Died on Tuesday, 23rd September – Famous Deaths

23/09/2021

John Elliott, Australian businessman (born 1941)

John Dorman Elliott was an Australian businessman and state and federal president of the Liberal Party. He had also been president of the Carlton Football Club. He frequently provoked controversy due to his political affiliations, his brushes with the law, and his abrasive personal style.

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Nino Vaccarella, Italian race car driver (born 1933)

Nino Vaccarella was an Italian sports car racing and Formula One driver.

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23/09/2020

Juliette Gréco, French singer and actress (born 1927)

Juliette Gréco was a French singer and actress. Her best known songs are "Paris Canaille", "La Javanaise" and "Déshabillez-moi" (1967). She often sang tracks with lyrics written by French poets such as Jacques Prévert and Boris Vian, as well as singers like Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour. Her 60-year career concluded with her final worldwide tour titled "Merci", which began in 2015.

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23/09/2018

Charles Kuen Kao, Hong Kong-American-British electrical engineer and physicist (born 1933)

Sir Charles Kuen Kao was a Hong Kong electrical engineer who contributed to the development and use of fibre optics in telecommunications. In the 1960s, Kao created various methods to combine glass fibres with lasers in order to transmit digital data, which laid the groundwork for the evolution of the Internet and the eventual creation of the World Wide Web.

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Gary Kurtz, American film producer (born 1940)

Gary Douglas Kurtz was an American film producer whose list of credits includes American Graffiti (1973), Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), The Dark Crystal (1982) and Return to Oz (1985). Kurtz also co-produced the 1989 science fiction adventure film Slipstream, which reunited him with Star Wars star Mark Hamill.

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Jane Fortune, American author, journalist, and philanthropist (born 1942)

Jane Fortune was an American author and journalist. Many of her publications and philanthropic activities were centered on the research, restoration, and exhibition of art by women in Florence, Italy.

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23/09/2015

Dayananda Saraswati, Indian monk and philosopher (born 1930)

Swami Dayananda Saraswati was a renunciate monk of the Hindu Saraswati order of sannyasa. He was also known as Pujya Swamiji and was a traditional teacher of Advaita Vedanta. He was the founder of the Arsha Vidya Gurukulams in Pennsylvania, USA; Rishikesh, Uttarakhand and Coimbatore Tamil Nadu, India. He was also the spiritual Guru of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan,, for his service to the nation in the field of spirituality in 2016.

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23/09/2014

A. W. Davis, American basketball player and coach (born 1943)

Arvis W. Davis was an American basketball player and coach. Davis is best known for his All-American college career at the University of Tennessee (UT). He was known by several nicknames, including the "Rutledge Rifle" and "The Man With the Golden Arm."

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Irven DeVore, American anthropologist and biologist (born 1934)

Irven DeVore was an anthropologist and evolutionary biologist, and Curator of Primatology at Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. He headed Harvard's Department of Anthropology from 1987 to 1992. He taught generations of students at Harvard both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He mentored many young scientists who went on to prominence in anthropology and behavioral biology, including Richard Lee, Robert Trivers, Sarah Hrdy, Peter Ellison, Barbara Smuts, Henry Harpending, Marjorie Shostak, Robert Bailey, Leda Cosmides, John Tooby, Richard Wrangham and Terrence Deacon.

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Don Manoukian, American football player and wrestler (born 1934)

Donald J. Manoukian was an American football guard and professional wrestler of Armenian descent from Reno, Nevada.

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Al Suomi, American ice hockey player and referee (born 1913)

Albert William Suomi was an American ice hockey player, who played 5 games in the National Hockey League with the Chicago Black Hawks during the 1936–37 season. Although he did not aspire to play at a professional level, Suomi nevertheless spent his young life playing hockey and was eventually scouted while playing with friends. Suomi began his career playing for the Chicago Baby Ruth team in 1934, a marketing ploy started by the company that produced the candy of the same name. In 1936, he joined a minor league team in Detroit, Michigan and, based on his experiences with the Chicago Baby Ruth team, was deemed too professional to be eligible for the 1936 United States Olympic ice hockey team.

