Died on Monday, 5th May – Famous Deaths

05/05/2024

Jeannie Epper, American stuntwoman and actress (born 1941)

Jean Luann Epper was an American stuntwoman and actress. She performed stunts in over 100 feature films and television series and is perhaps best known as Lynda Carter's stunt double on the 1970s television series Wonder Woman. She was featured in Amanda Micheli's 2004 documentary Double Dare, along with New Zealand stuntwoman and actress Zoë Bell. Entertainment Weekly noted that many consider her "the greatest stuntwoman who's ever lived."

---

Bernard Hill, English actor (born 1944)

Bernard Hill was an English actor. He was known for his versatile performances in both television and film, and his career spanned over fifty years.

---

César Luis Menotti, Argentine footballer and manager (born 1938)

César Luis Menotti, known as El Flaco ("Slim"), was an Argentine football player and manager who won the 1978 FIFA World Cup as the head coach of the Argentina national team.

---

05/05/2020

Millie Small, Jamaican singer-songwriter (born 1947)

Millicent Dolly May Small CD was a Jamaican singer who is best known for her international hit "My Boy Lollipop" (1964). The song reached number two in both the UK and US charts and sold over seven million copies worldwide. It was also the first major hit for Island Records and helped to achieve the label its mainstream success. She was the Caribbean's first international recording star and its most successful female performer.

---

05/05/2017

Binyamin Elon, Israeli Orthodox rabbi and politician (born 1954)

Rabbi Binyamin "Benny" Elon was an Israeli Orthodox rabbi and politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Moledet and the National Union between 1996 and 2009. A ninth-generation Jerusalemite, Elon lived in Beit El, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, for over twenty years, and was married to author and journalist Emuna Elon. They had six children. His father, Menachem Elon, was the former Deputy Chief Justice of Israel. His brother, disgraced Rabbi Mordechai Elon, has been a prominent controversial figure in the Religious Zionist Movement.

---

Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, Mauritanian politician (born 1953)

Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall was a Mauritanian political and military figure. Following a coup d'état in August 2005, he served as the transitional military leader of Mauritania until 19 April 2007, when he relinquished power to an elected government.

---

05/05/2015

Jobst Brandt, American cyclist, engineer, and author (born 1935)

Jobst Brandt was an American mechanical engineer, inventor, bicycle enthusiast, educator, and author.

---

Hans Jansen, Dutch linguist, academic, and politician (born 1942)

Johannes Juliaan Gijsbert "Hans" Jansen was a Dutch politician, scholar of contemporary Islam and author.

---

05/05/2014

Michael Otedola, Nigerian journalist and politician, 9th Governor of Lagos State (born 1926)

Michael Agbolade Otedola KSS was a Nigerian politician who served as governor of Lagos State during the Nigerian Third Republic.

---

05/05/2013

Sarah Kirsch, German poet and author (born 1935)

Sarah Kirsch was a German poet.

---

Robert Ressler, American FBI agent and author (born 1937)

Robert Kenneth Ressler was an American FBI agent and author. He played a significant role in the psychological profiling of violent offenders in the 1970s and is often credited with coining the term "serial killer", though the term is a direct translation of the German term Serienmörder coined in 1930 by Berlin investigator Ernst Gennat. After retiring from the FBI, he authored a number of books on serial murders, and often gave lectures on criminology.

---

05/05/2012

Surendranath, Indian cricketer (born 1937)

Surendra Nath was an Indian cricketer who played in eleven Test matches between 1958 and 1961. He was primarily a medium-pace swing bowler, who enjoyed a particularly successful tour of England in 1959.

---

Carl Johan Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (born 1916)

Carl Johan Arthur, Prince Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, was the fourth son and fifth and youngest child of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught.

---

Aatos Erkko, Finnish journalist and publisher (born 1932)

Aatos Juho Michel Erkko was a Finnish newspaper editor, newspaper publisher, and the main owner of the Sanoma Corporation and the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, of which he was also the editor in chief.

---

George Knobel, Dutch footballer, coach, and manager (born 1922)

George Knobel was a Dutch football manager.

---

Roy Padayachie, South African lawyer and politician, South African Minister of Communications (born 1950)

Radhakrishna Lutchmana "Roy" Padayachie was a South African politician and activist. He was a cabinet minister between November 2010 and his death in May 2012. At the same time he represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly between April 2004 and May 2012.

