Death Anniversary Thread

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On this day in 1993  former  first lady of the United States Pat Nixon  died aged 81  

She  was first lady from 1969 until 1974 when her husband  President Richard Nixon was impeached  and resigned as a result of the Watergate scandal. To no avail Pat  urged her husband  not to resign  believing in his innocence until the very end. 

Pat also served as second lady of the United States from 1953-1961 while her husband was President Eisenhowers Vice President. 

Pat died less than a year after being diagnosed with lung cancer  but had been in frail health for years after a number of strokes  

Pat was a lifetime smoker but this was not common public knowledge as she made a point of not being seen smoking in public or photographed smoking. 

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On this day in 2015  probably one of the most successful and proflic  composers and orchestrators of film scores in the world  James Horner , died aged 61   while flying his  short tucano  turboprop  aircraft  which crashed  into a national park in California. 

Horner was responsible  for the best selling orchestral film soundtrack of all time - James Camerons Titanic in 1997. 

   

He composed too many film scores  in very well known films to list them all here but some of his highlights  include  Troy (2004), Avatar (2009), Honey I shrunk the kids (1989), Deep Impact (1998),  Aliens(1986), Field of Dreams (1989),  Patriot Games(1992) , The Amazing Spiderman(2012), Braveheart(1995), Star Trek ll The Wrath of Khan (1982) ,Hocus Pocus (1993) and Southpaw (2015).

Most of his work was distinguished by his particular successful blending together of choral and electronic elements .

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Peter Falk died on this day 11 years ago, aged 83.

Falk started as a stage actor, appearing in versions of The Crucible and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. He made his Broadway debut in 1956 in Diary of a Scoundrel.

 

Falk initially failed screen tests due to his glass eye (his right eye was removed when he was three due to childhood retinal cancer), but made his breakout role in the 1960 film Murder, Inc. as Abe Reles, which earned him an Oscar nomination. He was again nominated in 1961 for his role in Pocketful in Miracles, and appeared in films such as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and The Great Race.

 

Falk also began his television career in the 1950s, which included an episode of The Twilight Zone. In 1961 and 1962, Falk was nominated for two Emmys thanks to his roles in The Law and Mr. Jones and The Dick Powell Theatre. In 1971, Falk began to star in his most well known role: the title character of Columbo, winning four Emmys for his role. The show ran all the way to 2003- there was a nine-year hiatus between seasons 7 and 8, and season 10 was largely a series of specials that began in 1990.

 

Flash forward to 2008- Peter Falk has Alzheimer's disease. He was kept under a conservatorship until his death, and his family was not notified of his condition, death and funeral arrangements (though they probably saw the news on TV). In 2015, New York passed "Peter Falk's Law", which guarantees the children of terminally-ill people in a conservatorship get medical updates on their parents' health.

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On this day in 1998 Irish American  actress Maureen O'Sullivan died aged 87.

Best known for playing Jane in the Tarzan  films from 1932-1942 , Maureen starred in a number of other films in the golden age of Hollywood including  Barbara Stanwyck  film All I Desire  (1953), Pride and Prejudice (1940) along with  Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson and Woman Wanted (1935) with Joel McCrea.

Maureens daughter is actress and activist Mia Farrow. 

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Bluegrass musician Ralph Stanley died 6 years ago today. He got his own thread and everything (including Steve 'n Seagulls video).

 

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American baseball relief pitcher Rod Beck died on this day 15 years ago, aged 38.

 

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On this day in 1891  German physicist  Wilhelm Eduard  Weber died aged 86.

 

He was the joint inventor of the first electromagnetic telegraph  which connected  the Observatory he was in with the Institute for physics in Gottingen. The other inventor was  Carl Friedrich Gauss.

       

The unit  of measurement for magnetic flux  is named weber after him.

 

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Grover Cleveland died on this day 114 years ago, aged 71.

I'm pretty sure most of you know that he is so far the only American president to hold the office nonconsecutively (1885-1889 and 1893-1897)- here's an interesting story regarding his health in office.

