×
Rouxel Jacques (b. 1931-02-26 / d. 2004-04-25)
Rouxel is perhaps best known for his initially controversial animated French TV series Les Shadoks, which first appeared in 1968.
Lookup: name or firstname or alias or date (yyyy-mm-dd):
69
Born 1872-11-18. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Age
He was a French singer and entertainer.
17
Born 1924-04-26. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder
Ma petite maman chérie,
mon tout petit frère adoré,
mon petit papa aimé,
Je vais mourir ! Ce que je vous demande, toi, en particulier ma petite maman, c’est d’être courageuse. Je le suis et je veux l’être autant que ceux qui sont passés avant moi.
Certes, j’aurai voulu vivre. Mais ce que je souhaite de tout mon coeur, c’est que ma mort serve à quelque chose. Je n’ai pas eu le temps d’embrasser Jean. J’ai embrassé mes deux frères Roger et Rino. Quant au véritable je ne peux le faire hélas !
J’espère que toutes mes affaires te seront renvoyées, elles pourront servir à Serge, qui je l’escompte sera fier de les porter un jour.
A toi, petit Papa, si je t’ai fait, ainsi qu’à petite Maman, bien des peines, je te salue une dernière fois. Sache que j’ai fait de mon mieux pour suivre la voie que tu m’as tracée. Un dernier adieu à tous mes amis et à mon frère que j’aime beaucoup. Qu’il étudie bien pour être plus tard un homme.
17 ans et demi ! Ma vie a été courte !
Je n’ai aucun regret, si ce n’est de vous quitter tous.
Je vais mourir avec Tintin, Michels.
Maman, ce que je te demande, ce que je veux que tu me promettes, c’est d’être courageuse et de surmonter ta peine. Je ne peux pas en mettre davantage. Je vous quitte tous, toutes, toi Maman, Serge, Papa, je vous embrasse de tout mon cœur d’enfant.
Courage !
Votre Guy qui vous aime
Dernières pensées : "Vous tous qui restez, soyez dignes de nous, les 27 qui allons mourir !"
38
Born 1903-00-00. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder
Excuted by the Germans along with Guy Moquet.
37
Born 1904-09-20. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder
Jean-Pierre Timbaud was executed by the Germans along with 26 other Communist hostages detained in Châteaubriant, in punishment of the October 20 execution of Feldkommandant Karl Hotz, commander of the German troops in the Loire-Inférieure region, who was assassinated in Nantes by Resistants. Guy Môquet, 17 years old, was also part of the executed communist hostages, as well as Charles Michels, a Communist deputy of the XVe arrondissement of Paris. Some say Jean-Pierre Timbaud died crying out “Long life to the German Communist Party!”, while Léon Blum declared during the Riom Trial that he had sung the Marseillaise before the firing squad. Louis Aragon also stated: “The name of Timbaud among the Châteaubriant hostages was to be my direct reason, my individual reason to accept the clandestine duty which fell on me.”
49
Born 1892-09-26. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Suicide
Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva was a Russian poet. Her work is considered among some of the greatest in twentieth century Russian literature. She lived through and wrote of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Moscow famine that followed it. In an attempt to save her daughter Irina from starvation, she placed her in a state orphanage in 1919, where she died of hunger. Tsvetaeva left Russia in 1922 and lived with her family in increasing poverty in Paris, Berlin and Prague before returning to Moscow in 1939. Her husband Sergei Efron and her daughter Ariadna Èfron (Alya) were arrested on espionage charges in 1941; her husband was executed. Tsvetaeva committed suicide in 1941 (hanging). As a lyrical poet, her passion and daring linguistic experimentation mark her as a striking chronicler of her times and the depths of the human condition.
40
Born 1901-06-03. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder
D'Estienne d'Orves was codenamed "Jean-Pierre Girard"; on 21 December 1940. He set sail from Newlyn to Plogoff on a fishing ship, the Marie-Louise, along with his 20-year-old radio operator Alfred Gaessler, a German-speaking Alsatian, codenamed Georges Marty. He arrived at the Raz the next day.
He set his quarters in Chantenay-sur-Loire, near Nantes, at the Clément's house, and made several trips to Paris and in Brittany, with the notable assistance of Maurice Barlier. He set up the basic organisation of the spying web, and was able to transmit significant information about German forces (coastal defences, submarines, aerodromes and refueling point near Nantes).
