MOSCOW, December 31. /TASS/. In 2024, a great many well-known politicians, statesmen, scientists and cultural figures passed away.
Government, political and public figures
February 6. Ex-president of Chile, Sebastian Pinera (held office in 2010-2014 and 2018-2022), died in a helicopter crash in the country’s south at the age of 74.
February 23. Russia’s Supreme Court Chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev died in Moscow at the age of 80.
February 28. Nikolay Ryzhkov, the last chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers, died in Moscow at the age of 95
May 19. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province at the age of 62.
June 1. Russian State Duma Deputy, Hero of Russia and Soviet Union, explorer of the Arctic and the Antarctic Artur Chilingarov died in Moscow at the age of 84.
July 19. Vietnam’s Communist Party Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong died in Hanoi at the age of 80.
July 31. Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed as a result of an Israeli missile strike on Tehran at the age of 62.
September 11. Ex-president of Peru Alberto Fujimori (held office in 1990-2000) died in Lima at the age of 86.
September 27. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrullah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Beirut at the age of 64.
October 20. Preacher Fethullah Gulen, the leader of the Fethullah Organization (FETO) declared terrorist group in Turkey, died in Pennsylvania at the age of 83.
Astronauts and military
March 18. Thomas P. Stafford, one of 24 US astronauts who flew to the Moon and commander of the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project flight, the first joint US-Soviet space mission, died in Satellite Beach, Florida, at the age of 93.
April 9. Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Aksenov died in Moscow at the age of 89.
December 17. Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was killed in a terrorist attack on Moscow at the age of 54.
Actors, musicians, writers, media personalities, designers, athletes
January 7. German football star Franz Beckenbauer regarded as one of the greatest players of all time died in Salzburg, Austria, at the age of 78.
April 12. Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli died in Florence, Italy, at the age of 83.
May 13. Alice Ann Munro, Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013, died in Port Hope, Canada, at the age of 92.
June 18. French actress Anouk Aimee died in Paris at the age of 92.
August 18. French movie star, filmmaker and producer Alain Delon died in Douchy-Montcorbon, France, at the age of 88.
August 18. American journalist and TV host Phil Donahue died in New York City at the age of 88.
September 8. Iconic Soviet and Russian TV presenter Alexander Maslyakov died in Moscow at the age of 82.
September 27. British actress Dame Maggie Smith, best known for the Harry Potter films and Downton Abbey, died in London at the age of 89.
November 3. American record producer and composer, Quincy Jones Jr. died in Los Angeles at the age of 91.
December 27. British actress Olivia Hussey, best known for the role of Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, died in Burbank, California, at the age of 73.
Scientists
January 1. Swiss computer scientist Niklaus Emil Wirth who designed several programming languages, including Pascal, died in Zurich, Switzerland, at the age of 89.
January 22. American physicist and radio astronomer Arno Allan Penzias who discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation, for which he shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics, died in San Francisco at the age of 90.
April 8. British theoretical physicist Peter Higgs, the 2013 Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the mass of subatomic particles, died in Edinburgh at the age of 94.
September 3. Soviet and Russian scientist, engineer and general designer of nearly 200 nuclear submarines Igor Spassky died in St. Petersburg at the age of 97.
November 12. American computer scientist Thomas Kurtz, known for co-developing the BASIC programming language, died in Lebanon, New Hampshire, at the age of 96.
December 5. Russian physicist Yevgeny Velikhov, president of the Kurchatov Institute, died in Moscow at the age of 89.