Died on Friday, 17th October – Famous Deaths

17/10/2024

Mitzi Gaynor, American actress, singer, and dancer (born 1931)

Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber, known professionally as Mitzi Gaynor, was an American actress, singer, and dancer. Her notable films included We're Not Married! (1952), There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), The Birds and the Bees (1956), and South Pacific (1958) – for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical at the 1959 awards.

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Toshiyuki Nishida, Japanese actor (born 1947)

Toshiyuki Nishida was a Japanese actor. He won two Japanese Academy Awards for best actor, for The Silk Road (1988) and Tsuribaka Nisshi 6 (1993). He also won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actor for Get Up! and Tsuribaka Nisshi 14 (2003). Outside Japan he was best known for his role as Pigsy in the TV series Monkey.

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Andrew Schally, Polish-American endocrinologist (born 1926)

Andrzej Viktor "Andrew" Schally was a Polish-American endocrinologist who was a co-recipient, with Roger Guillemin and Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

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17/10/2019

Elijah Cummings, American politician and civil rights advocate (born 1951)

Elijah Eugene Cummings was an American politician and lawyer who served in the United States House of Representatives for Maryland's 7th congressional district from 1996 until his death in 2019, when he was succeeded by his predecessor Kweisi Mfume. The district he represented included over half of the city of Baltimore, including most of the majority-black precincts of Baltimore County, and most of Howard County, Maryland. A member of the Democratic Party, Cummings previously served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1983 to 1996.

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17/10/2017

Gord Downie, Canadian musician (born 1964)

Gordon Edgar Downie was a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, musician, writer, poet, and activist. He was the singer and lyricist for the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, which he fronted from its formation in 1984 until his death in 2017. He is revered by many as one of the most influential artists in Canada's music history.

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17/10/2015

Danièle Delorme, French actress and producer (born 1926)

Gabrielle Danièle Marguerite Andrée Girard, known by her stage name Danièle Delorme, was a French actress and film producer, famous for her roles in films directed by Marc Allégret, Julien Duvivier and Yves Robert.

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Howard Kendall, English footballer and manager (born 1946)

Howard Kendall was an English footballer and manager.

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Anne-Marie Lizin, Belgian lawyer and politician (born 1949)

Anne-Marie Lizin-Vanderspeeten was a Belgian politician, who served as the President of the Senate of Belgium from 2004 to 2007.

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Tom Smith, American businessman and politician (born 1947)

Thomas Joel Smith was an American politician and businessman from Pennsylvania. A Democrat for four decades before seeking elective office, Smith switched his registration in 2011 and ran for the United States Senate in the 2012 election as a Republican, losing to the incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Casey Jr.

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17/10/2014

Edwards Barham, American farmer and politician (born 1937)

Erle Edwards Barham was a Republican member of the Louisiana State Senate. He first won the Senate seat in December 1975 beating L. B. Loftin by just 89 votes.

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Masaru Emoto, Japanese author and activist (born 1943)

Masaru Emoto was a Japanese businessman, author and pseudoscientist who claimed that human consciousness could affect the molecular structure of water. His 2004 book The Hidden Messages in Water was a New York Times best seller. His ideas had evolved over the years, and his early work revolved around pseudoscientific hypotheses that water could react to positive thoughts and words and that polluted water could be cleaned through prayer and positive visualization.

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Tom Shaw, American bishop (born 1945)

Marvil Thomas Shaw III was an American Episcopal bishop based in New England and a member of the Society of St. John the Evangelist religious order. In 1995, he was called as the fifteenth Bishop of Massachusetts.

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Berndt von Staden, German diplomat, German Ambassador to the United States (born 1919)

Berndt Robert Alexander Michael von Staden was a German diplomat who was the West German Ambassador to the United States from 1973 until 1979.

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17/10/2013

Mother Antonia, American-Mexican nun and activist (born 1926)

Mother Antonia Brenner, better known as Mother Antonia was an American religious sister and activist who chose to reside and care for inmates at the notorious maximum-security La Mesa Prison in Tijuana, Mexico. As a result of her work, she founded a new community called the Eudist Servants of the 11th Hour.

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Terry Fogerty, English rugby player and coach (born 1944)

Terence "Terry" H. Fogerty was an English professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s and 1970s, and coached in the 1980s. He played at representative level for Great Britain, Lancashire, and Commonwealth XIII, and at club level for Halifax, Wigan and Rochdale Hornets, as a prop or second-row, and coached at club level for Rochdale Hornets. Fogerty is a Halifax Hall of Fame Inductee.

