If you can see your name here, it is no good sign

March 28, 2024

R I P of the day

Arden John (b. 1930-10-26 / d. 2012-03-28)

He was a English playwright whose works tended to expose social issues of personal concern. He was a member of the Royal Society of Literature.

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Nicoli
Jean. 1943-08-30

44

Born 1899-09-04. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder

During WWII he was a Corsican resistant. He was sentenced to death by the "Chemises noires" and beheaded by them with a knife.

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Weil
Simone. 1943-08-24

34

Born 1909-02-03. Domain:Philosophy. Cause of death:Infection (Lungs)

In 1942, she travelled first to the USA, then to London, where she joined the French Resistance. The punishing work regime she assumed soon took a heavy toll; in 1943 she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and instructed to rest and eat well. However, she refused special treatment because of her long-standing political idealism and activism, and her detachment from material things. Instead, she limited her food intake to what she believed residents of the parts of France occupied by the Germans ate. She most likely ate even less, as she refused food on most occasions. Her condition quickly deteriorated, and she was moved to a sanatorium in Ashford, Kent, England.
After a lifetime of battling illness and frailty, Weil died from cardiac failure at the age of 34. The coroner's report said that "the deceased did kill and slay herself by refusing to eat whilst the balance of her mind was disturbed."
In 1943 the term anorexia nervosa was not well known and the condition not always recognised, it would appear that it was a factor in the death of Simone Weil.

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Paddock
Charles William. 1943-07-21

43

Born 1900-08-11. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Accident

Charlie Paddock was sent out to represent his country at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. In Belgium, he had his greatest successes, winning the 100 m final, while placing second in the 200 m event. With the American 4 x 100 m relay team, Paddock won a third Olympic medal. Paddock became famous for his unusual finishing style, leaping towards the finish line at the end of the race.
He was on the personal staff of Major General William P. Upshur since the end of World War I. In 1943, during World War II, both Upshur and Paddock died in a plane crash near Sitka, Alaska.

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Alavoine
Jean. 1943-07-18

55

Born 1888-04-01. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Accident

In 1943 he died during a veteran course in Argenteuil.
He won 17 stages in the Tour de France - only 8 riders have won more stages - and wore the yellow jersey for 5 days. In Daniel Marszalek's list of best road riders in history, he is ranked 96th (in 2008)

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Tulasne
Jean. 1943-07-17

30

Born 1912-11-27. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder

He was a French fighting pilot, who died during a combat in Russia.

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Moulin
Jean. 1943-07-08

44

Born 1899-06-20. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder

René Hardy was caught and released by the Gestapo. They followed him when he came to the meeting at the doctor's house in Caluire, thus leading the Germans to Jean Moulin. Some believe that this was a deliberate act of treason; others think René Hardy was simply reckless.
Two trials were unable to determine that René Hardy was a traitor, and both concluded that he was innocent.
Jean Moulin was arrested June 21, 1943 in Cuire-et-Caluire (Rhône), in the home of Doctor Frédéric Dugoujon, where a meeting with most of the resistance leaders was taking place. Interrogated in Lyon by Klaus Barbie, head of the Gestapo there, and later in Paris, he never revealed anything to his captors. He eventually died near Metz, in the Paris-Berlin train which was taking him to a concentration camp. His death was likely due to injuries suffered either during the torture itself or in a suicide attempt, as Barbie alleged. Moulin's biographer Patrick Marnham supports the latter explanation, though it is widely believed that Barbie personally beat Moulin to death.

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McKendrick
Anderson Gray. 1943-05-30

67

Born 1876-09-08. Domain:Science (Medical/Bio style). Cause of death:Age

Lt Col Anderson Gray McKendrick DSc FRS was a Scottish military physician and epidemiologist who pioneered the use of mathematical methods in epidemiology. Irwin commented on the quality of his work, "Although an amateur, he was a brilliant mathematician, with a far greater insight than many professionals."