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23/09/2013

Abdel Hamid al-Sarraj, Syrian colonel and politician (born 1925)

Abdul Hamid Sarraj was a Syrian military officer and politician. When the United Arab Republic was declared, Sarraj, a staunch Arab nationalist and supporter of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, played a key role in the leadership of the Syrian region of the UAR. Due to the repression by the UAR of the Syrian communists he was nicknamed Sultan Abdul Hamid referring to the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II.

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Gil Dozier, American captain, lawyer, and politician (born 1934)

Gilbert Lynel "Gil" Dozier, was an attorney, businessman, farmer, and rancher who served from 1976 to 1980 as the Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry. A Democrat, Dozier's political career ended with felony convictions and imprisonment for nearly four years. Most of his adult life was spent in and about Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

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Ruth Patrick, American botanist and immunologist (born 1907)

Ruth Myrtle Patrick was an American botanist and limnologist specializing in diatoms and freshwater ecology. She authored more than 200 scientific papers, developed ways to measure the health of freshwater ecosystems and established numerous research facilities.

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23/09/2012

Henry Champ, Canadian journalist and academic (born 1937)

Stephen Henry Champ was a veteran Canadian broadcast journalist, working for CTV News, NBC News and CBC News.

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Pavel Grachev, Russian general and politician, 1st Minister of Defence for Russia (born 1948)

Pavel Sergeyevich Grachev, sometimes transliterated as Grachov or Grachyov, was a Russian Army General and the Defence Minister of the Russian Federation from 1992 to 1996; in 1988 he was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union gold star.

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Roberto Rodríguez, Venezuelan baseball player and coach (born 1941)

Roberto Muñoz Rodríguez was a Venezuelan professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City / Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, and Chicago Cubs. He played in the United States under the name of Roberto Rodriguez.

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Corrie Sanders, South African boxer (born 1966)

Cornelius Johannes Sanders was a South African professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 2008. He won the WBO heavyweight title in 2003 after knocking out Wladimir Klitschko in two rounds, which was considered one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight boxing history; The Ring magazine named it the Upset of the Year. In 2004, having vacated the WBO title, Sanders faced Wladimir's brother Vitali Klitschko in an unsuccessful challenge for the vacant WBC and Ring heavyweight titles. He also held the WBU heavyweight title from 1997 until 2000 and the South Africa national heavyweight title in 1991.

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Sam Sniderman, Canadian businessman, founded Sam the Record Man (born 1920)

Sam Sniderman, was a Canadian businessman best known as the founder of the Canadian record shop chain Sam the Record Man. Sniderman was also a major promoter of Canadian music including involvement in pushing for the Canadian content (CANCON) broadcast regulations and creating the Juno Awards.

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23/09/2010

Malcolm Douglas, Australian hunter and television host (born 1941)

Malcolm Douglas was an Australian wildlife documentary film maker, and crocodile hunter. Douglas started in the 1960s as a professional crocodile hunter and farmer, but later dedicated himself to their preservation.

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23/09/2009

Paul B. Fay, American sailor and politician, United States Secretary of the Navy (born 1918)

Paul Burgess Fay Jr. was the Acting United States Secretary of the Navy in November 1963, and a close confidant of President John F. Kennedy.

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23/09/2008

Peter Leonard, Australian journalist (born 1942)

Peter Antony Leonard was an Australian journalist and newsreader.

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Loren Pope, American journalist and author (born 1910)

Loren Brooks Pope was an American writer and educational consultant, best known for his book, Colleges That Change Lives. He was also the education editor of The New York Times.

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23/09/2006

Malcolm Arnold, English trumpet player and composer (born 1921)

Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold was an English composer and conductor. His works feature music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music for brass band and wind band. His style is tonal and rejoices in lively rhythms, brilliant orchestration, and an unabashed tunefulness. He wrote extensively for the theatre, with five ballets specially commissioned by the Royal Ballet, as well as two operas and a musical. He also produced scores for more than a hundred films, among these The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won an Oscar.

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Etta Baker, American singer and guitarist (born 1913)

Etta Baker was an American Piedmont blues guitarist and singer from North Carolina.

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23/09/2005

Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, Puerto Rican activist (born 1933)

Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was a Puerto Rican independence activist who cofounded the Boricua Popular Army, also known as Los Macheteros, and its predecessor, the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN). In 1990, Ojeda Ríos became a fugitive of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), wanted for his role in the 1983 Águila Blanca heist, which netted more than US$7 million, as well as a bail bond default on September 23 of that year. On September 23, 2005, he was killed during an exchange of gunfire with FBI agents after they surrounded the house in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico.

