August 12 :: Historical Deaths

Famous Deaths

• 30 BC - Cleopatra (b. 69 BC)


• 875 - Louis II Holy Roman Emperor (b. 825)


• 1424 - Yongle, Emperor of China (b. 1460)


• 1484 - George of Trebizond, Greek philosopher (b. 1395)


• 1484 - Pope Sixtus IV (b. 1414)


• 1512 - Alessandro Achillini, Italian philosopher (b. 1463)


• 1577 - Thomas Smith, English diplomat and scholar (b. 1513)


• 1588 - Alfonso Ferrabosco (I), Italian composer (b. 1543)


• 1612 - Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer


• 1633 - Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (b. 1561)


• 1638 - Johannes Althusius, German writer (b. 1557)


• 1648 - Ibrahim I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1615)


• 1674 - Philippe de Champaigne, French painter (b. 1602)


• 1689 - Pope Innocent XI (b. 1611)


• 1778 - Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, British general and politician (b. 1714)


• 1809 - Mikhail Kamensky, Russian field marshal (b. 1738)


• 1810 - Etienne Louis Geoffroy, French pharmacist and entomologist (b. 1725)


• 1822 - Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, English politician and statesman (b. 1769)


• 1827 - William Blake, English poet and artist (b. 1757)


• 1848 - George Stephenson, British locomotive designer (b. 1781)


• 1861 - Eliphalet Remington, American inventor, designer of the Remington rifle (b. 1793)


• 1864 - Sakuma Shōzan, Japanese reformer (b. 1811)


• 1865 - William Jackson Hooker, English botanist (b. 1785)


• 1891 - James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (b. 1819)


• 1896 - Thomas Chamberlain, officer of the 20th Maine at the Battle of Gettysburg


• 1900 - Wilhelm Steinitz, Austrian chess player (b. 1836)


• 1901 - Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, Finnish-Swedish explorer (b. 1832)


• 1914 - John Philip Holland, Irish submarine designer (b. 1840)


• 1918 - Anna Held, Polish-born actress and singer (b. 1872)


• 1922 - Arthur Griffith, President of Ireland (b. 1871)


• 1928 - Leoš Janáček, Czech composer (b. 1854)


• 1934 - Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Dutch architect (b. 1856)


• 1935 - Friedrich Schottky, German mathematician (b. 1851)


• 1943 - Bobby Peel, English cricketer (b. 1857)


• 1944 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., brother of President John F. Kennedy (b. 1915)


• 1948 - Harry Brearley, English inventor (b. 1871)


• 1952 - David Bergelson, Yiddish language writer (b. 1884)


• 1955 - Thomas Mann, German writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1875)


• 1955 - James B. Sumner, American chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1887)


• 1959 - Mike O'Neill, Irish-born American baseball player (b. 1877)


• 1964 - Ian Fleming, English novelist (James Bond) (b. 1908)


• 1968 - Esther Forbes, American novelist (b. 1891)


• 1973 - Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1881)


• 1973 - Karl Ziegler, German chemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1898)


• 1979 - Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1906)


• 1982 - Henry Fonda, American actor (b. 1905)


• 1982 - Salvador Sanchez, Mexican boxer (b. 1959)


• 1982 - Varlam Shalamov, Russian writer (b. 1907)


• 1985 - Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer (plane crash) (b. 1941)


• 1985 - Manfred Winkelhock, German race car driver (b. 1951)


• 1988 - Jean-Michel Basquiat, Haitian-American artist (b. 1960)


• 1989 - William Shockley, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1910)


• 1989 - Samuel Okwaraji, Nigerian footballer (b. 1964)


• 1990 - B. Kliban, American cartoonist (b. 1935)


• 1990 - Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress (b. 1903)


• 1992 - John Cage, American composer (b. 1912)


• 1996 - Robert Gravel, French Canadian actor and theatrical director (b. 1945)


• 1996 - Mark Gruenwald, American comic book writer and editor (b. 1953)


• 1997 - Luther Allison, American musician (b. 1939)


• 1999 - Jean Drapeau, Quebec politician, mayor of Montreal (b. 1916)


• 2000 - Loretta Young, American actress (b. 1913)


• 2002 - Enos Slaughter, American baseball player (b. 1916)


• 2004 - Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, English electrical engineer and inventor, Nobel laureate (b. 1919)


• 2004 - Peter Woodthorpe, British actor (b. 1931)


• 2005 - John Loder, co-founder of the anarcho-punk band CRASS (b. 1946)


• 2007 - Merv Griffin, American television host and game show creator (b. 1925)


• 2007 - Mike Wieringo, American comic book artist (b. 1963)