5 Famous people to die in 1941

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James Joyce

(Author)

2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941 (Aged 58)

Joyce was an Irish author, considered as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.

Ulysses is the work he is best known for, widely seen as a groundbreaking novel.

Joyce is acknowledged as a literary genius, with his unique style and technique separating him from his peers.

He has proven to be a great influence on generations of writers in the years since his passing.

He spent much of his adult life living in Europe, where forced to move from Paris following the Nazi invasion of France, finally ending up moving to Switzerland.

Joyce died in Zurich following surgery on a perforated ulcer.

Virginia Woolf

(Author)

25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941 (Aged 59)

Woolf was a renowned British author, known for her acclaimed modernist and feminist novels.

She is seen as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.

Woolf suffered numerous bouts of depression during her life, eventually leading to her suicide by filling her coat pockets with stones and walking into the River Ouse, near her home in Sussex, England.

Her body was not found until three weeks later.

Lou Gehrig

(Baseball Player)

19 June 1903 – 2 June 1941 (Aged 37)

Lou Gehrig was a first baseman baseball player with the New York Yankees from 1923 to 1939.

Gehrig set numerous records during his career and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in the year of his retirement.

Gehrig was forced into retirement after being diagnosed with ALS, which came to be known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

On July 4, 1939, Yankee Stadium held a day to honor Gehrig, at which he bid farewell with an emotional and iconic speech, declaring himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

He died from his illness only 2 years later.

To this day, the MLB award the player who best displays their integrity and strength of character, both on and off the field, with the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award.

Robert Baden-Powell

(Military Leader)

22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941 (Aged 83)

Baden-Powell was a British military officer who found fame by founding The Boy Scouts Association and the Girl Guides.

In his military career, he served from 1876 to 1910, including during the Second Boer War in South Africa.

He moved to Kenya, where he spent the final year or so of his life.

His grave, in Nyeri, Kenya, has been declared a national monument.

Kaiser Wilhelm II

(German Emperor)

27 January 1859 – 4 June 1941 (Aged 82)

Kaiser Wilhelm II ruled the German Empire from 1888 to 1918, when, at the end of World War I, he abdicated the throne and fled to the Netherlands.

He lived in Doorn, Netherlands, for the remainder of his life, where he died at the age of 82.

Huis Doorn, where he lived, is now a museum, with the mausoleum, where he is buried, on the grounds of the house.

The Kaiser was the eldest of the British Queen Victoria’s grandchildren and the last German Emperor.