- 809 Harun al-Rashid, caliph of the Abbasid empire (786-809), dies at 44
- 1284 Hugh III of Cyprus, King of Cyprus and Jerusalem (b 1235)
- 1381 Saint Catharine of Sweden, Swedish saint
- 1396 Walter Hilton, English mystic
- 1400 Florens Radewijns, Dutch priest/leader Modern Devotion, dies
- 1455 Nicholas V [Tommaso Parentucelli], Italian Pope (1447-55), dies at 57
- 1455 Rudolf van Diepholt, bishop/cardinal of Utrecht (1448-55), dies
- 1558 Anna van Buren, countess of Egmond/Buren/Lingen, dies
- 1563 Hosokawa Harumoto, Japanese military leader (b. 1514)
- 1575 Yosef Karo, Spanish-born rabbi (b. 1488)
Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
Queen of England and Ireland (1558-1603) and daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, dies at 69
- 1635 Jacques Callot, French cartoonist/engraver, dies at about 42
- 1644 Archduchess Cecilia Renata of Austria, Queen of Poland, dies at 32
- 1661 William Leddra becomes the last Quaker to be hanged in Boston, for the crime of returning from banishment
- 1771 William Shirley, British Colonial Governor of Massachusetts (played an important role in Britain’s struggle against France for control of North America), dies at 76
- 1773 Philip Dormer Stanhope [Lord Chesterfield], English statesman and letter writer, responsible for introducing Gregorian Calendar, dies at 78
John Harrison (1693-1776)
English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer to calculate longitude while at sea, dies at 82
- 1823 Cornelis van Foreest, Dutch politician, Mayor of Alkmaar, dies at 66
- 1844 Bertel Thorvaldsen, Danish sculptor (Dying Lion), dies at 73
- 1866 Maria Amalia, of Bourbon-Sicily, French queen as wife of Louis Philip of Austria, dies at 83
- 1869 Antoine-Henri Jomini, French general (b. 1779)
- 1877 Walter Bagehot, English journalist and economist (founded National Review), dies at 51
- 1881 Friedrich Hecker, German revolutionary republican politician, dies at 69
- 1881 Joseph Delesse, French geologist (b. 1817)
- 1882 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet (Song of Hiawatha), dies at 75
- 1887 Ivan Kramskoi, Russian painter and art critic, dies at 49
- 1888 Vsevolod Garshin, Russian author (b. 1855)
- 1891 Daniel H. Wells, Mormon leader and 3rd Mayor of Salt Lake City, dies at 76
- 1904 Edwin Arnold, English writer (The Light of Asia), dies at 71
Jules Verne (1828-1905)
French writer known as the "Father of Science Fiction" (Around the World in 80 Days), dies at 77
- 1909 John Millington Synge, Irish dramatist and poet (Riders to the Sea), dies at 37
- 1911 Matthew Stanley Robison, president (Cardinals), dies
- 1915 Karol Olszewski, Polish scientist (b. 1846)
- 1921 James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, dies at 86
- 1941 (Rafaël) "Raf" Verhulst, Flemish poet, journalist, playwright (Jesus of Nazarus; Semini's Children), and educator, dies at 75
- 1945 Thomas Rennie, Gen-Maj (Dutch command 51st Highland Division), dies
- 1948 Sigrid Hjertén, Swedish modernist painter, dies at 62
- 1949 [Johann Baptist] Hanns Albin Rauter, German SS and Police leader in the occupied Netherlands, executed by firing squad at 54
- 1950 Harold Laski, English economist and Labour Party leader (1945-46), dies at 56
- 1950 James Rudolph Garfield, American politician, dies at 84
- 1953 Felix M Abel, French dominican/biblical scholar, dies at 74
- 1953 Mary of Teck, Queen of Great Britain and consort of George V, dies at 85
- 1955 John W. Davis, American politician and United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, dies at 81
- 1956 Edmund Taylor Whittaker, British mathematician (applied mathematics and the theory of special functions), dies at 82
- 1960 Paul Joostens, Flemish painter, dies at 70
- 1966 Virginia Hill, American organized crime figure (girlfriend of Bugsy Siegel), supposedly commits suicide at 49
- 1968 Lauwrens Voorthuyzen, Dutch sect leader, dies at 70
- 1969 Joseph Kasavubu, president Congo (1960-65), dies at about 55
- 1974 Doris Deane, dies at 74
- 1974 Yoshida Isoya, Japanese architect (modern sukiya style), dies at 79
Bernard Montgomery (1887-1976)
1st Viscount Alamein, British WWII Field Marshal (African campaign, D-Day) and WWI officer, dies at 88
- 1978 Leigh Brackett, American sci-fi author (Ginger Star), dies at 62
- 1979 Yvonne Mitchell, writer, dies at 53
- 1980 Oscar Romero, El Salvador Roman Catholic priest, murdered during mass at 62
- 1990 An Wang, Chinese-American computer engineer (Wang Labs, Wang Computers), dies of cancer at 70
- 1991 Sir John Kerr, Australian politician and the Governor General who dismissed the Whitlam Government, dies at 76
- 1993 Erik Andriesse, Dutch painter (skulls, skeletons), dies at 35
- 1993 John Hersey, American author (Hiroshima, Bell for Adano, Wall), dies at 78
- 1993 Peter Roovers, Dutch sculptor/teacher (war monuments), dies at 90
- 1994 Edith Porada, Austrian art historian and archaeologist, dies at 81
- 1994 Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican politician, assassinated
- 1995 Anthony Standerwick Heal, businessman, dies at 88
- 1995 Trevor Oswald Ling, English religious Studies Professor, dies at 75
- 1997 Martin Caidin, American aviation writer, dies at 69
- 1999 Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, German women's activist (b. 1902)
- 1999 Henry Brandon [Lord Brandon of Oakbrook], British judge (Lord of appeal - Ordinary) and probable spy (Military Cross), dies at 78
- 2001 Muriel Young, English TV entertainer (b. 1928)
- 2002 César Milstein, Argentine biochemist (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1984), dies at 74
- 2003 Hans Hermann Groër, Austrian Catholic archbishop (b. 1919)
- 2004 Max Dendermonde [Hendrik Hazelhoff], Dutch literary, dies at 84
- 2007 Florentine Rost van Tonningen-Heubel, Dutch black widow and Nazi supporter, dies at 92
- 2008 Hal Riney, American advertising executive (b. 1932)
- 2013 Barbara Anderson, New Zealand author, dies at 86
- 2016 Earl Hamner Jr., American creator and narrator of TV show "The Waltons", dies at 92
- 2020 Betty Williams, Northern Irish political activist (Nobel Peace Prize 1976), dies of pneumonia at 76
- 2020 Terrence McNally, American Tony-winning playwright (Kiss of the Spider Woman), dies of COVID-19 complications at 81