Died on Friday, 9th May – Famous Deaths

09/05/2024

Sean Burroughs, American baseball player (born 1980)

Sean Patrick Burroughs was an American professional baseball third baseman, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2002 to 2005 and 2011 to 2012 for the San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Minnesota Twins. He won a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

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Roger Corman, American film director, producer, and actor (born 1926)

Roger William Corman was an American film director, producer, and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", “King of the Beatnik Movies”, "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he was known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film.

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Rex Murphy, Canadian political commentator (born 1947)

Rex Murphy was a Canadian commentator and author, primarily on Canadian political and social matters. He was the regular host of CBC Radio One's Cross Country Checkup, a nationwide call-in show, for 21 years before stepping down in September 2015. He wrote for the National Post and had a YouTube channel called RexTV.

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09/05/2022

John Leo, American a writer and journalist (born 1935)

John Patrick Leo was an American writer and journalist. He was noted for authoring columns in the National Catholic Reporter and U.S. News & World Report, as well as for his reporting with The New York Times and Time magazine. He later became editor-in-chief of "Minding the Campus", a web site focusing on America's colleges and universities. After retiring from journalism, he joined the Manhattan Institute as a senior fellow in 2007.

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Rieko Kodama, Japanese game developer (born 1963)

Rieko Kodama , also known as Phoenix Rie, was a Japanese video game artist, director, and producer employed by Sega from 1984 until her death. She is primarily known for her work on role-playing video games including the original Phantasy Star series, the 7th Dragon series, and Skies of Arcadia (2000). She is often recognized as one of the first successful women in the video game industry.

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09/05/2020

Little Richard, American singer, songwriter, and pianist (born 1932)

Richard Wayne Penniman, better known by his stage name Little Richard, was an American singer-songwriter and pianist. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Referred to as the "Architect of Rock and Roll", Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding backbeat and powerful raspy vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. He influenced singers and musicians across musical genres and his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations.

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09/05/2019

Freddie Starr, English comedian, impressionist, singer and actor (born 1943)

Freddie Starr was an English stand up comedian, impressionist, singer and actor. Starr was the lead singer of Merseybeat rock and roll group the Midniters during the early 1960s, and came to prominence in the early 1970s after appearing on Opportunity Knocks and the Royal Variety Performance. In the 1990s, he starred in several television shows, including Freddie Starr (1993–1994), The Freddie Starr Show (1996–1998) and two episodes of An Audience with... in 1996 and 1997. In 1999, he presented the game show Beat the Crusher.

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09/05/2018

Per Kirkeby, Danish painter, poet, film maker and sculptor (born 1938)

Per Kirkeby was a Danish painter, poet, film maker and sculptor. His works have been exhibited worldwide and are represented in many important public collections, including the Tate, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and the Centre Pompidou.

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09/05/2017

Robert Miles, a Swiss-born Italian record producer, composer, musician and DJ (born 1969)

Roberto Concina, known professionally as Robert Miles, was an Italian record producer, composer, musician, and DJ. His 1995 composition "Children" sold more than five million copies and topped the charts worldwide.

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09/05/2015

Edward W. Estlow, American football player and journalist (born 1920)

Edward Walker Estlow was a journalist and businessman, best known as CEO at the E. W. Scripps Company from 1976 to 1985. The Edward W. and Charlotte A. Estlow International Center for Journalism and New Media at the University of Denver, and the Edward Estlow Printing Plant of the Denver Newspaper Agency, were both named after him. Estlow was also known as a college football player.

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Kenan Evren, Turkish general and politician, 7th President of Turkey (born 1917)

Ahmet Kenan Evren was a Turkish military officer who served as the 7th president of Turkey from 1982 to 1989. He assumed the post by leading the 1980 military coup.

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Elizabeth Wilson, American actress (born 1921)

Elizabeth Welter Wilson was an American actress whose career spanned nearly 60 years in film and television. In 1972 she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role in Sticks and Bones. Wilson was also a Primetime Emmy Award and BAFTA Award nominee, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2006.

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09/05/2014

Giacomo Bini, Italian priest and missionary (born 1938)

Giacomo Bini was a Franciscan priest. Ordained in 1964, he worked as a missionary in Africa, and was appointed Minister General of the Order of the Friars Minor (OFM) for the period 1997–2003. He was fluent in Italian, French, English, Spanish, and Kiswahili.

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Harlan Mathews, American lawyer and politician (born 1927)

Harlan Mathews was an American politician who was an appointed interim Democratic United States Senator from Tennessee from 1993 to 1994. He previously served in the executive and legislative branches of state government in Tennessee for more than 40 years beginning in 1950.

