Louis Braille

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: Leonardo da Vinci

date_of_death: May 2, 1452

age: 67

cause_of_death: Stroke

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Leonardo da Vinci (Italian for “Leonardo from Vinci”) was an Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose skill and intelligence, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. His Last Supper (1495–98), Vitruvian Man (c. 1490) and Mona Lisa (c. 1503–19) are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance. His notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that were centuries ahead of their time. The world's most expensive painting to sell at auction is Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, which sold for $450.3 million on November 15, 2017 at Christie's auction house.

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.