"Among other countries that contributed cosmonauts were Hungary, Bulgaria, Cuba, Vietnam, Mongolia, Romania, Syria, Afghanistan and India." #MiroslawHermaszewski 1941-2022 Born on this day apnews.com/article/spac...
apnews.com
Passed Made Present
@passedmadepresent.bsky.social
6th grade teacher posting an educational obituary from the past, daily www.passedmadepresent.org
"... a startling finding that led to treatment advances in heart disease, erectile dysfunction and breathing struggles in premature infants..." #FeridMurad 1936-2023 Born on this day wapo.st/4yzrj7X
Ferid Murad, who won Nobel Prize for cardiovascular discovery, dies at 86
He showed that nitric oxide -- an air pollutant -- plays a key role in relaxing blood vessels. The startling discovery led to medical advances in treating heart disease and erectile dysfunction.
wapo.st
"... the patriarch of Australian surfing but a man tinged by an acerbic yet misunderstood edge..." #BernardFarrelly 1944-2016 Born on this day www.smh.com.au/national/ber...
Bernard Farrelly obituary: Breakthrough surfing champion became the patriarch of a new Australian beach culture
It falls to few to have their names epitomise a sport: Bradman, Cazaly, Phar Lap have the honour. So did Bernard Farrelly.
smh.com.au
"A rigorous autodidact, Peart was also the author of numerous books, beginning with 1996’s The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa..." #NeilPeart 1952-2020 Born on this day www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...
Neil Peart, Rush Drummer Who Set a New Standard for Rock Virtuosity, Dead at 67
Neil Peart, the Hall of Fame drummer for Rush, has died at age 67 of brain cancer.
rollingstone.com
"... captaining West Germany at the 1970 finals in Mexico, he played with a dislocated shoulder in a sling..." #FranzBeckenbauer 1945-2024 Born on this day www.irishtimes.com/obituaries/2...
Franz Beckenbauer obituary: Footballer who radiated an iconic status
The German became the kind of central defender that football had never seen before
irishtimes.com
"An entertaining writer credited with saving the dying art form of the scientific essay..." #StephenJayGould 1941-2002 Born on this day www.nytimes.com/2002/05/21/u...
Stephen Jay Gould, 60, Is Dead; Enlivened Evolutionary Theory (Published 2002)
nytimes.com
"As a university student in Göttingen after the war, he supported himself by fixing and bartering old radios." #HansGeorgDehmelt 1922-2017 Born on this day www.wsj.com/articles/deh...
Dehmelt Devoted His Career to Trapping the Elusive Electron
Work by Hans Georg Dehmelt and others deepened the understanding of physics at the subatomic scale and created tools still being used in the quest for quantum computers. He won a Nobel in physics in 1...
wsj.com
"The other legacy of his years of addiction was a burning belief in the importance of truth." #DavidCarr 1956-2015 Born on this day www.theguardian.com/media/2015/f...
David Carr obituary: must-read newsman with a burning belief in the importance of truth
New York Times columnist, who collapsed suddenly in the newsroom, was a fierce defender of good journalism, old or new
theguardian.com
"... one of the country’s strongest advocates for India’s millions of women working informally in many kinds of low-paid positions..." #ElaBhatt 1933-2022 Born on this day www.wsj.com/articles/ela...
Ela Bhatt, Organizer of India’s Women Workers, Dies at 89
The lawyer’s SEWA labor collective focused on India’s millions of self-employed women.
wsj.com
"... a retired Washington educator who joined rights groups at demonstrations into her 80s, facing arrest about 20 times while protesting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the detentions at the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay..." #EveTetaz 1931-2023 Born on this day wapo.st/46aAdg5
Eve Tetaz, stalwart human rights activist, dies at 91
The retired educator was arrested so often that police and judges knew her by her first name.
wapo.st
"Parra brought the skepticism of science to his literary work, rejecting traditional poetic techniques and experimenting with prose-like styles, everyday images and grotesque humor in what he called 'anti-poetry.'" #NicanorParra 1914-2018 Born on this day www.voanews.com/a/chilean-po...
Chilean Poet, Physicist Nicanor Parra Dies at 103
Wit and irreverence characterized the eccentric works of the self-described 'anti-poet' and respected physicist
voanews.com
"The song... sold more than 250,000 copies upon its release just after Thanksgiving 1962. The next year, Bing Crosby made it an international hit." #GloriaShayneBaker 1923-2008 Born on this day wapo.st/3USa439
Gloria Shayne Baker, 84; Co-Wrote 'Do You Hear What I Hear?'
wapo.st
"... Professor Saxton excavated women’s lives from under the morass of male privilege..." #MarthaSaxton 1945-2023 Born on this day www.nytimes.com/2023/07/20/b...
Martha Saxton, Historian Who Explored Women’s Lives, Dies at 77 (Gift Article)
Her wide range of subjects included the actress Jayne Mansfield, the novelist Louisa May Alcott and Mary Washington, the mother of a president.
nytimes.com
"... the movement model for several of Walt Disney’s animated classics, including “Fantasia” (1940; in which her dancing was the basis for Hyacinth Hippo in the hippo ballet)..." #MargeChampion 1919-2020 Born on this day www.latimes.com/obituaries/s...
Marge Champion, famed dancer of Hollywood's Golden Age, dies at 101
Marge Champion, a longtime dancer, Emmy-winning choreographer and motion reference for Disney's "Snow White," dies at 101.
latimes.com
"She found something more by eschewing the white-glove teas that congressional wives of the period were expected to host and attend, instead plunging into the emerging feminism of the day." #ArvonneFraser 1925-2018 Born on this day www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/o...
