Died on Monday, 27th October – Famous Deaths

27/10/2025

Prunella Scales, English actress (born 1932)

Prunella Margaret Rumney West, known professionally as Prunella Scales, was an English actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Sybil Fawlty in the BBC television sitcom Fawlty Towers (1975–1979) and her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution (1991), which earned her a BAFTA nomination. She later appeared in the TV documentary series Great Canal Journeys (2014–2019), travelling waterways in the UK and abroad with her husband, the actor Timothy West.

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27/10/2023

Li Keqiang, premier of China (born 1955)

Li Keqiang was a Chinese politician and economist who served as Premier of China from 2013 to 2023 and was the second-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s Politburo Standing Committee from 2012 to 2022.

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27/10/2019

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL); suicide (born 1971)

Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri, commonly known by his nom de guerre Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was an Iraqi militant leader and former teacher who was the founder and first leader of the Islamic State (IS), who proclaimed himself caliph in 2014 and stayed in power until his suicide in an American operation in 2019.

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27/10/2018

Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, Thai businessman, chairman of Leicester City F.C. (born 1958)

Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was a Thai billionaire businessman and the founder, owner, and chairman of King Power. He was the owner of Premier League team Leicester City from 2010 until his death in a helicopter crash just outside the club's King Power Stadium in 2018.

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27/10/2016

Takahito, Prince Mikasa, member of the Imperial Family of Japan (born 1915)

Takahito, Prince Mikasa was a Japanese prince, the youngest of the four sons of Emperor Taishō (Yoshihito) and Empress Teimei (Sadako). He was their last surviving child. His eldest brother was Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito). After serving as a junior cavalry officer in the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II, Takahito embarked upon a post-war career as a scholar and part-time lecturer in Middle Eastern studies and Semitic languages.

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27/10/2015

Ayerdhal, French author (born 1959)

Yal Ayerdhal was a French thriller and science fiction writer from Lyon. His later work preferred the thriller genre; Transparences, Resurgences and Rainbow Warriors play with various genres. Rainbow Warriors flirts with political fiction with most protagonists being LGBTQ. He received the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire in 2005 for Transparences and in 1993 for his novel Demain une oasis. He is considered one of the leading names in both genres. He shared the Prix Tour Eiffel with co-author Jean-Claude Dunyach for their 1999 novel Étoiles mourantes. He also received an award for his novel Parleur ou les chroniques d'un rêve enclavé and two for Transparences, a thriller. He also received the Cyrano award for lifetime achievement in the service of genre fiction and its actors.

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Ranjit Roy Chaudhury, Indian pharmacologist and academic (born 1930)

Ranjit Roy Chaudhury, was an Indian clinical pharmacologist, medical academic and health planner, who headed the National Committee for formulating the policy and guidelines on drugs and clinical trials in India. He was the chairman of the joint programme of World Health Organization and Government of India on Rational Use of Drugs in India. He was the founder president of the Delhi Medical Council and the president of the Delhi Society for Promotion of Rational Use of Drugs.

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Betsy Drake, French-American actress and singer (born 1923)

Betsy Drake was an American actress, writer, and psychotherapist. She was the third wife of actor Cary Grant.

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Philip French, English journalist, critic, and producer (born 1933)

Philip Neville French was an English film critic and radio producer. French began his career in journalism in the late 1950s, before eventually becoming a BBC Radio producer, and later a film critic. He began writing for The Observer in 1963 and retired as film critic in 2013, but continued to write until his death.

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27/10/2014

Daniel Boulanger, French actor and screenwriter (born 1922)

Daniel Boulanger was a French novelist, playwright, poet and screenwriter.

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Shin Hae-chul, South Korean singer-songwriter and producer (born 1968)

Shin Hae-chul was a South Korean singer-songwriter and the frontman, vocalist of rock band N.EX.T. He was a record producer known for being a pioneer of Korean experimental rock music. He was referred to by fans as the "Demon Lord" or "The Devil" for his charismatic stage presence.

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Starke Taylor, American soldier and politician, mayor of Dallas (born 1922)

Austin Starke Taylor Jr. was mayor of Dallas, Texas, from 1983 to 1987, and a cotton investor.

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27/10/2013

Noel Davern, Irish lawyer and politician, Minister for Education and Skills (born 1945)

Noel Davern was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Minister of State from 1997 to 2002 and Minister for Education from 1991 to 1992. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Tipperary South constituency from 1969 to 1981 and 1987 to 2007. He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Munster constituency from 1979 to 1984.

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Leonard Herzenberg, American immunologist, geneticist, and academic (born 1931)

Leonard Arthur "Len" Herzenberg was an immunologist, geneticist and professor at Stanford University. His contributions to the development of cell biology made it possible to sort viable cells by their specific properties.

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Luigi Magni, Italian director and screenwriter (born 1928)

Luigi Magni was an Italian screenwriter and film director.

