Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Cheikh Raymond

الشيخ ريمون (ريمون ليريس)

Algeria

1912 – 1961 (48 years old)

Revered Algerian Jewish virtuoso of the Andalusian Malouf tradition, master of the oud, whose concert orchestra united Jewish and Muslim musicians in the shared sacred heritage of Constantine.

Constantine, Algeria

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Humanitarian & Peace

37

Marcel Junod

Switzerland

1904 – 1961 (57 years old)

Médecin suisse et délégué légendaire du CICR, premier médecin étranger à pénétrer dans Hiroshima détruite en septembre 1945 avec 15 tonnes de médicaments.

Geneva, Switzerland

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Humanitarian & Peace

32

Stephen Henry Hobhouse

Stephen Hobhouse

Great Britain

1881 – 1961 (79 years old)

Objecteur de conscience quaker et réformateur des prisons britannique, coauteur du rapport historique sur le système pénitentiaire britannique.

Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

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Frans Van Cauwelaert

Belgium

1880 – 1961 (81 years old)

Eminent statesman and intellectual leader of the moderate Flemish Catholic Movement who served 15 years as Burgomaster of Antwerp and presided over the Chamber of Representatives for fifteen crucial postwar years.

Hoboken (Antwerp), Belgium

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Philosophy & Thought

29

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

France

1908 – 1961 (53 years old)

French phenomenologist whose 1945 masterpiece Phenomenology of Perception placed the living human body (le corps propre) at the center of perceptual consciousness and existential experience.

Paris, France

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2

Mbarek Bekkaï (Mbarek ben Mustapha El Bekkaï)

مبارك البكاي

Morocco

1907 – 1961 (53 years old)

First Prime Minister of independent Morocco (1955–1958) who signed the historic Declaration of Independence with France, decorated WWII officer who lost a leg in combat, and fierce royalist loyalist.

Rabat, Morocco

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Science

Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

Jules Bordet

Jules Jean-Baptiste Vincent Bordet

Belgium

1870 – 1961 (90 years old)

Belgian immunologist and microbiologist who won the 1919 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries relating to immunity, including complement fixation and the whooping cough bacterium (Bordetella pertussis).

Ixelles (Brussels), Belgium

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Mohammed V of Morocco

محمد الخامس بن يوسف

Morocco

1909 – 1961 (51 years old)

Sultan and King of Morocco revered as the 'Father of the Nation', who heroically protected Moroccan Jews from the Vichy Nazi regime, demanded full sovereignty in the 1947 Tangier Speech, and led the Revolution of the King and the People to triumph in 1956.

Rabat, Morocco

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Music

Percy Grainger

George Percy Grainger

Australia

1882-07-08 – 1961-02-20 (78 years old)

Virtuoso concert pianist, folk song collector, and visionary experimental composer whose works (such as 'Country Gardens' and 'Lincolnshire Posy') and 'Free Music' machines anticipated electronic synthesizers.

Adelaide, Australia

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Arts & Music

13

Zakaria Ahmed

زكريا أحمد

Egypt

1896 – 1961 (65 years old)

Foundational musical maestro and Azhari scholar known as 'Sheikh Zakaria', who composed over 1,000 melodies, transformed the taqtuqa song form, and composed sixty monumental classics for Umm Kulthum.

Cairo, Egypt

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Literature & Poetry

6

Larbi Kabadi

العربي الكبادي

Tunisia

1880 AD – 1961 (81 years old)

Distinguished neo-classical poet and Ez-Zitouna scholar who revived classical Arabic meter in Tunisia and mentored legendary poet Abou el Kacem Chebbi.

Tunis, Tunisia

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Arts & Music

5

Statesmanship & Statesmen

Jawad Saleem

جواد سليم

Turkey

1919 – 23 January 1961 (42 years old)

Visionary Iraqi sculptor and painter who created the monumental 'Monument of Freedom' (Nasb al-Hurriyah) in Baghdad's Tahrir Square.

Baghdad, Iraq

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Patrice Lumumba

Patrice Émery Lumumba

Congo

1925-07-02 – 1961-01-17 (35 years old)

Martyr for African freedom, resource sovereignty, and genuine anti-colonial self-determination.

Near Élisabethville (Lubumbashi), Congo

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Jean-Félix Tchicaya

Jean-Felix Tchicaya

Gabon

1903-11-09 – 1961-01-16 (57 years old)

First Congolese deputy elected to the French National Assembly in 1945, founder of the Parti Progressiste Congolais (PPC), and co-founder of the RDA in Bamako.

Pointe-Noire, Congo

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Félix Tchicaya

Jean-Félix Tchicaya

Gabon

1903-11-09 – 1961-01-15 (57 years old)

First Congolese deputy elected to the French Parliament in 1945 and co-founder of the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA) alongside Houphouët-Boigny, founding the Parti Progressiste Congolais.

Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo

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Humanitarian & Peace

34

Emily Greene Balch

United States

1867 – 1961 (94 years old)

Économiste, sociologue et pacifiste américaine, dirigeante de la Ligue internationale des femmes pour la paix et la liberté, Nobel de la paix 1946.

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

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Literature & Poetry

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