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Arthur Maxwell House, Canadian neurologist and politician, 10th Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador (born 1926)

Arthur Maxwell House, was a Canadian neurologist and the tenth lieutenant governor of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Lou Scheimer, American animator, producer, and voice actor, co-founded the Filmation Company (born 1928)

Louis Scheimer was an American producer and voice actor who was one of the original founders of Filmation. He was also credited as an executive producer of many of its cartoons.

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Rene Simpson, Canadian-American tennis player (born 1966)

Rene Simpson Collins was a Canadian professional tennis player from Sarnia, Ontario. She reached a WTA singles ranking of 70 in 1989 and had a successful NCAA career for Texas Christian University.

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17/10/2012

Milija Aleksic, English-South African footballer (born 1951)

Milija Anthony Aleksic was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, making 138 appearances in the Football League.

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Émile Allais, French skier (born 1912)

Émile Allais was a champion alpine ski racer from France; he won all three events at the 1937 world championships in Chamonix and the gold in the combined in 1938. Born in Megève, he was a dominant racer in the late 1930s and is considered to have been the first great French alpine skier.

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Henry Friedlander, German-American historian and author (born 1930)

Henry Egon Friedlander was a German-American Jewish historian of the Holocaust who was noted for his arguments in favor of broadening the scope of casualties of the Holocaust.

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Stanford R. Ovshinsky, American scientist and businessman, co-founded Energy Conversion Devices (born 1922)

Stanford Robert Ovshinsky was an American engineer, scientist and inventor who over a span of fifty years was granted well over 400 patents, mostly in the areas of energy and information. Many of his inventions have had wide-ranging applications. Among the most prominent are: the nickel-metal hydride battery, which has been widely used in laptop computers, digital cameras, cell phones, and electric and hybrid cars; flexible thin-film solar energy laminates and panels; flat panel liquid crystal displays; rewritable CD and DVD discs; hydrogen fuel cells; and nonvolatile phase-change memory.

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Kōji Wakamatsu, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1936)

Kōji Wakamatsu was a Japanese film director who directed such pink films as Ecstasy of the Angels and Go, Go, Second Time Virgin . He also produced Nagisa Ōshima's controversial film In the Realm of the Senses (1976). He has been called "the most important director to emerge in the pink film genre," and one of "Japan's leading directors of the 1960s".

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17/10/2011

Carl Lindner, Jr., American businessman (born 1919)

Carl Henry Lindner Jr. was an American businessman from Norwood, Ohio, a member of the Lindner family, and one of the world's richest people. According to the 2010 issue of Forbes Billionaires List, Lindner was worth an estimated $1.7 billion.

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17/10/2009

Norma Fox Mazer, American author and educator (born 1931)

Norma Fox Mazer was an American author and teacher, best known for her books for children and young adults. Her novels featured credible young characters confronting difficult situations such as family separation and death.

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Vic Mizzy, American composer (born 1916)

Victor Mizzy was an American composer for television and movies and musician whose best-known works are the themes to the 1960s television sitcoms Green Acres and The Addams Family. Mizzy also wrote top-20 songs from the 1930s to 1940s.

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17/10/2008

Urmas Ott, Estonian journalist and author (born 1955)

Urmas Ott was an Estonian television and radio journalist, and talk show host in Soviet Union, Estonia and Russia.

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Levi Stubbs, American singer (born 1936)

Levi Stubbs was an American baritone singer, widely known as the lead vocalist of the R&B group the Four Tops, that released a variety of Motown hit records during the 1960s and 1970s. He was noted for his powerful, emotional, and dramatic singing style. In 1990, Stubbs was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Four Tops.

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Ben Weider, Canadian businessman, co-founded the International Federation of BodyBuilding & Fitness (born 1923)

Benjamin Weider, was a Canadian soldier, author, historian, fitness proponent, benefactor of the arts, and entrepreneur. He co-founded the International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB) alongside his brother Joe Weider. The Weiders also founded many successful businesses including gyms, nutritional supplements and magazines such as Muscle & Fitness.

