Louis Braille

popular name: Mayor John Phillips

date_of_death: May 29, 1823

age: 52

cause_of_death:

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: John Phillips was the very first mayor of Boston, Massachusetts and was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1813. John Phillips was also the father of famed abolitionist Wendell Phillips.

popular name: Kara Kennedy

date_of_death: September 16, 2011

age: 51

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Kara Kennedy was born into a public family, the daughter of the Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Joan Bennett Kennedy, but was a private person who was able to live her life outside the public glare. After graduating from the National Cathedral School in 1978, Kara worked on her father’s 1980 Presidential campaign before matriculating at Tufts University. Following the receipt of her degree in 1983 she pursued a career in television, working at Fox News in New York and at an evening news magazine in Boston. She also successfully co-managed her father’s 1988 re-election campaign with her brother Patrick. Her lung cancer diagnosis came in 2002, and the prognosis was grim. But with her trademark determination, she went through aggressive surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, and had been in remission from her cancer since that time. Her family has speculated that her heart was weakened by the aggressive cancer treatments she received when she passed away at the young age of 51.

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.