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Soltan Petru (b. 1931-06-29 / d. 2016-07-15)
He was a Moldovan mathematician. He was a member of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova and an honorary member of the Romanian Academy. Petru Soltan was a member of the Mathematical Society of Moldova. Petru Soltan served as member of the Parliament of Moldova (1990–1994) and is a leader of the Democratic Forum of Romanians in Moldova.
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67
Born 1955-06-26. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Age
Philippe Streiff was a French racing driver. He participated in 55 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 21 October 1984. He achieved one podium, and scored a total of 11 championship points. A pre-season testing crash at the Jacarepaguá circuit in Rio de Janeiro in 1989 with AGS left him a quadriplegic and thus using a wheelchair, with the quality of the care he received in the aftermath having been called into question, even if the accident itself was so serious the roll-bar broke on impact. Streiff organised the Masters Karting Paris Bercy. In early 1994, Streiff made a bid to purchase Ligier in partnership with Hughes de Chaunac. The bid had the support of the similarly Renault-powered Williams F1 team, who intended to turn Ligier into a 'junior' team. The bid was unsuccessful. Belgian Luc Costermans, who had broken the World blind road speed record in late 2008, dedicated his record to Streiff.
59
Born 1960-12-20. Domain:Directing. Cause of death:COVID
Kim Ki-duk (Korean: 김기덕 [kimɡidʌk]; 20 December 1960 – 11 December 2020) was a South Korean film director, noted for his idiosyncratic art-house cinematic works. His films have received many distinctions in the festival circuit, making him one of the most important contemporary Asian film directors. Major festival awards include Golden Lion at 69th Venice International Film Festival for Pietà, Silver Lion for Best Director at 61st Venice International Film Festival for 3-Iron, Silver bear for Best Director at 54th Berlin International Film Festival for Samaria and Un Certain Regard prize at 2011 Cannes Film Festival for Arirang. His most widely known feature is Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003), included in film critic Roger Ebert's Great Movies. Two of his films served as official submissions for Academy award for best foreign language film as South Korean entries. He gave scripts to several of his former assistant directors including Juhn Jai-hong (Beautiful and Poongsan) and Jang Hoon (Rough Cut).On 20 November 2020, Ki-Duk travelled to Latvia with the intent of buying a beach house in Jūrmala. On the day of the purchase of the house, Ki-duk did not show up and was not traceable. It was later revealed that he suddenly fell ill and was recovered for COVID-19. On 11 December 2020, Kim Ki-duk died from complications caused by COVID-19, at the age of 59.
27
Born 1993-01-31. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder
On the evening of June 12, 2020, Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old black American man, was shot and killed by an Atlanta Police Department officer following a complaint about a man asleep in a car blocking a fast-food drive-through lane. Brooks, whose blood alcohol content was measured at 35% higher than the legal limit, had resisted arrest and wrested a taser as he wrestled on the ground with two police officers. During a foot chase, Brooks fired the taser at one of the officers, who then shot at Brooks three times, striking him twice in the back. The killing has been ruled a homicide by the medical examiner. Video of the incident was widely broadcast and viewed on the internet. Atlanta Chief of Police Erika Shields resigned the next day, saying she wanted to help rebuild trust in the community. Protesters later burned down the restaurant outside which the shooting had taken place. On June 15, 2020, it was agreed that the Atlanta Police Department would undergo a major overhaul.
89
Born 1930-03-07. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Age
Tatiana Fabergé was a secretary, a Fabergé scholar and jeweler from Switzerland. Tatiana Fabergé joined CERN—the European Organization for Particle Physics Research—as a secretary when the CERN Theory Group was moved from Copenhagen to Geneva. She retired from CERN in 1995. Fabergé was always interested in the House of Fabergé. After retirement she worked researching the family history and promoting its heritage. In 1974 she launched her own jewelry and product line Tatiana Fabergé which is marketed through her own web site. During her career she created several products under different trademarks, in 2005 Fabergé Ltd purchased from the Tatiana Fabergé SA one of the trademarks, Tatiana Fabergé SA then continued developing products under the Tsars Collection trademark. Since 2007 she was actively involved in giving advice and guidance via the Fabergé Heritage Council, a division of Fabergé Ltd, regarding the relaunch of the brand. She worked closely with the creative team and advised on heritage matters.
88
Born 1928-12-30. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
He was a French actor. In 1969, in L'Armée des ombres, he was responsible for the prison camp where Lino Ventura, alias Philippe Gerbier, was imprisoned. For television, he played Flambart, the police officer who chased Eugène François Vidocq relentlessly, played by Bernard Noël in the TV series Vidocq in 1967.
