Deaths December 22 | History by KabAstro

1788 Percivall Pott, English physician and surgeon (b. 1714)
1797 Giovanni Marco Rutini, Italian composer, dies at 74
1806 William Vernon, American merchant (b. 1719)
1809 William Cooper, American judge and developer (founded Cooperstown, New York), dies at 55
1815 Jose Maria Morelos, Mexican revolutionary priest executed by Spaniards
1828 Rachel Jackson, wife of 7th US President Andrew Jackson, dies of heart failure
1828 William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist and physicist (famous for discovering the chemical elements palladium and rhodium), dies at 62
1832 Ishmail Spicer, American composer, dies at 72
1863 Michael Corcoran, Union brigadier general, dies at 36
1867 Jean-Victor Poncelet, French mathematician and engineer who was one of the founders of modern projective geometry, dies at 79
1867 Théodore Rousseau, French painter, dies at 55
1873 Charles Lenox Remond, African-American orator and abolitionist, dies at 63
1874 Johann Peter Pixis, German pianist and composer, dies at 86
1875 Nikolai Titov, Russian Major General, violinist, and composer, dies at 75

George Eliot (1819-1880)

British novelist (Adam Bede; Middlemarch; Silas Marner), dies of kidney disease on her 61st birthday

1893 Benedikt Randhartinger, Austrian composer, dies at 91
1893 Johann Czerski, German chaplain, dies at 80
1899 Dwight L Moody, US evangelist (Student Volunteer Movement), dies
1902 Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Austro–German psychiatrist and author (Psychopathia Sexualis), dies at 62
1908 Marie Jungius, Dutch fairy tale writer and feminist, dies at 44
1917 Frances Xavier Cabrini, Italian-American saint (1st American saint, founded Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart), dies at 67
1918 Albijn van de Abeele, Flemish author and painter, dies at 83
1918 Randolph Bourne, American writer (Education and Living), dies at 32
1923 Arthur H. Bird, American composer, dies at 67
1939 Ma Rainey [Gertrude Pridgett], American singer "Mother of the Blues", dies at 53
1940 Nathanael West, American novelist ("Miss Lonelyhearts"; "The Day of the Locust"), dies at 37 in a car crash after running a stop light
1941 Leopoldo Mugnone, Italian opera composer and conductor, dies at 83

Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)

English children's author and illustrator (The Tale of Peter Rabbit), dies at 77

1944 Harry Langdon, American comedian (The Strong Man; Tramp, Tramp, Tramp), dies at 60
1945 Otto Neurath, Austrian-British philosopher (Foundation of Social Sciences), dies at 63
1947 Therese Brandl, German Nazi concentration camp guard (Auschwitz), and convicted war criminal, executed by hanging in Kraków, Poland at 45
1950 Julius Weismann, German pianist, conductor, and composer (Schwanenweiß), dies at 70
1950 Walter Damrosch, German-American conductor (New York Symphony, 1885-1928; commissioned Gershwin's Piano Concerto), and composer (The Man Without A Country), dies at 88
1951 Powell Weaver, American composer, dies at 61
1958 Fjodor W Gladkow, Russian author (Cement), dies at 75
1959 Gilda Gray [Marianna Michalska], Polish-American stage and screen actress (Piccadilly), and dancer (The Shimmy), dies of a heart attack at 58
1964 Bonifacio Gil Garcia, Spanish composer and folklorist, dies at 66
1965 Al Ritz [Albert Joachim], American vaudevillian (The Ritz Brothers), dancer and actor (The Gorilla;, Hi'ya, Chum; Straight, Place and Show), dies of a heart attack at 64
1965 Richard Dimbleby, British journalist and broadcaster, dies at 52

Lucy Burns (1879-1966)

American suffragist (National Woman's Party) and women's rights advocate, dies at 87

