On this day in 180 AD, Joint 16th Emperor of the Roman Empire, Philosopher King, Marcus Aurelius died in the city of Vindobona (modern Vienna) or in Sirmium, Serbia, the age of 58. Born Marcus Annius Catilius Severus on 26 April 121 in Rome. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Verus’ death in 169. Aurelius was the last of the Five Good Emperors, and is also considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers. During his reign, the Empire defeated a revitalized Parthian Empire in the East; Aurelius’ general Avidius Cassius sacked the capital Ctesiphon in 164. In central Europe, Aurelius fought the Marcomanni, Quadi, and Sarmatians with success during the Marcomannic Wars, with the threat of the Germanic tribes beginning to represent a troubling reality for the Empire. A revolt in the East led by Cassius failed to gain momentum and was suppressed immediately. Aurelius’ Stoic tome Meditations, written in Greek while on campaign between 170 and 180, is still revered as a literary monument to a philosophy of service and duty, describing how to find and preserve equanimity in the midst of conflict by following nature as a source of guidance and inspiration. Aurelius married his first cousin Faustina the Younger in 145. During their 30-year marriage Faustina bore 13 children.
The Final Footprint – Aurelius was cremated and immediately deified and his cremated remains were returned to Rome, and rested in Hadrian’s mausoleum (modern Castel Sant’Angelo) until the Visigoth sack of the city in 410. His campaigns against Germans and Sarmatians were also commemorated by a column and a temple built in Rome. In the 1964 movie The Fall of the Roman Empire he was portrayed by Alec Guinness and in the 2000 movie Gladiator he was portrayed by Richard Harris. Both movie plots posited that Aurelius was assassinated because he intended to pass down power to Aurelius’s adopted son, a Roman general, instead of his biological son Commodus.
On this day; the traditional death date of fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland, Saint Patrick. Known as the “Apostle of Ireland”, he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints being Brigit of Kildare and Columba. He is venerated in the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Lutheran Churches, the Old Catholic Church, and in the Eastern Orthodox Church as equal-to-the-apostles and Enlightener of Ireland.
The dates of Patrick’s life cannot be fixed with certainty, but there is broad agreement that he was active as a missionary in Ireland during the late fourth or fifth century. Early medieval tradition credits him with being the first bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, and they regard him as the founder of Christianity in Ireland, converting a society practising a form of Celtic polytheism. He has been generally so regarded ever since, despite evidence of some earlier Christian presence in Ireland.
According to Patrick’s autobiographical account, known as the Confessio, when he was about sixteen years old, he was captured by Irish pirates from his home in Britain and taken as a slave to Ireland, looking after animals. By his account, he lived there for six years before escaping and returning to his family in Britain, where he became a cleric. He was initially welcomed by his relatives with open arms, but in chapters 26, 27 of his Confessio he describes that he was subsequently condemned for an offence for which he had already stood trial, although he does not say what it was. The condemnation might have contributed to his decision to return to Ireland. Patrick eventually returned to Ireland, probably settling in the west of the island, where, in later life, he became a bishop and ordained subordinate clerics.
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The reputed burial place of Saint Patrick is in Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland. Saint Patrick’s Day is observed on the supposed date of his death. It is celebrated inside and outside Ireland as a religious and cultural holiday. In the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of obligation; it is also a celebration of Ireland itself.
#RIP #OTD in 1974 architect (Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban; Yale University Art Gallery; Salk Institute; Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; Phillips Exeter Academy Library; Kimbell Art Museum) Louis Kahn died from a heart attack in the men’s bathroom of Penn Station, Manhattan aged 73. Montefiore Cemetery, Abington Township, Pennsylvania
On this day in 1990, French actress and fashion model, Capucine jumped to her death from her eighth-floor apartment in Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland, where she had lived for 28 years, at the age of 57. Born Germaine Lefebvre on 6 January 1933 in Toulon, France. Capucine is best known for her comedic roles in North to Alaska (1960) starring John Wayne, Stewart Granger and Fabian; The Pink Panther (1963) starring David Niven and Peter Sellers; What’s New Pussycat? (1965) starring Sellers and Peter O’Toole.
She met Pierre Trabaud on the set of Rendez-vous (1949) and they married the next year. The marriage lasted only eight months, and Capucine never married again.
