- Jan 1 Andrew Summers Rowan, American military officer who gave "a message to Garcia", dies at 5
- Jan 3 Sir Walter James, Premier of Western Australia, dies at 79 (b. 1863)
- Jan 4 Marina Raskova, Russian navigator, dies in airplane crash at 30
George Washington Carver
Jan 5 George Washington Carver, African-American agricultural scientist (studied the peanut), dies at 81
George Washington Carver
Nikola Tesla
Jan 7 Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American physicist (tesla motor), dies at 86
Nikola Tesla
- Jan 7 George Washington Crile, American surgeon (conducted the first direct blood transfusion and studied the effects of surgical shock), dies at 78
- Jan 8 Richard Hillary, Australian Spitfire pilot and author (The Last Enemy), dies in a crash during a night training at 23
- Jan 9 Robin G Collingwood, English philosopher (Roman Britain), dies at 53
- Jan 11 Agustín Pedro Justo, President of Argentina (1932-38) during the Infamous Decade, dies at 66
- Jan 11 Carlo Tresca, NY's Italian newspaper editor/anti-fascist, murdered
- Jan 12 Jan Campert, Dutch resistance fighter and poet (18 Dead), dies at 40
- Jan 12 Frank Alvord Perret, American volcanologist renowned for his research at Vesuvius, Etna, Stromboli and Kilauea dies at 75
- Jan 13 Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Swiss artist dies of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning at 53
- Jan 16 Franz Courtens, Flemish painter (Sunny Lane), dies at 88
- Jan 23 Alexander Woollcott, critic, dies of a heart attack on radio, at 56
- Jan 24 John Burns, British minister of Local Government (1905-14), dies
- Jan 26 Nikolai Vavilov, Soviet botanist and geneticist (identified the centers of origin of cultivated plants), dies at 55
- Jan 26 Harry H. Laughlin, American eugenicist (b. 1880)
- Feb 3 Alexander Goode, rabbi who surrendered his life jacket, drowns
- Feb 5 Wim Gertenbach, Dutch resistance fighter (Slogan), shot by Nazis
- Feb 6 HA Seyffardt, Dutch lt-gen/NSB "minister", dies at 71
- Feb 9 World War II: Dutch fascist official Hermannus Reydon and his wife are shot by resistance members, his wife dies immediately and he dies six months later
- Feb 10 Wa'er, shot dead by Defiance
- Feb 13 William Walraven, Dutch journalist and writer (Neglected Grouser), dies at 55
- Feb 14 David Hilbert, German mathematician (Hilbert spaces, invariant theory, axiomatization of geometry, dies at 81
- Feb 17 Konstantin Bogaevsky, Russian painter (b. 1872)
- Feb 18 Henri Polak, Dutch union leader/politician (soc-dem), dies at 74
- Feb 22 Christoph Probst, German resistance fighter (That Weisse Rose), dies
- Feb 22 Hans Scholl, German resistance fighter (White Rose), beheaded at 24
- Feb 22 Sophie Scholl, German anti-Nazi political activist, active in the non-violent resistance group, the White Rose (Die Weisse Rose), beheaded by guillotine at 21
- Feb 26 Theodor Eicke, German Nazi official who developed the concentration camps, killed at 50 when his plane shot down
- Feb 27 Kostis Palamas, Greek poet, twice nominated for the Nobel prize (b. 1859)
- Mar 2 Alexandre Yersin, Swiss French bacteriologist (discovered bubonic plague bacillus), dies at 79
- Mar 4 Nikolaos "Sokrates" Politis, Greek foreign minister, dies at 71
- Mar 4 Pieter C Boutens, Dutch poet (Beatrijs), dies at 73
- Mar 12 Gustav Vigeland, Norwegian sculptor, dies at 73
- Mar 13 Stephen Vincent Benét, American author (b. 1898)
