Death Anniversary Thread

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Alex Trebek died on this day 4 years ago, aged 80.

- Trebek started off as a radio news reporter for CBC, hosting its Music Hop segment beginning in 1963.

- Trebek would move to the US in 1973 to host the game show The Wizard of Odds, which would be followed by hosting gigs on shows that included High Rollers and Battlestars.

- In 1984, Trebek would begin hosting Jeopardy! (taking over from Art Fleming), hosting over 8,200 episodes over 36 years and earning eight Emmy Awards for it. He would also often guest star as fictionalized versions of himself on other shows, which included The Simpsons, Arthur, Rugrats and Family Guy:

- Trebek had two minor heart attacks in 2007 and 2012, before being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March of 2019. He would battle the disease for a year and a half. His final episode of Jeopardy! aired two months after he died.

- Trebek appeared on the DeathList only once, in 2020- the sixteenth of the twenty hits that year.

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American rhythm-and-blues singer, songwriter and pianist Ivory Joe Hunter died on this day 50 years ago, aged 60.

 

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Dylan Thomas died on this day 71 years ago, aged 39.

- Thomas dropped out of school to become a news journalist, and he would also provide poetry to the papers he contributed to.

- Thomas was initially unsuccessful in selling his poetry collections, and during World War II he would help produce films for the Ministry of Information. In the immediate aftermath he would become a screenwriter himself, with the most notable production of his being 1948's No Room at the Inn.

- In 1951, Thomas would make his magnum opus, the villanelle poem "Do not go gentle into that good night":

- During a trip to New York, Thomas caught a bout of pneumonia- this would cause his brain to swell due to a lack of oxygen, and he would fall into a coma, spending the last four days of his life unconscious.

[John "요한" Sulu 419]

2 years ago from yesterday, English actor Leslie Phillips passed away at the age of 98.

 

Photo Credit: Caroline Bonarde Ucci per Creative Commons license

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American motion picture and television actor Ed Kemmer died on this day 20 years ago, aged 83.

 

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Pope Leo I died on this day 1563 years ago, aged 61.

- Leo was ordained as a deacon by the 430s, and would be elected pope after the death of Sixtus III in 440.

- In 451, Leo would hold the Council of Chalcedon, the fourth ecumenical council in the Catholic Church's history. The following year, he would lead an embassy to the camp of Attila the Hun during his invasion of Italy, and would successfully convince him to spare Rome. However, he was unable to prevent a siege by the Vandals in 455.

- Leo was a staunch enemy of those who practiced Manichaeism (a major religion between the third and seventh centuries), and was also known to have had heretics confess to crimes via torture.

- Leo died after 21 years as pope, and would be succeeded by Pope Hilarius.

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American film director, screenwriter and actor Robert Kramer died on this day 25 years ago, aged 60.

 

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Queen Liliuokalani died on this day 107 years ago, aged 79.

- Liliuokalani was raised as a Protestant and was given the English name Lydia. She would be named the heir apparent to the Hawaiian throne in 1877, and would serve as regent when king Kalakaua was away on foreign trips. Among the events that occurred during her regencies were a smallpox epidemic in 1881 that she tried to minimize.

- Liliuokalani would become queen herself after Kalakaua's death in 1891. In 1893, she would propose a new constitution for the kingdom which would restore monarchial powers and give more voting rights to native Hawaiians- resulting in riots from foreign American residents, who quickly ousted Liliuokalani and ending the monarchy. Hawaii would be annexed by the US in 1898 (and given statehood in 1959).

- Following an 1895 attempt to restore the monarchy by her supporters, Liliuokalani would be placed under arrest but was freed and pardoned a year later. In 1909, she would attempt to sue the US government for her land back (citing the Fifth Amendment), but was denied as the Supreme Court did not view Hawaii as private property.

- Liliuokalani was also well-known for being a songwriter, with her most famous work being 1878's "Aloha 'Oe":

- Liliuokalani's last months saw her lose the use of her legs and being unable to remember her house, believed to have been complications that arose following a stroke.

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Palestinian political leader Yasser Arafat died on this day 20 years ago, aged 75.

 

 

 

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Duncan II of Scotland died on this day 930 years ago, aged 34.

- Duncan was a son of king Malcolm III, and it remains uncertain whether he was a legitimate or bastard child based on conflicting contemporary sources.

