Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Sciences & Discovery

2,779

🕯️ 50

Wernher von Braun

Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun

Poland

1912 – 1977 (65 years old)

German-American aerospace engineer and NASA visionary who designed the Saturn V rocket that propelled Apollo 11 to the Moon.

Alexandria, Virginia, United States

2,779 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

34

🕯️ 975

Werner Heisenberg

Werner Karl Heisenberg

Germany

5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976 (74 years old)

German theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate who founded quantum matrix mechanics and discovered the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, establishing fundamental limits on physical measurement.

Munich, Germany

34 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

24

🕯️ 0

Theodosius Dobzhansky

Феодосий Григорьевич Добржанский

Ukraine

1900 – 1975 (75 years old)

Russian-American geneticist whose 1937 masterpiece 'Genetics and the Origin of Species' formed the foundational cornerstone of the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis, famous for the immortal aphorism: 'Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.'

South Canaan (Pennsylvania), United States

24 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

27

🕯️ 0

Percy Lavon Julian

Percy Lavon Julian

United States

1899 – 1975 (76 years old)

Pioneering African American chemist who developed total chemical synthesis of physostigmine for glaucoma and scalable plant-based synthesis of steroid hormones such as cortisone and progesterone.

River Grove (Illinois), United States

27 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

2,805

🕯️ 41

Percy Julian

Percy Lavon Julian

United States

1899 – 1975 (76 years old)

Trailblazing African-American research chemist who pioneered the chemical synthesis of steroids, cortisone, and glaucoma medication from plants.

Elmhurst, Illinois, United States

2,805 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

2,552

🕯️ 178

Virginia Apgar

Virginia Apgar

United States

1909 – 1974 (65 years old)

American physician who created the Apgar score, revolutionizing newborn care and dramatically reducing infant mortality worldwide.

Westfield, New Jersey, United States

2,552 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

1,335

🕯️ 179

James Chadwick

Sir James Chadwick

Great Britain

1891 – 1974 (82 years old)

British physicist who discovered the neutron in 1932, paving the way for nuclear fission and atomic power.

Cambridge, United Kingdom

1,335 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

3,413

🕯️ 68

Fritz Zwicky

Fritz Zwicky

Bulgaria

1898 – 1974 (75 years old)

Maverick Swiss astronomer who coined 'supernova', predicted neutron stars and gravitational lensing, and first postulated dark matter.

Mollis, Glarus Nord, Switzerland

3,413 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

2,955

🕯️ 164

Satyendra Nath Bose

সত্যেন্দ্রনাথ বসু

Bangladesh

1894 – 1974 (80 years old)

Eminent Indian polymath and theoretical physicist whose quantum statistics founded Bose-Einstein condensate theory and gave 'bosons' their name.

Kolkata, West Bengal, India

2,955 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

1,894

🕯️ 87

Gerard Kuiper

Gerrit Pieter Kuiper

Netherlands

1905 – 1973 (68 years old)

Dutch-American planetary scientist who discovered moons of Uranus and Neptune and predicted the Kuiper Belt.

Green Valley, Arizona, United States

1,894 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

24

🕯️ 0

Ahmed Fakhry

أحمد فخري

Egypt

1905 – 1973 (68 years old)

Legendary Egyptian archaeologist and explorer celebrated as the 'Master of the Deserts', who excavated the Pyramids of Dahshur and mapped the lost pharaonic and Roman monuments of the Western Desert oases.

Fayoum, Egypt

24 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

27

🕯️ 0

Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis

প্রশান্ত চন্দ্র মহালানবীশ

India

1893 – 1972 (78 years old)

Indian scientist and applied statistician who introduced the Mahalanobis distance metric and founded the Indian Statistical Institute, serving as the architect of India's Second Five-Year Plan.

Kolkata, India

27 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

26

🕯️ 0

Vikram Sarabhai

Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai

India

1919 – 1971 (52 years old)

Visionary Indian physicist and industrialist recognized as the 'Father of the Indian Space Programme', who founded the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and launched satellite television education for rural villages.

Ahmedabad (Gujarat), India

26 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

24

🕯️ 0

Bernardo Houssay

Bernardo Alberto Houssay

Argentina

1887 – 1971 (84 years old)

Argentine physiologist who discovered the role of anterior pituitary hormones in regulating blood sugar metabolism, winning the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

24 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

31

🕯️ 0

William Lawrence Bragg

William Lawrence Bragg

Australia

1890 – 1971 (81 years old)

Australian-born British physicist who formulated Bragg's Law of X-ray diffraction and remains the youngest ever Nobel laureate in physics, receiving the award at age twenty-five in 1915.

Cambridge, United Kingdom

31 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

26

🕯️ 0

Igor Tamm

Игорь Евгеньевич Тамм

Russia

1895 – 1971 (75 years old)

Soviet theoretical physicist who co-developed the electrodynamic theory of Cherenkov radiation and co-invented the Tokamak magnetic fusion confinement system with Andrei Sakharov.

Moscow, Russia

26 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

27

🕯️ 0

C. V. Raman

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

India

1888 – 1970 (82 years old)

Indian physicist who was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering that light scattered by molecules changes wavelength (the Raman Effect), becoming the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize in any scientific discipline.

Bangalore (Karnataka), India

27 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

27

🕯️ 0

Waclaw Sierpinski

Wacław Sierpiński

Poland

1882 – 1969 (87 years old)

Polish mathematician who made pioneering contributions to set theory, topology, and number theory, famous for discovering early fractal geometries including the Sierpinski triangle and carpet.

Warsaw, Poland

27 Full Record →