Died on Friday, 26th September – Famous Deaths

26/09/2024

John Ashton, American actor (born 1948)

John David Ashton was an American actor, known for his roles in the Beverly Hills Cop films, Some Kind of Wonderful, and Midnight Run.

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26/09/2019

Jacques Chirac, French politician, President of France (born 1932)

Jacques René Chirac was President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.

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26/09/2016

Toughie, last known Rabbs' fringe-limbed treefrog (h. fl. 2005)

Toughie was the last known living Rabbs' fringe-limbed treefrog. The species, scientifically known as Ecnomiohyla rabborum, is thought to be extinct, as the last specimen—Toughie—died in captivity on September 26, 2016.

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26/09/2015

Eudóxia Maria Froehlich, Brazilian zoologist (born 1928)

Eudóxia Maria Froehlich was a Brazilian zoologist.

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Sidney Phillips, American soldier, physician, and author (born 1924)

Sidney Clarke Phillips, Jr. was a United States Marine, family practice physician, and author from Mobile, Alabama. He provided source material and interviews for the making of Ken Burns' PBS documentary film The War and the HBO miniseries The Pacific. His recollections revolve around his time as a young man fighting in the Pacific War.

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Ana Seneviratne, Sri Lankan police officer and diplomat (born 1927)

Ganegoda Appuhamelage Don Edmund Ananda Seneviratne was a Sri Lankan police officer. He was the former Inspector-General of Police, Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Malaysia, former adviser to Cabinet Minister of National Security and ex member Public Service Commission of Sri Lanka.

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26/09/2014

Jim Boeke, American football player and coach (born 1938)

James Frederick Boeke was an American professional football offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for the Los Angeles Rams, Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints. He played college football at Heidelberg College.

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Sam Hall, American screenwriter (born 1921)

Allison Samuel Hall, known as Sam Hall, was a screenwriter known for his work in daytime soap operas, particularly Dark Shadows and One Life to Live. Hall also co-wrote the 1976 PBS miniseries The Adams Chronicles.

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Gerald Neugebauer, American astronomer and physicist (born 1932)

Gerhart Otto "Gerry" Neugebauer was an American astronomer known for his pioneering work in infrared astronomy.

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Tamir Sapir, Georgian-American businessman (born 1946)

Tamir Sapir was a Georgian-born, Georgian-American businessman, real estate developer and investor. He was the founder of the Sapir Organization, a real estate investment firm based in New York City. Sapir originally made his fortune trading oil and fertilizers with the Soviet Union during the 1980s. He became a billionaire in 2002, with his wealth peaking in 2007 at US$2 billion, according to Forbes.

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26/09/2013

Azizan Abdul Razak, Malaysian politician, 10th Menteri Besar of Kedah (born 1944)

Azizan bin Abdul Razak was a Malaysian politician who served as the 10th Menteri Besar of the state of Kedah from 2008 to 2013. A member of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), he was the first Chief Minister of Kedah from a party other than the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). He held the seat of Sungai Limau in the Kedah state assembly from 2004 until his death in 2013. He was also the state commissioner for PAS in Kedah and a member of the central committee of the national party.

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Seánie Duggan, Irish hurler (born 1922)

Seán "Seánie" Duggan was an Irish hurler who played as a goalkeeper for the Galway senior team.

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Mario Montez, Puerto Rican-American actor (born 1935)

René Rivera, known professionally as Mario Montez, was one of the Warhol superstars, appearing in thirteen of Andy Warhol's underground films from 1964 to 1966. He took his name as a male homage to the actress Maria Montez, an important gay icon in the 1950s and 1960s. Before appearing in Warhol's films, he appeared in Jack Smith's underground films Flaming Creatures and Normal Love. Montez also stars in the Ron Rice film Chumlum, made in 1964. Mario Montez, was "a staple in the New York underground scene of the 1960s and '70s."

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Sos Sargsyan, Armenian actor and director (born 1929)

Sos Artashesi Sargsyan was a prominent Armenian actor, director and writer.

