Died on Thursday, 23rd October – Famous Deaths

23/10/2025

June Lockhart, American actress (b. 1925)

June Kathleen Lockhart was an American actress, beginning a film career in the 1930s and 1940s in films such as A Christmas Carol and Meet Me in St. Louis. She appeared primarily in 1950s and 1960s television and with performances on stage and in film. She became most widely known for her work on two television series, Lassie and Lost in Space, in which she played mother roles. Lockhart also portrayed Dr. Janet Craig on the CBS television sitcom Petticoat Junction (1968–70). She was a two-time Emmy Award nominee and a Tony Award winner. With a career spanning nearly 90 years, Lockhart was one of the last surviving actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

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23/10/2024

Geoff Capes, British shot putter and strongman (born 1949)

Geoffrey Lewis Humberg Capes JP was a British shot putter, strongman, and Highland Games competitor.

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Gary Indiana, American writer, playwright and poet (born 1950)

Gary Hoisington, known as Gary Indiana, was an American writer, actor, artist, and cultural critic. He served as the art critic for the Village Voice weekly newspaper from 1985 to 1988. Indiana is best known for his classic American true-crime trilogy, Resentment, Three Month Fever: The Andrew Cunanan Story, and Depraved Indifference, chronicling the less permanent state of "depraved indifference" that characterized American life at the millennium's end. Former Artforum editor David Velasco called him "the greatest living writer."

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Jack Jones, American singer and actor (born 1938)

John Allan Jones was an American singer and actor. He was primarily a straight-pop singer whose forays into jazz were mostly of the big-band/swing music variety. He won two Grammy Awards and received five additional nominations. Notably, he sang the opening theme song for the television series The Love Boat.

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23/10/2023

Aira Samulin, Finnish entrepreneur and dance teacher (born 1927)

Aira Laila Suvio-Samulin was a Finnish dance teacher and businesswoman.

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Bishan Singh Bedi, Indian cricketer (born 1946)

Bishan Singh Bedi was an Indian cricketer who was primarily a slow left-arm orthodox bowler. He played Test cricket for India from 1966 to 1979 and formed part of the famous Indian spin quartet. He played a total of 67 Tests and took 266 wickets. He also captained the national side in 22 Test matches. Bedi wore a colourful patka and was always known for his outspoken and forthright views on cricketing matters. He was awarded the Padma Shri award in 1970 and the C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

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23/10/2022

Adriano Moreira, Portuguese politician, Minister of the Overseas Provinces, President of the CDS – People's Party (born 1922)

Adriano José Alves Moreira, ComC GCC GOIH GCSE was a Portuguese lawyer, professor and a leading political figure in Portugal throughout the second half of the 20th century.

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23/10/2020

Jerry Jeff Walker, American singer-songwriter (born 1942)

Jerry Jeff Walker was an American country and folk singer-songwriter. He was a leading figure in the progressive country and outlaw country music movement. He is best known for writing the 1968 song "Mr. Bojangles".

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23/10/2018

Todd Reid, Australian tennis player (born 1984)

Todd Reid was an Australian professional tennis player. He excelled as a junior and peaked in the Men's Tour in September 2004, reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 105.

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23/10/2017

Walter Lassally, German cinematographer (born 1926)

Walter Lassally was a German-born British cinematographer. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 1965 for the film Zorba the Greek.

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23/10/2016

Jack Chick, American cartoonist and publisher (born 1924)

Jack Thomas Chick was an American cartoonist and publisher, best known for his fundamentalist Christian "Chick tracts". He expressed his perspective on a variety of issues through sequential-art morality plays.

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Wim van der Voort, Dutch speed skater (born 1923)

Willem "Wim" van der Voort was a Dutch speed skater. At the 1952 Olympics in Oslo Van der Voort was the silver medalist in the men's 1500 meters, finishing 0.2 seconds behind Hjalmar Andersen of Norway. He received a bronze medal at the 1953 World Allround Championships, and silver medals at the 1951 and 1953 European Championships.

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Pete Burns, English singer-songwriter (born 1959)

Peter Jozzeppi Burns was an English singer, songwriter and television personality.