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17/10/2007

Joey Bishop, American actor and talk show host (born 1918)

Joseph Abraham Gottlieb, known professionally as Joey Bishop, was an American entertainer who appeared on television as early as 1948 and eventually starred in his own weekly comedy series playing a talk/variety show host, then later hosted a late-night talk show with Regis Philbin as his young sidekick on ABC. He also was a member of the "Rat Pack" with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford. He is listed as the 96th entry on Comedy Central's list of 100 greatest comedians.

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Teresa Brewer, American singer (born 1931)

Teresa Brewer was an American singer whose style incorporated pop, country, jazz, R&B, rock 'n roll, musicals, and novelty songs. She was one of the most prolific and popular female singers of the 1950s, recording around 600 songs.

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Suzy Covey, American scholar and academic (born 1939)

Suzy Covey (Shaw) was an American comics scholar, whose work examined intersections of comics, technology, and sound, including Internet studies and studies of the Comic Book Markup Language. In honor of her work with its comic collections, the Smathers Libraries renamed them the Suzy Covey Comic Book Collection in Special Collections in 2007.

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17/10/2006

Daniel Emilfork, Chilean-French actor (born 1924)

Daniel Emilfork Berenstein, known professionally as Daniel Emilfork, was a Chilean stage and film actor who made his career in France.

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Christopher Glenn, American journalist (born 1938)

Joseph Christopher Glenn was an American radio and television news journalist who worked in broadcasting for over 45 years and spent the final 35 years of his career at CBS, retiring on February 23, 2006 at the age of 68.

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17/10/2004

Uzi Hitman, Israeli singer-songwriter (born 1952)

Uzi Hitman was an Israeli singer-songwriter, composer, actor, director and television personality.

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17/10/2002

Derek Bell, Irish harpist and composer (born 1935)

George Derek Fleetwood Bell, MBE was a Northern Irish harpist, pianist, oboist, musicologist and composer who was best known for his accompaniment work on various instruments with The Chieftains.

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17/10/2001

Jay Livingston, American singer-songwriter (born 1915)

Jay Livingston was an American composer best known as half of a composing-songwriting duo with Ray Evans, with whom he specialized in composing film scores and original soundtrack songs. Livingston composed the music while Evans wrote the lyrics.

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Micheline Ostermeyer, French shot putter, discus thrower, and pianist (born 1922)

Micheline Ostermeyer was a French athlete and concert pianist. She won three medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in shot put, discus throw, and high jump. After retiring from sports in 1950, she became a full-time pianist for fifteen years and then turned to teaching afterwards.

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Rehavam Ze'evi, Israeli historian, general, and politician, Tourism Minister of Israel (born 1926)

Rehavam Ze'evi was an Israeli general and politician who founded the far-right nationalist Moledet party. He mainly advocated for complete cleansing of the Palestinian population through population transfer.

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17/10/2000

Leo Nomellini, Italian-American football player and wrestler (born 1924)

Leo Joseph Nomellini was an Italian-American professional football player and professional wrestler. He played college football for the Minnesota Gophers and was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the first round of the 1950 NFL draft. He played 14 seasons as a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL), all of them with the 49ers, playing his first three years as an offensive tackle as well.

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Joachim Nielsen, Norwegian singer-songwriter and poet (born 1964)

Joachim Nielsen, better known as Jokke, was a Norwegian rock musician and poet. He was the frontman of Norwegian rock band Jokke & Valentinerne, the brother of cartoonist Christopher Nielsen, and son of the artist John David Nielsen. He is considered to be one of the greatest songwriters in Norway.

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17/10/1999

Nicholas Metropolis, Greek-American mathematician and physicist (born 1915)

Nicholas Constantine Metropolis was a Greek-American physicist.

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17/10/1998

Joan Hickson, English actress (born 1906)

Joan Bogle Butler, known professionally as Joan Hickson, was an English actress of theatre, film and television. She was known for her role as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the television series Miss Marple. She also narrated a number of Miss Marple stories on audiobooks.

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Hakim Said, Pakistani scholar and politician, 20th Governor of Sindh (born 1920)

Hakeem Muhammad Saeed was a Pakistani medical researcher, author, scholar, and philanthropist. He served as governor of Sindh Province from 19 July 1993 until 23 January 1994. Saeed was one of Pakistan's most prominent medical researchers in the field of Eastern medicine.

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17/10/1997

Larry Jennings, American magician and author (born 1933)

Larry Jennings was an American magician, best known for his card techniques. He has nine books published by, or written about him. He is also known for being close friends with fellow magician Dai Vernon.

