Died on Wednesday, 15th October – Famous Deaths

15/10/2025

Jim Bolger, New Zealand businessman and politician, 35th Prime Minister of New Zealand (born 1935)

James Brendan Bolger was a New Zealand politician of the National Party who was the 35th prime minister of New Zealand, serving from 1990 to 1997.

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15/10/2024

Mike Jackson, English general (born 1944)

General Sir Michael David Jackson was a British Army officer and one of its most high-profile generals since the Second World War. Originally commissioned into the Intelligence Corps in 1963, he transferred to the Parachute Regiment in 1970, with which he served two of his three tours of duty in Northern Ireland. On his first, he was present as an adjutant at the events of the Ballymurphy massacre (1971), where eleven unarmed civilians were shot dead by British troops, and then at Bloody Sunday in 1972, when British soldiers opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing fourteen. On his second, he was a company commander in the aftermath of the Warrenpoint ambush (1979), when the IRA killed 18 soldiers with two roadside bombs, the British Army's heaviest single loss of life during the Troubles. He was assigned to a staff post at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 1982 before assuming command of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment, in 1984. Jackson was posted to Northern Ireland for the third time, as a brigade commander, in the early 1990s.

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15/10/2021

David Amess, British politician, member of Parliament for Southend West (born 1952)

Sir David Anthony Andrew Amess was a British politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for 38 years, serving Southend West from 1997 until his murder in 2021. He previously served as MP for Basildon from 1983 to 1997. A member of the Conservative Party, he was a Catholic with socially conservative political views, and was in favour of Britain leaving the European Union.

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15/10/2018

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, philanthropist, owner of the Seattle Seahawks (born 1953)

Paul Gardner Allen was an American businessman, computer programmer, and investor. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with his childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which was followed by the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. Allen discovered the wrecks of various famous warships, like the IJN Musashi and USS Indianapolis, and was ranked as one of the richest people in American history by Forbes, with an estimated net worth of $20.3 billion at the time of his death in October 2018.

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15/10/2017

Chinggoy Alonzo, Filipino theater, movie & television actor (born 1950)

Ramón "Chinggoy" Alonzo was a Filipino actor in theater, movies, and television. He was nominated for FAMAS Award Best Supporting Actor in Ikaw Naman ang Iiyak (1996).

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15/10/2014

Giovanni Reale, Italian philosopher and historian (born 1931)

Giovanni Reale was an Italian historian of philosophy.

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15/10/2013

Donald Bailey, American drummer (born 1933)

Donald Orlando "Duck" Bailey was an American jazz drummer.

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15/10/2012

Claude Cheysson, French lieutenant and politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1920)

Claude Cheysson was a French Socialist politician who served as Foreign Minister in the government of Pierre Mauroy from 1981 to 1984.

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Erol Günaydın, Turkish actor and screenwriter (born 1933)

Erol Günaydın was a Turkish theater and film actor, as well as a renowned showman famous particularly for his portrayal of Nasreddin Hoca and his performances in the traditional Turkish meddah.

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Maria Petrou, Greek-English computer scientist and academic (born 1953)

Maria Petrou FREng was a Greek-born British scientist who specialised in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine vision. She developed a number of novel image recognition techniques, taught at Surrey University and Imperial College London, and was a prolific author of scientific articles.

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Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodian politician, 1st Prime Minister of Cambodia (born 1922)

Norodom Sihanouk was King, Chief of State and Prime Minister of Cambodia. He is known as Samdech Euv. During his lifetime, Cambodia was under various regimes, from French colonial rule, a Japanese puppet state (1945), an independent kingdom (1953–1970), a military republic (1970–1975), the Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979), a Vietnamese-backed communist regime (1979–1989), a transitional communist regime (1989–1993) to eventually another kingdom.

