Most Significant Death For Every Year From 1963 To Present

[Madame Defarge 21]

My vote goes to Edmund Hillary. While Charleton Heston played heroes and adventurers in Hollywood extravaganzas , Edmund Hillary was a hero in real life.

 

But it all really boils down to one's frame of reference and interests.

 

Still I'm a bit surprised that Suharto wasn't more well known. But not nearly as surprised as when I found out who another Deathlist candidate was. I saw him on the list , then just skipped to the next name, and until he died I thought Francis Pym must be some sort of obscure British porn star.

 

Edit - P.S. Sorry for the echo, Twelvetrees, I wandered off in the middle of posting that and you had already posted. (and said it more betterer too.)

[Cowboy Ronnie 77]

I agree completely, Charlton Heston is the most significant death of 2008 thus far.

 

Signifying only a cultural obsession with mediated spectacle. Hillary actually climbed Everest, whereas Heston did not actually part the Red Sea. Whose was the most significant achievement?

 

Seems the views on people's relative fame may have something to do with an aspect US v UK culture. I would imagine far more of my English friends could name the world's tallest man, even though he was American, than could my US friends. Something about the British obsession with detail - not just that there was someone almost nine feet tall, which is all the Americans really care about, but that he was named Robert Wadlow. Every British schoolboy is brought up knowing the first man to climb Everest was Edmund Hillary, the first four minute mile was run by Roger Bannister, that the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic was by Charles Lindbergh. It's why Britain has train spotters and came up with the Guinness Book of World Records, while America has Hollywood and daisy-cutters.

 

For what it's worth, to me, Heston dying is much "bigger" news than Hillary.

[Monoclinic 39]

I agree completely, Charlton Heston is the most significant death of 2008 thus far.

 

Signifying only a cultural obsession with mediated spectacle. Hillary actually climbed Everest, whereas Heston did not actually part the Red Sea. Whose was the most significant achievement?

 

Seems the views on people's relative fame may have something to do with an aspect US v UK culture. I would imagine far more of my English friends could name the world's tallest man, even though he was American, than could my US friends. Something about the British obsession with detail - not just that there was someone almost nine feet tall, which is all the Americans really care about, but that he was named Robert Wadlow. Every British schoolboy is brought up knowing the first man to climb Everest was Edmund Hillary, the first four minute mile was run by Roger Bannister, that the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic was by Charles Lindbergh. It's why Britain has train spotters and came up with the Guinness Book of World Records, while America has Hollywood and daisy-cutters.

 

For what it's worth, to me, Heston dying is much "bigger" news than Hillary.

 

Ahem, so what is it that us British school girls are brought up knowing then?

 

For what it's worth, to me, achievements and former glories aside, the "bigger" news deaths are those who have died young like that Ozzie cowboy actor. Neither Heston nor Hillary are in anyway shocking to me as they were old and death is expected n'est pas?. Unless there is some secret stem cell research organisation out there unbeknown to us plebs (CEO and CGP (chief guinea pig) is probably Dunny himself)

[TAFKAG 70]

achievements and former glories aside, the "bigger" news deaths are those who have died young like that Ozzie cowboy actor.

Maybe this really fantastic thread could be split into Most Significant Blah Blah and Most Newsworthy Yap Yap, or into Most Significant Death Zzz and Death of the Person who was Most Significant while Alive Waffle, or into Most Sig Death for Yanks, Most Sig for Brits, Most Sig for Turks and Caicos Islanders, Most Si...

 

Or maybe it could be closed.

[Godot 149]

As often happens here a conversation about death brings out something REALLY interesting. I have two questions and one subsidiary question which is more of a composite of questions and thoughts going nowhere in particular.

 

Are there American train spotters?

 

Are there women train spotters?

 

Are there any train spotters outside England that wear anoraks and carry a flask of tomato soup in a duffel bag? Do the Welsh, Scots and Irish do this? Do the Germans, French and Swiss? I can't imagine a Brazilian trainspotter.

 

I could, on the other hand imagine Octopus of Odstock on the end of a platform with his notebook. I'm not taking the piss there OoO, it's just that I could imagine that. It's the list thing isn't it, just as we have them in this thread and, for that matter the whole site (Godot is swiftly digging hole now). A deathlist, it seems to me, is just as likely to attract people interested in lists as it is for those curious about a place discussing deaths.

 

It's a point I've made before on left brained and right brained thinking. There are a lot of left brainers here (list people) and some right brainers (squid people) plus a few no brainers and a few in between. Most women are right brainers which is why you don't see them taking down train numbers.