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Nedurumalli Janardhana Reddy, Indian politician, 12th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (born 1935)

Nedurumalli Janardhana Reddy was an Indian politician from Andhra Pradesh. A member of the Indian National Congress, he represented the Visakhapatnam constituency in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian legislature. From 1990 to 1992, he served as 12th chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. His wife, Nedurumalli Rajyalakshmi, was a minister in the Government of Andhra Pradesh between 2004 and 2014.

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Mary Stewart, British author and poet (born 1916)

Mary, Lady Stewart was a British novelist who developed the romantic mystery genre, featuring smart, adventurous heroines who could hold their own in dangerous situations. She also wrote children's books and poetry, but may be best known for her Merlin series, which straddles the boundary between the historical novel and fantasy.

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09/05/2013

Ramón Blanco Rodríguez, Spanish footballer and manager (born 1952)

Ramón Blanco Rodríguez was a Spanish football defensive midfielder and manager.

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George M. Leader, American soldier and politician, 36th Governor of Pennsylvania (born 1918)

George Michael Leader was an American politician. He served as the 36th governor of Pennsylvania from January 18, 1955, until January 20, 1959. He was a member of the Democratic Party, and a native of York County, Pennsylvania. He was the only person from that county ever to be elected governor of the state until the election of Tom Wolf in 2014.

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Humberto Lugo Gil, Mexican lawyer and politician, 23rd Governor of Hidalgo (born 1933)

Humberto Alejandro Lugo Gil was a Mexican politician from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He served in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate and as the interim governor of Hidalgo.

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Ottavio Missoni, Italian hurdler and fashion designer, founded Missoni (born 1921)

Ottavio Missoni was an Italian businessman, founder of the Italian fashion label Missoni and an Olympic hurdler who competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics. Along with his wife Rosita, he was part of the group of designers who launched Italian ready-to-wear in the 1950s, thereby ensuring the global success of Italian fashion.

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09/05/2012

Bertram Cohler, American psychologist, psychoanalyst, and academic (born 1938)

Bertram Joseph Cohler was an American psychologist, psychoanalyst, and educator primarily associated with the University of Chicago, the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, and Harvard University. He advocated a life course approach to understanding human experience and subjectivity, drawing on insights from psychoanalysis, developmental psychology, personology, psychological anthropology, narrative studies, and the interdisciplinary field of human development. Cohler authored or co-authored over 200 articles and books. He contributed to numerous scholarly fields, including the study of adversity, resilience and coping; mental illness and treatment; family and social relations in normal development and mental illness; and the study of personal narrative in social and historical context. He made particular contributions to the study of sexual identity over the life course, to the psychoanalytic understanding of homosexuality., and to the study of personal narratives of Holocaust survivors. Other than his graduate study at Harvard, Cohler spent his career at the University of Chicago and affiliated institutions, where he was repeatedly recognized as an educator and a builder of bridges across disciplines. He was treated for esophageal cancer in 2011, but became ill from a related pneumonia and died on 9 May 2012 not far from his home in Hyde Park, Chicago.

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Geoffrey Henry, Cook Islander lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of the Cook Islands (born 1940)

Sir Geoffrey Arama Henry was a Cook Island politician who was twice the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands. He was leader of the Cook Islands Party (CIP) from 1979 to 2006.

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Vidal Sassoon, English-American hairdresser and businessman (born 1928)

Vidal Sassoon was a British hairstylist and businessman. He was noted for repopularising a simple, close-cut geometric hairstyle called the five-point cut, worn by fashion designers including Mary Quant and film stars such as Mia Farrow, Goldie Hawn, Cameron Diaz, Nastassja Kinski and Helen Mirren.‍

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09/05/2011

Wouter Weylandt, Belgian cyclist (born 1984)

Wouter Weylandt was a Belgian professional cyclist for UCI ProTeam Quick-Step–Davitamon and later for Leopard Trek. His first major win was the 17th stage of the 2008 Vuelta a España. He also won the third stage of the 2010 Giro d'Italia. He died in a crash during the third stage of the 2011 Giro d'Italia.

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09/05/2010

Lena Horne, American singer, actress, and activist (born 1917)

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years and covered film, television and theater.

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Otakar Motejl, Czech lawyer and politician (born 1932)

Otakar Motejl was a Czech lawyer and politician. He served as the first ombudsman of the Czech Republic from 2000 until his death in 2010. In 1998–2000 he served as the Minister of Justice.

