DAMASCUS LODGE #10
FREE & ACCEPTED MASONS OF UTAH
The following list of famous Freemasons is not necessarily complete. Damascus Lodge #10 has provided it here as a means by which those who are investigating this ancient fraternity may see the likes of some of those with whom they would be brothers.
This list is brought to you courtesy of Ranker.com.
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential stand-up comedians of all time. Pryor’s body of work includes the concert movies and recordings: Richard Pryor: Live & Smokin’ (1971), That Nigger’s Crazy (1974), …Is It Something I Said? (1975), Bicentennial Nigger (1976), Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979), Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982), and Richard Pryor: Here and Now (1983). As an actor, he starred mainly in comedies such as Silver Streak (1976), …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 65 (1940-2005)
Birthplace: Peoria, Illinois, United States of America
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George Washington was the first President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He presided over the convention that drafted the United States Constitution, which replaced the Articles of Confederation and remains the supreme law of the land. Washington was unanimously elected President by the electors in both the 17881789 and 1792 elections. …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 67 (1732-1799)
Birthplace: Virginia, United States of America
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#177 of 526Famous Men You’d Want to Have a Beer With#1 of 44The Greatest U.S. Presidents Of All TimefeaturingWhat It Was Like To Be A Slave At George Washington’s Mount Vernon
William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 – November 16, 1960) was an American film actor who is often referred to as “The King of Hollywood”. He began his career as an extra in Hollywood silent films between 1924 and 1926, and progressed to supporting roles with a few films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1930. He landed his first leading role in 1931, and was a leading man in more than 60 motion pictures over the following three decades. Gable was nominated for his starring role in Gone with the Wind (1939), as Rhett Butler opposite Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night (1934), and was nominated for his role in Mutiny on the …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 59 (1901-1960)
Birthplace: Cadiz, Ohio, United States of America
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#383 of 928People We Wish Were Still AlivefeaturingThe Best Clark Gable Movieslisted onActors You May Not Have Realized Are Republican
Donald Jay Rickles (May 8, 1926 – April 6, 2017) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and author, known especially for his insult comedy. His film roles included Run Silent, Run Deep (1958) with Clark Gable and Kelly’s Heroes (1970) with Clint Eastwood, and beginning in 1976 he enjoyed a two-year run starring in the NBC television sitcom C.P.O. Sharkey. Rickles received widespread exposure as a frequent guest on talk and variety shows, including The Dean Martin Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Show with David Letterman, and later voiced Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story franchise. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for the 2007 documentary Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles …more on Wikipedia
Age: 92
Birthplace: New York City, New York, United States of America
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#13 of 409The Funniest Stand Up Comedians Of All Time#633 of 928People We Wish Were Still Alivelisted onFamous Left Handed People
Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705] – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, Freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He founded many civic organizations, including the Library Company, Philadelphia’s first fire department and the Un… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 84 (1706-1790)
Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
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listed onLeft Handed Politiciansfeaturing19 Bizarre Facts About Benjamin Franklin, A Genius, A Founding Father, And A Delightful Weirdo#146 of 1,183 The Best Writers of All Time
Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. Senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He is the founder of the organizations that merged to form Rainbow/PUSH. Former U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. is his eldest son. Jackson hosted Both Sides with Jesse Jackson on CNN from 1992 to 2000. …more on Wikipedia
Age: 77
Birthplace: Greenville, South Carolina, United States of America
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#111 of 770 American Public Figures Who Are National Treasures#165 of 370 340+ Uncircumcised Celebrities
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (, ; January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), often referred to by initials FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A member of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. As a dominant leader of his party, he built the New Deal Coalition, which realigned American politics into the Fifth P… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 63 (1882-1945)
Birthplace: Hyde Park, New York, United States of America
featuringWhat Was Franklin And Eleanor Roosevelt’s Relationship Really Like?#214 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive#6 of 44 US Presidents Who Are Worthy Enough To Wield Mjolnir
Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London’s most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the circumstances of his criminal conviction for “gross indecency”, imprisonment, and early death at age 46. Wilde’s parents were successful Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. Their son became fluent in French and German early in life. At university, Wilde read Greats; he proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Oxford. He… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 46 (1854-1900)
Birthplace: Dublin, Republic of Ireland
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listed on50 Famous Irish AuthorsfeaturingThe Best Oscar Wilde Quotes#248 of 362 The Funniest People of All Time
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson gained fame as a general in the United States Army and served in both houses of Congress. As president, Jackson sought to advance the rights of the “common man” against a “corrupt aristocracy” and to preserve the Union. Born in the colonial Carolinas to a Scotch-Irish family in the decade before the American Revolutionary War, Jackson became a frontier lawyer and married Rachel Donelson Robards. He served briefly in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 78 (1767-1845)
Birthplace: Waxhaws
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listed onAll U.S. Senators from TennesseefeaturingThe Wildest Stories from Inside the White House#475 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive
Marion Mitchell Morrison (born Marion Robert Morrison; May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed Duke, was an American actor, filmmaker, and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. He was among the top box office draws for three decades.Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa but grew up in Southern California. He was president of Glendale High School class of 1925. He found work at local film studios. He lost a football scholarship to the University of Southern California as a result of a bodysurfing accident, and began working for the Fox Film Corporation. He appeared mostly in small parts, but his first leading role came in Raoul Walsh’s Western The Big Tr… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 72 (1907-1979)
Birthplace: Winterset, Iowa, United States of America
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listed onRepublicans in Hollywood: Republican Celebrities ListfeaturingThe Best John Wayne Movies of All Time, Ranked#76 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ROH-zə-velt; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) was an American statesman, politician, conservationist, naturalist, and writer who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He served as the 25th vice president from March to September 1901 and as the 33rd governor of New York from 1899 to 1900. As a leader of the Republican Party, he became a driving force for the Progressive Era in the United States in the early 20th century. His face is depicted on Mount Rushmore alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. He is generally ranked in polls of historians and political scientists as one of the five best presidents.Roo… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 61 (1858-1919)
Birthplace: Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States of America
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Harry Houdini (; born Erik Weisz, later Ehrich Weiss or Harry Weiss; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-born American illusionist and stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts. He first attracted notice in vaudeville in the US and then as “Harry ‘Handcuff’ Houdini” on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside a sealed milk can with water in it. In 1904, thousands watched as he tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London’s Daily Mirror, keeping them in su… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 52 (1874-1926)
Birthplace: Budapest, Hungary
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featuringA History Of Harry Houdini’s Lifelong Battle To Debunk Mediums#170 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive#318 of 526 Famous Men You’d Want to Have a Beer With
Ernest Borgnine (; born Ermes Effron Borgnino; January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012) was an American actor whose career spanned over six decades. He was noted for his gruff but calm voice and gap-toothed Cheshire Cat grin. A popular performer, he also appeared as a guest on numerous talk shows and as a panelist on several game shows. Borgnine’s film career began in 1951, and included supporting roles in China Corsair (1951), From Here to Eternity (1953), Vera Cruz (1954), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) and The Wild Bunch (1969). He also played the unconventional lead in many films, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for Marty (1955). He achieved continuing success in the sitcom McHale’s Navy… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 95 (1917-2012)
Birthplace: Hamden, Connecticut, United States of America
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listed onActors You May Not Have Realized Are Republican#379 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive#105 of 122 The Worst Oscar-Winning Actors Ever
Melvin Jerome Blanc (; May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality. After beginning his over-60-year career performing in radio, he became known for his work in animation as the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, the Tasmanian Devil, and many of the other characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoons during the golden age of American animation. He voiced all of the major male Warner Bros. cartoon characters except for Elmer Fudd, whose voice was provided by fellow radio personalit… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 81 (1908-1989)
Birthplace: California, United States of America
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#224 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive#120 of 362 The Funniest People of All Time
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, explorer, and environmental activist, and a spokesperson for the American First Committee. At age 25 in 1927, he went from obscurity as a U.S. Air Mail pilot to instantaneous world fame by winning the Orteig Prize: making a nonstop flight from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York, to Paris, France. Lindbergh covered the 33 1⁄2-hour, 3,600-statute-mile (5,800 km) flight alone in a single-engine purpose-built Ryan monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh’s flight was not the first non-stop transatlantic flight. Alcock and Brown achieved this in June 1919. Lindb… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 72 (1902-1974)
Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan, United States of America
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#125 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive#338 of 1,472 The Greatest Minds of All Time#197 of 2,831 The Most Influential People of All Time
François-Marie Arouet (French: [fʁɑ̃swa maʁi aʁwɛ]; 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire (; also US: , French: [vɔltɛːʁ]), was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his criticism of Christianity, especially the Roman Catholic Church, as well as his advocacy of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile and prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate of civil liberties… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 84 (1694-1778)
Birthplace: Paris, France
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listed onFamous Poets And Writers Who Died Of TuberculosisfeaturingThe Best Voltaire Quotes#53 of 294 The Best Novelists of All Time
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from August 1974 to January 1977. Before his accession to the presidency, Ford served as the 40th vice president of the United States from December 1973 to August 1974. Ford is the only person to have served as both vice president and president without being elected to either office by the Electoral College. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Ford attended the University of Michigan and Yale Law School. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve, serving from 1942 to 19… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 93 (1913-2006)
Birthplace: Omaha, Nebraska, United States of America
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listed onFamous Left Handed PeoplefeaturingThe Best Gerald Ford Quotes#21 of 44 US Presidents Who Are Worthy Enough To Wield Mjolnir
William James “Count” Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two “split” tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison … …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 80 (1904-1984)
Birthplace: Red Bank, New Jersey, United States of America
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#544 of 2,831 The Most Influential People of All Time#31 of 164 The Greatest Jazz Pianists of All Time
William McKinley Jr. (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1897, until his assassination six months into his second term. During his presidency, McKinley led the nation to victory in the Spanish–American War, raised protective tariffs to promote American industry and kept the nation on the gold standard in a rejection of free silver (effectively, expansionary monetary policy). McKinley was the last president to have served in the American Civil War and the only one to have started the war as an enlisted soldier, beginning as a private in the Union Army and ending as a brevet major. After the war, he settled in Canton, Ohio,… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 58 (1843-1901)
Birthplace: Niles, Ohio, United States of America
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Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American lawyer, serving as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the Court’s 96th justice and its first African-American justice. Prior to his judicial service, he successfully argued several cases before the Supreme Court, including Brown v. Board of Education. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Marshall graduated from the Howard University School of Law in 1933. He established a private legal practice in Baltimore before founding the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he served as executive director. In that position, he argued several cases before the… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 85 (1908-1993)
Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
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#126 of 265 The Most Influential Politicians in American History#88 of 438 The Most Important Leaders in U.S. History#70 of 87 People Who Made the World a Better Place
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857 – March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected president in 1908, the chosen successor of Theodore Roosevelt, but was defeated for re-election by Woodrow Wilson in 1912 after Roosevelt split the Republican vote by running as a third-party candidate. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft to be chief justice, a position in which he served until a month before his death. Taft was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1857. His father, Alphonso Taft, was a U.S. Attorney General and Secretary of War. Taft at… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 73 (1857-1930)
Birthplace: Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America
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featuringJealous Of The Teddy Bear, President Taft Tried To Make Billy Possum Happen#29 of 44 The Greatest U.S. Presidents Of All Time#26 of 44 US Presidents Who Are Worthy Enough To Wield Mjolnir
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the classical era. Born in Salzburg, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vien… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 35 (1756-1791)
Birthplace: Salzburg, Austria
listed on16 Famous Bodies From History Found In Inconspicuous Placesfeaturing17 Bizarre, Mind-Blowing Facts and Stories About Mozart#26 of 2,188 The Greatest Musical Artists of All Time
James Monroe (; April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was the last president of the Virginia dynasty; his presidency coincided with the Era of Good Feelings. He is perhaps best known for issuing the Monroe Doctrine, a policy of opposing European colonialism in the Americas. He also served as the governor of Virginia, a member of the United States Senate, the U.S. ambassador to France and Britain, the seventh Secretary of State, and the eighth Secretary of War. Born into a planter family in Westmoreland County, V… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 73 (1758-1831)
Birthplace: Monroe Hall, Virginia, United States of America
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#311 of 1,472 The Greatest Minds of All Time#19 of 44 US Presidents Who Are Worthy Enough To Wield Mjolnir
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was lauded as the “greatest humorist this country has produced”, and William Faulkner called him “the father of American literature”. His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called “The Great American Novel”. Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship with a printer and then worked as a typesetter, contributing articles to the newspaper of… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 75 (1835-1910)
Birthplace: USA, Missouri, Florida
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featuringThe Best Mark Twain Quotes#35 of 1,183 The Best Writers of All Time#133 of 526 Famous Men You’d Want to Have a Beer With
Gwyllyn Samuel Newton “Glenn” Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006) was a Canadian-American actor whose career lasted more than 50 years. Although he played many different types of roles in many different types of movies, Ford was best known for playing ordinary men in unusual circumstances. He was most prominent during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Some of his most significant roles were as the lead or co-lead in Gilda (1946) and The Big Heat (1953), both film noirs, and the high school angst film Blackboard Jungle (1955), although it was for comedies or westerns which he received acting laurels, including three Golden Globe Nominations for Best Actor in a Comedy movie, winning for Pocketful of Mi… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 90 (1916-2006)
Birthplace: Sainte-Christine-d’Auvergne, Quebec, Canada
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listed onActors You May Not Have Realized Are Republican#16 of 167 The Greatest Western Movie Stars#415 of 2,003 The Greatest Actors & Actresses in Entertainment History
William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American stage and motion picture actor, vaudeville performer, cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist, and social commentator from Oklahoma. He was a Cherokee citizen born in the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. Known as “Oklahoma’s Favorite Son”, Rogers was born to a Cherokee family in Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma). As an entertainer and humorist, he traveled around the world three times, made 71 films (50 silent films and 21 “talkies”), and wrote more than 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns.By the mid-1930s Rogers was hugely popular in the United States, its leading political wit and the highest pai… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 56 (1879-1935)
