Died on Sunday, 4th May – Famous Deaths

04/05/2024

Ron Kavana, Irish singer, songwriter, guitarist and band leader (born 1950)

Ronnie Kavanagh, known by his stage name Ron Kavana, was an Irish singer, songwriter, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, and band leader. Born in the County Cork town of Fermoy, he was the son of an Irish father and an American mother from Chicago with Cajun roots.

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Frank Stella, American painter (born 1936)

Frank Philip Stella was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City for much of his career before moving his studio to Rock Tavern, New York. Stella's work catalyzed the minimalist movement in the late 1950s. He moved to New York City in the late 1950s, where he created works which emphasized the picture-as-object. These were influenced by the abstract expressionist work of artists like Franz Kline and Jackson Pollock. He developed a reductionist approach to his art, saying he wanted to demonstrate that for him, every painting is "a flat surface with paint on it—nothing more", and disavowed conceptions of art as a means of expressing emotion. He won notice in the New York art world in 1959 when his four black pinstripe paintings were shown at the Museum of Modern Art. Stella was a recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 2009 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture by the International Sculpture Center in 2011.

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04/05/2021

Nick Kamen, English model, songwriter (born 1962)

Ivor Neville "Nick" Kamen was a British singer, songwriter and model. He was best known for the singles "Each Time You Break My Heart" from 1986 and "I Promised Myself" from 1990, as well as for appearing in a 1985 Levi's advert.

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04/05/2020

Don Shula, American football player and coach (born 1930)

Donald Francis Shula was an American football defensive back and coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) from 1963 to 1995. The head coach of the Miami Dolphins for most of his career, Shula is the NFL's winningest head coach at 347 career victories and 328 regular season victories. He is regarded as one of the greatest head coaches of all time.

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Greg Zanis, American carpenter and activist (born 1950)

Greg Zanis was an American carpenter known for building and delivering personalized crosses to shooting victims across the United States.

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04/05/2019

Alia Abdulnoor, Emirati imprisoned woman (born 1977)

Alia Abdulnoor was an Emirati woman convicted of supporting and financing Al Qaeda. She was arrested in 2015 and sentenced in 2017 to a 10 year imprisonment on convictions of financing Al Qaeda, transmitting it's communications, and promoting its ideology; however, human rights activists and her family claim she was arrested for donations made to Syrian women and children in 2011 during the Syrian civil war. While imprisoned, Abdulnoor was allegedly tortured and denied medical assistance for her breast cancer relapse. Despite calls for release from human rights activists, she died in 2019 in Tawam hospital in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi.

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04/05/2016

Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, Burundian politician (born 1946)

Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was a Burundian army officer and politician who ruled Burundi as president and de facto military dictator from November 1976 to September 1987.

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04/05/2015

William Bast, American screenwriter and author (born 1931)

William Bast was an American screenwriter and author. In addition to writing scripts for motion pictures and television, he was the author of two biographies of the screen actor James Dean. He often worked with his partner, Paul Huson.

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Ellen Albertini Dow, American actress (born 1913)

Ellen Rose Albertini Dow was an American film and television character actress and drama coach. She portrayed feisty old ladies and is best known as the rapping grandmother Rosie in The Wedding Singer (1998), performing "Rapper's Delight". Dow's other film roles include elderly lady Mary Cleary who "outs" her grandson in Wedding Crashers, Disco Dottie in 54, the recipient of Christopher Lloyd's character's slapstick in Radioland Murders and a choir nun in Sister Act. She was best known to small screen audiences for her guest appearances on sitcoms The Golden Girls and Will & Grace.

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Marv Hubbard, American football player (born 1946)

Marvin Ronald Hubbard was an American professional football fullback who played seven seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily for the Oakland Raiders.

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04/05/2014

Dick Ayers, American author and illustrator (born 1924)

Richard Bache Ayers was an American comic book artist and cartoonist best known for his work as one of Jack Kirby's inkers during the late-1950s and 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comics, including on some of the earliest issues of Marvel Comics' The Fantastic Four. He is the signature penciler of Marvel's World War II comic Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, drawing it for a 10-year run, and he co-created Magazine Enterprises' 1950s Western-horror character the Ghost Rider, a version of which he would draw for Marvel in the 1960s.