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09/05/2009

Chuck Daly, American basketball player and coach (born 1930)

Charles Jerome Daly was an American basketball head coach. He led the Detroit Pistons to two consecutive National Basketball Association (NBA) championships in 1989 and 1990—during the team's "Bad Boys" era—and the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team to the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics.

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09/05/2008

Jack Gibson, Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster (born 1929)

John Arthur Gibson OAM was an Australian rugby league coach, player, and commentator. He is widely considered one of the greatest coaches in the sport's history, Nicknamed 'Supercoach', he was highly regarded not only for his coaching record but also for his thirst for innovation.

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Baptiste Manzini, American football player (born 1920)

Baptiste John "Bap" Manzini was a professional American football center and high school football coach.

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Nuala O'Faolain, Irish journalist and producer (born 1942)

Nuala Brigid Anne O'Faolain was an Irish journalist and writer. Her debut memoir, Are You Somebody?, published when she was in her mid-fifties, became a sensation in Ireland and a worldwide bestseller.

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Pascal Sevran, French singer, television host, and author (born 1945)

Pascal Sevran was a French TV presenter and author.

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09/05/2007

Dwight Wilson, Canadian soldier (born 1901)

Percy "Dwight" Wilson was the second-last surviving Canadian veteran of the First World War.

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09/05/2004

Akhmad Kadyrov, Chechen cleric and politician, 1st President of the Chechen Republic (born 1951)

Akhmat-Khadzhi Abdulkhamidovich Kadyrov was a Russian politician and revolutionary who served as Chief Mufti of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in the 1990s during and after the First Chechen War. At the outbreak of the Second Chechen War he switched sides, offering his service to the Russian government, and later became the President of the Chechen Republic from 5 October 2003, having acted as head of administration since July 2000.

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Alan King, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (born 1927)

Alan King was an American comedian, actor and satirist known for his biting wit and often angry humorous rants. He was also a serious actor who appeared in a number of films and television shows. King wrote several books, produced films, and appeared in plays. In his later years, he helped many philanthropic causes.

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Brenda Fassie, South African singer (born 1964)

Brenda Nokuzola Fassie was a South African singer, songwriter, dancer and activist. Affectionately called MaBrrr by her fans, she is also known as the "Queen of African Pop" or the "Madonna of the Townships". Fassie was a legendary figure in South African music, celebrated for her powerful voice, captivating stage presence, and commitment to social justice, often called one of the most influential and greatest musicians on the African Continent. Despite her outrageous and controversial stage presence, her name, Nokuzola, means "quiet", "calm", or "peace".

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09/05/2003

Russell B. Long, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (born 1918)

Russell Billiu Long was an American Democratic politician and United States senator from Louisiana from 1948 until 1987. The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee from 1966 to 1981, Long was instrumental in the implementation of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty programs. Long also served as Assistant Majority Leader from 1965 to 1969.

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09/05/1998

Alice Faye, American actress and singer (born 1915)

Alice Faye was an American actress and singer. A musical star of 20th Century-Fox in the 1930s and 1940s, Faye starred in such films as On the Avenue (1937) and Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938). She is often associated with the Academy Award–winning standard "You'll Never Know", which she introduced in the 1943 musical film Hello, Frisco, Hello.

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Talat Mahmood, Indian singer and actor (born 1924)

Talat Mahmood was an Indian playback singer who is considered one of the greatest and most popular Indian male film song and ghazal singers. Although he tried his luck as a film actor, he did not succeed a great deal in acting.

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09/05/1997

Rawya Ateya, Egyptian captain and politician (born 1926)

Rawya Ateya[I] was an Egyptian woman who became the first female parliamentarian in the Arab world in 1957.

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Marco Ferreri, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1928)

Marco Ferreri was an Italian film director, screenwriter and actor, who began his career in the 1950s directing three films in Spain, followed by 24 Italian films before his death in 1997. He is considered one of the greatest European cinematic provocateurs of his time and had a constant presence in prestigious festival circuit - including eight films in competition in Cannes Film Festival and a Golden Bear win in 1991 Berlin Film Festival. Three of his films are among 100 films selected for preservation for their significant contribution to Italian cinema.

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09/05/1994

Elias Motsoaledi, South African activist (born 1924)

Elias Mathope Motsoaledi OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist. He was Accused No.9 in the Rivonia Trial and was sentenced to life imprisonment in July 1963 with a group of anti-Apartheid revolutionaries which included Nelson Mandela who was Accused No.1.

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09/05/1993

Penelope Gilliatt, English novelist, short story writer, and critic (born 1932)

Penelope Gilliatt was an English novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and film critic. As one of the main film critics for The New Yorker magazine in the 1960s and 1970s, Gilliatt was known for her detailed descriptions and evocative reviews. A writer of short stories, novels, non-fiction books, and screenplays, Gilliatt was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971).