Birthplace: Oologah, Oklahoma, United States of America
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Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881 – January 21, 1959) was an American filmmaker. Between 1914 and 1958, he made a total of 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cinema and the most commercially successful producer-director in film history. His films were distinguished by their epic scale and by his cinematic showmanship. His silent films were more diverse in genre, among which included social dramas, comedies, Westerns, farces, morality plays, and historical pageants. DeMille began his career as a stage actor in 1900. He later moved to writing and directing stage productions, some with Jesse Lasky, who was then a vaudeville p… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 78 (1881-1959)
Birthplace: Ashfield, Massachusetts, United States of America
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listed onList of Jewish Film Directors#52 of 783 The Greatest Directors In Movie History#23 of 140 Famous Shriners Members
Orvon Grover “Gene” Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed The Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician and rodeo performer who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning style on radio, in films, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s. Autry was the owner of a television station, several radio stations in Southern California, and the Los Angeles/California/Anaheim Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997. From 1934 to 1953, Autry appeared in 93 films, and between 1950 and 1956 hosted The Gene Autry Show television series. During the 1930s and 1940s, he personified the straight-shooting hero—honest, … …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 91 (1907-1998)
Birthplace: Tioga, Texas, United States of America
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listed onActors You May Not Have Realized Are Republican#131 of 334 The Top Country Artists of All Time#1,199 of 2,003 The Greatest Actors & Actresses in Entertainment History
Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American jazz pianist and vocalist. He recorded over one hundred songs that became hits on the pop charts. His trio was the model for small jazz ensembles that followed. Cole also acted in films and on television and performed on Broadway. He was the first African American man to host an American television series. …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 46 (1919-1965)
Birthplace: Montgomery, Alabama
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featuringThe Best Nat King Cole Albums of All Time#92 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive#16 of 190 The Greatest Male Pop Singers of All Time
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death over a career spanning more than fifty years.Born in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s onward and gained a national profile through his orchestra’s appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. In the 1930s, his orchestra toured in Europe. Although widely considered to have been a pivotal figure in the history of jazz, Ellington embraced the phrase “beyond category” as a liberating principle and referred to his music as part of the more general category of American Music rather than to a m… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 75 (1899-1974)
Birthplace: Washington, D.C., United States of America
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featuringThe Best Duke Ellington Albums of All Time#194 of 2,188 The Greatest Musical Artists of All Time#55 of 164 The Greatest Jazz Pianists of All Time
George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was the 45th Governor of Alabama, a position he occupied for four terms, during which he promoted “low-grade industrial development, low taxes, and trade schools”. He sought the United States presidency as a Democrat three times, and once as an American Independent Party candidate, unsuccessfully each time. He is best remembered for his staunch segregationist and populist views. Wallace was known as “the most dangerous racist in America” and notoriously opposed desegregation and supported the policies of “Jim Crow” during the Civil Rights Movement, declaring in his 1963 inaugural address that he stood for “segregation now, segr… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 79 (1919-1998)
Birthplace: Clio, Alabama, USA
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur (January 26, 1880 – April 5, 1964) was an American five-star general and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines Campaign, which made him and his father Arthur MacArthur Jr. the first father and son to be awarded the medal. He was one of only five to rise to the rank of General of the Army in the US Army, and the only one conferred the rank of field marshal in the Philippine Army. Raised in a military family in the American Old West, MacArthur was valedicto… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 84 (1880-1964)
Birthplace: Little Rock, Arkansas, United States of America
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featuringThe Best Douglas MacArthur Quotes#586 of 2,831 The Most Influential People of All Time#45 of 101 The Most Beloved US Veterans
Sugar Ray Robinson (born Walker Smith Jr.; May 3, 1921 – April 12, 1989) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1940 to 1965. Robinson’s performances in the welterweight and middleweight divisions prompted sportswriters to create “pound for pound” rankings, where they compared fighters regardless of weight. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. He is widely regarded as the greatest boxer of all time, and in 2002, Robinson was ranked number one on The Ring magazine’s list of “80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years”.Robinson was 85–0 as an amateur with 69 of those victories coming by way of knockout, 40 in the first round. He turned professional in 19… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 68 (1921-1989)
Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan, United States of America
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#42 of 2,198 The Best Athletes Of All Time#7 of 204 The Toughest Professional Fighters in History#1 of 50 The Best Welterweight Boxers of All Time
Michael Anthony Richards (born July 24, 1949) is an American actor, writer, television producer and comedian, widely known for his portrayal of Cosmo Kramer on the television sitcom Seinfeld, for which he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series three times. Richards began his career as a stand-up comedian, first entering the national spotlight when he was featured on Billy Crystal’s first cable TV special. He went on to become a series regular on ABC’s Fridays. Prior to Seinfeld, he made numerous guest appearances on a variety of television shows, such as Cheers. His film credits include So I Married an Axe Murderer, Airheads, Young Doctors in Lo… …more on Wikipedia
Age: 69
Birthplace: Los Angeles, Culver City, California, United States of America
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#831 of 1,151 The Best Actors in Film History#213 of 409 The Funniest Stand Up Comedians Of All Time#283 of 340 The Greatest Entertainers of All Time
John Philip Sousa (; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as “The March King” or the “American March King”, to distinguish him from his British counterpart Kenneth J. Alford who is also known as “The March King”. Among his best-known marches are “The Stars and Stripes Forever” (National March of the United States of America), “Semper Fidelis” (official march of the United States Marine Corps), “The Liberty Bell”, “The Thunderer”, and “The Washington Post”. Sousa began his career playing violin and studying music theory and composition under John Esputa and George Felix Benk… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 78 (1854-1932)
Birthplace: Washington, D.C.
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( RUD-yərd; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He was born in India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling’s works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including “The Man Who Would Be King” (1888). His poems include “Mandalay” (1890), “Gunga Din” (1890), “The Gods of the Copybook Headings” (1919), “The White Man’s Burden” (1899), and “If—” (1910). He is seen as an innovator in the art of the short story. His children’s books are classics; one critic noted “a versatile and luminous narrative gift”.Kipling in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was among t… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 71 (1865-1936)
Birthplace: Mumbai, India
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featuringThe Jungle Book Was Originally Written To Prove That White People Are The Superior Race#121 of 1,183 The Best Writers of All Time#29 of 294 The Best Novelists of All Time
William Alexander “Bud” Abbott (October 2, 1897 – April 24, 1974) was an American actor, best known for his film comedy double act, as straight man to Lou Costello. Groucho Marx declared Abbott “the greatest straight man ever.” …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 79 (1895-1974)
Birthplace: Asbury Park, New Jersey, United States of America
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featuringThe Best Bud Abbott Movies#544 of 2,003 The Greatest Actors & Actresses in Entertainment History#78 of 80 Actors Who Played Multiple Roles in the Same Film
Peter Sellers, CBE (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English film actor, comedian and singer. He performed in the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show, featured on a number of hit comic songs and became known to a worldwide audience through his many film characterisations, among them Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther series of films. Born in Portsmouth, Sellers made his stage debut at the Kings Theatre, Southsea, when he was two weeks old. He began accompanying his parents in a variety act that toured the provincial theatres. He first worked as a drummer and toured around England as a member of the Entertainments National Service Association (EN… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 55 (1925-1980)
Birthplace: Southsea, England
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featuringThe Best Peter Sellers Movies#65 of 1,151 The Best Actors in Film History#222 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive
Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779 – January 11, 1843) was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet from Frederick, Maryland who is best known for writing a poem which later became the lyrics for the United States’ national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”. During the War of 1812, Key observed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Maryland in 1814. Key was inspired upon viewing the American flag still flying over the fort at dawn, and wrote the poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry”, which was published a week later. The poem was adapted to the tune of the popular song “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The song with Key’s lyrics became known as “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and slowly gained in popu… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 64 (1779-1843)
Birthplace: Maryland
Robert William Andrew Feller (November 3, 1918 – December 15, 2010), nicknamed “The Heater from Van Meter”, “Bullet Bob”, and “Rapid Robert”, was an American baseball pitcher who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians. Feller pitched from 1936 to 1941 and from 1945 to 1956, interrupted only by a four-year engagement in the Navy. In a career spanning 570 games, Feller pitched 3,827 innings and posted a win–loss record of 266–162, with 279 complete games, 44 shutouts, and a 3.25 earned run average (ERA). A prodigy who bypassed the minor leagues, Feller first played for the Indians at the age of 17. His career was interrupted by four years of military service… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 92 (1918-2010)
Birthplace: Van Meter, Iowa, United States of America
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listed onAthletes You Didn’t Know Were Conservative#61 of 101 The Most Beloved US Veterans#18 of 320 The Best Players in the Baseball Hall of Fame
Benedict Arnold (January 14, 1741 [O.S. January 3, 1740] – June 14, 1801) was an American military officer who served as a general during the American Revolutionary War, fighting for the American Continental Army before defecting to the British in 1780. George Washington had given him his fullest trust and placed him in command of the fortifications at West Point, New York. Arnold planned to surrender the fort to British forces, but the plot was discovered in September 1780 and he fled to the British. His name quickly became a byword in the United States for treason and betrayal because he led the British army in battle against the very men whom he had once commanded.Arnold was born in the C… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 60 (1741-1801)
Birthplace: Norwich, Connecticut
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featuringTurns Out Benedict Arnold Was The One Who Got Betrayed By America12 Interesting Things Most People Don’t Know About Benedict Arnold#922 of 2,831 The Most Influential People of All Time
John Hancock (January 23, 1737 [O.S. January 12, 1736] – October 8, 1793) was an American merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is remembered for his large and stylish signature on the United States Declaration of Independence, so much so that the term “John Hancock” has become a synonym in the United States for one’s signature.Before the American Revolution, Hancock was one of the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies, having inherited a profitable mercantile business from his uncle. He began his political career in Boston… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 56 (1737-1793)
Birthplace: Braintree, Massachusetts, United States of America
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#556 of 1,472 The Greatest Minds of All Time#49 of 379 The Most Important Leaders In World History
Billy Wilder (; German: [ˈvɪldɐ]; born Samuel Wilder, June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist whose career spanned more than five decades. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of the Hollywood Golden Age of cinema. With The Apartment, Wilder became the first person to win Academy Awards as producer, director, and screenwriter for the same film.Wilder became a screenwriter in the late 1920s while living in Berlin. After the rise of the Nazi Party, he left for Paris, where he made his directorial debut. He moved to Hollywood in 1933, and in 1939 he had a hit when he co-wrote the scre… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 96 (1906-2002)
Birthplace: Sucha Beskidzka, Poland
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listed onList of Jewish Film Directors#13 of 139 The Greatest Auteurs in Film History#2 of 101 The Greatest Hollywood Screenwriters Of All-Time, Ranked
Oliver Norvell Hardy (born Norvell Hardy, January 18, 1892 – August 7, 1957) was an American comic actor and one half of Laurel and Hardy, the double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted from 1927 to 1955. He appeared with his comedy partner Stan Laurel in 107 short films, feature films, and cameo roles. He was credited with his first film Outwitting Dad in 1914. In most of his silent films before joining producer Hal Roach, he was billed on screen as “Babe Hardy.” …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 65 (1892-1957)
Birthplace: Harlem, Georgia, United States of America
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#237 of 1,151 The Best Actors in Film History#120 of 340 The Greatest Entertainers of All Time
Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777 – June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives, served as 7th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and served as the 9th U.S. secretary of state. He received electoral votes for president in the 1824, 1832, and 1844 presidential elections and helped found both the National Republican Party and the Whig Party. For his role in defusing sectional crises, he earned the appellation of the “Great Compromiser.” Clay was born in Hanover County, Virginia in 1777 and launched a legal career in Lexington, Kentucky in 1797. As a member of the Democratic-Re… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 75 (1777-1852)
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#711 of 2,831 The Most Influential People of All Time#15 of 68 The Best Former US Secretaries of State of All Time
Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is generally regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport’s history. Dating back to 1955, he won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and the circuit now known as PGA Tour Champions. Nicknamed The King, he was one of golf’s most popular stars and seen as a trailblazer, the first superstar of the sport’s television age, which began in the 1950s. Palmer’s social impact on behalf of golf was perhaps unrivaled among fellow professionals; his humble background and plain-spoken popularity helped change the perception of golf from an elite, upper-class pastime (private… …more on Wikipedia
Age: 89
Birthplace: Latrobe, Pennsylvania, United States of America
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listed onAthletes You Didn’t Know Were Conservative#1,494 of 2,198 The Best Athletes Of All Time#132 of 770 American Public Figures Who Are National Treasures
Irving Berlin (born Israel Isidore Beilin; Yiddish: ישראל בעילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was an American composer and lyricist, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history. His music forms a great part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russia, Berlin arrived in the United States at the age of five. He published his first song, “Marie from Sunny Italy”, in 1907, receiving 33 cents for the publishing rights, and had his first major international hit, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” in 1911. He also was an owner of the Music Box Theatre on Broadway. It is commonly believed that Berlin could not read sheet music, and was such a limited piano pl… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 101 (1888-1989)
Birthplace: Mogilev Region, Belarus
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#117 of 228 The Greatest Rock Songwriters of All Time#79 of 854 These Poetic Geniuses Wrote Your Favorite Songs of All Time
William Claude Dukenfield (January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946), better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler, and writer. Fields’ comic persona was a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist, who remained a sympathetic character despite his supposed contempt for children and dogs. His career in show business began in vaudeville, where he attained international success as a silent juggler. He gradually incorporated comedy into his act and was a featured comedian in the Ziegfeld Follies for several years. He became a star in the Broadway musical comedy Poppy (1923), in which he played a colorful small-time con man. His subsequent stage and film roles were often simila… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 66 (1880-1946)
Birthplace: Darby, Pennsylvania, United States of America
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listed onList of Deaths Through AlcoholfeaturingThe Best W. C. Fields Quotes#561 of 1,151 The Best Actors in Film History
David Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) was an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He is commonly referred to in popular culture by the epithet “King of the Wild Frontier”. He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives and served in the Texas Revolution. Crockett grew up in East Tennessee, where he gained a reputation for hunting and storytelling. He was made a colonel in the militia of Lawrence County, Tennessee and was elected to the Tennessee state legislature in 1821. In 1827, he was elected to the U.S. Congress where he vehemently opposed many of the policies of President Andrew Jackson, especially the Indian Removal Act. Crockett’s opposi… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 50 (1786-1836)
Birthplace: Limestone, Tennessee, USA
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#550 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive#294 of 526 Famous Men You’d Want to Have a Beer With#64 of 165 If You Fought To The Death, Who Would You Want By Your Side?
