JANUARY January 1 Heinrich Hertz, German physicist and pioneer of radio communication (1894). L Ron Hubbard, American sci-fi writer and founder of Scientology (1986). January 2 Ovid, full name Puplius Ovidius Naso, Roman Poet (AD17). Dick Emery, British comedian (1983). January 3 Josiah Wedgwood, celebrated English manufacturer of earthenware (1795). January 4 Donald Campbell, trying to achieve a speed of 300mph at Coniston Water, England (1967). T S Eliot, American-born British poet (1965). January 5 Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, English Antarctic explorer (1922). January 7 Trevor Howard, English actor (1988). January 8 St Gudula, the patroness-saint of Brussels (712). Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and physicist, one of the founders of modern science (1642). January 9 Napoleon Bonaparte, French emperor, (1873). January 10 Gabrielle Coco Chanel, French fashion designer (1971). January 11 Sir Hans Sloane, English physician and naturalist (1753). January 16 Edward Gibbon, English historian and author (1794). January 21 Louis XVI, King of France, guillotined with his wife during the French Revolution (1793). Cecil B. De Mille, US film producer and director known for his lavish biblical epics (1959). January 24 Sir Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister (1965). January 28 Charlemagne, King of the Franks and creator of the Holy Roman Empire (814). Sir Francis Drake, English sailor and explorer (1596). January 30 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, 'Mahatma', Indian leader, assassinated (1948). Orville Wright, US aviation (1948). January 31 Winter, Rockwood, Keys and Guy Fawkes, executed for being the Gunpowder Conspirators (1606). FEBRUARY February 1 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, English writer and author of Frankenstein (1851). February 7 Anne Radcliffe, influential English novelist (1823). February 11 René Descartes, French mathematician and father of modern philosophy (1650). February 12 Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (1804). February 13 Jean Renoir, French film director and son of the famous painter (1979). February 14 St Valentine, priest and martyr (270). Captain James Cook, English naval explorer, killed by natives at Hawaii (1779). February 15 John Hadley, English inventor of the sextant (1744). February 17 Michaelangelo Buonarotti, Italian painter, sculptor, and poet (1563). February 18 Martin Luther, German Protestant theologian (1546). February 21 Malcolm X, American political activist and leader of the Black Muslims (1965). February 24 John Keats, English poet (1821). February 25 Sir Christopher Wren, English architect of over 40 London buildings (1723). February 28 Olof Palme, Swedish Prime Minister, assassinated while walking home, Stockholm (1986). MARCH March 1 St David, Welsh monk, patron saint of Wales (544). William Caxton, English printer and the first to print books in England (1468). March 2 John Wesley, English preacher and co-founder of Methodism (1791). March 3 Lou Costello, US actor and comedian (1959). March 5 Sergei Prokofiev, Russian composer (1953). March 6 Sir John Hawkwood, the first English general (1393). David Crockett, US frontiersman and politician, killed at the siege of the Alamo (1836). March 8 Sir Thomas Beecham Bt., conductor (1961). March 10 Muzio Clementi, pianist and composer (1832). March 11 Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish bacteriologist (1955). March 12 Anne Frank, Dutch Jewish diarist, in a Nazi concentration camp (1945). March 15 Julius Caesar, dictator of the Roman Empire (44BC). H P Lovecraft, US author of the macabre (1937). March 17 St Patrick (464 or 493), Apostle and patron saint of Ireland. March 18 Ivan IV ('The Terrible'), Tsar of Russia (1584). Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, statesman (1745). March 19 Mary Anning, English palaeontologist who discovered the first ichthyosaur (1847). Edgar Rice Burroughs, US novelist and creator of Tarzan (1950). March 20 Sir Isaac Newton, English mathematician and physicist (1727). March 21 St Benedict, Italian hermit (550). *Good Friday Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, the central figure in Christian religion, crucified in Palestine (32AD). March 24 Jules Verne, French novelist (1905)./ March 25 Claude Debussy, French composer (1918). March 26 Ludwig van Beethoven, prolific German music composer (1827). Charlotte Bronté (Mrs Nicol), English novelist (1855). March 28 Viriginia Woolf, author and critic (1941). March 31 Charlotte Brontë, novelist (1855). APRIL April 1 Max Ernst, German surrealist painter (1976). April 3 John Napier, Scottish mathematician and inventor of logarithms (1617). Jesse James, notorious US outlaw of the wild west, shot in the back (1882). April 4 Martin Luther King, US civil-rights leader, assassinated by James Earl Ray (1968). April 5 Georges Danton, French revolutionary leader, executed by guillotine (1794). April 6 Richard I 'Richard The Lionheart', King of England (1199). Sanzio Raffaelle, Italian painter (1520). April 7 Henry Ford, US Motor Car Manufacturer (1947). April 8 Elisha Graves Otis, US inventor of the safety lift (1861). Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter, sculptor, and graphic artist (1973). April 9 Lord Lovat, a Scottish Jacobite, last person in Britain to be executed by being beheaded (1747). April 12 Charles-Joseph Messsier, French astronomer (1817). April 13 George Frederick Handel, German-born, England-resident baroque composer (1759). April 14 Frederic March, US Oscar-winning actor (1975). April 15 Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the (1865). April 16 Madame Tussaud, French founder of London's Madame Tussaud Wax Museum (1850). April 17 Benjamin Franklin, US statesman, inventor and scientist (1790). April 19 Lord George Gordon Byron, English poet (1824). April 21 Mark Twain, US novelist (1910). April 22 Richard Trevithick, steam engineer (1833). April 23 William Shakespeare, English writer (1616). William Wordsworth, English playwright and poet (1850). April 24 Daniel Defoe, novelist, journalist and author of the first English novel (1731). April 26 Count (William) Basie, US jazz pianist and bandleader (1984). April 28 Died, a goat that had twice circumnavigated the globe (1772). April 29 Alfred Hitchcock, English-born film director (1980). MAY May 1 John Dryden, first official Poet Laureate (1700). Ayrton Senna, Brazilian motor-racing driver, sustained fatal injuries after (1994). May 2 Leonardo da Vinci, Italian artist, scientist, inventor and designer (1519). May 5 (of cancer) Napoleon Bonaparte, French general (1821). May 6 Frank Baum, American children's story writer (1919). May 8 Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, considered the father of modern chemistry (1794). Paul Gauguin, French painter (1903). May 11 Spencer Perceval, British Prime Minister, assassinated in the House of Commons (1812). May 12 (of syphilis) Bedrich Smetana, composer and founder of Czech music (1884). May 13 John Nash, English architect (1835). May 14 Henry Heinz, American food manufacturer (1919). Henry Rider Haggard, English novelist (1925). May 16 Charles Perrault, French fairytale writer and collector (1703). Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, of pneumonia in New York (1990). May 17 Sandro Botticelli, Italian painter famous for his mythological paintings (1510). May 19 Pierre Beaumarchais, French comic dramatist (1799). T E Lawrence, 'Lawrence of Arabia', British soldier and writer (1935). May 20 (in poverty) Christopher Columbus, Italian-born Spanish explorer (1506). Jacqueline Onassis, wife of Aristotle, widow of President Kennedy (1994). May 22 Victor Hugo, French poet, novelist, dramatist and author of Les Misérables (1885). May 23 outlaws Bonnie and Clyde killed in an ambush, Louisiana, USA (1934). Judge Giovanni Falcone, famous anti-Mafia investigator, killed by a car bomb (1992). May 24 Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer (1543). May 25 Samuel Pepys, Englishman made famous by his personal Diary (1703). May 26 Franz Joseph Haydn, Austrian musical composer and teacher of Mozart and Beethoven (1809). May 28 Noah Webster, American lexicographer (1843). (tuberculosis) Anne Bronte, English novelist, sister of Charlotte and Emily (1849). May 30 Joan d'Arc, Saint (known as the 'Maid of Orleans'), French national heroine (1431). May 31 during childbirth Charlotte Brontë, English novelist (1855). JUNE June 2 Giuseppe Garibalddi, Italian patriot and military leader (1882). June 3 William Harvey, English physician and discover of the circulation of blood (1657). Jethro Tull, English agriculturist