History of Today 04 October: Important Events, Births and Deaths

Welcome to History of Today 04 October. On this page, you can read important historical events, famous births, notable deaths and general knowledge facts related to 04 October. This information is useful for UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, State PSC and other competitive exams.

Last updated on 04 October 2026, 01:01 AM

Important Events on 04 October in History

04 Oct 2017: Joint Nigerien-American Special Forces are ambushed by Islamic State militants outside the village of Tongo Tongo. Read more
04 Oct 2010: The Ajka plant accident in Hungary releases a million cubic metres of liquid alumina sludge, killing nine, injuring 122, and severely contaminating two major rivers. Read more
04 Oct 2006: WikiLeaks is launched. Read more
04 Oct 2004: SpaceShipOne wins the Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight. Read more
04 Oct 2003: The Maxim restaurant suicide bombing in Israel kills twenty-one Israelis, both Jews and Arabs. Read more
04 Oct 2001: Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 crashes after being struck by an errant Ukrainian missile. Seventy-eight people are killed. Read more
04 Oct 1997: The second largest cash robbery in U.S. history occurs in North Carolina. Read more
04 Oct 1993: Battle of Mogadishu occurs killing 18 U.S. Special Forces, two UN Peacekeepers and at least 600 Somalian militia men and civilians. Read more
04 Oct 1993: Tanks bombard the Russian parliament, while demonstrators against President Yeltsin rally outside. Read more
04 Oct 1992: The Rome General Peace Accords end a 16-year civil war in Mozambique. Read more
04 Oct 1992: El Al Flight 1862 crashes into two apartment buildings in Amsterdam, killing 43 including 39 on the ground. Read more
04 Oct 1991: The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty is opened for signature. Read more
04 Oct 1985: The Free Software Foundation is founded. Read more
04 Oct 1983: Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 miles per hour (1,019.468 km/h) at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. Read more
04 Oct 1967: Omar Ali Saifuddien III of Brunei abdicates in favour of his son. Read more
04 Oct 1966: Basutoland becomes independent from the United Kingdom and is renamed Lesotho. Read more
04 Oct 1965: Pope Paul VI begins the first papal visit to the Americas. Read more
04 Oct 1963: Hurricane Flora kills 6,000 in Cuba and Haiti. Read more
04 Oct 1960: Eastern Airlines flight 375 crashes on takeoff from Boston's Logan International Airport, killing 62 people of the 72 aboard. Read more
04 Oct 1958: The current constitution of France is adopted. Read more
04 Oct 1957: Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. Read more
04 Oct 1941: Norman Rockwell's Willie Gillis character debuts on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post. Read more
04 Oct 1936: The Metropolitan Police and various anti-fascist organizations violently clash in the Battle of Cable Street. Read more
04 Oct 1927: Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore. Read more
04 Oct 1925: Great Syrian Revolt: Rebels led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji capture Hama from the French Mandate of Syria. Read more
04 Oct 1925: S2, a Finnish Sokol class torpedo boat, sinks during a fierce storm near the coast of Pori in the Gulf of Bothnia, taking with it the whole crew of 53. Read more
04 Oct 1920: The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare, a Finnish non-governmental organization, is founded on the initiative of Sophie Mannerheim. Read more
04 Oct 1918: World War I: An explosion kills more than 100 people and destroys a Shell Loading Plant in New Jersey. Read more
04 Oct 1917: World War I: The Battle of Broodseinde is fought between the British and German armies in Flanders. Read more
04 Oct 1895: Horace Rawlins wins the first U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship. Read more
04 Oct 1883: First run of the Orient Express. Read more
04 Oct 1883: First meeting of the Boys' Brigade in Glasgow, Scotland. Read more
04 Oct 1876: The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now known as Texas A&M) opens as the first public college in Texas. Read more
04 Oct 1862: American Civil War: The two-day Second Battle of Corinth ends in a Union victory, with General William Rosecrans protecting the critical rail junction of Corinth, Mississippi from Confederate forces under General Earl Van Dorn. Read more
04 Oct 1853: The Crimean War begins when the Ottoman Empire declares war on the Russian Empire. Read more
04 Oct 1830: The Belgian Revolution takes legal form when the provisional government secedes from the Netherlands. Read more
04 Oct 1824: Mexico adopts a new constitution and becomes a federal republic. Read more

Famous Births on 04 October

04 Oct 1997: Rishabh Pant, Indian cricketer Rishabh Rajendra Pant is an Indian international cricketer who plays for the Indian national team as a wicket-keeper batter. He plays for the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League and Delhi in domestic cricket. Read more
04 Oct 1997: Yuju, South Korean singer Choi Yu-na, better known by her stage name Yuju (유주), is a South Korean singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in 2015 as a member of the South Korean girl group GFriend and became known for her vocals, having participated in various singing competitions. After GFriend's exclusive contract ended, Yuju debuted as a solo artist with the extended play (EP) Rec. in 2022 and took creative control over her works. Read more
04 Oct 1996: Ella Balinska, English actress Ella Balinska is a British actress who starred in the action-comedy film Charlie's Angels (2019) and the Netflix original series Resident Evil (2022). Read more
04 Oct 1995: Jeonghan, South Korean singer Yoon Jeong-han, known mononymously as Jeonghan, is a South Korean singer. Managed by Pledis Entertainment, he is a member of the South Korean boy band Seventeen, its vocal team, and its second subunit, JxW. Read more
04 Oct 1995: Kenny Clark, American football player Kenneth Duane Clark Jr. is an American professional football defensive tackle for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). Playing college football for the UCLA Bruins, he was named a third-team All-American as a junior in 2015, when he also earned his second all-conference selection in the Pac-12. He was selected by the Green Bay Packers in the first round of the 2016 NFL draft, with the 27th overall pick. Read more
04 Oct 1995: Mikolas Josef, Czech singer and songwriter Mikolas Josef, also known mononymously as Mikolas, is a Czech singer-songwriter and former model. He represented the Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Lie to Me" and finished in sixth place. This was the highest score for the Czech Republic in Eurovision history. Read more
04 Oct 1994: Mike Williams, American football player Michael K. Williams is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for eight seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Los Angeles Chargers. He played college football for the Clemson Tigers and was selected by the Chargers with the seventh overall pick in the 2017 NFL draft. He also played for the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers. Read more
04 Oct 1993: Mitchell Swepson, Australian cricketer Mitchell Joseph Swepson is an Australian cricketer. A leg-spin bowler, he made his international debut for the Australia cricket team in June 2018, and plays for Queensland and the Melbourne Stars in Australian domestic cricket. Swepson was a member of the Australian team that won the 2021 T20 World Cup. Read more
04 Oct 1991: Leigh-Anne Pinnock, English singer and songwriter Leigh-Anne Pinnock is an English singer and actress. She rose to prominence as a member of the girl group Little Mix, which was formed on and won the eighth series of The X Factor. As part of the group, she won three Brit Awards and achieved 19 top-ten singles and five number-one entries on the UK Singles Chart before the group went on hiatus in 2022. In 2023, Pinnock began her solo career, releasing the singles "Don't Say Love" and "My Love" featuring Ayra Starr, both of which reached the top 30 of the UK Singles Chart. Read more
04 Oct 1990: Signy Aarna, Estonian footballer Signy Aarna is an Estonian footballer who plays as a forward for Finnish club Åland United and for the Estonia national team. She previously played for Finnish club Pallokissat and FC Lootos of the Estonian Naiste Meistriliiga. Read more
04 Oct 1990: Saki, Japanese guitarist and songwriter Saki is a Japanese heavy metal musician and songwriter, best known as guitarist of the band Mary's Blood from 2012 until their hiatus in 2022. She is currently active as a solo artist, as one-half of the duo Amahiru with Frédéric Leclercq, and in the rock band Like-an-Angel. Before making her professional debut as part of the short-lived rock trio Mixx in 2010, Saki was briefly a member of the pioneering all-female metal band Destrose, and was later a member of Nemophila from 2019 to 2024. She has been sponsored by Killer Guitars since she was a teenager, and often uses custom-made Fascist models. In 2021, they released her signature model, the seven-string KG-Fascinator Seven the Empress. Read more
04 Oct 1990: Sergey Shubenkov, Russian hurdler Sergey Vladimirovich Shubenkov is a Russian athlete who competes in the 110 metres hurdles. He is the 2015 World Champion, two-time European Champion and 2013 World bronze medalist in men's 110 m hurdles. Read more
04 Oct 1989: Dakota Johnson, American actress Dakota Mayi Johnson is an American actress. Her accolades include nominations for a British Academy Film Award and a Critics' Choice Award. She was featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2016. Read more
04 Oct 1988: Melissa Benoist, American actress and singer Melissa Marie Benoist is an American actress and singer. Her first major role was as Marley Rose on the Fox musical comedy-drama Glee (2012–2014), in which she was a series regular during the fifth season. She rose to widespread prominence for portraying Kara Danvers on the CBS/CW superhero series Supergirl (2015–2021). Read more
04 Oct 1988: Lonnie Chisenhall, American baseball player Lonnie David Chisenhall is an American former professional baseball third baseman and outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians. He made his MLB debut with the Indians in June 2011 while playing third base. Chisenhall transitioned to right field later in his career. Read more
04 Oct 1988: Caner Erkin, Turkish footballer Caner Erkin is a Turkish professional former footballer. Read more
04 Oct 1988: Evgeni Krasnopolski, Israeli figure skater Evgeni Krasnopolski is a Ukrainian-born Israeli retired pair skater. Krasnopolski and Andrea Davidovich were the first pair representing Israel to qualify for Israel at the 2014 Olympics. They finished 15th in Sochi. Krasnopolski competed with Danielle Montalbano from 2009 to 2012. He competed for Israel at the 2018 Winter Olympics with Paige Conners in figure skating in pairs skating and a team event in Pyeongchang, South Korea. He and Hailey Kops competed at the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy and qualified to compete for Israel at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Read more
04 Oct 1988: Derrick Rose, American basketball player Derrick Martell Rose is an American former professional basketball player. He played one year of college basketball for the Memphis Tigers before being drafted first overall by his hometown Chicago Bulls in the 2008 NBA draft. Nicknamed "D-Rose", and sometimes referred to as "the Windy City Assassin" or "Pooh", he was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2009 and became the youngest player to win the NBA Most Valuable Player Award in 2011 at the age of 22 years and 7 months. Read more
04 Oct 1987: Marina Weisband, German politician Marina Weisband is a German politician. From May 2011 until April 2012 she was a member of the senior leadership of the Pirate Party Germany. In 2018 she joined the Green Party of Germany. Read more
04 Oct 1985: Shontelle, Barbadian singer-songwriter Shontelle Delia Layne, known mononymously as Shontelle, is a Barbadian singer and songwriter. She released her debut album Shontelligence in 2008. Her second album, No Gravity, was released in 2010. Her singles "T-Shirt" and "Impossible" achieved international success. In 2020, Shontelle released "Remember Me". Read more
04 Oct 1985: Thorsten Wiedemann, German rugby player Thorsten Wiedemann is a German international rugby union player, playing for the Heidelberger RK in the Rugby-Bundesliga and the German national rugby union team. Read more
04 Oct 1984: Lena Katina, Russian singer-songwriter Elena Sergeyevna Katina, better known as Lena Katina, is a Russian singer who gained fame as one half of the pop/electronica duo t.A.T.u. She started her career at the age of eight, joining the Russian children's act Avenue, soon after that joining Neposedy. In 1999, producer Ivan Shapovalov chose Katina and Julia Volkova for his project t.A.T.u. The duo would later become Russia's most successful pop music act. The group produced several hits, including "All the Things She Said", "Not Gonna Get Us", and "All About Us".
