Died on Sunday, 12th October – Famous Deaths

12/10/2025

Jackie Burch, American casting director (born 1951)

Jackie Burch was an American casting director of film and television.

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12/10/2024

Jackmaster, Scottish DJ and record producer (born 1986)

Jack Revill, better known as Jackmaster, was a Scottish DJ and record producer. He co-founded the Glasgow-based record label and club night Numbers as well as Wireblock, Dress 2 Sweat, Point.One Recordings, Seldom Felt and TDSR.

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Ka, American rapper (born 1972)

Kaseem Ryan, better known by his stage name Ka, was an American rapper, producer, and firefighter from Brooklyn, New York City. His solo work achieved critical acclaim, and he was often noted for his focused concept albums, skilled lyricism, and hushed vocal delivery.

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Lilly Ledbetter, American activist (born 1938)

Lilly Lynn McDaniel Ledbetter was an American activist who was the plaintiff in the United States Supreme Court case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. regarding employment discrimination. Two years after the Supreme Court decided that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not allow employers to be sued for pay discrimination more than 180 days after an employee's first paycheck, the United States Congress passed a fair pay act in her name to remedy this issue, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. Subsequently, she became a women's equality activist, public speaker, and author. In 2011, Ledbetter was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

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Tito Mboweni, South African politician (born 1959)

Tito Titus Mboweni was a South African politician who served as Minister of Finance of South Africa in the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa from 2018 to 2021.

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Alvin Rakoff, Canadian film and television director (born 1927)

Alvin Rakoff was a Canadian director of film, television and theatre productions. He worked with actors including Laurence Olivier, Peter Sellers, Sean Connery, Judi Dench, Rex Harrison, Rod Steiger, Henry Fonda and Ava Gardner.

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Alex Salmond, Scottish economist and politician, First Minister of Scotland (born 1954)

Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond was a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure in the Scottish nationalist movement, he was Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) on two occasions, from 1990 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2014. He then served as leader of the Alba Party from 2021 until his death in 2024.

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Baba Siddique, Indian politician (born 1958)

Baba Ziauddin Siddique was an Indian politician who was a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the state of Maharashtra for the Vandre West Assembly constituency. He was the MLA for three consecutive terms in 1999, 2004 and 2009, and had also served as Minister of State for Food & Civil Supplies (FDA) and Labour under Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh between 2004 and 2008.

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12/10/2023

Luis Garavito, Colombian serial killer (born 1957)

Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos, also known as La Bestia or Tribilín ("Goofy"), was a Colombian serial killer, sex offender, pedophile, and necrophile who sexually assaulted 200 victims before murdering 193 victims, mostly young men and boys from 1992 to 1999 in western Colombia.

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12/10/2020

Conchata Ferrell, American actress (born 1943)

Conchata Galen Ferrell was an American actress. She played Berta the housekeeper on the sitcom Two and a Half Men from 2003 to 2015, and she received two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the role. Ferrell had previously been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in L.A. Law.

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Roberta McCain, American socialite and oil heiress (born 1912)

Roberta Wright McCain was an American socialite and oil heiress. She was the wife of Admiral John S. McCain Jr., with whom she had three children including U.S. Senator John S. McCain III and stage actor and journalist Joe McCain. McCain was active in the Navy Wives Clubs and her Capitol Hill home was a popular salon for lawmakers and politicians. In 2007 and 2008, she actively campaigned in support of her son John during his presidential bid.

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12/10/2017

Margarita D'Amico, Venezuelan journalist (born 1938)

Margarita D'Amico was a Venezuelan journalist, researcher, and professor who made a substantial impact on art criticism and cultural journalism in Venezuela.

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12/10/2015

Abdallah Kigoda, Tanzanian politician, 8th Tanzanian Minister of Industry and Trade (born 1953)

Abdallah Omar Kigoda was a Tanzanian CCM politician and Member of Parliament for Handeni constituency from 1995 to 2015. He served as Minister of Industry and Trade from 1996 to 1997 and from 2012 to 2015, as Minister of Energy and Minerals from 1997 to 2000, and as Minister of State in the President's Office for Planning and Privatisation from 2000 to 2005.

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Joan Leslie, American actress, dancer, and vaudevillian (born 1925)

Joan Leslie was an American actress and vaudevillian, who during the Hollywood Golden Age, appeared in films such as High Sierra (1941), Sergeant York (1941) and Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).

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12/10/2014

Ali Mazrui, Kenyan-American political scientist, philosopher, and academic (born 1933)

Ali Al'amin Mazrui, was a Kenyan-born American academic, professor, and political writer on African and Islamic studies, and North-South relations. He was born in Mombasa, Kenya. His positions included Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York, and Director of the Center for Afro-American and African Studies at the University of Michigan. He produced the 1980s television documentary series The Africans: A Triple Heritage.

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Graham Miles, English snooker player (born 1941)

Graham Miles was an English snooker player.

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Roberto Telch, Argentinian footballer and coach (born 1943)

Roberto "Oveja" Telch was an Argentine footballer who played as a midfielder. He was born in San Vicente, Córdoba, and won four league championships with San Lorenzo in Argentina and represented the Argentina national football team at the 1974 FIFA World Cup. He died in Buenos Aires of a heart attack.

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12/10/2013

George Herbig, American astronomer and academic (born 1920)

George Howard Herbig was an American astronomer at the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy. He is perhaps best known for his contribution to the discovery of Herbig–Haro objects.