- When he was 12 years old, Duncan would be taken as a hostage by the English following an altercation between England and Scotland, and was raised as a member of William the Conqueror's court, receiving training as a knight. He was officially released after William's death in 1087 but decided to remain in England to serve William II.

- In early 1094, Duncan would lead an incursion into Scotland to oust his brother Donald III with the support of local nobles dissatisfied with him. He would reign for only six months before being killed in another battle, with Donald regaining the Scottish throne.

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American sprinter Wilma Rudolph died on this day 30 years ago, aged 54.

 

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Ol' Dirty Bastard died on this day 20 years ago, aged 35.

- ODB's real name was Russell Jones. His cousins (soon to be known as RZA and GZA) would form a hip hop group called Force of the Imperial Master in 1992, and when the three added six more members to the group the following year, the Wu-Tang Clan was formed.

- ODB would also have a solo career of his own, with his 1995 debut album Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version going platinum:

- ODB found himself marred by controversy in 1996 when he took his children to receive food stamps when he just received a $45,000 cash advance (and was receiving profit from his music sales), which partially led to the passing of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (which diminished welfare) that year.

- In 1998, ODB would abruptly crash the Grammy Awards by running on-stage, expecting to win the award for Best Rap Album (the nominee in question being Wu-Tang is Forever)- which he ended up losing to P. Diddy (in hindsight Wu-Tang Clan getting the win wouldn't have aged as poorly):

- ODB suffered from drug abuse throughout his adulthood, specifically with cocaine. He was arrested for illegal drug possession in 2001, and would end up dying of an overdose two days before his 36th birthday.

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American actress Dorothy Arnold died on this day 40 years ago, aged 66.

 

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Gottfried Leibniz died on this day 308 years ago, aged 70.

- Leibniz' father was the noted philosopher Friedrich Leibniz, who died when the younger Leibniz was a child. Part of his inheritance were the books owned by his father, and he would enter the field of philosophy himself, receiving his master's at just 17 years old.

- In 1673, Leibniz went to London to convene with the Royal Society, showing off a mechanical calculator he had built. He would also try to join the French Academy of Sciences, but was declined due to the group having a full quota on foreign members.

- Leibniz is best known for independently developing the mathematical branch of calculus starting in 1674 (and first publishing his work in 1684), which Isaac Newton was also doing at the time. This would lead to a feud between the two of them, with Newton and his friends in the Royal Society claiming he plagiarized from him. This dispute would last until Leibniz' death in 1716, but nowadays both are given credit.

 

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American college football player and film actor Johhny Mack Brown died on this day 50 years ago, aged 70.

 

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John Hanson died on this day 241 years ago, aged 62.

- Hanson's political career began in 1757 when he was elected to the Maryland General Assembly, serving until 1769. He was known for his opposition to British taxation such as the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts.

- During the American Revolution, Hanson worked as an army recruiter and was in charge of arming local Continental Army soldiers, and in 1777 would be elected to Maryland's new House of Delegates, becoming a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1779.

- Hanson would be elected as the president of the Continental Congress in 1781- but was the first officeholder to use the term 'President of the United States in Congress assembled'. Some debatably claim him to be the actual first US president- but there had already been seven previous officeholders, and this title was mostly just ceremonial. Hanson served in this role for a little under a year and died a year after leaving office.

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American actor of stage, screen and radio and film director Lionel Barrymore died on this day 70 years ago, aged 76.

 

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Henry III of England died on this day 752 years ago, aged 65.

- Henry was a son of King John, succeeding him as king when he died in 1216. As Henry was only 9 years old, he had a regency run the government, and would only take control in 1227.

- Henry would lead an invasion of France in 1230 which ended with England gaining nothing, and later in his reign he would try to form an alliance with Germany to put pressure on France. He did, however, become friends with French king Louis IX after the two of them went on the Seventh Crusade, with a notable development between their friendship was Louis gifting Henry a pet elephant.

- Dissatisfied nobles began to riot in 1258, which escalated into a full-scale civil war six years later. Henry would be captured by the forces of Simon de Montfort and was rescued by his son Edward, who killed Montfort in battle.

- Henry was well-known for his interest in architecture, notably leading renovations of Windsor Castle, the Tower of London, and Westminster Palace.

- Henry died after a 56-year reign, the longest of an English monarch at the time (surpassed by George III in 1816). He was succeeded by his son (the aforementioned) Edward I.

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American singer-songwriter Chet Powers died on this day 30 years ago, aged 57.

