George H. W. Bush died on this day 4 years ago, aged 94.
Virtually everyone knows why he's famous (41st US president), so here's an interesting bit of trivia: in 1944, Bush was shot down near Chichijima, one of the Bonin Islands of Japan. Eight of his colleagues were also shot down, and Bush was the only one to evade capture. The others were then tortured, killed, and then cannibalized by the Japanese officers (four of them were later executed for this).
In a cosmic sort of revenge, Bush infamously vomited on the lap of prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa during a visit in 1992 (due to gastroenteritis), creating a new word in the Japanese vernacular- "Bushu-suru", or "to bush (vomit)".
The final years of Bush's life were well-documented. He was diagnosed with vascular Parkinsonism in 2012, leading to his first of six appearances on the DeathList in 2013. In January 2017, Bush was hospitalized and therefore could not attend the inauguration of Donald Trump. He was out by February, and he and his wife Barbara did the coin toss for Super Bowl LI.
Barbara died in April of 2018, and a day after her funeral, Bush was in critical condition due to sepsis. He would soon receive a service dog named Sully via a veteran's service program. His last public appearance would be to vote in the 2018 midterm election (in which Sully can be seen).
Three days before his death, former president Barack Obama made a final visit to him. The next day, he refused to eat and refused to be taken back to the hospital. By the next day, his Secretary of State and lifelong friend James Baker came to stay with him, and gave a detailed description of his final day- Bush's conditioned improved, and his last meal was three eggs, a cup of yogurt, and some fruit drinks. Bush's health soon worsened, and noted singer Ronan Tynan came to perform two songs for him. Bush died at 10:10 PM CST, shortly after telling his son George that he loved him over the phone.
Bush's state funeral notably made fellow DeathList alumnus and future hit Bob Dole rise from his wheelchair to salute him.