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23/10/2015

Leon Bibb, American-Canadian singer (born 1922)

Leon Bibb was an American-Canadian folk singer and actor. His a cappella vocals blend his classical, spiritual and blues influences. He is the father of the New York-based acoustic blues singer/songwriter Eric Bibb, and grandfather of Swedish dancer and performer Rennie Mirro.

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Roger De Clerck, Belgian businessman (born 1924)

Roger De Clerck was a Belgian entrepreneur and CEO of the Beaulieu textile group. An international business man, his family was ranked 15th place in a list of "richest Belgians". During his lifetime he was controversial due to a series of scandals where he and his company were accused of fiscal fraud.

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Jim Roberts, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (born 1940)

James Wilfred Roberts, known as Jim Roberts or Jimmy Roberts, was a Canadian ice hockey defenceman and forward.

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Fred Sands, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded the Museum of Contemporary Art (born 1938)

Fred Charles Sands was an American business executive and real estate investor. He served as the Chairman of Vintage Capital Group.

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23/10/2014

Ghulam Azam, Bangladeshi politician (born 1922)

Ghulam Azam was a Bangladeshi writer and politician who headed the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (BJI).

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John Bramlett, American football player (born 1941)

John "Bull" Bramlett was an American professional football linebacker who played from 1965 to 1971 on four teams, the Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins, and Boston Patriots in the American Football League (AFL) and the Patriots and Atlanta Falcons in the National Football League (NFL). He was a twice AFL All-Star. Bramlett served as a minister before his death.

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Bernard Mayes, English-American journalist and academic (born 1929)

Anthony Bernard Duncan Mayes was a British broadcaster, university dean and author. In the United States, he founded KQED-FM, was Executive Vice President of KQED TV, then co-founded and became first working chairman of National Public Radio. He also founded one of America's first suicide prevention hotlines.

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Joan Quigley, American astrologer and author (born 1927)

Joan Ceciel Quigley of San Francisco, California, was an astrologer best known for her astrological advice to the Reagan White House in the 1980s. Quigley was born in Kansas City, Missouri.

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Tullio Regge, Italian physicist and academic (born 1931)

Tullio Eugenio Regge was an Italian theoretical physicist.

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Alvin Stardust, English singer and actor (born 1942)

Bernard William Jewry, known professionally as Shane Fenton and later as Alvin Stardust, was an English rock singer and stage actor. Performing first as Shane Fenton in the 1960s, Jewry had a moderately successful career in the pre-Beatles era, hitting the UK top 40 with four singles in 1961–62. However, he became better known for singles released in the 1970s and 1980s as Alvin Stardust, a character he began in the glam rock era, with hits including "My Coo Ca Choo", the UK singles chart-topper "Jealous Mind", as well as later hits such as "Pretend" and "I Feel Like Buddy Holly".

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23/10/2013

Wes Bialosuknia, American basketball player (born 1945)

Wesley John Bialosuknia was an American basketball player. He was a 6-foot-2-inch (1.88 m) 185 pounds (84 kg) guard, and played in college for the University of Connecticut Huskies. An accurate and prolific medium- and long-range jump shooter, Bialosuknia still holds the University of Connecticut season and career scoring average records: his 1966–67 average of 28.0 PPG ranked 5th in the nation. He also holds the UConn records for career scoring average of 23.6 pts per game and consecutive foul shots made (43). In 1967, he was the MVP of the annual North–South College All-Star Game.

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Anthony Caro, English sculptor and academic (born 1924)

Sir Anthony Alfred Caro was an English abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using 'found' and industrial objects. He began as a member of the modernist school, having worked with Henry Moore early in his career. He was lauded as the greatest British sculptor of his generation.

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Niall Donohue, Irish hurler (born 1990)

Niall Donohue was an Irish hurler who played at senior level for the Galway senior team.

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Gypie Mayo, English guitarist and songwriter (Dr. Feelgood and The Yardbirds) (born 1951)

John "Gypie" Mayo was a British guitarist and songwriter, playing in Dr. Feelgood from 1977 to 1981, and from 1996 to 2004 in the reborn Yardbirds with Alan Glen.

