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Meyssonier Fernand (b. 1931-06-14 / d. 2008-08-08)
He was an executioner in the last years of French Algeria. He acted as an executioner from 1947 to 1961 and executed more than 200. He inherited the job of executioner from his father Maurice Meyssonnier in 1947 when he ended compulsory education. His ancestors had been executioners from ages ago. When Algeria became independent from France in 1961, the guillotine was replaced by execution by firing squad.
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78
Born 1946-07-22. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Age
Paul Loup Karl Sulitzer was a French financier and author. Before he turned seventeen, he was already a self-made millionaire. Sulitzer used his financial experience and knowledge in his books, which often related to the business world. Many of his books were ghost-written by Loup Durand.
25
Born 1998-07-10. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Suicide
Conor Angus Cloud Hickey was an American actor best known for his portrayal of Fezco in the HBO drama series Euphoria (2019–2022). He also had small roles in the independent films North Hollywood (2021) and The Line (2023), and appeared in music videos by Noah Cyrus, Juice Wrld, Becky G, and Karol G. Cloud died at his family's house in Oakland, California, at age 25. The Oakland Fire Department were summoned for a medical emergency and declared Cloud "already deceased" on arrival. He had been mourning the death of his father, whose funeral he had attended in Ireland a week earlier.
82
Born 1941-01-18. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Cancer
Denise Bombardier CM CQ (French pronunciation: [dəniz bɔ̃baʁdje]) was a Canadian journalist, essayist, novelist and media personality who worked for the French-language television network Radio-Canada for over 30 years. Bombardier was a defender of the international Francophonie and has often been invited by Bernard Pivot to discuss the psyche of the French and the situation of the French language in France. In 1990, during a television confrontation on a French book programme "Apostrophes", Bombardier said of the writer Gabriel Matzneff: "Some older men like to attract little children with sweets. Mr Matzneff does it with his reputation." Bombardier added, "How did they do afterward, these young girls?" At the time, she was insulted in the press by Josyane Savigneau. But, in January 2020, writer and editor Vanessa Springora "publishes a book, Le Consentement, a memoir of having been sexually abused by Matzneff between the ages of 14 and 16, when he was more than three times her age. It sparks an international furore, and Matzneff, driven from Paris, takes refuge on the Italian Riviera. The Paris prosecutor’s office opens an investigation after an "analysis" of the book. In 2019, Bombardier wrote the column "The Decline of the Whites." She started by noting the demographic fact that in many US cities, whites are already in the minority, and she stated that by 2050, in such countries as Canada, New Zealand and the US, whites could become a minority group.
61
Born 1960-04-07. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder
Yvan Colonna is a Corsican nationalist convicted for assassination. He is the son of Jean-Hugues Colonna, a former member of the National Assembly for the Socialist Party elected in the Alpes-Maritimes and a recipient of the French Légion d'honneur. On the 6th of February 1998 at 9:05 pm, the prefect of Corsica, Claude Érignac, was assassinated as he exited a theatre onto rue Colonna-d'Ornano in Ajaccio. He was shot receiving three 9 mm bullets in the neck, and died shortly thereafter. The weapon was shown to be one of the weapons stolen in the attack on the Gendarmerie Nationale station in Pietrosella on 6 September 1997. An enquiry followed, which resulted in the arrest of several militants. Interrogation pointed towards Yvan Colonna as the culprit. Police went to question him, but he had already fled. This sparked the biggest manhunt in French history, and Colonna was thought to have left the country, possibly for South America. However, an infrared camera set in the mountains of Corsica, near Vico as surveillance of a bergerie, a traditional Corsican stone hut, yielded evidence that Colonna was hiding here. He was arrested on the 4th of June 2003. Charged with assassination and being a member of a terrorist organisation, he was arraigned before the court of special cases in Paris from 12 November 2007. The court was in session until 12 December 2007. During his internment awaiting trial, he has repeatedly claimed innocence, and that he is the victim of unfair press coverage, convicting him before trial. On 13 December 2007, Colonna was pronounced guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. He has since appealed. On 20 June 2011, Colonna's conviction was upheld on appeal. He was serving his life sentence in the Toulon-La Farlčde detention centre where he was assassinated by an other inmate. On 2 March 2022, Colonna was attacked in prison by Franck Elong Abé, an Islamist 36-year-old Cameroonian inmate, reportedly for "disrespecting Muhammad". In response, violent unrest broke out across Corsica. After spending three weeks in a coma at a hospital, he died of his wounds on 21 March 2022, at the age of 61.