---

05/05/2011

Claude Choules, English-Australian soldier (born 1901)

Claude Stanley Choules was a British-born military serviceman from Pershore, Worcestershire, who at the time of his death was the oldest combat veteran of the First World War. He served with the Royal Navy from 1915 until 1926. After having emigrated to Australia he served with the Royal Australian Navy, from 1926 until 1956, as a chief petty officer and was a naturalised Australian citizen. He was the last surviving military witness to the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow in 1919 and the last surviving veteran to have served in both world wars. At the time of his death, he was the third-oldest verified military veteran in the world and the oldest known living man in Australia. He was the seventh-oldest living man in the world. Choules became the oldest man born in the United Kingdom following the death of Stanley Lucas on 21 June 2010. Choules died at the age of 110 years and 63 days. He had been the oldest British-born man; following his death, that honour went to the Reverend Reginald Dean. In December 2011, the landing ship HMAS Choules was named after him, only the second Royal Australian Navy vessel named after a sailor.

---

Yosef Merimovich, Israeli footballer and manager (born 1924)

Yosef "Yosale" Merimovich was a football player and manager. A one-club man, he played as a forward for Maccabi Tel Aviv between 1947 and 1958, winning six championships and six cups. Born in Cyprus, he represented the Israel national team at international level. He went on to coach both Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Israel national team on multiple occasions.

---

Dana Wynter, British actress (born 1931)

Dana Wynter was a German-born British actress who was raised in the United Kingdom and southern Africa. She appeared in film and television for more than 40 years, beginning in the 1950s. One of her best-known film performances was in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). A tall, dark, elegant beauty, she played both victim and villain. Her characters both in film and on television sometimes faced horrific dangers, which they often did not survive, but she also played scheming, manipulative women on television mysteries and crime procedural dramas.

---

05/05/2010

Giulietta Simionato, Italian soprano (born 1910)

Giulietta Simionato was an Italian mezzo-soprano. Her career spanned the period from the 1930s until her retirement in 1966.

---

Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Nigerian academic and politician, 13th President of Nigeria (born 1951)

Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was a Nigerian politician who served as the president of Nigeria from 2007 until his death in May 2010. He won the Nigerian presidential election held on 21 April 2007, and was sworn in on 29 May 2007.

---

05/05/2008

Irv Robbins, Canadian-American businessman, co-founded Baskin-Robbins (born 1917)

Irvine "Irv" Isaac Robbins was a Canadian-born American businessman. He co-founded the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor chain in 1945 with his partner and brother-in-law Burt Baskin.

---

Jerry Wallace, American singer and guitarist (born 1928)

Jerry Leon Wallace was an American country and pop singer. Between 1958 and 1964, Wallace charted nine hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the No. 8 "Primrose Lane" that was later used as the theme song for the television series The Smith Family. He made his debut on the country music charts in 1965, entering it thirty-five times between then and 1980. In that timespan, Wallace charted within the country Top Ten four times. His only number one song was "If You Leave Me Tonight I'll Cry," a song which gained popularity after it was used in an episode of the 1970s TV series Night Gallery.

---

05/05/2007

Theodore Harold Maiman, American-Canadian physicist and engineer, created the laser (born 1927)

Theodore Harold Maiman was an American engineer and physicist who is widely credited with the invention of the laser. Maiman's laser led to the subsequent development of many other types of lasers. The laser was successfully fired on May 16, 1960. In a July 7, 1960, press conference in Manhattan, Maiman and his employer, Hughes Aircraft Company, announced the laser to the world. Maiman was granted a patent for his invention, and he received many awards and honors for his work. His experiences in developing the first laser and subsequent related events are recounted in his book, The Laser Odyssey, later being republished in 2018 under a new title, The Laser Inventor: Memoirs of Theodore H. Maiman.

---

05/05/2006

Naushad Ali, Indian composer and producer (born 1919)

Naushad Ali was an Indian composer for Hindi films. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and foremost music directors of the Hindi film industry. He is respectfully remembered as "Moseeqar-e-Azam" in the Hindi film industry. He is particularly known for popularising the use of classical music in films.

---

Atıf Yılmaz, Turkish director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1925)

Atıf Yılmaz Batıbeki was a renowned Turkish film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He was very much a legend in the film industry of Turkey with 119 movies directed. He also wrote screenplays for 53 movies and produced 28 movies from 1951 right up till his death in 2006. He was active in almost every period of the Turkish film industry.