 

During his second term in 1893, Cleveland's doctor found a tumor in his mouth (whether it was benign or malignant has been debated). Not wanting the media to become concerned over his health, Cleveland arranged for his surgery to occur on a boat off of Long Island, and he didn't even tell Vice President Stevenson about it. Cleveland was strapped into a chair, tied around the ship's mast, and sedated. To avoid disfigurement, his surgeons operated through his mouth. They removed part of his upper jaw, and during a second operation, it was replaced with a rubber prosthetic.

 

One of the surgeons, EJ Edwards, revealed this in September of that year- the White House denied his claims and accused Edwards of lying. It wasn't until 1917, nine years after Cleveland's death, that another surgeon (William Keen) wrote about the events to no objection.

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On this day in 1990  British Labour MP  Sean Hughes died from cancer  aged 44. 

 He was the MP for Knowsley South and succeeded  former Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson in 1983 as the MP for the constituency. 

He worked in the shadow whips office  and the shadow defence team . He was regarded as a moderate  not least by Harold Wilson who advocated for him to be the Labour partys selected candidate to represent the seat Wilson was retiring from.

   Sean Hughes was credited by a number of Labour party figures as being an important part of why in the era of the militant tendency in Merseyside this local  Labour Party constituency was able to keep up its tradition of not succumbing to any extremes.  

1990 was quite an unusual and sad year for the Labour party  in Merseyside as three Labour mps  died here in their forties this year.

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American actor, comedian, writer, composer and conductor, Jackie Gleason, died on this day 35 years ago, aged 71.

 

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Filipino politician who served as the 15th president of the Phillippines from 2010 to 2016 Benigno Aquino III died on this day a year ago, aged 61.

 

 

American film, television, and stage actor from New York City Eli Wallach died on this day 8 years ago, aged 98.

 

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On this day in 2002  Pierre Werner,  the former twice Prime Minister of Luxembourg,  died aged 88.

Pierre Werners background initially was in banking and law.  He was appointed the controller of the banking system in Luxembourg  and attended the Bretton Woods conference after World War two.  A conference that helped to set up the architecture of the global financial  system and among other things resulted in the creation of the IMF. 

He joined the centre right Christian Social Peoples party  and  in 1953 became the governments finance minister

                 Pierre  went on to serve as Luxembourgs Prime Minister twice-from 1959-1974 and 1979 -1984. Such is the political culture and system in Luxembourg all of his governments were coalition  governments, mainly with the Democrat Party but once with Luxembourgs socialist workers party.  But always with Werners  Christian social peoples party as the senior larger party. 

His party lost power , a rarity, in 1974 but his party kept him on as leader confident he could be victorious at the next election in 1979. 

During his second stint as PM  he focused on diversifying the countrys economy after they were hit hard by the steel crisis in Europe and a need to not put all of their economic eggs in one basket was seen as a must. 

Financial services  and global satellite communications were sectors that he nurtured and developed  and are to the day key strengths in Luxembourgs economy. 

 

 

  In 1970 the heads of state in the EEC asked him to work on and draw up  a blueprint on the future of the group with a detailed plan for economic and monetary union.  Reform was to be gradual but aimed for irreversible fixing of exchange rates  and a single currency within a decade.  The timetable for his plans were derailed by political disagreement in Europe and the 1970s oil crisis but the 'Werner Plan' as it became known was revived and extended  by official Deathlist  alumni  Jacques Delors  and the principles embedded in the Treaty of Maastricht. 

 

It is also known that he gave  significant clandestine support to resistance forces  during the 1940-1945 Nazi Occupation of Luxembourg. 

It would definitely be fair and accurate to describe him as a sort of early prototype  europhile!

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Michael Jackson died on this day 13 years ago, aged 50.

 

His death literally broke the Internet- AOL, Twitter, Wikipedia (the latter's page had one million visits in one hour), even Google all crashed.

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On this day in 2011 british actress  Margaret  Tyzack  died aged 79.