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Lou Reed, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (born 1942)

Lewis Allan Reed was an American musician, songwriter and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Although not commercially successful during its existence, the Velvet Underground came to be regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed's distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career.

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Michael Wilkes, English general and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Jersey (born 1940)

General Sir Michael John Wilkes, was a British Army officer who served as Adjutant-General to the Forces from 1993 to 1995.

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Vinko Coce, Croatian opera and pop singer (born 1954)

Vinko Coce was a prominent Croatian opera and pop singer. He is considered one of his generation's greatest representatives of Croatian music.

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27/10/2012

Terry Callier, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1945)

Terrence Orlando "Terry" Callier was an American soul, folk and jazz guitarist and singer-songwriter.

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Angelo Maria Cicolani, Italian engineer and politician (born 1952)

Angelo Maria Cicolani was an Italian politician. He was a Member of the Italian Senate from 2001 until his death, and a Quaestor in the Senate from 2011. Cicolani died in October 2012 after a long illness. He was 60.

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Regina Dourado, Brazilian actress (born 1952)

Regina Dourado was a Brazilian film and television actress.

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Hans Werner Henze, German composer and educator (born 1926)

Hans Werner Henze was a German composer. His large oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Neoclassicism, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as traditional schools of German composition. In particular, his stage works reflect "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life".

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Rodney S. Quinn, American colonel, pilot, and politician, 44th Secretary of State of Maine (born 1923)

Rodney Sharon Quinn was an American politician from Maine. A Democrat, he served as the Secretary of State of Maine from 1979 to 1988. He was first elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1974, after running three times from Gorham. He served as Assistant Majority Leader in the 108th legislature (1977–1979).

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Göran Stangertz, Swedish actor and director (born 1944)

Göran Nils Robert Stangertz was a Swedish actor, director and artistic leader at Helsingborgsteatern. He won Sweden's most prestigious film award Guldbagge Award twice in the category best male leading role for his roles in Det sista äventyret and Spring för livet. From 2009 and until his death he was married to actress Kajsa Ernst.

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27/10/2011

James Hillman, American psychologist and author (born 1926)

James Hillman was an American psychologist. He studied at, and then guided studies for, the C.G. Jung Institute in Zürich. He founded a movement toward archetypal psychology and retired into private practice, writing and traveling to lecture, until his death at his home in Connecticut.

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Robert Pritzker, American businessman, co-founded Marmon Group (born 1926)

Robert Alan Pritzker was an American businessman and member of the wealthy Pritzker family.

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27/10/2010

Néstor Kirchner, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 51st President of Argentina (born 1950)

Néstor Carlos Kirchner Ostoić was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the president of Argentina from 2003 to 2007. A member of the Justicialist Party, he previously served as Governor of Santa Cruz Province from 1991 to 2003, and mayor of Río Gallegos from 1987 to 1991. He later served as first gentleman of Argentina during the early tenure of his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the first person to serve in this role. Ideologically, he identified himself as a Peronist and a progressive, with his political approach called Kirchnerism.

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27/10/2009

John David Carson, American actor (born 1952)

John David Carson was an American actor known for his work in film and television. Born in Los Angeles, California, he began his career as a voice actor for Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including Space Ghost (1966–1968). He transitioned to live-action roles, making his film debut in Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971). Carson appeared in a variety of projects, such as Stay Hungry (1976), Empire of the Ants (1977), and TV shows like Hawaii Five-O and Charlie's Angels. He retired after his role in Pretty Woman (1990) and died in 2009 at the age of 57.

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August Coppola, American author and academic (born 1934)

August Floyd Coppola was an American academic, author, film executive, and member of the Coppola family.

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David Shepherd, English cricketer and umpire (born 1940)

David Robert Shepherd was a first-class cricketer who played county cricket for Gloucestershire, and later became one of the cricket world's best-known umpires. He stood in 92 Test matches, the last of them in June 2005, the most for any English umpire. He also umpired 172 ODIs, including three consecutive World Cup finals in 1996, 1999 and 2003.

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Taylor Mitchell, Canadian singer and songwriter (born 1990)

Taylor Josephine Stephanie Luciow, known by her stage name Taylor Mitchell, was a Canadian country folk singer and songwriter from Toronto. Her debut and sole studio album, For Your Consideration (2009), received encouraging reviews and airplay. Following a busy summer performance schedule, which included an appearance as a young performer at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Mitchell embarked on a tour of Eastern Canada with a newly acquired licence and car.

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27/10/2008

Chris Bryant, English actor and screenwriter (born 1936)

Christopher Bryan Spencer Dobson, who wrote for the screen as Chris Bryant, was an English screenwriter and occasional actor.

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Ray Ellis, American conductor and producer (born 1923)

Ray Ellis was an American record producer, arranger, conductor, and saxophonist. He was responsible for the orchestration in Billie Holiday's Lady in Satin (1958).

