Died on Friday, 31st October – Famous Deaths

31/10/2023

Ken Mattingly, American astronaut (born 1936)

Thomas Kenneth Mattingly II was an American aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, rear admiral in the United States Navy, and astronaut who orbited the Moon on Apollo 16 and flew on the STS-4 and STS-51-C missions.

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31/10/2021

Peter Philpott, Australian cricketer (born 1934)

Peter Ian Philpott was an Australian cricketer. He was a leg-spin bowler and middle order batsman who played for New South Wales and the national team in the 1960s. More recently, he was known as a coach.

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31/10/2020

Sean Connery, Scottish actor (born 1930)

Sir Thomas Sean Connery was a Scottish actor. Connery was the first actor to portray the fictional British secret agent James Bond in motion pictures, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. He originated the role in Dr. No (1962) and continued starring as Bond in the Eon Productions films From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971). His final appearance in the franchise was with Never Say Never Again (1983), a non-Eon-produced Bond film.

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MF Doom, British-American rapper and record producer (born 1971)

Daniel Dumile, also known by his stage name MF Doom or simply Doom, was a British and American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Noted for his intricate wordplay, signature metal mask, and "supervillain" stage persona, he became a major figure of underground hip hop and alternative hip hop in the 2000s, and has been widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential lyricists in underground rap.

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31/10/2018

Willie McCovey, American baseball player (born 1938)

Willie Lee McCovey, nicknamed "Stretch" and "Willie Mac", was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a first baseman from 1959 to 1980, most notably as a member of the San Francisco Giants for whom he played 19 seasons. McCovey also played for the San Diego Padres and Oakland Athletics in the latter part of his MLB career.

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31/10/2015

Gus Savage, American businessman and politician (born 1925)

Augustus Alexander "Gus" Savage was an American entrepreneur, publisher and a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois. He served six terms from 1981 to 1993.

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31/10/2014

David Manker Abshire, American commander and diplomat, United States Permanent Representative to NATO (born 1926)

David Manker Abshire was an American politician who served as a Special Counselor to President Ronald Reagan and was the United States Permanent Representative to NATO from 1983 to 1987. Abshire presided over the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress.

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Michael Alsbury, American engineer and pilot (born 1975)

Michael Tyner Alsbury was an American test pilot for Scaled Composites. He died on October 31, 2014, during test flight PF04 of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise.

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Brad Halsey, American baseball player (born 1981)

Bradford Alexander Halsey was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees in 2004, for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2005, and for the Oakland Athletics in 2006.

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Hitoshi Motoshima, Japanese educator and politician (born 1922)

Hitoshi Motoshima was a Japanese politician. He served four terms as mayor of Nagasaki from 1979 to 1995. He publicly made controversial statements about the responsibility of Japan and its then-reigning Emperor for World War II, and survived a retaliatory assassination attempt in 1990 by a right wing fanatic. His mayoral successor, Iccho Itoh, was killed in an unrelated assassination in 2007.

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31/10/2013

Chris Chase (aka Irene Kane), American actress and author (born 1924)

Chris Chase, also known by the stage name Irene Kane, was an American model, film actress, writer, and journalist. Her best-known role was in Killer's Kiss. She later wrote advice books and co-authored several celebrity autobiographies. She was the sister of Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Paul Greengard.

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Gérard de Villiers, French journalist and author (born 1929)

Gérard de Villiers was a French writer, journalist and publisher whose SAS series of spy novels have been major bestsellers.

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Trevor Kletz, English chemist and author (born 1922)

Trevor Asher Kletz was a British author on the topic of chemical engineering safety. He was a central figure in establishing the discipline of process safety. He is credited with introducing the concept of inherent safety and was a major promoter of Hazop. He is listed in The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History.

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Johnny Kucks, American baseball player (born 1933)

John Charles Kucks was an American pitcher for the New York Yankees and Kansas City Athletics in Major League Baseball. In 1952, he was signed as an amateur free agent. Johnny Kucks won the final game of the 1956 World Series between the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers, shutting out the Dodgers, 9–0 at Ebbets Field—the last World Series game ever played in that ballpark.

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Andres Narvasa, Filipino lawyer and jurist, 19th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines (born 1928)

Andres dela Rosa Narvasa was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines from December 1, 1991, to November 30, 1998.

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Bobby Parker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1937)

Robert Lee Parker was an American blues-rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for his 1961 song "Watch Your Step", a single for the V-Tone record label which reached the Billboard Hot 100; the song was performed by, and influenced, the Beatles among others.