1966 Robert Keith [Rolland Keith Richey], American character actor (Guys and Dolls; The Wild One; Battle Circus; Branded), dies at 68
1967 Lee Krieger, American actor (Clambake, One Way Wahini), dies at 48
1968 Louise Granville, Australian actress (How Green Paid the Rent), dies of influenza at 73
1969 Ilse Steppat, actress (Invisible Terror), dies at 52
1969 Josef von Sternberg, Austrian-American director (Shanghai Express), dies at 75
1971 Fred Guy, American jazz banjo player and guitarist (Joseph C. Smith's Orchestra; Duke Ellington's Washingtonians), dies at 74
1971 Godfried Bomans, Dutch humorist, TV personality and writer (Eric), dies at 58
1971 Renee Evans, entertainer, dies of a heart attack at 63
1973 Domingo Julio Gomez Garcia, composer, dies at 87
1973 James Anderson, Australian tennis player (Australasian C'ship 1922, 24, 25), dies at 79
1974 Fosco Giachetti, Italian actor (Wastrel, We the Living), dies at 74
1976 Martin Luis Guzman, Mexican novelist (Eagle & the Serpent), dies at 89
1977 Johann Nepomuk David, Austrian-German composer, dies at 82
1979 Darryl F. Zanuck, American film producer and President (20th Century Fox), dies at 77
1984 Viola Wells [Evans], American jazz, blues, and gospel singer, dies at 82
1985 (Dennes) D. Boon, American punk rock singer and guitarist (The Minutemen), dies in a van accident at 27
1986 Celius Dougherty, American pianist and composer, dies at 84
1987 Alice Terry [Taaffe], actress (4 Horsemen of Apocalypse), dies
1987 Henry Cotton, English golfer (British Open 1934, 1937, 1948), dies at 80
1987 Leonidas Zoras, Greek conductor and composer, dies at 82
1988 (Thomas) "Tucker" Smith, American stage and screen dancer, singer and actor (West Side Story - "Ice"), dies of cancer at 52

Chico Mendes (1944-1988)

Brazilian environmental activist and rubber tapper, assassinated at 44 by rancher Darcy Alves

1988 Frank Essed, Surinamese politician and forestry scientist (Operation Grasshopper), dies after being hit by a car at 69

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)

Irish-French writer (Molloy, Nobel Prize for Literature 1969), dies at 83

1990 Cecil Effinger, American oboist, composer, and inventor of a music typewriter, dies at 76
1990 Ken Irvine, Australian rugby league winger (31 Tests; NSW 24 games; North Sydney RLFC, Manly-Warringah RLFC; record first-grade career tries–212), dies from chronic myeloid leukaemia at 50
1991 Ernst Krenek, Austrian-American concert, opera, and electronic music composer (Johnny Spielt Auf: Orpheus and Eurydike; Fibonacci-Mobile), dies at 91
1992 Frederick W Franz, CEO (Watch Tower), dies at 99
1992 Harry Bluestone, British-American jazz and session violinist, bandleader, and music publisher, dies from Parkinson's disease at 85
1992 Ted Willis, prolific English screenwriter (It's Great to be Young), dies at 74
1993 Alexander Mackendrick, director (Whiskey Galore!), dies at 81
1993 Don DeFore, American actor (George-Hazel, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet), dies of cardiac arrest at 76
1995 (Thelma) "Butterfly" McQueen, American actress (Gone With the Wind; Flame of Barbary Coast), dies in a fire at 84
1995 James Meade, English economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner (b. 1907)
1996 Hetta Empson, South African-British artist, dies at 81
1997 Douglas Ranger, British surgeon, dies at 81
1997 Hugh Edward Conway Seymour, 8th Marquess of Hertford, dies at 67
1997 John Pinkerton, English computer scientist who designed the first business computer in England, the LEO computer, dies at 78
1997 Johnny Coles, trumpeter, dies at 71
1997 Juzo Itami, Japanese director, commits suicide at 64
1998 Michelle Thomas, American actress (b. 1969)
1998 Virginia Graham, American TV personality (Girl Talk, Where Was I), dies at 86
2002 Hugh Desmond Hoyte, Guyanese politician and President of Guyana (1985-92), dies at 73
2002 Joe Strummer, British lead singer of the punk band "The Clash" (Rock the Casbah), dies at age 50
2002 Kenneth Tobey, American actor (The Thing from Another World, Innerspace, Whirlybirds), dies of natural causes at 85
2003 Chandu Sarwate, Indian cricket all-rounder (9 Tests, HS 37, 3 wickets; Maharashtra, Hindus, Holkar, Madhya Pradesh), dies at 83
2003 Dave Dudley, American country singer (Six Days on the Road), dies at 75
2003 Rose Hill, British actress and operatic soprano ('Allo 'Allo!, Nicholas Nickleby, Shot in the Dark), dies at 89
2004 Doug Ault, American baseball player (b. 1950)
2005 T. Cooper Evans, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa), dies at 81
2006 Dennis Linde, American songwriter ("Burning Love"; "Goodbye Earl"), dies of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis at 63
2006 Elena Mukhina, Russian gymnast (3 x World C'ship gold 1978; 2 x World Cup gold 1977), dies of complications from quadriplegia at 46
2006 Galina Ustvolskaya, Russian composer, dies at 87
2006 Phillip Pine, American actor (Set-Up, Under the Ground), dies at 86
2007 Adrian Cristobal, Filipino writer (b. 1932)
2007 Joe Ames, American singer and actor (The Ames Brothers Show), dies at 86
2007 Julien Gracq [Louis Poirier], French writer (Andre Breton), dies at 97
2008 Lansana Conté, Guinean politician, dies at 74
2009 Luis Francisco Cuéllar, Colombian politician (b. 1940)
2010 Fred Foy, American radio and television announcer (b. 1921)
2011 Bettye Danoff, American golfer (co-founder LPGA Tour), dies at 88
2011 James Ramseur, one of Bernhard Goetz's assailants in 1984, overdoses on drugs at 45
2012 Arkady Vorobyov, Russian weightlifter (Olympic gold Middle-heavyweight 1956, 60), dies at 88
2013 Ed Herrmann, American baseball catcher (MLB All Star 1974 Chicago White Sox; caught Larry Dierker no-hitter 1975 Houston Astros), dies from prostate cancer at 67