She had an affair with Charles K. Feldman, who produced her films What’s New Pussycat?, The 7th Dawn and The Honey Pot.
Capucine met actor William Holden in the early 1960s. They starred in the films The Lion (1962) and The 7th Dawn (1964). Holden was married to Brenda Marshall, but the two began a two-year affair. After the affair ended, she and Holden remained friends until Holden’s death in 1981.
North to Alaska is one of my very favorite movies. Capucine is one of my favorite actresses and has to be one of the most beautiful women in the world.
The Final Footprint – Capucine was cremated and the cremains were scattered. Reposer en paix, Capucine.
#RIP #OTD in 1993 actress (The Sin of Madelon Claudet, Airport) whose career spanned 80 years, the “First Lady of American Theatre” Helen Hayes died of congestive heart failure in Nyack, New York, aged 92. Oak Hill Cemetery in Nyack
#RIP #OTD in 1996 singer (“Suspicion”), songwriter (“Amarillo by Morning”) Terry Stafford died from liver disease in Amarillo, Texas aged 54. Llano Cemetery, Amarillo
#RIP #OTD in 2023 actor (The Wire, Fringe, Bosch, John Wick franchise), Lance Reddick died, aged 60, at his home in Studio City, Los Angeles, from a heart attack aged 60. Cremation
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The Final Footprint – Bean and his son Sam are interred at the Whitehead Museum in Del Rio, Texas. Bean’s grave is marked by a flat granite marker inscribed; JUSTICE OF THE PEACE / LAW WEST OF THE PECOS. Lillie Langtry recounted how she visited the area following the death of Bean in her autobiography, The Days I Knew (1925).
On this day in 1970 singer Tammi Terrell died from a brain tumor in Philadelphia at the age of 24. Born Thomasina Winifred Montgomery on April 29, 1945 in Philadelphia. Perhaps best known as a singer for Motown Records during the 1960s, most notably for a series of duets with Marvin Gaye. Terrell’s career began as a teenager, first recording for Scepter/Wand Records, before spending nearly two years as a member of James Brown‘s Revue, recording for Brown’s Try Me label. After a period attending college, Terrell recorded briefly for Checker Records, before signing with Motown in 1965. With Gaye, Terrell scored seven Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and “You’re All I Need to Get By”. Terrell’s career was interrupted when she collapsed into Gaye’s arms as the two performed at a concert at Hampden–Sydney College on October 14, 1967, with Terrell later being diagnosed with a brain tumor.
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On this day in 1975, blues guitarist, singer, songwriter T-Bone Walker died of bronchial pneumonia following a stroke in Los Angeles, at the age of 64. Born Aaron Thibeaux Walker on May 28, 1910 in Linden, Texas. He was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues and electric blues sound. Much of his output was recorded from 1946 to 1948 for Black & White Records, including his most famous song, “Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)” (1947). Other notable songs he recorded during this period were “Bobby Sox Blues” (a number 3 R&B hit in 1947) and “West Side Baby” (number 8 on the R&B singles chart in 1948). He won a Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording in 1971 for Good Feelin’.
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On this day in 2019, guitarist, The King of the Surf Guitar, Dick Dale died 
On this day in 44BC, Roman general, statesman, Consul, and notable author of Latin prose, Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of rebellious senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus, on the steps of the Senate in Rome. He was 55. born into a patrician family, the gens Julia, which claimed descent from Iulus, son of the legendary Trojan prince Aeneas, supposedly the son of the goddess Venus, in July 100 BC, in Rome. Caesar played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. In 60 BC, Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey formed a political alliance that was to dominate Roman politics for several years. Their attempts to amass power through populist tactics were opposed by the conservative ruling class within the Roman Senate, among them Cato the Younger with the frequent support of Cicero. Caesar’s victories in the Gallic Wars, completed by 51 BC, extended Rome’s territory to the English Channel and the Rhine. Caesar became the first Roman general to cross both when he built a bridge across the Rhine and conducted the first invasion of Britain. These achievements granted him unmatched military power and threatened to eclipse the standing of Pompey, who had realigned himself with the Senate after the death of Crassus in 53 BC. With the Gallic Wars concluded, the Senate ordered Caesar to step down from his military command and return to Rome. Caesar refused the order, and instead marked his defiance in 49 BC by crossing the Rubicon with a legion, leaving his province and illegally entering Roman Italy under arms. Civil war resulted, and Caesar’s victory in the war would put him in an unrivaled position of power and influence. After assuming control of government, Caesar began a programme of social and governmental reforms, including the creation of the Julian calendar. He centralised the bureaucracy of the Republic and was eventually proclaimed “dictator in perpetuity”, giving him additional authority. But the underlying political conflicts had not been resolved, which resulted in his assassination.