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31/10/2012

Gae Aulenti, Italian architect and designer (born 1927)

Gaetana "Gae" Emilia Aulenti was an Italian architect and designer. Aulenti began her career in the early 1950s, establishing herself as one of the few prominent female architects in post-war Italy.

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John Fitch, American race car driver and engineer (born 1917)

John Cooper Fitch was an American racing driver and inventor. He was the first American to race automobiles successfully in Europe in the post-war era.

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John H. Reed, American soldier and politician, 67th Governor of Maine (born 1921)

John Hathaway Reed was an American diplomat and politician who served as the 67th governor of Maine, holding office during the 1960s. He was once an Aroostook County potato farmer. Reed was a Republican who took office following the death of Governor Clinton Clauson.

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31/10/2011

Flórián Albert, Hungarian footballer and manager (born 1941)

Flórián György Albert was a Hungarian professional football player, manager and sports official, who was named European Footballer of the Year in 1967. Nicknamed "The Emperor", he played as a forward, and has been described as one of the most elegant footballers of all time.

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Roberto Lippi, Italian race car driver (born 1926)

Roberto Lippi was a racing driver from Italy. He participated in three Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, all of them in Italy, debuting on 10 September 1961. He started only one of these races, and scored no championship points.

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31/10/2010

Ted Sorensen, American lawyer, 8th White House Counsel (born 1928)

Theodore Chaikin Sorensen was an American lawyer, writer, and presidential adviser. He was the primary speechwriter for President John F. Kennedy, as well as one of his closest advisers. President Kennedy once called him his "intellectual blood bank". With Sorensen's assistance, Kennedy would later pen Profiles in Courage, for which he won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. He also assisted in Kennedy's inaugural address and drafted Lyndon Johnson's "Let Us Continue" speech following Kennedy's assassination.

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31/10/2009

Mustafa Mahmud, Egyptian physician and author (born 1921)

Mustafa Kamal Mahmoud Hussein was an Egyptian doctor, philosopher, and author. Mustafa was born in Shibin el-Kom, Monufia province. He was trained as a doctor, but later chose a career as a journalist and author, traveling and writing on many subjects. He wrote 89 books on science, philosophy, religion, politics, and society as well as plays, tales, and travelogues.

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Tom Wheatcroft, English businessman, founded the Donington Grand Prix Exhibition (born 1922)

Frederick Bernard "Tom" Wheatcroft was an English businessman and car collector. He made his fortune through building and construction, and was known for resurrecting the Donington Park motor racing circuit and founding the Donington Grand Prix Collection museum.

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Qian Xuesen, Chinese aerodynamicist and academic (born 1911)

Qian Xuesen was a Chinese aerospace engineer and cyberneticist who made significant contributions to the field of aerodynamics and established engineering cybernetics. He achieved recognition as one of America's leading experts in rockets and high-speed flight theory prior to his deportation to China in 1955.

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31/10/2008

Studs Terkel, American historian and author (born 1912)

Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1985 for The Good War and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.

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31/10/2007

Erdal İnönü, Turkish physicist and politician, Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1926)

Erdal İnönü was a Turkish theoretical physicist and politician who served as the interim prime minister of Turkey between 16 May and 25 June 1993. He also served as the deputy prime minister of Turkey from 1991 to 1993 and as the minister of foreign affairs from March to October 1995. He served as the leader of the Social Democracy Party (SODEP) from 1983 to 1985 and later the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) from 1986 to 1993. He was the son of the second president of Turkey, İsmet İnönü.

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31/10/2006

P. W. Botha, South African soldier and politician, State President of South Africa (born 1916)

Pieter Willem Botha, was a South African politician who served as the last Prime Minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and as the first executive State President of South Africa from 1984 until his resignation in 1989. Nicknamed 'Die Groot Krokodil' due to his tough political stance, he was considered the final hardline leader of South Africa during the apartheid era.

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Peter Fryer, English journalist and author (born 1927)

Peter Fryer was an English Marxist writer and journalist. Among his most influential works is the 1984 book Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain.

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31/10/2005

Hal Anger, American biophysicist and engineer (born 1920)

Hal Oscar Anger was an American electrical engineer and biophysicist at Donner Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, known for his invention of the gamma camera.

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Amrita Pritam, Indian author and poet (born 1919)

Amrita Pritam was an Indian novelist, essayist and poet, who wrote in Punjabi and Hindi. A prominent figure in Punjabi literature, she is the recipient of the 1956 Sahitya Akademi Award. Her body of work comprised over 100 books of poetry, fiction, biographies, essays, a collection of Punjabi folk songs and an autobiography that were all translated into several Indian and foreign languages.

