List of last occurrences

The following is a list of last occurrences. It can consist of last events, such as the last sending of a Western Union telegram; the last monarch of a monarchy (by either death or abdication); or the death of the last member of a group of people.

Chronological

2009

* February 17 - Last planned analog TV broadcast in the United States.

2008

* August 15 - Gladys Powers, last female veteran of World War I, dies at age 109.
* June 27 - Francesco Domenico Chiarello, last soldier to see action in both World Wars, dies at age 109.
* May 28 - Gyanendra abdicates as King of Nepal, dissolving the last Hindu monarchy.
* May 27 - Franz Künstler, last Central Powers combatant of World War I, dies at age 107.
* May 20 - Zelma Henderson, last plaintiff in "Brown v. Board of Education", dies at age 88.
* May 12 - Irena Sendler, last member of Children's Section of the Żegota Council for Assistance to the Jews, dies at age 98.
* May 1 - Philipp von Boeselager, last member of the July 20 Plot, dies at age 90.
* April 14 - Ollie Johnston, last of Disney's Nine Old Men, dies at age 95.
* April 12 - Barbara McDermott, last American passenger of RMS Lusitania, dies at age 95.
* April 2 - Yakup Satar, last Turkish combatant of World War I, dies at age 110.
* February 6 - Tony Rolt, last survivor of the first F1 World Championship race, dies at age 89.
* January 21 - Marie Smith Jones, last native Eyak language speaker, dies in Alaska at age 89.
* January 12 - Stanisław Wycech, last Polish combatant of World War I, dies at age 105.
* January 11 - José Bello, last member of the "Generation of '27", dies at age 103.
* January 1 - Erich Kästner, last German combatant of World War I, dies at age 107.

2007

* October 17 - Joey Bishop, last surviving member of the Rat Pack, dies at age 89. [ [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aCdrShHcaLqs&refer=us Bloomberg.com: U.S ] ]
* October 2 - Lady Katherine Brandram, the last living great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, dies at age 94. [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2588075.ece Obituary in "The Times" October 4, 2007] ]
* July 23 - Mohammed Zahir Shah, last king of Afghanistan, dies at age 92. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Last king of Afghanistan, dies at age 92 |url= |quote=Afghanistan's last king, a symbol of unity who oversaw four decades of peace before a 1973 palace coup ousted him and war shattered his country, died Monday. He was 92. Mohammad Zahir Shah's demise ended the last vestige of Afghanistan's monarchy and triggered three days of national mourning for a man still feted as the "Father of the Nation" since his return from exile after the 2001 ouster of the Taliban. Though he was not always effective during his 40-year reign, Zahir Shah is remembered warmly by his conflict-weary countrymen for steering the country without bloodshed.|publisher=Associated Press |date= |accessdate=2007-07-21 ]
* May 27 - Wilhelm Remmert, last Eastern Front trench veteran of World War I, dies at age 107.
* April 9 - Prince Wilhelm Karl of Prussia, the last living grandchild of Kaiser Wilhelm II, dies at age 85. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Prince Wilhelm-Karl of Prussia, German kaiser's last grandson, dies at 85 |url= |quote=Prince Wilhelm-Karl of Prussia, a grandson of Germany's last emperor, has died, the organization that he headed said. He was 85. The Johanniter order, which the prince led for several decades, said Wilhelm-Karl was the last surviving grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who abdicated and went into exile after World War I. Wilhelm-Karl died on Monday, the knightly order said in a statement late Wednesday, but it did not give the cause of death. Born in Potsdam, outside Berlin, he became the head of the Johanniter in 1958 and presided over an expansion of its charitable work, supporting hospitals, clinics and kindergartens. The order is now headed by his son, Prince Oskar of Prussia. Wilhelm-Karl's funeral is to be held next Thursday at Berlin's Protestant cathedral. |publisher=Associated Press |date= |accessdate=2007-07-21 ]
* March 29 - Lloyd Brown, last surviving U.S. Navy veteran of World War I, dies at age 105. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Last WWI Navy Vet Dies. |url=http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,130817,00.html?ESRC=dod.nl |quote=Lloyd Brown, the last known U.S. Navy veteran to fight in World War I, has died. He was 105. Brown died Thursday at the Charlotte Hall Veterans Home in Maryland, according to family and the U.S. Naval District in Washington. |publisher=Associated Press |date=April 2, 2007 |accessdate=2007-07-21 ]
* March 27 - Charlotte Winters, last surviving female U.S. veteran of World War I, dies at age 109. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Last Female WWI Vet Dies at 109 |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/28/national/a152723D92.DTL |quote=The last known surviving American female World War I veteran, a refined Civil War buff who met face-to-face with the Secretary of the Navy to fight for women in the military, has died. She was 109. Charlotte Winters died Tuesday at a nursing home near Boonsboro in northwest Maryland, the U.S. Naval District in Washington said in a statement. Her death leaves just five known surviving American World War I veterans. |publisher=Associated Press |date= March 28, 2007 |accessdate=2007-07-21 ]
* March 13 - Ekaterina Romanov de Farace di Villaforesta, last living member of the Russian imperial family born before the February Revolution, dies in Montevideo, Uruguay, at age 91.

