Famous People Who Died Today

Matthew Perry gained worldwide popularity for playing the character of Chandler Bing on the television sitcom Friends. The sitcom ran from 1994 to 2004 and remains one of the most popular ones till date. He also starred in other television series and a number of films. He had issued with vicodin, methadone, amphetamines and alcohol addiction.

Abigail Adams was the closest advisor and wife of the second president of the United States, John Adams. She is credited with influencing John Adams in many ways as the latter often sought the advice of his wife. Adams feature prominently in musicals, films, and TV series that discuss her husband. She has been portrayed by actresses like Laura Linney.

Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi, also known as Ala-Hazrat, was a renowned Islamic scholar and an Urdu poet. Born in Bareilly, British India, he belonged to a family of Rohilla Pushtuns who had migrated from Qandahar. He wrote about various subjects such as philosophy, science, and astronomy.

Camilo Cienfuegos was a Cuban revolutionary who was part of the 1956 Granma expedition alongside Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. He went on to become one of Fidel Castro's top guerrilla commanders and played an important role in winning the Battle of Yaguajay, which earned him the nickname Hero of Yaguajay. Camilo Cienfuegos is revered as a hero in Cuba.

Max Müller was a German-born Orientalist and philologist. Müller is credited with co-founding the western academic disciplines of religious studies and Indian studies. In 1874, he was honored with the Pour le Mérite. He received the prestigious Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art in 1875. In India, the Goethe Institutes are named in his honor.

Born to a bricklayer in London’s East End, Tommy Flowers completed his studies in electrical engineering attending night classes while working as an apprentice during the day. He developed Max Newman’s model of a machine that had the potential to decipher German codes and turned it into his Colossus computer.

John Smeaton was the first person to claim to be a civil engineer. One of his best-known creations was the Eddystone Lighthouse. He was also the first to use hydraulic lime in concrete. He not only won the Copley Medal but was also made a Fellow of The Royal Society.

Trevor Berbick was a Jamaican boxer known for participating in historical bouts, such as Muhammad Ali's last fight in 1981, which Ali lost. He also held the WBC heavyweight title in 1986 before losing the title to Mike Tyson the same year. He is also remembered for earning Jamaica a bronze medal at the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico.

Taha Hussein was an Egyptian writer, intellectual, and one of the most influential personalities in 20th-century Egypt. Best remembered for his literary work, Hussein received 21 nominations for the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature during his lifetime. Taha Hussein is also remembered for his political career; he served as the Minister of Education in Egypt.

Marie Maynard Daly was the first Black lady to earn a doctoral degree in chemistry in the U.S. She was inspired by her father, who had to drop out of Cornell due to lack of funds. A pioneer of biochemistry, Daly later introduced a scholarship for African-American students at Queens College.

Kateb Yacine was an Algerian writer best remembered for his plays and novels. Yacine was politically active and was an important member of the Algerian Communist Party. He also gave lectures with the support of the Algerian People's Party.

German author and philosopher Paul Rée, whose writings influenced much of his friend Friedrich Nietzsche’s works, was born to affluent Jewish parents. While he initially studied philosophy and law, Rée later became a physician. He died while hiking on the Swiss Alps, though some feel he had committed suicide.

US meteorologist Cleveland Abbe, who proposed the use of time zones, was also known for his contribution to the development of the US Weather Bureau, or the National Weather Service, through his daily weather maps and forecasts. Initially an astronomer, he also served as the director of the Cincinnati (Ohio) Observatory.

Flemish diplomat Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq served several Austrian emperors, including Ferdinand I. He was an ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, present-day Turkey, and wrote extensively on Turkish life and culture. His final years were spent at the service of Elizabeth of Austria. He also collected manuscripts and curios.

Rafael Alberti, part of the Spanish poets’ group called the Generation of 1927, redefined Spanish literature. The Cervantes Prize-winning poet had also been a Communist Party member but was expelled later and launched the politically motivated magazine Octubre. He had also fought in the Spanish Civil War.