Amy Johnson (1903-1941)
Jan 5 British pilot who was the first female pilot to fly alone from Britain to Australia, dies during a ferry flight at 37
- Jan 6 Charley O'Leary, American baseball shortstop (Detroit Tigers; oldest MLB player to collect a hit and score a run [58] St. Louis Browns 1934), dies at 65
- Jan 6 Franz Hessel, German writer, dies at 60
Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941)
Jan 8 British officer and founder of the modern scouting movement, dies at 83
James Joyce (1882-1941)
Jan 13 Irish novelist and poet (Dubliners, Ulysses, Finnigan's Wake), dies in Zurich Switzerland, at 58
- Jan 23 Dobri Khristov, Bulgarian composer, dies at 65
- Jan 24 Tommy Bond, Irish baseball pitcher and right fielder (Triple Crown 1877; Boston Red Caps; first man born in Ireland to play MLB), dies at 84
- Jan 27 Iver Holter, Norwegian conductor (Oslo Philharmonic, 1886-1911), and composer (St. Hans Kveld), dies at 90
- Jan 29 Ioannis Metaxas, Greek military officer, politician, and dictator 1936-41), dies of throat cancer at 69
- Feb 2 Johannes Schlaf, German writer and translator, dies at 78
- Feb 4 Johann Peter Kirsch, Luxembourg church historian and archaeologist, dies at 79
- Feb 5 Banjo Paterson, Australian poet, author of "Walzing Matilda" (b. 1864)
- Feb 6 Maximilien Luce, French painter, dies at 82
- Feb 11 Rudolf Hilferding, Austrian-German Marxist economist( SPD Minister of Finance), dies in Gestapo custody at 63
- Feb 19 Alexander Josiah Webbe, English cricket wicket-keeper (v Aus 1879), dies at 86
- Feb 19 Hamilton Harty, Irish composer and conductor called "the prince of accompanists", dies at 61
- Feb 20 (Mary) La Bolduc (née Travers), French Canadian singer and songwriter, dies of cancer at 46
Frederick Banting (1891-1941)
Feb 21 Canadian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, dies in a plane crash at 49
Alfonso XIII (1886-1941)
Feb 28 King of Spain (1886-1931), dies of a heart attack at 54
- Mar 3 Constant W L Scheurleer, archaeologist/banker/art expert, dies at 59
- Mar 3 Ernst Cahn, owner of Amsterdam Koco ice cream parlor, executed
- Mar 4 Edoardo Mascheroni, Italian composer, dies at 81
- Mar 5 Ludwig Quidde, German politician and pacifist (Nobel Peace Prize 1927), dies at 82
- Mar 6 John Gutzon Borglum, American sculptor (Mount Rushmore), dies at 73
- Mar 6 Leen Schijvenschuurder, Dutch February strike leader, executed
- Mar 7 Arnold Schering, German musicologist (Humor, Heldentum, Tragik), dies at 63
- Mar 7 Günther Prien, German World War II submarine captain (U-47 - responsible for sinking at least 30 Allied vessels), dies at sea, in battle off coast of Ireland at 33
- Mar 7 Julian Eltinge [Dalton], American vaudeville, Broadway, and silent film female impersonator star (The Crinoline Girl), dies of a suspected cerebral hemorrhage at 59
- Mar 8 José Serrano Simeón, Spanish composer, dies at 67
- Mar 8 Sherwood Anderson, American author and publisher (Winesburg Ohio), dies at 64
- Mar 9 Carlos Pedrell, Uruguayan guitarist and composer, dies at 62
- Mar 11 Walford Davies, British organist, composer, educator, and broadcaster (BBC), dies at 71
- Mar 12 Charles Sanford Skilton, composer, dies at 72
- Mar 13 A Coenradi, Dutch resistance fighter, executed
- Mar 13 Bernard Ijzerdraat, Dutch resistance fighter, executed by Nazi regime at 49
- Mar 13 E Hellendoorn, Dutch resistance fighter, executed
- Mar 13 Elizabeth Madox Roberts, American poet and novelist (The Time of Man), dies at 54
- Mar 13 J Eyl, Dutch resistance fighter, executed
- Mar 15 Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian painter, dies at 77
- Mar 17 Joachim Schepke, German commandant (U-100), dies in battle
- Mar 17 Marguerite Nichols, American actress (b. 1895)
