Died On April 24th

Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was the first from his country to fly into space twice. He died when his Soyuz 1 capsule crashed while re-entering the Earth, due to a parachute failure, on April 24, 1967, which made him the first human to die in a space flight.

Welsh musician Pete Ham soared to fame as the lead singer and composer of the rock band Badfinger. Known for iconic hits such as No Matter What, he also co-wrote the classic Without You. After the band’s manager defrauded and vanished, Ham committed suicide by hanging himself in his garage.

Oliver Tambo was a South African revolutionary and politician who played an important role in the anti-apartheid movement alongside Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu. In 1943, he helped found the ANC Youth League and later served as the African National Congress' president. He is also remembered for organizing several guerilla units that facilitated attacks against the apartheid state.

Eugene Stoner is largely remembered for developing the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle, which was a forerunner of the M16 rifle used by the American military. Though he didn’t have any formal education beyond high school, Stoner, like his Russian counterpart, Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, revolutionized the arms industry with his inventions.

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder was a Prussian field marshal who served as the chief of staff in the Royal Prussian Army for 30 years. Moltke, who commanded troops during Austro-Prussian War, Second Schleswig War, and the Franco-Prussian War, is credited with creating a new method of directing armies. He is also credited with pioneering the military usage of railways. 

Ramdhari Singh Dinkar was an Indian poet, academic, patriot, and essayist. Regarded as one of the most prominent modern Hindi poets, Dinkar played an important role during the Indian independence movement,; writing poems that sparked nationalism. In 1959, he was honored with the prestigious Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award. The same year, he also received the Sahitya Akademi Award.

Padma Bhushan-winning artist Jamini Roy is remembered for introducing his own style of painting that mingled Western and Indian influences. Once a disciple of Rabindranath Tagore, he excelled in the Kalighat Pat style and depicted Bengali folk life through his works. He was declared as one of the ASI’s Nine Masters of Art.

Cambodian ruler Norodom, the eldest son of King Ang Duong, was trained in the concepts of Buddhism from an early age. His initial goals included strengthening ties between Siam (Thailand) and Cambodia. A treaty he signed with France handed over Cambodia’s foreign relations to the French.

Nobel Prize-winning German pathologist and bacteriologist Gerhard Domagk is best remembered for his pathbreaking discovery of Prontosil, the first sulfonamide antibiotic. The Nazis, however, didn’t allow him to accept the Nobel Prize immediately and detained him briefly instead. He had also served as a soldier in World War I.

British economist Angus Maddison specialised in quantitative macroeconomic history and is noted for documenting economic performances of major countries across continents. He served as the Head of OEEC Economics Division and as Assistant Director at the Economic Development Department of OECD. He authored several books on historical economic analysis, most notably The World Economy: Historical Statistics.

Indian guru and philanthropist, Sathya Sai Baba, was both a much-revered and controversial personality. He founded the Sathya Sai Organisation, through which he established a network of free hospitals, clinics, and educational institutions. His devotees believed in his alleged omnipotence and omniscience. His critics have accused him of sexual abuse, money laundering, and fraud.

Born as an illegitimate son of a Russian landowner father and a Turkish slave mother, Vasily Zhukovsky had initially been the tutor of Tsar-Liberator Alexander II. He later co-founded the Arzamas society, which opposed classicism in poetry. With his poems and translations, he brought the Romantic Movement to Russia.

One of the most significant figures of postmodern architecture, Austrian architect Hans Hollein is a Pritzker Prize winner. While he initially studied civil engineering, he later focused on architecture and rose to build structures that were characteristic of the Modernist Viennese architecture. He also taught at Yale and had his own firm.

Pierre Hadot was a French historian of philosophy and philosopher who specialized in ancient philosophy. Hadot is credited with introducing Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's thoughts to France. He also published commentaries on and translations of Porphyry of Tyre, Plotinus, St. Ambrose, and Marcus Aurelius.

Swiss-born Cuban author Alejo Carpentier is regarded as one of the greatest Latin American literary personalities. The Cervantes Prize-winning writer was one of the pioneers of magic realism. Known for novels such as The Lost Steps, he also contributed to the Afro-Cuban movement and was the Cuban ambassador to France.

The son of Reform Judaism pioneer and rabbi Samuel Adler, Felix Adler was a German-American educator who had taught at Cornell and Columbia universities. He established the Ethical Culture movement, focusing on tying all human beings with the thread of universal morality. He also worked to abolish child labor.

Tadeusz Różewicz is remembered as one of the finest poets and dramatists of the post-World War II era. Kartoteka, or The Card Index, and Twarz trzecia, or The Third Face, remain 2 of his best-known works. He had also been part of the Polish Home Army during World War II.

Ville Ritola was a Finnish athlete who specialized in long-distance running. He is best remembered for winning five Olympic gold medals, four of which were won at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. Ville Ritola also won two silver medals at the 1924 Games, a record for the most number of athletics medals won at a single Olympic event.

Distinguished Castilian poet and soldier Jorge Manrique, noted for his lyric poetry, is best known for his work the Coplas a la muerte de mi padre (Verses on the death of Don Rodrigo Manrique, his Father). He joined Castilian military service at an early age and eventually reached the rank of captain. Manrique was a supporter of Queen of Castile Isabel I.