today.nukz.net: Almanac April 15

Harold Lee Washington (April 15, 1922 – November 25, 1987) was an American lawyer and politician who became the first African-American Mayor of Chicago, serving from 1983 until his death in 1987.

Harold Washington was born on April 15, 1922, to Roy and Bertha Washington. His father had been one of the first precinct captains in the city, a lawyer and a Methodist minister. His mother, Bertha, left a small farm near Centralia, Illinois, to make a fortune in Chicago as a singer. She married Roy soon after arriving in Chicago and had three children, one named Kevin and the other named Ramon Price (from a later marriage), former artist and chief curator of The DuSable Museum of African American History. Washington grew up in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, at the time the epicenter of black culture in the city. He attended DuSable High School, then a new segregated high school, and was a member of the first graduating class. In a 1939 citywide track meet, Washington placed first in the 110 meter high hurdles event, and second in the 220 meter low hurdles event. Between his junior and senior year of high school, Washington dropped out, claiming that he no longer felt challenged by the classwork. He worked at a meat packing plant for a time before his father helped him get a job at the U.S. Treasury. There he met Dorothy Finch, whom he married soon after—Washington was 20, and Dorothy 17. Seven months later, the U.S. was drawn into World War II with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In 1942, Washington was drafted into the war and sent overseas as part of a segregated unit of the Army Air Forces Engineers. In the Philippines, Washington was a part of a unit building runways. Eventually, Washington rose to the rank of First Sergeant in the Air Force. In her biography of Harold Washington, Florence Hamlish Levinsohn surmises that the three years Washington spent fighting for his country in the South Pacific while experiencing racial prejudice and discrimination helped shape his views on racial justice in the mayoral run to come.

Events

1071 – Bari, the last Byzantine possession in southern Italy, is surrendered to Robert Guiscard.
1395 – Tokhtamysh–Timur war: Battle of the Terek River: Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde at the Volga. The Golden Horde capital city, Sarai, is razed to the ground and Timur installs a puppet ruler on the Golden Horde throne. Tokhtamysh escapes to Lithuania.
1450 – Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years' War, the French attack and nearly annihilate English forces, ending English domination in Northern France.
1632 – Battle of Rain: Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.
1642 – Irish Confederate Wars: A Confederate Irish militia is routed in the Battle of Kilrush when it attempts to halt the progress of the British Army.
1638 – Tokugawa shogunate forces put down the Shimabara Rebellion when they retake Hara Castle from the rebels.
1715 – Pocotaligo Massacre triggers the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina.
1738 – Premiere in London, England, Great Britain of Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel.
1755 – Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language is published in London.
1783 – Preliminary articles of peace ending the American Revolutionary War (or American War of Independence) are ratified.
1802 – William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy see a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
1817 – Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc founded the American School for the Deaf, the first American school for deaf students, in Hartford, Connecticut.
1865 – Abraham Lincoln dies without regaining consciousness after being shot the previous evening by actor John Wilkes Booth.
1892 – The General Electric Company is formed.

Titanic disaster.
1896 – Closing ceremony of the Games of the I Olympiad in Athens, Greece.
1900 – Philippine–American War: Filipino guerrillas launch a surprise attack on U.S. infantry and begin a four-day siege of Catubig, Philippines.
1912 – The British passenger liner, the RMS Titanic, sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two and a half hours after hitting an iceberg. 1,517 people are killed.
1920 – Two security guards are murdered during a robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti would be convicted of and executed for the crime, amid much controversy.
1921 – Black Friday: mine owners announce more wage and price cuts, leading to the threat of a strike all across England.
1923 – Insulin becomes generally available for use by people with diabetes.
1924 – Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.
1927 – The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the most destructive river flood in U.S. history, begins.
1935 – Roerich Pact signed in Washington, D.C.
1936 – First day of the Arab revolt in Palestine.
1940 – The Allies begin their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which is occupied by Nazi Germany.