Some of her best known  work was   in tv dramas The Forsyte Saga,  IClaudius  and award winning BBC drama The First Churchills   although she did appear in some iconic films such as Stanley Kubricks  2001 A Space Odyssey  and A Clockwork Orange. 

 

Her final role in Spring 2011 was as Lydia  Simmonds,  the manipulating  dying grandmother  of Janine Butcher in EastEnders.  However due to health issues after a small number of her episodes had already aired they had to recast the role at short notice to Heather Chasen after Margaret had to step down and died herself just a few months later .

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4 hours ago, Drewsky1211 said:

Michael Jackson died on this day 13 years ago, aged 50.

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and his death inevitably overshadowed that of Farrah Fawcett, who also died that day, aged 62.

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American football defensive tackle Jerome Brown died on this day 30 years ago, aged 27.

 

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No more kinky boots for well-known naturist Patrick Macnee as of seven years ago, when he died aged 93.

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American real estate developer and businessman Fred Trump died on this day 23 years ago, aged 93.

 

 

French naval officer, divemaster, oceanographer, filmmaker and author who co-invented the first open-circuit SCUBA set and made the first underwater documentaries Jacques Cousteau died on this day 25 years ago, aged 87.

 

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On this day in 1894 the President of France Sadi  Carnot  was assainated aged 56. 

 He was French President  from 1887-1894.

 

Sadi came from a family heavily involved in national politics indeed steeped in it. The family came from the moderate  republican tradition and was firmly active in  opposing attempts  by opponents to restore the french monarchy. His grandfather was a military moderniser trying to embed  loyalty to the French Republic into the militarys  ethos rather than loyalty to the monarchy and his father was involved in drawing up the constitutional laws of 1875.  

 So he was from a very well connected family  but in an atmosphere were there was significant background  manoeuvres and attempts to restore the monarchy  Sadi was regarded as a reliable and trustworthy person to push forward into responsible positions/jobs in french politics and Public life. Suspicion about infiltration by enemies of the republic was strong at this time.  A high stakes situation. 

Appointed minister for public works in 1878  by 1885 he was minister of finance and had served in ministries  under two French Prime Ministers-Jules Ferry and  Charles de Freycinet. 

In 1887  the then French President Jules Grevy resigned as a result of a major scandal known as the 'Daniel Wilson scandal '.

In essence  Daniel Wilson the son in law of the president was caught selling awards of the french legion of honour . While his father in law was not directly involved and had no knowledge of wrongdoing  he was held partially culpable and irresponsible for allowing  Wilson access to the Elysee Palace were much of the scandal was conducted 

 Sadi Carnots reputation for integrity was seen to make him the ideal person to replace the president after the huge scandal  and he was voted into position by french politicians  616 votes out of 827.

  The biggest threat he and the french republicans  faced was increasing personal and political attacks from politician  and military man General Boulanger  who many in political circles feared was popular enough to launch a successful political coup  and establish a dictatorship. But when it came to the crunch his brutal courage failed him, he was indecisive and veered towards  abandoning an established  well planned plot  and setting on achieving success  via the legitimate legal route.However his botching  of his plot lead the authorities to seize evidence and move to charge him with treason. He fled into exile permanently and in this regard President  Carnot was lucky  with his enemies who completely missed his opportunity to lead a potentially successful coup.

 

His own Presidency took place to the difficult background of huge tensions and rivalries in french society .But itwas largely scandal free except for the huge Panama bribery scandal which ruined the government's reputation as a number of cabinet  ministers were jailed  over their involvement in a hugely dodgy investment they illegally profited from  but enhanced his personal reputation as he was shown to have clean hands and zero personal  involvement or personal gain. 

At the peak of his popularity  in 1894 he gave a speech at a public banquet  in Lyon were he strongly hinted he would not be standing for reelection . However an irian anarchist stabbed him multiple times at the event  in a self confessed political act of retaliation  for the execution of french anarchist Ravachol  and the tightening up of french laws in recent years as a crackdown against  anarchists and their bombings and assaination attempts. 

Alas on this occasion their assaination was successful. 