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23/09/2004

Billy Reay, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (born 1918)

William Tulip Reay was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. Reay played ten seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1943 to 1953, winning two Stanley Cups. He then coached from 1957 to 1959 in the NHL and again from 1963 to 1977, primarily with the Chicago Black Hawks, who he coached to the Stanley Cup Final three times. While he did not win a Cup as a coach, Reay won over 500 games as a head coach, and he was the second coach to win 500 games with one team. When he retired, he was second in NHL history in wins, and he currently is one of 29 coaches to have won 500 games.

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23/09/2003

Yuri Senkevich, Russian physician and journalist (born 1937)

Yuri Aleksandrovich Senkevich was a Soviet physician, voyager, scientist, and Candidate of Sciences.

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23/09/2001

Ron Hewitt, Welsh footballer (born 1928)

Ronald Hewitt was a Wales international footballer.

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23/09/2000

Aurelio Rodríguez, Mexican baseball player and manager (born 1947)

Aurelio Rodríguez Ituarte, Jr., sometimes known by the nickname "Chi Chi", was a Mexican professional baseball player, who spent the bulk of his Major League career with the Detroit Tigers. Known for his powerful throwing arm, he was one of the great defensive third basemen of his generation. His career range factor of 3.215 per nine innings at third base ranks second in major league history, and his 4,150 assists at the position ranked fifth in major league history at the time of his retirement.

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Carl Rowan, American journalist and author (born 1925)

Carl Thomas Rowan was an American journalist, author and government official whose columns were syndicated across the U.S. At one point, he was the highest ranking African American in the United States government.

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Raoul Berger, American attorney and law professor (born 1901)

Raoul Berger was an American legal scholar at the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard Law School. While at Harvard, he was the Charles Warren Senior Fellow in American Legal History. He is known for his role in the development of originalism.

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23/09/1999

Ivan Goff, Australian-American screenwriter and producer (born 1910)

Ivan Goff was an Australian screenwriter, best known for his collaborations with Ben Roberts including White Heat (1949), Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981), and the pilot for Charlie's Angels (1976).

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23/09/1998

Ray Bowden, English footballer (born 1909)

Edwin Raymond Bowden was an English footballer who played as an inside forward. He scored 130 goals from 316 appearances in the Football League, playing for Plymouth Argyle, Arsenal and Newcastle United. He was capped six times and scored once for England.

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Mary Frann, American actress (born 1943)

Mary Frann was an American stage, film, and television actress.

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23/09/1997

Natalie Savage Carlson, American author (born 1906)

Natalie Savage Carlson was an American writer of children's books. For her lifetime contribution as a children's writer, she was United States nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1966.

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23/09/1994

Jerry Barber, American golfer (born 1916)

Carl Jerome Barber was an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour. He had seven wins on tour, including a major title, the PGA Championship in 1961.

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Robert Bloch, American author and screenwriter (born 1917)

Robert Albert Bloch was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime, psychological horror, and fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and television. He also wrote a relatively small amount of science fiction. His writing career lasted 60 years, including more than 30 years in television and film. He began his professional writing career immediately after graduation from high school, aged 17. He is best known as the writer of the novel Psycho (1959), the basis for the 1960 film Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over 30 novels. He was a protégé of H. P. Lovecraft, who was the first to seriously encourage his talent. However, while he started emulating Lovecraft and his brand of cosmic horror, he later specialized in crime and horror stories, often emphasizing psychological aspects of the characters within.

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Madeleine Renaud, French actress (born 1900)

Lucie Madeleine Renaud was a French actress best remembered for her work in the theatre. She did though appear in several films directed by Jean Grémillon including Remorques and Lumière d'été.

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23/09/1992

Ivar Ivask, Estonian poet and scholar (born 1927)

Ivar Vidrik Ivask was an Estonian poet and literary scholar.

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Glendon Swarthout, American author and academic (born 1918)

Glendon Fred Swarthout was an American writer and novelist.