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26/09/2012

M'el Dowd, American actress and singer (born 1933)

Mary Ellen Dowd was an American stage, musical theatre and film actress, and singer, whose career spanned half a century. Beginning in Shakespeare roles and films in the 1950s, Dowd continued to perform on stage, film and television into the 21st century. A frequent performer on Broadway in the 1960s, Dowd originated the role of Morgan le Fay in the musical Camelot.

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Sylvia Fedoruk, Canadian physicist and politician, 17th Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan (born 1927)

Sylvia Olga Fedoruk was a Canadian physicist, medical physicist, curler and the 17th lieutenant governor of Saskatchewan, from 1988 to 1994.

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Eugene Genovese, American historian and author (born 1930)

Eugene Dominic Genovese was an American historian of the American South and American slavery. He was noted for bringing a Marxist perspective to the study of power, class and relations between planters and slaves in the South. His book Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made won the Bancroft Prize. He later abandoned the left and Marxism and embraced traditionalist conservatism. He wrote during the Cold War and his political beliefs were viewed by some as highly controversial at the time.

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Sam Steiger, American journalist and politician (born 1929)

Samuel Steiger was an American politician, journalist, political pundit. He served five terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, two terms in the Arizona State Senate, and one term as mayor of Prescott, Arizona. Steiger also made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate, served as a special assistant to Arizona Governor Evan Mecham, and hosted political talk shows on both radio and television. Despite these accomplishments, Steiger is best known for two incidents: one, while he was a sitting congressman, was the 1975 killing of two burros; the second was painting a crosswalk between Prescott's courthouse and nearby Whiskey Row.

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26/09/2011

Bob Cassilly, American sculptor, founded the City Museum (born 1949)

Robert James Cassilly Jr. was an American sculptor, entrepreneur, and creative director based in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1997, Cassilly founded the idiosyncratic City Museum, which draws over 700,000 visitors a year and is one of the city's leading tourist attractions.

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26/09/2010

Terry Newton, English rugby player (born 1978)

Terry Newton was an English professional rugby league footballer who played as a hooker. He began his professional career with Leeds Rhinos in 1996, before joining his hometown club Wigan Warriors in 2000. He later also played for Bradford Bulls and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats. During his career, he won two Challenge Cup medals and was a runner-up in four Super League Grand Finals. He was one of a handful of players to feature in each of the first 15 seasons of the Super League. At international level, he was capped 15 times by Great Britain between 1998 and 2007, and also represented England and Lancashire.

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Gloria Stuart, American actress (born 1910)

Gloria Frances Stuart was an American actress, visual artist and activist. She was known for her roles in pre-code films, and garnered renewed fame late in life for her portrayal of Rose Dawson Calvert in James Cameron's epic romance Titanic (1997), one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Her performance in the film won her a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role and earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.

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26/09/2008

Marc Moulin, Belgian keyboard player, producer, and journalist (born 1942)

Marc Moulin was a Belgian musician and journalist. In the early-mid seventies, he was the leader of the jazz-rock group Placebo. He went on to become a member of the avant-rock band Aksak Maboul in 1977 and also formed the pop group Telex in 1978. Moulin was one of Belgium's jazz legends, making jazz-influenced records for over 30 years.

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Paul Newman, American actor, director, producer, and businessman (born 1925)

Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, filmmaker, racecar driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He has been described as "one of the last of the great 20th-century movie stars". He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, seven Golden Globe Awards, an Actor Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Silver Bear for Best Actor, a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, and nominations for two Grammy Awards and a Tony Award. Along with his Best Actor Academy Award win, Newman also received the Academy Honorary Award and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

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26/09/2007

Bill Wirtz, American businessman (born 1929)

William Wadsworth Wirtz was the chief executive officer and controlling shareholder of the family-owned Wirtz Corporation. He was best known as the owner of the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League, who are part of Wirtz Corp's holdings. Wirtz also served as the Blackhawks' team president for over four decades.

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26/09/2006

Byron Nelson, American golfer and coach (born 1912)

John Byron Nelson Jr. was an American professional golfer between 1935 and 1946, widely considered one of the greatest golfers of all time.

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Iva Toguri D'Aquino, American wartime propaganda broadcaster (born 1916)

Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino was an American citizen visiting Japan when World War II began. Unable to return to the United States, she risked her life smuggling food to American service men held in prisoner of war camps.

