Famous People Who Died Today

John McAfee is an English-American businessman and computer programmer. He is credited with founding one of the most popular software companies of all time, McAfee Associates, which specializes in producing enterprise security software. After leaving the company, which is now owned by TPG Capital and Intel, John McAfee went on to found other companies like Tribal Voice and Future Tense Central.

If the world is successful in its fight against polio, the credit goes to American virologist Jonas Salk who developed a vaccine for the disease. Described as a “miracle worker”, his concerns for humanity were reflected in the fact that he did not claim a patent for the vaccine. He founded the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, based in California.

Civil rights activist and educator Betty Shabazz, or Betty X, was the wife of Black nationalist leader Malcolm X. Raised by her adoptive parents in Detroit, she met Malcolm X at a Nation of Islam event in Harlem. She died when her apartment was set on fire set by her grandson.

German physicist Wilhelm Weber is remembered for inventing the first electromagnetic telegraph, along with Carl Friedrich Gauss. The Copley Medal-winning scientist had also taught at the universities of Göttingen and Leipzig. The SI unit of magnetic flux, formerly known as the coulomb, was later named the weber in his honor.

Matthias Jakob Schleiden was a German botanist who is credited with co-founding cell theory along with Rudolf Virchow and Theodor Schwann. He is also remembered for his service as a professor at the University of Dorpat from the mid 1860s.

Leandro was a Brazilian singer and songwriter. Along with his younger brother, Leonardo, he formed the country duo, Leandro & Leonardo. Born into a large family, he began working odd jobs as a young boy. He eventually began a musical career with his brother and found considerable success. Sadly, he died of cancer at the young age of 36.  

Volmari Iso-Hollo was a Finnish runner who specialized in steeplechase. He is best remembered for winning the gold medal in the 3000 m steeplechase event at the 1932 and 1936 Olympic Games. Volmari Iso-Hollo also competed in the 10000 m event and won the silver medal and the bronze medal at the 1932 and 1936 Olympics respectively.

Michael Arlen was born in Bulgaria, into an Armenian merchant family that had escaped to avoid persecution in the Ottoman Empire. The family then moved to England, where he later penned his iconic novel The Green Hat. Apart from romances, he also wrote thrillers, one of which was adapted by Hitchcock.