- 624 Mellitus, third Archbishop of Canterbury
- 709 Wilfrid, English bishop and saint, dies at about 76
- 729 Egbert[us], English bishop/saint, dies in Iona at 89
- 1077 Geza I, King of Hungary (1074-7), dies
- 1185 Antoku Taira, emperor of Japan (1180-85), drowns
- 1338 Marquis Theodore I of Montferrat (b. 1291)
- 1530 Jacopo Sannazaro, Italian poet (De partu Virginis), dies at 74
- 1617 Carlo Concino, French marquis of Ancre/state advisor, murdered
- 1622 Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Swiss friar, martyr, and saint, dies at 44
- 1656 Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (b. 1561)
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)
English novelist (Robinson Crusoe), dies at about 70
- 1776 Carolus van de Abeele, Flemish Jesuit, dies at 84
- 1779 Eleazar Wheelock, American founder of Dartmouth College, dies at 68
- 1824 Herman Muntinghe, Dutch theologist (History of Mankind), dies at 71
- 1852 Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet (b. 1783)
- 1891 Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Prussian general and fieldmarshal, dies at 90
- 1900 Andrew Smith Hallidie, American inventor and cable car pioneer, dies at 64
- 1900 George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll and Secretary of State for India (1868-74, 1880-85), dies at 76
- 1904 Friedrich Siemens, German industrialist, dies at 77
- 1912 Justin M'Carthy, Irish politician and novelist (Miss Misanthrope), dies at 81
- 1917 Oskar Blumenthal, German playwright and critic, dies at 65
- 1924 Granville Stanley Hall, American pioneering psychologist, dies at 78
- 1930 Henry Ernest Dudeney, English mathematician and puzzle maker, dies at 73
- 1933 Felix Adler, German-American educator of political and social ethics, dies at 81
- 1938 George Grey Barnard, American sculptor, dies at 74
- 1941 Karin Boye, Swedish writer (Kallocain) commits suicide at 40
- 1942 Leonid Kulik, Russian mineralogist who led the first research expedition to study the Tunguska meteor site, the largest impact event in recorded history, dies of typhus in a Nazi prison camp at 58
Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942)
Canadian author (Anne of Green Gables), dies at 67
- 1944 William Stephens, U.S. political figure (b. 1859)
- 1945 Anton de Kom, Suriname resistance fighter, dies at 47
- 1945 Antoon Schweigmann, Dutch religious poet and resistance fighter, dies at 51
- 1947 Willa Cather, American writer (My Ántonia), dies at 73
- 1952 Jules Poncelet, Belgian minister of State, dies at 82
- 1955 Alfred Polgar, Austrian writer/theater critic, dies at 79
- 1956 Albrecht G Alt, German theologist (Small Schriften), dies at 72
- 1957 Andries CD de Graeff, gov-gen of Neth Indies (1926-31), dies at 84
- 1960 Max von Laue, German physicist who discovered the diffraction of X-rays by crystals, dies at 80
- 1964 Gerhard Domagk, German bacteriologist (Nobel Prize 1939 in Physiology or Medicine - first commercially available antibiotic and marketed under the brand name Prontosil), dies at 68
- 1967 Vladimir Komarov, Soviet cosmonaut (Voshkod I, Soyuz 1) and the 1st human to die in a space flight, dies in Soyuz 1 at 40
- 1976 Mark Tobey, US abstract painter, (Broadway Norm), dies at 85
- 1980 Alenjo Carpentier, Cuban-French writer (Guerra del Tiempo), dies at 75
- 1985 Sergei Yutkevich, Russian film director, (Otello, Banya), dies at 80
Wallis Simpson (1896-1986)
American divorcee whom British King Edward VIII abdicated his throne to marry, dies at 89
Oliver Tambo (1917-1993)
South African lawyer, anti-apartheid politician and co-founder (African National Congress), dies of a stroke at 75
- 1995 Douglas Gunsekera, banker, dies at 77
Eugene Stoner (1922-1997)
American firearms designer and inventor of the M16, dies of cancer at 74
Estée Lauder (1906-2004)
American entrepreneur (Estée Lauder cosmetics), dies of cardiopulmonary arrest at 97
- 2004 Winson Hudson, American civil rights activist (rural Mississippi), dies at 87
- 2005 Ezer Weizman, President of Israel (b. 1924)
- 2005 Fei Xiaotong, Chinese sociologist (b. 1910)
- 2006 Moshe Teitelbaum, Hassidic rabbi (b. 1914)
- 2009 John Michell, British writer, (b. 1933)
- 2011 Sathya Sai Baba, Indian guru, spiritual figure, dies at 84
- 2012 Nel Ginjaar-Maas, Dutch under-secretary of Education (VVD), dies at 80
- 2017 Agustín Edwards, Chilean media tycoon (El Mercurio), dies at 89
- 2017 Benjamin Barber, American political theorist (Jihad vs. McWorld), dies at 77
- 2017 Robert M. Pirsig, American author (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance), dies at 88
- 2021 Sarolta Monspart, Hungarian orienteering competitor (first non-Scandinavian female to win World C'ship 1972; 14 x national titles), dies at 76