who invented drill-sowing (1740). June 6 Robert Kennedy, American Attorney-General (1968). June 7 Dorothy Parker, US author and journalist (1967). June 8 Muhammad, Arab prophet and founder of Islam, buried in Medina, Saudi Arabia (632). Russell Harty, English broadcaster (1988). June 9 Nero, Roman Emperor, adopted son and successor of Claudius (AD68). Charles Dickens, English novelist (1870). June 10 14 women and 5 men, hanged at the end of witch hunt trials, Salem, America (1692), June 11 Roger Bacon, English philosopher, scientist, Franciscan monk and education reformer (1294). June 12 Dame Marie Rambert, founder of the Rambert dance company (1982). June 13 Alexander The Great, of fever at Babylon (in Iraq), Greek commander (BC 323). June 14 Jerome K Jerome, English author of 'Three Men in a Boat' (1927). G K Chesterton, English author of the Father Brown detective series (1936). June 15 Wat Tyler, leader of the English Peasants' Revolt (1381). June 16 François Pilâtre de Rozier, killed whilst trying to balloon across the English Channel (1785). Wernher von Braun, German rocket engineer and developer of V2 rockets (1977). June 19 Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, the first to reach the South Pole (1928). James Matthew Barrie, Scottish writer whose work included 'Peter Pan' (1937). June 20 Richard Brandon, official executioner of London, who executed King Charles I (1649). King William IV (1837). June 22 Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian statesman and political philosopher (1527). Judy Garland, American film actress and singer, from an overdose (1969). June 24 Tony Hancock, English comedy actor, committed suicide in a hotel room in Sydney (1968). June 25 George Custer, American cavalry general, killed by Sioux Indians (1876). June 26 King George IV (1830). Carl Foreman, film producer and writer (1984). June 27 Giorgio Vasari, Italian painter, architect and biographer (1574). aged 4 years, Christian Heinechen, Danish prodigy who spoke fluent Latin and French (1721). June 28 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by a 19 years old student (1914). June 29 PC William Grantham, first poilceman to die on duty while attempting to stop a brawl (1829). David Niven, English film actor (1983). JULY July 1 Michael Landon, American TV actor (1991). July 2 Michel Nostradamus, French physician and astrologer (1566). Ernest Hemingway, American novelist, committed suicide fearing ill health(1961). July 4 Thomas Jefferson, third American president (1826). Marie Curie, Polish-born French physicist who pioneered radioactivity (1934). July 6 Guy De Maupassant, French novelist and short-story writer (1893). Louis Armstrong, American jazz trumpet player and singer (1971). July 7 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish novelist (1930). July 8 Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (1822). Vivien Leigh, British actress and double Academy Award winner (1967). July 9 King Camp Gillette, American inventor of the safety razor blade (1932). July 10 Roman Emperor Hadrian, creator of 'Hadrian's Wall' (AD138). Mel Blanc, American actor responsible for various cartoon voices (1989). July 11 Nero, Roman emperor, committed suicide (66BC). Lord Laurence Olivier, English actor (1989). July 12 Titus Oates, English clergyman and conspirator (1705). Hitoshi Igarashi, Japanese translator of 'Satanic Verses', stabbed to death, Tokyo (1991). July 13 Jean Paul Marat, French revolutionary leader, stabbed to death in his bath (1793). July 14 Grock, famous Swiss clown (1959). July 15 outlaw William H Bonney, ('Billy The Kid'), shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett, New Mexico (1881). Anton Chekhov, Russian dramatist and short story writer (1904). July 16 Tsar of Russia, Nichollas II, and his family, murdered by the Bolsheviks, Russia (1918). July 17 Thomas Cook, founder of the famous travel agency (1892). July 18 Jane Austen, English novelist, works include 'Pride and Prejudice' (1817). July 20 Ignaz Semmelweiss, Austrian doctor (1865). Guglielmo Marconi, Italian electrical engineer (1937). July 21 Robert Burns, national poet of Scotland (1796). James Fixx, founder of the 'jogging' craze, suffered a heart attack while jogging (1884). July 24 Matthew Webb, first man to swim the English channel (1883). Peter Sellers, English comic actor (1980). July 25 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet (1834). July 27 James Mason, English actor (1984). July 28 Anotonio Vivaldi, Italian composer and violinist noted for his Four Seasons (1741). Johann Sebastian Bach, prolific German music composer and father of 20 children (1750). July 29 Robert Schumann, German composer, in an asylum near Bonn (1856). Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch painter, having shot himself in the chest two days earlier (1890). July 30 Thomas Gray, English poet (1771). July 31 Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist and composer (1886). Jim Reeves, killed in an air crash (1964). August 1 Queen Anne, with George I succeeding her to the throne (1714). August 2 King William II, accidentally killed by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest (1100). Thomas Gainsborough, English landscape painter (1788). August 3 Peter Collins, British racing driver, killed in an accident at the German Grand Prix (1958). Lenny Bruce, US comedian from a drugs overdose (1966). August 4 Hans Christian Anderson, Danish fairy-tale writer, in Copenhagen (1875). Eddie Condon, US jazz guitarist (1973). August 5 Marilyn Monroe American film actress, apparently from an overdose of sleeping pills (1962). Richard Burton, Welsh actor, in a Geneva hospital from a cerebral haemorrhage (1984). August 6 Anne Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare (1623). Pope Paul VI of a heart attack (1978). August 7 Bix Beiderbecke, legendary US jazz musician and composer (1931). Oliver Hardy, US comedian and half of the Laurel and Hardy duo (1957). August 9 Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer (1975). August 11 Jackson Pollock, US painter, killed when his car hit a tree (1956). August 12 George Stephenson, English engineer, designer of the first steam engine (1848). Ian Fleming, English author and creator of James Bond (1964). August 13 Florence Nightingale (1910). H G Wells, English writer whose works include 'The War of the Worlds' (1946). August 14 Rin Tin Tin, Hollywood star dog (1932). J B Priestley, English novelist (1984). August 15 Died, Macbeth, King of Scotland, on whose life Shakespeare probably based his play (1057). August 16 Elvis Presley, American pop singer and dominant personality in early rock and roll (1977). August 17 Harry Corbett, inventor of Sooty (1989). August 18 Genghis Khan, Mongol conqueror and controller of the largest empire in history (1227). August 19 Blaise Pascal, French philosopher and mathematician (1662). Groucho Marx, US comedian (1977). August 20 William Booth, English social reformer and founder of the Salvation Army (1912). August 23 Rudolph Valentino, Italian-born actor, following an appendix operation (1926). August 24 The Duke of Kent when his flying boat crashed on its way to Iceland (1942). August 25 James Watt, Scottish engineer (1819). Michael Faraday, English physicist (1867). August 26 Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (1958). Sir Francis Chichester, English solo round-the-world yachtsman (1972). August 29 Born Ingrid Bergman, Oscar-winning Swedish actress (1982). August 30 Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, reputed to have committed suicide (30BC). August 31 Henry V, King of England (1422). Sir Henry Moore, English sculptor (1986). SEPTEMBER September 2 Thomas Telford, civil engineer (1834). Septermber 3 e e cummings, US poet (1962). September 5 John Home, clergyman and playwright (1808). September 8 Died, Patrick Cotter O'Brian, Irish giant measuring 8'3” (1783). September 10 (during child birth) Mrs Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, feminist and (1797). September 11 Died, Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian defector fatally stabbed by a poisoned umbrella point (1978). September 14 Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, British military commander and Prime Minister (1852). September 15 William Huskisson MP, first person to be killed by a train, England (1830). Isambard Kingdom Brunel, English engineer (1859). September 16 Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, German physicist and inventor of the thermometer scale (1736). September 17 Lt Selfridge, first passenger to die in an air crash (1908). September 20 Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer (1957). September 21 Sir Walter Scott, Scottish historical novelist (1832). September 22 Virgil, epic Roman poet whose work includes 'Eclogues' and 'Aeneid' (19BC). September 23 Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychoanalyst (1939). September 26 Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer (1945). September 28 Herman Melville, American novelist and short-story writer (1891). Pope John Paul I, found dead after being pope for just 33 days (1978). September 30 James Dean, US film actor (1955). OCTOBER October 2 Aristotle, Greek philosopher and scientist (322BC). October 3 Woody Guthrie, US singer and composer (1967). October 4 Max Planck, German physicist (1947). October 6 Lord Alfred Tennyson, English poet laureate (1892). October 7 Edgar Allan Poe, American poet and critic (1849). October 9 Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Argentinean guerrilla leader and revolutionary (1967). October 11 Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer (1896). October 13 Claudius, Roman emperor, poisoned by his wife Agrippina (AD54). October 15 Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and secret agent in Paris, executed for espionage (1917). October 16 Marie Antoinette, Queen of Louis XVI and France (1793). October 17 Frédéric Chopin, Polish-born French musical composer (1849). October 20 Herbert Hoover, 31st American President (1964). Sir Anthony Quayle, English actor who specialised in Shakespearian roles (1989). October 21 Horatio Lord Nelson, British admiral (1805). October 25 Geoffrey Chaucer, first great English poet, most famous work, the 'Canterbury Tales' (1400). October 27 Died, Marcus Junius Brutus, assassin of Julius Caesar, committed suicide (42BC). October 29 Sir Walter Raleigh, English navigator and adventurer, beheaded for treason(1618). October 30 Edmund Cartwright, English engineer and inventor of the power-loom (1823). October 31 Max Reinhardt, leading Austrian director (1943). NOVEMBER November 2 George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (1950). November 3 Henri Matisse, French painter (1954). November 5 Robert Maxwell, Czech-born British publisher (1991). November 8 John Milton, English poet (1674). November 9 Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet, alcohol poisoning (1953). November 12 Percival Lowell, US astronomer (1916). November 13 Camille Pissarro, French painter (1903). November 15 Johannes Kepler, German astronomer, discover of laws governing planetary motion (1630). November 16 William Clark Gable, US film actor (1960). November 19 Count Anthony Matthioli, imprisoned by King Louis XIV of France for betrayal (1703). November 21 Henry Purcell, English musician and composer of the first English opera (1695). November 22 Mae West, American actress (1980). John F Kennedy, American US president assassinated in Dallas, USA (1963). November 24 Lee Harvey Oswald, alleged assassin of President Kennedy, shot while in police custody (1963). Freddy Mercury, flamboyant lead singer with Queen (1991). November 26 John Loudoun MacAdam, British surveyor (1836). November 27 Ross McWhirter, British editor with his brother of 'The Guinness Book of Records' (1975). November 30 Euripides, last of the trio of Greek tragic dramatists after Aeschylus and Sophocles (406BC). DECEMBER December 2 Philip Larkin, English poet (1985). December 3 Frank Zappa, American rock singer, songwriter and guitarist (1993). December 5 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer (1791). December 7 William Bligh, English captain of the Bounty (1817). December 8 Scaramouche, celebrated Italian clown (1694). John Lennon, English rock singer and songwriter, assassinated in New York (1980). December 9 Dame Edith Sitwell, English poet (1964). December 12 Sir Mark Isambard Brunel, French-born English engineer (1849). December 13 Dr Samuel Johnson, English lexicographer, writer and critic (1784). December 14 George Washington, American soldier and statesman, first American President (1799). December 19 Joseph Mallord William Turner, English painter of seascapes (1851). Emily Bronte, English author of 'Wuthering Heights' (1848). December 22 Beatrix Potter, English writer for children (1943). December 29 Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered by 4 Knights (1170). December 31 John Flamsteed, first Astronomer Royal (1719).