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09/05/1989

Keith Whitley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1954)

Jackie Keith Whitley was an American country music and bluegrass singer and songwriter. During his career, he released only two albums, but charted 12 singles on the Billboard country charts, and seven more after his death.

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09/05/1987

Obafemi Awolowo, Nigerian lawyer and politician (born 1909)

Obafemi Jeremiah Oyeniyi Awolowo was a Nigerian politician and statesman who served as the first Premier of the Western region of Nigeria. He was known as one of the key figure towards Nigeria's independence movement from 1957 to 1960. Awolowo founded the Yoruba nationalist group Egbe Omo Oduduwa as well as the Premier of the Western Region under Nigeria's parliamentary system from 1952 to 1959. He was the official opposition leader in the federal parliament to the Balewa government from 1959 to 1963.

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09/05/1986

Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese mountaineer (born 1914)

Tenzing Norgay, born Namgyal Wangdi, and also referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepalese-Indian Sherpa mountaineer. On 29 May 1953, he and Edmund Hillary were the first confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest, as part of the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition. Time named Norgay one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

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09/05/1985

Edmond O'Brien, American actor and director (born 1915)

Eamon Joseph O'Brien, known professionally as Edmond O'Brien, was an American actor of stage, screen, and television, and film director. His career spanned almost 40 years, and he won one Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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09/05/1983

Henry Bachtold, Australian soldier and railway engineer (born 1891)

Brigadier Henry Bachtold, was an Australian soldier and railway engineer. He fought during the First World War as an engineer with the 1st Field Company at the Gallipoli Campaign, where he was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Military Cross. He commanded the 14th Field Company at the Battle of Polygon Wood, for which he was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order. Bachtold commanded the engineers of the 5th Australian Division in 1917–18 and the engineers of the 3rd Australian Division in 1918. He was mentioned in despatches four times during the First World War and ended the war as a lieutenant colonel. During 1942 and 1943, Bachtold was the Chief Engineer of II Corps, after which he was placed in reserve with the honorary rank of brigadier. Bachtold retired from the Department of Railways New South Wales in 1962 and died on 9 May 1983.

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09/05/1981

Nelson Algren, American novelist and short story writer (born 1909)

Nelson Algren was an American writer. His 1949 novel The Man with the Golden Arm won the National Book Award and was adapted as the 1955 film of the same name.

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Rolf Just Nilsen, Norwegian singer and actor (born 1931)

Rolf Just Nilsen was a Norwegian singer, impressionist and actor. He was particularly known for his imitations of famous comedians at the time. He worked for the theatres Studioteatret, Chat Noir, Edderkoppen Theatre, Oslo Nye Teater and Det Norske Teatret, and for radio and television.

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09/05/1980

Kate Molale, South African activist (born 1928)

Kate Molale OMSS was a South African political activist, between 1970 and 1975 she represented the ANC Women's League/Women's Section in the Women's International Democratic Federation.

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09/05/1979

Cyrus S. Eaton, Canadian-American banker, businessman, and philanthropist (born 1883)

Cyrus Stephen Eaton Sr. was a Canadian-American investment banker, businessman and philanthropist, with a career that spanned 70 years.

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Eddie Jefferson, American singer and lyricist (born 1918)

Eddie Jefferson was an American jazz vocalist and lyricist. He is credited as an innovator of vocalese, a musical style in which lyrics are set to an instrumental composition or solo. Jefferson himself claims that his main influence was Leo Watson. Perhaps Jefferson's best-known song is "Moody's Mood for Love" which was recorded in 1952 by King Pleasure and catapulted the contrafact into wide popularity. Jefferson's recordings of Charlie Parker's "Parker's Mood" and Horace Silver's "Filthy McNasty" were also hits.

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09/05/1978

Giuseppe Impastato, Italian journalist and activist (born 1948)

Giuseppe "Peppino" Impastato, was an Italian political activist who opposed the Mafia, which ordered his murder in 1978.

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Aldo Moro, Italian lawyer and politician, 38th Prime Minister of Italy (born 1916)

Aldo Moro was an Italian statesman and prominent member of Christian Democracy (DC) and its centre-left wing. He served as prime minister of Italy for five terms from December 1963 to June 1968 and from November 1974 to July 1976.

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09/05/1977

James Jones, American novelist (born 1921)

James Ramon Jones was an American novelist renowned for his explorations of World War II and its aftermath. He won the 1952 National Book Award for his debut novel, From Here to Eternity, which was adapted for film a year later and made into a television series a generation later.

