Thomas Becket (c. 1118-1170)
English Archbishop of Canterbury (1162-70), assassinated by 4 knights of King Henry II at 52 [1]
- 1563 Sebastian Castellio, French theologian (b. 1515)
- 1619 Antoine Arnauld, French lawyer (Philippica), dies
- 1634 John Albert Vasa, Polish bishop, dies at 22
- 1661 Antoine Gérard de Saint-Amant, French poet (b. 1594)
- 1689 Olfert Dapper, Amsterdam historian/geographer, buried
- 1689 Thomas Sydenham, English physician and author of "Observationes Medicae", dies at 65
- 1731 Brook Taylor, English mathematician, discoverer of Taylor's Theorem, dies at 46
- 1737 Joseph Saurin, French mathematician (b. 1659)
- 1785 Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian poet (b. 1742)
- 1815 Saartjie Baartman, Hottentot Venus, dies in Paris
- 1821 Jean-Baptiste Dumonceau, Dutch general, dies at 61
- 1825 Jacques-Louis David, French Neoclassical painter (Death of Marat), dies at 77
- 1877 Willem Sassen, Dutch attorney general on Curacao (Affair-S), dies
- 1890 Big Foot, Sioux Indian chief, dies at Wounded Knee
- 1891 Leopold Kronecker, German mathematician (Tensor of Kronecker), dies at 68
- 1894 Christina Rossetti, English poet (Winter Rain, Passing Away), dies at 64
- 1897 William James Linton, American wood engraver and political reformer. (b. 1812)
- 1905 Martin Wiberg, Swedish computer pioneer, dies at 79
- 1919 William Osler, Canadian physician and author (circulatory system), dies at 70
- 1924 Carl Spitteler, Swiss writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1845)
- 1925 Félix E Vallotton, Swiss painter/writer (Chaste Susanne), dies at 60
- 1926 Rainer Maria Rilke, Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist (Ana, The City, Duino Elegies), dies at 51
- 1929 Wilhelm Maybach, German automobile designer (b. 1846)
- 1933 Joh Georghe Duca, premier of Romania, murdered
- 1937 Don Marquis, American author (b. 1878)
- 1942 Frank Dawson Adams, Canadian geologist, dies at 83
- 1943 William Henry Singer, American painter and collector (Singer Museum, Laren), dies at 75
- 1947 Joseph Cuvelier, Belgian historian and general archivist, dies at 78
- 1956 Martin Albertz, German theologist (Jesus Christ's Church) and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime, dies at 73
- 1960 Eden Phillpotts, English novelist, poet and playwright (Red Madymaynes), dies at 98
- 1960 Philippe Panneton, Canadian physician, diplomat and writer (Trente arpents), dies at 65
- 1964 Bernard von Brentano, German writer (Big Cats), dies at 63
- 1968 Austin Farrer, English theologian and philosopher (b. 1904)
- 1970 William King Gregory, American palaeontologist (mammalian teeth, evolutionary theory), dies at 94
- 1975 Euell Gibbons, American outdoorsman and proponent of natural diets (b. 1911).
- 1980 Nadezhda Mandelstam, Russian writer (b. 1899)
- 1981 Guido Provoost, Belgian historian, dies at 41
- 1981 Miroslav Krleža, Croatian writer (b. 1893)
- 1984 Sidney Garfield, American physician and pioneer of health maintenance organizations (Kaiser Permanente), dies at 78
Harold Macmillan (1894-1986)
British Conservative politician and Prime Minister (1957-63), dies at 92
- 1992 LH Ruitenberg, vicar/editor in chief (Reform Netherlands), dies at 87
- 1995 Hope Clara Chenhalls, food inspector, dies at 85
- 1995 Madeleine Barot, French activist and theologian, dies at 86
- 1995 Nello Celio, President of Switzerland (1972), dies at 81
- 1995 Philip Idenburg, Dutch statistician, dies at 94
- 1996 Alma Birk, journalist/politician, dies at 77
- 1996 Daniel Mayer, French journalist and resistance fighter, dies at 87
- 1996 Oswald Szemerényi, Hungarian linguist, dies at 83
- 1996 Peggy (Margaret McCrorie) Herbison, politician, dies at 89
- 1996 Pennar Davies, Welsh poet, author and theologian, dies at 85
- 1996 Robert Morris, American lawyer, dies at 81
- 1998 Jean-Claude Forest, writer and illustrator of comics (Barbarella) (b. 1930)
- 1999 Leon Radzinowicz, British criminologist (b. 1906)
- 2004 Julius Axelrod, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1912)
- 2005 Gerda Boyesen, Norwegian-born body psychotherapist (b. 1922)
- 2007 Kevin Greening, British radio presenter (b. 1962)
- 2008 Kees [Cornelis Pieter] van Dijk, Dutch minister of the Interior, dies at 77
- 2009 Akmal Shaikh, British drug trafficker, executed by lethal injection in the People's Republic of China (b. 1956)
- 2009 David Levine, American artist (New York Review of Books caricatures), dies at 83
- 2014 Ivor Richardson, New Zealand judge (NZ Court of Appeals), dies at 84
- 2017 John C. Portman Jr., American architect (Ivan Allen Award-1964), dies at 93
- 2020 Luke Letlow, American businessman and politician, elected to US House of Representatives for Louisiana, dies before taking office, from complications caused by COVID-19, at 41
- 2020 Pierre Cardin, Italian-French fashion designer, dies at 98
Assassination
Car Crash
Hanging
Killed in Action
Plane Crash
Poisoning