[Monoclinic 39]

As often happens here a conversation about death brings out something REALLY interesting. I have two questions and one subsidiary question which is more of a composite of questions and thoughts going nowhere in particular.

 

Are there American train spotters?

 

Are there women train spotters?

 

Are there any train spotters outside England that wear anoraks and carry a flask of tomato soup in a duffel bag? Do the Welsh, Scots and Irish do this? Do the Germans, French and Swiss? I can't imagine a Brazilian trainspotter.

 

I could, on the other hand imagine Octopus of Odstock on the end of a platform with his notebook. I'm not taking the piss there OoO, it's just that I could imagine that. It's the list thing isn't it, just as we have them in this thread and, for that matter the whole site (Godot is swiftly digging hole now). A deathlist, it seems to me, is just as likely to attract people interested in lists as it is for those curious about a place discussing deaths.

 

It's a point I've made before on left brained and right brained thinking. There are a lot of left brainers here (list people) and some right brainers (squid people) plus a few no brainers and a few in between. Most women are right brainers which is why you don't see them taking down train numbers.

 

In a survey of one, I asked myself if I spotted trains. I told myself no. Therefore women do not spot trains, QED. BTW it's a more challenging sport over here as they is more industrial action but I'd like to think the frenchman goes for onion over tomato soup.

 

Interesting that you bring up the list thing, I had a little rant on the ladies DL forum about people finding the need to compile lists as I was a bit scared I'd offend the sways of DLspotters on the main forum. So what the heck, I'll go and offend all you non-lady DLers and post my post here. And bore you to boot.

 

What is it that associates list making and boredom? Why do people feel the need to compile freaking lists on some tangible topic or other. If the significant death debacle isn't enough in itself to bore me to tears. Okay, so what I have to say is never riveting either, vida infra, but a good injection of humour is desperately needed round here.

 

I thought I'd give list compiling a crack myself and in true DL style, of course, start a new thread never to be used again. However I fell at the first hurdle (too boring) and let google do it for me.

 

Top ten Japanese drinks: Can I interest anyone in a pint of coolpis or a shot of breast milk?

 

Watch out for tommorrow's list installment. I don't want to ruin the surprise but it may even involve death.

 

Whilst I'm at it, I'll let you analyse a few graphs. I guess I really am bored, whatever was Morrissey thinking when he wished everyday to be like a sodding sunday. (I didn't get snow, but I do have alps on my doorstep I guess)

[Saint Peter 13]

Are there American train spotters?

 

Nope.

 

Their spare time is taken up by doing God's work in some way or another.

 

Iraq is getting a good dose of right now.

[Godot 149]

Interesting that you bring up the list thing, I had a little rant on the ladies DL forum about people finding the need to compile lists as I was a bit scared I'd offend the sways of DLspotters on the main forum. So what the heck, I'll go and offend all you non-lady DLers and post my post here. And bore you to boot.

What? There's a ladies DL forum? This is news to me? Does it explain why there seems to be fewer women posting on here these days? Why does it exist? I like to read posts by women on here. Besides, as a complete right brainer, I think like a woman - no cheap gay jokes lads, nothing wrong with my conjones - so enjoy threads such as deathlist kitchen and interesting "off topic" stuff that so pisses off some of the blokes around here.

 

I should qualify this since I would never (well, hardly ever) wear women's kit or go to a tupperware party, drink alcopop or bake fairy cakes. But I do think women have better insights in to things than most blokes. The Japanese drinks list was interesting. We should have more Japanese drinks lists around here. Don't you agree Star Crossed?

 

I'm not sure about "special sections." Where does it end? Should there be an "old gits" deathlist forum for the over 50s or a pink deathlist forum for all the gay posters? Or a special Banshees deathlist forum just for Banshees and all his other selves? Now that's an idea.

[Monoclinic 39]

I'm not sure about "special sections." Where does it end? Should there be an "old gits" deathlist forum for the over 50s or a pink deathlist forum for all the gay posters? Or a special Banshees deathlist forum just for Banshees and all his other selves? Now that's an idea.

 

Perhaps there is Godot? One can never be sure that there aren't other special places out there on the DL. There may be secret places that even the mods aren't aware of and there might be secret mods patrolling these secret forums. DL gestapo if you like (at this point I'd like to add that I have my suspicions over a few grammar fanaticists ) 

 

This might be a paradox as worthy as Schrödinger's cat but I'm not losing sleep over it. Embrace DL agnosticism oh and vote Dunn!