- Mar 20 D A van den Bosch, anti-nazi clergyman (Amersfoort Camp), dies
- Mar 21 Robert Liefmann, German economist (Kartelle und Trusts), dies at 67
- Mar 24 (Rafaël) "Raf" Verhulst, Flemish poet, journalist, playwright (Jesus of Nazarus; Semini's Children), and educator, dies at 75
- Mar 28 Kavasji Jamshedji Petigara, Indian Police Commissioner (b. 1877)
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
Mar 28 British author (Jacob's Room, To the Lighthouse), commits suicide at 59
- Apr 1 Hippolyte Delehaye, Flemish historian and hagiographer, dies at 81
- Apr 2 Pál Teleki, prime minister of the Kingdom of Hungary (1920-1 and 1939-41), dies at 61
- Apr 3 Pal Teleki-von Szek, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary (1920-21, 39-41), committed suicide at 61
- Apr 5 Sir Nigel Gresley, Steam locomotive engineer (b. 1876)
- Apr 10 Dorothy Wilde [Dolly Wilde], English socialite, niece of Oscar Wilde, dies at 45
Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941)
Apr 13 American astronomer (Henry Draper catalogues), dies at 77
- Apr 14 Guillermo Kahlo, German-Mexican photographer and father of Frida Kahlo, dies at 69
- Apr 14 Jack Edmonson, Australian corporal in Tobruk (Victoria Cross), dies
- Apr 16 Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, British civil servant, industrialist, economist, statistician and banker, dies at 60
- Apr 17 Al Bowlly, South African-British dance band vocalist ("Midnight, The Stars, And You"), and bandleader, dies in a German bombing raid of London at 43
- Apr 18 Alexandros Koryzis, Prime Minister of Greece in 1941, commits suicide at about 65 as German troops closed in on Athens
- Apr 19 Johanna Muller-Hermann, composer, dies at 63
- Apr 20 Barend ter Haar, Dutch lawyer. Indonesian Adat justice, and educator, dies in Buchenwald concentration camp at 49
- Apr 22 (Arthur) "Dooley" Briscoe MC, South African cricket batsman (2 Tests; Transvaal) and soldier (Military Cross, 1941), dies in action in Ethiopia at 30
- Apr 24 Karin Boye, Swedish writer (Kallocain) commits suicide at 40
- Apr 26 Jean Demoor, Belgian physician and physiologist, dies at 74
- Apr 27 Penelope Delta, Greek author, dies at 67
- Apr 30 Edwin S. Porter, American film pioneer and producer (Jack and the Beanstalk), dies at 71
- May 1 John R Locksmith de Brown, vicar/CHU-politician, dies at 71
- May 5 Natalija Obrenović, Queen of Serbia (b. 1859)
- May 7 David Wijnkoop, Dutch socialist, and later communist politician, and journalist, dies of a heart attack at 65
- May 7 James George Frazer, Scottish anthropologist and folklorist (The Golden Bough), dies at 87
- May 8 Heinrich Zöllner, German composer, dies at 86
- May 12 Ruth Stonehouse, American silent film actress and director, dies at 48
- May 17 José Leite de Vasconcelos, Portuguese archeologist, ethnologist, and writer (Etnografia Portuguesa), dies at 82
- May 18 Werner Sombart, German historical economist (Modern Capitalism), dies at 78
- May 23 Herbert Austin, English automobile designer and builder (founder of Austin Motor Company), dies at 74
- May 23 Slavko Osterc, Slovenian composer (Iz Satanovega Dnevnika (From Satan's Diary); Illusions), and pedagogue, dies at 45
- May 24 Lancelot Holland, British vice-admiral (WW II-Hood), dies in battle
- May 27 AH Borgesius, tutor/experimentator/amateur astronomer, dies at 76
- May 30 Prajadhipok, Rama VII, last absolute king of Siam (1925–35), dies at 47
- Jun 1 Hugh S Walpole, British novelist and playwright (Jeremy, Maradick at 40), dies at 57
Lou Gehrig (1903-1941)
Jun 2 American Baseball Hall of Fame first baseman (6 x World Series, 2 x AL MVP; 7 x MLB All Star; NY Yankees), dies of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a disorder now commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease at 37
