- 450 Galla Placidia, daughter of Byzant emperor Constantius III, dies at 58
- 511 Clovis, king of Salische France, founder of Merovingische, dies at 45
- 640 Saint Acharius of Noyon, French bishop of Noyon–Tournai, dies of natural causes
- 835 Muhammad at-Taqi, Muslim Shia Imam, dies at 24
- 1026 Adalbert II, bishop of Utrecht (1010-26), dies
- 1198 Queen Constance of Sicily, wife of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1154)
- 1570 Jacopo Sansovino, Italian sculptor and architect (b. 1486)
- 1592 Nakagawa Hidemasa, Japanese samurai commander (b. 1568)
- 1632 John Eliot, English parliament leader, dies at 40
- 1673 Anthonie Palamedes [Palamedesz], Dutch painter, dies at about 72
- 1680 Athanasius Kircher, German Jesuit priest and inventor (magic lantern), dies at 79
- 1720 Willem van Outhoorn, Dutch governor-general (Dutch East Indies), dies at 85
- 1754 Abraham de Moivre, French mathematician (De Moivre's theorem), dies at 87
- 1811 Andrew Meikle, British mechanical engineer (b. 1719)
- 1836 Carle Vernet, French painter and lithographer, dies at 78
Ada Lovelace
1852 Ada Lovelace, English mathematician and writer and daughter of poet Lord Byron, considered the first computer programmer, dies of uterine cancer at 36
Ada Lovelace
- 1894 Johanna von Puttkamer, Prussian noblewoman, wife of Otto von Bismarck (b. 1824)
- 1899 Guido Gezelle, Flemish priest and poet, dies at 69
- 1901 Clement Studebaker, American automobile manufacturer (b. 1831)
- 1908 Jean Albert Gaudry, French geologist and palaeontologist, dies at 81
- 1921 Douglas Colin Cameron, Canadian politician (b. 1854)
- 1925 Roger de la Fresnaye, French sculptor and painter, dies of tuberculosis at 40
- 1934 "Baby Face" Nelson [Lester Gillis], American bank robber and gangster, shot by the FBI in a shoot out at 25
- 1934 Herman Hollis, FBI agent, shot and killed by Baby Face Nelson
- 1934 Sam Cowley, FBI agent, shot and killed by Baby Face Nelson
- 1943 Ivo Lola Ribar, Croatian communist and partisan, killed by a German bomb at 27
- 1944 Camille Looten, French-Flemish priest and literature historian, dies at 86
- 1944 Leonid Isaakovich Mandelshtam, Russian physicist (b. 1879)
Eugene O'Neill
1953 Eugene O'Neill, American playwright (Desire Under the Elms-Nobel 1936), dies of cerebellar cortical atrophy at 65
Eugene O'Neill
- 1955 William Nigh, American director (Ape, Doomed to Die, Mr Wong), dies at 74
- 1957 Margo Scharten-Antink, Dutch writer (Catherina, Sprotje), dies at 88
- 1960 Dirk Jan de Geer, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (1926-29, 39-40), dies at 89
- 1971 Korneel Goossens, Flemish literary figure and art historian, dies at 70
- 1974 Louis B Russell Jr, American longest living heart transplant, dies at 49
- 1975 Ross McWhirter, English Guinness Book of Records co-founder, assassinated by the IRA at 50
- 1977 John Little McClellan, American lawyer and politician (Sen-D-Ark), dies at 81
- 1978 George Moscone, Mayor of San Francisco (1976-78) shot and killed by Dan White aged 49
Harvey Milk
1978 Harvey Milk, first openly gay person to be elected to public office, assassinated by Dan White at 48
Harvey Milk
- 1980 F. Burrall Hoffman, American architect (b. 1882)
- 1983 Manuel Scorza, Peruvian writer, dies at about 55
- 1984 Percy Norris, deputy high commissioner of India, shot dead
- 1987 Babe [Floyd Caves] Herman, Brooklyn Dodgers' slugger (.324 lifetime average), dies at 84
- 1992 Ivan Generalić, Croatian painter (b. 1914)
- 1994 Arthur Frank "Peter" Shore, egyptologist, dies at 70
- 1995 Peter Harrison Swan, bomber pilot/stockbroker, dies at 75
- 1995 Simon Bailey, 1st British priest to say he had AIDS, dies at 40
- 1996 George Ernest Leslie, trade union official, dies at 76
- 1997 Buck Leonard, Hall of Famer in Negro League, dies at 90
- 1997 Henry Charnock, oceanographer, dies at 76
- 1999 Alain Peyrefitte, French politician and author (b. 1925)
- 2000 Dorothy Woolfolk, American comic book editor (Kryptonite), dies at 87
- 2006 Alan Freeman, British disc jockey known by his nickname 'Fluff' (b. 1927)
- 2006 Bebe Moore Campbell, American author (b. 1950)
- 2007 Robert Cade, American physician and inventor of Gatorade, dies at 80
- 2007 Bernie Banton, Australian asbestos campaigner (b. 1946)
- 2008 V.P. [Vishwanath Pratap] Singh, Indian politician, 7th Prime Minister of India (1989-90), dies at 77
- 2010 Irvin Kershner, American director (b. 1923)
- 2014 P. D. James [Phyllis Dorothy], Baroness James of Holland Park, English crime and mystery writer (Cover Her Face, Death in Holy Orders), dies at 94