DHAKA: The world has seen some world famous persons died in 2013. Among others, the death of Nelson Mandela drew the attention of the world. The death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez also include the list. Names of other eminent persons also given below:
Former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid revolutionary of South Africa died on December 5. He was of 95 years old.
He died in his house at Johannesburg following a long illness. He was also known as Madiba in South Africa. He was receiving intensive medical care at home for a lung infection after spending three months in hospital.
Nelson Mandela was one of the world’s most revered statesman for preaching reconciliation despite being imprisoned for 27 years.
He was the first black South African to hold the office of president from 1994 to 1999, and the first elected in a fully representative multiracial election.
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister of Britain died due to a stroke on 8 April at the age of 87. Thatcher was the prime minister of Britain from 1979 to 1990 from Conservative party of Britain and was the first lady to hold the post of prime minister.
She succeeded James Callaghan from Labour Party and a Member of Parliament from Cardiff South East.
She resigned from her office in 1990 after she returned from the Euro Summit in Rome, after her policies and her style of government led to the growth of rebellion inside her party.
John Major succeeded her in the office of the prime Minister.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, the firebrand socialist who led the nation for 14 years, died on March 5.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro, now president, did not say what exactly killed Chavez, although the government had announced that a severe new respiratory infection had severely weakened him.
Chavez, long famed for his marathon appearances at televised events, had neither been seen nor heard from, except for photos released in mid-February, since submitting to a fourth round of surgery in Cuba on December 11 for an unspecified cancer in the pelvic area.
It was first diagnosed in June 2011.
AK47 Inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov
Mikhail Kalashnikov, who invented the AK47 weapon died at the age of 94 due to ill-health on 23 December in Izhevsk, Udmurtia province of Russian Republic.
Kalashnikov worked as weapon designer for the Soviet Union’s Red Army during World War II. He designed the AK47 (Avtomat Kalashnikov), which was officially accepted by the Soviet in 1947.
Kalashnikov was decorated with numerous honours including the Hero of Socialist Labour and Order of Lenin and Stalin Prize.
Two Time Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner Frederick Sanger
Frederick Sanger, a British biochemist who is the only person to win Nobel Prize two times for Chemistry died on 19 November in Cambridge, eastern England.
He was aged 95.
For the first time, he won the Nobel Prize in 1958 for development of the methods, which helped to unravel the chemical structure of Protein, mainly insulin.
Second Nobel Prize was given to him in 1980, jointly with Walter Gilbert and Paul Berg for the development of the techniques to read the sequences of DNA, which carries the basic code for life.
By winning two Nobel, Sanger became one of the four people who had won the Nobel Prizes two times. The other winners of Nobel Prize two times are Marie Curie, John Bardeen and Linus Pauling.
Nobel Prize Winning Economist Lawrence R Klein
Lawrence R Klein, Nobel Prize winning economist died on 20 October in Gladwyne, near Philadelphia. He was 93 years old.
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, on 14 September in 1920, he studied at the University of California, Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Then he joined the Penn faculty in 1958. He developed the statistical models there known as the Wharton Models which got him his Nobel Prize in 1980 in Economics.
In 1946, Klein correctly predicted that restricted demand for consumer goods coupled with the purchasing power of returning soldiers would protect against a depression.
Klein also predicted correctly that the end of the Korean War would result in a mild recession.
Klein is survived by his wife Sonia, son Jonathan Klein and daughters Hannah, Rebecca, and Rachel.
Nobel Literature Laureate Seamus Heaney
Irish writer Seamus Heaney died at the age of 74 on 29 August. He had won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Seamus Heaney was born in Northern Ireland. He published his first collection of poems, ‘Death Of A Naturalist’ in 1966. He went on to become one of the English language’s leading poets.
Heaney worked as the professor of poetry at Oxford University between 1989 and 1994. He is survived by his wife Marie and three children.
Heaney was known for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which paid tribute to everyday miracles and the living past.
Father of the Mouse Douglas Engelbart
Douglas Engelbart, the U.S. inventor who was known as the father of the computer mouse died on 3 July at age of 88.
Douglas Engelbart, was a technologist who laid out a vision of an internet decades before others brought those ideas to the mass market.
He was a scientist and engineer who devoted himself to find ways to use computers to improve people’s lives.
He is survived by Karen O’Leary Engelbart, his second wife, and four children: Gerda, Diana, Christina and Norman. His wife Ballard died in 1997.
Source: jagranjosh.com
BDST: 2115 HRS, DEC 31, 2013
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor
