or concealed within them, and the fact that some of the sculptures can be reassembled or reconfigured into different arrangements. Berrocal's sculptures span a wide range of physical sizes from monumental outdoor public works, to intricate puzzle sculptures small enough to be worn as pendants, bracelets, or other body ornamentation.

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Raymond Davis Jr., American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1914)

Raymond Davis Jr. was an American chemist and physicist. He is best known as the leader of the Homestake experiment in the 1960s-1980s, which was the first experiment to detect neutrinos emitted from the Sun; for this he shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics.

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31/05/2004

Aiyathurai Nadesan, Sri Lankan journalist (born 1954)

Aiyathurai Nadesan, a prominent and veteran minority Sri Lankan Tamil journalist was shot dead on 31 May 2004 on his way to work in eastern Sri Lankan town of Batticaloa by gunmen belonging to an armed paramilitary group widely believed to be so called Karuna Group.

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Robert Quine, American guitarist (born 1941)

Robert Wolfe Quine was an American guitarist. A native of Akron, Ohio, Quine worked with a wide range of musicians, though he himself remained relatively unknown. Critic Mark Deming wrote that "Quine's eclectic style embraced influences from jazz, rock, and blues players of all stripes, and his thoughtful technique and uncompromising approach led to rewarding collaborations with a number of visionary musicians."

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Étienne Roda-Gil, French screenwriter and composer (born 1941)

Étienne Roda-Gil was a songwriter and screenwriter. He was an anarchist and an anarcho-syndicalist.

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31/05/2002

Subhash Gupte, Indian cricketer (born 1929)

Subhashchandra Pandharinath "Fergie" Gupte was one of Test cricket's finest spin bowlers. Sir Garry Sobers, EAS Prasanna and Jim Laker pronounced him the best leg spinner they had seen.

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31/05/2001

Arlene Francis, American actress, talk show host, game show panelist, and television personality (born 1907)

Arlene Francis was an American game show panelist, actress, and radio and television talk show host. She was a pioneer for women in television, and is best known for her long-running role as a panelist on the television game show What's My Line?, on which she appeared regularly from 1950 to 1975.

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31/05/2000

Petar Mladenov, Bulgarian diplomat, 1st President of Bulgaria (born 1936)

Petar Toshev Mladenov was a Bulgarian communist diplomat and politician. He was the last leader of the Bulgarian People's Republic from 1989 to 1990, and briefly the first President of the Bulgarian Republic in 1990.

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A. Jeyaratnam Wilson, Sri Lankan historian, author, and academic (born 1928)

Alfred Jeyaratnam Wilson was a Sri Lankan Tamil academic, historian and author. He began his academic career as a lecturer in economics and political science at the University of Ceylon and was the founding professor of political science at the University of Ceylon (1969-72). Later he moved to Canada and was professor of political science at the University of New Brunswick. University of New Brunswick.

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31/05/1998

Charles Van Acker, Belgian-American race car driver (born 1912)

Charles Edward "Poncho" Van Acker Sr was a Belgian-American racing driver. He first attempted to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 in 1946, but was too slow. In 1947, he made the race and finished in 29th after a crash on lap 24. He also competed in seven more races of the national trail that season and finished fourth in points. In 1948 he finished 11th in the Indy 500 and 10th in the National Championship. 1949 saw him crash ten laps into the Indy 500 and struggle to qualify much of the rest of the season. He attempted the 1950 Indianapolis 500 but failed to qualify in what would be his last Championship Car appearance. He owned and operated the South Bend Motor Speedway in South Bend, Indiana and once after a dirt track crash in Dayton, Ohio was declared dead. However, Van Acker claims that the reports were exaggerated and that he was not that seriously injured.

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31/05/1996

Timothy Leary, American psychologist and author (born 1920)

Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from "bold oracle" to "publicity hound". According to poet Allen Ginsberg, he was "a hero of American consciousness", while writer Tom Robbins called him a "brave neuronaut". President Richard Nixon disagreed, calling Leary "the most dangerous man in America". During the 1960s and 1970s, at the height of the counterculture movement, Leary was arrested 36 times.

