Death Anniversary Thread

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Gerry Rafferty died on this day 14 years ago, aged 63.

- Rafferty's first band was The Fifth Column, joining it in 1966. He would then join The Humblebums in 1969 (playing alongside Billy Connolly), and then in 1972 founded Stealers Wheel, notable for their top-10 single "Stuck in the Middle with You":

 

- In 1978 Rafferty would release his signature song "Baker Street":

The song contains what is considered one of the most famous saxophone riffs in music (up there with "Careless Whisper"'s), and has been covered from everyone from Foo Fighters to Waylon Jennings to Rick Sanchez:

- Rafferty's career would decline in the '80s, believed to have been attributed to hisaversion to performing live. His final album was 2009's (ironically titled) Life Goes On.

- Rafferty suffered from alcoholism from a young age, and ended up dying of liver failure. He was the first hit of the 2011 DeathList (of seven that year), having also debuted that year.

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French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist and political activist Albert Camus died on this day 65 years ago, aged 46.

 

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Hans Conried died on this day 43 years ago, aged 64.

- Conried got his start in acting in the late 1930s, and during World War II, he would often be typecast as villains due to his German surname- and he would enlist in the war in 1944, seeing service in the Pacific Theater.

- While having an extensive live-action career, Conried is more famous as a voice actor. In 1953 he would provide the voice of Captain Hook in Disney's Peter Pan:

He would continue to get typecast in villainous roles, such as Snidely Whiplash in Dudley Do-Right, and the Grinch in the 1977 TV special Halloween Is Grinch Night. However, he would also voice act protagonists, such as Waldo in Hoppity Hooper, Horton in the 1970 version of Horton Hears A Who!, and Thorin Oakenshield in the Rankin-Bass Hobbit.

- Conried had a heart attack in 1979, and died from a second one three years later.

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American stage and film actor Arthur Kennedy died on this day 35 years ago, aged 75.

 

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Theodore Roosevelt died on this day 106 years ago, aged 60.

- Roosevelt was sickly as a child, suffering from asthma- which he would combat by exercising.

- On February 14, 1884, Roosevelt's wife Alice and his mother Martha both died. He wrote about it in a diary entry:

- Roosevelt's presidency was best known for his approach to disbanding monopolies, and the initiation of the construction of the Panama Canal in 1904. He would remain active in politics after he left office in 1909, notable running as a third party candidate in the 1912 election (the "Bull Moose" Party), splitting the Republican vote (ensuring Woodrow Wilson's victory) and surviving an assassination attempt in which he was shot but continued his speech for 90 minutes.

- Roosevelt was known for his sense of adventure and interest in animals, travelling the then 'River of Doubt' in Brazil (now called Rio Roosevelt) and going on African safaris where he hunted big game. He also had many exotic pets, including a bear (Jonathan Edwards, later sent to a zoo), a hyena (Bill, a gift from the emperor of Ethiopia), and a lion.

- Roosevelt died in his sleep from a pulmonary embolism, leading then-Vice president Thomas Marshall to deliver the following famous eulogy: "Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight."

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American cartoonist Don Martin died on this day 25 years ago, aged 68.

 

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Emperor Hirohito died on this day 36 years ago, aged 87.

- Hirohito was the son of Emperor Taisho (AKA Yoshihito). In 1921 he would embark on a tour of Europe, well-received by many but to the chagrin of the isolationist Japanese government. In 1923, Hirohito was the target of an assassination attempt by a communist who wanted to avenge the anarchist Kōtoku Shūsui.

- Hirohito became the emperor of Japan in December 1926, and his early reign was best known for the Japanese invasion of China (including the Rape of Nanking) and World War II. Hirohito would not surrender following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki- rather he would do so after the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. While some viewed him as a war criminal due to his commanding of the Japanese war effort, it would be agreed that Hirohito could remain in power only as a constitutional monarch and give up his claims to divinity. He would also distance himself from allegations of war crimes by boycotting visiting the Yasukuni Shrine starting in 1978, and his successors have also never visited.

- Thirty years after the war's end, Hirohito would make a highly-publicized visit to the United States, meeting with then-president Gerald Ford and visiting Disneyland:

(Disney made the anti-Japanese war film Commando Duck in 1944.)

- Hirohito was also a marine biologist (his son also shares this interest), and would discover several species of hydrozoans.