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31/10/2003

Richard Neustadt, American political scientist and historian (born 1919)

Richard Elliott Neustadt was an American political scientist specializing in the United States presidency. He served as adviser to several presidents. His book Presidential Power has been described as "one of the most influential books ever written about political leadership." Thinking In Time: The Uses Of History For Decision Makers won the Grawemeyer Award. His other books include Alliance Politics, Preparing to be President, and, with Harvey V. Fineberg, The Swine Flu Affair: Decision-Making on a Slippery Disease.

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31/10/2002

Lionel Poilâne, French banker and businessman (born 1945)

Lionel Poilâne was a French baker and entrepreneur whose commitment to crafting quality bread earned him worldwide renown. His father, Pierre Poilâne started a baking business in 1932, creating bread using stone-ground flour, natural fermentation and a wood-fired oven. Lionel took over the bakery in 1970, continuing the traditional methods.

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Michail Stasinopoulos, Greek jurist and politician, President of Greece (born 1903)

Michail Stasinopoulos was a Greek jurist and politician who served as the President of Greece from 18 December 1974 to 19 July 1975. A member of New Democracy, he was the first officeholder under the Third Hellenic Republic.

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Raf Vallone, Italian footballer and actor (born 1916)

Raffaele "Raf" Vallone was an Italian actor and footballer. One of the top male Italian stars of the 1950s and 1960s, he first became known for his association with the neorealist movement, and found success in several international productions. On stage, he was closely associated with the works of Arthur Miller. He played the role of Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge several times, including Sidney Lumet's 1962 film adaptation, for which he won the David di Donatello for Best Actor.

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31/10/2001

Régine Cavagnoud, French skier (born 1970)

Régine Cavagnoud was a World Cup alpine ski racer from France. She was the World Cup and World Champion in Super-G in 2001. Later that year, Cavagnoud was involved in a high-speed collision while training and died two days later. She competed at three Winter Olympics and five world championships.

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31/10/2000

Ring Lardner, Jr., American journalist and screenwriter (born 1915)

Ringgold Wilmer Lardner Jr. was an American screenwriter and novelist. After enjoying early success in Hollywood, he was subpoenaed in 1947 by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), where he refused to answer whether he was a member of the Communist Party. He was declared in contempt of Congress, blacklisted by the film studios as one of the "Hollywood Ten", and sentenced to a year in federal prison. Lardner's next screenplay credit, using his own name, was not until The Cincinnati Kid in 1965. He went on to win an Academy Award for his M*A*S*H (1970) screenplay.

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Kazuki Watanabe, Japanese songwriter and guitarist (born 1981)

Kazuki Watanabe , known by his stage name Kazuki (華月), was a Japanese musician known as guitarist and lead songwriter of the visual kei rock band Raphael. The group became quite popular, with all their releases entering the top 40 of the Oricon chart, before disbanding after Kazuki died at the age of 19.

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31/10/1999

Greg Moore, Canadian race car driver (born 1975)

Gregory William Moore was a Canadian professional race car driver who competed in the Indy Lights and Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) series from 1993 to 1999. He began competitive karting at the age of ten and achieved early success, before progressing to open-wheel car racing in the Canadian Formula Ford Championship in 1991. Moore won the 1992 USAC FF2000 Western Division Championship and the 1995 Indy Lights Championship.

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31/10/1998

Elmer Vasko, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1935)

Elmer "Moose" Vasko was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Chicago Black Hawks and Minnesota North Stars. He was on the Blackhawks team that won the Stanley Cup in 1961.

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María de la Purísima Salvat Romero, Spanish nun and saint (Roman Catholic Church) (born 1926)

María de la Purísima Salvat Romero, born María Isabel Salvat Romero, was a Spanish religious sister of the Sisters of the Company of the Cross. She assumed the religious name María de la Purísima of the Cross.

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31/10/1997

George Roth, American gymnast (born 1911)

George Helm Roth was an American gymnast and Olympic champion who competed at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and won a gold medal in club swinging, or Indian Clubs as they were often known. He later became a petroleum geologist who in 1954 founded the petroleum consulting company George H. Roth and Associates in Hollywood, California. Managing the company for nearly thirty years, he and his associates helped discover many new California oil fields.

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31/10/1996

Marcel Carné, French director and screenwriter (born 1906)

Marcel Albert Carné was a French film director. A key figure in the poetic realism movement, Carné's best known films include Port of Shadows (1938), Le Jour Se Lève (1939), Les Visiteurs du Soir (1942) and Children of Paradise (1945); the latter has been cited as one of the great films of all time.