Their first single, "All the Things She Said", peaked at No. 1 in nineteen countries, including the UK, Russia, and Australia. Read more
04 Oct 1984: Petri Kontiola, Finnish ice hockey player Petri Kontiola is a retired Finnish professional ice hockey centre. Kontiola has previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Chicago Blackhawks, the organization that drafted him 196th overall in the 2004 NHL entry draft. Read more
04 Oct 1984: Karolina Tymińska, Polish heptathlete Karolina Tymińska is a Polish heptathlete. She has represented Poland twice at the Olympic Games and three times at the World Championships in Athletics. She is the bronze medalist in the heptathlon from the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, having originally come fourth in the event before the disqualification, in 2016, of Tatyana Chernova. Read more
04 Oct 1983: Vicky Krieps, Luxembourgish actress Vicky Krieps is a Luxembourgish and German actress. She has appeared in a number of American, Luxembourgish, French, and German productions. Her breakout role was in the London-based period film Phantom Thread (2017), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Read more
04 Oct 1983: Kurt Suzuki, American baseball player Kurtis Kiyoshi Suzuki is an American baseball manager and former catcher who is the manager for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the Oakland Athletics, Washington Nationals, Minnesota Twins, Atlanta Braves, and Angels. Read more
04 Oct 1982: Tony Gwynn Jr., American baseball player Anthony Keith Gwynn Jr. is an American former professional baseball outfielder. Gwynn played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Philadelphia Phillies. The son of Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, he works as a broadcaster for the Padres’ radio network and as an afternoon sports talk host on the Padres' flagship radio station. Read more
04 Oct 1982: Ilhan Omar, American politician Ilhan Abdullahi Omar is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district since 2019. The district includes all of Minneapolis and some of its first-ring suburbs. From 2017 to 2019, Omar served in the Minnesota House of Representatives, representing part of Minneapolis. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Read more
04 Oct 1982: Jered Weaver, American baseball player Jered David Weaver is an American former professional baseball starting pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Angels and San Diego Padres. Weaver was drafted in the first round in the 2004 Major League Baseball draft by the Angels out of Long Beach State. He was a three-time All Star, and twice led the American League in wins. He is the younger brother of former pitcher Jeff Weaver. Read more
04 Oct 1981: Justin Williams, Canadian-American ice hockey player Justin Craig Williams is a Canadian former professional ice hockey right winger. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Philadelphia Flyers, Carolina Hurricanes, Los Angeles Kings, and Washington Capitals. Read more
04 Oct 1980: Sarah Fisher, American race car driver Sarah Marie Fisher is an American retired professional race car driver who competed in the Indy Racing League and the Indianapolis 500 intermittently from 1999 to 2010. She also raced in the NASCAR West Series in 2004 and 2005. Fisher took part in 81 IndyCar Series events, achieving a career-best finish of second at the 2001 Infiniti Grand Prix of Miami—the highest placing for a woman in the IRL until Danica Patrick's victory in the 2008 Indy Japan 300. In 2002, Fisher was the first female driver to win a pole position in a major American open-wheel race and competed in the Indianapolis 500 nine times, more than any other woman. Read more
04 Oct 1980: James Jones, American basketball player James Andrew Jones is an American professional basketball executive and former player. He is the executive vice president, head of basketball operations for the National Basketball Association (NBA). Jones played 14 seasons in the NBA from 2003 to 2017. He was also the general manager and president of basketball operations for the Phoenix Suns. Read more
04 Oct 1980: Tomáš Rosický, Czech footballer Tomáš Rosický is a Czech former professional footballer who was the captain of the Czech Republic national team for a ten-year period. He played club football for Sparta Prague, Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal. Currently, he serves as the sports director of Sparta Prague. Read more
04 Oct 1979: Caitríona Balfe, Irish actress Caitríona Mary Balfe is an Irish actress and former model. She began her career as a fashion model in Paris at age 18, working with fashion houses such as Chanel and Louis Vuitton, before transitioning to acting a decade later. Balfe gained early recognition with roles in The Beauty Inside (2012) and H+: The Digital Series (2012–2013), along with appearances in films like Super 8 (2011), Now You See Me (2013), and Escape Plan (2013). Her breakout role was as Claire Fraser in Outlander (2014–2026), for which she has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards. Read more
04 Oct 1979: Rachael Leigh Cook, American actress Rachael Leigh Cook is an American actress and model. She has starred in the films The Baby-Sitters Club (1995), She's All That (1999), and Josie and the Pussycats (2001), and in the television series Into the West and Perception. She is also the voice behind various characters in Robot Chicken and Tifa Lockhart in the Final Fantasy series, starting with the English version of the film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Since 2016, her television appearances have primarily been made-for-TV movies on the Hallmark Channel. Read more
04 Oct 1979: Adam Voges, Australian cricketer Adam Charles Voges is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer who played for the Australian national team at Test, One Day International (ODI), and Twenty20 International (T20I) level, and also captained Western Australia and Perth Scorchers in domestic cricket. Voges' Test match batting average of 61.87 is third among men's Test cricketers who have played a minimum of 20 innings. Voges was included in the 2016 ICC Test Match Team of the Year. With his country, he won the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy. Read more
04 Oct 1978: Dana Davis, American actress and author Dana Davis is an American actress and novelist known for playing Monica Dawson on the NBC series Heroes (2007), Chastity Church on the ABC Family television series 10 Things I Hate About You (2009–10) and Carmen Phillips on the TNT series Franklin & Bash (2011–2013). She is an accomplished voice actress whose credits include Star vs. the Forces of Evil, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power,
and the role of Kit on Craig of the Creek. Read more
04 Oct 1978: Kyle Lohse, American baseball player Kyle Matthew Lohse is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, and Texas Rangers. Read more
04 Oct 1977: Richard Reed Parry, Canadian guitarist, songwriter, and producer Richard Reed Parry is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, best known as a core member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire, where he plays a wide variety of instruments, often switching between guitar, double bass, drums, celesta, keyboards, and accordion. Read more
04 Oct 1976: Mauro Camoranesi, Argentinian-Italian footballer and manager Mauro Germán Camoranesi Serra is an Argentinian-Italian football manager and former player who played as a right midfielder or right winger. Read more
04 Oct 1976: Alicia Silverstone, American actress, producer, and author Alicia Silverstone is an American actress. She made her film debut in the thriller The Crush (1993), earning the 1994 MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance, and gained further prominence as a teen idol when she appeared in the music videos for Aerosmith's songs "Cryin'", "Amazing", and "Crazy". She went on to star as Cher Horowitz in the teen comedy film Clueless (1995), which earned her a multi-million-dollar deal with Columbia Pictures. In 1997, she portrayed Batgirl in the superhero film Batman & Robin. Read more
04 Oct 1976: Ueli Steck, Swiss mountaineer and rock climber (died 2017) Ueli Steck was a Swiss rock climber and alpinist. He set speed records on the North Face trilogy in the Alps. He won two Piolet d'Or awards, Including for a solo ascent of the south face of Annapurna, in 2009 and 2014. Steck died after a fall while acclimatizing on the north face of Nuptse. Read more
04 Oct 1975: Cristiano Lucarelli, Italian footballer and manager Cristiano Lucarelli is an Italian football manager and a former player who played as a forward. He is the head coach of Serie C Group B club Livorno. Read more
04 Oct 1974: Paco León, Spanish actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Francisco León Barrios, known as Paco León is a Spanish actor, producer, director, screenwriter and activist. Read more
04 Oct 1973: M. Ward, American singer-songwriter Matthew Stephen Ward is an American singer-songwriter, Grammy nominated producer and guitarist from Glendale, California. Ward's solo work is a mixture of folk and blues-inspired Americana analog recordings. He has released 12 studio albums since 1999, primarily through the independent label Merge Records. In addition to his solo work, he is a member of indie pop duo She & Him and folk-rock supergroup Monsters of Folk, and also participates in recording, producing, and playing with multiple other artists. Read more
04 Oct 1971: Darren Middleton, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist Darren Middleton is an Australian musician, best known as lead guitarist and songwriter for alternative rock band Powderfinger. He was also lead singer/songwriter for Drag. Read more
04 Oct 1969: Abraham Benrubi, American actor Abraham Rubin Hercules Benrubi is an American actor. He is known for his appearances as Jerry Markovic on the long-running medical television drama ER, for his first role as Larry Kubiac on the series Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Dennis in Without a Paddle, and for his voice acting on the Adult Swim claymation series Robot Chicken as well as numerous video games including many in the World of Warcraft series. Read more
04 Oct 1968: Richard Hancox, English footballer and manager Richard Hancox is an English former professional footballer. He has held various roles at Torquay United in his career. Read more
04 Oct 1968: Tim Wise, American activist and author Timothy Jacob Wise is an American activist and writer on the topic of race. He is a consultant who provides anti-racism lectures to institutions. Read more
04 Oct 1967: Vicky Bullett, American basketball player and coach Victoria Andrea Bullett is an American former professional basketball player and current women's basketball head coach at West Virginia Wesleyan College. She played for the Charlotte Sting and Washington Mystics in the WNBA, as well as for European and South American professional teams, the U.S. Olympic team, and the University of Maryland Terrapins. Bullett played at various times as a center, small forward, and power forward. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011. Read more
04 Oct 1967: Nick Green, Australian rower Nicholas David Green OAM is an Australian former rower, a dual Olympic gold medallist and four time World Champion. From 1990 to 1998 he was a member of Australia's prominent world class crew – the coxless four known as the Oarsome Foursome. Now a sports administrator, since 2014 he has been Chief Executive of Cycling Australia. Read more
04 Oct 1967: Liev Schreiber, American actor and director Isaac Liev Schreiber is an American actor. He has received several accolades including a Tony Award as well as nominations for nine Primetime Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. Read more
04 Oct 1965: Olaf Backasch, German footballer Olaf Backasch is a retired German footballer. Read more
04 Oct 1965: Skip Heller, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Fred Steven "Skip" Heller is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Although active in many different types of music as a performer, producer, and historian coming out of the Philadelphia jazz scene, and in spite of local critical recognition, he did not make a large mark in his hometown. Read more
04 Oct 1965: Steve Olin, American baseball player (died 1993) Steven Robert Olin was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for four seasons in the American League with the Cleveland Indians. Olin was a right-handed submarining relief pitcher for the Cleveland Indians from 1988 to 1992. Olin died, along with teammate and fellow reliever Tim Crews, in a 1993 boating accident. Read more
04 Oct 1965: Micky Ward, American boxer George Michael Ward Jr., often known by his nickname, "Irish" Micky Ward, is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2003. He challenged once for the IBF light welterweight title in 1997, and held the WBU light welterweight title in 2000. Ward is widely known for his trilogy of fights with Arturo Gatti, two of which received Fight of the Year awards by The Ring magazine, as well as his devastating left hook to the body and his relentless pressure fighting style. From 2001 to 2003, Ward featured in three straight Fights of the Year. He was portrayed by Mark Wahlberg in the 2010 film The Fighter, which was based on his early career. After retirement he has become a philanthropist. Read more
04 Oct 1964: Francis Magalona, Filipino rapper, producer, and actor (died 2009) Francis Durango Magalona, also known as Francis M, was a Filipino rapper, songwriter, and actor. He is regarded as an influential figure in Pinoy hip hop. Read more
04 Oct 1964: Yvonne Murray, Scottish runner Yvonne Carole Grace Murray-Mooney is a Scottish former middle-distance and long-distance track and road-running athlete. She won a bronze medal in the 3000 metres at the 1988 Olympic Games, and gold medals at this distance at the 1987 European Indoor Championships, the 1993 World Indoor Championships and the 1990 European Championships. She also won a gold medal in the 10,000 metres at the 1994 Commonwealth Games. Her 3000 metres best of 8:29.02 was set in the Olympic Final of 1988. Read more