---

05/05/2003

Sam Bockarie, Sierra Leonean commander (born 1964)

Samuel Sam Bockarie, widely known as Mosquito, was a Sierra Leonean politician and army commander who served as a leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Bockarie was infamous during the Sierra Leone Civil War for his brutal tactics, which included amputation, mutilation, and rape. He earned the nickname "Mosquito" for his ability to attack when his enemies were off-guard, mainly during the night. In the book Merchant of Death, the author states the nickname came from Bockarie's claims that he would "suck the life out of his enemies." During his service in the RUF, he befriended future Liberian president Charles Taylor, and RUF commander Foday Sankoh. When Sankoh was imprisoned from March 1997 until April 1999, Bockarie served as commander of the RUF in his place.

---

Walter Sisulu, South African activist and politician (born 1912)

Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu was a South African anti-apartheid activist and member of the African National Congress (ANC). Between terms as ANC Secretary-General (1949–1954) and ANC Deputy President (1991–1994), he was Accused No.2 in the Rivonia Trial and was incarcerated on Robben Island where he served more than 25 years' imprisonment for his anti-Apartheid revolutionary activism. He had a close partnership with Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela, with whom he played a key role in organising the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the establishment of the ANC Youth League and Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was also on the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party.

---

05/05/2002

Hugo Banzer, Bolivian general and politician, 62nd President of Bolivia (born 1926)

Hugo Banzer Suárez was a Bolivian politician and military officer who served as the 51st president of Bolivia. He held the Bolivian presidency twice: from 1971 to 1978 as a military dictator; and then again from 1997 to 2001, as a democratically elected president.

---

Paul Wilbur Klipsch, American engineer, founded Klipsch Audio Technologies (born 1904)

Paul Wilbur Klipsch was an American engineer and high fidelity audio pioneer, known for developing a high-efficiency folded horn loudspeaker. Unsatisfied with the sound quality of phonographs and early speaker systems, Klipsch used scientific principles to develop a corner horn speaker that sounded more lifelike than its predecessors.

---

George Sidney, American director and producer (born 1916)

George Sidney was an American film director and producer who worked primarily at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His work includes cult classics Bye Bye Birdie (1963) and Viva Las Vegas (1964). With an extensive background in acting, stage direction, film editing, and music, Sidney created many of post-war Hollywood's big budget musicals, such as Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Show Boat (1951), Kiss Me Kate (1953), Jupiter's Darling (1955), and Pal Joey (1957). He was also a president of the Screen Directors Guild for 16 years.

---

Louis C. Wyman, American lawyer and politician (born 1917)

Louis Crosby Wyman was an American politician and lawyer. He was a United States representative and a U.S. senator from New Hampshire. He was a member of the Republican Party.

---

05/05/2001

Morris Graves, American painter and educator (born 1910)

Morris Cole Graves was an American painter. He was one of the earliest Modern artists from the Pacific Northwest to achieve national and international acclaim. His style, referred to by some reviewers as Mysticism, used the muted tones of the Northwest environment, Asian aesthetics and philosophy, and a personal iconography of birds, flowers, chalices, and other images to explore the nature of consciousness.

---

Clifton Hillegass, American publisher, created CliffsNotes (born 1918)

Clifton K. Hillegass was the creator and publisher of CliffsNotes.

---

05/05/2000

Gino Bartali, Italian cyclist (born 1914)

Gino Bartali,, nicknamed Gino the Pious and Ginettaccio, was a champion road cyclist. He was the most renowned Italian cyclist before the Second World War, having won the Giro d'Italia twice, in 1936 and 1937, and the Tour de France in 1938. After the war, he added one more victory in each event: the Giro d'Italia in 1946 and the Tour de France in 1948. His second and last Tour de France victory in 1948 gave him the largest gap between victories in the race.

---

Bill Musselman, American basketball player and coach (born 1940)

William Clifford Musselman was an American basketball coach in the NCAA, the ABA, the WBA, the CBA, and the NBA.

---

05/05/1999

Vasilis Diamantopoulos, Greek actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1920)

Vasilis Diamantopoulos was a Greek actor. He was one of the founders of the Modern Theater and was the first actor to appear live on Greek television in the single act play Him and his pants by Iakovos Kambanellis in 1966. His most characteristic role was that of the austere professor in Giannis Dalianidis' movie Law 4000 and later in shorts including Ekmek Ice Cream in private TV.