2006

* December 26 - President Gerald Ford, last surviving central member of the Warren Commission, dies at age 93.
* September 1 - Nellie Connally, the last surviving passenger of the limousine in which John F. Kennedy was assassinated, dies at age 87. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Last survivor from JFK’s fateful limo ride dies. |url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14642011 |quote=Nellie Connally, the former Texas first lady who was riding in President Kennedy’s limousine when he was assassinated, has died, a family friend said Saturday. The 87-year-old was the last living person who had been part of that fateful Dallas drive. |publisher=Associated Press |date=September 3, 2006 |accessdate=2007-07-21 ]
* May 7 - Lillian Asplund, last American survivor of the Titanic, and last survivor to have memories of the event, dies at age 99. [cite web |url=http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/655/ |title=Miss Lillian Gertrud Asplund |accessdate=2007-02-14 |quote=Lillian Gertrude Asplund was the last living survivor of the Titanic disaster with actual memories of it. She lived in Massachusetts until her death on 6th May 2006. Lillian's hobbies, when she was able, included gardening, flowers (especially roses) and it was said her favorite snack was pepperoni pizza. She declined ever to discuss the disaster, as had her mother. |publisher=Encyclopedia Titanica ]
* January 27 - Last telegram sent by Western Union. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=The Telegram |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/opinion/08wed3.html |quote=The last telegram ever delivered appears to have been sent by Western Union -- whose very name seems to say "telegram" -- on Jan. 27. It's easy to understand why the practice of sending telegrams lapsed. They simply could not compete with telephones, express delivery services, e-mail and text-messaging -- which, in its compression, bears some curious analogy to the telegram. But knowing that the last telegram has now been delivered is somehow a little like knowing that the last martini has been drunk or the last dinner jacket worn. I would like to believe that there will always be a world where telegrams come directly to the door, throwing a note of suspense into the air. |publisher=New York Times |date=February 8, 2006 |accessdate=2007-07-21 ]

2005

* December 23 - Yao Wenyuan, the last surviving member of the Gang of Four, dies at age 74. [ [http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200601/s1543163.htm Last surviving member of China's Gang of Four dies. 06/01/2006. ABC News Online ] ]

2004

* January 26 - Adella Wotherspoon, last survivor of the General Slocum fire, dies at age 100. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= Adella Wotherspoon, Last Survivor of General Slocum Disaster, Is Dead at 100 |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9904E1D6153BF937A35751C0A9629C8B63 |quote= Adella Wotherspoon, the last survivor of the deadliest disaster in New York City history until Sept. 11, 2001 -- the burning and sinking of the steamboat General Slocum in June 1904, died on Jan. 26. She was 100, the youngest Slocum survivor having at last become the oldest. She died at a convalescent home in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, said a close friend, Julia A. Clevett. |publisher=New York Times |date=January 27, 2004 |accessdate=2008-04-06 ]

2002

* March 30 - Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, last Empress of India, dies at age 101.
* May 16 - Alec Campbell, the last ANZAC at Gallipoli, dies at age 103. [Shaw, John. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9406E7D61438F933A15756C0A9649C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/D/Deaths%20(Obituaries) "Alec Campbell, Last Anzac at Gallipoli, Dies at 103,"] "New York Times." May 20, 2002.]