- Hirohito was diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 1987, and died after a little over a year with the disease from recurring internal bleeding. He reigned for 62 years, and his death was the first (and currently only) death of a Japanese emperor to be reported on TV:

He was succeeded by his son Akihito, and was posthumously named 'Emperor Showa'.

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Canadian-American professional football player Bronko Nagurski died on this day 35 years ago, aged 81.

 

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Eli Whitney died on this day 200 years ago, aged 59.

- Whitney would get his start in manufacturing by working in his father's workshop, where he would produce nails.

- After visiting Georgia in 1792, Whitney would devise a device that he hoped would eliminate the use of slave labor: the cotton gin, which he patented the following year:

Designed to remove the seeds from cotton bolls, it would inadvertently lead to the Antebellum period when plantation owners realized they could increase their productivity by retaining their enslaved African-Americans while also using this machine, with some considering its invention to have inadvertently culminated in the (US) Civil War.

- Whitney would also contribute to the use of interchangeable parts, and in 1801 would demonstrate disassembling and reassembling the muskets before Congress. He intended for these parts to increase the longevity of weapons, without needing to dispose of them when one part broke.

- Whitney died from prostate cancer, and was reported to have tried making mechanical inventions designed to help lessen his pain from the disease.

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English character actor and comedian Terry-Thomas died on this day 35 years ago, aged 78.

 

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Victor Emmanuel II of Italy died on this day 147 years ago, aged 57.

- The son of Charles Albert, the first king of Sardinia, Victor would accede to the Sardinian throne in 1849 after his father abdicated.

- Victor would form an alliance with the UK and France to aid them in the Crimean War, and in turn they would help Victor in Italy's war for independence against Austria-Hungary. In 1861, Italy would be united into a single nation, and Victor would become its first king. He would retain the 'II' in his name, which proved unpopular among Italians, thinking that Sardinia had simply took over the entire peninsula. Many politicians also viewed him in a negative light, calling him an idiot and a liar according to a British envoy.

- Victor died after just under 17 years on the throne, and was succeeded by his son Umberto I.

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American professional baseball player Spud Chandler died on this day 35 years ago, aged 82.

 

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David Bowie died on this day 9 years ago, aged 69.

- Bowie was born as David Jones, but changed his stage name so he wouldn't be confused with Davy Jones (of The Monkees). His inspirations included Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, and (especially) Little Richard.

- Bowie initially started his music career fronting a band named Davie Jones with the King Bees, and their first song was 1964's "Liza Jane":

Bowie, however, would later have an illustrious solo career- you may recall "Space Oddity", "Life on Mars?", "Starman", "Changes", "The Man Who Sold the World", "Golden Years", "Rebel Rebel", "Heroes", "Ashes to Ashes"- or many other songs from his 26 albums.

- Bowie also had a lengthy acting career, beginning with 1967's The Image. His most famous roles were Thomas Newton in The Man Who Fell to Earth, the voice of Lord Royal Highness in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Atlantis SquarePantis", Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ, and (obviously) Jareth the Goblin King in Labyrinth:

- Bowie was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2014, with his album Blackstar serving as his requiem:

 

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American poet Charles Olson died on this day 55 years ago, aged 59.

 

 

 

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Francis Scott Key died on this day 182 years ago, aged 63.

- Key worked as a lawyer in Maryland. In 1814, during the War of 1812, he would meet with British naval admiral Alexander Cochrane aboard the HMS Tonnant to procure the release of a friend accused of helping detain British soldiers who fed themselves with food taken from local homes. The ship was in Chesapeake Bay at the time, and would then engage in the Battle of Baltimore, firing at Fort McHenry. The next morning, following the battle, Key was able to spot an American flag still standing- leading him to write "The Star-Spangled Banner":

(It wouldn't be until 1931 that it became the official US Anthem- the previous one was "Hail, Columbia".)

- After the war, Key continued his law service, with one of his clients being Sam Houston, and he would also prosecute Richard Lawrence- the attempted assassin of Andrew Jackson- in 1835. Jackson had previously appointed him the attorney for the District of Columbia in 1833, and he served in that position until 1841.

- Despite his writing of "the land of the free", Key owned at least eight slaves during his lifetime and was a noted anti-abolitionist. In 1836 he would prosecute a man named Reuben Crandall for 'seditious libel' due to his ownership of antislavery publications immediately following the 1835 Snow Riot (a riot caused by a rumor that a slave tried to kill an elderly White woman). Crandall was acquitted by the jury, and Key's reputation was damaged from the trial.

