On This Day

Deaths in History on May 5

  • 200 Sun Ce, warlord of the Han Dynasty (b. 175)
  • 311 Galerius, Emperor of Rome (305-311) ended persecution of Christianity in the East, dies of disease
  • 984 Gerberga of Saxony, Queen of Western Francia
  • 1028 Alfonso V, King of Leon/Galicia (999-1028), dies in battle
  • 1061 Humbert of Silva Candida, French abbot and cardinal whose bull of excommunication began the Great Schism, dies (b. c. 1000)
  • 1194 Casimir II, the Just, grand duke of Poland (1177-94), dies. Born 1138
  • 1219 King Leo II of Armenia (b. 1150)
  • 1309 Charles II, the Lame, King of Naples (1285-1309), dies
  • 1316 Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, youngest daughter of King Edward I and Queen Eleanor of Castile, dies at 33
  • 1504 Anton of Burgundy, the Great Bastard, knight, dies at about 82
  • 1525 Frederick III [Frederick the Wise], Elector of Saxony (1486-25) who protected his subject Martin Luther, dies at 62
  • 1582 Charlotte de Bourbon, Princess of Orange, dies
  • 1586 Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland (b. 1529)
  • 1672 Samuel Cooper, English painter (b. 1609)
  • 1678 Anna M van Schurman, Dutch poet, spoke 10 languages, dies at about 70
  • 1705 Leopold I, Emperor of Holy Roman Empire (1658-1704), dies at 64
  • 1766 Jean Astruc, French physician and scholar (b. 1684)
  • 1801 Philippe-Lambert-Joseph Spruyt, Flemish painter and engraver, dies at 74
  • 1808 Pierre Jean George Cabanis, French physiologist, dies at 50
  • 1811 Robert Mylne, Scottish architect (b. 1734)

Napoléon BonaparteNapoléon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

French military leader and Emperor of the French (1804-14, 1815), dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena, officially from stomach cancer but rumours of arsenic poisoning persist

Napoléon Bonaparte
  • 1827 Frederick Augustus I of Saxony (1806-27), dies at 76
  • 1855 Sir Robert Inglis, Bt, English politician (b. 1786)
  • 1859 Peter G L Dirichlet, German mathematician, dies at 53
  • 1864 Alexander Hays, US Union-general-major, dies in battle at 44
  • 1864 John Marshall Jones, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in battle at 43
  • 1864 Leroy Augustus Stafford, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in battle at 42
  • 1886 Joseph Albert, German photographer (Albertotype), dies at 61
  • 1892 August Wilhelm von Hofmann, German chemist (b. 1818)
  • 1896 Silas Adams, American lawyer and politician (b. 1839)
  • 1900 Ivan Aivazovsky, Russian painter (b. 1817)
  • 1901 Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, Parsi entrepreneur and founder of the first textile mills in India, dies at 77
  • 1902 Bret Harte, American author (Outcasts of Poker Flat), dies at 65
  • 1909 Pauline Staegeman, German feminist, dies
  • 1921 Alfred Hermann Fried, German pacifist (Nobel 1911-co-founder of the German peace movement), dies at 56
  • 1921 William Friese-Greene, British photographer and inventor (motion pictures), dies at 65
  • 1927 Charles Boissevain, Dutch editor of Amsterdam Algemeen Handelsblad (1885-1908), dies at 84
  • 1941 Natalija Obrenović, Queen of Serbia (b. 1859)
  • 1942 Qemal Stafa, Albanian politician (b. 1920)
  • 1943 Gordon Hewart, British judge "Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done" (Lord Chief Justice 1922-40), dies at 73
  • 1944 Bertha Benz [Cacilie Bertha Ringer], German inventor, automotive pioneer and wife of fellow automotive inventor Karl Benz, dies at 95
  • 1945 Elsie Mitchell and five Sunday school students become the only people to die during World War II on US soil when they are killed by a Japanese fire balloon that lands in the forest of Gearhart Mountain, near Bly, Southern Oregon
  • 1945 Peter Van Pels, Jewish Refugee (b. 1926)
  • 1956 Karel Rudolph Gallas, Dutch lexicographer (French Dictionary), dies at 88
  • 1957 Joseph W Kennedy, American chemist (Manhattan Project; 1 of 4 discoverers of plutonium), and educator, dies of stomach cancer at 40
  • 1958 James Branch Cabell, American novelist and essayist (Restless Heads), dies at 79

