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Song Hae dead at 95.

British actress Millicent Martin celebrates her 88th birthday today. The accomplished actress of stage and screen was tony nominated for her role in theatre show Side by side by Sondheim and starred in numerous other successful stage productions such as 42nd Street and King of hearts. In film Millicents credits include Alfie where Michael Caine was her costar and film adaptation of a stage musical Stop the world-I want to get off . A recurring role on US sitcom Frazier playing Gertrude Moon and four years in US Daytime soap Days of our lives are some of her more recent work. Former England International cricketer Derek Underwood celebrates his 77th birthday today. He played for the national team from 1966-1982.

Not on this list, but HK prominent businessman Hu Fa-kuang has died at 98. The old ones resist. Also pro-Bejing politician Hau Shui-pui (wiki) is due to turn 98 in a few days.

Muhammad, the prophet of the Muslim faith, died on this day 1390 years ago, aged 62. This is probably the best image I'm allowed to show. The reason why Muslims get angry at visual depictions of Muhammad is that they believe that they should be worshipping Allah (God) more, and worship of the prophet is shunned. The Quran, however, does not explicitly forbid pictures, but considering the extremist reactions to 21st-century depictions, I'm not taking any chances. Anyways, here's the story of Islam: As an adult, Muhammad would isolate himself in a cave to pray for several days at a time. During one of these prayer sessions in 610, Muhammad was visited by the archangel Gabriel, who gave him a revelation. Muhammad then began to preach to his polytheistic peers that there is only one god, and complete devotion to Him was the right way of life. Muhammad began to attract followers/companions, but they were persecuted by the polytheists, and they fled from Mecca to Medina in 622, which is considered the beginning of the Islamic calendar. Muhammad gained more followers there, and amassed a holy army. In 629, they returned to Mecca with little resistance, and destroyed sculptures of the polytheistic deities in the Kaaba- the place of worship. During the annual Hajj, millions of devout Muslims circle this place as an act of devotion to Allah. One specific "companion" of Muhammad I would like to bring light to was his pet cat. Her name was Muezza, and there is a story regarding her: one day, Muhammad was putting his prayer clothes on, only to find Muezza sleeping on his robe's sleeve. Rather than awakening her, Muhammad cut the sleeve off, leaving her undisturbed.

Been brought to my attention that Bob Lockyer, essentially head of dance programming at the BBC for forty or so years has died aged 80: https://royalphilharmonicsociety.org.uk/rps_today/news/a-tribute-to-bob-lockyer Partner of the late Sir John Drummond until his death in 2006, Lockyer essentially championed dance on the BBC, particularly with an emphasis on contemporary dance and worked with some of the best choreographers and the Arts Council to keep dance in the public eye. He was awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours List at the end of 2020. Now for some reason he's listed on IMDB as Bob Lockyear, but I cannot find any reference to him being named thus anywhere else. He is in fact fully named as Robert Lockyer-Nibbs here: https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/news/dance-honours-12763 He has a better resume on the BFI website: https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba0d0197e. IMDB does not have a date of birth, but I've been doing some digging. He had a birthday bash for his 70th on 13 April 2012: https://dancetabs.com/2012/04/bob-lockyers-birthday-bash-london/ and he was definitely born in April 1942 by this Companies House entry: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/JYd5gwRBsKa0miz8BLlXXICREiQ/appointments which ties in with this: https://www.lostdogdance.co.uk/whoweare/boblockyer Think from everything he died on or around 5 June 2022, nothing certainly on Twitter before then. Just in case someone wanted to let IMDB know...

James Ruppert, who killed 11 family members in 1975, has died at a corrections medical facility. He was 88. https://dayton247now.com/news/local/cincinnati-james-ruppert-hamilton-man-who-killed-11-family-members-in-1975-has-died-easter-shot-insanity-trial-columbus-brother-children-sister-in-law

Today is the Los Angeles mayoral primary election. I decided to check on my Death By Numbers pick former mayor Richard Riordan. He still seems like a good possibility.

Reet gang, I'm seeing no challenger to Drol's achievement, feel free to pile in with congratulations and - assuming - no cooling corpse is discovered to spoil the fun by lunchtime tomorrow I'll negotiate a prize with Drol and we can mark off the un-prized podium places then allow the thread to die a natural death, or summat.

Death notice for Maceo Martin Jr., aged 98, a flight officer with the Tuskegee Airmen during WWII. Mention of him here on his father's Wiki (his father was a famous banker/civil rights activist).

