Died on Wednesday, 17th September – Famous Deaths

17/09/2025

Roger Climpson, English-Australian journalist and television host (born 1932)

Roger Climpson was a British-born Australian media personality who served a lengthy career in both radio and television, as a journalist and reporter, announcer, newsreader, weather presenter and host. He started his career as an actor in radio, but also appeared in theatre and television productions; post his mainstream media career, he went into Christian broadcasting.

---

17/09/2024

Nelson DeMille, American lieutenant and author (born 1943)

Nelson Richard DeMille was an American author of action adventure and suspense novels. His novels include Plum Island, The Charm School, and The General's Daughter. DeMille also wrote under the pen names Jack Cannon, Kurt Ladner, Ellen Kay, and Brad Matthews.

---

Neil King Jr., American journalist and author (born 1959)

Neil Caldwell King Jr. was an American journalist and author. He shared in the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting in 2002. His first book, American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal, was published by HarperCollins in 2023.

---

JD Souther, American singer, songwriter, and actor (born 1945)

John David Souther was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was "a principal architect of the Southern California sound and a major influence on a generation of songwriters". Souther wrote and co-wrote songs recorded by Linda Ronstadt and some of the Eagles' biggest hits, including "Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "Heartache Tonight" and "New Kid in Town". "How Long", which appeared on the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden, came from Souther's first solo album. He recorded two hit songs in his solo career: "You're Only Lonely" (1979) and "Her Town Too" (1981), a duet with James Taylor. He had a brief acting career and appeared on TV and in movies. He played with the Eagles on their 2008 farewell tour.

---

17/09/2022

Maarten Schmidt, Dutch astronomer (born 1929)

Maarten Schmidt was a Dutch-born American astronomer who first measured the distances of quasars. He was the first astronomer to identify a quasar, and so was pictured on the March cover of Time magazine in 1966.

---

17/09/2021

Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algerian politician, President of Algeria (born 1937)

Abdelaziz Bouteflika was an Algerian politician and diplomat who served as the seventh president of Algeria from 1999 until his resignation in 2019, following mass protests.

---

17/09/2020

Robert W. Gore, American engineer and businessman, co-inventor of Gore-Tex (born 1937)

Robert W. Gore was an American engineer and scientist, inventor and businessman. Gore led his family's company, W. L. Gore & Associates, which was founded by his father Bill Gore, in developing applications of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) ranging from computer cables to medical equipment to the outer layer of space suits. His most significant breakthrough was likely the invention of Gore-Tex, a waterproof and breathable fabric popularly known for its use in sporting and outdoor gear.

---

17/09/2019

Cokie Roberts, American journalist and bestselling author (born 1943)

Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne "Cokie" Roberts was an American journalist and author. Her career included decades as a political reporter and analyst for National Public Radio, PBS, and ABC News, with prominent positions on Morning Edition, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, World News Tonight, and This Week. She was considered one of NPR's "Founding Mothers" along with the late Susan Stamberg, Linda Wertheimer and Nina Totenberg.

---

17/09/2017

Bobby Heenan, American professional wrestling manager (born 1944)

Raymond Louis Heenan was an American professional wrestling manager, color commentator, and wrestler. He performed with the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under the ring name Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.

---

17/09/2016

Bahman Golbarnezhad, Iranian racing cyclist (born 1968)

Bahman Golbarnezhad was an Iranian Paralympic racing cyclist competing in C4 classification events and an earlier powerlifter. During his powerlifting career, he won twelve gold medals and one silver medal in international competitions. Golbarnezhad had represented Iran in two Summer Paralympic Games, first in 2012 in London and later in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. He was the only Iranian cyclist at the 2016 Paralympics. He was a veteran of the Iran–Iraq war.

---

Sigge Parling, Swedish footballer (born 1936)

Sigvard Emanuel "Sigge" Parling was a Swedish footballer. He also played ice hockey and bandy.

---

17/09/2015

Ingrīda Andriņa, Latvian actress (born 1944)

Ingrīda Andriņa was a Latvian stage and film actress.

---

Dettmar Cramer, German footballer and manager (born 1925)

Dettmar Cramer was a German football manager who led Bayern Munich to the 1975 and 1976 European Cups. He was born in Dortmund. Cramer is commonly considered to be the father of modern football in Japan and was a member of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd Class. He coached the Egypt national football team and also briefly coached the United States national team.

---

Vadim Kuzmin, Russian physicist and academic (born 1937)

Vadim Alekseyevich Kuzmin was a Russian theoretical physicist.

---

David Willcocks, English organist, composer, and conductor (born 1919)

Sir David Valentine Willcocks, was a British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator. He was particularly well known for his association with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, which he directed from 1957 to 1974, making frequent broadcasts and recordings. Several of the descants and carol arrangements he wrote for the annual service of Nine Lessons and Carols were published in the series of books Carols for Choirs which he edited along with Reginald Jacques and John Rutter. He was also director of the Royal College of Music in London.

