Famous People Who Died In 1907

Lord Kelvin was a British mathematical physicist and engineer. He studied at the Glasgow University and proceeded to teach there as well. Besides his academic career, he also had a career as an electric telegraph engineer and inventor. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883. Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in his honor.

Ekaterine "Kato" Svanidze, a shy girl from a poor Georgian family, was the first of Joseph Stalin’s two wives. Stalin, then 24, fell in love with a 16-year-old Kato while studying together at the Tiflis Spiritual Seminary. She died a year after the birth of their son, Yakov.

Klara Hitler was the mother of Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany. Born into a modest family in Austria, she was a hardworking and energetic woman with a pleasant demeanor. She married Alois Hitler and had six children, of whom only two—Adolf and Paula—survived to adulthood. She died of breast cancer when she was 47.

Edmonia Lewis was an American sculptor who worked in Rome for most of her career. The first African-American sculptor to gain international prominence, Lewis was also the only Black female artist to have participated and recognized by the American artistic mainstream until the end of the 19th century. Molefi Kete Asante included Lewis in his 100 Greatest African Americans list.

William Henry Perkin is best remembered for his chance discovery of the dye mauveine, made of aniline purple. He had apparently discovered the dye while attempting to synthesize quinine. The Royal Medal-winning British chemist also studied salicyl alcohol and flavoring agents and synthesized the first artificial perfume.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens was a sculptor who achieved popularity for his monuments celebrating heroes of the Civil War. Some of his well-known monuments include the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, General John Logan Memorial, and Abraham Lincoln: The Man. He is also credited with designing the Saint Gaudens Double Eagle, which is regarded as one of the most beautiful coins ever issued.

Hungarian violinist and composer Joseph Joachim was trained in Budapest and London before he became the director of the Hochschule für Ausübende Tonkunst in Berlin. He formed the Joachim Quartet and gained fame as a music teacher. He is best known for his versions of works by legends such as Beethoven.

Stanisław Wyspiański was a Polish poet, playwright, and painter. He was one of the most patriotic writers of the Young Poland Movement and is best remembered for creating several symbolic, national dramas. Stanisław Wyspiański is sometimes referred to as the Fourth Bard of Polish literature.

German composer and pianist Otto Goldschmidt was one of the first students at the Leipzig Conservatory. The son of a Jewish salesperson, he grew up to be one of the greatest musicians of the 19th century. He later settled in England and established the London Bach Choir.

Henri Moissan was a French chemist and pharmacist. He is best known for his work in isolating fluorine from its compounds, an achievement that earned him the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He was one of the original members of the International Atomic Weights Committee. He also made significant contributions to the production of artificial diamonds.

Ludwig Mylius-Erichsen was a Danish ethnologist, explorer, and author. He is renowned for his explorations of Greenland. Mylius-Erichsen is credited with proving the nonexistence of the Peary Channel, thereby proving that American explorer Robert Peary was wrong. It was assumed that the channel existed until Ejnar Mikkelsen found Mylius-Erichsen's report in a cairn after Mylius-Erichsen’s death during his last exploration.

Ernst von Bergmann was a Baltic German surgeon, known for being the first physician to introduce heat sterilization of surgical instruments. He is credited to be a pioneer of aseptic surgery. He also served as a medical officer in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and the Franco-Prussian War. He wrote a classic treatise on head injuries, among other medical works. 

Giosuè Carducci was an Italian poet, literary critic, teacher, and writer. Widely regarded as the national poet of modern Italy, Carducci was a very influential figure. He became the first Italian to be honored with the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature in 1906. Carducci was also a translator and is responsible for translating some of Heine and Goethe into Italian.

Apart from discovering helium, astronomer Pierre Janssen also found out a way of observing solar prominences with an eclipse. Permanently lamed due to a childhood accident, Janssen had begun his career as a bank clerk. He later taught physics, too. His photographic revolver paved the path for the motion-picture

Born to a doctor in Paris, Marcellin Berthelot was an intelligent student in his younger days and excelled in history and philosophy before gaining an interest in chemistry. Best known for proposing the Thomsen–Berthelot principle of thermochemistry, he was one of the “Forty Immortals” of the French Academy.

Sophus Bugge was a Norwegian linguist and philologist best remembered for his work on runic alphabets. He also made significant contributions to the study of the Oscan, Romance, Celtic, Etruscan, and Umbrian languages. Sophus Bugge's scientific work was of primary importance for the runic research and Norse philology.

Richard Mansfield was a German-born English actor-manager. He is best remembered for his work in Gilbert and Sullivan operas and Shakespeare plays. Mansfield is renowned for playing a psychopathic killer; such was his performance in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde that he was suspected in Jack the Ripper case as the complainant believed that Mansfield was homicidal.

Born to a samurai, Asai Chu was initially interested in studying English but later deviated to painting. Trained in western oil painting by Italian artist Antonio Fontanesi, he later moved to France. He also formed the Meiji Art Society and was one of the pioneers of the yoga movement in Japan.

Architect and civil engineer William Le Baron Jenney was a major figure of the Chicago School. His Home Insurance Company Building was the world’s first tall building or skyscraper that used steel as a basic material. Gustave Eiffel, the designer of the Eiffel Tower, was his architecture classmate.

Raphael Kalinowski was a Polish friar who founded several Carmelite monasteries in and around Poland after the suppression by the Russians. A multi-talented personality, Kalinowski also served as a royal tutor, engineer, and teacher. Raphael Kalinowski was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1983. Today, he is revered by Catholics as a patron saint of officers in Poland.

British physiologist Michael Foster scripted history as the first physiology professor at the University of Cambridge. As a teacher, he stressed on the importance of laboratory experiments and thus modernized the teaching methods for subjects such as biology and physiology. He had also tried his luck in politics.

Mkrtich Khrimian was an Armenian Apostolic Church leader, publisher, and educator. From 1893 to 1907, he served as Catholicos of All Armenians. Mkrtich Khrimian is also remembered for his service as the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople from 1869 to 1873. Khrimian is credited with laying the foundation for the Armenian national movement of the 19th and 20th centuries.