Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Statesmanship & Statesmen

38

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Patrice Lumumba

Patrice Émery Lumumba

Congo

1925-07-02 – 1961-01-17 (35 years old)

Martyr for African freedom, resource sovereignty, and genuine anti-colonial self-determination.

Near Élisabethville (Lubumbashi), Congo

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Politics

1

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Jean-Félix Tchicaya

Jean-Felix Tchicaya

Gabon

1903-11-09 – 1961-01-16 (57 years old)

First Congolese deputy elected to the French National Assembly in 1945, founder of the Parti Progressiste Congolais (PPC), and co-founder of the RDA in Bamako.

Pointe-Noire, Congo

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Politics

1

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Félix Tchicaya

Jean-Félix Tchicaya

Gabon

1903-11-09 – 1961-01-15 (57 years old)

First Congolese deputy elected to the French Parliament in 1945 and co-founder of the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA) alongside Houphouët-Boigny, founding the Parti Progressiste Congolais.

Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo

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Humanitarian & Peace

35

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Emily Greene Balch

Emily Greene Balch

United States

1867 – 1961 (94 years old)

Économiste, sociologue et pacifiste américaine, dirigeante de la Ligue internationale des femmes pour la paix et la liberté, Nobel de la paix 1946.

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

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Literature & Poetry

20

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Bayram al-Tunisi

بيرم التونسي

Egypt

March 23, 1893 – January 5, 1961 (67 years old)

Genius Egyptian colloquial poet, satirical journalist, and lyricist of Tunisian descent whose razor-sharp street verse exposed colonial hypocrisy, social injustice, and penned the most sublime romantic lyrics for Umm Kulthum.

Cairo, Egypt

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Sciences & Discovery

37

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Erwin Schrödinger

Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger

Austria

12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961 (73 years old)

Austrian Nobel laureate who created quantum wave mechanics, formulated the Schrödinger wave equation governing wavefunctions, and proposed the celebrated Schrödinger's cat thought experiment.

Vienna, Austria

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Politics

1

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C. D. Howe

Minister of Everything

United States

15 January 1886 – 31 December 1960 (74 years old)

Colossal Canadian nation-builder and MIT-trained engineer who mobilized Canada's wartime industry and created Trans-Canada Air Lines (Air Canada) and the CBC.

Montreal, Canada

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Politics

0

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Girmame Neway

Girmame Neway

Ethiopia

1924 – 1960 (36 years old)

Brilliant intellectual and Columbia University graduate whose reformist governorships in Wolayta and Jijiga challenged feudal land tenure, masterminding the 1960 modernization coup to bring social justice to Ethiopia.

Mojo, Oromia, Ethiopia

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Politics

0

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Ras Abebe Aregai

Abebe Aregai

Ethiopia

1903 – 1960 (57 years old)

Supreme leader of the Arbegnoch patriot resistance who commanded guerrilla forces in the mountains of Shewa throughout the five-year Italian fascist occupation, later serving as Prime Minister of Ethiopia.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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Politics

1

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Hashim al-Atassi

هاشم الأتاسي

Syria

1875 – 5 December 1960 (85 years old)

Venerated 'Father of Syrian Independence' who served three times as President and led the National Bloc against the French Mandate.

Homs, Syria

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Literature & Poetry

35

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Richard Wright

Richard Nathaniel Wright

United States

1908 – 1960 (52 years old)

Pioneering African American author whose raw, powerful masterpieces Native Son and Black Boy shattered racial taboos and changed the course of American literature.

Paris, France

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Politics

1

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María Teresa Mirabal

Antonia María Teresa Mirabal Reyes

Dominican Republic

1935-10-15 – 1960-11-25 (25 years old)

Youngest of the three martyred Mirabal Sisters ('Las Mariposas'), a gifted surveyor student whose diary entries chronicling her underground resistance and brutal prison confinement immortalized her sweet and unyielding courage.

Ojo de Agua, Salcedo, Dominican Republic

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Politics

2

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Minerva Mirabal

María Argentina Minerva Mirabal Reyes

Dominican Republic

1926-03-12 – 1960-11-25 (34 years old)

Brilliant, fearless revolutionary leader of the Mirabal Sisters and co-founder of the 14th of June Movement, who studied law in defiance of Trujillo and famously declared: 'If they kill me, I will reach my arms out of the grave and I will be stronger.'

Ojo de Agua, Salcedo, Dominican Republic

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Politics

1

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Patria Mirabal

Aída Patria Mercedes Mirabal Reyes

Dominican Republic

1924-02-27 – 1960-11-25 (36 years old)

Eldest of the heroic Mirabal Sisters ('Las Mariposas') whose brutal assassination by Trujillo's dictatorship on November 25, 1960, triggered the fall of the regime and inspired the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Ojo de Agua, Salcedo, Dominican Republic

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Politics

6

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Félix-Roland Moumié

Felix-Roland Moumie

Cameroon

1925-11-01 – 1960-11-03 (35 years old)

Charismatic Cameroonian physician and President of the UPC who led international diplomacy for Cameroon's liberation before being assassinated with thallium by the French secret service in Geneva.

Conakry, Guinea

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History

0

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Dimitri Mitropoulos

Dimitri Mitropoulos

Greece

1896 – 1960 (64 years old)

World-renowned Greek conductor, pianist, and composer who served as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic.

Athens, Greece

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Arts & Music

3

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Vladimir Dimitrov-Maystora

Владимир Димитров - Майстора

Bulgaria

1882-02-01 – 1960-09-29 (78 years old)

Beloved painter known as 'Maystora' (The Master) whose radiant, colorful portraits of Kyustendil peasant girls holding red apples in sunlit orchards became icons of Bulgarian fine art.

Sofia, Bulgaria

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Politics

1

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Mahmoud Harbi

Maxamuud Xarbi Faarax

Djibouti

1921-01-01 – 1960-09-29 (39 years old)

Charismatic anti-colonial nationalist who served as Vice-President of the Government Council of French Somaliland and campaigned passionately for immediate independence in the 1958 referendum.

Ali Sabieh, Djibouti

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