---

17/09/2014

George Hamilton IV, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1937)

George Hege Hamilton IV was an American country musician. He began performing in the late 1950s as a teen idol, switching to country music in the early 1960s.

---

Andriy Husin, Ukrainian footballer and manager (born 1972)

Andriy Leonidovych Husin was a Ukrainian professional football player and coach. He played in the Ukraine national team, and was one of Ukraine's most capped players. He was a member of their squad at the 2006 World Cup.

---

Wakachichibu Komei, Japanese sumo wrestler (born 1939)

Wakachichibu Komei was a sumo wrestler from Chichibu, Saitama, Japan. He made his professional debut in May 1954 and reached the top division in September 1958. His highest rank was sekiwake. Upon retirement from active competition he became an elder in the Japan Sumo Association, under the name Tokiwayama. He reached the Sumo Association's mandatory retirement age in March 2004.

---

Charles Read, Australian air marshal (born 1918)

Air Marshal Sir Charles Frederick Read, KBE, CB, DFC, AFC was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served as Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) from 1972 to 1975. Born in Sydney, Read joined the RAAF in 1937, and began his career flying biplane fighters. As a Beaufighter pilot, he led No. 31 Squadron and No. 77 Wing in the South West Pacific during World War II. His achievements earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross and a mention in despatches, and he finished the war an acting group captain.

---

Peter von Bagh, Finnish historian, director, and screenwriter (born 1943)

Kari Peter Conrad von Bagh was a Finnish film historian and director. Von Bagh worked as the head of the Finnish Film Archive, editor-in-chief of Filmihullu magazine and co-founder and director of the Midnight Sun Film Festival. From 2001, he was the artistic director of the film festival Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna. Von Bagh was a member of the jury in the competition category of 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

---

China Zorrilla, Uruguayan actress (born 1922)

China Zorrilla was an Uruguayan theater, film, and television actress, also director, producer and writer. An immensely popular star in the Rioplatense area, she is often regarded as a "Grande Dame" of the South American theater stage.

---

17/09/2013

Kristian Gidlund, Swedish drummer and journalist (born 1983)

Kristian Olof Erik Gidlund was a Swedish musician and author. He played drums in the rock band Sugarplum Fairy. He hosted Sommar i P1 on Swedish radio and released one book. In 2011, Gidlund was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and died from the disease in 2013 four days short of his 30th birthday.

---

Larry Lake, American-Canadian trumpet player and composer (born 1943)

Larry Ellsworth Lake was an American-born Canadian composer, trumpeter, freelance writer on music, radio broadcaster, and record producer. As a composer, he was primarily known for his electronic music. His musical compositions are characterized by their integration of acoustic instruments with electronic ones in live performance. From 1985 until his death he served as artistic director of the Canadian Electronic Ensemble, a group of which he was a founding member. For nearly 30 years he hosted and served as music consultant for the CBC Radio program Two New Hours. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre (CMC), he was the chair of the CMC's Ontario Region Council and was an executive member of the CMC's national board. He was a member of both the Canadian Electroacoustic Community and the Canadian League of Composers. His compositions received multiple awards from the CMC and from the Major Armstrong Foundation. He received three Juno Award nominations for his work as a record producer.

---

Bernie McGann, Australian saxophonist and composer (born 1937)

Bernard Francis McGann was an Australian jazz alto saxophone player. He began his career in the late 1950s and remained active as a performer, composer and recording artist until near the end of his life. McGann won four ARIA Music Awards between 1993 and 2001.

---

Alex Naumik, Lithuanian-Norwegian singer-songwriter and producer (born 1949)

Alexandra Naumik, better known by her stage name Alex, was a Lithuanian-born, Polish-Norwegian rock and pop artist who rose to fame in the late 1970s.

---

Michael J. Noonan, Irish farmer and politician, 25th Irish Minister of Defence (born 1935)

Michael Joseph Noonan was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He served as Minister for Defence from 1987 until 1989.

---

Marvin Rainwater, American singer-songwriter (born 1925)

Marvin Karlton Rainwater was an American country and rockabilly singer and songwriter who had several hits during the late 1950s, including the self-penned "Gonna Find Me a Bluebird" and "Whole Lotta Woman," which hit No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart. He was known for wearing Native American fashion-themed outfits on stage and claimed to have quarter-blood Cherokee ancestry.

---

Eiji Toyoda, Japanese businessman (born 1913)

Eiji Toyoda was a Japanese engineer and industrialist. He was largely responsible for bringing Toyota Motor Corporation to profitability and worldwide prominence during his tenure as president and later, as chairman. He was succeeded as the president of Toyota by Shoichiro Toyoda.

