Died on Thursday, 8th May – Famous Deaths

08/05/2025

Simon Mann, British military officer and mercenary (born 1952)

Simon Francis Mann was a British officer in the Special Air Service (SAS), and later a mercenary. He trained to be an officer at Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Scots Guards. He later became a member of the SAS, and on leaving the military, he co-founded Sandline International with fellow ex-Scots Guards colonel Tim Spicer in 1996. Sandline operated mostly in Angola and Sierra Leone, but public protests against a contract with the government of Papua New Guinea led to the resignation of the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, in what became known as the Sandline affair.

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08/05/2024

Chris Cannon, American politician (born 1950)

Christopher Black Cannon was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, for the Republican Party, representing the third district of Utah from 1997 to 2009.

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Jimmy Johnson, American football player (born 1938)

James Earl Johnson was an American professional football player who was a cornerback for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1961 to 1976. He was named to the first team on the NFL 1970s All-Decade Team, and in 1994, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

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Pete McCloskey, American politician (born 1927)

Paul Norton "Pete" McCloskey Jr. was an American politician who represented San Mateo County, California, as a Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1983.

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Ramón Fonseca Mora, Panamanian novelist and lawyer (born 1952)

Ramón Fonseca Mora was a Panamanian novelist, lawyer and co-founder of Mossack Fonseca, a former law firm based in Panama with more than 40 offices worldwide. He was minister-counselor of Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela, and president of the Panameñista Party until he was dismissed in March 2016, due to the Brazilian Operation Car Wash anti-corruption probe.

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08/05/2022

Robert Gillmor, British wildlife artist and illustrator (born 1936)

Robert Allen Fitzwilliam Gillmor MBE was a British ornithologist, artist, illustrator, author, and editor. He was a co-founder of the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) and was its secretary, chairman and president. He contributed to over 100 books, and received numerous awards.

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Dennis Waterman, English actor and singer (born 1948)

Dennis Waterman was an English actor and singer. He was best known for his tough-guy leading roles in television series including The Sweeney, Minder and New Tricks, singing the theme tunes of the latter two.

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08/05/2021

Helmut Jahn, German-American architect (born 1940)

Helmut Jahn was a German and American architect, known for projects such as the Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany; the Messeturm in Frankfurt, Germany; the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago; One Liberty Place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Suvarnabhumi Airport, in Bangkok, Thailand, among others.

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08/05/2019

Sprent Dabwido, President of Nauru from 2011 to 2013 (born 1972)

Sprent Arumogo Dabwido was a Nauruan politician who served as President of Nauru between 2011 and 2013, and was also a weightlifter. The son of a parliamentarian, Dabwido was originally elected to the Meneng Constituency in the Parliament of Nauru at the 2004 elections. Having served as Minister for Telecommunications in Marcus Stephen's government from 2009, Dabwido joined the Nauruan opposition faction in November 2011 after Stephen's resignation, and, having passed a motion of no confidence against interim president Freddie Pitcher, was elected president four days later. In his role as president, Dabwido functioned as chairman of the Cabinet of Nauru, and held various portfolios in the Nauruan government.

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08/05/2018

Big Bully Busick, American professional wrestler (born 1954)

Nicholas Busick was an American professional wrestler and police officer, better known by his ring name Big Bully Busick. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1991, where he portrayed a stereotypical bully from the 1920s with a "turtleneck, bowler hat and king-sized cigar". Busick is also known for his appearances with Georgia All-Star Wrestling (GAF) and the Global Wrestling Federation (GWF).

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Anne V. Coates, British film editor (Lawrence of Arabia, The Elephant Man, Erin Brockovich), Oscar winner (1963) (born 1925)

Anne Voase Coates was a British film editor with a more than 60-year-long career.

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08/05/2016

William Schallert, American actor; president (1979–81) of the Screen Actors Guild (born 1922)

William Joseph Schallert was an American character actor who appeared in dozens of television shows and films over a career spanning more than 60 years. He is known for his roles on Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957–1959), Death Valley Days (1955–1962), and The Patty Duke Show (1963–1966).

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08/05/2015

Zeki Alasya, Turkish actor and director (born 1943)

Zeki Alasya was a Turkish actor and film director. Alasya was of Turkish Cypriot descent and was related to Kıbrıslı Mehmed Kamil Pasha.

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Mwepu Ilunga, Congolese footballer (born 1949)

Joseph Mwepu Ilunga was a football defender from Zaire. His name is also written as Alunga Mwepu.

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Juan Schwanner, Hungarian-Chilean footballer and manager (born 1921)

Juan Schwanner, János Schwanner was a Hungarian–Chilean football player and manager.

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Atanas Semerdzhiev, Bulgarian soldier and politician, 1st Vice President of Bulgaria (born 1924)

Atanas Georgiev Semerdzhiev was a Bulgarian general, statesman and politician. He was a veteran of World War II, as he participated in the Partisan Movement in Bulgaria during 1942–1944. During the same period he became the commander of the Chepinets Partisan Brigade, as he fought against the Tsardom of Bulgaria and Nazi Germany. He is the longest-serving Chief of the General Staff of the Bulgarian People's Army (1962–1989), first deputy minister of defence (1966–1989), member of the Central Committee of the BKP (1962–1990) and the Supreme Council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (1990–1992), Minister of Interior (1989–1990), first vice president of Bulgaria (1990–1992) elected by the National Assembly. People's representative in the VII Supreme Court and V-IX Supreme Court. He is the author of memoirs and military-theoretical works.

