Famous People Who Died Today

Described by The Wall Street Journal as the man Vladimir Putin fears most, Alexei Navalny is widely regarded as Russia's opposition leader. He is famous for his accusations of corruption in Russia and Putin's government. In 2011, he created the Anti-Corruption Foundation, which was dissolved in 2020. In August 2020, there was an attempt to assassinate him, when he was poisoned during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow.

Known as the Berlin Candy Bomber, Gail Halvorsen was a US Air Force officer and command pilot. He developed the idea of dropping candies, chocolate, and other treats for West German children, using parachutes, during the Berlin Airlift, in retaliation to the Soviet’s Berlin Blockade. He later received the Congressional Gold Medal.

Bruno Ganz was a Swiss actor best remembered for his collaborations with acclaimed directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Werner Herzog, and Wim Wenders. Ganz achieved immense popularity for his performance in movies like The American Friend and Nosferatu the Vampyre. Bruno Ganz was the recipient of several prestigious awards such as the Swiss Film Prize and the European Film Award.

Indian astrophysicist Meghnad Saha is best remembered for developing the thermal ionization equation. A grocer’s son, he relied on merit alone to excel in academics and eventually became a professor at the universities of Allahabad and Calcutta. He was also a Lok Sabha MP and a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Brownie McGhee was an American blues singer, songwriter and musician who developed an interest in guitar at the age of six and learned to play the piano at eight. Impressed by itinerant blues musicians, he later dropped out of school to perform at carnivals and minstrel shows, eventually forming a long-lasting partnership with Sonny Terry,  in-between publishing several solo albums, including Brownie's Blues.

Born to a furniture maker in Paris, Félix Faure initially worked as a tanner. After gaining considerable wealth as a merchant later, he became the deputy mayor of Le Havre and then the president of France. He is remembered for his reluctance to reopen the case of Alfred Dreyfus.

One of his parents’ 12 children, Canadian-born John Garand moved to the U.S. with his father and siblings after his mother’s death. He went from working in a textile mill as a child to creating the semi-automatic rifle M1 Garand, used widely by the U.S. military in World War II.

Josef Hofmann was a Polish-American composer, pianist, inventor, and music teacher. From 1927 to 1938, he served as the director of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, USA. As the director of the institute, Hofmann was instrumental in recruiting musicians like Efrem Zimbalist, Marcella Sembrich, Fritz Reiner, and Isabella Vengerova. Among his pupils were Abbey Simon and Shura Cherkassky.

Henry Bacon was a Beaux-Arts architect best remembered for designing the iconic Lincoln Memorial. In May 1923, he became only the sixth person to be honored with the prestigious AIA Gold Medal for his achievements. From 1921 to 1924, Henry Bacon also served as one of the most prominent members of the US Commission of Fine Arts.

Legend has it that Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada had inspired the character Don Quixote penned by Cervantes. Initially a lawyer, Quesada later gained fame as a Spanish conquistador and explored parts Colombia, then known as New Granada. He also made unsuccessful voyages in search of El Dorado.

Regarded as one of the most significant composers of eighteenth century France, François-Joseph Gossec began his career under Jean-Philippe Rameau, determined to revive the study of instrumental music in France. Although he is mainly remembered for his experiments in symphonies and chamber works, he also wrote numerous operas, string quartets and choral works, successfully leaving his influence on French music.

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.

Grandson of former Egyptian prime minister Boutros Ghali Bey, politician Boutros Boutros-Ghali is remembered for his tenure as the secretary-general of the UN, which witnessed peacekeeping activities in war-torn areas such as Bosnia and Herzegovina. His illustrious career boasted of various prestigious academic positions and a Fulbright scholarship.

A fine physician, Ernst Weber, known as the father of experimental psychology, is remembered for his studies on the sense of touch and for his discovery of the just-noticeable difference. His contributions to experimental psychology include Weber’s illusion, while he also contributed immensely to blood circulation research.

George MacBeth was a Scottish novelist and poet best remembered as one of the most important members of an informal group of poets known as The Group. As a novelist, MacBeth created the popular character Cadbury, who appeared in a series of thrillers. An influential and popular writer, George MacBeth was honored with the prestigious Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize.

Irish physicist John Sealy Townsend is best remembered for his pathbreaking research on the electrical conduction of gases and for his discovery of Townsend discharge. He was also the first to directly measure the electrical charge. He received the Hughes Medal and was also knighted for his contribution to science.

Known as the Chinese Marie Curie, Chien-Shiung Wu was a Chinese-American physicist who specialized in particle and experimental physics. She is best known for her Wu experiment. A National Medal of Science winner, she was part of the Manhattan Project, too. She taught at various institutes, including Princeton and Columbia.

Bappi Lahiri was an Indian singer and music composer. He popularized the use of synthesized disco music in Indian films. He achieved popularity in the 1980s and 1990s and was best known for his work in dance films like Dance Dance and Disco Dancer.