Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Education

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Alvan Ikoku

Alvan Azinna Ikoku

Nigeria

1900-08-01 – 1971-11-18 (71 years old)

Eminent Nigerian educator and statesman who established Aggrey Memorial College, led the Nigeria Union of Teachers, and is commemorated on the Nigerian ten naira banknote.

Arochukwu, Nigeria

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Science

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Arne Tiselius

Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius

Sweden

1902-08-10 – 1971-10-29 (69 years old)

Swedish biochemist awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on electrophoresis and adsorption analysis, which isolated blood serum proteins.

Uppsala, Sweden

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Sports & Athletics

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Jo Siffert

Joseph Siffert

Switzerland

1936 – 1971 (35 years old)

Charismatic Swiss racing hero 'Seppi' who won two Formula One Grands Prix for Rob Walker Racing and BRM and led Porsche's iconic 917 sports car program to consecutive World Sportscar Championships.

Fribourg, Switzerland

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Statesmanship & Statesmen

32

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Dean Gooderham Acheson

Dean Gooderham Acheson

United States

1893 – 1971 (78 years old)

Truman's Secretary of State and chief architect of the Cold War order, who created the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, NATO, and authored Present at the Creation.

Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), United States

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Sciences & Discovery

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Bernardo Houssay

Bernardo Alberto Houssay

Argentina

1887 – 1971 (84 years old)

Argentine physiologist who discovered the role of anterior pituitary hormones in regulating blood sugar metabolism, winning the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

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Politics

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James Gladstone

Akay-na-muka

Canada

21 May 1887 – 4 September 1971 (84 years old)

First Treaty status Indigenous person appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1958, lifelong champion of First Nations voting rights.

Cardston, Canada

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Politics

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William V. S. Tubman

William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman

Liberia

1895-11-29 – 1971-07-23 (75 years old)

Longest-serving President of Liberia (1944–1971) who modernized the nation's economy through the Open Door Policy and introduced the National Unification Policy granting equal voting rights to indigenous Liberians.

Monrovia, Liberia

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Literature & Poetry

2

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Mak Dizdar

Mehmedalija Mak Dizdar

Bosnia and Herzegovina

1917-10-17 – 1971-07-14 (53 years old)

Preeminent 20th-century Bosnian poet whose 1966 masterpiece 'Kameni spavač' ('Stone Sleeper') drew upon medieval stećci tombstone inscriptions to express the tragic, defiant spirit of Bosnia.

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Literature & Poetry

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Abdelaziz El Aroui

عبد العزيز العروي

Tunisia

1898 – 1971 (73 years old)

Beloved dean of Tunisian folklorists, journalist, and radio pioneer whose Sunday evening broadcasts Hikayat El Aroui preserved thousands of oral tales, proverbs, and philosophical allegories.

Tunis, Tunisia

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Sports & Athletics

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Pedro Rodriguez

Pedro Rodriguez de la Vega

Mexico

1940 – 1971 (31 years old)

Mexico's greatest racing driver, who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, two Formula One Grands Prix, and multiple World Sportscar Championships in the Gulf-Porsche 917, celebrated as the peerless rainmaster of his generation.

Mexico City, Mexico

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Statesmanship & Statesmen

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Ahmed Bahnini

أحمد باحنيني

Morocco

1909 – 1971 (62 years old)

Prime Minister of Morocco from 1963 to 1965 and President of the Supreme Court, a distinguished constitutional jurist who fell during the 1971 Skhirat palace attack.

Rabat, Morocco

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Arts & Music

32

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Louis Daniel Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

United States

4 August 1901 – 6 July 1971 (69 years old)

Founding father of jazz whose brilliant cornet/trumpet virtuosity, rhythmic swing, gravelly baritone vocals, and joyful charisma transformed jazz from collective folk improvisation into an individual soloist's art in West End Blues and What a Wonderful World.

Queens (New York City), United States

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Sciences & Discovery

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William Lawrence Bragg

William Lawrence Bragg

Australia

1890 – 1971 (81 years old)

Australian-born British physicist who formulated Bragg's Law of X-ray diffraction and remains the youngest ever Nobel laureate in physics, receiving the award at age twenty-five in 1915.

Cambridge, United Kingdom

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Literature & Poetry

2

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Kenneth Slessor

Kenneth Adolphe Schloesser

Australia

1901-03-27 – 1971-06-30 (70 years old)

Pioneering modernist poet and official World War II war correspondent whose haunting Sydney Harbour elegy 'Five Bells' is celebrated as a masterpiece of Australian modernist verse.

North Ryde, Sydney, Australia

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Humanitarian & Peace

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John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr

John Boyd Orr

Great Britain

1880 – 1971 (90 years old)

Médecin et biologiste écossais, premier directeur général de l'Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (FAO), Nobel de la paix 1949.

Menmuir, Angus, United Kingdom

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Religious Figures & Theologians

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Reinhold Niebuhr

Reinhold Niebuhr

United States

1892 – 1971 (78 years old)

American public theologian and ethicist whose 'Moral Man and Immoral Society', formulation of Christian Realism, and 'Serenity Prayer' influenced generations of statesmen.

Stockbridge, Massachusetts, United States

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Prophets & Divine Messengers

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E. L. T. Mesens

Édouard Léon Théodore Mesens

Belgium

1903 – 1971 (67 years old)

Central catalyst of Belgian Surrealism who was René Magritte's closest friend and patron, composed avant-garde music with Erik Satie, and introduced Surrealism to Britain as director of the London Gallery.

Uccle (Brussels), Belgium

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Politics

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Dolores Cacuango

Dolores Cacuango Quilo

Ecuador

1881-10-26 – 1971-04-23 (89 years old)

Legendary indigenous leader known as 'Mama Dulu' who co-founded the Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios (FEI) in 1944 and founded Ecuador's first clandestine bilingual Quichua-Spanish schools for rural children.

Cayambe, Pichincha, Ecuador

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