The Final Footprint – According to Plutarch, after the assassination, Brutus stepped forward as if to say something to his fellow senators; they, however, fled the building. Brutus and his companions then marched to the Capitol while crying out to their beloved city: “People of Rome, we are once again free!” They were met with silence, as the citizens of Rome had locked themselves inside their houses as soon as the rumor of what had taken place had begun to spread. Caesar’s dead body lay where it fell on the Senate floor for nearly three hours before other officials arrived to remove it. His body was cremated, and on the site of his cremation the Temple of Caesar was erected a few years later (at the east side of the main square of the Roman Forum). Only its altar now remains. A lifesize wax statue of Caesar was later erected in the forum displaying the 23 stab wounds. A crowd who had gathered there started a fire, which badly damaged the forum and neighboring buildings. A new series of civil wars broke out, and the constitutional government of the Republic was never fully restored. Caesar’s adopted heir Octavius, later known as Augustus, rose to sole power after defeating his opponents in the civil war. Octavius set about solidifying his power, and the era of the Roman Empire began. Much of Caesar’s life is known from his own accounts of his military campaigns, and from other contemporary sources, mainly the letters and speeches of Cicero and the historical writings of Sallust. The later biographies of Caesar by Suetonius and Plutarch are also major sources. Caesar is considered by many to be one of the greatest military commanders in history.
On this day in 1975, prominent Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis, died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, of respiratory failure at the age of 69. Born Aristotle Socrates Onassis on 15 January 1906 in Karatass, a suburb of Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey). During his lifetime he was one of the wealthiest and most famous men in the world. Onassis married twice; Athina Livanos (1946 – 1960 divorce), daughter of shipping magnate Stavros Livanos and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (1968 – 1975 his death). Onassis reportedly had a notorious affair with Maria Callas shortly after the two met in 1957. Onassis was quoted as saying, “There [was] just a natural curiosity; after all, we were the most famous Greeks alive in the world.” Livanos divorced Onassis over the affair. He ended his relationship with Callas to marry Kennedy.
The Final Footprint – Onassis was entombed in a sarcophagus beside the chapel next to his son Alexander in the Island of Skorpios Cemetery on Skorpios Island in the Ionian Sea off the western coast of Greece, a private island owned by Onassis.
On this day in 1991, lyricist and blues singer, Doc Pomus, died from cancer in Manhattan at the age of 65. Born Jerome Solon Felder on 27 June 1925 in Brooklyn, New York. Best known for the many rock and roll songs he co-wrote, with Mort Shuman including; “A Teenager in Love”; “Save The Last Dance For Me”; “Hushabye”; “This Magic Moment”; “Turn Me Loose”; “Sweets For My Sweet”; “Go Jimmy Go”, “Can’t Get Used to Losing You”; “Little Sister”; “Suspicion”; “Surrender”; “Viva Las Vegas”; “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame”; and with Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber: “Young Blood” and “She’s Not You”.
The Final Footprint – Pomus is interred in Beth David Cemetery, Elmont, New York. His grave is marked with an individual granite marker engraved with; “TURNING CORNERS IS ONLY A STATE OF MIND KEEPING YOUR EYES CLOSED IS WORSE THAN BEING BLIND.” THERE IS ALWAYS ONE MORE TIME – D. P. / SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR ME
On this day in 2018 theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author Stephen Hawking died at his home in Cambridge, England from ALS at the age of 76. Born Stephen William Hawking on 8 January 1942 in Oxford, England. Hawking was born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo’s death. He was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge at the time of his death. He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009.
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On this day in 1906, social reformer and women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony died at the age of 86 of heart failure and pneumonia in her home in Rochester, New York. Born on February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts. She played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to social equality, she collected anti-slavery petitions at the age of 17. In 1856, she became the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.