From 6 January to 19 January, he was in Paris to set up a second network, meeting with Max André, Jan Doornik and numerous other people from the French Resistance. Back to Nantes on 20 January, he came back to the Clement's, who reported suspicious activities by the radio operator Gaessler, seen hanging around in bars and talking with German soldiers. When interrogated, Gaessler said that this was a good way to gather information. D'Estienne d'Orves decided to lay down Marty at the next trip to London, but two days later, the Gestapo stormed the house and arrested him. After a brief resistance, a wounded and handcuffed D'Estienne d'Orves was brought to Angers, along with his companions.
Marty's treason allowed the Nazis to also arrest Barlier, Doornik and most of the network, totaling 26 people. The small intelligence network created by Max André, however, was untouched, and continued its operations until the Liberation of Paris in August 1944. For several weeks, Gaessler sent false information to London and allowed the Nazis to arrest several other agents. He was evacuated by the Nazis to Austria, and disappeared in 1945.
He was tried from 13 May onwards, and claimed full responsibility of the network, defending his fellow prisoners. On the 23rd, Court Martial sentenced him to death, along with eight of his companions, and transferred them to Fresnes.
Acknowledging their patriotism, the Court Martial filed a request for grace immediately, and German legal advisor Keyser took it upon himself to make the trip to Berlin and request a grace for the prisoners from Hitler himself. But the invasion of USSR by the Third Reich, on 22 June 1941, forced the French Communists to join the Resistance and greatly increased the attacks against German forces, inducing a harshening in the repression. Hence, on 28 August, the execution order was given for D'Estienne d'Orves, Barlier and Doornik. The three were granted to spend their last night together, and to be shot standing and without a blindfold. They were blessed by Chaplain Franz Stock.
D'Estienne d'Orves had an interview with president Keyser, the German military judge who had sentenced him to death, where he said: "Sir, you are a German officer. I am a French officer. We both served our duty. Please allow me to hug you".
The execution took place on 29 August 1941, at dawn, at Fort du Mont Valérien. Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves was buried in Verrières le Buisson.
19
Born 1921-11-21. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Other
Typhoid fever.
66
Born 1875-06-28. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Infection (Lungs)
Fragile health all his life.
Sequels of tuberculosis
53
Born 1888-08-01. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Murder
After the Fall of France, he was one of the minority of parliamentarians who refused to grant full powers to Marshall Philippe Pétain. Pétain's Vichy France regime had him suspended from his office as mayor on September 20, 1940, and arrested five days after. He was imprisoned in Pellevoisin, then in Vals-les-Bains, before being placed under house arrest in Montélimar. He died when a bomb placed by Cagoule terrorists exploded in his house; at the end of World War II in 1945, Marx Dormoy was given a solemn funeral in Montluçon. He is commemorated by having a Métro station and boulevard named after him in the 18th arrondisement of Paris.
37
Born 1903-06-19. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:orphan disease
Gehrig was known as "The Iron Horse" for his durability. Over a 15-season span between 1925 and 1939, he played in 2,130 consecutive games. The streak was broken when Gehrig became disabled with the fatal neuromuscular disease that claimed his life two years later. His streak, long believed to be one of baseball's few unbreakable records, stood for 56 years until finally broken by Cal Ripken, Jr., of the Baltimore Orioles on September 6, 1995.
James Kahn, a reporter who wrote often about Gehrig, said in one article:
“ I think there's something wrong with him. Physically wrong, I mean. I don't know what it is. But I am satisfied that it goes far beyond his ball-playing. I have seen ballplayers 'go' overnight, as Gehrig seems to have done. But they were simply washed up as ballplayers. It's something deeper than that in this case, though. I have watched him very closely and this is what I have seen: I have seen him time a ball perfectly, swing on it as hard as he can, meet it squarely - and drive a soft, looping fly over the infield. In other words, for some reason that I do not know, his old power isn't there.... he is meeting the ball, time after time, and it isn't going anywhere. ”
As Lou Gehrig's debilitation became steadily worse, his wife Eleanor called the famed Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Her call was transferred to Dr. Charles William Mayo, who had been following Gehrig's career and his mysterious loss of strength. Dr. Mayo told Eleanor to bring Gehrig as soon as possible.
Eleanor and Lou flew to Rochester from Chicago, where the Yankees were playing at the time, arriving at the Mayo Clinic on June 13, 1939. After six days of extensive testing at Mayo Clinic, the diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) was confirmed on June 19, Gehrig's 36th birthday. The prognosis was grim: rapidly increasing paralysis, difficulty in swallowing and speaking, and a life expectancy of fewer than three years, although there would be no impairment of mental functions. Gehrig was probably told that the cause of ALS was unknown but it was painless, non-contagious and cruel — the nervous system is destroyed but the mind remains intact.