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Ford
Edsel. 1943-05-26

50

Born 1893-11-06. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Cancer

Henry Ford's son.
Like his father, Edsel's reputation is clouded over associations with Nazis

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Yamamoto
Isoroku. 1943-04-18

59

Born 1884-04-04. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder

To boost morale following the defeat at Guadalcanal, Yamamoto decided to make an inspection tour throughout the South Pacific. On 14 April 1943, the US naval intelligence effort, code-named "Magic", intercepted and decrypted a message containing specific details regarding Yamamoto's tour, including arrival and departure times and locations, as well as the number and types of planes that would transport and accompany him on the journey.
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox to "Get Yamamoto." Knox instructed Admiral Chester W. Nimitz of Roosevelt's wishes. Admiral Nimitz consulted Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., Commander, South Pacific, then authorized a mission on 17 April to intercept Yamamoto's flight en route and down it.
On the morning of April 18, despite urgings by local commanders to cancel the trip for fear of ambush, Yamamoto's planes left Rabaul as scheduled for the 315-mile trip. Shortly after, eighteen specially-fitted P-38s took off from Guadalcanal. They wave-hopped most of the 430 miles to the rendezvous point, maintaining radio silence throughout. At 09:34 Tokyo time, the two flights met and a dogfight ensued between the P-38s and the six Zeroes escorting Yamamoto.
1st Lt. Rex T. Barber engaged the first of the two Japanese bombers, which turned out to be Yamamoto's plane. He sprayed the plane with gunfire until it began to spew smoke from its left engine. Barber turned away to attack the other bomber as Yamamoto's plane crashed into the jungle. Afterwards, another pilot, Capt Thomas George Lanphier, Jr., claimed he had shot down the lead bomber, which led to a decades-old controversy until a team inspected the crash site to determine direction of the bullet impacts. Most historians now credit Barber with the claim.
One US pilot—1st Lt. Raymond K. Hine—was killed in action.
The crash site and body of Admiral Yamamoto were found the next day in the jungle north of the then-coastal site of the former Australian patrol post of Buin by a Japanese search and rescue party, led by Army engineer Lieutenant Hamasuna. According to Hamasuna, Yamamoto had been thrown clear of the plane's wreckage, his white-gloved hand grasping the hilt of his katana, still upright in his seat under a tree. Hamasuna said Yamamoto was instantly recognizable, head dipped down as if deep in thought. A post-mortem of the body disclosed that Yamamoto had received two gunshot wounds, one to the back of his left shoulder and another to his left lower jaw that exited above his right eye. Despite the evidence, the question of whether or not the Admiral initially survived the crash has been a matter of controversy in Japan. State Funeral for Admiral Yamamoto in Tokyo State Funeral for Admiral Yamamoto in Tokyo
To cover up the fact that the Allies were reading Japanese code, American news agencies were told that civilian coast-watchers in the Solomon Islands saw Yamamoto boarding a bomber in the area. They also did not publicize the names of most of the pilots that attacked Yamamoto's plane because one of them had a brother who was a prisoner of the Japanese and U.S. military officials feared for his safety.
Captain Watanabe and his staff cremated Yamamoto's remains at Buin, and the ashes were returned to Tokyo aboard the battleship Musashi, Yamamoto's last flagship.

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Baur
Henri (alias: Harry Baur). 1943-04-08

63

Born 1880-04-12. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Heart

Tortured by the Nazis. Almost killed.

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Rachmaninov
Sergei. 1943-03-28

70

Born 1873-04-01. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Cancer

Rachmaninoff fell ill during a concert tour in late 1942, and was subsequently diagnosed with advanced melanoma.
Isle of the Dead (or Island of the Dead; Toteninsel in the original German) is one of the best known paintings by Swiss-German artist Arnold Böcklin, as well as a piece of music by Sergei Rachmaninoff, a film by producer Val Lewton, director Mark Robson and a novel by Roger Zelazny and a novel by Emily Rodda in the Deltora Quest 3 series.

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Hilbert
David. 1943-02-14

81

Born 1862-01-23. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Age

He attended a banquet, and was seated next to the new Minister of Education, Bernhard Rust. Rust asked, "How is mathematics in Göttingen now that it has been freed of the Jewish influence?" Hilbert replied, "Mathematics in Göttingen? There is really none any more."

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Kégresse
Adolphe. 1943-02-09

64

Born 1879-06-20. Domain:Science (Physics style). Cause of death:Unknown

Adolphe Kégresse was a French military engineer, inventor of the half-track and dual clutch transmission. Born at Héricourt, and educated in Montbéliard, he moved in 1905 to Saint Petersburg, Russia to work for the Russian Tsar Nicholas II. To improve the mobility of the imperial car park, he invented the Kégresse track to modify normal motor vehicles into half-tracks. After World War I Kégresse was forced to return to his home country, where he was from 1919 employed by the Citroën company during the 1920s and 1930s to design half-track vehicles, together with engineer Jacques Hinstin.

