Famous People Who Died Today

Donald Sutherland is arguably the greatest Canadian actor of all time. In an illustrious career, that spans over more than five decades, Sutherland has played an influential role in both Canadian and American entertainment industries. He won an Academy Honorary Award in 2017 for his immense contribution to cinema. He is the father of actors Kiefer, Rossif, and Angus Sutherland.

Georges Lemaître was a mathematician, astronomer, and professor of physics. Lemaître was the first person to theorize that the expansion of the universe can be used to explain the recession of nearby galaxies. In 1927, Lemaître published the first estimation of the Hubble constant. He also came up with the Big Bang theory to explain the origin of the universe.

Nobel Prize-winning engineer Jack Kilby is best remembered for his contribution to the development of the integrated circuit. Born to an electrical engineer, he had his first brush with gadgets as an amateur radio operator. Initially a Texas Instruments employee, he later also taught at the Texas A&M University.

Sophie Gradon was an English marketing manager and model. She is remembered for appearing in the dating reality series Love Island, where she dated Katie Salmon, becoming the show's first same-sex couple. Also known for her charity work, Gradon promoted the NE1 campaign, through which she raised funds for charities. Gradon took her own life at the age of 32.

Known as the Birdman of India, legendary ornithologist Salim Ali was the first to conduct bird surveys in India. The Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan winner is best remembered for penning the book The Book of Indian Birds, and for setting up the Bharatpur and Ranganathittu bird sanctuaries.

Erwin Chargaff was a biochemist and writer who worked at the Columbia University medical school as a professor of biochemistry. He is credited with discovering the Chargaff's rules, which played an important role in the discovery of the DNA's double helix structure. Also a prolific writer, Erwin Chargaff authored several books, including an autobiography.

Psychoanalyst and physician Josef Breuer inspired what later came to be known as Sigmund Freud’s cathartic method to treat mental ailments. His experiments with his patient Anna O. proved the therapeutic effect of the talking cure. He had also conducted research on the respiratory cycle and discovered the Hering-Breuer reflex.

Manuel Belgrano was an Argentine lawyer, politician, economist, journalist, and military leader. Widely regarded as one of the most important Libertadores of Argentina, Belgrano played a prominent role in the Argentine Wars of Independence and is credited with creating the Flag of Argentina. Manuel Belgrano is regarded as one of the greatest heroes in the history of Argentina.

Axel von Fersen the Younger was a Swedish count who served as the Minister to the King of France from 1790 to 1793. He also served as the Minister to the Emperor of Austria in 1791. A diplomat and statesman, Axel von Fersen the Younger earned the friendship of Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne through his diplomacy.

Best remembered for his co-discovery of viruses during his research on the mosaic disease in tobacco, Russian botanist Dmitri Ivanovsky is regarded as one of the pioneers of virology. Interestingly, following his discovery, he didn’t focus on virology much and taught plant anatomy and physiology instead.

Kurt Alder was a German chemist whose work on the Diels-Alder reaction, which is named after him and his teacher Diels, earned him the prestigious Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1950. Alder is also remembered for working with Ferdinand Münz, the inventor of EDTA. Over the course of his career, Kurt Alder won many prestigious awards and honorary degrees.

American-Canadian artist Miriam Schapiro experimented with minimalism, abstraction, and geometry and often expressed her own feminist thoughts though her art. Her best-known works include Anatomy of a Kimono, the sculpture Dollhouse, and her art inspired by Jewish heritage, such as Mother Russia. She was also skilled in creating femmage art.

Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, also known as the Abbé Sieyès, was a French Roman Catholic Abbé, clergyman, and political writer. He was a chief political theorist of the French Revolution and held offices in the French Consulate government. He is credited to have coined the term sociologie in an unpublished manuscript. He led a rather uninvolved social life.

Yelü Chucai was a Khitan statesman who served as an administrator and adviser of the early Mongol Empire. Apart from playing a major role in the Mongol invasions and conquests, Yelü Chucai also introduced several reforms in North China during Genghis Khan's reign. He also played an important role during the reign of Genghis Khan's successor Ögedei.

Willem Barentsz was a Dutch cartographer, navigator, and Arctic explorer. Barentsz was part of three expeditions in search of a Northeast passage to the far north. Although the first two expeditions were unsuccessful, Willem Barentsz and his crew discovered Bear Island and Spitsbergen during their third expedition. Many places, including the Barents Sea, have been named in his honor.

A renowned Bolshoi Ballet dancer, Vasily Tikhomirov is best remembered for his performance in The Red Poppy with his wife Yekaterina Geltzer. His powerful and masculine moves added to the typical Bolshoi Ballet style of dance. He developed the Bolshoi school markedly after the 1917 Revolution.

Rapper Albert Johnson, better known by his pseudonym, Prodigy, gained fame as the lead vocalist of the hip-hop band Mindless Behavior, which released the chartbusting single My Girl. He was also part of the hip-hop duo Mobb Deep, with Havoc. He has also co-written a crime novel and a cookbook.

Peter Thomson was an Australian golfer best remembered for winning the Open Championship on five occasions between 1954 and 1965. He won three consecutive Championship titles in 1954, 1955, and 1956, becoming the only modern era golfer to win a major on three successive occasions. In 1988, Peter Thomson was made an inductee of the World Golf Hall of Fame.   

Johannes Zukertort was a Polish chess player who dominated the international chess scene during the 1870s and 1880s. The Réti Opening was originally called Zukertort's Opening as he often used Nf3 as his opening move. A multi-talented personality, Johannes Zukertort also achieved success as a musician, soldier, journalist, political activist, and linguist.