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15/10/2011

Betty Driver, English actress, singer, and author (born 1920)

Betty Mary Driver was a British actress and singer, best known for her role as Betty Williams in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street, a role she played for 42 years from 1969 to 2011, appearing in 2,732 episodes. She had previously appeared as Mrs Edgley in Coronation Street spin-off Pardon the Expression (1965–1966) opposite Arthur Lowe. In her early career Driver was a singer, appearing in musical films such as Boots! Boots! (1934), opposite George Formby, and in Penny Paradise (1938), directed by Carol Reed. She was made an MBE in the 2000 New Year Honours.

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15/10/2010

Richard C. Miller, American photographer (born 1912)

Richard Crump Miller was an American photographer best known for his vintage carbro prints, photos of celebrities, and work documenting the Hollywood Freeway.

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Mildred Fay Jefferson, American physician and activist (born 1926)

Mildred Fay Jefferson was an American physician and anti-abortion activist. The first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School, the first woman to graduate in surgery from Harvard Medical School, and the first woman to become a member of the Boston Surgical Society, she is known for her opposition to the legalization of abortion and her work as president of the National Right to Life Committee.

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Johnny Sheffield, American actor (born 1931)

Johnny Sheffield was an American actor who, between 1939 and 1947, portrayed Boy in the Tarzan film series and, between 1949 and 1955, played Bomba, the Jungle Boy.

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15/10/2009

Heinz Versteeg, Dutch-German footballer (born 1939)

Heinz Versteeg was a Dutch professional footballer active primarily in Germany. Versteeg played as a striker for Meidericher SV and Hamborn 07.

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15/10/2008

Edie Adams, American actress and singer (born 1927)

Edie Adams was an American comedian, actress, singer and businesswoman who was prominent in the second half of the 1900s. She earned a Tony Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award.

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Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca, Turkish soldier and poet (born 1914)

Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca was one of the most prolific Turkish poets of the Turkish Republic with more than 60 collections of his poems published as of 2007. He was a laureate of the Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath Award.

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Jack Narz, American game show host and announcer (born 1922)

John Lawrence Narz Jr. was an American radio personality, television host, and singer.

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15/10/2007

Piet Boukema, Dutch jurist and politician (born 1933)

Pieter Jan (Piet) Boukema was a Dutch jurist and politician. He was a member of the Provinciale Staten of North Holland from 1966 to 1970, of the Senate of the Netherlands from 1970 to 1976 and of the Raad van State from 1976 to 2000.

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15/10/2005

Jason Collier, American basketball player (born 1977)

Jason Jeffrey Collier was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

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Matti Wuori, Finnish lawyer and politician (born 1945)

Matti Ossian Wuori was a Finnish lawyer, politician, and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Green League in 1999–2004.

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15/10/2004

Per Højholt, Danish poet (born 1928)

Per Højholt was a Danish poet. Højholt had his debut in 1948 when he published "De nøgne", a series of poems which appeared in the magazine Heretica. His first collection was Hesten og solen, featuring religiously inspired poems. A major work came with Poetens hoved which appeared in 1963. This collection took a Modernist stance and meant a break with late Symbolism. Although a highly experimental and unorthodox writer, he became a popular poet. This is not least due to Gittes monologer. He toured the country with his recitals of these monologues which received considerable attention.

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15/10/2003

Ben Metcalfe, Canadian journalist and activist (born 1919)

Eustace Bennett Metcalfe was a Canadian journalist who, in 1972, became the first chairman of Greenpeace.

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15/10/2001

Zhang Xueliang, Chinese general and warlord (born 1901)

Zhang Xueliang, also known by the epithet "Young Marshal" in contrast to his father "Old Marshal" Zhang Zuolin, was a Chinese general. He is best known for his role in the Xi'an Incident in 1936, in which he arrested Chiang Kai-shek and forced him to form a Second United Front with the Chinese Communist Party against the Japanese.

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15/10/2000

Konrad Emil Bloch, Polish-American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1912)

Konrad Emil Bloch was a German-American biochemist. Bloch received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1964 for discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of the cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism.