80
Born 1861-12-29. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Age
Kurt Wilhelm Sebastian Hensel was a German mathematician born in Königsberg. He was the brother of philosopher Paul Hensel. Kurt and Paul's paternal grandparents were painter Wilhelm Hensel and composer Fanny Mendelssohn.
59
Born 1882-01-25. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Suicide
Born Adeline Virginia Stephen in London.
On 28 March 1941, Woolf drowned herself by weighing her pockets with stones and walking into the River Ouse near her home. Her body was not found until the 18 April. Her husband buried her remains under a tree in their garden.
In her last note to her husband she wrote:
“ I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that — everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. "
65
Born 1876-09-13. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Accident
He was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and Elyria, Ohio. In 1912 he abandoned his business, first wife and three children to become a writer. He had been feeling abdominal discomfort for a few days, which was later diagnosed as peritonitis. Anderson and his wife disembarked from the cruise liner Santa Lucia and went to the hospital in Colón, Panama, where he died on March 8. An autopsy revealed he had accidentally swallowed a toothpick, which had damaged his internal organs and promoted infection. He was thought to have swallowed it in the course of eating the olive of a martini or hors d'oeuvres.
31
Born 1909-09-26. Domain:Science (Medical/Bio style). Cause of death:Infection
59
Born 1882-02-02. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Operation
He underwent surgery for a perforated ulcer. While at first improved, he relapsed the following day, and despite several transfusions, fell into a coma. He awoke at 2 a.m. on 13 January 1941, and asked for a nurse to call his wife and son before losing consciousness again. They were still en route when he died fifteen minutes later.
73
Born 1868-12-24. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Age
In 1933, the Jewish Lasker and his wife Martha Kohn had to leave Germany because of the Nazis. They went to England and, after a subsequent short stay (1935-1937) in the USSR (where Lasker renounced his German citizenship and received Soviet citizenship), they settled in New York, where he resided for the rest of his life.
82
Born 1859-10-18. Domain:Philosophy. Cause of death:Other
After his retirement from the Collège, Bergson faded into obscurity, because he was suffering from a degenerative illness. Later in his life, he extended his philosophical theories to the realms of morality, religion and art. It was respectfully received by the public and the philosophical community, but all by that time he realized that Bergson's days as a philosophical luminary were past. He was, however, able to reiterate his core beliefs near the end of his life, by renouncing all of the posts and honours previously awarded him, rather than accept exemption from the antisemitic laws imposed by the Vichy government. Though wanting to convert to Catholicism and having personally become a Christian in 1921, he held off instead and showed solidarity with his fellow Jews by signing the registry books.
44
Born 1896-09-24. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Heart attack
Fitzgerald had clearly been an alcoholic since his college days, and he became notorious during the 1920s for his extraordinarily heavy drinking. This left him in poor health by the late 1930s.
Fitzgerald suffered two heart attacks in late 1940. After the first, he was ordered by his doctor to avoid strenuous exertion and to obtain a first floor apartment, which he did by moving in with Sheilah Graham. On the night of December 20, 1940, he had his second heart attack, and the next day, December 21, while awaiting a visit from his doctor, Fitzgerald collapsed in Graham's apartment and died.
38
Born 1902-05-29. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder
On 27 November 1940, while flying to Syria with Jean Chiappe, the new French High Commissioner to the Levant, his four-engined Farman NC.2234 aircraft Le Verrier was shot down by an Italian fighter over the Mediterranean.
71
Born 1869-03-18. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Cancer
Chamberlain was forced to resign the premiership on 10 May 1940, after Germany invaded the Netherlands, Belgium and France. He was succeeded by Winston Churchill but remained very well regarded in Parliament. He had a key role in the formation of the Special Operations Executive. Chamberlain died of cancer six months after leaving office.