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Oscar Hijuelos, American author and academic (born 1951)

Oscar Jerome Hijuelos was an American novelist of Cuban descent, during a year-long convalescence from a childhood illness spent in a Connecticut hospital he lost his knowledge of Spanish, his parents' native language. He was educated in New York City, and wrote short stories and advertising copy.

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Hans Wilhelm Longva, Norwegian diplomat (born 1942)

Hans Wilhelm Longva was a Norwegian diplomat.

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Malcolm Renfrew, American chemist and academic (born 1910)

Malcolm MacKenzie Renfrew was an American polymer chemist, inventor, and professor emeritus at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. Renfrew Hall, the university's chemistry building, was named for him in 1985.

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12/10/2012

James Coyne, Canadian lawyer and banker, 2nd Governor of the Bank of Canada (born 1910)

James Elliott Coyne was a Canadian economist who served as the second governor of the Bank of Canada, from 1955 to 1961, succeeding Graham Towers. During his time in office, he had a much-publicized debate with Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, a debate often referred to as the "Coyne Affair", which led to his resignation and, eventually, to greater central-bank independence in Canada.

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Norm Grabowski, American hot rod builder and actor (born 1933)

Norman "Norm" Grabowski was a Polish-American hot rod builder and actor. The heavy-set crew cut-wearing Grabowski appeared in minor roles in many films produced by Albert Zugsmith and Walt Disney.

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Sukhdev Singh Kang, Indian judge and politician, 14th Governor of Kerala (born 1931)

Sukhdev Singh Kang was the fourteenth Governor of Kerala from 25 January 1997 to 18 April 2002. He served as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court from 19 February 1979 till 23 October 1989 and was subsequently promoted and transferred as the Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, a post he held from 24 October 1989 to 14 May 1993. During his tenure as Kerala governor, E K Nayanar and A K Antony were the Chief Ministers of Kerala. Following his stint as the Governor of Kerala, he was appointed a member of the National Human Rights Commission 1993. He then retired.

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Torkom Manoogian, Iraqi-Armenian patriarch (born 1919)

Patriarch Torkom Manoogian was the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem serving the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. He was the 96th in a succession of Armenian Patriarchs of Jerusalem, succeeding Patriarch Yeghishe Derderian (1960–1990).

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Erik Moseholm, Danish bassist, composer, and bandleader (born 1930)

Erik Moseholm was a Danish jazz bassist, composer, bandleader and music administrator. He was the leader of the DR Big Band from 1961 to 1966 and the principal of the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen from 1992 to 1997.

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Břetislav Pojar, Czech animator, director, and screenwriter (born 1923)

Břetislav Pojar was a Czech puppeteer, animator and director of short and feature films.

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12/10/2011

Patricia Breslin, American actress (born 1931)

Patricia Rose Breslin was an American actress and philanthropist. She had a prominent career in television, which included recurring roles as Amanda Miller on The People's Choice (1955–58), and as Laura Harrington Brooks on Peyton Place (1964–65). She also appeared in Go, Man, Go! (1954), and the William Castle horror films Homicidal (1961) and I Saw What You Did (1965).

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Dennis Ritchie, American computer scientist, created the C programming language (born 1941)

Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie was an American computer scientist. He created, together with long-time colleague Ken Thompson, the Unix operating system, C programming language, and B programming language.

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12/10/2010

Austin Ardill, Northern Irish soldier and politician (born 1917)

Captain Robert Austin Ardill MC was a Northern Irish unionist politician.

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Woody Peoples, American football player (born 1943)

Woodrow Peoples Jr. was an American professional football player who was an offensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL). Undrafted after playing college football for the Grambling Tigers, he was a two-time Pro Bowler with the San Francisco 49ers, and a member of the 1980 National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles during his 13-year NFL career.

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Belva Plain, American author (born 1919)

Belva Plain, née Offenberg, was a best-selling American author of mainstream fiction.

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12/10/2009

Dickie Peterson American singer-songwriter and bass player (born 1948)

Richard Allan Peterson known as Dickie Peterson was an American musician, best known as the bassist, lead singer and only constant member of Blue Cheer. He also recorded two solo albums: Child of the Darkness and Tramp.

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Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgian cyclist (born 1974)

Frank Vandenbroucke was a Belgian professional road racing cyclist. After showing promise in track and field in his adolescence, Vandenbroucke took to cycle racing in the late 1980s and developed into one of the great hopes for Belgian cycling in the 1990s, with a string of victories that included Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Grand Tour stages and Omloop Het Volk. This early success dissipated however in a series of drug problems, rows with teams and suicide attempts. Despite repeated attempts to continue his career with a string of different teams from 2000 to 2008, Vandenbroucke's drug use and unpredictability eventually led to his estrangement from the cycling world. Although Vandenbroucke claimed in an interview in 2009 to have recovered his mental health, he died of a pulmonary embolism in October 2009 at the age of 34.

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12/10/2008

Karl Chircop, Maltese physician and politician (born 1965)

Karl Chircop was a family doctor and Maltese politician. He was Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives of Malta of the Malta Labour Party from 1996 to 2008, served as shadow Minister for post, Social Policy, and Health.

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12/10/2007

Kisho Kurokawa, Japanese architect, designed the Nakagin Capsule Tower (born 1934)

Kisho Kurokawa was a leading Japanese architect and one of the founders of the Metabolist Movement.

