- 1345 Willem IV, earl of Henegouwen/Holland/Zealand, dies at about 27
- 1371 Vlkasin, Hungarian general/co-king of Serbia, dies
- 1417 Francesco Zabarella, Italian jurist (b. 1360)
- 1468 Juan de Torquemada, Spanish Catholic cardinal (b. 1388)
- 1620 Taichang Emperor [Zhu Changluo], 14th Emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, dies at 38
- 1626 Lancelot Andrewes, English theologist/bishop of Winchester, dies at 71
- 1626 Wakisaka Yasuharu, Japanese warrior (b. 1554)
- 1657 Hadji Chalfa/Katib Tsjelebi, Turkish geographer, dies at 48
- 1716 Antoine Parent, French mathematician, dies at 50
- 1763 John Byron, English poet (b. 1692)
- 1764 Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro, Spanish scholar, dies at 89
- 1802 Baron Jurij Vega, Slovenian mathematician and military officer (b. 1754)
Daniel Boone (1734-1820)
American frontiersman and explorer (US Hall of Fame 1915), dies at 85
- 1826 Alexander Gordon Laing, Scottish explorer (1st European to reach Timbuktu), murdered in or near Timbuktu at 31
- 1846 Thomas Clarkson, English abolitionist (Negro Emancipation), dies at 86
- 1866 Carl Almqvist, Swedish author (Amorina), dies at 72
- 1868 August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1790)
- 1877 Hermann Grassmann, German linguist and mathematician, dies at 68
Levi Strauss (1829-1902)
German-born American clothing designer who founded the 1st company to manufacture blue jeans (Levi Strauss & Co.), dies at 73
- 1904 John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman and statesman (b. 1848)
- 1904 Lafcadio Hearn, American author (Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan), dies at 54
- 1935 Andy Adams, American writer (Cattle fire), dies at 76
- 1936 Harriet Monroe, American poet (You & I, A Poet's Life) and editor of Poetry magazine, dies at 75
- 1937 Edward A. Filene, American entrepreneur and philanthropist, dies at 77
- 1940 Walter Benjamin, writer, dies at 48
- 1940 William Henry Davies, Welsh poet (Autobiography of a Super Tramp), dies at 69
- 1945 Richard Beer-Hofmann, Austrian writer, dies at 78
- 1946 William Strunk Jr., American grammarian and author (The Elements of Style), dies at 77
- 1947 Hugh Lofting, English writer (Dr Dolittle), dies at 61
- 1951 Hans Cloos, German geologist and pioneer in the study of granite tectonics (the deformation of crystalline rocks), dies at 65
- 1952 George Santayana, Spanish-American philosopher and poet (Last Puritan), dies at 88
- 1953 Xu Beihong, Chinese painter, dies at 58
- 1956 Lucien Febvre, French historian (Un Destin, Martin Luther), dies at 78
- 1959 S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, 4th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (1956-59), assassinated by a Buddhist monk at 60
- 1961 Charles Erwin Wilson, American engineer (President and CEO of General Motors) and politician (United States Secretary of Defense 1953-57), dies at 71
- 1965 James Fitzmaurice, Irish aviation pioneer (b. 1898)
- 1968 Daniel Johnson, Sr., Canadian politician, 20th Premier of Quebec, dies at 53
- 1973 Anton Schnack, German writer and poet, dies at 81
- 1976 Leopold Ružička, Croatian-Swiss chemist (Nobel 1939), dies at 89
- 1978 Manne Siegbahn, Swedish physicist (Nobel 1924-discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy), dies at 91
- 1984 Paquirri, Spanish bullfighter (b. 1948)
- 1989 Pavlos Bakoyannis, Greek parliament leader, murdered in Rome
- 1990 Alberto Moravia [Pincherle], Italian writer (Woman in Red), dies at 82
- 1992 Ralph Manheim, translator (Mein Kampf), dies at 85
- 1993 James Boyden, British Labour MP (1959-79), dies at 82
- 1994 Jessie Kesson, Scottish writer and radio producer, dies at 77
- 1994 Maurice Ashley, historian and editor (The Listener), dies at 87
- 1994 Miguel Angel Martinez Soto, mariachi, dies at 22
- 1996 Geoffrey Wilkinson, English chemist (1973 Nobel Prize - organometallic compounds), dies at 75
- 1996 George Henderson, Scottish priest (Bishop of Argyll and the Isles from 1977-92), dies at 74
- 1999 Oseola McCarty, American philanthropist (b. 1908)
- 2005 Helen Cresswell, British author
- 2006 Philip Randle, British biochemist (Randle cycle), dies at 80
- 2011 Bob Cassilly, American Artist and Founder of the St. Louis City Museum (b. 1949)
- 2017 Robert Delpire, French publisher, editor and photographer, dies at 91
Jacques Chirac (1932-2019)
President of France (1995-2007) and Prime Minister of France (1974-76, 1986-88), dies at 86
- 2021 Ndakasi, Congolese mountain gorilla whose photobomb went viral, dies of illness at Virunga National Park at 14 [1]