---

17/09/2012

Melvin Charney, Canadian sculptor and architect (born 1935)

Melvin Charney C.Q. was a Canadian artist and architect.

---

17/09/2011

Colin Madigan, Australian architect and author, designed the National Gallery of Australia (born 1921)

Colin Frederick Madigan was an Australian architect. He is best known for designing the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.

---

17/09/2005

Jacques Lacarrière, French journalist and critic (born 1925)

Jacques Lacarrière was a French writer, born in Limoges. He studied moral philosophy, classical literature, and Hindu philosophy and literature. Professionally, he was known as a prominent critic, journalist, and essayist.

---

Alfred Reed, American composer and educator (born 1921)

Alfred Reed was an American neoclassical composer, with more than two hundred published works for concert band, orchestra, chorus, and chamber ensemble to his name. He also traveled extensively as a guest conductor and served as a professor at the University of Miami School of Music.

---

17/09/2003

Erich Hallhuber, German actor (born 1951)

Erich Hallhuber was a Bavarian actor. He was born in Munich and worked in theatre, opera, television and film.

---

17/09/2000

Georgiy Gongadze, Georgian-Ukrainian journalist and director (born 1969)

Georgiy Ruslanovych Gongadze was a Ukrainian journalist. He founded the online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda along with Olena Prytula in 2000. The same year, he was kidnapped and murdered near Kyiv. Gongadze was born to a Ukrainian mother and a Georgian father in Tbilisi, Georgia, then part of the Soviet Union.

---

17/09/1999

Frankie Vaughan, English singer and actor (born 1928)

Frankie Vaughan was an English singer and actor who became popular in the 1950s and 60s, recording more than 80 easy listening and traditional pop singles in his lifetime. He was known as "Mr. Moonlight" after his signature song "Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl". Two of Vaughan's singles topped the UK Singles Chart: "The Garden of Eden" (1957) and "Tower of Strength" (1961). He starred in several films, including a role opposite Marilyn Monroe in Let's Make Love (1960).

---

17/09/1997

Red Skelton, American actor and comedian (born 1913)

Richard Bernard Skelton was an American entertainer best known for his national radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program The Red Skelton Show. He has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in radio and television, and he also appeared in burlesque, vaudeville, films, nightclubs, and casinos, all while he pursued an entirely separate career as an artist.

---

17/09/1996

Spiro Agnew, American soldier and politician, 39th Vice President of the United States (born 1918)

Spiro Theodore Agnew was the 39th vice president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1973 under President Richard Nixon. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 3rd Executive of Baltimore County from 1962 to 1966 and the 55th Governor of Maryland from 1967 to 1969. He is the second of two vice presidents to resign, the first being John C. Calhoun in 1832.

---

17/09/1995

Isadore Epstein, Estonian-American astronomer and academic (born 1919)

Isadore Epstein was an astronomer. Epstein taught astronomy at Columbia University for 37 years. He completed his Ph.D. at Princeton University, following which he was appointed as an instructor at Columbia in 1950, assistant professor in 1953, associate professor in 1957, and professor in 1971. He was named professor emeritus in 1987. He served as acting departmental chairman in 1959.

---

Lucien Victor, Belgian cyclist (born 1931)

Lucien Victor was a road racing cyclist from Belgium. He won the gold medal in the men's team road race, alongside André Noyelle and Robert Grondelaers at the 1952 Summer Olympics. He was a professional rider from 1953 to 1956.

---

17/09/1994

John Delafose, American accordion player (born 1939)

John Irvin Delafose was an American French-speaking Creole Zydeco accordionist from Louisiana.

---

Vitas Gerulaitis, American tennis player and coach (born 1954)

Vytautas "Vitas" Kevin Gerulaitis was an American professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in 1978. Gerulaitis won the men's singles title at the December 1977 Australian Open, and the men's doubles title at the 1975 Wimbledon Championships, partnering with Sandy Mayer. Gerulaitis also won two Italian Opens in 1977 and 1979, and the 1978 WCT Finals.

---

Karl Popper, Austrian-English philosopher and academic (born 1902)

Sir Karl Raimund Popper was an Austrian–British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the classical inductivist views on the scientific method in favour of empirical falsification made possible by his falsifiability criterion, and for founding the Department of Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. According to Popper, a theory in the empirical sciences can never be proven, but it can be falsified, meaning that it can be scrutinised with decisive experiments. Popper was opposed to the classical justificationist account of knowledge, which he replaced with "the first non-justificational philosophy of criticism in the history of philosophy", namely critical rationalism.

---

17/09/1993

Willie Mosconi, American pool player and actor (born 1913)

William Joseph Mosconi was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mosconi is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship nineteen times. For most of the 20th century, his name was essentially synonymous with pool in North America – he was nicknamed "Mr. Pocket Billiards" – and he was among the first Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame inductees. Mosconi pioneered and regularly employed numerous trick shots, set many records, and helped to popularize pool as a national recreation activity.