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26/09/2005

Helen Cresswell, English author and screenwriter (born 1934)

Helen Cresswell was an English television scriptwriter and author of more than 100 children's books, best known for comedy and supernatural fiction. Her most popular book series, Lizzie Dripping and The Bagthorpe Saga, were also the basis for television series.

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26/09/2004

Marianna Komlos, Canadian bodybuilder, model, and wrestler (born 1969)

Marianna Komlos was a Canadian bodybuilder, fitness model and professional wrestling manager. She is perhaps best known for her stint in World Wrestling Federation in 1999 as Marianna and "Mrs. Cleavage", where she was the Manager for a wrestler known as "Beaver Cleavage", a parody of the TV show Leave It to Beaver. Following the termination of the Beaver Cleavage gimmick in a scripted 'storm out' by Charles Warrington due to the absurdity of the gimmick, Marianna was portrayed as the girlfriend of Warrington, going by the name of 'Chaz'.

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26/09/2003

Shawn Lane, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer (born 1963)

Shawn Lane was an American musician who released two studio albums and collaborated with a variety of musicians including Ringo Starr, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Reggie Young, Joe Walsh, Jonas Hellborg, Anders Johansson, Jens Johansson and many others. After studying the piano, he learned to play the guitar, which he played with exceptional speed.

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Robert Palmer, English singer-songwriter (born 1949)

Robert Allen Palmer was an English singer and songwriter. He was known for his powerful and soulful voice, sartorial elegance, and stylistic explorations, combining soul, funk, jazz, rock, pop, reggae, and blues. His 1986 single "Addicted to Love" and its accompanying video came to "epitomise the glamour and excesses of the 1980s".

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26/09/2002

Nils Bohlin, Swedish engineer, invented three-point safety belt (born 1920)

Nils Ivar Bohlin was a Swedish mechanical engineer and inventor who invented the three-point safety belt while working at Volvo.

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26/09/2000

Richard Mulligan, American actor (born 1932)

Richard Mulligan was an American character actor. He was known for his roles in the sitcoms Soap (1977–1981) and Empty Nest (1988–1995). Mulligan was the winner of two Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe Award (1989). He was the younger brother of film director Robert Mulligan.

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Baden Powell de Aquino, Brazilian guitarist and composer (born 1937)

Baden Powell de Aquino, known professionally as Baden Powell, was a Brazilian virtuoso guitarist and composer. He combined classical techniques with popular harmony and swing. He performed in many styles, including bossa nova, samba, Brazilian jazz, Latin jazz and MPB. He performed on stage during most of his lifetime. Powell composed many pieces for guitar, some of them now considered guitar standards, such as Abração em Madrid, Braziliense, Canto de Ossanha, Casa Velha, Consolação, Horizon, Imagem, Lotus, Samba, Samba em Prelúdio, Samba Triste, Simplesmente, Tristeza e Solidão, and Samba da Benção. He released Os Afro-sambas, a watershed album in MPB, with Vinicius de Moraes in 1966. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Brazilian guitar players of all time.

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26/09/1999

Oseola McCarty, American philanthropist (born 1908)

Oseola McCarty was a local washerwoman in Hattiesburg, Mississippi who became The University of Southern Mississippi's (USM) most famous benefactor.

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26/09/1998

Betty Carter, American singer (born 1930)

Betty Carter was an American jazz singer known for her improvisational technique, scatting and other complex musical abilities that demonstrated her vocal talent and imaginative interpretation of lyrics and melodies. Vocalist Carmen McRae once remarked: "There's really only one jazz singer—only one: Betty Carter."

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26/09/1997

Dorothy Kingsley, American screenwriter and producer (born 1909)

Dorothy Kingsley was an American screenwriter, who worked extensively in film, radio, and television.

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26/09/1996

Nicu Ceaușescu, Romanian politician (born 1951)

Nicu Ceaușescu was a Romanian physicist and communist politician who was the youngest child of Romanian leaders Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu. He was a close associate of his father's political regime and considered the President's heir presumptive.

