Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift.

Famous Deaths on August 5

  • 882 King Louis III of France (b. 863)
  • 1063 Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, King of Gwynedd
  • 1157 Dirk VI, Count of Holland, dies
  • 1364 Emperor Kōgon of Japan (Ashikaga Pretenders), 1st Northern Emperor, dies at 51
  • 1447 John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, English military leader during the Hundred Years' War, dies at 52
  • 1579 Stanislaus Hosius, Polish Catholic cardinal (b. 1504)
  • 1610 Alonso García de Ramón, Spanish soldier and twice Royal Governor of Chile (b. c. 1552)
  • 1638 Peter Minuit, Walloon merchant, Director of Dutch New Netherland colony and founder of New Sweden in North America, drowns at sea during a hurricane near St Kitts at 58
  • 1644 J. Henry Alting, German theologist (Statenvertaling), dies at 61
  • 1678 Juan García de Zéspedes, Mexican musician and composer, dies at 59
  • 1743 John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey, English statesman and writer (b. 1696)
  • 1778 Charles Clémencet, French historian (b. 1703)
  • 1778 Thomas Linley the younger, English composer and musician "English Mozart", drowns in a boating accident at 22

Frederick North (1732-1792)

Lord North, Prime Minister of Great Britain (Tory: 1770-82), "who lost America", dies at 60

  • 1799 Richard Howe, British admiral, dies at 73
  • 1807 Jeanne Baré [Baret], French explorer (first woman to circumnavigate the world with Bougainville expedition, initially disguised as a man), dies at 67
  • 1834 Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp, Dutch count and Minister of Foreign affairs (1813-14), dies at 71
  • 1852 František Ladislav Čelakovský, Czech linguist, poet (national anthem, folk song), and Slavist, dies at 53
  • 1856 Robert Lucas Pearsall, English composer, dies at 61
  • 1862 Thomas Williams, US Union brigadier general, dies in battle at 47
  • 1863 Adolf Friedrich Hesse, German composer, dies at 53
  • 1864 Griffin A. Stedman, American Brigadier General (Union Army), dies in battle at 26
  • 1868 Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes, French archaeologist (discovered flint tools in the gravels of the Somme valley), dies at 79
  • 1877 Gustavus, Crown Prince of Sweden, dies at 77
  • 1880 Ferdinand Ritter von Hebra, Austrian physician (b. 1816)
  • 1888 Anna Haining Swan, Canadian giantess at 7ft 11in (exhibited with P. T. Barnum's Museum), dies of consumption at 41 [1]
  • 1888 Philip Sheridan, American general (fought Civil War for Union army, helped preserve Yellowstone Park), dies of heart failure at 57
  • 1889 Willem Ruys, Dutch ship owner and founder of Rotterdam Lloyd (Nedlloyd), dies at 80
  • 1891 Henry Litolff, French composer and pianist, dies at 73

Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)

German social philosopher and revolutionary socialist who co-authored "The Communist Manifesto" with Karl Marx, dies of throat cancer at 74