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08/05/2014

Roger L. Easton, American scientist, co-invented the GPS (born 1921)

Roger Lee Easton Sr. was an American physicist and state representative who was the principal inventor and designer of the Global Positioning System, along with Ivan A. Getting and Bradford Parkinson.

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Nancy Malone, American actress, director, and producer (born 1935)

Nancy Malone was an American television actress from the 1950s to 1970s, who later moved into producing and directing in the 1980s and 1990s.

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Jair Rodrigues, Brazilian singer (born 1939)

Jair Rodrigues de Oliveira was a Brazilian musician and singer. He is the father of Luciana Mello and Jair Oliveira, who also followed in his footsteps and became musicians.

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Joseph P. Teasdale, American lawyer and politician, 48th Governor of Missouri (born 1936)

Joseph Patrick Teasdale was an American politician. A Democrat, he served as the 48th Governor of Missouri from 1977 to 1981. Teasdale was formerly a prosecutor for Jackson County, Missouri. In 1972, he made his first bid for governor, placing third in the Democratic primary, but attaining name recognition and the nickname "Walking Joe". In 1976, after initially running for U.S. Senate, Teasdale switched races and made a second bid for the Governor's office. He won the nomination and defeated incumbent Kit Bond in an upset. In 1980, Teasdale beat back a primary challenge from State Treasurer Jim Spainhower, but was defeated by Bond in a rematch. After leaving office, Teasdale returned to practicing law until his death.

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08/05/2013

Jeanne Cooper, American actress (born 1928)

Wilma Jeanne Cooper was an American actress, best known for her role as Katherine Chancellor on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless (1973–2013). At the time of her death, she had played Katherine for nearly 40 years, and her name appears on the list of longest-serving soap opera actors in the United States.

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Bryan Forbes, English actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1926)

Bryan Forbes born John Theobald Clarke; 22 July 1926 – 8 May 2013) was an English film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist described as a "Renaissance man" and "one of the most important figures in the British film industry".

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Juan José Muñoz, Argentinian businessman (born 1950)

Juan José Muñoz was an Argentine businessman. He was an advisor to the current Minister of Interior, Mr. Aníbal Fernández, during the period when the latter was a federal senator. Afterwards, he worked for the trade union that represents State Workers.

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Hugh J. Silverman, American philosopher and theorist (born 1945)

Hugh J. Silverman was an American philosopher and cultural theorist whose writing, lecturing, teaching, editing, and international conferencing participated in the development of a postmodern network. He was executive director of the International Association for Philosophy and Literature and professor of philosophy and comparative literary and cultural studies at Stony Brook University, where he was also affiliated with the Department of Art and the Department of European Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. He was program director for the Stony Brook Advanced Graduate Certificate in Art and Philosophy. He was also co-founder and co-director of the annual International Philosophical Seminar since 1991 in South Tyrol, Italy. From 1980 to 1986, he served as executive co-director of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. His work draws upon deconstruction, hermeneutics, semiotics, phenomenology, aesthetics, art theory, film theory, and the archeology of knowledge.

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08/05/2012

Maurice Sendak, American author and illustrator (born 1928)

Maurice Bernard Sendak was an American author and illustrator of children's books. Born to Polish-Jewish parents, his childhood was impacted by the death of many of his family members during the Holocaust. Sendak illustrated his own books as well as those by other authors, such as the Little Bear series by Else Holmelund Minarik. He achieved acclaim with Where the Wild Things Are (1963), the first of a trilogy followed by In the Night Kitchen (1970) and Outside Over There (1981). He also designed sets for operas, notably Mozart's The Magic Flute.

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Ampon Tangnoppakul, Thai criminal (born 1948)

Ampon Tangnoppakul, commonly known in Thai as Ah Kong or in English as Uncle SMS, was a Thai national accused of sending four Short Message Service (SMS) messages from his cell phones to Somkiat Khrongwatthanasuk, secretary of then Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva that were deemed offensive to the King and Queen of Thailand, as proscribed by section 112 of the Criminal Code of Thailand and the law on computer-related offences. Having been found guilty of four charges in November 2011, he was sentenced by the Criminal Court to four consecutive five-year terms, for a total of twenty years in prison. His death in prison during the first year of his sentence attracted national and international criticism, prompting a national discussion of Thailand's lèse majesté law.

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Roman Totenberg, Polish-American violinist and educator (born 1911)

Roman Totenberg was a Polish-American violinist and educator. A child prodigy, he lived in Poland, Moscow, Berlin, and Paris, before formally immigrating to the U.S. in 1938, at age 27. He performed and taught nationally and internationally throughout his life.

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08/05/2011

Lionel Rose, Australian boxer (born 1948)

Lionel Edmund Rose MBE was an Australian professional boxer who competed from 1964 to 1976. He held the undisputed WBA, WBC, and The Ring bantamweight titles from 1968 to 1969, becoming the first Indigenous Australian to win a world title. He later became the first Indigenous Australian to be named Australian of the Year.