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31/10/1995

Rosalind Cash, American actress and singer (born 1938)

Rosalind Cash was an American actress. Her best-known film role is in the 1971 science-fiction film The Omega Man. Cash also had another notable role as Mary Mae Ward in ABC's General Hospital, a role she portrayed from 1994 until her death in 1995.

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31/10/1993

Federico Fellini, Italian director and screenwriter (born 1920)

Federico Fellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. His films have ranked highly in critical polls such as that of Cahiers du Cinéma and Sight & Sound, which lists his 1963 film 8½ as the 10th-greatest film.

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River Phoenix, American actor and singer (born 1970)

River Jude Phoenix was an American actor and musician. The older brother of actor Joaquin Phoenix, he was known as a teen actor before taking on leading roles in critically acclaimed films, becoming one of the preeminent acting talents of his generation. Phoenix's numerous accolades include the Volpi Cup and the Independent Spirit Award, as well as nominations for an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award.

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31/10/1992

Gary Rippingale, English ice hockey player (born 1974)

Gary Rippingale was an English professional ice hockey defenceman who played for the Nottingham Panthers. He also played for the Great Britain national ice hockey team at Under-18 level.

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31/10/1991

Joseph Papp, American stage director and producer (born 1921)

Joseph Papp was an American theatrical producer and director. Papp is a pioneering figure in American theater, known for creating Shakespeare in the Park, which aimed to make classical theater accessible to all people by producing free-of-charge performances. He was a known advocate for non-traditional and diverse casting practices. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created a year-round producing home to focus on new plays and musicals. Eventually, one of the six performance spaces inside the Public Theater was renamed Joe's Pub in honor of Joseph Papp. It continues to host live performances across a wide range of art forms. Among numerous examples of these were the works of David Rabe, Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, Charles Gordone's No Place to Be Somebody, and Papp's production of Michael Bennett's Pulitzer Prize–winning musical A Chorus Line. Papp also helped to develop other off-Broadway theatres and worked to preserve the historic Broadway Theatre District.

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31/10/1988

John Houseman, Romanian-born American actor, producer, and screenwriter (born 1902)

John Houseman was a British-American theatre and film producer, actor, director, and teacher. He became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director Orson Welles from their days in the Federal Theatre Project through to the production of Citizen Kane. He enjoyed a distinguished career as an influential producer of both the stage and screen, and was the founding director of the drama department of the Juilliard School and co-founder of The Acting Company.

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Alfred Pellan, Canadian painter and academic (born 1906)

Alfred Pellan was an important figure in twentieth-century Canadian painting.

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31/10/1986

Robert S. Mulliken, American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1896)

Robert Sanderson Mulliken was an American physical chemist, primarily responsible for the early development of molecular orbital theory, i.e. the elaboration of the molecular orbital method of computing the structure of molecules. Mulliken received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1966 and the Priestley Medal in 1983.

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31/10/1985

Nikos Engonopoulos, Greek painter and poet (born 1907)

Nikos Engonopoulos was a Greek painter and poet. He is one of the most important members of "Generation of the '30s", as well as a major representative of the surrealist movement in Greece. His work as a writer also includes critique and essays.

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Poul Reichhardt, Danish actor and singer (born 1913)

Poul David Reichhardt was a Danish actor, well known for his roles in Danish 1940s/1950s comedies. Later on, he also played more serious and varied roles; he has also starred in Huset på Christianshavn, Matador and as various minor characters in the Olsen-banden films.

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31/10/1984

Eduardo De Filippo, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1900)

Eduardo De Filippo OMRI, also known mononymously as Eduardo, was an Italian actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright, best known for his Neapolitan works Filumena Marturano and Napoli milionaria. Considered one of the most important Italian artists of the 20th century, De Filippo was the author of many theatrical dramas staged and directed by himself first and later awarded and played outside Italy. For his artistic merits and contributions to Italian culture, he was named senator for life by the President of the Italian Republic Sandro Pertini.

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Indira Gandhi, Indian politician, Prime Minister of India (born 1917)

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian stateswoman who served as the prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was India's first and only female prime minister, and a central figure in Indian politics as the leader of the Indian National Congress (INC). She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India. She was the mother of Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded her as prime minister. Her cumulative tenure of 15 years and 350 days makes her the second-longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father.

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31/10/1983

George Halas, American football player and coach (born 1895)

George Stanley Halas Sr., nicknamed "Papa Bear", was an American professional football end, coach, and executive. He was the founder and owner of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL), and served as his own head coach on four occasions. He was also lesser-known as a player for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He is the namesake for the NFC Championship trophy.

