Famous People Who Died Today

Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet Michelangelo was a prominent figure of the High Renaissance. He is credited to have influenced the Western art in unprecedented ways. He is widely regarded as the greatest artist of his age and one of the greatest artists of all time. He was equally revered and respected as an architect.

German monk Martin Luther challenged the dogmas of Roman Catholicism and the authority of the pope, in his Ninety-five Theses, and was thus excommunicated. His German translation of the Bible enriched the German culture, and his marriage set an example for clerical marriage. His teachings are now known as Lutherans.

Hailed as a brilliant scientific mind, American physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, led the Manhattan Project which resulted in the development of atomic bomb during the World War II. The bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. However, Oppenheimer was in a constant conflict over the moral issue of the weapons of mass destruction and rallied against nuclear proliferation.

Dale Earnhardt was an American stock car driver who raced in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series from 1975 to 2001. Considered one of the greatest drivers in the history of NASCAR, Earnhardt won 76 Winston Cup races and seven Winston Cup championships in an illustrious career spanning 40 years. In 2010, he was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Landscape painter Albert Bierstadt immortalized the natural attractions of the American West, such as the Rocky Mountains, in his works. One of the finest painters of the Hudson River school, he specialized in paintings that showcased bright lighting, or luminism, and created over 500 paintings throughout his career.

Sixteenth-century German scholar Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa was known for his expertise in philosophy and the occult. He also taught at the universities of Pavia and Dôle. His De occulta philosophia suggested magic as a way to reach God. He was eventually branded a heretic and imprisoned.

Vasil Levski was a Bulgarian revolutionary who is considered a national hero in Bulgaria. Nicknamed the Apostle of Freedom, Vasil Levski strategized a revolutionary movement to free Bulgaria from the Ottoman rule. In a nationwide television poll conducted in 2007, Levski was voted as the greatest Bulgarian of all time.

Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi was a German mathematician best remembered for his contributions to differential equations, dynamics, number theory, determinants, and elliptic functions. He is the first Jewish mathematician to work as a professor at a German university. Jacobi has a crater on the Moon named after him in recognition of his contribution to science.

Fra Angelico was an Italian painter best remembered for a series of frescoes which he made for his own friary in Florence. Described by Giorgio Vasari as having a rare and perfect talent, Fra Angelico was proclaimed blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1982 in recognition of the saintliness of his life. 

Ngaio Marsh was a New Zealand theatre director and crime writer. Counted among the Queens of Crime alongside other crime writers like Agatha Christie, Marsh is best remembered for her famous character, Roderick Alleyn. She received several prestigious awards and was made an inductee of the Detection Club in 1974. The Ngaio Marsh Award is presented annually in her memory.

Counted as the first German pope, Pope Gregory V reigned for less than three years. A member of the Salian dynasty, he is said to have acted as a representative of the Holy Roman Emperor in Rome. His pontificate, which started in May 996 and ended with his death in February 999, was historically one of the most unsettled periods.

Initially part of the Greek navy, Pantelis Pantelidis later quit his naval career to focus in music. A YouTube sensation, he was a self-taught guitarist, too, and soared to fame with tracks such as Den Tairiazete Sou Lew. The singer lost his life to a tragic car accident at age 32.

Bozorg Alavi was an Iranian writer, novelist, and political intellectual. In 1941, he became a founding member of the communist Tudeh Party of Iran. The party proved to be influential in its initial years. After the 1953 coup against Premier Mohammad Mossadegh, Alavi went into exile and spent the rest of his life in East Germany. 

Prussian Lithuanian poet Kristijonas Donelaitis had mastered theology and classical languages and also served as a pastor of Tolmingkehmen. His best-known work, Metai, or The Seasons, was penned in hexameters, a style never used before in Lithuanian verse. He had also written Lithuanian fables based on Aesop's Fables.

A central figure in the history of Hispanic-American modernism, Leopoldo Lugones is remembered as much for his contributions towards formation of modern Spanish poetry as for his profound insight into Argentinean history. A well-Known poet-playwright-novelist, literary and social critic, and cultural ambassador, he later involved himself with national and international politics, leaving huge impact on the younger generation of writers.   

Astronomer Henry Norris Russell is best remembered for his efforts in making physics the core of astrophysical science. The Princeton alumnus later taught at his alma and became the director of the Princeton University Observatory. He also contributed to the Russell–Saunders coupling and the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram.

Eugenio Beltrami was an Italian mathematician, whose work on the differential geometry of curves and surfaces helped to establish the soundness of non-Euclidean geometry. A faculty of University of Bologna, he dealt in wide range of subjects, establishing Beltrami equation, Beltrami identity, Beltrami's theorem, Laplace–Beltrami operator, Beltrami vector field and Beltrami–Klein model, publishing several works including Opere Matematiche.