Death Anniversary Thread

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On this day in 2020 Liverpool  born professional tennis player  Angela Buxton died aged 85 in her winter home in  Florida. 

Early in her career  her Jewish background  was not accepting by some in tennis circles with her experiencing antisemitism by being barred from using certain tennis  training facilities.  This eventually  resulted in Jewish businessman  Simon Marks of the Marks and Spencer retail empire allowing her the use of his private tennis court. 

 

By 1954 she had earned the tennis ranking  of British number 4.  Just a  year later she reached the Wimbledon womens singles quarter finals making her world number 9 in the rankings.

In 1956  she won the women's doubles title at  both Wimbledon  and the french championships with her playing partner  Althea Gibson. 

 

 

 

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US First Lady Sarah Polk died on this day 131 years ago, aged 87.

 

Sarah Childress married James K. Polk in 1824 at the age of 20. They did not have children (it is believed that a surgery to remove a bladder stone sterilized James), but they did raise a nephew (Marshall Polk), and Sarah later fostered her great-niece (also named Sarah).

 

James was elected president in 1844. During her time in the White House, Sarah's devout Presbyterian beliefs made her ban dancing, card games, and alcohol- this earned her the nickname of "Sahara Sarah". Three months after leaving the White House, James died of cholera at the age of 53- Sarah outlived him by 42 years, which is still the longest widowhood of a FLOTUS.

 

Sarah would host Union generals at her house during the Civil War, and Rutherford B. Hayes and Grover Cleveland would visit her during their presidencies.

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Twenty-four years since the death of Rosemary Martin, aged 61.

 

One of those faces that was more or less a permanent fixture on British TV, she appeared such diverse shows as EastEnders, Tenko, Outside Edge & Pennies From Heaven.

IMDb lists 100 acting credits.

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American professional baseball player Pee Wee Reese died on this day 23 years ago, aged 81.

 

[The Ashes Urn 1,357]

British Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and racing driver Bob Anderson died on this day 55 years ago, aged 36.

 

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Another First  Lady of the United States died on the 14th August- this time in 1852. Margaret  Taylor,  wife of the 12th President of the United States Zachary Taylor,  died on this day  in 1852 aged 63.

The daughter of a wealthy family from Maryland whose father was  a veteran officer of the American revolution. 

    She  met  Lieutenant Zachary  Taylor  whilst she was visiting her sister in Kentucky. 

It is said that she became rather reclusive when her husband was participating in the Mexican American war, because as a devout Episcopalian  she had pledged to God she would give up most of the pleasures of society in return for her husbands  safe return home from war.

   Zachary became something of a national war hero and that was a large part of his popularity and political platform fir running for the Presidency.  His critics say his political policies were vague and general  with the notion of preserving the union  being one of his central aims. 

Anyway he won the election despite his wifes  prayers for him to lose became she feared the personal consequences and burdens of the Presidency for both of them.

 

At this stage in Margarets life, after multiple childbirths and the physical toll of years of following her military husband around from one fort to the next  , her health was precarious and limiting. She was a semi invalid and left the usual first lady hostess duties in the White House to her daughter  Mary Elizabeth 'Betty' Bliss.   During her husbands  President she lived largely in seclusion on the second floor in the White House .

Her husband died suddenly  from severe stomach issues just 16 months into his term of office. 

The former first ladies  health spiralled and declined rapidly after her husbands death  andshe died just two years later aged 63.

 

 

 

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On this day in 1988 Muhammed Zia  ul-Haq,  a Pakistani General and President  of Pakistan from 1978 until his death ten years later,  died aged 64  in a plane crash along with 31 others.

Both the US and Pakistan launched their own investigations into the crash  and reached rather different conclusions- with the Pakistani authorities  highlighting the possibility of foul play including deliberate incapaciation of the pilot. 

There has always been suspicion in some quarters in Pakistan that this was an engineered accident or revenge  by any number of other countries including  the USA, India or the Soviet Union  the last as  revenge against Pakistans government for supporting   the Mujahideen against the Russians  in their war with Afghanistan. 

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45 minutes ago, Gooseberry Crumble said:

died in a plane crash along with 31 others aged 64

 

What were the chances? That's a massive statistical anomaly.