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On this day in 1943, author, poet, short story writer novelist, Pulitzer Prize winner, Stephen Vincent Benét, died of a heart attack in New York City at the age of 44. Born on 22 July 1898 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Benét is best known for his book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown’s Body (1928), for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929, and for two short stories, “The Devil and Daniel Webster” and “By the Waters of Babylon.” He graduated from Yale.
On this day in 1978, actor John Cazale died in New York City from lung cancer with girlfriend Meryl Streep by his side, at the age of 42. Born John Holland Cazale on 12 August 1935 in Revere, Massachusetts. Perhaps best known for his role as Michael Corleone’s big brother Fredo in Francis Ford Coppola‘s Godfather films. During his six-year film career he appeared in five films, each nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon and The Deer Hunter. He appeared in archival footage in The Godfather III, which was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. He is the only actor to have this multi-film distinction.
The Final Footprint – Cazale was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden, Massachusetts. Al Pacino said: “I’ve hardly ever seen a person so devoted to someone who is falling away like John was. To see her (Streep) in that act of love for this man was overwhelming.”
On this approximate day in 1945, victim of the Holocaust and diarist, Anne Frank, died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Lower Saxony, Nazi Germany at the age of 15. Born Annelies Marie Frank on 12 June 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The Frank family moved from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933, the year the Nazis gained control over Germany. By the beginning of 1940, they were trapped in Amsterdam by the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. As persecutions of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in the hidden rooms of Anne’s father, Otto Frank’s, office building. After two years, the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Anne and her sister, Margot, were eventually transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they both died of typhus in March 1945. Otto, the only survivor of the family, returned to Amsterdam after the war to find that Anne’s diary had been saved, and his efforts led to its publication in 1947. It was translated from its original Dutch and first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl. The diary, which was given to Anne on her 13th birthday, chronicles her life from 12 June 1942 until 1 August 1944.
The Final Footprint – Anne and her sister Margot were buried in a mass grave at Bergen-Belsen, the exact whereabouts are not known. A memorial to the sisters has been erected there. A bronze statue of Anne was erected outside the Westerkerk in Amsterdam. A bronze plaque in Anne’s memory was placed at Beth Olam Cemetery in Los Angeles. The plaque has the term of endearment; A Star shines in the dark. The plaque also has a picture of Anne cast into the bronze and the following inscription from her diary; “This is a photo as I wish I still was. If so, I would still have a chance to come to Hollywood.”
On this day in 1967, soprano opera singer and actress Geraldine Farrar died in Ridgefield, Connecticut of a heart attack at the age of 85. Born in Melrose, Massachusetts on 28 February 1882. Farrar was noted for her beauty, acting ability, and “the intimate timbre of her voice.” She had a large following among young women, who were nicknamed “Gerry-flappers”. Farrar studied voice with the American soprano Emma Thursby and the Italian baritone Francesco Graziani. Farrar created a sensation at the Berlin Hofoper with her debut as Marguerite in Charles Gounod’s Faust in 1901 and remained with the company for three years, during which time she continued her studies with famed German soprano Lilli Lehmann. She appeared in the title rôles of Ambroise Thomas’ Mignon and Jules Massenet’s Manon, as well as Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. Her admirers in Berlin included Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany, with whom she is believed to have had a relationship beginning in 1903. After three years with the Monte Carlo Opera, she made her debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera in Romeo et Juliette on 26 November 1906. Farrar appeared in the first Met performance of Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in 1907 and remained a member of the company until her retirement in 1922, singing 29 roles there in nearly 500 performances. In 1960 Farrar was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in the music and film categories (at 1620 & 1709 Vine Street).
The Final Footprint – Farrar was buried in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. Other notable final footprints at Kensico include; Anne Bancroft, Tommy Dorsey, Lou Gehrig, Danny Kaye, Robert Merrill, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Ayn Rand.
On this day in 1913, abolitionist and political activist Harriet Tubman died in Auburn, New York surrounded by friends and family members of pneumonia, aged 90-91. Born Araminta Ross, c. January 29, 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland. Born a slave, Tubman was beaten and whipped by her various masters as a child. Early in life, she suffered a traumatic head wound when an irate slave owner threw a heavy metal weight intending to hit another slave but hit her instead. The injury caused dizziness, pain, and spells of hypersomnia, which occurred throughout her life. She was a devout Christian and experienced strange visions and vivid dreams, which she ascribed to premonitions from God.