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James Van Fleet, American general (born 1892)

General James Alward Van Fleet was a United States Army officer who served during World War I, World War II and the Korean War. Van Fleet was a native of New Jersey, who was raised in Florida and graduated from the United States Military Academy. He served as a regimental, divisional and corps commander during World War II and as the commanding general of United States Army and other United Nations forces during the Korean War.

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23/09/1988

Tibor Sekelj, Hungarian-Serbian explorer and author (born 1912)

Tibor Sekelj, also known as Székely Tibor according to Hungarian orthography, was a Hungarian born polyglot, explorer, author, and 'citizen of the world.' In 1986 he was elected a member of the Academy of Esperanto and an honorary member of the World Esperanto Association. Among his novels, travel books and essays, his novella Kumeŭaŭa, la filo de la ĝangalo, a children's book about the life of Brazilian Indians, was translated into seventeen languages, and in 1987 it was voted best Children's book in Japan. In 2011 the European Esperanto Union declared 2012 "The Year of Tibor Sekelj" to honor the 100th anniversary of his birth.

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23/09/1987

Bob Fosse, American actor, dancer, choreographer, and director (born 1927)

Robert Louis Fosse was an American choreographer, dancer, actor, filmmaker, and stage director. He is known for his work on stage and screen, and was arguably the most influential figure in the field of jazz dance in the twentieth century. He received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, nine Tony Awards, and the Palme d'Or.

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23/09/1981

Chief Dan George, Canadian actor, author, and poet (born 1899)

Chief Dan George was a chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, a Coast Salish band whose Indian reserve is located on Burrard Inlet in the southeast area of the District of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He also was an actor, musician, poet and author. The Chief's best-known written work is My Heart Soars. As an actor, he is best remembered for portraying Old Lodge Skins opposite Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man (1970), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and for his role in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), as Lone Watie, opposite Clint Eastwood.

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23/09/1980

Jim Fouché, State President of South Africa (born 1898)

Jacobus Johannes Fouché, also known as J. J. Fouché, was a South African politician who served as the second state president of South Africa from 1968 to 1975.

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23/09/1979

Catherine Lacey, English actress (born 1904)

Catherine Lacey was an English actress of stage and screen.

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23/09/1978

Lyman Bostock, American baseball player (born 1950)

Lyman Wesley Bostock Jr. was an American professional baseball player. He played Major League Baseball for four seasons, as an outfielder for the Minnesota Twins (1975–77) and California Angels (1978), with a lifetime average of .311. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed.

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23/09/1974

Cliff Arquette, American actor and comedian (born 1905)

Clifford Charles Arquette was an American actor and comedian. He was best known for performing comedic routines as his alter-ego Charley Weaver on numerous television and radio shows.

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Robbie McIntosh, Scottish drummer (born 1950)

Robert Broderick James McIntosh (6 May 1950 – 22 September 1974 was a Scottish drummer from Dundee who was a founder-member of the Average White Band. His father was American-born actor Bonar Colleano, who had a successful career in films, especially in the UK.

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23/09/1973

Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1904)

Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old and wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics, political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love poems such as the ones in his collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924).

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23/09/1971

James Waddell Alexander II, American mathematician and topologist (born 1888)

James Waddell Alexander II was a mathematician of the pre-World War II era. He was part of an influential school of topology at Princeton University, along with Oswald Veblen, Solomon Lefschetz, and others. He was a professor at Princeton (1920–1951) and one of the first members of the Institute for Advanced Study (1933–1951).

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23/09/1968

Pio of Pietrelcina, Italian priest and saint (born 1887)

Pio of Pietrelcina, widely known as Padre Pio was an Italian friar of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, priest, stigmatist and mystic. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, and his feast day is celebrated on 23 September.

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23/09/1967

Stanislaus Zbyszko, Polish wrestler and strongman (born 1879)

Stanisław Jan Cyganiewicz, better known by his ring name Stanislaus Zbyszko, was a Polish strongman, catch wrestler, and professional wrestler. He was a three-time World Heavyweight Champion in the United States during the 1920s.

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23/09/1958

Jacob Nicol, Canadian publisher, lawyer, and politician (born 1876)

Jacob Nicol, was a Canadian lawyer, newspaper publisher, and politician. He became Senator under Prime Minister of Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie King.