42
Born 1980-01-20. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Murder
Federico Martín Aramburú was an Argentine rugby union footballer. He was born in La Plata, and primarily played as a wing but could also play centre for Glasgow Warriors in the Pro12, and also for Argentina. In joining the Glasgow squad in the summer of 2010 he joined his fellow Argentine international Bernardo Stortoni who was the first choice full back at the club. Since his international debut in April 2004, in a match against Chile, Martín Aramburú had played 22 times, (17 starts and 5 appearances from the bench) scoring eight tries, including one against Georgia in the 2007 World Cup. Of his 17 international starts six have been at outside centre, three at inside centre, and four on each wing. He previously spent much of his career in France with US Dax, USA Perpignan and originally with Biarritz Olympique. He was killed on 19 March 2022, in a drive-by shooting after an argument in a bar in Paris. The killer is believed to be the far-right activist Loďk Le Priol, already known for acts of violence. On 23 March, the suspect was arrested in Hungary, according to French prosecutors.
37
Born 1984-09-05. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Accident
Chris Anker Sřrensen (Danish pronunciation: [ˈkʰʁis ˈɑŋkɐ ˈsɶɐ̯ˀn̩sn̩]) was a Danish road bicycle racer who rode professionally between 2005 and 2018 for the Team Designa Křkken, Tinkoff–Saxo, Fortuneo–Vital Concept, and Riwal Platform teams. Sřrensen then worked as a directeur sportif (and co-owner) for his final professional team, Riwal Readynez. On 18 September 2021, Sřrensen was killed by injuries sustained by being struck by a van driver while on a bike ride in Zeebrugge, Belgium; he had been due to cover the 2021 UCI Road World Championships, which started the following day. According to a statement of the Bruges parquet released on 19 September, Sřrensen did not yield on a location where he needed to do so.
38
Born 1982-09-18. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Heart
Igor Vovkovinskiy (Ukrainian: Ігор Вовковинський, romanized: Ihor Vovkovynskyj), also known as Igor Ladan, was a Ukrainian-American law student, actor and tallest person in the United States, at 7 feet 8+1⁄3 inches (234.5 cm), briefly taking the record from George Bell. Originally from Ukraine, Vovkovinskiy moved to Rochester, Minnesota in 1989 to be treated at the Mayo Clinic. At that time, he was already at least six feet tall. Vovkovinskiy acted in commercials and films, including the 2011 comedy Hall Pass, and became better known for wearing a T-shirt that read "World's Biggest Obama Supporter" to a Barack Obama rally. He was the first official tallest living person from two countries. He joined singer Zlata Ognevich in representing Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. Vovkovinskiy's height was attributed to a tumor pressing on his pituitary gland, causing it to release an excessive amount of growth hormone. In 2019, he said on his YouTube channel that he was undergoing treatment for a heart condition. Vovkovinskiy was hospitalized for heart disease and died at the age of 38.
78
Born 1938-03-24. Domain:TV/Radio. Cause of death:Age
He was a French radio and television presenter, food critic, and author. Jean-Pierre Coffe was a private individual, however he has declared his bisexuality publicly, notably in 2011 during an interview with MFM Radio and in 2013 during France 2's programme La parenthčse inattendue. Married three times to women, Jean-Pierre Coffe lived his final years with a man, whom he declared himself ready to marry in 2013. Jean-Pierre Coffe had a son who died shortly after birth and a step-daughter who died aged 35.
