Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Damia (Marie-Louise Damien)

Marie-Louise Damien

France

1889 – 1978 (88 years old)

Haunting French singer and actress known as 'The Tragedienne of Song' who revolutionized stage performance by inventing the austere black velvet sheath dress, single overhead spotlight, and tragic expressive arm gestures.

Pantin (Seine-Saint-Denis), France

1 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

3

Statesmanship & Statesmen

Skender Kulenović

Скендер Куленовић

Bosnia and Herzegovina

1910-09-02 – 1978-01-25 (67 years old)

Monumental 20th-century Bosnian poet and partisan whose searing 1942 epic lament 'Stojanka majka Knežopoljka' and sonnets are immortal masterpieces of Yugoslav war poetry.

Belgrade, Serbia

3 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

4,226

🕯️ 46

Kurt Gödel

Kurt Friedrich Gödel

Czech Republic

1906 – 1978 (71 years old)

Austrian-American logician who proved the Incompleteness Theorems, shattering mathematical formalist certainty.

Princeton, New Jersey, United States

4,226 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

39

🕯️ 2,410

Harold Abrahams

Harold Maurice Abrahams

Great Britain

15 December 1899 – 14 January 1978 (78 years old)

Harold Maurice Abrahams was an English sprinter and Olympic champion whose dramatic triumph in the 100 meters at the 1924 Paris Olympics—defying anti-Semitic prejudice and employing pioneering professional coach Sam Mussabini—was immortalized in the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire. He later served as a respected barrister, track administrator, and BBC radio broadcaster.

Enfield, Greater London, Great Britain

39 Full Record →

32

Hubert Humphrey

Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr.

United States

1911 – 1978 (66 years old)

38th US Vice President, Minnesota Senator, and 'The Happy Warrior' whose historic 1948 civil rights speech committed the Democratic Party to racial equality.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

32 Full Record →

Pan Ron

ប៉ែន រ៉ន

Cambodia

c. 1944 – c. 1978 (34 years old)

Dynamic, rebellious singer-songwriter whose fierce rock-and-roll anthems, witty flirtatious duets, and psychedelic go-go rhythms ('I'm Unsatisfied', 'Knyom Mun Soe Chea Te') defined 1960s Cambodian rock.

Battambang, Cambodia

1 Full Record →

Arts & Music

5

Cheikh Saïd El Meddah

الشيخ سعيد المداح

Algeria

1905 – 1978 (73 years old)

Revered oral storyteller and praise-singer (Meddah) of the Dahra coast who preserved hundreds of historical epics, heroic tales, and moral fables.

Ténès (Chélif), Algeria

5 Full Record →

Arts & Music

13

Kaddour Belkaïd

قدور بلقايد

Algeria

1905 – 1978 (73 years old)

Master violinist and pillar of the Tlemcen Andalusian musical tradition (Gharnati) who preserved centuries of classical Andalusian nubahs, muwashshahat, and hawzi poetry.

Tlemcen, Algeria

13 Full Record →

Politics

Augustine Ngom Jua

Cameroon

1924-11-24 – 1977-12-30 (53 years old)

Distinguished West Cameroonian statesman who served as Prime Minister of West Cameroon from 1965 to 1968, fiercely defending the constitutional autonomy of the English-speaking federated state.

Boyo, North West Region, Cameroon

1 Full Record →

History

0

Kouyaté Sory Kandia

Guinea

1933 – 1977 (44 years old)

Master Guinean griot and tenor vocalist hailed as the 'Golden Voice of Manding', star of the Traditional Ensemble of Guinea.

Conakry, Guinea

0 Full Record →

Humanities

Saïda Menebhi

سعيدة المنبهي

Morocco

1952 – 1977 (25 years old)

Moroccan high school literature teacher, feminist poet, and activist in the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist organization Ila al-Amam, who died tragically at age 25 after a 34-day hunger strike in Casablanca prison.

Marrakech, Morocco

1 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

27

Clarice Lispector

Chaya Pinkhasivna Lispector

Ukraine

1920 – 1977 (56 years old)

Visionary Brazilian modernist and mystical innovator whose stream-of-consciousness masterpieces The Passion According to G.H. and The Hour of the Star redefined modern prose.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

27 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

36

Raoul Follereau

France

1903 – 1977 (74 years old)

French humanitarian and poet celebrated worldwide as the 'Apostle of the Lepers', who traveled two million miles across sixty countries fighting the stigma of leprosy and founded World Leprosy Day in 1954.

Paris, France

36 Full Record →

Military

Prophets & Divine Messengers

Tommy Prince

Thomas George Prince

Canada

1915 – 1977 (62 years old)

Celebrated Brokenhead Ojibwe commando and Canada's most decorated Indigenous soldier of World War II and the Korean War, famed for audacious reconnaissance missions with the elite Devil's Brigade.

Winnipeg (Manitoba), Canada

1 Full Record →

3

Kudrat-e-Khuda

মুহম্মদ কুদরাত-এ-খুদা

🌐 Historical India

1900-12-01 – 1977-11-03 (76 years old)

Distinguished organic chemist and educational architect who founded the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) and headed the historic 1974 National Education Commission.

Dhaka, Bangladesh

3 Full Record →

Kaddour Srarfi

قدور الصرارفي

Tunisia

1913 – 1977 (64 years old)

Virtuoso violinist and composer who conducted the Tunisian Radio and Television Orchestra for decades, composing unforgettable musical scores for theatre, cinema, and leading vocal stars.

Tunis, Tunisia

1 Full Record →