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09/05/1976

Jens Bjørneboe, Norwegian author, poet, and playwright (born 1920)

Jens Ingvald Bjørneboe was a Norwegian writer whose work spanned a number of literary formats. He was also a painter and a Waldorf school teacher. Bjørneboe was a harsh and eloquent critic of Norwegian society and Western civilization as a whole. He led a turbulent life and his uncompromising opinions cost him both an obscenity conviction as well as long periods of heavy drinking and bouts of depression, which in the end led to his suicide.

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Ulrike Meinhof, German militant, co-founded the Red Army Faction (born 1934)

Ulrike Marie Meinhof was a German left-wing militant, journalist and founding member of the Red Army Faction (RAF) in West Germany, commonly referred to in the press as the "Baader-Meinhof gang". She is the reputed author of The Urban Guerilla Concept (1971). The manifesto acknowledges the RAF's "roots in the history of the student movement"; condemns "reformism" as "a brake on the anti-capitalist struggle"; and invokes Mao Zedong to define "armed struggle" as "the highest form of Marxism-Leninism".

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09/05/1970

Walter Reuther, American union leader (born 1907)

Walter Philip Reuther was an American leader of organized labor and civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. He considered labor movements not as narrow special interest groups but as instruments to advance social justice and human rights in democratic societies. He leveraged the UAW's resources and influence to advocate for workers' rights, civil rights, women's rights, universal health care, public education, affordable housing, environmental stewardship, profit-sharing for employees, and nuclear nonproliferation around the world. He believed in Swedish-style social democracy and societal change through nonviolent civil disobedience. He cofounded the AFL-CIO in 1955 with George Meany. He survived two attempted assassinations, including one at home where he was struck by a 12-gauge shotgun blast fired through his kitchen window. He was the fourth and longest serving president of the UAW, serving from 1946 until his death in 1970.

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09/05/1968

Mercedes de Acosta, American author, poet, and playwright (born 1893)

Mercedes de Acosta was an American poet, playwright, and novelist. Although she failed to achieve artistic and professional distinction, de Acosta is known for her many lesbian affairs with celebrated Broadway and Hollywood personalities including Alla Nazimova, Isadora Duncan, Eva Le Gallienne, and Marlene Dietrich. Her best-known involvement was with Greta Garbo with whom, in 1931, she began a sporadic and volatile romance. Her 1960 memoir, Here Lies the Heart, is considered part of gay history insofar that it hints at the lesbian element in some of her relationships.

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Harold Gray, American cartoonist, created Little Orphan Annie (born 1894)

Harold Lincoln Gray was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the newspaper comic strip Little Orphan Annie.

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Marion Lorne, American actress (born 1883)

Marion Lorne MacDougal or MacDougall, known professionally as Marion Lorne, was an American actress on stage, film, and television. After a career in theatre in New York and London, Lorne made her first film in 1951, and for the remainder of her life played small roles in films and television. Her recurring role as Aunt Clara in the comedy series Bewitched, between 1964 and her death in 1968, brought her widespread recognition, and she was posthumously awarded an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

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Finlay Currie, British actor (born 1878)

William Finlay Currie was a Scottish actor of stage, screen, and television. He received great acclaim for his roles as Abel Magwitch in the British film Great Expectations (1946), as Saint Peter in Quo Vadis (1951) and as Balthazar in the American film Ben-Hur (1959).

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09/05/1965

Leopold Figl, Austrian engineer and politician, 18th Chancellor of Austria (born 1902)

Leopold Figl was an Austrian politician of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the first Chancellor after World War II. As foreign minister, he subsequently took part in the negotiations on the Austrian State Treaty, which he signed in 1955.

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09/05/1959

Bhaurao Patil, Indian activist and educator (born 1887)

Bhaurao Patil, was a social activist and educator in Maharashtra, India. A strong advocate of mass education, he founded the Rayat Education Society. Bhaurao played an important role in educating backward castes and low income people by coining the philosophy earn and learn. He was a prominent member of Satyashodhak Samaj, founded by Mahatma Jyotirao Phule. The people of Maharashtra honoured him with the sobriquet Karmaveer and the Government of India awarded him with Padma Bhushan in 1959 in India.