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26/09/1995

Kalju Pitksaar, Estonian chess player (born 1931)

Kalju Pitksaar was an Estonian chess player, who won the Estonian Chess Championship.

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26/09/1991

Billy Vaughn, American singer and bandleader (born 1919)

William Vaughn, popularly known as Billy Vaughn was an American musician, singer, multi-instrumentalist, orchestra leader, and A&R man for Dot Records.

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26/09/1990

Hiram Abas, Turkish intelligence officer (born 1932)

Hiram Abas was a Turkish intelligence official in the National Intelligence Organization (MIT). He retired after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, but returned in August 1986 as deputy to MIT chief Hayri Ündül, retiring again in 1988. He was assassinated on 26 September 1990 by leftwing revolutionary group Dev Sol.

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Alberto Moravia, Italian author and critic (born 1907)

Alberto Pincherle, known by his pseudonym Alberto Moravia, was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation and existentialism. Moravia is best known for his debut novel Gli indifferenti and for the anti-fascist novel Il conformista, the basis for the film The Conformist (1970) directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Other novels of his adapted for the cinema are Agostino, filmed with the same title by Mauro Bolognini in 1962; Il disprezzo, filmed by Jean-Luc Godard as Le Mépris ; La noia (Boredom), filmed with that title by Damiano Damiani in 1963 and released in the US as The Empty Canvas in 1964 and La ciociara, filmed by Vittorio De Sica as Two Women (1960). Cédric Kahn's L'Ennui (1998) is another version of La noia.

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26/09/1989

Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Indian singer-songwriter and producer (born 1920)

Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, known professionally as Hemanta Mukherjee and Hemant Kumar, was an Indian music director and a playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, along with several other Indian languages, including Marathi, Gujarati, Odia, Assamese, Tamil, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Konkani, Sanskrit and Urdu. He was an artist in Bengali and Hindi film music, Rabindra Sangeet, and various other genres. He was the recipient of two National Awards for Best Male Playback Singer and was popularly known as the "Voice of God".

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26/09/1988

Branko Zebec, Croatian and Yugoslav football player and coach (born 1929)

Branislav "Branko" Zebec was a Croatian footballer and manager who played for Yugoslavia.

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26/09/1987

Ramang, Indonesian footballer and manager (born 1928)

Andi Ramang was an Indonesian footballer who played as a forward, who was considered one of the most influential players in the country in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also referred to as Rusli Ramang in official FIFA documents.

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Herbert Tichy, Austrian geologist, journalist, and mountaineer (born 1912)

Herbert Tichy was an Austrian writer, geologist, journalist and climber.

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26/09/1984

Paquirri, Spanish bullfighter (born 1948)

Francisco Rivera Pérez, better known as Paquirri, was a Spanish bullfighter. He died after being gored by a bull named Avispado at the Pozoblanco bullring. During his career, he was six times borne shoulder-high out through the Great Gate at Las Ventas.

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John Facenda, American sportscaster (born 1913)

John Thomas Ralph Augustine James Facenda was an American broadcaster and sports announcer. He was a fixture on Philadelphia radio and television for decades, and achieved national fame as a narrator for NFL Films and Football Follies. Through his work with NFL Films, Facenda was known by many National Football League fans as "The Voice of God".

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26/09/1982

Alec Hurwood, Australian cricketer (born 1902)

Alexander Hurwood, was an Australian cricketer who played in two Tests in the 1930–31 season.

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26/09/1979

Arthur Hunnicutt, American actor (born 1910)

Arthur Lee Hunnicutt was an American actor known for his portrayal of old, wise, grizzled rural characters. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Big Sky (1952). He was also known for his role in the Western television series Sugarfoot (1957–1961).

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26/09/1978

Manne Siegbahn, Swedish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1886)

Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn was a Swedish physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1924 "for his discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy."

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26/09/1977

Uday Shankar, Indian dancer and choreographer (born 1900)

Uday Shankar was an Indian dancer and choreographer, best known for creating a fusion style of dance, adapting European theatrical techniques to Indian classical dance, imbued with elements of Indian classical, folk, and tribal dance, which he later popularised in India, Europe, and the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. He was a pioneer of modern dance in India.