95
Born 1920-06-17. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Pneumonia
She was a Japanese actress. In the West, she is best known for her performances in Yasujirō Ozu's films Late Spring (1949) and Tokyo Story (1953), although she had already appeared in 67 films before working with Ozu. After more than half a century of seclusion, Hara died of pneumonia at a hospital in Kanagawa prefecture, at the age of 95.
77
Born 1935-10-30. Domain:Directing. Cause of death:Other
He was an English film director and producer, and a restaurant critic for The Sunday Times. By the early 1980s, Winner found himself in great need of a successful film and accepted Charles Bronson's request to film Death Wish II, a sequel to the 1974 hit. Bronson had already signed a lucrative deal with Cannon Films, independent producer of exploitation fare and marginal art house titles. The sequel, co-starring Bronson's wife Jill Ireland, is considered a rehash of Death Wish with violence raised to more graphic levels. Winner became engaged to Geraldine Lynton-Edwards in 2007. They had met in 1957 when he was a 21-year-old film-maker and she was a 16-year-old actress and ballet dancer. He stated "I have told Geraldine that it took me 72 years to get engaged so she's not to hold her breath for the marriage". However, they did marry, on 19 September 2011 at Chelsea Town Hall, London. Michael and Shakira Caine were witnesses to the ceremony. On 1 January 2007, Winner acquired the bacterial infection Vibrio vulnificus from eating an oyster in Barbados. He almost had a leg amputated and verged on the brink of death several times. Before recovering, Winner was infected with the "hospital superbug" MRSA. In September 2011, Winner was also admitted to hospital with food poisoning after eating steak tartare, a raw meat dish, four days in a row. The dish is not recommended for those with a weak immune system and in retrospect Winner regarded his decision to eat it as "stupid". In an interview with The Times newspaper, Winner said liver specialists had told him in summer 2012 that he had between 18 months and two years to live. He said he had researched assisted suicide offered at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, but found the bureaucracy of the process off-putting.
39
Born 1973-02-17. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Suicide
He was an American Marine, border militia leader and former member of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement who sought the office of sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona. Ready allegedly entered his home in Gilbert, Arizona, and fatally shot his girlfriend Lisa; her daughter, Amber; Amber's boyfriend, Jim Hiott; and Amber's infant daughter Lily. He then fatally shot himself. A 9-1-1 call made from the house referred to an argument until the call was interrupted by gunfire. A teenager in the house at the time was in her bedroom and heard an argument, but survived the incident without being shot. Though the authorities cannot discount the possibility of there being a 6th or more additional persons in the house, and neighbors reported there being additional vehicles in front of the house at the time of the shooting. Victims: Lisa Mederos, age 47, Ready's girlfriend – she is suspected to have made the first 9-1-1 call and was found dead inside the home. Amber Mederos, 23, Lisa's daughter with Hugo Mederos – found dead inside the home Lilly Mederos, 15 months, Amber's daughter – shot yet initially found alive inside the home, she was declared dead at the hospital Jim Hiott, 24, Amber's fiancee, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan – found dead outside the home near Ready's body A local police spokesman said that this shooting was believed to have started as a domestic dispute.
