Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Statesmanship & Statesmen

Gabriela Mistral

Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga

Chile

1889 – 1957 (67 years old)

First Latin American author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1945), Chilean poet, educator, and diplomat renowned for Desolación, Ternura, and maternal lyricism.

Montegrande (Elqui Valley), Chile

4 Full Record →

8

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B. R. Ambedkar

भीमराव रामजी आंबेडकर

India

1891-04-14 – 1956-12-06 (65 years old)

Chief Architect of the Constitution of India; eradicated constitutional untouchability, established equal civil rights, and inspired the modern Dalit Buddhist movement.

New Delhi, India

8 Full Record →

Alexander Rodchenko

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Rodchenko

Russian Empire

1891 – 1956 (64 years old)

Russian Constructivist artist, graphic designer, and photographer who declared the death of painting to pioneer radical diagonal photography, photomontage, and functional design.

Moscow, Soviet Union

3 Full Record →

Art Tatum

Arthur Tatum Jr.

United States

1909 – 1956 (47 years old)

American jazz pianist renowned as the supreme virtuoso in the history of the instrument, whose lightning speed, complex reharmonizations, and stride mastery astonished classical and jazz peers.

Los Angeles, United States

3 Full Record →

Sports & Athletics

2

Resistance & Human Rights

Babe Didrikson Zaharias

Mildred Ella Didrikson

United States

1911 – 1956 (45 years old)

Widely regarded as the greatest multi-sport female athlete in history, winning two Olympic track golds before dominating women's golf and co-founding the LPGA.

Beaumont, United States

2 Full Record →

Zighoud Youcef

زيغود يوسف

Algeria

1921 – 1956 (35 years old)

Algerian revolutionary strategist who succeeded Didouche Mourad as commander of Wilaya II and masterminded the August 20, 1955 North Constantine Offensive that irreversibly transformed the war into a mass popular revolution.

Skikda, Algeria

4 Full Record →

Kenji Mizoguchi

溝口健二

Japan

1898 – 1956 (58 years old)

Japanese filmmaker renowned for Ugetsu, The Life of Oharu, and Sansho the Bailiff, master of hypnotic long takes and fierce, compassionate chronicler of women's suffering in feudal Japan.

Ikegami (Tokyo), Japan

3 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

Bertolt Brecht

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht

German Empire

1898 – 1956 (58 years old)

Revolutionary German playwright, theatrical theorist, and poet who invented Epic Theatre, the alienation effect (Verfremdungseffekt), and The Threepenny Opera.

Berlin, Germany

4 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

1,526

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Jackson Pollock

Paul Jackson Pollock

United States

1912 – 1956 (44 years old)

American painter and leading force in Abstract Expressionism, world-famous for his radical 'drip painting' technique.

Springs, Long Island, New York, United States

1,526 Full Record →

Ahmed Zabana

أحمد زبانة

Algeria

1926 – 1956 (30 years old)

Algerian freedom fighter executed at age thirty, whose stoic courage before the French colonial guillotine made his martyrdom a rallying cry that galvanized the armed revolution.

Algiers, Algeria

4 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

Emil Nolde

Emil Hansen

Germany

1867 – 1956 (88 years old)

German-Danish Expressionist master renowned for his explosive color palettes, violent brushwork, brooding North Sea landscapes, and incandescent biblical cycles.

Seebüll, Germany

3 Full Record →

Mostefa Ben Boulaïd

مصطفى بن بولعيد

Algeria

1917 – 1956 (39 years old)

Algerian national hero acclaimed as the 'Father of the Algerian Revolution', founding historic chief who self-financed, armed, and commanded Wilaya I in the rugged Aurès Mountains.

Menaa (Batna), Algeria

4 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

1,580

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Irène Joliot-Curie

France

1897 – 1956 (58 years old)

French nuclear chemist and physicist who discovered artificial radioactivity, winning the 1935 Nobel Prize with Frédéric Joliot.

Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, France

1,580 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

Meghnad Saha

মেঘনাদ সাহা

India (now Bangladesh)

1893 – 1956 (62 years old)

Indian astrophysicist best known for developing the Saha ionization equation, which relates the chemical composition and temperature of stars to their spectral classes.

Kolkata, India

3 Full Record →

Lyonel Feininger

Lyonel Charles Feininger

United States

1871 – 1956 (84 years old)

German-American modernist painter and graphic artist celebrated for his prismatic, architectural Cubism and iconic leadership as the first master of the Bauhaus print workshop.

New York City, United States

3 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

Hermann Weyl

Hermann Klaus Hugo Weyl

German Empire

1885 – 1955 (70 years old)

German-American mathematician and theoretical physicist who invented gauge theory, unified group theory with quantum mechanics, and served as David Hilbert's successor at Gottingen.

Zurich, Switzerland

3 Full Record →