Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Resistance & Human Rights

51

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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Александр Исаевич Солженицын

Russia

11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008 (89 years old)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a monumental Russian novelist, historian, and dissident whose epic exposé of the Soviet forced-labor camp system, The Gulag Archipelago, shattered Western illusions regarding totalitarian communism and altered the moral course of twentieth-century history. Awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature, he survived eight years in the Gulag and internal exile before being stripped of his Soviet citizenship and expelled in 1974.

Moscow, Russia

51 Full Record →

Journalism

1

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Babatunde Jose

Ismail Babatunde Jose

Nigeria

1925-12-13 – 2008-08-02 (82 years old)

Doyen of modern Nigerian journalism who transformed the 'Daily Times' into Africa's most successful and influential newspaper empire and trained a generation of investigative reporters.

Lagos, Nigeria

1 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

4

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Mohamed Khedis

محمد خديس

Algeria

1952 – 2008 (56 years old)

Steadfast defender of NA Hussein Dey and the national team, gold medalist at the 1978 All-Africa Games, and quarterfinalist at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Algiers, Algeria

4 Full Record →

Arts & Music

28

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Youssef Chahine

يوسف شاهين

Egypt

1926 – 2008 (82 years old)

World-renowned Egyptian filmmaker whose cinematic masterpieces—including 'Cairo Station' (1958), 'The Land' (1969), and 'Destiny' (1997)—defined modern Arab cinema, discovered Omar Sharif, and won the Cannes 50th Anniversary Lifetime Achievement Award.

Cairo, Egypt

28 Full Record →

Statesmanship & Statesmen

9

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Ahmed Bensouda

أحمد بن سودة

Morocco

1920 – 2008 (88 years old)

Longtime chief counselor and confidant to King Hassan II and King Mohammed VI, diplomat, and statesman who helped craft modern Moroccan institutional diplomacy for four decades.

Rabat, Morocco

9 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

2

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Suleiman Mousa

سليمان موسى

Jordan

11 June 1919 – 9 June 2008 (88 years old)

Premier modern historian of Jordan whose landmark 1966 book 'T.E. Lawrence: An Arab View' provided the first Arab perspective on Lawrence of Arabia.

Amman, Jordan

2 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

12

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Ali Fahmi Khousham

علي فهمي خشيم

Libya

1936 – 2008 (72 years old)

Distinguished Libyan linguist, philologist, and lexicographer who served as President of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Tripoli and authored over thirty comparative linguistic dictionaries.

Tripoli, Libya

12 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

47

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Irena Sendler

Irena Stanisława Sendlerowa

Poland

15 February 1910 – 12 May 2008 (98 years old)

Polish social worker and resistance operative who headed the Children's Bureau of Żegota, smuggling approximately 2,500 Jewish infants and children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and hiding their true identities in buried jars.

Warsaw, Poland

47 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

43

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Germaine Tillion

Germaine Tillion

France

30 May 1907 – 19 April 2008 (100 years old)

French ethnologist and resistance fighter who co-founded the Musée de l'Homme network, secretly composed a satirical operetta while imprisoned in Ravensbrück, and campaigned against torture in the Algerian War.

Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, France

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Literature & Poetry

31

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Aimé Césaire

Aimé Fernand David Césaire

Martinique

1913 – 2008 (94 years old)

Martinican poet, playwright, and statesman who coined the term 'Négritude' in his masterpiece Cahier d'un retour au pays natal and authored Discours sur le colonialisme.

Fort-de-France, Martinique

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Music

3

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Choubeila Rached

شبيلا راشد

Tunisia

1933 AD – 2008 (75 years old)

Revered diva of Tunisian classical and popular song, daughter of the legendary songstress Saliha, who honored and carried forward her mother's musical legacy for over four decades.

La Marsa, Tunisia

3 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

2

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Hugo Claus

Hugo Maurice Julien Claus

Belgium

1929 – 2008 (78 years old)

The undisputed titan of modern Flemish literature whose monumental 1983 novel Het verdriet van België (The Sorrow of Belgium) laid bare wartime collaboration, Catholic dogma, and Flemish family pathology.

Ostend, Belgium

2 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

4,683

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Arthur C. Clarke

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke

Great Britain

1917 – 2008 (90 years old)

British science and aerospace visionary who conceptualized geostationary satellite communications and co-created 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Borella, Colombo, Sri Lanka

4,683 Full Record →

Science

1

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Chike Obi

Chike Obi

Nigeria

1921-04-07 – 2008-03-13 (86 years old)

Celebrated Nigerian mathematician, astronomer, and politician who became the first Nigerian to earn a PhD in mathematics and solved Fermat's Last Theorem for semi-primes.

Onitsha, Nigeria

1 Full Record →

Arts & Music

12

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Samy Elmaghribi

سامي المغربي

Morocco

1922 – 2008 (85 years old)

Legendary Judeo-Moroccan maestro and cantor who revived classical Andalusian nubahs and popular Chaabi classics, serving as musical director of the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal.

Montreal, Canada

12 Full Record →

Arts & Music

16

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Lili Boniche

ليلي بونيش (إيلي بونيش)

Algeria

1921 – 2008 (86 years old)

Beloved Algerian singer and guitarist who fused classical Casbah Chaabi, Andalusian music, and modern Latin rhythms (tango, rumba), creating the worldwide genre of Franco-Arab popular song.

Paris, France

16 Full Record →

Music

1

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Jeff Healey

Jeff Healey

Canada

25 March 1966 – 2 March 2008 (41 years old)

Astonishing blind Canadian blues-rock guitarist whose signature lap-style playing style and Grammy-nominated hit "Angel Eyes" captivated worldwide audiences.

Toronto, Canada

1 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

37

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Baba Amte

Murlidhar Devidas Amte

India

1914 – 2008 (93 years old)

Indian social activist and Gandhian visionary who founded Anandwan ('Forest of Joy'), transforming the lives of tens of thousands of ostracized leprosy patients.

Warora, India

37 Full Record →