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17/10/1996

Chris Acland, English musician and drummer of Lush (born 1966)

Christopher John Dyke Acland was an English drummer and songwriter. He was the drummer of the London-based alternative rock band Lush.

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17/10/1993

Criss Oliva, American guitarist and songwriter (born 1963)

Christopher Michael Oliva was an American musician who was the lead guitarist and co-founder of the heavy metal band Savatage. During his lifetime, he released seven studio albums and one EP with the band.

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17/10/1992

Herman Johannes, Indonesian scientist, academic, and politician (born 1912)

Herman Johannes was an Indonesian professor, scientist, politician and National Hero. Johannes was the rector of Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta (1961–1966), Coordinator for Higher Education from 1966 to 1979, a member of Indonesia's Presidential Supreme Advisory Council from 1968 to 1978, and the Minister for Public Works and Energy (1950–1951). He was also a member of the Executive Board of UNESCO from 1954 to 1957.

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Orestis Laskos, Greek actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1908)

Orestis Laskos was a Greek film director, screenwriter and actor. He directed 55 films between 1931 and 1971. He also wrote scripts for 24 films between 1929 and 1971.

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17/10/1991

Tennessee Ernie Ford, American singer and actor (born 1919)

Ernest Jennings Ford, known professionally as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American singer and television host who enjoyed success in the country and western, pop, and gospel musical genres. Noted for his rich bass-baritone voice and down-home humor, he is remembered for his hit recordings of "The Shotgun Boogie" and "Sixteen Tons".

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17/10/1987

Abdul Malek Ukil, Bangladeshi lawyer and politician (born 1925)

Abdul Malek Ukil was the president of Bangladesh Awami League, speaker of parliament, home minister, health minister, a member of parliament for many years and a lawyer of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He was one of the drafters of the Constitution of Bangladesh and also one of the founding members of East Bengal Muslim Students League.

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17/10/1983

Raymond Aron, French sociologist, political scientist, and philosopher (born 1905)

Raymond Claude Ferdinand Aron was a French philosopher, sociologist, political scientist, historian and journalist, one of France's most prominent thinkers of the 20th century.

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17/10/1981

Kannadasan Indian author, poet, and songwriter (born 1927)

Muthiah Sathappan Chettiar, better known as Kannadasan, was a poet, film song lyricist, producer, actor, script-writer, editor, philanthropist, and is heralded as one of the greatest and most important lyricists in India. With over 5,000 lyrics, 6,000 poems, and 232 books, Kannadasan is widely known by the sobriquet "Kaviarasu" and he is also considered to be the greatest modern Tamil poet after Subramania Bharati. including novels, epics, plays, essays, his most popular being the 10-part religious book on Hinduism, Arthamulla Indhu Matham. He won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel Cheraman Kathali in the year 1980 and was the first to receive the National Film Award for Best Lyrics, given in 1969 for the film Kuzhanthaikkaga. Like many great poets he also suffered from cyclothymia, which comes under the bipolar disorder spectrum.

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Albert Cohen, Greek-Swiss civil servant and author (born 1895)

Abraham Albert Cohen was a Greek-born Romaniote Jewish Swiss novelist who wrote in French. He worked as a civil servant for various international organizations, such as the International Labour Organization. He became a Swiss citizen in 1919.

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Lina Tsaldari, Greek politician (born 1887)

Lina Tsaldari was a right-wing Greek politician. She became the first female minister in Greece in 1956, serving as the Minister for Social Welfare under Konstantinos Karamanlis' government.

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17/10/1979

S. J. Perelman, American humorist and screenwriter (born 1904)

Sidney Joseph Perelman was an American humorist and screenwriter. He is best known for his humorous short pieces written over many years for The New Yorker. He also wrote for several other magazines, including Judge, as well as books, scripts, and screenplays. Perelman received an Academy Award for screenwriting in 1956.

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John Stuart, Scottish-English actor (born 1898)

John Stuart was a Scottish actor, and was a very popular leading man in British silent films in the 1920s. He successfully made the transition to talking pictures in the 1930s and his film career went on to span almost six decades. He appeared in 172 films, 123 stage plays, and 103 television plays and series.

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Eugenio Mendoza, Venezuelan business tycoon (born 1909)

Eugenio Mendoza Goiticoa was a Venezuelan business tycoon who made important contributions in the modernization of the country during the 20th Century.

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17/10/1978

George Clark, American race car driver (born 1890)

George H. Clark was an American racing driver.