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Elena Baltacha, Ukrainian-Scottish tennis player (born 1983)

Elena Sergeevna Baltacha was a Ukrainian-born British professional tennis player. Being a four-time winner of the AEGON Awards, she was also a long-term British No. 1, a position she held intermittently from 2002 to 2012. However, as a result of her absence from competition due to knee surgery, she dropped down the world rankings and at the time of her retirement on 18 November 2013, she was ranked as the world No. 221 and British No. 6. Her career-high ranking of world No. 49 was achieved in September 2010.

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Edgar Cortright, American scientist and engineer (born 1923)

Edgar Maurice Cortright was a scientist and engineer, and senior official at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States. His most prominent positions during his career were Director of NASA's Langley Research Center, and Chairman of the Apollo 13 Review Board which investigated the explosion that occurred during the Apollo 13 spaceflight in 1970.

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Helga Königsdorf, German physicist and author (born 1938)

Helga Königsdorf was an East German statistician and novelist. She is notable for becoming distinguished in two distinct careers - science and literature. She wrote three books on mathematics, two co-written with her husband Olaf Bunke, who outlived her by seven years, and thirteen literary books of her own. My Indecent Dreams, her first collection of short stories, was published at the age of 40. Fission is her best-known novel. Königsdorf died of Parkinson's disease in 2014 at the age of 75.

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Ross Lonsberry, Canadian-American ice hockey player (born 1947)

David Ross Lonsberry was a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger who played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins. He had his best seasons in a Flyers uniform and was a member of Philadelphia's back-to-back Stanley Cup championship teams in the mid-1970s.

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Jean-Paul Ngoupandé, Central African politician, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (born 1948)

Jean-Paul Ngoupandé was a Central African politician who was Prime Minister of the Central African Republic from 1996 to 1997. He stood as a presidential candidate in 1999 and 2005, and he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2006. He was President of the National Unity Party, an entity which he founded in the mid-1990s. He presented himself as an enemy of corruption and a defender of fair elections and democratic institutions.

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04/05/2013

Otis Bowen, American physician and politician, 44th Governor of Indiana (born 1918)

Otis Ray Bowen was an American politician and physician who served as the 44th Governor of Indiana from 1973 to 1981 and as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Cabinet of President Ronald Reagan from 1985 to 1989.

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Christian de Duve, English-Belgian cytologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1917)

Christian René Marie Joseph, Viscount de Duve was a Nobel Prize-winning Belgian cytologist and biochemist. He made serendipitous discoveries of two cell organelles, peroxisomes and lysosomes, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 with Albert Claude and George E. Palade. In addition to peroxisome and lysosome, he invented scientific names such as autophagy, endocytosis, and exocytosis on a single occasion.

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Javier Diez Canseco, Peruvian sociologist and politician (born 1948)

Javier Diez Canseco Cisneros was a Peruvian politician and member of the Peruvian Congress representing the Socialist Party of Peru (PS), of which he was a founding member and also served as its Party President.

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Mario Machado, Chinese-American journalist and actor (born 1935)

Mário Machado was an American television and radio broadcaster and actor. He made television history when, in 1970, he became the first American of Chinese heritage to be an on-air television news reporter and anchor in Los Angeles and perhaps in the nation.

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Morgan Morgan-Giles, English admiral and politician (born 1914)

Rear-Admiral Sir Morgan Charles Morgan-Giles, was a Royal Navy officer, decorated during the Second World War, who later served as a Conservative Member of Parliament. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living former member of the House of Commons.

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César Portillo de la Luz, Cuban guitarist and composer (born 1922)

César Portillo de la Luz was a Cuban musician, lyricist and composer. Born in Havana, Cuba, Portillo is credited with founding the filin music genre. The Miami Herald described Portillo as "a fundamental author of Latin American music" and "one of Cuba's most celebrated composers". Portillo is also cited as "the most distinguished lyricist of his generation" and "one of the most prolific Cuban composers of the twentieth century".

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04/05/2012

Mort Lindsey, American pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1923)

Mort Lindsey was an orchestrator, composer, pianist, conductor and musical director for Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Pat Boone, Jack Narz, and Merv Griffin.

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Bob Stewart, American television producer, founded Stewart Tele Enterprises (born 1920)

Bob Stewart was an American television game show producer. He was active in the TV industry from 1956 until his retirement in 1991.