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31/05/1995

Stanley Elkin, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (born 1930)

Stanley Lawrence Elkin was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. His extravagant, satirical fiction revolves around American consumerism, popular culture, and male-female relationships.

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31/05/1994

Uzay Heparı, Turkish actor, producer, and composer (born 1969)

Rony Uzay Heparı was a Turkish musician, composer, producer, arranger, and actor. Heparı received classical music training as a child. In the mid-1980s, during his high school years, he joined the Istanbul Gelişim Orchestra, conducted by Garo Mafyan, and developed his skills on the electric keyboard. Heparı, a fan of MFÖ in the 1980s, developed an interest in pop music. Having studied classical music throughout his childhood, he began to shift his style in his early teens. At 19, he began his career playing piano on Zuhal Olcay's album Küçük Bir Öykü (1988). At the same time, he was studying at the Istanbul Technical University Turkish Music State Conservatory.

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Herva Nelli, Italian-American soprano (born 1909)

Herva Nelli was an Italian and American operatic soprano.

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31/05/1993

Honey Tree Evil Eye, or, Spuds MacKenzie, Bud Light Bull Terrier mascot (born 1983)

Spuds MacKenzie is a bull terrier dog character used for an extensive advertising campaign marketing Bud Light beer in the late 1980s. The Spuds MacKenzie mascot and campaign was the idea of a 23-year-old art director, Jon Moore. At the time, he was working at Needham, Harper, and Steers, a Chicago advertising agency. The dog first showed up in a Bud Light Super Bowl XXI ad in 1987.

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31/05/1989

C. L. R. James, Trinidadian journalist and historian (born 1901)

Cyril Lionel Robert James, who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist, Trotskyist activist, and Marxist writer. His works are influential in various theoretical, social, and historiographical contexts. His work is a staple of Marxism, and he figures as a pioneering and influential voice in postcolonial literature. A tireless political activist, James is the author of the 1937 work World Revolution outlining the history of the Communist International, which stirred debate in Trotskyist circles, and in 1938 he wrote on the Haitian Revolution, The Black Jacobins.

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Owen Lattimore, American author and academic (born 1900)

Owen Lattimore was an American Orientalist and writer. He was an influential scholar of China and Central Asia, especially Mongolia. Although he never earned a college degree, in the 1930s he was editor of Pacific Affairs, a journal published by the Institute of Pacific Relations, and taught at Johns Hopkins University from 1938 to 1963. He was director of the Walter Hines Page School of International Relations from 1939 to 1953. During World War II, he was an advisor to Chiang Kai-shek and the American government and contributed extensively to the public debate on U.S. policy toward Asia. From 1963 to 1970, Lattimore was the first Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Leeds in England.

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31/05/1987

John Abraham, Indian director and screenwriter (born 1937)

John Abraham was an Indian filmmaker, short story writer and screenwriter who worked mainly in Malayalam cinema. His film Amma Ariyan (1986) was the only South Indian feature film to make the list of "Top 10 Indian Films" of all time by British Film Institute. Agraharathil Kazhuthai was listed among the "100 Greatest Indian Films" of all time by IBN Live's 2013 poll.

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31/05/1986

Jane Frank, American painter and sculptor (born 1918)

Jane Schenthal Frank was an American multidisciplinary artist, known as a painter, sculptor, mixed media artist, illustrator, and textile artist. Her landscape-like, mixed-media abstract paintings are included in public collections, including those of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She studied with artists, Hans Hofmann and Norman Carlberg.

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James Rainwater, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1917)

Leo James Rainwater was an American physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975 for his part in determining the asymmetrical shapes of certain atomic nuclei.

