On This Day

Deaths in History on January 1

  • 379 Saint Basil the Great, bishop of Caesare & theologian (Moralia), dies at ~49
  • 404 Telemachus, Roman monk, dies trying to stop a gladitorial fight
  • 874 Hasan al-Askari, 11th Imam of Twelver Shia Islam, dies at 27
  • 898 Odo of France, Count of Paris (888-98), dies at ~39
  • 962 Baudouin III of Flanders, dies of smallpox
  • 1204 King Haakon III of Norway, dies in alleged poisoning
  • 1338 Shūhō Myōchō, aka Daito Kokushi, Japanese Zen Buddhist monk, and leader of O-To-Kan Rinzai school in Japan, dies at 55
  • 1387 Charles, The Bad, King of Navarra (1349-87), dies by burning at 54

Louis XIILouis XII (1462-1515)

the Just, King of France (1498-1515), dies at 52

Louis XII
  • 1517 Hermann Vischer, the Younger, German bronze merchant, dies at 31
  • 1554 Pedro de Valdivia, Spanish conquistador & first royal governor of Chile, dies at 56

Christian IIIChristian III (1503-1559)

King of Denmark (1534-59) and Norway (1537-59), dies at 55

Christian III
  • 1560 Guillaume du Bellay, Sieur de Langey, French soldier, dies at 52
  • 1560 Joachim du Bellay, French poet & founder of the Pléiade, dies at 38
  • 1617 Hendrick Goltzius, Dutch artist & engraver, dies at ~58
  • 1626 Cornelis Pieterse Hoft, Amsterdam merchant & regent, dies at 68
  • 1631 Thomas Hobson, the "Cambridge Carrier", eponym of Hobson's Choice, dies at 86
  • 1661 Pieter Claesz, Dutch still-life painter, dies at ~63
  • 1697 Filippo Baldinucci, Florentine biographer & art historian, dies at 71
  • 1716 William Wycherley, English dramatist (The Country Wife), dies at 74
  • 1730 Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, English Tory statesman, dies at 82
  • 1730 Samuel Sewall, English-American judge & businessman, dies at 77
  • 1742 Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman, dies at 55
  • 1748 Johann Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician, dies at 80
  • 1758 Johann Friedrich von Cronegk, German playwright (Codrus), dies at 26
  • 1759 Jacques-Joachim Trotti, Marquis de La Chétardie, French adventurer, dies at 54
  • 1766 James Francis Edward Stuart "The old Pretender", Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England and Scotland after the death of his father James II, dies at 77
  • 1787 Arthur Middleton, American signer of the Declaration of Independence, dies at 44
  • 1789 Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley, English politician, dies at 72
  • 1793 Francesco Guardi, Italian painter, dies at 80
  • 1796 Alexandre-Théophile Vandermonde, French mathematician, dies at 60
  • 1800 Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton, French zoologist, dies at 83
  • 1817 Martin Heinrich Klaproth, German chemist (discovered uranium), dies at 73
  • 1853 Gregory Blaxland, Australian explorer, dies of suicide at 74
  • 1862 Mikhail Ostrogradsky, Russian physicist & mathematician, dies at 60
  • 1869 Martin W. Bates, American politician, dies at 82
  • 1881 Auguste Blanqui, French revolutionary socialist (imprisoned for 33 years, Blanquist movement), dies at 75
  • 1887 Johan Hendrik Koelman, Dutch portrait painter, dies at 66
  • 1892 Roswell B. Mason, Mayor of Chicago, dies at 86
  • 1893 James Fleming Fagan, American farmer and Confederate Army Major General (Shiloh; Mark's Mill), dies at 55
  • 1894 Heinrich Hertz, German physicist (1st to broadcast & receive radio waves), dies after surgical complications at 36
  • 1896 Alfred Ely Beach, American inventor, dies at 69
  • 1901 Ignatius Donnelly, American politician, writer, and amateur scientist. dies at 69
  • 1906 Sir Hugh Nelson, Australian politician (Premier of Queensland (b. 1835)
  • 1910 Harriet Powers, African-American slave & quilt maker (Bible Quilt 1886), dies at 72
  • 1918 William Wilfred Campbell, Canadian poet (Beyond the Hills of Dream, Ian of the Orcades), dies of pneumonia at 57
  • 1919 Mikhail Drozdovsky, Russian general, dies at 39
  • 1920 Paul Adam, French writer (L'enfant d'Austerlitz), dies at 57
  • 1931 Martinus Beijerinck, Dutch microbiologist & botanist (1st to coin the name virus), dies at 79
  • 1932 C. P. Scott, British journalist, publisher and politician, dies at 85
  • 1934 Jakob Wassermann, German writer, dies at 60
  • 1940 Panuganti Lakshminarasimha Rao, Indian writer & essayist, dies at 74
  • 1943 Andrew Summers Rowan, American military officer who gave "a message to Garcia", dies at 5
  • 1944 Edwin Lutyens, English architect (Viceroy's House, New Delhi), dies at 74
  • 1954 Duff Cooper, British diplomat & writer, dies at 63
  • 1957 Seán South and Fergal O'Hanlon are killed in the Brookeborough Raid
  • 1958 Edward Weston, American photographer, dies at 71
  • 1962 Diego Martínez Barrio, Spanish president (1939), dies at 76
  • 1964 Bechara El Khoury, President of Lebanon, dies at 73
  • 1966 Vincent Auriol, President of France (1947-53), dies at 82
  • 1971 Amphilochius of Pochayiv [Yakov Varnavovich Golovatyuk], Ukrainian Orthodox Christian saint, dies at 76
  • 1980 Pietro Nenni, Italian politician (Socialists), dies at 88
  • 1982 Paul Belmondo, French sculptor (Bathing Woman, Orleans), dies at 83
  • 1988 Leo Steiner, American restaurateur (Carnegie Deli), dies at 48
  • 1990 James W. Wood, American astronaut (Dynasoar), dies at 65
  • 1990 Suzuki Sochu, Japanese-born Zen teacher, dies at 80
  • 1991 Charles B. Timmer, Dutch writer (Russia Black on White), dies at 83
  • 1991 Yvonne Waegemans, Flemish author (Gnome Patjoepelke), dies at 81
  • 1992 Called Abma [Hetter Gerrit Abma], Dutch politician (SGP), dies at 74

