Famous Deaths for 17th August 2026

1777 – Giuseppe Scarlatti, Italian composer, dies at 54
1786 – Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (1740-86), dies at 74
1834 – Husein Gradaš?evi?, Bosniak general, dies at 31
1914 – James Grierson, British general, dies of an aneurism at 55
1935 – Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American feminist, writer and lecturer for social reform, dies at 75
1961 – Carlos Salzedo, French-American piano prodigy, harpist, composer, educator (Curtis Institue; Juilliard), and new music advocate (co-founder of International Composers’ Guild), dies at 76
1979 – Vivian Vance [Jones], American stage and screen actress (I Love Lucy – “Ethel Mertz”; The Lucy Show – “Viv”), dies of cancer at 70
1987 – Charles Drummond de Andrade, Brazilian poet (Claro Enigma), dies at 84
2025 – Sheila R. Canby, American historian and curator of Islamic art (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009-19), dies of complications of cancer at 76
2025 – Joe Hickerson, American folk music singer and archivist (Director of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center, 1963-98), dies at 89

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