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08/05/2009

Dom DiMaggio, American baseball player (born 1917)

Dominic Paul DiMaggio, nicknamed "the Little Professor", was an American Major League Baseball center fielder. He played his entire 11-year baseball career for the Boston Red Sox (1940–1953). DiMaggio was the youngest of three brothers who each became major league center fielders, the others being Joe and Vince.

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08/05/2008

Eddy Arnold, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (born 1918)

Richard Edward Arnold was an American country music singer. He was a Nashville sound innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more than 85 million records. A member of the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame, Arnold ranked 22nd on Country Music Television's 2003 list of "The 40 Greatest Men of Country Music."

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François Sterchele, Belgian footballer (born 1982)

François Sterchele was a Belgian professional footballer who played for Germinal Beerschot and Club Brugge. The striker was the top scorer of the Jupiler League in 2006–07. Sterchele died in a single-person car accident on 8 May 2008.

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08/05/2007

Philip R. Craig, American author and poet (born 1933)

Philip R. Craig was a writer known for his Martha's Vineyard mysteries.

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Carson Whitsett, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer (born 1945)

James Carson Whitsett was an American keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer.

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08/05/2006

Iain Macmillan, Scottish photographer and author (born 1938)

Iain Stewart Macmillan was the Scottish photographer famous for taking the cover photograph for the Beatles' album Abbey Road in 1969. He grew up in Scotland, then moved to London to become a professional photographer. He used a photo of Yoko Ono in a book that he published in 1966, and Ono invited him to photograph her exhibit at Indica Gallery. She introduced him to John Lennon, and Lennon invited him to photograph the cover for Abbey Road. He worked with Lennon and Ono for several years, staying for a while at their home in New York.

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08/05/2005

Jean Carrière, French author (born 1928)

Jean Carrière was a French writer.

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Nicolás Vuyovich, Argentinian race car driver (born 1981)

Nicolás Vuyovich was a sportscar driver from Argentina.

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08/05/2003

Elvira Pagã, Brazilian vedette, singer, and artist (born 1920)

Elvira Olivieri Cozzolino, better known by her stage name Elvira Pagã, was a Brazilian vedette, actress, singer, writer, and painter. She was the first Rio Carnival Queen, the first woman to wear a bikini in public, and one of the first women to undergo cosmetic surgery in Brazil. Talented and controversial, she defied the status quo and challenged prevailing machismo with fearless audacity during the Brazilian military dictatorship and the revolutionary 1960s. In her later years, Pagã withdrew from public life, devoting herself to writing and painting, and eventually died in seclusion.

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08/05/2000

Pita Amor, Mexican poet and author (born 1918)

Guadalupe Teresa Amor Schmidtlein, who wrote as Pita Amor, was a Mexican poet.

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Dédé Fortin, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1962)

André "Dédé" Fortin was a founding member, frontman, and guitarist of the Québécois band Les Colocs, formed in 1990.

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Henry Nicols, American activist (born 1973)

Henry Joseph Nicols was an American HIV/AIDS activist who became the first American student to intentionally disclose his HIV infection to his community in March 1991.

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08/05/1999

Dirk Bogarde, English actor and screenwriter (born 1921)

Sir Dirk Bogarde was an English actor, novelist and screenwriter. Initially a matinée idol in films such as Doctor in the House (1954) for the Rank Organisation, he later acted in art house films, evolving from "heartthrob to icon of edginess".

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Ed Gilbert, American actor (born 1931)

Ed Gilbert was an American actor, with extensive credits in both live-action roles and voice work in animation, although he was better known for the latter. He is also credited, under his birth name, with research in entomology and the discovery of new beetle species. He was known for voicing Baloo in TaleSpin.

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Dana Plato, American actress (born 1964)

Dana Michelle Plato was an American actress. She rose to fame for playing Kimberly Drummond on the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes (1978–1986), which established her as a teen idol of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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Soeman Hs, Indonesian author and educator (born 1904)

Soeman Hasibuan better known by his pen name Soeman Hs, was an Indonesian author recognized for pioneering detective fiction and short story writing in the country's literature. Born in Bengkalis, Riau, Dutch East Indies, to a family of farmers, Soeman studied to become a teacher and, under the author Mohammad Kasim, a writer. He began working as a Malay-language teacher after completing normal school in 1923, first in Siak Sri Indrapura, Aceh, then in Pasir Pengaraian, Rokan Hulu, Riau. Around this time he began writing, publishing his first novel, Kasih Tak Terlarai, in 1929. In twelve years he published five novels, one short story collection, and thirty-five short stories and poems.

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08/05/1998

Johannes Kotkas, Estonian wrestler (born 1915)

Johannes Kotkas was a heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler from Estonia who won a gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics. He held the European title in 1938, 1939 and 1947 and placed second at the 1953 world championships.

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Charles Rebozo, American banker and businessman (born 1912)

Charles Gregory "Bebe" Rebozo was an American Florida-based banker and businessman who was a close friend and confidant of President Richard Nixon.

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08/05/1996

Beryl Burton, English cyclist (born 1937)

Beryl Burton OBE was an English racing cyclist who dominated the women's sport, winning more than 90 domestic championships and seven world titles, and setting numerous national records. In 1967, she set a world record for the 12-hour time-trial which exceeded the men's record for two years.