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Adam Yauch, American rapper and director (born 1964)

Adam Nathaniel Yauch, also known by the stage name MCA, was an American rapper, bassist, filmmaker, and a founding member of the hip hop group Beastie Boys. Besides his musical work, he also directed many of the band's music videos and did much of their promotional photography, often using the pseudonym Nathanial Hörnblowér for such work.

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Rashidi Yekini, Nigerian footballer (born 1963)

Rashidi Yekini was a Nigerian professional footballer who played as a forward. Yekini is widely regarded as one of the greatest Nigerian footballers of all time and one of the greatest players from the continent of Africa. Powerful, fast, and clinical in front of goal. His emotional World Cup celebration became one of the most iconic moments in Nigerian sports history. He was known by his Nigerian team mates and fans as "The Goals Father", he scored more than 480 goals in over 670 games in his career.

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04/05/2011

Sammy McCrory, Northern Irish footballer (born 1924)

Samuel McKee McCrory was a professional footballer from Northern Ireland, most notably spending five years with Southend United and scoring the first goal at their Roots Hall stadium.

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04/05/2009

Dom DeLuise, American actor, director, and producer (born 1933)

Dominick DeLuise was an American actor, comedian, director, musician, chef, and author. Known primarily for comedic roles, he rose to fame in the 1970s as a frequent guest on television variety shows. He is widely recognized for his performances in the films of Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder, as well as a series of collaborations and a double act with Burt Reynolds. Beginning in the 1980s, his popularity expanded to younger audiences from voicing characters in several major animated productions, particularly those of Don Bluth.

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04/05/2008

Fred Baur, American chemist and founder of Pringles (born 1918)

Fredric John Baur Jr. was an American organic chemist and food storage scientist notable for designing the Pringles packaging. Baur filed for a patent for the tubular Pringles container and for the method of packaging the curved, stacked potato chip in the container in 1966, and it was granted in 1971. His other accomplishments included development of frying oils and freeze-dried ice cream. Baur was a graduate of the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio, and received both his master's and PhD degrees at Ohio State University. He also served in the U.S. Navy as an aviation physiologist. He was a resident of Cincinnati, Ohio.

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04/05/2005

David Hackworth, American colonel and journalist (born 1930)

Colonel David Haskell Hackworth was a United States Army officer and journalist, who was highly decorated in both the Korean War and Vietnam War. Hackworth is known for his role in the formation and command of Tiger Force, a military unit from the 101st Airborne Division that used guerrilla warfare tactics against Viet Cong in South Vietnam.

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04/05/2004

David Reimer, Canadian man, born male but reassigned female and raised as a girl after a botched circumcision (born 1965)

David Reimer was a Canadian boy raised as a girl following medical advice and intervention after his penis was severely injured during a botched circumcision in infancy.

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04/05/2001

Bonnie Lee Bakley, American model, wife of Robert Blake (born 1956)

Bonny Lee Bakley was the second wife of actor Robert Blake, who was her tenth husband. Bakley was fatally shot while sitting in Blake's parked car near a restaurant in Studio City in May 2001.

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04/05/2000

Hendrik Casimir, Dutch physicist and academic (born 1909)

Hendrik Brugt Gerhard Casimir was a Dutch physicist who made significant contributions to the field of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. He is best known for his work on the Casimir effect, which describes the attractive force between two uncharged plates in a vacuum due to quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field.

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04/05/1998

Christine Kurzhals, German politician (born 1950)

Christine Kurzhals was a German engineer and politician who served in the Bundestag from 1994 until her death in 1998. A member of the Social Democratic Party from Saxony, she was prominent for her role in the inner reunification process.

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04/05/1995

Connie Wisniewski, American baseball player (born 1922)

Constance Wisniewski was a starting pitcher and outfielder who played from 1944 through 1952 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5' 8", 147 lb., she batted left-handed and threw right-handed.

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04/05/1993

France Štiglic, Slovenian film director and screenwriter (born 1919)

France Štiglic was a Slovenian film director and screenwriter. His 1948 film On Our Own Land was entered into the 1949 Cannes Film Festival. His film The Ninth Circle (1960) was Yugoslavia's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 33rd Academy Awards, where it was shortlisted for the award.

