Famous People Who Died Today

A rock icon and creator of sprit-lifting songs, Thomas Earl Petty was one of the defining musicians of the 1970s and the lead vocalist and guitarist of the band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Writing songs and creating music up till his last breath, Petty is noted for positivity and self- liberation themed songs, a rarity in rock music.

Considered a heartthrob and one of the most popular movie stars of all time, some of Rock Hudson’s successful movies are the Magnificent Obsession, Giant, Written on the Wind, Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back, Come September and Send Me No Flowers. He also acted in television. It was speculated that he was a homosexual. He died due to AIDS-related illness.

John André was a British military leader who served as a major in the British Army. He played an important role during the American Revolutionary War, serving as the head of the British Army's Secret Service in America. He was executed by the Continental Army on 2 October 1780. John André's life inspired many artworks, including the 1798 play André.

Apart from being a successful botanist, Marie Stopes was also a popular activist, known for her contribution to the feminist cause. A leading supporter of birth control, she established the UK’s first clinic for family planning. She was also known for her books Married Love and Wise Parenthood.

One of the greatest Indian painters of all time, Raja Ravi Varma is best remembered for mixing Indian mythological subjects with the Western historicist style of art. His painting skills made the king of Travancore his patron at 14. His best-known works include The Milkmaid and The Begum’s Bath.

Max Bruch composed his first song at 9 for his mother’s birthday and then earned a scholarship after creating a symphony at the tender age of 14. He worked extensively with the choral societies of Germany and is remembered for his iconic Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor.

Svante Arrhenius was a Swedish scientist who became the first Swedish person to win a Nobel Prize when he won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1903. Although he was originally a physicist, Arrhenius is widely accepted as a chemist and is best remembered for co-founding physical chemistry. Stockholm University houses the Arrhenius Labs, which is named in his honor.

Paavo Nurmi was a Finnish athlete who specialized in long-distance and middle-distance running. Nicknamed the Flying Finn, Nurmi dominated important distance running events in the early 20th century. He won nine gold medals and three silver medals across three Olympics in 1920, 1924, and 1928. Paavo Nurmi also set 22 official world records during his career.

Peter Medawar was a Brazilian-British writer and biologist. His discovery of acquired immune tolerance and his works on graft rejection were foundational to the medical practice of organ and tissue transplants. Peter Medawar is often referred to as the father of transplantation for his scientific works. Peter Medawar is also remembered for his wit.

Born in a small Polish village, Ignacy Mościcki grew up to become a chemist, an academic, and a researcher, before he stepped into politics. He later served Poland as its longest-serving president. Initially a supporter of Polish dictator Józef Piłsudski, he became more liberal after Piłsudski’s death.

Robert Bourassa made headlines when, in 1970, he became the youngest premier of Quebec. After a crushing defeat 6 years later, following corruption scandals, he moved to Europe and the U.S., where he taught while in exile. In the mid-1980s, he reclaimed the Liberal Party leadership and became a premier again.

Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot was a French inventor best remembered for building the Fardier à vapeur, the world's first automobile. Fardier à vapeur was the first working self-propelled mechanical land-vehicle. Built in 1769, the vehicle accidentally knocked down a stone or brick wall in 1771, an incident which is widely regarded as the first known automobile accident in the world.

French physicist and mathematician François Arago discovered rotatory magnetism, named Arago's rotations. He is also remembered for his research on the wave theory of light and for the reforms he introduced as the French minister of war and the navy. The Eiffel Tower has his name inscribed on it.

Former Philippine senator and Senate Minority Leader Claro Mayo Recto is remembered as a nationalist. He was a major figure of the Filipino-first movement and was against American neo-colonialism. A jurist, he had also been the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines.

Khurshidbanu Natavan was an Azerbaijani poet and philanthropist. Regarded as one of the most prominent lyrical poets of Azerbaijan, Natavan was best known for her lyrical ghazals. Also a well-known philanthropist, Khurshidbanu Natavan worked towards promoting the cultural and social development of Karabakh. She is credited with building an aqueduct, which relieved the townsfolk of their water problem.

Marek Edelman was a Polish social and political activist and cardiologist. A well-known revolutionary, Edelman helped establish the Jewish Combat Organization which played a key role in launching the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. He was one of the most important leaders of the resistance movement. After the war, Marek Edelman went on to become a noted cardiologist.

German-American jurist Francis Lieber is best remembered for establishing the laws of war. His Lieber Code, penned during the American Civil War, later served as the basis for the Geneva Conventions. He also penned Encyclopedia Americana and worked as a professor of history and economics in the US.

William Ellery Channing was an American preacher. One of the most important Unitarian preachers in the early-19th century, Channing was also one of Unitarianism's most prominent theologians. Remembered for his impassioned and articulate public speeches and sermons, Channing had a major influence on the New England Transcendentalists. In 1903, he was honored with a statue at the Boston Public Garden.  

Albertina Rasch was an Austrian-born American dancer, choreographer, and company director. After starting her career in Vienna at age 14, Rasch moved to the USA to exploit the American dance craze of the early 1910s. Albertina Rasch went on to become one of the most important dancers at the Century Opera Company before opening her own dance studio in 1923.

Ernest Renan was a French Semitic and Orientalist scholar. A multi-talented personality, Renan was also an expert of Semitic civilizations and languages, philologist, philosopher, historian of religion, critic, and biblical scholar. Ernest Renan is credited with writing pioneering and influential works on the origins of Christianity. Ernest Renan is also credited with writing the extremely popular book, Life of Jesus.

Coleridge Goode was a Jamaican-born British jazz bassist best remembered for his collaboration with jazz musician and composer Joe Harriott. Goode is often counted among the finest jazz bassists to have worked in Europe. In 2011, Coleridge Goode was honoured at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards with the prestigious Services to Jazz Award.