Famous People Who Died Today

Alexander Graham Bell was a scientist, inventor, and engineer. He is credited with inventing the first functional telephone. He is also credited with co-founding America's major telephone company AT&T, which has been going strong since 1885. Bell's later life was marked by his groundbreaking work in aeronautics, hydrofoils, and optical telecommunications. He was also an ardent supporter of compulsory sterilization.

The 29th President of the United States, Warren G. Harding assumed office in 1921 shortly after the end of WWI and became very popular. He died in 1923 while still in office. Later, various scandals that occured during his presidency were uncovered and his image suffered a serious setback. His presidency is today ranked amongst the worst in the American history.

While Austrian filmmaker Fritz Lang initially studied civil engineering, he later trained as a painter, before switching to screenwriting and direction. He was a prominent figure of German Expressionism and mostly worked in Germany and the US. His Woman in the Moon was a pioneering science-fiction movie.

Muhammad Ali of Egypt was the de facto ruler of Egypt from 1805 to 1848. He was also the Albanian Ottoman governor and is considered the founder of modern Egypt. He implemented drastic reforms in the military, economic and cultural spheres in Egypt. He established the Muhammad Ali dynasty that ruled Egypt until the revolution of 1952.

Enrico Caruso was an operatic tenor who performed at prominent opera houses in the Americas and Europe. His commercially released recordings made him an international star in the early-1900s. Thanks to his illustrious career that spanned 25 years, Caruso became one of the most popular entertainers of his generation. In 1987, he was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Louis Blériot was a French aviator, engineer, and inventor. He is credited with developing the first workable headlamp for cars. He is also credited with making the first working, piloted monoplane. Blériot achieved worldwide fame in 1909 when he became the first person to fly across the English Channel. Louis Blériot also founded the successful aircraft manufacturing company, Blériot Aéronautique.

Lazare Carnot was a French physicist, mathematician, and politician. His role in the Napoleonic Wars and French Revolutionary Wars earned him the sobriquet Organizer of Victory. Carnot is credited with developing innovative defensive designs for forts, such as the Carnot wall which served as a defensive mechanism against infantry and artillery attack.

Mexican composer Carlos Chavez was known for his signature mixture of the traditional and modern elements of music. Best remembered for his works such as Sinfonía India and Sinfonía de Antígona, Chavez experimented with indigenous Mexican tunes, too. He was also the founder-director of Mexico’s Symphony Orchestra.

Holden Roberto was an Angolan politician and freedom fighter. He is credited with founding a militant organization and political party called the National Liberation Front of Angola, which played a major role in the Angolan War of Independence. The party, which Roberto led from 1962 to 1999, played an influential role in Angola's independence from Portugal.

Baruj Benacerraf was a Venezuelan-American immunologist whose discovery of the MHC genes earned him the prestigious Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1980; he shared the prize with George Davis Snell and Jean Dausset. Over the course of his illustrious career, Benacerraf received several other awards, such as the National Medal of Science in 1990.

Alla Kushnir was a  celebrated Soviet-born Israel chess player, who began her career in her birth country, becoming a Woman International Master and winning two Women's Chess Olympiads before migrating to Israel. There she continued to excel, eventually becoming Woman Grandmaster. Also three times Women's World Chess Championship Challenger, she later became a professor of archeology at Tel Aviv University.

Known as the "one-eyed singer" because of his dropping right eye caused due to an injury, Oswald von Wolkenstein was one of the last troubadours. Known for his autobiographical lyrics, he was named Knight of the Holy Sepulchre. He had also been a diplomat and military commander to Emperor Sigismund.

One of Hideyoshi’s trusted bodyguards, Katō Kiyomasa led Hideyoshi’s Korean campaign and was nicknamed Devil Kiyomasa for his ferocity. Following Hideyoshi’s death, he helped Ieyasu, the regent, strengthen his kingdom. He was later made a daimyo. A staunch Buddhist, he made an effort to eradicate Christianity from Japan.

Lasar Segall was a Lithuanian Jewish and Brazilian painter, engraver, and sculptor best known for depicting human suffering, war, persecution, and prostitution in his works. He was educated at the Kunstakademie Dresden. He derived inspiration from impressionism, expressionism, and modernism. Along with other artists, he founded an organization known as Sociedade Pro-Arte Moderna (SPAM). 

Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre was a Peruvian politician, author, and philosopher. He is best remembered for founding a popular political party named the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance. Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre is also remembered for his service as the President of the Constituent Assembly from 28 July 1978 to 13 July 1979.