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23/09/1951

Siegfried Bettmann, German engineer (born 1863)

Siegfried Bettmann was a bicycle, motorcycle and car manufacturer and founder of the Triumph Motorcycle Company. In 1914 he established the Annie Bettmann Foundation to help young people start businesses. Triumph became one of the most famous motorcycle trade-names in the world. Bettmann was also Mayor of Coventry from 1913 to 1914.

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23/09/1950

Sam Barry, American basketball player and coach (born 1892)

Justin McCarthy "Sam" Barry was an American collegiate coach who achieved significant accomplishments in three major sports - football, baseball, and basketball. He remains one of only three coaches to lead teams to both the Final Four and the College World Series. Barry, and four of his USC players, have been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as coaches; Sharman was also inducted as a player.

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23/09/1944

Jakob Schaffner, Swiss author and critic (born 1875)

Jakob Schaffner was a leading Swiss novelist who became a supporter of Nazism.

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23/09/1943

Elinor Glyn, English author, screenwriter, and producer (born 1864)

Elinor Glyn was a British novelist and scriptwriter who specialised in romantic fiction, which was considered scandalous for its time, although her works are relatively tame by modern standards. She popularized the concept of the "it girl", and had tremendous influence on early 20th-century popular culture and, possibly, on the careers of notable Hollywood stars such as Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson and, especially, Clara Bow.

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23/09/1940

Hale Holden, American businessman (born 1869)

Hale Holden was president of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) from 1914 to 1918 and 1920 to 1929, and chairman of the board of directors for Southern Pacific Railroad from 1932 to 1939. He was one of the lawyers working for James J. Hill's defense team in the Minnesota Rate Cases. In later years he served as a director for a number of large companies including American Telephone & Telegraph, New York Life Insurance Company and the Chemical Bank & Trust.

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23/09/1939

Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist (born 1856)

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies arising from conflicts in the psyche through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst, and the distinctive theory of mind and human agency derived from it.

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Francisco León de la Barra, Mexican politician and diplomat, interim president, 1911 (born 1863)

Francisco León de la Barra y Quijano was a Mexican political figure, diplomat, lawyer and politician who served as the 36th President of Mexico from May 25 to November 6, 1911 during the Mexican Revolution, following the resignations of President Porfirio Díaz and Vice President Ramón Corral. He previously served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs for one month during the Díaz administration and again from 1913 to 1914 under President Victoriano Huerta. He was known to conservatives as "The White President" or the "Pure President".

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23/09/1929

Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Austrian-German chemist, physicist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1865)

Richard Adolf Zsigmondy was an Austrian-born chemist. He was known for his research in colloids, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1925, as well as for co-inventing the slit-ultramicroscope, and different membrane filters. The crater Zsigmondy on the Moon is named in his honour.

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23/09/1917

Werner Voss, German lieutenant and pilot (born 1897)

Werner Voss was a World War I German flying ace credited with 48 aerial victories. A dyer's son from Krefeld, he was a patriotic young man while still in school. He began his military career in November 1914 as a 17‑year‑old Hussar. After turning to aviation, he proved to be a natural pilot. After flight school and six months in a bomber unit, he joined a newly formed fighter squadron, Jagdstaffel 2 on 21 November 1916. There he befriended Manfred von Richthofen.

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23/09/1913

Donato Álvarez, Argentinian general (born 1825)

Donato Álvarez was an Argentine general. He fought in the battle of Vuelta de Obligado under the command of Lucio Mansilla. He joined Justo José de Urquiza in his conflict against Juan Manuel de Rosas, and fought in the battle of Caseros. He also fought in the Paraguayan War and the Conquest of the Desert. He died in Buenos Aires on September 23, 1913.

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23/09/1900

William Marsh Rice, American businessman, founded Rice University (born 1816)

William Marsh Rice was an American businessman and entrepreneur who made his fortune in Texas. He is best known for leaving his fortune to fund the establishment of Rice University in Houston, Texas.

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23/09/1896

Emmanuel Benner, French artist (born 1836)

Emmanuel Benner was a French Academic painter and draughtsman. The son of the painter Jean Benner-Fries, he was twin to fellow artist, Jean Benner, and the uncle of the painter Emmanuel Michel Benner, Jean's son. Like his twin brother, he was portrayed by fellow Alsatian, Jean-Jacques Henner.