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Vincent Canby, American journalist and critic (born 1924)

Vincent Canby was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for The New York Times from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. He reviewed more than one thousand films during his tenure there.

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15/10/1999

Josef Locke, British-Irish soldier, policeman, tenor and actor (born 1917)

Joseph McLaughlin, known professionally as Josef Locke, was an Irish tenor. He was successful in the United Kingdom and Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s.

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15/10/1995

Bengt Åkerblom, Swedish ice hockey player (born 1967)

Bengt Ture Åkerblom was a Swedish professional ice hockey player.

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Marco Campos, Brazilian racing driver, only driver ever killed in the International Formula 3000 series (born 1976)

Marco Antônio Ferreira Campos was a Brazilian racing driver. He died in an accident in a Formula 3000 race at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, making him the only driver to be fatally injured in the International Formula 3000 series.

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15/10/1994

Sarah Kofman, French philosopher and academic (born 1934)

Sarah Kofman was a French philosopher.

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15/10/1993

Aydın Sayılı, Turkish historian and academic (born 1913)

Aydın Sayılı was a Turkish historian of science. Sayılı's portrait is depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 5 lira banknote issued in 2009. He was the first PhD recipient in the world in the field of the history of science.

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15/10/1990

Delphine Seyrig, French actress and director (born 1932)

Delphine Claire Beltiane Seyrig was a Lebanese-born French actress and film director. She came to prominence in Alain Resnais's 1961 film Last Year at Marienbad, and later acted in films by Chantal Akerman, Luis Buñuel, Jacques Demy, Marguerite Duras, Ulrike Ottinger, François Truffaut, and Fred Zinneman. She directed three films, including the documentary Sois belle et tais-toi (1981).

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15/10/1989

Danilo Kiš, Serbian novelist, short story writer, essayist and translator. (born 1935)

Danilo Kiš was a Yugoslav and Serbian novelist, short story writer, essayist and translator. His best known works include Hourglass, A Tomb for Boris Davidovich and The Encyclopedia of the Dead.

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15/10/1988

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, English composer, music critic, pianist and writer (born 1892)

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji was an English composer, music critic, pianist and writer. His music, written over a period of seventy years, ranges from sets of miniatures to works lasting several hours. One of the most prolific 20th-century composers, he is best known for his piano pieces, notably nocturnes such as Gulistān and Villa Tasca, and large-scale, technically intricate compositions, which include seven symphonies for piano solo, four toccatas, Sequentia cyclica and 100 Transcendental Studies. He felt alienated from English society by reason of his homosexuality and mixed ancestry, and had a lifelong tendency to seclusion.

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15/10/1987

Thomas Sankara, Burkinabe captain and politician, 5th President of Burkina Faso (born 1949)

Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara was a Burkinabé military officer, Marxist and Pan-Africanist revolutionary who, following his takeover in a coup, remained in power as the first President of Burkina Faso from 1983 until his assassination in 1987. He was also the 5th Prime Minister of Upper Volta from January to May 1983.

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Donald Wandrei, American author and poet (born 1908)

Donald Albert Wandrei was an American science fiction, fantasy and weird fiction writer, poet and editor. He was the older brother of science fiction writer and artist Howard Wandrei. He had fourteen stories in Weird Tales, another sixteen in Astounding Stories, plus a few in other magazines including Esquire. Wandrei was the co-founder of the prestigious fantasy/horror publishing house Arkham House.

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15/10/1983

Pat O'Brien, American actor (born 1899)

William Joseph Patrick O'Brien was an American film actor with more than 100 screen credits. Of Irish descent, he often played Irish and Irish-American characters and was referred to as "Hollywood's Irishman in Residence" in the press. One of the best-known screen actors of the 1930s and 1940s, he played priests, cops, military figures, pilots, and reporters. He is especially well-remembered for his roles in Knute Rockne, All American (1940), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), and Some Like It Hot (1959). He was frequently paired onscreen with Hollywood star and close friend James Cagney. O'Brien also appeared on stage and television.