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Luis Miguel Dominguín, Spanish bullfighter (born 1926)

Luis Miguel González Lucas, better known as Luis Miguel Dominguín, was a Spanish bullfighter. The son of the noteworthy bullfighter Domingo Dominguín, he adopted his father's pseudonymic last name to gain popularity.

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Larry Levis, American poet, author, and critic (born 1946)

Larry Patrick Levis was an American poet and teacher who published five books of poetry during his lifetime. Two more volumes of previously unpublished poems appeared posthumously, and received general acclaim.

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Garth Williams, American illustrator (born 1912)

Garth Montgomery Williams was an American artist who came to prominence in the American postwar era as an illustrator of children's books. Many of the books he illustrated have become classics of American children's literature.In Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, and in the Little House series of books of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Williams['s] drawings have become inseparable from how we think of those stories. In that respect ... Williams['s] work belongs in the same class as Sir John Tenniel's drawings for Alice in Wonderland, or Ernest Shepard's illustrations for Winnie the Pooh.

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08/05/1995

Teresa Teng, Taiwanese singer (born 1953)

Teng Li-Chun, also known as Teresa Teng, was a Taiwanese singer, television personality, musician, and philanthropist. Widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant figures in the Chinese-speaking world of the 20th century, she is considered to be one of the most successful and influential Asian musicians of all time. Her contributions to Chinese pop has given birth to the phrase, "Wherever there are Chinese-speaking people, there is music of Teresa Teng." A polyglot, Teng's music has transcended geographical, linguistic, and political boundaries across Asia for several decades.

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08/05/1994

George Peppard, American actor and producer (born 1928)

George Peppard was an American actor. He secured a major role as struggling writer Paul Varjak when he starred alongside Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and later portrayed a character based on Howard Hughes in The Carpetbaggers (1964). On television, he played the title role of millionaire insurance investigator and sleuth Thomas Banacek in the early-1970s mystery series Banacek. He played Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, the cigar-smoking leader of a renegade commando squad in the 1980s action television series The A-Team.

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08/05/1993

Avram Davidson, American soldier and author (born 1923)

Avram Davidson was an American writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche. He won a Hugo Award and three World Fantasy Awards in the science fiction and fantasy genres, a World Fantasy Life Achievement award, and an Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine short story award and an Edgar Award in the mystery genre. Davidson edited The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1962 to 1964. His last novel The Boss in the Wall: A Treatise on the House Devil was completed by Grania Davis and was a Nebula Award finalist in 1998. His posthumous collection The Avram Davidson Treasury won the Locus Award for Best Collection in 1999. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says "he is perhaps sf's most explicitly literary author".

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08/05/1992

Joyce Ricketts, American baseball player (born 1933)

Joyce Ricketts was a right fielder who played from 1953 through 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). She batted left-handed and threw right-handed.

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08/05/1991

Jean Langlais, French pianist and composer (born 1907)

Jean François-Hyacinthe Langlais III was a French composer of modern classical music, organist, and improviser. He described himself as "Breton, de foi Catholique".

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Rudolf Serkin, Czech-Austrian pianist and educator (born 1903)

Rudolf Serkin was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century.

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08/05/1990

Luigi Nono, Italian composer and educator (born 1924)

Luigi Nono was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music.

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08/05/1988

Robert A. Heinlein, American science fiction writer and screenwriter (born 1907)

Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction author, engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accuracy in his fiction and was thus a pioneer of the subgenre of hard science fiction. His published works, both fiction and non-fiction, express admiration for competence and emphasize the value of critical thinking. His plots often presented provocative situations which challenged conventional social mores. His work continues to have an influence on the science fiction genre and on modern culture more generally.

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08/05/1987

Doris Stokes, English psychic and author (born 1920)

Doris May Fisher Stokes, born Doris Sutton, was a British spiritualist, professional medium, and author. Her public performances, television appearances, and memoirs made her a household name in Britain. While some believed her to possess psychic abilities, investigations published after her death demonstrated that she used fraudulent techniques including cold reading, hot reading, and planting accomplices in her audience.

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08/05/1986

Ernle Bradford, English historian and author (born 1922)

Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford was a noted 20th-century British historian specializing in the Mediterranean world and naval topics. He was also an authority on antique jewellery and was the founder editor of the Antique Dealers and Collector's Guide.

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08/05/1985

Robert Halperin, American yachtsman (born 1908)

Robert Sherman "Bob" Halperin, nicknamed "Buck", was an American business executive, decorated WWII naval officer and Star class yacht racer, who became an Olympic bronze medalist and Pan American Games gold medalist in the sport in the 1960s. He is best known professionally as co-founder of Lands' End, and chairman of Chicago's Commercial Light Company, founded by his father. He had formerly been a college and National Football League (NFL) football quarterback for the Brooklyn Dodgers. As a Naval officer and beach reconnaissance scout who observed, maintained, and guided critical beach landings throughout WWII, he became one of Chicago's most-decorated veterans.

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Karl Marx, German conductor and composer (born 1897)

Karl Julius Marx was a German composer and music teacher.

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Theodore Sturgeon, American author and critic (born 1918)

Theodore Sturgeon was an American author of primarily fantasy, science fiction, and horror, as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 reviews and more than 120 short stories, 11 novels, and two scripts for Star Trek: The Original Series.