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Frank Nagai, Japanese singer (born 1932)

Frank Nagai was a Japanese singer. Known for his attractive baritone voice. His real name was Kiyoto Nagai.

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Roy Stewart, Jamaican-English actor and stuntman (born 1925)

Roy Stewart was a Jamaican-born British actor. He began his career as a stuntman and went on to work in film and television.

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27/10/2007

Moira Lister, South African actress (born 1923)

Moira Lister Gachassin-Lafite, Viscountess of Orthez was a South African-British film, stage and television actress and writer.

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27/10/2006

Jozsef Gregor, Hungarian opera singer (born 1940)

József Gregor was a renowned Hungarian operatic bass who enjoyed success first in Hungary, then in France, Belgium and Canada, and finally in the United States. Gregor was born in Rákosliget, a small town that is now part of Budapest. He studied violin for ten years and then, voice at the Liszt Academy in Budapest for one year but did not graduate. He started singing with the Hungarian Army chorus in 1958 before becoming a soloist in National Theatre of Szeged in Hungary. In Europe he sang in many opera houses, including Vlaamse Opera and La Scala in Milan. Beginning in 1989, József Gregor appeared in the US with the Portland Opera and later with the Houston Grand Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. His most famous roles included Sarastro, Osmin, Falstaff, Don Pasquale, Dulcamara, Don Basilio, Don Bartolo, Don Alfonso, Leporello, Don Magnifico, Boris Godunov, Gremin, Varlaam, Gianni Schicchi, Philip II, Banquo, Attila, Pagano, Fiesco, Mephistofeles, Bluebeard etc., roles in masses and oratorios, musicals, and songs. He died in Szeged of gastric cancer.

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Reko Lundán, Finnish journalist and author (born 1969)

Reko Lundán was a Finnish television presenter, writer, screen writer and journalist best known for his work on Aamu-TV in 2003. He had worked with actors such as Pasi Heikura.

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Marlin McKeever, American football player (born 1940)

Marlin Thomas McKeever was an American professional football player in the National Football League (NFL) who played linebacker and tight end during his 13-year career. He was an All-American college football player at the University of Southern California (USC) where he played both offensive and defensive end, fullback and punter.

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Joe Niekro, American baseball player (born 1944)

Joseph Franklin Niekro was an American professional baseball pitcher. During a 22-year baseball career, he pitched from 1967 to 1988 for seven different teams, primarily for the Houston Astros.

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Brad Will, American journalist and activist (born 1970)

Bradley Roland Will was an American activist, videographer, and journalist. He was affiliated with Indymedia. On October 27, 2006, during a labor dispute in the Mexican city of Oaxaca, Will was shot twice, by government-aligned paramilitaries, resulting in his death.

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27/10/2005

Jerry Cooke, Ukrainian-American photographer and journalist (born 1921)

Jerry Cooke was an American photojournalist from the 1940s-1990s.

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27/10/2004

Lester Lanin, American bandleader (born 1907)

Nathaniel Lester Lanin was an American jazz and pop music bandleader. He was famous for long, smoothly arranged medleys, at a consistent rhythm and tempo, which were designed for continuous dancing. Lanin's career began in the late 1920s and his popularity increased through the advent of the LP era. His music remained very popular among fans of the ballroom dance world. Starting with Epic Records in the middle of the 1950s, he recorded a string of albums for several labels, many of which hit the US Billboard 200.

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Paulo Sérgio Oliveira da Silva, Brazilian footballer (born 1974)

Paulo Sérgio Oliveira da Silva, better known as Serginho, was a Brazilian footballer who played as a defender.

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Zdenko Runjić, Croatian songwriter and producer (born 1942)

Zdenko Runjić was a Croatian songwriter. His career spanned decades in the former Yugoslavia and Croatia.

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27/10/2003

Rod Roddy, American game show announcer (born 1937)

Robert Ray "Rod" Roddy was an American radio and television announcer. He was primarily known for his role as an offstage announcer on game shows. Among the shows that Roddy announced are the CBS game shows Whew! and Press Your Luck. Roddy is widely recognized by the signature line, "Come on down!" from The Price Is Right, and it appears on his grave marker, although the phrase was originated and made popular by his predecessor Johnny Olson. Roddy succeeded original announcer Olson on The Price Is Right and held the role from 1986 until his death in 2003, and as of 2022, is the longest-serving announcer on the current incarnation of the show. On many episodes of Press Your Luck and The Price Is Right, Roddy appeared on camera. He was also the voice of Mike the microphone on Disney's House of Mouse from 2001 until his death in 2003.

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Stephanie Tyrell, American songwriter and producer (born 1949)

Stephanie Georgia Manteris Tyrell was an American record producer, television composer, songwriter, and the wife of jazz composer, Steve Tyrell. She produced the soundtrack albums for The Brady Bunch Movie, Mystic Pizza and the 1991 version of Father of the Bride. She was best known for writing "How Do You Talk to an Angel", the one-hit wonder from Fox's The Heights.