Joe Cocker (1944-2014)

English rock vocalist ("With A Little Help From My Friends"; "Cry Me A River"; "You Are So Beautiful"), dies of lung cancer at 70

2015 Carson Van Osten, American power pop-rock bassist (Nazz - "Open My Eyes", "Hello It's Me), and comic strip artist (Disney), dies at 70
2015 Derek Ezra [Baron Ezra], British politician, Liberal Democrat Life Peer and coal executive (Chairman of National Coal Board), dies at 96
2016 Bill Price, British audio engineer (Tom Jones; Wings: Sparks; Elton John), and record producer (The Clash; Sex Pistols; Waterboys), dies of cancer at 72
2016 Margaret Pereira, English forensic scientist (Nicholls and Pereira method), dies at 88
2016 Miruts Yifter 'Yifter the Shifter', Ethiopian runner (Olympic golds 1980), dies at 72
2018 Frank Brake, English entrepreneur (Brake Bros. Frozen Food), multi-millionaire, and philanthropist, dies at 80
2018 Paddy Ashdown, British MP, leader of Liberal Democrats (1988-1999), dies of bladder cancer at 77
2018 Roberto Suazo Córdova, President of Honduras (1982-86), dies at 91
2019 Fritz Künzli, Swiss soccer striker (44 caps; FC Zürich, FC Winterthur, FC Lausanne-Sport), dies from Alzheimer's disease at 73
2019 Tony Britton, English actor (The Day of the Jackal), dies at 95
2020 Claude Brasseur [Espinasse], French actor (Bande à part; La Boum; Pardon Mon Affaire), dies at 84
2021 Bob Keselowski, American auto racer (ARCA Hooters SuperCar Series 1989) and team owner (K Automotive Racing), dies from cancer at 70
2021 Jürg Wyttenbach, Swiss pianist, composer, and conductor, dies at 86
2021 Robin Le Mesurier [Halliley], British session and touring guitarist (The Wombles; Rod Stewart; Johnny Hallyday), dies of cancer at 68
2022 Anton Tkáč, Slovak track cyclist (Olympic gold Czechoslovakia men's match sprint 1976; World C'ship gold 1974, 78), dies at 71
2022 Ronnie Lamont, Irish rugby union #8, flanker (12 Tests Ireland; 4 Tests British & Irish Lions), dies at 81
2022 Thom Bell, American session musician, arranger and Grammy Award-winning "Philadelphia soul" producer (Delfonics; Stylistics; The Spinners), dies at 79
2022 Walter "Wolfman" Washington, American funk, R&B, and blues guitarist (Johnny Adams; The Roadmasters), dies of tonsil cancer at 79 [1]
2023 Laura Lynch, American bluegrass and country musician and songwriter (Dixie Chicks, 1989-95), killed in a car crash at 65 [1]