04 Oct 1963: A. C. Green, American basketball player A.C. Green Jr. is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Iron Man", he holds a National Basketball Association (NBA) record for most consecutive regular-season games played with 1,192. Green played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat. He found most success with the Lakers, with whom he won three championships in 1987, 1988 and 2000, and was named an NBA All-Star in 1990. Read more
04 Oct 1963: Koji Ishikawa, Japanese author and illustrator Kōji Ishikawa is a Japanese children's book author and illustrator. His work includes advertisements, magazine illustration, web, character design and book design. In recent years he has made children's books. He lives in Tokyo with his wife and two children. Read more
04 Oct 1962: Carlos Carsolio, Mexican mountaineer Carlos Carsolio Larrea is a Mexican mountaineer. Carsolio is known for being the fourth man and the second youngest to climb the world's 14 eight-thousanders, all of them without supplemental oxygen. Read more
04 Oct 1961: Philippe Russo, French singer-songwriter and guitarist Philippe Russo is a French singer-songwriter. He had a hit between 1986 and early 1987 in France with his single "Magie noire", devoted to the discothèques, which peaked at #10 on the SNEP Singles Chart. Then he published several singles until 1991, but they were unsuccessful and failed to reach the chart. Therefore, Russo can be deemed a one-hit wonder. He was the guitar of Marc Lavoine during this one's last concert tour. Read more
04 Oct 1961: Jon Secada, Cuban-American singer-songwriter Juan Francisco Secada Ramírez, better known as Jon Secada, is a Cuban-American singer. He has won two Grammy Awards and sold 15 million records, making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists. His music fuses funk, soul music, pop, and Latin percussion. Read more
04 Oct 1961: Kazuki Takahashi, Japanese author and illustrator, created Yu-Gi-Oh! (died 2022) Kazuo Takahashi , known professionally as Kazuki Takahashi , was a Japanese manga artist. He is best known as the author of Yu-Gi-Oh!, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1996 to 2004. The manga spawned a trading card game of the same name, which holds the Guinness World Record for the best-selling trading card game of all time. Read more
04 Oct 1960: Joe Boever, American baseball player Joseph Martin Boever is an American former professional baseball right-handed relief pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1985 to 1996 for the St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, Houston Astros, Oakland Athletics, Detroit Tigers, and Pittsburgh Pirates. Read more
04 Oct 1960: Henry Worsley, English colonel and explorer (died 2016) Lieutenant Colonel Alastair Edward Henry Worsley, was a British explorer and British Army officer. He was part of a 2009 expedition that retraced Ernest Shackleton's footsteps in the Antarctic. Read more
04 Oct 1959: Chris Lowe, English singer and keyboard player Christopher Sean Lowe is an English musician and songwriter who formed the synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys with Neil Tennant. He is primarily the keyboardist and occasionally a vocalist, and he is the co-author of the catalogue of Pet Shop Boys songs. Lowe is known for his impassive stage persona, standing still behind a keyboard, wearing a hat and dark glasses. Read more
04 Oct 1959: Tony Meo, English snooker player Anthony Christian Meo is a retired English snooker player. He won the 1989 British Open by defeating Dean Reynolds 13–6 in the final, and was runner-up to Steve Davis at the 1984 Classic. He won four World Doubles Championship titles, partnering Davis, and the 1983 World Team Classic representing England alongside Davis and Tony Knowles. Read more
04 Oct 1959: Hitonari Tsuji, Japanese author, composer, and director Hitonari Tsuji is a Japanese writer, composer, musician, painter and film director. In his film and singing work he uses the art name Jinsei Tsuji, an alternative reading his given name. His novels and essays have been bestsellers in Japan as well as overseas, with his work being translated into 20 languages and selling over ten million copies. Read more
04 Oct 1958: Barbara Kooyman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Barbara Kooyman is an American musician based in Austin, Texas. In the 1980s, she, her then-husband Pat MacDonald, and a drum machine formed the recording act Timbuk 3 whose 1986 signature song was "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades". The duo did road work with Bob Dylan, Sting, and Jackson Browne. They once appeared on Saturday Night Live and were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1987. Read more
04 Oct 1958: Wendy Makkena, American actress Wendy Rosenberg Makkena is an American actress best known for playing Sister Mary Robert in the film Sister Act (1992) and its sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993) and numerous other roles in film and television. She has appeared regularly on stage since the 1980s. Her other film credits include Air Bud (1997), State of Play (2009), and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019). Read more
04 Oct 1958: Anneka Rice, Welsh radio and television host Anne Lucinda Hartley "Anneka" Rice is a British television and radio presenter, journalist and painter. Read more
04 Oct 1957: Bill Fagerbakke, American actor William Fagerbakke is an American actor. He voices Patrick Star in the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise, and played Michael "Dauber" Dybinski on the sitcom Coach. He also appeared in 12 episodes of the sitcom How I Met Your Mother as Marshall Eriksen's father Marvin. Read more
04 Oct 1957: Yngve Moe, Norwegian bass player and songwriter (died 2013) Yngve Moe was a Norwegian bass guitarist and founding member of the rock band Dance with a Stranger. Read more
04 Oct 1957: Russell Simmons, American businessman, founded Def Jam Recordings and Phat Farm Russell Wendell Simmons is an American entrepreneur, writer and record executive. He co-founded the hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings, and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. He has promoted veganism and a yoga lifestyle, and published books on lifestyle, health, and entrepreneurship. Simmons' net worth was estimated at $340 million in 2011. Read more
04 Oct 1956: Lesley Glaister, English author and playwright Lesley Glaister is a British novelist, poet and playwright. She has written 16 novels, A Particular Man (2024) being the most recent, one play and numerous short stories and radio plays. She is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of St Andrews, and is a regular contributor of book reviews to The Spectator and The Times. She is married to poet Andrew Greig. Read more
04 Oct 1956: Charlie Leibrandt, American baseball player Charles Louis Leibrandt Jr. is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher who played from 1979 to 1993 for the Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, Atlanta Braves, and Texas Rangers. Leibrandt was a member of the 1985 World Series champion Royals team. Read more
04 Oct 1956: Sherri Turner, American golfer Sherri Turner is an American professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1984 and won three LPGA Tour events, including one major championship, during her career. Read more
04 Oct 1956: Christoph Waltz, Austrian-German actor Christoph Waltz is an Austrian and German actor. Waltz gained international recognition for his portrayal of villainous and supporting roles in English-language films. His accolades include two Academy Awards, two BAFTAs, and two Golden Globes, as well as a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award. Read more
04 Oct 1955: John Rutherford, Scottish rugby player John Young Rutherford is a former Scotland international rugby union player. His regular playing position was Fly half. Read more
04 Oct 1955: Jorge Valdano, Argentinian footballer, coach, and manager Jorge Alberto Francisco Valdano Castellanos is an Argentine former football player, coach, and the former general manager of Real Madrid. He is currently working as a commentator for beIN Sports. Nicknamed The Philosopher of Football, he played as a forward. Read more
04 Oct 1953: Gil Moore, Canadian singer-songwriter, drummer, and producer Gil Moore is a Canadian musician. Born in Toronto, Moore is the drummer and co-vocalist of the power trio Triumph. Before Moore was in Triumph he was in a band called Sherman & Peabody which also featured Buzz Shearman of Moxy and Greg Godovitz of Goddo. Read more
04 Oct 1953: Andreas Vollenweider, Swiss harp player Andreas Vollenweider is a Swiss harpist. He is generally categorised as a new-age musician and uses a modified electroacoustic harp of his own design. He has worked with Bobby McFerrin, Carly Simon, Luciano Pavarotti and in 1987 received a Grammy Award for the album Down to the Moon. Vollenweider's style has been described by The New York Times as "swirling atmospheric music, which evokes nature, magic and fairy tales". Read more
04 Oct 1952: Anita DeFrantz, American rower and sports administrator Anita Lucette DeFrantz is an American Olympic rower, member of the International Olympic Committee, and twice vice-president of International Rowing Federation (FISA). Read more
04 Oct 1952: Jody Stephens, American rock drummer Jody Stephens is an American musician and producer who has played drums in Big Star and Golden Smog. After the deaths of Chris Bell in 1978, and Alex Chilton and Andy Hummel, both in 2010, Stephens is the last surviving original member of Big Star. Read more
04 Oct 1952: Zinha Vaz, Bissau-Guinean women's rights activist and politician Francisca Maria Monteira e Silva Vaz , better known as Zinha Vaz, is a Bissau-Guinean women's rights activist and politician. She has been a member of the National People's Assembly for several terms for the Resistance of Guinea-Bissau-Bafatá Movement, as well as a presidential advisor. In 1999 she served for a brief time as mayor of the capital city Bissau. She was jailed for political reasons for three years during the 1970s and in 2003 again for several days. Recently she was ambassador to Gambia. Read more
04 Oct 1951: Bakhytzhan Kanapyanov, Kazakh poet and author Bakhytzhan Musakhanuli Kanapyanov is a Kazakh poet, writer, publisher, and translator. Kanapyanov is a member of the Russian and the Kazakh PEN clubs, an honorary professor at the Shakarim University (Semey) and an academician of the Crimean Literary Academy. Read more
04 Oct 1951: Truck Robinson, American basketball player and coach Leonard Eugene "Truck" Robinson is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Washington Bullets (1974–1977), Atlanta Hawks (1977), New Orleans Jazz (1977–1979), Phoenix Suns (1979–1982), and New York Knicks (1982–1985). Read more
04 Oct 1950: Alan Rosenberg, American actor Alan Rosenberg is an American actor best known for portraying the character Eli Levinson in both American legal drama series Civil Wars and L.A. Law, as well as Ira Woodbine on the television sitcom Cybill, Stuart Brickman on Chicago Hope and Professor Youens on Shameless. He also appeared in the films The Wanderers (1979) and Robots (2005). From 2005 to 2009, Rosenberg was president of the Screen Actors Guild. Read more
04 Oct 1949: Armand Assante, American actor and producer Armand Anthony Assante Jr. is an American actor. He played mobster John Gotti in the 1996 HBO television film Gotti alongside Anthony Quinn, Odysseus in the 1997 miniseries adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey, Nietzsche in When Nietzsche Wept, and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer in 1982's I, the Jury. He has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Assante also played 'Dominic Cattano', who was based on the real-life Lucchese family boss Carmine Tramunti, in the 2007 film American Gangster alongside Denzel Washington, Josh Brolin and Russell Crowe, which was nominated for two Oscars at the 80th Academy Awards in 2008. Read more
04 Oct 1949: Stephen Gyllenhaal, American director, producer, and screenwriter Stephen Roark Gyllenhaal is an American film director and poet. He is the father of actors Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Read more
04 Oct 1948: Iain Hewitson, New Zealand-Australian chef, restaurateur, author, and television personality Iain "Huey" Hewitson, is a New Zealand-born Australian chef, restaurateur, author and television personality who moved to Australia in 1972. He is best known for his television involvement with Network Ten. He was also the face of supermarket chain BI-LO. Read more
04 Oct 1948: Linda McMahon, American businesswoman and politician Linda Marie McMahon is an American administrator, business executive and former professional wrestling executive who has served as the 13th United States secretary of education since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 25th administrator of the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019. Read more
04 Oct 1948: Duke Robillard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Michael John "Duke" Robillard is an American guitarist and singer. He founded the band Roomful of Blues and was a member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Although he is known as a rock and blues guitarist, he also plays jazz and swing. Read more
04 Oct 1947: Julien Clerc, French singer-songwriter and pianist Paul-Alain Auguste Leclerc, better known by his stage name Julien Clerc, is a French singer-songwriter. Read more
04 Oct 1947: Jim Fielder, American bass player Jim Fielder is an American bassist, best known for his work as an original member of Blood, Sweat & Tears. Prior to the band's formation, he was also rhythm guitarist for Frank Zappa's band The Mothers of Invention. Read more
