Special Sub-Topic: Who am I and When Did I Die? Click Here To Play: Who am I and When Did I Die?

I was the first president of the Republic of Ireland.

Douglas Hyde - 12 July 1949. Douglas Hyde served as the Republic's first president from 1938 to 1945. The son of a Church of Ireland rector, he was the founder of The Gaelic League - an organisation dedicated to preserving the culture and language of Ireland. He is buried in the churchyard of his father's parish church in Co. Roscommon.

A legendary femme fatale - I performed an infamous one glove striptease in a 1946 film where I played the eponymous heroine.

Rita Hayworth - 14 May 1987. The very beautiful Ms Hayworth died of Alzheimer's at the age of 68. She began to suffer from the disease at a very early age (mid-50s) and was hugely instrumental in bringing this terrible illness to public attention. The film referred to in the question is "Gilda".

My name was T.S. Geisel but used a pen name when I wrote and illustrated 44 books for children.

Dr Seuss - 24 September 1991. Dr Seuss was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1904. His first book - "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street" - was rejected by 43 publishers. It was finally published in 1937.

A contemporary of Shakespeare's - some people claim I actually wrote his plays - one of my best known maxims is "knowledge is power".

Francis Bacon - 9 April 1626. Sir Francis Bacon was a statesman, philosopher and essayist. He was known for his eccentricities and indeed when in London in March 1626 he decided to test the antiseptic properties of snow. It is said that these experiments led to his catching a "chill" which ultimately led to his death on 9 April 1626.

I was Prime Minister of Great Britain at the onset of World War II.

Neville Chamberlain - 9 November 1940. Chamberlain was Prime Minister between 1937 and 1940 and is most notably linked to the policy of appeasement towards Nazi Germany. He resigned office in 1940 after the Norwegian campaign of World War II proved disastrous and died a few weeks after he left office.

I scored the first hat trick in the FIFA World Cup.

Bert Patenaude (USA) - 4 November 1974. Both Patenaude and Stábile scored hat-tricks in the 1930 World Cup. It was not until 2006 that FIFA finally confirmed that Patenaude's three goals were correctly credited to him and a decades-long debate was finally put to bed.

I was the principal author of the American Declaration of Independence.

Thomas Jefferson - 4 July 1826. Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the USA, was freckle-faced and sandy-haired. He personally authorised the Lewis & Clark expedition, the first American overland expedition.

I have connections to both Melbourne and Scotland and was the lead singer of one of the biggest rock bands of all time. I died at the age of 27.

Jim Morrison - 3rd July 1971. Jim Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida and was of Scottish (and Irish) ancestry. Bon Scott was born in Scotland but moved to Melbourne, Australia as a very young child. While it is known that Scott officially died of "acute alcohol poisoning" (in London, 1980; aged 33), the cause of Morrison's death has never been definitively determined.

I was the first of two Grand Prix drivers to be killed in one dreadful weekend while driving a Formula One car.

Roland Ratzenberger - 30th April 1994. Since that terrible weekend at Imola (San Marino) in 1994, safety features in motor-racing have thankfully prevented any further deaths in Grand Prix racing. The loss of Senna was considered by many in Brazil (and the world beyond) to be a national tragedy and an estimated million people lined the route of his funeral cortege. Senna raced over 160 times at Formula One level. Ratzenberger, by contrast, had only raced in three at the time of his death.

I studied drama at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) in London and performed on stage for many years before endearing myself to the hearts of millions by playing a grumpy old man on the BBC classic comedy, "Only Fools and Horses".

Lennard Pearce - 15th December 1984. John Sullivan (the creator of OF & H) based Grandad (played by Pearce) on his mother's father. When Lennard Pearce first came to read for the part Sullivan knew immediately he had found the man for the part. Even his voice was similar to his own grandfather. And the rest, as they say, is history.