- Jun 3 Andy Cooper, American Baseball HOF pitcher (East-West All-Star 1933, 36; Negro NL pennant 1929; 3 x Negro AL pennants; Detroit Stars, Kansas City Monarchs), dies from a heart attack at 44
Wilhelm II (1859-1941)
Jun 4 German Emperor and King of Prussia (1888-1918), dies of a pulmonary embolism at 82
Louis Chevrolet (1878-1941)
Jun 6 Swiss auto racer and co-founder of Chevrolet Motor Car Company, dies of a heart attack at 62
- Jun 10 Herschel Mayall, American silent screen actor (Tale of 2 Cities), dies at 78
- Jun 11 Daniel Carter Beard, American author, social reformer and founder of the Boy Scouts of America, dies at 91
- Jun 15 Evelyn Underhill, British Anglo-Catholic poet, dies at 65
- Jun 15 Otfrid Foerster, German neurologist, dies at 67
- Jun 16 Lodo of Hamel, 1st Dutch secret affiliate, dies
- Jun 17 Johan Wagenaar, Dutch composer (Cyrano de Bergerac), dies at 78
- Jun 20 [Stephanie] Hélène Swarth, Dutch poet ("Lonely flowers"), dies at 81
Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941)
Jun 29 Polish pianist, composer and statesman (Prime Minister of Poland, 1919), dies of pneumonia, in New York, at 80
- Jul 4 Antoni Łomnicki, Polish mathematician (b. 1881)
- Jul 5 Oskar Fried, German-Russian composer, dies at 69
- Jul 8 Moses Schorr, Polish rabbi, senator, historian and orientalist (b. 1874)
- Jul 8 Philippe Gaubert, French flautist, conductor (Paris Opéra, 1919-41), composer, and teacher (Paris Conservatoire), dies of a stroke at 62
- Jul 10 Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton [LeMothe], American jazz pioneer pianist and composer ("King Porter Stomp"), dies at 56
- Jul 11 Arthur Evans, English archaeologist (discovered the Minoan palace of Knossos in Crete), dies at 90
- Jul 17 Emil Barth, German revolutionary (Social Democratic Party), dies at 62
- Jul 18 Dionyssios Lavrangas, Greek composer and conductor (Elliniko Melodhrama (Greek Opera), 1900-35), dies at 80
- Jul 20 Lew Fields [Moses Schoenfeld], Polish-American vaudeville and film comedian (Weber and Fields), and theatrical producer, dies at 74
- Jul 21 Bohdan Lepky, Ukrainian writer and poet, dies at 68
- Jul 26 Benjamin Lee Whorf, American linguist (the relation of language to thinking and cognition), dies at 44
- Jul 26 Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician (Lebesgue integration), dies at 66
- Jul 26 Marx Dormoy, French socialist, killed by a time bomb
- Jul 27 Alfred Henry O'Keeffe, New Zealand artist, dies at 83
- Jul 29 James Stephenson, British actor (Letter, Espionage Agent, Nancy Drew), dies at 52
- Jul 30 Mickey Welch, American Baseball HOF pitcher (third to 300 career wins; Troy Trojans, New York Giants), dies from complications of gangrene of the foot at 82
- Aug 2 Jose Juan Tablada, Mexican poet (el Florilegio), dies at 70
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Aug 7 Indian philosopher, poet, writer (Nobel Prize for Literature 1913), dies at 80
- Aug 12 Bobby Peel, English cricket all-rounder (20 Tests, 3 x 50, 101 wickets, BB 7/31; Yorkshire CCC), dies at 84
- Aug 14 Josef Jakobs, German spy, executed in Tower of London
- Aug 14 Paul Sabatier, French chemist (Nobel 1912 - improving the hydrogenation of organic species in the presence of metals), dies at 86
- Aug 14 Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Polish martyr (b. 1894)
- Aug 23 Jack O'Connor, Australian cricket fast bowler (4 Tests, 13 wickets, BB 5/40; NSW CA, SA CA), dies at 65
- Aug 29 Henri Louis, French officer/resistance fighter, executed at 40
- Aug 29 Jan Louis Guillaume Doornik, Dutch resistance fighter (Free French Forces), executed for treason by Nazi occupiers of France at 36
