Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Statesmanship & Statesmen

37

🕯️ 0

Sirimavo Bandaranaike

සිරිමාවෝ රත්වත්තේ ඩයස් බණ්ඩාරනායක

🌐 Sri Lanka

1916 – 2000 (84 years old)

Sri Lankan statesman who made world history on July 21, 1960, by becoming the first democratically elected female prime minister in modern world history, serving three terms.

Nittambuwa, Sri Lanka

37 Full Record →

Science

0

🕯️ 0

Michael Smith

Michael Smith

Great Britain

26 April 1932 – 4 October 2000 (68 years old)

British-Canadian biochemist at UBC who invented oligonucleotide-based site-directed mutagenesis, revolutionizing genetic engineering and winning the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Vancouver, Canada

0 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

13

🕯️ 0

Abdeslam Radi

عبد السلام الراضي

Morocco

1929 – 2000 (71 years old)

First Olympic medalist in Moroccan history, who won the silver medal in the historic marathon at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games in an epic duel behind barefoot champion Abebe Bikila.

Fez, Morocco

13 Full Record →

Religious Figures & Theologians

21

🕯️ 0

Mohamed Belkebir

محمد بلكبير

Algeria

1911 – 2000 (89 years old)

Venerated spiritual guide and Islamic scholar of the Touat-Gourara region whose residential madrasa in Adrar trained over 10,000 scholars, imams, and teachers from across the Sahara and Sahel.

Adrar, Algeria

21 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

41

🕯️ 0

Stewart Meacham

Stewart Meacham

United States

1910 – 2000 (89 years old)

U.S. Quaker Peace Leader, Secretary of Education for Peace at the AFSC and builder of major citizen coalitions against the Vietnam War.

Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, United States

41 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

41

🕯️ 0

René Gerónimo Favaloro

René Favaloro

Argentina

1923 – 2000 (77 years old)

Chirurgien cardiaque argentin de génie, créateur du pontage aorto-coronarien moderne, qui refusa de s'enrichir aux États-Unis pour soigner gratuitement son peuple.

Jacinto Aráuz, La Pampa, Argentina

41 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

2

🕯️ 0

Ahmad Shamlou

احمد شاملو

Iran

12 December 1925 – 23 July 2000 (74 years old)

Colossal modern Persian poet known by his pen name 'Bamdad', creator of blank verse (She'r-e Sepid) and compiler of the massive 'Ketab-e Kucheh'.

Karaj, Iran

2 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

42

🕯️ 940

Jan Karski

Jan Kozielewski

Poland

24 June 1914 – 13 July 2000 (86 years old)

Polish underground resistance courier who smuggled himself into the Warsaw Ghetto and the Izbica transit camp, bringing the first eyewitness accounts of the extermination of European Jews to Churchill and Roosevelt.

Washington, D.C., United States

42 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

32

🕯️ 280

William Joseph Dunlop

William Joseph Dunlop

Great Britain

1952 – 2000 (48 years old)

Northern Irish motorcycle racer known as 'King of the Roads', won a record 26 Isle of Man TT races, celebrated for his humbleness and charity work.

Tallinn, Estonia

32 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

1

🕯️ 0

Judith Wright

Judith Arundell Wright

Australia

1915-05-31 – 2000-06-25 (85 years old)

Beloved Australian poet and pioneering conservationist whose lyric verse celebrated the native landscape while leading historic campaigns to protect the Great Barrier Reef and support Aboriginal land rights.

Tamborine Mountain, Queensland, Australia

1 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

36

🕯️ 380

Joseph Henri Maurice Richard

Joseph Henri Maurice Richard

Canada

1921 – 2000 (78 years old)

Canadian professional ice hockey player for the Montreal Canadiens, first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in 50 games and reach 500 career goals.

Montreal, Canada

36 Full Record →

Politics

1

🕯️ 0

Hubert Maga

Coutoucou Hubert Maga

Benin

1916-08-10 – 2000-05-08 (83 years old)

First President of the Republic of Dahomey (now Benin) following independence from France in 1960, who guided the nation through early state-building.

Parakou, Benin

1 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

39

🕯️ 950

Gino Bartali

Gino Bartali

Italy

18 July 1914 – 5 May 2000 (85 years old)

Legendary two-time Tour de France champion cyclist who used his training rides during WWII to smuggle forged identity papers inside his bicycle frame, saving hundreds of Italian and foreign Jews from deportation.

Florence, Italy

39 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

30

🕯️ 0

Baya Hocine

باية حسين

Algeria

1940 – 2000 (59 years old)

Pioneering Algerian teenage fedayeen who carried out urban resistance operations in the Battle of Algiers, condemned to death at age sixteen, and later became a prominent post-independence journalist.

Algiers, Algeria

30 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

2

🕯️ 0

Al Purdy

Alfred Wellington Purdy

Canada

1918 – 2000 (81 years old)

One of Canada's greatest working-class poets, whose 1965 collection The Cariboo Horses won the Governor General's Award and whose iconic A-frame cabin in Ameliasburgh became a national literary sanctuary.

Ameliasburgh (Prince Edward County, Ontario), Canada

2 Full Record →

Statesmanship & Statesmen

23

🕯️ 0

Rabah Bitat

رابح بيطاط

Algeria

1925 – 2000 (74 years old)

One of the historic 'Six Chiefs' who founded the FLN and launched the Algerian War of Independence on November 1, 1954, later serving as President of Parliament and interim President of Algeria.

Algiers, Algeria

23 Full Record →

Statesmanship & Statesmen

33

🕯️ 980

Habib Bourguiba

الحبيب بورقيبة

Tunisia

1903-08-03 – 2000-04-06 (96 years old)

Transformed Tunisia into the most progressive nation in the Arab world for women's rights, outlawing polygamy and establishing free universal education and healthcare.

Monastir, Tunisia

33 Full Record →

Arts & Music

5

🕯️ 0

Brahim El Alami

إبراهيم العلمي

Morocco

1930 – 2000 (70 years old)

Legendary singer and composer of the Golden Age of modern Moroccan music (Al-Ughniya al-Maghribiyya), famed for timeless hits including 'Ma Hla Ifrikya', 'Ya Nassini', and 'Khadija'.

Casablanca, Morocco

5 Full Record →