Tait Peter Guthrie (b. 1831-04-28 / d. 1901-07-04)
Peter Guthrie Tait FRSE was a Scottish mathematical physicist and early pioneer in thermodynamics. He is best known for the mathematical physics textbook Treatise on Natural Philosophy, which he co-wrote with Kelvin, and his early investigations into knot theory. His work on knot theory contributed to the eventual formation of topology as a mathematical discipline. His name is known in graph theory mainly for Tait's conjecture. He is also one of the namesakes of the Tait-Kneser theorem on osculating circles.
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86
Born 1861-02-15. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Age
He was an English mathematician who became a philosopher. He wrote on algebra, logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of science, physics, metaphysics, and education. He co-authored the epochal Principia Mathematica with Bertrand Russell.
81
Born 1866-09-07. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Age
He was interned during World War II at the Drancy deportation camp. Public outcry at his imprisonment brought about his release in 1943. He died in Paris four years later of the results of his internment and was buried in Passy cemetery. His grand-son, françois, was deported in Mathausen. He never returned.
45
Born 1902-11-22. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Accident
He died in an airplane accident near Colomb-Béchar, Algeria.
89
Born 1858-04-23. Domain:Science (Physics style). Cause of death:Age
In March 1887 Planck married Marie Merck (1861-1909), sister of a school fellow, and moved with her into a sublet apartment in Kiel. They had four children: Karl (1888-1916), the twins Emma (1889-1919) and Grete (1889-1917), and Erwin (1893-1945). After several happy years the Planck family was struck by a series of disasters: in July 1909 Marie died, possibly from tuberculosis. In March 1911 Planck married his second wife, Marga von Hoesslin (1882-1948); in December his third son, Herrmann, was born.
During the First World War Planck's oldest son, Karl, was killed in action at Verdun, and Erwin was taken prisoner by the French in 1914. Grete died in 1917 while giving birth to her first child; her sister lost her life two years later in the same circumstances, after marrying Grete's widower. Both granddaughters survived and were named after their mothers. Planck endured all these losses with stoic submission to fate.
In January 1945 his second son, Erwin, to whom he had been particularly close, was executed by the Nazis because of his participation in the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in July 1944.
30
Born 1917-07-04. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Accident
He died following a goring in the right upper leg as he killed the fifth bull of the day, the Miura bull Islero, an event that left Spain in a state of shock.
66
Born 1881-09-15. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Other
His son, Jean Bugatti, was killed on August 11, 1939 at the age of 30, while testing a Type 57 tank-bodied race car near the Molsheim factory. After that, the company's fortunes began to decline. World War II ruined the factory in Molsheim, and the company lost control of the property. During the war, Bugatti planned a new factory at Levallois in Paris and designed a series of new cars. Ettore Bugatti was interred in the Bugatti family plot at the municipal cemetery in Dorlisheim near Molsheim in the Bas-Rhin département of the Alsace region of France.
53
Born 1894-06-15. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Unknown
He was a noted Russian and Soviet mathematician. He is best known for the Chebotaryov density theorem. On May 14, 2010, a memorial plaque for Nikolai Chebotaryov was unveiled on the main administration building of I.I. Mechnikov Odessa National University.
75
Born 1872-12-13. Domain:Painting. Cause of death:Cancer
41
Born 1906-05-23. Domain:Science (Medical/Bio style). Cause of death:Accident
Glenn Allan Millikan,American physiologist, was an inventor and mountaineer. Millikan invented the first practical, portable pulse oximeter in 1940–1942. The Millikan oximeter "is generally acknowledged as the beginning of oximetry in physiology and clinical medicine." The word oximeter was introduced by Millikan. In 1938 Millikan married Clare Leigh Mallory, daughter of George Mallory, the mountaineer who died while climbing Mount Everest. In 1947 Millikan himself was killed by a falling rock while climbing "Buzzard's Roost" near Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee.
58
Born 1889-00-00. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Other
She died of liver ailment. Anna Sage died 58. She was the "woman in red" who 13 years ago pointed out Public Enemy John Dillinger to FBI men, who thereupon shot him dead. She died in Timisoara, Rumania, where she was deported in 1936 for running a brothel.
84
Born 1863-07-30. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Stroke
Henry Ford took his last ride to Ford Cemetery in a Packard. On the night of his death the River Rouge had flooded the local power station and had left Ford's house without electricity. Before going to sleep Henry and his wife lit candles and oil lamps to light the house. Later that evening, just before dawn, Henry Ford, father of mass production and creator of the modern era, died in the same atmosphere as he had been born 83 years earlier, surrounded by candlelight.
47
Born 1900-11-25. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder
Höss (also spelled Höß, sometimes spelled in English as Hoess) was an SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel), and from 4 May 1940 to November 1943, the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, where it is estimated that more than a million people were murdered. Höss joined the Nazi Party in 1922, the SS in 1934. He was hanged in 1947 following his trial at Warsaw.