William Harrison “Jack” Dempsey (June 24, 1895 – May 31, 1983), nicknamed “Kid Blackie” and “The Manassa Mauler”, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1914 to 1927, and reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926. A cultural icon of the 1920s, Dempsey’s aggressive fighting style and exceptional punching power made him one of the most popular boxers in history. Many of his fights set financial and attendance records, including the first million-dollar gate.Dempsey is ranked tenth on The Ring magazine’s list of all-time heavyweights and seventh among its Top 100 Greatest Punchers, while in 1950 the Associated Press voted him as the greatest fighter of the past 5… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 88 (1895-1983)
Birthplace: Manassa, Colorado, United States of America
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listed onCollege & Professional Athletes Who Were Raised Mormon#1,670 of 2,198 The Best Athletes Of All Time#3 of 95 The Best Boxers of the 20th Century
Richard Bernard Eheart (July 18, 1913 – September 17, 1997) professionally known as Red Skelton was an American comedy entertainer. He was best known for his national radio and television acts between 1937 and 1971, and 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 also appeared in burlesque, vaudeville, films, nightclubs, and casinos, all while he pursued an entirely separate career as an artist. Skelton began developing his comedic and pantomime skills from the age of 10, when he became part of a traveling medicine show. He then spent time on a showboat, worked the burlesque circuit, and then en… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 84 (1913-1997)
Birthplace: Vincennes, Indiana, United States of America
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#77 of 362 The Funniest People of All Time#1,032 of 2,003 The Greatest Actors & Actresses in Entertainment History#55 of 106 The Most Original Comedians
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain) (February 9, 1737 [O.S. January 29, 1736] – June 8, 1809) was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary. He authored the two most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution and inspired the patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Great Britain. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era ideals of transnational human rights. Historian Saul K. Padover described him as “a corsetmaker by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination”. Born in Thetford in the English county of Norfolk, Paine migrated to the British American colonies in 1774 with the help of Benjamin F… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 72 (1737-1809)
Birthplace: Thetford, United Kingdom
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featuringThe Best Thomas Paine Quotes#128 of 1,183 The Best Writers of All Time#337 of 526 Famous Men You’d Want to Have a Beer With
John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States and an American law enforcement administrator. He was appointed as the director of the Bureau of Investigation – the FBI’s predecessor – in 1924 and was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director for another 37 years until his death in 1972 at the age of 77. Hoover has been credited with building the FBI into a larger crime-fighting agency than it was at its inception and with instituting a number of modernizations to police technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories. Later in life and after his … …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 77 (1895-1972)
Birthplace: Washington, D.C., United States of America
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featuring12 Historically Beloved Figures That J. Edgar Hoover Hated And Tried To Destroy#963 of 2,831 The Most Influential People of All Time#46 of 140 Famous Shriners Members
Tyrus Raymond Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed The Georgia Peach, was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder. He was born in rural Narrows, Georgia. Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the last six as the team’s player-manager, and finished his career with the Philadelphia Athletics. In 1936 Cobb received the most votes of any player on the inaugural Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, receiving 222 out of a possible 226 votes (98.2%); no other player received a higher percentage of votes until Tom Seaver in 1992. In 1999, editors at the Sporting News ranked Ty Cobb third on their list of “Baseball’s 100 Greatest Players”.Cobb is widely credited with sett… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 75 (1886-1961)
Birthplace: Narrows, Georgia, United States of America
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listed onFamous Left Handed People#146 of 290 The Most Obnoxious Athletes#3 of 116 The Greatest Left Handed Baseball Players of All Time
Paul Revere (; December 21, 1734 O.S. (January 1, 1735 N.S.) – May 10, 1818) was an American silversmith, engraver, early industrialist, and Patriot in the American Revolution. He is best known for his midnight ride to alert the colonial militia in April 1775 to the approach of British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride” (1861). At age 41, Revere was a prosperous, established and prominent Boston silversmith. He had helped organize an intelligence and alarm system to keep watch on the British military. Revere later served as a Massachusetts militia officer, though his service ended after the Penobscot Ex… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 83 (1735-1818)
Birthplace: North End, Boston, Massachusetts
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#384 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive#28 of 438 The Most Important Leaders in U.S. History
Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye, November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998) was an American singer and actor. He was one of the most popular Western stars of his era. Known as the “King of the Cowboys”, he appeared in over 100 films and numerous radio and television episodes of The Roy Rogers Show. In many of his films and television episodes, he appeared with his wife, Dale Evans; his golden palomino, Trigger; and his German shepherd, Bullet. His show was broadcast on radio for nine years and then on television from 1951 through 1957. His productions usually featured a sidekick, often Pat Brady, Andy Devine, George “Gabby” Hayes, or Smiley Burnette. In his later years, Rogers lent his name to … …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 87 (1911-1998)
Birthplace: USA, Cincinnati, Ohio
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#157 of 340 The Greatest Entertainers of All Time#56 of 210 The Greatest Classic Country & Western Artists Of All-Time
Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 – June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, and orator best known for his declaration to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): “Give me liberty, or give me death!” A Founding Father, he served as the first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786. Henry was born in Hanover County, Virginia, and was for the most part educated at home. After an unsuccessful venture running a store, and assisting his father-in-law at Hanover Tavern, Henry became a lawyer through self-study. Beginning his practice in 1760, he soon became prominent through his victory in the Parson’s Cause against the Anglican clergy. Henry was elect… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 63 (1736-1799)
Birthplace: Virginia, USA
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Willie Howard Mays, Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed “The Say Hey Kid”, is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) center fielder who spent almost all of his 22-season career playing for the New York/San Francisco Giants, before finishing with the New York Mets. He is regarded as one of the greatest baseball players of all time and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979. Mays won two National League (NL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, he ended his career with 660 home runs—third at the time of his retirement and currently fifth all-time—and won a record-tying 12 Gold Glove awards beginning in 1957, when the award was introduced.Mays shares the record of most All-Star Ga… …more on Wikipedia
Age: 87
Birthplace: Westfield, Alabama, United States of America
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#465 of 2,198 The Best Athletes Of All Time#14 of 710 The Best Hitters in Baseball History
David Paterson
David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician who served as the 55th Governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer’s term from March 2008 to the end of 2010. He is the first African American to hold that position and the second legally blind governor of any state after Bob C. Riley, who was Acting Governor of Arkansas for 11 days in January 1975.Following his graduation from Hofstra Law School, Paterson worked in the district attorney’s office of Queens County, New York and on the staff of Manhattan borough president David Dinkins. In 1985, he was elected to the New York state senate to a seat once held by his father, fo… …more on Wikipedia
Age: 64
Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
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listed onDemocrat Sex Scandals#18 of 20 50 Politicians Who Have Admitted to Smoking Pot#5 of 28 Famous Blind People
Miles Gilbert “Tim” Horton (January 12, 1930 – February 21, 1974) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He was a defenceman for 24 seasons in the National Hockey League. He died following a single-vehicle crash in 1974, at the age of 44. He played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Buffalo Sabres. In 2017 Horton was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history. Also a successful businessman, Horton was the co-founder of the Tim Hortons fast-food restaurant chain. …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 44 (1930-1974)
Birthplace: Cochrane, Canada
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George Homer Ryan Sr. (born February 24, 1934) is an American former politician who was the 39th Governor of the U.S. state of Illinois from 1999 until 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. Ryan received national attention for his 1999 moratorium on executions in Illinois and for commuting more than 160 death sentences to life sentences in 2003. He was later convicted of federal corruption charges and spent more than five years in federal prison and seven months of home confinement. He was released from federal prison on July 3, 2013. …more on Wikipedia
Age: 85
Birthplace: Maquoketa, Iowa, United States of America
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish writer, who created the character Sherlock Holmes. Originally a physician, in 1887 he published A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and more than fifty short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels. One of Doyle’s early short stories, “J. Habakuk J… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 71 (1859-1930)
Birthplace: Edinburgh, Scotland
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featuring14 Weird Facts About Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Guy Who Created Sherlock Holmes#117 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive#12 of 294 The Best Novelists of All Time
Harry Randall Truman (October 30, 1896 – May 18, 1980) was a resident of the U.S. state of Washington who lived near Mount St. Helens. He was the owner and caretaker of Mount St. Helens Lodge at Spirit Lake near the foot of the mountain, and he came to fame as a folk hero in the months preceding the volcano’s 1980 eruption after he refused to leave his home despite evacuation orders. Truman is presumed to have been killed by a pyroclastic flow that overtook his lodge and buried the site under 150 ft (46 m) of volcanic debris. After Truman’s death, his family and friends reflected on his love for the mountain. In 1981, Art Carney portrayed Truman in the docudrama film St. Helens. He was comme… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 84 (1896-1980)
Birthplace: Ivydale, Clay County, West Virginia, West Virginia
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Douglas Fairbanks (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films including The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro but spent the early part of his career making comedies. Fairbanks was a founding member of United Artists. He was also a founding member of The Motion Picture Academy and hosted the 1st Academy Awards in 1929. With his marriage to Mary Pickford in 1920, the couple became Hollywood royalty and Fairbanks was referred to as “The King of Hollywood”, a nickname later passed on to actor Clark Gable. Though widely considered as … …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 56 (1883-1939)
Birthplace: USA, Denver, Colorado
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listed onList of Jewish Film Directors#270 of 332 The Greatest Actors Who Have Never Won an Oscar (for Acting)#139 of 151 The All-Time Greatest Action Stars
Arthur “Harpo” Marx (born Adolph Marx; November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, mime artist, and musician, and the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers. In contrast to the mainly verbal comedy of his brothers Groucho Marx and Chico Marx, Harpo’s comic style was visual, being an example of both clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish blonde wig, and never spoke during performances (he blew a horn or whistled to communicate). He frequently used props such as a horn cane, made up of a lead pipe, tape, and a bulbhorn, and he played the harp in most of his films. …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 76 (1888-1964)
Birthplace: New York City, New York, United States of America
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listed onFamous Left Handed People#661 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive#158 of 340 The Greatest Entertainers of All Time
Samuel Adams (September 27 [O.S. September 16] 1722 – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and one of the architects of the principles of American republicanism that shaped the political culture of the United States. He was a second cousin to his fellow Founding Father, President John Adams. Adams was born in Boston, brought up in a religious and politically active family. A graduate of Harvard College, he was an unsuccessful businessman and tax collector before concentrating on politics. He was an inf… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 81 (1722-1803)
Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
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#465 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive#282 of 526 Famous Men You’d Want to Have a Beer With
Elbridge Gerry (; July 17, 1744 (O.S. July 6, 1744) – November 23, 1814) was an American politician and diplomat. As a Democratic-Republican he served as the fifth vice president of the United States under President James Madison from March 1813 until his death in November 1814. He is known best for being the eponym of gerrymandering. Born into a wealthy merchant family, Gerry vocally opposed British colonial policy in the 1760s, and was active in the early stages of organizing the resistance in the American Revolutionary War. Elected to the Second Continental Congress, Gerry signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. He was one of three men who attende… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 70 (1744-1814)
Birthplace: Marblehead, Massachusetts, United States of America
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#147 of 265 The Most Influential Politicians in American History#39 of 46 The Greatest U.S. Vice Presidents of All Time#13 of 18 The Most Useless US Vice Presidents
Denton True “Cy” Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. Born in Gilmore, Ohio, he worked on his family’s farm as a youth before starting his professional baseball career. Young entered the major leagues in 1890 with the National League’s Cleveland Spiders and pitched for them until 1898. He was then transferred to the St. Louis Cardinals franchise. In 1901, Young jumped to the American League and played for the Boston Red Sox franchise until 1908, helping them win the 1903 World Series. He finished his career with the Cleveland Naps and Boston Rustlers, retiring in 1911. Young was one of the hardest-throwing pitchers in the game early i… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 88 (1867-1955)
Birthplace: Gilmore, Ohio
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listed onLongest Pitching Streaks in Baseball#1 of 198 The Greatest Pitchers of All Time#12 of 625 The Greatest Baseball Players of All Time
Johannes Peter “Honus” Wagner (; February 24, 1874 – December 6, 1955), sometimes referred to as “Hans” Wagner, was an American baseball shortstop who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1897 to 1917, almost entirely for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Wagner won his eighth (and final) batting title in 1911, a National League record that remains unbroken to this day, and matched only once, in 1997, by Tony Gwynn. He also led the league in slugging six times and stolen bases five times. Wagner was nicknamed “The Flying Dutchman” due to his superb speed and German heritage. This nickname was a nod to the popular folk-tale made into a famous opera by another Wagner. In 1936, the Baseball H… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 81 (1874-1955)
Birthplace: Chartiers Township, Pennsylvania
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#10 of 710 The Best Hitters in Baseball History#6 of 320 The Best Players in the Baseball Hall of Fame
Woodward Maurice “Tex” Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was an American country music singer and actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John and grandsons Jason and Tyler). He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 69 (1905-1974)
Birthplace: Texas, Murvaul, USA
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Josiah Bartlett (December 2, 1729 [O.S. November 21, 1729] – May 19, 1795) was an American physician and statesman, delegate to the Continental Congress for New Hampshire, and signatory of the Declaration of Independence. He was later Governor of New Hampshire and Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court of Judicature. …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 66 (1729-1795)
Birthplace: Amesbury, Massachusetts, United States of America
summut2 addedMatthew Griffin
Birthplace: Down below
Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular U.S. presidents to that point. After his death a number of scandals, such as Teapot Dome, came to light, as did his extramarital affair with Nan Britton; each eroded his popular regard. He is often rated as one of the worst presidents in historical rankings. Harding lived in rural Ohio all his life, except when political service took him elsewhere. As a young man, he bought The Marion Star and built it into a successful newspaper. In 1899, he was elected to the Ohio State Senate; he spent f… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 58 (1865-1923)
Birthplace: Blooming Grove, Ohio, United States of America
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#40 of 44 The Greatest U.S. Presidents Of All Time#40 of 44 US Presidents Who Are Worthy Enough To Wield Mjolnir#21 of 43 U.S. Presidents & the Booze They Drank, Ranked
leperchuanangels addedThomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who has been described as America’s greatest inventor. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory.Ed… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 84 (1847-1931)
Birthplace: Milan, Ohio, United States of America
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listed onNotable Deaf People and People with Hearing LossfeaturingThe True Story Of The Industrial Feud That Inspired ‘The Current War’#17 of 25 Famous People From History You Had No Idea Were Foxy
leperchuanangels addedColonel Sanders
Colonel Harland David Sanders (September 9, 1890 – December 16, 1980) was an American businessman, best known for founding fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (also known as KFC) and later acting as the company’s brand ambassador and symbol. His name and image are still symbols of the company. The title ‘colonel’ was honorary – a Kentucky Colonel – not the military rank. Sanders held a number of jobs in his early life, such as steam engine stoker, insurance salesman and filling station operator. He began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in North Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. During that time Sanders developed his “secret recipe” and h… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 90 (1890-1980)
Birthplace: Henryville, Indiana
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featuringLong Before KFC, Harland Sanders Was A Shotgun-Toting Hellraiser And “Kentucky Colonel”#33 of 108 Celebrities Who Deserve Their Own Postage Stamp#6 of 20 25 People Who Did Great Things After Fifty
ChanAndy addedLudwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. His best-known compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 concertos for piano, 1 violin concerto, 32 piano sonatas, and 16 string quartets. He also composed other chamber music, choral works (including the celebrated and songs.
Age: Dec. at 57 (1770-1827)
Birthplace: Bonn, Germany
More Ludwig van Beethoven
listed onNotable Deaf People and People with Hearing Lossfeaturing18 Grim Facts About The Life Of Beethoven You Never Learned As A Kid#33 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive
ChanAndy addedFelix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period.