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26/09/1976

Leopold Ružička, Croatian-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1887)

Leopold Ružička was a Croatian-Swiss scientist and joint winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on polymethylenes and higher terpenes" "including the first chemical synthesis of male sex hormones." He worked most of his life in Switzerland, and received eight doctorates honoris causa in science, medicine, and law; seven prizes and medals; and twenty-four honorary memberships in chemical, biochemical, and other scientific societies.

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26/09/1973

Samuel Flagg Bemis, American historian and author (born 1891)

Samuel Flagg Bemis was an American historian and biographer. For many years he taught at Yale University. He was also president of the American Historical Association and a specialist in American diplomatic history. He was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes. Jerald A. Combs says he was "the greatest of all historians of early American diplomacy."

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Ralph Earnhardt, American race car driver (born 1928)

Ralph Lee Earnhardt was an American stock car racer and patriarch of the Earnhardt racing family. He was the father of seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt, grandfather of Kerry Earnhardt, Kelley Earnhardt Miller, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

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Anna Magnani, Italian actress and singer (born 1908)

Anna Maria Magnani was an Italian actress. She was the first Italian woman to win an Academy Award.

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26/09/1972

Charles Correll, American actor and screenwriter (born 1890)

Charles James Correll was an American radio comedian, actor and writer who was best known for his work in the radio Amos 'n' Andy radio series with Freeman Gosden. Correll voiced the main character, Andy Brown, along with various lesser characters.

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26/09/1968

Ben Shlomo Lipman-Heilprin, Polish-Israeli neurologist and physician (born 1902)

Ben Shlomo Lipman-Heilprin was an Israeli physician and director of the Neurology Department of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.

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Daniel Johnson Sr., Canadian lawyer and politician, 20th Premier of Quebec (born 1915)

Francis Daniel Johnson Sr. was a Canadian politician and the 20th premier of Quebec from 1966 until his death in 1968.

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Władysław Kędra, Polish pianist (born 1918)

Władysław Kędra was a Polish pianist.

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26/09/1965

James Fitzmaurice, Irish soldier and pilot (born 1898)

James Michael Christopher Fitzmaurice DFC was an Irish aviation pioneer. He was a member of the crew of the Bremen, which made the first successful trans-Atlantic aircraft flight from East to West on 12–13 April 1928.

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26/09/1961

Charles Erwin Wilson, American politician, 5th United States Secretary of Defense (born 1890)

Charles Erwin Wilson was an American engineer and businessman who served as United States Secretary of Defense from 1953 to 1957 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Known as "Engine Charlie", he was previously the president and chief executive officer of General Motors. In the wake of the Korean War, he cut the defense budget significantly.

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26/09/1959

S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (born 1899)

Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, also known as "The Silver Bell of Asia", was a Sri Lankan statesman who served as the fourth Prime Minister of the Dominion of Ceylon, serving from 1956 until his assassination in 1959. The founder of the left-wing and Sinhalese nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Party, he was elected the fourth Prime Minister of Ceylon after creating a powerful coalition called the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and contesting on the lines of Sinhalese nationalism and democratic socialism. He achieved a landslide victory over the ruling United National Party in the general elections in 1956.

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Leslie Morshead, Australian general (born 1889)

Lieutenant General Sir Leslie James Morshead, was an Australian soldier, teacher, businessman, and farmer, whose military career spanned both world wars. During the Second World War, he led the Australian and British troops at the Siege of Tobruk (1941) and at the Second Battle of El Alamein, achieving decisive victories over Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps. His soldiers nicknamed him "Ming the Merciless", later simply "Ming", after the villain in the Flash Gordon comics.

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Teodor Ussisoo, Estonian furniture designer and educator (born 1878)

Teodor Ussisoo was an Estonian pedagogue, furniture designer, and interior architect.

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26/09/1957

Arthur Powell Davies, American minister and author (born 1902)

Arthur Powell Davies was an English and American minister and theologian. He served as the minister of All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, D.C. from 1944 until his death in 1957. A prolific author of theological books and sermon collections, he came to national prominence in the U.S. through his liberal activism advocating civil rights for African-Americans and women and ethical stands against post-war nuclear proliferation and the methods employed by the American government during the era of McCarthyism.

