Famous People Who Died Today

English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist Rudyard Kipling is best remembered for his fiction work The Jungle Book. He was born in India and many of his works are inspired by his life in the country. He was one of the most popular English writers in the late 19th and early 20th century.

American singer, songwriter and vocalist, Glen Frey was the co-founder of the extremely famous rock band of the 1970s—Eagles. The band delivered hit albums like Hotel California before disbanding after a decade. The six time Grammy award winner then enjoyed a successful solo career with hit songs like Smuggler’s Blues and The Heat Is On before re-joining his band.

The tenth president of the United States, John Tyler was dubbed His Accidency as he became the president after the sudden death of President William Henry Harrison when the former was serving as the vice president. Tyler's acceptance of full presidential powers set a prominent precedent and served as a model for succession to the future presidents.

Born Jerome Lester Horwitz and nick named Curly by his brothers, Curly Howard is an American vaudevillian actor who was known for his comic skills, childlike mannerism and exaggerated walk. His performance as a member of The Three Stooges was particularly popular among children in 1930s and early 1940s. He was forced to retire early from his career because of stroke.

Cecil Beaton was a British war, portrait, and fashion photographer. A multi-talented personality, Beaton is also known for his work as a painter, diarist, interior designer, and costume designer. Cecil Beaton worked with popular publications like Vogue before becoming a leading war photographer. His work as a costume designer for the theatre and films earned him Oscars and Tony Awards.  

Jan van Riebeeck was a Dutch colonial administrator and navigator. He is credited with founding the Dutch Cape Colony and Cape Town. Jan van Riebeeck is of historical and cultural importance to South Africa as many South Africans consider him the founding father of their country. Several South African villages and towns have streets named after Van Riebeeck.

Saadat Hasan Manto was a Pakistani playwright, writer, and author. Best remembered for his 22 collections of short stories, Manto was renowned for writing about the bitter truths of society. Not surprisingly, he was tried for obscenity on six occasions but was never convicted. Considered one of the 20th century's finest Urdu-language writers, Manto is the subject of two movies.

Bill Finger was an American film, TV, comic book, and comic strip writer. Although he had co-created the popular superhero character Batman along with Bob Kane, Finger's work was uncredited until 2015. As a result, Finger died in poverty and obscurity. He was posthumously inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame.

A pioneer of Hindi romantic poetry and the Chhayavaad movement, Harivanshrai Bachchan is best remembered for his book of 135 quatrains, Madhushala. He was the first Indian to earn a PhD in English literature from Cambridge University. He was also the father of legendary Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan.

K. L. Saigal, the first superstar of Hindi cinema, was revered and idolised for his singing and acting styles. He gained-attention starring and singing in the Hindi film Puran Bhagat. He then starred in several films, most notably in the Hindi film Devdas. He was the first non-Bengali who was given consent by Rabindranath Tagore to sing the latter’s songs.  

Alfred Vail, along with Samuel F.B. Morse, revolutionized the American telegraph system. Though initially interested in theology, he changed his career path after meeting Morse. Some scholars believe Vail and Morse had both contributed equally for the development of the Morse code but was not valued.

Ghanaian journalist and BBC World News anchor Komla Dumor had soared to fame with his program Focus on Africa. Grandson of Philip Gbeho, who had composed the Ghanaian national anthem, Dumor boasted of a Harvard degree. New African magazine named him one of the 100 most influential Africans of 2013.

While Anton Rupert had initially joined medical school, he later switched to chemistry, due to lack of funds. The founder of the tobacco conglomerate Rembrandt Group, he also had a pivotal role in the non-profit Small Business Development Corporation. A conservationist, too, he was a co-founder of the World Wildlife Fund.

One of the first female engineers in the US, Nora Stanton Blatch Barney was also a leading suffragist and the granddaughter of women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She was also the first woman to graduate in engineering from Cornell and sued the ASCE for denying her a full-membership.

Apart from being the first female architect from Austria, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky was also a staunch communist and played a significant role in the resistance to Nazism. Her best-known work was the model known as the Frankfurt Kitchen, which led to the regular kitchen model found in Western homes.

Pietro Bembo was an Italian scholar, poet, and literary theorist. He was also a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and a member of the Knights Hospitaller, a Catholic military order. He played a key role in the development of the Tuscan dialect as a literary language. As a priest, he promoted the Christian perfection of Renaissance humanism. 

Adolf Butenandt was a German biochemist best remembered for winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on sex hormones. Butenandt rejected the award in 1939, but accepted it later in 1949. Adolf Butenandt is also credited with discovering the structure of silkworms' sex pheromone, which he named bombykol. 

David O. McKay, son of Utah senate member David McKay, had been the president of the LDS Church for almost 2 decades. He had initially been a missionary in Scotland and had then been a faculty member and a principal at what is now known as the Weber State University.