Famous People Who Died Today

Bob Saget was an American actor, director, television host, and stand-up comedian. Renowned for his adult-oriented stand-up comedy routine, Saget hosted popular TV shows, such as America's Funniest Home Videos. Also known for his charity work, Bob Saget served as one of the members of the board of the non-profit organization, Scleroderma Research Foundation.

Melinda Dillon is an American actress whose performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which marked her Broadway debut, earned her a Tony Award nomination in 1963. She then went on to earn two Academy Award nominations for delivering powerful performances in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Absence of Malice.

Katherine Mansfield was a New Zealand modernist writer best remembered for her short stories. Her life and career inspired several films, plays, novels, and TV series. In 1973, she became the subject of a BBC miniseries titled A Picture of Katherine Mansfield. In 2011, actress Kate Elliott played Mansfield in a TV biopic titled Bliss.

Caroline Herschel was a German astronomer who is credited with the discovery of many comets, such as 35P/Herschel-Rigollet, which is named in her honor. In 1828, Herschel became the first woman to be honored with a Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. She was also the first female scientist to receive a salary.

Italian mathematician Maria Gaetana Agnesi, daughter of an affluent silk trader, was well-versed in a number of languages as a child. Most of her work was regarding algebra, calculus, and the Witch of Agnesi. She was also the first female academic to write a math book and to teach math.

Félix González-Torres was an American visual artist best remembered for his sculptures and minimal installations made out of everyday objects like lightbulbs, stacks of paper, clocks, and packaged hard candies. In 2010, his 1992 piece Untitled sold for $4.6 million at an auction. Félix González-Torres died at the age of 38 due to complications from AIDS.

The first president of Lithuania, Antanas Smetona was drawn into the revolutionary movements of his country soon after finishing law school. A major political figure of his country during the two World Wars, he came to power for a second time after launching a coup in 1926.

Emily Greene Balch was an American sociologist, economist, and pacifist. She is best remembered for her work to deal with social issues like child labor, poverty, and immigration. She also worked towards reducing juvenile delinquency and uplifting poor immigrants. In 1946, Emily Greene Balch was honored with the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.

Michel de Certeau was a French scholar and Jesuit whose work combined philosophy, psychoanalysis, history, and the social sciences. He is credited with co-founding a journal called Christus in 1956, with which he was associated for the rest of his life. Michel de Certeau also taught at many universities in places like Paris, San Diego, and Geneva.

Tom Longboat was an Onondaga athlete who specialized in distance running. Nicknamed the bulldog of Britannia, Longboat also served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force as a soldier during the First World War. In 1996, Tom Longboat was honored posthumously with an induction into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. 

Born to a photography studio owner in Nagoya City, Toshiki Kaifu grew up to be the prime minister of Japan. The Liberal-Democratic Party member has also held important portfolios such as the ministry of education. He was the first major political leader to visit China after the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Nobel Prize-winning Japanese chemist Kenichi Fukui, best known for his research on frontier orbitals in chemical reactions, was initially hesitant to take up chemistry, as he hated memorizing equations. Following his stint at Kyoto University, where he studied engineering and earned a PhD, he developed an affinity for the subject.

Jorge Anaya was an Argentine Navy officer best remembered for his service as the Commander-in-Chief of the Argentine Navy. He played an important role in the National Reorganisation Process and was one of the members of the Third Military Junta. Jorge Anaya also played a prominent role in the events leading up to the Falklands War. 

A significant figure of the Paris Commune, Louise Michel was born as an illegitimate child of a maid. She had initially been trained to be a teacher but later began developing an interest in revolutionary socialist ideas. She was also once sent behind bars for inciting riots.

Remembered as a pioneer of the modern Turkish novel, Turkish author Halide Edib Adıvar was also a champion for women’s rights and a teacher. Actively associated with the Turkish socio-political movements, she was a regular at Turkish social clubs and gained fame for works such as Yeni Turan and Handan.

Known as successful businesswoman, Catherine Anselm Gleason had many firsts to her credit. The first woman to study engineering at Cornell University, she later became the first female to become receiver of a bankrupt company and successfully restored it.  Later, she also became the first female president of a national bank, and member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

German artist and poet Wilhelm Busch is best remembered for pioneering the illustrations known as Bilderbogen, believed to have inspired the modern-day comic strip format. A qualified mechanical engineer, he later deviated to art. His best-known work remains Max und Moritz, which influenced The Katzenjammer Kids.

Apart from winning medals for fencing and heading the Oxford University Boat Club, William Grenfell, 1st Baron Desborough was also an adventurer who had rowed across the English Channel. A public servant, too, he had been part of the House of Commons for both the Liberals and the Conservatives.