04 Oct 1947: Ann Widdecombe, English politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Health Ann Noreen Widdecombe was a British politician and media personality. As a member of the Conservative Party, she was the member of Parliament (MP) for Maidstone and The Weald, previously Maidstone, from 1987 to 2010. She joined the Brexit Party – later Reform UK – in 2019. She was their member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England from 2019 to 2020 and served as immigration and justice spokesperson from 2023 until 2026. Read more
04 Oct 1946: Larry Clapp, American lawyer and politician (died 2013) Larry R. Clapp was an American lawyer and politician. Read more
04 Oct 1946: Chuck Hagel, American sergeant and politician, 24th United States Secretary of Defense Charles Timothy Hagel is an American politician and Army veteran who served as the 24th United States secretary of defense from 2013 to 2015 in the administration of Barack Obama. He previously served as chairman of the president's Intelligence Advisory Board from 2009 to 2013 and as a United States senator representing Nebraska from 1997 to 2009. Read more
04 Oct 1946: Michael Mullen, American admiral Michael Glenn "Mike" Mullen is a retired United States Navy admiral who served as the 17th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 2007 to September 2011. Read more
04 Oct 1946: Susan Sarandon, American actress and activist Susan Abigail Sarandon is an American actor. With a career spanning over five decades, she has received accolades, including an Academy Award, an Actor Award, and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for seven Emmy Awards, ten Golden Globes, and a Grammy Award. Read more
04 Oct 1945: Clifton Davis, American singer-songwriter, actor, and minister Clifton Duncan Davis is an American actor, singer, songwriter, minister, and author. Read more
04 Oct 1944: Colin Bundy, South African-English historian and academic Colin James Bundy is a South African historian, former principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford and former SOAS University of London director. Bundy was an influential member of a generation of historians who substantially revised our understanding of South African history. In particular, he wrote on South Africa's rural past from a predominantly Marxist perspective, but also deploying Africanist and underdevelopment theories. Since the mid-1990s, however, Bundy has held a series of posts in university administration. Bundy is also a trustee of the Canon Collins Educational & Legal Assistance Trust. Read more
04 Oct 1944: Rocío Dúrcal, Spanish singer and actress (died 2006) María de los Ángeles de las Heras Ortiz, known professionally as Rocío Dúrcal, was a Spanish singer and actress. Her career, which spanned more than four decades, began in the 1960s, when she established herself as an actress and singer thanks to the musical films she starred in. Later, she focused exclusively on her musical career, performing canción melódica, boleros, and rancheras, which led her to being considered one of the best Spanish-language singers of all time. Read more
04 Oct 1944: Tony La Russa, American baseball player and manager Anthony La Russa Jr. is an American former professional baseball infielder and manager. His Major League Baseball (MLB) career spanned from 1963 to 2022, in several roles. He is the former manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, Oakland Athletics, and Chicago White Sox. In 35 seasons as a manager, La Russa guided his teams to three World Series titles, six league championships, and 13 division titles. His managerial total of 2,884 MLB wins is second only to Connie Mack's. Read more
04 Oct 1944: John McFall, Baron McFall of Alcluith, Scottish educator and politician John Francis McFall, Baron McFall of Alcluith,, is a Scottish politician and life peer who was Lord Speaker, the presiding officer of the House of Lords, from 2021 to 2026. He was a member of Parliament for the Labour and Co-operative Party from 1987 to 2010, first for Dumbarton and then from 2005 for West Dunbartonshire. He was also Chairman of the House of Commons Treasury Committee. Following his appointment to the House of Lords, McFall was Senior Deputy Speaker from 2016 to 2021 before succeeding Lord Fowler as Lord Speaker. Read more
04 Oct 1943: H. Rap Brown, American activist (died 2025) Jamil Abdullah al-Amin was an American activist who served as the fifth chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s. Calling himself H. Rap Brown in that period, he was one of the primary spokesmen for the black power movement. Read more
04 Oct 1943: Owen Davidson, Australian tennis player (died 2023) Owen Keir Davidson was an Australian professional tennis player of the 1960s and 1970s. Read more
04 Oct 1943: Karl-Gustav Kaisla, Finnish ice hockey player and referee (died 2012) Karl-Gustav Kaisla was a Finnish ice hockey referee. He officiated in three World Championships and in one Olympic Tournament. Read more
04 Oct 1943: Dietmar Mürdter, German footballer Dietmar Mürdter is a former professional German footballer. Read more
04 Oct 1943: Jimy Williams, American baseball player and manager (died 2024) James Francis Williams was an American professional baseball infielder, coach and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1966 and 1967 and managed the Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, and Houston Astros. Read more
04 Oct 1942: Bernice Johnson Reagon, American singer-songwriter (died 2024) Bernice Johnson Reagon was an American song leader, composer, professor of American history, curator at the Smithsonian, and social activist. In the early 1960s, she was a founding member of the Freedom Singers, organized by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the Albany Movement for civil rights in Georgia. In 1973, she founded the all-black female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, based in Washington, D.C. She was the founder/the 1st member of Sweet Honey in the Rock from 1973 to 2006. Reagon, along with other members of the SNCC Freedom Singers, realized the power of collective singing to unify the disparate groups who began to work together in the 1964 Freedom Summer protests in the South."After a song", Reagon recalled, "the differences between us were not so great. Somehow, making a song required an expression of that which was common to us all…. This music was like an instrument, like holding a tool in your hand." Read more
04 Oct 1942: Karl W. Richter, American lieutenant and pilot (died 1967) Karl Wendell Richter was an officer in the United States Air Force and an accomplished fighter pilot during the Vietnam War. At the age of 23 he was the youngest pilot in that conflict to shoot down a MiG in air-to-air combat. Read more
04 Oct 1942: Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Icelandic politician, 24th Prime Minister of Iceland Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is an Icelandic politician, who served as prime minister of Iceland from 2009 to 2013. She was Iceland's first female prime minister and the first openly LGBTQ head of government in the world. Read more
04 Oct 1942: Christopher Stone, American actor and screenwriter (died 1995) Christopher Stone was an American actor. Read more
04 Oct 1941: Roy Blount Jr., American humorist and journalist Roy Alton Blount Jr. is an American writer, speaker, reporter, and humorist. Read more
04 Oct 1941: Karen Cushman, American author Karen Cushman is an American writer of historical fiction. Read more
04 Oct 1941: Karl Oppitzhauser, Austrian race car driver Karl Oppitzhauser is a former racing driver from Austria. He is chiefly known for his optimistic attempt to enter the 1976 Formula One Austrian Grand Prix. Read more
04 Oct 1941: Anne Rice, American author (died 2021) Anne Rice was an American author of Gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Bible fiction. She is best known for writing The Vampire Chronicles. She later adapted the first volume in the series into a commercially successful film, Interview with the Vampire (1994). Read more
04 Oct 1941: Frank Stagg (Irish republican), died on hunger strike (died 1976) Frank Stagg was an Irish militant and Republican activist. He was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) hunger striker from County Mayo, Ireland who died in 1976 in Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire, England after 62 days on hunger strike. Stagg was one of 22 Irish republicans to die on hunger strike in the twentieth century. Read more
04 Oct 1941: Robert Wilson, American director and playwright (died 2025) Robert Wilson was an American director and playwright of experimental theater. He also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video artist, and sound and lighting designer. He is best known for his collaboration with Philip Glass and Lucinda Childs on Einstein on the Beach, and his frequent collaborations with Tom Waits. In 1991, Wilson established The Watermill Center, "a laboratory for performance" on the East End of Long Island, New York, regularly working with opera and theater companies, as well as cultural festivals. Read more
04 Oct 1940: Vic Hadfield, Canadian ice hockey player Victor Edward Hadfield is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played sixteen years in the National Hockey League (NHL), spending thirteen with the New York Rangers and three with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Read more
04 Oct 1940: Silvio Marzolini, Argentinian footballer and manager (died 2020) Silvio Marzolini was an Argentine footballer who gained recognition during his tenure on Boca Juniors (1960–72). He is widely regarded as the best Argentine left-back of all time, playing that position for the Argentina national team in the 1962 FIFA World Cup and the 1966 FIFA World Cup, where he was elected as the best left back of that tournament. Marzolini played a total of 28 games for Argentina. Read more
04 Oct 1940: Steve Swallow, American bass player and composer Steve Swallow is an American jazz bassist and composer, known for his collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton, and Carla Bley. He was one of the first jazz double bassists to switch entirely to electric bass guitar. Read more
04 Oct 1940: Alberto Vilar, American businessman and philanthropist (died 2021) Alberto Vilar, a.k.a. Albert Vilar was an American investment manager who became particularly known as a patron of opera companies, performing arts organizations, and educational institutions. Following the collapse of his investment firm, Amerindo Investment Advisors, he was tried and convicted in November 2008 on charges of money laundering, investment advisor fraud, securities fraud, mail and wire fraud. He was sentenced in February 2010 to nine years in prison and released in 2018. Read more
04 Oct 1939: Ivan Mauger, New Zealand speedway rider (died 2018) Ivan Gerald Mauger was a New Zealand motorcycle speedway rider. He won a record six World Championships (Finals), a feat equalled only with the inclusion of the Speedway GP Championships by Bartosz Zmarzlik of Poland and Tony Rickardsson of Sweden. In 2010, Mauger was named an FIM Legend for his motorcycling achievements. Read more
04 Oct 1938: Norman D. Wilson, American actor (died 2004) Norman D. Wilson was an American actor. He appeared in Lethal Weapon 3 (1992), Always Outnumbered (1998) and The Stone Killer (1973). He died on December 9, 2004, in Los Angeles. Read more
04 Oct 1938: Kurt Wüthrich, Swiss chemist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate Kurt Wüthrich is a Swiss chemist/biophysicist and Nobel Chemistry laureate, known for developing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods for studying biological macromolecules. Read more
04 Oct 1937: Jackie Collins, English-American author and actress (died 2015) Jacqueline Jill Collins was an English romance novelist and actress. She moved to Los Angeles in 1985 and spent most of her career there. She wrote 32 novels, all of which appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list. Her books have sold more than 500 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages. Eight of her novels have been adapted for the screen, either as films or television miniseries. She was the younger sister of Joan Collins. Read more
04 Oct 1937: David Crocker, American philosopher and academic David A. Crocker, is Research Professor in the School of Public Policy, at the University of Maryland, he is also the founder and former president of the International Development Ethics Association (IDEA). His work has been cited by the United Nations Human Development Report. Read more
04 Oct 1937: Gail Gilmore, Canadian-American actress and dancer (died 2014) Gail Gilmore was a Canadian television and film actress. She was from Edmonton, Alberta. She was sometimes known as Gail Gibson. Read more
04 Oct 1937: Lloyd Green, American steel guitar player Lloyd Lamar Green is an American pedal steel guitarist and session musician. Green was a member of the country music studio musician collective known as the Nashville A-Team, and has performed on more than 5,000 recordings, for artists such as Charley Pride, The Byrds, Country Johnny Mathis,Johnny Cash, The Monkees, Don Williams, Paul McCartney, and Bob Dylan. His playing on The Byrds' 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo influenced generations of steel guitarists. Green was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1988. Read more
04 Oct 1937: Jim Sillars, Scottish lawyer and politician James Sillars is a Scottish politician and campaigner for Scottish independence. Sillars served as a Labour Party MP for South Ayrshire from 1970 to 1976. He founded and led the pro-Scottish Home Rule Scottish Labour Party in 1976, continuing as MP for South Ayrshire until he lost the seat in 1979. Read more
04 Oct 1936: Charlie Hurley, Irish footballer and manager (died 2024) Charles John Hurley was an Irish footballer who mainly played in the centre half position. Nicknamed 'King', Hurley was a defender for both Sunderland, where he was named as "Player of the Century" by his fans in 1979, and the Republic of Ireland. He ended his playing career at Bolton Wanderers and was later manager of Reading. Read more
04 Oct 1936: Giles Radice, Baron Radice, English politician (died 2022) Giles Heneage Radice, Baron Radice was a British Labour Party politician and author. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1973 to 2001, representing part of County Durham, and then as a life peer in the House of Lords from 2001 until shortly before his death in 2022. Read more
