Famous People Who Died In 1930

The 27th president of the United States, William Howard Taft also served as the tenth Chief Justice of the US; he is the only person in the history of the US to have held both the offices. He had a great impact as chief justice and has been regarded as the greatest US chief justices of all time.

Fridtjof Nansen was a Norwegian polymath who won the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his post-war efforts after the First World War. A well-known explorer, humanitarian, and diplomat, Nansen achieved international fame for his attempt to reach the geographical North Pole during his Fram expedition. His techniques and innovations influenced a generation of succeeding Antarctic and Arctic expeditions.

In the early 1900s, meteorologist Alfred Wegener did not find too many takers for his theory that all the continents of the world had initially been a single mass named Pangaea and that continental drift had caused them to split apart. Wegener died on his fourth expedition in Greenland.

Vladimir Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet playwright, poet, artist, and actor. He was a prominent figure of the Russian Futurist movement in the pre-Revolution period leading to 1917. He produced a large and diverse body of work during his career. He admired Vladimir Lenin and supported the ideology of the Bolsheviks. He was popular outside Russia as well. 

English writer, D. H. Lawrence, was known for exploring sensitive issues, such as sexuality, emotional health,  and instinct. In his works, he often reflected upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization. The sexual nature of his writings earned him many enemies. Even though he died at the relatively young age of 44, he left behind a rich literary legacy.

After losing her husband and children in a yellow fever epidemic and her dress shop in the great Chicago fire, schoolteacher and dressmaker Mary Harris Jones became an activist, earning the nickname Mother Jones. A prominent unionist for coal miners and other workers, she also co-founded the Social Democratic Party.

Born amid poverty in Ukraine, Ilya Repin earned himself an art scholarship and later devoted his life to historical painting. A major figure of the realist movement in painting, he had also been the subject of controversies, such as the withdrawal of his painting of Ivan the Terrible murdering his own son.

Writer, lecturer, suffragist, reformer, feminist, politician and slave-owner Rebecca Latimer Felton was the first woman who served in the United States Senate. The most distinguished woman in Georgia during the Progressive Era, Felton was appointed Senator from Georgia as a mark of respect. With this she became the oldest freshman-senator who entered the Senate and served for just 24 hours.    

Zewditu, a 20th-century Ethiopian empress and the eldest daughter of King Menelik of Shewa, scripted history as the first female head of an internationally recognized African state. She was also the first and last empress regnant of Ethiopia. It’s widely believed, she died of shock 2 days after her husband’s death in battle.

Glenn Curtiss was an American motorcycling and aviation pioneer. He is credited with founding the U.S. aircraft industry. He is also credited with forming the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company which merged with the Wright Aeronautical to form Curtiss-Wright Corporation in 1929. Glenn Curtiss’ company played a major role in the years leading up to the First World War.

British philosopher and mathematician Frank P. Ramsey was the son of a famed mathematician and later laid down the Ramsey theory of mathematical logic. The Cambridge alumnus also translated Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus but died at age 26, probably due to a liver infection he contracted while swimming.

Herbert Henry Dow taught chemistry before venturing into a business career. Though his first company was a failure, his work impressed investors, and he was soon able to establish Dow Chemical, which supplied low-cost bromine to the US markets. He later made auto pistons out of spare magnesium.

Legendary Hungarian-American violinist and composer Leopold Auer was born into a family of painters but chose to learn the violin instead. He initially played for the music-loving bling king of Hanover and later taught violin at Russia’s Saint Petersburg Conservatory. His students include Mischa Elman and Jascha Heifetz.

Swiss-born sports executive Joan Gamper is best remembered as the founder of the legendary football club FC Barcelona. A sports enthusiast since his childhood, he excelled in many sports, such as football, golf, and tennis. He died of suicide at age 52, apparently driven by depression related to financial issues.

Elmer Ambrose Sperry is best remembered for inventing gyroscopic compasses and stabilizers, which revolutionized navigation technology back in his time. His products had been of great use to the U.S. Navy. His illustrious career had witnessed him gain over 400 patents through his eight manufacturing companies.

Nobel Prize-winning Dutch physician and pathologist Christiaan Eijkman was the first to prove that poor diet is the cause of the disease beriberi, which in turn led to the discovery of vitamins. While he initially worked in the Dutch East Indies, he later collaborated with Robert Koch in his Berlin laboratory.

Luigi Facta was an Italian journalist and politician. He served as the prime minister of Italy from July 1922 to October 1922 before the dawn of Benito Mussolini's dictatorship. Before becoming the prime minister, Facta served as the finance minister of Italy from 1910 to 1914 and again from 1920 to 1921.

Eduard Polón was a Finnish business leader best remembered for founding the Nokia group. He was responsible for launching a rubber industry in Finland and is credited with founding the Finnish Rubber Company. Eduard Polón is also credited with designing and introducing a modern cable and timber market in the country.

New Zealand politician Joseph Ward was a major figure of both the Liberal and United parties. The Australian-born was initially a grain trader and stepped into local politics later. He not only served as the prime minister of New Zealand but also established the world’s first public health ministry.

Theodor Nöldeke was a German scholar and orientalist. Apart from being an important orientalist, Nöldeke also translated the works of other prominent orientalists. He also wrote numerous studies and contributed immensely to the Encyclopædia Britannica. Theodor Nöldeke is also credited with teaching many future scholars like Louis Ginzberg and Charles Cutler Torrey.

In spite of being the editor of the Ladies' Home Journal for 3 decades, Dutch-born American editor Edward Bok was strongly anti-women’s rights and believed women’s liberation and education would lead to higher divorce rates. His memoir, The Americanization of Edward Bok, won him a Pulitzer Prize.

Allvar Gullstrand was a Swedish optician and ophthalmologist. He is best remembered for winning the 1911 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his study of the refraction of light in the human eye and of optical images. Allvar Gullstrand is also remembered for his research on astigmatism. Gullstrand also served as a professor at the University of Uppsala.

Friedrich von Bernhardi was a Prussian general and author. A best-selling author prior to the First World War, Bernhardi is best remembered for his book. Germany and the Next War. A militarist, Bernhardi proposed that Germany should ignore treaties. As a general, he played an important role during World War I where he had success in the Eastern Front.

Thomas Robert “Tommy” Dewar, also known as Whisky Tom, was born to a distiller father, who had founded John Dewar & Sons, Ltd. in Scotland. He later expanded his family business, along with his brother, traveling to about 26 nations, and making Dewar’s an internationally renowned whiskey brand.