Louis Braille

popular name: Patrick J. Kennedy

date_of_death: May 18, 1929

age: 71

cause_of_death: Liver disease

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Patrick Joseph Kennedy (P.J. to his friends and grandfather to President John F. Kennedy) was the son of Irish immigrants. His father, Patrick Kennedy, died of cholera ten months after he was born while his mother, Bridget Kennedy, who also had three daughters, found work as a clerk in a shop. Working in the shipyards after high school, Kennedy borrowed money from his mother and sisters to purchase a run-down saloon in a poor area of Boston. Although he was himself a teetotaler, the business venture was a success and he was soon able to obtain a second saloon. Kennedy purchased a third bar in an upscale East Boston hotel, the Maverick House. Before he was thirty, his growing prosperity allowed him to buy a whiskey and fine liquors importing business, P.J. Kennedy and Company. In 1887 Kennedy married Mary Augusta Hickey, the daughter of a prosperous businessman in the city. A member of the Democratic Party Kennedy was elected to the Massachusetts Senate in 1892 where he worked behind the scenes as a party boss. After leaving state politics, Kennedy held various appointed positions in the city including elections commissioner, fire commissioner, and wire (electricity) commissioner. He continued his business career by helping to incorporate two Boston financial institutions, the Columbia Trust Company and the Sumner Savings Bank.

popular name: Marquis de Vauban

date_of_death: March 30, 1707

age: 73

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Marquis de Vauban was a French military engineer who revolutionized the art of siege craft and defensive fortifications. He fought in all of France's wars of Louis XIV's reign (1643–1715). He is generally considered the greatest engineer of his time, and one of the most important in Western military history. His principles for fortifications were widely used for nearly 100 years, while aspects of his offensive tactics remained in use until the mid-twentieth century. He viewed civilian infrastructure as closely connected to military effectiveness and worked on many of France's major ports, as well as projects like the Canal de la Bruche, which remain in use today. He founded the Corps royal des ingénieurs militaires, whose curriculum was based on his publications on engineering design, strategy and training. His economic tract, La Dîme royale, used statistics in support of his arguments, making it a precursor of modern economics. Later destroyed by Royal decree, it contained radical proposals for a more even distribution of the tax burden. His application of rational and scientific methods to problem-solving, whether engineering or social, anticipated an approach common in the Age of Enlightenment. Perhaps the most enduring aspect of Vauban's legacy was his view of France as a geographical entity.

popular name: Ossie Davis

date_of_death: February 4, 2005

age: 87

cause_of_death: Suspected heart disease

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Ossie Davis was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He and his wife, Ruby Dee were named to the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame; were awarded the National Medal of Arts and were recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994. Ossie David made his film debut in 1950 in the Sidney Poitier film No Way Out. He was one of a handful of black actors able to find commercial success while avoiding stereotypical roles prior to 1970, which also included a significant role in the movies The Hill, The Cardinal, and The Scalphunters. In addition to acting, Ossie Davis was considered one of the most notable black directors of his generation. Some of his best known works include directing Gordon's War, Black Girl and Cotton Comes to Harlem.