---

Christian Nyby, American director and producer (born 1913)

Christian Nyby was an American television and film director and editor. As an editor, he had seventeen feature film credits from 1943 to 1952, including The Big Sleep (1946) and Red River (1948). From 1953 to 1975 he was a prolific director of episodes in many television series, including Gunsmoke and Wagon Train. As a feature film director, he is likely best known for The Thing from Another World (1951).

---

17/09/1992

Roger Wagner, American conductor and educator (born 1914)

Roger Wagner, was an American choral musician, administrator and educator. In 1946 he founded the Roger Wagner Chorale, which became one of America's premier vocal ensembles. He also founded the Los Angeles Master Chorale, one of the three original resident companies of the Los Angeles Music Center, in 1964.

---

17/09/1991

Zino Francescatti, French violinist and composer (born 1902)

René-Charles "Zino" Francescatti was a French virtuoso violinist, renowned for his lyrical playing style.

---

17/09/1985

Laura Ashley, Welsh fashion designer, founded Laura Ashley plc (born 1925)

Laura Ashley was a Welsh fashion designer and businesswoman, who founded the eponymous fashion retailer. She originally made furnishing materials in the 1950s, expanding the business into clothing design and manufacture in the 1960s. The Laura Ashley style is characterised by Romantic designs – often with a 19th-century rural feel – and the use of natural fabrics.

---

17/09/1984

Richard Basehart, American actor and director (born 1914)

John Richard Basehart was an American actor. Known for his "deep, resonant baritone voice and craggy good looks," he was active in film, theatre and television from 1947 until 1983. He won two National Board of Review Awards, for his performances in Fourteen Hours (1951) and Moby Dick (1956), and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Time Limit (1957).

---

17/09/1983

Humberto Sousa Medeiros, Portuguese-American cardinal (born 1915)

Humberto Sousa Medeiros was a Portuguese-born American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Boston from 1970 until his death in 1983, and was created a cardinal in 1973. Medeiros previously serve as Bishop of Brownsville from 1966 to 1970.

---

17/09/1982

Manos Loïzos, Egyptian-Greek composer (born 1937)

Manos Loïzos was one of the most important Greek Cypriot music composers of the 20th century.

---

17/09/1980

Anastasio Somoza Debayle, Nicaraguan commander and politician, 73rd President of Nicaragua (born 1925)

Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle was a Nicaraguan politician, military officer, hydraulic engineer, and dictator who served as the 53rd President of Nicaragua from 1967 to 1972 and again from 1974 until his fall in 1979. As head of the National Guard, he was de facto ruler of the country between 1967 and 1979, even during the period when he was not the de jure ruler.

---

17/09/1975

Nicola Moscona, Greek-American operatic bass (born 1907)

Nicola Moscona was a Greek-born operatic bass. Born in Athens, he made his stage debut in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Greek National Opera in 1931, and went on to sing leading basso cantante roles both in Europe and the United States.

---

17/09/1973

Hugo Winterhalter, American bandleader and composer (born 1909)

Hugo Winterhalter was an American easy listening arranger and composer, best known for his many arrangements and recordings for RCA Victor.

---

17/09/1972

Akim Tamiroff, American actor (born 1899)

Akim Mikhailovich Tamiroff was an Armenian-American actor of film, stage, and television. One of the premier character actors of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tamiroff developed a prolific career despite his thick accent, appearing in at least 80 motion pictures over a span of 37 years.

---

17/09/1971

Carlos Lamarca, Brazilian captain (born 1937)

Carlos Lamarca was a Brazilian Army Captain who deserted to join the armed struggle against the Brazilian military dictatorship. He was part of the Popular Revolutionary Vanguard and became, along with Carlos Marighella, one of the leaders of the armed struggle. Such groups were armed chiefly for self-protection from the right-wing dictatorship that unleashed state terrorism against any who opposed their regime, including students, the clergy, and the children of those who called for democracy. The kidnappings by a few armed groups were conducted to free comrades suffering extremely brutal torture in Brazil's prisons.

---

17/09/1966

Fritz Wunderlich, German tenor and actor (born 1930)

Friedrich "Fritz" Karl Otto Wunderlich was a German lyric tenor, famed for his singing of the Mozart repertoire and various lieder.

---

17/09/1965

Alejandro Casona, Spanish poet and playwright (born 1903)

Alejandro Rodríguez Álvarez, known as Alejandro Casona was a Spanish poet and playwright born in Besullo, Spain, a member of the Generation of '27. Casona received his bachelor's degree in Gijon and later studied at the University of Murcia. After Franco's rise in 1936, he was forced, like many Spanish intellectuals, to leave Spain. He lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina until April 1962, when he definitively returned to Spain.