- Mar 13 J. P. Morgan, Jr. [John Pierpont], American financier and son of J.P. Morgan, Sr., (J.P. Morgan & Co.), dies of a stroke at 75
- Mar 19 Frank Nitti, American gangster (b. 1883)
- Mar 23 Andre Lichtenberger, French Sudan writer (Le Petit Roi), dies at 72
- Mar 26 Ben Lindsey, American judge and social reformer, dies at 73
- Mar 27 Grigori Yakovlevich Bakhchivangi, test pilot (BI-1), killed in crash
- Mar 30 Jan Bytnar, Polish activist (b. 1921)
- Mar 30 Maciej Aleksy Dawidowski, Polish activist (b. 1920)
- Apr 4 Oskar Schlemmer, German painter, sculptor and choreographer (Triadisches Ballett), dies at 54
- Apr 5 Aleš Hrdlička, Austro-Hungarian anthropologist and curator (US National Museum), dies at 74
- Apr 7 Jovan Ducic, Serbian poet (Blue Legends), dies at 72
- Apr 7 Alexandre Millerand, President of France (b. 1859)
- Apr 8 Paul Colin, Belgian journalist/collaborator, executed
- Apr 14 Asser B Kleerekoper, SDAP-Second-Member of parliament, dies at 62
- Apr 15 Aristarkh Lentulov, Russian artist, dies at 61
Isoroku Yamamoto
Apr 18 Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese WWII Marshall Admiral & Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese fleet who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, killed in action at 59 by a US ambush after the "Magic" code-breaking team intercepted and decoded his flight plan
Isoroku Yamamoto
- Apr 19 Alexander Schmorell, German resistance fighter, beheaded
- Apr 19 Willy Graf, German resistance fighter, beheaded
- Apr 24 Gerardus H de Hare, socialist vicar, dies at 63
- Apr 29 Sidney A K Keyes, English poet (Foreign Gate), dies at 20
- Apr 30 Beatrice Potter Webb, British sociologist, economist (founded London School of Economics) and writer (My Apprenticeship), dies at 85
- Apr 30 Etty Hillesum, Dutch diarist, dies in Auschwitz
- Apr 30 Otto Jespersen, Danish linguist, dies at 82
- May 1 Johan Oscar Smith, Norwegian Christian leader who founded the evangelical Brunstad Christian Church, dies at 71
Mordecai Anielewicz
May 8 Mordecai Anielewicz, Jewish commander of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, suspected to have committed suicide at 24 rather than surrender to Nazi troops that had surrounded his command bunker
Mordecai Anielewicz
- May 10 Andre Bertulot, Belgian resistance fighter, hanged
- May 10 Arnaud/Armand Fraiteur, Belgian resistance fighter, hanged
- May 10 Maurice-Albert Raskin, Belgian resistance fighter, hanged
- May 11 Szmul Zygielbojm, Jewish-Polish socialist politician (Bund) and activist, commits suicide to protest Allied indifference to the Holocaust during WWII at 48
- May 14 Henri La Fontaine, Belgian international lawyer (Nobel 1913), dies at 89
- May 16 Alfred Hoche, German psychiatrist (b. 1865)
- May 19 Kristjan Raud, Estonian painter and one of the founders of the Estonian National Museum, dies at 77
- May 24 Vladimir I Nemirovitch-Dantshenko, Russian playwright, dies at 84
- May 25 Nils Dardel, Swedish post-impressionist painter, dies at 54
- May 26 Edsel Ford, American President of Ford Motor Company (1919-1943) and son of Henry Ford, dies of stomach cancer aged 49
- Jun 1 Wilfrid B. Israel, Jewish activist
- Jun 3 Folkert E Posthuma, Min of Agriculture, dies
- Jun 6 Karl Landsteiner, Austrian immunologist and pathologist (Nobel 1930), dies at 74
- Jun 13 Kočo Racin, Macedonian poet (b. 1908)
- Jun 26 Fritz Schmidt, German Commissioner-General for Political Affairs and Propaganda (Netherlands, 1940-43), commits suicide at 39