On this day in 1948, novelist and wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald, died in a fire at the Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina at the age of 47. Born Zelda Sayre on 24 July 1900 in Montgomery, Alabama. The Fitzgeralds were icons of the 1920s; she was dubbed by her husband “the first American Flapper”. After the success of his first novel, This Side of Paradise (1920), the Fitzgeralds became celebrities and were seen as embodiments of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties: young, seemingly wealthy, beautiful, and energetic. The couple has been the subject of popular books, movies and scholarly attention. They were married 3 April 1920 in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. They had one daughter Frances Scott “Scottie” Fitzgerald (26 October 1921 – 16 June 1986). Zelda wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, Save Me the Waltz (1932) and worked on another novel, Caesar’s Things, which she never finished.
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On this day in 1988, singer, songwriter Andy Gibb died from myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle caused by a viral infection in John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, at the age of 30. Born Andrew Roy Gibb on 5 March 1958 in Manchester, England. He was the younger brother of the Bee Gees: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb.
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On this day in 1994, poet, novelist, and short story writer Charles Bukowski died of leukemia in San Pedro, Los Angeles, aged 73, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp. Born Heinrich Karl Bukowski in Andernach, Germany on 16 August 1920. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles. His work addresses the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work. Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books. The FBI kept a file on him as a result of his column, Notes of a Dirty Old Man, in the LA underground newspaper Open City.
The Final Footprint – Bukowski is interred in 
On this day in 1997, French journalist, author and editor of the French fashion magazine ELLE, Jean-Dominique Bauby, died in Paris at the age of 44. Born 23 April 1952 in Paris. On 8 December 1995 at the age of 43, Bauby suffered a massive stroke. Waking up twenty days later, he found he was entirely paralyzed; he could only blink his left eyelid, a condition referred to as locked-in syndrome. He learned to communicate by blinking and in this manner dictated his memoir, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le scaphandre et le papillon) (1997). In 2007 the book was adapted into a feature film of the same name, directed by Julian Schnabel. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards in 2008 for directing, cinematography, editing and writing.
The Final Footprint – Bauby is entombed in the Bauby family crypt in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, the largest cemetery in Paris and one of the most visited cemeteries in the world. Other notable Final Footprints at Père Lachaise include; Guillaume Apollinaire, Honoré de Balzac, Georges Bizet, Maria Callas, Chopin, Colette, Auguste Comte, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Max Ernst, Molière, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Marcel Proust, Sully Prudhomme, Gioachino Rossini, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Simone Signoret, Gertrude Stein, Dorothea Tanning, Alice B. Toklas, Oscar Wilde, and Richard Wright.
On this day in 2005, rodeo champion, country music singer and songwriter, bronze sculptor, Grammy Award nominee, Chris LeDoux, died in Casper, Wyoming from cancer at the age of 56. Born Chris Lee LeDoux 2 October 1948 in Biloxi, Mississippi. In 1976, LeDoux won the world bareback riding championship at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City. During his music career LeDoux recorded 36 albums, many self-released. His album, Whatcha Gonna Do with a Cowboy, was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
On this day in 2007, singer and songwriter Brad Delp died by suicide from carbon monoxide poisoning at his home in Atkinson, New Hampshire, at the age of 55. Born Bradley Edward Delp on June 12, 1951 in Peabody, Massachusetts. Perhaps best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Boston (“More Than a Feeling”, “Peace of Mind”, “Foreplay/Long Time”, “Rock and Roll Band”, “Smokin'”, “Don’t Look Back”).
On this day in 1999, baseball Hall of Fame
player, 3-time MVP, 13-time All Star, 9-time World Series champion, “Joltin’ Joe”, “The Yankee Clipper”, Joe DiMaggio, died at his home in Hollywood, Florida at the age of 84 from lung cancer. Born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio on 25 November 1914 in Martinez, California. Perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak (15 May – 16 July 1941), a record that still stands. I believe he is the only player to be named an all-star in every season he played. The Yankees retired his number 5 in 1952.
The Final Footprint – DiMaggio is entombed in a private single crypt mausoleum in Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California. A raised granite cenotaph in front of the mausoleum was engraved with his name and birth and death dates and the term of endearment; GRACE, DIGNITY AND ELEGANCE PERSONIFIED. His final words may or may not have been, “I’ll finally get to see Marilyn.” Another notable final footprint at Holy Cross; Vince Guaraldi.