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Giovanni Gronchi, Italian educator, soldier, and politician, 3rd President of the Italian Republic (born 1887)

Giovanni Gronchi was an Italian politician from Christian Democracy who served as the president of Italy from 1955 to 1962 and was marked by a controversial and failed attempt to bring about an "opening to the left" in Italian politics. He was reputed the real holder of the executive power in Italy from 1955 to 1962, behind the various Prime Ministers of this time. During his term he saw the fall of the Italian Empire in 1960, with the independence of the Somali Republic.

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17/10/1973

Ingeborg Bachmann, Austrian author and poet (born 1926)

Ingeborg Bachmann was an Austrian poet and author. She is regarded as one of the major voices of German-language literature in the 20th century. In 1963, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature by German philologist Harald Patzer.

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17/10/1972

Turk Broda, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1914)

Walter Edward "Turk" Broda was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. A goaltender, Broda played his entire career for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1936 and 1951, taking a brief hiatus from 1943 to 1946 to fight in the Second World War. The 1940-41 season saw him win his first Vezina Trophy with a GAA of 2.00 to go along with being named to the NHL First All-Star Team. The following season saw him backstop the team to the Stanley Cup championship, recording a shutout and a record of 8-5.

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George, Crown Prince of Serbia (born 1887)

George, Crown Prince of Serbia, was the eldest son of King Peter I of Serbia and his wife, the former Princess Ljubica of Montenegro. He was the older brother of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia.

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17/10/1970

Pierre Laporte, Canadian journalist, lawyer, and politician (born 1921)

Pierre Laporte was a Canadian lawyer, journalist and politician. He was deputy premier of the province of Quebec when he was kidnapped and murdered by members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) during the October Crisis.

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Vola Vale, American actress (born 1897)

Vola Vale was a silent film actress. She was active in the film industry from 1916 through 1936.

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Quincy Wright, American political scientist and academic (born 1890)

Philip Quincy Wright was an American political scientist based at the University of Chicago known for his pioneering work and expertise in international law, international relations, and security studies. He headed the Causes of War project at the University of Chicago, which resulted in the prominent 1942 multi-volume book A Study of War.

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17/10/1967

Puyi, Chinese emperor (born 1906)

Puyi was the last emperor of China, reigning as the eleventh monarch of the Qing dynasty from 1908 to 1912, and a brief return in 1917, when he was forced to abdicate. Later, he sided with Imperial Japan and was made ruler of Manchukuo—Japanese-occupied Manchuria—in hopes of regaining power as China's emperor. After over 10 years of imprisonment for war crimes following the end of World War II, Puyi worked for four years as a gardener in Beijing, China.

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17/10/1966

Sidney Hatch, American runner and soldier (born 1883)

Sidney Herbert Hatch was an American athlete who competed for the United States in the 1904 Summer Olympics held in St. Louis, United States, in the 4-mile team where he won the silver medal with his teammates James Lightbody, Frank Verner, Lacey Hearn and Frenchman Albert Corey.

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Wieland Wagner, German director and manager (born 1917)

Wieland Wagner was a German opera director, and a grandson of Richard Wagner. As co-director of the Bayreuth Festival when it re-opened after World War II, he was noted for innovative new stagings of the musical stage works, departing from the naturalistic scenery and lighting of the 19th-century models.

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17/10/1965

Bart King, American cricketer (born 1873)

John Barton "Bart" King was an American cricketer, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. King was part of the Philadelphia team that played from the end of the 19th century until the outbreak of World War I. This period of cricket in the United States was dominated by "gentlemen cricketers"—men of independent wealth who did not need to work. King, an amateur from a middle-class family, was able to devote time to cricket thanks to a job set up by his teammates.

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17/10/1963

Jacques Hadamard, French mathematician and academic (born 1865)

Jacques Salomon Hadamard was a French mathematician who made major contributions in number theory, complex analysis, differential geometry, and partial differential equations.

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17/10/1962

Natalia Goncharova, Russian painter, costume designer, and set designer (born 1882)

Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova was a Russian avant-garde artist, painter, costume designer, writer, illustrator, and set designer. Goncharova's lifelong partner was fellow Russian avant-garde artist Mikhail Larionov. She was a founding member of both the Jack of Diamonds (1909–1911), Moscow's first radical independent exhibiting group, the more radical Donkey's Tail (1912–1913), and with Larionov invented Rayonism (1912–1914). She was also a member of the German-based art movement Der Blaue Reiter. Born in Russia, she moved to Paris in 1921 and lived there until her death.