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Caillaux
Henriette. 1943-01-29

69

Born 1874-12-05. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Age

Henriette Caillaux was a Parisian socialite and second wife of the former Prime Minister of France, Joseph Caillaux. On March 16, 1914, she shot and killed Gaston Calmette, editor of the newspaper Le Figaro. Henriette Caillaux was born Henriette Raynouard, at Rueil-Malmaison. At the age of 19, she married Léo Claretie, a writer twelve years her senior. They had two children. In 1907 she began having an affair with Joseph Caillaux while both he and she were still married. In 1908, she divorced Claretie; Caillaux had more difficulties in divorcing his wife, but he eventually did so and they married in October 1911. Their joint assets were worth around 1.5 million francs, placing them among France's wealthiest couples

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Tesla
Nikola. 1943-01-07

87

Born 1856-07-10. Domain:Science (Physics style). Cause of death:Age

In his later years Tesla became a vegetarian. In an article for Century Illustrated Magazine he wrote: "It is certainly preferable to raise vegetables, and I think, therefore, that vegetarianism is a commendable departure from the established barbarous habit." Tesla argued that it is wrong to eat uneconomic meat when large numbers of people are starving; he also believed that plant food was "superior to it [meat] in regard to both mechanical and mental performance." He also argued that animal slaughter was "wanton and cruel".
In his final years he suffered from extreme sensitivity to light, sound and other influences.

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Darlan
François. 1942-12-24

61

Born 1881-08-07. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Murder

On the afternoon of 24 December 1942, a 20-year-old French monarchist, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, entered Darlan's headquarters in Algiers and shot Darlan twice. Although La Chapelle had been a member of the resistance group led by Henri d'Astier, it is believed he acted alone. Darlan died a few hours later. Darlan was replaced as High Commissioner by another French flag officer, General Henri Giraud. De La Chapelle was executed by firing squad on 26 December.

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Losserand
Raymond. 1942-10-21

39

Born 1903-00-00. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Murder

He was executed in Issy Les Moulineaux by Germans, after more than 50 interrogations and torture.

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Némirovsky
Irène. 1942-08-17

39

Born 1903-02-11. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Murder

On July 13, 1942, Irène Némirovsky (then 39) was arrested as a "stateless person of Jewish descent" by French police under the regulations of the German occupation. As she was being taken away, she told her daughters, "I am going on a journey now." She was brought to a convoy assembly camp at Pithiviers and then transported on July 17 along with 928 other Jewish deportees to Auschwitz arriving two days later where her forearm was marked with an identification number. According to official papers, she died a month later of typhus.
Her husband was sent to Auschwitz shortly thereafter, and was immediately put to death in a gas chamber.

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Pick
Georg Alexander. 1942-07-26

83

Born 1859-08-10. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Murder

Georg Alexander Pick was an Austrian-born mathematician. He was born in a Jewish family to Josefa Schleisinger and Adolf Josef Pick. He died in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Today he is best known for Pick's theorem for determining the area of lattice polygons. He published it in an article in 1899; it was popularized when Hugo Dyonizy Steinhaus included it in the 1969 edition of Mathematical Snapshots.

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Dalmas
André. 1942-07-25

28

Born 1913-09-29. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder

André DALMAS was employed at the Central Telegraphic PTT in Paris, 103 rue de Grenelle since February 1, 1938. He was born in Thomery in Seine-et-Marne. He made brilliant studies, obtained the baccalaureate of philosophy and two certificates of license in law. As a student, he was already participating in a political activity, in particular by joining the Communist Students in 1934 during his studies at the Faculty of Law in Paris. He was also a member of the Federal Union of Students. He took part in demonstrations to defend a law professor attacked by the Croix-de-Feu and the Patriotic Youth in 1935 and 1936. He did his military service from 1936 to 1937 in Mourmelon, section of military nurses. He was mobilized from August 1939 to August 1940. He married on December 5, 1939, to Aimée Pannetier, a former student in philosophy and member of the Socialist Youth who then campaigned for the Federal Union of Students. After their marriage, they will live in Maisons-Laffitte in Seine-et-Oise. Very quickly, André Dalmas will join the underground Communist Party then the FTP. On May 31, 1942, rue de Buci in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, a revolt of a significant number of women broke out. They were exasperated by the hardships, by the endless queues, by the worry about ration tickets. Women grab goods from nearby grocery stores and distribute them. The police arrived very quickly and charged the demonstrators but run into a group of FTP. André Dalmas was responsible for protecting Madeleine Marzin. Arrests were made made. Among them, André Dalmas, Madeleine Marzin, a steelworker Edgar Lefébure, and students. The judgment by the Special Section of the State Court was expeditious. No recourse, officially appointed lawyers defended them by presenting them as lost. The next day, Edgar Lefébure and André Dalmas were guillotined on July 25, 1942 in the courtyard of La prison de la Santé. The name of André Dalmas appears on the stele of the PTT Telegraph Center at 103, rue de Grenelle. In 2005, the building having been sold, this stele was removed and reinstalled in one of the France Telecom-Orange halls, 6 place d´Alleray in the 15th arrondissement. The management of this company has left this place. Madeleine Marzin, born July 21, 1908 in Loudéac, died May 27, 1998 in Paris. She joined the Resistance very early on, participating in the constitution of the National University Front. She and other women lead the demonstration in rue de Buci. At the mock trial, she was sentenced to death, a sentence commuted to hard labor. During her transfer to Rennes prison she managed to escape. She became Municipal councilor of Paris, elected Member of the Communist list in 1951, then re-elected in 1956.

