Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

popular name: Charles Pigeon

date_of_death: March 18, 1915

age: 76

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Science

best_know_for: Charles-Joseph Pigeon started as a salesman in department store Le Bon Marché in Paris, where he became a close friend of Ernest Cognacq. Together they became partners and co-founders of the Samaritaine department stores. Pigeon became a dealer in cycle lamps, mining lamps and other combustible lamps. On June 9, 1884 he obtained a patent for his new lamp, the Pigeon lamp, a non-exploding gasoline lamp. He began to design, manufacture and sell his new invention across Europe and later that year he exhibited his Pigeon Lamps at the Exposition universelle de 1900 which subsequently made him famous and very, very wealthy. Upon his death, he was laid to rest at Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris, France.

popular name: Albert Einstein

date_of_death: April 18, 1955

age: 76

cause_of_death: Internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm

claim_to_fame: Science

best_know_for: Albert Einstein was a renown German-born theoretical physicist, and regarded as one of the greatest physicists of all time. Einstein is known widely for developing the theory of relativity, and contributions to the development of the theory of quantum mechanics. Relativity and quantum mechanics are together the two pillars of modern physics. His mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2 has been called "the world's most famous equation". He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".

popular name: John von Neumann

date_of_death: February 8, 1957

age: 53

cause_of_death: Bone cancer (disputed)

claim_to_fame: Science

best_know_for: John von Neumann was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. Von Neumann was regarded as perhaps the mathematician with the widest coverage of the subject in his time and was said to have been "the last representative of the great mathematicians who were equally at home in pure and applied mathematics". Von Neumann's academic career was filled with awards and honors. He was a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Academiz Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Peru; Acamedia Nazionale dei Lincei, Italy; National Academy of Sciences; Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and Letters; Information Processing Hall of Fame; and held numerous honorary degrees. Described as the scientific genius who pioneered the modern computer, game theory, nuclear deterrence, and more, John von Neumann illuminated the fields of pure and applied mathematics, computer science, physics, and economics. In the end, it would be supremely difficult to effectively refute the claim that John von Neumann is likely the most intelligent person who has ever lived. By the time of his death in 1957 at the modest age of 53, the Hungarian polymath had not only revolutionized several subfields of mathematics and physics but also made foundational contributions to pure economics and statistics and taken key parts in the invention of the atomic bomb, nuclear energy and digital computing.