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15/10/1980

Mikhail Lavrentyev, Russian physicist and mathematician (born 1900)

Mikhail Alekseyevich Lavrentyev was a Soviet mathematician and hydrodynamicist.

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Apostolos Nikolaidis, Greek footballer and volleyball player (born 1896)

Apostolos Nikolaidis was a Greek athlete, football manager and businessman. He was a leading board member and president of Panathinaikos A.O.

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15/10/1978

W. Eugene Smith, American photojournalist (born 1918)

William Eugene Smith was an American photojournalist. He has been described as "perhaps the single most important American photographer in the development of the editorial photo essay." His major photo essays include World War II photographs, the visual stories of an American country doctor and a nurse midwife, the clinic of Albert Schweitzer in French Equatorial Africa, the city of Pittsburgh, and the pollution which damaged the health of the residents of Minamata in Japan. His 1948 series, Country Doctor, photographed for Life, is now recognized as "the first extended editorial photo story".

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Rolf Stenersen, Norwegian businessman (born 1899)

Rolf Kristian Eckersberg Stenersen was a Norwegian businessman, non-fiction writer, essayist, novelist, playwright and biographer. He was also a track and field athlete and art collector.

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15/10/1976

Carlo Gambino, Italian-American mob boss (born 1902)

Carlo Gambino was a Sicilian crime boss who was the leader and namesake of the Gambino crime family of New York City. Following the Apalachin Meeting in 1957, and the imprisonment of Vito Genovese in 1959, Gambino took over the Commission of the American Mafia and played a powerful role in organized crime until his death from a heart attack in 1976. During a criminal career that spanned over fifty years, Gambino served only twenty-two months in prison for a tax evasion charge in 1937.

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15/10/1968

Virginia Lee Burton, American author and illustrator (born 1909)

Virginia Lee Burton, also known by her married name Virginia Demetrios, was an American illustrator and children's book author. She wrote and illustrated seven children's books, including Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (1939) and The Little House (1943), which won the Caldecott Medal. She also illustrated six books by other authors.

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15/10/1966

Frederick Montague, 1st Baron Amwell, English lieutenant and politician (born 1876)

Frederick Montague, 1st Baron Amwell, CBE was a British Labour Party politician.

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15/10/1965

Abraham Fraenkel, German-Israeli mathematician and academic (born 1891)

Abraham Fraenkel was a German-born Israeli mathematician. He was an early Zionist and the first Dean of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is known for his contributions to axiomatic set theory, especially his additions to Ernst Zermelo's axioms, which resulted in the Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory.

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15/10/1964

Cole Porter, American composer and songwriter (born 1891)

Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in Hollywood films.

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15/10/1963

Horton Smith, American golfer and captain (born 1908)

Horton Smith was an American professional golfer, best known as the winner of the first and third Masters Tournaments.

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15/10/1961

Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala', Indian poet and author (born 1896)

Suryakant Tripathi was an Indian poet, writer, composer, and sketch artist who wrote in Hindi. He is considered one of the four major pillars of the Chhayavad period in Hindi literature. He is renowned with the epithet Mahāprāṇ and his pen name Nirālā.

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15/10/1960

Clara Kimball Young, American actress and producer (born 1890)

Clara Kimball Young was an American film actress who was popular in the early silent film era.

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15/10/1959

Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian soldier and politician (born 1909)

Stepan Andriyovych Bandera was a Ukrainian far-right leader of the radical militant faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the OUN-B.

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Lipót Fejér, Hungarian mathematician and academic (born 1880)

Lipót Fejér was a Hungarian mathematician.

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15/10/1958

Asaf Halet Çelebi, Turkish poet and author (born 1907)

Asaf Halet Çelebi was a Turkish mystical poet. Although not very widely known, due to his erudite and often foreign-influenced style, he is considered to be Turkey's first surrealist poet.