---

17/09/1961

Adnan Menderes, Turkish lawyer and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1899)

Ali Adnan Ertekin Menderes was a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister of Turkey between 1950 and 1960. He was one of the founders of the Democrat Party (DP) in 1946, the fourth legal opposition party of Turkey. He was tried and hanged under the military junta after the 1960 coup d'état, along with two other cabinet members, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan. During his tenure, Turkey participated in the Korean War, and was admitted to NATO in 1952. He was the last Turkish political leader to be executed after a military coup. He is also one of the four political leaders of the Turkish Republic who have been honored with a mausoleum, the others being Kemal Atatürk, Süleyman Demirel, and Turgut Özal.

---

17/09/1953

David Munson, American runner (born 1884)

David Curtiss Munson was an American athlete who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.

---

Hans Feige, German general (Wehrmacht) (born 1880)

Hans Feige was a German General of the Infantry in the Wehrmacht during World War II.

---

17/09/1951

Jimmy Yancey, American pianist and composer (born 1898)

James Edward Yancey was an American boogie-woogie pianist, composer, and lyricist. One reviewer described him as "one of the pioneers of this raucous, rapid-fire, eight-to-the-bar piano style".

---

17/09/1948

Ruth Benedict, American anthropologist and academic (born 1887)

Ruth Fulton Benedict was an American anthropologist and folklorist.

---

Folke Bernadotte, Swedish soldier and diplomat (born 1895)

Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg was a Swedish nobleman and diplomat. In World War II, he negotiated the release of about 450 Danish Jews and 30,550 non-Jewish prisoners of many nations from the Nazi German Theresienstadt Ghetto. They were released on 14 April 1945. In 1945 he received a German surrender offer from Heinrich Himmler, though the offer was ultimately rejected by the allies.

---

17/09/1943

Friedrich Zickwolff, German general (born 1893)

Friedrich Zickwolff was a German general during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany.

---

17/09/1938

Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet and author (born 1901)

Bruno Jasieński was a Polish poet, novelist, playwright, Catastrophist, and leader of the Polish Futurist movement in the interwar period. Jasieński was also a communist activist in Poland, France and the Soviet Union, where he was executed during the Great Purge. He is acclaimed by members of the various modernist art groups as their patron. An annual literary festival Brunonalia is held in Klimontów, Poland, his birthplace, where one of the streets is also named after him.

---

17/09/1937

Walter Dubislav, German logician and philosopher of science, Vienna circle member (born 1895)

Walter Dubislav was a German logician and philosopher of science (Wissenschaftstheoretiker).

---

17/09/1936

Ettie Annie Rout, New Zealand author and activist (born 1877)

Ettie Annie Rout was a Tasmanian-born New Zealander whose work among servicemen in Paris and the Somme during World War I made her a war hero among the French, yet through the same events she became persona non grata in New Zealand. She married Frederick Hornibrook on 3 May 1920, after which she was Ettie Hornibrook. They had no children and later separated. She died in 1936, and was buried in the Cook Islands.

---

17/09/1933

Joseph De Piro, Maltese priest and missionary (born 1877)

Giuseppe De Piro or Joseph De Piro, was a Roman Catholic priest and missionary. He founded the Missionary Society of St Paul (MSSP) in June 1910 with a charism to form missionaries following the example of St Paul. A Servant of God, he is a candidate for beatification.

---

17/09/1923

Stefanos Dragoumis, Greek judge and politician, 92nd Prime Minister of Greece (born 1842)

Stefanos Dragoumis was a judge, writer and the Prime Minister of Greece from January to October 1910. He was the father of Ion Dragoumis.

---

17/09/1909

Thomas Bent, Australian businessman and politician, 22nd Premier of Victoria (born 1838)

Sir Thomas Bent was an Australian politician and the 22nd premier of Victoria.

---

17/09/1908

Henri Julien, Canadian cartoonist (born 1852)

Henri Julien was a Canadian artist and cartoonist noted for his work for the Canadian Illustrated News and for his political cartoons in the Montreal Daily Star. His pseudonyms include Octavo and Crincrin. He was the first full-time newspaper editorial cartoonist in Canada.

---

Thomas Selfridge, American lieutenant and pilot (born 1882)

Thomas Etholen Selfridge was an American first lieutenant in the U.S. Army and the first person to die in an airplane crash. He was also the first active-duty member of the U.S. military to die in a crash while on duty. He was killed while seated as a passenger in a Wright Flyer, on a demonstration flight piloted by Orville Wright.

---

17/09/1907

Ignaz Brüll, Czech-Austrian pianist and composer (born 1846)

Ignaz Brüll was a pianist and composer from Austria-Hungary. Born in Moravia, he lived and worked in Vienna.

