Famous People Who Died Today

Fred Thompson was an American politician, lobbyist, attorney, columnist, radio personality, and actor. From 1994 to 2003, Thompson served as the United States Senator from Tennessee. As an actor, he played important roles in several films and TV series, such as Law & Order and Barbarians at the Gate.

Mamie Eisenhower was the First Lady of the U.S. through her marriage to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Her love for elegant attires got her featured on the New York Dress Institute’s list of the best-dressed women. She gave rise to the Mamie Look and the Mami Pink shade.

In the early 1900s, meteorologist Alfred Wegener did not find too many takers for his theory that all the continents of the world had initially been a single mass named Pangaea and that continental drift had caused them to split apart. Wegener died on his fourth expedition in Greenland.

Phil Silvers was an American comedian and entertainer. Dubbed the King of Chutzpah, Silvers won two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Tony Awards during his illustrious career that spanned almost six decades. In 1996, he was ranked 31st on TV Guide's list of 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time. Silvers’ work has inspired other comedians like Dick Van Dyke.

Mitch Lucker was an American singer and songwriter remembered for his work as the lead vocalist of the band Suicide Silence. A tattoo enthusiast, Mitch Lucker was known for his extensive collection of tattoos that covered his torso, arms, fingers, and neck. After his death at age 28, his bandmates established the Kenadee Lucker Education Fund to benefit his daughter.

Oceanic engineer Jacques Piccard is remembered for his revolutionary inventions such as the mesoscaphe and the bathyscaphe, which he had built for under-sea exploration. The son of renowned engineer and explorer Auguste Piccard, he was initially an economics teacher but later began collaborating with his father on various inventions.

J. R. Jayewardene was a Sri Lankan politician and leader. He served as the prime minister of Sri Lanka from 1977 to 1978 and then went on to serve as the country's second president from 1978 to 1989. A controversial figure, Jayewardene's actions have been recognized as a contributing factor to the commencement of the Sri Lankan Civil War.

Nobel Prize-winning Spanish biochemist Severo Ochoa is remembered for his discovery of the enzyme polynucleotide phosphorylase and his subsequent success in synthesizing RNA. His research took him to top institutes such as the universities of Oxford and Heidelberg. He had also taught at the New York University.

Initially an artillery officer, Pietro Badoglio served as a general during the two World Wars. He eventually signed an armistice with the Allies to withdraw Italian forces from World War II. He eventually served as the prime minister of Italy and was also the 1st Duke of Addis Abeba.

Bill Tilghman was a gunfighter, career lawman, and politician in Kansas and Oklahoma. He was active during the late 19th century and became a legendary figure after he single-handedly captured the notorious bandit Bill Doolin and killed many members of his gang. He became a politician later in his career and served as an Oklahoma state senator. 

Georgios Papandreou was a Greek politician who served as the Prime Minister of Greece on three occasions between 1944 and 1965. Papandreou, whose illustrious political career spanned over 50 years, is also credited with founding the Papandreou political dynasty. Georgios Papandreou was also counted among the best orators in Greece.

Theodore Hall was an American physicist. He was one of the atomic spies for the Soviet Union during World War II. Hall gave a detailed description of a plutonium bomb named Fat Man to the Soviet Union. He also passed on vital information such as the processes involved for purifying plutonium. His life inspired a documentary titled A Compassionate Spy.

One of the most influential 19th-century classicists, Theodor Mommsen donned many hats and was at the same time a historian, a philologist, a legal scholar, and an archaeologist. His legendary A History of Rome won him a Nobel Prize in Literature. He had also fathered 16 children.

Royal Engineers army officer John Chard was one of the 11 men to receive the Victoria Cross for defeating a Zulu army of 4,000 warriors at the battle of Rorke's Drift, with a British army of 135. His handwritten account of the war was later auctioned off for £175,000.

Nikolay Przhevalsky was a Russian imperial geographer. A renowned explorer of Central and East Asia, he traveled through regions then unknown to the West. He is credited to have made a substantial contribution to European knowledge of Central Asian geography. However, despite his attempts, he could never reach his ultimate goal, the holy city of Lhasa in Tibet.

The son of a nurseryman, British botanist John Lindley revolutionized the plant classification system by introducing a method of considering all characters of plants. Known for his iconic work The Vegetable Kingdom, he also had a wide collection of orchids, which eventually found a place at the Kew Gardens.

Brazilian author Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto was one of the greatest figures of pre-modernism and also a talented journalist. Best known for his iconic novel Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma, he was a master of satire. He later suffered from serious bouts of mental illness.

French comedian, filmmaker, and screenwriter of the silent-film era, Gabriel Leuvielle, better known as Max Linder, is remembered as the world’s first movie star. He is known to have influenced Charlie Chaplin. He also created his iconic character Max, beginning with The Skater's Debut, and played it in several comedies later.

Edward Soja was an American self-described urbanist and political geographer. Widely regarded as the world's leading spatial theorist, Soja was honored with the prestigious Vautrin Lud Prize in 2015. Edward Soja also served as the academic advisor to numerous leading scholars, such as Professor Mustafa Dikec, Dr. Walter J. Nicholls, and Dr. Mark Purcell.

Apart from being a qualified doctor, George A. Sheehan has also gained fame as an author of books in running. Though he followed in his father’s footsteps to become a cardiologist, he later followed his early passion of track by writing bestsellers such as Running & Being.

Aleda E. Lutz was an American flight nurse who served in the United States Army during the Second World War. Lutz was the first woman from America to die in combat during the Second World War. One of the most decorated women in the U.S. military history, Aleda E. Lutz was honored with numerous prestigious awards and honors, including the Purple Heart.