55
Born 1960-05-20. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Heart
He was an English racing driver and younger brother of 1976 Formula One world champion James Hunt. Hunt started racing at 15 and moved up to Formula Ford in 1981. He competed in the British Formula Three Championship for five seasons from 1983 to 1987 against the likes of Ayrton Senna, Martin Donnelly, Martin Brundle and Damon Hill. He raced in the International Formula 3000 championship in 1988 and in the same year tested for the Benetton Formula 1 team. He then quit racing. At the end of 1994 he sold his multi-level marketing business, selling water filters, and purchased the bankrupt Lotus team to try to save it, but had no success. He continued to work on getting Lotus back into the top echelons of motor sport until 2009, when he sold the rights to the Lotus name to the Litespeed Formula 3 team. Litespeed applied to compete in the 2010 Formula One season but was refused entry. However, a Lotus entry backed by the Malaysian government was later given an entry for 2010 after the selection process was re-opened following the announcement that BMW Sauber would withdraw from the sport at the conclusion of the 2009 season. The team was called Lotus Racing. In the summer of 2010, 1Malaysia which ran an F1 team as Lotus Racing under licence from Lotus Cars bought Team Lotus Ventures Ltd from David Hunt. After this 1Malaysia would run its team as Team Lotus from 2011 onwards.
81
Born 1929-07-24. Domain:Directing. Cause of death:Age
He was an English film director and producer. He was born in Aldershot, Hampshire. Robbery (1967), a crime thriller, is a fictionalised version of the Great Train Robbery of 1963. This led to Bullitt (1968), his first American film, which is thought to contain the first example of the modern cinematic car chase.
72
Born 1937-12-08. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
He was an American actor best known for the role of Danny "Danno" Williams, the reliable second-in-command of the fictional Hawaiian State Police squad Hawaii Five-O.
After leaving Hawaii Five-O, McArthur guest-starred on such television shows as Murder, She Wrote, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island and Vega$, as well as in the mini series Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story and The Night the Bridge Fell Down, and in the 1998 television movie Stormchasers: Revenge of the Twister, with Kelly McGillis.
37
Born 1971-02-11. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Accident
He was an American professional mixed martial arts fighter.
In an entry posted on his Spike-TV blog on August 27, Tanner wrote,
"I've been sitting around this apartment, bored to tears, waiting on the last of the gear I need for the desert adventure to come in the mail. I've really been looking forward to getting out there. I've been writing about it a little bit here. It seems some MMA websites have reported on the story, posting up that I might die out in the desert, or that it might be my greatest opponent yet, etc. Come on guys. It's really common down in southern California to go out to the off road recreation areas in the desert about an hour away from LA and San Diego. So my plan is to go out to the desert, do some camping, ride the motorcycle, and shoot some guns. Sounds like a lot of fun to me. A lot of people do it. This isn't a version of "Into the Wild". I'm not going out into the desert with a pair of shorts and a bowie knife, to try to live off the land. I'm going fully geared up, and I'm planning on having some fun.
I do plan on going back pretty far, so I did mention in one of my posts that I wanted to make sure to have good quality gear. Any failure of gear out in the desert could cause a problem."
Tanner had recently purchased a dirt bike, and on September 3 he rode into the desert-like region north of Brawley, California to go camping.
According to Tanner's manager John Hayner, Tanner called that afternoon to say that his bike had run out of gas, and that he would accordingly walk back to civilization. Temperatures that day reached 114 degrees Fahrenheit, and friends became concerned and reported Tanner missing after he failed to contact them. His body was discovered by a Marine helicopter on September 8, and the Imperial County sheriff's office cited heat exposure as a preliminary cause of death.
21
Born 1987-02-16. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Accident
Bourdon was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman. He died in a motorcycle accident in Lamèque, New Brunswick, near his hometown of Shippagan, when he hit a tractor-trailer after losing control of his bike and crossing the center line. Environment Canada showed winds gusting to more than 50 km/h in the area at the time of the accident. Bourdon's agent, Kent Hughes, stated that he never knew about his client's new hobby (motorcycles). "I had no idea," he explained to CKNW in Vancouver. "Another client of ours, Kris Letang, said Luc let him know he was riding his dad's motorcycle with some friends a week or two ago. I have since been told - though I don't know - that he actually bought a motorcycle two days ago". Maryse Bourdon, Luc's step-mother, said he had purchased the motorcycle about three weeks ago.