A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family. Although initially he was raised without religion, he was later baptised as a Reformed Christian. Mendelssohn was recognised early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his talent.
Age: Dec. at 38 (1809-1847)
Birthplace: Hamburg, Germany
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#451 of 2,188 The Greatest Musical Artists of All Time#22 of 374 The Best Classical Composers
ChanAndy addedMoses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the Haskalah, the ‘Jewish enlightenment’ of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is indebted.
Born to a poor Jewish family in Dessau and originally destined for a rabbinical career, Mendelssohn educated himself in German thought and literature and from his writings on philosophy and religion came to be regarded as a leading cultural figure of his time by both Christian and Jewish inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire. He also established himself as an important figure in the Berlin textile industry, which was the foundation of his family’s wealth.
Moses Mendelssohn’s descendants include the composers Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn and the founders of the Mendelssohn & Co. banking house.
Age: Dec. at 57 (1729-1786)
Birthplace: Dessau, Germany
ChanAndy addedWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II. During his lengthy political career, Churchill served as Prime Minister twice, from 1940 to 1945 and then from 1951 to 1955, when he was voted out in the election just after the war. He was regarded in history as one of the greatest and most influential war-time political leaders, and was also noted as a historian, writer and artist.
Age: Dec. at 91 (1874-1965)
Birthplace: Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, United Kingdom
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featuringThe 10 Most Devastating Burns Ever Delivered By Winston Churchill#171 of 1,183 The Best Writers of All Time#233 of 1,472 The Greatest Minds of All Time
ChanAndy addedLeopold MozartJohann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.
Age: Dec. at 68 (1719-1787)
Birthplace: Augsburg, Germany
ChanAndy addedAleksandr PushkinAlexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was a Russian author of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature.
Age: Dec. at 38 (1799-1837)
Birthplace: Moscow, Russia
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#59 of 1,183 The Best Writers of All Time#328 of 1,472 The Greatest Minds of All Time
ChanAndy addedAlexander PopeAlexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet. He is best known for his satirical verse, as well as for his translation of Homer. Famous for his use of the heroic couplet, he is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson.
Age: Dec. at 56 (1688-1744)
Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
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listed onFamous Poets And Writers Who Died Of TuberculosisfeaturingThe Best Alexander Pope Quotes#869 of 2,831 The Most Influential People of All Time
ChanAndy addedFranz Liszt
Franz Liszt was a 19th-century Hungarian composer,virtuoso pianist, conductor, teacher and Franciscan tertiary.
Liszt gained renown in Europe during the early nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age, and in the 1840s he was considered to be the greatest pianist of all time. Liszt was also a well-known and influential composer, piano teacher and conductor. He was a benefactor to other composers, including Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz,Camille Saint-Saëns, Edvard Grieg and Alexander Borodin.[4]
As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the “Neudeutsche Schule” (“New German School”). He left behind an extensive and diverse body of work in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated some 20th-century ideas and trends. Some of his most notable contributions were the invention of the symphonic poem, developing the concept of thematic transformation as part of his experiments in musical form and making radical departures in harmony.[5] He also played an important role in popularizing a wide array of music by transcribing it for piano.
Age: Dec. at 75 (1811-1886)
Birthplace: Raiding, Austria, Austria
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ChanAndy addedHonoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de MirabeauHonoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau better known as simply Mirabeau, was a French nobleman and a leader of the French Revolution during its early stages. A gifted orator, he favored a constitutional monarchy built on the model of Great Britain, being a voice of moderation in the National Constituent Assembly.
Age: Dec. at 42 (1749-1791)
Birthplace: France
ChanAndy addedGilbert du Motier, Marquis de LafayetteMarie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette often known as simply Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer born in south central France. During the American Revolutionary War, Lafayette served as a Major-General in the Continental Army under George Washington.
Age: Dec. at 77 (1757-1834)
Birthplace: Chavaniac-Lafayette, France
ChanAndy addedEdward VII
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death.
The eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Edward was related to royalty throughout Europe. Before his accession to the throne, he served as heir apparent and held the title ofPrince of Wales for longer than any of his predecessors. During the long reign of his mother, he was largely excluded from political power, and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite. He travelled throughout Britain, performing ceremonial public duties, and represented Britain on visits abroad. His tours of North America in 1860 and the Indian subcontinent in 1875 were popular successes, but his reputation as a playboy prince soured his relationship with his mother.
Age: Dec. at 69 (1841-1910)
Birthplace: Buckingham Palace, London, England
ChanAndy addedGustav III of Sweden
Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death.
He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Queen Louise Ulrika, who was a sister of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia.
He was a vocal opponent of what he saw as abuses by the nobility of a permissiveness established by parliamentarian reforms that had been worked out since the death of Charles XII. He seized power from the government in a coup d’état in 1772, ending the Age of Liberty and venturing into a campaign to restore royal autocracy. This was completed by the Union and Security Act in 1789, sweeping away most of the last pretences of Riksdag rule. As a bulwark of enlightened despotism, he spent considerable public funds on cultural ventures: this contributed among his critics to controversy about his reign. Attempts to seize Norway with Russian assistance, and then to recapture the Baltic provinces by a war against Russia, were unsuccessful, although much of Sweden’s former military might was restored. An admirer of Voltaire, Gustav legalized Catholic and Jewish presence in the realm and enacted wide-ranging reforms aimed at economic liberalism, social reform and the abolition, in many cases, of torture and capital punishment, although the much-praised Freedom of the Press Act (1766) was severely curtailed by amendments in 1774 and 1792, which effectively extinguished all independent media.
Age: Dec. at 46 (1746-1792)
Birthplace: Stockholm, Sweden
ChanAndy addedGiuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian general and politician who played a large role in the history of Italy.[1] He is considered, with Camillo Cavour, Victor Emmanuel II and Giuseppe Mazzini, as one of Italy’s “fathers of the fatherland”.
Garibaldi was a central figure in the Italian Risorgimento, since he personally commanded and fought in many military campaigns that led eventually to the formation of a unified Italy. He was appointed general by the provisional government of Milan in 1848, General of the Roman Republic in 1849 by the Minister of War, and led the Expedition of the Thousand on behalf and with the consent of Victor Emmanuel II.
He has been called the “Hero of Two Worlds” because of his military enterprises in Brazil, Uruguay and Europe. These earned him a considerable reputation in Italy and abroad, aided by exceptional international media coverage at the time. Many of the greatest intellectuals of his time, such as Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and George Sand showered him with admiration. The United Kingdom and the United States helped him a great deal, offering him financial and military support in difficult circumstances.
Age: Dec. at 75 (1807-1882)
Birthplace: Nice, France
ChanAndy addedPrince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and AvondalePrince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale was the eldest son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), and the grandson of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria. From the time of his birth, he was second in the line of succession to the British throne, but never became king: he died before his father and his grandmother, the Queen.
Age: Dec. at 28 (1864-1892)
Birthplace: Frogmore, United Kingdom
ChanAndy addedJohannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. In his lifetime, Brahms’s popularity and influence were considerable. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the “Three Bs”, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.
Age: Dec. at 64 (1833-1897)
Birthplace: Hamburg, Germany
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ChanAndy addedFrederick II of PrussiaFrederick II was the third Hohenzollern king, reigning over the Kingdom of Prussia from 1740 until 1786.[1] Frederick’s achievements during his reign included his military victories, his reorganization of Prussian armies, his patronage of the Arts and the Enlightenment in Prussia, and his final success against great odds in the Seven Years’ War. He became known as Frederick the Great (Friedrich der Große) and was nicknamed Der Alte Fritz (“Old Fritz”) by the Prussian people.
Age: Dec. at 74 (1712-1786)
Birthplace: Kingdom of Prussia
#176 of 2,831 The Most Influential People of All Time#7 of 411 The Most Important Military Leaders in World History
ChanAndy addedNathan Mayer RothschildNathan Mayer, Freiherr von Rothschild ,known as Nathan Mayer Rothschild, was a London-based Ashkenazi Jewish banker and financier and one of five sons of the second generation of the Rothschild banking dynasty. He was born in Frankfurt am Main, the fourth child of Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812) and Gutle Schnapper (1753–1849).
Age: Dec. at 59 (1777-1836)
Birthplace: Frankfurt, Germany
ChanAndy addedJean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological, and educational thought.
Age: Dec. at 66 (1712-1778)
listed onFamous Political WritersfeaturingThe Best Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes#147 of 294 The Best Novelists of All Time
ChanAndy addedGiacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas are among the important operas played as standards.
Puccini has been called “the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi”.While his early work was rooted in traditional late-19th-century romantic Italian opera, he successfully developed his work in the realistic Verismo style, of which he became one of the leading exponents.
Age: Dec. at 66 (1858-1924)
Birthplace: Lucca, Italy
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ChanAndy addedBernardo O’HigginsBernardo O’Higgins Riquelme was a Chilean independence leader who, together with José de San Martín, freed Chile from Spanish rule in the Chilean War of Independence. Although he was the second Supreme Director of Chile (1817–1823), he is considered one of Chile’s founding fathers, as he was the first holder of this title to head a fully independent Chilean state. O’Higgins was of Spanish and Irish ancestry.
Age: Dec. at 64 (1778-1842)
Birthplace: Chillán, Chile
ChanAndy addedDenis Diderot
Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic and writer. He was a prominent figure during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor and contributor to the Encyclopédie along with Jean le Rond d’Alembert.
Diderot also contributed to literature, notably with Jacques le fataliste et son maître, which was influenced by Laurence Sterne’s novel Tristram Shandy in challenging conventions regarding novels and their structure and content, while also examining philosophical ideas about free will. Diderot is also known as the author of the dialogue Le Neveu de Rameau , upon which many articles and sermons about consumer desire have been based.
Age: Dec. at 71 (1713-1784)
Birthplace: Langres, France
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featuringThe Best Denis Diderot Quotes#360 of 1,472 The Greatest Minds of All Time#43 of 90 The Best French Authors
ChanAndy addedAgustín de Iturbide
Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Arámburu, also known as Augustine I of Mexico, was a Mexican army general and politician. During the Mexican War of Independence, he built a successful political and military coalition that took control in Mexico City on 27 September 1821, decisively gaining independence for Mexico. After the secession of Mexico was secured, he was proclaimed President of the Regency in 1821. A year later, he was announced as the Constitutional Emperor of Mexico, reigning briefly from 19 May 1822 to 19 March 1823. He is credited as the original designer of the first Mexican flag.[1][2][3]
Although Iturbide’s reign was short, it defined the political struggles before and after independence. The two ends of Mexico’s political spectrum, liberals who favored populist representative government and conservatives who favored a more authoritarian regime, would each gain the upper hand at various times in the decades after Iturbide’s abdication.
Age: Dec. at 41 (1783-1824)
Birthplace: Morelia, Mexico
ChanAndy addedBuzz AldrinBuzz Aldrin is an American engineer and former astronaut, and the second person to walk on the Moon. He was the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history. He set foot on the Moon at 03:15:16 (UTC) on July 21, 1969, following mission commander Neil Armstrong. He is also a former U.S. Air Force officer and a Command Pilot.
Age: 89
Birthplace: Glen Ridge, New Jersey, United States of America
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featuringRead The Transcript Nixon Prepared In Case Neil Armstrong And Buzz Aldrin Got Stranded On The Moon#226 of 770 American Public Figures Who Are National Treasures#797 of 868 Celebrity Death Pool 2016
ChanAndy addedJohann Christian BachJohann Christian Bach was a composer of the Classical era, the eleventh surviving child and youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He is sometimes referred to as “the London Bach” or “the English Bach”, due to his time spent living in the British capital, where he came to be known as John Bach.[1] He is noted for influencing the concerto style of Mozart.
Age: Dec. at 47 (1735-1782)
Birthplace: Leipzig, Germany
ChanAndy addedMikhail BakuninMikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a Russian revolutionary anarchist, and founder ofcollectivist anarchism. He is considered among the most influential figures of anarchism, and one of the principal founders of the “social anarchist” tradition.[2] Bakunin’s enormous prestige as an activist made him one of the most famous ideologues in Europe, and he gained substantial influence among radicals throughout Russia and Europe.
Age: Dec. at 62 (1814-1876)
Birthplace: Torzhok, Russia
ChanAndy addedChevalier d’EonCharles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d’Éon de Beaumont , usually known as the Chevalier d’Éon, was a French diplomat, spy, freemasonand soldier who fought in the Seven Years’ War. D’Éon had androgynous physical characteristics and natural abilities as a mimic, good features for a spy. D’Éon appeared publicly as a man and pursued masculine occupations for 49 years, although during that time d’Éon successfully infiltrated the court of Empress Elizabeth of Russia by presenting as a woman. For 33 years, from 1777, d’Éon dressed as a woman, claiming to be assigned female at birth. Doctors who examined d’Éon’s body after d’Éon’s death discovered that d’Éon would have actually been assigned male at birth.
Age: Dec. at 82 (1728-1810)
Birthplace: Tonnerre, France
ChanAndy addedEugène de Beauharnais
Eugène Rose de Beauharnais was the first child and only son of Alexandre de Beauharnais and Joséphine Tascher de la Pagerie, future wife of Napoleon I.
He was born in Paris, France, and became the stepson and adopted child (but not the heir to the imperial throne) of Napoleon I. His biological father was executed during the revolutionary Reign of Terror. He commanded the Army of Italy and was Viceroy of Italy under his stepfather.
Historians have looked upon him as one of the ablest of Napoleon’s relatives.
Age: Dec. at 43 (1781-1824)
Birthplace: Paris, France
ChanAndy addedMarc ChagallMarc Zakharovich Chagall was a Russian-French artist. Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as “the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century” (though Chagall saw his work as “not the dream of one people but of all humanity”). An early modernist, he was associated with several major artistic styles and created works in virtually every artistic medium, including painting, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramic, tapestries and fine art prints.
Age: Dec. at 98 (1887-1985)
Birthplace: Vitebsk, Belarus
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ChanAndy addedGiacomo Casanova
Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, Histoire de ma vie is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century.
As was not uncommon at the time, Casanova, depending on circumstances, used more or less fictitious names such as baron or count of Farussi (the name of his mother) or Chevalier de Seingalt (pronounced Saint-Galle, as in French). He often signed his works Jacques Casanova de Seingalt after he began writing in French following his second exile from Venice.
He has become so famous for his often complicated and elaborate affairs with women that his name is now synonymous with “womanizer”. He associated with European royalty, popes and cardinals, along with luminaries such as Voltaire, Goethe and Mozart. He spent his last years in Bohemia as a librarian in Count Waldstein’s household, where he also wrote the story of his life.
Age: Dec. at 73 (1725-1798)
Birthplace: Venice, Scorzè, Italy
ChanAndy addedAleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion and philosophy of Thelema, in which role he identified himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century.
