Famous People Who Died Today

Debbie Reynolds was a famous American actress and singer whose career spanned nearly seven decades. Also a well-known humanitarian, Debbie served as president of a charitable organization called The Thalians. Debbie was also a businesswoman; the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio, which she founded in 1979, still operates today. She also owned a hotel and casino in Las Vegas.

Lemmy was an English musician who founded the popular rock band Motörhead. The only continuous member of Motörhead, Lemmy served as the band's lead singer, primary songwriter, and bassist. Renowned for his gravelly voice, which was counted among the most recognizable voices in rock, Lemmy is also remembered for his military-influenced fashion sense and his signature friendly mutton chops.

Called the Gentleman Saint for his tenderness and patience, Francis de Sales was a Catholic priest and Bishop of Geneva (1602-1622). Canonized in 1665, he was later proclaimed Doctor of the Church for his contribution to theology and patron of writers and journalists for his extensive use of broadsheets and books. He also invented sign languages for teaching the deaf.

The great-grandson of a leader who founded his village, Nigerian politician Shehu Shagari served as the 6th president and the 1st democratically elected president of Nigeria. Initially a teacher, he joined politics as the secretary of the Northern People's Congress. He strengthened the economy of Nigeria and deported countless West African migrants.

Born into a peasant family, Russian lyrical poet Sergei Yesenin was a significant figure of Imaginism. Known as "the last poet of wooden Russia," Yesenin soared to fame with works such as Radunitsa. He later committed suicide in a hotel, having written his last poem in his own blood.

Although German composer and violinist Paul Hindemith had collaborated with leftist and Jewish musicians, his apolitical stance made him a favorite of the Nazis initially. However, he was later forced to comply with Nazi dictatorship. He moved to the U.S. after his performances were banned in Germany.

War correspondent and journalist William L. Shirer is best remembered for his National Book Award-winning book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. He had worked for publications such as The Chicago Tribune and had also written extensively on Gandhi and the Third Republic of France.

Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and engineer Hermann Oberth is regarded as one of the founding fathers of astronautics and rocketry along with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Esnault-Pelterie, and Robert Goddard. His classic book The Rocket into Planetary Space gained him widespread attention. Oberth garnered a patent for his rocket design and launched his first rocket near Berlin, Germany, on May 7, 1931.

Léon Bakst was a Russian painter, costume designer, and scene designer of Belarusian origin. He worked closely with the Ballets Russes, where he designed richly colored, exotic costumes and sets. His best-known works include productions like Daphnis and Chloe, Spectre de la rose, and The Sleeping Princess. In 1914, he was made a member of the Russian Academy of Arts.  

English novelist George Gissing is known for the way he showcased the realism of the lower-middle class in his works such as The Nether World. In spite of being a brilliant student, he was expelled from Owens College for theft. He specialized in the literary study of Charles Dickens and his works.

Sam Levene was a Russian Empire-born American actor who made contributions to various entertainment mediums such as radio, TV, Broadway, and film. Levene is credited with originating some of the most iconic comedic roles in the history of American theater in a career that spanned over five decades. In 1984, Levene was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Elizabeth Freeman was an African American midwife and herbalist. She is best remembered as the first enslaved African American person to win a freedom suit in Massachusetts. After gaining her freedom, Elizabeth Freeman became widely known for her skills as a midwife, nurse, and healer.

Charles Habib Malik was a Lebanese diplomat, academic, politician, and philosopher. He is best remembered for his role in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Charles Habib Malik is also remembered for his service as the Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1956 and 1958.

Eugenio Espejo was a medical pioneer, writer, and lawyer. He was of mestizo origin in colonial Ecuador. He inspired the separatist movement in Quito and is regarded as a key figure in colonial Ecuador. He spread enlightened ideas in the Royal Audiencia and wrote about sanitary conditions in colonial Ecuador. He aspired to awaken a rebellious spirit in the people.

Renowned Swedish physicist Johannes Rydberg is most recognised for devising the Rydberg formula, a mathematical formula used to determine the wavelengths of photons. He was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize and was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1919. He worked at the Lund University as a provisional professor of physics before becoming a full professor.

Chris Barnard was a South African cardiac surgeon best remembered for performing the first human-to-human heart transplant surgery in the world. Barnard is credited with developing a cure for intestinal atresia in children. He saved the lives of at least 10 babies in Cape Town and his technique was adopted by surgeons in the United States of America and Britain.   

Irish woman Lydia Darragh is said to have saved George Washington’s Continental Army from a British attack during American Revolutionary War. She eavesdropped on a secret conference of British officers quartered in her house and after learning about the impending attack on the Continental army camped at White Marsh, she delivered the information and saved Washington's army from an ambush.  

Harvard and Caltech alumnus Halton Christian Arp later worked at Indiana University, before joining the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. The astronomer is best known for his Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, which listed countless galaxies, and his research on the distance of quasars. He believed the Big Bang Theory was incorrect

Jack Lovelock was a New Zealand athlete best remembered for winning the gold medal in the 1500 metres event at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. His life and career have inspired several books, a film, and a stage play. Many sports bars, playing fields, and streets in New Zealand have been named after Jack Lovelock.

A prominent Whig and essayist Thomas Babington Macaulay is best remembered for his 5-volume History of England. Though a qualified lawyer, he never took it up as a career. As part of his administrative work in India later, he introduced English as the chief medium of instruction in schools.