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23/09/1889

Wilkie Collins, English novelist, short story writer, and playwright (born 1824)

William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist and playwright known especially for The Woman in White (1860), a mystery novel and early sensation novel, and for The Moonstone (1868), which established many of the ground rules of the modern detective novel and is also perhaps the earliest clear example of the police procedural genre.

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23/09/1877

Urbain Le Verrier, French mathematician and astronomer (born 1811)

Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier was a French astronomer and mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for predicting the existence and position of Neptune using only mathematics.

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23/09/1873

Jean Chacornac, French astronomer (born 1823)

Jean Chacornac was a French astronomer and discoverer of a comet and several asteroids.

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23/09/1871

Louis-Joseph Papineau, Canadian lawyer and politician (born 1786)

Louis-Joseph Papineau, born in Montreal, Quebec, was a politician, lawyer, and the landlord of the seigneurie de la Petite-Nation. He led the reformist Patriote movement, organized boycotts against British imports, and then led the unsuccessful Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837–1838. He later served two terms as member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. His father was Joseph Papineau, also a Quebec politician. Papineau was the grandfather of the journalist Henri Bourassa, founder of the newspaper Le Devoir.

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23/09/1870

Prosper Mérimée, French archaeologist and historian (born 1803)

Prosper Mérimée was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, an important figure in the history of architectural preservation. He is best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen. He learned Russian, a language for which he had great affection, before translating the work of several notable Russian writers, including Pushkin and Gogol, into French. From 1830 until 1860 he was the inspector of French historical monuments, responsible for the protection of many historic sites, including the medieval citadel of Carcassonne and the restoration of the façade of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. Along with the writer George Sand, he discovered the series of tapestries called The Lady and the Unicorn, arranging for their preservation. He was instrumental in the creation of Musée national du Moyen Âge in Paris, where the tapestries now are displayed. The official database of French monuments, the Base Mérimée, bears his name.

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23/09/1851

Émilie Gamelin, Canadian nun, founded the Sisters of Providence (born 1800)

Émilie Tavernier Gamelin was a Canadian Catholic social worker and religious sister best known as the founder of the Sisters of Providence of Montreal. In 2001, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II.

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23/09/1850

José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguayan general and politician (born 1764)

José Gervasio Artigas Arnal was a soldier and statesman who is regarded as a national hero in Uruguay and the father of Uruguayan nationhood.

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23/09/1846

John Ainsworth Horrocks, English-Australian explorer (born 1818)

John Ainsworth Horrocks was an English pastoralist and explorer who was one of the first European settlers in the Clare Valley of South Australia where, in 1840, he established the village of Penwortham.

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23/09/1835

Vincenzo Bellini, Italian composer (born 1801)

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer famed for his long, graceful melodies and evocative musical settings. A central figure of the bel canto era, he was admired not only by the public but also by many composers who were influenced by his work. His songs balanced florid embellishment with a deceptively simple approach to lyric setting.

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23/09/1789

John Rogers, American lawyer and politician (born 1723)

John Rogers was a Founding Father of the United States, who served as a lawyer and judge from Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Rogers was a delegate for Maryland to the Continental Congress in 1775—1776, when he voted for the Declaration of Independence but became ill before he could sign it. Rogers was Maryland's Chancellor, the equivalent of governor, from 1778 until his death 11 years later.

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23/09/1773

Johan Ernst Gunnerus, Norwegian bishop and botanist (born 1718)

Johan Ernst Gunnerus was a Norwegian bishop and botanist. Gunnerus was born at Christiania. He was bishop of the Diocese of Nidaros from 1758 until his death and also a professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen.

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23/09/1764

Robert Dodsley, English poet and playwright (born 1703)

Robert Dodsley was an English bookseller, publisher, poet, playwright, and miscellaneous writer.

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23/09/1738

Herman Boerhaave, Dutch botanist and physician (born 1668)

Herman Boerhaave was a Dutch chemist, botanist, Christian humanist, and physician. He is sometimes regarded as the founder of clinical teaching and of the modern academic hospital along with Venetian physician Santorio Santorio (1561–1636). Boerhaave introduced the quantitative approach into medicine, along with his pupil Albrecht von Haller (1708–1777). He was the first to isolate the chemical urea from urine. He was the first physician to put thermometer measurements to clinical practice. His motto was Simplex veri sigillum: 'Simplicity is the sign of the truth'. He is often hailed as the "Dutch Hippocrates".