83
Born 1928-12-13. Domain:Business. Cause of death:Age
Jack Tramiel (Polish: Jacek Trzmiel, Trzmiel means bumblebee) was a Polish-born American businessman, best known for founding Commodore International, the manufacturer of the Commodore PET, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Commodore Amiga, and other Commodore models of home computers. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939 his family was transported by German occupiers to the Jewish ghetto in Łódź, where he worked in a garment factory. When the ghettos were liquidated his family was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was examined by Dr. Mengele and selected for a work party, after which he and his father were sent to the labor camp Ahlem near Hanover, while his mother remained at Auschwitz. Like many other inmates, his father was reported to have died of Typhus in the work camp; however, Tramiel believes he was killed by an injection of gasoline. Tramiel was rescued from the labor camp in April 1945 by the 84th Infantry Division. In November 1947, Tramiel emigrated to the United States. He soon joined the army, where he learned how to repair office equipment, including typewriters. In 1953, while working as a taxi driver, he bought a shop in the Bronx to repair office machinery, and named it Commodore Portable Typewriter. Tramiel secured a $25,000 loan for the business from a U.S. Army entitlement. In 1955, Tramiel signed a deal with a Czechoslovak company to assemble and sell their typewriters in North America. However, as Czechoslovakia was part of the Warsaw Pact, they could not be imported directly into the U.S., so Tramiel set up Commodore Business Machines in Toronto. Tramiel wanted a military-style name for his company, but names like Admiral and General were already taken, so he settled on the Commodore name. Tramiel was a co-founder of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which was opened in 1993. He was among many other survivors of the Ahlem labor camp who were tracked down by U.S. Army veteran Vernon Tott, who was among the 84th Division which rescued survivors from the camp and had taken and kept photographs of at least 16 of the survivors in storage until 2003. Tott, who died of cancer in 2003, was personally commemorated by Tramiel with an inscription on one of the Holocaust Museum's walls saying "To Vernon W. Tott, My Liberator and Hero".
47
Born 1963-04-13. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Unknown
"There are times I don't like the way my life went, but that doesn’t mean that I'm not in love with life," says the 43-year-old motivational speaker who created the Choose Living Foundation. "Is it fair what's happened to me? No, of course not. So what? I still have to get up in the morning. By engaging life, by moving what few muscles I have, my bed suddenly becomes an exercise mat."
Finishing his undergraduate work in 1985, he ventured to New York City, to train at the Circle in the Square Theatre School on Broadway. Three weeks later, leaving a late-night rehearsal session on his motorcycle, MacLaren was broadsided by a 40,000-pound city bus. Rushed to Bellevue Hospital, he was initially diagnosed as "dead on arrival."
After 18 hours of surgery doctors stabilized a comatose MacLaren and made a decision that would shape the next eight years of his life. They amputated his left leg below the knee. He awoke from his coma, rehabbed diligently, and attempted to resume his graduate studies at the Yale School of Drama. There, he started swimming, and picked up a book on triathlons that sparked his imagination. Soon, MacLaren was ready to resume life as an athlete, as a triathlete. "I felt like I was back in it, back in life," he says. "I didn't compete against other people. I was competing against me. A buddy once said, 'Mac, nobody cares how fast you go, they just love that you're doing it.'
"I told him I care. I never wanted to be taken for granted, as that guy with the fake leg. So I just kept pushing myself."
MacLaren became a media sensation in the fledgling sport of triathlons, paving the way for a new generation of disabled athletes. He competed and set scores of records in some of the toughest races on the planet, including the New York City Marathon and the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii, and routinely finished ahead of 80 percent of the able-bodied athletes.
Then, on June 6, 1993, his life took another cruel turn. He was in Mission Viejo, California, racing another triathlon. Two miles into the bike leg, on a closed course, a traffic marshal misjudged MacLaren's speed approaching an intersection. The marshal directed a van to cross the street, and the van and MacLaren collided. Hurled into a signpost, MacLaren broke his neck at the C5 vertebrae, paralyzing him.
Slowly, MacLaren pulled himself back again, grappling with seemingly insurmountable obstacles and even reclaiming some motor function of his limbs. Most importantly, he fostered an inner force that enabled him to act in ways he couldn't as an able-bodied athlete. "It took two years of self study, going deep, and then deeper again," he says. "And, sometime in 2000-2001, I chose life."
27
Born 1981-06-05. Domain:TV/Radio. Cause of death:Cancer
Goody had a number of health scares throughout the 2000s. In 2002, shortly before her Big Brother 3 appearance, she had a cervical smear test which revealed abnormal cells, a possible indicator of cancer. She was later tested for ovarian cancer in 2004 and bowel cancer in 2006, but was given the all-clear on each occasion. She underwent hospital tests in early August 2008 after her fourth cancer scare. She had already collapsed four times. The test results confirmed she had cervical cancer; she was told of this on 19 August 2008 while in the Indian version of Big Brother, called Bigg Boss. Her spokesperson said, "It looks like her cancer is at an early stage but we will have to wait until she gets back to Britain and sees a specialist and has more tests".