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Bill Mazer, Ukrainian-American journalist and sportscaster (born 1920)

Bill Mazer was an American television and radio personality. He won numerous awards and citations, including three National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association's Sportscaster of the Year awards for New York from 1964 to 1966. Considered a New York institution in sports reporting, Mazer was inducted into the hall of fame for the Buffalo Broadcasters Association (1999), Buffalo Baseball Hall of Fame (2000) and the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum (1997). He is also recognized as the host of the first sports talk radio show in history that launched in March 1964 on WNBC (AM).

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23/10/2012

William Joel Blass, American lawyer and politician (born 1917)

William Joel Blass was an American war veteran, jurist, attorney, educator, and politician.

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Wilhelm Brasse, Polish photographer (born 1917)

Wilhelm Brasse was a Polish professional photographer and a prisoner in Auschwitz during World War II. He became known as the "famous photographer of Auschwitz concentration camp". His life and work were the subject of the 2005 Polish television documentary film The Portraitist (Portrecista), which first aired in the Proud to Present series on the Polish TVP1 on 1 January 2006.

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Roland de la Poype, French soldier and pilot (born 1920)

Roland Paulze d'Ivoy de la Poype was a Second World War fighter ace and a member of the Normandie-Niemen fighter group that fought on the Soviet front attributed with 16 confirmed victories.

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Sunil Gangopadhyay, Indian author and poet (born 1934)

Sunil Gangopadhyay or Sunil Ganguly was an Indian poet, novelist, short story writer, and critic. He played a key role in modernizing Bengali poetry and co-founded the 1953 avant-garde poetry magazine Krittibas. He has been called the most popular and prolific Bengali writer since Rabindranath Tagore, and "the man who carried the modern consciousness of Bengal."

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Michael Marra, Scottish singer-songwriter (born 1952)

Michael Marra was a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician from Dundee, Scotland. Known as the Bard of Dundee, Marra was a solo performer who toured the UK and performed in arts centres, theatres, folk clubs and village halls. While mainly known as a songwriter, he also worked extensively in theatre, radio and television. His songwriting was rooted in Scottish life and he found an audience within and beyond the folk music scene, which led to him working as a support musician for performers including Van Morrison, The Proclaimers, Barbara Dickson and Deacon Blue. His song "Hermless" was somewhat humorously suggested as a potential Scottish national anthem.

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23/10/2011

Herbert A. Hauptman, American chemist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1917)

Herbert Aaron Hauptman was an American mathematician and Nobel laureate. He pioneered and developed a mathematical method that has changed the whole field of chemistry and opened a new era in research in determination of molecular structures of crystallized materials. Today, Hauptman's direct methods, which he continued to improve and refine, are routinely used to solve complicated structures. It was the application of this mathematical method to a wide variety of chemical structures that led the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to name Hauptman and Jerome Karle recipients of the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

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Marco Simoncelli, Italian motorcycle racer (born 1987)

Marco Simoncelli, nicknamed Sic was an Italian professional motorcycle racer. He competed in the MotoGP World Championship for 10 years from 2002 to 2011. He started in the 125cc class before moving up to the 250cc class in 2006. He won the 2008 250cc World Championship with Gilera. After four years in the intermediate class, he stepped up to the top MotoGP class in 2010, racing with the Honda Gresini Team. He died in an accident at the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.

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23/10/2010

Fran Crippen, American swimmer (born 1984)

Francis Crippen was an American long-distance swimmer. After being a pool swimmer for most of his career, Crippen made the transition to open water swimming in 2006. In international competitions, Crippen won seven medals, five of which were in the open water and two in the pool. Crippen died during an open water swimming race in the United Arab Emirates in 2010 at the age of 26.

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Stanley Tanger, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (born 1923)

Stanley K. Tanger was an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the outlet shopping industry, Tanger founded Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, which began with a single location in Burlington, North Carolina in 1981. According to the News & Record, Tanger invented "the very concept of the outlet mall".

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23/10/2009

Lou Jacobi, Canadian-American actor (born 1913)

Lou Jacobi was a Canadian character actor. Jacobi came to prominence for his role as Mr. Van Daan in the 1955 Broadway production of The Diary of Anne Frank which he reprised in the 1959 film version. He also acted in the films Irma la Douce (1963), Little Murders (1971), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (1972), Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), The Lucky Star (1980), Arthur (1981), My Favorite Year (1982), and Avalon (1990).

