Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Sports & Athletics

46

🕯️ 0

Louis Chiron

Louis Alexandre Chiron

Monaco

1899 – 1979 (79 years old)

Monégasque Grand Prix racing driver who dominated 1930s European racing for Bugatti and Alfa Romeo, won the 1931 Monaco Grand Prix, and remains the oldest driver to start a Formula One World Championship race.

Monaco, Monaco

46 Full Record →

Music

1

🕯️ 0

Ahmad Zahir

احمد ظاهر

Afghanistan

1946-06-14 – 1979-06-14 (33 years old)

Legendary cultural icon and pop superstar celebrated as the 'Elvis of Afghanistan' whose soulful fusion of classical Persian poetry (Rumi, Hafez) with modern pop and rock rhythms remains universally beloved.

Kabul, Afghanistan

1 Full Record →

Art

1

🕯️ 0

Mary Pickford

America's Sweetheart

Canada

8 April 1892 – 29 May 1979 (87 years old)

Toronto-born silent cinema icon, first superstar of world cinema, who co-founded United Artists Studio and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Glendale, United States

1 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

36

🕯️ 0

Asa Philip Randolph

A. Philip Randolph

United States

1889 – 1979 (90 years old)

Patriarche du mouvement ouvrier et des droits civiques afro-américains, fondateur du premier syndicat noir reconnu (BSCP) et initiateur de la Marche sur Washington de 1963.

Washington, D.C., United States

36 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

5

🕯️ 0

Louis Paul Boon

Lodewijk Paul Aalbrecht Boon

Belgium

1912 – 1979 (67 years old)

Towering twentieth-century Flemish novelist and social rebel whose monumental modernist masterpiece De Kapellekensbaan (Chapel Road, 1953) revolutionized the novel with multivocal narrative and working-class solidarity.

Aalst (East Flanders), Belgium

5 Full Record →

Art

1

🕯️ 0

Yoryi Morel

Jorge Octavio Morel Tavares

Dominican Republic

1906-10-25 – 1979-04-14 (72 years old)

Foremost Dominican costumbrista painter whose vibrant, sun-drenched impressionist brushwork celebrated the rural landscapes, cockfights, merengue dances, and everyday folk rituals of the fertile Cibao valley.

Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic

1 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

8

🕯️ 0

Mohamed Akid

محمد علي عقيد

Tunisia

1949 – 1979 (29 years old)

Legendary striker who scored the decisive goals qualifying Tunisia for the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina—the first African nation ever to win a World Cup match—and led CS Sfaxien to league glory.

Sfax, Tunisia

8 Full Record →

Statesmanship & Statesmen

37

🕯️ 550

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

ذوالفقار علی بھٹو

Pakistan

1928-01-05 – 1979-04-04 (51 years old)

Drafted the enduring 1973 Constitution of Pakistan, secured the return of 93,000 prisoners of war via the Simla Agreement, and pioneered Islamic socialist populism.

Rawalpindi, Pakistan

37 Full Record →

Statesmanship & Statesmen

35

🕯️ 770

Jean Monnet

Jean Omer Marie Gabriel Monnet

France

1888-11-09 – 1979-03-16 (90 years old)

Chief architect of European integration, pioneered functional economic cooperation that transformed historic national rivalries into lasting peace.

Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, France

35 Full Record →

Politics

1

🕯️ 0

W. A. C. Bennett

William Andrew Cecil Bennett

Canada

6 September 1900 – 23 February 1979 (78 years old)

Longest-serving Premier of British Columbia (1952-1972) who built BC Hydro, BC Ferries, and the colossal Peace and Columbia River mega-dams.

Kelowna, Canada

1 Full Record →

Arts & Music

16

🕯️ 0

Seif Wanly

سيف وانلي

Egypt

1906 – 1979 (72 years old)

Pioneering Egyptian modernist painter who introduced Italian futurist dynamism and vibrant chromatic cubism to Alexandria, documenting Nubian culture prior to the flooding of Lake Nasser.

Alexandria, Egypt

16 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

29

🕯️ 0

Dennis Gabor

Gábor Dénes

Austria

1900 – 1979 (78 years old)

Hungarian-British electrical engineer and physicist who invented holography in 1947, earning the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics for pioneering three-dimensional optical imaging.

London, United Kingdom

29 Full Record →

Religious Figures & Theologians

34

🕯️ 0

Mohamed Salah Ben Mrad

محمد الصالح بن مراد

Tunisia

1881 – 1979 (98 years old)

Venerated Grand Sheikh al-Islam of the Hanafi rite in Tunis and professor at Ez-Zitouna for four decades, author of the influential intellectual treatise Al-Hidad ala Imra'at al-Haddad.

Tunis, Tunisia

34 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

3

🕯️ 0

Victoria Ocampo

Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo

Argentina

1890-04-07 – 1979-01-27 (88 years old)

Colossal cultural patron, essayist, and feminist who founded the legendary literary magazine Sur in 1931, bridging Latin American literature with world modernism and hosting Tagore and Camus at Villa Ocampo.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

3 Full Record →

Politics

0

🕯️ 0

Paul-Marie Yembit

Paul-Marie Yembit

Gabon

1917 – 1979 (61 years old)

Foundational statesman from the Bapounou people who served as the first Vice-President of independent Gabon (1961–1966) alongside President Léon M'ba, ensuring national political and regional equilibrium.

Ndendé, Ngounié, Gabon

0 Full Record →

Music

1

🕯️ 0

Mbaraka Mwinshehe

Mbaraka Mwinshehe Mwaruka

Tanzania

1944-06-27 – 1979-01-12 (34 years old)

Virtuoso solo guitarist and singer who led the Morogoro Jazz Band and Orchestra Super Volcano, celebrated as one of East Africa's greatest guitar innovators.

Morogoro, Tanzania

1 Full Record →

Arts & Music

2,969

🕯️ 80

Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus Jr.

United States

1922 – 1979 (56 years old)

Towering jazz double bassist, composer, and bandleader whose fiercely passionate compositions fused blues, gospel, and third-stream jazz.

Varanasi, India

2,969 Full Record →

Arts & Music

5

🕯️ 0

Abdelhalim Hemche

عبد الحليم همش

Algeria

1906 – 1979 (72 years old)

Pioneering academic painter from Tlemcen, graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, renowned for his luminous canvases depicting Zayyanid monuments and folkloric traditions.

Tlemcen, Algeria

5 Full Record →