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31/05/1985

Gaston Rébuffat, French mountaineer and author (born 1921)

Gaston Rébuffat was a French alpinist, mountain guide, and author. He is well known as a member of the first expedition to summit Annapurna 1 in 1950 and the first man to climb all six of the great north faces of the Alps. In 1984, he was made an officer in the French Legion of Honour for his service as a mountaineering instructor for the French military. At the age of 64, Gaston Rébuffat died of cancer in Paris, France. The rock-climbing technique, the "Gaston", was named after him. A photo of Rébuffat atop the Aiguille du Roc in the French Alps is on the Voyager Golden Records.

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31/05/1983

Jack Dempsey, American boxer and lieutenant (born 1895)

William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey, nicknamed Kid Blackie and The Manassa Mauler, was an American boxer who competed from 1914 to 1927, and was world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926. He is ranked sixth on The Ring magazine's list of all-time heavyweights and fourth among its Top 100 Greatest Punchers, while in 1950 the Associated Press voted him as the greatest fighter of the past 50 years.

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31/05/1982

Carlo Mauri, Italian mountaineer and explorer (born 1930)

Carlo Mauri was an Italian mountaineer and explorer. Mauri was born in Lecco. Among his early climbs in the Alps two stand out: the first winter ascent of the via Comici route on the northern face of Cima Grande di Lavaredo; and the first solitary ascent of the Poire of Mont Blanc. Numerous expeditions abroad followed. In 1956 he reached the summit of Monte Sarmiento in Tierra del Fuego and in 1958, as a member of Riccardo Cassin’s expedition in Karakorum, he and Walter Bonatti made the first ascent of Gasherbrum IV.

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31/05/1981

Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, English economist and journalist (born 1914)

Barbara Mary Ward, Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, was a British economist and writer interested in the problems of developing countries. She urged Western governments to share their prosperity with the rest of the world and in the 1960s turned her attention to environmental questions as well. She was an early advocate of sustainable development before this term became familiar and was well known as a journalist, lecturer and broadcaster. Ward was adviser to policymakers in the UK, United States and elsewhere. She was the founder of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

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31/05/1978

József Bozsik, Hungarian footballer and manager (born 1925)

József Bozsik was a Hungarian footballer who played as a central midfielder. He spent his entire club career at his hometown club, Budapest Honvéd. Bozsik was a key member of the legendary Golden Team as he represented Hungary in various international tournaments. Honvéd named their stadium, Bozsik József Stadion, after him.

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31/05/1977

William Castle, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1914)

William Castle was an American filmmaker and actor. He was best known as a director of horror and thriller B-movies in the 1950s and '60s, for which he devised innovative and distinctive promotional gimmicks.

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31/05/1976

Jacques Monod, French biologist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1910)

Jacques Lucien Monod was a French biochemist. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with François Jacob and André Lwoff "for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis"

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31/05/1970

Terry Sawchuk, Canadian-American ice hockey player (born 1929)

Terrance Gordon Sawchuk was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played 21 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Los Angeles Kings, and New York Rangers between 1950 and 1970. He won the Calder Trophy, earned the Vezina Trophy four times, was a four-time Stanley Cup champion, and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame the year after his final season, one of 10 players for whom the three-year waiting period was waived.

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Clare Sheridan, English sculptor and author (born 1885)

Clare Consuelo Sheridan was an English sculptor, journalist and writer, known primarily for creating busts for famous sitters and keeping travel diaries. She was a cousin of Sir Winston Churchill, with whom she had enjoyed an amicable relationship, though her support for the October Revolution in 1917 caused them to break ranks politically. She enjoyed travelling around the world; and among her circle of friends were Princess Margaret of Sweden, Lord and Lady Mountbatten, Lady Diana Cooper, Vita Sackville-West and Vivien Leigh.

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31/05/1967

Billy Strayhorn, American pianist and composer (born 1915)

William Thomas Strayhorn was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger who collaborated with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington for nearly three decades. His compositions include "Take the 'A' Train", "Chelsea Bridge", "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing", and "Lush Life".