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Heydrich
Reinhard Tristan Eugen. 1942-06-04

38

Born 1904-03-07. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Unknown

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a main architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Main Security Office (including the Gestapo, Kripo, and SD). He was also Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor (Deputy/Acting Reich-Protector) of Bohemia and Moravia. He served as president of the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC, later known as Interpol) and chaired the January 1942 Wannsee Conference which formalised plans for the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question"—the deportation and genocide of all Jews in German-occupied Europe. Many historians regard Heydrich as the darkest figure within the Nazi regime; Adolf Hitler described him as "the man with the iron heart". In London, the Czechoslovak government-in-exile resolved to kill Heydrich. Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík headed the team chosen for the operation, trained by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). They returned to the Protectorate, parachuting from a Handley Page Halifax on 28 December 1941, where they lived in hiding, preparing for the mission. On 27 May 1942, Heydrich planned to meet Hitler in Berlin. German documents suggest that Hitler intended to transfer him to German-occupied France where the French resistance was gaining ground. Heydrich would have to pass a section where the Dresden-Prague road merges with a road to the Troja Bridge. The junction in the Prague suburb of Libeň was well suited for the attack because motorists have to slow for a hairpin bend. As Heydrich's car slowed, Gabčík took aim with a Sten submachine gun, but it jammed and failed to fire. Heydrich ordered his driver, Klein, to halt and attempted to confront Gabčík rather than speed away. Kubiš, who wasn't spotted by Heydrich or Klein, threw a converted anti-tank mine at the car as it stopped, landing against the rear wheel. The explosion ripped through the right rear fender and wounded Heydrich, with metal fragments and fibres from the upholstery causing serious damage to his left side. He suffered major injuries to his diaphragm, spleen, and one lung, as well as a broken rib. Kubiš received a minor shrapnel wound to his face. After Kubiš fled, Heydrich ordered Klein to chase Gabčík on foot, and Gabčík shot Klein in the leg, before escaping himself. A Czech woman went to Heydrich's aid and flagged down a delivery van. He was placed on his stomach in the back of the van and taken to the emergency room at Bulovka Hospital. A splenectomy was performed, and the chest wound, left lung, and diaphragm were all debrided. Himmler ordered Karl Gebhardt to fly to Prague to assume care. Despite a fever, Heydrich's recovery appeared to progress well. Hitler's personal doctor Theodor Morell suggested the use of the new antibacterial drug sulfonamide, but Gebhardt thought that Heydrich would recover and declined the suggestion. Heydrich reconciled himself to his fate on 2 June, during a visit by Himmler, by reciting one of his father's operas: The world is just a barrel-organ which the Lord God turns Himself. We all have to dance to the tune which is already on the drum. Heydrich fell into a coma on 3 June, the day after Himmler's visit, and never regained consciousness. He died on 4 June; an autopsy concluded that he died of sepsis. He was 38 years old.

