Famous People Who Died Today

Gregg Allman was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He is credited with co-founding the rock band The Allman Brothers Band along with his brother Duane Allman. Dubbed the Southern rock pioneer, Allman was recognized for his distinctive, soulful voice; Rolling Stone magazine named him in its 100 Greatest Singers of All Time list.

French theologian, pastor, and reformer John Calvin was a major figure during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. He was influential in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church to embrace Protestantism. As an apologetic writer, he generated much controversy.

William Theodore Walton III, popularly known as Bill Walton, is a former basketball player. In 1977, he helped the Portland Trail Blazers win an NBA championship and won another NBA championship in 1986 while playing for the Boston Celtics. In 1993, Walton was made an inductee to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Robert Koch was a German microbiologist and physician. One of the prominent co-founders of modern bacteriology, Koch is credited with creating and improving laboratory techniques and technologies in the field of microbiology. He is also credited with making important discoveries in public health. In 1905, Robert Koch won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on tuberculosis.

Jawaharlal Nehru was one of the central figures of the Indian independence movement along with personalities like Mahatma Gandhi. He became the first prime minister of India and left behind such a legacy that his direct descendants continue to play an important role in Indian politics.

Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca led an expedition to Galveston, Texas, although most of his men died during the voyage. De Vaca then wandered around with the Native Americans, pretending to be a healer, and eventually reached Mexico. He later became the governor of Rio de la Plata.

Robert Ripley was a cartoonist and an amateur anthropologist best known for creating the newspaper panel series Ripley's Believe It or Not! The series was later adapted for radio and TV. He lost his father when he was young and began working as a cartoonist at the age of 16. Over the years, he became extremely successful and wealthy. 

Religious leader Joseph Smith Jr. is known as the founder of the Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. He also published the Book of Mormon. He established his communities in Ohio and Missouri and eventually founded the city Nauvoo in Illinois, which became the center of his spiritual activities.

Luciano Berio revolutionized the genre of electronic music and is remembered as one of the most prominent composers of avant-garde music. The Grammy Award-winning composer had also taught music at Juilliard and Harvard. Initially a pianist, he had deviated to composing after injuring his hand during World War II.

Joseph Swan was an English chemist, physicist, and inventor known for being an independent early developer of a successful incandescent light bulb. He developed and supplied the first batch of incandescent lights used for illuminating houses and public buildings. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1894 and knighted by King Edward VII in 1904. 

Ernst Ruska was a German physicist whose work in electron optics earned him the prestigious Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986. His work led to the discovery of electron microscope, which plays a key role in the field of medical science. From 1957 to 1974, Ernst Ruska also worked at the Technical University of Berlin where he taught several students.

Margo Dydek was a Polish basketball player best remembered for her towering height of 7 ft 2 in, which made her the world's tallest professional female basketballer. She played for several teams in the WNBA and was honored with the Polish Gold Cross of Merit in 1999. In 2019, Dydek was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame.

Eliza Lucas was an agronomist who redefined agriculture in colonial South Carolina by developing indigo as one of the region's most prominent cash crops. The processing of indigo as dye influenced the colony's economy greatly before the Revolutionary War. She was the first woman to be be inducted into the South Carolina's Business Hall of Fame in the 20th century.

Abraham Whipple, an American Revolutionary War commander in the Continental Navy is counted among the brave hearts who fought for America’s freedom from British colonial rule. His achievements include attacking and burning the British customs schooner HMS Gaspee, and commanding privateer Game Cock that captured 23 French ships in six months. He was also a founding pioneer of Marietta, Ohio.

Austrian journalist and novelist Joseph Roth is noted for his novels Radetzky March and Job. He chronicled the decline and fall of Austria-Hungary in his family saga Radetzky March and wrote about plight of the Jews who migrated from eastern to western Europe following the First World War and the Russian Revolution in his short non-fiction book The Wandering Jews.

Rifa'a al-Tahtawi was an Egyptian writer, translator, teacher, intellectual, and Egyptologist. Many of his works were aimed at bringing an understanding between Christian and Islamic civilizations. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi also played an important role in influencing the development of literature, science, law, and Egyptology in 19th-century Egypt. 

P. Kunhiraman Nair was an Indian writer who wrote predominantly in the Malayalam language. Renowned for his romantic poems, Nair received the first Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry. In 1967, he won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for Thamarathoni. His life and career inspired the 2012 biopic Ivan Megharoopan, which was based on his autobiography, Kaviyude Kalpadukal. 

Known for his contributions to analysis of the nonlinear time series, Sir Clive William John Granger was a British econometrician, who worked with Robert Engle to develop new statistical methods. Basing their work on cointegration, they were able to differentiate between and combine the analysis of short-term fluctuations and long-term trends, earning Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for it.

Once both the Dean and the Secretary of State of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano had also served as part of the Vatican’s Council for the Public Affairs of the Church. Criticized for his role in a number of clerical sex abuse scandals, he was eventually forced to resign from his positions.

Remembered as Belgium’s foremost liberal leader, Charles Latour Rogier began his career at the bar. When the Belgium Revolution broke out, he left his practice to lead an armed militia in support of the revolution, eventually emerging as leader of the movement. Later he became the Governor of Antwerp, thereafter, he held several ministerial posts before being elected the Prime Minister.

Jeffrey Hunter was an American actor and producer who contributed immensely to the film and TV industries in the USA. He achieved popularity for his lead roles in the 1950s. Jeffrey Hunter is best remembered for his performances in films like King of Kings and The Searchers. 

Hjalmar Frisell was a Swedish sport shooter and military officer. He achieved popularity when he represented his country in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. Hjalmar Frisell also played an important role during the 1918 Finnish Civil War where he commanded the voluntary Swedish Brigade.

Elisabeth Wiedemann was a German actress and dancer best remembered for her portrayal of Else Tetzlaff in the popular German television sitcom Ein Herz und eine Seele. In 1966, she was honored with the prestigious Goldene Kamera.