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Elizabeth Alexander, British geologist, academic, and physicist (born 1908)

Frances Elizabeth Somerville Alexander was a British geologist, academic, and physicist, whose wartime work with radar and radio led to early developments in radio astronomy and whose post-war work on the geology of Singapore is considered a significant foundation to contemporary research. Alexander earned her PhD from Newnham College, Cambridge, and worked in Radio Direction Finding at Singapore Naval Base from 1938 to 1941. In January 1941, unable to return to Singapore from New Zealand, she became Head of Operations Research in New Zealand's Radio Development Lab, Wellington. In 1945, Alexander correctly interpreted that anomalous radar signals picked up on Norfolk Island were caused by the sun. This interpretation became pioneering work in the field of radio astronomy, making her one of the first women scientists to work in that field, albeit briefly.

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15/10/1955

Fumio Hayasaka, Japanese composer (born 1914)

Fumio Hayasaka was a Japanese composer of classical music and film scores.

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15/10/1948

Edythe Chapman, American actress (born 1863)

Edythe Chapman was an American stage and silent film actress.

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15/10/1946

Hermann Göring, German general and Nazi politician, convicted Nuremburg war criminal (born 1893)

Hermann Wilhelm Göring was a German politician, aviator, military commander, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which controlled Germany from 1933 to 1945. He also served as Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe, a position he held until the final days of the regime.

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15/10/1945

Pierre Laval, French lawyer and politician, 101st Prime Minister of France, convicted Vichy collaborator (born 1883)

Pierre Jean Marie Laval was a French politician. He served as Prime Minister of France three times: 1931–1932 and 1935–1936 during the Third Republic, and 1942–1944 during Vichy France. After the war, Laval was tried as a Nazi collaborator and executed for treason.

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15/10/1940

Lluís Companys, Catalan lawyer and politician, President of Catalonia (born 1882)

Lluís Companys i Jover was a Catalan politician from Spain who served as president of Catalonia from 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War.

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15/10/1934

Raymond Poincaré, French lawyer and politician, 10th President of France (born 1860)

Raymond Nicolas Landry Poincaré was a French statesman who served as President of France from 1913 to 1920, and three times as Prime Minister of France. He was a conservative leader, primarily committed to political and social stability.

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15/10/1930

Herbert Henry Dow, Canadian-American businessman, founded the Dow Chemical Company (born 1866)

Herbert Henry Dow was an American chemical industrialist who founded the American multinational conglomerate Dow Chemical. A graduate of the Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland, Ohio, he was a prolific inventor of chemical processes, compounds, and products, notably bromine extraction from brine water, and was a successful businessman.

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15/10/1925

Dolores Jiménez y Muro, Mexican revolutionary (born 1848?)

Dolores Jiménez y Muro was a Mexican revolutionary, schoolteacher, poet, and military commander. Born in Aguascalientes, Jiménez and her family moved to San Luis Potosí when she was young. She did not receive a formal education but was privately tutored and became well-known for her civic poetry. After Porfirio Díaz became president of Mexico in 1876, establishing a dictatorial regime, Jiménez grew concerned with the plight of Mexico's poor, becoming a schoolteacher and philanthropist. She also began writing for various political journals. In 1904, she moved to Mexico City, where she joined the liberal Ponciano Arriaga Liberal Club and helped found the trade union federation Mexican Socialism.

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15/10/1918

Sai Baba of Shirdi, Indian guru and saint (born 1838)

Sai Baba of Shirdi, also known as Shirdi Sai Baba, was an Indian spiritual master considered to be a saint, and revered by both Hindu and Muslim devotees during and after his lifetime.

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15/10/1917

Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy (born 1876)

Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod, better known by the stage name Mata Hari, was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I. She was executed by firing squad in France.

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15/10/1910

Stanley Ketchel, American boxer (born 1886)

Stanisław Kiecal, better known in the boxing world as Stanley Ketchel, was an American professional boxer who became one of the greatest World Middleweight Champions in history. He was nicknamed "The Michigan Assassin." He was murdered at a ranch in Conway, Missouri, at the age of 24.

