Famous People Who Died in January a to z

Gregor Mendel was an Austrian monk who discovered the basic principles of heredity through experiments in his garden. Mendel's observations became the foundation of modern genetics and the study of heredity, and he is widely considered a pioneer in the field of genetics.

Jean-Francois Millet was a French painter who is well known for his paintings of peasants and the labors of rural life.

Author A.A. Milne wrote beloved classic children's books about the adventures of Christopher Robin and the toy animal Winnie-the-Pooh.

Actor Ricardo Montalban is best known for playing Mr. Roarke on television's Fantasy Island—the role that launched him into true stardom.

Tennis player Helen Wills Moody was the first female athlete to become an international star, winning 31 Grand Slam titles during her career.

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter who has become widely known for his iconic pre-Expressionist painting The Scream.

Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon I, was emperor of France from 1852 to 1870. His downfall came during the Franco-Prussian War, when his efforts to defeat Otto Von Bismarck ended in his capture.

Bonnie Nettles is known as one of 'The Two' who started the so-called UFO cult often referred to as Heaven's Gate with Marshall Applewhite.

Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia was commander in chief of Tzar Nicholas II's army during WWI. The Russian Revolution ended his career.

Famed Russian-born male dancer Rudolf Nureyev was a soloist for the Kirov Ballet and a choreographer for the Paris Opera Ballet.

Explorer and conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.

Of Spanish descent, the devout, learned Catherine of Aragon was the 16th-century Queen of England due to her marriage to Henry VIII.

George Orwell was an English novelist, essayist, and critic most famous for his novels Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-four (1949).

Johnny Otis was a bandleader, drummer, vibraphonist, singer, producer and promoter who discovered artists like Etta James, Jackie Wilson and Big Mama Thornton.

Jack Paar had no singing, dancing or acting talent, but he was blessed with "the gift of gab." That gift was enough to endear him to millions of American television viewers during his tenure as host of The Tonight Show (1957-1962).

Scottish explorer Mungo Park (1771–1806) wrote Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa about his expeditions to find the source of the Niger River.

As head football coach at Pennsylvania State University, Joe Paterno was one of the most successful coaches in the history of collegiate football.

Anna Pavlova was a famous Russian prima ballerina and choreographer. The company she founded in 1911 was the first to tour ballet around the world.

Thomas Pendergast was a political boss of Kansas City in the early 20th century.

Molly Pitcher was a patriot who--during the American Revolution--carried pitchers of water to American soldiers for cooling the cannons.

Suzanne Pleshette was an Emmy Award-nominated actress known for roles in films like The Geisha Boy and The Birds, as well as the television series The Bob Newhart Show.

Venetian merchant and adventurer Marco Polo traveled from Europe to Asia from 1271 to 1295. He wrote Il Milione, known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo.

Charles Ponzi was best known for the financial crimes he committed when he conned investors into giving him millions of dollars, and paid them returns with other investors' money.

Ferdinand Porsche founded the Porsche car company in 1931. In the early 1920s, he oversaw the development of the Mercedes compressor car, and later developed the first designs of the Volkswagen car with his son, Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche.

Queen Victoria was queen of Great Britain from 1837 to 1901—the longest reign of any other British monarch in history.

Indian cult leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh created the spiritual practice of dynamic meditation. He started the Rancho Rajneesh commune in Oregon in the 1980s.

Johannes Rau was a member of the Social Democratic Party Executive and chair of the party state organization before serving as president of Germany (1999-2004).

Lou Rawls was a singer and songwriter known for his baritone voice and the small acting roles he took on the side.

Charlotte E. Ray was the first female African-American lawyer in the United States.

Actress Donna Reed charmed audiences in the film It's a Wonderful Life and on television's The Donna Reed Show.

Hiram Revels is best known as the first African American to serve in the United States Senate.

Paul Robeson was an acclaimed 20th century performer known for productions like The Emperor Jones and Othello. He was also an international activist.