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26/09/1954

Ellen Roosevelt, American tennis player (born 1868)

Ellen Crosby Roosevelt was an American tennis player. Roosevelt was a daughter of John Aspinwall Roosevelt, an estate proprietor, and Ellen Murray Crosby. She started playing tennis with her sister Grace in 1879 when her father installed a tennis court at their mansion.

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26/09/1953

Xu Beihong, Chinese painter and educator (born 1895)

Xu Beihong, also known as Ju Péon, was a Chinese painter.

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26/09/1952

George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, novelist, and poet (born 1863)

George Santayana was a Spanish and U.S. philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, he moved to the United States at the age of eight.

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26/09/1951

Hans Cloos, German geologist and academic (born 1885)

Hans Cloos was a prominent German structural geologist.

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26/09/1947

Hugh Lofting, English-American author and poet (born 1886)

Hugh John Lofting was an English-American writer, trained as a civil engineer, who created the classic children's literature character Doctor Dolittle. The fictional physician talking to animals, based in an English village, first appeared in illustrated letters to his children which Lofting sent from British Army trenches in the First World War. Lofting settled in the United States soon after the war and before his first book was published.

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26/09/1946

William Strunk Jr., American author and educator (born 1869)

William Strunk Jr. was an American professor of English at Cornell University and the author of The Elements of Style (1918). After his former student E. B. White revised and extended the book, The Elements of Style became an influential guide to writing in the English language, informally known as “Strunk & White”.

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26/09/1945

Béla Bartók, Hungarian pianist and composer (born 1881)

Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hungary's greatest composers. Among his notable works are the opera Bluebeard's Castle, the ballet The Miraculous Mandarin, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, the Concerto for Orchestra and six string quartets. Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of comparative musicology, which later became known as ethnomusicology. Per Anthony Tommasini, Bartók "has empowered generations of subsequent composers to incorporate folk music and classical traditions from whatever culture into their works," and was "a formidable modernist who in the face of Schoenberg’s breathtaking formulations showed another way, forging a language that was an amalgam of tonality, unorthodox scales and atonal wanderings." His work is often described as being a combination of traditional peasants' folk music and avant-garde music.

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26/09/1943

Henri Fertet, French Resistance fighter (born 1926)

Henri Claude Fertet was a French schoolboy and resistance fighter who was executed by the German occupying forces during World War II. He was posthumously awarded several national honours. He is known for the letter he wrote to his parents on the morning of his execution, and he has become one of those who symbolise the French Resistance.

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26/09/1937

Bessie Smith, American singer and actress (born 1894)

Bessie Smith was an African-American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the "Empress of the Blues" and formerly Queen of the Blues, she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, she is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on fellow blues singers, as well as jazz vocalists.

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26/09/1935

Andy Adams, American author (born 1859)

Andy Adams was an American writer of Western fiction.

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Iván Persa, Slovene-Hungarian priest and author (born 1861)

Iván Persa was a Hungarian Slovene Roman Catholic priest and writer.

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26/09/1922

Charles Wade, Australian politician, 17th Premier of New South Wales (born 1863)

Sir Charles Gregory Wade KCMG, KC, JP was Premier of New South Wales 2 October 1907 – 21 October 1910.

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26/09/1904

Lafcadio Hearn, Greek-Japanese author and academic (born 1850)

Yakumo Koizumi was a Greek and Irish writer, translator, and teacher whose work played a significant role in the introduction of the culture and literature of Japan to the mainstream Western world.

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John Fitzwilliam Stairs, Canadian businessman and politician (born 1848)

John Fitzwilliam Stairs, also known as John Fitz William Stairs was an entrepreneur and statesman, born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a member of the prominent Stairs family of merchants and shippers founded by William Machin Stairs (1789–1865) that included the Victorian era explorer, William Grant Stairs.

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26/09/1902

Levi Strauss, German-American businessman, founded Levi Strauss & Co. (born 1829)

Levi Strauss was a German-born American businessman who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm of Levi Strauss & Co. (Levi's) began in 1853 in San Francisco, California.