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27/10/2002

Tom Dowd, American record producer and engineer (born 1925)

Thomas John Dowd was an American recording engineer and producer for Atlantic Records. He was credited with innovating the multitrack recording method. Dowd worked on a veritable "who's who" of recordings that encompassed blues, jazz, pop, rock, and soul records.

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Valve Pormeister, Estonian architect (born 1922)

Valve Pormeister née Ulm was an Estonian landscape architect who became an architect. She was one of the first women to influence the development of Estonian architecture, becoming one of the country's most inventive modernisers of rural architecture in the 1960s and 1970s. She is often known as the "Grand Old Lady" of Estonian architecture.

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27/10/2001

Pradeep Kumar, Indian actor, director, and producer (born 1925)

Pradeep Kumar was an Indian actor who is recognized for his work in Hindi, Punjabi and English-language films.

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27/10/2000

Walter Berry, Austrian lyric bass-baritone (born 1929)

Walter Berry was an Austrian lyric bass-baritone who enjoyed a prominent career in opera. He has been cited as one of several exemplary operatic bass-baritones of his era.

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27/10/1999

Robert Mills, American physicist and academic (born 1927)

Robert Laurence Mills was an American physicist, specializing in quantum field theory, the theory of alloys, and many-body theory.

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Charlotte Perriand, French architect and designer (born 1903)

Charlotte Perriand was a French architect and designer. Her work aimed to create functional living spaces in the belief that better design helps in creating a better society. In her article "L'Art de Vivre" from 1981 she states "The extension of the art of dwelling is the art of living — living in harmony with man's deepest drives and with his adopted or fabricated environment." Charlotte liked to take her time in a space before starting the design process. In Perriand's Autobiography, "Charlotte Perriand: A Life of Creation", she states: "I like being alone when I visit a country or historic site. I like being bathed in its atmosphere, feeling in direct contact with the place without the intrusion of a third party." Her approach to design includes taking in the site and appreciating it for what it is. Perriand felt she connected with any site she was working with or just visiting she enjoyed the living things and would reminisce on a site that was presumed dead.

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27/10/1997

Mahala Andrews, British vertebrae palaeontologist (born 1939)

Mahala Andrews was a British vertebrae palaeontologist who worked for the National Museum of Scotland.

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27/10/1996

Arthur Tremblay, Canadian lawyer and politician (born 1917)

Arthur Julien Tremblay, was a Canadian politician.

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27/10/1992

David Bohm, American-English physicist and philosopher (born 1917)

David Joseph Bohm was an American physicist who has been described as one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th century and who contributed unorthodox ideas to quantum theory, neuropsychology and the philosophy of mind. Among his many contributions to physics is his causal and deterministic interpretation of quantum theory known as De Broglie–Bohm theory.

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Allen R. Schindler, Jr. American sailor (born 1969)

Allen R. Schindler Jr. was an American radioman petty officer third class in the United States Navy who was murdered for being gay. He was killed in a public toilet in Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan, by Terry M. Helvey, who acted with the aid of an accomplice, Charles E. Vins, in what Esquire called a "brutal murder". The case became synonymous with the debate concerning LGBT members of the military that had been brewing in the United States, culminating in the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy.

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27/10/1991

George Barker, English author and poet (born 1913)

George Granville Barker was an English poet. He identified with the New Apocalyptics movement, which reacted against 1930s realism with mythical and surrealistic themes. His long liaison with Elizabeth Smart was the subject of her novel By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept.

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27/10/1990

Xavier Cugat, Spanish-American violinist, bandleader, and actor (born 1900)

Xavier Cugat was an American musician and bandleader who was a leading figure in the spread of Latin music in the United States. Originally from Girona, Catalonia in Spain, he spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba, before arriving in New York City in 1915. A trained violinist and arranger, he was the leader of the resident orchestra at the Waldorf–Astoria hotel from 1933 to 1949 and a prolific recording artist for 40 years. He became known as the "Rumba King." A restaurateur in West Hollywood and New York, he and his band appeared in numerous motion pictures in the 1930s and 1940s. He was also a caricature artist.

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Jacques Demy, French actor, singer, director, and screenwriter (born 1931)

Jacques Demy was a French director, screenwriter and lyricist. He appeared at the height of the French New Wave alongside contemporaries like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Demy's films are celebrated for their visual style, which drew upon diverse sources such as classic Hollywood musicals, the plein-air realism of his French New Wave colleagues, fairy tales, jazz, Japanese manga, and the opera. His films contain overlapping continuity, lush musical scores and motifs like teenage love, labor rights, chance encounters, incest, and the intersection between dreams and reality. He was married to Agnès Varda, another prominent director of the French New Wave. Demy is best known for the two musicals he directed in the mid-1960s: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967).

