Famous People Who Died Today

The 20th president of the United States, James A. Garfield began his career as an attorney. Born into poverty, he struggled throughout his childhood and youth to become a respected lawyer. He eventually entered politics and rose through the ranks to be elected the president. Unfortunately, he was assassinated less than seven months after he took office.

The second son of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton, Barron Hilton was initially a skilled photographer and had even learned to fly planes. A sports enthusiast, he had also been the AFL president. A philanthropist, too, he left 97% of his wealth to his own charitable foundation.

Iconic Australian country singer Slim Dusty mirrored the Australian bush life through his songs. His masterpieces include A Pub with No Beer, the first gold-certified Australian track. He earned a record 45 Golden Guitar honors at the Tamworth Country Music Awards but lost his battle with cancer at 76.

Christian preacher Kenneth Erwin Hagin is widely remembered as the father of the modern faith movement. He had an almost-70-year stint with the Christian ministry. The founder of The Word of Faith movement, he popularized it through magazines, CDs, and books of the Faith Library Publications.

Born Dolores L. DeFina, she became Dolores Hope after her marriage to actor and comedian, Bob Hope.  A fine singer and a woman of words, she entertained American overseas soldiers for fifty years, recording her first CD, Dolores Hope: Now and Then, at the age of eighty-three. e.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was a Russian rocket scientist. Credited with pioneering astronautic theory, Tsiolkovsky is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of astronautics and modern rocketry. His works served as an inspiration to several other Soviet rocket engineers like Valentin Glushko and Sergei Korolev. Hence, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's work played an influential role in the Soviet space program.

Royal Air Force bomber pilot Guy Gibson was born in India but moved to England at age 6. While he was initially rejected by the RAF for his short stature, he was later accepted. He is best remembered for leading the 1943 Dambusters raid, which damaged two dams of Ruhr.

A 4th-century bishop of Benevento and a patron saint of Naples, Saint Januarius is said to have been martyred during the Great Persecution under Roman emperor Diocletian. It is believed that his blood, which has been solidified and preserved in the Naples Cathedral, liquefies 18 times a year.

Italian journalist, short-story writer and novelist Italo Calvino, counted among noted Italian fiction writers in the 20th-century, emerged as the most translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his demise. Notable works of Calvino include novels Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler; the collection of 12 short stories titled Cosmicomics, and the Our Ancestors trilogy.

Étienne Gilson was a French historian of philosophy and philosopher. He also taught history at various universities like the University of Strasbourg, the University of Paris, and Harvard University. Gilson also took part in World War I, serving in the French Army. His efforts in the battle of Verdun earned him the Croix de Guerre for bravery.

Dutch physicist and mathematician Pieter van Musschenbroek is remembered for introducing the principle of the Leyden jar. He also taught at several universities. Born to an instrument maker, he initially studied medicine but later also focused on philosophy. He made pioneering contributions to tribology.

Remembered as the first president of the Leland Stanford Junior University, now known as Stanford University, David Starr Jordan was a reputed ichthyologist. An anti-war activist, too, who opposed America’s participation in World War I, he spent his later years as the chief director of the World Peace Foundation.

French mathematician and physicist Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis proposed what is now known as Coriolis force. While teaching at the École Polytechnique, Paris, he extended the scope of kinetic energy. His On the Calculation of Mechanical Action remains his most significant book. His name remains inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.

Michael Ancher was a Danish realist artist best remembered for his portrayal of fishermen, lakes, and scenes from the fishing community in Skagen. In 1889, he was honored with the prestigious Eckersberg Medal. Today, many of Michael Ancher's paintings are preserved at the National Gallery of Denmark, Skagens Museum, and Ribe Art Museum.

George Grey was a British explorer, soldier, writer, and colonial administrator. He served as the 11th Premier of New Zealand from 1877 to 1879. He also served as the Governor of New Zealand from 1845 to 1854 and again from 1861 to 1868. George Grey's life and career inspired a miniseries titled The Governor.

Theodore of Tarsus, who later became the archbishop of Canterbury, scripted history as the first archbishop to reign over the whole of the English Church. He arranged the first general synod of the English Church and put an end to Celtic practices. He applied the Roman model of a centralized church to England.

German-born British physicist Rudolf Peierls is best-remembered for co-authoring the Frisch–Peierls memorandum with Otto Frisch which revealed that an atomic bomb can be developed from a small amount of fissile uranium-235. This led to formation of MAUD Committee, development of the Tube Alloys project and the Manhattan Project, and atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War.

Einar Gerhardsen was a Norwegian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Norway on three occasions between 1945 and 1965. He is the longest-serving Norwegian prime minister, having served 17 years in office. Considered one of the chief architects of the rebuilding of Norway after the Second World War, Gerhardsen is referred to as the Father of the Nation. 

Apart from being the third son of legendary naturalist Charles Darwin, Francis Darwin was a botanist in his own right, too. While he initially studied math, he later switched to natural sciences and then also studied medicine. He is best remembered for his contribution to phototropism.