Louis Braille

popular name: Paul Robeson

date_of_death: January 23, 1976

age: 77

cause_of_death: Complications of a stroke

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Paul Robeson was an American actor, singer, and activist. Some of his best know work on stage included The Emperor Jones, All God's Chillun Got Wings, and Othello. Robeson best known movies include Show Boat (1936), Sanders of the River (1935), and The Proud Valley (1940). He became active in the Civil Rights Movement and other social justice campaigns. His sympathies for the Soviet Union and for communism, and his criticism of the United States government and its foreign policies, caused him to be blacklisted during the McCarthy era.

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: Paul Bocuse

date_of_death: January 20, 2018

age: 91

cause_of_death: Parkinson's disease

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Paul Bocuse was a French chef based in Lyon who was known for the high quality of his restaurants and his innovative approaches to cuisine. A student of Eugénie Brazier, he was one of the most prominent chefs associated with the nouvelle cuisine, which is less opulent and calorific than the traditional cuisine classique, and stresses the importance of fresh ingredients of the highest quality. Bocuse was the incarnation of French gastronomy, a colossus of haute cuisine. His signature dishes not only pleased the palate; they also seduced the eye and piqued the imagination. He stuffed sea bass with lobster mousse and encased it in pastry scales and fins. He poached a truffled Bresse chicken inside a pig’s bladder. Chef Bocuse most famous dish was truffle soup V.G.E., a heady mixture of truffles and foie gras in chicken broth, baked in a single-serving bowl covered in puff pastry. First served at a dinner at the Élysée Palace in 1975, the soup was named for the French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who had just awarded Mr. Bocuse the French Legion of Honor. Through the years Bocuse was among the first chefs to understand the value of publicity, and was a tireless promoter of French food and of his own restaurant, L’Auberge du Pont de Collonges, near Lyon. Upon his passing in the very room he was born in just above his signature restaurant, L’Auberge du Pont de Collonges had maintained their 3-star Michelin rating for over 50 years.