28 December

Across recorded history, 1,633 notable lives are recorded as having ended on 28 December. Below are the 24 most widely documented — ranked by how many language editions of Wikipedia carry an article about them.

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Brigitte Bardot

1934–2025

French actress, singer, animal rights activist

Brigitte Bardot is a French actress and singer who became a prominent animal rights activist.

Sergei Yesenin

1895–1925

Russian poet

Sergei Yesenin was a Russian poet known for his lyrical verse.

Maurice Ravel

1875–1937

French composer

Maurice Ravel was a French composer known for his contributions to the musical impressionist movement.

Andrei Tarkovsky

1932–1986

Soviet and Russian film director, screenwriter, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director

Andrei Tarkovsky was a film director known for his work in Soviet and Russian cinema.

Susan Sontag

1933–2004

American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Susan Sontag was an American writer who produced influential essays, novels, and films throughout her career.

Debbie Reynolds

1932–2016

American actress, singer, and dancer

Debbie Reynolds was an American actress who performed in numerous film, television, and stage productions throughout her career.

Theodore Dreiser

1871–1945

American novelist and journalist

Theodore Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist known for his contributions to the naturalist movement in literature.

Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

1869–1947

King of Italy from 1900 to 1946

Victor Emmanuel III of Italy was a sovereign who served as the King of Italy.

Lemmy

1945–2015

British rock musician

Lemmy was a British rock musician known for his work as a singer and bass guitarist.

Amos Oz

1939–2018

Israeli writer, novelist, journalist and intellectual

Amos Oz was an Israeli writer known for his novels, essays, and journalism.

Paul Hindemith

1895–1963

German composer

Paul Hindemith was a German composer who also worked as a conductor, teacher, and music theorist.

Sam Peckinpah

1925–1984

American film director

Sam Peckinpah was an American film director known for his work in the Western genre.

Hermann Oberth

1894–1989

Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and rocketry pioneer

Hermann Oberth was a physicist and rocketry pioneer who contributed to the development of space flight.

Martin Karplus

1930–2024

Austrian-born American theoretical chemist

Martin Karplus was a theoretical chemist who developed multiscale models for complex chemical systems.

Harry Reid

1939–2021

American politician

Harry Reid was an American politician who served as a long-term member of the United States Senate.

Johannes Rydberg

1854–1919

Swedish physicist

Johannes Rydberg was a Swedish physicist who developed the formula that describes the wavelengths of light emitted by electrons in atoms.

Edith Bolling Galt Wilson

1872–1961

First Lady of the United States from 1915 to 1921

Edith Bolling Galt Wilson served as the First Lady of the United States.

Rose Marie

1923–2017

American actress, singer, comedian, and vaudeville performer

Rose Marie was an American performer who worked as an actress, singer, and comedian throughout her career.

Max Steiner

1888–1971

Austrian-born American music composer and conductor

Max Steiner was a film score composer who worked in the American motion picture industry.

Ian Murdock

1973–2015

American computer scientist, open source developer, entrepreneur

Ian Murdock was a computer scientist who founded the Debian project.

Sue Grafton

1940–2017

American writer

Sue Grafton was an American novelist best known for writing a series of mystery books featuring the private investigator Kinsey Millhone.

Arata Isozaki

1931–2022

Japanese architect

Arata Isozaki was a Japanese architect who designed numerous buildings and served as a university teacher.

George Gissing

1857–1903

English novelist

George Gissing was an English novelist who wrote works reflecting the social conditions of his time.

William L. Shirer

1904–1993

American journalist

William L. Shirer was an American journalist who documented the rise and fall of the Third Reich.

Source: Wikidata, released into the public domain under CC0. Snapshot: 2026-07. Names, dates and roles come from Wikidata; summaries are condensed from it. Nothing here is generated to fill a gap.