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Dolph Sweet, American actor (born 1920)

Adolphus Jean Sweet was an American actor credited with nearly 60 television and film roles and more than 50 roles in stage productions, including performances on Broadway. He often played policemen throughout his career, and may be best known for his portrayal of police chief and father Carl Kanisky on the sitcom Gimme a Break! from 1981 until his death in May 1985.

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08/05/1984

Lila Bell Wallace, American publisher, co-founded Reader's Digest (born 1890)

Lila Bell Wallace was an American magazine publisher and philanthropist. She co-founded Reader's Digest with her husband Dewitt Wallace, publishing the first issue in 1922.

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Gino Bianco, Italian-Brazilian race car driver (born 1916)

Luigi Emilio Rodolfo Bertetti Bianco, better known as Gino Bianco was a racing driver from Brazil. Born in Milan, Italy, he emigrated to Brazil as a child and started racing there. He raced a Maserati A6GCM for the Escuderia Bandeirantes team and took part in four Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, with a best result of 18th at the 1952 British Grand Prix. Bianco later raced in hillclimbs and died in Rio de Janeiro, aged 67, after suffering from breathing problems.

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08/05/1983

John Fante, American author and screenwriter (born 1909)

John Fante was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his semi-autobiographical novel Ask the Dust (1939) about the life of Arturo Bandini, a struggling writer in Depression-era Los Angeles. It is widely considered the great Los Angeles novel, and is one in a series of four, published between 1938 and 1985, that are now collectively called "The Bandini Quartet." Ask the Dust was adapted into a 2006 film starring Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek. Fante's published works while he lived included five novels, one novella, and a short story collection. Additional works, including two novels, two novellas, and two short story collections, were published posthumously. His screenwriting credits include, most notably, Full of Life, Jeanne Eagels (1957), and the 1962 films Walk on the Wild Side and The Reluctant Saint.

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08/05/1982

Neil Bogart, American record producer, co-founded Casablanca Records (born 1943)

Neil E. Bogart was an American record executive. He was the founder of Casablanca Records, which later became Casablanca Record and Filmworks.

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Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver (born 1950)

Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve was a Canadian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1977 to 1982. Villeneuve was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1979 with Ferrari, and won six Grands Prix across six seasons.

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08/05/1981

Uri Zvi Greenberg, Israeli poet and journalist (born 1896)

Uri Zvi Greenberg was an Israeli poet, journalist and politician who wrote in Yiddish and Hebrew.

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08/05/1980

Geoffrey Baker, English Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff of the British Army (born 1920)

Field Marshal Sir Geoffrey Harding Baker, was Chief of the General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, from 1968 to 1971. He served in the Second World War and became Director of Operations and Chief of Staff for the campaign against EOKA in Cyprus during the Cyprus Emergency and later in his career provided advice to the British Government on the deployment of troops to Northern Ireland at the start of the Troubles.

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08/05/1975

Avery Brundage, American businessman and art collector (born 1887)

Avery Brundage was the fifth president of the International Olympic Committee, serving from 1952 to 1972, the only American and first non-European to attain that position. Brundage is remembered as a zealous advocate of amateurism and for his involvement with the 1936 and 1972 Summer Olympics, both held in Germany.

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08/05/1972

Pandurang Vaman Kane, Indian Indologist and Sanskrit scholar, Bharat Ratna awardee (born 1880)

Pandurang Vaman Kane was an Indian academic, historian, lawyer, Indologist, and Sanskrit scholar. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award in 1963.

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Beatrice Helen Worsley, Mexican-Canadian computer scientist (born 1921)

Beatrice Helen Worsley, better known as "Trixie" Worsely, was a Canadian computer scientist, the first woman in the country to work in that profession. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge with Douglas Hartree as adviser, also with advice from Alan Turing, one of the earliest Ph.D.s to be granted in what would today be known as computer science, in parallel with David Wheeler's Ph.D. studies at Cambridge under Maurice Wilkes. She wrote the first program to run on EDSAC, co-wrote the first compiler for Toronto's Ferranti Mark 1, wrote numerous papers in computer science, and taught computers and engineering at Queen's University and the University of Toronto for over 20 years before her death at the early age of 50.

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08/05/1969

Remington Kellogg, American zoologist and paleontologist (born 1892)

Arthur Remington Kellogg was an American naturalist and a director of the United States National Museum. His work focused on marine mammals.

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08/05/1965

Wally Hardinge, English cricketer and footballer (born 1886)

Harold Thomas William Hardinge, known as Wally Hardinge, was an English professional sportsman who played both cricket and association football for England. His professional cricket career lasted from 1902 to 1933 during which he played first-class cricket for Kent County Cricket Club and made one Test match appearance for England. He was described as being "for years ... one of the leading opening batsmen in England".

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08/05/1960

J. H. C. Whitehead, Indian-English mathematician and academic (born 1904)

John Henry Constantine Whitehead FRS, known as "Henry", was a British mathematician and was one of the founders of homotopy theory. He was born in Chennai, in India, and died in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1960.

