Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Literature & Poetry

5

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John Millington Synge

Edmund John Millington Synge

Ireland

1871 – 1909 (37 years old)

Visionary Irish dramatist and co-founder of the Abbey Theatre whose The Playboy of the Western World ignited riots and captured rural Hiberno-English lyricism.

Dublin, Ireland

5 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

8

🕯️ 940

Geronimo

Goyaałé

Mexico

16 June 1829 – 17 February 1909 (79 years old)

Fierce Bedonkohe Apache medicine man and military leader who led decades of guerrilla resistance against Mexican and United States armies across the desert southwest to defend traditional Apache homeland and freedom.

Fort Sill, Oklahoma, United States

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Sciences & Discovery

3

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Hermann Minkowski

Hermann Minkowski

Russian Empire

1864 – 1909 (44 years old)

German mathematician who created the geometry of numbers and developed the four-dimensional spacetime continuum (Minkowski space), providing the geometric framework for Einstein's special and general relativity.

Gottingen, Germany

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Religious Figures & Theologians

8

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John of Kronstadt

Иоанн Кронштадтский

Russian Empire

1829 – 1909 (79 years old)

Russian Orthodox archpriest and pastoral miracle-worker whose daily Eucharistic liturgies, profound diary 'My Life in Christ', and immense charities transformed naval Kronstadt.

Saint Petersburg, Russia

8 Full Record →

Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

7

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Empress Dowager Cixi

慈禧太后

China

1835 – 1908 (72 years old)

Formidable Manchu noblewoman who effectively controlled the late Qing imperial government for 47 years through court regencies, modernizing reforms, and political crises.

Zunhua, China

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Resistance & Human Rights

4

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Cheikh Bouamama

الشيخ بوعمامة

🌐 Morocco / Algeria border

c. 1840 – 1908 (68 years old)

Algerian Sufi leader of the Ouled Sidi Cheikh who waged a formidable quarter-century guerrilla resistance (1881–1908) across the High Plateaus and Saharan Atlas against French colonial armies.

El Aioun Sidi Mellouk, Morocco

4 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

6

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Machado de Assis

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

Empire of Brazil

1839 – 1908 (69 years old)

Patriarch of Brazilian literature and founding President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, famed for The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas and Dom Casmurro.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

6 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

3,274

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Henri Becquerel

Antoine Henri Becquerel

France

1852 – 1908 (55 years old)

French physicist who discovered spontaneous radioactivity, earning the 1903 Nobel Prize with the Curies.

Le Croisic, Loire-Atlantique, France

3,274 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

4

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Khudiram Bose

ক্ষুদিরাম বসু

India

1889 – 1908 (18 years old)

One of the youngest Indian revolutionary martyrs, executed at age 18 for his role in the Muzaffarpur conspiracy against British colonial magistrate Kingsford.

Muzaffarpur, India

4 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

6

🕯️ 1,120

Sir William Randal Cremer

William Randal Cremer

Great britain

18 March 1828 – 22 July 1908 (80 years old)

Sir William Randal Cremer was a British carpenter, trade union leader, and Member of Parliament who rose from childhood poverty to become the foremost working-class pioneer of international arbitration. He founded the International Arbitration League, co-founded the Inter-Parliamentary Union with Frédéric Passy, and was awarded the 1903 Nobel Peace Prize, donating his entire prize money to the arbitration movement.

London, United Kingdom

6 Full Record →

Arts & Music

1,304

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Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Николай Андреевич Римский-Корсаков

Russian Empire

1844 – 1908 (64 years old)

Russian master of orchestral color and folklore, renowned for Scheherazade, Capriccio Espagnol, and Flight of the Bumblebee.

Saint Petersburg, Russia

1,304 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

6

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Bai Bureh

Bai Bureh (Kebalai)

Sierra Leone

1840 – c. 1908 (67 years old)

Sierra Leonean ruler and military strategist who led the historic 1898 Hut Tax War against British imperial taxation, defeating British expeditionary forces for ten months through masterclass guerrilla ambushes and trench networks.

Rogbare (Port Loko), Sierra Leone

6 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

4,064

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Lord Kelvin

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

United Kingdom

1824 – 1907 (83 years old)

Titan of Victorian science who established the absolute thermodynamic temperature scale and engineered the transatlantic cable.

London, United Kingdom

4,064 Full Record →

Arts & Music

4,099

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Edvard Grieg

Edvard Hagerup Grieg

Norway

1843 – 1907 (64 years old)

Norway's supreme nationalist composer, world-celebrated for Peer Gynt, the Piano Concerto in A minor, and Lyric Pieces.

Bergen, Norway

4,099 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

11

🕯️ 980

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev

Дмитрий Иванович Менделеев

Russia

8 February 1834 – 2 February 1907 (72 years old)

Russian chemist who formulated the Periodic Law and organized known chemical elements into the Periodic Table, predicting unknown elements and their atomic properties with astonishing precision.

Saint Petersburg, Russia

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Humanitarian & Peace

5

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Josephine Butler

Josephine Elizabeth Butler

United Kingdom

1828 – 1906 (78 years old)

Heroic Victorian feminist and human rights campaigner who led the successful international campaign to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts and exposed the international trafficking and child prostitution of young girls.

Kirknewton (Northumberland), United Kingdom

5 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

7

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King Behanzin

Gbehanzin (Gbêxan-zîn)

Kingdom of Dahomey

c. 1845 – 1906 (61 years old)

Eleventh King of the Kingdom of Dahomey, celebrated as the 'Shark King' (Kondo), who commanded his legendary 4,000-strong all-female warrior battalions (the Dahomey Amazons / Mino) in fierce defense against French colonial conquest.

Abomey, Benin

7 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

6

🕯️ 1,050

Élie Ducommun

Élie Ducommun

Switzerland

19 February 1833 – 7 December 1906 (73 years old)

Élie Ducommun was a Swiss journalist, politician, and peace activist who served as the first honorary director of the International Peace Bureau in Bern from 1891 until his death. For his tireless, unpaid leadership coordinating peace societies worldwide, he was awarded the 1902 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Charles Albert Gobat.

Bern, Switzerland

6 Full Record →