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04/05/1992

Gregor Mackenzie, Scottish politician (born 1927)

James Gregor Mackenzie was a British Labour Party politician.

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04/05/1991

Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Egyptian singer-songwriter and mandolin player (born 1902)

Mohammed Abdel Wahab, pronounced [moˈħamːæd ˌʕæbd‿el wæˈhæːb]; 13 March 1902 – 4 May 1991), was an Egyptian singer and actor best known for his romantic and Egyptian patriotic songs.

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04/05/1990

Emily Remler, American guitarist (born 1957)

Emily Remler was an American jazz guitarist, active from the late 1970s until her death in 1990.

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04/05/1988

Lillian Estelle Fisher, American historian of Spanish America (born 1891)

Lillian Estelle Fisher was one of the first women to earn a doctorate in Latin American history in the U.S. She published important works on Spanish colonial administration; a biography of Manuel Abad y Queipo, reform bishop-elect of Michoacan; and a monograph on the Tupac Amaru rebellion in Peru. As distinguished colonial Latin American historian John J. TePaske put it in 1968, "At least three generations of graduate students have studied the works of Lillian Estelle Fisher." Fisher is included as an example of sexual/gender discrimination in the historical profession.

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04/05/1987

Paul Butterfield, American singer and harmonica player (born 1942)

Paul Vaughn Butterfield was an American blues harmonica player, singer, and bandleader. After early training as a classical flautist, he developed an interest in blues harmonica. He explored the blues scene in his native Chicago, where he met Muddy Waters and other blues greats, who provided encouragement and opportunities for him to join in jam sessions. He soon began performing with fellow blues enthusiasts Nick Gravenites and Elvin Bishop.

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Cathryn Damon, American actress (born 1930)

Cathryn Lee Damon was an American actress known for her roles in sitcoms in the 1970s and 1980s. She was best known as Mary Campbell in Soap, for which she was nominated three times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, winning in 1980.

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04/05/1985

Fikri Sönmez, Turkish tailor and politician (born 1938)

Fikri Sönmez was a Turkish communist politician, who served as the mayor of Fatsa district of Ordu Province between 1979 and 1980.

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Clarence Wiseman, English-Canadian 10th General of The Salvation Army (born 1907)

Clarence Dexter Wiseman, was the tenth General of The Salvation Army from 1974 to 1977.

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04/05/1984

Diana Dors, English actress (born 1931)

Diana Dors was an English actress and singer.

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04/05/1983

Nino Sanzogno, Italian conductor and composer (born 1911)

Nino Sanzogno was an Italian conductor and composer.

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04/05/1981

C. Loganathan, Sri Lankan banker (born 1913)

Chelliah Loganathan was a Ceylon Tamil banker and the first Ceylonese general manager of the Bank of Ceylon.

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04/05/1980

Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslav field marshal and politician, 1st President of Yugoslavia (born 1892)

Josip Broz, commonly known as Tito, was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who led Yugoslavia as prime minister from 1943 to 1963 and as president from 1953 until his death in 1980. He was the longtime leader of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, supreme commander of the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II, and was one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement. The political ideology and policies associated with his rule are known as Titoism.

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Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson, Scottish pianist and composer (born 1920)

Joseph Turner Henderson, known as Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson, was a Scottish pianist, composer and recording artist who became well-known in Britain in the 1950s, with his entertainment career continuing into the 1960s and 1970s.

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04/05/1976

Frank Strahan, Australian public servant (born 1886)

Frank Strahan was a senior Australian public servant. Between 1935 and 1949, he was Secretary of the Prime Minister's Department.

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04/05/1975

Moe Howard, American actor, singer, and screenwriter (born 1897)

Moe Howard was an American comedian and actor. He is best known as the leader and straight man of The Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures, short films, and television for four decades. The group started out as Ted Healy and His Stooges, an act that toured the vaudeville circuit. Moe's distinctive hairstyle came about when he was a boy and cut off his curls with a pair of scissors, producing an irregular shape approximating a bowl cut.

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04/05/1973

Jane Bowles, American author and playwright (born 1917)

Jane Bowles was an American writer and playwright.

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04/05/1972

Father Chrysanthus, Dutch arachnologist (born 1905)

Wilhelmus Egbertus Antonius Janssen, better known as Father Chrysanthus OFMCap, was a Dutch priest and biology teacher. He was known for his studies in arachnology. Initially he was concerned with the spiders of the Netherlands but he became a specialist on New Guinea spiders. Two spider species were named in his honor following his death.