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Elliott Roosevelt, American general and author (born 1910)

Elliott Roosevelt was an American aviation official and wartime officer in the United States Army Air Forces, reaching the rank of brigadier general. He was a son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

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Ugo Tognazzi, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1922)

Ottavio "Ugo" Tognazzi was an Italian actor, director, and screenwriter.

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27/10/1988

Charles Hawtrey, English actor, singer, and pianist (born 1914)

George Frederick Joffre Hartree, known professionally as Charles Hawtrey, was an English actor, comedian, singer, pianist and theatre director.

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27/10/1982

Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes, President of Guatemala (1958–1963) (born 1895)

José Miguel Ramón Ydígoras Fuentes was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the 32nd president of Guatemala from 1958 to March 1963. He was also the main challenger to Jacobo Árbenz during the 1950 presidential election. Ydígoras previously served as the governor of the province of San Marcos.

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27/10/1980

Judy LaMarsh, Canadian soldier, lawyer, and politician, 42nd Secretary of State for Canada (born 1924)

Julia Verlyn LaMarsh was a Canadian politician, lawyer, author and broadcaster. In 1963, she became the second woman to serve as a federal Cabinet minister. Under Prime Minister Lester Pearson's minority governments of the middle and late 1960s, she helped push through the legislation that created the Canada Pension Plan and Medicare. As Secretary of State, she was in charge of Canada's Centennial celebrations in 1967. After leaving politics in 1968, she wrote three books, and had her own radio show on CBC Radio. She was stricken with pancreatic cancer in 1979 and was given the Order of Canada at her hospital bed. She died a few days short of the 20th anniversary of her first political election victory, in 1980.

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John Hasbrouck Van Vleck, American physicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1899)

John Hasbrouck Van Vleck was an American physicist and mathematician. He was co-awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977, for his contributions to the understanding of the behavior of electronic magnetism in solids.

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27/10/1977

James M. Cain, American journalist and author (born 1892)

James Mallahan Cain was an American novelist, journalist and screenwriter. He is widely regarded as a progenitor of the hardboiled school of American crime fiction.

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27/10/1975

Rex Stout, American detective novelist (born 1886)

Rex Todhunter Stout was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. His best-known characters are the detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin, who were featured in 33 novels and 39 novellas or short stories between 1934 and 1975.

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27/10/1974

C. P. Ramanujam, Indian mathematician and academic (born 1938)

Chakravarthi Padmanabhan Ramanujam was an Indian mathematician who worked in the fields of number theory and algebraic geometry. He was elected a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1973.

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27/10/1968

Lise Meitner, Austrian-English physicist and academic (born 1878)

Elise "Lise" Meitner was an Austrian and Swedish nuclear physicist who was instrumental in the discovery of nuclear fission.

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27/10/1962

Rudolf Anderson, American soldier and pilot (born 1927)

Rudolf Anderson Jr. was an American Air Force major and pilot. He was the first recipient of the Air Force Cross, the U.S. military's and Air Force's second-highest award and decoration for valor. The only U.S. fatality by enemy fire during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Anderson was killed when his U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down over Cuba. He had previously served in Korea during the Korean War.

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Enrico Mattei, Italian businessman and politician (born 1906)

Enrico Mattei was an Italian public administrator. After World War II, he was given the task of dismantling the Italian petroleum agency Agip, a state enterprise established by Fascist Italy. Instead, Mattei enlarged and reorganized it into the National Fuel Trust. Under his direction, ENI negotiated important oil concessions in the Middle East as well as a significant trade agreement with the Soviet Union, which helped break the oligopoly of the "Seven Sisters" that dominated the mid-20th-century oil industry. He also introduced the principle whereby the country that owned exploited oil reserves received 75% of the profits.

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27/10/1957

James McGirr, Australian politician, 28th Premier of New South Wales (born 1890)

James McGirr was an Australian politician. He served as premier of New South Wales from 1947 to 1952, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He led the party to victory at the 1947 and 1950 New South Wales state elections. He was a pharmacist by profession and the younger brother of Patrick and Greg McGirr, who were also members of parliament; Greg also led the ALP briefly but was never premier.

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27/10/1953

Thomas Wass, English cricketer (born 1873)

Thomas George Wass was a Nottinghamshire cricketer, a bowler best remembered, alongside Albert Hallam, for bowling that gave Nottinghamshire a brilliant County Championship win in 1907. Wass also holds the record for the most wickets taken for Nottinghamshire — 1633 for 20.34 each.

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27/10/1949

Marcel Cerdan, Algerian-French boxer (born 1916)

Marcellin "Marcel" Cerdan was a French professional boxer and world middleweight champion in 1948-1949. He was considered by many boxing experts and fans to be France's greatest boxer, and beyond to be one of the best to have learned his craft in Africa. Nicknamed "the Moroccan bomber" or "the man with hands of clay", his talent led him to France in 1938 where he became French champion three times and then European champion in the welterweight category. His life was marked by his sporting achievements, social lifestyle and, ultimately, tragedy, being killed in an airplane crash.