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31/05/1962

Henry F. Ashurst, American lawyer and politician (born 1874)

Henry Fountain Ashurst was an American Democratic politician and one of the first two senators from Arizona. Largely self-educated, he served as a district attorney and member of the Arizona Territorial legislature before fulfilling his childhood ambition of joining the United States Senate. During his time in the Senate, Ashurst was chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs and the Judiciary Committee.

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31/05/1960

Willem Elsschot, Flemish author and poet (born 1882)

Alphonsus Josephus de Ridder was a Belgian writer and poet who wrote under the pseudonym Willem Elsschot. One of the most prominent Flemish authors, his most famous work, Cheese (1933) is the most translated Flemish-language novel of all time.

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Walther Funk, German economist, journalist, and politician, German Minister of Economics (born 1890)

Walther Immanuel Funk was a German economist, Nazi official and convicted war criminal who served as Reichsminister for the Economy from 1938 to 1945 and president of the Reichsbank from 1939 to 1945. Funk oversaw the mobilization of the economy for Germany's rearmament and World War II, and the expropriation of assets of victims from Nazi concentration camps. He was convicted for crimes against humanity by the Nuremberg Tribunal.

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31/05/1957

Stefanos Sarafis, Greek general and politician (born 1890)

Stefanos Sarafis was an officer of the Hellenic Army and Major General in EAM-ELAS, who played an important role during the Greek Resistance.

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Leopold Staff, Polish poet and academic (born 1878)

Leopold Henryk Staff was a Polish poet; an artist of European modernism twice granted the Degree of Doctor honoris causa by universities in Warsaw and in Kraków. He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature by Polish PEN Club. Representative of classicism and symbolism in the poetry of Young Poland, he was an author of many philosophical poems influenced by the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, the ideas of Franciscan order as well as paradoxes of Christianity.

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31/05/1954

Antonis Benakis, Greek art collector and philanthropist, founded the Benaki Museum (born 1873)

Antonis Benakis (1873–1954) was a Greek art collector and the founder of the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece, the son of politician and magnate Emmanuel Benakis and the brother of author Penelope Delta. He is the hero of Delta's book "Trellantonis", a literary account of the sundry, mischievous adventures of children growing up in Alexandria, Egypt, in the early 20th century.

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31/05/1945

Odilo Globocnik, Italian-Austrian SS officer (born 1904)

Odilo Lothar Ludwig Globočnik was an Austrian Nazi Party official of Slovene-Croatian-Serbian descent and a perpetrator of the Holocaust. A high-ranking member of the SS, Globočnik was the leader of Operation Reinhard, the organized murder of around one and a half million Jews, mostly of Polish origin, during the Holocaust in the Majdanek, Treblinka, Sobibór and Bełżec extermination camps. Historian Michael Allen described him as "the vilest individual in the vilest organization ever known". Globočnik killed himself shortly after his capture and detention by British soldiers.

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31/05/1931

Felix-Raymond-Marie Rouleau, Canadian cardinal (born 1866)

Félix-Raymond-Marie Rouleau was a Canadian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Quebec from 1926 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1927.

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Willy Stöwer, German author and illustrator (born 1864)

Willy Stöwer was a German artist, illustrator, and author during the Imperial Period. He is best known for nautical paintings and lithographs. Many of his works depict historical maritime events such as the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.

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31/05/1910

Elizabeth Blackwell, English-American physician and educator (born 1821)

Elizabeth Blackwell was an English-American physician, notable as the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, and the first woman on the Medical Register of the General Medical Council for the United Kingdom. Blackwell played an important role in both the United States and the United Kingdom as a social reformer, and was a pioneer in promoting education for women in medicine. Her contributions remain celebrated with the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal, awarded annually to a woman who has made a significant contribution to the promotion of women in medicine.