Born to a wealthy Plymouth Brethren family in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, Crowley rejected this fundamentalist Christian faith to pursue an interest in Western esotericism. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, where he focused his attentions on mountaineering and poetry, resulting in several publications. Some biographers allege that here he was recruited into a British intelligence agency, further suggesting that he remained a spy throughout his life. In 1898 he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where he was trained in ceremonial magic by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and Allan Bennett. Moving toBoleskine House by Loch Ness in Scotland, he went mountaineering in Mexico with Oscar Eckenstein, before studying Hindu and Buddhist practices in India. He married Rose Edith Kelly and they honeymooned in Cairo, Egypt in 1904. There, Crowley claimed to have been contacted by a supernatural entity named Aiwass, who provided him with The Book of the Law, a sacred text that served as the basis for Thelema. Announcing the start of the Æon of Horus,The Book declared that its followers should adhere to the code of “Do what thou wilt” and seek to align themselves with their True Will through the practice of magick.
Age: Dec. at 72 (1875-1947)
Birthplace: Leamington Spa, United Kingdom
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ChanAndy addedJohann de KalbJohann von Robais, Baron de Kalb, born Johann Kalb, was a German-born French officer who served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and was killed in action during the Battle of Camden.
Age: Dec. at 59 (1721-1780)
Birthplace: Erlangen, Germany
ChanAndy addedHenry Ford
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production.
Although Ford did not invent the automobile or the assembly line, he developed and manufactured the first automobile that many middle class Americans could afford. In doing so, Ford converted the automobile from an expensive curiosity into a practical conveyance that would profoundly impact the landscape of the twentieth century. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and Americanindustry. As owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with “Fordism”: mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. His intense commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout most of North America and in major cities on six continents. Ford left most of his vast wealth to the Ford Foundation and arranged for his family to control the company permanently.
Ford was also widely known for his pacifism during the first years of World War I, and also for being the publisher of antisemitic texts such as the book The International Jew.
Age: Dec. at 84 (1863-1947)
Birthplace: Greenfield Township, Wayne County, Michigan
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listed onFamous Left Handed People#137 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive#21 of 438 The Most Important Leaders in U.S. History
ChanAndy addedJames BuchananJames Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States (1857–1861), serving immediately prior to the American Civil War. He represented Pennsylvania in theUnited States House of Representatives and later the Senate, then served as Minister to Russia under President Andrew Jackson. He was named Secretary of State under President James K. Polk, and is to date the last former Secretary of State to serve as President of the United States. After turning down an offer to sit on the Supreme Court, President Franklin Pierce appointed him minister to the Court of St. James’s, in which capacity he helped draft the Ostend Manifesto.
Age: Dec. at 77 (1791-1868)
Birthplace: Cove Gap, Pennsylvania, United States of America
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ChanAndy addedJames A. GarfieldJames Abram Garfield served as the 20th President of the United States (1881), after serving nine terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (1863–1880). Garfield’s presidency lasted just 200 days—from March 4, 1881, until his death on September 19, 1881, as a result of being shot by assassin Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881. Only William Henry Harrison’s presidency, of 31 days, was shorter. Garfield was the second of four United States Presidents who were assassinated.
Age: Dec. at 50 (1831-1881)
Birthplace: Ohio, United States, with Territories, Cuyahoga County, Moreland Hills
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featuringUnbelievable Details About The Life Of Charles Guiteau, The Presidential Assassin You Probably Forgot About#770 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive#1,101 of 1,472 The Greatest Minds of All Time
ChanAndy addedAndrew JohnsonAndrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. Johnson became president as he was Vice President at the time of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. A Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, Johnson came to office as the Civil War concluded. The new president favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union. His plans did not give protection to the former slaves, and he came into conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives. The first American president to be impeached, he was acquitted in the Senate by one vote.
Age: Dec. at 67 (1808-1875)
Birthplace: Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America
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ChanAndy addedJames K. PolkJames Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States (1845–1849). Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.He later lived in and represented Tennessee. ADemocrat, Polk served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and Governor of Tennessee (1839–1841). Polk was the surprise (dark horse) candidate for president in 1844, defeating Henry Clay of the rival Whig Party by promising to annex Texas. Polk was a leader of Jacksonian Democracy during the Second Party System.
Age: Dec. at 54 (1795-1849)
Birthplace: Pineville, North Carolina, United States of America
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ChanAndy addedHarry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–53). As the final running mate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, Truman succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when Roosevelt died after months of declining health. Under Truman, the Allies successfully concluded World War II; in the aftermath of the conflict, tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War.
Age: Dec. at 88 (1884-1972)
Birthplace: Lamar, Missouri, United States of America
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listed onFamous Left Handed PeoplefeaturingThe Best Harry S. Truman Quotes#360 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive
ChanAndy addedJohannes van den BoschJohannes, Count van den Bosch was a Dutch officer and politician. He was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (1830–1833), commander of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army, Minister of Colonies, and Minister of State. He was officer in the Military William Order.
Age: Dec. at 64 (1780-1844)
Birthplace: Geldern, Germany
ChanAndy addedCarlos María de AlvearCarlos María de Alvear was an Argentine soldier and statesman, Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in 1815.
Age: Dec. at 63 (1789-1852)
Birthplace: Santo Ângelo, Brazil
ChanAndy addedFlorentino Ameghino
Florentino Ameghino was an Argentine naturalist, paleontologist, anthropologist and zoologist, whose fossil discoveries on the Argentine Pampas, especially on Patagonia, rank with those made in the western United States during the late 19th century. Along with his two brothers –Carlos and Juan– Florentino Ameghino was one of the most important founding figures in South American paleontology.
From 1887 until his death, Ameghino passionately devoted to the study of fossil mammals from Patagonia, with the valuable support of his brother Carlos Ameghino (1865-1936) who, between 1887 and 1902, made 14 trips to that region, where he discovered and collected numerous fossil faunas and made important stratigraphic observations which helped to support his journal Ameghiniana.
Age: Dec. at 57 (1854-1911)
Birthplace: Luján, Argentina
ChanAndy addedJosé Figueroa Alcorta
José Maria Cornelio Figueroa Alcorta was President of Argentina from 12 March 1906 to 12 October 1910.
Figueroa Alcorta was born in Córdoba as the son of José Figueroa and Teodosia Alcorta. He was elected a National Deputy for Córdoba before becoming Provincial Governor in 1895. In 1898 he returned to the Argentine Congress as a Senator. In 1904 he became Vice-President of Argentina and in 1906 succeeded Manuel Quintana as President. He was an active Freemason.
He is the only Argentine President to date to have held office in – and presided – the three powers of democratic government: Legislative, as Deputy (1892) and Senator (1898); Executive, as President (1906); and Judiciary, as Justice of the Supreme Court (1915) and then President of the same (1929).
Age: Dec. at 71 (1860-1931)
Birthplace: Córdoba, Argentina
ChanAndy addedSantiago DerquiSantiago Rafael Luis Manuel José María Derqui Rodríguez was president of Argentina from March 5, 1860 to November 5, 1861. He was featured on the 10 Australes note, which is now obsolete.
Age: Dec. at 58 (1809-1867)
Birthplace: Córdoba, Argentina
ChanAndy addedJosé Ingenieros
José Ingenieros was an Argentine physician, pharmaceutic, positivist philosopher and essayist.
He was born Giuseppe Ingegneri in Palermo (Italy), and graduated from the University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine in 1900. Ingenieros was philosophically influenced by Herbert Spencer and Auguste Comte, and wrote a very important philosophical and social work, “El hombre mediocre” , in 1913. Ingenieros founded the Buenos Aires Institute of Criminology in 1907 and the Argentine Psychological Society in 1908; he was elected President of the Argentine Medical Association in 1909.
Age: Dec. at 48 (1877-1925)
ChanAndy addedLeopoldo LugonesLeopoldo Lugones Argüello was an Argentine writer and journalist.
Leopoldo Lugones Argüello (13 June 1874 – 18 February 1938) was an Argentine poet, essayist, novelist, playwright, historian, professor, translator, biographer, philologist, theologian, diplomat, politician and journalist. His poetic writings are often considered to be the founding works of Spanish-language modern poetry (not, however, modernismo). His short stories made him a crucial precursor and also a pioneer of both the fantastic and science fiction literature in Argentina. …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 64 (1874-1938)
Birthplace: Villa de María del Río Seco, Argentina
ChanAndy addedBartolomé MitreBartolomé Mitre Martínez was an Argentine statesman, military figure, and author. He was the President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868.
Age: Dec. at 85 (1821-1906)
Birthplace: Buenos Aires, Argentina
ChanAndy addedCarlos Pellegrini
Carlos Enrique José Pellegrini was Vice President of Argentina and became President of Argentina from 6 August 1890 to 12 October 1892, upon Miguel Ángel Juárez Celman resignation (see Revolución del Parque).
During his administration he cleaned up finances, created the Banco de la Nación Argentina, Argentina’s national bank, and the prestigious high-school that carries his name:Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini
(a public school of noted academic level, part of the University of Buenos Aires).
After the end of his term, he served as senator between 1895 and 1903, and in 1906 he was elected national deputy in the lower house. He was an active Freemason.
He died in his native city of Buenos Aires, and is buried in La Recoleta Cemetery.
Age: Dec. at 60 (1846-1906)
Birthplace: Buenos Aires, Argentina
ChanAndy addedManuel Quintana
Manuel Pedro Quintana y Sáenz de Gaona was the President of Argentina from 12 October 1904 to 12 March 1906. He died in office.
Manuel Quintana studied law at the University of Buenos Aires and graduated in 1855. In 1864 he was elected member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies. In 1870 he was elected Senator. In 1873 he became a Freemason.
On August 11, 1905, Manuel Quintana and his wife, Susana Rodríguez Viana de Quintana, suffered an attack against their lives, when a Catalan anarchist shot at the presidential vehicle. The attempt failed and the president and the first lady survived.
Seriously ill, the president died in his private residence in Belgrano, on March 12, 1906.
Manuel Quintana was buried in La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.
Age: Dec. at 71 (1835-1906)
Birthplace: Buenos Aires, Argentina
ChanAndy addedDomingo Faustino Sarmiento
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was an Argentine activist, intellectual, writer, statesman and the seventh President of Argentina. His writing spanned a wide range of genres and topics, from journalism to autobiography, to political philosophy and history. He was a member of a group of intellectuals, known as the Generation of 1837, who had a great influence on nineteenth-century Argentina. He was particularly concerned with educational issues and was also an important influence on the region’s literature.
Sarmiento grew up in a poor but politically active family that paved the way for much of his future accomplishments. Between 1843 and 1850 he was frequently in exile, and wrote in both Chile and in Argentina. His greatest literary achievement was Facundo, a critique of Juan Manuel de Rosas, that Sarmiento wrote while working for the newspaper El Progreso during his exile in Chile. The book brought him far more than just literary recognition; he expended his efforts and energy on the war against dictatorships, specifically that of Rosas, and contrasted enlightened Europe—a world where, in his eyes, democracy, social services, and intelligent thought were valued—with the barbarism of the gaucho and especially the caudillo, the ruthless strongmen of nineteenth-century Argentina.
While president of Argentina from 1868 to 1874, Sarmiento championed intelligent thought—including education for children and women—and democracy for Latin America. He also took advantage of the opportunity to modernize and develop train systems, a postal system, and a comprehensive education system. He spent many years in ministerial roles on the federal and state levels where he travelled abroad and examined other education systems.
Sarmiento died in Asunción, Paraguay, at the age of 77 from a heart attack. He was buried in Buenos Aires. Today, he is respected as a political innovator and writer.
Age: Dec. at 77 (1811-1888)
Birthplace: San Juan, Argentina
ChanAndy addedJacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away from Rococo frivolity toward a classical austerity and severity, heightened feeling[1] harmonizing with the moral climate of the final years of the Ancien Régime
David later became an active supporter of the French Revolution and friend of Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794), and was effectively a dictator of the arts under the French Republic. Imprisoned after Robespierre’s fall from power, he aligned himself with yet another political regime upon his release, that of Napoleon I. At this time he developed his Empire style, notable for its use of warm Venetian colours. After Napoleon’s fall from power and the Bourbon revival, David exiled himself to Brussels, then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, where he remained until his death. David had a large number of pupils, making him the strongest influence in French art of the early 19th century, especially academic Salon painting.
Age: Dec. at 77 (1748-1825)
Birthplace: Paris, France
ChanAndy addedEdmond François Valentin AboutEdmond François Valentin About was a French novelist, publicist and journalist.
Edmond François Valentin About (14 February 1828 – 16 January 1885) was a French novelist, publicist and journalist. …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 57 (1828-1885)
Birthplace: Dieuze, France
ChanAndy addedGustave EiffelAlexandre Gustave Eiffel was a French civil engineer and architect. A graduate of the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway network, most famously the Garabit viaduct. He is best known for the world-famous Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, France. After his retirement from engineering, Eiffel concentrated his energies on research into meteorology and aerodynamics, making important contributions in both fields.
Age: Dec. at 91 (1832-1923)
Birthplace: Dijon, France
ChanAndy addedClaude Adrien HelvétiusClaude Adrien Helvétius was a French philosopher, freemason and littérateur
Age: Dec. at 56 (1715-1771)
Birthplace: Paris, France
ChanAndy addedJoseph BonaparteJoseph-Napoléon Bonaparte was the elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made him King of Naples and Sicily (1806–1808), and later King of Spain (1808–1813, as José I). After the fall of Napoleon, Joseph styled himself Comte de Survilliers.
Age: Dec. at 76 (1768-1844)
Birthplace: Europe, Metropolitan France, France, Haute-Corse, Corsica, + more
ChanAndy addedLi Ka-shingSir Ka-shing Li, GBM, KBE, JP is a Hong Kong business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as of April 16, 2014 he is the richest person in Asia, with a net worth of $31.9 billion. He is the Chairman of the Board of Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) and Cheung Kong Holdings as of 2008; through them, he is the world’s largest operator ofcontainer terminals and the world’s largest health and beauty retailer.
Age: 90
Birthplace: Chaozhou, China
ChanAndy addedRichard Graves MacDonnellSir Richard Graves MacDonnell KCMG CB was an Anglo-Irish lawyer, judge and colonial governor. His posts as governor included Governor of the British Settlements in West Africa, Governor of Saint Vincent, Governor of South Australia, Governor of Nova Scotia and Governor of Hong Kong. Several places around the world are named for him including MacDonnell Road in Hong Kong; and, the MacDonnell Ranges and Sir Richard Peninsula in Australia.
Age: Dec. at 67 (1814-1881)
Birthplace: Dublin, Republic of Ireland
ChanAndy addedEttore FerrariEttore Ferrari was an Italian sculptor.