64
Born 1939-05-22. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Heart attack
There were originally more scenes of his character, Lt. Traxler, in The Terminator (1984) that were cut to keep the film's pace moving but are now available on the special edition DVD from MGM. There were scenes that showed him and his partner in crime, played by Lance Henriksen, taking part in the chase sequence that ensues after the Tech Noir shoot out. The last two scenes took place in the police station that revealed that Traxler believed Reese, played by Michael Biehn, to be telling the truth--one taking place after the questioning of Reese and one where Reese and Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton are about to escape from the police station during the Terminator's, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger_ siege where Traxler gave Reese his gun and car keys.
33
Born 1968-09-01. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Suicide
On September 10, Atta picked up al-Omari from the Milner Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, and the two drove their rented Nissan to a Comfort Inn in Portland, Maine, where they arrived at 5:43pm and spent the night in room 232 only to catch a flight back to Boston the following morning. Possibly this was done by the two men to clear airport security under less scrutiny in Maine than they would have faced at Logan Airport in Boston. It was initially reported that Adnan and Ameer Bukhari were the two hijackers who had rented and driven the car. The FBI also states that Atta made a credit-card purchase in Manhattan, New York on the 10th.
The two spent their last night pursuing ordinary activities: making two ATM withdrawals, and a 20-minute stop at Wal-Mart. FBI reports specified that "two middle-eastern men" were seen in the parking lot of a Pizza Hut, but despite alluding to Atta and Marwan, does not explicitly say it was them.
On the morning of September 11, they drove to the Portland International Jetport, and took the 6am Colgan Air (U.S. Airways Express) BE-1900C flight to Logan International Airport in Boston. The two sat in the rearmost seats, next to one another. In Portland, Mohamed Atta was selected by CAPPS, which required his checked bags to undergo extra screening for explosives and involved no extra screening at the passenger security checkpoint.
The connection between the two flights at Logan Airport was within Terminal B, but the two gates were not connected within security. You must cross a parking garage before going through security once again. There are two separate concourses in Terminal B, the south concourse is mainly used by US Airways and the north is mostly American. It was overlooked that there would still be security in Boston because of this distinct detail of the terminal's arrangement.
At the American Airlines concourse, the pair boarded American Airlines Flight 11, where Atta was checked in under the abbreviation "Moham Atta", and was seated in 8D. At 6:45 a.m., while at the Boston airport, Atta took a call from Marwan al-Shehhi, another hijacker. This call was apparently to confirm that the attacks were ready to begin.
At 7:59 a.m., the plane departed from Boston, carrying 81 passengers. The plane's transponder was turned off at 8:28am. At 8:24:38, a voice believed to be Atta's was heard by air traffic controllers, saying: "We have some planes. Just stay quiet and you will be OK. We are returning to the airport. Nobody move, everything will be OK. If you try to make any moves you'll endanger yourself and the airplane. Just stay quiet...".
Seconds after American Airlines Flight 11 crashes into the World Trade Center.Atta is believed to have been the pilot of the plane when it crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center 23 minutes later at 8:46.40a.m. All aboard the plane were killed.
Because the flight from Portland to Boston had been delayed, his bags did not make it onto Flight 11. When later found by U.S. authorities, they contained airline uniforms, flight manuals, and a four-page document in Arabic, copies of which were also found with the terrorists of the other three planes. It contains a list of instructions, such as "make an oath to die and renew your intentions," "you should feel complete tranquility, because the time between you and your marriage in heaven is very short," and "check your weapon before you leave and long before you leave. You must make your knife sharp and you must not discomfort your animal during the slaughter."
87
Born 1913-05-20. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Age
Hewlett-Packard's first commercially viable product, developed in Hewlett's Stanford lab, was the audio oscillator. The Walt Disney Company purchased eight of the first ones for $71.50 each, for use in the 1940 film Fantasia. The product was also of use to medical doctors, hospitals and clinics, geologists, engineers, oil and mining companies, and the military, among others.
41
Born 1959-04-24. Domain:TV/Radio. Cause of death:alcohol, other drugs
Yates met Geldof in the early days of the Boomtown Rats. They got together as a couple in 1976 when she travelled by airplane to Paris, to surprise him while the band was playing there. Their first daughter, Fifi Trixibelle, was born on 31 March 1983. After 10 years together, they married on 31 August 1986 in Las Vegas, with Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran acting as Geldof's best man. The couple then had two more daughters, Peaches Honeyblossom Michelle Charlotte Angel Vanessa Geldof on 16 March 1989, and Pixie Geldof on 17 September 1990. Pixie is said to be named after a celebrity daughter character from the cartoon Celeb in the satirical magazine Private Eye, itself a lampoon of the unusual names the Geldofs gave to their first children.