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Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1886)

Edward Calvin Kendall was an American biochemist. In 1950, Kendall was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine along with Swiss chemist Tadeusz Reichstein and Mayo Clinic physician Philip S. Hench, for their work with the hormones of the adrenal glands. Kendall not only researched the adrenal glands, he also isolated thyroxine, a hormone of the thyroid gland and worked with the team that crystallized glutathione and identified its chemical structure.

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04/05/1971

William Brown Meloney, writer and theatrical producer (born 1902)

William Brown Meloney V was a journalist, novelist, short-story writer and theatrical producer.

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04/05/1969

Osbert Sitwell, English-Italian author and poet (born 1892)

Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet CH CBE was an English writer. His elder sister was Edith Sitwell and his younger brother was Sacheverell Sitwell. Like them, he devoted his life to art and literature.

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04/05/1964

Karl Robert Pusta, Estonian politician, 4th Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1883)

Kaarel Robert Pusta was an Estonian politician and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia. During the Second World War, he served as special assistant to the consulate general of Estonia.

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04/05/1955

George Enescu, Romanian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1881)

George Enescu, known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor, teacher and statesman. He is regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history.

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04/05/1953

Alexandre Pharamond, French rugby player (born 1876)

Alexandre Emmanuel Pharamond was the captain of the French rugby union team in the early 20th century.

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04/05/1945

Fedor von Bock, German field marshal (born 1880)

Moritz Albrecht Franz Friedrich Fedor von Bock was a German Generalfeldmarschall who served in the German Army during the Second World War. Bock served as the commander of Army Group North during the Invasion of Poland in 1939, of Army Group B during the Invasion of France in 1940, of Army Group Center during Operation Barbarossa in 1941, and of Army Group South on the Eastern Front in 1942.

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04/05/1941

Chris McKivat, Australian rugby player and coach (born 1880)

Christopher Hobart McKivat was an Australian rugby union and rugby league player – a dual-code rugby international. He represented the Wallabies in over 20 Tests and tour matches from 1907 to 1909 and the Kangaroos in 5 Tests from 1910 to 1912. He is unique in Australian rugby history as the only man to captain both the national rugby union and rugby league teams. Following his playing career, he became the most successful coach of North Sydney in the club's history.

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04/05/1938

Kanō Jigorō, Japanese founder of judo (born 1860)

Kanō Jigorō was a Japanese judoka, educator, politician, and the founder of judo. Judo was one of the first Japanese martial arts to gain widespread international recognition, and the first to become an official Olympic sport. Pedagogical innovations attributed to Kanō include the use of black and white belts, and the introduction of dan ranking to show the relative ranking among members of a martial-art-style. Well-known mottoes attributed to Kanō include "maximum efficiency minimal effort" and "mutual welfare and benefit" .

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Carl von Ossietzky, German journalist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1889)

Carl von Ossietzky was a German journalist and pacifist. He was the recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in exposing the clandestine German rearmament.

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04/05/1937

Gina Oselio, Norwegian opera singer (born 1858).

Gina Oselio was a Norwegian operatic mezzo-soprano. Her signature role was the title heroine in Georges Bizet's Carmen. Oselio was sponsored by Oscar II who he gave her the title of "hofsangerinde", and she was the only Norwegian person to receive the honour.

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04/05/1924

E. Nesbit, English author and poet (born 1858)

Edith Nesbit was an English writer and poet, who published her books for children and others as E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on more than 60 such books. She was also a political activist and co-founder of the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later affiliated to the Labour Party.

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04/05/1923

Ralph McKittrick, American golfer and tennis player (born 1877)

Ralph McKittrick was an American golfer and tennis player who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.

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04/05/1922

Viktor Kingissepp, Estonian politician (born 1888)

Viktor Eduard Kingissepp was an Estonian communist politician who was a founder and leading member of the Estonian Communist Party.

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04/05/1919

Milan Rastislav Štefánik, Slovak general and politician (born 1880)

Milan Rastislav Štefánik was a Slovak politician, diplomat, aviator and astronomer. During World War I, he served at the same time as a general in the French Army and as Minister of War for Czechoslovakia. As one of the leading members of the Czechoslovak National Council, he contributed decisively to the cause of Czechoslovak sovereignty, since the status of Czech- and Slovak-populated territories was one of those in question until shortly before the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. His personal motto was "To Believe, To Love, To Work".