---

05/05/1995

Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian chess player and coach (born 1911)

Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who held five world titles in three different reigns. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess, the last of which he was awarded an honorary mathematics degree for.

---

05/05/1994

Mário Quintana, Brazilian poet and translator (born 1906)

Mário de Miranda Quintana was a Brazilian writer and translator.

---

05/05/1993

Irving Howe, American literary and social critic (born 1920)

Irving Howe was an American author, literary and social critic, and a key figure in the democratic socialist movement in the U.S. He co-founded and served as longtime editor of Dissent magazine. In 1976, he wrote the National Book Award-winning World of Our Fathers, a history of East European Jews who immigrated to America.

---

05/05/1988

Michael Shaara, American author and academic (born 1928)

Michael Shaara was an American author of science fiction, sports fiction, and historical fiction.

---

05/05/1985

Donald Bailey, English engineer, designed the Bailey bridge (born 1901)

Sir Donald Coleman Bailey, OBE was an English civil engineer who invented the Bailey bridge. Field Marshal Montgomery is recorded as saying that "without the Bailey bridge, we should not have won the war."

---

05/05/1983

Horst Schumann, German physician (born 1901)

Horst Schumann was an SS-Sturmbannführer (major) and medical doctor who conducted sterilization and castration experiments at Auschwitz and was particularly interested in the mass sterilization of Jews by means of X-rays. Hors d'atteinte, a book by Frédéric Couderc, published in France by Les Escales and Pocket, reveals the extent of Schumann's crimes and his life as a fugitive in Africa.

---

John Williams, English-American actor (born 1903)

Hugh Ernest Leo Williams, known professionally as John Williams, was an English stage, film and television actor. He is remembered for his role as Chief Inspector Hubbard in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder, as the chauffeur in Billy Wilder's Sabrina, as Mr. Brogan-Moore in Witness for the Prosecution (1957) and as the second "Mr. French" on TV's Family Affair in its first season (1967).

---

05/05/1981

Bobby Sands, PIRA volunteer and hunger striker (born 1954)

Robert Gerard Sands was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who died on hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland. Sands helped to plan the 1976 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing in Dunmurry, which was followed by a gun battle with the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Sands was arrested while trying to escape and sentenced to 14 years for firearms possession.

---

05/05/1977

Ludwig Erhard, German economist and politician, Chancellor of Germany (born 1897)

Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard was a German politician and economist who served as the second chancellor of West Germany from 1963 until 1966. Affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he is known for leading the West German postwar economic reforms and economic recovery in his role as Minister of Economic Affairs under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer from 1949 to 1963. During that period, he promoted the concept of the social market economy, on which Germany's economic policy in the 21st century continues to be based.

---

05/05/1973

Zekai Özger, Turkish poet and academic (born 1948)

Zekai Özger, better known under his pen name Arkadaş Z. Özger, was a young Turkish poet.

---

05/05/1971

Violet Jessop, Argentinean-English nurse (born 1887)

Violet Constance Jessop was an Irish-Argentine ocean liner stewardess and Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse in the early 20th century. She survived the sinking of both RMS Titanic in 1912 and sister ship HMHS Britannic in 1916, as well as having been aboard the eldest of the three ships of that class, RMS Olympic, when it collided with the British warship HMS Hawke in 1911.

---

05/05/1965

Nikos Gounaris, Greek tenor and composer (born 1915)

Nikos Gounaris was a Greek tenor who was enormously popular as a light music singer in the 1950s.

---

John Waters, American director and screenwriter (born 1893)

John Waters was an American film director, second unit director and, initially, an assistant director. His career began in the early days of silent film and culminated in two consecutive Academy Award nominations in the newly instituted category of Best Assistant Director. He won on his second nomination, for MGM's Viva Villa!, and received a certificate of merit; the certificate was replaced with an Oscar statuette in 1965.

---

05/05/1962

Ernest Tyldesley, English cricketer (born 1889)

George Ernest Tyldesley was an English cricketer. The younger brother of Johnny Tyldesley and the leading batsman for Lancashire. He remains Lancashire's most prolific run-getter of all time, and is one of only a few batsmen to have scored 100 centuries in the first-class game.