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23/10/2008

Kevin Finnegan, English boxer (born 1948)

Kevin Finnegan was an English boxer.

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23/10/2007

John Ilhan, Turkish-Australian businessman, founded Crazy John's (born 1965)

John Ilhan was an Australian businessman. He was the founder of Crazy John's mobile phone retail chain and, in 2003, was the richest Australian under 40 years of age.

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Lim Goh Tong, Malaysian-Chinese businessman (born 1918)

Lim Goh Tong was a prominent wealthy Malaysian Chinese businessman and entrepreneur. He was the founder of Genting Highlands and renowned for transforming the resort from an unexplored hilltop into one of the world's most successful casino resorts. According to Forbes, he was once the third richest man in Malaysia, with a net worth of US$4.3 billion.

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23/10/2006

Lebo Mathosa, South African singer (Boom Shaka) (born 1977)

Lebohang Precious Mathosa was a South African kwaito singer. Mathosa started her career as a founding member of the popular South African band Boom Shaka in 1994 at the age of 17, after she caught the eye of music producer Don Laka at a club in Johannesburg.

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23/10/2005

William Hootkins, American actor (born 1948)

William Michael Hootkins was an American actor, long based in the United Kingdom. He was known to film audiences for his supporting roles in several blockbusters of the 1970s and 1980s, notably as Jek Porkins / Red Six in the original Star Wars (1977), Major Eaton in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and Lt. Max Eckhardt in Batman (1989). He also worked on the West End stage, originating the role of Alfred Hitchcock in Hitchcock Blonde.

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John Muth, American economist and academic (born 1930)

John Fraser Muth was an American economist. He is "the father of the rational expectations revolution in economics", primarily due to his article "Rational Expectations and the Theory of Price Movements" from 1961.

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Stella Obasanjo, Nigerian wife of Olusegun Obasanjo, 10th First Lady of Nigeria (born 1945)

Stella Obasanjo was the First Lady of Nigeria from 1999 until her death. She was the wife of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, although she was not the First Lady in 1976, when Obasanjo was military head of state. She died while undergoing elective liposuction abroad.

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23/10/2004

Robert Merrill, American actor and singer (born 1919)

Robert Merrill was an American operatic baritone and actor, who was also active in the musical theatre circuit. He received the National Medal of Arts in 1993.

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Bill Nicholson, English footballer, coach, and manager (born 1919)

William Edward Nicholson was an English football player, coach, manager and scout who had a 55-year association with Tottenham Hotspur. He is considered one of the most important figures in the club's history, winning eight major trophies in his 16-year managerial spell, and most notably guiding the team to their Double-winning season of 1960–61.

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23/10/2003

Tony Capstick, English actor and singer (born 1944)

Joseph Anthony Capstick was an English comedian, actor, musician and broadcaster.

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Soong Mei-ling, Chinese wife of Chiang Kai-shek, 2nd First Lady of the Republic of China (born 1898)

Soong Mei-ling, also known as Madame Chiang, was a Chinese politician and socialite. The youngest of the Soong sisters, she married Chiang Kai-shek and played a prominent role in Chinese politics and foreign relations in the first half of the 20th century.

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23/10/2002

Adolph Green, American playwright and songwriter (born 1915)

Adolph Green was an American lyricist and playwright, who with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for musicals on Broadway and in Hollywood. Although they were not a romantic couple, they shared a unique comic genius and sophisticated wit that enabled them to forge a six-decade-long partnership. They received numerous accolades including four Tony Awards and nominations for two Academy Awards and a Grammy Award. Green was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980 and American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. Comden and Green received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1991.

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23/10/2001

Josh Kirby, English illustrator (born 1928)

Ronald William "Josh" Kirby was a British commercial artist. Over a career spanning 60 years, he was the artist for the covers of many science fiction books including Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.

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Daniel Wildenstein, French art dealer and historian (born 1917)

Daniel Leopold Wildenstein was a French art dealer, historian and owner-breeder of thoroughbred and standardbred race horses. He was the third member of the family to preside over Wildenstein & Co., one of the most successful and influential art-dealerships of the 20th century. He was once described as "probably the richest and most powerful art dealer on earth."