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27/10/1947

William Fay, Irish actor and producer, co-founded the Abbey Theatre (born 1872)

William George Fay was an actor and theatre producer who was one of the co-founders of the Abbey Theatre.

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27/10/1944

Judith Auer, German World War II resistance fighter (born 1905)

Judith Auer was a Swiss resistance fighter against the Nazi régime in Germany.

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27/10/1942

Helmuth Hübener, German activist (born 1925)

Helmuth Günther Guddat Hübener was a German youth who was executed at age 17 by beheading for his opposition to the Nazi regime. He was the youngest person of the German resistance to Nazism to be sentenced to death by the Sondergericht People's Court (Volksgerichtshof) and executed.

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27/10/1935

Ernest Eldridge, English race car driver (born 1897)

Ernest Arthur Douglas Eldridge was a British racing driver who broke the world land speed record in 1924. His was the last land speed record set on an open road.

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27/10/1930

Ellen Hayes, American mathematician and astronomer (born 1851)

Ellen Amanda Hayes was an American mathematician and astronomer. She was a controversial figure, both for being a female college professor and for embracing many radical causes.

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27/10/1929

Théodore Tuffier, French surgeon (born 1857)

Théodore-Marin Tuffier was a French surgeon. He was a pioneer of pulmonary and cardiovascular surgery and of spinal anaesthesia.

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27/10/1927

Squizzy Taylor, Australian gangster (born 1888)

Joseph Theodore Leslie "Squizzy" Taylor was an Australian gangster from Melbourne. He appeared repeatedly and sometimes prominently in Melbourne news media because of suspicions, formal accusations and some convictions related to a 1919 gang war, to his absconding from bail and hiding from the police in 1921–22, and to his involvement in a robbery where a bank manager was murdered in 1923.

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27/10/1926

Warren Wood, American golfer and soldier (born 1887)

Warren Kenneth Wood was an American amateur golfer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.

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27/10/1917

Arthur Rhys-Davids, English lieutenant and pilot (born 1897)

Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davids, was an English flying ace of the First World War.

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27/10/1880

Thrasyvoulos Zaimis, Greek soldier and politician, 48th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1822)

Thrasyvoulos Zaimis was a Greek politician and the 21st Prime Minister of Greece. Zaimis was born in Kerpini, Kalavryta on 29 October 1822, the son of Andreas Zaimis, a soldier and government leader before the recognition of Greece's freedom from the Ottoman Empire. Zaimis studied law in France and was first elected to the Hellenic Parliament in 1850. He served four terms as President of Parliament and also as minister in several governments.

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27/10/1816

Santō Kyōden, Japanese poet and painter (born 1761)

Santō Kyōden was a Japanese artist, writer, and the owner of a tobacco shop during the Edo period. His real name was Iwase Samuru , and he was also known popularly as Kyōya Denzō . He began his professional career illustrating the works of others before writing his own Kibyōshi and Sharebon, which marked his importance in the history of manga. Within his works, Kyōden often included references to his shop to increase sales. Kyōden's works were affected by the shifting publication laws of the Kansei Reforms, which aimed to punish writers and their publishers for writings related to the Yoshiwara and other things that were deemed to be "harmful to society" at the time by the Tokugawa Bakufu. As a result of his punishment in 1791, Kyōden shifted his writings to the more didactic Yomihon. During the 1790s, Santō Kyōden became a household name, and one of his works could sell as many as 10,000 copies, numbers that were previously unheard of for the time.

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27/10/1812

Isaac Brock, British army officer and administrator, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada (born 1769)

Major-General Sir Isaac Brock KB was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Guernsey. He is best remembered for his victory at the siege of Detroit and his death at the Battle of Queenston Heights during the War of 1812.

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27/10/1789

John Cook, American farmer and politician, 6th Governor of Delaware (born 1730)

John Cook (1730–1789) was an American planter and politician from Smyrna, in Kent County, Delaware. He served in the Delaware General Assembly and as Governor of Delaware.

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27/10/1675

Gilles de Roberval, French mathematician and academic (born 1602)

Gilles Personne de Roberval was a French mathematician born at Roberval near Beauvais, France. His name was originally Gilles Personne or Gilles Personier, with Roberval the place of his birth.

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27/10/1674

Hallgrímur Pétursson, Icelandic minister and poet (born 1614)

Hallgrímur Pétursson was an Icelandic poet and a minister at Hvalsneskirkja and Saurbær in Hvalfjörður. Being one of the most prominent Icelandic poets, the Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík and the Hallgrímskirkja in Saurbær are named in his honor. He was one of the most influential pastors during the Age of Orthodoxy (1580–1713). Because of his contributions to Lutheran hymnody, he is sometimes called the Icelandic Paul Gerhardt.

