Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Resistance & Human Rights

Henry Taube

Canada

30 November 1915 – 16 November 2005 (89 years old)

Saskatchewan-born chemist who deciphered electron-transfer mechanisms in coordination complexes (inner and outer sphere), winning the 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Palo Alto, United States

2 Full Record →

46

🕯️ 995

Rosa Parks

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks

United States

4 February 1913 – 24 October 2005 (92 years old)

American civil rights activist whose refusal to surrender her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus in 1955 ignited the Montgomery bus boycott and catalyzed the modern Civil Rights Movement.

Detroit, Michigan, United States

46 Full Record →

9

Mustapha Skandrani

مصطفى اسكندراني

Algeria

1920 – 2005 (84 years old)

Supreme piano virtuoso who adapted the Western acoustic piano to the microtonal modes (istikhbar) of Algerian Chaabi and Andalusian classical music for six decades.

Algiers, Algeria

9 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

28

Ba Jin

巴金

China

1904 – 2005 (100 years old)

Chinese novelist and essayist whose Torrents Trilogy, especially the classic novel Family, inspired millions of youth to rebel against oppressive feudal patriarchal traditions.

Shanghai, China

28 Full Record →

Politics

Abdellah Ibrahim

عبد الله إبراهيم

Morocco

1918 – 2005 (87 years old)

Intellectual architect of the Moroccan progressive movement, signatory of the 1944 Independence Manifesto, and Prime Minister (1958–1960) who created the Moroccan Dirham and secured the withdrawal of US and French military bases.

Casablanca, Morocco

4 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

39

🕯️ 270

Jean Prat

France

1923 – 2005 (81 years old)

French rugby union flanker for FC Lourdes and the French national team, christened 'Monsieur Rugby' by the British press, captained France to historic firsts.

Lourdes, France

39 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

39

Dame Cicely Mary Saunders

Cicely Saunders

Great Britain

1918 – 2005 (87 years old)

Infirmière, assistante sociale et médecin britannique, fondatrice du mouvement moderne des soins palliatifs et de l'Hospice St Christopher à Londres.

Southwark, London, United Kingdom

39 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

28

🕯️ 2,080

Hank Stram

Henry Louis Stram

United States

3 January 1923 – 4 July 2005 (82 years old)

Henry Louis 'Hank' Stram was an innovative American football coach who led the Kansas City Chiefs to victory in Super Bowl IV, winning more games and championships (three) than any other coach in the history of the American Football League (AFL). The pioneer of the moving pocket, tight end routes, and the stacked defense, he became an immortal television figure when wired for sound in Super Bowl IV.

Covington, Louisiana, United States

28 Full Record →

5

Salim Halali

سليم الهلالي (شمعون هلالي)

Algeria

1916 – 2005 (88 years old)

World-famous Jewish-Algerian superstar born in Annaba, whose passionate fusion of Chaabi, Andalusian melodies, and flamenco made him a global sensation across the Arab world.

Antibes (honored in Annaba), France

5 Full Record →

Politics

1

Resistance & Human Rights

Michael Imoudu

Michael Athokhamien Ominus Imoudu

Nigeria

1902-09-07 – 2005-06-22 (102 years old)

Legendary Nigerian trade union pioneer known as Labour Leader No. 1, who led the historic 1945 Nigerian General Strike that crippled colonial administration.

Sabongida-Ora, Nigeria

1 Full Record →

Jacques Salort

جاك سالور

Algeria

1928 – 2005 (76 years old)

Annaba-born European Algerian trade unionist who joined the armed struggle with the Combattants de la Libération, survived brutal torture, and remained an Algerian patriot.

Algiers, Algeria

4 Full Record →

Athmane Bali

عثمان بالي

Algeria

1953 – 2005 (52 years old)

Virtuoso Tuareg oud player, singer, and lyricist from Djanet whose sublime desert melodies brought the musical soul of the Tassili n'Ajjer to international concert halls.

Djanet (Illizi), Algeria

4 Full Record →

Politics

2

Harold Cardinal

Canada

1945 – 2005 (60 years old)

Transformative Cree intellectual, author, and political leader whose 1969 manifesto The Unjust Society shattered Canadian complacency and ignited modern First Nations political mobilization across North America.

Sucker Creek First Nation (Alberta), Canada

2 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

29

🕯️ 2,120

George Mikan

George Lawrence Mikan Jr.

United States

18 June 1924 – 1 June 2005 (80 years old)

George Lawrence Mikan Jr., known as 'Mr. Basketball', was professional basketball's first dominant superstar big man, whose hook shots, rebounding, and defensive presence with the Minneapolis Lakers delivered five championships in six years (1949–1954). His dominance forced the introduction of the goaltending rule, widening of the foul lane ('The Mikan Rule'), and the creation of the fundamental 'Mikan Drill'.

Scottsdale, Arizona, United States

29 Full Record →

Philosophy & Thought

31

Paul Ricoeur

Jean Paul Gustave Ricœur

France

1913 – 2005 (92 years old)

French philosopher who bridged French phenomenology and German hermeneutics, celebrated for his monumental studies on metaphor, narrative time (Time and Narrative), and personal identity (Oneself as Another).

Chatenay-Malabry (Paris), France

31 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

2

Yvonne Vera

Zimbabwe

1964-09-19 – 2005-04-09 (40 years old)

One of Africa's most lyrical novelists whose masterworks 'Butterfly Burning' and 'Bones' won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and Tucholsky Prize for poetic depictions of women's lives.

Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

2 Full Record →