Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Sports & Athletics

9

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James Naismith

Father of Basketball

Canada

6 November 1861 – 28 November 1939 (78 years old)

Almonte, Ontario-born educator and doctor who invented basketball in December 1891 with two peach baskets and thirteen fundamental rules.

Lawrence, United States

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Politics

1

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Daudi Chwa II

Daudi Chwa

Uganda

1896-08-08 – 1939-11-22 (43 years old)

Kabaka of Buganda (1897–1939) who ascended the throne at one year old and skillfully steered his kingdom through the 1900 Buganda Agreement, preserving indigenous governance.

Kampala, Uganda

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Humanitarian & Peace

39

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Henry Norman Bethune

Norman Bethune (白求恩)

Canada

1890 – 1939 (49 years old)

Chirurgien thoracique canadien visionnaire, créateur de la première unité mobile de transfusion sanguine en Espagne et héros médical en Chine.

Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China

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Politics

2

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Charlotte Maxeke

Charlotte Makgomo Manye

South Africa

1871-04-07 – 1939-10-16 (68 years old)

Pioneering educator and civil rights titan revered as the 'Mother of Black Freedom', the first Black South African woman to earn a university degree (BSc, Wilberforce University, 1901).

Johannesburg, South Africa

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Literature & Poetry

8

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Olav Duun

Ole Julius Duun

Norway

1876-11-21 – 1939-09-13 (62 years old)

Master Norwegian novelist writing in Nynorsk who chronicled the transition from ancient clan morality to modern conscience in his six-volume masterpiece The People of Juvika.

Holmestrand, Norway

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Politics

1

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Germán Busch

Germán Busch Becerra

Bolivia

1903-03-23 – 1939-08-23 (36 years old)

Charismatic Chaco War hero and military socialist President of Bolivia who promulgated the 1938 progressive Constitution and forced tin oligarchs to surrender foreign exchange to the State.

La Paz, Bolivia

1 Full Record →

Art

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Alphonse Mucha

Alfons Maria Mucha

Austria

1860-07-24 – 1939-07-14 (78 years old)

World-renowned titan of Art Nouveau whose posters for Sarah Bernhardt defined Parisian Belle Époque visual style, and who dedicated eighteen years to his monumental twenty-canvas masterpiece 'The Slav Epic'.

Prague, Czech Republic

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Arts & Music

24

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Cheikh El Afrit

الشيخ العفريت

Tunisia

1897 – July 2, 1939 (42 years old)

Renowned Tunisian Jewish singer and oud virtuoso whose mastery of Andalusian malouf, witty popular songs, and soulful delivery made him a legendary fixture of the royal Bardo court and 1930s café culture.

Tunis, Tunisia

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Politics

1

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Mehmed Spaho

Mehmed Spaho

Bosnia and Herzegovina

1883-03-13 – 1939-06-29 (56 years old)

Foremost political leader of Bosnian Muslims between the World Wars who headed the Yugoslav Muslim Organization (JMO) and defended the territorial integrity and historical borders of Bosnia.

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

1 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

32

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Grace Abbott

Grace Abbott

United States

1878 – 1939 (60 years old)

Champion of immigrants' rights and child welfare who directed the Immigrants' Protective League, led the federal enforcement of the first federal child labor laws, and helped draft the historic Social Security Act of 1935.

Grand Island (Nebraska), United States

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Literature & Poetry

2

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Ercilia Pepín

Ercilia Pepín Estrella

Dominican Republic

1884-12-07 – 1939-06-14 (54 years old)

Trailblazing educator and feminist who became school principal at age twenty, introduced school uniforms and women's physical education, and led fierce civic protests against the 1916–1924 United States military occupation.

Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic

2 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

1

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Volter Kilpi

Volter Adalbert Eriksen

Finland

1874 – 1939 (64 years old)

Towering modernist prose innovator hailed as the 'Finnish James Joyce' whose monumental 1933 novel 'In the Parlour at Albatross' (Albatrossin tarinassa) explored stream of consciousness in an archipelago village.

Kustavi, Southwest Finland, Finland

1 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

6

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Joseph Roth

Moses Joseph Roth

Austria

1894-09-02 – 1939-05-27 (44 years old)

Celebrated novelist and journalist whose supreme masterpiece 'Radetzkymarsch' (1932) captured the elegiac, multi-ethnic twilight and downfall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

Thiais, Paris, France

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Science

2

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S.P.L. Sørensen

Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen

Denmark

1868-01-09 – 1939-02-12 (71 years old)

Prominent Danish chemist who served as head of the Carlsberg Laboratory and introduced the universal pH scale in 1909 to measure hydrogen ion concentration.

Copenhagen, Denmark

2 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

42

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William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats

Ireland

13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939 (73 years old)

Supreme Irish lyric poet and 1923 Nobel laureate who spearheaded the Irish Literary Revival, co-founded the Abbey Theatre with Lady Gregory, and chronicled the turbulent birth of modern Ireland in Easter, 1916 and The Second Coming.

Menton (French Riviera), France

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Sports & Athletics

41

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Matthias Sindelar

Matthias Šindelář

Czech Republic

1903 – 1939 (35 years old)

Austrian football virtuoso known as 'Der Papierene' (The Paper Man), center-forward and captain of Hugo Meisl's 'Wunderteam' who defied the Nazi annexation of Austria.

Vienna, Austria

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Arts & Music

7

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Mohamed Ben Ali R'bati

محمد بن علي الرباطي

Morocco

1861 – 1939 (78 years old)

Recognized as Morocco's earliest modern easel and watercolor painter, whose enchanting figurative scenes of Tangier and traditional life were exhibited at the Goupil Gallery in London in 1916.

Tangier, Morocco

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Literature & Poetry

40

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Osip Mandelstam

Осип Эмильевич Мандельштам

Russia

1891 – 1938 (47 years old)

Foremost Russian Acmeist poet and martyr whose collections Stone and Tristia, and fatal 'Stalin Epigram', made him an eternal symbol of artistic integrity.

Vladivostok, Russia

40 Full Record →