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Lu Jiaxi, Chinese self-taught mathematician (born 1935)

Lu Jiaxi was a self-taught Chinese mathematician who made important contributions in combinatorial design theory. He was a high school physics teacher in a remote city and worked in his spare time on the problem of large sets of disjoint Steiner triple systems.

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Sharof Rashidov, Uzbek politician, CPSU Politburo candidate member (born 1917)

Sharof Rashidovich Rashidov was the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan from 1959 until his death in 1983. During his tenure the Uzbek SSR saw considerable economic growth and had a very high degree of autonomy from the rest of the Soviet Union.

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31/10/1980

Jan Werich, Czech actor and playwright (born 1905)

Jan Werich was a Czech actor, playwright and writer.

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31/10/1977

C. B. Colby, American author and illustrator (born 1904)

Carroll Burleigh Colby was an American writer, primarily of nonfiction children's books. He wrote more than 100 books that were widely circulated in public and school libraries in the United States. He is best known for Strangely Enough! (1959).

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31/10/1975

Sachin Dev Burman, Indian composer and singer (born 1906)

Sachin Dev Burman was an Indian music director and singer. He was a member of the Tripura royal family. He started his career with Bengali films in 1937. He later began composing for Hindi movies and became one of the most successful and influential Indian film music composers. Burman composed the soundtracks for over 100 movies, including Bengali films and Hindi.

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31/10/1973

Malek Bennabi, Algerian philosopher and author (born 1905)

Malek Bennabi was an Algerian writer and philosopher, of Islamic, Salafist and Wahhabi inspiration, who wrote about human society, particularly Muslim society with a focus on the reasons behind the fall of Muslim civilization.

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31/10/1972

Bill Durnan, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1916)

William Ronald Durnan was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played with the Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1943 and 1950. He was one of the best goaltenders in his time, winning the Vezina Trophy for fewest goals allowed six times, being named First All-Star team as best goaltender six times, and helping the Canadiens win the Stanley Cup twice. Durnan retired in 1950, citing the stress of playing professional hockey. However, in his final season he suffered a severe laceration of the scalp, but was only sidelined 12 days and returned heroically for the playoffs. When the series was all but lost, he stepped away from the game. He served as the captain of the Canadiens in 1948, the last goaltender to be allowed to do so. In 1964 Durnan was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and in 2017 he was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.

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31/10/1964

Tuomas Bryggari, Finnish politician (born 1881)

Tuomas Bryggari was a Finnish trade unionist, politician and member of the Parliament of Finland, the national legislature of Finland. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he represented Vaasa Province East between September 1922 and July 1948. Prior to being elected, he was imprisoned for political reasons following the Finnish Civil War.

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31/10/1963

Mesut Cemil, Turkish cellist and composer (born 1902)

Mesut Cemil was a Turkish composer, and a notable tanbur lute and cello player. His father was Tanburi Cemil Bey.

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31/10/1960

H. L. Davis, American author and poet (born 1894)

Harold Lenoir Davis, also known as H. L. Davis, was an American novelist and poet. A native of Oregon, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Honey in the Horn, the only Pulitzer Prize for Literature given to a native Oregonian. Later living in California and Texas, he also wrote short stories for magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post.

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31/10/1959

Jean Cabannes, French physicist and academic (born 1885)

Jean Cabannes was a French physicist specialising in optics.

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31/10/1952

Chit Hlaing, Burmese lawyer and politician (born 1879)

Chit Hlaing was a notable Burmese politician. During his time, he was called a Burmese king without a crown, and was popular in rural Burma. He was imprisoned when the British Crown Prince of Wales visited Burma in 1921.

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31/10/1944

Joseph Hubert Priestley, British botanist (born 1883)

Joseph Hubert Priestley was a British lecturer in botany at University College, Bristol, and professor of botany and pro-vice-chancellor at the University of Leeds. He has been described as a gifted teacher who attracted many graduate research students to Leeds. He was the eldest child of a Tewkesbury head teacher and the elder brother of Raymond Priestley, the British geologist and Antarctic explorer. He was educated at his father's school and University College, Bristol. In 1904, he was appointed a lecturer in botany at the University College and published research on photosynthesis and the effect of electricity on plants. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society, and in 1910, he was appointed consulting botanist to the Bath and West and Southern Counties Society.

