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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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79
Born 1942-04-16. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Age
Sir Francis Owen Garbett Williams CBE was a British businessman, racing car driver and the founder of Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited. He was the team principal from its foundation in 1977 until 2020. Williams met Virginia Berry in 1967. They married in 1974. They had two sons, Jonathan and Jamie, and a daughter, Claire, who would go on to become the deputy team principal of his future Formula One team Williams Grand Prix Engineering. Williams used a wheelchair since a car accident in the South of France, on 8 March 1986, rendered him tetraplegic. He was driving with team sponsorship manager Peter Windsor in a hired Ford Sierra 1600 from the Paul Ricard Circuit to Nice Côte d'Azur Airport when the incident happened. Williams had been at the circuit to watch the testing of the team's new Williams FW11, but as a keen long distance runner, he was returning to the airport following the trials because he wished to compete in a half marathon in London the next day. During the drive to the airport, he lost control of the hire car on a slight left hand kink in the road, clipping a low stone wall, causing the vehicle to leave the highway. An eight-foot (2.4 m) drop between the road and a field caused the car to roll onto the driver's side. Williams remained conscious but was immediately aware that he could not move and was fearful of fire due to fuel spillage. He suffered a spinal fracture between the fourth and fifth vertebra after being pressed between his seat and the crushed roof. Windsor, who had sustained only minor injuries, extracted Williams from the vehicle while waiting for the emergency services. Virginia flew with Patrick Head to the French hospital and was of the opinion that Williams was about to die. She organised his urgent repatriation to England, where doctors performed a tracheotomy, which then allowed his lungs to be drained of fluid, almost certainly saving his life. Virginia wrote an autobiographical book that was published in 1991, A Different Kind of Life, in which she describes her experiences in the Formula One team's formative years as well as her husband's near-fatal accident. For his part, Williams decided not to read her account during her lifetime, preferring to leave the past in the past. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, and died on 7 March 2013, at the age of 66.
20
Born 2000-01-01. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Suicide
Ekaterina Dmitriyevna Alexandrovskaya (Russian: Екатери́на Дми́триевна Алекса́ндровская) was a Russian–Australian pair skater. With her skating partner, Harley Windsor, she was the 2017 CS Tallinn Trophy champion, the 2017 CS Nebelhorn Trophy bronze medallist, the 2018 CS U.S. Classic bronze medallist, and a two-time Australian national champion (2017, 2019). At the junior level, she was the 2017 World Junior champion, the 2017 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, the 2016 JGP Estonia champion, and the 2017 JGP Poland champion. Alexandrovskaya died after falling out of a window in Moscow, a suspected suicide.
71
Born 1930-08-21. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Age
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, CI, GCVO, GCStJ, CD, was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and the only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II. Margaret was often viewed as a controversial member of the British royal family. Her divorce in 1978 received much negative publicity, and she was romantically associated with several men. Her health gradually deteriorated in the final two decades of her life. She was a heavy smoker for most of her adult life and had a lung operation in 1985, a bout of pneumonia in 1993, and at least three strokes between 1998 and 2001. She died at King Edward VII's Hospital in London after suffering a final stroke on 9 February 2002.
81
Born 1919-12-11. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Marie Windsor was an actress known for her femme fatale characters in the classic film noir features Force of Evil, The Narrow Margin and The Killing. Windsor's height (1m75) created problems for her in scenes with all but the tallest actors. She was the female lead in so many B movies that she became dubbed the "Queen" of the genre. Windsor died of congestive heart failure.
32
Born 1948-05-31. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Accident
He was an English drummer and member of the English rock band Led Zeppelin.
On September 24, 1980, John Bonham was picked up by Led Zeppelin assistant Rex King to attend rehearsals at Bray Studios for the upcoming tour of the United States, the band's first since 1977. During the journey Bonham had asked to stop for breakfast, where he downed four quadruple vodkas (roughly sixteen shots (~2/3 imperial quart, or ~8dl) of vodka), with a ham roll. After taking a bite of the ham roll he said to his assistant, "Breakfast". He then continued to drink heavily when he arrived at the studio. A halt was called to the rehearsals late in the evening and the band retired to Page's house — The Old Mill House in Clewer, Windsor. After midnight, Bonham had fallen asleep and was taken to bed and placed on his side. Benji LeFevre (who had replaced Richard Cole as Led Zeppelin's tour manager) and John Paul Jones found him dead the next morning.
The cause of death was asphyxiation from vomit. A subsequent autopsy found no other drugs in Bonham's body. The alcoholism that had plagued the drummer since his earliest days with the band ultimately led to his death.