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04/05/1916

Ned Daly, Irish rebel commander (Easter Rising) (born 1891)

John Edward Daly was commandant of Dublin's 1st Battalion of the Irish Volunteers during the Easter Rising of 1916. He was the youngest man to hold that rank and the youngest executed in the aftermath.

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John Murray, Australian politician, 23rd Premier of Victoria (born 1851)

John (Jack) Murray was an Australian politician who was the 23rd premier of Victoria from 1909 to 1912.

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Willie Pearse, Irish rebel (born 1881)

William James Pearse was an Irish republican executed for his part in the Easter Rising. He was a younger brother of Patrick Pearse, a leader of the rising.

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Joseph Plunkett, Irish rebel and writer (born 1887)

Joseph Mary Plunkett was an Irish republican, poet and journalist. As a leader of the 1916 Easter Rising, he was one of the seven signatories to the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Plunkett married Grace Gifford in 1916, seven hours before his execution.

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04/05/1912

Nettie Stevens, American geneticist credited with discovering sex chromosomes (born 1861)

Nettie Maria Stevens was an American geneticist who discovered sex chromosomes. In 1905, soon after the rediscovery of Mendel's paper on genetics in 1900, she observed that male mealworms produced two kinds of sperm, one with a large chromosome and one with a small chromosome. When the sperm with the large chromosome fertilized eggs, they produced female offspring, and when the sperm with the small chromosome fertilized eggs, they produced male offspring. The pair of sex chromosomes that she studied later became known as the X and Y chromosomes.

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04/05/1903

Gotse Delchev, Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary IMRO (born 1872)

Georgi Nikolov Delchev, known as Gotse Delchev or Goce Delčev, was a prominent Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary (komitadji) and one of the most important leaders of what is commonly known as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). He was active in the Ottoman-ruled Macedonia and Adrianople regions, as well as in Bulgaria, at the turn of the 20th century. Delchev was IMRO's foreign representative in Sofia, the capital of the Principality of Bulgaria. As such, he was also a member of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC) for a period, participating in the work of its governing body. He was killed in a skirmish with an Ottoman unit on the eve of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising.

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04/05/1901

John Jones Ross, Canadian lawyer and politician, 7th Premier of Quebec (born 1831)

John Jones Ross was a Canadian politician. Ross served as the seventh premier of Quebec and later as a member of the Senate of Canada.

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04/05/1880

Edward Clark, American lawyer and politician, 8th Governor of Texas (born 1815)

Edward Clark was the eighth governor of Texas. His term coincided with the beginning of the American Civil War.

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04/05/1859

Joseph Diaz Gergonne, French mathematician and philosopher (born 1771)

Joseph Diez Gergonne was a French mathematician and logician.

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04/05/1839

Denis Davydov, Russian general and poet (born 1784)

Denis Vasilyevich Davydov was a Russian soldier-poet of the Napoleonic Wars who invented the genre of hussar poetry, characterised by hedonism and bravado. He used events from his own life to illustrate such poetry. He suggested and successfully pioneered guerrilla warfare in the Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon.

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04/05/1826

Sebastián Kindelán y O'Regan, colonial governor of East Florida, Santo Domingo and Cuba (born 1757)

Sebastian Kindelán y O'Regan, also called Sebastián de Kindelán y Oregón, was a colonel in the Spanish Army who served as governor of East Florida and of Santo Domingo during the Second Spanish period (1818–1821), as well as provisional governor of Cuba (1822–1823).

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04/05/1824

Joseph Joubert, French author (born 1754)

Joseph Joubert was a French moralist and essayist, remembered today largely for his Pensées (Thoughts), which were published posthumously.

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04/05/1816

Samuel Dexter, American lawyer and politician, 4th United States Secretary of War, 3rd United States Secretary of the Treasury (born 1761)

Samuel Dexter was an early American statesman who served both in Congress and in the Presidential Cabinets of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Dexter was a 1781 graduate of Harvard College. After receiving his degree he studied law, attained admission to the bar in 1784, and began to practice in Lunenburg, Massachusetts.