Yates interviewed the INXS singer Michael Hutchence in her Big Breakfast boudoir, and fell in love with him. In 1995, Yates left Geldof for Hutchence. Geldof and Yates divorced in May 1996. Two months later Yates's daughter with Hutchence, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence (known as Tiger) was born on 22 July 1996.
On 22 November 1997, Hutchence was found hanged in a hotel room in Sydney. Yates became distraught, refusing to accept the coroner's verdict of suicide. She eventually sought psychiatric treatment. Yates never entirely recovered from losing him, and even attempted suicide. In June 1998, Bob Geldof won full custody of the couple's three daughters. Meanwhile, she battled Hutchence's mother Patricia Glassop and her daughter Tina for custody of Tiger Lily.
Yates's dispute with the Hutchence family over Michael's estate saw her struggling to bring up her daughter. While battling grief and problems with addiction, she was also in an extremely difficult financial situation. Yates resorted to selling her jewellery in order to pay bills, including the three amethyst rings Geldof gave her after the birth of each of their daughters. She downsized to living in a small mews house in the years prior to her death, but also purchased a second home in Hastings.
While fighting for custody of Tiger, it was reported in the media that Jess Yates had not been Yates's natural father. A paternity test proved that the late quiz show host Hughie Green, who had died only six months before Hutchence, had in fact been her natural father.
22
Born 1972-04-20. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder
He was involved in a shoot-out in central Paris on 4 October 1994 alongside his girlfriend Florence Rey (born August 25, 1975), following a high speed car chase. The incident caused the death of five people — three policemen, a taxi driver and Maupin — after the pair had the intention of going on a killing spree. Rey was caught and sent to jail for 20 years on 30 September 1998. She was released from prison in June 2009.
84
Born 1908-10-30. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Age
Marcel Béalu was born in Selles-sur-Cher and raised in impoverished circumstances in Saumur. In 1951, Marcel Béalu set himself up in business as a Parisian bookseller. He named his store, after a comment on his work by Jean Paulhan, Le Pont Traversé, or "the Crossed Bridge." The store, which sold all manner of strange works in addition to the more familiar bookshop fare, moved several times, at one time into a former butcher's shop at 62 rue de Vaugirard. One of his first customers was pre-eminent French psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan, who purchased a complete edition of Shakespeare — for which he never paid. His writing was admired by Jean Paulhan and Antonin Artaud, but as yet his literary reputation has not fully developed. Only one of his works, L’Expérience de la nuit, has been translated into English (by Christine Donougher, as The Experience of the Night).
22
Born 1969-01-16. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Suicide
Per Yngve Ohlin, better known by his stage name Dead and nickname Pelle, was a Swedish metal musician, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem from 1988 until his death in 1991. Prior to Mayhem, he also performed as vocalist in the Swedish death metal band Morbid. Dead was a popular figure of the Norwegian black metal scene, and his legacy remains prominent in the genre to this day. Roadrunner Records ranked him No. 48 out of 50 of The Greatest Metal Front-Men of All Time.
Dead was known for his morbid personality and obsession with death, which was a direct inspiration for his stage name. He hoarded dead birds, wore shirts with funeral announcements printed on them, and wore corpse paint—being one of the first in black metal to do so by some accounts. Acquaintances and peers described Ohlin as difficult to befriend or understand. Already intensely introverted and depressed, Dead's personality and demeanor would only become more withdrawn leading up to his death, a progression marked by such patterns as harming himself offstage among friends and isolating himself for long periods in his bedroom.
Dead committed suicide in April 1991 at the age of 22. Controversially, an image from the aftermath was used as the cover of the bootleg live album The Dawn of the Black Hearts.
On 8 April 1991, while left alone in the house, Dead used a hunting knife to slit his wrists and throat, and afterward, shot himself in the forehead with a shotgun. He left a brief suicide note which started by saying, "Excuse the blood...". His body was found by Euronymous, who had to climb through an open window as the doors were locked and there were no other keys to the house. Instead of calling the police immediately, he visited a nearby shop to purchase a disposable camera with which he photographed the body; after re-arranging some items for his pictures, he proceeded to call emergency services. Dead's suicide caused a rift between Euronymous and some of his friends, who were disgusted by his attitude towards Dead before the suicide, and his behavior about Dead's death afterwards. Necrobutcher ended his friendship with Euronymous and left Mayhem. Manheim later speculated that Euronymous had willfully left Dead alone in the house so that he would have a chance to kill himself. Dead's suicide was said to cause "a change in mentality" in the black metal scene and was the first in a string of infamous events carried out by its members.