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23/10/2000

Yokozuna, American wrestler (born 1966)

Rodney Agatupu Anoaʻi was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his time with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled under the ring name Yokozuna. He was also known for his appearances with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as Great Kokina.

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23/10/1999

Eric Reece, Australian politician, 32nd Premier of Tasmania (born 1909)

Eric Elliott Reece, AC was Premier of Tasmania on two occasions: from 26 August 1958 to 26 May 1969, and from 3 May 1972 to 31 March 1975. His 13 years as premier remains the second longest in Tasmania's history, second to only Robert Cosgrove. Reece was the first Premier of Tasmania to have been born in the 20th century.

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23/10/1998

Barnett Slepian, American physician (born 1946)

Barnett Abba Slepian was an American physician and abortion provider who was assassinated in his home by James Charles Kopp, a militant member of the US anti-abortion movement.

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Eric Ambler, English author, screenwriter, and producer (born 1909)

Eric Clifford Ambler OBE was an English author of thrillers, in particular spy novels. Also working as a screenwriter, Ambler used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books written with Charles Rodda.

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23/10/1997

Bert Haanstra, Dutch director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1916)

Albert Haanstra was a Dutch director of films and documentaries. His documentary Glass (1958) won the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject in 1959. His feature film Fanfare (1958) was the most visited Dutch film at the time, and has since only been surpassed by Turkish Delight (1973).

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23/10/1996

Bob Grim, American baseball player (born 1930)

Robert Anton Grim was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball.

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23/10/1994

Robert Lansing, American actor (born 1928)

Robert Lansing was an American stage, film, and television actor.

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23/10/1990

Thomas Williams, American author and academic (born 1926)

Thomas Williams was an American novelist. He won one U.S. National Book Award for Fiction—The Hair of Harold Roux split the 1975 award with Robert Stone's Dog Soldiers—and his last published novel, The Moon Pinnace (1986), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

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23/10/1989

Armida, Mexican-American actress, singer, and dancer (born 1911)

Armida Vendrell was a Mexican actress, singer, dancer and vaudevillian.

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23/10/1988

Asashio Tarō III, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 46th Yokozuna (born 1929)

Asashio Tarō was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Tokunoshima in the Amami Islands. He was the sport's 46th yokozuna. He was also a sumo coach and head of Takasago stable.

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23/10/1986

Edward Adelbert Doisy, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1893)

Edward Adelbert Doisy was an American biochemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1943 with Henrik Dam for their discovery of vitamin K and its chemical structure.

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23/10/1984

Oskar Werner, Austrian-German actor (born 1922)

Oskar Werner was an Austrian stage and cinema actor who reached international fame. His most prominent roles include two 1965 films, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold and Ship of Fools. For the former, Werner won a Golden Globe Award. For the latter, Werner received an Oscar nomination. Other notable films include Decision Before Dawn (1951), Lola Montès (1955), Jules and Jim (1962), Fahrenheit 451 (1966), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), and Voyage of the Damned (1976).

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23/10/1983

Jessica Savitch, American journalist (born 1947)

Jessica Beth Savitch was an American television journalist who was the weekend anchor of NBC Nightly News and daily newsreader for NBC News during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Savitch was one of the first women to anchor an evening network newscast alone, following in the footsteps of Marlene Sanders of ABC News and Catherine Mackin of NBC News. She also hosted PBS's public affairs program Frontline from its January 1983 debut until her death in a car crash the following October.

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23/10/1980

Tibor Rosenbaum, Hungarian-born Swiss rabbi and businessman (born 1923)

Pinchas Tibor Rosenbaum was a Hungarian-born Swiss rabbi and businessman. One of the heads of the Jewish community in Switzerland, he saved hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust. After the war, he was involved in extensive businesses relating to the economy of Israel. He was also instrumental in helping the new State of Israel with security issues and worked for the Mossad on intelligence matters.