04 Oct 1935: Jimmy Orr, American football player (died 2020) James Edward Orr Jr. was an American professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, running from 1958 to 1970. Read more
04 Oct 1934: Sam Huff, American football player, coach, and sportscaster (died 2021) Robert Lee "Sam" Huff was an American professional football player whose frequent battles against Cleveland Browns star fullback Jim Brown made him the first member of the defense to gain widespread prominence in the National Football League. He starred for the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins in the pro ranks and the West Virginia Mountaineers in college. The one-time NFL champion, two-time All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowl selection is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Read more
04 Oct 1933: German Moreno, Filipino television host and actor (died 2016) German Molina Moreno, also known as Kuya Germs and dubbed as "The Master Showman", was a Filipino television host, presenter, actor, comedian, talent manager, producer, writer, and director. Read more
04 Oct 1933: Ann Thwaite, English author Ann Thwaite is a British writer who is the author of five major biographies. A.A. Milne: His Life was the Whitbread Biography of the Year, 1990. Edmund Gosse: A Literary Landscape was described by John Carey as "magnificent – one of the finest literary biographies of our time". Glimpses of the Wonderful about the life of Edmund Gosse's father, Philip Henry Gosse, was picked out by D. J. Taylor in The Independent as one of the "Ten Best Biographies" ever. Her biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett was originally published as Waiting for the Party (1974) and reissued in 2020 with the title Beyond the Secret Garden, with a foreword by Jacqueline Wilson. Emily Tennyson, The Poet's Wife (1996) was reissued by Faber Finds for the Tennyson bicentenary in 2009. Read more
04 Oct 1932: Felicia Farr, American actress and model Felicia Farr is an American former actress and model. Read more
04 Oct 1931: Terence Conran, English designer and businessman (died 2020) Sir Terence Orby Conran was a British designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer. He founded the household retailer Habitat in 1964, and the Design Museum in Shad Thames, London, in 1989. The British designer Thomas Heatherwick said that Conran "moved Britain forward to make it an influence around the world". Read more
04 Oct 1931: Basil D'Oliveira, South African-English cricketer and footballer (died 2011) Basil Lewis D'Oliveira CBE OIS was an England international cricketer of South African Cape Coloured background, whose potential selection by England for the scheduled 1968–69 tour of apartheid-era South Africa caused the D'Oliveira affair. Read more
04 Oct 1931: Richard Rorty, American philosopher and author (died 2007) Richard McKay Rorty was an American philosopher, historian of ideas, and public intellectual. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, Rorty's academic career included appointments as the Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, the Kenan Professor of Humanities at the University of Virginia, and a professor of comparative literature at Stanford University. Among his most influential books are Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), Consequences of Pragmatism (1982), and Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989). Read more
04 Oct 1929: Scotty Beckett, American actor and singer (died 1968) Scott Hastings Beckett was an American actor. He began his career as a child actor in the Our Gang shorts and later costarred on Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. Read more
04 Oct 1929: John E. Mack, American psychiatrist and author (died 2004) John Edward Mack was an American psychiatrist, writer, and professor of psychiatry. He served as the head of the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School from 1977 to 2004. In 1977, Mack won the Pulitzer Prize for his book A Prince of Our Disorder on T. E. Lawrence. Read more
04 Oct 1929: Leroy Van Dyke, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Leroy Frank Van Dyke is an American country music and honky-tonk singer and guitarist, best known for his hits "The Auctioneer" (1956) and "Walk On By" (1961). Read more
04 Oct 1928: Alvin Toffler, German-American journalist and author (died 2016) Alvin Eugene Toffler was an American writer, futurist, and businessman known for his works discussing modern technologies, including the digital revolution and the communication revolution, with emphasis on their effects on cultures worldwide. He is regarded as one of the world's outstanding futurists. Read more
04 Oct 1928: Torben Ulrich, Danish-American tennis player (died 2023) Torben Ulrich was a Danish writer, musician, filmmaker, and professional tennis player. He was the father of Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. Read more
04 Oct 1927: Wolf Kahn, American painter and academic (died 2020) Wolf Kahn was a German-born American painter. Read more
04 Oct 1926: Raymond Watson, American businessman (died 2012) Raymond "Ray" L. Watson was the former president of the Irvine Company, and served as chief planner during the 1960s and 1970s. He was also chairman of Walt Disney Productions from 1983 to 1984, and served on the Disney board from 1972 until March 2004. Read more
04 Oct 1925: Roger Wood, Belgian-American journalist (died 2012) Roger Wood was the editor of the Daily Express and New York Post. Read more
04 Oct 1924: Donald J. Sobol, American soldier and author (died 2012) Donald J. Sobol was an American author best known for his children's books, especially the Encyclopedia Brown mystery series. Read more
04 Oct 1923: Charlton Heston, American actor, director and gun rights activist (died 2008) Charlton Heston was an American actor and political activist. He gained stardom for his leading man roles in numerous Hollywood films including biblical epics, historical drama films, science-fiction films, and action films. He won an Academy Award, a David di Donatello Award, a Laurel Award, a Photoplay Award, a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards. He received numerous honorary accolades including a Hollywood Walk of Fame Star in 1960, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1967, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1971, an honorary Saturn Award in 1975, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Academy Award in 1978, the ShoWest Convention Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1997, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003. Read more
04 Oct 1922: Malcolm Baldrige Jr., American businessman and politician, 26th United States Secretary of Commerce (died 1987) Howard Malcolm "Mac" Baldrige Jr. was an American businessman. He served as the United States secretary of commerce from 1981 until he died in 1987. He was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1988. Read more
04 Oct 1922: Shin Kyuk-ho, South Korean-Japanese businessman, founded Lotte Group (died 2020) Shin Kyuk-ho, known in Japan as Takeo Shigemitsu , was a Zainichi Korean businessman known for being the founder of the South Korean-Japanese conglomerate Lotte Corporation (Group), now one of the largest chaebols in South Korea. Read more
04 Oct 1922: Don Lenhardt, American baseball player and coach (died 2014) Donald Eugene Lenhardt was an American outfielder, first baseman, third baseman, scout and coach in Major League Baseball. In his playing days, he stood 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall, weighed 195 pounds (88 kg), and threw and batted right-handed. He was nicknamed "Footsie" by teammates because he often had difficulty finding shoes that fit him properly. Read more
04 Oct 1921: Stella Pevsner, American children's author (died 2020) Stella Pevsner was an American author of children's books and works of young adult literature published since the late 1960s. Read more
04 Oct 1918: Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1998) Kenichi Fukui was a Japanese chemist. He became the first person of East Asian ancestry to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry when he won the 1981 prize with Roald Hoffmann, for their independent investigations into the mechanisms of chemical reactions. Fukui's prize-winning work focused on the role of frontier orbitals in chemical reactions: specifically that molecules share loosely bonded electrons which occupy the frontier orbitals, that is, the Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital (HOMO) and the Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital (LUMO). Read more
04 Oct 1917: Violeta Parra, Chilean singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1967) Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval was a Chilean composer, singer-songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist. She pioneered the Nueva Canción Chilena, a renewal and a reinvention of Chilean folk music that would extend its sphere of influence outside Chile. Read more
04 Oct 1916: Vitaly Ginzburg, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2009) Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg ForMemRS was a Russian physicist who was honored with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2003, together with Alexei Abrikosov and Anthony Leggett for their "pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids." Read more
04 Oct 1916: Jan Murray, American comedian, actor, and game show host (died 2006) Jan Murray was an American comedian, actor, and television presenter. He originally made his name on the Borscht Belt and later was known for his frequent television appearances over several decades, including as the host of several game shows. Read more
04 Oct 1916: George Sidney, American director and producer (died 2002) George Sidney was an American film director and producer who worked primarily at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His work includes cult classics Bye Bye Birdie (1963) and Viva Las Vegas (1964). With an extensive background in acting, stage direction, film editing, and music, Sidney created many of post-war Hollywood's big budget musicals, such as Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Show Boat (1951), Kiss Me Kate (1953), Jupiter's Darling (1955), and Pal Joey (1957). He was also a president of the Screen Directors Guild for 16 years. Read more
04 Oct 1916: Ken Wood, inventor of the Kenwood Chef food mixer (died 1997) Kenneth Wood was an English engineer, entrepreneur and businessman. He is best known as the founder of the Kenwood Manufacturing Company and for the development of the eponymous Kenwood Chef food mixer. Read more
04 Oct 1914: Jim Cairns, Australian economist and politician, 4th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia (died 2003) James Ford Cairns was an Australian politician who was prominent in the Labor movement through the 1960s and 1970s, and was briefly Treasurer and the fourth deputy prime minister of Australia, both in the Whitlam government. He is best remembered as a leader of the movement against Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, for his affair with Junie Morosi, and for his later renunciation of conventional politics. He was also an economist, and a prolific writer on economic and social issues. Many of his books were self-published, and self-marketed at stalls he ran across Australia. Read more
04 Oct 1914: Brendan Gill, American journalist and essayist (died 1997) Brendan Gill was an American journalist. He wrote for The New Yorker for more than 60 years. Gill also contributed film criticism for Film Comment, wrote about design and architecture for Architectural Digest, and authored fifteen books, including a popular memoir about his time at The New Yorker. Read more
04 Oct 1913: Martial Célestin, Haitian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Haiti (died 2011) Martial Lavaud Célestin was named Prime Minister of Haïti by President Leslie Manigat in February 1988 under the provisions of the 1987 Constitution, and was approved by the Parliament that formed as a result of the January 17, 1988 elections. He was deposed by the June 20, 1988 coup d'état. He was born in Ganthier and was a lawyer by profession. Célestin died on February 4, 2011, at the age of 97. Read more
04 Oct 1911: Mary Two-Axe Earley, Canadian indigenous women's rights activist (died 1996) Mary Two-Axe Earley was a Canadian Mohawk and Oneida women's rights activist from the reserve of Kahnawake in Quebec. After losing her legal Indian status due to marrying a non-status man, Two-Axe Earley advocated for changes to the Indian Act, which had promoted gender discrimination and stripped First Nations women of the right to participate in the political and cultural life of their home reserves. Read more
04 Oct 1910: Frankie Crosetti, American baseball player and coach (died 2002) Frank Peter Joseph Crosetti, nicknamed "The Crow", was an American baseball player. From 1932 to 1948, he spent his entire seventeen-year Major League Baseball playing career with the New York Yankees at shortstop. After his retirement as a player, he became third base coach with the franchise for an additional twenty seasons. From 1932 to 1968, Crosetti won a combined total of 17 World Series Championships, 8 as a player, and 9 as a coach, the most by any individual. Crosetti is tied with NHL legend Jean Béliveau for the most combined championships in sports. Read more
04 Oct 1910: Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı, Turkish poet and author (died 1956) Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı was a Turkish poet. Identified with the poem "Otuz Beş Yaş", Tarancı adhered to the understanding of "art for art's sake". He mostly included the themes of joy of life and death in his poems; He also wrote poems about lost loves, happy loves, loneliness, the bitterness of the bohemian life he lived, and childhood longing. Many of his poems were composed by different composers.