1941 – In the Belfast Blitz, two-hundred bombers of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) attack Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom killing one thousand people.
1942 – The George Cross is awarded to "to the island fortress of Malta – its people and defenders" by King George VI.
1943 – An Allied bomber attack misses the Minerva automobile factory and hits the Belgian town of Mortsel instead, killing 936 civilians.
1945 – The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
1947 – Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.
1952 – The maiden flight of the B-52 Stratofortress
1955 – McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois
1957 – White Rock, British Columbia officially separates from Surrey, British Columbia and is incorporated as a new city.
1958 – Walter O'Malley's Los Angeles Dodgers host the first Major League Baseball game played on the West Coast of the United States.
1960 – At Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, Ella Baker leads a conference that results in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the principal organizations of the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
1969 – The EC-121 shootdown incident: North Korea shoots down a United States Navy aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 on board.
1970 – During the Cambodian Civil War, massacres of the Vietnamese minority results in 800 bodies flowing down the Mekong River into South Vietnam.
1979 – A disastrous earthquake (of M 7.1) occurs on Montenegro coast.
1986 – The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a bombing in West Germany that killed two U.S. servicemen.
1989 – Hillsborough disaster: A human crush occurs at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday, in the FA Cup Semi Final, resulting in the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans.
1989 – Upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in the People's Republic of China.
1992 – The National Assembly of Vietnam adopts the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
1994 – Representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities sign the Marrakesh Agreements revising the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and initiating the World Trade Organization (effective January 1, 1995).
2002 – An Air China Boeing 767-200, flight CA129 crashes into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Busan, South Korea, killing 128.

Births

1452 – Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance polymath (d. 1519)
1469 – Guru Nanak Dev, Indian religious leader, founder of the religion of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus (d. 1539)
1489 – Mimar Sinan, Ottoman architect (d. 1588)
1552 – Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician (d. 1626)
1588 – Claudius Salmasius, French classical scholar (d. 1653)
1641 – Robert Sibbald, Scottish physician (d. 1722)
1642 – Suleiman II, Ottoman sultan (d. 1691)
1646 – Christian V of Denmark (d. 1699)
1646 – Pierre Poiret, French mystic (d. 1719)
1684 – Catherine I of Russia (d. 1727)
1688 – Johann Friedrich Fasch, German composer (d. 1758)
1707 – Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician (d. 1783)
1710 – William Cullen, Scottish physician (d. 1790)
1721 – Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, English military leader (d. 1765)
1741 – Charles Willson Peale, American painter, soldier and naturalist (d. 1827)
1772 – Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, French naturalist (d. 1844)
1793 – Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, German astronomer (d. 1864)
1794 – Jean Pierre Flourens, French physiologist (d. 1867)
1800 – James Clark Ross, English explorer (d. 1862)
1809 – Hermann Grassmann, German mathematician (d. 1877)
1828 – Jean Danjou, French Foreign Legion officer (d. 1863)
1832 – Wilhelm Busch, German poet (d. 1908)