Excuse the blood, but I have slit my wrists and neck. It was the intention that I would die in the woods so that it would take a few days before I was possibly found. I belong in the woods and have always done so. No one will understand the reason for this anyway. To give some semblance of an explanation I'm not a human, this is just a dream and soon I will wake. It was too cold and the blood kept clotting, plus my new knife is too dull. If I don't succeed dying to the knife I will blow all the shit out of my skull. Yet I do not know. I left all my lyrics by "Let the good times roll"—plus the rest of the money. Whoever finds it gets the fucking thing. As a last salutation may I present "Life Eternal". Do whatever you want with the fucking thing. / Pelle. I didn't come up with this now, but seventeen years ago.
— Dead's suicide note (translated to English from Swedish)
25
Born 1964-10-26. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Suicide
Born Gamil Gharbi, he was a 25-year-old man from Montreal, Quebec, Canada who murdered fourteen women and wounded ten women and four men at the École Polytechnique, an engineering school affiliated with the Université de Montréal, in "the Montreal Massacre", also known as "the École Polytechnique massacre".
In August 1989, Lépine picked up an application for a firearms-acquisition certificate and received his permit in mid-October. In November 21, 1989, Lépine purchased a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle at a local sporting goods store. During the period October to December 1989, Lépine was seen at least seven times at the École Polytechnique. He brought his mother a present four days before the shooting, though it was several weeks before her birthday. He had always been very punctual paying his rent, but did not do so in December 1989.
On December 6, 1989, Lépine walked into the École Polytechnique de Montréal. There, he entered a second-floor classroom where he separated the men and women and then ordered the approximately fifty men to leave. Claiming that he was fighting feminism, he shot the nine women who remained, killing six and injuring the rest. After this, Lépine moved to other areas of the building, including the cafeteria, corridors and another classroom. A total of fourteen women (twelve engineering students, one nursing student, and one university employee) were killed, and four men and ten women injured before Lépine turned the gun on himself.
A three-page letter (see below) was found in the pocket of his jacket. The letter was never officially made public, but was leaked in November 1990 to Francine Pelletier, and published in the newspaper La Presse. In his suicide letter, Lépine claimed political motives, blaming feminists for ruining his life. He considered himself rational and expressed admiration for Denis Lortie, who had mounted an attack on the Quebec National Assembly in 1984 for political reasons, killing three Quebec government employees. The letter also contained a list of nineteen Quebec women whom Lépine apparently wished to kill because of their feminism.
Marc Lépine was buried in the Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges in Montreal, a few blocks from where he committed the massacre.
Excusez les fautes. J’avais 15 minutes pour l’écrire (Voir aussi Annexe)
Veillez noter que si je me suicide aujourd’hui 89/12/06 ce n’est pas pour des raisons économiques (car j’ai attendu d’avoir épuisé tout mes moyens financiers refusant même de l’emploi) mais bien pour des raisons politiques. Car j’ai décidé d’envoyer Ad Patres les féministes qui m’ont toujours gaché la vie. Depuis 7 ans que la vie ne m’apporte plus de joie et étant totalement blasé, j’ai décidé de mettre des bâtons dans les roues à ces viragos.
J’avais déjà essayés dans ma jeunesse de m’engager dans les Forces comme élève-officier, ce qui m’aurais permit de possiblement pénétrer dans l’arsenal et de procédé Lortie dans une rassia. Ils m’ont refusé because associàl. J’ai donc attendu jusqu'a ce jour pour mettre à exécution mes projets. Entre temps, j’ai continué mes études au grès du vent car elles ne m’ont jamais intéressée sachant mon destin à l’avance. Ce qui ne m’a pas empécher d’avoir de très bonnes notes malgré ma théorie de travaux non remis ainsi que la carence d’étude avant les examens.
