Historical Archives & Public Figures

Clodomiro Picado Twight

Costa Rica

1887-04-17 – 1944-04-22 (57 years old)

World-renowned Costa Rican toxicologist and immunologist who pioneered antivenom serums for viper bites and observed the antibiotic properties of Penicillium sp. moulds years before Alexander Fleming's industrialization.

San José, Costa Rica

1 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

10

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Stephen Leacock

Stephen Butler Leacock

Great Britain

1869 – 1944 (74 years old)

Canada's most celebrated literary humorist and political economist at McGill University, whose 1912 masterpiece Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town lovingly immortalized small-town Canadian life.

Sutton (Georgina, Ontario), Canada

10 Full Record →

History

5

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Pierre Brossolette

France

1903 – 1944 (40 years old)

Heroic intellectual leader of the French Resistance and stirring voice of Radio Londres who united northern resistance networks with Free France and gave his life by jumping from a Gestapo window to protect his comrades.

Paris, France

5 Full Record →

Politics

1

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Pehr Evind Svinhufvud

Pehr Evind Svinhufvud af Qvalstad

Finland

1861 – 1944 (82 years old)

Legendary statesman affectionately known as 'Ukko-Pekka' who chaired the Senate that declared Finnish independence on December 6, 1917, and single-handedly halted the 1932 fascist Mäntsälä rebellion via radio.

Luumäki, South Karelia, Finland

1 Full Record →

Science

3

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Leo Baekeland

Leo Hendrik Baekeland

Belgium

1863 – 1944 (80 years old)

Ghent-born chemist revered as the 'Father of the Plastics Industry' who invented Bakelite (1907), the world's first synthetic thermosetting plastic, and Velox photographic printing paper.

Sleepy Hollow (New York), United States

3 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

34

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Marcel Rayman

Marcel Rajman

Poland

1923 – 1944 (20 years old)

Polish-Jewish partisan and elite commando in the FTP-MOI 'Manouchian Group' in Paris, celebrated for daring assassinations of Nazi occupation commanders.

Suresnes, France

34 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

41

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Missak Manouchian

Միսաք Մանուշյան

Turkey

1 September 1906 – 21 February 2024 (Panthéonised) (37 years old)

Armenian poet, genocide survivor, and communist militant who led the immigrant partisans (FTP-MOI) in occupied Paris, demonized on the Nazi propaganda 'Affiche Rouge' and executed with 22 comrades at Mont-Valérien.

Fort Mont-Valérien, Suresnes, France

41 Full Record →

Arts & Music

1,297

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Piet Mondrian

Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan

Netherlands

1872 – 1944 (71 years old)

Dutch pioneer of 20th-century abstract art and co-founder of De Stijl, celebrated for his geometric Neoplastic grids.

Brooklyn, New York, United States

1,297 Full Record →

Arts & Music

37

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Edvard Munch

Norway

12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944 (80 years old)

Norwegian master painter and printmaker whose psychological series The Frieze of Life—anchored by the immortal, harrowing icon The Scream (1893)—expressed modern humanity's existential dread, alienation, and raw psychological trauma.

Ekely (Oslo), Norway

37 Full Record →

History

3

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Walthère Dewé

Walthère Joseph Dewé

Belgium

1880 – 1944 (63 years old)

Legendary leader of Belgian secret intelligence who directed the 'Dame Blanche' network in World War I providing 75% of Allied railway intelligence, and founded the 'Clarence' network in World War II.

Liège, Belgium

3 Full Record →

Prophets & Divine Messengers

7

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Nuwa Mbaguta

Uganda

1867-01-01 – 1944-01-01 (77 years old)

Visionary Enganzi (Prime Minister) of the Kingdom of Ankole (1900–1937) who modernized western Uganda, established Mbarara High School, and pioneered eucalyptus afforestation.

Mbarara, Uganda

7 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

14

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Ahmed Ould Deid

أحمد ولد الديد

Mauritania

1880 – 1944 (64 years old)

Formidable Emir of the Trarza and master Saharan cavalry strategist who led the armed resistance against French colonial occupation, annihilating colonial columns at the Battle of El-Albe in 1908.

Mederdra, Mauritania

14 Full Record →

Arts & Music

35

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Fats Waller

Thomas Wright Waller

United States

1904 – 1943 (39 years old)

American jazz pianist, organist, and entertainer who perfected Harlem stride piano and composed enduring American standards including 'Ain't Misbehavin'' and 'Honeysuckle Rose'.

Kansas City, United States

35 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

9

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Charles G. D. Roberts

Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts

Canada

1860 – 1943 (83 years old)

Regarded as the 'Father of Canadian Poetry', who led the Confederation Poets with Orion (1880) and invented the modern realistic animal story in works like Red Fox and Earth's Enigmas.

Fredericton (New Brunswick), Canada

9 Full Record →

Arts & Music

35

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Maurice Denis

France

1870 – 1943 (72 years old)

Theoretician of Les Nabis whose 1890 definition of a painting ('a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order') became the foundation of 20th-century abstract art theory.

Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France

35 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

9

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Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau

Saint-Denys Garneau

Canada

13 June 1912 – 24 October 1943 (31 years old)

Visionary Quebec poet and painter whose 1937 collection Regards et jeux dans l'espace broke classical molds to establish modern French-Canadian poetry.

Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier, Canada

9 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

9

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Saint-Denys Garneau

Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau

Canada

1912 – 1943 (31 years old)

Pioneering Quebec modernist poet whose 1937 collection Regards et jeux dans l'espace introduced free verse, existential interiority, and ascetic beauty to French-Canadian poetry.

Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier, Canada

9 Full Record →