The son of John D. Rockefeller Jr., Nelson Rockefeller served four terms as governor of New York. He was later appointed vice president under President Gerald Ford.

French film director Eric Rohmer was an editor of respected periodicals, including Cahiers du Cinéma, and the maker of films like My Night at Maud's.

Actor and dancer Cesar Romero performed in movies from the '30s through the '60s. He became a pop culture icon in the 1966 Batman television series.

A New York governor who became the 26th U.S. president, Theodore Roosevelt is remembered for his foreign policy, corporate reforms and ecological preservation.

According to legend, Betsy Ross made the first American flag. Despite a lack of credible evidence to support this, she remains an icon of American history.

Nightclub owner Jack Ruby murdered Lee Harvey Oswald before Oswald could stand trial for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

With his landmark novel Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger was an influential 20th-century American writer.

Telly Savalas was an American actor best known for his role as a tough, New York City detective in the 1970’s television series Kojak.

Austrian theoretical physicist Erwin Schrödinger contributed to the wave theory of matter and to other fundamentals of quantum mechanics.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was an activist and advocate for the poor in the 18th to 19th centuries who established the group Sisters of Charity.

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was an Irish-born British explorer who was a principal figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Sidney Sheldon was a best-selling novelist who won Oscar, Tony and Emmy awards for his work on the stage and screen.

British serial killer Harold Shipman, who worked in England as a medical doctor, killed over 200 of his patients before his arrest in 1998.

Sargent Shriver was a political administrator and diplomat perhaps best known for designing the U.S. Peace Corps, which was established in 1961. Shriver served as first director of the organization from its inception until 1966.

David Alfaro Siqueiros was a Mexican painter and muralist whose work reflected his Marxist ideology.

Alfred Sisley was a French impressionist painter, primarily of landscapes, and was a friend of Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress who had a 60-year career in film and TV. Usually playing strong-willed women, Stanwyck defined the femme fatale.

Ida Tarbell was an American journalist best known for her pioneering investigative reporting that led to the breakup of the Standard Oil Company’s monopoly.

Outspoken and ambitious, Dorothy Thompson became a well-known journalist during the 1930s to the 1950s.

Son of Tiffany & Co. founder Charles Tiffany, Louis Tiffany was an internationally renowned glass maker and a leader of the Art Nouveau movement.

John Tyler was the 10th president of the United States.

Writer John Updike's works are known for their subtle depiction of American middle-class life. His popular Rabbit series earned him two Pulitzer prizes.

Pauline Phillips, best known by the pen name "Abigail Van Buren," was one of America's most adored advice columnists as the author of "Dear Abby." She was the twin sister of columnist Ann Landers.

Cornelius Vanderbilt was an industrialist in railroads and shipping. He had accumulated the largest fortune in the U.S. at the time of his death, in 1877.

Giuseppe Verdi was an Italian composer who is known for several operas, including La Traviata and Aida.

Sam J. Wagstaff was an important art curator and collector of photography. He was also a companion and benefactor of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

Actor Ray Walston enjoyed a successful acting career and is best known for his character Uncle Martin O'Hara on the CBS series My Favorite Martian.

Wendy Wasserstein was an award-winning playwright of such works as The Sisters Rosensweig and An American Daughter.

Edward Weston's photography captured organic forms and texture. Portraits of his family taken in the 1940s are some of his best work.

T.H. White was an English writer known for his novel series about King Arthur, The Once and Future King.

Eli Whitney was an American inventor who created the cotton gin and pushed the “interchangeable parts” mode of production.

Hank Williams became one of America's first country music superstars, with hits like "Your Cheatin' Heart," before his early death at 29.

Shelley Winters was a popular American actress who is perhaps most remembered for her starring role in the 1951 film A Place in the Sun, for which won an Oscar.

Known as "Black Edison," Granville Woods was an African-American inventor who made key contributions to the development of the telephone, street car and more.

Orville Wright is best known for inventing the airplane with his brother, Wilbur.

William Butler Yeats was one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century and received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.