August 17 :: Historical Deaths

Famous Deaths

• 1153 - Eustace IV of Boulogne, son of Stephen of England (b. 1130)


• 1304 - Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan (b. 1243)


• 1510 - Edmund Dudley, English statesman (b. 1462)


• 1657 - Robert Blake, British admiral (b. 1599)


• 1673 - Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1641)


• 1676 - Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen, German novelist (b. 1621)


• 1720 - Anne Lefèvre, French scholar (b. 1654)


• 1723 - Joseph Bingham, English scholar (b. 1668)


• 1768 (N. S.) - Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky, Russian poet (b. 1703)


• 1785 - Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of the Colony and the state of Connecticut (b. 1710)


• 1786 - King Frederick II of Prussia (b. 1712)


• 1834 - Husein Gradaščević, Bosnian rebel leader (b. 1802)


• 1850 - Don José de San Martín, Argentine general (b. 1778)


• 1861 - Alcée Louis la Branche, American Politician (b. 1806)


• 1875 - Wilhelm Bleek, German linguist (b. 1827)


• 1880 - Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist (b. 1810)


• 1896 - Bridget Driscoll, world's first automobile fatality


• 1901 - Edmond Audran, French composer (b. 1842)


• 1903 - Hans Gude, Norwegian romanticist landscape painter (b. 1825)


• 1918 - Moisei Uritsky, Russian revolutionary (b. 1873)


• 1920 - Ray Chapman, American baseball player (b. 1891)


• 1925 - Ioan Slavici, Transylvanian writer of Romanian origin (b. 1848)


• 1940 - Billy Fiske, American aviator and Olympic athlete (b. 1911)


• 1949 - Gregorio Perfecto, Filipino jurist & politician (b. 1891)


• 1954 - Billy Murray, American recording artist (b. 1877)


• 1962 - Peter Fechter trying to cross the Berlin Wall (b. 1944)


• 1969 - Otto Stern, German physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1888)


• 1970 - Rattana Pestonji, Thai filmmaker (b. 1908)


• 1971 - Wilhelm List, German field marshal (b. 1880)


• 1973 - Jean Barraqué, French composer (b. 1928)


• 1973 - Paul Williams, American singer (The Temptations) (b. 1939)


• 1973 - Conrad Aiken, American author (b. 1889)


• 1979 - Vivian Vance, American actress (b. 1909)


• 1983 - Ira Gershwin, American lyricist (b. 1896)


• 1987 - Rudolf Hess, Nazi deputy (b. 1894)


• 1987 - Shaike Ophir, Israeli actor (b. 1929)


• 1988 - Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, 6th President of Pakistan (b. 1924)


• 1988 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., son of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States (b. 1914)


• 1988 - Victoria Shaw, Australian-born American actress (b. 1935)


• 1990 - Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (b. 1918)


• 1992 - Al Parker, American adult film actor (b. 1952)


• 1993 - Feng Kang, Chinese mathematician (b. 1920)


• 1994 - Luigi Chinetti, Italian-American race car driver and team owner (NART; b. 1901)


• 1994 - Jack Sharkey, American boxer (b. 1902)


• 1995 - Howard Koch, American screenwriter (b. 1902)


• 1995 - Ted Whitten, Australian rules footballer (b. 1933)


• 2004 - Thea Astley, Australian writer (b. 1925)


• 2004 - Gérard Souzay, French baritone (b. 1918)


• 2005 - John Bahcall, American astrophysicist (b. 1934)


• 2007 - Bill Deedes, British journalist and politician (b. 1913)


• 2007 - Eddie Griffin, American basketball player (b. 1982)