Congrats Drol. Well played

Gina Moscone, the former First Lady of San Francisco and the widow of slain politician George Moscone, has died. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Gina-Moscone-wife-of-assassinated-S-F-Mayor-17226317.php (Behind a paywall.)

I have only seen one house near me decorated with British flags. They also have Gary Barlow cardboard cut-out in their window! All the focus here has been on the first TT since 2019 rather than the Jubilee.

He's priceless.

Marco Luzzago, Lieutenant of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta since November 2020 dead at 72: Grand Commander Ruy Gonçalo do Valle Peixoto de Villas Boas, 82, now apparently the interim Lieutenant (again). Former lieutenant/grand commander Ludwig Hoffmann-Rumerstein is still alive at 85 and apparently I mentioned him the last time I reported the death of a Order of Malta "head of state"/"monarch"

German Royal Carl, Duke of Württemberg died at 85 years: https://histoiresroyales.fr/deces-carl-de-wurtemberg-pretendant-trone-diane-dorleans-85-ans/

According to the Wiki the Tequila recording was only Danny Flores, Gene Alden and Buddy Bruce, and an unnamed session saxophonist. Seals joined afterwards as did Glen Campbell. Don't know who was on Too Much Tequila mind you. Don't think Seals and Croft did anything in the UK, save write Summer Breeze, which was a hit for The Isley Brothers and Geoffrey Williams, though much later.

Alan Turing died on this day 68 years ago, aged 41. Turing was a mathematician, and as a fellow (appointed postgraduate) at King's College, he came up with the concept of a Turing machine- a machine that determined that some computations are impossible. He was awarded with a PhD in 1938. During World War II, Turing worked as a decipherer of intercepted German messages at Bletchley Park, and managed to crack the Nazi's Enigma Machine code. After the war, Turing developed several of the UK's earliest computers, including the stored-program Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) in 1950. (remember that this eventually led to the phone, laptop, or desktop computer that you're using to look at this now) Despite his achievements, Turing was vilified during his lifetime due to one simple thing: his homosexuality. 39-year old Turing began having sexual relations with 19-year old Arnold Murray in 1952, and one of Murray's acquaintances robbed his home soon after. Turing reported this to the police and revealed his relationship, and both he and Murray were charged with "gross indecency". Turing pled guilty at his trial, and he was forced to take synthetic estrogen to lower his sex drive (this did cause impotence, but he also developed breasts). Turing was also fired from his position at the GCHQ, and was banned from entering the United States. In 1954, Turing committed suicide by eating an apple laced with cyanide. In 2009, a petition was sent to the British government asking for a public apology of its treatment of Turing, and then-PM Gordon Brown obliged. Several petitions were then made for a posthumous pardon (which astrophysicist Stephen Hawking was in support of), and Queen Elizabeth II (who was listed as the plaintiff of Turing's trial as she was the monarch) officially pardoned him on Christmas Eve 2013, and gave a public apology in June of the following year. An amendment in the Policing and Crime Act of 2017 was nicknamed the "Alan Turing Law", which retroactively pardoned those convicted under homosexual acts. On what would've been his 109th birthday in 2021, Turing was placed on the reverse side of the 50-pound note.

John Bates, English fashion designer who worked under the name Jean Varon, dead after cancer battle: http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/deaths/257632/bates Of particular interest to @msc among others here for his designs for Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in The Avengers. IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0060944/ Wiki has him born 1938, IMDB has him born 1935. So who knows, the death notice isn't helping.

Dorothy E. Smith (wiki), a prominent English-born Canadian sociologist, dead at 95 according to various tweets.

Former ITN Editor-In Chief Sir David Nicholas dies aged 92: https://www.itv.com/news/2022-06-06/former-itn-editor-in-chief-sir-david-nicholas-dies-aged-92

Christopher Pratt, Canadian painter and printmaker, member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, subject of Immaculate Memories: The Uncluttered Worlds of Christopher Pratt and former husband (divorced in 2005) of Mary Pratt dead at 86. He also designed the Flag of Newfoundland and Labrador:

Russian chess master and trainer Alexander Nikitin reported dead: https://ruchess.ru/en/news/all/alexander_nikitin_1935_2022_passed_away/ Trained notable names such as Garry Kasparov and was second to Boris Spassky in the revenge match against Bobby Fischer.

Times death notice for British chemist Peter Maitlis (wiki), aged 89. Father of BBC journo/newsreader Emily Maitlis.

Former Prime Minister of New Zaeland, Mike Moore, dead at 71 years: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12305261

Tunisian Prime Minister Hedi Baccouche passed away at 90 years: https://www.realites.com.tn/2020/01/hedi-baccouche-nest-plus/