Famous Deaths for 21st May 2026

1703 – Roemer Vlacq, Dutch admiral, dies in battle
1789 – John Hawkins, English writer (A General History of the Science and Practice of Music; Life of Samuel Johnson), dies at 70
1858 – José de la Riva-Agüero, Peruvian soldier and politician, 1st President of Peru (1823), dies at 75
1994 – Johan Hendrik Weidner, Dutch-American resistance fighter (set up largest WWII underground network to smuggle people out of Nazi territory), dies at 81
2006 – Katherine Dunham, American dancer (Casbah; Stormy Weather), choreographer (Metroplitan opera, 1963; Joplin’s Treemonisha, 1972), and social activist, dies at 96
2015 – Louis Johnson, American rock bassist and vocalist (Brothers Johnson), dies at 60
2020 – Oliver Williamson, American economist (Nobel Prize for Economics 2009), dies at 87
2022 – Marco Cornez, Chilean soccer goalkeeper, (20 caps; FC Deportivo Palestino, Universidad Católica, Everton de Viña del Mar), dies from stomach cancer at 64
2025 – Nol de Ruiter, Dutch football coach (Netherlands, Egypt; FC Utrecht, ADO Den Haag), dies at 85
2025 – Robert Holton, American chemist credited with synthesizing the cancer drug Taxol, dies of emphysema at 81

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