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15/10/1900

Zdeněk Fibich, Czech pianist and composer (born 1850)

Zdeněk Fibich was a Czech composer of classical music. Among his compositions are chamber works, symphonic poems, three symphonies, at least seven operas, melodramas including the substantial trilogy Hippodamia, liturgical music including a mass – a missa brevis; and a large cycle of piano works called Moods, Impressions, and Reminiscences. The piano cycle served as a diary of sorts of his love for a piano pupil, and one of the pieces formed the basis for the short instrumental work Poème, for which Fibich is best remembered today.

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15/10/1891

Gilbert Arthur à Beckett, English author and songwriter (born 1837)

Gilbert Arthur à Beckett was an English writer.

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15/10/1838

Letitia Elizabeth Landon, English poet and novelist (born 1802)

Letitia Elizabeth Landon was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. Her first major breakthrough came with The Improvisatrice and she developed the metrical romance towards the Victorian ideal of the Victorian monologue, influencing fellow English writers such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson and Christina Rossetti. Her influence can also be found in the United States, where she was very popular. Edgar Allan Poe regarded her genius as self-evident.

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15/10/1837

Ivan Dmitriev, Russian poet and politician, Russian Minister of Justice (born 1760)

Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev was a Russian statesman. He was also a poet associated with the sentimentalist movement in Russian literature.

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15/10/1820

Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg (born 1771)

Karl Philipp, Fürst zu Schwarzenberg was an Austrian Generalissimo and former Field Marshal. He first entered military service in 1788 and fought against the Turks. During the French Revolutionary War, he fought on the allied side against France and in that period rose through the ranks of the Imperial Army. During the Napoleonic Wars, he fought in the Battle of Wagram (1809), which the Austrians lost decisively against Napoleon. He had to fight for Napoleon in the battles of Gorodechno and Wolkowisk (1812) against the Russians and won. During the War of the Sixth Coalition, he was in command of the allied army that decisively defeated Napoleon in the Battle of Leipzig (1813). He participated in the Battle of Paris (1814), which forced Napoleon to abdicate.

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15/10/1819

Sergey Vyazmitinov, Russian general and politician, War Governor of Saint Petersburg (born 1744)

Count Sergey Kuzmich Vyazmitinov was a Russian general and statesman.

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15/10/1817

Tadeusz Kościuszko, Polish-Lithuanian general and engineer (born 1746)

Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko was a Polish military engineer, statesman, and military leader who became a national hero in Poland, the United States, Lithuania, and Belarus. He fought in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's struggles against Russia and Prussia, and on the U.S. side in the American Revolutionary War. As Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Forces, he led the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising.

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15/10/1811

Nathaniel Dance-Holland, English painter and politician (born 1735)

Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, 1st Baronet was a British painter and politician.

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15/10/1810

Alfred Moore, American captain and judge (born 1755)

Alfred Moore was an American judge, lawyer, planter and military officer who became an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Moore Square, a park located in the Moore Square Historic District in Raleigh, North Carolina, was named in his honor, as was Moore County, North Carolina. He was also a founder and trustee of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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15/10/1788

Samuel Greig, Scottish-Russian admiral (born 1735)

Samuel Greig, also known as Samuil Karlovich Greig, was a British-born Russian naval officer who served in the Seven Years' War, Russo-Turkish War and Russo-Swedish War. His son Aleksey Greig also served in the Imperial Russian Navy.

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15/10/1715

Humphry Ditton, English mathematician and philosopher (born 1675)

Humphry Ditton was an English mathematician. He was the author of several influential works.

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15/10/1690

Juan de Valdés Leal, Spanish painter and illustrator (born 1622)

Juan de Valdés Leal was a Spanish painter and etcher of the Baroque era.

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15/10/1684

Géraud de Cordemoy, French historian, philosopher and lawyer (born 1626)

Géraud de Cordemoy was a French philosopher, historian and lawyer. He is mainly known for his works in metaphysics and for his theory of language.