---

05/05/1959

Carlos Saavedra Lamas, Argentinian academic and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1878)

Carlos Saavedra Lamas was an Argentine academic and politician, and in 1936, the first Latin American Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

---

05/05/1957

Leopold Löwenheim, German mathematician and logician (born 1878)

Leopold Löwenheim [ˈle:o:pɔl̩d ˈlø:vɛnhaɪm] was a German mathematician doing work in mathematical logic. The Nazi regime forced him to retire because under the Nuremberg Laws he was considered only three quarters Aryan. In 1943 much of his work was destroyed during a bombing raid on Berlin. Nevertheless, he survived the Second World War, after which he resumed teaching mathematics.

---

05/05/1947

Ty LaForest, Canadian-American baseball player (born 1917)

Byron Joseph LaForest was a Canadian professional baseball player who appeared in 52 games in the major leagues, primarily as a third baseman, for the Boston Red Sox during the latter months of the 1945 season. He was born in Edmundston, New Brunswick, and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1921. He attended Waltham High School in the Boston suburb and graduated from Dorchester High School. Listed as 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) tall and 165 pounds (75 kg), he threw and batted right-handed.

---

05/05/1942

Qemal Stafa, Albanian politician (born 1920)

Qemal Stafa was an Albanian politician and one of the founding members of the Albanian Communist Party, and the leader of its youth section.

---

05/05/1941

Platon of Banja Luka, Serbian Orthodox bishop (born 1874)

Platon of Banja Luka was a Serbian Orthodox cleric who served as the Bishop of Banja Luka between 1940 and 1941. His tenure ended in May 1941, when he was abducted, tortured and killed by followers of the Ustaše movement.

---

05/05/1931

Glen Kidston, English pilot and race car driver (born 1899)

George Pearson Glen Kidston was a British motor racing driver and aviator who completed a record-breaking flight from Netheravon, Wiltshire to Cape Town, South Africa, in 1931. He was one of the "Bentley Boys".

---

05/05/1924

A. Sabapathy, Sri Lankan journalist and politician (born 1853)

Arunachalam Sabapathy was a Ceylon Tamil newspaper editor, politician and member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon.

---

05/05/1921

Alfred Hermann Fried, Austrian journalist and publicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1864)

Alfred Hermann Fried was an Austrian Jewish pacifist, publicist, journalist, co-founder of the German peace movement, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1911. Fried was also a supporter of Esperanto. He is the author of an Esperanto textbook and an Esperanto-German and German-Esperanto dictionary, first published in 1903 and republished in 1905.

---

05/05/1916

John MacBride, Irish soldier and rebel (born 1865)

John MacBride was an Irish republican and military leader. He was executed by the British government for his participation in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin.

---

Maurice Raoul-Duval, French polo player (born 1866)

Maurice Raoul-Duval was a French polo player who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics.

---

05/05/1913

Henry Moret, French painter (born 1856)

Henry Moret was a French Impressionist painter. He was one of the artists who associated with Paul Gauguin at Pont-Aven in Brittany. He is best known for his involvement in the Pont-Aven artist colony and his richly colored landscapes of coastal Brittany.

---

05/05/1907

Şeker Ahmed Pasha, Turkish soldier and painter (born 1841)

Ahmed Ali Pasha, better known as "Şeker" Ahmed Pasha, was an Ottoman painter, soldier and government official. His nickname "Şeker" meant "sugar" in Turkish, which he earned due to his very easy-going nature.

---

05/05/1902

Bret Harte, American short story writer and poet (born 1836)

Francis Brett Hart, known as Bret Harte, was an American short story writer and poet best remembered for short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a career spanning more than four decades, he also wrote poetry, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches.

---

05/05/1901

Mariano Ignacio Prado, Peruvian general, twice President of Peru (born 1825)

Mariano Ignacio Prado Ochoa was a Peruvian army general who served twice as President of Peru.

---

05/05/1896

Silas Adams, American lawyer and politician (born 1839)

Silas Adams was an American attorney and politician from Kentucky who served for one term as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky's 11th congressional district.