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23/09/1728

Christian Thomasius, German jurist and philosopher (born 1655)

Christian Thomasius was a German jurist and philosopher. The German Enlightenment "supposedly" began with him.

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23/09/1675

Valentin Conrart, French author, founded the Académie française (born 1603)

Valentin Conrart was a French writer, and as a founder of the Académie française, the first occupant of seat 2.

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23/09/1605

Pontus de Tyard, French priest and poet (born 1521)

Pontus de Tyard was a French poet and priest, a member of "La Pléiade".

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23/09/1573

Azai Hisamasa, Japanese warlord (born 1524)

Azai Hisamasa was a son of Azai Sukemasa and the second head of the Azai clan.

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23/09/1571

John Jewel, English bishop (born 1522)

John Jewel of Devon, England was Bishop of Salisbury from 1559 to 1571.

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23/09/1535

Catherine of Saxe-Lauenburg (born 1513)

Catherine of Saxe-Lauenburg was Queen of Sweden as the first wife of Gustav I from 1531 until her death in 1535.

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23/09/1508

Beatrice of Naples, queen consort of Hungary (born 1457)

Beatrice of Naples, also known as Beatrice of Aragon, was twice Queen of Hungary and of Bohemia by marriage to Matthias Corvinus and Vladislaus II. She was the daughter of Ferdinand I of Naples and Isabella of Clermont.

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23/09/1461

Charles, Prince of Viana, King of Navarre (born 1421)

Charles, Prince of Viana, sometimes called Charles IV of Navarre, was the eldest son of King John II of Aragon and Queen Blanche I of Navarre. He pre-deceased his father.

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23/09/1448

Adolph I, Duke of Cleves (born 1373)

Adolph I of Cleves was the second Count of Cleves and the fourth Count of Mark.

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23/09/1390

John I, Duke of Lorraine (born 1346)

John I was the Duke of Lorraine from 1346 to his death. As an infant of six months, he succeeded his father, Rudolph, who was killed in the Battle of Crécy. His mother was Marie of Blois.

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23/09/1386

Dan I of Wallachia

Dan I was the ruler of Wallachia from 1383 to 1386. He was the son of Radu I of Wallachia and the half-brother of Mircea I of Wallachia.

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23/09/1267

Beatrice of Provence, countess regnant of Provence (born 1234)

Beatrice of Provence, was the ruling Countess of Provence and Forcalquier from 1245 until her death, as well as Countess of Anjou and Maine and Queen of Sicily by marriage to Charles I of Naples.

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23/09/1253

Wenceslaus I of Bohemia

Wenceslaus I, called One-Eyed, was King of Bohemia from 1230 to 1253.

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23/09/1241

Snorri Sturluson, Icelandic historian, poet, and politician (born 1178)

Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, knight, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of the Prose Edda, which is a major source for what is today known about Norse mythology and alliterative verse, and Heimskringla, a history of the Norse kings that begins with legendary material in Ynglinga saga and moves through to early medieval Scandinavian history. For stylistic and methodological reasons, Snorri is often taken to be the author of Egil's Saga. He was assassinated in 1241 by men claiming to be agents of the King of Norway.

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23/09/1193

Robert de Sablé, French knight

Robert IV de Sablé was Lord of Sablé, the eleventh Grand Master of the Knights Templar from 1191 to 1192 and Lord of Cyprus from 1191 to 1192. He was known as the Grand Master of the Knights Templars and the Grand Master of the Holy and Valiant Order of Knights Templars.

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23/09/0965

Al-Mutanabbi, Arab poet (born 915)

Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Mutanabbī al-Kindī, commonly known as al-Mutanabbi, was an Abbasid-era Arab poet at the court of the Hamdanid emir Sayf al-Dawla in Aleppo, for whom he composed 300 folios of poetry. His poetic style earned him great popularity in his time and many of his poems are not only still widely read in today's Arab world but are considered to be proverbial.

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23/09/0788

Ælfwald I, king of Northumbria

Ælfwald I was king of Northumbria from 779 to 788. He is thought to have been a son of Oswulf, and thus a grandson of Eadberht Eating.

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