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09/05/1957

Ernest de Silva, Sri Lankan banker and businessman (born 1887)

Sir Albert Ernest de Silva was a Ceylonese business magnate, banker, barrister and public figure, considered to be the most prominent Ceylonese philanthropist of the 20th century. A wealthy and influential polymath, he was the founder-chairman of the largest bank in Ceylon, the Bank of Ceylon, the founder-governor of the State Mortgage Bank and chairman of the Ceylon All-Party committee. He made many contributions to Ceylonese society and is also considered to be the preeminent philatelist in the history of Ceylon. Upon Ceylon's independence, he was asked to become the first Ceylonese Governor General, an honour he declined for personal reasons. De Silva was at the pinnacle of upper-class society and, as the wealthiest Ceylonese of his generation, he defined the island's ruling class. His memorials describe him as highly respected for his integrity and honesty.

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Ezio Pinza, Italian actor and singer (born 1892)

Ezio Fortunato Pinza was an Italian opera singer. Pinza possessed a rich, smooth and sonorous voice, with a flexibility unusual for a bass. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 performances of 50 operas. At the San Francisco Opera, Pinza sang 26 roles during 20 seasons from 1927 to 1948. Pinza also sang to great acclaim at La Scala, Milan, and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.

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09/05/1950

Esteban Terradas i Illa, Spanish mathematician and engineer (born 1883)

Esteban Terrades i Illa also known as Esteve Terradas, was a Spanish mathematician, scientist and engineer. He researched and taught widely in the fields of mathematics and the physical sciences, working not only in his native Catalonia, but also in the rest of Spain and in South America. He was also active as a consultant in the Spanish aeronautics, electric power, telephone and railway industries.

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09/05/1949

Louis II, Prince of Monaco (born 1870)

Louis II was Prince of Monaco from 26 June 1922 to 9 May 1949.

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09/05/1944

Han Yong-un, Korean poet and social reformer (born 1879)

Han Yong-un was a twentieth century Korean Buddhist reformer, poet, and independence activist against colonial rule. This name was his religious name, given by his meditation instructor in 1905, and Manhae (만해) was his art name; his birth name was Han Yu-cheon.

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09/05/1942

Józef Cebula, Polish priest and saint (born 1902)

Józef Cebula was a Polish priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI).

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09/05/1938

Thomas B. Thrige, Danish businessman (born 1866)

Thomas Barfoed Thrige was a Danish entrepreneur, industrialist and businessman. In 1894, he started the company Thomas B. Thrige, a manufacturer of electric motors, now known as T-T Electric. The power station of his factory in Odense is now the Thriges Kraftcentral museum run by Odense City Museums.

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09/05/1935

Ernst Bresslau, German zoologist (born 1877)

Ernst Ludwig Bresslau was a German zoologist. He was the son of historian Harry Bresslau.

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09/05/1933

John Arthur Jarvis, English swimmer (born 1872)

John Arthur Jarvis was an English competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in three Olympic Games, and was a well-known amateur athlete of the late 19th century and early 20th century. He participated in Swimming at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris and won two gold medals in the 1000-metre and the 4000-metre freestyle events. He also won a gold medal in the water polo tournament.

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09/05/1931

Albert Abraham Michelson, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1852)

Albert Abraham Michelson was an American experimental physicist known for his work on measuring the speed of light and especially for the Michelson–Morley experiment. In 1907, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, becoming the first American to win the Nobel Prize in a science. He was the founder and the first head of the physics departments of the Case School of Applied Science and the University of Chicago.

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09/05/1918

George Coșbuc, Romanian journalist and poet (born 1866)

George Coșbuc was a Romanian poet, translator, teacher, and journalist, best remembered for his verses describing, praising and eulogizing rural life, its many travails but also its occasions for joy. In 1916 he was elected titular member of the Romanian Academy.

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09/05/1915

François Faber, Luxembourgian-French cyclist and soldier (born 1887)

François Faber was a Luxembourgish racing cyclist. He was born in France. He was the first foreigner to win the Tour de France in 1909, and his record of winning 5 consecutive stages still stands. He died in World War I while fighting for France. Faber was known for his long solos; he is the only rider in Tour de France history to lead solo more than 1000 km.

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Anthony Wilding, New Zealand tennis player and cricketer (born 1883)

Anthony Frederick Wilding, also known as Tony Wilding, was a New Zealand world No. 1 tennis player and soldier who was killed in action during World War I. Considered the world's first tennis superstar, Wilding was the son of wealthy English immigrants to Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand and enjoyed the use of private tennis courts at their home. Wilding obtained a legal education at Trinity College, Cambridge and briefly joined his father's law firm. Wilding was a first-class cricketer and a keen motorcycle enthusiast. His tennis career started with him winning the Canterbury Championships aged 17.

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09/05/1914

C. W. Post, American businessman, founded Post Foods (born 1854)

Charles William Post was an American businessman. He was the founder of what became Post Consumer Brands.