48
Born 1892-07-15. Domain:Philosophy. Cause of death:Suicide
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish mysticism, Benjamin made enduring and influential contributions to aesthetic theory, literary criticism, and historical materialism. He was associated with the Frankfurt School, and also maintained formative friendships with thinkers such as playwright Bertolt Brecht and Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem. He was also related to German political theorist and philosopher Hannah Arendt through her first marriage to Benjamin's cousin, Günther Anders. In 1932, during the turmoil preceding Adolf Hitler's assumption of the office of Chancellor of Germany, Benjamin left Germany for the Spanish island of Ibiza for some months; he then moved to Nice, where he considered killing himself. Perceiving the sociopolitical and cultural significance of the Reichstag fire (27 February 1933) as the de facto Nazi assumption of full power in Germany, then manifest with the subsequent persecution of the Jews, he moved to Paris, but before doing so he sought shelter in Svendborg, at Bertolt Brecht's house, and at Sanremo, where his ex-wife Dora lived. As he ran out of money, Benjamin collaborated with Max Horkheimer, and received funds from the Institute for Social Research, later going permanently into exile. In Paris, he met other refugee German artists and intellectuals; he befriended Hannah Arendt, novelist Hermann Hesse, and composer Kurt Weill. In 1936, a first version of "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (originally written in German in 1935) was published in French ("L'œuvre d'art à l'époque de sa reproduction méchanisée") by Max Horkheimer in the Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung journal of the Institute for Social Research. It was a critique of the authenticity of mass-produced art; he wrote that a mechanically produced copy of an artwork can be taken somewhere the original could never have gone, arguing that the presence of the original is "prerequisite to the concept of authenticity". In 1937 Benjamin worked on "Das Paris des Second Empire bei Baudelaire" ("The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire"), met Georges Bataille (to whom he later entrusted the Arcades Project manuscript), and joined the College of Sociology. In 1938 he paid a last visit to Brecht, who was exiled to Denmark. Meanwhile, the Nazi régime stripped German Jews of their German citizenship; now a stateless man, Benjamin was arrested by the French government and incarcerated for three months in a prison camp near Nevers, in central Burgundy. Returning to Paris in January 1940, he wrote "Über den Begriff der Geschichte" ("On the Concept of History", later published as "Theses on the Philosophy of History"). While the Wehrmacht was pushing back the French Army, on 13 June Benjamin and his sister fled Paris to the town of Lourdes, just a day before the Germans entered the capital with orders to arrest him at his flat. The historical record indicates that he safely crossed the French–Spanish border and arrived at the coastal town of Portbou, in Catalonia. The Franco government had cancelled all transit visas and ordered the Spanish police to return such persons to France, including the Jewish refugee group Benjamin had joined. They tried to cross the border on 25 September 1940 but were told by the Spanish police that they would be deported back to France the next day, which would have thwarted Benjamin's plans to travel to the United States. Expecting repatriation to Nazi hands, Benjamin killed himself with an overdose of morphine tablets that night, while staying at the Hotel de Francia; the official Portbou register records 26 September 1940 as the date of death.
61
Born 1879-11-07. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Murder
Trotski, or Trotsky... These bloody russian names and dates !
He was able to speak 7 languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Hebrew, German, English, French and Spanish. Although it is stated in his autobiography "My Life" that he was never perfectly fluent in any language but Russian and Ukrainian, Raymond Molinier wrote that Trotsky spoke fluent French.
In 1938, Trotsky and his supporters founded the Fourth International, which was intended to be a revolutionary and internationalist alternative to the Stalinist Comintern.
Trotsky moved into his own residence in Coyoacán, a neighborhood in Mexico City in 1939. On May 24, 1940, he survived a raid on his home by Stalinist assassins led by State Political Directorate (GPU) agent Iosif Romualdovich Grigulevich, Mexican Stalinist painter David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Vittorio Vidale. On August 20, Trotsky was successfully attacked in his home by a KGB agent, Ramón Mercader, who drove the pick of an ice axe into Trotsky's skull.
The blow was poorly delivered, however, and failed to kill Trotsky instantly, as Mercader had intended. Witnesses stated that Trotsky spat on Mercader and began struggling fiercely with him. Hearing the commotion, Trotsky's bodyguards burst into the room and nearly killed Mercader, but Trotsky stopped them, shouting, "Do not kill him! This man has a story to tell."
Trotsky was taken to a hospital, operated on, and survived for more than a day. Mercader later testified at his trial:
I laid my raincoat on the table in such a way as to be able to remove the ice axe which was in the pocket. I decided not to miss the wonderful opportunity that presented itself. The moment Trotsky began reading the article, he gave me my chance; I took out the ice axe from the raincoat, gripped it in my hand and, with my eyes closed, dealt him a terrible blow on the head.
According to James P. Cannon, the secretary of the Socialist Workers Party (USA), Trotsky's last words were "I will not survive this attack. Stalin has finally accomplished the task he attempted unsuccessfully before."
