Farrah,John Ritter,Mother Theresa all died within a few days or same day as their more famous partners in death.
Ricky Henderson became the all-time base stealer(declaring “I am the greatest”)the same day Nolan Ryan threw his 7th no-hitter.Sorry Ricky
I think Mad’s referring to Johnny Cash upstaging John Ritter by dying the day after. I felt like they both had equal notoriety owing to the fact that John Ritter’s death was wholly unexpected.
That was actually referenced in a book I’m reading, but I see I was beaten to it. The advice given by the character in the book, IIRC, is “Never die on the same day as someone more famous”.
Lyndon Johnson died January 22, 1973. His funeral would have been big news except that the Pairs Peace Accord to end the Vietnam War was announced on January 23 and signed on January 27.
The British comedians Benny Hill and Frankie Howerd both died within hours of each other in April 1992, although Hill’s death was not discovered for some time.
When Howerd died, several newspapers ran canned quotes from Benny Hill mourning the passing of his “great, great friend”. Cue embarrassed retractions when the news broke that Hill had, in fact, probably died before Howerd…
ETA: Wikipedia actually lists Hill’s date of death as the day after Howerd’s, but that’s not what I heard at the time. His body was discovered later, so the exact time of death isn’t known.
On January 21, 1968, a US B-52 Stratofortress crashed in Greenland, discharging 4 nuclear bombs. This should have been earth-shattering news, except for several other things that eclipsed it. The Battle of Khe Sanh started the same day. Then, on the 23rd, North Korea seized the USS Pueblo, which more-or-less took over the headlines. On the 25th, an Israeli submarine sank in the Mediterranean Sea, followed by a French sub sinking in the Med on the 27th. Finally, on the 30th, the Tet Offensive started, culminating in the Viet Cong attack on the US embassy in Saigon.