1867 Artemus Ward [Charles Farrar Browne], American humorist (considered to be America's first stand-up comedian), dies at 32
1924 Meyer van Beem, Dutch actor (Mottige Janus, Black Venus), dies at 85
1935 Fridolf Rhudin, Swedish actor and comedian (The Wrong Millionaire, Secret Svensson), dies from brain fever at 39
1937 Frank Vosper, British actor (The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rome Express), dies at sea at 37
1950 Lew Lehr, American comedian (Stop Me if I heard this One), dies at 54
1951 Ivor Novello [David Ivor Davies], Welsh composer, writer and actor (Keep the Home Fires Burning, The Truth Game), dies at 58
1959 Fred Stone, renowned American circus performer and broadway actor (Alice Adams), dies at 85
1961 George Formby, British singer and comedian, dies at 56
1961 Kjeld Abell, Danish playwright and director (Tivoli), dies at 59
1964 Edward Van Sloan, American actor (Frankenstein, Dracula), dies at 81
1965 Margaret Dumont [Daisy Baker], actress (Animal Crackers), dies at 75
1967 Oscar Shaw, actor (Rhythm on the River, Marianne), dies at 76
1970 William Hopper, American actor (Perry Mason, The Bad Seed, Rebel Without a Cause), dies of pneumonia following a stroke at 55
1976 Maxie Rosenbloom, American boxer, actor (world light heavyweight champion 1932-34), dies of Paget's disease of bone at 68
1979 Charles Wagenheim, actor (Halligan-Gunsmoke), dies at 83
1982 Ayn Rand [Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum], Russian-American author, screenwriter and philosopher who developed the philosophical system of "Objectivism" (Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead), dies of heart failure at 77
1982 Jan Lemaire, Dutch writer and actor (Village by the River, Beautiful Juliet), dies at 97
1983 Thelma Pelish, American actress (The Pajama Game), dies at 55
1984 Henry Wilcoxon, British actor (Cleopatra, Jericho, The Ten Commandments), dies from heart failure and cancer at 78
1986 Adolph Caesar, actor (Club Paradise, Soldier's Story), dies
1989 Harry Andrews, English actor (Equus, Helen of Troy, Hill), dies at 77
1992 Elvia Allman, actress (Night at Earl Carroll's), dies of pneumonia
1993 Douglas Marland, American soap opera writer (As the World Turns), dies at 58
1994 Leighton Noble [Faye Leighton Jepson], American big band singer, bandleader, and TV host, dies at 81
1994 Melina Mercouri, Greek actress, activist and politician, dies of lung cancer at 73
1994 Tengiz Abuladze, Soviet Georgian filmmaker (Repentance), dies at 70
1996 Simon Cadell, English actor (Enemy at the Door), dies at 45
2000 John Colicos, Canadian actor (Battlestar Galactica), dies of a heart attack at 71
Assassination
Drug Overdose
Gunshot Wound
Murder
Plane Crash
Suicide