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09/05/1911

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, American abolitionist (born 1823)

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who went by the name Wentworth, was an American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, politician, and soldier. He was active in abolitionism in the United States during the 1840s and 1850s, identifying himself with disunion and militant abolitionism. He was a member of the Secret Six who supported John Brown. During the Civil War, from 1862 to 1864, he served as colonel of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, the first federally authorized black regiment. Following the war, he wrote Army Life in a Black Regiment and devoted much of the rest of his life to fighting for the rights of freed people, women, and other disfranchised people. He is also remembered as a mentor to poet Emily Dickinson.

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09/05/1906

Oscar von Gebhardt, German theologian and academic (born 1844)

Oscar Leopold von Gebhardt was a German Lutheran theologian, born in the Baltic German settlement of Wesenberg in the Russian Empire.

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09/05/1889

William S. Harney, American general (born 1800)

William Selby Harney, otherwise known among the Lakota as "Woman Killer" and "Mad Bear," was an American cavalry officer in the US Army, who became known during the Indian Wars and the Mexican–American War for his brutality and ruthlessness. During his service, Harney personally beat an enslaved mother to death, massacred Native American women and children, and killed dogs.

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09/05/1864

John Sedgwick, American general and educator (born 1813)

John Sedgwick was an American military officer who served as a Union Army general during the American Civil War.

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09/05/1861

Ernst von Lasaulx, German philologist and politician (born 1805)

Peter Ernst von Lasaulx, known as Ernst von Lasaulx was a German philologist and politician.

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09/05/1850

Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, French chemist and physicist (born 1778)

Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac was a French chemist and physicist. He is known mostly for his discovery that water is made of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen by volume, for two laws related to gases, and for his work on alcohol–water mixtures, which led to the degrees Gay-Lussac used to measure alcoholic beverages in many countries.

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Garlieb Merkel, Baltic German author and activist (born 1769)

Garlieb Helwig Merkel was a Baltic German writer and activist and an early Estophile and Lettophile.

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09/05/1805

Friedrich Schiller, German poet, playwright, and historian (born 1759)

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered to be one of Germany's most important classical playwrights.

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09/05/1791

Francis Hopkinson, American judge and politician (born 1737)

Francis Hopkinson was an American Founding Father, lawyer, jurist, author, and composer. He designed Continental paper money and two early versions of flags, one for the United States and one for the United States Navy. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776 as a delegate from New Jersey.

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09/05/1790

William Clingan, American politician (born 1721)

William Clingan was a Founding Father of the United States, lawyer, and jurist. As a delegate in the Continental Congress for Pennsylvania from 1777 to 1779, he signed the Articles of Confederation. Upon his death he was buried in the Upper Octorara Church Cemetery in Parkesburg, Pennsylvania.

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09/05/1789

Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French general and engineer (born 1715)

Lieutenant General Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval was a French artillery officer and engineer who revolutionised the French cannon, creating a new production system that allowed for lighter, more uniform guns without sacrificing range. His Gribeauval system superseded the de Vallière system. These guns proved essential to French military victories during the Napoleonic Wars. Gribeauval is credited as the earliest known advocate for the interchangeability of gun parts. He is thus one of the principal influences on the later development of interchangeable manufacture.

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09/05/1760

Nicolaus Zinzendorf, German bishop and saint (born 1700)

Nikolaus Ludwig, Reichsgraf von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf was a German religious and social reformer, bishop of the Moravian Church, founder of the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine, Christian mission pioneer and a major figure of 18th-century Protestantism.

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09/05/1747

John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair, Scottish field marshal and diplomat, British Ambassador to France (born 1673)

Field Marshal John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair, was a British army officer and diplomat who served as the British ambassador to France from 1714 to 1720. He served in the Nine Years' War, War of the Spanish Succession and War of the Austrian Succession.

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09/05/1745

Tomaso Antonio Vitali, Italian violinist and composer (born 1663)

Tomaso Antonio Vitali was an Italian composer and violinist of the mid to late Baroque era. The eldest son of Giovanni Battista Vitali, he is chiefly known for a Chaconne in G minor for violin and continuo, to which he is traditionally attributed as the composer. The earliest known source for Vitali's Chaconne is a manuscript housed in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek Dresden with the shelfmark Mus. 2037/R/1. The work's wide-ranging modulations into distant keys have raised speculation that it could not be a genuine Baroque work, while the lack of similarities to other works by Vitali have made modern scholars cast serious doubts on the attribution.