Même si l’épitète Tireur Fou va m’être attribué dans les médias, je me considère comme un érudit rationnel que seul la venu de la Faucheuse on amméné à posé des gestes extrèmistes. Car pourquoi persévéré à exister si ce n’est que faire plaisir au gouvernement. Etant plûtot passéiste (Exception la science) de nature, les féministes ont toujours eux le dont de me faire rager. Elles veulent conserver les avantages des femmes (ex. assurances moins cher, congé de maternité prolongé précédé d’un retrait préventif, etc.) tout en s’accaparant de ceux des hommes.
Ainsi c’est une vérité de la palice que si les Jeux olympiques enlevaient la distinction Homme/Femme, il n’y aurait de Femmes que dans les compétitions gracieuses. Donc les féministes ne se battent pas pour enlever cette barrière. Elles sont tellement opportunistes qu’elles ne négligent pas de profiter des connaissances accumuler par les hommes au cours de l’histoire. Elles essai toutefois de travestir celles-ci toute les fois qu’elles le peuvent. Ainsi l’autre jour j’ai entendu qu’on honoraient les canadiens et canadiennes qui ont combattus au front pendant les guerres mondiales. Comment expliquer cela alors que les femmes n’étaient pas autorisés à aller au front??? Va-t-on entendre parler des légionnaires et galériennes de César qui naturellement occuperont 50% des effectifs de l’histoire malgré qu’elles n’a jamais exister. Un vrai Casus Belli.
Désoler pour cette trop compendieuse lettre.
Marc Lépine
Annexe
[Suit une liste de 19 noms]
Ont toutes Failli disparaitre aujourd’hui. Le manque de temps (car je m’y suis mis trop tard) à permis que ces féministes radicals survives.
Alea Jacta Est
54
Born 1930-03-20. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Suicide
Michel Magne was a French film and experimental music composer. He was nominated in 1962 for an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for adapting the Jackie Gleason score to film Gigot. He also scored Barbarella and a series of OSS 117 films. Magne wrote some songs with lyrics by Françoise Sagan for Juliette Gréco and provided orchestral accompaniment. In 1962, he purchased the Château d'Hérouville, near Pontoise, and converted it into a residential recording studio in 1969, known as Studio d'enregistrement Michel Magne, which through the 1970s was used by a series of artists such as Elton John (at his Honky Château), Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Jethro Tull, Cat Stevens, and the Bee Gees among many others. In 1972, he married Marie-Claude, née Calvet, having met her in 1970, near Hérouville while she was hitch-hiking as a schoolgirl. The couple moved to the south of France in 1974. Magne committed suicide with barbiturates in 1984, in a hotel room.
64
Born 1917-10-10. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Stroke
The documentary film Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (1988) attributes Monk's quirky behaviour to mental illness. In the film, Monk's son, T.S. Monk, says that his father sometimes did not recognize him, and he reports that Monk was hospitalized on several occasions due to an unspecified mental illness that worsened in the late 1960s. No reports or diagnoses were ever publicized, but Monk would often become excited for two or three days, pace for days after that, after which he would withdraw and stop speaking. According to T. S. Monk, electroconvulsive therapy was a treatment option recommended by physicians, but Monk's family would not allow it; antipsychotics and lithium were prescribed instead. Other theories abound: Leslie Gourse, author of the book Straight, No Chaser: The Life and Genius of Thelonious Monk (1997), reports that at least one of Monk's psychiatrists failed to find evidence of manic depression or schizophrenia. Others blamed Monk's behavior on intentional and inadvertent drug use: Monk was unknowingly administered LSD, and may have taken peyote with Timothy Leary. Another physician maintains that Monk was misdiagnosed and given drugs during his hospital stay that may have caused brain damage.
30
Born 1950-05-23. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Suicide
Richard Trenton Chase was an American serial killer, rapist, cannibal, and necrophile who killed six people in the span of a month in 1977 and 1978 in Sacramento, California. He was nicknamed The Vampire of Sacramento because he drank his victims' blood and cannibalized their remains. Chase was found dead in his prison cell. An autopsy revealed that he had committed suicide with an overdose of prescribed medications.