1999

* December 20 - The Flag of Portugal is hoisted for the last time in Macau (China).
* December 20 - Last Portuguese Governor of Macau, Vasco Joaquim Rocha Vieira, steps down.

1997

* January 27 - Cecil Arthur Lewis, last WWI fighter ace, dies at age 98.
* June 30 - Union Jack hoisted for the last time in Hong Kong.
* June 30 - Last British Governor of Hong Kong, Christopher Patten, steps down.

1995

* May 15 - Grace Hannagan Martyn, last survivor of the 1914 sinking of the RMS "Empress of Ireland", dies at age 88.

1991

* December 25 - The last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President, the flag of the Soviet Union is lowered for the last time over the Kremlin

1989

* March 14 - Zita of Bourbon-Parma, last empress of Austria-Hungary, dies at age 96. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= Hapsburg Grandeur Is Dusted Off for Burial of 'Our Sister the Empress Zita' |url= |quote=Old Vienna dusted off its imperial finery today to lay to rest Austria's last Empress, paying a regal tribute to a woman who remained quietly true to her lost crown and to the late Emperor through seven decades of exile. For the first time since the 600-year Austro-Hungarian monarchy was dissolved in 1919, the ornate black imperial catafalque - borrowed from the Museum at Schonbrunn Palace -rolled past the old palaces and baroque temples of central Vienna to the imperial burial vault. There, under the Capuchin Church, Zita, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, was laid to rest among the richly decorated caskets of the Hapsburgs. |publisher=New York Times |date=April 2, 1989 |accessdate=2007-07-21 ]
* February 6 - Chris Gueffroy becomes the last person to die trying to cross the Berlin Wall.

1987

* August 17 - Rudolf Hess, last surviving defendant of the original Nuremberg Trials, last prisoner of Spandau Prison, and Hitler's last living lieutenant, dies in Spandau Prison at age 93. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= Hess Dies at 93; Hitler's Last Lieutenant |url= |quote=Walter Richard Rudolf Hess, the last of Hitler's lieutenants, died last week in Spandau Prison in West Berlin in characteristically murky circumstances. Allied officials said Hess had committed suicide, as did his long-dead fellow Nazis - Hitler, Goring, Goebbels and Himmler, strangling himself with an electric cord. They said he left a note pointing to suicide. But a lawyer for the partially blind 93-year-old prisoner suggested there might have been foul play. |publisher=New York Times |date=August 23, 1987 |accessdate=2007-07-21 ]

1983

* March 18 - Umberto II, the last King of Italy, dies.

1981

* January 3 - Princess Alice, the last surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, dies at age 97. [cite web|url=http://www.btinternet.com/~allan_raymond/QV_grandchildren.htm |title=Queen Victoria's Grandchildren |accessdate=2007-10-31 |format= |quote= ]

1980

*December 3 - Last American steam locomotive in regular service is retired by Northwestern Steel and Wire. [cite web|url=http://www.lib.niu.edu/1981/ip810512.html |title=Last locomotive to operate in the United States |format= |quote= ]

1978

*September 11 - Janet Parker becomes the last person to die of smallpox.
* September 27 - August Sabbe, the last resistance fighter (Forest Brother) in Estonia and in the three Baltic States, is discovered and killed by KGB agents.