Trotsky was never formally rehabilitated by the Soviet government, despite the Glasnost-era rehabilitation of most other Old Bolsheviks killed during the Great Purges. But under President Gorbachev, Trotsky was called in 1987 "a hero and martyr". His son Sergej Sedow, killed in 1937, was rehabilitated in 1988. Bukharin was rehabilitated in 1988 as well. Trotsky's books, forbidden till 1987, were published since 1989. Trotsky was featured on a commemorative postage stamp in 1987.
65
Born 1875-04-02. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Unknown
Chrysler's autobiography was titled "The Life of an American Workman." Chrysler was President of the company from 1925 to 1935, and continued to serve as Chairman of the Board from 1935 until his death in 1940.
75
Born 1865-01-31. Domain:Journalism. Cause of death:Age
Desgrange married and had a daughter. Little is known of either. He spent most of his life with the avant-garde artist Jane Deley but never married her. At her insistence, the couple bought a château near St-Maxime, on the Mediterranean. It was there that he retired after falling ill during the 1936 Tour after having a prostate operation. He died there on August 16, 1940. There is a memorial to him on the Col du Galibier and his initials appeared for many years on the yellow jersey worn by the leader of the Tour de France.
22
Born 1918-02-22. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Infection
Robert Pershing Wadlow also known as the Alton Giant and the Giant of Illinois, is the tallest person in history for whom there is irrefutable evidence. The Alton and Illinois monikers reflect the fact that he was born and grew up in Alton, Illinois. Wadlow reached 8 ft 11.1 in (2.72 m) in height and weighed 439 lb (199 kg) at his death at age 22. His great size and his continued growth in adulthood were due to hyperplasia of his pituitary gland, which results in an abnormally high level of human growth hormone. He showed no indication of an end to his growth even at the time of his death. On July 4, 1940, during a professional appearance at the Manistee National Forest Festival, a faulty brace irritated his ankle, causing a blister and subsequent parasitic infection. Doctors treated him with a blood transfusion and emergency surgery, but his condition worsened due to an auto-immune disorder, and on July 15, 1940, he died in his sleep at age 22.
61
Born 1879-12-18. Domain:Painting. Cause of death:Other
In 1935, he began experiencing the symptoms of what was diagnosed as scleroderma after his death. The progression of his fatal case of the disease can be followed through the art he created in his last years.
He died in Muralto, Switzerland, in 1940 without having obtained Swiss citizenship. The Swiss authorities eventually accepted his request six days after his death. When Paul Klee died at age sixty, he left at least 8926 works of art. The words on his tombstone say, "I belong not only to this life. I live as well with the dead, as with those not born. Nearer to the heart of creation than others, but still too far." Today, a painting by Paul Klee can sell for as much as $7.5 million.
64
Born 1876-02-21. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Suicide
Joseph Meister was the first person to be inoculated against rabies by Louis Pasteur, and the first person to be successfully treated for the infection. In 1885, nine-year-old Meister was badly bitten by a rabid dog. After consulting with Alfred Vulpian and Jacques-Joseph Grancher and obtaining their assistance, Louis Pasteur agreed to inoculate the boy with spinal tissue from rabid rabbits, which he had successfully used to prevent rabies in dogs. The treatment was successful and the boy did not develop rabies. As an adult, Meister served as a caretaker at the Pasteur Institute until his death in 1940 at age 64. On 24 June 1940, ten days after the German army occupied Paris during World War II, Meister committed suicide with his gas gun. Although often repeated, the version of his suicide stating he chose to commit suicide rather than allow the Wehrmacht to enter the Pasteurs' crypt is not sustainable. Instead, a contemporary journal article as well as the testimony of Meister's granddaughter indicate that he was overwhelmed by the guilt of having sent his family away, thinking it had resulted in their deaths. In a tragic irony, they actually came back the same day he took his life. Meister was played by Dickie Moore in the 1936 film The Story of Louis Pasteur. The story of Meister's potentially dangerous inoculation against rabies by Pasteur was also featured in an episode of the TV series Dark Matters: Twisted But True and the 1974 BBC drama-documentary series Microbes and Men. He lived no 25, rue du Docteur-Roux.
25
Born 1915-03-17. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Suicide
He was born in Berlin. He had to flee Germany with his family in 1933.
Doeblin got French nationality in 1938. He then was called Vincent Doblin.
In 1940, he preferred to commit suicide rather than being caught by the Germans. He shot himself in the head, in Housseras where he is still interred.
40
Born 1900-11-28. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Murder
With the 1939 declaration of war, although a deputy, he voluntarily joined the military command, before being killed in Évergnicourt by shrapnel.
84
Born 1856-02-16. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Age
Father of Rembrandt and Ettore.