Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Science

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Bertram Brockhouse

Bertram Brockhouse

Canada

15 July 1918 – 13 October 2003 (85 years old)

Canadian physicist who invented the triple-axis spectrometer at Chalk River, winning the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physics for probing atomic dynamics.

Hamilton, Canada

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Sports & Athletics

35

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Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson

United States

1927 – 2003 (76 years old)

American tennis player and professional golfer, the first African American to win a Grand Slam title and cross the color line of international tennis.

Orange, New Jersey, United States

35 Full Record →

Arts & Music

5

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Hatem El Mekki

حاتم المكي

Indonesia

1918 – 2003 (85 years old)

Master painter and national graphic designer who designed post-independence Tunisia's banknotes, coins, and hundreds of official postage stamps, and pioneered political cartooning.

Carthage, Tunisia

5 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

12

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Lalla Fatima Zohra

لالة فاطمة الزهراء

Morocco

1927 – 2003 (76 years old)

Pioneering Moroccan royal humanitarian and women's rights leader, eldest daughter of Sultan Moulay Abdelaziz, who presided over the National Union of Moroccan Women (UNFM) for three decades.

Fez, Morocco

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Humanitarian & Peace

41

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Sérgio Vieira de Mello

Sérgio Vieira de Mello

Brazil

1948 – 2003 (55 years old)

Diplomate brésilien de l'ONU d'exception, Haut-Commissaire aux droits de l'homme et médiateur au Kosovo et au Timor oriental, tué lors de l'attentat de l'hôtel Canal à Bagdad.

Geneva, Switzerland

41 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

28

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Helmut Rahn

Helmut Rahn

Germany

1929 – 2003 (73 years old)

German forward nicknamed 'Der Boss' whose iconic 84th-minute winning goal in the 1954 World Cup final against Hungary sealed the 'Miracle of Bern'.

Essen, Germany

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Politics

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Elena Caffarena

Elena Caffarena Morice

Chile

1903-03-23 – 2003-07-19 (100 years old)

Legendary jurist and feminist crusader who co-founded the Movement for the Emancipation of Chilean Women (MEMCh) and drafted the 1949 law granting women full political voting rights in Chile.

Santiago, Chile

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Literature & Poetry

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Carol Shields

Carol Shields

United States

2 June 1935 – 16 July 2003 (68 years old)

Beloved Canadian novelist whose masterpiece The Stone Diaries won the Pulitzer Prize and Governor General's Award, illuminating women's everyday lives.

Victoria, Canada

5 Full Record →

Music

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Compay Segundo

Máximo Francisco Repilado Muñoz

Cuba

1907-11-18 – 2003-07-14 (95 years old)

Legendary sonero and guitarist who invented the seven-string 'armónico', composed the worldwide anthem 'Chan Chan', and conquered the globe in his nineties with the Buena Vista Social Club.

Santiago de Cuba, Cuba

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Arts & Music

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Kamal El-Taweel

كمال الطويل

Egypt

1922 – 2003 (80 years old)

Master melodic composer and architect of 1950s–1960s Arab patriotic anthems, who composed Abdel Halim Hafez's timeless romantic songs Ahwak and Fi Youm Fi Shahr, and Umm Kulthum's Wallahi Zaman Ya Selahi.

Cairo, Egypt

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Literature & Poetry

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Vasil Bykaŭ

Васіль Быкаў

Belarus

1924-06-19 – 2003-06-22 (79 years old)

World-renowned novelist and moral conscience of Belarus whose searing existential war novellas (including 'Sotnikov' and 'The Ordeal') examined human moral integrity in the face of death.

Minsk, Belarus

2 Full Record →

Art

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Hume Cronyn

Hume Cronyn

Canada

18 July 1911 – 15 June 2003 (91 years old)

Distinguished London, Ontario-born stage and film actor who won the Tony Award for Polonius and formed one of theatre's most legendary partnerships with Jessica Tandy.

Fairfield, United States

1 Full Record →

Music

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Tahar Gharsa

طاهر غرسة

Tunisia

1933 – 2003 (70 years old)

Primary disciple of Khemaïs Tarnane and conductor of the Rachidia, who spent a half-century transmitting the oral traditions, microtonal nuances, and poetic texts of the classical Tunisian Malouf.

Tunis, Tunisia

2 Full Record →

Science

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Ilya Prigogine

Ilya Romanovich Prigogine

Russia

1917 – 2003 (86 years old)

Russian-born Belgian physical chemist who won the 1977 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his groundbreaking contributions to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures.

Ixelles (Brussels), Belgium

1 Full Record →

Arts & Music

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Tahia Halim

تحية حليم

Sudan

September 9, 1919 – May 24, 2003 (83 years old)

Distinguished Egyptian expressionist painter who won the prestigious Guggenheim International Award in 1958, celebrated for her deeply empathetic, earth-toned canvases depicting the ancient folklore, boats, and women of Nubia.

Cairo, Egypt

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Statesmanship & Statesmen

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M'hammed Yazid

محمد يزيد

Algeria

1923 – 2003 (80 years old)

Charismatic Minister of Information of the GPRA whose brilliant diplomacy at the 1955 Bandung Conference and the United Nations internationalized the Algerian Cause.

Algiers, Algeria

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Sports & Athletics

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Rik Van Steenbergen

Hendrik Van Steenbergen

Belgium

1924 – 2003 (78 years old)

Colossus of twentieth-century cycling known as 'The Boss' (Rik I), one of only six men to win three World Road Cycling Championships (1949, 1956, 1957) and victor in 40 Six-Day track races.

Arendonk (Antwerp Province), Belgium

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Humanitarian & Peace

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Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan

صدر الدين آغا خان

France

1933 – 2003 (70 years old)

Haut-Commissaire des Nations unies pour les réfugiés de 1966 à 1977, qui transforma le HCR en une agence mondiale secourant des millions de réfugiés en Asie, Afrique et Amérique latine.

Collonge-Bellerive, Geneva, Switzerland

45 Full Record →