In addition to his poetry books Ömrümde Sükût (1933), Otuz Beş Yaş (1946), Düşten Güzel (1952) and after his death "Sonrası"(1957) and Bütün Şiirleri (1983), he wrote various stories, and these stories were published on the 50th anniversary of Tarancı's death. It was published under the title " Gün Eksilmesin Penceremden" (2006). Most of the letters the poet wrote to his family members, friends and close friends, who also translated poems from French literature, were published under the names of Ziya'ya Mektuplar (1957) and Evime ve Nihal'e Mektuplar (1989). Read more
04 Oct 1907: Alain Daniélou, French-Swiss historian and academic (died 1994) Alain Daniélou was a French historian, Indologist, intellectual, musicologist, translator, writer and convert to and scholar of the Shaivite branch of Hinduism. Read more
04 Oct 1906: Mary Celine Fasenmyer, American mathematician (died 1996) Mary Celine Fasenmyer, RSM was an American mathematician and Catholic religious sister. She is most noted for her work on hypergeometric functions and linear algebra. Read more
04 Oct 1903: Bona Arsenault, Canadian genealogist, historian, and politician (died 1993) Bona Arsenault, was a Canadian historian, genealogist and a federal and provincial politician. Read more
04 Oct 1903: John Vincent Atanasoff, American physicist and academic, invented the Atanasoff–Berry computer (died 1995) John Vincent Atanasoff was an American physicist and inventor credited with inventing the first electronic digital computer. Atanasoff invented the first electronic digital computer in the 1930s at Iowa State College. Challenges to his claim were resolved in 1973 when the Honeywell v. Sperry Rand lawsuit ruled that Atanasoff was the inventor of the computer. His special-purpose machine has come to be called the Atanasoff–Berry Computer. Read more
04 Oct 1903: Pierre Garbay, French general (died 1980) Pierre Garbay was a French Army General. Read more
04 Oct 1903: Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian-German lawyer and general, convicted Nuremberg war criminal (died 1946) Ernst Kaltenbrunner was an Austrian lawyer, high-ranking SS official during the Nazi era, major perpetrator of the Holocaust, and convicted war criminal. After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, and a brief period under Heinrich Himmler, Kaltenbrunner was named the third director of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), which included the offices of Gestapo, Kripo and SD, serving from January 1943 until the end of World War II in Europe. He was also the president of Interpol during the same time period. Read more
04 Oct 1900: August Mälk, Estonian author and playwright (died 1987) August Mälk was an Estonian writer and politician. Read more
04 Oct 1896: Dorothy Lawrence, English reporter, who secretly posed as a man to become a soldier during World War I (died 1964) Dorothy Lawrence was an English journalist who posed as a male soldier to report from the front line during World War I. In 1915, she went to France, where she managed to obtain a military uniform and a false identity. Read more
04 Oct 1895: Buster Keaton, American film actor, director, and producer (died 1966) Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent films, in which he performed physical comedy and inventive stunts. He maintained a stoic, deadpan facial expression that became his trademark and earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face". Read more
04 Oct 1895: Richard Sorge, German journalist and spy (died 1944) Richard Gustavovich Sorge was a German journalist and Soviet military intelligence officer who was active before and during World War II and worked undercover as a German journalist in both Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. His codename was "Ramsay" (Рамза́й). Read more
04 Oct 1892: Engelbert Dollfuss, Austrian soldier and politician, 14th Federal Chancellor of Austria (died 1934) Engelbert Dollfuss was an Austrian politician and dictator who served as chancellor of Austria between 1932 and 1934. Having served as Minister for Forests and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative and nationalist government. This crisis culminated in the self-elimination of the Austrian Parliament, a coup sparked by the resignation of the presiding officers of the National Council. Suppressing the Socialist movement in the Austrian Civil War and later banning the Austrian Nazi Party, he cemented his rule through the First of May Constitution in 1934. Later that year, Dollfuss was assassinated as part of a failed coup attempt by Nazi agents. His successor Kurt Schuschnigg maintained the regime until Adolf Hitler's Anschluss in 1938. Read more
04 Oct 1892: Hermann Glauert, English aerodynamicist and author (died 1934) Hermann Glauert, FRS was a British aerodynamicist and Principal Scientific Officer of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough until his death in 1934. Read more
04 Oct 1892: Robert Lawson, American author and illustrator (died 1957) Robert Lawson was an American writer and artist, best known for his work as an author and illustrator of children's literature. Lawson won the Caldecott Medal in 1941 for his illustrations in They Were Strong and Good and the Newbery Medal in 1945 for his work on Rabbit Hill; he is the only person to have won both medals. In addition to his work in children's books, Lawson also created etchings, which earned him the John Taylor Arms Prize from the Society of American Etchers in 1931. His artwork, including etchings, prints, works in pen and ink, and pencil on paper, is held in prominent collections such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Read more
04 Oct 1890: Alan L. Hart, American physician and author (died 1962) Alan L. Hart was an American physician, radiologist, tuberculosis researcher, writer, and novelist. Hart pioneered the use of X-ray photography in tuberculosis detection; he worked in sanitariums and X-ray clinics in New Mexico, Illinois, Washington, and Idaho. For the last 16 years of his life, he headed mass X-ray programs that screened for tuberculosis in Connecticut. X-rays were not regularly used to screen for tuberculosis prior to Hart's innovation, and are still used today, which has led researchers to believe that he saved countless lives. Read more
04 Oct 1890: Osman Cemal Kaygılı, Turkish writer and journalist (died 1945) Osman Cemal Kaygılı was a Turkish writer and journalist. Read more
04 Oct 1888: Lucy Tayiah Eads, American tribal chief (died 1961) Lucy Tayiah Eads or Cha-me (1888–1961) was elected the first female tribal chief of the Kaw Indians in 1922. She was the first chief of the Kaws since 1908. Read more
04 Oct 1888: Oscar Mathisen, Norwegian speed skater (died 1954) Oscar Wilhelm Mathisen was a Norwegian speed skater and celebrity, almost rivalling Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen as symbols for a young nation. He represented Kristiania Skøiteklub. Read more
04 Oct 1884: Ramchandra Shukla, Indian historian and author (died 1941) Ram Chandra Shukla, better known as Acharya Shukla, was an Indian historian of Hindi literature. He is regarded as the first codifier of the history of Hindi literature in a scientific system by using wide, empirical research with scant resources. As an author he is best known for Hindi Sahitya Ka Itihaas (1928–29). Read more
04 Oct 1881: Walther von Brauchitsch, German field marshal (died 1948) Walther Heinrich Alfred Hermann von Brauchitsch was a German Generalfeldmarschall and Commander-in-Chief (Oberbefehlshaber) of the German Army during the first two years of World War II. Born into an aristocratic military family, he entered army service in 1901. During World War I, he served with distinction on the corps-level and division-level staff on the Western Front. Read more
04 Oct 1880: Damon Runyon, American newspaperman and short story writer. (died 1946) Alfred Damon Runyon was an American journalist and short-story writer. Read more
04 Oct 1879: Robert Edwards, American artist, musician, and writer (died 1948) Robert Edwards, also known as Bobby Edwards, was an American artist, musician, and writer, and a prominent figure among New York City's Greenwich Village in the 1920s and '30s. He was editor and publisher of the Greenwich Village Quill, and was known as the "Bard of Bohemia" and the "Village Troubadour" for his many songs he wrote and sang publicly. Read more
04 Oct 1877: Razor Smith, English cricketer (died 1946) William Charles "Razor" Smith was a Surrey slow bowler. Nicknamed "Razor" because of his extreme thinness, Smith was a frail man and prone to serious injury; he could rarely get through a full season's cricket, but when fit and healthy, could command the sharpest off-break among bowlers of his day. He was also able to bowl a somewhat faster ball with a very high flight that turned a little from leg and, with any help from the pitch, would get up almost straight. Read more
04 Oct 1876: Florence Eliza Allen, American mathematician and suffrage activist (died 1960) Florence Eliza Allen (1876–1960) was an American mathematician and women's suffrage activist. In 1907 she became the second woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the fourth Ph.D. overall from that department. Read more
04 Oct 1874: John Ellis, English executioner (died 1932) John Ellis was a British executioner for 23 years, from 1901 to 1924. His other occupations were as a Rochdale hairdresser and newsagent. Read more
04 Oct 1868: Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 20th President of Argentina (died 1942) Máximo Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear y Pacheco served as president of Argentina from 1922 to 1928. Read more
04 Oct 1862: Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, sister-in-law of Vincent van Gogh, who is credited with promoting his posthumous fame (died 1925). Johanna Gezina van Gogh-Bonger was a Dutch editor who translated the hundreds of letters of her first husband, art dealer Theo van Gogh, and his brother, painter Vincent van Gogh. Read more
04 Oct 1862: Edward Stratemeyer, American author and publisher (died 1930) Edward Stratemeyer was an American publisher, writer of children's fiction and founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Read more
04 Oct 1861: Walter Rauschenbusch, American pastor and theologian (died 1918) Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) was an American theologian and Baptist pastor who taught at the Rochester Theological Seminary. Rauschenbusch was a key figure in the Social Gospel and single tax movements that flourished in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was also the maternal grandfather of the influential philosopher Richard Rorty and the great-grandfather of Paul Raushenbush. Read more
04 Oct 1861: Frederic Remington, American painter, sculptor, and illustrator (died 1909) Frederic Sackrider Remington was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United States in the last quarter of the 19th century and featuring such images as cowboys, Native Americans, and the US Cavalry. Read more
04 Oct 1858: Léon Serpollet, French businessman (died 1903) Léon Serpollet was a French engineer and developer of flash steam boilers and steam automobiles. Read more
04 Oct 1843: Marie-Alphonsine Danil Ghattas, Palestinian nun and Catholic Saint (died 1927) Marie-Alphonsine Danil Ghattas, OP was a Palestinian Catholic nun who founded the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary of Jerusalem, the first Palestinian religious congregation. She was beatified by Archbishop Angelo Amato on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI in 2009. On 6 December 2014, Pope Francis recognized a miracle that had been attributed to her intercession, a requirement for her canonization. The date of her canonization was announced on 14 February 2015, and she was canonized on 17 May 2015. Read more
04 Oct 1841: Prudente de Morais, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 3rd President of Brazil (died 1912) Prudente José de Morais Barros was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the third president of Brazil from 1894 to 1898. Morais was elected in 1894, being the first civilian president of the country, the first to be elected by direct popular ballot under the permanent provisions of Brazil's 1891 Constitution, and the first to serve a full term. Before his presidency he served as president (governor) of the state of São Paulo and president of the Senate from 1891 to 1894. He was also president of the Constituent Assembly that drafted and enacted the 1891 Constitution. Read more
04 Oct 1841: Maria Sophie of Bavaria (died 1925) Duchess Maria Sophie Amalie in Bavaria was the last Queen of the Two Sicilies as the wife of Francis II of the Two Sicilies. She was one of the ten children of Maximilian Joseph, Duke in Bavaria and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria. She was born as Duchess Maria Sophie in Bavaria. She was the younger sister of the better-known Elisabeth of Bavaria ("Sisi") who married Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Read more
04 Oct 1837: Auguste-Réal Angers, Canadian judge and politician, 6th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (died 1919) Sir Auguste-Réal Angers was a Canadian judge and parliamentarian, holding seats both as a member of the House of Commons of Canada, and as a Senator. He was born in 1837 probably in Quebec City and died in Westmount, Quebec, in 1919. Read more
04 Oct 1836: Juliette Adam, French author (died 1936) Juliette Adam was a French author and feminist. Read more
04 Oct 1835: Jenny Twitchell Kempton, American opera singer and educator (died 1921) Jane Elizabeth Kempton was an American contralto opera solo singer who had an active career spanning over fifty years starting in 1850. She sang in hundreds of performances across the United States and Europe during her long career. Read more
04 Oct 1822: Rutherford B. Hayes, American general, lawyer, and politician, 19th President of the United States (died 1893) Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th president of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. He served as Cincinnati's city solicitor from 1858 to 1861 and was known as a staunch abolitionist who defended refugee slaves in court proceedings. At the start of the Civil War, Hayes left a fledgling political career to join the Union army. He was wounded five times, most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain in 1862. Hayes earned a reputation for bravery in combat, rising in the ranks to serve as brevet major general. After the war, he was a prominent member of the "Half-Breed" faction of the Republican Party. Hayes served in Congress from 1865 to 1867 and was elected governor of Ohio, serving two consecutive terms from 1868 to 1872 and half of a third two-year term from 1876 to 1877 before his swearing-in as president. Read more
04 Oct 1814: Jean-François Millet, French painter and educator (died 1875) Jean-François Millet was a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his paintings of peasant farmers and can be categorized as part of the Realism art movement. Toward the end of his career, he became increasingly interested in painting pure landscapes. He is known best for his oil paintings but is also noted for his pastels, Conté crayon drawings, and etchings. Read more
04 Oct 1807: Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, Canadian lawyer and politician, 2nd Premier of Canada East (died 1864) Sir Louis-Hippolyte Ménard dit La Fontaine, 1st Baronet, KCMG was a Canadian politician, jurist and statesman, who served as the first Premier of the United Province of Canada and the first head of a responsible government in Canada along side Robert Baldwin. Read more

Notable Deaths on 04 October

04 Oct 2024: Christopher Ciccone, American artist (born 1960) Christopher Gerard Ciccone was an American visual artist, interior decorator, and designer in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. He was the younger brother of American singer Madonna. Read more