80
Born 1928-05-23. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Age
While Markale presents himself as being very widely read on the subjects about which he writes, he is nonetheless surrounded by controversy regarding the value of his work. Critics allege that his 'creative' use of scholarship and his tendency to make great leaps in reasoning cause those following the more normative (and hence more conservative) mode of scholars to balk. As well as this, his interest in subjects that his critics consider questionable, including various branches of the occult, have gained him at least as many opponents as supporters. His already weakened reputation was further tarnished in 1989, when he became involved in a plagiarism case, when he published under his own name a serious and well-documented guide to the oddities and antiquities of Brittany, the text of which had already been published twenty years before by a different writer through the very same publisher.
19
Born 1989-01-15. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Unknown
He was a Russian professional ice hockey winger, who last played for the Avangard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League.
Cherepanov died after collapsing on the bench during a KHL game against Chekhov Vityaz. He played a shift with teammate Jaromir Jagr, and the two were talking on the bench shortly after they left the ice, when he suddenly collapsed. He was first tried to be revived on the bench, then carried to the dressing room and he was finally rushed to an intensive care unit. The ambulance that is normally at all games had already departed and had to be called back, taking approximately 15-20 minutes to get him to a hospital. He died later that day.
On August 29, 2007, during game 2 of the 2007 Super Series, Cherepanov collided with Canadian forward Brandon Sutter and suffered a concussion. The next day it was reported that he would be out for the remainder of the eight-game series. Team Russia went on to go winless in the series.
93
Born 1913-09-27. Domain:Science (Medical/Bio style). Cause of death:Age
Albert Ellis had exaggerated fears of speaking in public and during his adolescence he was extremely shy around women. At age 19, already showing signs of thinking like a cognitive-behavioral therapist, he forced himself to talk to 100 women in the Bronx Botanical Gardens over a period of a month. Even though he didn't get a date, he reported that he desensitized himself to his fear of rejection by women.
54
Born 1953-06-20. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Cancer (stomach)
Mühe was already seriously ill at the prize-giving ceremony in Los Angeles in April 2007 when Das Leben der Anderen was awarded its Oscar, and flew back to Germany hours later for an urgent stomach operation.
59
Born 1946-04-07. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Cancer (breast)
Prior to the 1968 Olympics, Besson was virtually unknown, and the fact that she qualified for the 400 m could already be considered a surprise. In the final, Britain's Lillian Board - the favourite for the gold - was way ahead of the rest of the field with just 100 m to go. With an amazing last sprint, Besson then moved up from fifth place to beat Board on the finish line by a tenth of a second. Her winning time of 52.03 seconds was 1.8 seconds better than her personal best.
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."
80
Born 1920-09-24. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Cancer
Leo Marks was an English cryptographer, screenwriter and playwright. “ In January 1942 I was escorted to the war by my parents in case I couldn't find it or met with an accident on the way. ” So begins his book, Between Silk and Cyanide, about his work in cryptography. Marks joined the Armed Services and went to Bedford to train as a cryptographer. Although personally in charge only of agent codes, the young Marks frequently walked into bureaucratic lion's dens in order to save lives in the field. One of his first challenges (stubbornly resisted by the establishment) was to phase out the use of double transposition ciphers using keys based on preselected poems. These poem ciphers had the limited advantage of being easy to memorise, but a number of significant disadvantages, including limited cryptographic security, substantial minimum message sizes (short ones were hopelessly easy to crack), and the fact that the method's complexity caused a significant number of encoding errors. Cryptographic security was greatly enhanced by Marks's innovations, especially "worked-out keys". He was widely credited with inventing the letter one-time pad, but while he did independently discover the method, he would later find that it was already in use at Bletchley. While attempting to relegate poem codes to emergency use only, he enhanced their security by promoting the use of original poems in preference to widely known ones, thus forcing a would-be cracker to work it out the hard way for each message instead of being able to guess an agent's entire set of keys after breaking the key to a single message (or possibly even just part of the key.) Something of a poet himself, Marks wrote many poems later used by agents, the most famous being the one he gave to the agent Violette Szabo, the poignant The Life That I Have, which gained popularity when it was used in the 1958 film about her, Carve Her Name With Pride. According to his book, Marks wrote the poem about a girlfriend, Ruth Hambro, who was killed in an air crash in Canada. The life that I have is all that I have And the life that I have is yours The love that I have of the life that I have Is yours and yours and yours. A sleep I shall have, a rest I shall have Yet death will be but a pause For the peace of my years in the long green grass Will be yours and yours and yours.