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23/10/1978

Maybelle Carter, American singer and autoharp player (Carter Family) (born 1909)

"Mother" Maybelle Carter was an American country musician and "among the first" to use the Carter scratch, with which she "helped to turn the guitar into a lead instrument." It was named after her. She was a member of the original Carter Family act from the late 1920s until the early 1940s and a member of the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle group.

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23/10/1975

Marjorie Maynard British artist and farmer (born 1891)

Marjorie Josephine Maynard, Lady Garbett was a British artist and farmer who designed some of the first set of postage stamps issued in Iraq. In later life, she brought and lost a high-profile court case after being evicted from her farmstead.

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23/10/1969

Tommy Edwards, American singer-songwriter (born 1922)

Thomas Jefferson Edwards was an American singer and songwriter. His most successful record was the multi-million-selling song "It's All in the Game", becoming the first African-American to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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23/10/1964

Frank Luther Mott, American historian and journalist (born 1886)

Frank Luther Mott was an American academic, historian and journalist, who won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for History for Volumes II and III of his series, A History of American Magazines.

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23/10/1959

George Bouzianis, Greek painter (born 1885)

George Bouzianis was a major Greek expressionist painter.

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Gerda Lundequist, Swedish actress (born 1871)

Gerda Carola Cecilia Lundequist was a Swedish stage actress, an Ibsen and Strindberg-thespian that in her time was known throughout Scandinavia as "The Swedish Sarah Bernhardt".

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23/10/1953

Adrien de Noailles, French son of Jules Charles Victurnien de Noailles (born 1869)

Adrien Maurice Victurnien Mathieu de Noailles, 8th Duke of Noailles, was a French aristocrat and Olympian.

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23/10/1950

Al Jolson, Lithuanian-American actor and singer (born 1886)

Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian.

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23/10/1944

Charles Glover Barkla, English-Scottish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1877)

Charles Glover Barkla was a British physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917 for his discovery of characteristic X-rays.

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Hana Brady, Czech holocaust victim (born 1931)

Hana "Hanička" Brady was a Czechoslovak Jewish girl murdered in the gas chambers of the German concentration camp at Auschwitz, located in the occupied territory of Poland, during the Holocaust. She is the subject of the 2002 non-fiction children's book Hana's Suitcase, written by Karen Levine.

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23/10/1943

Wakashima Gonshirō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 21st Yokozuna (born 1876)

Wakashima Gonshirō was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture. He was the sport's 21st yokozuna and the first official yokozuna from the Osaka Sumo Association.

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23/10/1942

Ralph Rainger, American pianist and composer (born 1901)

Ralph Rainger was an American composer of popular music principally for films.

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23/10/1939

Zane Grey, American dentist and author (born 1872)

Zane Grey was an American author. He is known for his popular adventure novels and stories associated with the Western genre in literature and the arts; he idealized the American frontier. Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) was his best-selling book.

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23/10/1935

Charles Demuth, American painter and educator (born 1883)

Charles Henry Buckius Demuth was an American painter who specialized in watercolors and turned to oils late in his career, developing a style of painting known as Precisionism.

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23/10/1921

John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish businessman, founded Dunlop Rubber (born 1840)

John Boyd Dunlop was a Scottish inventor and veterinary surgeon who spent most of his career in Ireland. Familiar with making rubber devices, he invented the practical pneumatic tyres for his child's tricycle and developed them for use in cycle racing. He sold his rights to the pneumatic tyres to a company he formed with the president of the Irish Cyclists' Association, Harvey du Cros, for a small cash sum and a small shareholding in their pneumatic tyre business. Dunlop withdrew in 1896. The company that bore his name, Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company, was not incorporated until later and, despite its name, was Du Cros's creation.

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23/10/1917

Eugène Grasset, Swiss illustrator (born 1845)

Eugène Samuel Grasset was a Swiss decorative artist who worked in Paris, France in a variety of creative design fields during the Belle Époque. He is considered a pioneer in Art Nouveau design.

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23/10/1916

Richard McFadden, Scottish footballer and soldier (born 1889)

Richard McFadden was a Scottish footballer who was Clapton Orient's top scorer for four consecutive seasons between 1911 and 1915.