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12/10/2006

Angelika Machinek, German glider pilot (born 1956)

Angelika Machinek was a German glider pilot. Born in the district of Holzminden, she started gliding at the age of 14, gained her pilot’s license in 1973 and received her instructor’s license in 1980. She was five times German gliding champion between 1994 and 2006 and broke nine FIA gliding world records, four in the D1M class, four in D15 and one in DO. She won the Elly-Beinhorn Rally in 1998, the first International Hexencup in 2003 and the first International Flatland Cup in Hungary, in 2006. She died while flying a microlight shortly after the last win and a fund to promote women glider pilots was set up as a legacy for her in 2007.

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Eugène Martin, French race car driver (born 1915)

Eugène Martin was a racing driver from France. He participated in two Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 13 May 1950. He scored no championship points.

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Gillo Pontecorvo, Italian director and screenwriter (born 1919)

Gilberto Pontecorvo Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian filmmaker associated with the political cinema movement of the 1960s and '70s. He is best known for directing the landmark war docudrama The Battle of Algiers (1966). It won the Golden Lion at the 27th Venice Film Festival, and earned him Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

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Carlo Acutis, Italian programmer, known for his devotion to the Eucharist (born 1991)

Carlo Acutis was an English-born Italian Catholic teenager known for his devotion to the Eucharist and his use of digital media to promote Catholic devotion. Born in London and raised in Milan, he developed an early interest in computers and video games, teaching himself programming and web design and assisting his parish and school with digital projects.

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12/10/2005

C. Delores Tucker, American activist and politician (born 1927)

Cynthia Delores Tucker was an American politician and civil rights activist. She had a long history of involvement in the American Civil Rights Movement. She was Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1971 to 1977. From the 1990s onward, she engaged in a campaign against gangsta rap music.

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12/10/2003

Jim Cairns, Australian economist and politician, 4th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia (born 1914)

James Ford Cairns was an Australian politician who was prominent in the Labor movement through the 1960s and 1970s, and was briefly Treasurer and the fourth deputy prime minister of Australia, both in the Whitlam government. He is best remembered as a leader of the movement against Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, for his affair with Junie Morosi, and for his later renunciation of conventional politics. He was also an economist, and a prolific writer on economic and social issues. Many of his books were self-published, and self-marketed at stalls he ran across Australia.

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Joan Kroc, American philanthropist (born 1928)

Joan Beverly Kroc, also known as Joni, was an American philanthropist and the third wife of McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc.

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Bill Shoemaker, American jockey (born 1931)

William Lee Shoemaker was an American jockey, considered one of the greatest. For 29 years he held the world record for the most professional jockey victories.

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12/10/2002

Ray Conniff, American bandleader and composer (born 1916)

Joseph Raymond Conniff was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s. He developed a unique sound taking advantage of stereo LP recording combining wordless chorus with brass and woodwinds reinterpreting American standards. The recorded sounds shifted the balance of instruments in a way that could not be heard in live performance, for example balancing a harp or rhythm guitar against a full brass ensemble.

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Audrey Mestre, French biologist and diver (born 1974)

Audrey Mestre was a French world record-setting freediver.

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Hilaire du Berrier, American-French aviator, mercenary, and writer (born 1906)

Hilaire du Berrier was an American barnstorming pilot, mercenary adventurer, journalist, and spy. He wrote for a number of publications, mostly right-wing and far-right, including his own monthly newsletter.

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12/10/2001

Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, English academic and politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (born 1907)

Quintin McGarel Hogg, Baron Hailsham of Saint Marylebone, was a British barrister and Conservative Party politician. He was known as the 2nd Viscount Hailsham between 1950 and 1963, at which point he disclaimed his hereditary peerage.

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Hikmet Şimşek, Turkish conductor (born 1924)

Hikmet Şimşek was a Turkish conductor of Western classical music.

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Richard Buckle, Ballet critic and writer (born 1916)

(Christopher) Richard Sandford Buckle CBE, was a lifelong English devotee of ballet, and a well-known ballet critic. He founded the magazine Ballet in 1939.

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12/10/1999

Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player and coach (born 1936)

Wilton Norman Chamberlain was an American professional basketball player. Standing 7 feet 1 inch (2.16 m) tall, he played center in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 seasons. He was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, and was elected to the NBA's 35th, 50th, and 75th anniversary teams. Chamberlain is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

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Robert Marsden Hope, Australian lawyer and judge (born 1919)

Robert Marsden Hope, was a Justice of the New South Wales Court of Appeal and Royal Commissioner on three separate occasions, most notably the Royal Commission on Intelligence and Security. As a judge Hope was known for his legal positivism and as a royal commissioner he "instilled a sense of impartiality".

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12/10/1998

Mario Beaulieu, Canadian lawyer and politician (born 1930)

Mario Beaulieu was a Canadian notary, politician and senator.

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Matthew Shepard, American murder victim (born 1976)

Matthew Wayne Shepard was an American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on October 6, 1998. He was transported by rescuers to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he died six days later from severe head injuries sustained during the attack.

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12/10/1997

John Denver, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (born 1943)

Henry John Deutschendorf Jr., known professionally as John Denver, was an American country and folk singer, songwriter, and actor. He was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the 1970s and one of the best-selling artists overall in that decade. AllMusic has called Denver "among the most beloved entertainers of his era".