  • 1900 James Augustine Healy, 1st African American Roman Catholic bishop (Diocese of Portland), dies at 80
  • 1901 Victoria, Empress of Germany and Queen of Prussia by marriage to German Emperor Frederick III, dies at 60
  • 1907 Gentil Theodoor Antheunis, Flemish poet and songwriter, dies at 66
  • 1910 Wojciech Gawronski, Polish concert pianist and composer, dies at 42
  • 1911 Bob Caruthers, American baseball pitcher/outfielder (American Association wins & ERA leader 1885, wins leader 1880; St. Louis Browns, Brooklyn Bridegrooms), dies at 47
  • 1916 George Butterworth, English composer, dies at 31
  • 1916 Nikolay Ivanovich Kazanli, Russian composer, dies at 46
  • 1922 Tommy McCarthy, American Baseball HOF outfielder (Boston Beaneaters, Philadelphia Quakers, St. Louis Browns), dies from cancer at 59
  • 1923 Vatroslav Jagić, Croatian scholar of Slavic studies, dies at 85
  • 1925 Jennie Lee, American actress (The Birth of a Nation), dies at 76
  • 1927 Thomas Groube, Australian cricket batsman (1 Test; Victoria CA), dies at 69
  • 1929 Millicent Fawcett, English suffragist, dies at 82
  • 1931 Ullrich Haupt, Prussian actor (Morocco, Du Barry-Woman of Passion), accidentally shot at 43
  • 1932 Israël Querido, Dutch writer (Jordan), dies at 59
  • 1934 Neville Quinn, South African cricket fast bowler (12 Tests, 35 wickets), dies of heart failure at 26
  • 1940 Frederick Cook, American explorer, claimed to have 1st discovered North Pole, dies at 75
  • 1943 Adam Kuckhoff, German writer and resistance fighter, is executed during WWII at 55
  • 1944 Maurice Turnbull, Welsh cricketer (England) rugby player (Wales), dies fighting in WWII at 38
  • 1946 Wilhelm Marx, German politician, Chancellor of Germany (1923-25, 1926-28), dies at 83
  • 1950 Emil Abderhalden, Swiss physiologist and biochemist, dies at 73
  • 1952 Sameera Moussa, Egyptian nuclear scientist (b. 1917)
  • 1955 Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer and actress (Down Argentine Way), dies of a heart attack at 46
  • 1955 Suzan (Susan) Ball, American actress, dies of cancer at 21
  • 1957 Heinrich Otto Wieland, German chemist (bile acids-Nobel 1927), dies at 80
  • 1958 Joseph Holbrooke, English pianist, conductor and composer (3 Blind Mice), dies at 80
  • 1959 Edgar Albert Guest, American poet and newspaperman, dies at 77

Arthur Meighen (1874-1960)

9th Prime Minister of Canada (C: 1920-21, 1926), dies at 86

  • 1961 Eva JC Beck, Dutch actress (Elckerlyc, Resurrection), dies at 63
  • 1963 Salvador Bacarisse, Spanish composer, dies at 64
  • 1964 Art Ross, Canadian-American hockey player (Montreal Wanderers), coach (Boston Bruins, 1924-45), and namesake of NHL's scoring champion trophy, dies at 79
  • 1964 Moa Martinson, Swedish writer (My Mother Gets Married), dies at 73
  • 1966 Austin Diamond, Australian cricketer (Australian captain to America 1913), dies at 92
  • 1968 Luther Perkins American country and rockabilly guitarist (The Tennessee Three), dies as a result of a house fire at 40
  • 1970 Otto "Toby" Hardwicke, American jazz alto saxophone player (The Washingtonians, 1923-28; Duke Ellington Orchestra, 1932-46 - "Sophisticated Lady"; "In A Sentimental Mood"), dies at 66
  • 1971 Josef Stanislav, Czech composer, and pedagogue, dies at 74
  • 1972 Frederic Tozere, American stage and screen actor (Stanley - "Mr. Phillips"), dies at 71
  • 1972 Harry Hylton-Foster, Speaker of the British House of Commons (b. 1905)
  • 1976 Adrian Roland Holst, Dutch poet (Past the Roads), dies at 88
  • 1976 Betty Clooney, American singer (Jack Paar Show), dies at 45
  • 1977 Charles Carson, British actor (Cry the Beloved Country), dies at 91
  • 1978 Dutch Clark, American Pro/College Football HOF back (Colorado College; 6 × First-team All-Pro; 3 × NFL rushing TD leader & NFL scoring leader; Portsmouth Spartans/Detroit Lions), dies at 71
  • 1978 Jesse Haines, American Baseball HOF pitcher (World Series 1926, 31, 34; pitched no-hitter 1924; St. Louis Cardinals), dies at 85
  • 1978 Queenie Smith, American actress/dancer (Funny Side), dies at 79
  • 1980 Harold Runnels, American politician (b. 1924)
  • 1982 Wanda Rotha, Austrian actress (Mrs Fitzherbert), dies at 72
  • 1983 Bart [Bartholomeus Jan] Bok, Dutch-American astronomer (Milky Way), dies at 77
  • 1983 Judy Canova, American comedian and actress (Cannonball), dies of cancer at 66

Richard Burton (1925-1984)

Welsh Tony and BAFTA Award-winning stage and screen actor (Cleopatra: Camelot; Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), and fifth and sixth husband of Elizabeth Taylor (1964-74, 1975-76), dies of cerebral hemorrhage at 58