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23/10/1915

W. G. Grace, English cricketer and physician (born 1848)

William Gilbert Grace was an English cricketer who is widely held to have been one of the sport's all-time greatest players. Always known by his initials as "W. G.", his first-class career spanned a record-equalling 44 seasons from 1865 to 1908. Test cricket originated during his career, and he represented England in 22 matches from 1880 to 1899. In domestic cricket, he was mostly associated with Gloucestershire, the Gentlemen, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), and the United South of England Eleven (USEE).

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23/10/1910

Chulalongkorn, Thai king (born 1853)

Chulalongkorn, posthumously honoured as King Chulalongkorn the Great, was the fifth king of Siam from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama V. Chulalongkorn's reign from 1868 until his death in 1910 was characterised by the modernisation of Siam, governmental and social reforms, and territorial concessions to the British and French empires. As Siam was surrounded by European colonies, Chulalongkorn, through his policies and acts, ensured the independence of Siam.

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23/10/1893

Alexander of Battenberg (born 1857)

Alexander Joseph, known as Alexander of Battenberg, was the first prince (knyaz) of the autonomous Principality of Bulgaria from 1879 until his abdication in 1886.

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23/10/1885

Charles S. West, American lawyer, jurist, and politician, Secretary of State of Texas (born 1829)

Charles Shannon West was an American jurist and politician in the state of Texas, serving as a state representative, the Texas Secretary of State, and an Associate Justice of the Texas Supreme Court.

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23/10/1872

Théophile Gautier, French journalist, author, and poet (born 1811)

Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic.

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23/10/1869

Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1799)

Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, known as Lord Stanley from 1834 to 1851, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served three times as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. To date, he is the longest-serving leader of the Conservative Party (1846–68). He is one of only four British prime ministers to have three or more separate periods in office. However, his ministries each lasted less than two years and totalled three years and 280 days. Derby introduced the state education system in Ireland, and reformed Parliament.

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23/10/1867

Franz Bopp, German linguist and academic (born 1791)

Franz Bopp was a German linguist known for extensive and pioneering comparative work on Indo-European languages.

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23/10/1852

Georg August Wallin, Finnish explorer, orientalist, and professor (born 1811)

Georg August Wallin, also known as Abd al-Wali, was a Finland Swede orientalist, explorer and professor at the University of Helsinki, remembered for his journeys across the Arabian Peninsula in the 1840s. He was the first Western scholar to study spoken Arabic systematically, the first European to record Bedouin poetry and dialects in the field, and among the first Europeans to reach several locations in northern Arabia. Internationally he has been ranked among the most capable European explorers of Arabia, and was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1851.

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23/10/1774

Michel Benoist, French missionary and astronomer (born 1715)

Michel Benoist was a Jesuit scientist who served for thirty years in the court of the Qianlong Emperor during the Qing dynasty, known for his architectural and landscape designs of the Old Summer Palace. Along with Giuseppe Castiglione, Benoist served as one of two Jesuit advisors to the Qianlong Emperor, and transformed parts of the Old Summer Palace into what historian Mark Elliott calls an "imitation of Versailles or Fontainebleau."

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23/10/1764

Emmanuel-Auguste de Cahideuc, Comte Dubois de la Motte, French admiral (born 1683)

Vice-Admiral Emmanuel-Auguste de Cahideuc, comte Dubois de la Motte was a French Navy officer.

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23/10/1730

Anne Oldfield, English actress (born 1683)

Anne Oldfield was an English actress and one of the highest paid actresses of her time.

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23/10/1688

Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange, French philologist and historian (born 1610)

Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange, also known simply as Charles Dufresne, was a French philologist and historian of the Middle Ages and Byzantium.

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23/10/1616

Leonhard Hutter, German theologian and academic (born 1563)

Leonhard Hutter was a German Lutheran theologian.

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23/10/1581

Michael Neander, German mathematician and astronomer (born 1529)

Michael Neander was a German teacher, mathematician, medical academic, and astronomer.