80
Born 1896-12-17. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Age
He was a French military intelligence officer who made a vital contribution to the decryption, by Poland's Cipher Bureau, of German Enigma ciphers, beginning in December 1932. This achievement would in turn lead to Britain's celebrated World War II Ultra operation. Bertrand's intelligence associates had purchased documents pertaining to the Enigma machine from Hans-Thilo Schmidt (codenamed "Asché" by the French), an employee at the German Armed Forces' Cryptographic Agency. In December 1932, then-Captain (later, General) Bertrand turned these documents over to the Polish Cipher Bureau's chief, Major Gwido Langer. Asché's documents, according to cryptologist Marian Rejewski's testimony, proved in practice crucial to his mathematical solution of the military Enigma machine's wiring. During his work with the Poles, Bertrand used the code name Bolek, given him by the Poles. Bertrand was to learn of the Poles' success against Enigma only six and a half years later, at a trilateral Polish-French-British conference held in the Kabaty Woods, south of Warsaw, on 25 July 1939, just five weeks before the outbreak of World War II. In 1973, the Paris publishing house Plon published his book, Enigma ou la plus grande énigme de la guerre 1939-1945 (Enigma, or the Greatest Enigma of the War of 1939-1945). The book, one of the principal primary sources on the history of Enigma decryption, for the first time gave a detailed account of the some eleven years of Franco-Polish collaboration in breaking and reading Enigma before and during World War II.
27
Born 1930-04-06. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder
Fesch's father was a wealthy banker of Belgian origin, an artist and atheist, distant from his son and unfaithful to his wife, whom he ultimately divorced. Jacques was an idler; brought up a Roman Catholic, he abandoned religion by the age of 17. At 21, he married his pregnant girlfriend Pierrette in a civil ceremony. He gave up a position at his father's bank, lived the life of a playboy, left his wife and their daughter, and fathered an illegitimate son with one of his mistresses. Disillusioned with his life, he dreamed of escaping to sail around the South Pacific Ocean, but his parents refused to pay for a boat.
On 24 February 1954, to fund the purchase of a boat, he went to rob Alexandre Sylberstein, a money changer, of gold coins. Sylberstein was struck but not unconscious, and raised the alarm. Fesch fled, losing his glasses, and shot wildly at Jean Vergne, a pursuing police officer, killing him. Minutes later he was arrested. Murdering a police officer was a heinous crime and public opinion, inflamed by lurid newspaper reports, was strongly in favour of his execution. The Cour d'assises of Paris condemned him to death on 6 April 1957. An appeal for clemency to President René Coty failed, and he was guillotined.
53
Born 1903-09-21. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Cancer (lung)
Preston Thomas Tucker was an American automobile entrepreneur. He is most remembered for his Tucker 48 sedan, initially nicknamed the "Tucker Torpedo", an automobile which introduced many features that have since become widely used in modern cars. Production of the Tucker '48 was shut down amidst scandal and controversial accusations of stock fraud on March 3, 1949. The 1988 movie Tucker: The Man and His Dream is based on Tucker's spirit and the saga surrounding the car's production. In 1949, Tucker surrendered his corporate records to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. United States Attorney Otto Kerner, Jr. began a grand jury investigation in February 1949. On March 3, 1949, a federal judge handed control of the Tucker Corporation over to Aaron J. Colnon and John H. Schatz. Soon thereafter on June 10, 1949, Tucker and six other Tucker Corporation executives were indicted on 25 counts of mail fraud, 5 counts of violations of SEC regulations and one count of conspiracy to defraud. The indictment included 46-year-old Tucker, Harold A. Karsten, 58, "alias Abe Karatz"; Floyd D. Cerf, 61 (whose firm had handled the stock offering); Robert Pierce, 63; Fred Rockelman, 64; Mitchell W. Dulian, 50, Tucker sales manager; Otis Radford, 42, Tucker Corporation comptroller; and Cliff Knoble, 42, Tucker advertising manager. On January 22, 1950, after 28 hours of deliberations, the jury returned a verdict of "not guilty" on all counts for all accused. Tucker had prevailed at the trial, but the Tucker Corporation, now without a factory, buried in debt, and faced with numerous lawsuits from Tucker dealers that were angry about the production delays, thus, was no more. Preston Tucker's reputation rebounded after the acquittal. His optimism was remarkable; after the trial was over, he was quoted as saying, "Even Henry Ford failed the first time out". Tucker Corporation assets were auctioned off publicly in Chicago. One remaining Tucker '48 car was given to Preston Tucker, and another to his mother. In the early 1950s, Tucker teamed up with investors from Brazil and auto designer Alexis de Sakhnoffsky to build a sports car called the Carioca. Tucker could not use the Tucker name for the car, as Peter Dun, of Dun and Bradstreet, had purchased the rights to the name. The Tucker Carioca was never developed. Tucker's travels to Brazil were plagued by fatigue and, upon his return to the United States, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Tucker died from pneumonia as a complication of lung cancer on December 26, 1956, at the age of 53. Tucker is buried at Michigan Memorial Park in Flat Rock, Michigan.