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08/05/1959

John Fraser, Canadian soccer player (born 1881)

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08/05/1952

William Fox, Austrian businessman, founded Fox Theatres (born 1879)

Vilmos Fried, known professionally as William Fox, was a Hungarian-American film industry executive who founded the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox West Coast Theatres chain in the 1920s. Although he lost control of his film businesses in 1930, his name was used by 20th Century Fox and continues to be used in the trademarks of the present-day Fox Corporation, including the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox News, Fox Sports, and Foxtel.

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08/05/1950

Vital Brazil, Brazilian physician and immunologist (born 1865)

Vital Brazil Mineiro da Campanha, known as Vital Brazil, was a Brazilian physician, biomedical scientist and immunologist, known for the discovery of the polyvalent anti-ophidic serum used to treat bites of venomous snakes of the Crotalus, Bothrops and Elaps genera. He went on to be also the first to develop anti-scorpion and anti-spider serums. He was the founder of the Butantan Institute, a research center located in São Paulo, which was the first in the world dedicated exclusively to basic and applied toxicology, the science of venomous animals.

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08/05/1948

U Saw, Burmese politician, Prime Minister of Burma (born 1900)

U Saw, also known as Galon U Saw, was a leading Burmese politician who served as Prime Minister of British Burma during the colonial era before the Second World War. He is also known for his role in the assassination of Burma's national hero Aung San and other independence leaders in July 1947, only months before Burma gained independence from Britain in January 1948. He and five others were executed by hanging for the assassination.

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08/05/1947

Harry Gordon Selfridge, American-English businessman, founded Selfridges (born 1858)

Harry Gordon Selfridge, Sr. was an American retail magnate who founded the London-based department store Selfridges. The early years of his leadership led to his becoming one of the wealthiest and most respected retail magnates in the United Kingdom. He was known as "the Earl of Oxford Street".

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08/05/1945

Frank Bourne, British soldier, last survivor of the Battle of Rorke's Drift (born 1854)

Lieutenant-Colonel Frank Edward Bourne OBE DCM was a decorated British soldier and the last living survivor of the defence of Rorke's Drift during the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War. He also served during World War I.

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Julius Hirsch, German footballer (born 1892)

Julius Hirsch was a German international footballer. A Jew, he was executed at Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust. He helped the Karlsruher FV win the 1910 German football championship, and also played for the Germany national team, including at the 1912 Summer Olympics. He then joined SpVgg Fürth, with whom he won the 1914 German football championship.

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Wilhelm Rediess, German SS officer (born 1900)

Friedrich Wilhelm Rediess was a German Nazi official who served as the SS and police leader during the German occupation of Norway in the Second World War. He was also the commander of all SS troops stationed in occupied Norway and assumed command from 22 June 1940 until his death by suicide in 1945.

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Bernhard Rust, German lieutenant and politician (born 1883)

Bernhard Rust was Minister of Science, Education and National Culture (Reichserziehungsminister) in Nazi Germany. A combination of school administrator and zealous Nazi, he issued decrees, often bizarre, at every level of the German educational system to immerse German youth in Nazi ideology. He also served as the party Gauleiter in Hanover and Brunswick from 1925 to 1940.

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Josef Terboven, German lieutenant and politician (born 1898)

Josef Antonius Heinrich Terboven was a German Nazi Party official and politician who was the long-serving Gauleiter of Gau Essen and the Reichskommissar for Norway during the German occupation.

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08/05/1944

Themistoklis Diakidis, Greek high jumper (born 1882)

Themistoklis Diakidis was a Greek track and field athlete who competed in the high jump.

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08/05/1943

Mordechai Anielewicz, Polish commander (born 1919)

Mordechai Anielewicz was the Polish leader of the Jewish Combat Organization during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; the largest Jewish resistance movement during the Second World War. Anielewicz inspired further rebellions in both ghettos and extermination camps with his leadership. His character was engraved as a symbol of courage and sacrifice, and was a major figure of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust.

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08/05/1942

Nikolai Reek, Estonian general and politician, 11th Estonian Minister of War (born 1890)

Nikolai Reek VR I/2, VR II/2, VR II/3 was the Estonian military commander during the Estonian War of Independence.

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08/05/1941

Natalie, queen consort of Serbia (born 1859)

Natalija Obrenović, née Keshko, known as Natalie of Serbia, was the Princess of Serbia from 1875 to 1882 and then Queen of Serbia from 1882 to 1889 as the wife of Milan I of Serbia, born in a old noble Moldavian family Kesco.

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Tore Svennberg, Swedish actor and director (born 1858)

Olof Teodor "Tore" Svennberg was a Swedish actor and theatre director whose career spanned more than five decades.

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08/05/1936

Oswald Spengler, German historian and philosopher (born 1880)

Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler was a German polymath whose areas of interest included history, philosophy, mathematics, science, and art, as well as their relation to his organic theory of history. He is best known for his two-volume work The Decline of the West, published in 1918 and 1922, covering human history. Spengler's model of history postulates that human cultures and civilizations are akin to biological entities, each with a limited, predictable, and deterministic lifespan. He predicted that Western civilization would enter the period of pre‑death emergency around the year 2000, which would lead to 200 years of Caesarism before Western civilization's final collapse.

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08/05/1925

John Beresford, Irish polo player (born 1847)

John Graham Hope Horsley de la Poer Beresford, 5th Baron Decies PC, styled The Hon. John Beresford until 1910, was an Anglo-Irish army officer, civil servant, and polo player in the 1900 Summer Olympics.