Arvonne Fraser, Who Spoke Out on Women’s Issues, Dies at 92 (Published 2018)
nytimes.com
"... career was defined by a willingness to stand up to those in power — even when they were his bosses..." #DanielSchorr 1916-2010 Born on this day www.politico.com/story/2010/0...
Daniel Schorr dies at 93
The last active member of the "Murrow's Boys" had been willing to stand up to those in power.
politico.com
"Twenty-seven years later, the Times was still in shock, and again resorted to euphemism in her obituary." #MollyIvins 1944-2007 Born on this day www.theguardian.com/news/2007/fe...
Obituary: Molly Ivins
Obituary: A sparkling political columnist, she was the irreverent voice of the American left. By Michael Carlson.
theguardian.com
"... dubbed the “father of Miranda,” a reference to the recitation of rights known to even the most casual viewer of TV police procedurals." #YaleKamisar 1929-2022 Born on this day wapo.st/4qKaaWk
Yale Kamisar, legal scholar known as the ‘father’ of the Miranda warning, dies at 92
His incisive commentaries helped provide the intellectual underpinning of landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings guaranteeing protections for criminal defendants and suspects, among them those contained ...
wapo.st
"He nonetheless volunteered four times for duty in Vietnam and served three-and-a-half tours with the Green Berets..." #OlaMize 1931-2014 Born on this day www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/u...
Ola L. Mize, Honored for Heroics in Korean War, Dies at 82 (Published 2014)
nytimes.com
"She crawled through rice paddies while hiding from the fighting, jumped into a combat zone with American paratroopers and was briefly held captive by the North Vietnamese." #CatherineLeroy 1944-2006 Born on this day www.latimes.com/archives/la-...
Catherine Leroy, 60; War Photographer
Catherine Leroy arrived in Saigon at 21, armed with a Leica camera and a resolve to capture the human side of the Vietnam War.
latimes.com
"She ensured that Alan Shepard’s Mercury capsule splashed down where it could be found quickly in 1961, and that John Glenn in 1962 could return safely from his first orbits of the Earth." #KatherineJohnson 1918-2020 Born on this day www.economist.com/obituary/202...
Katherine Johnson died on February 24th
The black mathematician who guided the first manned spaceflights and the first Moon landing was 101
economist.com
"His tactics... would be used to devastating effect against the Americans 20 years later." #VoNguyenGiap 1911-2013 Born on this day www.bbc.com/news/world-a...
Obituary: General Vo Nguyen Giap
Vietnamese military commander who made his reputation as a talented strategist who engineered victories against forces far better equipped.
bbc.com
"That degrading moment, along with his fury about President Richard Nixon’s Vietnam War policy and the poor care being given his fellow veterans, set Max on a new path." #MaxCleland 1942-2021 Born on this day www.politico.com/news/magazin...
Max Cleland: A Veteran Who Kept Fighting From a Wheelchair
1942-2021
politico.com
"Dr. Smith’s breakthrough finding led to one of the most ubiquitous tools in biotechnology." #HamiltonSmith 1931-2025 Born on this day www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/s...
Hamilton O. Smith, Who Made a Biotech Breakthrough, Is Dead at 94 (Gift Article)
A Nobel laureate, he identified an enzyme that cuts DNA, laying the groundwork for milestones in scientific research and medicine, like insulin.
nytimes.com
"Grimes was affectionately nicknamed 'The Bulldog' for his notoriously steady beat behind the drum kit..." #HowardGrimes 1941-2022 Born on this day www.npr.org/2022/02/13/1...
Drummer Howard Grimes, the backbone of Memphis soul, dies at 80
His beats on songs including Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" served as a crucial foundation for the burgeoning Memphis soul sound of the 1970s.
npr.org
"... a Trinidadian musician and singer who helped to spread the calypso, ska and rocksteady gospel beyond the confines of the Caribbean..." #LordCreator 1935-2023 Born on this day www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2...
telegraph.co.uk
"... faced down police bullets, uranium mining companies and oil pipeline projects..." #DebraWhitePlume 1954-2020 Born on this day www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/u...
Debra White Plume, Defender of Her Tribe, Is Dead at 66 (Gift Article)
She championed the rights of the Oglala Lakota in South Dakota and was a leader in protests at Wounded Knee and oil pipeline sites.
nytimes.com
"... the first drummer in the rock world to act as a major soloist." #GingerBaker 1939-2019 Born on this day www.jazztimes.com/features/tri...
Ginger Baker 1939-2019 - JazzTimes
Ginger Baker, a British drummer who, though steeped in jazz technique, became one of the most influential percussionists in rock music, died October 6.
jazztimes.com
"aspiring chefs came to see Mr. Phojanakong do what had once been considered impossible..." #KingPhojanakong 1968-2023 Born on this day www.nytimes.com/2023/01/08/d...
King Phojanakong, Pioneer of Filipino Food in New York, Dies at 54 (Gift Article)
His first restaurant, Kuma Inn, became destination dining despite its location on what was then a quiet stretch of the Lower East Side.
nytimes.com
"... leading authority on tarot and the occult, trans activist and comic-book writer who created the first mainstream transgender superhero..." #RachelPollack 1945-2023 Born on this day www.theguardian.com/books/2023/a...
Rachel Pollack, trans activist and comic book writer, dies aged 77
Pollack, who created the first mainstream transgender superhero, Kate Godwin, had been fighting Hodgkin’s lymphoma
theguardian.com