- Jul 1 Auguste Reitsma, Dutch resistance fighter (census director), executed
- Jul 1 C Bakker, Dutch resistance fighter (census bureau), executed
- Jul 1 C L Barentsen, Dutch resistance fighter (census bureau), executed
- Jul 1 Coos Hartogh, Dutch resistance fighter (census bureau), executed
- Jul 1 Cor Roos, Dutch resistance fighter (census bureau), executed
- Jul 1 Henri Halberstadt, Dutch resistance fighter (census dir), executed
- Jul 1 Johan Brouwer, hispanist/writer/Dutch resistance fighter, executed
- Jul 1 Koen Limperg, Dutch resistance fighter (census bureau), executed
- Jul 1 Sam Bloemgarten, Dutch resistance fighter (census bureau), executed
- Jul 1 Willem Arondeus, Dutch resistance fighter (census bureau), executed
- Jul 1 Willem Brouwer, Dutch resistance fighter (census bureau), executed
- Jul 2 Caroline Yale, American educator who revolutionized the teaching of hearing-impaired students, dies at 84
- Jul 4 Władysław Sikorski, Polish World War II general and Prime Minister of Poland in exile (1939-43), killed in a plane crash at 62
- Jul 8 Harry Oakes, Canadian ruler of Bahamas, murdered
- Jul 8 Jean Moulin, French hero of the Résistance during World War II, executed at 44
- Jul 8 Guillermo Valencia, Colombian poet, translator and statesman, dies at 69
- Jul 9 Clifford Whittingham Beers, American mental hygiene pioneer, dies at 67
- Jul 13 Kurt Huber, German philosopher and resistance fighter, beheaded at 50
- Jul 17 Sir Patrick Duncan, Governor-general of the Union of South Africa (1937 to 1943), dies at 72
- Jul 23 Emanuel Querido, Dutch author and publisher (N.V. Em. Querido Uitgeversmaatschappij), murdered in the Nazi extermination camp at Sobibor at 71
- Aug 1 Ismar Elbogen, German/US learned/rabbi (Jewish Lexicon), dies at 68
- Aug 5 Adam Kuckhoff, German writer and resistance fighter, is executed during WWII at 55
- Aug 7 Gustav Schmidt, German lt-general, dies in battle
- Aug 10 C Bergsma, Dutch resistance fighter (Waalsdorpervlakte), dies
- Aug 10 J Janzen, Dutch resistance fighter (Waalsdorpervlakte), dies
- Aug 10 J Posthuma, Dutch resistance fighter (Waalsdorpervlakte), dies
- Aug 18 Hans Jeschonnek, German air force general/chief-staff, commits suicide
- Aug 18 Ali-Agha Shikhlinski, Russian-Azerbaijani general, dies at 78
- Aug 21 Henrik Pontoppidan, Danish writer (Peter Gelukkige, Nobel 1917), dies at 86
- Aug 24 Ernst Ottwalt, writer, dies
- Aug 24 Simone Weil, French philosopher and social activist (b. 1909)
- Aug 25 Johan Petter Johansson, Swedish inventor and industrialist (modern adjustable spanner), dies at 86
- Aug 27 Otto Selz, German psychologist, dies at 62
- Aug 28 Boris III, Tsar of Bulgaria (1918-43), dies at 49
- Aug 30 A[braham] Merritt, American sci-fi author (The Moon Pool, Burn Witch Bun), dies from a heart attack at 58
- Aug 30 Eustáquio van Lieshout, Dutch priest and missionary in Brazil, dies at 52
- Sep 1 Charles Atangana, Cameroonian chief (b. 1880)
- Sep 23 Elinor Glyn, English author (b. 1864)
- Sep 30 Franz Oppenheimer, German sociologist (b. 1864)
- Oct 1 Antoine T Broekman, resistance fighter, executed at 32
- Oct 1 Anton JT Koreman, resistance fighter, executed at 27
- Oct 1 Antoon Pleyte, resistance fighter, executed at 26
- Oct 1 Earnest Klijzing, resistance fighter, executed
- Oct 1 Gideon Boissevain, resistance fighter, executed at 22
- Oct 1 Hans Katan, resistance fighter, executed at 24