Born in Rome to an artistic family (his father was also a painter), Ferrari was one of the members of the artistic rebirth in the secular state born after the Italian Unification. For a long time, he was a professor at theAccademia di San Luca, a deputy in the Italian Parliament and Grand Master of the Grande Oriente d’Italia,the main Masonic body in Italy.
In 1887, he created a statue of Ovid for the city of Constanţa, Romania (the ancient Tomis, where the Latin poet was exiled) and this statue has been duplicated in 1925 for Sulmona, Ovid’s birthplace. Another important work is the bronze statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi, created in 1892, located in Pisa in the square with the same name.
Ferrari also sculpted the statue of Giordano Bruno in Campo de’ Fiori square in Rome.
Age: Dec. at 84 (1845-1929)
Birthplace: Rome, Italy
ChanAndy addedErnesto NathanErnesto Nathan was an English-Italian Jewish politician, and mayor of Rome, Italy from November 1907 to December 1913.
Nathan was born in London in 1848 to Sara Levi, an Italian from Pesaro, and Mayer Moses Nathan, a naturalised Briton of German origin, both of Jewish heritage. His father died when Ernesto was 14.
He spent his youth in Florence, Lugano, Milan and Sardinia, where he was called to administer a cotton mill. In these years he was attracted by the revolutionary ideas of Giuseppe Mazzini, and in 1870, at 25, he moved to Rome as administrator of La Roma del Popolo. His house in Rome became a center of literarian and political debate, with figures like Giosuè Carducci and Francesco Crispi Nine years later he was member Parliamentfor Crispi’s left-wing party. In 1888 he obtained Italian citizenship.
In 1887 he became a member of the Masonic Grande Oriente d’Italia, of which he was named Grand Master in 1899 and later in 1917.
In the April 1889, Nathan was elected in the Town Council of Rome, and was elected mayor of the city in 1907. He retained the charge until 1913, and was elected for a second time in November 1911.
The first mayor of Rome who did not belong to the land-owning elite which had controlled politics in the city until then, and motivated by a deep belief in the importance of a secular, ethical politics, Nathan tried to regulate as much as possible the intense building programs that had erupted all around the city after it became the capital of Italy in 1871. He also strove to promote a secular education system, at a time when education in Rome was still dominated by Catholic institutions. He opened more than 150 kindergartens. The 40th anniversary commemoration of the Capture of Porta Pia in 1910 heightened tension between Nathan’s anticlerical administration and the Holy See.
With respect to public works, Nathan inaugurated the Vittoriano, the Palace of Justice (Palazzo di Giustizia), the Archaeological Walk on the Aventine and Caelian Hills, and the National Stadium, the current Stadio Flaminio, Rome’s first modern building for sport events. A public transport network (ATAC) was created in 1911, as well as a city energy company (ACEA), in 1912.
He died on 9 April 1921.
Age: Dec. at 73 (1848-1921)
Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
ChanAndy addedFrancesco Mario PaganoFrancesco Mario Pagano was an Italian jurist and author. He is regarded as one of the greatest Italian Enlightenment thinkers and considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of law. A moderate reformist, he is seen as a forerunner of the Italian unification.
Age: Dec. at 51 (1748-1799)
Birthplace: Brienza, Italy
ChanAndy addedPyotr Chaadayev
Pyotr or Petr Yakovlevich Chaadayev was a Russian philosopher.
Chaadayev wrote eight “Philosophical Letters”[1] about Russia in French between 1826-1831, which circulated in Russia as manuscript for many years. The works could not be published in Russia because of its highly critical nature of Russia’s significance in world history and politics.
Age: Dec. at 62 (1794-1856)
Birthplace: Moscow, Russia
ChanAndy addedSergey Muravyov-Apostol
Sergey Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol was a Russian Imperial Lieutenant Colonel and one of the organizers of the Decembrist revolt.
He was one of five “Decembrists” executed for their roles in attempting to overthrow the monarchy.
Age: Dec. at 30 (1796-1826)
Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
ChanAndy addedIvan Yelagin
Ivan Perfilievich Yelagin was a Russian historian, an amateur poet and translator who acted as unofficial secretary to Catherine the Great in the early years of her reign.
Yelagin studied in the cadet corps for nobles with Mikhail Kheraskov and Alexander Sumarokov, a popular playwright whose works he alternately praised and derided.[1] He became Catherine’s ally when she was Grand Duchess at the court of Empress Elisabeth. In 1758, the Empress banished him from the court for his close ties to the disgraced chancellor Bestuzhev.
After Catherine’s coming to power in 1762, Yelagin replaced Sumarokov as director of the court theatres. His dominion over the Russian theatre was described as tyrannical: for instance, Yelagin demanded that comedies and other foreign plays were transposed to Russian settings.He also helped Catherine in re-editing her manuscripts: all her literary works survive only in Yelagin’s handwritten copies.[1]
“There were few social activities in which he did not involve himself”, as historians have noted. “With Dr Ely, a converted Jew and a mason, Yelagin studied Hebrew and Cabbala, theosophy, physics and chemistry, Egyptian traditions”. He entertained Count Cagliostro in his house and is mentioned in Casanova’s memoirs. Yelagin is probably best remembered as a founding father of the Russian freemasonry. This side of his activities eventually aroused Catherine’s suspicions and contributed to his downfall in the early 1780s.
Yelagin’s sumptuous villa on the eponymous isle to the north of St. Petersburg was later rebuilt into an imperial residence.
Age: Dec. at 69 (1725-1794)
ChanAndy addedManuel AzañaManuel Azaña Díaz was the first Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1933), and later served again as Prime Minister (1936), and then as the second and last President of the Republic (1936–1939). The Spanish Civil War broke out while he was President. With the defeat of the Republic in 1939, he fled to France, resigned his office, and died in exile shortly afterwards.
Age: Dec. at 60 (1880-1940)
Birthplace: Alcalá de Henares, Spain
ChanAndy addedFrancisco Espoz y Mina
Francisco Espoz Ilundáin , being better known as Francisco Espoz y Mina, was a Spanish guerrilla leader and general.
He was born in Idocin in Navarre. His father, Juan Esteban Espoz y Mina, and his mother, Maria Teresa Hundain y Ardaiz, belonged to the class of yeomen Mina worked on the small family farm until 1808. When Napoleon endeavoured to seize Spain in that year he enlisted in the Doyle regiment, and then entered the guerrilla group commanded by his nephew Francisco Javier Mina. When Javier was captured by theFrench on 21 March 1810, seven men of the group chose to follow Francisco, and on April 1st of the same year the Junta of Aragon gave him the command of the guerrilleros of Navarre.
His first act was to arrest and shoot at Estella a certain Echevarria, who, under pretence of being a guerrillero, was in fact a brigand. The national government in Cadiz gave him rank, and by September 7th 1812 he had been promoted to the rank of commander-in-chief in Upper Aragon, on the left bank of the Ebro. In the interval he claimed that he had fought 143 actions big and little, had been repeatedly wounded with bullet, sword and lance, had taken 13 fortified posts, and 14,000 prisoners, and had never been surprised by the French.
Though some maintain that he was not at his best as a leader in battle, as a strategist Espoz y Mina was very successful and displayed great organizing capacity. The French authorities were compelled to allow him to levycustoms dues on all goods imported into Spain, except contraband of war, which he would not allow to pass without fighting. The money thus obtained was used to pay his bands a regular salary. He was able to avoid levying excessive contributions on the country and to maintain discipline among his men, whom he had brought to a respectable state of efficiency in 1812. Espoz y Mina claimed that he immobilized 26,000 French troops which would but for him have served with Marshal Marmont in the Salamanca campaign. In the campaign of 1813 and 1814 he served with distinction under the Duke of Wellington.
After the restoration of Ferdinand VII he fell into disfavour. On 25 and 26 September he attempted to bring about an uprising at Pamplona in favor of the Liberal party,but failed, and went into exile. His political opinions were democratic and radical, and as a yeoman he disliked the “hidalgos” (nobles). The Revolution of 1820 brought him back, and he served the Liberal party during the Trienio Liberal in Galicia,Leon and Catalonia. In this last district he made the only vigorous resistance to the French intervention in favor of Ferdinand VII. On 1 November 1823 he was compelled to capitulate, and the French allowed him to escape to England by sea. In 1830 he took part in an unsuccessful rising against Ferdinand.
On the death of the king he was recalled to Spain, and the government of the regent Christina gave him the command against the Carlists in 1835, though they feared his Radicalism. By this time, years, exposure and wounds had undermined his health. He was also opposed to Tomás de Zumalacárregui, an old officer of his in the War of Independence, and an even greater master of irregular mountain warfare. His health compelled him to resign in April 1835, and his later command in Catalonia was only memorable for the part he took in forcing the regent to grant a constitution in August 1836. He died at Barcelona on 24 December 1836.
In 1825 Espoz y Mina published A Short Extract from the Life of General Mina, in Spanish and English, in London. Mention is made of him in all histories of the affairs of Spain during the first third of the 19th century. His fullMemoirs were published by his widow at Madrid in 1851-1852. The Plaza de Mina in Cadiz, Spain is named after him.
Age: Dec. at 55 (1781-1836)
Birthplace: Idocin
ChanAndy addedFrancesc Ferrer i GuàrdiaFrancesc Ferrer i Guàrdia was a Spanish anarchist.
He was born in Alella (a small town near Barcelona) to Roman Catholic parents. He was sent to work on a Barcelona firm at the age of 15. The owner of the firm was an anti-cleric and is said to have had a great influence on Ferrer. A follower of Spanish republican leader Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla, Ferrer was exiled to Paris with his wife and children in 1885. Divorcing in 1899, he remarried a wealthy Parisian teacher shortly thereafter.
In 1901 he returned to Spain and opened the Escuela Moderna (The Modern School) to teach middle-class children (then) radical social values. In 1906 he was arrested on suspicion of involvement with the anarchistMateu Morral’s attack on King Alfonso XIII and released uncharged over a year later. His school failed and closed while he was incarcerated.
Early in the summer of 1908, after his release from jail, he wrote the story of the Modern School. The work was entitled The Origins and Ideals of the Modern School and was translated into English and published by theKnickerbocker Press in 1913.
Following the declaration of martial law in 1909 during the Tragic Week, he was arrested and, having been found guilty after a lengthy trial, executed by firing squad at Montjuich Fortress in Barcelona on 13 October.
Shortly after his execution, numerous supporters of Ferrer’s ideas in the United States of America formed what were called Modern Schools, or Ferrer Schools, modeled after la Escuela Moderna. The first and most notable Modern School was formed in New York City in 1911, and then later a community was founded around a school, known as the Ferrer Colony and Modern School.
In Anarchism and Other Essays, Emma Goldman called Francesc Ferrer a “rebel” and said that “his spirit would rise in just indignation against the iron régime of his country…”. When Goldman is depicted in E. L. Doctorow’s historical fiction Ragtime, she calls on people to support Ferrer.
Age: Dec. at 50 (1859-1909)
Birthplace: Alella, Spain
ChanAndy addedRafael del RiegoRafael del Riego y Nuñez was a Spanish general and liberal politician, who played a key role in the outbreak of the Liberal Triennium (Trienio liberal in Spanish).
Age: Dec. at 39 (1784-1823)
Birthplace: Asturias, Spain
ChanAndy addedManuel Ruiz Zorrilla
Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla was a Spanish politician. He served as prime minister of Spain for a little over ten weeks in the summer of 1871, and again for eight months between June 1872 and February 1873.
Born in Burgo de Osma, Zorrilla was educated at Valladolid and studied law at the Complutense University of Madrid, where he leaned towards radicalism in politics. In 1856 he was elected deputy, and soon attracted notice among the most advanced Progressists and Democrats.
He took part in the revolutionary propaganda that led to the military movement in Madrid on 22 June 1866. He had to take refuge in France for two years, like his fellow-conspirators, and only returned to Spain when therevolution of 1868 took place.
He was one of the members of the first cabinet after the revolution, and in 1869, under the regency of Marshal Serrano, he became Minister of Grace and Justice. In 1870 he was elected President of the House of Deputies, and seconded Juan Prim in offering the throne to Amadeus of Savoy. He went to Italy as President of the Commission, carrying to the Prince at Florence the official news of his election.
On the arrival of Amadeus in Spain, Ruiz Zorrilla became Minister of Public Works for a short time before resigning in protest against Serrano and Topete entering the councils of the new king. Six months later, in 1871, he was invited by Amadeus to form a cabinet, and he continued to be the principal councillor of the king until February 1873, when the monarch abdicated.
After the departure of Amadeus, Ruiz Zorrilla advocated the establishment of a republic. Notwithstanding this, he was not called upon either by the Federal Republicans to help them during 1873, or by Marshal Serrano in 1874 to join Martos and Sagasta in his cabinet. Immediately after the restoration of Alphonso XII, early in 1875, Ruiz Zorilla went to France.
He was for nearly eighteen years the soul of the republican conspiracies, the prompter of revolutionary propaganda, the chief inspirer of intrigues concerted by discontented military men of all ranks. He gave so much trouble to the Madrid governments that they organized a watch over him with the assistance of the French government and police, especially when it was discovered that the two military movements of August 1883 and September 1886 had been prepared and assisted by him.
During the last two years of his life Ruiz Zorrilla became less active; failing health and the loss of his wife had decreased his energies, and the Madrid government allowed him to return to Spain some months before he died atBurgos, of heart disease.
Age: Dec. at 62 (1833-1895)
Birthplace: Burgo de Osma-Ciudad de Osma, Spain
ChanAndy addedGeorge VI
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death. He was the last Emperor of India and the first Head of the Commonwealth.
As the second son of King George V, he was not expected to inherit the throne and spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Edward. He served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the First World War, and afterward took on the usual round of public engagements. He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923 and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret.
George’s elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII upon the death of their father in 1936. However, later that year Edward revealed his desire to marry the divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin advised Edward that for political and religious reasons he could not marry a divorced woman and remain king. Edward abdicated in order to marry, and George ascended the throne as the third monarch of the House of Windsor.
During George’s reign the break-up of the British Empire and its transition into the Commonwealth of Nations accelerated. The parliament of the Irish Free State removed direct mention of the monarch from the country’s constitution on the day of his accession. Within three years, the Empire and Commonwealth, except the Irish Free State, was at war with Nazi Germany. In the next two years, war with Italy and Japan followed. ThoughBritain and its allies were ultimately victorious, the United States and the Soviet Union rose as pre-eminent world powers and the British Empire declined. After the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, George remained as king of both countries, but the title Emperor of India was abandoned in June 1948. Ireland formally declared itself a republic and left the Commonwealth in 1949, and India became a republic within the Commonwealth the following year. George adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth. He was beset by health problems in the later years of his reign. His elder daughter, Elizabeth, succeeded him.