- Aug 30 Peder Oluf Pedersen, Danish engineer and physicist, dies at 67
- Aug 31 Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet (The Train of Life), committed suicide at 48
- Sep 1 "Kansas City" Frank [Melrose], American jazz and blues pianist, killed in a bar fight in Hammond, Indiana at 33
- Sep 1 Benjamin Dwight, American tennis championship umpire, dies
- Sep 6 Hugo Loudon, Dutch businessman (President of Royal Dutch Shell), dies at 81
- Sep 9 Gustav Ehrismann, German author and expert on the German language, dies at 85
- Sep 9 Hans Spemann, German embryologist (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1935), dies at 72
- Sep 29 Friedrich Angel, German mathematician (group theory), dies at 79
- Oct 3 Wilhelm Kienzl, Austrian composer (Der Evangelimann - The Evangelist; Der Kuhreigen), dies at 84
- Oct 5 Louis Brandeis, American lawyer and associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States (1916-39), dies at 84
- Oct 8 Gustav "Gus" Kahn, German-American lyricist ("It Had to Be You"; "Makin' Whoopee"; "I'll See You in My Dreams"), dies of a heart attack at 54
- Oct 9 Helen Morgan, American stage and screen actress, and singer (Show Boat), dies of cirrhosis of the liver at 41
- Oct 12 Harry Micajah Daugherty, American politician, lawyer and political manager accused of corruption, dies at 81
- Oct 13 GJ Berenschot, Dutch Army General and Supreme Commander of Dutch East Indies army, dies
- Oct 17 John S Plaskett, Canadian astronomer (Plaskett's twins), dies
- Oct 18 Dirk Fock, Dutch politician and Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (1921-26), dies at 83
- Oct 18 Manuel Teixeira Gomes, Portuguese politician and writer (7th President of Portugal 1923-25), dies at 81
- Oct 20 Ken Farnes, English cricket fast bowler (15 Tests, 60 wickets, BB 6/96; Essex CCC, Cambridge University CC), dies in a plane crash during a WWII night-flying exercise at 30
- Oct 25 Robert Delaunay, French artist, dies at 56
- Oct 26 Arkady Gaidar, Russian Soviet children's writer, killed in combat at 37
- Oct 26 Victor Schertzinger, American composer and director (Uptown NY), dies at 53
- Oct 27 Ernest Everett Just, African-American embryologist (physiology of development, fertilization, cell division), dies of pancreatic cancer at 58
- Oct 29 Harvey Hendrick, American baseball player (b. 1897)
- Oct 30 (Leon) "Chu" Berry, American swing jazz tenor saxophonist (Fletcher Henderson; Cab Calloway), dies in a car accident at 33
- Oct 31 Herwarth Walden, German art writer and critic, dies in a Soviet prison at 63
- Nov 1 Camille Melloy [the Paepe], Belgian priest and poet (Requiem), dies at 50
- Nov 2 Simon Guggenheim, American businessman and philanthropist, dies at 73
- Nov 5 Arndt Pekurinen, Finnish pacifist, executed without a trial for refusal to follow orders at 36
- Nov 6 Maurice Leblanc, French novelist (b. 1864)
- Nov 7 Albin Zollinger, Swiss poet and writer (Das Gewitter), dies at 46
- Nov 8 Gaetano Mosca, Italian sociologist (Elite Circle), dies at 83
- Nov 12 Abe Reles "Kid Twist", American NY gangster and police informer, killed falling from a window under suspicious circumstances at 35
- Nov 12 Ernie Koob, American baseball pitcher (no-hitter 1917; St. Louis Browns), dies from a lung ailment at 49
- Nov 17 Ernst Udet, German WWI pilot and notable flying ace who helped develop the Luftwaffe under the Nazi Party, commits suicide at 45
- Nov 18 Chris Watson, third Prime Minister of Australia (Labour Party), dies at 74
- Nov 18 Émile Nelligan, Canadian poet who wrote in French, dies inside a mental hospital at 61
- Nov 18 Walther Hermann Nernst, Prussian physicist and chemist (Nobel Prize, 1920), dies at 77 [1]