75
Born 1875-09-01. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Heart attack
The town of Tarzana, California was named after Tarzan. In 1919 Burroughs purchased a large ranch north of Los Angeles, California which he named "Tarzana." The citizens of the community that sprang up around the ranch voted to adopt that name when their town was incorporated in 1928.
At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor he was a resident of Hawaii and, despite being in his late sixties, he asked for permission to be a war correspondent. This permission was granted and so he became the oldest war correspondent for the U.S. during World War II. After the war ended, Burroughs moved back to Encino, California, where, after many health problems, he died of a heart attack having written almost seventy novels.
63
Born 1882-01-30. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Stroke
In August 1921, while the Roosevelts were vacationing at Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Roosevelt contracted an illness, at the time believed to be polio, which resulted in Roosevelt's total and permanent paralysis from the waist down. For the rest of his life, Roosevelt refused to accept that he was permanently paralyzed. He tried a wide range of therapies, including hydrotherapy, and, in 1926, he purchased a resort at Warm Springs, Georgia, where he founded a hydrotherapy center for the treatment of polio patients which still operates as the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation. After he became President, he helped to found the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (now known as the March of Dimes). His leadership in this organization is one reason he is commemorated on the dime.
At the time, when the private lives of public figures were subject to less scrutiny than they are today, Roosevelt was able to convince many people that he was in fact getting better, which he believed was essential if he was to run for public office again. Fitting his hips and legs with iron braces, he laboriously taught himself to walk a short distance by swiveling his torso while supporting himself with a cane. In private, he used a wheelchair, but he was careful never to be seen in it in public. He usually appeared in public standing upright, supported on one side by an aide or one of his sons.
In 2003, a peer-reviewed study found that it was more likely that Roosevelt's paralytic illness was actually Guillain-Barré syndrome, not poliomyelitis.
On the morning of April 12, Roosevelt said, "I have a terrific headache." He was to never speak again. The doctor diagnosed that he had suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage.
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.
70
Born 1858-10-24. Domain:Science (Medical/Bio style). Cause of death:Unknown
He was a German otolaryngologist who practised in Berlin. On Josef Breuer's suggestion, Fliess attended several conferences of Sigmund Freud in 1887 in Vienna, and the two soon formed a strong friendship. Through their extensive correspondence and a series of personal meetings ("congresses" as Freud described them), Fliess came to play an important part in the development of psychoanalysis.
Freud ordered that his correspondence with Fliess be destroyed. It is only known today because Marie Bonaparte purchased Freud's letters to Fliess and refused to permit their destruction.
34
Born 1892-01-26. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Accident
She was an early American civil aviator. She was the first woman of African-American descent, and also the first of Native-American descent, to hold a pilot license. She earned her pilot license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale on June 15, and was the first black person to earn an international pilot's license. Bessie Coleman took a French-language class at the Berlitz Language Schools in Chicago and then traveled to Paris on November 20, 1920, so she could earn her pilot license. She learned to fly in a Nieuport 564 biplane with "a steering system that consisted of a vertical stick the thickness of a baseball bat in front of the pilot and a rudder bar under the pilot's feet." On June 15, 1921, Coleman became the first black woman and first Native American to earn an aviation pilot's license and the first black person and first Native American to earn an international aviation license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Determined to polish her skills, Coleman spent the next two months taking lessons from a French ace pilot near Paris and, in September 1921, she sailed for America. She became a media sensation when she returned to the U.S. On April 30, 1926, Coleman was in Jacksonville, Florida. She had recently purchased a Curtiss JN-4 (Jenny) in Dallas. Her mechanic and publicity agent, 24-year-old William D. Wills, flew the plane from Dallas in preparation for an airshow but had to make three forced landings along the way because the plane had been so poorly maintained. Upon learning this, Coleman's friends and family did not consider the aircraft safe and implored her not to fly it. On take-off, Wills was flying the plane with Coleman in the other seat. She had not put on her seat belt because she was planning a parachute jump for the next day and wanted to look over the cockpit sill to examine the Brendans. About ten minutes into the flight, the plane unexpectedly went into a dive and then a spin at 3,000 feet above the ground. Coleman was thrown from the plane at 2,000 ft (610 m) and died instantly when she hit the ground. William Wills was unable to regain control of the plane and it plummeted to the ground. Wills died upon impact and the plane exploded and burst into flames. Although the wreckage of the plane was badly burned, it was later discovered that a wrench used to service the engine had jammed the controls.