66
Born 1881-11-06. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Accident
Homer Lusk Collyer and Langley Wakeman Collyer (October 3, 1885 – c. March 9, 1947), known as the Collyer brothers, were two American brothers who became infamous for their bizarre natures and compulsive hoarding. For decades, the two lived in seclusion in their Harlem brownstone at 2078 Fifth Avenue (at the corner of 128th Street) where they obsessively collected books, furniture, musical instruments, and myriad other items, with booby traps set up in corridors and doorways to crush intruders. In March 1947, both were found dead in their home surrounded by over 140 tons of collected items that they had amassed over several decades. Since the 1960s, the site of the former Collyer house has been a pocket park, named for the brothers.
88
Born 1859-05-30. Domain:Philosophy. Cause of death:Age
He was a pioneering French psychologist, philosopher and psychotherapist in the field of dissociation and traumatic memory.
60
Born 1887-09-20. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Cancer
He was a German mathematician. He obtained his doctorate in Göttingen under the supervision of David Hilbert. Kurt Reidemeister and Heinrich Behnke were among his students. His early work included establishing the functional equation for the Dedekind zeta function, with a proof based on theta functions. The method extended to the L-functions associated to a class of characters now known as Hecke characters or idele class characters; such L-functions are now known as Hecke L-functions. He devoted most of his research to the theory of modular forms, creating the general theory of cusp forms (holomorphic, for GL(2)), as it is now understood in the classical setting. During the war, he fell ill from cancer and had to be operated. To spare him the rigors of post-war Germany, his Danish friends invited him to Copenhagen, where he died in 1947.
48
Born 1899-01-17. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Other
In May 1932, Capone was sent to Atlanta, a tough federal prison, but he was able to take control and obtain special privileges. He was then transferred to Alcatraz, where tight security and an uncompromising warden ensured that Capone had no contact with the outside world. Capone entered Alcatraz with his usual confidence, but his isolation from his associates, and the repeal of Prohibition, meant his empire was beginning to wither. He attempted to earn time off for good behavior by being a model prisoner and refusing to participate in prisoner rebellions. When Capone attempted to bribe guards he was sent to solitary confinement.
Though he adjusted relatively well to his new environment, his health declined as his syphilis (contracted as a youth) progressed, and he spent the last year of his sentence in the prison hospital, confused and disoriented. Capone completed his term in Alcatraz on January 6, 1939, and was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island in California, to serve his one-year misdemeanor sentence. He was released on November 16, 1939, spent a short time in a hospital, then returned to his home in Palm Island, Florida.
Capone's control and interests within organized crime had decreased rapidly after his imprisonment, and he was no longer able to run the Outfit after his release. He had lost weight, and his physical and mental health had declined, most noticeably with the onset of dementia. On January 21, 1947, Capone had an apoplectic stroke. He regained consciousness and started to improve but contracted pneumonia on January 24, and suffered a cardiac arrest the next day (possibly associated with the complications of third-stage neurosyphilis).
66
Born 1880-01-29. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Other
Fields spent his last weeks in a hospital, where a friend stopped by for a visit and caught Fields reading the Bible. When asked why, Fields replied, "I'm checking for loopholes." In a final irony, W. C. Fields died in 1946 (from a stomach hemorrhage) on the holiday he claimed to despise: Christmas Day.
A notable quote regarding alcohol is attributed to Fields: "I can't stand water because of the things fish do in it."
74
Born 1872-01-23. Domain:Science (Physics style). Cause of death:Age
He was also noted for being an outspoken opponent of Nazism, and was removed from his post by the Vichy government following the occupation of the country by Nazi Germany. He was later restored to his position in 1944. He died in Paris in 1946, two years after living to see the Liberation of Paris.
53
Born 1893-04-30. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Murder
Even in prison, Ribbentrop remained subservient to Hitler, stating "Even with all I know, if in this cell Hitler should come to me and say 'Do this!', I would still do it.".
During the trial, Ribbentrop rather unsuccessfully attempted to deny his role in the war. For example, during his cross-examination, the prosecution brought up claims that he (along with Hitler and Göring) threatened the leader of Czechoslovakia, Emil Hacha, with a "threat of aggressive action." The questioning resulted in the following exchange:
PROSECUTION: What further pressure could you put on the head of a country beyond threatening him that your Army would march in, in overwhelming strength, and your air force would bomb his capital?
RIBBENTROP: War, for instance.
While not recorded in the trial transcript, Göring was said to have remarked, after hearing these words, that Ribbentrop deserved to hang, if only for his stupidity.
At one point during the trial proceedings, US Army interpreter for the prosecution Richard Sonnenfeldt asked Baron Ernst von Weizsacker, Ribbentrop's second in command, how Hitler could have made him a high official. Weizsacker responded "Hitler never noticed Ribbentrop's babbling because Hitler always did all the talking".