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Barrymore
John. 1942-05-29

60

Born 1882-02-15. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:cirrhosis of the liver

Barrymore collapsed while appearing on a radio show and died some days later in his hospital room. His dying words were "Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him." Gene Fowler attributes different dying words to Barrymore in his biography Good Night, Sweet Prince. According to Fowler, John Barrymore roused as if to say something to his brother Lionel; Lionel asked John to repeat himself, and John simply replied, "You heard me, Mike."
In the late 1930s, alcoholism and possibly Alzheimer's Disease encroached on his ability to remember his lines, and his diminished abilities were apparent in an surviving screen test that he made for an aborted film of Hamlet in 1934. From then on, he insisted on reading his dialogue from cue cards. He continued to give creditable performances in lesser pictures, for example as Inspector Nielson in some of Paramount Pictures' Bulldog Drummond mysteries, and offered one last bravura dramatic turn in RKO's 1939 feature The Great Man Votes.

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Baudrillart
Alfred Henri Marie. 1942-05-19

83

Born 1859-01-06. Domain:Religious. Cause of death:Age

He was a French Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris from 1907 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1935. He was elected as a member of the Académie française, like his grandfather, on 2 May 1918. Baudrillart initially supported the Vichy government of Marshal Philippe Pétain, along with Cardinal Suhard, and in August 1941 - as a fervent anti-communist - even supported the creation of a Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism; however in early 1942 he openly protested in public against the anti-Semitic measures of the Vichy government in shops and theatres; he also decried the Hitler regime as unhuman (in private conversation). He was however strongly opposed to British diplomacy and military action.Baudrillart's private opposition inspired Cardinal Suhard to publish his Open Protest against the deportation of Jews in July, 1942. The Cardinal died in Paris, at age 83. He was solemnly buried in the chapel Des Carmes at the Catholic Institute (Institut Catholique).

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Larmor
Joseph. 1942-05-19

85

Born 1857-07-11. Domain:Science (Physics style). Cause of death:Age

He was a physicist and mathematician who made innovations in the understanding of electricity, dynamics, thermodynamics, and the electron theory of matter. His most influential work was Aether and Matter, a theoretical physics book published in 1900.

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Musil
Robert. 1942-04-15

62

Born 1880-11-06. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Stroke

Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften

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Bosch
Robert. 1942-03-12

81

Born 1861-09-23. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Age

Bosch was born in Albeck, a village to the northeast of Ulm in southern Germany. He was the eleventh of twelve children. His parents came from a class of well-situated farmers from the region. His father, a freemason, was unusually well-educated for someone of his class, and placed special importance on a good education for his children.

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Capablanca
José. 1942-03-08

54

Born 1888-11-19. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Stroke

On 7 March 1942, he was happily kibitzing a skittles game at the Manhattan Chess Club in New York when he collapsed from a stroke. He was taken to Mount Sinai hospital, where he died the next morning. The autopsy showed that there were numerous haemorrhages in his heart tissue related to the stroke. Remarkably, the Cuban's great rival, German-born Emanuel Lasker, had died in that very hospital only a year earlier.
His bitter rival Alekhine wrote on Capablanca's death, "With his death, we have lost a very great chess genius whose like we shall never see again."

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Losev
Oleg Vladimirovich. 1942-01-22

38

Born 1903-05-10. Domain:Science (Physics style). Cause of death:Other

He was a scientist and inventor. He was born to a high-ranking family in Imperial Russia. He published a number of papers and patents during his short career. His observations of LEDs languished for half a century before being recognized in the late 20th and early 21st century. In 1907, H. J. Round made a very brief report (only 2 paragraphs) in Electrical World regarding light coming from SiC by electrical excitation. Losev's papers provided much more detailed information than Round. Unfortunately, before this device could be developed, the Second World War intervened, and Losev died of starving during The Siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), at the age of 39.

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Peters
Jane (alias: Carole Lombard). 1942-01-16

33

Born 1908-10-06. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Accident

airplane crash at Table Rock Mountain.

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Levi-Civita
Tullio. 1941-12-29

68

Born 1873-03-29. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Age

He was an Italian mathematician, most famous for his work on absolute differential calculus (tensor calculus) and its applications to the theory of relativity, but who also made significant contributions in other areas. He was a pupil of Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro, the inventor of tensor calculus. His work included foundational papers in both pure and applied mathematics, celestial mechanics (notably on the three-body problem), analytic mechanics (the Levi-Civita separability conditions in the Hamilton–Jacobi equation) and hydrodynamics. The 1938 race laws enacted by the Italian Fascist government deprived Levi-Civita of his professorship and of his membership of all scientific societies. Isolated from the scientific world, he died in his apartment in Rome in 1941. Among his PhD students were Octav Onicescu, Attilio Palatini and Gheorghe Vrânceanu. Later on, when asked what he liked best about Italy, Einstein said "spaghetti and Levi-Civita".

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