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12/10/1996

René Lacoste, French tennis player and fashion designer, co-founded Lacoste (born 1904)

Jean René Lacoste was a French tennis player and businessman. He was nicknamed "the Crocodile" because of how he dealt with his opponents; he is also known worldwide as the creator of the Lacoste tennis shirt, which he introduced in 1929, and eventually founded the brand and its logo in 1933.

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Roger Lapébie, French cyclist (born 1911)

Roger Lapébie was a French racing cyclist who won the 1937 Tour de France. In addition, Lapébie won the 1934 and 1937 editions of the Critérium National. He was born at Bayonne, Aquitaine, and died in Pessac.

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12/10/1994

Gérald Godin, Canadian journalist and politician (born 1938)

Gérald Godin was a Canadian poet and politician from Quebec. During his time as a politician, he served in various cabinet posts in the governments of René Lévesque and Pierre-Marc Johnson. As cabinet minister, Godin has been noted for his openness towards immigrants.

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12/10/1993

Leon Ames, American actor (born 1902)

Leon Ames was an American film and television actor. He is best remembered for playing father figures in such films as Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Little Women (1949), On Moonlight Bay (1951), and By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953). His best-known dramatic role may have been in the crime film The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).

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12/10/1991

Sheila Florance, Australian actress (born 1916)

Sheila Mary Florance was an Australian actress known for her work in theatre, television and film.

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Arkady Strugatsky, Russian author and translator (born 1925)

The brothers Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky were Soviet and Russian science-fiction authors who collaborated through most of their careers.

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Regis Toomey, American actor (born 1898)

John Francis Regis Toomey was an American film and television actor.

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12/10/1990

Rifaat el-Mahgoub, Egyptian politician (born 1926)

Rifaat El Mahgoub was an Egyptian politician who served as the 8th speaker of the People's Assembly of Egypt from 1984 until his assassination in 1990. He was a member of the then ruling National Democratic Party.

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Peter Wessel Zapffe, Norwegian physician, mountaineer, and author (born 1899)

Peter Wessel Zapffe was a Norwegian philosopher, author, artist, lawyer and mountaineer. He is often noted for his philosophically pessimistic and fatalistic view of human existence. His system of philosophy was inspired by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, as well as his firm advocacy of antinatalism. His thoughts regarding the error of human life are presented in the essay "The Last Messiah". This essay is a shorter version of his best-known work, the philosophical treatise On the Tragic.

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12/10/1989

Jay Ward, American animator, producer, and screenwriter, founded Jay Ward Productions (born 1920)

Joseph Ward Cohen Jr., known professionally as Jay Ward, was an American animator and producer. He is best known for creating The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, alongside works featuring a diverse selection of characters such as Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Mr. Peabody, Hoppity Hooper, George of the Jungle, Tom Slick, and Super Chicken. His own company, Jay Ward Productions, designed the trademark characters for the Cap'n Crunch, Quisp, and Quake breakfast cereals and it made TV commercials for those products. Ward produced the non-animated series Fractured Flickers (1963) that featured comedic redubbing of silent films.

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12/10/1988

Ruth Manning-Sanders, Welsh-English poet and author (born 1886)

Ruth Manning-Sanders was an English poet and author born in Wales, known for a series of children's books for which she collected and related fairy tales worldwide. She published over 90 books in her lifetime.

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Coby Whitmore, American painter and illustrator (born 1913)

Maxwell Coburn Whitmore was an American painter and magazine illustrator known for his Saturday Evening Post covers, and a commercial artist whose work included advertisements for Gallo Wine and other brands. He additionally became known as a race-car designer.

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12/10/1987

Alf Landon, American lieutenant and politician, 26th Governor of Kansas (born 1887)

Alfred Mossman Landon was an American oilman and politician who served as the 26th governor of Kansas from 1933 to 1937. A member of the Republican Party, he was the party's nominee in the 1936 presidential election, and was defeated in a landslide by incumbent president Franklin D. Roosevelt. The margin of victory in the electoral college was the largest of Roosevelt's four elections to the office of president, as Landon won just 8 electoral votes to Roosevelt's 523. Landon died on October 12, 1987, becoming the only presidential candidate from either of the major parties to live to the age of 100 until Jimmy Carter in 2024, and is to date the only Republican candidate to do so.

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Fahri Korutürk, Turkish commander and politician, 6th President of Turkey (born 1903)

Fahri Sabit Korutürk was a Turkish admiral, diplomat and politician who was the president of Turkey from 1973 to 1980. Before his presidency, he served as the commander of the Turkish Naval Forces from 1957 to 1960.

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12/10/1985

Johnny Olson, American radio host and game show announcer (born 1910)

John Leonard Olson was an American radio personality and television announcer. Olson is perhaps best known for his work as an announcer for game shows, particularly the work he did for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. Olson was the longtime announcer for the original To Tell the Truth and What's My Line? and spent more than a decade as announcer for both Match Game and The Price Is Right, working on the latter series at the time of his death.