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17/10/1958

Paul Outerbridge, American photographer (born 1896)

Paul Outerbridge, Jr. was an American photographer known for pioneering the carbon-transfer printing process in color photography. His work included still lives, fashion photography, advertising, and provocative female nudes.

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Charlie Townsend, English cricketer and lawyer (born 1876)

Charles Lucas Townsend was a Gloucestershire cricketer. An all-round cricketer, Townsend was classically stylish, left-handed batsman, who was able to hit well despite his slender build. His off-side strokes were particularly effective, and his driving allowed him to score at a consistent pace throughout his major innings. In his younger days Townsend was also a spin bowler, who relied chiefly on a big break from leg but could also turn the ball the other way. He was often extremely difficult on sticky wickets but very rarely effective on good ones.

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17/10/1957

Wilhelmina Hay Abbott, Scottish suffragist and feminist (born 1884)

Wilhelmina Hay Abbott, also known by the name "Elizabeth Abbott," was a Scottish suffragist, editor, and feminist lecturer, and wife of author George Frederick Abbott.

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17/10/1956

Anne Crawford, Israeli-English actress (born 1920)

Imelda Anne Crawford was a British film actress.

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17/10/1955

Dimitrios Maximos, Greek banker and politician (born 1873)

Dimitrios E. Maximos was a Greek banker and politician. He briefly served as Prime Minister of Greece after World War II.

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17/10/1948

Royal Cortissoz, American art critic (born 1869)

Royal Cortissoz was an American art historian and, from 1891 until his death, the art critic for the New York Herald Tribune. During his tenure at the newspaper, he consistently championed traditionalism and decried modernism. Of the latter, he once wrote, "It will someday prove a kind of Victorian 'dud', with a difference, obviously, but a 'dud' just the same."

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17/10/1938

Karl Kautsky, Czech-German journalist, philosopher, and theoretician (born 1854)

Karl Johann Kautsky was an Austrian-born Marxist theorist. One of the most authoritative promulgators of orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895, he was for decades the leading theorist of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Second International. His influence was so pervasive that he was often called the "Pope of Marxism", with his views remaining dominant until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. His influence extended beyond Germany, shaping the development of Marxism in the Russian Empire, where he was seen by figures like Vladimir Lenin as the leading authority on Marxist theory.

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17/10/1937

J. Bruce Ismay, English businessman (born 1862)

Joseph Bruce Ismay was an English businessman who was the chairman and managing director of the White Star Line. He was the highest-ranking White Star official to survive the 1912 sinking of the company's flagship RMS Titanic.

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17/10/1931

Alfons Maria Jakob, German neurologist and academic (born 1884)

Alfons Maria Jakob was a German neurologist who worked in the field of neuropathology.

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17/10/1928

Frank Dicksee, English painter and illustrator (born 1853)

Sir Francis Bernard Dicksee was an English Victorian painter and illustrator, best known for his pictures of dramatic literary, historical, and legendary scenes. He also was a noted painter of portraits of fashionable women, which helped to bring him success in his own time.

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17/10/1920

Michael Fitzgerald (Irish republican) died on Hunger Strike (born 1881)

Michael Fitzgerald also known as Mick Fitzgerald, was an Irish militant and Republican activist who was among the first members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and played a significant role in organising it. He rose to the rank of Commandant, Officer Commanding (OC) in the First Battalion, Cork Number 2 Brigade. He died during the 1920 Cork hunger strike at Cork Gaol. Fitzgerald led 65 men in the hunger strike which was in protest at their detention without being either charged or convicted of any crime. The hunger strike is credited with bringing additional world-wide attention to the Irish cause for independence.

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17/10/1918

Malak Hifni Nasif, Egyptian poet and author (born 1886)

Malak Hifni Nasif was an Egyptian feminist who contributed greatly to the intellectual and political discourse on the advancement of Egyptian women in the early 20th century.

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17/10/1910

Julia Ward Howe, American poet and songwriter (born 1819)

Julia Ward Howe was an American author and poet, known for writing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as new lyrics to the song "John Brown's Body," and the original 1870 pacifist Mothers' Day Proclamation. She was also an advocate for abolitionism and a social activist, particularly for women's suffrage.