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15/10/1674

Robert Herrick, English poet (born 1591)

Robert Herrick was a 17th-century English lyric poet and Anglican cleric. He is best known for Hesperides, a book of poems. This includes the carpe diem poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time", with the first line "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may".

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15/10/1564

Andreas Vesalius, Belgian-Greek anatomist, physician, and author (born 1514)

Andries van Wezel, Latinized as Andreas Vesalius, was an anatomist and physician who wrote De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem, which is considered one of the most influential books on human anatomy and a major advance over the long-dominant work of Galen. Vesalius is often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy. He was born in Brussels, which was then part of the Habsburg Netherlands. He was a professor at the University of Padua (1537–1542) and later became Imperial physician at the court of Emperor Charles V.

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15/10/1496

Gilbert, Count of Montpensier (born 1443)

Gilbert de Bourbon, Count of Montpensier, was a member of the House of Bourbon. He was the son of Louis I, Count of Montpensier and Gabrielle de La Tour d'Auvergne, Count of Montpensier and Dauphin d'Auvergne. He was appointed to the Order of Saint Michael by King Charles VIII of France in October 1483.

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15/10/1404

Marie Valois, French princess (born 1344)

Marie of France was the sixth child and second daughter of John II of France and Bonne of Bohemia.

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15/10/1389

Pope Urban VI (born 1318)

Pope Urban VI, born Bartolomeo Prignano, was head of the Catholic Church from 8 April 1378 to his death, in October 1389. He was the last pope elected from outside the College of Cardinals. His pontificate began shortly after the end of the Avignon Papacy. It was marked by immense conflict between rival factions as a part of the Western Schism, with much of Europe, such as France, the Iberian Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, and Scotland recognizing Clement VII, based in Avignon, as the true pope.

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15/10/1385

Dionysius I, Metropolitan of Moscow

Saint Dionysius I was the metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church from 1384 to 1385.

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15/10/1326

Walter Stapledon, bishop and Lord High Treasurer of England, and his brother Sir Richard Stapledon, judge and politician.

Walter Stapeldon was an English cleric and administrator who was Bishop of Exeter from 1308 and twice served as Lord High Treasurer of England, in 1320 and from 1322 to 1325. He founded what became Exeter College, Oxford and contributed liberally to the rebuilding of Exeter Cathedral, where his tomb and monument survive. He was killed by a mob during the London uprising.

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15/10/1243

Hedwig of Silesia, Polish saint (born 1174)

Hedwig of Silesia, a member of the Bavarian comital House of Andechs, was Duchess of Silesia from 1201 and of Greater Poland from 1231 as well as High Duchess consort of Poland from 1232 until 1238. She was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1267 by Pope Clement IV.

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15/10/1240

Razia Sultana, sultan of Delhi (born 1205)

Raziyyat-Ud-Dunya Wa Ud-Din, popularly known as Razia Sultan, was the Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate from 1236 until her deposition in 1240. She was the first and only female ruler of the Indian Subcontinent during the Islamic Period.

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15/10/1173

Petronilla of Aragon (born 1135)

Petronilla, whose name is also spelled Petronila or Petronella, was Queen of Aragon (1137–1164) from the abdication of her father, Ramiro II, in 1137 until her own abdication in 1164. After her abdication she acted as regent during the minority of her son Alfonso II of Aragon (1164–1173). She was the last ruling member of the Jiménez dynasty in the Kingdom of Aragon, and by marriage to Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona brought the House of Barcelona to the throne of Aragon, uniting the Kingdom of Aragon with the County of Barcelona to create the Crown of Aragon.

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15/10/1080

Rudolf of Rheinfelden (born 1025)

Rudolf of Rheinfelden was Duke of Swabia from 1057 to 1079. Initially a follower of his brother-in-law, the Salian emperor Henry IV, his election as German anti-king in 1077 marked the outbreak of the Great Saxon Revolt and the first phase of open conflict in the Investiture Controversy between Emperor and Papacy. After a series of armed conflicts, Rudolf succumbed to his injuries after his forces defeated Henry's in the Battle on the Elster.

