Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Abdullah al-Baradouni

عبد الله البردوني

Yemen

1929 – 30 August 1999 (70 years old)

Iconic blind Yemeni poet and cultural philosopher who authored twelve volumes of searing philosophical poetry and founded modern Yemeni criticism.

Sana'a, Yemen

2 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati

عبد الوهاب البياتي

Iraq

19 December 1926 – 3 August 1999 (72 years old)

Major 20th-century Iraqi poet who pioneered social realism and mythological symbolism in modern Arabic free verse.

Damascus, Syria

2 Full Record →

37

Hassan II of Morocco

الحسن الثاني

Morocco

1929 – 1999 (70 years old)

Towering 20th-century Moroccan monarch who ruled for thirty-eight years, reclaimed the Western Sahara through the peaceful Green March in 1975, and built modern infrastructure including the Hassan II Mosque.

Rabat, Morocco

37 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

12

Abderrahmane Boubekeur

عبد الرحمن بوبكر

Algeria

1932 – 1999 (67 years old)

Premier goalkeeper of the historic FLN football team and AS Monaco who sacrificed fame and fortune in the French First Division in 1958 to play for Algerian independence.

Algiers, Algeria

12 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

35

James Leonard Farmer Jr.

James Farmer

United States

1920 – 1999 (79 years old)

L'un des « Big Four » du mouvement des droits civiques américains, fondateur du CORE (1942) et architecte légendaire des Freedom Rides de 1961 contre la ségrégation.

Fredericksburg, Virginia, United States

35 Full Record →

Joshua Nkomo

Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo

Zimbabwe

1917-06-19 – 1999-07-01 (82 years old)

Venerated nationalist patriarch known as 'Father Zimbabwe' who founded ZAPU, led the armed liberation struggle against white-minority rule, and signed the 1987 Unity Accord.

Harare, Zimbabwe

1 Full Record →

Music

3

Ismail Hattab

إسماعيل الحطاب

Tunisia

1926 AD – 1999 (73 years old)

The founding father of modern Tunisian Bedouin folk music who elevated traditional desert song (ghina badawi), gasba flute, and guellal percussion onto major international concert stages.

Tunis, Tunisia

3 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

33

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Eugenio Saraceni

United States

1902 – 1999 (97 years old)

American professional golfer who was the first to win the modern Career Grand Slam, inventor of the modern sand wedge, famed for his 1935 'Shot Heard 'Round the World'.

Naples, Florida, United States

33 Full Record →

Arts & Music

Fateh Moudarres

فاتح المدرس

Syria

1922 – 30 April 1999 (77 years old)

Iconic pioneer of Syrian modern art whose textured, expressionist canvases merged ancient Assyrian-Aramaean motifs with raw human anguish.

Damascus, Syria

2 Full Record →

John Ngu Foncha

Cameroon

1916-06-21 – 1999-04-10 (82 years old)

Distinguished educator and statesman who served as Prime Minister of British Southern Cameroons and architect of the 1961 reunification forming the Federal Republic of Cameroon.

Bamenda, Cameroon

1 Full Record →

Arts & Music

Gratien Gélinas

Canada

1909 – 1999 (89 years old)

The founding father of contemporary French-Canadian theater whose 1948 masterpiece Tit-Coq was the first indigenous blockbuster play to give voice to Quebec working-class reality.

Montreal, Canada

2 Full Record →

Habib Achour

الحبيب عاشور

Tunisia

1913 – 1999 (86 years old)

Charismatic trade union giant and close comrade of Farhat Hached who led the UGTT through major confrontations with state power, notably the historic general strike of Black Thursday in January 1978.

Kerkennah Islands, Tunisia

2 Full Record →

Arts & Music

33

Oswaldo Guayasamin

Oswaldo Guayasamín Calero

Ecuador

1919 – 1999 (79 years old)

Ecuadorian painter and sculptor of Quechua-indigenous descent whose expressionist masterwork The Age of Rage (La Edad de la Ira) denounced the violence and oppression of twentieth-century tyranny.

Quito, Ecuador

33 Full Record →

Music

Harry Somers

Canada

11 September 1925 – 9 March 1999 (73 years old)

Foremost Canadian classical composer of his generation whose 1967 Centennial opera Louis Riel and Five Songs of the Newfoundland Outports defined national composition.

Toronto, Canada

1 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

Adolfo Bioy Casares

Argentina

1914-09-15 – 1999-03-08 (84 years old)

Master of fantastic and speculative fiction who received the 1990 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, famed for his brilliant novella La invención de Morel, which Jorge Luis Borges hailed as a work of flawless plot.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

1 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

34

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Joseph Paul DiMaggio

United States

1914 – 1999 (84 years old)

American baseball center fielder for the New York Yankees, legendary for his 56-game hitting streak in 1941, an immortal record in American sports.

Colma, California, United States

34 Full Record →