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Ricky Wilson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1953)

Ricky Helton Wilson was an American musician best known as the original guitarist and founding member of rock band the B-52s. Born in Athens, Georgia, Wilson was the brother of fellow member Cindy Wilson. The B-52s were founded in 1976, when Ricky, Cindy, Kate Pierson, Keith Strickland and Fred Schneider shared a tropical flaming volcano drink at a Chinese restaurant and, after an impromptu music session at the home of their friend Owen Scott III, played for the first time at a Valentine's Day party for friends. Wilson's unusual guitar tunings were a large contribution to the band's quirky sound.

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12/10/1984

Anthony Berry, English politician (born 1925)

Sir Anthony George Berry was a British Conservative politician. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Enfield Southgate and a Whip in Margaret Thatcher's government.

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12/10/1978

Nancy Spungen, American figure of the 1970s punk rock scene (born 1958)

Nancy Laura Spungen was the American girlfriend of English musician Sid Vicious and a figure of the 1970s punk rock scene.

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12/10/1973

Peter Aufschnaiter, Austrian mountaineer, geographer, and cartographer (born 1899)

Peter Aufschnaiter was an Austrian mountaineer, agricultural scientist, geographer and cartographer. His experiences with fellow climber Heinrich Harrer during World War II were depicted in the 1997 film Seven Years in Tibet.

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12/10/1972

Robert Le Vigan, French-Argentinian actor and politician (born 1900)

Robert Le Vigan was a French actor.

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12/10/1971

Dean Acheson, American lawyer and politician, 51st United States Secretary of State (born 1893)

Dean Gooderham Acheson was an American politician and lawyer. As the 51st U.S. secretary of state, he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to 1953. He was also Truman's main foreign policy advisor from 1945 to 1947 during early years of the Cold War. Acheson helped design the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He was in private law practice from July 1947 to December 1948.

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Gene Vincent, American musician (born 1935)

Vincent Eugene Craddock, known as Gene Vincent, was an American rock and roll musician who pioneered the style of rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his backing band the Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-a-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly. His chart career was brief, especially in his home country of the US, where he notched three top 40 hits in 1956 and 1957, and never charted in the top 100 again. In the UK, he was a somewhat bigger star, racking up eight top 40 hits from 1956 to 1961.

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12/10/1970

Feodor Stepanovich Rojankovsky, Russian-American illustrator and painter (born 1891)

Feodor Stepanovich Rojankovsky, also known as Rojan, was a Russian émigré illustrator. He is well known both for children's book illustration and for erotic art. He won the 1956 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration from the American Library Association, recognizing Frog Went A-Courtin' by John Langstaff.

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Mustafa Zaidi, Pakistani poet and academic (born 1930)

Mustafa Zaidi was a Pakistani Urdu poet and a civil servant.

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12/10/1969

Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater and actress (born 1912)

Sonja Henie was a Norwegian figure skater and film star. She was a three-time Olympic champion in women's singles, a ten-time World champion (1927–1936) and a six-time European champion (1931–1936). Henie won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies' figure skater. She is one of only two skaters to successfully defend a ladies' singles Olympic title, the other being Katarina Witt, and her six consecutive European titles have only been matched by Witt.

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Serge Poliakoff, Russian-French painter and academic (born 1906)

Serge Poliakoff was a Russian-born French modernist painter belonging to the 'New' École de Paris (Tachisme).

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Julius Saaristo, Finnish javelin thrower and soldier (born 1891)

Juho Julius Saaristo was a Finnish track and field athlete. He won two medals at the 1912 Olympics: a silver in conventional javelin throw and gold in the two-handed javelin throw, a one-time Olympic event in which the total was a sum of best throws with the right hand and with the left hand. He finished fourth in the javelin throw at the 1920 Olympics. Saaristo held the Finnish national title in the javelin in 1910, 1911 and 1919.

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12/10/1967

Ram Manohar Lohia, Indian activist and politician (born 1910)

Ram Manohar Lohia was an Indian political activist of the Indian independence movement and a socialist politician. As a nationalist, he worked actively to protest against colonialism, raising awareness of the same. He founded multiple socialist political parties and later won elections to the Lok Sabha.

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12/10/1965

Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1899)

Paul Hermann Müller, also known as Pauly Mueller, was a Swiss chemist who received the 1948 Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine for his 1939 discovery of insecticidal qualities and use of DDT in the control of vector diseases such as malaria and yellow fever.

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12/10/1960

Inejiro Asanuma, Japanese lawyer and politician (born 1898)

Inejiro Asanuma was a Japanese politician and leader of the Japan Socialist Party. Known for his large stature and powerful voice, he tirelessly toured the country delivering speeches, earning him the nicknames "speech-making everyman", "human locomotive", and the affectionate "Numa-san".

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12/10/1958

Gordon Griffith, American actor, director, and producer (born 1907)

Gordon S. Griffith was an American assistant director, film producer, and one of the first child actors in the American movie industry. Griffith worked in the film industry for five decades, acting in over 60 films, and surviving the transition from silent films to talkies—films with sound. During his acting career, he worked with Charlie Chaplin,Fatty Arbuckle, Mary Pickford, Mabel Normand, Bessie Love, Betty Bronson, his mother Katherine Griffith and was the first actor to portray young Tarzan on film.