  • 1984 Rudolf Hagelstange, German writer, dies at 72
  • 1985 Theodore Sturgeon, American sci-fi author (Hugo, It, Caviar), dies at 67
  • 1987 Anatoli Papanov, Russian actor (Cold Summer of 1953) named as a People's Artist of the USSR (1973), dies at 64
  • 1987 Zygmunt Mycielski, Polish composer, music writer and editor (Ruch Muzyczny, 1957-68), dies at 79 [1]
  • 1988 Ralph Meeker [Rathgeber], American actor (Mister Roberts, Anderson Tapes, Night Stalker), dies of a heart attack at 67
  • 1990 Herman Gooding, Suriname police-inspector, dies
  • 1991 Gaston Litaize, French organist (St François-Xavier, Paris, 1946-91), composer, broadcaster, and pedagogue, dies at 81

Paul Brown (1908-1991)

American NFL Hall of Fame coach (Cleveland Browns, 1946-62, 1968-69; Cincinnati Bengals, 1970-75), dies of pneumonia at 82

  • 1991 Soichiro Honda, Japanese engineer who founded Honda Motor Co., dies at 84
  • 1991 Soichiro Hondo, Japanese CEO and founder of Honda, dies of liver cancer at 84
  • 1992 Jeff Porcaro, American drummer (Toto - "Rosanna"; "Africa"), dies of cardiac arrest at 38

Robert Muldoon (1921-1992)

New Zealand politician (Prime Minister, 1975-1984), dies at 70

  • 1993 (Alexander) "Duke" Burrell, American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader (Louisiana Shakers; Louis Jordan; Johnny Otis), dies at 73
  • 1993 Eugen Suchoň, Slovak organist and composer (Krútňava (The Whirlpool); Psalm of the Carpathian Lands; Kaleidoscope), and music educator, dies at 84
  • 1993 Randy Hobbs, American rock musician (Johnny Winter Band; McCoys), dies of heart failure at 45
  • 1994 Amy Sacks, American TV producer (ABC sports, Disney), dies of Lupus at 39
  • 1994 Audrey Langford, English singing teacher, dies at 82
  • 1994 Clive Robertson Caldwell, British fighter pilot, dies at 84
  • 1994 Terry Hibbitt, English footballer, dies at 47
  • 1995 Agha Hasan Abedi, Pakistani banker and felon (BCCI), dies at 73
  • 1995 Anthony Barber Doncaster, English bookseller, dies at 81
  • 1996 Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu, Zanzibar-born revolutionary, politician and pan-Africanist, dies at 72
  • 1996 Bruce Howard Lidington, English actor (Sword of Valiant, Mosses), dies at 46
  • 1996 Frank Marcus, German playwright and critic, dies at 68
  • 1997 Clarence M. Kelley, American 2nd Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1973-77), dies at 85
  • 1997 Don Steele, LA radio personality (KRTH), dies of cancer at 61
  • 1998 Otto Kretschmer, German U-boat commander, dies at 86
  • 1998 Todor Zhivkov, Bulgaria communist leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB), 1954-89, dies at 86
  • 1999 D. W. Brooks, American farmer and businessman, dies at 97

Alec Guinness (1914-2000)

British actor (The Ladykillers, The Bridge on the River Kwai), dies of liver cancer at 86