04 Oct 2024: Billy Shaw, American football player (born 1938) William Lewis Shaw was an American professional football player who was a guard for the Buffalo Bills in the American Football League (AFL). After playing college football for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, he was selected by the Bills in the second round of the 1961 AFL draft. Shaw was the prototypical "pulling guard" who despite his size held his own against much bigger defensive linemen like Ernie Ladd, Earl Faison and Buck Buchanan. He won three straight Eastern Division titles and two AFL championships in 1964 and 1965 with Buffalo. Read more
04 Oct 2022: Loretta Lynn, American singer-songwriter and musician (born 1932) Loretta Lynn was an American country music singer and songwriter. In a career spanning six decades, Lynn released multiple gold albums. She had numerous hits such as "Hey Loretta", "The Pill", "Blue Kentucky Girl", "Love Is The Foundation", "You're Lookin' At Country", "You Ain't Woman Enough", "I'm A Honky Tonk Girl", "Don't Come Home A Drinkin' ", "One's On the Way", "Fist City", and "Coal Miner's Daughter". The 1980 musical film Coal Miner's Daughter was based on her life, in which actress Sissy Spacek portrayed Lynn. Read more
04 Oct 2020: Clark Middleton, American actor (born 1957) Clark Tinsley Middleton was an American actor. He is best known for his supporting roles in Kill Bill: Vol. 2, Sin City, Fringe, Snowpiercer, and The Blacklist. Read more
04 Oct 2020: Kenzō Takada, Japanese-French fashion designer (born 1939) Kenzō Takada was a Japanese–French fashion designer living in France. He founded Kenzo, a worldwide clothing brand that also markets skincare and perfumes. Takada was the honorary president of the Asian Couture Federation. Read more
04 Oct 2015: Dave Pike, American vibraphone player and songwriter (born 1938) David Samuel Pike was an American jazz vibraphone and marimba player. He appeared on many albums by Nick Brignola, Paul Bley and Kenny Clarke, Bill Evans, and Herbie Mann. He also recorded extensively as leader, including a number of albums on MPS Records. Read more
04 Oct 2015: Edida Nageswara Rao, Indian director and producer (born 1934) Edida Nageswara Rao was an Indian film producer and actor known for his work in Telugu cinema. He was celebrated for blending artistic values with mainstream appeal, making him one of the most respected producers in the industry. Nageswara Rao began his career with minor acting roles and as a dubbing artist before establishing Poornodaya Movie Creations, a production house that produced several critically acclaimed and commercially successful films. Read more
04 Oct 2015: Neal Walk, American basketball player (born 1948) Neal Eugene Walk was an American college and professional basketball player who was a center in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for eight seasons during the late 1960s and 1970s, playing overseas afterward. Walk played college basketball for the University of Florida, and remains the Florida Gators' all-time rebounds leader. The Phoenix Suns picked Walk second overall in the 1969 NBA draft, having lost the coin toss with the Milwaukee Bucks for Lew Alcindor. Walk played professionally for the Suns, the New Orleans Jazz and the New York Knicks of the NBA. Read more
04 Oct 2014: Konrad Boehmer, German-Dutch composer and educator (born 1941) Konrad Boehmer was a German-Dutch composer, educator, and writer. Read more
04 Oct 2014: Hugo Carvana, Brazilian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1937) Hugo Carvana de Hollanda was a Brazilian actor and film director. He appeared in more than 110 films and television shows between 1954 and 2014. Read more
04 Oct 2014: Fyodor Cherenkov, Russian footballer and manager (born 1959) Fyodor Fyodorovich Cherenkov was a Soviet and Russian football midfielder who played for Spartak Moscow and Red Star Football Club (1990–91). Read more
04 Oct 2014: Jean-Claude Duvalier, Haitian politician, 41st President of Haiti (born 1951) Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed "Baby Doc", was a Haitian dictator who held the presidency of Haiti from 1971 until he was overthrown by a popular uprising in February 1986. He succeeded his father François "Papa Doc" Duvalier as the ruler of Haiti after his death in 1971. After assuming power, he introduced cosmetic changes to his father's regime and delegated much authority to his advisors. Thousands of Haitians were tortured and killed, and hundreds of thousands fled the country during his presidency. He maintained a notoriously lavish lifestyle while poverty among his people remained the most widespread of any country in the Western Hemisphere. Read more
04 Oct 2013: John Cloudsley-Thompson, Pakistani-English commander (born 1921) John Leonard Cloudsley-Thompson DSc CBiol FSB FRES FZS was a British naturalist renowned for his work on desert fauna. He was a tank commander during the Second World War. Read more
04 Oct 2013: Ulric Cross, Trinidadian navigator, judge, and diplomat (born 1917) Philip Louis Ulric Cross was a Trinidadian jurist, diplomat and Royal Air Force (RAF) navigator, recognised as possibly the most decorated West Indian of World War II. He is credited with helping to prevent some two hundred bombers from being shot down in a raid over Germany in 1943. He subsequently studied law at London's Middle Temple, and went on to fulfil a distinguished international career as a jurist across Africa and within Trinidad and Tobago. He also served as a diplomat for Trinidad and Tobago to the United Kingdom. Read more
04 Oct 2013: Akira Miyoshi, Japanese composer (born 1933) Akira Miyoshi was a Japanese composer. Read more
04 Oct 2013: Diana Nasution, Indonesian singer (born 1958) Diana Nasution, was an Indonesian singer. Read more
04 Oct 2013: Võ Nguyên Giáp, Vietnamese general and politician, 3rd Minister of Defence for Vietnam (born 1911) Võ Nguyên Giáp was a Vietnamese general, communist revolutionary and politician. Highly regarded as a military strategist, Giáp led Vietnamese communist military forces to victory in the decades-long Indochina wars. Giáp was the military commander of the Việt Minh and the People's Army from 1941 to 1972, minister of defense of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1946–1947 and from 1948 to 1980, and deputy prime minister from 1955 to 1991. He was a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Read more
04 Oct 2013: Nicholas Oresko, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1917) Nicholas Oresko was an American combat veteran of World War II who received the Medal of Honor for his valorous actions in Germany on January 23, 1945. Read more
04 Oct 2012: David Atkinson, Canadian actor and singer (born 1921) David Anthony Stuart Atkinson was a Canadian baritone and New York Broadway actor/singer. Most of his career was spent performing in musicals and operettas in New York City from the late 1940s through the early 1970s, although he did appear in some operas and made a few television appearances. In 1952 he created the role of Sam in the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti. From 1956-1962 he was a leading performer at the New York City Opera where he starred in several musicals and appeared in the world premieres of several English language operas. His greatest success on the stage came late in his career: the role of Cervantes in Man of La Mancha which he portrayed in the original Broadway production, the 1968 national tour, and in the 1972 Broadway revival. Read more
04 Oct 2012: Stan Mudenge, Zimbabwean historian and politician, Zimbabwean Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1941) Isaak Stanislaus Gorerazvo Mudenge was a Zimbabwean politician who served in the government of Zimbabwe as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 2005 and as Minister of Higher Education from 2005 to 2012. Read more
04 Oct 2012: Tom Stannage, Australian footballer, historian, and academic (born 1944) Charles Thomas Stannage, was a prominent Western Australian historian, academic, and Australian rules football player. He edited the major work A New History of Western Australia, which was published in 1981. Read more
04 Oct 2011: Doris Belack, American actress (born 1926) Doris Belack was an American character actress of stage, film and television. Read more
04 Oct 2010: Norman Wisdom, English actor, comedian, and singer-songwriter (born 1915) Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom was an English actor, comedian, musician, and singer best known for his series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966, in which he portrayed the endearingly inept character Norman Pitkin. He rose to fame with his first leading film role in Trouble in Store (1953), which earned him the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles. Read more
04 Oct 2009: Gerhard Kaufhold, German footballer (born 1928) Gerhard Kaufhold was a German footballer who spent his entire career at Kickers Offenbach. He played a total of 396 games in the Oberliga Süd for the club, scoring 112 goals. He also represented West Germany in a 3–1 defeat against England in 1954. Read more
04 Oct 2009: Günther Rall, German general and pilot (born 1918) Günther Rall was a highly decorated German military aviator, officer and General, whose military career spanned nearly forty years. Rall was the third most successful fighter pilot in aviation history, behind Gerhard Barkhorn, who is second, and Erich Hartmann, who is first. Read more
04 Oct 2007: Qassem Al-Nasser, Jordanian general (born 1925) HE Major General Qassem Pasha Al-Nasser (1925–2007) was a Jordanian officer who participated in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. He was part of many battles, such as: Latrun, Bab El-wad, and Misherem, amongst others. Read more
04 Oct 2005: Stanley K. Hathaway, American lawyer and politician, 40th United States Secretary of the Interior (born 1924) Stanley Knapp Hathaway was an American politician who served as the 27th governor of Wyoming from 1967 to 1975 and as the 40th United States secretary of the interior under President Gerald Ford from June to October 1975. Read more
04 Oct 2004: Gordon Cooper, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut (born 1927) Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr. was an American aerospace engineer, test pilot, United States Air Force pilot, and the youngest of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first human space program of the United States. Cooper learned to fly as a child, and after service in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, he was commissioned into the United States Air Force in 1949. After serving as a fighter pilot, he qualified as a test pilot in 1956 and was selected as an astronaut in 1959. Read more
04 Oct 2003: Sid McMath, American lawyer and politician, 34th Governor of Arkansas (born 1912) Sidney Sanders McMath was a U.S. marine, attorney and the 34th governor of Arkansas from 1949 to 1953. In defiance of his state's political establishment, he championed rapid rural electrification, massive highway and school construction, the building of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, strict bank and utility regulation, repeal of the poll tax, open and honest elections, and broad expansion of opportunity for black citizens in the decade following World War II. Read more
04 Oct 2002: André Delvaux, Belgian-Spanish director and screenwriter (born 1926) André Albert Auguste Delvaux was a Belgian film director. He co-founded the film school INSAS in 1962 and is regarded as the founder of the Belgian national cinema. Adapting works by writers such as Johan Daisne, Julien Gracq and Marguerite Yourcenar, he received international attention for directing magic realist films. Read more
04 Oct 2001: Blaise Alexander, American race car driver (born 1976) Blaise Robert Alexander Jr. was an American racing driver from Montoursville, Pennsylvania. He began racing at the age of twelve in go-karts, winning the coveted World Karting Association East Regional championship in 1992. In 1995, he moved south to Mooresville, North Carolina, and drove in the ARCA Racing Series. Named ARCA's rookie of the year in 1996, Alexander was a regular driver in that series while also driving in both the NASCAR Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series. Read more
04 Oct 2001: John Collins, American guitarist (born 1913) John Elbert Collins was an American jazz guitarist who was a member of the Nat King Cole trio. Read more
04 Oct 2001: Ahron Soloveichik, Russian rabbi and scholar (born 1917) Ahron (Aaron) Soloveichik was an Orthodox Jewish rosh yeshiva and scholar of Talmud and halakha. Read more
04 Oct 2000: Yu Kuo-hwa, Chinese politician, 32nd Premier of the Republic of China (born 1914) Yu Kuo-hwa was a Taiwanese economist who served as the Premier of the Republic of China from 1984 to 1989. Read more
04 Oct 2000: Michael Smith, English-Canadian biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1932) Michael Smith was a British-Canadian biochemist and businessman. He shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Kary Mullis for his work in developing site-directed mutagenesis. Following a PhD in 1956 from the University of Manchester, he undertook postdoctoral research with Har Gobind Khorana at the British Columbia Research Council in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Subsequently, Smith worked at the Fisheries Research Board of Canada Laboratory in Vancouver before being appointed a professor of biochemistry in the UBC Faculty of Medicine in 1966. Smith's career included roles as the founding director of the UBC Biotechnology Laboratory and the founding scientific leader of the Protein Engineering Network of Centres of Excellence (PENCE). In 1996 he was named Peter Wall Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology. Subsequently, he became the founding director of the Genome Sequencing Centre at the BC Cancer Research Centre. Read more
04 Oct 1999: Bernard Buffet, French painter and illustrator (born 1928) Bernard Buffet was a French painter, printmaker, and illustrator. An extremely prolific artist, he produced a varied and extensive body of work. His style was exclusively figurative and is often classified as Expressionist and Misérabilisme, as well as figurative collectives such as L'Homme-Témoin and La Jeune Peinture. Art historians have also classified his formal style as "abstract realism"—a framework in which recognizable, everyday figurative subjects are flattened, enclosed within rigid geometric grids, and stripped of cast shadows to assert the two-dimensional autonomy of the canvas. Curators have further noted that the emotional detachment, repetition, and formal rigidity of his figures share close affinities with New Objectivity portraiture and the anti-subjective descriptive style of the Nouveau Roman. Read more
04 Oct 1999: Art Farmer, American trumpet player and composer (born 1928) Arthur Stewart Farmer was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet–flugelhorn combination especially designed for him. He and his identical twin brother, double bassist Addison Farmer, started playing professionally while at high school in Los Angeles. Art gained greater attention after the release of a recording of his composition "Farmer's Market" in 1952. He subsequently moved from Los Angeles to New York, where he performed and recorded with musicians such as Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins, and Gigi Gryce and became known principally as a bebop player. Read more
04 Oct 1998: S. Arasaratnam, Sri Lankan historian and academic (born 1930) Sinnappah Arasaratnam was a Sri Lankan academic, historian and author, born during British colonial rule. Known as 'Arasa', he was a lecturer at the University of Ceylon, University of Malaya and University of New England (Australia). Read more