1841 – Joseph E. Seagram, Canadian politician, philanthropist, and founder of the Seagram Company Ltd (d. 1919)
1843 – Henry James, American author (d. 1916)
1856 – Jean Moréas, Greek poet (d. 1910)
1858 – Émile Durkheim, French sociologist (d. 1917)
1861 – Bliss Carman, Canadian poet (d. 1929)
1874 – George Harrison Shull, American plant geneticist (d. 1954)
1874 – Johannes Stark, German physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1957)
1875 – James J. Jeffries, American boxer (d. 1953)
1878 – Robert Walser, Swiss writer (d. 1956)
1879 – Melville Henry Cane, American lawyer (d. 1980)
1883 – Stanley Bruce, Australian politician, 8th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
1885 – Tadeusz Kutrzeba, Polish general (d. 1947)
1886 – Nikolay Gumilyov, Russian poet (d. 1921)
1888 – Maximilian Kronberger, German poet (d. 1904)
1889 – Thomas Hart Benton, American painter (d. 1975)
1889 – A. Philip Randolph, American activist (d. 1979)
1892 – Corrie ten Boom, Dutch author and Holocaust survivor (d. 1983)
1892 – Theo Osterkamp, German fighter pilot (d. 1975)
1894 – Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet politician, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1971)
1894 – Bessie Smith, American singer (d. 1937)
1895 – Clark McConachy, New Zealand billiards player (d. 1980)
1896 – Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1986)
1901 – Joe Davis, English snooker player (d. 1978)
1902 – Fernando Pessa, Portuguese journalist (d. 2002)
1904 – Arshile Gorky, Armenian artist (d. 1948)
1907 – Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch ethologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1988)
1908 – Eden Ahbez, American songwriter (d. 1995)
1908 – Lita Grey, American actress (d. 1995)
1910 – Miguel Najdorf, Argentine chess grandmaster (d. 1997)
1912 – Kim Il-sung, Korean politician, President of North Korea (d. 1994)
1916 – Alfred S. Bloomingdale, American heir and businessman (d. 1982)
1917 – Hans Conried, American actor (d. 1982)
1917 – James Kee, American politician (d. 1989)
1919 – Alberto Breccia, Uruguay-Argentine illustrator and writer (d. 1993)
1920 – René Pleven, French politician (d. 1993)
1920 – Thomas Szasz, Hungarian-American psychiatrist
1920 – Richard von Weizsäcker, German politician, President of Germany
1921 – Georgi Beregovoi, Russian cosmonaut (d. 1995)
1921 – Angelo DiGeorge, Italian-American pediatric endocrinologist (d. 2009)
1922 – Michael Ansara, Syrian-American actor
1922 – Harold Washington, American politician (d. 1987)
1923 – Robert DePugh, American anti-Communist activist (d. 2009)
1924 – Sir Neville Marriner, English conductor
1927 – Robert Mills, American physicist (d. 1999)
1929 – Gérald Beaudoin, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 2008)
1930 – Georges Descrières, French actor
1930 – Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, Icelandic politician, President of Iceland
1931 – Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish writer, poet and translator, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature
1933 – Roy Clark, American singer, musician, and television host
1933 – David Hamilton, British photographer, director and producer
1933 – Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress (d. 1995)
1933 – Jim Towers, English footballer (d. 2010)
1935 – Stavros Paravas, Greek actor
1936 – Raymond Poulidor, French cyclist
1937 – Bob Luman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1978)
1938 – Hso Khan Pha, Burmese politician
1939 – Claudia Cardinale, Tunisian actress
1939 – Marty Wilde, British singer and songwriter
1940 – Jeffrey Archer, British author
1940 – Willie Davis, American baseball player (d. 2010)
1940 – Woodie Fryman, American baseball player (d. 2011)
1940 – Robert Lacroix, French-Canadian professor
1940 – Robert Walker Jr., American actor
1941 – Howard Berman, American politician
1942 – Francis X. DiLorenzo, American bishop
1942 – Walt Hazzard, American basketball player
1942 – Kenneth Lay, American businessman (d. 2006)