- Nov 21 George Morren, Flemish painter/sculptor, dies at 73
- Nov 21 Henrietta Vinton Davis, African-American elocutionist, dramatist, impersonator and public speaker, dies at 81
- Nov 21 Juanita Spellini, first women executed in Calif
- Nov 22 Kurt Koffka, German Gestalt psychologist, dies of illness at 55
- Nov 22 Werner Mölders, German ace fighter pilot (b. 1915)
- Nov 25 Pedro Aguirre Cerda, president Chile (People's Front), dies
- Nov 26 Ernest Lapointe, French Canadian politician (b. 1876)
- Nov 26 Niels Hansen Jacobsen, Danish sculptor and ceramist (Trold, der vejrer kristenblod), dies at 80
- Nov 27 Camille Looten, French-Flemish priest and literature historian (Flemish committee of France), dies at 86
- Dec 1 Alva B. Adams, American politician (U.S. Senator from Colorado, 1933-41), dies at 66
- Dec 1 Horace Chapman, South African cricket all-rounder (2 Tests, 1 wicket; Natal), dies at 51
- Dec 3 Christian Sinding, Norwegian composer (Frühlingsrauschen - Rustle of Spring), dies at 85
- Dec 3 Pavel Filonov, Russian painter (b. 1883)
- Dec 5 Amrita Sher-Gil, Hungarian-Indian painter described as the "Indian Frida Kahlo" and "one of the greatest avant-garde women artists of the early 20th century", dies of complications from a failed abortion at 28
- Dec 6 Oskar Ernst Bernhardt, German author (In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message), dies at 66
- Dec 7 Cecil Forsyth, British composer and musicologist, dies at 71
- Dec 7 Franklin Van Valkenburgh, United States Navy officer (Captain of USS Arizona), Medal of Honor recipient, killed in Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor at 53
- Dec 7 Fusata Iida, Japanese Navy Air Service fighter pilot (commander of the Japanese 3rd Air Group), considered the 1st "kamikaze", dies in battle at U.S. Naval Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii at 28
- Dec 7 Herbert C. Jones, United States Navy ensign, Medal of Honor recipient, killed in Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor at 23
- Dec 7 Mervyn S. Bennion, United States Navy officer (Captain of USS West Virginia), WWI veteran, and Medal of Honor recipient, killed in Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor at 54
- Dec 7 Thomas J. Reeves, United States Navy radioman, Medal of Honor recipient, killed in Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor at 45
- Dec 8 Frank "Pop" Morgenweck, American Basketball HOF contributor (team owner/coach in 18 cities), dies at 66
- Dec 9 Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Russian writer and philosopher (b. 1865)
- Dec 9 Leonard "Leo" Polak, Dutch philosopher, dies in Sachsenhausen concentration camp at 61
- Dec 10 Colin Kelly, American B-17 Flying Fortress pilot and 1st US air hero during WW II, killed in action at 26 after ordering his crew to bail out shortly before his bomber exploded
- Dec 11 Charles Émile Picard, French mathematician, died at 85
- Dec 11 John Gillespie Magee, Jr., American poet and aviator (b. 1922)
- Dec 12 Cesar Basa, Philippine Air Force and World War II hero (b. 1915)
- Dec 19 L M Dovator, Russian general, dies in battle
- Dec 20 Igor Severyanin, Russian poet (b. 1887)
- Dec 21 Peetie Wheatstraw [William Bunch], American blues singer, songwriter, and piano player, dies on his 39th birthday when the car in which he was a passenger met a freight train
- Dec 22 Leopoldo Mugnone, Italian opera composer and conductor, dies at 83
- Dec 24 Siegfried Alkan, German composer, dies at 83
- Dec 30 El Lissitzky, Russian artist and architect (b. 1890)
- Dec 31 Sigwart Aspestrand, Norwegian composer, dies at 85
Assassination
Car Crash
Hanging
Killed in Action
Plane Crash
Poisoning