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15/10/1002

Otto-Henry, Duke of Burgundy (born 946)

Henry I, called the Great, was Duke of Burgundy from 965 to his death and Count of Nevers through his first marriage. He is sometimes known as Odo-Henry or Otto-Henry, since his birth name was "Odo" and he only adopted "Henry" on being elected duke of Burgundy.

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15/10/0961

Abd-al-Rahman III, caliph of Córdoba

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥakam al-Rabdī ibn Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Dākhil al-Marwānī al-Umawī al-Qurashī, or simply ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III, was the Umayyad Emir of Córdoba from 912 to 929, at which point he founded the Caliphate of Córdoba, serving as its first caliph until his death. Abd al-Rahman won the laqab (sobriquet) al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh in his early 20s when he supported the Maghrawa Berbers in North Africa against Fatimid expansion and later claimed the title of Caliph for himself. His half-century reign was known for its religious tolerance.

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15/10/0925

Rhazes, Persian polymath (born 864)

Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, also known as Rhazes, 864 or 865 – 925 or 935 CE, was a Persian physician, philosopher and alchemist who lived during the Islamic Golden Age. He is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of medicine, and also wrote on logic, astronomy and grammar. He is also known for his criticism of religion, especially with regard to the concepts of prophethood and revelation. However, the religio-philosophical aspects of his thought, which also included a belief in five "eternal principles", are fragmentary and only reported by authors who were often hostile to him.

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15/10/0912

Abdullah ibn Muhammad al-Umawi, Spanish emir (born 844)

Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman was the seventh emir of Córdoba, reigning from 888 to 912 in Al-Andalus.

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15/10/0898

Lambert of Italy (born 880)

Lambert was the King of Italy from 891, Emperor, co-ruling with his father from 892, and Duke of Spoleto and Camerino from his father's death in 894. He was the son of Guy III of Spoleto and Ageltrude, born in San Rufino. He was the last ruler to issue a capitulary in the Carolingian tradition.

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15/10/0892

Al-Mu'tamid, Abbasid caliph

Abu’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Muʿtamid ʿalā’Llāh, better known by his regnal name al-Muʿtamid ʿalā 'llāh, was the caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate from 870 to 892. His reign marks the end of the "Anarchy at Samarra" and the start of the Abbasid restoration, but he was largely a ruler in name only. Power was held by his brother al-Muwaffaq, who held the loyalty of the military. Al-Mu'tamid's authority was circumscribed further after a failed attempt to flee to the domains controlled by Ahmad ibn Tulun in late 882, and he was placed under house arrest by his brother. In 891, when al-Muwaffaq died, loyalists attempted to restore power to the Caliph, but were quickly overcome by al-Muwaffaq's son al-Mu'tadid, who assumed his father's powers. When al-Mu'tamid died in 892, al-Mu'tadid succeeded him as caliph.

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15/10/0412

Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria

Theophilus of Alexandria was the 23rd Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of Saint Mark from 385 to 412. He is remembered as a pivotal figure in late antique Christianity, known for his assertive role in suppressing paganism and managing ecclesiastical disputes that shaped the doctrinal course of the early Church.

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01/01/1970

Lucretius, Roman poet and philosopher (born 98 BC)

Titus Lucretius Carus was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem De rerum natura, a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, which usually is translated into English as On the Nature of Things—and somewhat less often as On the Nature of the Universe. Very little is known about Lucretius's life; the only certainty is that he was either a friend or client of Gaius Memmius, to whom the poem was addressed and dedicated. De rerum natura was a considerable influence on the Augustan poets, particularly Virgil and Horace. The work was almost lost during the Middle Ages, but was rediscovered in 1417 in a monastery in Germany by Poggio Bracciolini. It played an important role both in the development of atomism and the efforts of various figures of the Enlightenment era to construct a new Christian humanism.

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