1944 – Dzhokhar Dudaev, Chechen leader, first President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (d. 1996)
1944 – Dave Edmunds, Welsh musician and producer (Love Sculpture and Rockpile)
1946 – Pete Rouse, American political consultant
1946 – Michael Tucci, American actor
1947 – Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, American television producer and writer
1947 – Mike Chapman, British songwriter and producer
1947 – Lois Chiles, American actress
1947 – Cristina Husmark Pehrsson, Swedish politician
1947 – Woolly Wolstenholme, British musician (Barclay James Harvest)
1948 – Michael Kamen, American composer (d. 2003)
1949 – Tonio K, American singer-songwriter
1949 – Alla Pugacheva, Russian singer
1949 – Craig Zadan, American producer, director, and writer
1950 – Josiane Balasko, French actress, director, and screenwriter
1950 – Amy Wright, American actress
1951 – Heloise, American columnist
1952 – Bengt Gingsjö, Swedish swimmer
1952 – Kym Gyngell, Australian comedian
1952 – Sam McMurray, American actor
1952 – Glenn Shadix, American actor
1952 – Brian Muir, British sculptor and designer
1953 – Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, Greek politician
1954 – Seka, American porn actress
1955 – Dodi Al-Fayed, Egyptian film producer (d. 1997)
1956 – Michael Cooper, American basketball player
1957 – Evelyn Ashford, American athlete
1958 – Keith Acton, Canadian hockey player and coach
1958 – Dolores Gordon-Smith, British writer
1958 – Noni ?oannidou, Greek model and actress
1958 – Memos Ioannou, Greek basketball player
1958 – Benjamin Zephaniah, British writer
1959 – Fruit Chan, Hong Kong director
1959 – Kevin Lowe, Canadian hockey player and manager
1959 – Emma Thompson, English actress
1959 – Thomas F. Wilson, American actor
1960 – Pierre Aubry, Canadian hockey player
1960 – Susanne Bier, Danish director
1960 – Pedro Delgado, Spanish cyclist
1960 – Tony Jones, English snooker player
1960 – Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant
1962 – Surjit Bindrakhia, Punjabi singer
1962 – Nawal El Moutawakel, Moroccan hurdler
1962 – Tom Kane, American voice actor
1963 – Bobby Pepper, American journalist
1965 – Linda Perry, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer (4 Non Blondes)
1966 – Samantha Fox, English model, singer, and actress
1967 – Frankie Poullain, British musician (The Darkness)
1967 – Dara Torres, American swimmer
1968 – Ed O'Brien, British musician and songwriter (Radiohead)
1968 – Stacey Williams, American model
1969 – Jeromy Burnitz, American baseball player
1969 – Jimmy Waite, Canadian hockey player
1970 – Flex Alexander, American actor
1971 – Kate Harbour, English voice actress
1971 – Katy Hill, British television presenter
1971 – Jason Sehorn, American football player
1972 – Arturo Gatti, Canadian boxer (d. 2009)
1972 – Lou Romano, American voice actor
1974 – Mike Quinn, American football player
1974 – Keith Malley, American comedian and podcaster
1974 – Danny Pino, American actor
1974 – Douglas Spain, American actor
1974 – Tim Thomas, American hockey player
1975 – Paul Dana, American race car driver (d. 2006)
1975 – Phil Labonte, American singer and guitarist (All That Remains and Shadows Fall)
1976 – Jason Bonsignore, Canadian hockey player
1976 – Susan Ward, American actress
1977 – Brian Pothier, American hockey player
1978 – Austin Aries, American wrestler
1978 – Milton Bradley, American baseball player
1978 – Tim Corcoran, American baseball player
1978 – Luis Fonsi, Puerto Rican singer and composer
1980 – Natalie Casey, British actress
1980 – James Foster, English cricketer
1980 – Michelle L'amour, American burlesque performer
1980 – Raúl López, Spanish basketball player
1980 – Willie Mason, Australian rugby player
1980 – Aida Mollenkamp, American chef and writer
1980 – Victor Núñez, Costa Rican footballer
1980 – Fränk Schleck, Luxembourgish cyclist
1980 – Billy Yates, American football player
1981 – Andrés D'Alessandro, Argentine football player