Carlos Saavedra LamasCarlos Saavedra Lamas (1878-1959)

Argentine politician (Nobel Peace Prize 1936), dies at 80

Carlos Saavedra Lamas
  • 1963 Jacobus JP Old, architect/co-founder (Stijl), dies at 73
  • 1971 Harry Moorman, Dutch vice-admiral (KVP), dies at 71
  • 1971 Petro Scaglione, Italian procureur-general, killed by Mafia
  • 1971 Violet Jessop, Titanic survivor (b. 1887)
  • 1976 Thomas Burnett Swann, American sci-fi author (Day of Minotaur), dies of cancer at 47
  • 1977 Ludwig Erhard, German minister of Economic Affairs (CDU), dies at 80
  • 1980 Edmond Vandercammen, French-Belgian painter and poet (Grand Combat), dies at 79
  • 1981 Bobby Sands, Irish IRA activist dies in the 66th day of his hunger strike at 26
  • 1983 Horst Schumann, Nazi physician, dies at 77
  • 1985 Sir Donald Bailey, British civil engineer (b. 1901)
  • 1988 Michael Shaara, American author (Killer angels), dies of a heart attack at 59
  • 1988 Tamara Pos, Suriname/Dutch activist
  • 1992 Stefano d'Arrigo, Siciilian writer, dies at 72
  • 1993 Balak Brahmachari [Marxist Godman], Indies guru, dies at 73
  • 1993 Dermot Boyle, Marshal of the Royal Air Force, dies at 88
  • 1993 Irving Howe, American writer and critic (Dissent), dies at 72
  • 1993 Lenore Kingston Jenson, dies of cancer at 79
  • 1994 Hein Salomonson, architect, dies at about 83
  • 1994 Joe Layton, American director (Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip), dies at 63
  • 1995 Anthony Wagner, Officer of Arms at the College of Arms in London, dies at 86
  • 1995 Bernard Benjamin Gillis, judge, dies at 89
  • 1995 James Pack, naval officer museum curator, dies at 81
  • 1995 Lionel Alexander Bethune [Alastair] Pilkington, British engineer (float glass), dies at 75
  • 1996 Ai Qing, Chinese poet, dies at 86
  • 1996 Charles H. Zimmerman, American aeronautical engineer (NACA, NASA), dies at 88 [1]
  • 1996 David Lasser, American science fiction magazine editor (Wonder Stores, 1930-33), writer (The Conquest of Space), and workers' rights activist, dies at 94
  • 2001 Cliff Hillegass, American publisher (Cliffsnotes), dies at 83
  • 2002 Hugo Banzer, Bolivian dictator (b. 1926)
  • 2002 Paul Klipsch, American engineer, noted for his loudspeaker designs, dies at 98
  • 2003 Walter Sisulu, South African activist (b. 1912)
  • 2006 Joep de Boer, Dutch naval officer and politician (CDA), dies at 81
  • 2007 Theodore Harold Maiman, American Inventor and engineer (created 1st working laser), dies at 79
  • 2008 Irv Robbins, Canadian-American entrepreneur (co-founded the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor chain), dies at 90
  • 2011 Claude Choules, British-Australian sailor and last surviving combat veteran of both World War I and World War II, dies at 110
  • 2013 Sarah Kirsch, German poet, dies at 78
  • 2014 Butler Derrick, American politician (Rep-D-SC, 1974-95), dies at 77
  • 2018 Aaron D. Panken, American rabbi, dies in a plane crash at 53
  • 2018 Ludwig Harig, German writer, dies at 90
  • 2018 Rosemarie Schruder, German writer, dies at 89
  • 2018 Stanley Falkow, American microbiologist (molecular mechanisms of infectious diseases), dies at 84


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