 

 

 

[John "요한" Sulu 419]

On this day 2 years ago, actor Robert Clary passed away at the age of 96.

[Drewsky1211 4,744]

Emperor Jomei died on this day 1383 years ago, aged 48.

- Jomei was a grandson of Emperor Bidatsu- and was the result of an incestuous relationship between half-siblings, meaning Bidatsu was his only grandfather. His name before ascension was 'Tamura'.

- Jomei became emperor of Japan in 628 following the death of his great-aunt Empress Suiko. His reign was notably mundane, with the most notable thing about it being how the members of his imperial court were divided into either being in support of him or against him, with a notable supporter being the head of the powerful Soga clan.

- One of Jomei's poems is known to have survived to the modern day, in which he wrote about climbing a mountain and looking down from the beautiful view.

- Jomei died after 13 years on the throne, and was succeeded as emperor by his wife Empress Kōgyoku.

[arghton 6,737]

Bal Thackeray, Indian Hindunationalist and right-wing politician died on this day 12 years ago, aged 86.

- Bal was born in 1926, the son of journalist and activist Prabodhankar Thackeray. Prabodhankar was a great admirer of novelist William Makepeace Thackeray and had changed his surname from Panvelkar to Thackeray.

- Prabodhankar was a proponent of Hindunationalism and greatly influenced Bal's views.

- Bal's career started in his 20s as a cartoonist in Mumbai paper Free Press Journal and he went on to launch his own cartoon weekly (Marmik) in 1960. 

- Marmik quickly grew popular with cartoons mocking government policies and highlighting the problems Marathi-speaking people face. Marmik's growth lead to Bal founding the Shiv Sena party in 1966. Shiv is a reference to 1600s Marathi Emperor Shivaji I, and Sena means army.

- Over the next decades Shiv Sena grew into a major power in Maharashtra. Initially it was somewhat apolitical, opposed the Communist Party's trade unions and demanded for preferential treatment of Marathi speakers in private and public sector jobs against South Indians.

- Starting from the 1970s Shiv Sena became increasingly ultranationalist and right-wing, inciting violence against Muslims, attacking rival parties and rival media. In 1992-1993 Shiv Sena organized the Bombay riots where 575 Muslims were killed. 

During those years he stated, in two different interviews:

There is nothing wrong if Muslims are treated as Jews were in Nazi Germany.

If you take Mein Kampf and if you remove the word 'Jew' and put in the word 'Muslim', that is what I believe in.

 

- By the 2000s he had largely given power to his son, Uddhav Thackeray. However, he kept issuing statements and attending events until his last year. 

- Bal suffered from heart problems since 2009 and was hospitalised multiple times with heart and lung problems during his last months. On the 12th of November 2012 he issued his last statement denying he is on ventilator support, dying five days later.

- Bal's death immediately caused chaos in Maharashtra, the entire state put on high alert with Shiv Sena members forcing shop owners to close down. Bal's funeral had an estimated 1-2 million attendees.

 

And an interesting fact to end this post: Bal met Michael Jackson during the King of Pop's only visit to India. 

Thackeray reportedly said, "Jackson is a great artist, and we must accept him as an artist. His movements are terrific. Not many people can that way. You will end up breaking your bones."

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English film actor Clive Brook died on this day 50 years ago, aged 87.

 

 

[Drewsky1211 4,744]

Cab Calloway died on this day 30 years ago, aged 86.

- Before going professional in music, Calloway would join a Black basketball team known as the Baltimore Athenians.

- Calloway would meet Louis Armstrong in Chicago, who would teach him how to perform scat music. His first band was called the Alabamians, and when they broke up, he would join another state-named band called the Missourians- soon to lose that moniker as it was retitled 'Cab Calloway and His Orchestra'.

- Calloway had a breakout success with 1931's "Minnie the Moocher", which soon became his signature song and was the first song by an African-American singer to sell one million copies:

 

During this time, Fleischer Studios would have him perform, where they would rotoscope his movements for animation in three Betty Boop shorts and have him voice characters (possibly the first instance of celebrity voice acting in cartoons):

- Calloway also had an acting career lasting almost 50 years, with his most notable appearances being in The Singing Kid (where he chastises Al Jolson), Stormy Weather, and his final film being his most well-remembered- The Blues Brothers, where he sang his signature song once more for a new generation:

His final new work was appearing in the music video for Janet Jackson's song "Alright" in 1990:

 

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American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Doug Sahm died on this day 25 years ago, aged 58.