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04/05/1811

Nikolay Kamensky, Russian general (born 1776)

Count Nikolay Mikhailovich Kamensky was a Russian general, younger son of Field Marshal Count Mikhail Fedotovich Kamensky and his wife, Princess Anna Pavlovna Shcherbatova (1749-1826).

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04/05/1799

Tipu, ruler of Mysore (born 1750)

Tipu Sultan, commonly referred to as Sher-e-Mysore, was the Sultan of Mysore from 1782 until his death in 1799. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery. He expanded the iron-cased Mysorean rockets and commissioned the military manual Fathul Mujahidin. The economy of Mysore reached a zenith during his reign. He deployed rockets against advances of British forces and their allies during the Anglo-Mysore Wars, including the Battle of Pollilur and Siege of Srirangapatna.

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04/05/1790

Matthew Tilghman, American politician (born 1718)

Matthew Tilghman was an American planter, and Revolutionary leader from Maryland. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776, where he signed the 1774 Continental Association.

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04/05/1776

Jacques Saly, French painter and sculptor (born 1717)

Jacques François Joseph Saly, also known as Jacques Saly, French-born sculptor who worked in France, Italy and Malta. He is commonly associated with his time in Denmark he served as Director of the Royal Danish Academy of Art (1754–71). His most noteworthy work is the equestrian statue Frederik V on Horseback at Amalienborg.

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04/05/1774

Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick, Prussian nobleman (born 1714)

Duke Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick-Lüneburg was a German prince and military officer.

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04/05/1737

Eustace Budgell, English journalist and politician (born 1686)

Eustace Budgell was an English writer and politician.

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04/05/1734

James Thornhill, English painter and politician (born 1675)

Sir James Thornhill was an English painter of historical subjects working in the Italian baroque tradition. He was responsible for some large-scale schemes of murals, including the "Painted Hall" at the Royal Hospital, Greenwich, the paintings on the inside of the dome of St Paul's Cathedral, and works at Chatsworth House and Wimpole Hall.

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04/05/1729

Louis Antoine de Noailles, French cardinal (born 1651)

Louis Antoine de Noailles, Cardinal de Noailles, second son of Anne de Noailles, 1st Duke of Noailles, was a French bishop and cardinal. His signing of the Unigenitus bull in 1728 would end the formal Jansenist controversy.

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04/05/1684

John Nevison, English criminal (born 1639)

John Nevison, also known as William Nevison or Nevinson, was one of England's most notorious highwaymen, a gentleman rogue supposedly nicknamed Swift Nick by King Charles II after a renowned 200-mile (320 km) dash from Kent to York to establish an alibi for a robbery he had committed earlier that day. The story inspired William Harrison Ainsworth to include a modified version in his novel Rookwood, in which he attributed the feat to Dick Turpin. There are suggestions that the feat was actually undertaken by Samuel Nicks. The TV series Dick Turpin had an accomplice of the highwayman, Nick, who earned the nickname "Swiftnick".

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04/05/1677

Isaac Barrow, English mathematician and theologian (born 1630)

Isaac Barrow was an English Christian theologian and mathematician who is generally given credit for his early role in the development of infinitesimal calculus; in particular, for a proof of the fundamental theorem of calculus. His work centered on the properties of the tangent; Barrow was the first to calculate the tangents of the kappa curve. He is also notable for being the inaugural holder of the prestigious Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, a post later held by his student, Isaac Newton.

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04/05/1626

Arthur Lake, English bishop and scholar (born 1569)

Arthur Lake was Bishop of Bath and Wells and a translator of the King James Version of The Bible.

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04/05/1615

Adriaan van Roomen, Flemish priest and mathematician (born 1561)

Adriaan van Roomen, also known as Adrianus Romanus, was a mathematician, professor of medicine and medical astrologer from the Duchy of Brabant in the Habsburg Netherlands who was active throughout Central Europe in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. As a mathematician he worked in algebra, trigonometry and geometry; and on the decimal expansion of pi. He solved the Problem of Apollonius using a new method that involved intersecting hyperbolas. He also wrote on the Gregorian calendar reform.