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31/05/1909

Thomas Price, Welsh-Australian politician, 24th Premier of South Australia (born 1852)

Thomas Price served as the South Australian United Labor Party's first Premier of South Australia. He formed a minority government at the 1905 election and was re-elected with increased representation at the 1906 election, serving in the premiership until his death in 1909. It was the world's first stable Labor government. Shortly afterwards, John Verran led Labor to form the state's first of many majority governments at the 1910 election.

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31/05/1908

Louis-Honoré Fréchette, Canadian author, poet, and politician (born 1839)

Louis-Honoré Fréchette was a Canadian poet, politician, playwright and short story writer. For his prose, he would be the first Quebecois to receive the Prix Montyon from the Académie française, and the first Canadian to receive any honor from a European nation.

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31/05/1899

Stefanos Koumanoudis, Greek archaeologist, teacher and writer (born 1818)

Stefanos Koumanoudis was a Greek archaeologist, teacher and writer of the 19th century.

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31/05/1848

Eugénie de Guérin, French author (born 1805)

Eugénie de Guérin was a French writer and the sister of the poet Maurice de Guérin.

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31/05/1847

Thomas Chalmers, Scottish minister and economist (born 1780)

Thomas Chalmers, was a Scottish Presbyterian minister, professor of theology, political economist, and a leader of both the Church of Scotland and of the Free Church of Scotland. He has been called "Scotland's greatest nineteenth-century churchman".

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31/05/1846

Philip Marheineke, German pastor and philosopher (born 1780)

Philip Konrad Marheineke was a German Protestant theologian and church leader within the Evangelical Church in Prussia.

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31/05/1837

Joseph Grimaldi, English actor, comedian and dancer (born 1779)

Joseph Grimaldi was an English actor, comedian and dancer, who became the most popular English entertainer of the Regency era. In the early 19th century, he expanded the role of Clown in the harlequinade that formed part of British pantomimes, notably at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and the Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden theatres. He became so dominant on the London comic stage that the harlequinade role of Clown became known as "Joey", and both the nickname and Grimaldi's whiteface make-up design were, and still are, used by other types of clowns. Grimaldi originated catchphrases such as "Here we are again!", which continue to feature in modern pantomimes.

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31/05/1832

Évariste Galois, French mathematician and theorist (born 1811)

Évariste Galois was a French mathematician and political activist. While still in his teens, he was able to determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a polynomial to be solvable by radicals, thereby solving a problem that had been open for 350 years. His work laid the foundations for Galois theory and group theory, two major branches of abstract algebra.

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31/05/1831

Samuel Bentham, English architect and engineer (born 1757)

Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Bentham was an English mechanical engineer and naval architect credited with numerous innovations, particularly related to naval architecture, including weapons. He was the only surviving sibling of philosopher Jeremy Bentham, with whom he had a close bond.

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31/05/1809

Joseph Haydn, Austrian pianist and composer (born 1732)

Franz Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was pivotal in the evolution of chamber music forms like the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led him to be called "Father of the Symphony", "Father of the String quartet" and "Father of the Sonata Form."

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Jean Lannes, French general (born 1769)

Jean Lannes, 1st Duke of Montebello, Prince of Siewierz, was a French military commander and a Marshal of the Empire who served during both the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

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31/05/1747

Andrey Osterman, German-Russian politician, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1686)

Count Andrey Ivanovich Ostermann was a German-born Russian statesman who came to prominence under Tsar Peter I of Russia and served until the accession of the Tsesarevna Elizabeth in 1741. He based his foreign policy on the Austrian alliance. General Admiral.

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31/05/1740

Frederick William I of Prussia (born 1688)

Frederick William I, known as the Soldier King, was King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg from 1713 until his death in 1740, as well as Prince of Neuchâtel.

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31/05/1680

Joachim Neander, German theologian and educator (born 1650)

Joachim Neander was a German Reformed (Calvinist) Church teacher, theologian and hymnwriter whose most famous hymn is Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation.