 

As an aside, from an already off topic whoredom of a post, this left-right brain nonsense... Are the left and right cerebral hemispheres reversed if you are a leftie? I took two highly respected and scientific tests (ahem, well the facebook application read as such), each arriving at a different conclusion. Before someone says it, yes there is the hypothesis that in fact such results are positively correlated with having a vacuum instead of grey matter. My little lemma is that lefties are supposedly controlled by the "right brain" but scientists are naturally "left brained", so my brain just got confused. However I know this theory to be pish owing to the sheer number of lefties (above that 10%) I've worked with. Though on reflection I think that the one in ten is an underestimation as we move further away from the

with us lefties more people feel free to be left.

[Banshees Scream 108]

Hold on here. I have to get involved.

 

The topic title of this thread is called 'Most Significant 'which by definition the word significant itself means - extensive or important enough to merit attention. The argument is currently 'Achievement over media coverage' and the bottom line is the most significant death should consist of both extremes. The most shocking would be actor 'Heath Ledger' this year while last year it was Anna Nicole Smith, with Buhtto being the most significant given the circumstances. Most shocking and Most significant are two different categories.

 

In the year 2008 - my vote would go to Charlton Heston. I feel Edmund Hillary is in the top ten 'if there were a list' but even with his great accomplishment the mans significant value doesn't amount up to an Academy Award winning actor who was also a political activist. Heston got more media coverage and globally he is more well known. That's the bottom line. I don't really see much of a debate about that.

 

Anyway ... today ... is my third anniversary here in the world of death. I don't really want a celebration or anything but after all these years 'which it's f****n unreal how they fly by 'I've taken into perspective all of the positives which maintain here on Deathlist.net. I realize everybody 'comes together' in a place like this. It's like a dysfunctional family with a morbid interest. Over the years, we have lost many entities but love it or hate it I'm still around ... no matter if I like it or not. I feel in a place like this, nobody should ever feel discouraged or intimidated to speak their minds or share personal issues. In my view that is one of the advantages of existing here. I want to thank all of you for putting up with me for so long.

 

PS

 

Godot: You think like a woman? Here I am thinking it's been a pretty slow news week.

[Godot 149]

Hold on here. I have to get involved.

 

No you don't. Happy anniversary.

[Octopus of Odstock 1,987]

I could, on the other hand imagine Octopus of Odstock on the end of a platform with his notebook. I'm not taking the piss there OoO, it's just that I could imagine that.

 

 

Right, that's DDT subtracted 50 points for gross insubordination on the DDP & now you Godot. TMIB had better watch it.....

 

I like riding in trains, but that's all. I don't like riding in British trains, mind, especially Virgin. That is about as much as I can add to any train debate. Apart from the fact that Michael Palin is one of my most admired people and he IS a train nut. So, maybe that's not a bad comparison....

 

 

Besides, where the name in all that is holy am I going to get the time to go to a platform with a notebook? I barely get time to myself these days...

 

 

As to the topic in hand:

Most famous? Heston.

Most significant? I'd actually argue, from a historical context, Lazare Ponticelli.

 

 

and whoever said Sir Edmund Hillary was only known in New Zealand? I think he was a little more famous than that.

[Applecool Downunder 10]

Fascinating what people think is significant. Pretending to be other people and getting paid a fortune to do it, merely entertaining while grandstanding on guns seems largely insignificant to me. Suharto's life has, without question, been much more significant for this globe, sadly for bad reasons.

 

Hard to imagine American trainspotters. They can't quite spot weapons of mass destruction so they might find trains a tad difficult too. And this from one neither UK or US, an independent arbiter! lol

[Dr. Zorders 1,270]