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26/09/1877

Hermann Grassmann, German mathematician and physicist (born 1809)

Hermann Günther Grassmann was a German polymath known in his day as a linguist and now also as a mathematician. He was also a physicist, general scholar, and publisher. His mathematical work was little noted until he was in his sixties. His work preceded and exceeded the concept which is now known as a vector space. He introduced the Grassmannian, the space which parameterizes all k-dimensional linear subspaces of an n-dimensional vector space V. In linguistics he helped free language history and structure from each other.

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26/09/1868

August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (born 1790)

August Ferdinand Möbius was a German mathematician and theoretical astronomer.

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26/09/1846

Thomas Clarkson, English abolitionist (born 1760)

Thomas Clarkson was an English abolitionist, and a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. He helped found the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade and helped achieve passage of the Slave Trade Act 1807, which ended British trade in slaves.

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26/09/1830

Teresa Casati, Italian noblewomen and revolutionary (born 1787)

Teresa Casati Confalonieri was an Italian noblewoman and revolutionist. She is known as the wife of revolutionist Federico Confalonieri, sister of former Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Gabrio Casati, and as an important figure in the Risorgimento.

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26/09/1825

José Bernardo de Tagle y Portocarrero, Marquis of Torre Tagle, Peruvian soldier and politician, 2nd President of Peru (born 1779)

José Bernardo de Tagle y Portocarrero, 4th Marquess of Torre Tagle, was a Peruvian soldier and politician who served as the Interim President of Peru in 1823 as well as the second President of Peru from 1823 to 1824. He was a supporter of liberalism.

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26/09/1820

Daniel Boone, American hunter and explorer (born 1734)

Daniel Boone was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of the Thirteen Colonies. In 1775, Boone founded the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky, in the face of resistance from Native Americans. He founded Boonesborough, one of the first English-speaking settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains. By the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 people had entered Kentucky by following the route marked by Boone.

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26/09/1802

Jurij Vega, Slovene mathematician and physicist (born 1754)

Baron Jurij Bartolomej Vega was a Slovene mathematician, physicist, and artillery commissioned officer.

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26/09/1800

William Billings, American composer and educator (born 1746)

William Billings was an American composer and is regarded as the first American choral composer and leading member of the First New England School.

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26/09/1764

Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro, Spanish monk and scholar (born 1676)

Friar Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro was a Spanish monk and scholar who led the Spanish Enlightenment. He was an energetic popularizer noted for encouraging scientific and empirical thought in an effort to debunk myths and superstitions.

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26/09/1716

Antoine Parent, French mathematician and theorist (born 1666)

Antoine Parent was a French mathematician, born in Paris and died there, who wrote in 1700 on analytical geometry of three dimensions. His works were collected and published in three volumes at Paris in 1713.

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26/09/1626

Wakisaka Yasuharu, Japanese daimyō (born 1554)

Wakisaka Yasuharu , sometimes referred to as Wakizaka Yasuharu, was a daimyō of Awaji Island who fought under a number of warlords over the course of Japan's Sengoku period.

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26/09/1623

Charles Grey, 7th Earl of Kent, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire (born 1540)

Charles Grey was the 7th Earl of Kent from 1615 to his death.

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26/09/1620

Taichang Emperor of China (born 1582)

The Taichang Emperor, personal name Zhu Changluo, was the 15th emperor of the Ming dynasty. He was the eldest son of the Wanli Emperor and succeeded his father as emperor in 1620. His reign came to an abrupt end less than one month after his enthronement when he was found dead one morning in the palace following a bout of diarrhea. His reign was the shortest in Ming history.

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26/09/1600

Claude Le Jeune, French composer (born 1530)

Claude Le Jeune was a Franco-Flemish composer of the late Renaissance. He was the primary representative of the musical movement known as musique mesurée, and a significant composer of the "Parisian" chanson, the predominant secular form in France in the latter half of the 16th century. His fame was widespread in Europe, and he ranks as one of the most influential composers of the time.

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26/09/1588

Amias Paulet, Governor of Jersey (born 1532)

Sir Amias Paulet of Hinton St. George, Somerset, was an English diplomat, Governor of Jersey, and the gaoler for a period of Mary, Queen of Scots.