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31/10/1939

Otto Rank, Austrian psychologist, author, and educator (born 1884)

Otto Rank was an Austrian psychoanalyst, writer, and philosopher. Born in Vienna, he became one of Sigmund Freud's closest collaborators, served as secretary of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, and edited leading psychoanalytic journals while publishing studies of myth and creativity. His book The Trauma of Birth (1924) proposed that the anxiety of birth precedes the Oedipus complex, coined the term "pre-Oedipal," and triggered a decisive break with Freud's developmental theory. Rank established psychotherapy practices in Paris and New York, where he promoted relationship-based treatment that emphasized emotional presence in the analytic encounter. He influenced existential and humanistic therapy, social work, and action learning, and his ideas on creativity and the double continue to inform psychological and cultural criticism.

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31/10/1931

Octave Uzanne, French journalist and author (born 1851)

Octave Uzanne was a 19th-century French bibliophile, writer, publisher, and journalist.

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31/10/1929

António José de Almeida, Portuguese physician and politician, 6th President of Portugal (born 1866)

António José de Almeida was a Portuguese politician who served as the president of Portugal from 1919 to 1923. António José de Almeida also served as prime minister from 1916 to 1917. He was the only president of the First Portuguese Republic to serve the entire term.

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31/10/1926

Harry Houdini, American magician and stuntman (born 1874)

Erik Weisz, known professionally as Harry Houdini, was a Hungarian-American escapologist, illusionist, and stunt performer noted for his escape acts.

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31/10/1925

Max Linder, French actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1883)

Gabriel-Maximilien Leuvielle, known professionally as Max Linder, was a French actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and comedian of the silent film era. His onscreen persona "Max" was one of the first recognizable recurring characters in film. He has also been cited as the "first international movie star" and "the first film star anywhere".

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Mikhail Frunze, Bolshevik leader during and just prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917 (born 1885)

Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze was a Soviet revolutionary, politician, army officer and military theorist.

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Thomas Henry Tracy, Canadian architect and alderman (born 1848)

Thomas Henry Tracy was a Canadian architect and alderman. Born in London, Upper Canada, to Irish immigrants, Tracy was apprenticed to William Robinson for five years beginning in 1864; after spending time working for Kivas Tully and Thomas Fuller, Tracy returned to Robinson in 1873, and he took control of the firm after the latter's 1878 retirement. Tracy left private practice in 1882, with George F. Durand assuming control of the firm and Tracy serving as full-time city engineer. Tracy moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1891, to assume the position of city engineer. In that capacity, he helped design the city's waterworks; he also served five years as an alderman.

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31/10/1920

Alphonse Desjardins, Canadian businessman (born 1854)

Gabriel-Alphonse Desjardins, born in Levis, Canada East was the co-founder of the Caisses Populaires Desjardins, a forerunner of North American credit unions and community banks. For his contribution to the advancement of agriculture in the province of Quebec, he was posthumously inducted to the Agricultural Hall of Fame of Quebec in 1994.

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31/10/1918

Egon Schiele, Austrian painter (born 1890)

Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele was an Austrian Expressionist painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude self-portraits. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterise Schiele's paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism. Gustav Klimt, a figurative painter of the early 20th century, was a mentor to Schiele.

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31/10/1916

Charles Taze Russell, American minister (born 1852)

Charles Taze Russell, or Pastor Russell, was an American Adventist minister from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and founder of the Bible Student movement. He was an early Christian Zionist.

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Huang Xing, Chinese revolutionary leader and statesman (born 1874)

Huang Xing or Huang Hsing was a Chinese revolutionary leader and politician, and the first commander-in-chief of the Republic of China. As one of the founders of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Republic of China, his position was second only to Sun Yat-sen. Together they were known as Sun-Huang during the Xinhai Revolution. He was also known as the "Eight Fingered General" because of wounds sustained during war. His tomb is on Mount Yuelu, in Changsha, Hunan, China.

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31/10/1913

William Evans-Gordon, English soldier and politician (born 1857)

Major Sir William Eden Evans Gordon was a British politician, military officer, and diplomat. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) who had served as a military diplomat in India.

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31/10/1905

Bryan O'Loghlen, Irish-Australian politician, 13th Premier of Victoria (born 1828)

Sir Bryan O'Loghlen, 3rd Baronet was an Irish-born Australian colonial politician who was the 13th Premier of Victoria.

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31/10/1884

Marie Bashkirtseff, Ukrainian-Russian painter and sculptor (born 1858)

Marie Bashkirtseff, born Maria Konstantinovna Bashkirtseva, was an émigré artist who was born into a noble family on their estate near the city of Poltava. She lived and worked in Paris, and died at the age of 25.