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31/05/1665

Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, Dutch painter (born 1597)

Pieter Jansz. Saenredam was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age, known for his distinctive paintings of whitewashed church interiors such as Interior of St Bavo's Church in Haarlem (1636) and Interior of the Sint-Odulphuskerk in Assendelft.

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31/05/1640

Zeynab Begum, Safavid princess (date of birth unknown)

Zeynab Begum was the fourth daughter of Safavid king (shah) Tahmasp I, is considered to be one of the most influential and powerful princesses of the Safavid era. She lived during the reigns of five successive Safavid monarchs, and apart from holding diverse functions, including at the top of the empire's bureaucratic system, she was also the leading matriarch in the royal harem for many years, and acted on occasion as kingmaker. She reached the apex of her influence during the reign of King Safi. In numerous contemporaneous sources, she was praised as a "mainstay of political moderation and wisdom in Safavid court politics". She was eventually removed from power by Safi in 1632.

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31/05/1601

Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne (born 1547)

Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg was the archbishop-elector of Cologne from 1577 to 1588. After pursuing an ecclesiastical career, he won a close election in the cathedral chapter of Cologne over Ernst of Bavaria. After his election, he fell in love with and later married Agnes von Mansfeld-Eisleben, a Protestant canoness at the Abbey of Gerresheim. His conversion to Calvinism and announcement of religious parity in the electorate triggered the Cologne War.

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31/05/1594

Tintoretto, Italian painter and educator (born 1518)

Jacopo Robusti, best known as Tintoretto, was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticised the speed with which he painted and the unprecedented boldness of his brushwork. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed il Furioso. His work is characterised by muscular figures, dramatic gestures and bold use of perspective, in the Mannerist style.

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31/05/1567

Guido de Bres, Belgian pastor and theologian (born 1522)

Guido de Bres was a Walloon pastor, Protestant reformer and theologian, a student of John Calvin and Theodore Beza in Geneva. He was born in Mons, County of Hainaut, Southern Netherlands, and was executed at Valenciennes. De Bres compiled and published the Walloon Confession of Faith known as the Belgic Confession (1561) still in use today in Belgium and the Netherlands. It is also used by many Reformed Churches all over the world.

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31/05/1558

Philip Hoby, English general and diplomat (born 1505)

Sir Philip Hoby PC was a 16th-century English Ambassador to the Holy Roman Empire and Flanders.

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31/05/1504

Engelbert II of Nassau (born 1451)

Engelbert II of Nassau, Engelbrecht in Dutch, was count of Nassau and Vianden and lord of Breda, Lek, Diest, Roosendaal, Nispen and Wouw. He was a soldier and courtier, for some time leader of the Privy council of the Duchy of Burgundy and a significant patron of the arts.

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31/05/1410

Martin of Aragon, Spanish king (born 1356)

Martin the Humane, also called the Elder and the Ecclesiastic, was King of Aragon, Valencia, Sardinia and Corsica and Count of Barcelona from 1396 and King of Sicily from 1409. He failed to secure the accession of his illegitimate grandson, Frederic, Count of Luna, and with him the rule of the House of Barcelona came to an end.

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31/05/1408

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Japanese shōgun (born 1358)

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was the third shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate, ruling from 1368 to 1394 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshimitsu was Ashikaga Yoshiakira's third son but the oldest son to survive, his childhood name being Haruō (春王). Yoshimitsu was appointed shōgun, a hereditary title as head of the military estate, in 1368 at the age of ten; at twenty he was admitted to the imperial court as Acting Grand Counselor.

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31/05/1370

Vitalis of Assisi, Italian hermit and monk (born 1295)

Vitalis of Assisi was an Italian hermit and monk.

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31/05/1349

Thomas Wake, English politician (born 1297)

Thomas Wake, 2nd Baron Wake of Liddell, English baron, belonged to a Lincolnshire family which had lands also in Cumberland, being the son of John Wake, 1st Baron Wake of Liddell, and the grandson of Baldwin Wake, both warriors of repute.