1981 – Seth Wulsin, American artist
1982 – Michael Aubrey, American baseball player
1982 – Anthony Green, American singer-songwriter and musician (Circa Survive, The Sound of Animals Fighting, Saosin, High and Driving, and Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer)
1982 – Albert Riera, Spanish footballer
1982 – Seth Rogen, Canadian actor and writer
1983 – Blu, American rapper and producer (All City Chess Club)
1983 – Alice Braga, Brazilian actress
1983 – Matt Cardle, British singer-songwriter
1983 – Dudu Cearense, Brazilian footballer
1983 – Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian hockey player
1983 – Bronson La'Cassie, Australian golfer
1983 – Martin Pedersen, Danish cyclist
1984 – Cam Janssen, American hockey player
1984 – Ben Kasica, American guitarist and producer (Skillet)
1984 – Daniel Paille, Canadian hockey player
1985 – Chris Cates, American baseball player
1985 – John Danks, American baseball player
1985 – Aaron Laffey, American baseball player
1985 – Amy Reid, American porn actress
1986 – Tom Heaton, English footballer
1986 – Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, Ghanaian footballer
1987 – Sapphire Elia, English actress
1988 – Thomas Albanese, Italian footballer
1988 – Yann David, French rugby player
1988 – Eliza Doolittle, English singer-songwriter
1988 – Emily Parr, English actress
1989 – Andre Kinney, American actor
1990 – Emma Watson, English actress
1991 – Daiki Arioka, Japanese actor and singer (Hey! Say! JUMP)
1992 – Amy Diamond, Swedish singer and actress
1992 – Kimberly Dos Ramos, Venezuelan actress, model, and singer
1992 – Richard Sandrak, American bodybuilder, martial artist, and actor
1993 – Madeleine Martin, American actress
1997 – Maisie Williams, English actress
1998 – Sharlene San Pedro, Filipino actress

Deaths

1053 – Godwin, Earl of Wessex (b. 1001)
1220 – Adolf of Altena, Archbishop of Cologne (b. 1157)
1415 – Manuel Chrysoloras, Greek humanist and grammarian (b. 1355)
1446 – Filippo Brunelleschi, Italian architect (b. 1377)
1610 – Robert Parsons, English priest (b. 1546)
1621 – John Carver, English merchant, first governor of Plymouth Colony (b. 1576)
1632 – George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, English politician and colonizer (b. 1580)
1641 – Domenico Zampieri, Italian painter (b. 1581)
1652 – Patriarch Joseph, Russian religious leader
1659 – Simon Dach, German poet (b. 1605)
1704 – Johann van Waveren Hudde, Dutch mathematician (b. 1628)
1719 – Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon, second wife of Louis XIV of France (b. 1635)
1754 – Jacopo Riccati, Italian mathematician (b. 1676)
1761 – Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, Scottish politician (b. 1682)
1761 – William Oldys, English antiquarian and bibliographer (b. 1696)
1764 – Madame de Pompadour, French court, mistress of King Louis XV of France (b. 1721)
1764 – Peder Horrebow, Danish astronomer (b. 1679)
1765 – Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian scientist and writer (b. 1711)
1788 – Giuseppe Bonno, Austrian composer (b. 1711)
1793 – Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian missionary and geographer (b. 1718)
1804 – Charles Pichegru, French general (b. 1761)
1854 – Arthur Aikin, English chemist, mineralogist, and writer (b. 1773)
1861 – Sylvester Jordan, German politician and lawyer (b. 1792)
1865 – Abraham Lincoln, American politician, 16th President of the United States (b. 1809)
1888 – Matthew Arnold, English poet (b. 1822)
1889 – Father Damien, Flemish missionary (b. 1840)
1898 – Kepa Te Rangihiwinui, Maori military leader
1912 – Victims of the RMS Titanic disaster
- Edward Smith, English navy officer and captain of the RMS Titanic (b. 1850)
- Henry Tingle Wilde, English chief officer (b. 1872)
- William McMaster Murdoch, Scottish sailor and first officer (b. 1873)
- Wallace Hartley,English violinist (b. 1878)
- James Paul Moody, English sixth officer (b. 1887)