1963: JFK, duh
1964: Herbert Hoover, Douglas MacArthur
1965: Winston Churchill
1966: Who cares
1967: Robert Oppenheimer
1968: Martin Luther King
1969: Dwight Eisenhower
1970: Jimi Hendrix/Janis Joplin
1971: Jim Morrison
1972: Harry Truman
1973: Bruce Lee
1974: Sam Goldwyn
1975: Bernard Herrmann
1976: Mao Zedong
1977: All the people in Lynyrd Skynyrd/That fat singer guy with the quiff (not Morrissey)
1978: Keith Moon (not that I give a shit)
1979: John Wayne, Sir Alfred Broughton MP
1980: Karl Doenitz, Colonel Sanders, Jesse Owens
1981: err... Bill Haley
1982: Philip K. Dick
1983: Louis "Red" Deutsch
1984: Michel Foucault
1985: Orson Welles, Cus D'Amato
1986: L. Ron Hubbard
1987: Rudolf Hess, Andy Warhol
1988: Robert A. Heinlein
1989: Salvador Dali, Mel Blanc, Emperor Hirohito, Ted Bundy
1990: Roald Dahl, A.J.P. Taylor, Keith Haring
1991: Miles Davis, Leo Fender
1992: Isaac Asimov
1993: James Hunt, David Koresh
1994: Ayrton Senna/Kurt Cobain/Bill Hicks/Dick Nixon
1995: Fred Perry, Bob Ross
1996: Timothy Leary, Carl Sagan
1997: Henri Paul/William S. Burroughs
1998: J.T. Walsh, Phil Hartman, Lloyd Bridges, Barry Goldwater
1999: Owen Hart/Gene Siskel/Joseph Heller/Stanley Kubrick
2000: Joe C, Billy Barty
2001: Morton Downey Jr.
2002: Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
2003: Strom Thurmond, Crash Holly
2004: Ronald Reagan
2005: Richard Whiteley/Richard Pryor/Pope
2006: Saddam Hussein
2007: Ian Richardson, Bernard Manning
2008: Arthur C. Clarke
2009: Billy Mays, Les Paul
2010: Alex Higgins/Dennis Hopper/Leslie Nielsen
2011: Christopher Hitchens/Seth Putnam/Jimmy Savile
2012: Bob Holness, Andrew Breitbart
2013: Margaret Thatcher
2014: Fidel Castro

Ok I cheated and used more than 1 name for some but who careeees

[Lewd_Squirrel 315]

Um, but, Castro isn't dead, yet, AFAIK.

[Dr. Zorders 1,270]

Um, but, Castro isn't dead, yet, AFAIK.

 

I'll volunteer to "check on him" if you'll buy me a ticket to Cuba and an aluminium baseball bat

[Lewd_Squirrel 315]

Fine by me, he's on my list, anyhow.

[Toast 15,368]

1963: JFK, duh

1964: Herbert Hoover, Douglas MacArthur

1965: Winston Churchill

1966: Who cares My Dad

1967: Robert Oppenheimer

1968: Martin Luther King

1969: Dwight Eisenhower

1970: Jimi Hendrix/Janis Joplin

1971: Jim Morrison

1972: Harry Truman

1973: Bruce Lee

1974: Sam Goldwyn

1975: Bernard Herrmann

1976: Mao Zedong

1977: All the people in Lynyrd Skynyrd/That fat singer guy with the quiff (not Morrissey)

1978: Keith Moon (not that I give a shit)

1979: John Wayne, Sir Alfred Broughton MP

1980: Karl Doenitz, Colonel Sanders, Jesse Owens

1981: err... Bill Haley

1982: Philip K. Dick

1983: Louis "Red" Deutsch

1984: Michel Foucault

1985: Orson Welles, Cus D'Amato

1986: L. Ron Hubbard

1987: Rudolf Hess, Andy Warhol

1988: Robert A. Heinlein

1989: Salvador Dali, Mel Blanc, Emperor Hirohito, Ted Bundy

1990: Roald Dahl, A.J.P. Taylor, Keith Haring

1991: Miles Davis, Leo Fender

1992: Isaac Asimov

1993: James Hunt, David Koresh

1994: Ayrton Senna/Kurt Cobain/Bill Hicks/Dick Nixon

1995: Fred Perry, Bob Ross

1996: Timothy Leary, Carl Sagan

1997: Henri Paul/William S. Burroughs

1998: J.T. Walsh, Phil Hartman, Lloyd Bridges, Barry Goldwater

1999: Owen Hart/Gene Siskel/Joseph Heller

2000: Vincent Canby, Joe C, Billy Barty

2001: Morton Downey Jr.

2002: Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

2003: Strom Thurmond, Crash Holly

2004: Ronald Reagan

2005: Richard Whiteley/Richard Pryor/Pope

2006: Saddam Hussein

2007: Ian Richardson, Bernard Manning, Mike Awesome

2008: Arthur C. Clarke

2009: Billy Mays, Les Paul

2010: Alex Higgins/Dennis Hopper/Leslie Nielsen

2011: Christopher Hitchens/Seth Putnam/Jimmy Savile

2012: Bob Holness, Andrew Breitbart

2013: Margaret Thatcher

2014: Fidel Castro

 

Ok I cheated and used more than 1 name for some but who careeees

 

Fixed for me.