71
Born 1929-07-19. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Age
Jean Malléjac was a professional French road bicycle racer. In 1955, as rider number 9 in the French team led by Bobet, Malléjac prepared to ride over Mont Ventoux on stage 12 from Marseille to Avignon. It is a climb that riders have always feared because the first two-thirds are through a forest where the air seems humid and scarce and the rest through a bleak, lunar landscape that is proof of Mont Ventoux's history as a volcano. The French writer Antoine Blondin wrote: There are few happy memories of this sorcerer's cauldron. We have seen riders reduced to madness under the effect of the heat or stimulants, some coming back down the hairpins they thought they were climbing, others brandishing their pumps and accusing us of murder... Falling men, tongues hanging out, selling their soul for a drop of water, a little shade. Ten kilometres from the summit, said the journalist Jacques Augendre, Malléjac was: "Streaming with sweat, haggard and comatose, he was zigzagging and the road wasn't wide enough for him... He was already no longer in the real world, still less in the world of cyclists and the Tour de France." Malléjac collapsed, falling to the ground with one foot still trapped in a pedal. The other leg pedalled on in the air. He was, said Pierre Chany, "completely unconscious, his face the colour of a corpse, a freezing sweat ran on his forehead. Malléjac was hauled to the side of the road by Sauveur Ducazeaux, an official of another team, and Dumas summoned. Georges Pahnoud of the Télégramme de Brest reported: He had to force [Malléjac's] jaws apart to try to make him drink and it was a quarter of an hour later, after he had received an injection of solucamphor and been given oxygen, that Malléjac regained consciousness. Taken by ambulance, he hadn't however completely recovered. He fought, he gesticulated, he shouted, demanded his bike, wanted to get out. Dumas had to strap Malléjac down for the journey to hospital at Avignon. Malléjac and Dumas were equally furious, Malléjac insisting he had been drugged against his will and that he wanted to start legal proceedings, Dumas saying: "I'm prepared to call for a charge of attempted murder." This incident lead to the exclusion of his healer, who was also that of Luxembourger Charly Gaul. This is the first case of exclusion for doping on the Tour de France. Malléjac recovered and rode the Tour four more times before he stopped racing in 1959. He retired to run a driving school at Landerneau, near where he was born. He denied wrongdoing up to his death in September 2000 at Landerneau.