Age: Dec. at 57 (1895-1952)
Birthplace: Norfolk, England
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ChanAndy addedCharles XIII of Sweden
Charles XIII & II also Carl was King of Sweden from 1809 and King of Norway from 1814 until his death. He was the second son of King Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, sister of Frederick II of Prussia.
Though known as King Charles XIII in Sweden, he was actually the seventh Swedish king by that name, as Charles IX (reigned 1604–1611) had adopted his numeral after studying a fictitious history of Sweden.
Age: Dec. at 70 (1748-1818)
Birthplace: Stockholm, Sweden
ChanAndy addedCharles XV of Sweden
Charles XV & IV also Carl was King of Sweden and Norway from 1859 until his death.
Though known as King Charles XV in Sweden (and also on contemporary Norwegian coins), he was actually the ninth Swedish king by that name, as his predecessor Charles IX (reigned 1604–1611) had adopted a numeral according to a fictitious history of Sweden.
Age: Dec. at 46 (1826-1872)
Birthplace: Stockholm, Sweden
ChanAndy addedAxel von Fersen the ElderCount Fredrik Axel von Fersen was a Swedish statesman and soldier.
A son of Lieutenant-General Hans Reinhold von Fersen, he entered the Swedish Life Guards in 1740, and from 1743 to 1748 was in the French service in the Royal-Suedois, where he rose to the rank of brigadier.
In the Seven Years’ War Fersen distinguished himself during the operations round Usedom and Wollin in 1759, when he inflicted serious loss on the Prussians. But it is as a politician that he is best known. At the Riksdag of 1755–1756 he was elected lantmarskalk, or marshal of the diet, until the revolution of 1772, led the Hat party. In 1756 he defeated the projects of the court for increasing the royal power; but, after the disasters of the Seven Years’ War, returned to court.
On the accession of the Caps to power in 1766, Fersen refused to employ the Guards to keep order in the capital when King Adolf Frederick of Sweden, driven to desperation by the demands of the Caps, abdicated, and a seven days’ interregnum ensued. At the ensuing riksdag of 1769, when the Hats returned to power, Fersen was again elected marshal of the diet; but he made no attempt to redeem his pledges to Crown Prince Gustavus (later Gustav III).
He obstructed the measures of Gustavus III, whom he treated with colossal insolence, for several years. He was arrested in 1789 and thereafter remained aloof from politics. His book Historiska Skrifteris mainly autobiographical, but its historical accounts are often biased.
Fersen is best known today as the father of Axel von Fersen the Younger and Sophie von Fersen, two of his four children with his wife Hedvig Catharina De la Gardie. His other two children were Fabian Reinhold von Fersen and Hedvig Eleonora von Fersen.
Age: Dec. at 75 (1719-1794)
Birthplace: Stockholm, Sweden
ChanAndy addedOscar II of SwedenOscar II , baptised Oscar Fredrik, was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death and King of Norway from 1872 until 1905. The third son of King Oscar I of Sweden and Josephine of Leuchtenberg, he was a descendant of Gustav I of Sweden through his mother.
Age: Dec. at 78 (1829-1907)
Birthplace: Stockholm Palace, Stockholm, Sweden
ChanAndy addedOscar I of SwedenOscar I was King of Sweden and Norway from 1844 to his death. When, in August 1810, his father Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was elected Crown Prince of Sweden, Oscar and his mother moved from Paris to Stockholm (June 1811). Oscar’s father was the first ruler of the current House of Bernadotte. Oscar’s mother was Désirée Clary, Napoleon Bonaparte’s first fiancée. Her sister, Julie Clary, was married to Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte. Désirée chose Napoleon to be Oscar’s godfather.
Age: Dec. at 60 (1799-1859)
Birthplace: Paris, France
ChanAndy addedJean Sibelius
Jean Sibeliuswas a Finnish composer of the late Romantic period. His music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity.
The core of Sibelius’ oeuvre is his set of seven symphonies. Like Beethoven, Sibelius used each successive work to further develop his own personal compositional style. His works continue to be performed frequently in the concert hall and are often recorded.
In addition to the symphonies, Sibelius’ best-known compositions include Finlandia, the Karelia Suite, Valse triste, the Violin Concerto in D minor, Kullervo, and The Swan of Tuonela (one of the four movements of theLemminkäinen Suite). Other works include pieces inspired by the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala; over 100 songs for voice and piano; incidental music for 13 plays; the opera Jungfrun i tornet (The Maiden in the Tower); chamber music; piano music; Masonic ritual music; and 21 separate publications of choral music.
Sibelius composed prolifically until the mid-1920s. However, after completing his Seventh Symphony (1924), the incidental music to The Tempest (1926), and the tone poem Tapiola (1926), he produced no large scale works for the remaining thirty years of his life. Although he is reputed to have stopped composing, he in fact attempted to continue writing, including abortive efforts to compose an eighth symphony. He wrote some Masonic music and re-edited some earlier works during this last period of his life, and retained an active interest in new developments in music, although he did not always view modern music favorably.
The Finnish 100 mark bill featured his image until it was taken out of circulation in 2002 when the euro was adopted as a cash currency. Since 2011, Finland has celebrated a Flag Day on 8 December, the composer’s birthday, also known as the ‘Day of Finnish Music’.
Age: Dec. at 92 (1865-1957)
Birthplace: Hämeenlinna, Finland
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ChanAndy addedSimón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Blanco was a Venezuelan statesman and military leader. Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures during the Latin American Wars of Independence of the early nineteenth century, he led Venezuela, Colombia (including Panama at the time), Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia to independence from the Spanish Empire, dramatically changing the political landscape of South America for the next two centuries.
Bolívar was born into a wealthy, aristocratic Creole family, and similar to others of his day, he was educated in Europe at a young age, arriving in Spain at the age of 16. There, he was introduced to the thoughts and ideas of learned Enlightenment philosophers, which inspired him with the ambition to liberate his native Venezuela from Spanish rule. Taking advantage of the disorder in Spain prompted by the Peninsular War, Bolívar inaugurated his campaign for independence in 1808, and within three years an organized national congress had been established. Despite a number of hindrances, including the arrival of an unprecedentedly large Spanish expeditionary force, the revolutionaries eventually prevailed, culminating in a patriot victory at the Battle of Carabobo in 1821, which effectively freed Venezuela.
Following this triumph over the Spanish monarchy, Bolívar participated in the foundation of the first union of independent nations in Latin America, Gran Colombia, of which he was president from 1819 to 1830. Through further military conquest, he also liberated Ecuador, Peru, and finally, Bolivia (which was named after him), assuming the presidency of each of these new nations. At the peak of his power, Bolívar held near-absolute power over a vast territory from the Argentine border to the Caribbean.
Modern-day historians consider Bolívar to be a deeply polarizing individual, with criticism aimed especially at his belief that a strong presidency, maintained for life, is essential to a state’s survival. Nevertheless, most Latin Americans laud him as a meritorious liberator, whose revolutionary ideas and reforms continue to leave a lasting legacy today.
Age: Dec. at 47 (1783-1830)
Birthplace: Caracas, Venezuela
ChanAndy addedJoseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn was a prominent and prolific composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development ofchamber music such as the piano trio[1] and his contributions to musical form have earned him the epithets “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet”.
Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their remote estate. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, “forced to become original”.At the time of his death, aged 77, he was one of the most celebrated composers in Europe.
Joseph Haydn was the brother of Michael Haydn – himself a highly regarded composer – and Johann Evangelist Haydn, a tenor. He was also a friend of Mozart and a teacher of Beethoven.
Age: Dec. at 77 (1732-1809)
Birthplace: Rohrau, Austria
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ChanAndy addedWilliam Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art.
His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called “modern moral subjects”. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as “Hogarthian”.
Age: Dec. at 67 (1697-1764)
Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
ChanAndy addedJohann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and statesman. His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of metres and styles; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour; and four novels. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters, and nearly 3,000 drawings by him are extant. A literary celebrity by the age of 25, Goethe was ennobled by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Karl August in 1782 after first taking up residence there in November 1775 following the success of his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther. He was an early participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement. During his first ten years in Weimar, Goethe served as a member of the Duke’s privy council, sat on the war and highway commissions, oversaw the reopening of silver mines in nearby Ilmenau, and implemented a series of administrative reforms at theUniversity of Jena. He also contributed to the planning of Weimar’s botanical park and the rebuilding of its Ducal Palace, which in 1998 were together designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[2]
After returning from a tour of Italy in 1788, his first major scientific work, the Metamorphosis of Plants, was published. In 1791 he was made managing director of the theatre at Weimar, and in 1794 he began a friendship with the dramatist, historian, and philosopher Friedrich Schiller, whose plays he premiered until Schiller’s death in 1805. During this period Goethe published his second novel, Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, the verse epic Hermann and Dorothea, and, in 1808, the first part of his most celebrated drama, Faust. His conversations and various common undertakings throughout the 1790s with Schiller, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Johann Gottfried Herder, Alexander von Humboldt, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and August and Friedrich Schlegel have, in later years, been collectively termed Weimar Classicism.
Arthur Schopenhauer cited Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship as one of the four greatest novels ever written, along with Tristram Shandy, La Nouvelle Heloïse, and Don Quixote,[3] and Ralph Waldo Emerson selected Goethe as one of six “representative men” in his work of the same name, along with Plato, Napoleon, and William Shakespeare. Goethe’s comments and observations form the basis of several biographical works, most notably Johann Peter Eckermann’s Conversations with Goethe. There are frequent references to Goethe’s writings throughout the works of G. W. F. Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hermann Hesse,Thomas Mann, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Jung. Goethe’s poems were set to music throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by a number of composers, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Charles Gounod, Richard Wagner, Hugo Wolf, and Gustav Mahler.
Age: Dec. at 83 (1749-1832)
Birthplace: Free City of Frankfurt
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ChanAndy addedGustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born to a Jewish family in the village of Kalischt in Bohemia, in what was then the Austrian Empire, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic. His family later moved to nearby Iglau, where Mahler grew up.
As a composer, Mahler acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 the music was discovered and championed by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became a frequently performed and recorded composer, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.
Born in humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. After graduating from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878, he held a succession of conducting posts of rising importance in the opera houses of Europe, culminating in his appointment in 1897 as director of the Vienna Court Opera (Hofoper). During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism to secure the post—experienced regular opposition and hostility from the anti-Semitic press. Nevertheless, his innovative productions and insistence on the highest performance standards ensured his reputation as one of the greatest of opera conductors, particularly as an interpreter of the stage works of Wagner and Mozart. Late in his life he was briefly director of New York’s Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.
Mahler’s œuvre is relatively small; for much of his life composing was necessarily a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor. Aside from early works such as a movement from a piano quartet composed when he was a student in Vienna, Mahler’s works are designed for large orchestral forces, symphonic choruses and operatic soloists. Most of his twelve symphonic scores are very large-scale works, often employing vocal soloists and choruses in addition to augmented orchestral forces. These works were often controversial when first performed, and several were slow to receive critical and popular approval; exceptions included his Symphony No. 2,Symphony No. 3, and the triumphant premiere of his Eighth Symphony in 1910. Some of Mahler’s immediate musical successors included the composers of the Second Viennese School, notably Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern. Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten are among later 20th-century composers who admired and were influenced by Mahler. The International Gustav Mahler Institute was established in 1955 to honour the composer’s life and work.
Age: Dec. at 51 (1860-1911)
Birthplace: Kaliště, Czech Republic
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ChanAndy addedMontesquieuCharles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French lawyer, man of letters, and political philosopher who lived during the Age of Enlightenment. He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, which is implemented in many constitutions throughout the world. He did more than any other author to secure the place of the word despotism in the political lexicon.
Age: Dec. at 66 (1689-1755)
Birthplace: La Brède, France
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ChanAndy addedMustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish army officer, reformist statesman, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey. His surname, Atatürk (meaning “Father of the Turks”), was granted to him in 1934 and forbidden to any other person by the Turkish parliament.[1]
Atatürk was a military officer during World War I.[2] Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, he led the Turkish National Movement in the Turkish War of Independence. Having established a provisional government in Ankara, he defeated the forces sent by the Allies. His military campaigns led to victory in the Turkish War of Independence. Atatürk then embarked upon a program of political, economic, and cultural reforms, seeking to transform the former Ottoman Empire into a modern and secular nation-state. Under his leadership, thousands of new schools were built, primary education was made free and compulsory, and women were given equal civil and political rights, while the burden of taxation on peasants was reduced.[3] His government also carried out an extensive policy of Turkification.[4][5][6][7] The principles of Atatürk’s reforms, upon which modern Turkey was established, are referred to as Kemalism.
Age: Dec. at 57 (1881-1938)
Birthplace: Thessaloniki, Greece
#142 of 2,831 The Most Influential People of All Time#23 of 379 The Most Important Leaders In World History#15 of 411 The Most Important Military Leaders in World History
ChanAndy addedChiang Wei-kuoChiang Wei-kuo was an adopted son of President Chiang Kai-shek, adoptive brother of President Chiang Ching-kuo, and an important figure in the Kuomintang (KMT). His courtesy names were Jianhao and Niantang.
Age: Dec. at 81 (1916-1997)
Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
ChanAndy addedAlbert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. Einstein’s work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics).Einstein is best known in popular culture for his mass–energy equivalence formulaE = mc2 (which has been dubbed “the world’s most famous equation”). He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his “services to theoretical physics”, in particular his discovery of the law of thephotoelectric effect, a pivotal step in the evolution of quantum theory.[8]
Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was no longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. This led to the development of his special theory of relativity. He realized, however, that the principle of relativity could also be extended to gravitational fields, and with his subsequent theory of gravitation in 1916, he published a paper on the general relativity. He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In 1917, Einstein applied the general theory of relativity to model the large-scale structure of the universe.
He was visiting the United States when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 and, being Jewish, did not go back to Germany, where he had been a professor at the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He settled in the U.S., becoming an American citizen in 1940. On the eve of World War II, he endorsed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting him to the potential development of “extremely powerful bombs of a new type” and recommending that the U.S. begin similar research. This eventually led to what would become the Manhattan Project. Einstein supported defending the Allied forces, but largely denounced the idea of using the newly discovered nuclear fission as a weapon. Later, with the British philosopher Bertrand Russell, Einstein signed the Russell–Einstein Manifesto, which highlighted the danger of nuclear weapons. Einstein was affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, until his death in 1955.
Einstein published more than 300 scientific papers along with over 150 non-scientific works. On 5 December 2014, universities and archives announced the release of Einstein’s papers, comprising more than 30,000 unique documents.Einstein’s intellectual achievements and originality have made the word “Einstein” synonymous with genius.
Age: Dec. at 76 (1879-1955)
Birthplace: Ulm, Germany
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ChanAndy addedSigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist, now known as the father of psychoanalysis.