1974

* Unknown date - Lt. Hiroo Onoda becomes the last Japanese soldier to surrender after World War II, after hiding in the Philippines for nearly thirty years. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=The War is Over ... Please Come Out |url=http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/soldiersurr.htm |quote=In 1944, Lt. Hiroo Onoda was sent by the Japanese army to the remote Philippine island of Lubang. His mission was to conduct guerrilla warfare during World War II. Unfortunately, he was never officially told the war had ended; so for 29 years, Onoda continued to live in the jungle, ready for when his country would again need his services and information. Eating coconuts and bananas and deftly evading searching parties he believed were enemy scouts, Onoda hid in the jungle until he finally emerged from the dark recesses of the island on March 19, 1972. |publisher=About.com |date= |accessdate=2007-07-21 ]

1971

* January 1 - Last tobacco advertising on American television. [cite web |url=http://www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/LIBRARY/studies/nc/nc2b.htm |title=History of Tobacco Regulation |accessdate=2007-02-14 |format= |quote=The bill that emerged from conference differed only slightly from the Senate measure. The cautionary label to which the conferees agreed provides: "Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking is Dangerous to Your Health." "In a final concession to the broadcasters, the conferees agreed to delay for one day the blackout of cigarette commercials from December 31, 1970, to midnight January 1, 1971. That would give them a last shower of cash from the New Year's Day football bowl games" (Wagner, 1971: 216). It was estimated that the loss to television and radio stations would amount to about $220 million a year, or about 7.5% of their total advertising revenues. ]

1967

* October 17 - Puyi, last Emperor of China, dies in Beijing at age 61. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Pu Yi, Last Emperor of China And a Puppet for Japan, Dies; Enthroned at 2, Turned Out at 6, He Was Later a Captive of Russians and Peking Reds |url= |quote=Henry Pu Yi, last Manchu emperor of China and Japan's puppet emperor of Manchukuo, died yesterday in Peking of complications resulting from cancer, a Japanese newspaper reported today. He was 61 years old. |publisher=Associated Press |date=October 19, 1967, Thursday |accessdate=2007-07-21 ]

1955

* March 22 - Ernst II Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, last surviving German monarch, dies at age 83.

1952

* February 6 - George VI of the United Kingdom, last Emperor of India and last King of Ireland (having lost those titles in 1947 and 1949 respectively), dies.

1950

* June 25 - Ella Florence Underwood, last original member of the Oneida Society, dies at age 100. [Time (magazine) July 3, 1950]

1941

* August 15 - Josef Jakobs becomes the last person to be executed in the Tower of London after his conviction under the Treachery Act 1940. [cite web|http://www.stephen-stratford.co.uk/josef_jakobs.htm |title=Josef Jackobs|accessedate=2007-10-31]

1936

* September 7 - Last Tasmanian Wolf dies in the Hobart, Tasmania zoo. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Hunting Tasmania's extinct 'tiger' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4591137.stm |quote=The last known Tasmanian tiger died in Hobart zoo of exposure in 1936. The species had been quite deliberately hunted to extinction by farmers incensed at the number of sheep being taken by animals that were seen as nothing more than pests. |publisher=BBC |date= 29 May, 2005 |accessdate=2007-07-21 ]
* August 14 - Rainey Bethea, last person to be publicly executed in the United States, is hanged.

1932

* July 2 - Manuel II, the last King of Portugal, dies in exile in England.

1927

*May 26 - Last Ford Model T manufactured.

1922

* November 1 - Mehmed VI, the last Sultan, abdicates and dissolves the Ottoman Empire.
* April 21 - Alessandro Moreschi, the last professional castrato, dies at age 63.

1917

* March 15 - Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia, is forced to abdicate.

1916

* March 25 - Ishi, the "last wild Indian", dies. [cite book |last=Kroeber |first=Theodora |authorlink=Theodora Kroeber |coauthors= |title=Ishi: Last of His Tribe. |year=1964 |publisher=Parnassus Press |location= | pages= |isbn= ]

1914

* September 1 - "Martha", world's last passenger pigeon, dies at Cincinnati Zoo. [cite web |url=http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmnh/passpig.htm |title=The Passenger Pigeon |accessdate=2007-02-14 |quote=The last known individual of the passenger pigeon species was "Martha" (named after Martha Washington). She died at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden, and was donated to the Smithsonian Institution, where her body was once mounted in a display case with this notation ... |publisher=Smithsonian ]

1911

* July 8 - Alfonso Steele, last veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution, dies at age 94.