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12/10/1957

Arie de Jong, Indonesian-Dutch linguist and physician (born 1865)

Arie de Jong was a Dutch enthusiast and reformer of the constructed language Volapük by Johann Martin Schleyer, with whose help the Volapük movement gained new strength in the Netherlands. He not only revised Volapük, but also began Volapükaklub Valemik Nedänik and founded Diläd valemik Feda Volapükaklubas. He also founded and edited Volapükagased pro Nedänapükans, an independent newspaper in Volapük, which ran for thirty-one years (1932–1963). He wrote Gramat Volapüka, a grammar of the language completely in Volapük, and a German-Volapük dictionary, Wörterbuch der Weltsprache. He translated the New Testament into Volapük from Greek, as well as many other pieces of literature. Arie de Jong is justly considered the most important Volapükist of a new age of Volapük history.

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12/10/1956

Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer and painter (born 1872)

Monsignor Lorenzo Perosi was an Italian composer of sacred music and the only member of the Giovane Scuola who did not write opera. In the late 1890s, while he was still only in his twenties, Perosi was an internationally celebrated composer of sacred music, especially large-scale oratorios. Nobel Prize winner Romain Rolland wrote, "It's not easy to give you an exact idea of how popular Lorenzo Perosi is in his native country." Perosi's fame was not restricted to Europe. A 19 March 1899 New York Times article entitled "The Genius of Don Perosi" began, "The great and ever-increasing success which has greeted the four new oratorios of Don Lorenzo Perosi has placed this young priest-composer on a pedestal of fame which can only be compared with that which has been accorded of late years to the idolized Pietro Mascagni by his fellow-countrymen." Gianandrea Gavazzeni made the same comparison: "The sudden clamors of applause, at the end of the [19th] century, were just like those a decade earlier for Mascagni." Perosi worked for five Popes, including Pope Pius X who greatly fostered his rise.

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12/10/1954

George Welch, American soldier and pilot (born 1918)

George Schwartz Welch was a World War II triple ace, a Distinguished Service Cross recipient, and an experimental aircraft pilot after the war. Welch is best known for having been one of the few United States Army Air Corps fighter pilots able to get airborne to engage Japanese forces in the attack on Pearl Harbor and for his work as a test pilot. Welch resigned from the United States Army Air Forces as a major in 1944, and became a test pilot for North American Aviation.

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12/10/1948

Susan Sutherland Isaacs, English psychologist and psychoanalyst (born 1885)

Susan Sutherland Isaacs, CBE was an English educational psychologist and psychoanalyst. She published studies on the intellectual and social development of children and promoted the nursery school movement. For Isaacs, the best way for children to learn was by developing their independence. She believed that the most effective way to achieve this was through play, and that the role of adults and early educators was to guide children's play.

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12/10/1946

Joseph Stilwell, American general (born 1883)

Joseph Warren "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell was a United States Army general who served in the China Burma India theater during World War II. Stilwell served as commander of the US forces in the theater, and also as deputy for both Lord Louis Mountbatten, and Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese Nationalist leader.

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12/10/1940

Tom Mix, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1880)

Thomas Edwin Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western films between 1909 and 1935. He appeared in 291 films, all but nine of which were silent films. He was one of Hollywood's first Western stars and helped define the genre as it emerged in the early days of the cinema.

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12/10/1933

John Lister, English philanthropist and politician (born 1847)

John Lister was an English philanthropist and politician.

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12/10/1926

Edwin Abbott Abbott, English theologian and author (born 1838)

Edwin Abbott Abbott was an English schoolmaster, theologian, and Anglican priest, best known as the author of the novella Flatland (1884).

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12/10/1924

Anatole France, French journalist, novelist, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1844)

Anatole France was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie Française, and won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament".

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12/10/1923

Bunny Lucas, English cricketer (born 1857)

Alfred Perry "Bunny" Lucas was an English first-class cricketer from 1874 to 1907, playing for Cambridge University, Surrey, Middlesex and Essex. He also played five Test matches for the England cricket team.

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12/10/1915

Edith Cavell, English nurse (born 1865)

Edith Louisa Cavell was a British nurse. She is celebrated for treating wounded soldiers from both sides without discrimination during the First World War and for helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. Cavell was arrested, court-martialled under German military law, and sentenced to death by firing squad. Despite international pressure for mercy, the German government refused to commute her sentence and she was shot. The execution received worldwide condemnation and extensive press coverage.

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12/10/1914

Margaret E. Knight, American inventor (born 1838)

Margaret Eloise Knight was an American inventor, notably of a machine to produce flat-bottomed paper bags. She has been called "the most famous 19th-century woman inventor". She founded the Eastern Paper Bag Company in 1870, creating paper bags for groceries similar in form to the ones that would be used in later generations. Knight received dozens of patents in different fields and became a symbol for women's empowerment.

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12/10/1898

Calvin Fairbank, American minister and activist (born 1816)

Calvin Fairbank was an American abolitionist and Methodist minister from New York state who was twice convicted in Kentucky of aiding the escape of slaves, and served a total of 19 years in the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Frankfort. Fairbank is believed to have aided the escape of 47 slaves.

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12/10/1896

Christian Emil Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs, Danish lawyer and politician, 9th Council President of Denmark (born 1817)

Christian Emil Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs was a Danish nobleman and politician. He was Council President of Denmark from 1865 to 1870 as the leader of the Frijs Cabinet.

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12/10/1875

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, French sculptor and painter (born 1827)

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux was a French sculptor and painter during the Second Empire under Napoleon III.