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09/05/1736

Diogo de Mendonça Corte-Real, Portuguese judge and politician (born 1658)

Diogo de Mendonça Corte-Real was an accomplished Portuguese diplomat and statesman, and Secretary of State to King Peter II and John V.

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09/05/1707

Dieterich Buxtehude, German-Danish organist and composer (born 1637)

Dieterich Buxtehude was a Danish composer and organist of the middle Baroque era, whose works are typical of the North German organ school. As a composer who worked in various vocal and instrumental idioms, Buxtehude's style greatly influenced other composers, such as Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Buxtehude is considered one of the most important composers of the 17th century.

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09/05/1657

William Bradford, English-American politician, 2nd Governor of Plymouth Colony (born 1590)

William Bradford was an English Pilgrim Separatist originally from the West Riding of Yorkshire in Northern England. He moved to Leiden in the Dutch Republic in order to escape persecution from King James I of England, and then emigrated to the Plymouth Colony on the Mayflower in 1620. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact and went on to serve as Governor of the Plymouth Colony intermittently for about 30 years between 1621 and 1657. He served as a commissioner of the United Colonies of New England on multiple occasions and served twice as president. His journal Of Plymouth Plantation covered the years from 1620 to 1646 in Plymouth.

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09/05/1590

Charles de Bourbon French cardinal and pretender to the throne (born 1523)

Charles de Bourbon, known as the Cardinal de Bourbon, was a French noble and prelate. He was the Archbishop of Rouen from 1550 and the Catholic Ligue candidate for King of France from 1589.

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09/05/1446

Mary of Enghien (born 1368)

Mary of Enghien, also known as Maria d'Enghien, was ruling Countess of Lecce from 1384 to 1446 and Queen of Naples and titular Queen of Sicily, Jerusalem and Hungary from 1406 to 1414 by marriage to Ladislaus of Naples.

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09/05/1443

Niccolò Albergati, Italian Cardinal and diplomat (born 1373)

Niccolò Albergati was an Italian Carthusian and a prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was appointed cardinal and served as a papal diplomat to France and England (1422–23) in addition to serving as the bishop of Bologna from 1417 until his death.

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09/05/1329

John Drokensford, Bishop of Bath and Wells

John Droxford, was a Bishop of Bath and Wells. He was elected 5 February 1309 and consecrated 9 November 1309.

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09/05/1315

Hugh V, Duke of Burgundy (born 1282)

Hugh V was Duke of Burgundy between 1306 and 1315.

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09/05/1280

Magnus VI of Norway

Magnus the Lawmender, also known as Magnus Haakonsson, was King of Norway from 1263 to 1280. One of his greatest achievements was the modernisation and nationalisation of the Norwegian law-code. He was the first Norwegian monarch known to have used an ordinal number, counting himself as Magnus IV. In modern sources, he is also known as Magnus VI.

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09/05/0934

Wang Sitong, Chinese general and governor (born 892)

Wang Sitong was a general of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Later Tang (and Later Tang's predecessor state Jin. In 934, when Li Congke, the adoptive brother of then-reigning emperor Li Conghou, rebelled against Li Conghou, Wang was put in command of the army against Li Congke, and was soon defeated and executed without Li Congke's approval.

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09/05/0909

Adalgar, archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen

Adalgar, venerated as Saint Adalgar, was the third archbishop of Bremen from 888 until his death. Adalgar is revered as a saint in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. His feast day is 29 April.

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09/05/0893

Shi Pu, warlord of the Tang Dynasty

Shi Pu (時溥), formally the Prince of Julu (鉅鹿王), was a warlord of the late Tang dynasty, who controlled Ganhua Circuit as its military governor (Jiedushi). He was eventually defeated by Zhu Quanzhong's general Pang Shigu (龐師古), and committed suicide with his family.

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09/05/0729

Osric, king of Northumbria

Osric was king of Northumbria from the death of Coenred in 718 until his death on 9 May 729. Symeon of Durham calls him a son of Aldfrith of Northumbria, which would make him a brother, or perhaps a half-brother, of Osred. Alternatively, he may have been a son of King Eahlfrith of Deira, and thus a first cousin of Osred.

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09/05/0480

Julius Nepos, Western Roman Emperor

Julius Nepos, or simply Nepos, ruled as Roman emperor of the West from 24 June 474 to 28 August 475. After losing power in Italy, Nepos retreated to his home province of Dalmatia, from which he continued to claim the western imperial title, with recognition from the Eastern Roman Empire, until he was murdered in 480. Though Nepos's successor in Italy, Romulus Augustulus, is traditionally deemed the last western Roman emperor, Nepos is regarded by some historians as the true last emperor of the west, being the last widely recognised holder of the position.

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