1899

* February 3 - Geert Adriaans Boomgaard, last veteran of Napoleon's army, dies at age 110.

1870

* April 2 - Patrick Gass, last surviving member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, dies at age 99.

1836

* June 28 - James Madison, the last surviving signer of the United States Constitution, dies.

1832

* November 14 - Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last surviving signer of United States Declaration of Independence, dies.

1829

* March 5 - John Adams (mutineer), the last survivor of the HMS Bounty mutineers dies aged c. 61

1806

* August 6 - Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor abdicates, formally dissolving the Holy Roman Empire.

1788

* November 2 - Cyrus Griffin, last President of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation, serves his final day. George Washington becomes the first President under the U.S. Constitution the following April 30. [cite web |url=http://www.archontology.org/nations/us/us1/griffin.php |title=Griffin, Cyrus - Archontoogy.org |accessdate=2007-10-31 ]

1699

* November 28 - Mary Allerton, the last surviving Pilgrim from the Mayflower voyage of 1620, dies. [ [http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/Passengers/MaryAllerton.php] Mayflowerhistory.com. retrieved August 15, 2007]

1520

* October 18 - Pier Gerlofs Donia, last king of Frisia, dies in his hometown of Kimswerd, Fryslan.

1453

* May 29 - Constantine XI Palaeologus, last emperor of the Byzantine Empire, dies defending Constantinople.

1074

* April 28 - Denmark's last Viking king, Sweyn II of Denmark, dies.

476

* September 4 - Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire is deposed.

Topical

Titanic survivors

* Living: Elizabeth Gladys Dean (born 2 February, 1912)
* United States: Lillian Gertrud Asplund, died May 7, 2006
* Male: Michel Marcel Navratil, died April 18, 2001

War Veterans

* American Revolutionary War
** United States: Daniel F. Bakeman, died April 5, 1869

* War of 1812
** United States: Hiram Cronk, died May 13, 1905

* Mexican-American War
** United States: Owen Thomas Edgar, died September 3, 1929

* American Civil War
** Union: Albert Woolson, died August 2, 1956
** Confederate: Pleasant Crump, died December 31, 1951

* Franco-Prussian War
** France: Thomas Guillaume Troubat, died March 9, 1954 [ [http://derniersveterans.free.fr/1870.html Derniers vétérans Guerre 1870-71 ] ]
** Germany: Karl Glöckner, died October 3, 1953

* Spanish-American War
** United States: Jones Morgan, died August 29, 1993 or Nathan E. Cook, died September 10, 1992

* Second Boer War
** UK: George Frederick Ives, died April 12, 1993

* Finnish Civil War
** Red Guards: Aarne Arvonen, still alive
** White Guards: Lennart Rönnback, died November 4, 2007

* Irish War of Independence
** IRA: Dan Keating, died October 2, 2007

* Polish-Soviet War
** Poland: Josef Kowalski, still alive [http://wiadomosci.wp.pl/wiadomosc.html?wid=8714409&ticaid=161c6] pl icon]

* Turkish War of Independence
** Turkey: Mustafa Sekip Birgol, still alive [http://www.alaturkaonline.com/yazi.asp?1745/ataturkun-son-askeri-ya%FE%FDyor- Atatürk'ün son askeri yaşıyor] tr icon]

* World War I
** Last surviving World War I veteran by country

ee also

* List of first occurrences
* Last surviving United States war veterans

References

Further reading

* [http://www.corsinet.com/trivia/last.html Corsinet] : Unusual, unique, and uncommon facts about a diversity of subjects: The End: Famous Endings, the Last of Things
*Brahms, William B.; Notable Last Facts: A Compendium of Endings, Conclusions, Terminations and Final Events Throughout History ISBN 0-9765325-0-6
*Panati, Charles, "Extraordinary Endings of Practically Everything and Everybody", New York, New York: Harper and Row, 1989
*Slee, Christopher, "The Chameleon Book of Lasts", Huntington, England: Chameleon Publishing Ltd, 1990 ISBN 1-871469-31-7
*Slee, Christopher, "The Guinness Book of Lasts", Enfield, England: Guinness Publishing, 1994