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17/10/1893

Patrice de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta, French general and politician, 3rd President of France (born 1808)

Marie Edme Patrice Maurice de MacMahon, marquis de MacMahon, duc de Magenta, was a French general and politician who served as President of France from 1873 to 1879. He was elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France by Napoleon III.

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17/10/1889

Nikolay Chernyshevsky, Russian philosopher and critic (born 1828)

Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky was a Russian literary and social critic, journalist, novelist, democrat, and socialist philosopher, often identified as a utopian socialist and leading theoretician of Russian nihilism and the Narodniks. He was the dominant intellectual figure of the 1860s revolutionary democratic movement in Russia, despite spending much of his later life in exile to Siberia, and was later highly praised by Karl Marx, Georgi Plekhanov, and Vladimir Lenin.

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17/10/1887

Gustav Kirchhoff, German physicist and chemist (born 1824)

Gustav Robert Kirchhoff was a German physicist and mathematician who contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy, and the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects. He coined the term black body in 1860.

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17/10/1868

Laura Secord, Canadian war heroine (born 1775)

Laura Secord was a Canadian woman involved in the War of 1812. She is known for having walked 20 miles (32 km) out of American-occupied territory in 1813 to warn British forces of an impending American attack. Her contribution to the war was little known during her lifetime, but since her death she has been frequently honoured in Canada. Though Laura Secord had no relation to it, most Canadians associate her with the Laura Secord Chocolates company, named after her on the centennial of her walk.

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17/10/1849

Frédéric Chopin, Polish pianist and composer (born 1810)

Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading composer of his era whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation".

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17/10/1837

Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Austrian pianist and composer (born 1778)

Johann Nepomuk Hummel was an Austrian composer and pianist. His music reflects the transition from the Classical to the Romantic musical era. He was a pupil of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Salieri, and Joseph Haydn. Hummel significantly influenced later piano music of the nineteenth century, particularly in the works of Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, and Felix Mendelssohn.

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17/10/1836

Orest Kiprensky, Russian painter (born 1782)

Orest Adamovich Kiprensky was a leading Russian portraitist in the Age of Romanticism. His most familiar work is probably his portrait of Alexander Pushkin (1827), which prompted the poet to remark that "the mirror flatters me."

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17/10/1806

Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haitian commander and politician, Governor-General of Haiti (born 1758)

Jean-Jacques Dessalines was the first Haitian Emperor, leader of the Haitian Revolution, and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution. Initially regarded as governor-general, Dessalines was later named Emperor of Haiti as Jacques I (1804–1806) by generals of the Haitian Revolutionary army and ruled in that capacity until being assassinated in 1806. He spearheaded the resistance against French rule of Saint-Domingue, and eventually became the architect of the 1804 massacre of the remaining White French residents of newly independent Haiti. Alongside Toussaint Louverture, he has been referred to as one of the fathers of the nation of Haiti. Under the rule of Dessalines, Haiti became the first country in the Americas to permanently abolish slavery.

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17/10/1786

Johann Ludwig Aberli, Swiss painter and illustrator (born 1723)

Johann Ludwig Aberli was a Swiss painter and etcher.

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17/10/1781

Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, English admiral (born 1705)

Admiral of the Fleet Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, was a Royal Navy officer and politician. As captain of the third-rate HMS Berwick, he took part in the Battle of Toulon in February 1744 during the War of the Austrian Succession. He also captured six ships of a French squadron in the Bay of Biscay in the second Battle of Cape Finisterre in October 1747.

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17/10/1780

William Cookworthy, English pharmacist and minister (born 1705)

William Cookworthy was an English Quaker minister, a successful pharmacist and an innovator in several fields of technology. He was the first person in Britain to discover how to make hard-paste porcelain, like that imported from China. He subsequently discovered china clay in Cornwall. In 1768 he founded a works at Plymouth for the production of Plymouth porcelain; in 1770 he moved the factory to Bristol, to become Bristol porcelain, before selling it to a partner in 1773.

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17/10/1776

Pierre François le Courayer, French-English theologian and author (born 1681)

Pierre François le Courayer was a French Catholic theological writer, for many years an expatriate in England.

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17/10/1757

René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French entomologist and academic (born 1683)

René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur was a French entomologist and writer who contributed to many different fields, especially the study of insects. He introduced the Réaumur temperature scale.

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17/10/1696

Geoffrey Shakerley (1619–1696), English politician (born 1619)

Geoffrey Shakerley was an English politician who sat as MP for Wigan in 1661. He is the father of Peter Shakerley, who also sat as MP for Wigan.