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Macbeth, King of Scotland, died on this day 965 years ago, aged 52.

A grandson of King Malcolm II (his daughter Donada was his mother), Macbeth became the Earl of Moray in 1032. Macbeth married his predecessor's widow, Gruoch.

 

Moray started to gain too much autonomy, leading King Duncan I to lead a punitive expedition into Moray in 1040. Duncan was killed in battle by Macbeth's soldiers- and Macbeth acceded to the throne, most likely due to Duncan's widow fleeing with their children.

 

Macbeth's reign was largely uneventful until the English invasion of 1054, with Duncan's son Malcolm fighting for the English. Macbeth was killed in battle by Malcolm himself in 1057. Macbeth's stepson Lulach took the throne before Malcolm assassinated him after a few months- Malcolm took the throne as Malcolm III.

 

Whatever positive reputation Macbeth had was demolished by William Shakespeare's 1606 play about him, portraying him as a murderous tyrant (Gruoch/Lady Macbeth was done dirty even more)- this was based off of the 1577 Holinshead's Chronicles (albeit Macbeth was portrayed in a more positive and accurate way there). It is believed that this negative portrayal was in part because King James VI and I (the king at the time) was a descendant of Malcolm III.

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Māori Queen 1966-2006, longest reigning Māori monarch, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu died on this day 16 years ago, aged 75 from heart & kidney problems.

Pictured with Queen Elizabeth II, Sir Douglas "Doug" Graham and Jim Bolger's hand in 1995.

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German professional footballer Gerd Müller died on this day a year ago, aged 75.

 

 

American businessman and investor Robert Trump died on this day 2 years ago, aged 71.

 

 

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American football player Kyle Rote died on this day 20 years ago, aged 73.

 

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On this day twenty two years ago in the year 2000 Lancelot Ware English barrister and co founder  of MENSA ,the international  society  for intellectually gifted people,  died aged 85.

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On this day in 2019  american actor , writer and director Peter Fonda died aged 79. He was a member of Hollywoods Fonda  acting dynasty , son of Hollywood legend  Henry Fonda , younger brother of Jane Fonda and father of Bridget Fonda.  

He is strongly associated with the rebellious counter cultural movement of the 1960s. 

Some of his film credits include  Easy Rider(1969) alongside  Dennis Hopper- a film for which Peter as writer was oscar nominated  for best original screenplay , Race with the devil (1975) an action horror film,  The Wild Angels (1966) directed by Roger Corman who is still with us,  The Young Lovers (1964) opposite  Sharon Hugueny, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry(1974)  co-starring with Susan George and Vic Morrow  and  Certain Fury(1985) with Tatum O'Neal. 

 

 

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Idi Amin died on this day 19 years ago, aged about 78.

Amin joined the Ugandan military while it was still a colony of the UK, and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming its commander in 1965. In 1971, president Milton Obote planned to arrest Amin for misappropriating military funds- Amin led a successful coup against him while he was in Singapore for the first Commonwealth Heads Meeting.

 

Uganda became a military junta under Amin's dictatorship, with Amin persecuting members of the Acholi and Lango ethnic groups. This led to a genocide where up to 500,000 Acholis and Langos were killed. Amin also expelled all people of Asian descent that were not Ugandan citizens. Amin was declared president for life in 1976.

 

In October 1978, Ugandan soldiers began to incur on Tanzanian soil along the southern border, and soon launched an invasion, attempting to annex the Kagera region. Tanzania declared war on Uganda in response, with Libya and Palestine sending troops to aid Amin. Amin fled in April of 1979 as Tanzanian soldiers and Ugandan rebels approached Kampala, first fleeing to Libya and then to Saudi Arabia. In 1989, Amin left his exile by going to Zaire, in an attempt to reconquer Uganda (then in the midst of a civil war). Amin was promptly detained at the airport and deported back to Saudi Arabia.

 

Amin was known for his unstable behavior- he claimed to have been the uncrowned King of Scotland, the self-proclaimed "Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas", and reportedly kept his political enemies' decapitated heads in his freezer (also leading to rumors of cannibalism). Amin appeared on the DeathList in 1994 and 2003.

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Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India 1996 and 1998-2004 died on this day four years ago, aged 93 from a kidney infection.