---

05/05/1892

August Wilhelm von Hofmann, German chemist and academic (born 1818)

August Wilhelm von Hofmann was a German chemist who made considerable contributions to organic chemistry. His research on aniline helped lay the basis of the aniline-dye industry, and his research on coal tar laid the groundwork for his student Charles Mansfield's practical methods for extracting benzene and toluene and converting them into nitro compounds and amines. Hofmann's discoveries include formaldehyde, hydrazobenzene, the isonitriles, and allyl alcohol. He prepared three ethylamines and tetraethylammonium compounds and established their structural relationship to ammonia.

---

05/05/1883

John O'Shanassy, Irish-Australian politician, 2nd Premier of Victoria (born 1818)

Sir John O'Shanassy, KCMG, was an Irish-Australian politician who served as the 2nd Premier of Victoria. O'Shanassy was born near Thurles in County Tipperary, Ireland, the son of a surveyor, and came to the Port Phillip District in 1839. He went into business in Melbourne as a draper, and by 1846 he was rich enough to be elected to the Melbourne City Council and to become the founding chairman of the Colonial Bank of Australasia. By the 1850s he was a major landowner and one of the wealthiest men in the colony. He also became a recognised leader of the large Irish Catholic community.

---

05/05/1860

Jean-Charles Prince, Canadian bishop (born 1804)

Jean-Charles Prince was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest, teacher, seminary administrator, editor, and Bishop of Saint-Hyacinthe, Lower Canada from 1852 to 1860.

---

05/05/1859

Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, German mathematician and academic (born 1805)

Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet was a German mathematician. In number theory, he proved special cases of Fermat's Last Theorem and created analytic number theory. In analysis, he advanced the theory of Fourier series and was one of the first to give the modern formal definition of a function. In mathematical physics, he studied potential theory, boundary-value problems, heat diffusion, and hydrodynamics.

---

05/05/1855

Sir Robert Inglis, 2nd Baronet, English politician (born 1786)

Sir Robert Harry Inglis, 2nd Baronet, FRS was a British Conservative politician, noted for his staunch high church views.

---

05/05/1833

Sophia Campbell, English-Australian painter (born 1777)

Sophia Campbell was an early Australian settler. She was the wife of politician Robert Campbell.

---

05/05/1827

Frederick Augustus I of Saxony (born 1750)

Frederick Augustus I was a member of the House of Wettin who reigned as the last Elector of Saxony from 1763 to 1806 and as the first King of Saxony from 1806 to 1827. He was also Duke of Warsaw from 1807 to 1815, a short-lived disputed Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1812, and a legitimate candidate to the Polish throne.

---

05/05/1821

Napoleon, French general and emperor (born 1769)

Napoleon Bonaparte, later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was Emperor of the French from 18 May 1804 until his first abdication in 1814, with a brief restoration during the Hundred Days in 1815. He rose to prominence as a general during the French Revolution and led a series of military campaigns across Europe and North Africa during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. As a statesman, he implemented numerous legal and administrative reforms in France and Europe.

---

05/05/1808

Pierre Jean George Cabanis, French physiologist and philosopher (born 1757)

Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis was a French physiologist, Freemason, materialist philosopher and leading idéologue.

---

05/05/1766

Jean Astruc, French physician and scholar (born 1684)

Jean Astruc was a professor of medicine in France at Montpellier and Paris, who wrote the first great treatise on syphilis and venereal diseases, and also, with a small anonymously published book, played a fundamental part in the origins of critical textual analysis of works of the Bible. Astruc was the first to propose and hypothesize, by using the techniques of textual analysis that were commonplace in studying the secular classics, the theory that Genesis was composed based on several sources or manuscript traditions, an approach now called the documentary hypothesis.

---

05/05/1760

Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers, English politician (born 1720)

Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers was an English nobleman, notable for being the last peer to be hanged, following his conviction for murdering his steward.

---

05/05/1714

Nathaniel Lawrence, English politician (born c. 1627)

Nathaniel Lawrence was an English politician who served as MP for Colchester in 1685.

---

05/05/1705

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1640)

Leopold I was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. The second son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, by his first wife, Maria Anna of Spain, Leopold became heir apparent in 1654 after the death of his elder brother Ferdinand IV. Elected in 1658, Leopold ruled the Holy Roman Empire until his death in 1705, becoming the second longest-ruling emperor of the House of Habsburg. He was both a composer and considerable patron of music.

---

05/05/1700

Angelo Italia, Italian architect (born 1628)

Angelo Italia was an Italian Jesuit and Baroque architect, who was born in Licata and died in Palermo. He designed a number of churches in Sicily, and later worked to reconstruct three cities following the 1693 Sicily earthquake.

