Deaths in History on January 24

  • January

MurderCaligula

41 Caligula [Gaius Caesar], 3rd Roman Emperor (37-41 AD) who was known for his eccentricity and cruel despotism, assassinated at 28 by Praetorian Guards

3rd Roman Emperor Caligula
3rd Roman Emperor
Caligula
  • 661 Ali ibn Abu Talib, kalief of Islam (656-61), murdered
  • 772 Stephen III/IV, Catholic Pope (768-72), dies. (b. 720)
  • 817 Stefanus IV, Pope (816-17), dies
  • 1125 David IV of Georgia (b. 1073)
  • 1336 Alfonso IV, the Benignant, King of Aragon (1327-36), dies at 36
  • 1376 Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel, English military leader
  • 1547 Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, executed for treason
  • 1595 Ferdinand II of Austria (b. 1529)
  • 1626 Samuel Argall, English adventurer and naval officer, dies at 45
  • 1639 George Jenatsch, Grisons leader, assassinated
  • 1678 Joan Maetsuyker, gov-gen of Neth East-Indies, dies at 72
  • 1709 George Rooke, English admiral (b. 1650)
  • 1769 François de Chevert, French general (b. 1695)
  • 1824 Ercole Consalvi, Italian Roman Catholic Cardinal, dies at 66
  • 1856 Rabbi Yechezkel of Kuzmir, Polish Hasidic leader (b. 1775)

  • 1862 James McIntosh, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in battle at about 33
  • 1864 Stephen Gardner Champlin, brigadier general (Union), dies at about 36
  • 1877 Johann Christian Poggendorff, German physicist (b. 1796)
  • 1880 José Gautier Benítez, Puerto Rican poet, dies at 28
  • 1882 Levi Boone, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1808)
  • 1885 Martin Delany, African-American abolitionist and physician (1st African American major in US Army), dies at 72
  • 1895 Lord Randolph Churchill, British politician (b. 1849)
  • 1911 David Graham Phillips, American journalist and novelist (b. 1867)
  • 1924 Thephilo Braga, Portuguese poet/politician, dies at 80
  • 1924 Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (b. 1894)
  • 1929 Willem Royaards, Dutch theater directer (Adam in Ballingschap), dies at 62
  • 1932 Alfred Yarrow, English shipbuilder (b. 1842)
  • 1939 Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician and nutritionist, dies at 71
  • 1943 John Burns, British minister of Local Government (1905-14), dies
  • 1947 Felix Timmermans, Flemish painter and illustrator (Pallieter), dies at 60
  • 1948 Maria Mandel, Camp Leader at Auschwitz (b. 1912)
  • 1948 Arthur Liebehenschel, Commandant at Auschwitz concentration camp (b. 1901)

Person of interestGerd von Rundstedt

1953 [Karl Rudolf] Gerd von Rundstedt, German field marshal during World War II (Commander-in-Chief in the West), dies of heart failure at 77

German General Gerd von Rundstedt
German General
Gerd von Rundstedt
  • 1955 Ira Hayes, American World War II hero (b. 1923)
  • 1961 Willem J M van Eysinga, people rights scholar, dies at 82
  • 1962 Stanley Lord, Captain of the SS Californian the night of the Titanic disaster, dies at 84
  • 1962 Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Turkish poet, novelist, recognized as one of the most important representatives of modernism in Turkish literature (A Mind at Peace, The Time Regulation Institute), dies of a heart attack at 60
  • 1964 Stuart Davis, American modernist painter, dies at 71

Person of interestWinston Churchill

1965 Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Britain (C) (1940-45, 51-55) British leader during WWII dies at 90

Soldier, Author and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Soldier, Author and British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
  • 1966 Homi J. Bhabha, Indian physicist (b. 1909)

  • 1967 Howard Charles Shaiffer, entertainer, dies at 49
  • 1970 Caresse Crosby, American poet (b. 1891)
  • 1971 Bill W., American co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (b. 1895)
  • 1975 Erich Kempka, German chauffeur to Adolf Hitler, dies at 64
  • 1978 Herta Oberheuser, German doctor (b. 1911)
  • 1982 Alfredo Ovando Candía, Bolivian president and dictator (b. 1918)
  • 1986 L. Ron Hubbard, American sci-fi writer (Death Quest) and founder of the Scientology cult, dies at 74
  • 1988 Werner Fenchel, German mathematician (b. 1905)

BattleTed Bundy

1989 Ted Bundy, American serial killer of up to 100 women during the 1970s, executed by electric chair in Florida at 42

Serial Killer Ted Bundy
Serial Killer
Ted Bundy
  • 1991 John M. Kelly, Irish politician and academic (b. 1931)
  • 1992 Ricky Ray Rector, American murderer (b. 1950)

Person of interestThurgood Marshall

1993 Thurgood Marshall, 1st African American supreme court justice (1967-91), dies 84

First Black Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall
First Black Supreme Court Justice
Thurgood Marshall
  • 1993 Ugur Mumcu, Turkish journalist and writer (Cumhuriyet Murder), dies at 50
  • 1994 Michalis Vranopoulos, head of Greek state bank, murdered at 48
  • 1994 Yves Navarre, French writer (Le Jardin d'acclimatation), dies at 53
  • 1995 Ian Prestt, English ornithologist, dies at 65
  • 1995 Victor Reinganum, English artist and illustrator, dies at 87
  • 1995 Wim H Sinnige, Amsterdam PvdA alderman of Finance, dies at 60
  • 1997 Callum Alexander MacDonald, historian, dies at 49
  • 1998 Jay Monahan, husband of Katie Couric, dies of cancer at 42
  • 2002 Elie Hobeika, Lebanese Forces militia commander (b. 1956)
  • 2003 Gianni Agnelli, Italian auto executive (b. 1921)
  • 2003 Lucien Blackwell, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania), dies at 71
  • 2005 Vladimir Savchenko, Ukrainian writer (b. 1933)
  • 2006 Schafik Handal, Salvadoran politician
  • 2007 Guadalupe Larriva, Ecuadorian politician (b. 1956)
  • 2007 Emiliano Mercado del Toro, World's oldest living man 2004-2007, dies at 115
  • 2008 J. Robert Hooper, American politician, dies at 71
  • 2009 Kay Yow, North Carolina State Univ. women's basketball head coach (b. 1942)
  • 2018 Jack Ketchum [Dallas William Mayr], American horror fiction author (Off Season, Red, The Woman), dies of cancer at 71

January in History