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27/10/1670

Vavasor Powell, Welsh minister (born 1617)

Vavasor Powell was a Welsh Puritan and Fifth Monarchist, imprisoned for his role in a plot to depose King Charles II.

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27/10/1666

Robert Hubert, French watchmaker (born 1640)

Robert Hubert was a watchmaker from Rouen, France, who was executed following his false confession of starting the Great Fire of London.

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27/10/1617

Ralph Winwood, English lawyer and politician, English Secretary of State (born 1563)

Sir Ralph Winwood was an English diplomat and statesman to the Jacobean court.

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27/10/1613

Gabriel Báthory, Prince of Transylvania (born 1589)

Gabriel Báthory was Prince of Transylvania from 1608 to 1613. The Ottomans nicknamed him "Deli Kiral". Born to the Roman Catholic branch of the Báthory family, he was closely related to four rulers of the Principality of Transylvania. His father, Stephen Báthory, held estates in the principality, but never ruled it. Being a minor when his father died in 1601, Gabriel became the ward of the childless Stephen Báthory, from the Protestant branch of the family, who converted him to Calvinism. After inheriting most of his guardian's estates in 1605, Gabriel became one of the wealthiest landowners in Transylvania and Royal Hungary.

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27/10/1605

Akbar, Mughal emperor (born 1542)

Akbar, also known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expand and consolidate Mughal domains in the Indian subcontinent. He is generally considered one of the greatest emperors in Indian history and led a successful campaign to unify the various kingdoms of Hindūstān or India proper.

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27/10/1573

Laurentius Petri, Swedish archbishop (born 1499)

Laurentius Petri Nericius was a Swedish clergyman and the first Evangelical Lutheran Archbishop of Sweden. He and his brother Olaus Petri are, together with the King Gustav Vasa, regarded as the main Lutheran reformers of Sweden. They are commemorated by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on 19 April.

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27/10/1561

Lope de Aguirre, Spanish explorer (born 1510)

Lope de Aguirre was a Basque Spanish conquistador who was active in South America. Nicknamed El Loco, he styled himself "Wrath of God." Aguirre is best known for his final expedition down the Amazon River in search of the mythical golden kingdom of El Dorado and Omagua.

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27/10/1553

Michael Servetus, Spanish physician and theologian (born 1511)

Michael Servetus was a Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer, and Renaissance humanist. He was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation, as discussed in Christianismi Restitutio (1553). He was a polymath versed in many sciences: mathematics, astronomy and meteorology, geography, human anatomy, medicine and pharmacology, as well as jurisprudence, translation, poetry, and the scholarly study of the Bible in its original languages.

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27/10/1513

George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros, English nobleman

George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros of Helmsley was an English peer.

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27/10/1505

Ivan III of Russia (born 1440)

Ivan III Vasilyevich, also known as Ivan the Great, was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1462 until his death in 1505. Ivan served as the co-ruler and regent for his blind father Vasily II before he officially ascended the throne.

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27/10/1485

Rodolphus Agricola, Dutch philosopher, poet and educator (born 1443)

Rodolphus Agricola was a Dutch humanist scholar recognized as the "father of Northern European humanism" for his role in introducing the Italian Renaissance's intellectual disciplines to the North. Known for his mastery of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, he was a versatile figure who excelled as an organist, poet, and orator, though he preferred the life of an independent scholar over institutional ties. His most important work, De inventione dialectica (1479), influenced the field of logic by shifting the focus from rigid scholastic reasoning to practical argumentation and rhetoric, profoundly impacting later thinkers like Erasmus, who regarded him as a "truly divine man."

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27/10/1449

Ulugh Beg, Persian astronomer, mathematician and sultan (born 1394)

Mīrzā Muhammad Tarāghāy bin Shāhrukh, better known as Ulugh Beg, was a Timurid sultan, as well as an astronomer and mathematician.

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27/10/1441

Margery Jourdemayne, executed for treasonable witchcraft

Margery Jourdemayne, "the Witch of Eye Next Westminster" was an English woman who was accused of "false belief and witchcraft". She was probably sentenced by a church court; no record survives confirming the charges. Edward Coke later claimed he had seen a document that she was burned De heretico comburendo. She was burned at the stake in Smithfield Market on 27 October 1441.

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27/10/1439

Albert II of Germany (born 1397)

Albert II, King of the Romans, was a member of the House of Habsburg. By inheritance he became Albert V, Duke of Austria. Through his wife Elizabeth of Luxembourg, he also became King of Hungary, King of Croatia, King of Bohemia, and inherited a claim to the Duchy of Luxembourg.

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27/10/1430

Vytautas, Lithuanian ruler (born 1350)

Vytautas the Great was a ruler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, first as regent for his cousin Jogaila (1392–1401) and then as the Grand Duke alongside him (1401–1430). He was also the prince of Grodno (1370–1382) and the prince of Lutsk (1387–1389), as well claimant to the titles of King of the Hussites and King of Lithuania.