48
Born 1952-02-25. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Accident
William Joseph Dunlop OBE was a Northern Irish motorcyclist from Ballymoney. In 2016 he was voted through Motorcycle News as the 5th greatest motorcycling icon ever, behind Valentino Rossi. His achievements include three hat-tricks at the Isle of Man TT meeting (1985, 1988 and 2000), where he won a record 26 races in total. Dunlop's name is amongst the most revered by fans of motorcycle racing. This iconic stature, coupled to Dunlop's somewhat shy and unassuming persona, has led to him being seen as a true working class hero. Such attributes deeply endeared him to fans of motorcycling across the world. During his career he won the Ulster Grand Prix 24 times. In 1986, he won a fifth consecutive TT Formula One world title; initially based on one race at the Isle of Man TT after the loss of World Championship status from 1977-onwards and organised by the Auto-Cycle Union, the title was eventually expanded to take in more rounds in other countries. Dunlop died in Tallinn, Estonia, in 2000 while leading a 125cc race (he had already won the 750cc and 600cc events) on Pirita-Kose-Kloostrimetsa Circuit. He appeared to lose control of his bike in the wet conditions and was killed instantly on impact with trees. As a mark of respect, the Estonian government's official website was replaced with a tribute to Dunlop within hours of his death. Northern Ireland television carried live coverage of his funeral. Fifty thousand mourners, including bikers from all parts of Britain and Ireland and people from all backgrounds in Northern Ireland, attended the funeral procession to Garryduff Presbyterian church and his burial in the adjoining graveyard. He was awarded the MBE in 1986 for his services to the sport, and in 1996 he was awarded the OBE for his humanitarian work for children in Romanian orphanages, to which he had delivered clothing and food.Dunlop has featured in documentary films regarding his career: V Four Victory (1983), Joey – The Man Who Conquered the TT (2013) and Road (2014).
46
Born 1952-09-07. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:cancer (blood)
He was a Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle road racer.
in the 80's, there were only two official circuits in Spain, one in Jarama and the other in Calafat. The team planned test rides before the race, but both circuits were already booked, forcing them to practice in Martorelles. This region of Barcelona was an industrial park near the Derbi factory. The team occasionally had test runs in this area, blocking off the roads to ensure that no cars would interfere with the racers. However, during a practice prior to the Spanish Grand Prix, a vehicle gained access to the area from one of the team’s assistants who was supposed to have blocked off all of the roads. Tragically, Tormo, who was testing a new racing suit, hit the car and shattered his right leg. The accident marked the end of his racing career and the beginning of a countless series of operations.
Tormo died from leukemia, which he had been battling for many years. In his honor, Valencia’s racetrack was re-named the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo.
37
Born 1961-02-19. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Suicide
Justinus Soni "Justin" Fashanu was an English footballer, who played for a variety of clubs between 1978 and 1997. His 1981 transfer to Nottingham Forest made him Britain's first Ł1m black footballer. In 1990 Fashanu encountered hostility after becoming the first prominent footballer to identify himself publicly as gay. In 1998 he was questioned by American police when a 17-year-old accused him of sexual assault. The police dropped the allegation because of lack of evidence, but Fashanu committed suicide in May of that year, protesting that he had "already been presumed guilty".
He hanged himself in a deserted lock-up garage he had broken into, in Shoreditch, London, after visiting Chariots Roman Spa (a gay sauna in the area). In his suicide note, he stated: "I realised that I had already been presumed guilty. I do not want to give any more embarrassment to my friends and family"..."I hope the Jesus I love welcomes me, I will at last find peace."