---

Edmonia Lewis, American sculptor (born 1844)

Mary Edmonia Lewis, also known as "Wildfire", was an American sculptor.

---

17/09/1899

Charles Alfred Pillsbury, American businessman, co-founded the Pillsbury Company (born 1842)

Charles Alfred Pillsbury was an American businessman, flour industrialist, and politician. He was a co-founder of the Pillsbury Company.

---

17/09/1894

Deng Shichang, Chinese captain (born 1849)

Deng Shichang, courtesy name Zhengqing, posthumous name Zhuangjie, was an Imperial Chinese Navy officer who lived in the late Qing dynasty. He is best known for his service in the Beiyang Fleet during the First Sino-Japanese War as the captain of the protected cruiser Zhiyuan. He participated in the Battle of the Yalu River on 17 September 1894 against the Imperial Japanese Navy. After Zhiyuan was sunk in battle, he refused to be rescued and eventually went down with his ship. He was posthumously awarded the position of taizi shaobao by the Qing government and honoured as a hero in the Shrine of Loyalty in Beijing.

---

17/09/1892

Rudolf von Jhering, German jurist (born 1818)

Caspar Rudolph von Jhering was a German jurist. He is best known for his 1872 book Der Kampf ums Recht, as a legal scholar, and as the founder of a modern sociological and historical school of law. His ideas were important to the subsequent development of the "jurisprudence of interests" in Germany.

---

17/09/1879

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, French architect and theorist (born 1814)

Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc was a French architect and author, famous for his restoration of the most prominent medieval landmarks in France. His major restoration projects included Notre-Dame de Paris, the Basilica of Saint Denis, Mont Saint-Michel, Sainte-Chapelle, the medieval walls of the city of Carcassonne, and Château de Roquetaillade in the Bordeaux region.

---

17/09/1878

Orélie-Antoine de Tounens, French lawyer and adventurer (born 1825)

Orélie-Antoine de Tounens was a French avoué and adventurer who proclaimed by two decrees on 17 and 20 November 1860 that Araucanía and Patagonia did not depend of any other states and that he himself was King of Araucanía and Patagonia. On 5 January 1862, he was arrested by the Chilean army and imprisoned. He was declared insane by the court of Santiago on 2 September 1862, and expelled to France on 28 October 1862. He tried three further times to go back to Araucanía to regain his "kingdom", but without success, and he died in poverty on 17 September 1878, in Tourtoirac, France.

---

17/09/1877

Henry Fox Talbot, English photographer, developed the Calotype Process (born 1800)

William Henry Fox Talbot was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries. His work in the 1840s on photomechanical reproduction led to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to photogravure. He was the holder of a controversial patent that affected the early development of commercial photography in Britain. He was also a noted photographer who contributed to the development of photography as an artistic medium. He published The Pencil of Nature (1844–1846), which was illustrated with original salted paper prints from his calotype negatives and made some important early photographs of Oxford, Paris, Reading, and York.

---

17/09/1868

Roman Nose, Native American warrior (born circa 1823)

Roman Nose, also known as Hook Nose, was a Native American of the Northern Cheyenne. He is considered to be one of, if not the greatest and most influential warriors during the Plains Indian War of the 1860s. Born during the prosperous days of the fur trade in the 1820s, he was called Môséškanetsénoonáhe ("Bat") as a youth. He later took the warrior name Wokini, which the Euro-Americans rendered as Roman Nose. Considered invincible in combat, this fierce warrior distinguished himself in battle to such a degree that the U.S. military mistook him for the Chief of the entire Cheyenne nation.

---

17/09/1864

Walter Savage Landor, English author and poet (born 1775)

Walter Savage Landor was an English writer, poet, and activist. His best known works were the prose Imaginary Conversations, and the poem "Rose Aylmer," but the critical acclaim he received from contemporary poets and reviewers was not matched by public popularity. As remarkable as his work was, it was equalled by his rumbustious character and lively temperament. Both his writing and political activism, such as his support for Lajos Kossuth and Giuseppe Garibaldi, were imbued with his passion for liberal and republican causes. He befriended and influenced the next generation of literary reformers such as Charles Dickens and Robert Browning.

---

17/09/1863

Charles Robert Cockerell, English archaeologist and architect (born 1788)

Charles Robert Cockerell was an English architect, archaeologist and writer. He studied architecture under Robert Smirke and embarked on an extended Grand Tour lasting seven years, mainly in Greece. After returning to London he established a successful architectural practice. Appointed Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts, he served between 1839 and 1859. Cockerell wrote widely on archaeology and architecture, and in 1848 became the first recipient of the Royal Gold Medal.

---

Alfred de Vigny, French author, poet, and playwright (born 1797)

Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny was a French poet and early French Romanticist. He also produced novels, plays, and translations of Shakespeare.