04 Oct 1997: Otto Ernst Remer, German general (born 1912) Generalmajor Otto Ernst Remer was a German Army officer who served during World War II and played a major role in stopping the 20 July plot in 1944 against Adolf Hitler. He was a captain and a major (1943–1944), and finally a Oberst (colonel) and a Generalmajor in 1945. In his later years, he became a politician and far-right activist. He co-founded the Socialist Reich Party in West Germany in the 1950s and is considered an influential figure in postwar neo-fascist politics in Germany. Read more
04 Oct 1997: Gunpei Yokoi, Japanese game designer, created the Game Boy (born 1941) Gunpei Yokoi , sometimes transliterated as Gumpei Yokoi, was a Japanese toy maker and video game designer. As a long-time Nintendo employee, he was best known as the original designer of several notable Nintendo products, including the Ultra Hand toy, the Game & Watch and Game Boy handheld game systems, as well as the producer of a few critically acclaimed franchises such as Donkey Kong, Metroid, and Kid Icarus. The modern Nintendo philosophy called the "Blue Ocean Theory," or focusing on interactive gameplay with black-and-white graphics over cutting-edge technology was espoused by Yokoi and still applied today. Read more
04 Oct 1994: Danny Gatton, American guitarist (born 1945) Daniel Wood Gatton Jr. was an American virtuoso guitarist who combined blues, rockabilly, jazz, and country to create a musical style he called "redneck jazz", a term which he took from fellow DC-born guitarist Evan Johns, who had composed a song by that name. Read more
04 Oct 1992: Denny Hulme, New Zealand race car driver (born 1936) Denis Clive Hulme was a New Zealand racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1965 to 1974. Nicknamed "the Bear", Hulme won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1967 with Brabham, becoming the only New Zealander to do so, and won eight Grands Prix across 10 seasons. He is the World Champion with the fewest pole positions in his career, with only 1 career pole at the 1973 South African Grand Prix. Read more
04 Oct 1990: Mārtiņš Zīverts, Latvian playwright (born 1903) Mārtiņš Zīverts was a Latvian playwright. Read more
04 Oct 1989: Graham Chapman, English actor and screenwriter, member of Monty Python (born 1941) Graham Chapman was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was one of the six members of the surrealist comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel and the lead role in two Python films, Holy Grail (1975) and Life of Brian (1979). Read more
04 Oct 1988: Zlatko Grgić, Croatian-Canadian animator, director, and screenwriter (born 1931) Zlatko Grgić was a Croatian animator who emigrated to Canada in the late 1960s. Read more
04 Oct 1982: Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist and conductor (born 1932) Glenn Herbert Gould was a Canadian pianist and broadcaster. Regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, he was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. His playing was distinguished by remarkable technical proficiency and a capacity to articulate the contrapuntal texture of Bach's music. Read more
04 Oct 1982: Stefanos Stefanopoulos, Greek politician, 165th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1898) Stefanos Stefanopoulos was a Greek politician, and served as Prime Minister of Greece from 1965 to 1966. Read more
04 Oct 1981: Freddie Lindstrom, American baseball player and coach (born 1905) Frederick Charles Lindstrom was an American professional baseball player who was a third baseman and outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs and Brooklyn Dodgers from 1924 until 1936. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976. Read more
04 Oct 1980: Pyotr Masherov, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia (born 1918) Pyotr Mironovich Masherov was a Soviet partisan, statesman, and one of the leaders of the Belarusian resistance during World War II who governed the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia from 1965 until his death in 1980. Under Masherov's rule, Belarus was transformed from an agrarian, undeveloped nation which had not yet recovered from the Second World War into an industrial powerhouse; Minsk, the capital and largest city of Belarus, became one of the fastest-growing cities on the planet. Masherov ruled until his sudden death in 1980, after his vehicle was hit by a potato truck. Read more
04 Oct 1977: José Ber Gelbard, Argentinian activist and politician (born 1917) José Ber Gelbard was a Polish-born Argentine activist and politician, and a member of the Argentine Communist Party. He also helped organize the Confederación General Económica (CGE), made up of small and medium-sized business. Beginning about 1954, he was appointed as an economic advisor to Juan Perón and repeatedly was called back to serve as Minister of Finance to successive governments until the military coup of March 1976. He fled with his family shortly before the coup, gaining political asylum in the United States and settling in Washington, D.C. Read more
04 Oct 1975: Friedrich Lutz, German economist (born 1901) Friedrich August Lutz was a German economist who developed the expectations hypothesis. Read more
04 Oct 1975: Joan Whitney Payson, American businesswoman and philanthropist (born 1903) Joan Whitney Payson was an American heiress, businesswoman, philanthropist, patron of the arts and art collector, and a member of the prominent Whitney family. She co-founded, and was the majority owner of, Major League Baseball's New York Mets baseball franchise, making her the first woman to own a major league team in North America without inheriting it. Read more
04 Oct 1974: Anne Sexton, American poet and author (born 1928) Anne Sexton was an American poet known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book Live or Die. Her poetry often drew on her experiences with mental illness, including bipolar disorder and suicidal ideation, as well as aspects of her personal life. She was known for blending fairy tales, mythology, and religious imagery with autobiographical themes. Sexton’s work continues to be widely read and studied for its emotional intensity and lasting influence on contemporary American poetry. After her death, one of her daughters has alleged abuse in accounts discussed in some later biographies and scholarship. Read more
04 Oct 1970: Janis Joplin, American singer-songwriter (born 1943) Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer and songwriter. One of the most iconic and successful rock performers of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and her stage presence. Read more
04 Oct 1963: Alar Kotli, Estonian architect (born 1904) Alar Kotli was an Estonian architect. He studied sculpture at the art school Pallas in Tartu during 1922–1923 and mathematics at the University of Tartu. He graduated from the University of technology in Gdańsk in 1927 as an architect. Read more
04 Oct 1961: Benjamin, Russian metropolitan (born 1880) Metropolitan Benjamin or Veniamin was a bishop of the Russian Church, Orthodox missionary and writer. Read more
04 Oct 1958: Ida Wüst, German actress and screenwriter (born 1884) Ida Wüst was a German stage and film actress whose career was prominent in the 1920s and 1930s with Universum Film AG (UFA). Read more
04 Oct 1955: Alexander Papagos, Greek general and politician, 152nd Prime Minister of Greece (born 1883) Alexandros Papagos was a Greek military officer who led the Hellenic Army in World War II and in the later stages of the subsequent Greek Civil War. Afterwards, he served as Prime Minister of Greece from 1952 to 1955. Read more
04 Oct 1951: Henrietta Lacks, American medical patient (born 1920) Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. An immortalized cell line reproduces indefinitely under specific conditions, and the HeLa cell line continues to be a source of invaluable medical data and research to the present day. Read more
04 Oct 1947: Max Planck, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1858) Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was a German theoretical physicist. Planck made many contributions to theoretical physics, primarily in his role as the originator of quantum theory and one of the founders of modern physics, which revolutionized understanding of atomic and subatomic processes. He is known for the Planck constant, , which is of foundational importance for quantum physics, and which he used to derive a set of units, now called Planck units, expressed in terms of physical constants. The Planck relation, E= ν, states that the energy of a photon is proportional to its frequency. Read more
04 Oct 1946: Barney Oldfield, American race car driver and actor (born 1878) Berna Eli "Barney" Oldfield was a pioneer American racing driver. His name was "synonymous with speed in the first two decades of the 20th century". He was the winner of the inaugural AAA National Championship in 1905. Read more
04 Oct 1944: Al Smith, American lawyer and politician, 42nd Governor of New York (born 1873) Alfred Emanuel Smith was an American politician who served as the 42nd governor of New York from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1923 to 1928. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the party's presidential nominee in the 1928 presidential election, losing to Republican nominee Herbert Hoover in a landslide. Read more
04 Oct 1943: Irena Iłłakowicz, German-Polish lieutenant (born 1906) Irena Morzycka-Iłłakowicz was a Polish second lieutenant of the National Armed Forces and intelligence agent. The daughter of Bolesław Morzycki and Władysława Zakrzewska and the sister of Jerzy, she was also a polyglot who spoke seven languages: Polish, French, English, Persian, Finnish, German and Russian. Read more
04 Oct 1935: Jean Béraud, French painter and academic (born 1849) Jean Béraud was a French painter renowned for his numerous paintings of life in Paris and especially its nightlife. His works depicting the Champs-Élysées, cafés, Montmartre and the banks of the Seine are precisely detailed illustrations of everyday Parisian life during the Belle Époque. He also painted religious subjects in a contemporary setting. Read more
04 Oct 1935: Marie Gutheil-Schoder, German soprano, actress, and director (born 1874) Marie Gutheil-Schoder was an important German operatic soprano. Read more
04 Oct 1910: Sergey Muromtsev, Russian lawyer and politician (born 1850) Sergei Andreevich Muromtsev was a Russian lawyer and politician, and chairman of the First Imperial Duma in 1906. Read more
04 Oct 1904: Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, French sculptor, designed the Statue of Liberty (born 1834) Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was a French sculptor and painter. He is best known for designing Liberty Enlightening the World, commonly known as the Statue of Liberty, in New York City, United States. Its construction was begun by Viollet-le-Duc, famous for his restoration of the most prominent medieval landmarks in France, until his death and then completed by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was a gift from France to the United States and was erected in 1886 on Liberty Island, at the entrance to New York harbor. Read more
04 Oct 1904: Carl Josef Bayer, Austrian chemist and academic (born 1847) Carl Josef Bayer was a chemist from Austria-Hungary who invented and named the Bayer process of extracting alumina from bauxite, essential to this day to the economical production of aluminium. Read more
04 Oct 1903: Otto Weininger, Austrian philosopher and author (born 1880) Otto Weininger was an Austrian philosopher who in 1903 published the book Geschlecht und Charakter, which gained popularity after his suicide at the age of 23. Weininger had a strong influence on Ludwig Wittgenstein, August Strindberg, and, via his lesser-known work Über die letzten Dinge, on James Joyce. Read more
04 Oct 1890: Catherine Booth, English theologian and saint, co-founded The Salvation Army (born 1829) Catherine Booth was co-founder of The Salvation Army, along with her husband William Booth. Because of her influence in the formation of The Salvation Army she was known as the 'Mother of The Salvation Army'. Read more
04 Oct 1871: Sarel Cilliers, South African spiritual leader and preacher (born 1801) Charl (Sarel) Arnoldus Cilliers was a Voortrekker leader and a preacher. With Andries Pretorius, he led the Boers to a huge victory over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838. In particular, Cilliers led the Voortrekkers in a vow which promised that if God would protect them and deliver the enemy into their hands, they would build a church and commemorate the day of their victory as if it were an annual Sabbath day, which their descendants would also be instructed to honour. Read more
04 Oct 1867: Francis Xavier Seelos, German-American priest and missionary (born 1819) Francis Xavier Seelos, C.Ss.R., was a German Redemptorist missionary, who worked in the United States, particularly in parishes serving immigrant communities on the American frontier. Near the end of his life, he travelled to New Orleans to minister to people affected by a yellow fever outbreak. He later contracted the disease and died from its complications. Read more
04 Oct 1864: Joseph Montferrand, Canadian logger and strongman (born 1802) Joseph "Jos" Montferrand was a French-Canadian logger, strongman, and folk hero of the working man and was the inspiration for the legendary Ottawa Valley figure Big Joe Mufferaw. Read more
04 Oct 1859: Karl Baedeker, German publisher, founded Baedeker (born 1801) Karl Ludwig Johannes Baedeker was a German publisher whose company, Baedeker, set the standard for authoritative guidebooks for tourists. Read more
04 Oct 1852: James Whitcomb, American lawyer and politician, 8th Governor of Indiana (born 1795) James Whitcomb was a United States senator and the eighth governor of Indiana. As governor during the Mexican–American War, he oversaw the formation and deployment of the state's levies. He led the movement to replace the state constitution and played an important role at the convention to institute a law that prevented the government from taking loans in response the current fiscal crisis in Indiana. By skillfully guiding the state through its bankruptcy, Whitcomb is usually credited as being one of the most successful of Indiana's governors. He was elected to the United States Senate after his term as governor but died of kidney disease only three years later. Read more
04 Oct 1851: Manuel Godoy, Spanish general and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (born 1767) Manuel de Godoy y Álvarez de Faria Ríos, 1st Prince of the Peace was First Secretary of State of the Kingdom of Spain from 1792 to 1797 and from 1801 to 1808. He was one of the central Spanish political figures during the rise of Napoleon and his invasion of Spain. Godoy came to power at a young age as the favourite of King Charles IV and Queen Maria Luisa, with whom he had a sexual relationship. He has been partly blamed for the Anglo-Spanish War of 1796–1808 that weakened the Spanish Empire. Godoy's unmatched power ended in 1808 with the Tumult of Aranjuez, which forced him into long exile. He died in Paris in 1851. Read more
04 Oct 1827: Grigorios Zalykis, Greek-French lexicographer and scholar (born 1785) Grigorios Zalykis was a Greek scholar, writer and diplomat. He was the founder of the "Greek-speaking Hotel", a secret organization established in Paris in 1809 to assist Greeks against Ottoman rule. Read more
04 Oct 1821: John Rennie the Elder, Scottish engineer, designed the Waterloo Bridge (born 1761) John Rennie was a Scottish civil engineer who designed many bridges, canals, docks and warehouses, and a pioneer in the use of structural cast-iron. Read more

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