Famous People Who Died in February a to z

John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States. He was also the eldest son of President John Adams, the second U.S. president.

Filipino leader Emilio Aguinaldo led his country to achieve independence after fighting off both the Spanish and the Americans.

Egyptian Hassan al-Banna was the founder the Muslim Brotherhood, with goals of expelling the British from Egypt and re-establishing the Caliphate.

Ciro Alegria was a Peruvian novelist who wrote about the struggles of the Peruvian Indians, and whose militant pro-Indian activism led to his arrest and exile.

Scottish mathematician, physician and satirist John Arbuthnot is known for his satirical writings, which include a political allegory, The History of John Bull.

Arthur Ashe is the first African American to win the men's singles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and the first black American to be ranked No. 1 in the world.

American radio commentator Paul Harvey spent a long life delivering conservative broadcasts on current events, reaching, at his peak, 24 million people daily.

Singer Florence Ballard formed The Supremes in 1961 with childhood friends Mary Wilson and Diana Ross. She sang on 16 different Top 40 hits.

Sir Frederick Grant Banting was a Canadian scientist and doctor, whose research led to the discovery of insulin to treat diabetic patients.

Edith Ewing Beale, also known as "Big Edie," was aunt to Jackie Kennedy, and resident of the decrepit mansion called Grey Gardens.

Lawrence Beesley was a teacher, journalist and Titanic survivor. After the collision, he boarded lifeboat 13, which was eventually rescued by the Carpathia.

David Berger was a lawyer who won large settlements in several high-profile class-action lawsuits as a pioneer in the practice of such suits.

Big Pun was a Latino hip-hop artist whose album Capital Punishment went to No. 1 on the R&B/hip-hop charts. He died in 2000 from obesity related heart failure.

Hussein bin Talal served as king of Jordan from 1953 to 1999. He helped guide his country into the modern era.

Ragtime pianist Eubie Blake was one of the most famous composers of 20th century musicals, known for hits like "I'm Just Wild About Harry."

Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose is known for working with Albert Einstein on the Bose-Einstein Condensate and as namesake of the boson, or “God particle.”

Thomas Bowdler was a physician and self-appointed editor of great literature. He published The Family Shakespeare, a family friendly version of Shakespearean works, in 1807, and gave rise to the term "Bowdlerized."

Elizabeth Bowen is the author of novels and short-story collections such as The House in Paris (1935), The Heat of the Day (1938) and The Demon Lover (1945).

William F. Buckley was a writer and political TV personality who helped make conservative politics popular in the 1950s-1970s.

British historian Alan Bullock is the author of several works on 20th century Europe, including studies of Hitler, Bevin and Stalin.

African-American jockey Isaac Burns Murphy repeatedly won the Kentucky Derby and was posthumously inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame.

Painter John Butler Yeats was the father of poet William Butler Yeats and artist Jack Butler Yeats. His portrait of John O'Leary is considered his best work.

Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish essayist, historian and satirical writer. His best know works include Life of Schiller, Sartor Resartus and The French Revolution.

French jurist and lawyer René Cassin is best known for his involvement in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Charles II was the monarch of England, Ireland and Scotland during much of the latter half of the 17th century, marking the Restoration era.

Andrei Chikatilo was a former school teacher who murdered more than 50 young people in the Soviet Union.

Van Cliburn was an acclaimed pianist who played with the New York Philharmonic and founded an international piano competition.

Lucille Clifton is a poet whose works generally examine family life, racism and gender issues.

Actor Lee J. Cobb had roles in some eighty movies. Despite his success in Hollywood, he was probably most proud of his stage work in Death of a Salesman.

Nat King Cole became the first African-American performer to host a variety TV series in 1956. He's best known for his soft baritone voice and for singles like "The Christmas Song," "Mona Lisa" and "Nature Boy."

Connie Mack was manager of the Milwaukee Brewers and the Philadelphia Athletics, and owner of the Athletics. He helped establish the American League.

British navigator James Cook discovered and charted New Zealand and Australia's Great Barrier Reef on his ship Endeavor, and later disproved the existence of the fabled southern continent Terra Australis. His voyages provided the first accurate map of the Pacific.