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12/10/1870

Robert E. Lee, American general (born 1807)

Robert Edward Lee was a Confederate general whose early actions in the American Civil War led to his appointment as the overall commander of the Confederate States Army near the end of the war. He led the Army of Northern Virginia, the Confederacy's most powerful army, from 1862 until its surrender in 1865, earning a reputation as one of the war's most skilled tacticians.

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12/10/1858

Hiroshige, Japanese painter (born 1797)

Utagawa Hiroshige or Andō Hiroshige , born Andō Tokutarō, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, considered the last great master of that tradition.

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12/10/1845

Elizabeth Fry, English prison reformer, Quaker and philanthropist (born 1780)

Elizabeth Fry, sometimes referred to as Betsy Fry, was an English prison reformer, social reformer, philanthropist and Quaker. Fry was a major driving force behind new legislation to improve the treatment of prisoners, especially female inmates, and as such has been called the "Angel of Prisons". She was instrumental in the Gaols Act 1823 which mandated sex-segregation of prisons and female warders for female inmates to protect them from sexual exploitation. Fry kept extensive diaries, in which she wrote explicitly of the need to protect female prisoners from rape and sexual abuse.

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12/10/1828

Ioan Nicolidi of Pindus, Aromanian physician and noble (born 1737)

Ioan Nicolidi of Pindus was an Aromanian physician and noble. Born in Gramos, he migrated to Siatista and then to Vienna to complete his studies in medicine. He gained great popularity as a physician in Vienna, being awarded the nobiliary particle von Pindo for his services.

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12/10/1812

Juan José Castelli, Argentinian lawyer and politician (born 1764)

Juan José Castelli was an Argentine lawyer who was one of the leaders of the May Revolution, which led to the Argentine War of Independence. He led an ill-fated military campaign in Upper Peru. He was in terms of free trade influenced by his cousin Manuel Belgrano.

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12/10/1758

Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth, Irish field marshal and politician (born 1680)

Field Marshal Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth, PC (Ire), FRS was an Anglo-Irish army officer and politician. He fought in the Battle of Blenheim before being appointed aide-de-camp to the Duke of Marlborough during the War of the Spanish Succession. During the Battle of Ramillies, Molesworth offered Marlborough his own horse after Marlborough fell from the saddle. Molesworth then recovered his commander's charger and slipped away: by these actions he helped to save Marlborough's life. Molesworth went on to become Lieutenant of the Ordnance in Ireland and was wounded at the Battle of Preston during the Jacobite rising of 1715 before serving as Master-General of the Ordnance in Ireland and then Commander-in-Chief, Ireland.

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12/10/1730

Frederick IV, king of Denmark and Norway (born 1671)

Frederick IV was King of Denmark and Norway from 1699 until his death. Frederick was the son of Christian V of Denmark-Norway and his wife Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel.

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12/10/1685

Christoph Ignaz Abele, Austrian lawyer and jurist (born 1628)

Christoph Ignaz Abele, von und zu Lilienberg, son of a Swabian family, was an Austrian jurist and court official.

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12/10/1679

William Gurnall, English minister, theologian, and author (born 1617)

William Gurnall was an English author and Anglican clergyman born at King's Lynn, Norfolk, where he was baptised on 17 November 1616.

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12/10/1678

Edmund Berry Godfrey, English lawyer and judge (born 1621)

Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was an English magistrate whose mysterious death caused anti-Catholic uproar in England. Contemporary documents also spell the name Edmundbury Godfrey.

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12/10/1654

Carel Fabritius, Dutch painter (born 1622)

Carel Pietersz. Fabritius was a Dutch painter. He was a pupil of Rembrandt and worked in his studio in Amsterdam. Fabritius, who was a member of the Delft School, developed his own artistic style and experimented with perspective and lighting. Among his works are A View of Delft, The Goldfinch (1654), and The Sentry (1654).

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12/10/1646

François de Bassompierre, French general and courtier (born 1579)

François de Bassompierre was a French courtier.

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12/10/1632

Kutsuki Mototsuna, Japanese commander (born 1549)

Kutsuki Mototsuna was a samurai commander in Azuchi-Momoyama period and Edo period. His father was Kutsuki Harutsuna. The Kutsuki were a powerful clan at Kutsuki-tani (朽木谷), Takasima-gori, Ōmi Province. His childhood name was Takewakamaru (竹若丸.

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12/10/1601

Nicholas Brend, English landowner (born 1560)

Nicholas Brend was an English landowner who inherited from his father the land on which the Globe Theatre was built, and on 21 February 1599 leased it to Cuthbert Burbage, Richard Burbage, William Shakespeare, Augustine Phillips, Thomas Pope, John Heminges, and William Kempe. He died two years later, leaving the property on which the Globe was built to his infant son, Matthew Brend, who did not come of age until 6 February 1621.

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12/10/1600

Luis de Molina, Spanish priest and philosopher (born 1535)

Luis de Molina was a Spanish Jesuit priest, jurist, economist and theologian renowned for his contributions to philosophy and economics within the framework of the second scholasticism.

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12/10/1590

Kanō Eitoku, Japanese painter and educator (born 1543)

Kanō Eitoku was a Japanese painter who lived during the Azuchi–Momoyama period of Japanese history and one of the most prominent patriarchs of the Kanō school of Japanese painting.

