Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Sciences & Discovery

2,172

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Neil Armstrong

Neil Alden Armstrong

United States

1930 – 2012 (82 years old)

American naval aviator, test pilot, and Apollo 11 commander who became the first human being to step onto the Moon.

Atlantic Ocean, United States

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Arts & Music

11

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Jean-Luc Delarue

Jean-Luc Delarue

France

1964 – 2012 (48 years old)

Influential French television presenter and media producer dubbed the 'golden boy of French television' who revolutionized conversational talk shows with his landmark program 'Ça se discute' and production company Réservoir Prod.

Thiais, France

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Sciences & Discovery

15

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William Thurston

William Paul Thurston

United States

1946 – 2012 (65 years old)

Brilliant American mathematician who revolutionized low-dimensional topology and differential geometry, formulating the geometrization conjecture for 3-manifolds and winning the 1982 Fields Medal.

Rochester, United States

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Arts & Music

12

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Phyllis Diller

Phyllis Ada Driver

United States

1917 – 2012 (95 years old)

Trailblazing American stand-up comedian whose wild hair, outrageous wardrobe, rapid-fire self-deprecating wit, and cackling laugh shattered barriers for women in stand-up comedy.

Los Angeles, United States

12 Full Record →

Statesmanship & Statesmen

16

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Meles Zenawi

መለስ ዜናዊ አስረስ

Ethiopia

1955 – 2012 (57 years old)

Prime Minister of Ethiopia from 1995 to 2012 who led the rebel overthrow of the Marxist Derg military dictatorship and steered Ethiopia through unprecedented double-digit economic expansion.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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Arts & Music

10

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Tony Scott

Anthony David Leighton Scott

Great Britain

1944 – 2012 (68 years old)

Dynamic British film director and younger brother of Ridley Scott, whose kinetic editing, saturated colors, and high-octane energy created Top Gun, Crimson Tide, and True Romance.

Los Angeles, United States

10 Full Record →

Arts & Music

11

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William Windom

William Windom

United States

1923 – 2012 (88 years old)

Distinguished American character actor and decorated World War II paratrooper who won an Emmy Award for 'My World and Welcome to It', immortalized as the tormented Commodore Decker in 'Star Trek' and Dr. Seth Hazlitt in 'Murder, She Wrote'.

Orcas Island, United States

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Sports & Athletics

14

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Johnny Pesky

John Michael Paveskovich

United States

1919 – 2012 (92 years old)

Beloved Boston Red Sox player, manager, coach, and goodwill ambassador whose sixty-year association with Fenway Park made him 'Mr. Red Sox' and gave his name to Fenway's right-field foul pole, 'Pesky's Pole'.

Lakewood, United States

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Arts & Music

10

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Marvin Hamlisch

Marvin Frederick Hamlisch

United States

1944 – 2012 (68 years old)

Virtuoso American composer and conductor, one of only two people in history (with Richard Rodgers) to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony, and the Pulitzer Prize (PEGOT), famed for 'The Way We Were' and 'A Chorus Line'.

Maspeth, United States

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Literature & Poetry

13

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Robert Hughes

Robert Studley Forrest Hughes

Australia

1938 – 2012 (74 years old)

Australian art critic and author who served as Time magazine's chief art critic for three decades, celebrated for his landmark BBC television history of modern art The Shock of the New.

New York City, United States

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Arts & Music

12

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Chavela Vargas

María Isabel Anita Carmen de Jesús Vargas Lizano

Costa Rica

1919 – 2012 (93 years old)

Legendary Costa Rican-born Mexican singer whose raw, smoking, gravelly renditions of Mexican ranchera songs, defiance of gender conventions, and close friendship with Frida Kahlo made her an icon of Latin American culture.

Tepoztlán, Mexico

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Literature & Poetry

12

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John Keegan

Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan

Great Britain

1934 – 2012 (77 years old)

Preeminent British military historian whose 1976 classic The Face of Battle transformed military historiography by examining combat through the visceral sensory experience of the frontline soldier.

Kilmington, United Kingdom

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Literature & Poetry

13

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Gore Vidal

Eugene Luther Gore Vidal

United States

1925 – 2012 (86 years old)

Iconic American novelist, essayist, and razor-witted public intellectual whose historical novels (Lincoln, Burr) and piercing political critiques dissected the American empire.

Washington, D.C., United States

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Literature & Poetry

14

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Maeve Binchy

Maeve Binchy Snell

Ireland

1939 – 2012 (73 years old)

Warm and beloved Irish novelist, journalist, and columnist whose compassionate portrayals of rural and small-town Irish life in Circle of Friends and Tara Road sold over 40 million books worldwide.

Dublin, Ireland

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Arts & Music

12

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Chris Marker

Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve

France

1921 – 2012 (91 years old)

Enigmatic and visionary French filmmaker, photographer, and multimedia artist who invented the modern cinematic essay and created the sci-fi photomontage classic La Jetée (1962).

Paris, France

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Arts & Music

10

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Dianne Foster

Olga Helen Laruska

Canada

1928 – 2012 (83 years old)

Canadian-born Hollywood film and television actress who starred opposite major legends including Jimmy Stewart, Charlton Heston, and Mickey Rooney in 1950s classics like 'The Kentuckian' and 'Night Passage'.

Glendale, United States

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Arts & Music

11

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Lupe Ontiveros

Guadalupe Moreno

United States

1942 – 2012 (69 years old)

Trailblazing Hispanic-American actress who estimated she played maids over 150 times while fearlessly fighting Hollywood ethnic stereotyping, acclaimed for her chilling turn as Yolanda Saldívar in Selena.

Whittier, United States

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Statesmanship & Statesmen

20

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John Atta Mills

John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills

Ghana

1944 – 2012 (68 years old)

President of Ghana from 2009 to 2012, an esteemed tax law professor revered as 'Asomdweehene' (King of Peace) who solidified Ghana's reputation as a beacon of stable democracy in West Africa.

Accra, Ghana

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