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23/10/1550

Tiedemann Giese, Polish bishop (born 1480)

Tiedemann Giese, was Bishop of Kulm (Chełmno) first canon, later Prince-Bishop of Warmia (Ermland) whose interest in mathematics, astronomy, and theology led him to mentor a number of important young scholars, including Copernicus. He was a prolific writer and correspondent, publishing a number of works on the reformation of the church. Tiedemann was a member of the patrician Giese family of Danzig (Gdańsk). The Giese family ancestors originated from Unna in Westphalia, near Dortmund. His father was Albrecht Giese and his younger brother, the Hanseatic League merchant Georg Giese.

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23/10/1456

John of Capistrano, Italian priest and saint (born 1386)

John of Capistrano, OFM was an Italian Franciscan friar and Catholic priest from the town of Capestrano, Abruzzo. Famous as a preacher, theologian, and inquisitor, he earned himself the nickname "the Soldier Saint" when in 1456 at age 70 he led a Crusade against the invading Ottoman Empire at the siege of Belgrade with the Hungarian military commander John Hunyadi.

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23/10/1157

Sweyn III, Danish king (born c. 1125)

Sweyn III Grathe was the king of Denmark between 1146 and 1157, in shifting alliances with Canute V and his own cousin Valdemar I. In 1157, the three agreed to a tripartition of Denmark. Sweyn attempted to kill his rivals at the peace banquet, and was subsequently defeated by Valdemar I at the Battle of Grathe Heath and killed.

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23/10/1134

Abu al-Salt, Andalusian polymath

Abū aṣ-Ṣalt Umayya ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī aṣ-Ṣalt ad-Dānī al-Andalusī, known in Latin as Albuzale, was an Andalusian-Arab polymath who wrote about pharmacology, geometry, Aristotelian physics, and astronomy. His works on astronomical instruments were read both in the Islamic world and Europe. He also occasionally traveled to Palermo and worked in the court of Roger I of Sicily as a visiting physician. He became well known in Europe through translations of his works made in the Iberian Peninsula and in southern France. He is also credited with introducing Andalusi music to Tunis, which later led to the development of the Tunisian ma'luf.

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23/10/0949

Yōzei, Japanese emperor (born 869)

Emperor Yōzei was the 57th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Yōzei's reign spanned the years from 876 through 884.Before his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name was Sadaakira Shinnō (貞明親王). In ancient Japan, there were four noble clans, the Gempeitōkitsu (源平藤橘). One of these clans, the Minamoto clan (源氏) are also known as Genji, and of these, the Yōzei Genji (陽成源氏) are descended from the 57th emperor Yōzei.

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23/10/0945

Hyejong of Goryeo, Korean king (born 912)

Hyejong, personal name Wang Mu, was the second king of the Goryeo dynasty of Korea. He was preceded by King Taejo and succeeded by King Jeongjong.

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23/10/0930

Daigo, Japanese emperor (born 885)

Emperor Daigo was the 60th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.

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23/10/0902

Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya, Aghlabid emir (born 850)

Abu Ishaq Ibrahim II ibn Ahmad was the Emir of Ifriqiya. He ruled from 875 until his abdication in 902. After the demise of his brother, Ibrahim was endorsed as emir where he took steps to improve safety in his domain and secured the development of commercial activities. He improved public works, such as building a vast reservoir, erecting walls as well as the development of mosques and his Raqqada palace.

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23/10/0891

Yazaman al-Khadim, Abbasid general and politician

Yazaman or Yazman, surnamed al-Khadim was the governor of Tarsus for the Abbasids and chief military leader in the Muslim borderlands with the Byzantine Empire in Cilicia from 882 to his death in 891. He is celebrated for his raids against the Byzantines.

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23/10/0877

Ignatios of Constantinople, Byzantine patriarch (born 797)

Ignatius of Constantinople was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 847 to 858 and from 867 to 877. Ignatius lived during a complex time for the Byzantine Empire. The Iconoclast Controversy was ongoing, Boris I of Bulgaria converted to Christianity in 864, and the Roman pontiffs repeatedly challenged the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Eastern Church in Bulgaria. As patriarch, Ignatius denounced iconoclasm, secured jurisdiction over Bulgaria for the Eastern Church, and played an important role in conflicts over papal supremacy.

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01/01/1970

Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger, Roman general and politician (born 85 BC)

Marcus Junius Brutus was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, which was retained as his legal name. He is often referred to simply as Brutus.

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