Died On December 12th

Peter Boyle was an American actor, best known for playing Frank Barone in the popular TV series Everybody Loves Raymond. Boyle's death, which was caused by multiple myeloma and heart disease, had a great impact on many of his colleagues. His widow, Loraine, founded the Peter Boyle Memorial Fund, which is the most successful fundraiser for the International Myeloma Foundation.

Anne Baxter is best remembered for her Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning performance as Sophie MacDonald in The Razor's Edge. Her other notable projects were the film All About Eve and the series The Name of the Game. She also actively participated in Republican campaigns.

Actor, Danny Aiello, is best remembered for playing Salvatore "Sal" Frangione in the Spike Lee film Do the Right Thing. The role earned him an Academy Award nomination. As a young man, he held many odd jobs before breaking into films. Handsome, talented, and ambitious, he soon made a name for himself in Hollywood.

Robert Browning was an English playwright and poet best remembered for his dramatic monologues. His monologues are widely studied around the world as most teachers consider them ideal examples of the monologue form. One of the most important Victorian poets, Browning has inspired several poets and playwrights. 

Menelik II reigned as the emperor of Ethiopia from 1889 to 1913 after ruling as the king of Shewa from 1866 to 1889. He is credited with transforming the Ethiopian Empire by expanding his kingdom into Wolayta, Sidama, and Kaffa kingdoms. Fascinated by modernity, Menelik II played a major role in modernizing Ethiopia.

George Montgomery was an American actor best remembered for his work in television and Western films. A multi-talented personality, Montgomery was also known as a director, producer, stuntman, writer, sculptor, painter, and furniture craftsman. George Montgomery achieved popularity after singing with 20th Century Fox in 1939; he then went on to become a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s.

Born to a church minister, Henrietta Swan Leavitt grew up to work as a “human computer” at the Harvard Observatory. The American astronomer gained fame for discovering the period-luminosity relation of Cepheid variables. However, her brilliant scientific career was halted by her death due to stomach cancer at 53.

Josef Bican was an Austrian-Czech footballer who played as a forward. According to Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation, Bican scored more than 950 goals in 624 official matches, which makes him the second-most prolific goalscorer of all time in recorded history. In 2000, Josef Bican was honored with the Golden Ball by the IFFHS. 

Yasujiro Ozu often ran away from school to watch movies at a local theater and later began his career as a camera assistant. He directed both silent films and talkies, including the masterpiece Tokyo Story, and is best remembered for his signature static camera effect and the use of the color red.

William I of the Netherlands reigned as the king of the Netherlands from 1815 to 1840. Before declaring himself King of the Netherlands, William I had an influential career in the military. In 1790, he was made the Dutch States Army's general of infantry where he served under his father William V, who served as Captain-General. 

Stephen Báthory reigned as the King of Poland from 1 May 1576 to 12 December 1586. A member of the Báthory noble family of Hungary, Stephen ruled Transylvania during the 1570s before becoming the third elected king of Poland. Stephen Báthory is counted among the most successful kings in the history of Poland.

NASA astronaut and USAF pilot Stuart Roosa served as the Command Module Pilot for the 1971 Apollo 14 mission. He had begun his career as a smokejumper for the US Forest Service, before moving on to the USAF. Following his stint at NASA, he worked as an executive for Greek and US businesses.

Libertad Lamarque was a Mexican-Argentine singer and actress. She is often counted among the icons of the Golden Age of Mexican and Argentine cinema. Lamarque achieved popularity throughout Latin America where she came to be known as The Sweetheart of the Americas. In 2000, Libertad Lamarque was honored with the Ariel Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to cinema.

Milutin Milanković was a Serbian astronomer, mathematician, geophysicist, climatologist, and civil engineer. He is best remembered for his explanation of Earth's climate changes, which partly explained the ice ages. Milutin Milankovitch's biography inspired a 2007 documentary film titled A Traveler Through Distant Worlds and Times.

Avery Dulles was a Jesuit priest, cardinal of the Catholic Church, and theologian. Renowned for his skills as an author and lecturer, Dulles was associated with Woodstock College and the Catholic University of America from 1960 to 1974 and from 1974 to 1988, respectively. Over the course of his illustrious career, Avery Dulles received several prestigious honors and awards.

Jack Steinberger was a German-born American experimental particle physicist who was known for his path-breaking work on neutrinos. Working with Leon M. Lederman and Melvin Schwartz, Jack Steinberger obtained the first laboratory-made stream of neutrino and in the process discovered the muon neutrino. The beam so produced later became a basic research tool for studying subatomic particles, earning the trio the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Ndabaningi Sithole was a Zimbabwean political leader best remembered for founding a militant organization called the Zimbabwe African National Union, which fought against the government of Rhodesia during the 1960s and 1970s. Ndabaningi Sithole was also one of the most prolific authors in Rhodesia; he published 12 books including a novel titled The Polygamist.

Gebran Tueni, who served as director-editorialist of An Nahar, gained international attention writing a front-page letter to Bashar Assad for withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. Tueni cofounded Qornet Shehwan Gathering, contributed to Cedar Revolution demonstrations and became Member of Parliament of Lebanon. He was killed in 2005 as part of a series of assassinations that struck Lebanon since 2004. 

Swiss biologist Albrecht von Haller, who is hailed as the father of experimental physiology, grew up as a sickly child and thus often avoided sports and mastered Greek, Hebrew, and the Bible instead. Associated with the University of Göttingen, he later penned Physiological Elements of the Human Body, which revolutionized medical science.

Amza Pellea was a Romanian actor best remembered for his portrayal of Romanian national heroes in films. He started his career as a theatre actor before establishing himself as a film actor, playing historical Romanian leaders. Amza Pellea also worked as a professor at the Caragiale National University of Theatre and Film in Bucharest.

Apart from being the first president of West Germany, Theodor Heuss, the Free Democratic Party leader, also framed the new constitution of West Germany after World War II. Previously, he was a political journalist and was targeted by Hitler. Even his books were burned for being against German interests.