Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Elijah Smith

Canada

2 July 1912 – 4 October 1991 (79 years old)

Visionary Southern Tutchone leader and WWII veteran who presented the historic 1973 manifesto "Together Today for our Children Tomorrow" to Pierre Trudeau.

Whitehorse, Canada

1 Full Record →

44

🕯️ 995

Miles Dewey Davis III

Miles Davis

United States

26 May 1926 – 28 September 1991 (65 years old)

Visionary trumpeter and bandleader who spearheaded almost every major development in modern jazz—from bebop and cool jazz (Birth of the Cool) to modal jazz (Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz album in history) and jazz-rock fusion (Bitches Brew).

Santa Monica (California), United States

44 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

43

Alfonso García Robles

Mexico

1911 – 1991 (80 years old)

Diplomate mexicain, père du Traité de Tlatelolco créant la première zone dénucléarisée d'Amérique latine, Nobel de la paix 1982.

Mexico City, Mexico

43 Full Record →

Law

Taslim Olawale Elias

Nigeria

1914-11-11 – 1991-08-14 (76 years old)

Eminent Nigerian jurist, legal scholar, and international diplomat who served as Chief Justice of Nigeria and President of the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

Lagos, Nigeria

1 Full Record →

Politics

Roland Michener

Canada

19 April 1900 – 6 August 1991 (91 years old)

Alberta-born Rhodes Scholar and Speaker of the House who served as Centennial Governor General, democratized Rideau Hall, and championed physical fitness through ParticipACTION.

Toronto, Canada

1 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

29

Yusuf Idris

يوسف إدريس

Egypt

1927 – 1991 (64 years old)

Egyptian physician, novelist, and playwright revered as the undisputed master of the modern Arabic short story, celebrated for 'The Cheapest Nights' and his revolutionary avant-garde play 'The Farfoors'.

Cairo, Egypt

29 Full Record →

31

Robert Motherwell

United States

1915 – 1991 (76 years old)

American painter, printmaker, and intellectual leader of Abstract Expressionism, world-renowned for his monumental series 'Elegies to the Spanish Republic' and mastery of collage.

Provincetown, United States

31 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

2

António Jacinto

António Jacinto do Amaral Martins

Angola

1924-09-28 – 1991-06-23 (66 years old)

Heroic Angolan poet and independence activist who survived twelve years of imprisonment in the notorious Tarrafal concentration camp, author of iconic resistance poems Monangamba and Letter from a Contract Worker.

Luanda, Angola

2 Full Record →

Music

0

Claudio Arrau

Claudio Arrau León

Chile

1903-02-06 – 1991-06-09 (88 years old)

One of the greatest concert pianists of the twentieth century, child prodigy of Chillán who studied under Martin Krause in Berlin and became the supreme philosophical interpreter of Beethoven and Liszt.

Chillán, Chile

0 Full Record →

17

Bachir Hadj Ali

بشير حاج علي

Algeria

1920 – 1991 (70 years old)

Visionary Algerian communist leader, poet, and musicologist whose profound studies on Algerian Andalusian and Chaabi music preserved national heritage, while his poems documented the agony of political torture.

Algiers, Algeria

17 Full Record →

12

Mohamed Khadda

محمد خدة

Algeria

1930 – 1991 (61 years old)

Pioneering visual artist and theorist regarded as a foundational father of contemporary non-figurative art in Algeria, famous for infusing Arabic calligraphy and Berber motifs into lyric abstraction.

Algiers, Algeria

12 Full Record →

3,875

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Mohammed Abdel Wahab

محمد عبد الوهاب

Egypt

1902 – 1991 (89 years old)

Legendary Egyptian composer, singer, and oud virtuoso whose innovative fusion of classical Arabic music with Western orchestration shaped modern Arab culture.

Cairo, Egypt

3,875 Full Record →

Politics

Richard Hatfield

Disco Dick

Canada

9 April 1931 – 26 April 1991 (60 years old)

Flamboyant and culturally visionary New Brunswick premier whose 17-year leadership enacted the Canadian Charter's official bilingualism protections for Acadians.

Hartland, Canada

1 Full Record →

Science

Ragnar Granit

Ragnar Arthur Granit

Finland

1900-10-30 – 1991-03-12 (90 years old)

Eminent Finland-Swedish neurophysiologist awarded the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries concerning primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye.

Korpo, Finland

1 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

4,538

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John Bardeen

United States

1908 – 1991 (82 years old)

Only person to win two Nobel Prizes in Physics, co-inventing the transistor and explaining superconductivity (BCS theory).

Madison, Wisconsin, United States

4,538 Full Record →

3

Hafidh al-Droubi

حافظ الدروبي

Iraq

1914 – 23 January 1991 (77 years old)

Pioneering modern Iraqi painter who introduced cubist and expressionist interpretations of Baghdadi street life and founded the Impressionists Group.

Baghdad, Iraq

3 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

3