Death Anniversaries - w/e June 3, 2000
A D Evans
MAY 28
1843 - Noah Webster, US lexicographer, in New Haven, Connecticut aged
84.
1849 (approx 2.00pm) - Anne Bronte, English novelist and poet, from
consumption in Scarborough, Yorkshire aged 28.
1878 - John Russell (1st Earl Russell), English Prime Minister 1846-52,
at his home Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park, Surrey aged 85.
1937 - Alfred Adler, Austrian psychiatrist, from a heart attack in
Aberdeen, Scotland aged 67.
1971 (probable date) - Audie Murphy, US actor and war hero, when the
light aircraft in which he was a passenger crashed northwest of Roanoke,
Virginia aged 46. Other victims of the crash - Herman Butler (pilot),
Claude Crosby, Kim Dodey, Jack Littleton and Raymond Pater.
1972 (2.25am) - Edward VIII of Great Britain, King 1936, from cancer of
the throat in a first floor bedroom of his home at 4 Route du Champ,
D'Entrainement, Paris, France aged 77.
1975 - Ezzard Charles, US boxer, in Chicago, Illinois aged 53.
1981 - Stepan Wyszynski, Polish cardinal, in Warsaw, Poland aged 79.
1984 (shortly before 4.00am) - Eric Morecambe, English comedian, at
Cheltenham General Hospital, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire aged 58. He
had collapsed after suffering a heart attack the previous evening
shortly after the end of performing in a charity show in Tewkesbury.
1996 - Jimmy Rowles, US pianist and composer, in Los Angeles, California
aged 77.
1998 - Phil Hartman, US actor and comedian, shot dead by his wife Brynn
at his home in Encino, California aged 49.
MAY 29
1814 - Josephine de Beauharnais, French empress as wife of Napoleon
Bonaparte (1796-1809), in Malmaison, France aged 50.
1829 - Sir Humphry Davy, English chemist, in Geneva, Switzerland aged
50.
1910 (GC) - Mili Balakirev, Russian composer, in St Petersburg, Russia
aged 73.
1911 - Sir W S Gilbert, English librettist (worked with Sir Arthur
Sullivan), from a heart attack suffered in his swimming pool while
attempting to help a young swimmer who had got into difficulties in the
pool, near Harrow Weald, Middlesex aged 74.
1942 - John Barrymore, US actor, in Los Angeles, California aged 60.
1951 (11.15am) - Fanny Brice, US comedienne, from a cerebral haemorrhage
at the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, Beverly Hills, California aged 59.
1957 - James Whale, English film director, after a fall in his empty
swimming pool in Los Angeles, California aged 60.
1958 - Juan Ramon Jimenez, Spanish poet (Nobel literature 1956), in San
Juan, Puerto Rico aged 76.
1970 - John Gunther, US author and journalist, in New York City aged 68.
1979 - Mary Pickford, Canadian-born US actress, from a cerebral
haemorrhage in Santa Monica, California aged 86.
1988 - Siaka Probin Stevens, Sierra Leone President 1971-1985, in
Freetown, Sierra Leone aged 82.
1991 - Coral Browne, Australian actress and wife of Vincent Price, from
breast cancer in Los Angeles, California aged 77.
1994 - Erich Honecker, East German politician, in Santiago, Chile aged
81.
1995 - Margaret Chase Smith, US Republican politician, of complications
from a stroke in Skowhegan, Maine aged 97.
1997 - Jeff Buckley, US singer, drowned while swimming in the harbour at
Memphis, Tennessee aged 30.
1998 (7.30am) - Barry Goldwater, US Republican politician, at his home
in Paradise Valley, Arizona aged 89.
MAY 30
1431 - St. Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc), French patriot and martyr, burned
at the stake in the market place of Rouen, France aged 29.
1593 - Christopher Marlowe, English dramatist, stabbed in a brawl with
three members of the government's intelligence network (Ingram Friser,
Robert Poley, Nicholas Skeres) in a tavern in Deptford, London aged 29.
1640 - Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter, in Antwerp, Belgium aged 62.
1744 - Alexander Pope, English poet, in Twickenham, near London aged 56.
1778 - Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet), French writer and historian,
from uraemia in Paris, France aged 84.
1912 - Wilbur Wright, US aviation pioneer, from typhoid in Dayton, Ohio
aged 45.
1960 - Boris Pasternak, Russian novelist and poet (Nobel literature 1958
but refused to accept it), at his villa in Peredelkino, near Moscow,
Russia aged 70.
1964 - Leo Szilard, US physicist, in La Jolla, California aged 66.
1967 - Claude Rains, English actor, from an intestinal haemorrhage in
Laconia, New Hampshire aged 77.
1967 - G W Pabst, German film director, in Vienna, Austria aged 81.
1975 - Steve Prefontaine, US athlete, killed when he lost control and
crashed of his sports car aged 24.
1984 - Harold Cottam, English wireless operator on the "Carpathia" who
helped in the Titanic rescue bid, in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire aged
93.
MAY 31
1594 - Tintoretto, Italian painter, in Venice, Italy aged 75.
1809 - Franz Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer, in Vienna, Austria aged
77.
1837 - Joseph Grimaldi, English clown, in London aged 57.
1906 - Michael Davitt, Irish Nationalist politician, in Dublin, Ireland
aged 60.
1910 - Elizabeth Blackwell, English-born US physician (the first female
doctor in the USA), in Hastings, Sussex aged 89.
1915 (9.20pm) - John White Alexander, US painter, from heart disease at
his home 116 East 65th Street, New York City aged 58.