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On this day 19 years ago in 2003 , Denis Thatcher- businessman and spouse of the UKs first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher , died aged 88.

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Also on this day 19 years ago- Strom Thurmond, aged 100.

Thurmond was elected to the South Carolina Senate in 1932, and then as governor in 1946. In 1948, Thurmond ran as a third-party candidate for president as a member of the States' Rights Democratic Party- AKA Dixiecrat Party- and got 39 electoral votes.

 

After the death of unopposed senator Burnet Maybank in 1954, Thurmond was voted as a write-in candidate to succeed him, and he took office in December of that year. In 1957, during his first term, Thurmond notoriously delivered the longest filibuster that Congress has seen so far in opposition of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, clocking in at just over a day. The bill was passed by the Senate two hours later.

 

His second term was marred by more segregationist policies- he also opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, and switched party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, saying that the former party "no longer represented people like him (sic)". Thurmond would serve eight terms in total before retiring in January 2003- he was the Dean since 1989, and the only centenarian in Congress.

 

Two days before retirement, Thurmond appeared on DeathList for his only appearance, at the number 8 spot. In his obit, it is mentioned that he was nearly omitted from the list due to the "famousness in the UK" criteria- he received a Guardian obit. News of his death was likely picked up hours, if not even less time, after Denis Thatcher's (Thatcher is considered hit #5, Thurmond #6).

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Unlikely Pearly Gates mates number whatever in an occasional series...

Dennis Thatcher (Prime Ministerial spouse & businesman, see above)   Marc Vivian Foé(Footballer)

                                       

 

Foé was playing for Cameroon in the Confederation's Cup in Lyon, when he collapsed midway through the second half; doctors tried for 45 minutes to restart his heart before declaring him dead. The cause of death was determined to be Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. He'd played for Lens & Lyon in the French Ligue 1, and for West Ham United & Manchester City in the English Premier, as well as making 62 appearances for Cameroon. He was 28.

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American professional wrestler Buddy Rogers died on this day 30 years ago, aged 71.

 

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United States Senator from Illinois and associate justice of the United States Supreme Court David Davis died on this day 136 years ago, aged 71.

 

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On this day in 1958  professional athlete George  Orton,  the first Canadian to win an Olympic  medal,  died aged 85. 

At the age of 3 George suffered severe injury after falling out of a tree and developing a blood clot on the brain. This left him effectively paralysed  until the age of 10 and with a severely damaged right arm. With the right therapy and physio he gradually recovered  near full mobility by the age of 12-  this makes his subsequent Olympic success all the more remarkable and inspirational. 

At the Olympic games in Paris in 1900  Geowon a bronze medal in the 400m hurdles and then 45 minutes later he won gold in the 2500m steeplechase. 

  In the years immediately prior to the games in the 1890s  he was already established as the number one middle distance runner in the world  due to his success in smaller competitions and national championships. 

 

 

 

Also at this Olympics  he entered what was  referred  to as the 'handicap races' but they were not officially recognised by the Olympic authorities in the same way as the main games. He hugely outshone the other athletes and was made to give up either his time or distance  in the scoring such was his capacity to vastly outperform all other disabled athletes. His lifelong dead right arm and hand which he hid so successfully from many meant  he was the first disabled athlete to win an Olympic gold.

In this era nationalities was regarded as less central and important at the Olympic games especially as many competed in teams or groupings from sport teams at universities  of mixed nationality  or were more regarded as competing as individuals rather than countries  representatives. 

  This lead to George wrongly being regarded as american because he was heavily involved with other US athletes  and he was added to the american medal total initially- before being removed and becoming the first Canadian to win an Olympic medal..

Away from the Olympics  George Orton was regarded as 'The father of Philadelphia hockey' after  he introduced  ice hockey to Philadelphia  and was key to nurturing it there and getting initial sports premises and pitches built. 

In 2019 a book was published about  Orton  called 'The greatest athlete(you've never heard of)' by Mark Hebscher.

But as the first Canadian and first disabled  athlete to win  an Olympic  gold will always be regarded as his crowning best achievements.