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Ernest Hemingway
(Author)
July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961 (Aged 61)
Hemingway was an American writer widely recognized as one of the best and most influential authors of the 20th century.
In 1954, Hemmingway won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Among his most acclaimed works are ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, ‘The Sun Also Rises’, ‘A Farewell to Arms’, and ‘The Old Man and the Sea’, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1953.
In 1918, he served as an ambulance driver in Italy during World War I, before returning home to work as a journalist. Hemingway was married four times during his life.
Known for his lust for adventure, Hemingway survived two plane crashes while on safari in Africa.
He committed suicide in his Ketchum, Idaho home at the age of 61.
Patrice Lumumba
(Congolese Prime Minister)
2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961 (Aged 35)
Lumumba was a strong the first democratically elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He was a committed activist for African independence from colonialism, playing a key role in Congo gaining independence from Belgium.
After coming to power in 1960, he faced civil unrest aided by interference from Belgium, the UK, and the United States.
After uprisings by the opposition, he was imprisoned and tortured before being executed by firing squad.
Following his execution, along with his vice-president Joseph Okito and associate Maurice Mpolo, they were initially buried before being exhumed, dismembered, and dissolved in sulphuric acid.
Erwin Schrödinger
(Physicist)
2 August 1887 – 4 January 1961 (Aged 73)
Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist who revolutionized the field of quantum theory with his wave equation.
He is also known for his thought experiment known as Schrödinger’s cat.
In 1933, Schrödinger won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 73.
There is a large crater on the far side of the moon named in his honor.
Chico Marx
(Actor)
22 March 1887 – 11 October 1961 (Aged 74)
Chico, whose real name was Leonard, was the oldest of the famous Marx Brothers, though they had an older brother, Manfred, who died in infancy.
Chico was known for playing the role of the dim-witted con artist in all the brothers’ films.
He also played a key role as manager of the group and is credited with securing their wealth with his shrewd deal-making.
Ironically, Chico did not enjoy the wealth of his brothers due to his gambling addiction, while he was also a renowned womanizer.
He was the first of the brothers to die, resulting from heart disease at the age of 74.
Dag Hammarskjöld
(UN Secretary-General)
29 July 1905 – 18 September 1961 (Aged 56)
Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat, who was the second person to serve as UN Secretary-General, from 1953 until his death.
Regretting not supporting UN policy in Congo, John F. Kennedy called Hammarskjöld “the greatest statesman of our century.”
Hammarskjöld died in controversial circumstances when the plane he was traveling in, on the way to try negotiate a cease-fire in the Congo, crashed in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).
The crash has been shrouded in controversy due to numerous reports of interference by a third party, notable enemies of the Congolese government and business interests in one of most mineral-rich countries in the world.
The fate of the crash has yet to be resolved by the international community.
Later that year, Hammarskjöld was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the first person to be posthumously awarded the prize.
Carl Jung
(Psychologist)
26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961 (Aged 85)
Jung was an influential Swiss psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology, which, among other ideas, advanced the concept of introverted and extroverted personalities.
In his later years, Jung spent considerable time traveling around the world studying and documenting other cultures.
Jung’s work and concepts continue to influence varying aspects of life in the world today.
Adeline De Walt Reynolds
(Actress)
19 September 1862 – 13 August 1961 (Aged 98)
De Walt Reynolds was an American actress who made her screen debut at the age of 79 in 1941, playing the grandmother of James Stewart in Come Live with Me.
Born during the American Civil War, De Walt Reynolds survived the death of her husband in 1905, and the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906, while she was in secretarial college there.
De Walt Reynolds was left to raise four children by herself, struggling to provide for them and having to put her dream of becoming an actress behind her.
After her youngest child started college in 1926, De Walt Reynolds became one of the most mature freshmen ever to enter the University of California at the age of 64.
After graduating with a B.A. degree, majoring in French, she took up acting lessons and got her break a couple of years later in Come Live With Me.
De Walt Reynolds went on to perform in over 20 films and television series, the last of her appearances being at the age of 98. She died just shy of her 99th birthday.