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31/05/1329

Albertino Mussato, Italian statesman and writer (born 1261)

Albertino Mussato (1261–1329) was a statesman, poet, historian and playwright from Padua. He is credited with providing an impetus to the revival of literary Latin, and is characterized as an early humanist. He was influenced by his teacher, the Paduan poet and proto-humanist Lovato Lovati. Mussato influenced many humanists such as Petrarch.

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31/05/1326

Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley (born 1271)

Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley, The Magnanimous, feudal baron of Berkeley, of Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, England, was a peer. He rebelled against King Edward II and the Despencers. His epithet, and that of each previous and subsequent head of his family, was coined by John Smyth of Nibley, steward of the Berkeley estates, the biographer of the family and author of Lives of the Berkeleys.

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31/05/1321

Birger, king of Sweden (born 1280)

Birger Magnusson was King of Sweden from 1290 until his deposition in 1318. The son of King Magnus Ladulås and Queen Helvig of Holstein, Birger was crowned at a young age and ruled with the support of his father’s allies and his Danish consort, Märta Eriksdotter, daughter of King Erik V Klipping. His reign was dominated by conflict with his brothers, Dukes Erik and Valdemar Magnusson, who sought greater power within the realm. In 1306, they rebelled and imprisoned him during the Håtuna game, but Birger later regained authority. In 1317, he struck back by capturing his brothers at the so-called Nyköping Banquet, where they died in captivity. The event provoked a widespread uprising that forced Birger to flee Sweden in 1318. He spent the rest of his life in exile in Denmark, and his rule effectively ended with his departure. His eldest son, Magnus, was executed two years later following his capture by his father’s opponents.

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31/05/1162

Géza II, king of Hungary (born 1130)

Géza II was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1141 to 1162. He was the oldest son of King Béla the Blind and his wife, Helena of Serbia. When his father died, Géza was still a child and he started ruling under the guardianship of his mother and her brother, Beloš. A pretender to the throne, Boris Kalamanos, who had already claimed Hungary during Béla the Blind's reign, temporarily captured Pressburg with the assistance of German mercenaries in early 1146. In retaliation, Géza who came of age in the same year, invaded Austria and routed Henry Jasomirgott, Margrave of Austria, in the Battle of the Fischa.

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31/05/1089

Sigwin von Are, archbishop of Cologne

Sigwin von Are, called the Pious, was Archbishop of Cologne from 1078 to his death.

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31/05/1076

Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria, English politician (born 1050)

Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria was the last of the Anglo-Saxon earls and the only English aristocrat to be executed during the reign of William I.

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31/05/0960

Fujiwara no Morosuke, Japanese statesman (born 909)

Fujiwara no Morosuke , also known as Kujō-dono or Bōjō-udaijin, was a Japanese statesman, courtier and politician during the middle Heian period. Considered a learned scholar and well-versed in the customs of the court, he supported the court's government as udaijin during the reign of Emperor Murakami. Morosuke's eldest daughter Fujiwara no Anshi, empress consort to Emperor Murakami, gave birth to two princes who later became Emperor Reizei and Emperor En'yū, putting Morosuke's lineage in an advantageous position as the maternal relatives of the Emperor.

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31/05/0930

Liu Hua, princess of Southern Han (born 896)

Liu Hua, courtesy name Dexiu (德秀), formally Lady Minghui of Yan (燕國明惠夫人), known in Southern Han as Princess Qingyuan (清遠公主), was the first (known) wife of Wang Yanjun, who carried the title of Prince of Min during her lifetime and claimed the title of emperor. Her father was Liu Yin, the older brother of Southern Han's founding emperor Liu Yan.

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31/05/0455

Petronius Maximus, Roman emperor (born 396)

Petronius Maximus was Roman emperor of the West for two and a half months in 455. A wealthy senator and a prominent aristocrat, he was instrumental in the murders of the Western Roman magister militum, Aëtius, and the Western Roman emperor, Valentinian III.

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