Diana, Princess of Wales

popular name: Michael Kennedy

date_of_death: December 31, 1997

age: 39

cause_of_death: Blunt force trauma from skiing accident

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Michael LeMoyne Kennedy was born into a very public family as Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy's middle of 11 children. He graduated from Harvard in 1980 and then went to law school at the University of Virginia, where he earned a law degree in 1984. In 1988 he took over as chairman of Citizens Energy Corp., the nonprofit fuel company founded by his brother, Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II, that discounts home heating fuel for the poor. He also chaired Citizens Conservation Corp., which provided energy consulting services to low-income, multi-family housing. Through Citizen's Energy subsidiaries, Kennedy also coordinated relief missions to West Africa in 1989 and 1992, founded the U.S.-Angola Chamber of Commerce and helped establish a Catholic university in that country. Kennedy also co-chaired the Walden Woods Project, an effort to preserve a forest near Walden Pond in Concord, and Stop Handgun Violence Inc., a group that works to raise awareness about handguns. All that work, however, was overshadowed when reports said he had a 3-year affair with his children's 14-year-old baby sitter. Robert F. Kennedy's 39-year-old son died on New Year’s Eve Day 1997, playing football while skiing Aspen Mountain’s Copper Bowl. It was a game that the Kennedy family had enjoyed for over three decades, and was considered daring, if not dangerous. This time, Kennedy was caught off-balance and too close to the treeline, lost an edge, and went into a tree head first. He had not been wearing a helmet. He was the second of Robert and Ethel Kennedy's sons to die young. In 1984 David Anthony Kennedy died of a drug overdose at age 24.

popular name: Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington

date_of_death: May 13, 1948

age: 28

cause_of_death: Plane crash

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Kathleen Agnes Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington (née Kennedy) also known as "Kick" Kennedy was an American socialite. She was the second daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald, a sister of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, and the wife of the Marquess of Hartington, heir apparent to the 10th Duke of Devonshire. When her father was serving as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Kathleen made many friends in London and was the "debutante of 1938". Working with the Red Cross, she began a romantic relationship with Lord Hartington, whom she married in May 1944 much to the anger of her parents. He was killed on active service in Belgium only four months later. Kathleen died in a plane crash in 1948, flying to the south of France while on vacation with her new partner, the 8th Earl Fitzwilliam. The only family member to attend her funeral was her father, Joseph P. Kennedy. Her mother, Rose Kennedy waited 20 years to visit her daughter's grave, and even then it was a brief visit.

popular name: Franklin Pierce

date_of_death: October 8, 1869

age: 64

cause_of_death: Cirrhosis of the liver

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States of America. He came into office during a period of growing tension between the North and South. A politician of limited ability, Pierce was behind one of the most crucial pieces of legislation in American history. Although he did not author the Kansas-Nebraska Act, he did encourage its passage by Congress. That piece of legislation set the nation on its path to civil war by angering northerners and heightening pre-Civil War tensions by repealing the Missouri Compromise.