Deaths in History on December 22

  • December
  • 69 Aulus Vitellius, Roman Emperor for 8 months, executed by the troops of his successor Vespasian in Rome at 54
  • 1100 Duke Bretislaus II of Bohemia
  • 1337 Daito Kokushi, leader of O-To-Kan Rinzai school in Japan, dies at 54
  • 1419 Antipope Pope John XXIII [Baldassare Cossa], Italian Pope (1410-15) who opposed Pope Gregory XII and is considered an antipope by the Catholic Church, dies at 81
  • 1550 Richard Plantagenet (Richard of Eastwell) possibly a son of Richard III
  • 1603 Mehmed III, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1595-1603), dies at 37
  • 1646 Peter Mogila, Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia (b. 1596)
  • 1660 André Tacquet, Flemish mathematician (b. 1612)
  • 1668 Stephen Day, English-born colonial printer (The Psalms in Meter - 1st book printed in American colonies), dies at about 58
  • 1681 Richard Alleine, English Puritan clergyman (b. 1611)
  • 1708 Hedvig Sophia, Duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, dies at 27
  • 1721 Nathaniel Hawes, tortured & executed in England for robbery
  • 1723 Jacques Basnage, French/Dutch historian/vicar, dies at 70
  • 1738 Constantia Jones, British prostitute, executed on theft allegations at 30
  • 1767 John Newberry, English publisher, dies
  • 1788 Percivall Pott, English physician and surgeon (b. 1714)

  • 1806 William Vernon, American merchant (b. 1719)
  • 1815 Jose Maria Morelos, Mexican revolutionary priest executed by Spaniards
  • 1828 Rachel Jackson, wife of 7th US President Andrew Jackson, dies of heart failure
  • 1828 William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist and physicist (famous for discovering the chemical elements palladium and rhodium), dies at 62
  • 1863 Michael Corcoran, Union brigadier general, dies at 36
  • 1867 Jean-Victor Poncelet, French mathematician (kinematics), dies at 79
  • 1867 Théodore Rousseau, French painter, dies at 55
  • 1873 Charles Lenox Remond, African-American orator and abolitionist, dies at 63
  • 1880 George Eliot [Mary Anne Evans], English novelist (Adam Bede, Middlemarch), dies on her 61st birthday
  • 1893 Johann Czerski, German chaplain, dies at 80
  • 1899 Dwight L Moody, US evangelist (Student Volunteer Movement), dies
  • 1902 Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, psychiatrist, dies at 62
  • 1908 Marie Jungius, Dutch teacher/fairy tale writer, dies at 44
  • 1917 Francesca Saveria Cabrini, US saint/patron of immigrant, dies at 67
  • 1918 Albijn van de Abeele, Flemish author and painter, dies at 83
  • 1918 Randolph Bourne, American writer (Education and Living), dies at 32
  • 1937 Daito Kokushi, Zen founder of Daitokuji, dies in Kyoto at 55
  • 1940 Nathanael West, [Weinstein], American writer (Cool Million), dies at 37
  • 1942 Franz Boas, German-American anthropologist and linguist (Mind of Primitive Man), dies 84

Person of interestBeatrix Potter

1943 Beatrix Potter, English children's writer and illustrator (The Tale of Peter Rabbit,) dies aged 77

Children's Author Beatrix Potter
Children's Author
Beatrix Potter
  • 1945 Otto Neurath, Austrian-British philosopher (Foundation of Social Sciences), dies at 63
  • 1947 Therese Brandl, Nazi concentration camp guard (b. 1902)
  • 1958 Fjodor W Gladkow, Russian author (Cement), dies at 75
  • 1968 Louise Granville, entertainer, dies of influenza at 73
  • 1969 Josef von Sternberg, Austrian-American director (Shanghai Express), dies at 75

  • 1971 Godfried Jan Arnold Bomans, Dutch writer (Eric), dies at 58
  • 1971 Renee Evans, entertainer, dies of heart attack at 63
  • 1974 Lorraine Gauguin, entertainer, dies at 50

MurderChico Mendes

1988 Chico Mendes, Brazilian environmental activist and rubber tapper, assassinated at 44 by rancher Darcy Alves

Environmentalist Chico Mendes
Environmentalist
Chico Mendes

Person of interestSamuel Beckett

1989 Samuel Beckett, Irish French writer (Molloy, Nobel 1969), dies at 83

Playwright, novelist, and poet Samuel Beckett
Playwright, novelist, and poet
Samuel Beckett
  • 1992 Frederick W Franz, CEO (Watch Tower), dies at 99
  • 1993 Alexander Mackendrick, director (Whiskey Galore!), dies at 81
  • 1995 James Meade, English economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner (b. 1907)
  • 1996 Hetta Empson, South African-British artist, dies at 81
  • 1997 Douglas Ranger, British surgeon, dies at 81
  • 1997 Hugh Edward Conway Seymour, 8th Marquess of Hertford, dies at 67
  • 1997 John Pinkerton, English computer scientist who designed the first business computer in England, the LEO computer, dies at 78
  • 1997 Juzo Itami, Japanese director, commits suicide at 64
  • 2002 Hugh Desmond Hoyte, Guyanese politician and President of Guyana (1985-92), dies at 73
  • 2005 T. Cooper Evans, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa), dies at 81
  • 2007 Adrian Cristobal, Filipino writer (b. 1932)
  • 2007 Julien Gracq [Louis Poirier], French writer (Andre Breton), dies at 97
  • 2009 Luis Francisco Cuéllar, Colombian politician (b. 1940)
  • 2011 James Ramseur, one of Bernhard Goetz's assailants in 1984, overdoses on drugs at 45
  • 2016 Margaret Pereira, English forensic scientist (Nicholls and Pereira method), dies at 88
  • 2018 Paddy Ashdown, British MP, leader of Liberal Democrats (1988-1999), dies of bladder cancer at 77
  • 2018 Roberto Suazo Córdova, President of Honduras (1982-86), dies at 91

December in History