80
Born 1916-02-14. Domain:Directing. Cause of death:Heart
He was a Japanese film director. 1962: Seppuku On May 16, 1630, Hanshiro Tsugumo arrives at the estate of the Iyi clan, looking for a suitable place to commit seppuku. At the time, it is told, it was fairly common for disgraced samurai to make the same request, or threat, in the hope of receiving alms from the lord of the house. To deter him therefrom, Kageyu Saito, counselor of the clan, tells Hanshiro a warning story wherein another ronin, Motome Chijiiwa – formerly of the same clan as Hanshiro – had made the same request and the samurai retainers of the house forced him to complete the ceremony and kill himself. When Motome's sword was revealed to be a fake made of bamboo, they insisted that he disembowel himself with it, so that Motome's death was agonizingly painful. Despite this warning, Tsugumo maintains his request to commit seppuku. While preparing for the suicide, Hanshiro Tsugumo recounts to Saito and the retainers that his lord's house was considered a threat and toppled by the shogunate, whereupon his friend, another samurai, committed seppuku and left Tsugumo to look after his son, Motome Chijiiwa. Required to protect Chijiiwa and support his own daughter Miho, Hanshiro was unable to kill himself, and instead lived in poverty and worked menial jobs to support his family. In later years Chijiwa and Miho were married and had a son, Kingo; but continued to live in poverty. When Miho and Kingo became ill and could not afford to pay a physician, Chijiiwa threatened seppuku at a lord's house. Soon after his seppuku, Miho and Kingo died from their illnesses. Hanshiro then reveals that before coming to the Iyi house, he tracked down two retainers of the house, Hayato Yazaki and Umenosuke Kawabe, whom he defeated easily and disgraced them by cutting off their topknots. A third retainer, Hikokuro Omodaka, comes to Hanshiro's home and challenges him to a ritual duel. Hanshiro and Hikokuro climatically duel in a brief but tense sword fight, where Hanshiro breaks Hikokuro's sword. Instead of honorably surrendering, Hikokuro continues to fight and his topknot is taken as well. When Hanshiro finishes his account, Saito angrily orders the retainers to kill him; whereupon Tsugomo kills four and wounds eight while slowly succumbing to his wounds. When a new group of retainers arrive armed with guns, Tsugumo attempts seppuku, but is shot nevertheless. Kawabe and Yazaki are ordered to commit seppuku, while Omodaka is reported to have done so already; their deaths, and the four inflicted by Hanshiro, are reported as from "illness", lest word be transmitted that the Iyi House has lost face to a ronin.
34
Born 1961-12-06. Domain:Music. Cause of death:alcohol, other drugs
He was an American musician active in the 1980s and 1990s. He was the brother of Susannah and Wendy Melvoin of Prince and the Revolution. He first learned to play drums. He died in New York City of a drug overdose involving heroin at age 34. Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, present at the scene, tried but failed to revive him. There is much mystery and speculation about what events actually took place. Chamberlin was allegedly advised by 9-1-1 operators to put Melvoin's head in the shower in an attempt to revive him until paramedics arrived. Melvoin was pronounced dead at the scene. Chamberlin was subsequently fired from the band. According to the band, there had been previous overdoses by both Melvoin and Chamberlin. Melvoin had already been fired, but was continuing to tour with The Smashing Pumpkins until the end of the tour leg. Melvoin's replacement was The Frogs' Dennis Flemion. His last gig with the Pumpkins was at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland.
79
Born 1917-04-25. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Other
Already blinded by the effects of diabetes, Fitzgerald had both her legs amputated in 1993. In 1996 she died of the disease in Beverly Hills, California.
67
Born 1928-05-09. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Age
His last wife, Rita, is the sister of Andre Agassi. According to Price's article, Rita's father, Mike Agassi, a 1952 Olympian on the Iranian boxing team who had become a successful casino greeter in Las Vegas, hated Gonzáles so much that he considered having him killed. Gonzáles had coached the young Rita until she had rebelled against her father's 5,000-balls-a-day-regimen and first moved in with, then married, on 31 March 1984, the much older Gonzáles. Years before, Mike Agassi, already a tennis fanatic, had once served as a linesman for one of Gonzáles's professional matches in Chicago. Gonzáles had upbraided Agassi so severely for perceived miscalls that Agassi had walked away and gone to sit in the stands.
For decades González had made $75,000 a year from an endorsement contract with Spalding for racquets and balls but was unable to get along with the company personnel. Finally, in 1981, after nearly 30 years, Spalding refused to renew the contract. He had also been the tennis director and tournament director at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip for 16 years, another lucrative job. In 1985 he was fired after refusing to give private lessons to the wife of his boss.
Gonzales died almost completly broke and with no friends, in a minuscule house near Las Vegas airport. His funerals were paid by André Agassi.
52
Born 1942-08-18. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Cancer
She was a German film actress. She appeared in 54 films between 1957 and 1994. She played Patricia in the French film "Les tontons flingueurs". She died from cancer in 1995. 9 years earlier, she had already lost her right eye due to a cancerous tumor.