1962 (shortly before midnight) - Karl Eichmann, Austrian Nazi SS
officer, executed by hanging for crimes against humanity at Ramle
Prison, near Tel Aviv, Israel aged 56.
1976 - Jacques Monod, French biochemist (Nobel phys/med 1965), in
Cannes, France aged 66.
1983 - Jack Dempsey, US boxer, in New York City aged 87.
1986 - James Rainwater, US physicist (Nobel physics 1975), in Yonkers,
New York aged 68.
1989 - Owen Lattimore, US defender of civil liberties, in Providence,
Rhode Island aged 88.
1996 - Timothy Leary, US drugs advocate, from prostate cancer in Los
Angeles, California aged 75.
JUNE 1
1841 - Sir David Wilkie, Scottish painter, at sea off Gibraltar aged 55.
1868 - James Buchanan, US President 1857-61, at his estate Wheatland,
near Lancaster, Pennsylvania aged 77.
1872 - James Gordon Bennett, US journalist, in New York City aged 76.
1927 - Lizzie Borden, US alleged murderess, in Fall River, Massachusetts
aged 66.
1941 - Sir Hugh Walpole, New Zealand-born British novelist, near
Keswick, Cumberland aged 57.
1943 - Leslie Howard, English actor, killed when the airliner in which
he was a passenger was shot down in the Bay of Biscay aged 50.
1946 (6.02pm) - Ion Antonescu, Romanian dictator, executed for war
crimes at a military prison near Jilava, Romania aged 63. Also executed
- Constantin Vasiliu, George Alexeanu and Michael Antonescu.
1968 - Helen Keller, US crusader for the handicapped, in Westport,
Connecticut aged 87.
1979 - Werner Forssman, German physician (Nobel phys/med 1956), in
Schopfheim, Germany aged 74.
1985 - Richard Greene, English actor, from cardiac arrest after a fall
in Norfolk aged 66.
1987 - Errol Barrow, Prime Minister of Barbados 1961-76 & 1986-87, in
Bridgetown, Barbados aged 67.
1999 - Sir Christopher Cockerell, English inventor of the hovercraft, at
a nursing home in Southampton, Hampshire aged 88.
JUNE 2
1581 - 4th Earl of Morton (James Douglas), Regent of Scotland, beheaded
in the Edinburgh Grassmarket, Edinburgh, Scotland aged about 56.
1882 - Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian revolutionary, in Caprera, Italy aged
74.
1913 - Alfred Austin, English poet (Poet Laureate 1896-1913), at
Swinford Old Manor, near Ashford, Kent aged 78.
1961 - George S Kaufman, US playwright, from a heart attack at 1035 Park
Avenue, New York City aged 71.
1962 - Victoria (Vita) Sackville-West, English poet and novelist, at
Sissinghurst Castle, Kent aged 70.
1969 - Leo Gorcey, US actor, from a liver ailment in Oakland, California
aged 53.
1974 - Sir Arnold Lunn, English writer on Roman Catholicism and Alpine
ski pioneer, in London aged 86.
1977 - Stephen Boyd, Irish actor, from a heart attack in Northridge,
California aged 48.
1985 - George Brown (Baron George-Brown), English Labour politician, in
Cornwall aged 70.
1987 - Andres Segovia, Spanish classical guitarist, in Madrid, Spain
aged 93.
1990 - Rex Harrison, English actor, from cancer of the pancreas in New
York City aged 82.
1997 - Helen Jacobs, US tennis player, in Easthampton, New York aged 88.
JUNE 3
1657 - William Harvey, English physician and discoverer of the
circulation of the blood, in Roehampton, London aged 79.
1841 - Nicolas Appert, French inventor of the preservation of food in
hermetically sealed containers, in Massey, France aged 88.
1875 - Georges Bizet, French composer, in Bougival, near Paris, France
aged 36.
1899 - Johann Strauss the Younger, Austrian composer and violinist, of
complications from a cold caught while conducting, in Vienna, Austria
aged 73.
1924 - Franz Kafka, Austrian novelist, from tuberculosis in a clinic in
Kierling, Austria aged 40.
1946 (10.05am) - Mikhail Kalinin, Soviet politician, in Moscow, Russia
aged 70.
1963 (7.49pm) - John XXIII (Angelo Roncalli), Italian Pope 1958-63, from
cancer at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, Rome, Italy aged 81.
1964 - Frans Sillanpaa, French novelist (Nobel literature 1939), in
Helsinki, Finland aged 75.
1967 - Arthur Ransome, English writer of children's books, aged 83.
1967 - Arthur Tedder, Scottish RAF commander, in Banstead, Surrey aged
76.
1975 - Sato Eisaku, Japanese politician (Nobel peace 1974), in Tokyo,
Japan aged 74.
1977 - Archibald Vivian Hill, English physiologist (Nobel phys/med
1922), in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire aged 90.
1977 - Roberto Rossellini, Italian film director, from a heart attack in
Rome, Italy aged 71.
1986 - Dame Anna Neagle, English actress, from exhaustion near London
aged 81.
1989 - Ayatollah Khomeini, Iranian leader, in Tehran, Iran aged 86.
1992 - Robert Morley, English actress, from a stroke in Reading,
Berkshire aged 84.
1995 - John Presper Eckert, US computer engineer, of complications from
leukaemia in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania aged 76.
1997 - Dennis James, US television game show host, from lung cancer at
his home in Palm Springs, California aged 79.
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Andrew Evans