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04/05/1605

Ulisse Aldrovandi, Italian naturalist (born 1522)

Ulisse Aldrovandi was an Italian naturalist, the moving force behind Bologna's botanical garden, one of the first in Europe. Carl Linnaeus and the comte de Buffon reckoned him the father of natural history studies. He is usually referred to, especially in older scientific literature in Latin, as Aldrovandus; his name in Italian is equally given as Aldroandi.

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04/05/1604

Claudio Merulo, Italian organist and composer (born 1533)

Claudio Merulo was an Italian composer, publisher and organist of the late Renaissance period, most famous for his innovative keyboard music and his ensemble music composed in the Venetian polychoral style. He was born in Correggio and died in Parma. Born Claudio Merlotti, he Latinised his surname when he became famous in Venetian cultural clubs.

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04/05/1571

Pierre Viret, Swiss theologian and reformer (born 1511)

Pierre Viret was a Swiss Reformed theologian, evangelist and Protestant reformer.

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04/05/1566

Luca Ghini, Italian physician and botanist (born 1490)

Luca Ghini was an Italian physician and botanist, notable as the creator of the first recorded herbarium, as well as the first botanical garden in Europe.

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04/05/1562

Lelio Sozzini, Italian Protestant theologian (born 1525)

Lelio Francesco Maria Sozzini, often known in English by his Latinized name Laelius Socinus, was an Italian Renaissance humanist and theologian, and, alongside his nephew Fausto Sozzini, founder of the Nontrinitarian Christian belief system known as Socinianism. His doctrine was developed among the Polish Brethren in the Polish Reformed Church between the 16th and 17th centuries, and embraced by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania during the same period.

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04/05/1535

John Houghton, Carthusian monk and saint

John Houghton, OCart was a Catholic priest of the Carthusian order and the first martyr to die as a result of the Act of Supremacy by King Henry VIII of England. He was also the first of the Carthusians to die as a martyr. As one of the Carthusian Martyrs of London he is among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

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04/05/1519

Lorenzo de' Medici, duke of Urbino (born 1492)

Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici was the ruler of Florence from 1516 until his death in 1519. He was also Duke of Urbino during the same period. A scion of the Medici, his wealth and power saw his daughter Catherine de' Medici become Queen Consort of France, while his recognised but illegitimate son, Alessandro de' Medici, inherited his estate and became the first Duke of Florence.

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04/05/1506

Husayn Mirza Bayqara, Timurid ruler of Herat (born 1438)

Sultan Husayn Bayqara Mirza was the Timurid ruler of Herat from 1469 until May 4, 1506, with a brief interruption in 1470.

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04/05/1483

George Neville, Duke of Bedford (born 1457)

George Neville, Duke of Bedford was an English nobleman, a scion of the House of Neville. At birth, he was likely heir to great wealth, but due to the political failure of his father and uncle, he inherited very little.

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04/05/1471

Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, son and heir of Henry VI of England (born 1453)

Edward of Westminster, also known as Edward of Lancaster, was the only child of Henry VI of England and Margaret of Anjou. He was killed aged seventeen at the Battle of Tewkesbury.

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04/05/1436

Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, Swedish rebel leader (27 April O.S.).

Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson was a Swedish nobleman, rebel leader and military leader of German ancestry. He was the leader of the Engelbrekt rebellion in 1434 against Eric of Pomerania, king of the Kalmar Union.

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04/05/1406

Coluccio Salutati, chancellor of Florence (born 1331)

Coluccio Salutati was an Italian Renaissance humanist and notary, and one of the most important political and cultural leaders of Renaissance Florence; as chancellor of the Florentine Republic and its most prominent voice, he was effectively the permanent secretary of state in the generation before the rise of the powerful Medici family.

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04/05/1038

Gotthard of Hildesheim, German bishop (born 960)

Gotthard, also known as Gothard or Godehard the Bishop, was a German bishop venerated as a saint.

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04/05/1003

Herman II, duke of Swabia

Herman II was a member of the Conradine dynasty. He was Duke of Swabia from 997 to his death. In 1002, Herman unsuccessfully attempted to become king of Germany.

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04/05/0784

Arbeo, bishop of Freising

Saint Arbeo of Freising was an early medieval author and the Bishop of Freising from 764.

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04/05/0408

Venerius, archbishop of Milan

Venerius was Archbishop of Milan from 400 to 408. He is honoured as a Saint in the Catholic Church and his feast day is May 6.

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