# Famous people that died on a major new day and never got coverage **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 25, 2012, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398 "2012-07-25T23:56:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/1 "2012-07-25T23:56:51Z")
Any one famous die on 9/11? How about the day JFK got shot? Challenger Disaster day Or other major news days. How about sort of famous people who died the day a really famous person died (John Lennon, Princess Diana, etc.) . And this sort of famous person’s death would have gotten at least some news coverage, but didn’t because this other really famous person stole all the headlines. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/2 "2012-07-26T00:11:00Z")
It doesn’t exactly fit your OP, but I remember Mother Teresa’s death got relatively little attention because it came less than a week after Princess Diana’s. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/3 "2012-07-26T00:20:58Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > It doesn’t exactly fit your OP, but I remember Mother Teresa’s death got relatively little attention because it came less than a week after Princess Diana’s. And few people were talking about Farrah Fawcett on the day she died, because Michael Jackson died the same day, and made for much more exciting news. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/4 "2012-07-26T00:23:48Z")
Pretty sure Aldous Huxley got shorted on coverage–he died the same day as JFK, I think. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/5 "2012-07-26T00:31:45Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > Pretty sure Aldous Huxley got shorted on coverage–he died the same day as JFK, I think. Yes. Same day C.S. Lewis died. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/6 "2012-07-26T03:04:08Z")
Actor Sherman Hemsley [died yesterday](http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/24/showbiz/sherman-hemsley-obit/index.html). So did [actor Chad Everett](http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/24/showbiz/sherman-hemsley-obit/index.html). Hemsley’s death was all over the news. Everett’s death, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/7 "2012-07-26T03:10:26Z")
Didn’t hear much about Karl Malden dying due to ongoing MJ death hoopla. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/8 "2012-07-26T03:13:27Z")
A punk rock singer named Darby Crash (of The Germs) chose December 7, 1980 to commit suicide and then John Lennon was killed the following day. Andy Warhol was shot and _almost_ died but was pushed out of the headlines by the murder of Robert Kennedy the following day. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/9 "2012-07-26T04:22:03Z")
C.S. Lewis and Mother Theresa are the main things that come to mind, both already mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/10 "2012-07-26T04:29:42Z")
Cervantes and Shakespeare died the same day. Sort of. Cervantes died one calendar date earlier. However, one date of one death is in the Gregorian Calendar, and the other on the Julian Calendar, so their actual deaths were ten days apart. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/11 "2012-07-26T04:49:27Z")
Angel Juarbe won $250,000 and a new truck on the Fox TV show **Murder in Small Town X** on September 4th, 2001. One week after his winning show had been broadcast, Juarbe, a NYC firefighter, died in the first tower collapse on 9/11. Whether or not he was “famous” might be up to debate, but he did just win about $300k in prizes on a national TV show the week before. I always thought the sheer impact and scale of 9/11 overwhelmed Juarbe’s death, and a lesser catastrophe might have made him more famous. For example, had he died rescuing an old lady in a fire one week after winning the game (and 9/11 didn’t happen, of course), Fox News would have made him a National Hero complete with screeching eagles and waving flags (Juarbe was, after all, Fox “property”, courtesy of the show). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/12 "2012-07-26T05:42:35Z")
Orville Wright died the same day as Mohandas Gandhi. I don’t know what the media coverage was like but I wouldn’t be surprised if Gandhi’s death overshadowed Wright’s. Gandhi was a major current political figure at the time of his death and was an assassination victim, while Wright was a historical figure by 1948. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/13 "2012-07-26T05:47:48Z")
“Our Gang” star Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer’s death occurred on January 21, 1959 - the same day in which Cecil B. DeMille passed away. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/14 "2012-07-26T10:34:38Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Actor Sherman Hemsley [died yesterday](http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/24/showbiz/sherman-hemsley-obit/index.html). So did [actor Chad Everett](http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/24/showbiz/sherman-hemsley-obit/index.html). Hemsley’s death was all over the news. Everett’s death, not so much. The best part about this post is that both your links go to the same CNN story about Helmsley’s passing. ---
**Author:** ![drillrod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@drillrod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drillrod)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/15 "2012-07-26T11:12:00Z")
Rob Zombie’s film The Devil’s Rejects mentions and plays for a laugh, that the passing of Groucho Marx received next to no publicity, occurring as it did, two or three days after the death of Elvis Presley. I was seven years old at the time, so cannot confirm or deny this, although I do recall the King’s death. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/16 "2012-07-26T11:34:27Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Cervantes and Shakespeare died the same day. Sort of. Cervantes died one calendar date earlier. However, one date of one death is in the Gregorian Calendar, and the other on the Julian Calendar, so their actual deaths were ten days apart. Yeah, and Shakespeare’s death was _all over_ the major dailies, even in Spain, so nobody noticed Cervantes. A lot of people thought he was dead already, anyway, becauase Avellaneda had already published a sequel to _Don Quixote_, so they assumed Cervantes wasn’t around to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/17 "2012-07-26T11:44:09Z")
Sen. “Scoop” Jackson, a pretty major player in 70s politics, died within a day or two of the Tehran embassy/hostage takeover incident. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/18 "2012-07-26T12:19:11Z")
Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev had the misfortune of dying soon after Joseph Stalin. From Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > Prokofiev died at the age of 61 on 5 March 1953, the day Joseph Stalin’s death was announced. He had lived near Red Square, and for three days the throngs gathered to mourn Stalin, making it impossible to carry Prokofiev’s body out for the funeral service at the headquarters of the Soviet Composer’s Union. He is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.[68] > > The leading Soviet musical periodical reported Prokofiev’s death as a brief item on page 116. The first 115 pages were devoted to the death of Stalin. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/19 "2012-07-26T15:02:51Z")
Robert “Birdman” Stroud of Alcatraz infamously boasted his death would make front-page news. His death, roundabouts the JFK assassination, was reported to the back page. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398/20 "2012-07-26T15:17:27Z")
Side note to **JohnT** : I was a major fan girl of MiSTX back in the day, even hanging out prominently on their message board. The whole place was absolutely devastated when Angel died. He’d been such a non-assuming, nice guy who truly deserved to win. It was such a shame that he didn’t get to enjoy his windfall and, like you said, his death didn’t get the coverage it should have. I don’t use the hero label lightly, but in my opinion, he was about as close as it gets. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-that-died-on-a-major-new-day-and-never-got-coverage/629398.md?page=2)