Grace HopperGrace Hopper (1906-1992)

American computer scientist & US Navy admiral who invented the first compiler for a universal computer programming language and is credited with coining the phrase 'debugging’, dies at 85

Grace Hopper
  • 1994 Werner Schwab, Austrian playwright (Female Presidents) & artist, dies at 35
  • 1995 Eugene Wigner, Hungarian-American physicist and mathematician (1963 Nobel Prize for Physics), worked on the Manhattan Project, dies at 92
  • 1995 Frederick "Fred" West, British contractor & serial killer (12 charges of murder), commits suicide in his prison cell at 53
  • 1996 Arleigh Burke, American admiral, dies at 94
  • 1996 Arthur Rudolph, German rocket engineer, dies at 89
  • 1996 Orapin Chaiyakan, first Thai woman elected to the Parliament of Thailand, dies at 91
  • 1997 James B. Pritchard, American theologist & archaeologist, dies at 87
  • 2000 Colin Vaughan, Australian political journalist, dies at 68
  • 2003 F. William Free, American advertising executive (I'm Cheryl – Fly Me.), dies at 74
  • 2005 Bob Matsui, American politician, dies at 63
  • 2005 Eugene J. Martin, American painter & artist, dies at 66
  • 2005 Hugh Lawson, 6th Baron Burnham, British newspaperman, dies at 73

Shirley ChisholmShirley Chisholm (1924-2005)

1st African American Congresswoman (Rep-D-NY) and presidential candidate, dies of a stroke at 80

Shirley Chisholm
  • 2006 Dawn Lake, Australian TV comedienne, dies at 78
  • 2006 Harry Magdoff, American magazine editor, dies at 92
  • 2006 Hugh McLaughlin, Irish publisher & inventor, dies at 77
  • 2007 Leon Davidson, American scientist known for studying UFOs, dies at 84
  • 2007 Leonard Fraser, Australian serial killer, dies of a heart attack at 55
  • 2007 Roland Levinsky, South African medical scientist, dies at 63
  • 2007 Tillie Olsen, American writer (Tell Me a Riddle), dies at 94
  • 2008 Harold Corsini, American photographer, dies from a stroke at 88
  • 2008 Pratap Chandra Chunder, Indian union minister, dies at 88
  • 2008 Salvatore Bonanno, American mafioso & son of crime boss Joseph Bonanno, dies of a heart attack at 75
  • 2009 (Johannes Mario) J.M. Simmel, Austrian writer (It Can't Always Be Caviar), dies at 84
  • 2009 Claiborne Pell, American writer, politician (US Senator (D) from Rhode Island, 1961-97), and sponsor of education grant legislation, dies at 90
  • 2009 Nizar Rayan, Hamas leader, killed in an airstrike at 49
  • 2011 Reynaldo Dagsa, Filipino politician, assassinated at 35
  • 2012 Carlos Soria, Argentine lawyer & politician, dies from gunshot to the head at 62
  • 2012 Ed Jenkins, American Congressman (Rep-D-Georgia 1977-93), dies at 78
  • 2012 Elizabeth Brumfiel, American feminist archaeologist, dies of cancer at 66
  • 2012 Hermann Guggiari, Paraguayan engineer & sculptor, dies at 88
  • 2012 Kiro Gligorov, 1st President of the Republic of Macedonia (1991-99), dies at 94
  • 2012 Marcelle Narbonne, French super-centenarian & oldest person in Europe, dies at 113
  • 2012 Nay Win Maung, Burmese physician & pro-democracy activist, dies from a heart attack at 50
  • 2015 Boris Morukov, Russian cosmonaut, dies at 64
  • 2015 Mario Cuomo, American Democratic Party politician and the 52nd Governor of New York (1983-95), dies of a heart condition at 82
  • 2015 Ninón Sevilla, Cuban-Mexican actress (Aventurera, Víctimas del Pecado), dies at 85
  • 2015 Omar Karami, Lebanese Prime Minister (1992-94, 2004-05), dies at 80
  • 2016 Dale Bumpers, American politician (Sen-D Arkansas, 1975-99), dies at 90
  • 2016 Fazu Aliyeva, Russian poet, novelist and journalist who helped develop Dagestani in Russian literature, dies from heart failure at 83
  • 2016 Michael G. Oxley, American politician (Rep-R-OH, 1981-2007), dies at 71
  • 2017 Derek Parfit, British philosopher who specialized in problems of personal identity, rationality and ethics, dies at 74
  • 2018 John V Tunney, American politician (Rep/Sen-D-California), dies of prostate cancer at 83
  • 2019 George, the last Hawaiian tree snail of his kind (Achatinella apexfulva species), dies at the University of Hawaii aged 14 years


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