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17/10/1690

Margaret Mary Alacoque, French mystic (born 1647)

Margaret Mary Alacoque was a French Visitation nun and mystic who promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in its modern form.

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17/10/1673

Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, English politician, Lord High Treasurer of England (born 1630)

Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh was an English statesman who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1672 when he was created Baron Clifford. He was one of five leading politicians who formed the Cabal ministry between 1668 and 1674 in the reign of Charles II.

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17/10/1660

Adrian Scrope, English colonel and politician (born 1601)

Colonel Adrian Scrope was a Parliamentarian soldier during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and one of those who signed the death warrant for Charles I in January 1649. Despite being promised immunity after the Restoration in 1660, he was condemned as a regicide and executed in October.

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17/10/1616

John Pitts, English priest and scholar (born 1560)

John Pitts was an English Roman Catholic scholar and writer.

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17/10/1587

Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (born 1541)

Francesco I was the second Grand Duke of Tuscany, ruling from 1574 until his death in 1587. He was a member of the House of Medici.

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17/10/1586

Philip Sidney, English courtier, poet, and general (born 1554)

Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age.

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17/10/1575

Gaspar Cervantes de Gaeta, Spanish cardinal (born 1511)

Gaspar Cervantes de Gaeta was a Spanish cardinal of the 16th century. He was a relative of the famous Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes.

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17/10/1552

Andreas Osiander, German Protestant theologian (born 1498)

Andreas Osiander was a German Lutheran theologian and Protestant reformer.

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17/10/1528

Hernando Alonso, Spanish conquistador, first Jew executed in the New World

Hernando Alonso was a Spanish conquistador. He is believed to be the first Jew to come to the New World, and was the first person in the New World to be burned at the stake.

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17/10/1485

John Scott of Scott's Hall, Warden of the Cinque Ports

Sir John Scott, JP of Scot's Hall in Smeeth was a Kent landowner, and committed supporter of the House of York. Among other offices, he served as Comptroller of the Household to Edward IV, and lieutenant to the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.

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17/10/1456

Nicolas Grenon, French composer (born 1375)

Nicolas Grenon was a French composer of the early Renaissance. He wrote in all the prevailing musical forms of the time, and was a rare case of a long-lived composer who learned his craft in the late 14th century but primarily practiced during the era during which the Renaissance styles were forming.

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17/10/1346

John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray

John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray was an important figure in the reign of David II of Scotland, and was for a time joint Regent of Scotland.

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Maurice de Moravia, Earl of Strathearn

Maurice de Moravia, Earl of Strathearn (1276–1346), also known as Maurice Moray or Murray, was a Scottish nobleman.

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17/10/1277

Beatrice of Falkenburg, German queen consort (born c. 1254)

Beatrice of Falkenburg, also referred to as Beatrix of Valkenburg, was the third and last wife of Richard of Cornwall, and as such nominally queen of Germany.

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17/10/1271

Steinvör Sighvatsdóttir, Icelandic aristocrat and poet

Steinvör Sighvatsdóttir, was the politically most influential woman in Iceland in the Age of the Sturlungs. She was also a skald and listed as such in Skáldatal. Most of what is known about Steinvör Sighvatsdóttir is told in Íslendinga saga, Þórðar saga kakala and Þorgils saga skarða, all of which are included in the Sturlunga Saga.

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17/10/0866

Al-Musta'in, Abbasid caliph (born 836)

Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Mustaʿīn bi-ʾllāh, better known by his regnal title al-Mustaʿīn was the Abbasid caliph from 862 to 866, during the "Anarchy at Samarra". After the death of previous Caliph, al-Muntasir, the Turkic military leaders held a council to select his successor. They were not willing to have al-Mu'tazz or his brothers; so they elected Ahmad ibn Muhammad, a nephew of al-Mutawakkil, who took the regnal name al-Mustaʿīn bi-ʾllāh.

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17/10/0532

Pope Boniface II

Pope Boniface II was the first Germanic Bishop of Rome. He ruled the Holy See from 22 September 530 until his death on 17 October 532. Boniface died of natural causes, likely an illness or old age.

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17/10/0033

Agrippina the Elder, Roman wife of Germanicus (born 14 BC)

AD 33 (XXXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in the Roman world as the Year of the Consulship of Ocella and Sulla. The denomination AD 33 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in the world for naming years.

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