[gcreptile 10,440]

Hmm... Andrew Breitbart? Luckily, there is Wikipedia, so these lists are relatively easy to make:

 

2014 (so far): Robin Williams

2013: a tie between Mandela and Thatcher for karmic balance

2012: Neil Armstrong

2011: Osama bin Laden

2010: Benoit Mandelbrot

2009: Michael Jackson

2008: Edmund Hillary

2007: Boris Yeltsin

2006: Milton Friedman (he made Pinochet)

2005: John Paul II

2004: Ronald Reagan

2003: Johnny Cash

2002: Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

2001: George Harrison

2000: Pierre Trudeau

1999: Stanley Kubrick

1998: Pol Pot or Frank Sinatra... what a comparison...

1997: Deng Xiaoping

1996: Ella Fitzgerald

1995: Konrad Zuse

1994: Tough year... Karl Popper

1993: Cesar Chavez

1992: Willy Brandt

1991: Miles Davis

1990: Greta Garbo

1989: Sergio Leone

1988: Enzo Ferrari

1987: Andy Warhol

1986: Simone De Beauvoir

1985: Orson Welles

1984: Indira Gandhi

1983: Tennessee Williams

1982: Grace Kelly

1981: Bob Marley

1980: John Lennon

1979: Jean Monnet

1978: Kurt Gödel

1977: Wernher von Braun or Elvis Presley or Charlie Chaplin

1976: Mao Zedong

1975: Umm Kulthum

1974: Charles Lindbergh

1973: Lyndon B. Johnson

1972: Harry Truman

1971: Louis Armstrong

1970: Charles De Gaulle

1969: Eisenhower or KIng Saud

1968: Martin Luther King

1967: Robert Oppenheimer

1966: Walt Disney

1965: Winston Churchill

1964: Jawaharlal Nehru

1963: Lee Harvey Oswald (heh, a joke)

[maryportfuncity 10,235]

Re 2013; Mandela, surely, making it ironically funny that Thatcher's end was obliterated in importance by the death of a black guy.

[Davey Jones' Locker 1,324]

1984.... Foucault or Indira Gandhi being the most significant death.... That's an interesting one to ponder.... They were both extremely influential up until their demises, unlike many on the "most significant deaths" lists. Foucault's thought is still having an enormous impact on the western world and Gandhi was the leader of a country of over a billion people. I'd have to call it a draw.

[Dr. Zorders 1,270]

1984.... Foucault or Indira Gandhi being the most significant death.... That's an interesting one to ponder.... They were both extremely influential up until their demises, unlike many on the "most significant deaths" lists. Foucault's thought is still having an enormous impact on the western world and Gandhi was the leader of a country of over a billion people. I'd have to call it a draw.

 

Oh yeah whoops. Can't believe I forgot her. That's the last time her family hired anyone from Sikh Help.

[Davey Jones' Locker 1,324]

1984.... Foucault or Indira Gandhi being the most significant death.... That's an interesting one to ponder.... They were both extremely influential up until their demises, unlike many on the "most significant deaths" lists. Foucault's thought is still having an enormous impact on the western world and Gandhi was the leader of a country of over a billion people. I'd have to call it a draw.

 

Oh yeah whoops. Can't believe I forgot her. That's the last time her family hired anyone from Sikh Help.

1971 is also an interesting clash between you and gcreptile, albeit the stakes are much less significant. Two musicians who were leaders in their respective fields, one elderly and one still young.

[Lewd_Squirrel 315]

What about Malcolm X's death?

[gcreptile 10,440]

1984.... Foucault or Indira Gandhi being the most significant death.... That's an interesting one to ponder.... They were both extremely influential up until their demises, unlike many on the "most significant deaths" lists. Foucault's thought is still having an enormous impact on the western world and Gandhi was the leader of a country of over a billion people. I'd have to call it a draw.

 

Oh yeah whoops. Can't believe I forgot her. That's the last time her family hired anyone from Sikh Help.

1971 is also an interesting clash between you and gcreptile, albeit the stakes are much less significant. Two musicians who were leaders in their respective fields, one elderly and one still young.

 

Indeed. I gave it to Armstrong because he was the first African-American superstar. So beyond his musical importance, he was also socially significant. But on musical terms Haley is at least his equal, possibly even a little higher because there was no shortage of famous jazz musicians in Armstrong's time.