---

17/09/1862

Lawrence O'Bryan Branch, American politician and Confederate general (born 1820)

Lawrence O'Bryan Branch was an American politician who served as a representative for North Carolina in the U.S. Congress and a Confederate brigadier general in the American Civil War. He was killed in action at the Battle of Antietam.

---

William E. Starke, Confederate general (born 1814)

William Edwin Starke was a wealthy Gulf Coast businessman and a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was killed in action at the Battle of Antietam while commanding the famed "Stonewall Division," a unit first made famous under Stonewall Jackson.

---

17/09/1858

Dred Scott, American slave, plaintiff in the Dred Scott Decision (born 1795)

Dred Scott was an enslaved African-American man who, along with his wife, Harriet, unsuccessfully sued for the freedom of themselves and their two daughters, Eliza and Lizzie, in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as the "Dred Scott decision". The Scotts claimed they should be granted freedom because Dred had lived in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory for four years, where slavery was illegal, and laws in those jurisdictions said that slaveholders gave up their rights to slaves if they stayed for an extended period.

---

17/09/1852

Francisco Javier Echeverría, Mexican businessman and politician. President (1841) (born 1797)

Francisco Javier Echeverría was a Mexican businessman and finance minister who served as interim president of Mexico for about two weeks in late September 1841, during the fall of Anastasio Bustamante's administration.

---

17/09/1836

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist and author (born 1748)

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu was a French botanist, notable as the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants; much of his system remains in use today. His classification was based on an extended unpublished work by his uncle, the botanist Bernard de Jussieu.

---

17/09/1817

Jacques Bernard d'Anselme, French general (born 1740)

Jacques Bernard Modeste d'Anselme was a French general of the French Revolutionary Army, notable as the first commander of the Army of the Var which soon became the Army of Italy. He fell under suspicion, was removed from command and placed under arrest, but he survived the Reign of Terror. ANSELME is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on Column 23.

---

17/09/1808

Benjamin Bourne, American judge and politician (born 1755)

Benjamin Bourne was a United States representative from Rhode Island, a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island and a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Circuit Court for the First Circuit.

---

17/09/1803

Franz Xaver Süssmayr, Austrian composer and director (born 1766)

Franz Xaver Süssmayr or Süßmayr, also anglicized as Suessmayr, was an Austrian composer and conductor. Popular in his day, he is now known primarily as the composer who completed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's unfinished Requiem.

---

17/09/1771

Tobias Smollett, Scottish author and poet (born 1721)

Tobias George Smollett was a Scottish writer and surgeon. He was best known for writing picaresque novels such as The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748), The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751) and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771), which influenced later generations of British novelists, including Charles Dickens. His novels were liberally altered by contemporary printers; an authoritative edition of each was edited by Dr O. M. Brack Jr and others.

---

17/09/1762

Francesco Geminiani, Italian violinist and composer (born 1687)

Francesco Xaverio Geminiani was an Italian violinist, composer, and music theorist. BBC Radio 3 once described him as "now largely forgotten, but in his time considered almost a musical god, deemed to be the equal of Handel and Corelli".

---

17/09/1721

Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, French princess (born 1645)

Marguerite Louise d'Orléans was a French princess who became grand duchess of Tuscany as the wife of Grand Duke Cosimo III de' Medici.

---

17/09/1701

Stanislaus Papczyński, Polish priest and saint (born 1631)

Stanislaus Papczyński, MIC, born Jan Papczyński and in religion Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary, was a Polish Catholic priest who founded the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, the first Polish religious order for men. He is also widely remembered as a prolific religious writer, including works such as The Mystical Temple of God.

---

17/09/1679

John of Austria the Younger, Spanish general and politician, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands (born 1629)

John Joseph of Austria, also called John the Younger was a Spanish general and political figure. He was the only illegitimate son of Philip IV of Spain to be acknowledged by the King and trained for military command and political administration.

---

17/09/1676

Sabbatai Zevi, Turkish rabbi and scholar (born 1626)

Sabbatai Zevi or Shabtai Tzvi was a former Jewish mystic and rabbi from Smyrna who converted to Islam. His family were Romaniote Jews from Patras.

---

17/09/1665

Philip IV, king of Spain (born 1605)

Philip IV, also called the Planet King, was King of Spain from 1621 to his death and King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640. Philip is remembered for his patronage of the arts, including such artists as Diego Velázquez, and his rule over Spain during the Thirty Years' War.

---

17/09/1637

Katherine Clifton, 2nd Baroness Clifton, English-Scottish peer

Katherine Clifton, 2nd Baroness Clifton, was an English-born Scottish peer.

---

17/09/1630

Thomas Lake, English politician, English Secretary of State (born 1567)

Sir Thomas Lake PC was Secretary of State to James I of England. He was a Member of Parliament between 1593 and 1626.