- Key died from pleurisy. A notable descendant of his was Nobel Prize-winning scientist Thomas Hunt Morgan (a great-grandson).

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American professional baseball player Wally Pipp died on this day 60 years ago, aged 71.

 

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Maurice Gibb died on this day 22 years ago, aged 53.

- Maurice was the twin brother of Robin Gibb; he was the younger of the two. At the age of 5, he, Robin, and Barry Gibb would join two of their friends to form a child band known as The Rattlesnakes.

- In 1958, Maurice and his brothers would form The BGs- soon to become The Bee Gees. While he would sing with his brothers on their biggest hits, he would also have a short solo career- releasing only two songs alone: "Railroad" in 1970, and "Hold Her in Your Hand" in 1984:

- Maurice died suddenly in 2003 from cardiac arrest, a complication from surgery to treat his twisted intestine.

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On this day 1 year ago, Bill Hayes, who played Doug Williams on "Days of Our Lives", passed away at the age of 98.

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American playwright and writer Lorraine Hansberry died on this day 60 years ago, aged 34.

 

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Hubert Humphrey died on this day 47 years ago, aged 66.

- Humphrey's first major political role was being elected the mayor of Minneapolis in 1945; he ran in 1943 but narrowly lost. He would serve until 1948, when he ran for the US Senate and would flip the seat held by Republican senator Joseph Ball.

- Humphrey was a supporter of civil rights, which alienated him from the southern part of the Democratic Party. In 1964 he would be one of the co-authors of the Civil Rights Act bill, and later that year was chosen to be Lyndon B. Johnson's running mate; they beat the Goldwater-Miller ticket in an electoral landslide of 486-52.

- One of Humphrey's first acts as VP was attending the funeral of Winston Churchill while LBJ had the flu. Johnson reportedly asked 'Hubert who?' when requested to send him, and it led to this song being made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C11ZNuVSBMU

- Humphrey would announce his presidential campaign in the 1968 election after LBJ dropped out of the race. Unlike his opponents Robert F. Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy, he ran on a campaign supporting the continuation of the Vietnam War. Although he did not register to be included on any primary ballot, he would be named the Democratic nominee at the national convention, and named Edmund Muskie as his running mate. He would be defeated by Richard Nixon in the general election.

- Humphrey would be re-elected into the US Senate in 1970, serving until his death from bladder cancer in 1978 after a 4-year battle with the disease.

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Italian feminist writer and poet Sibilla Aleramo died on this day 65 years ago, aged 83.

 

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Alan Rickman died on this day 9 years ago, aged 69.

- Rickman's first major role was as Obadiah Slope in the 1982 miniseries The Barchester Chronicles. In 1987 he would receive a Tony nomination for his role as the Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and in 1988 had his breakout moment by starring as the main villain Hans Gruber in Die Hard:

- From there, Rickman would star in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves as the Sheriff of Nottingham, Colonel Brandon in the 1995 adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, Alexander Dane in Galaxy Quest, and (of course) Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies:

- Rickman would also do some voice acting work, most notably voicing Marvin the Paranoid Android in the 2005 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the caterpillar in Disney's Alice in Wonderland live-action remake, and King Philip (the misogynistic Renaissance Fair owner) in an episode of King of the Hill:

- Rickman was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2005, and had the organ removed in 2006. In 2015 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and died after a five-month battle.

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American All-Star right-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball Johnny Murphy died on this day 55 years ago, aged 61.

 

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Emperor Galba died on this day 1956 years ago, aged 70.

- Galba's full 'nomen' was Servius Sulpicius Galba, and was born to a notable political family. He would become a praetor in 30 CE, and was named a consul in 33. He would then leave politics for a military career, becoming a general.

- After Nero was claimed to have left the city of Rome in 68, Galba would be named emperor by the Roman Senate- the first emperor to not belong to the Julio-Claudian dynasty. He would quickly become unpopular among the general populace and the army due to his apparent greed, heavily taking money from conquered cities and keeping all of it to himself.

- At the beginning of 69, the army would rebel against Galba by proclaiming the governor of Germania Inferior (actually modern Belgium), Vitellius, the rightful emperor to the throne. He would quickly adopt a noble named Licinianus to be his heir, angering his comrade Otho, who believed he was the rightful successor. Otho would convince the Praetorian Guard to murder Galba, ending his reign after seven months. This would mark the start of the 'Year of Four Emperors'.

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Scottish actor Gordon Jackson died on this day 35 years ago, aged 66.