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

July 04, 2025

R I P of the day

Tait Peter Guthrie (b. 1831-04-28 / d. 1901-07-04)

Peter Guthrie Tait FRSE was a Scottish mathematical physicist and early pioneer in thermodynamics. He is best known for the mathematical physics textbook Treatise on Natural Philosophy, which he co-wrote with Kelvin, and his early investigations into knot theory. His work on knot theory contributed to the eventual formation of topology as a mathematical discipline. His name is known in graph theory mainly for Tait's conjecture. He is also one of the namesakes of the Tait-Kneser theorem on osculating circles.

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Sad list (3)

Bettencourt
Liliane Henriette Charlotte. 2017-09-21

94

Born 1922-10-21. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Age

She was a French heiress, socialite and businesswoman. She was one of the principal shareholders of L'Oréal. At the time of her death, she was the richest woman, and the 14th richest person in the world, with a net worth of US$44.3 billion

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Chanfray
Richard (alias: Saint-Germain). 1983-07-21

43

Born 1940-04-04. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Suicide

He claimed to be the Comte de Saint-Germain and appeared in numerous European television shows claiming to transmute lead into gold. In 1972 he met the singer Dalida, at the height of her fame. Her husband, Lucien Morisse, and her lover, Luigi Tenco, had both previously committed suicide. When Dalida met Chanfray, she quickly became infatuated. She recognized his paranoia, however: he slept with a shotgun under his bed. He also spent another year in prison, as well as being forced to pay FF 500,000 restitution, when he shot a man whom he found naked in his kitchen late one night. The man was only superficially wounded, and turned out to be the servant's lover. The incident marked the start of his decline. The couple ran out of money and Chanfray attempted music, painting, and sculpture, all without success. Dalida and Chanfray separated, but despite his problems, he continued to be a part of the celebrity society of Paris and Saint Tropez. He became the lover of the Trintignan "baroness", Paula de Loos, whose title was as false as his own. De Loos was, however, allegedly a millionaire and when Chanfray began to suspect the activities of de Loos's financial administrator, he threatened him with a rifle. He was again imprisoned and fined -- to which he looked to de Loos for help. She, however, was also heavily in debt. He last appeared in public at a party in Saint Tropez, in June 1983. He was reportedly very thin, with white hair and an exhausted appearance. In a town near Saint Tropez, Chanfray and de Loos committed suicide, ingesting barbiturates while inhaling the exhaust of his car. Nearby was a suicide note that read: "I leave and I bring her with me, because she is so like me..."

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Tenco
Luigi. 1967-01-27

28

Born 1938-03-21. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Suicide

He was an Italian singer, songwriter and actor, best known for his suicide. In 1967 he took part in the Italian Song Festival in Sanremo. It was rumoured that he participated against his will. The song he presented was "Ciao Amore Ciao" ("Bye Love, Bye"), which he sang together with Dalida. Tenco allegedly committed suicide, by shooting himself in the head. He was only 28 years old, after learning that his song had been eliminated from the final competition. Tenco was found in his hotel room with a bullet wound in his left temple and a note announcing that his gesture was against the jury and public's choices during the competition, and not at all because he was fed up with life. Only days earlier Tenco's wedding to Dalida had been announced. It was she who discovered his body. Tenco was buried in Ricaldone. In 1974 the Tenco Award was instituted, and has been held every year since in Sanremo. Many of the most renowned Italian singer-songwriters from the 1970s declared explicitly the influence of Tenco on their work. Francesco De Gregori's album Bufalo Bill of 1976 contained a song, "Festival", about Tenco's suicide; it points out the hypocrisy with which the music establishment tried to minimize the dramatic event, in order to let the show go on. The French television channel TV5 recently carried a full-length dramatization of the love affair of Tenco and Dalida. Tenco was played by Alessandro Gassman while Dalida was played by Sabrina Ferilli. The Italian judicial system later began re-examinining Luigi Tenco's suicide. It was pointed out that the bullet hole was on the left temple, while the singer was right-handed. It had also been revealed that no autopsy had been done on the singer's corpse, and no calligraphic analysis on the suicide note with which he explained his final gesture. On 15 February 2006, Italian police exhumed Tenco's body for further investigation. The next day, results from the new autopsy and ballistics analysis were reported. According to Italian experts, what had been thought to be the entry hole on the left temple was actually the exit site. The bullet trajectory was said to be compatible with suicide.

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