Since Göring had committed suicide a few hours prior to the time of execution, Ribbentrop was the first politician to be hanged on the morning of October 16, 1946. After being escorted up the 13 steps to the waiting noose, Ribbentrop was asked if he had any final words. He calmly said: "God protect Germany. God have mercy on my soul. My final wish is that Germany should recover her unity and that, for the sake of peace, there should be understanding between East and West." As the hood was placed over his head, Ribbentrop added: "I wish peace to the world." After a slight pause the executioner pulled the lever, releasing the trap door Ribbentrop stood upon
52
Born 1894-10-27. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder
He was a Nazi war criminal, who organized the systematic enslavement of millions from lands occupied by Nazi Germany. He was General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment from 1942 until the end of the war, after which he was tried and executed.
54
Born 1892-07-22. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder
Arthur Seyss-Inquart (German: Seyß-Inquart, [ˈartuːɐ̯ zaɪs ˈʔɪŋkvart]) was an Austrian Nazi politician who served as Chancellor of Austria in 1938 for two days before the Anschluss. His positions during Third Reich included "deputy governor to Hans Frank in the General Government of Occupied Poland, and Reich commissioner for the German-occupied Netherlands" including shared responsibility "for the deportation of Dutch Jews and the shooting of hostages". Seyss-Inquart was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity. Inquart oversaw deportations, massacres and looting in Poland and the Netherlands. During World War I, Seyss-Inquart fought for the Austro-Hungarian Army with distinction. After the war he became a successful lawyer, and went on to join the governments of Chancellors Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt Schuschnigg. In 1938, Schuschnigg resigned in the face of a German invasion, and Seyss-Inquart was appointed his successor. The newly installed Nazis proceeded to transfer power to Germany, and Austria subsequently became the German province of Ostmark, with Seyss-Inquart as its governor (Reichsstatthalter). During World War II, Seyss-Inquart served briefly as the Deputy Governor General in occupied Poland and, following the fall of the Low Countries in 1940, he was appointed Reichskommissar of the occupied Netherlands. He was a member of the SS and held the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer. He instituted a reign of terror, with Dutch civilians subjected to forced labour and the vast majority of Dutch Jews deported and murdered. At the Nuremberg trials, Seyss-Inquart was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, sentenced to death, and executed by hanging.
46
Born 1900-05-23. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder
Hans Michael Frank was a German politician and lawyer who served as head of the General Government in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War. Frank was an early member of the German Workers' Party, the precursor of the Nazi Party (NSDAP). He took part in the failed Beer Hall Putsch, and later became Adolf Hitler's personal legal adviser as well as the lawyer of the NSDAP. In June 1933 he was named as a Reichsleiter (national leader, Reich leader) of the party. In December 1934, Frank joined the Hitler Cabinet as a Reichsminister, Minister without Portfolio. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Frank was appointed Governor-General of the occupied Polish territories. During his tenure, he instituted a reign of terror against the civilian population and became directly involved in the mass murder of Jews. He engaged in the use of forced labour and oversaw four of the extermination camps. The policies of enslavement and extermination were later used extensively in the conquered territories of the Soviet Union. Frank remained head of the General Government until its collapse in early 1945. After the war, Frank was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials. He was sentenced to death and executed by hanging in October 1946.
53
Born 1893-01-12. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Suicide
Though he defended himself vigorously, he was sentenced to death by hanging. The judgment stated that:
"There is nothing to be said in mitigation. For Goering was often, indeed almost always, the moving force, second only to his leader. He was the leading war aggressor, both as political and as military leader; he was the director of the slave labour programme and the creator of the oppressive programme against the Jews and other races, at home and abroad. All of these crimes he has frankly admitted. On some specific cases there may be conflict of testimony, but in terms of the broad outline, his own admissions are more than sufficiently wide to be conclusive of his guilt. His guilt is unique in its enormity. The record discloses no excuses for this man."
Göring dispatched an appeal in which he said he would accept the court's death penalty if they allowed him to be shot as a soldier instead of hanged as a common criminal, but the court members refused to allow him this honor. Defying the sentence imposed by his captors, he committed suicide with a potassium cyanide capsule the night before he was supposed to be hanged. Where Göring obtained the cyanide, and how he had managed to hide it during his entire imprisonment at Nuremberg, remains unknown.
63
Born 1883-12-18. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Heart attack
69
Born 1877-09-11. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Age
He was an English physicist, astronomer and mathematician.
37
Born 1908-11-12. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder
After the war, the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland at Kraków found Göth guilty of murdering tens of thousands of people. He was hanged on September 13, 1946, aged 37, not far from the former site of the Płaszów camp he had commanded. At his execution, Göth's hands were tied behind his back. The executioner twice miscalculated the length of rope necessary to hang Göth, and it was only on the third attempt that the execution was successful.
In 2002, an interview book with Göth's daughter, Monika, was published in Germany under the name Ich muß doch meinen Vater lieben, oder? (But I must love my father, mustn't I?). For the first time, Göth's daughter spoke of her mother, who unconditionally glorified her father until faced with his role in the Holocaust, and had committed suicide after giving an interview in the 1980s.
82
Born 1864-05-10. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Age
He was a French inventor, engineer, and industrialist who was a pioneer of the motion picture industry.