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26/09/1536

Didier de Saint-Jaille, 46th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller

Fra' Didier de Saint-Jaille was the 46th Grand Master of the Order of Saint John between 1535 and 1536.

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26/09/1468

Juan de Torquemada, Spanish cardinal and theologian (born 1388)

Juan de Torquemada O.P., was a Spanish Thomistic Theologian, polemicist, and Cardinal. He has been described as the most articulate papal apologist of the fifteenth century, and a defender of Jewish converts to the Catholic Church (conversos).

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26/09/1417

Francesco Zabarella, Italian cardinal (born 1360)

Francesco Zabarella was an Italian cardinal and canonist.

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26/09/1413

Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria (born 1337)

Stephen III, called the Magnificent or the Fop, was the Duke of Bavaria-Ingolstadt from 1375. He was the eldest son of Stephen II and Elizabeth of Sicily.

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26/09/1371

Jovan Uglješa, Serbian despot

Jovan Uglješa was a Serbian medieval nobleman of the Mrnjavčević family and one of the most prominent magnates of the Serbian Empire. He held the title of despot, received from Serbian Emperor Stefan Uroš V, whose co-ruler - Serbian King Vukašin was Uglješa's brother.

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26/09/1345

William II, Count of Hainaut

William II was Count of Hainaut from 1337 until his death. He was also Count of Holland and Count of Zeeland. He succeeded his father, Count William I of Hainaut. While away fighting in Prussia, the Frisians revolted. William returned home and was killed at the Battle of Warns.

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26/09/1328

Ibn Taymiya, Islamic scholar and philosopher of Harran (born 1263)

Ibn Taymiyya was a Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist, Mujtahid, traditionist, Qadiri Sufi, proto-Salafi theologian and iconoclast. Born in Harran in 1263 CE and fleeing from the Mongol invasion, he was taught by his grandfather and father in the principles of Islamic Jurisprudence at Damascus. Ibn Taymiyya proved to be a controversial figure among both his contemporaries and in later centuries. Clerics and state authorities accused Ibn Taymiyya and his disciples of anthropomorphism, which eventually led to the censoring of his works and subsequent incarceration.

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26/09/1327

Cecco d'Ascoli, Italian encyclopaedist, physician and poet (born 1257)

Cecco d'Ascoli is the popular name of Francesco degli Stabili, an Italian encyclopaedist, physician and poet. Cecco is the diminutive of Francesco. Ascoli was the place of his birth. The lunar crater Cichus is named after him.

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26/09/1313

Gottfried von Hagenau, Alsatian theologian, medical doctor, and poet

Gottfried von Hagenau was a medieval priest, physician, theologian and poet from Alsace. As his name suggests, he was probably born in Haguenau, before 1275.

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26/09/1290

Margaret, Maid of Norway Queen of Scotland (born 1283)

Margaret, known as the Maid of Norway, was the queen-designate of Scotland from 1286 until her death. As she was never inaugurated, her status as monarch is uncertain and has been debated by historians.

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26/09/1241

Fujiwara no Teika, Japanese poet

Fujiwara no Sadaie or Teika was a Japanese anthologist, calligrapher, literary critic, novelist, poet, and scribe of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods. His influence was enormous, and he is counted as among the greatest of Japanese poets, and perhaps the greatest master of the waka form – an ancient poetic form consisting of five lines with a total of 31 syllables.

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26/09/0862

Musa ibn Musa al-Qasawi, Muslim military leader (born c. 790)

Musa ibn Musa al-Qasawi (Arabic: موسى بن موسى القسوي) also nicknamed the Great ; died 26 September 862) was leader of the Muwallad Banu Qasi clan and ruler of a semi-autonomous principality in the upper Ebro valley in northern Iberia in the 9th century.

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26/09/0800

Berowulf, bishop of Würzburg

Berowulf or Berowelf was the bishop of Würzburg from 768 or 769 until his death. Since the 11th century, his name has appeared as Bernwelf. It may also be spelled Berowolf, Bernwulf or Bernulf. Berowulf's predecessor, Megingoz, retired in 768.

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