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Chwatt Aaron (b. 1919-02-05 / d. 2006-07-13) alias Red Buttons
José Ferrer chose Buttons to appear in a Broadway show The Admiral Had a Wife. The show was a farce set in Pearl Harbor, and it was due to open on December 8, 1941. It never did, as it was deemed inappropriate after the Japanese attack. In later years Buttons would joke that the Japanese only attacked Pearl Harbor to keep him off of Broadway.
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87
Born 1929-04-26. Domain:Directing. Cause of death:Other
He was an American recording, voice, television and stage director, producer, writer, actor and voice actor. He directed such animated productions as The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, Super Friends, The Richie Rich Show, The Smurfs, Pound Puppies, Tom & Jerry Kids, The Pirates of Dark Water, Droopy, Master Detective and The New Adventures of Captain Planet. Hunt died from Parkinson's disease at the age of 87.
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 1927-04-18. Domain:science (economics). Cause of death:Age
He was an American political scientist who gained prominence through his Clash of Civilizations (1993, 1996) thesis of a post-Cold War new world order. Previously, his academic reputation had rested on his analysis of the relationship between the military and the civil government, his investigation of coups d'état, and his more recent analysis of threats posed to the U.S. by contemporary immigration.
44
Born 1962-02-22. Domain:TV/Radio. Cause of death:Accident
Irwin was fatally pierced in the chest by a stingray spine while snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef, at Batt Reef, which is located off the coast of Port Douglas in Queensland. Irwin was in the area filming his own documentary, Ocean's Deadliest, but weather had stalled filming. Irwin decided to take the opportunity to film some shallow water shots for a segment in the television program his daughter Bindi was hosting, when, according to his friend and colleague, John Stainton, he swam too close to one of the stingrays. "He came on top of the stingray and the stingray's barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart," said Stainton, who was on board Irwin's boat the Croc One.
The events were caught on camera, and a copy of the footage was handed to the Queensland Police. After reviewing the footage of the incident and speaking to the cameraman who recorded it, marine documentary filmmaker and former spearfisherman Ben Cropp speculated that the stingray "felt threatened because Steve was alongside and there was the cameraman ahead." In such a case, the stingray responds to danger by automatically flexing the serrated spine on its tail (which can measure up to 25 cm or about 10 inches in length) in an upward motion.
Ironically, the stingray was not the creature being filmed. It was deemed "not dangerous enough" to be featured in the documentary.
67
Born 1937-07-18. Domain:Journalism. Cause of death:Suicide
He was an American journalist and author who wrote The Rum Diary (1998, written in the early 1960s), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971) and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (1973). He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories. He is known also for his lifelong use of alcohol, LSD, mescaline, and cocaine (among other substances); his love of firearms; his inveterate hatred of Richard Nixon; and his iconoclastic contempt for authoritarianism. While suffering a bout of health problems, he committed suicide in 2005 at the age of 67.
88
Born 1910-06-22. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Age
Hunt may have had an encounter with the alleged Abominable Snowman or Yeti of the Himalaya. One night, while camping in the Himalaya, he sensed the presence of a large animal near his tent. When he went out to investigate, he vaguely saw a large creature scurrying away. When later asked why he had not shot at it, he replied, "that would have been murder." On another occasion, in 1951, Hunt's team found and photographed mysterious footprints in the mountain snow allegedly made by the yeti.
In 1953, Hunt was chosen as the leader of the ninth British expedition to Mount Everest and the first to make a successful ascent. Hunt selected two climbing pairs to attempt to reach the summit. The first pair (Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans) turned back after becoming exhausted high on the mountain. The next day, the expedition made its second and final assault on the summit with second climbing pair. The summit was eventually reached at 11:30 am on 29 May 1953 by the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay from Nepal climbing the South Col Route. News of the expedition's success reached London on the morning of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.
45
Born 1947-08-29. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Heart attack
He was married twice: first, to model Suzy Millar, who left him for the actor Richard Burton. His second marriage, to Sarah, resulted in two children.
Soon after retirement, Hunt became an outspoken and entertaining television commentator for the BBC, alongside Murray Walker. Viewers were regularly exposed to his knowledge, insights and dry sense of humour during broadcasts, bringing him a whole new fanbase. He was famous for 'rubbishing' drivers he didn't think were trying hard enough, and although harsh-sounding, his comments were usually in good humour – he once described René Arnoux's comments that non-turbo cars didn't suit the Frenchman's driving skills as "bullshit", while live on the BBC. He was also skilled at reading a race and predicting outcomes to situations on-track. He briefly considered making a comeback to F1 in the mid-80's, and even tested privately for Williams setting competitive lap times, but eventually changed his mind.
Hunt fought depression and alcoholism and despite severe financial setbacks in his business life, approaching his mid-40s it seemed that he had overcome many of his demons (particularly alcohol and tobacco) and had finally achieved happiness. Happiness to Hunt included his new partner Helen, his clean health, his bicycle, his casual approach to dress, his two sons and his Austin A35 van.
Hunt made a brief appearance in the 1979 British silent slapstick comedy "The Plank." He also made an appearance on ITV's Police, Camera, Action! special Crash Test Racers in 2000; this was one of many interviews to be aired posthumously.
This was however not to last long - Hunt died at the age of 45, of a heart attack at his home in Wimbledon, only hours after proposing marriage to Helen.
78
Born 1874-04-26. Domain:Science (Math style). Cause of death:Age
He was an American mathematician. Huntington was awarded the B.A. and the M.A. by Harvard University in 1895 and 1897, respectively. After two years' teaching at Williams College, he began a doctorate at the University of Strasbourg, which was awarded in 1901. He then spent his entire career at Harvard, retiring in 1941. He taught in the engineering school, becoming Professor of Mechanics in 1919. Although Huntington's research was mainly in pure mathematics, he valued teaching mathematics to engineering students. He advocated mechanical calculators and had one in his office. He had an interest in statistics, unusual for the time, and worked on statistical problems for the USA military during World War I. In 1904, Huntington put Boolean algebra on a sound axiomatic foundation. He revisited Boolean axiomatics in 1933, proving that Boolean algebra required but a single binary operation (denoted below by infix '+') that commutes and associates, and a single unary operation, complementation, denoted by a postfix prime. The only further axiom Boolean algebra requires is: (a '+b ')'+(a '+b)' = a, now known as Huntington's axiom.