---

17/09/1626

Johann Schweikhard von Kronberg, German cleric and politician, Archbishop-Elector of Mainz (born 1553)

Johann Schweikhard von Kronberg was the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz from 1604 to 1626.

---

17/09/1621

Robert Bellarmine, Italian cardinal and saint (born 1542)

Robert Bellarmine was an Italian Jesuit and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was canonized a saint in 1930 and named Doctor of the Church, one of only 27 at the time. He was one of the most important figures in the Counter-Reformation.

---

17/09/1609

Judah Loew ben Bezalel, Bohemian rabbi, mystic and philosopher (born 1520)

Judah Loew ben Bezalel, also known as Rabbi Loew, the Maharal of Prague, or simply the Maharal, was an important Talmudic scholar, Jewish mystic, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who, for most of his life, served as a leading rabbi in the cities of Mikulov in Moravia and Prague in Bohemia.

---

17/09/1575

Heinrich Bullinger, Swiss theologian and reformer (born 1504)

Heinrich Bullinger was a Swiss Reformer and theologian, the successor of Huldrych Zwingli as head of the Church of Zürich and a pastor at the Grossmünster. One of the most important leaders of the Swiss Reformation, Bullinger co-authored the Helvetic Confessions and collaborated with John Calvin to work out a Reformed doctrine of the Lord's Supper.

---

17/09/1574

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Spanish admiral and explorer, founded St. Augustine, Florida (born 1519)

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was a Spanish admiral, explorer, and conquistador from Avilés, in Asturias, Spain. He is notable for planning the first regular trans-oceanic convoys, which became known as the Spanish treasure fleet, and for founding St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565. This was the first successful European settlement in La Florida and the most significant city in the region for nearly three centuries.

---

17/09/1563

Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland, English soldier (born 1526)

Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland, 13th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG was an English nobleman.

---

17/09/1482

William III, duke of Luxembourg (born 1425)

William III, called the Brave, was landgrave of Thuringia and claimant duke of Luxemburg. He is actually the second William to rule Thuringia, and in Luxembourg; he was the third Margrave of Meissen named William.

---

17/09/1422

Constantine II, tsar of Bulgaria

Constantine II ruled as emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria in Vidin from 1397 to 1422. He was born in the early 1370s and died in exile at the Serbian court on 17 September 1422. Constantine II claimed the title Emperor of Bulgaria and was accepted as such by foreign governments, but he is often omitted from listings of rulers of Bulgaria.

---

17/09/1415

Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk (born 1367)

Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk was an English nobleman who supported Henry IV against Richard II during the turmoils of the late 14th century. He died during the Siege of Harfleur in 1415. He was the eldest son of Michael de la Pole, 1st Earl of Suffolk and Katherine Wingfield, daughter of Sir John Wingfield.

---

17/09/1322

Robert III, count of Flanders (born 1249)

Robert III, also called Robert of Béthune and nicknamed The Lion of Flanders, was the Count of Nevers from 1273 and Count of Flanders from 1305 until his death.

---

17/09/1179

Hildegard of Bingen, German abbess and polymath (born 1098)

Hildegard of Bingen OSB, also known as the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner of the Catholic Church during the High Middle Ages. She is one of the best-known composers of sacred monophony, as well as the most recorded in modern history. A number of scholars have considered her to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.

---

17/09/1148

Conan III, duke of Brittany (born 1070)

Conan III, also known as Conan of Cornouaille and Conan the Fat was duke of Brittany, from 1112 to his death. He was the son of Alan IV, Duke of Brittany and Ermengarde of Anjou.

---

17/09/1025

Hugh Magnus, king of France (born 1007)

Hugh, sometimes called Hugh the Great, was co-king of France under his father, Robert II, from 1017 until his death in 1025. He was a member of the House of Capet, a son of Robert II by his third wife, Constance of Arles.

---

17/09/0958

Li Jingsui, Chinese prince (born 920)

Li Jingsui, né Xu Jingsui (徐景遂), courtesy name Tuishen (退身), formally Crown Prince Wencheng (文成太弟), was an imperial prince of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Southern Tang. He was a son of Southern Tang's founding emperor Li Bian. During the reign of his brother Li Jing, he was initially designated the heir, but, having never embraced that role, repeatedly offered to yield the position to Li Jing's son Li Hongji. Eventually, Li Jing agreed, but Li Hongji, still fearing that Li Jing would change his mind again, had Li Jingsui poisoned to death.

---

17/09/0936

Unni, archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen

Saint Unni was an archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen. He died as a missionary in Birka in Sweden, where he tried to continue Ansgar's work.

---

17/09/0456

Remistus, Roman general

Remistus was a general of the Western Roman Empire and commander-in-chief of the army under Emperor Avitus.

---