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12/10/1576

Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1527)

Maximilian II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1564 until his death in 1576. A member of the Austrian House of Habsburg, he was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague on 14 May 1562 and elected King of Germany on 24 November 1562. On 8 September 1563, he was crowned King of Hungary and Croatia in the Hungarian capital Pressburg. On 25 July 1564, he succeeded his father Ferdinand I as Holy Roman Emperor.

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12/10/1565

Jean Ribault, French-American lieutenant and navigator (born 1520)

Jean Ribault was a French naval officer, navigator, and a colonizer of what would become the southeastern United States. He was a major figure in the French attempts to colonize Florida. A Huguenot and officer under Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, Ribault led an expedition to the New World in 1562 that founded the outpost of Charlesfort on Parris Island in present-day South Carolina. Two years later, he took over command of the French colony of Fort Caroline in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. He and many of his followers died at the hands of Spanish soldiers during the Massacre at Matanzas Inlet, near St. Augustine.

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12/10/1492

Piero della Francesca, Italian mathematician and painter (born 1415)

Piero della Francesca was an Italian painter, mathematician and geometer of the Early Renaissance, nowadays chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting is characterized by its serene humanism, its use of geometric forms and perspective. His most famous work is the cycle of frescoes The History of the True Cross in the Basilica of San Francesco in the Tuscan town of Arezzo.

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12/10/1491

Fritz Herlen, German painter (born 1449)

Fritz Herlen was a German artist of the early Swabian school, in the 15th century.

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12/10/1448

Zhu Quan, Chinese prince, historian and playwright (born 1378)

Zhu Quan, the Prince of Ning, was a Chinese historian, military commander, musician, and playwright. He was the 17th son of the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming dynasty. During his life, he served as a military commander, feudal lord, historian, and playwright. He is also remembered as a great tea connoisseur, a zither player, and composer.

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12/10/1328

Clementia of Hungary, queen consort of France and Navarre (born 1293)

Clementia of Hungary was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Louis X.

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12/10/1320

Michael IX Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (born 1277)

Michael IX Palaiologos or Palaeologus was Byzantine emperor together with his father, Andronikos II Palaiologos, from 1294 until his death. Andronikos II and Michael IX ruled as equal co-rulers, both using the title autokrator.

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12/10/1176

William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel, English politician (born 1109)

William d'Aubigny, also known as William d'Albini, William de Albini and William de Albini II, was an English nobleman. He was son of William d'Aubigny and Maud Bigod, daughter of Roger Bigod of Norfolk.

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12/10/1152

Adolf III of Berg, German nobleman (born 1080)

Adolf III of Berg was count of Berg from 1093 until 1132, and count of Hövel from 1090 until 1106, and Vogt of Werden. He was the son of Adolf II of Berg-Hövel, count of Berg, and Adelaide of Lauffen. Adolf III, Count of Berg is named Adolf I, Count of Berg in the Netherlands and in Germany.

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12/10/1095

Leopold II, margrave of Austria (born 1050)

Leopold II, known as Leopold the Fair, a member of the House of Babenberg, was Margrave of Austria from 1075 until his death in 1095. A supporter of the Gregorian Reforms, he was one of the main opponents of the German king Henry IV during the Investiture Controversy.

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12/10/0974

Al-Muti, Abbasid caliph (born 913/14)

Abū ʾl-Qāsim al-Faḍl ibn al-Muqtadir, better known by his regnal name of al-Muṭīʿ li-ʾllāh, was the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad from 946 to 974, ruling under the tutelage of the Buyid emirs.

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12/10/0884

Tsunesada, Japanese prince (born 825)

Prince Tsunesada was a Japanese prince of the early Heian period. He was the second son of Emperor Junna. He was also known as Prince Teishi (亭子親王), and by his Buddhist name of Gōjyaku (恒寂). He was Crown Prince from 833 to 842, during the reign of his cousin Emperor Ninmyō.

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12/10/0642

John IV, pope of the Catholic Church

Pope John IV was the bishop of Rome from 24 December 640 to his death on 12 October 642. His election followed a four-month vacancy. He wrote to the clergy of Ireland and Scotland to tell them of the mistakes they were making with regard to the time of keeping Easter and condemned Monothelitism as heresy. According to sacred tradition, he created the Catholic Church in Croatia with Abbot Martin.

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12/10/0638

Honorius I, pope of the Catholic Church

Pope Honorius I was the bishop of Rome from his consecration on 27 October 625 until his death. He actively supported the Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons, notably by sending Saint Birinus to convert the West Saxons and bestowing the pallium on the archbishops of York and Canterbury, and worked to persuade the Irish and British churches to adopt the Roman Easter computus. He is most noted for his correspondence concerning Patriarch Sergius I of Constantinople, in which he engaged with the Monoenergism controversy and the associated Monothelite doctrines. Honorius was posthumously anathematized by the Third Council of Constantinople (681) for following the Monothelites and confirming their doctrines. This condemnation was confirmed by Pope Leo II, who charged him with failing to extinguish the heresy. The anathema against Honorius I became a primary argument cited by opponents of the definition of papal infallibility during the First Vatican Council (1870).

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01/01/1970

Demosthenes, Athenian statesman, (born 384 BC)

Demosthenes was a Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by studying the speeches of previous great orators. He delivered his first judicial speeches at the age of 20, in which he successfully argued that he should gain from his guardians what was left of his inheritance. For a time, Demosthenes made his living as a professional speechwriter (logographer) and a lawyer, writing speeches for use in private legal suits.

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