Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Literature & Poetry

1

🕯️ 0

Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda

Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga

Cuba

1814-03-23 – 1873-02-01 (58 years old)

Brilliant lyric poet and dramatist of the Romantic era whose groundbreaking 1841 novel 'Sab' was the first abolitionist novel in the Spanish language, published a decade before 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'.

Seville, Spain

1 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

7

🕯️ 0

Aleksis Kivi

Alexis Stenvall

Finland

1834-10-10 – 1872-12-31 (38 years old)

National author of Finland and creator of modern Finnish prose who wrote the first major novel in the Finnish language, Seitsemän veljestä (Seven Brothers), and the comedy Nummisuutarit.

Tuusula, Finland

7 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

33

🕯️ 0

Mary Somerville

Mary Fairfax Somerville

Scotland

1780 – 1872 (91 years old)

Scottish polymath, astronomer, and mathematician whose 1834 masterpiece 'On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences' united astronomy, physics, and chemistry, inspiring William Whewell to coin the word 'scientist' in her review.

Naples, Italy

33 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

40

🕯️ 0

Théophile Gautier

Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier

France

1811 – 1872 (61 years old)

Pioneering French poet, critic, and novelist who formulated the aesthetic doctrine of 'Art for Art's sake' (l'art pour l'art) in Mademoiselle de Maupin and Émaux et Camées.

Paris, France

40 Full Record →

Statesmanship & Statesmen

38

🕯️ 0

William H. Seward

William Henry Seward

United States

1801 – 1872 (71 years old)

Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State who prevented European intervention during the Civil War, survived an assassination attempt, and engineered the 1867 purchase of Alaska.

Auburn, New York, United States

38 Full Record →

Politics

3

🕯️ 0

John Ezzidio

Ezzidio

Nigeria

1810-01-01 – 1872-10-01 (62 years old)

Visionary Nupe merchant and church leader who was rescued from a slave ship and became the first African elected to the Sierra Leone Legislative Council in 1863.

Freetown, Sierra Leone

3 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

11

🕯️ 0

N.F.S. Grundtvig

Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig

Denmark

1783-09-08 – 1872-09-02 (88 years old)

Colossal Danish philosopher, bishop, and educational reformer who created the Folk High School movement, wrote over 1,500 hymns, and shaped modern democratic Danish identity.

Køge, Denmark

11 Full Record →

Statesmanship & Statesmen

32

🕯️ 0

Benito Juarez

Benito Pablo Juarez Garcia

Mexico

1806 – 1872 (66 years old)

First indigenous President of Mexico (1858–1872), full-blooded Zapotec lawyer who enacted 'La Reforma' separating church and state, defeated French imperial invasion under Emperor Maximilian, and defended Mexican democratic sovereignty, hailed as 'Benemérito de las Américas'.

Mexico City, Mexico

32 Full Record →

Statesmanship & Statesmen

37

🕯️ 730

Benito Juárez

Benito Pablo Juárez García

Mexico

1806-03-21 – 1872-07-18 (66 years old)

Benemérito de las Américas (Meritorious of the Americas); cemented secular republicanism, indigenous legal equality, and national sovereignty against imperialist intervention.

Mexico City, Mexico

37 Full Record →

Music

3

🕯️ 0

Stanislaw Moniuszko

Станіслаў Манюшка

Belarus

1819-05-05 – 1872-06-04 (53 years old)

Composer, organist, and musical father of national opera who grew up in Ubiel and Minsk, composing operas ('Halka', 'The Haunted Manor') and cantatas infused with Belarusian and Polish folk songs.

Warsaw, Poland

3 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

1

🕯️ 0

Ljudevit Gaj

Ljudevit Gaj

Croatia

1809-07-08 – 1872-04-20 (62 years old)

Pioneering linguist, politician, and newspaper editor who sparked the Croatian National Revival (Illyrian Movement) and standardized the Croatian Latin alphabet with diacritics (č, ć, ž, š, đ).

Zagreb, Croatia

1 Full Record →

Politics

5

🕯️ 0

Oba Kosoko

Kosoko

Nigeria

1800-01-01 – 1872-04-15 (72 years old)

Oba of Lagos (1845–1851) who fortified Lagos with coastal artillery and heroically defended the island during the British naval Bombardment of Lagos on Boxing Day 1851.

Lagos, Nigeria

5 Full Record →

Arts & Music

8

🕯️ 0

Cornelius Krieghoff

Cornelius David Krieghoff

Netherlands

1815 – 1872 (56 years old)

Nineteenth-century European-born painter whose detailed, colorful depictions of French-Canadian habitants, Indigenous hunters, and winter sleigh scenes became defining images of early Canadian settler life.

Chicago, United States

8 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

6

🕯️ 0

Franz Grillparzer

Franz Seraphicus Grillparzer

Austria

1791-01-15 – 1872-01-21 (81 years old)

Universally honored as Austria's national dramatist, whose tragic plays ('The Ancestress', 'Sappho', 'King Ottokar') bridged Weimar classicism and Austrian Habsburg historical drama.

Hietzing, Vienna, Austria

6 Full Record →

Art

1

🕯️ 0

Josef Mánes

Josef Mánes

Kingdom of Bohemia

1820-05-12 – 1871-12-09 (51 years old)

Patriarch of 19th-century Czech national painting who celebrated traditional rural costumes and created the iconic twelve-month calendar medallion dial for the Prague Old Town Astronomical Clock (Orloj).

Prague, Czech Republic

1 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

41

🕯️ 910

Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage

Great Britain

26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871 (79 years old)

English mathematician and mechanical engineer who designed the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine, originating the fundamental architecture of modern programmable digital computers.

Marylebone (London), United Kingdom

41 Full Record →

Politics

3

🕯️ 0

Samuel Jackman Prescod

Samuel Jackman Prescod

Barbados

1806-01-01 – 1871-09-26 (65 years old)

Pioneering nineteenth-century Barbadian journalist and National Hero who became the first person of African descent elected to the Barbados Parliament, winning voting rights for non-white citizens.

Bridgetown, Barbados

3 Full Record →

Politics

3

🕯️ 0

Louis-Joseph Papineau

Louis-Joseph Papineau

Canada

1786 – 1871 (84 years old)

Charismatic orator and leader of the Patriote Party whose Ninety-Two Resolutions demanded democratic self-rule and culminated in the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837.

Montebello, Canada

3 Full Record →