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Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, better known as Bela Lugosi, died of a myocardial infarction 66 years ago today, at the age of 73. 

 

Lugosi was buried in his Dracula costume, which, contrary to popular belief, was not requested by him, but what his family thought he would have wanted. It is also a hoax that he died holding the script of Ed Wood's The Final Curtain. He left his son, also called Bela who is still alive at 84 and mentioned once before on this forum (according to a quick search) in the Ideas & Possibilities for 2023 thread by me, few inexpensive properties in Elsinore and $1,000.00 in cash, the latter of which Bela, Jr. had to split with his stepmother. 

 

 

 

"For some people he is the embodiment of dark, mysterious forces, a harbinger of evil from the world of shadow. For others he was merely a ham actor appearing in a type of film unsuitable for children and often unfit for adults" - Arthur Lennig. 

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American singer and actor Elvis Presley died on this day 45 years ago, aged 42.

 

 

American blues musician and songwriter Robert Johnson died on this day 84 years ago, aged 27.

 

 

American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935 Babe Ruth died on this day 74 years ago, aged 53.

 

 

British film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles Stewart Granger died on this day 29 years ago, aged 80.

 

 

Brazilian lawyer, businessman, athlete and centenarian who served as the seventh president of FIFA from 1974 to 1998 João Havelange died on this day 6 years ago, aged 100.

 

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It's 25 years since the death of Canada's King of the Yodellers, Donn Reynolds, aged 76 from complications of Alzheimer's.

 

He recorded 8 albums and 38 singles in a 40 year career which took him all over the world, recording in London under Joe Meek's engineering.

 

He held 2 Guinness World records, one for continuous yodelling for 7 hours, 29 minutes, and one for 'fastest yodeller' in 1984, achieving 5 tones in 1.9 seconds, a record he broke on BBCs Record Breakers in 1990, achieving the same feat in 0.93 seconds.

 

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American jazz drummer and composer Max Roach died on this day 15 years ago, aged 83.

 

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Alfredo Stroessner, president/military dictator of Paraguay 1954-1989, died on this day 16 years ago aged 93 from a septic shock due to complications from pneumonia.

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On this day in 1888 , american  pharmacist /biochemist  John Stith Pemberton  died aged 57.

His single most notable  accomplishment  is that  he invented the now ubiquitous coca cola  drink.

 

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On this day 30 years ago in 1992, British tailor and fashion designer  Tommy  Nutter died of complications from AIDS  aged 49.

He combined traditional tailoring skills with innovative designs  making for very unique looks 

He was quite popular among celebrity circles with Elton John, Mick Jagger as clients and dressing three of the four Beatles for their Abbey Road album cover -something he especially regarded as a feather in his cap.  

Earlier in his career he and his business partner were financially supported  by none other than Cilla Black and her husband Bobby Willis. 

He designed the clothing worn by Jack Nicholsons The Joker in the 1989  Batman movie.

 

Tommys main look or design are known as bell bottom pants. 

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Frederick the Great died on this day 236 years ago, aged 74.

Frederick became the king of Prussia following the death of his father, Frederick William I, in 1740. Early in his reign, Frederick led several wars to capture the Austrian province of Silesia, citing hereditary reasons- achieving this in 1745, establishing him as a military power (and where he earned his epithet).

 

In 1756, Frederick launched an invasion of Saxony, an event that is considered to have caused the European front of the Seven Years' War, forming an alliance with Great Britain (which ended up leading to the American Revolution 20 years later), and at the war's end, further strengthening his military prowess. From there, he annexed western Poland in its first partition in 1772. Frederick died while seated in his armchair in 1786. Frederick had no children, and his nephew Frederick William II became king.

 

Frederick was very likely a closeted homosexual. Contemporaneous sources showed that he had intimate relationships with males. Frederick was also known to collect homoerotic art from ancient Greece. Despite having a wife, Frederick reportedly "had a physical disgust of women", and claimed that he was impotent so he did not have to have sex with her.

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On this day in 1987, Egyptian-born German Deputy Fuehrer of the Nazi Party Rudolf Hess committed suicide aged 93. 

 

 

 

On this day in 2007, the 94-year-old Lord Sir Bill Deedes, KBE passed away aged 94. He was the 9th death on that year's list, having appeared 5 times since 1996.