- Oct 1 Henri H Geul, resistance fighter, executed at 27
- Oct 1 Johan Kalshoven, resistance fighter, executed at 20
- Oct 1 Johan Roemer, resistance fighter, executed at 22
- Oct 1 Johan van Mierlo, resistance fighter, executed at 35
- Oct 1 John Charles Boissevain, resistance fighter, executed at 23
- Oct 1 Leo Frijda, resistance fighter, executed at 20
- Oct 1 Louis Boissevain, resistance fighter, executed at 21
- Oct 1 Maarten van/of Gilse, resistance fighter, executed at 27
- Oct 1 Olaf T Thomsen, resistance fighter, executed at 23
- Oct 1 Peter "Pam" Pooters, resistance fighter, executed at 32
- Oct 1 Sape Kuiper, resistance fighter, executed at 19
- Oct 1 Victor van Swieten, resistance fighter, executed at 36
- Oct 1 Walter Brandligt, literature/resistance fighter, executed at 42
- Oct 4 Richard T. Ely, American economist and author (Ground under our feet), dies at 89
- Oct 4 Irena Iłłakowicz, Polish agent of Intelligence, dies at 37
- Oct 6 Robert Cooper, father of Card pitcher Mort & catcher Walker, dies
- Oct 7 Radclyffe Hall, British author (b. 1880)
- Oct 9 Gerard W Kerncamp, historian/editor-in-chief (Green Amsterdam), dies
- Oct 9 Jan Dieters, Dutch politician and resistance fighter who was the head of the Communist Party of the Netherlands, executed at 42
- Oct 9 Lou Jansen, leader of illegal Dutch political party (CPN), executed
- Oct 9 Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist (Nobel Prize 1902 for Zeeman effect), dies at 78
- Oct 9 Gerard Wilhelm Kernkamp, Dutch historian and editor (Groene Amsterdammer), dies at 78
- Oct 10 Charlotte Salomon, German-Jewish artist gassed at Auschwitz aged 26
- Oct 17 Stefan Starzyński, Polish politician (b. 1893)
- Oct 18 A. M. de Jong, Dutch writer (World Tour of Bulletje & Bonestaak), dies at 55
- Oct 18 Benedictus H. Danser, Dutch taxonomist and botanist, dies at 52
- Oct 21 Dudley Pound, British admiral of the fleet and 1st Sea Lord (Jutland, WW II), dies at 66
- Oct 24 Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, French Canadian poet (Regards et jeux dans l'espace), dies at 31
- Oct 25 H van Zanten, guerrilla leader on North Sumatra, executed
- Oct 26 Marc Aurel Stein, Hungarian-British archaeologist, dies at 80
- Oct 27 Isidor Traube, German Chemist (founded capillary chemistry, research on liquids), dies at 83
- Oct 31 Max Reinhardt [Goldmann], Austrian theatrical director (Oedipus Rex) and founder of the Salzburg Festival, dies at 70
- Nov 5 Louis Schelfhout, Dutch painter and graphic artist, dies at 62
- Nov 9 Bernhard Lichtenberg, German clergyman and theologian, dies at 67
- Nov 16 Marcel Verhamme, Belgian resistance fighter, executed
- Nov 24 Martin Raschke, German author and publisher dies at 38
- Nov 24 Reina Prince Geerligs [Leentjes Vandendriesch], anti-fascist, dies
- Nov 24 Doris Miller, American navy cook (b. 1919)
- Nov 26 Edward H "Butch" O'hare, US pilot/lt-comdr, dies in battle
- Nov 27 Ivo Lola Ribar, Croatian communist and partisan, killed by a German bomb at 27
- Dec 1 Damrong Rajanubhab, Thai prince, son of King Mongkut and brother of King Chulalongkorn and historian, dies at 81
- Dec 2 Nordahl Grieg, Norwegian poet, dramatist and novelist (The Defeat), dies at 41
- Dec 4 Carlo Mierendorff, German politician and anti-fascist, dies at 46
- Dec 6 Firmin Baes, Flemish painter, dies at 69
Beatrix Potter
Dec 22 Beatrix Potter, English children's writer and illustrator (The Tale of Peter Rabbit,) dies aged 77
Beatrix Potter