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08/05/1907

Edmund G. Ross, American soldier and politician, 13th Governor of New Mexico Territory (born 1826)

Edmund Gibson Ross was an American politician who represented Kansas after the American Civil War and was later the governor of New Mexico Territory. His vote against convicting President Andrew Johnson of "high crimes and misdemeanors" allowed Johnson to stay in office by the margin of one vote. As the seventh of seven Republican U.S. Senators to break with his party, he proved to be the person whose decision would result in conviction or acquittal. When he chose the latter, the vote of 35–19 in favor of Johnson's conviction failed to reach the required two-thirds vote. Ross lost his bid for re-election two years later.

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08/05/1903

Paul Gauguin, French painter and sculptor (born 1848)

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influential practitioner of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms. While only moderately successful during his lifetime, Gauguin has since been recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style that were distinct from Impressionism.

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08/05/1893

Manuel González Flores, Mexican general and president, 1880–1884 (born 1833)

José Manuel del Refugio González Flores was a Mexican general and liberal politician who served as the 35th President of Mexico from 1880 to 1884.

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08/05/1891

Helena Blavatsky, Russian-English mystic and author (born 1831)

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian and American mystic and writer who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an international following as the primary founder of Theosophy as a belief system.

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John Robertson, English-Australian politician, 5th Premier of New South Wales (born 1816)

Sir John Robertson was a London-born Australian politician and Premier of New South Wales on five occasions. Robertson is best remembered for land reform and in particular the Robertson Land Acts of 1861, which sought to open up the selection of Crown land and break the monopoly of the squatters.

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08/05/1880

Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (born 1821)

Gustave Flaubert was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realism strives for formal perfection, so the presentation of reality tends to be neutral, emphasizing the values and importance of style as an objective method of presenting reality". He is known especially for his debut novel Madame Bovary (1857), his Correspondence, and his scrupulous devotion to his style and aesthetics. The celebrated short story writer Guy de Maupassant was a protégé of Flaubert.

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08/05/1853

Jan Roothaan, Dutch priest, 21st Superior General of the Society of Jesus (born 1785)

Jan Philipp Roothaan, SJ was a Dutch Jesuit, elected twenty-first Superior-General of the Society of Jesus. Roothaan was a decisive figure in the reestablishment of the order after the Suppression of the Society of Jesus.

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08/05/1842

Jules Dumont d'Urville, French admiral and explorer (born 1790)

Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville was a French explorer and naval officer who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. As a botanist and cartographer, he gave his name to several seaweeds, plants and shrubs and to places such as d'Urville Island in New Zealand.

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08/05/1837

Alexander Balashov, Russian general and politician, Russian Minister of Police (born 1770)

Alexander Dmitriyevich Balashov was a Russian general and statesman.

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08/05/1828

Mauro Giuliani, Italian guitarist, cellist, and composer (born 1781)

Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani was an Italian guitarist, cellist, singer, and composer. He was a leading guitar virtuoso of the early 19th century. One of his best known works is his Grand Overture, which has become standard early Romantic classical guitar repertoire.

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08/05/1822

John Stark, American general (born 1728)

John Stark was an American military officer who served during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. A major general, he became known as the "Hero of Bennington" for his exemplary service at the Battle of Bennington in 1777.

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08/05/1819

Kamehameha I, king of the Hawaiian Islands (born 1738)

Kamehameha I, also known as Kamehameha the Great, was the conqueror and first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The state of Hawaii gave a statue of him to the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C., as one of two statues it is entitled to install there.

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08/05/1794

Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist and biologist (born 1743)

Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, also Antoine Lavoisier after the French Revolution, was a French nobleman and chemist who was central to the 18th-century chemical revolution and who had a large influence on both the history of chemistry and the history of biology.

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08/05/1788

Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, Italian physician and botanist (born 1723)

Giovanni Antonio Scopoli was an Italian medical doctor and naturalist. His biographer Otto Guglia named him the "first anational European" and the "Linnaeus of the Austrian Empire".

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08/05/1785

Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, French general and politician, Prime Minister of France (born 1719)

Lieutenant-General Étienne François de Choiseul, Duke of Choiseul, KOHS, OGF was a French Royal Army officer, diplomat and statesman. From 1758 to 1761 and again from 1766 to 1770, he served as Foreign Minister of France and had a strong influence on France's global strategy throughout the period. Choiseul is closely associated with France's defeat in the Seven Years' War and subsequent efforts to rebuild French prestige.

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Pietro Longhi, Italian painter (born 1701)

Pietro Longhi was a Venetian painter of contemporary genre scenes of life.

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08/05/1782

Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal, Portuguese politician, Prime Minister of Portugal (born 1699)

D. Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal and 1st Count of Oeiras, known as the Marquis of Pombal, was a Portuguese statesman and diplomat who despotically ruled the Portuguese Empire from 1750 to 1777 as chief minister to King Joseph I. A strong advocate for absolutism, and influenced by some of the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment, Pombal led Portugal's recovery from the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and reformed the kingdom's administrative, economic, and ecclesiastical institutions. During his lengthy ministerial career, Pombal accumulated and exercised autocratic power, curtailing individual liberties, suppressing political opposition, and fostering the Atlantic slave trade to Brazil. His cruel persecution of the Jesuits and Portuguese lower classes led him to be known as Nero of Trafaria, after a village he ordered to be burned with all its inhabitants inside, for refusing to follow his orders.

