Famous People Who Died Today

Sojourner Truth was an American women's rights activist and abolitionist. Born into slavery, Truth escaped to freedom in 1826. She then approached the court to recover her son, subsequently becoming the first black woman to emerge successful against a white man in such a case. In 2014, she was named in Smithsonian's 100 Most Significant Americans of All Time list.

Florence Foster Jenkins was an American socialite who was often ridiculed and mocked for her poor singing ability, which in turn made her popular. Known as the world's worst opera singer, Jenkins became a musical cult-figure in New York City due to her technical incompetence as an amateur soprano. Her life inspired several plays and films, including Florence Foster Jenkins.

Vivien Theodore Thomas was laboratory supervisor who never went to college; yet he rose above poverty and racism to develop a procedure for treating cyanotic heart disease. Initially billed as janitor, he began his career as assistant to surgeon Alfred Blalock first at Nashville University and later at Johns Hopkins, and in time discovered the life-saving technique, eventually becoming a teacher of operative techniques.

Born to a famous Italian poet and writer, Bernardo Bertolucci himself wrote and won many literary prizes in his younger days. He later established himself as one of Italian cinema’s best filmmakers and was the first filmmaker from his country to win an Academy Award, winning it for The Last Emperor.

Edward O'Hare was an American naval aviator who became the United States Navy's first fighter ace of World War II in 1942, when he single-handedly took on an intimidating formation of nine heavy bombers. Edward O'Hare shot down five enemy bombers, making him the first naval aviator to receive the prestigious Medal of Honor in the Second World War.  

Adam Mickiewicz was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, and political activist. He was a major figure in Polish Romanticism and considered one of Poland's "Three Bards." He has long been regarded as Poland's national poet and is often compared to Byron and Goethe. The vast majority of his work is available only in Polish and has been reprinted numerous times. 

BAFTA-winning actor Rachel Roberts is best remembered as Mrs. Margaret Hammond from This Sporting Life, a role that also earned her Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. A theater veteran, she has also won a Drama Desk Award. Her journals were published following her suicide by drug overdose.

Best known for his appearances on shows such as MasterChef and Hell's Kitchen, Gary Rhodes later also launched his own series, Rhodes Around Britain. He owned several restaurants in the UK and the Middle East. The celebrity chef shocked everyone with his untimely death at age 59 due to brain hemorrhage.

An Oxford graduate, Nigerian military leader and politician C. Odumegwu Ojukwu started his career as an administrative officer. He later reigned at the governor of the Eastern Region in Nigeria and became the 1st president of Biafra. He won many accolades, including the honorary title of the Ikemba of Nnewi.

Legendary Lebanese singer Sabah, nicknamed Shahruret-el Wadi, was one of the first international music icons from her country. She had not only performed at prestigious venues such as the Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall, but was also a star of Egyptian movies such as El-Qalb Louh Wahid.

Max Euwe scripted history when he became the first chess Grandmaster from the Netherlands. A PhD in math, he also taught both math and computer programming, apart from publishing a mathematical analysis of chess. A chess world champion, he also served as the president of FIDE.

Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam introduced the world to the macadam road surface, which was more economical and effective than all previous road-construction methods. He suggested that roads should be constructed at an elevated level for better drainage. He also became Britain’s Surveyor-General of Metropolitan Roads.

Nobel Prize-winning American plastic surgeon Joseph E. Murray is remembered for conducting the first kidney transplant on identical twins. He later used immunosuppressive drugs and thus successfully conducted kidney transplants from unrelated donors. The Harvard alumnus later also taught at his alma. He appears in the book Beyond Recognition.

British-American anthropologist Ashley Montagu not only taught at Rutgers and The State University of New Jersey but also wrote UNESCO’s 1950 Statement on Race. He also dabbled in topics such as evolution and child care, and one of his best-known works is The Natural Superiority of Women.

Legendary Jamaican sprinter Herb McKenley not only won an Olympic gold medal but also had 3 Olympic silvers in his kitty. He remains the only person to have ever made the final rounds of the 100m, 200m, and 400m Olympic events. He had also won 3 Pan American Games bronze medals.

Italian coloratura soprano Amelita Galli-Curci was a celebrated operatic-singer of the 20th-century whose recordings sold in great numbers. She garnered acclaim in Italy following her operatic debut 1906. For several years, Galli-Curci toured extensively in Europe, Russia and South America and later bolstered her career in the US working with Chicago Opera Association, Victor Talking Machine Company and Metropolitan Opera.     

Jonas Žemaitis was a Lithuanian political figure who served as a leader of a group of Lithuanian partisans who waged guerrilla warfare against the Soviet Union after the occupation of Lithuania by Soviet. After Lithuania's independence, Jonas Žemaitis was acknowledged as a national hero and was officially recognized as the fourth Lithuanian president in 2009.