- Jack Phillips, British wireless telegraphist (b. 1887)
- John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman, real estate builder, investor, inventor, and writer (b. 1864)
- Thomas Andrews, Irish businessman and shipbuilder (b. 1873)
- William T. Stead English author and journalist (b. 1849)
- Isidor Straus co-owner of Macy's department store and former Congressman from New York (b. 1845) and his wife, Rosalie Ida Blun (b. 1849)
- Benjamin Guggenheim American businessman (b. 1865)
1917 – János Murkovics, Slovene writer and teacher (b. 1839)
1927 – Gaston Leroux, French writer (b. 1868)
1938 – César Vallejo, Peruvian poet (b. 1892)
1942 – Robert Musil, Austrian novelist (b. 1880)
1943 – Aristarkh Lentulov, Russian artist (b. 1882)
1944 – Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin, Soviet general (b. 1901)
1945 – Hermann Florstedt, Germen Nazi leader (b. 1895)
1948 – Radola Gajda, Czech military commander and politician (b. 1892)
1949 – Wallace Beery, American actor (b. 1885)
1957 – Pedro Infante, Mexican actor and singer (b. 1917)
1962 – Clara Blandick, American actress (b. 1880)
1962 – Arsenio Lacson, Filipino politician and writer (b. 1911)
1963 – Edward Greeves, Australian footballer (b. 1903)
1967 – Totò, Italian comedian, actor, writer, singer, and songwriter (b. 1898)
1969 – Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (b. 1887)
1970 – Ripper Collins, American baseball player (b. 1904)
1971 – Dan Reeves, American football team owner (b. 1912)
1971 – Gurgen Boryan, Armenian poet and playwright (b. 1915)
1974 – Giovanni D'Anzi, Italian songwriter (b. 1906)
1975 – Richard Conte, American actor (b. 1910)
1980 – Raymond Bailey, American actor (b. 1904)
1980 – Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1905)
1982 – Arthur Lowe, British actor (b. 1915)
1983 – Corrie ten Boom, Dutch author and Holocaust survivor (b. 1892)
1983 – John Engstead, American photographer (b. 1909)
1984 – Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedian and magician (b. 1921)
1984 – Alexander Trocchi, Scottish writer (b. 1925)
1986 – Jean Genet, French author (b. 1910)
1988 – Kenneth Williams, English actor and comedian (b. 1926)
1988 – Youri Egorov, Soviet pianist (b. 1954)
1989 – Nesuhi Ertegün, American record executive (b. 1917)
1989 – Charles Vanel, French actor (b. 1892)
1989 – Hu Yaobang, Chinese politician (b. 1915)
1990 – Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (b. 1905)
1992 – Otis Barton, American diver (b. 1899)
1993 – Leslie Charteris, Singapore author (b. 1907)
1993 – John Tuzo Wilson, Canadian geologist (b. 1908)
1994 – John Curry, English figure skater (b. 1949)
1995 – Harry Shoulberg, American painter (b. 1903)
1998 – Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (b. 1925)
1999 – Harvey Postlethwaite, British engineer and race car designer (b. 1944)
2000 – Edward Gorey, American illustrator (b. 1925)
2001 – Joey Ramone, American singer-songwriter and musician (The Ramones and Sniper) (b. 1951)
2002 – Damon Knight, American author (b. 1922)
2002 – Byron "Whizzer" White, American football player and United States Supreme Court Justice (b. 1917)
2003 – Reg Bundy, British drag queen, actor, and dancer (b. 1941)
2003 – Erin Fleming, Canadian actress (b. 1941)
2004 – Ray Condo, Canadian singer and musician (b. 1950)
2004 – Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Japanese manga artist (b. 1934)
2005 – John Fred, American singer-songwriter (b. 1941)
2007 – Brant Parker, American cartoonist (b. 1920)
2008 – Sean Costello, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1979)
2008 – Benoît Lamy, Belgian director (b. 1945)
2008 – Krister Stendahl, Swedish theologian and bishop (b. 1921)
2009 – Ed Blake, American baseball player (b. 1925)
2009 – Clement Freud, British writer and broadcaster (b. 1924)
2009 – László Tisza, Hungarian-American physicist (b. 1907)
2010 – Jack Herer, American author and cannabis activist (b. 1939)
2011 – Vittorio Arrigoni, Italian activist (b. 1975)