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08/05/1781

Richard Jago, English priest and poet (born 1715)

Richard Jago was an English clergyman poet and minor landscape gardener from Warwickshire. Although his writing was not highly regarded by contemporaries, some of it was sufficiently novel to have several imitators.

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08/05/1773

Ali Bey al-Kabir, Egyptian sultan (born 1728)

Ali Bey al-Kabir was a mamluk who served as shaykh al-balad of Ottoman Egypt in 1760–1766 and 1767–1772. He was effectively the strongman of Egypt and in 1769 practically pursued independence from the Ottomans, minting coins in his own name, terminating the annual tribute to Istanbul and launching conquests of the Hejaz and Syria in 1770–1771. His rule ended following the insubordination of his most trusted general, Abu al-Dahab, which led to Ali Bey's downfall and death.

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08/05/1766

Samuel Chandler, English minister and author (born 1693)

Samuel Chandler was an English Nonconformist minister and pamphleteer. He has been called the "uncrowned patriarch of Dissent" in the latter part of the reign of George II of Great Britain.

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08/05/1668

Catherine of St. Augustine, French-Canadian nun and saint (born 1632)

Mary Catherine of St. Augustine, OSA was a French canoness regular who was instrumental in the development of the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec in the colony of New France. She has been beatified by the Catholic Church.

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08/05/1551

Barbara Radziwiłł, queen of Poland (born 1520)

Barbara Radziwiłł was Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania as the second wife of Sigismund II Augustus, the last male monarch of the Jagiellon dynasty. Barbara, already widowed and considered a great beauty, became a royal mistress most likely in 1543 and married Sigismund in secret in July or August 1547. The marriage caused a scandal and was vehemently opposed by Polish nobles, including the queen mother, Bona Sforza.

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08/05/1538

Edward Foxe, English bishop and academic (born 1496)

Edward Foxe was an English churchman, Bishop of Hereford. He played a major role in Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and he assisted in drafting the Ten Articles of 1536.

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08/05/1473

John Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, English politician (born 1420)

John Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire KG, KB was an English nobleman, the youngest son of Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham. In 1461 he was appointed Knight of the Order of the Bath.

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08/05/1319

Haakon V, king of Norway (born 1270)

Haakon V Magnusson was King of Norway from 1299 until 1319.

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08/05/1278

Duan Zong, Chinese emperor (born 1269)

Emperor Duanzong of Song, personal name Zhao Shi, was the 17th emperor of the Song dynasty of China, and the eighth and penultimate emperor of the Southern Song dynasty. He was the fifth son of Emperor Duzong and an elder brother of his predecessor, Emperor Gong and successor Zhao Bing.

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08/05/1220

Rikissa of Denmark, queen of Sweden

Rikissa of Denmark was Queen of Sweden as the wife of King Erik Knutsson, and the mother of King Erik Eriksson.

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08/05/1192

Ottokar IV, duke of Styria (born 1163)

Ottokar IV, a member of the Otakar dynasty, was Margrave of Styria from 1164 and Duke from 1180, when Styria, previously a margraviate subordinated to the stem duchy of Bavaria, was raised to the status of an independent duchy.

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08/05/1157

Ahmed Sanjar, Seljuk sultan (born 1086)

Ahmad Sanjar was the Seljuq ruler of Khorasan from 1097 until 1118, when he became the Sultan of the Seljuq Empire, which he ruled until his death in 1157.

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08/05/0997

Tai Zong, Chinese emperor (born 939)

Zhao Jiong, known as Zhao Guangyi from 960 to 977 and Zhao Kuangyi before 960, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizong of Song, was the second emperor of the Song dynasty of China. He reigned from 976 to his death in 997. He was a younger brother of his predecessor Emperor Taizu, and the father of his successor Emperor Zhenzong.

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08/05/0685

Pope Benedict II

Pope Benedict II was the bishop of Rome from 26 June 684 to his death on 8 May 685. Pope Benedict II's feast day is 7 May.

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08/05/0615

Pope Boniface IV (born 550)

Pope Boniface IV was the bishop of Rome from 608 to his death on 8 May 615. He was a member of the Benedictine order. Boniface had served as a deacon under Pope Gregory I, and like his mentor, he ran the Lateran Palace as a monastery. As pope, he encouraged monasticism. With imperial permission, he converted the Pantheon into a church. In 610, he conferred with Bishop Mellitus of London regarding the needs of the English Church. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church with a universal feast day on 8 May.

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08/05/0535

Pope John II

Pope John II, born Mercurius, was the Bishop of Rome from 2 January 533 to his death on 8 May 535. As a priest at St. Clement's Basilica, he endowed that church with gifts and commissioned stone carvings for it. Mercurius became the first pope to adopt a new papal name upon his elevation to the office. During his pontificate, John II notably removed Bishop Contumeliosus of Riez from his office, convened a council on the readmission of Arian clergy, and approved an edict of emperor Justinian, promulgating doctrine opposed by his predecessor, Pope Hormisdas.

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