  • 2000 Dudley Randall, African-American poet who founded the pioneering publishing house "Broadside Press", dies at 84
  • 2000 Lala Amarnath, Indian cricket all-rounder and captain (24 Tests, 1 x 100, 4 x 50, HS 118, 45 wickets; Gujarat CC, Hindus CC), dies at 88
  • 2000 Otto Buchsbaum, Austrian writer and ecological activist, dies at 80
  • 2001 Otema Allimadi, Prime Minister of Uganda (b. 1929)
  • 2002 Chick Hearn, American basketball broadcaster (called 3,338 LA Lakers games), dies at 85
  • 2002 Darrell Porter, American baseball catcher (MLB All Star 1974, 78-80; World Series MVP 1982), dies of heart failure at 50
  • 2002 Franco Lucentini, Italian writer (b. 1920)
  • 2002 Josh Ryan Evans, American actor (b. 1982)
  • 2005 (Lyle) "Spud" Murphy [Miko Stefanovic], Serbian-American jazz multi-instrumentalist, arranger (Benny Goodman; Casa Loma Orchestra), bandleader, composer (Columbia Pictures), and educator (Equal Interval System), dies at 96
  • 2005 Jim O'Hora, American football coach (b. 1915)
  • 2005 Polina Astakhova, Soviet-Ukrainian gymnast (5 Olympic gold 1956, 60, 64), dies at 68
  • 2005 Raul Roco, Philippine senator (b. 1941)
  • 2005 Roy Scott, New Zealand cricket all-rounder (1 Test, 1 wicket; Canterbury), dies at 88
  • 2006 Ed Thrasher, American Grammy Award-winning art director (Warner Brothers Records, 1964-79), and photographer (album art for Frank Sinatra; Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead), dies of cancer at 74
  • 2006 Hugo Schiltz, Flemish lawyer and politician, dies at 78
  • 2006 Susan Butcher, American dog musher and 4 x winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, dies of graft-versus-host disease while fighting acute myelogenous leukemia at 51
  • 2007 Florian Pittiş, Romanian artist (b. 1943)
  • 2007 Jean-Marie Lustiger, Cardinal of France
  • 2007 Oliver Hill, American civil rights attorney (Presidential Medal of Freedom 1999), dies at 100
  • 2008 Reg Lindsay, Australian country and western singer-songwriter ("Armstrong"; "Close The Door Lightly"), dies of pneumonia, at 79
  • 2008 Robert Hazard [Rimato], American singer-songwriter ("Escalator Of Life"; "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"), dies after surgery at 59
  • 2009 Budd Schulberg, American screenwriter and novelist (On the Waterfront), dies at 95
  • 2010 Robert Aitken, Zen co-founder (Diamond Sangha), dies at 93
  • 2011 Andrzej Lepper, Polish politician (Deputy Prime Minister of Poland), dies at 57
  • 2011 Zyzz [Aziz Shavershian], Kurdish-Russian-Australian bodybuilder and model, dies of heart attack in a sauna at 22
  • 2013 George Duke, American Grammy Award-winning jazz and funk keyboard player, and composer, dies from chronic lymphocytic leukemia at 67
  • 2014 Arvind Apte, Indian cricketer (brother of Madhav Scored 8 & 7 in one Test), dies at 79
  • 2014 Chapman Pincher, British journalist and author (about secret service), dies at 100
  • 2014 Jesse Leonard Steinfeld, 11th US Surgeon General (1969-73), dies at 87
  • 2015 George Cole, English actor (Minder), dies at 90
  • 2017 Doug Insole, English cricketer (England batsman of the 50's, nine Tests), dies at 91
  • 2017 Mark White, American politician, lawyer, and 43rd Governor of Texas (1983-7), dies at 77
  • 2018 Charlotte Rae, American character actress (Facts of Life - "Edna"), comedian, singer, and dancer, dies at 92

Toni Morrison (1931-2019)

American writer (Tar Baby, Beloved, Song of Solomon), first African American woman to win a Nobel Prize (2010), dies at 88

  • 2020 Aritana Yawalapiti, Brazilian indigenous cacique (leader) of Yawalapiti people, who sought to preserve the Amazon, dies of COVID-19 at 71
  • 2020 Eric Bentley, British-American critic and writer (In Search of Theater), dies at 103
  • 2020 Pete Hamill, American journalist (New York Post; New York Daily News: The Village Voice, and novelist), dies of heart and kidney failure at 85
  • 2021 Terry Davies, Welsh rugby union full back (21 Tests Wales, 2 British & Irish Lions; Swansea RFC, Llanelli RFC), dies at 88
  • 2022 (William) "Clu" Gulager, American actor (Virginian; The Tall Man; The Last Picture Show), dies at 93
  • 2022 Jô Soares, Brazilian comedian, late night television talk show host, author (O Xangô de Baker Street - A Samba for Sherlock), and jazz musician, dies at 84
  • 2022 Judith Durham, Australian folk-pop singer (The Seekers - "Georgy Girl"; "A World of Our Own"), dies of lung disease at 79
  • 2022 Luciano Macías, Ecuadorian soccer defender (21 caps; Barcelona de Ecuador), dies at 87
  • 2022 Mark Paterson, New Zealand sailor (World C'ship gold Cherub 1978), dies at 74
  • 2022 Michael Howard, 21st Earl of Suffolk and 14th Earl of Berkshire (House of Lords, 1956-99), dies at 87
  • 2023 (Russell) "Rusty" Richards, American cowboy singer, yodeler, songwriter (Sons of the Pioneers, 1963-84), actor and film stuntman, dies at 89
August 5 Highlights