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31/10/1879

Jacob Abbott, American author and academic (born 1803)

Jacob Abbott was an American writer of children's books and historical biographies.

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Joseph Hooker, American general (born 1814)

Joseph Hooker was an American Civil War general for the Union, chiefly remembered for his decisive defeat by Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863.

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31/10/1869

Charles A. Wickliffe, American politician, 14th Governor of Kentucky (born 1788)

Charles Anderson Wickliffe was an American politician who was the 11th U.S. postmaster general from 1841 to 1845. He served as the 14th governor of Kentucky from 1839 to 1840 and as a U.S. representative from Kentucky from 1861 to 1863. He also served as Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives. Though he consistently identified with the Whig Party, he was politically independent, and often had differences of opinion with Whig founder and fellow Kentuckian Henry Clay.

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31/10/1860

Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, Scottish-English admiral and politician (born 1775)

Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, Marquess of Maranhão, styled Lord Cochrane between 1778 and 1831, was a British naval officer, politician and mercenary. Serving during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in the Royal Navy, his naval successes led Napoleon to nickname him le Loup des Mers. He was successful in virtually all his naval actions.

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31/10/1820

John Lynch, American city founder and abolitionist (born 1740)

John Lynch was an American merchant and abolitionist who founded the city of Lynchburg, Virginia.

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31/10/1806

Kitagawa Utamaro, Japanese artist and printmaker (born ca. 1753)

Kitagawa Utamaro was a Japanese artist. He is one of the most highly regarded designers of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings, and is best known for his bijin ōkubi-e "large-headed pictures of beautiful women" of the 1790s. He also produced nature studies, particularly illustrated books of insects.

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31/10/1786

Princess Amelia of Great Britain (born 1711)

Princess Amelia of Great Britain was the second daughter of King George II of Great Britain and Queen Caroline. Born in Hanover, she moved to England when her grandfather George I became king. Amelia lived a solitary existence and died in 1786, the last surviving child of her parents.

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31/10/1768

Francesco Maria Veracini, Italian violinist and composer (born 1690)

Francesco Maria Veracini was an Italian composer and violinist, perhaps best known for his sets of violin sonatas. As a composer, according to Manfred Bukofzer, "His individual, if not subjective, style has no precedent in baroque music and clearly heralds the end of the entire era", while Luigi Torchi maintained that "he rescued the imperiled music of the eighteenth century", His contemporary, Charles Burney, held that "he had certainly a great share of whim and caprice, but he built his freaks on a good foundation, being an excellent contrapuntist". The asteroid 10875 Veracini was named after him.

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31/10/1744

Leonardo Leo, Italian composer (born 1694)

Leonardo Leo, more correctly Leonardo Ortensio Salvatore de Leo, was a Baroque composer.

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31/10/1733

Eberhard Louis, Duke of Württemberg (born 1676)

Duke Eberhard Louis was Duke of Württemberg from 1692 until 1733.

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31/10/1732

Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy (born 1666)

Victor Amadeus II was the head of the House of Savoy and ruler of the Savoyard states from 12 June 1675 until his abdication in 1730. He was the first of his house to acquire a royal crown, ruling first as King of Sicily (1713–1720) and then as King of Sardinia (1720–1730). Among his other titles were Duke of Savoy, Duke of Montferrat, Prince of Piedmont, Marquis of Saluzzo and Duke of Aosta, Maurienne and Nice.

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31/10/1723

Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (born 1642)

Cosimo III de' Medici was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1670 until his death in 1723, the sixth and penultimate from the House of Medici. He reigned from 1670 to 1723, and was the elder son of Grand Duke Ferdinando II. Cosimo's 53-year-long reign, the longest in Tuscan history, was marked by a series of laws that regulated prostitution and May celebrations. His reign also witnessed Tuscany's deterioration to previously unknown economic lows.

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31/10/1661

Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, Ottoman politician, 109th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (born 1575)

Köprülü Mehmed Pasha was Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire and founding patriarch of the Köprülü political dynasty. He helped rebuild the power of the empire by rooting out corruption and reorganizing the Ottoman army. As he introduced these changes, Köprülü also expanded the borders of the empire, defeating the Cossacks, the Hungarians, and most impressively, the Venetians. Köprülü's effectiveness was matched by his reputation.

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31/10/1659

John Bradshaw, English lawyer and judge, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (born 1602)

John Bradshaw was an English jurist who was President of the High Court of Justice for the trial of Charles I and the first Lord President of the Council of State of the English Commonwealth.