---

05/05/1672

Samuel Cooper, English painter and linguist (born 1609)

Samuel Cooper, sometimes spelt Samuel Cowper, was an English miniature painter. He was the younger brother of Alexander Cooper.

---

05/05/1671

Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, English general and politician, Lord Chamberlain of the United Kingdom (born 1602)

Major-General Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, KG, KB, FRS was an English army officer and courtier who commanded Parliamentary forces in the First English Civil War and for a time was Oliver Cromwell's superior.

---

05/05/1586

Henry Sidney, Irish politician, Lord Deputy of Ireland (born 1529)

Sir Henry Sidney was an English soldier, politician and Lord Deputy of Ireland. Instrumental in the Tudor conquest of Ireland, his attempts to consolidate English power in Ireland were a major contributing factor to the Desmond Rebellions.

---

05/05/1582

Charlotte of Bourbon, Princess consort of Orange, married to William I of Orange (born 1547)

Charlotte of Bourbon was a princess consort of Orange as the third wife of William the Silent, Prince of Orange, the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish. She was the fourth daughter of Louis III de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier, and Jacqueline de Longwy, Countess of Bar-sur-Seine.

---

05/05/1525

Frederick III, Elector of Saxony (born 1463)

Frederick III, also known as Frederick the Wise, was Prince-elector of Saxony from 1486 to 1525, who is mostly remembered for the protection given to his subject Martin Luther, the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation. Frederick was the son of Ernest, Elector of Saxony and his wife Elisabeth, daughter of Albert III, Duke of Bavaria.

---

05/05/1432

Francesco Bussone da Carmagnola, Italian adventurer

Francesco Bussone, often called Count of Carmagnola, was an Italian condottiero.

---

05/05/1380

Saint Philotheos, Coptic martyr

Saint Philotheos was a Coptic Orthodox martyr and saint.

---

05/05/1338

Prince Tsunenaga, son of the Japanese Emperor (born 1324)

Prince Tsunenaga was one of the sons of Japanese Emperor Go-Daigo. He became involved in the Nanboku-chō wars between the true Imperial line and the Ashikaga clan.

---

05/05/1316

Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, daughter of King Edward I of England (born 1282)

Elizabeth of Rhuddlan was the eighth and youngest daughter of Edward I of England and Eleanor of Castile and was born in Rhuddlan Castle in Denbighshire. Of all of her siblings, she was closest to her younger brother Edward II, as they were only two years apart in age.

---

05/05/1309

Charles II of Naples (born 1254)

Charles II, also known as Charles the Lame, was King of Naples, Count of Provence and Forcalquier (1285–1309), Prince of Achaea (1285–1289), and Count of Anjou and Maine (1285–1290); he also was King of Albania (1285–1294), and claimed the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1285. He was the son of Charles I of Anjou—one of the most powerful European monarchs in the second half of the 13th century—and Beatrice of Provence. His father granted Charles the Principality of Salerno in the Kingdom of Sicily in 1272 and made him regent in Provence and Forcalquier in 1279.

---

05/05/1306

Constantine Palaiologos, Byzantine general (born 1261)

Constantine Palaiologos or Palaeologus was a Byzantine prince of the Palaiologos dynasty, who also served as a general in the wars against the Serbs and Turks.

---

05/05/1243

Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent, English justiciar (born c. 1160)

Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent was an English nobleman who served as Chief Justiciar of England (1215–1232) and Justiciar of Ireland (1232) during the reigns of King John and his son and successor King Henry III and, as Regent of England (1219–1227) during Henry's minority, was one of the most influential and powerful men in English politics in the thirteenth century.

---

05/05/1194

Casimir II the Just, Polish son of Bolesław III Wrymouth (born 1138)

Casimir II the Just was Duke of Wiślica in Lesser Poland from 1166 to 1173, and Duke of Sandomierz from 1173 onward. In 1177, he became ruler of the Polish Seniorate Province at Kraków and thereby High Duke of Poland — a position he held until his death, though briefly interrupted by his elder brother and predecessor, Mieszko III.

---

05/05/0465

Gerontius, Archbishop of Milan

Gerontius was Archbishop of Milan from 462 to 465. He is honoured as a Saint in the Catholic Church and his feast day is 5 May.

---