American television icon Don Cornelius created and hosted Soul Train, which spent more than 30 years on the air.

Film actor Joseph Cotten was a member of Orson Welles Mercury Theater radio ensemble. He also appeared in the movie Citizen Kane.

David Nelson Crosthwait, Jr. was an African American pioneer in the field of heating and air conditioning, best known for heating up Radio City Music Hall.

Cuauhtémoc was the last Aztec Emperor, ruling from 1520 to 1521. He was tortured and killed by the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés in 1522.

Rubén Darío was an acclaimed Nicaraguan poet, essayist and journalist who introduced the style known as modernism to Spanish literature.

The arrest and trial of Larry Davis, arrested after a 1986 shootout with the NYPD, drew national interest and ignited racial tensions in New York City.

Ossie Davis was an American actor, writer, social activist and humanitarian. He often performed with wife Ruby Dee in plays, in film and on television.

Intrigued by burrs that stuck to his clothing, in 1956, Swiss engineer George de Mestral invented the popular fastener now known as Velcro®.

Sandra Dee became the “Queen of Teens” in 1950s Hollywood, appearing in such films as Gidget and A Summer Place.

Philosopher and mathematician René Descartes is regarded as the father of modern philosophy for defining a starting point for existence, “I think; therefore I am.”

John Dickinson, an American statesman often referred to as the "Penman of the Revolution," wrote letters that helped turn opinion against the Townshend Acts created by the Parliament of Great Britain.

William Dodd was an American historian and diplomat who wrote about the antebellum South and the Civil War.

Aaron Douglas was an African-American painter and graphic artist who played a leading role in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Frederick Douglass, a former slave and eminent human rights leader in the abolition movement, was the first black citizen to hold a high U.S. government rank.

Renato Dulbecco was an Italian virologist best known winning the Nobel Prize for pioneering the growing of viruses in culture in the 1950s.

African-American author Paul Laurence Dunbar is best known for his verse and short stories, many of which are written in black dialect.

Dale Earnhardt was a champion stock car driver with NASCAR who won seven championships. He died in the final lap of the Daytona 500 in 2001

American biochemist and pharmacologist Gertrude B. Elion helped develop drugs to treat leukemia and prevent kidney transplant rejection. She won a Nobel Prize for medicine in 1988.

Dale Evans was the longtime screen partner and wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers. She wrote several hit songs, including "Happy Trails to You."

Publisher Malcolm Forbes was the son of B.C. Forbes, who founded Forbes magazine. Malcolm Forbes eventually worked his way up to becoming company president.

Jean Foucault was a French physicist and inventor best known for inventing the Foucault pendulum.

Writer, feminist and women's rights activist Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique (1963) and co-founded the National Organization for Women.

J.F.C. Fuller was a 20th century British military officer, author, advocate of tank warfare and supporter of fascist movements.

American engineer and inventor Robert Fulton is best know for developing the first successful steamboat and the world's first steam warship.

Henry Highland Garnet was an African-American best known as an abolitionist whose “Call to Rebellion” speech encouraged slaves to rebel against their owners.

Martha Gellhorn was a distinguished war correspondent who covered every war that occurred across the globe over a period extending nearly 60 years.

George VI served as king of the United Kingdom during World War II and was an important symbolic leader. He was succeeded by Queen Elizabeth II, in 1952.

Geronimo was a Bedonkohe Apache leader of the Chiricahua Apache, who led his people's defense of their homeland against the military might of the United States.

Alex Haley was an American writer whose works of historical fiction and reportage depicted the struggles of African Americans.

Virginia Hamilton was a multiple award-winning children's author whose work celebrated diversity and the African-American experience.

During his all-too-brief life, artist Keith Haring became a sensation in the art world with his bold, cartoon and graffiti influenced works during the 1980s.

Anna Harrison was a former First Lady of the United States. She was the wife of ninth President, William Henry Harrison, who died after only one month in office.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was a blues/soul singer known for his over-the-top theatricality and the hit “I Put a Spell on You.”

Robert Hayden was an African-American poet and professor who is best known as the author of poems, including “Those Winter Sundays” and “The Middle Passage.”