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31/10/1641

Cornelis Jol, Dutch admiral (born 1597)

Cornelis Corneliszoon Jol, nicknamed Houtebeen ("pegleg"), was a 17th-century Dutch corsair and admiral in the Dutch West India Company during the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic. He was one of several early buccaneers to attack Campeche, looting the settlement in 1633, and was active against the Spanish in the Spanish Main and throughout the Caribbean during the 1630s and 40s.

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31/10/1589

Peter Stumpp, German farmer and alleged serial killer (born 1535)

Peter Stumpp was a German farmer and alleged serial killer, accused of werewolfery, witchcraft, and cannibalism. He was known as "the Werewolf of Bedburg".

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31/10/1517

Fra Bartolomeo, Italian artist (born 1472)

Fra Bartolomeo or Bartolommeo, also known as Bartolommeo di Pagholo, Bartolommeo di San Marco, Bartolomeo di Paolo di Jacopo del Fattorino, and his original nickname Baccio della Porta, was an Italian Renaissance painter of religious subjects. He spent all his career in Florence until his mid-forties, when he travelled to work in various cities, as far south as Rome. He trained with Cosimo Rosselli and in the 1490s fell under the influence of Savonarola, which led him to become a Dominican friar in 1500, renouncing painting for several years. Typically his paintings are of static groups of figures in subjects such as the Virgin and Child with Saints.

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31/10/1448

John VIII Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (born 1390)

John VIII Palaiologos was the penultimate Roman emperor to rule in Constantinople. Ruling from 1425 to 1448, he attempted to bring about the reunification of the Orthodox and Catholic churches and prioritised the protection of Constantinople against the Ottoman Empire. He was succeeded by his brother, Constantine XI, who would become the final emperor.

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31/10/1335

Marie of Évreux, Duchess Consort of Brabant (born 1303)

Marie d'Évreux was the eldest child of Louis d'Évreux and his wife Margaret of Artois. She was a member of the House of Capet.

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31/10/1320

Ricold of Monte Croce, Italian Dominican missionary (born 1242)

Riccoldo da Monte di Croce or Ricold of Monte Croce was an Italian Dominican friar, travel writer, missionary, and Christian apologist. He is most famous for his polemical works on Medieval Islam and the account of his missionary travels to Baghdad.

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31/10/1214

Eleanor of England, queen consort of Castile (born 1163)

Eleanor of England, was Queen of Castile and Toledo as the wife of Alfonso VIII of Castile. She was the sixth child and second daughter of Henry II, King of England, and Eleanor of Aquitaine. She served as Regent of Castile during the minority of her son Henry I for 26 days between the death of her husband and her own death in 1214. Her great-granddaughter and namesake, Eleanor of Castile, married the future Edward I of England in 1254.

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31/10/1147

Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, son of Henry I of England (born 1100)

Robert FitzRoy, 1st Earl of Gloucester, was an illegitimate son of King Henry I. He was the half-brother of the Empress Matilda, and her chief military supporter during the civil war known as the Anarchy, in which she vied with Stephen of Blois for the throne of England.

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31/10/1034

Deokjong, Korean ruler (born 1016)

Deokjong, personal name Wang Hŭm, was the 9th king of the Goryeo dynasty of Korea. The son of King Hyeonjong, he was confirmed as Crown Prince in 1022. During his reign, the compilation of national histories that was started during King Hyeonjong's reign was completed, and under the advice of General Kang Kam-ch'an the construction of the second Cheolli Jangseong began.

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31/10/1005

Abe no Seimei, Japanese astrologer (born 921)

Abe no Seimei was a Japanese onmyōji, a court official and specialist of Onmyōdō, during the middle of the Heian period. In addition to his prominence in history, he is a legendary figure in Japanese folklore. He has been portrayed in several stories and films.

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31/10/0994

Wolfgang of Regensburg, German bishop and saint (born 934)

Wolfgang of Regensburg was bishop of Regensburg in Bavaria from Christmas 972 until his death. He is a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. He is regarded as one of the three great German saints of the 10th century, the other two being Ulrich of Augsburg and Conrad of Constance. Towards the end of his life Wolfgang withdrew as a hermit to a solitary spot, in the Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria. Soon after Wolfgang's death many churches chose him as their patron saint, and various towns were named after him.

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31/10/0932

Al-Muqtadir, Abbasid caliph (born 895)

Abū’l-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṭalḥa ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn Al-Muqtadir bi'Llāh, better known by his regnal name al-Muqtadir bi'Llāh, was the eighteenth caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate from 908 to 932 AD, with the exception of a brief deposition in favour of al-Qahir in 929.

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