Freud qualified as a doctor of medicine at the University of Vienna in 1881,and then carried out research into cerebral palsy, aphasia and microscopic neuroanatomy at the Vienna General Hospital. Upon completing his habilitation in 1895, he was appointed a docent in neuropathology in the same year and became an affiliated professor (professor extraordinarius) in 1902.
In creating psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst, Freud developed therapeutic techniques such as the use of free association and discovered transference, establishing its central role in the analytic process. Freud’s redefinition of sexuality to include its infantile forms led him to formulate the Oedipus complex as the central tenet of psychoanalytical theory. His analysis of dreams as wish-fulfillments provided him with models for the clinical analysis of symptom formation and the mechanisms of repression as well as for elaboration of his theory of the unconscious as an agency disruptive of conscious states of mind. Freud postulated the existence of libido, an energy with which mental processes and structures are invested and which generates erotic attachments, and a death drive, the source of repetition, hate, aggression and neurotic guilt. In his later work Freud developed a wide-ranging interpretation and critique of religion and culture.
Psychoanalysis remains influential within psychotherapy, within some areas of psychiatry, and across the humanities. As such, it continues to generate extensive and highly contested debate with regard to its therapeutic efficacy, its scientific status, and whether it advances or is detrimental to the feminist cause. Nonetheless, Freud’s work has suffused contemporary Western thought and popular culture. In the words of W. H. Auden’s poetic tribute, by the time of Freud’s death in 1939, he had become “a whole climate of opinion / under whom we conduct our different lives”.
Age: Dec. at 83 (1856-1939)
Birthplace: Příbor, Czech Republic
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featuring11 Extremely Weird Things You Never Knew About Sigmund Freud#185 of 1,183 The Best Writers of All Time#363 of 928 People We Wish Were Still Alive
ChanAndy addedJean Victor Marie MoreauJean Victor Marie Moreau was a French general who helped Napoleon Bonaparte to power, but later became a rival and was banished to the United States.
Age: Dec. at 50 (1763-1813)
Birthplace: Morlaix, France
ChanAndy addedFrançois AragoDominique François Jean Arago, known simply as François Arago , was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, freemason, supporter of the carbonari and politician.
Age: Dec. at 67 (1786-1853)
Birthplace: Estagel, France
ChanAndy addedPierre BrossolettePierre Brossolette was a French journalist, left-wing politician, a top leader, and a major hero of the French Resistance.
Pierre Brossolette (25 June 1903 – 22 March 1944) was a French journalist, a leading left-wing politician, and a major hero of the French Resistance. …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 41 (1903-1944)
Birthplace: 16th arrondissement
ChanAndy addedMarie-Jean Hérault de SéchellesMarie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles was a French judge and politician who took part in the French Revolution.
Age: Dec. at 35 (1759-1794)
Birthplace: Paris, France
ChanAndy addedPierre de Ruel, marquis de BeurnonvillePierre de Ruel, marquis de Beurnonville was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars and later a marshal of France and Deputy Grand Master of Grand Orient de France.
Age: Dec. at 69 (1752-1821)
Birthplace: France
ChanAndy addedCharles Jean Marie BarbarouxCharles Jean Marie Barbaroux (6 March 1767 – 25 June 1794) was a French politician of the Revolutionary period and Freemason.
Age: Dec. at 27 (1767-1794)
Birthplace: Marseille, France
ChanAndy addedJosé de San Martín
José Francisco de San Martín , known simply as José de San Martín, was an Argentine general and the prime leader of the southern part of South America’s successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire. Born in Yapeyú, Corrientes, in modern Argentina, he left his mother country at the early age of seven to study in Málaga, Spain.
In 1808, after taking part in the Peninsular War against France, San Martín contacted South American supporters of independence from Spain. In 1812, he set sail for Buenos Aires and offered his services to the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, present-day Argentina. After the Battle of San Lorenzo and time commanding the Army of the North during 1814, he organized a plan to defeat the Spanish forces that menaced the United Provinces from the north, using an alternative path to the Viceroyalty of Peru. This objective first involved the establishment of a new army, the Army of the Andes, in Cuyo Province, Argentina. From there, he led theCrossing of the Andes to Chile, and triumphed at the Battle of Chacabuco and the Battle of Maipú (1818), thus liberating Chile from royalist rule. Then he sailed to attack the Spanish stronghold of Lima, Peru.
On 12 July 1821, after seizing partial control of Lima, San Martín was appointed Protector of Peru, and Peruvian independence was officially declared on 28 July. On 22 July 1822, after a closed-door meeting with fellow libertador Simón Bolívar at Guayaquil, Ecuador, Bolívar took over the task of fully liberating Peru. San Martín unexpectedly left the country and resigned the command of his army, excluding himself from politics and the military, and moved to France in 1824. The details of the 22 July meeting would be a subject of debate by later historians.
San Martín is regarded as a national hero of Argentina and Peru, and, together with Bolívar, one of the Liberators of Spanish South America.[1] The Order of the Liberator General San Martín , created in his honor, is the highest decoration conferred by the Argentine government.
Age: Dec. at 72 (1778-1850)
Birthplace: Yapeyú, Argentina
ChanAndy addedAlexander I of Russia
Alexander I reigned as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825. He was the first Russian King of Poland, reigning from 1815 to 1825, as well as the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland.
He was born in Saint Petersburg to Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, later Emperor Paul I and succeeded to the throne after his father was murdered. He ruled Russia during the chaotic period of the Napoleonic Wars. As prince and emperor, Alexander often used liberal rhetoric, but continued Russia’s absolutist policies in practice. In the first years of his reign, he initiated some minor social reforms and, in 1803-04, major, liberal educational reforms. He promised constitutional reforms and a desperately needed reform of serfdom but made no concrete proposals and nothing happened. In the second half of his reign he was increasingly arbitrary, reactionary and fearful of plots against him; he ended many earlier reforms. He purged schools of foreign teachers, as education became more religiously oriented as well as politically conservative.
In foreign policy, he switched Russia back and forth four times in 1804-1812 from neutral peacemaker to anti-Napoleon to an ally of Napoleon, winding up in 1812 as Napoleon’s enemy. In 1805, he joined Britain in theWar of the Third Coalition against Napoleon, but after the massive defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz he switched and formed an alliance with Napoleon by the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) and joined Napoleon’s Continental System. He fought a small-scale naval war against Britain, 1807-12. He and Napoleon could never agree, especially about Poland, and the alliance collapsed by 1810. The tsar’s greatest triumph came in 1812 asNapoleon’s invasion of Russia proved a total disaster for the French. As part of the winning coalition against Napoleon he gained some spoils in Finland and Poland. He formed the Holy Alliance to suppress revolutionary movements in Europe that he saw as immoral threats to legitimate Christian monarchs. He helped Austria’s Klemens von Metternich in suppressing all national and liberal movements.
Alexander died without issue and after great confusion that included the failed Decembrist revolt of liberal army officers he was succeeded by his younger brother, Nicholas I.
Age: Dec. at 48 (1777-1825)
Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
ChanAndy addedJohn AasenJohn Aasen was an American silent film actor who was one of the tallest actors in history.
Age: Dec. at 48 (1890-1938)
Birthplace: Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of AmericaThad Washington addedGowana Mancill Jr.
JeanHewetson addedPieter Mauritz Retief(12 November 1780 – 6 February 1838) was a South African Boer leader (aged 57)
Age: 57
Birthplace: Soetendal, Wagenmakersvallei
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; 18 December [O.S. 6] 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet politician who led the Soviet Union from the mid–1920s until 1953 as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–1952) and Premier (1941–1953). Initially presiding over a collective leadership as first among equals, by the 1930s he was the country’s de facto dictator. A communist ideologically committed to the Leninist interpretation of Marxism, Stalin formalised these ideas as Marxism–Leninism, while his own policies are known as Stalinism. Born to a poor family in Gori in the Russian Empire (now Georgia), Stalin joine… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 75 (1878-1953)
Birthplace: Gori, Georgia
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featuringDid Stalin Really Force Soviet Scientists To Create A Human-Chimpanzee Hybrid?#3 of 25 Famous People From History You Had No Idea Were Foxy#71 of 2,831 The Most Influential People of All Time
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. Formerly the 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A Democrat from Texas, Johnson also served as a United States Representative and as the Majority Leader in the United States Senate. Johnson is one of only four people who have served in all four federal elected positions.Born in a farmhouse in Stonewall, Texas, Johnson was a high school teacher and worked as a congressional aide before winning election to the House of Repr… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 65 (1908-1973)
Birthplace: Texas, Contiguous United States, Edwards Plateau, United States of America, United States, + more
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sajal-roychowdhury addedMir Yousuf Ali Khan, Salar Jung III
Nawab Abul Quasim Owaisi, Mir Yousuf Ali Khan, Salar Jung III famously known as ‘Salar Jung III’ was the fourth in order of nobility after the three Paigah. Nawab Mir Yousuf Ali Khan, Salar Jung III, was Prime Minister of Hyderabad Deccan during the reign of VII Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan. He succeeded Maharaja Sir Kishen Pershad as the Prime Minister in 1912 when he was 23 years old, but resigned two and half years later. …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 60 (1889-1949)
raymond-yosimbom addedAli Bongo Ondimba
Ali Bongo Ondimba (born Alain Bernard Bongo; 9 February 1959), sometimes known as Ali Bongo, is a Gabonese politician who has been President of Gabon since October 2009. Ali Bongo is the son adopted of Omar Bongo, who was President of Gabon from 1967 until his death in 2009. During his father’s presidency, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1991 and represented Bongoville as a Deputy in the National Assembly from 1991 to 1999; subsequently he was Minister of Defense from 1999 to 2009. Following his father’s death after 41 years in power, he was first elected in the August 2009 presidential election. He was re-elected in August 2016, in elections marred by numerous irregularities… …more on Wikipedia
Age: 60
Birthplace: Brazzaville, Congo
raymond-yosimbom addedDenis Sassou Nguesso
Denis Sassou Nguesso (born 23 November 1943) is a Congolese politician who has been the President of the Republic of the Congo since 1997; he was previously President from 1979 to 1992. During his first period as President, he headed the single-party régime of the Congolese Party of Labour (PCT) for 12 years. Under pressure from international sources, he introduced multiparty politics in 1990 and was then stripped of executive powers by the 1991 National Conference, remaining in office as a ceremonial head of state. He stood as a candidate in the 1992 presidential election but was defeated, placing third. Sassou Nguesso was an opposition leader for five years before returning to power during… …more on Wikipedia
Age: 75
Birthplace: Congo
arya-djenar addedRaden Saleh
Raden Saleh Sjarif Boestaman (Arabic: رادين صالح شريف بوستامن Rādīn Ṣāliḥ Šarīf Būstāman, Javanese: ꦫꦢꦺꦤ꧀ꦱꦭꦺꦃꦯ꦳ꦫꦶꦥ꦳꧀ꦨꦸꦱ꧀ꦠꦩꦤ꧀; EYD, EBI: Raden Saleh Syarif Bustaman; 1807 – 23 April 1880) was a pioneering Indonesian Romantic painter of Arab-Javanese ethnicity. He was considered to be the first “modern” artist from Indonesia (then Dutch East Indies), and his paintings corresponded with nineteenth-century romanticism which was popular in Europe at the time. He also expressed his cultural roots and inventiveness in his work. …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 69 (1811-1880)
Birthplace: Semarang, Indonesia
raoulhood addedTommaso Crudeli
Tommaso Baldasarre Crudeli (Poppi, December 21, 1702 – Poppi, March 27, 1745) was a Florentine free thinker who was imprisoned by the Roman Inquisition. He was a poet, lawyer, champion of free thought and is remembered as the first martyr of Universal Freemasonry. Born to a wealthy family in the Casentino (upper Arno), which is known since 12th century, has a name changed several times from historical events. The eponym is related the story of the expulsion of Count Guidi from the castle of Poppi in 1440. Eventually, turning to Jacopo Crusca, leader of the revolt, he said “Vos quoque crudeles” and got the answer “in crudelitates fides.” From this episode the family was appointed as “Crudeli”… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 43 (1702-1745)
Armando de Jesus Lujàn Salcedo addedThomas Piketty
Thomas Piketty (French: [tɔ.ma pi.kɛ.ti]; born 7 May 1971) is a French economist whose work focuses on wealth and income inequality. He is a professor (directeur d’études) at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), associate chair at the Paris School of Economics and Centennial professor at the International Inequalities Institute, which is part of the London School of Economics (LSE).Piketty is the author of the best-selling book Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2013), which emphasises the themes of his work on wealth concentrations and distribution over the past 250 years. The book argues that the rate of capital return in developed countries is persistently gre… …more on Wikipedia
Age: 47
Birthplace: Clichy, FranceArmando de Jesus Lujàn Salcedo addedGuilles Lipovetzky
worldleadersexposed addedStephen Curry
Wardell Stephen “Steph” Curry II ( STEF-ən; born March 14, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A six-time NBA All-Star, he has been named the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) twice and won three NBA championships with the Warriors. Many players and analysts have called him the greatest shooter in NBA history. He is credited with revolutionizing the game of basketball by inspiring teams to regularly employ the three-point shot as part of their winning strategy.In 2014–15, Curry won his first MVP award and led the Warriors to their first championship since 1975. The following season, he became the first p… …more on Wikipedia
Age: 30
Birthplace: Akron, Ohio
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ZazaGhachava addedEduard Shevardnadze
Eduard Ambrosiyevich Shevardnadze (Georgian: ედუარდ ამბროსის ძე შევარდნაძე, Eduard Ambrosis dze Ševardnadze; 25 January 1928 – 7 July 2014) was a Georgian politician and diplomat. He served as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party (GPC), the de facto leader of Soviet Georgia from 1972 to 1985 and as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. Shevardnadze was responsible for many key decisions in Soviet foreign policy during the Gorbachev Era including reunification of Germany. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he was President of Georgia (or in equivalent posts) from 1992 to 2003. He was forced to retire in 2003 as a consequence of the bloodless… …more on Wikipedia
Age: Dec. at 86 (1928-2014)
Birthplace: Georgia
Teresa R Cookus-Stanley addedDavid Ragan
David Lee Ragan (born December 24, 1985) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 38 Ford Mustang for Front Row Motorsports. Ragan was born in Unadilla, Georgia, the son of former racer Ken Ragan, and began his racing career racing in the Bandolero Series at age 12. Four years later, he began competing in the Goody’s Dash Series with Cam Strader. After one year, he moved to the Legends Pro-Division to race for Mark Martin. He concluded the season by finishing fourth in the point standings. At age 18, Ragan began racing in the Camping World Truck Series, Nationwide Series, and the ARCA Racing Series. I… …more on Wikipedia
Age: 33
Birthplace: Unadilla, GeorgiaTravis Trimble addedMarty Trimble
Damascus Lodge #10 