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27/10/1331

Abulfeda, Arab historian and geographer (born 1273)

Ismāʿīl bin ʿAlī bin Maḥmūd bin Muḥammad bin ʿUmar bin Shāhanshāh bin Ayyūb bin Shādī bin Marwān, better known as Abū al-Fidāʾ or Abulfeda, was a Mamluk-era Kurdish geographer, historian, Ayyubid prince and local governor of Hama.

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27/10/1329

Mahaut, Countess of Artois (born 1268)

Mahaut of Artois also known as Mathilda, ruled as Countess of Artois from 1302 to 1329. She was furthermore regent of the County of Burgundy from 1303 to 1315 during the minority and the absence of her daughter, Joan II, Countess of Burgundy.

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27/10/1327

Elizabeth de Burgh, queen of Robert the Bruce

Elizabeth de Burgh was the second wife and only queen consort of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots. Elizabeth was born sometime around 1289, probably in what is now County Down or County Antrim in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. She was the daughter of one of the most powerful Norman nobles in the Lordship of Ireland at that time, Richard Óg de Burgh, the 2nd Earl of Ulster, a member of the noble dynasty, the House of Burgh and a close friend and ally to King Edward I of England.

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27/10/1326

Hugh le Despenser, 1st Earl of Winchester (born 1262)

Hugh le Despenser, sometimes referred to as "the Elder Despenser", was for a time the chief adviser to King Edward II of England. He was created a baron in 1295 and Earl of Winchester in 1322. One day after being captured by forces loyal to Sir Roger Mortimer and Edward's wife, Queen Isabella, who were leading a rebellion against Edward, he was hanged and then beheaded.

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27/10/1312

John II, Duke of Brabant (born 1275)

John II, also called John the Peaceful, was Duke of Brabant, Lothier and Limburg (1294–1312). He was the son of John I of Brabant and Margaret of Flanders.

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27/10/1303

Beatrice of Castile, wife of King Afonso III of Portugal

Beatrice of Castile, an illegitimate daughter of Alfonso X of Castile and his mistress Mayor Guillén de Guzmán, was the second Queen consort of Afonso III of Portugal.

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27/10/1277

Walter de Merton, Lord Chancellor of England

Walter de Merton was Lord Chancellor of England, Archdeacon of Bath, founder of Merton College, Oxford, and Bishop of Rochester. For the first two years of the reign of Edward I he was – in all but name – Regent of England during the King's absence abroad. He died in 1277 after falling from his horse, and is buried in Rochester Cathedral.

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27/10/1272

Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy (born 1213)

Hugh IV was Duke of Burgundy from 1218 and titular King of Thessalonica from 1266 until his death in 1272. Hugh was the son of Odo III, Duke of Burgundy, and Alice de Vergy.

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27/10/1269

Ulrich III, Duke of Carinthia (born c.1220)

Ulrich III was the ruler in the March of Carniola from c. 1249 and Duke of Carinthia from 1256 until his death, the last ruler from the House of Sponheim. His rule had long-lasting consequences. In Carniola, he acquired the former Meranian possessions, thus becoming the first undisputed princeps terrae, provincial lord or landgrave, creating the power and legal basis of the future Duchy of Carniola. The center of his original Carniolan possessions, Ljubljana, became the new administrative center and thus the provincial capital, as well as the center of Ulrich's power. In Carinthia, which he took over after his father's death, his seal became the coat of arms of Carinthia up to today. Despite his attempts to secure the vast Babenberg inheritance through two marriages, first to Agnes of Merania, widow of the last Babenberg duke Frederick II of Austria, and then to Frederick's niece Agnes of Baden, Ulrich remained childless. After a short interregnum by his younger brother Philip of Spanheim, patriarch of Aquileia, the House of Spanheim went extinct, and all of Ulrich's possessions were inherited by his cousin Ottokar II of Bohemia.

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27/10/1052

Qirwash ibn al-Muqallad, Uqaylid emir

Qirwash ibn al-Muqallad, also known by the honorific Muʿtamid al-Dawla, was the third Uqaylid emir of Mosul, and ruler of other towns in Iraq, from 1001 to 1050. An ambitious ruler, like the other petty rulers of the region he was engaged in a constant struggle of shifting alliances and enmities to keep and extend his domains. This involved his nominal overlords the Buyid emirs of Baghdad, other Bedouin tribes, local warlords and administrators, and even members of his own tribe and family who begrudged his position. In 1010, Qirwash even briefly defected from the Abbasid allegiance and recognized the Fatimid Caliphate in Cairo instead. He was eventually defeated, imprisoned and deposed by his brother, Baraka, and died on 27 October 1052.

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27/10/0939

Æthelstan, English king

Æthelstan or Athelstan was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to his death in 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his first wife, Ecgwynn. Modern historians regard him as the first King of England and one of the "greatest Anglo-Saxon kings". He never married and had no children; he was succeeded by his half-brother, Edmund I.

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