December 17 - Deaths

Deaths

  • 535 – Emperor Ankan of Japan (b. 466)
  • 942 – William Longsword, 2nd Duke of Normandy (b. 893)
  • 1187 – Pope Gregory VIII
  • 1195 – Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut (b. 1150)
  • 1273 – Rumi (b. 1207)
  • 1663 – Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba (b. 1583)
  • 1721 – Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough, English statesman (b. 1640)
  • 1830 – Simón Bolívar, Venezuelan military leader (b. 1783)
  • 1833 – Kaspar Hauser, German foundling (b. 1812)
  • 1847 – Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, second wife of Napoleon (b. 1791)
  • 1860 – Désirée Clary, Queen of Sweden and Norway (b. 1777)
  • 1907 – William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Irish-born physicist (b. 1824)
  • 1909 – Leopold II of Belgium (b. 1835)
  • 1917 – Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, English physician (b. 1836)
  • 1917 – Frank Gotch, American professional wrestler (b. 1878)
  • 1925 – George Gibb, British transport administrator (b. 1850)
  • 1927 – Rajendra Lahiri, Indian British anti-occupation activist (b. 1892)
  • 1929 – Manuel Gomes da Costa, Portuguese politician (b. 1863)
  • 1930 – Peter Warlock, Anglo-Welsh composer (b. 1894)
  • 1932 – Charles Winckler, Danish athlete (b. 1867)
  • 1933 – Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama (b. 1876)
  • 1940 – Alicia Boole Stott, Irish mathematician (b. 1860)
  • 1947 – Christos Tsigiridis, Greek electrical engineer and technological pioneer (b. 1877)
  • 1957 – Dorothy L. Sayers, English writer (b. 1893)
  • 1962 – Thomas Mitchell, American actor (b. 1892)
  • 1962 – André-Philippe Gagnon, Canadian comedian
  • 1964 – Victor Franz Hess, Austrian-born American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1883)
  • 1967 – Harold Holt, Australian politician (b. 1908)
  • 1967 – Jack Perrin, American actor (b. 1896)
  • 1978 – Don Ellis, American jazz band leader (b. 1934)
  • 1981 – Antiochos Evangelatos, Greek composer and conductor (b. 1903)
  • 1981 – Ada Kramm, Norwegian actress (b. 1899)
  • 1982 – Homer S. Ferguson, American politician (b. 1889)
  • 1986 – Guillermo Cano Isaza, Colombian journalist (b. 1925)
  • 1987 – Linda Wong, American porn star (b. 1951)
  • 1987 – Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian novelist (b. 1903)
  • 1992 – Günther Anders, Polish philosopher (b. 1902)
  • 1992 – Dana Andrews, American actor (b. 1909)
  • 1998 – Allan D'Arcangelo, American artist (b. 1930)
  • 1999 – Rex Allen, American actor, singer, and songwriter (b. 1920)
  • 1999 – Grover Washington, Jr., American saxophonist (b. 1943)
  • 2002 – James Hazeldine, English actor (b. 1947)
  • 2003 – Ed Devereaux, Australian actor (b. 1925)
  • 2003 – Otto Graham, American football player (b. 1921)
  • 2004 – Tom Wesselmann, American collage artist (b. 1931)
  • 2005 – Jack Anderson, American journalist (b. 1922)
  • 2005 – Marc Favreau, French-Canadian humourist (b. 1929)
  • 2006 – Larry Sherry, American baseball player (b. 1935)
  • 2008 – Sammy Baugh, American football player (b. 1914)
  • 2008 – Freddy Breck, German schlager singer and news anchor (b. 1942)
  • 2008 – Dave Smith, American baseball player (b. 1955)
  • 2009 – Chris Henry, American football player (b. 1983)
  • 2009 – Jennifer Jones, American actress (b. 1919)
  • 2009 – Dan O'Bannon, American screenwriter and actor (b. 1943)
  • 2010 – Captain Beefheart, American musician (b. 1941)
  • 2010 – Walt Dropo, American baseball player (b. 1923)
  • 2011 – Eva Ekvall, Venezuelan beauty queen (b. 1983)
  • 2011 – Cesária Évora, Cape Verdean singer (b. 1941)
  • 2011 – Kim Jong-il, North Korean leader (b. 1941)

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Famous quotes containing the word deaths:

    “There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
    —Philip Caputo (b. 1941)

    “As deaths have accumulated I have begun to think of life and death as a set of balance scales. When one is young, the scale is heavily tipped toward the living. With the first death, the first consciousness of death, the counter scale begins to fall. Death by death, the scales shift weight until what was unthinkable becomes merely a matter of gravity and the fall into death becomes an easy step.”
    —Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946)

    “On almost the incendiary eve
    Of deaths and entrances ...”
    —Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)