Alisa Ivanovna Kurnayeva was born in 1931 in Russia, some 250 km (160 miles) north-east of Moscow. She graduated as librarian at the Moscow State Art and Cultural University in 1954. At some point Alisa married and thus took her husband's family name, becoming Alisa Aksyonova. There is, however, no reliable data to be found about her wedding date.
Alisa Aksyonova became director of the History Museum in Vladimir, Russia, in 1959, and was promoted the next year to director of all museums in Vladimir, a post she held for over 50 years. She also was vice-president of the federation of Russian regional museums from 1980 to 1988, and vice-president to the Russian committee at the International Council of Museums from 1988 until 1996.
Alisa Aksyonova died October 1, 2026.
2. Sass Jordan
Answer: Music
Sarah Jordan was born in Birmingham in 1960, but in 1963 the family moved to Canada. Sarah is thus considered to be a Canadian. Her stage name was Sass Jordan.
She started a career as a rock singer-songwriter in 1988 with "Tell Somebody". Later hits include "I Want to Believe" (1992), the cover "Rescue Me" (1989), and the single "Sun's Gonna Rise" (1994). The latter would become her highest ranked single on the Canadian charts at number 7.
Sass Jordan died October 2, 2026.
3. Heidi Burge
Answer: Sports
Heidi Burge was born in California in 1971. As an infant, she had open-heart surgery to remove a second aorta.
Heidi and her twin sister Heather took up basketball at the University of Virginia. Heidi started her professional basketball career in Europe, playing six years in France, Hungary, Italy, and Greece. When she returned to the USA, she played for the Los Angeles Sparks in 1997 and for the Washington Mystics in 1998. The best result any team with Heidi Burge obtained was in 1993 - a bronze medal for the USA in the World University Games.
Heidi Burge died October 5, 2026.
4. Marlene Fuchs
Answer: Sports
Marlene Klein was born in 1942 in Germany. After her marriage, she was known as Marlene Fuchs.
She was an athlete who specialized in the shot put. In 1963 she won gold at the WAAA, which you could call the British Open Championship for Women, although this name was never used. In 1968 she represented West-Germany at the Olympics, and claimed seventh place.
Marlene Fuchs died October 5, 2026.
5. Eva Marie Saint
Answer: Acting
Eva Marie Saint was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1924. She took up acting in 1944, debuting on television in 1947 in "A Christmas Carol" and on the big screen in 1954 in "On the Waterfront", which earned her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
She also starred in "North by Northwest" (1959) and in "Exodus" (1960). Her career spanned more than 70 years, as she appeared in the movie "Mariette in Ecstasy" (2019) and the podcast "Radio Play Revival" (2022).
Eva Marie Saint died October 6, 2026.
6. Elizabeth Fontan-Binoche
Answer: Music
Elizabeth Fontan-Binoche was born in 1926. She was a French harp player and teacher. She taught harp in Boulogne-Billancourt (Paris), in Lyon and in Nice, and was the principal harpist at the Orchestre philharmonique de Nice.
Fontan-Binoche traveled all around the world to perform. Her concerto in Kyoto in 2006 won the National Award for Music in Japan, and her last performance was in Italy in 2014 - at age 87.
Elizabeth Fontan-Binoche, aunt to the French actress Juliette Binoche, died October 9, 2026.
7. Pierre Joliot-Curie
Answer: Other
Pierre Joliot-Curie was born in Paris in 1932 to a famous science family. His grandfather, Pierre Curie, and grandmother, Marie Curie-Sklodowska, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, and Marie also won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911. Young Pierre's parents, Irene Joliot-Curie and Frederic Joliot, also won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935.
Pierre Jr. studied biology and became a member of the Academie of Science of France, as well as of the Academia Europaea. Pierre Jr. taught cellular bioenergetics at the renowned Collège de France, one of the strongholds of French scientific research.
Pierre Joliot-Curie died October 10, 2026.
8. Napoleon Bonaparte
Answer: Other
This was not the French Emperor who died in 1821, nor a distant relative. This Napoleon Bonaparte was an Indonesian police officer.
Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Baturaja, South Sumatra, in 1965, and joined the police in 1988. He rose through the ranks and finally reached the position of Police Inspector General in 2020. But soon after reaching the top of his career, Bonaparte was incriminated in a corruption scandal. He was convicted for having delisted a "most wanted" person and accepting a bribe for doing so.
Bonaparte died October 18, 2026.
9. Francis Duru
Answer: Acting
Francis Duru may not be a name familiar to the grand public, but I decided to include someone from the African continent.
Duru was born in Cameroon, Nigeria, in 1969. He took up acting in 1989 and appeared on screen more than 120 times. Some of his works include the Nigerian action comedy "Merry Men: The Real Yoruba Demons" (2018) and "Mboputa" (2020), for which he won the Nollywood Award for Best Actor in an Igbo production.
Duru was a frequent supporter of education programs for African youth. After collaboration with several NGOs including Unicef, Duru was named United Nations Ambassador for Peace.
Francis Duru died October 23, 2026.
10. Emerson
Answer: Sports
Emerson da Silva Leal was born in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in 1980. As many Brazilian soccer players do, he chose a single word as his alias - in his case his given name. He played as a defensive midfielder.
Emerson started his career for the Brazilian club Gremio (first division of Brazil), and played sixty-eight matches for them in his professional career between 2000 and 2004. After he discovered that he had a severe heart condition in 2004, he stopped playing for three years - but afterwards renewed his training efforts. He was with nine different Brazilian clubs between 2000 and 2009, but there is very few information about the games he would have played outside Gremio - possibly none at all.
Emerson died October 27, 2026.
11. Elke Sommer
Answer: Acting
Elke Schletz was born in Berlin in 1940. She left school in 1957 prematurely, and went to London as an au pair for the family of Vicki Michelle, who was an actress in "Allo Allo". On holiday in Italy, Elke was approached by the Italian movie director Vittorio de Sica, and started acting in Italy. On that occasion, she adopted the stage name Elke Sommer.
Sommer played in Italian, German, English, French and Spanish movies and easily adapted to speaking the local language. The best known of Sommer's movies are "A Shot In the Dark" (1964), "The Prize" (1963), which earned her a Golden Globe, and "Ten Little Indians" (1974).
Elke Sommer died of heart failure October 28, 2026.
12. Patrick Stewart
Answer: Acting
Patrick Stewart was born in a small town in Yorkshire in 1940. He left school in 1955 and took up acting while supporting himself as a (very convincing) furniture salesman.
Stewart loved playing classical theatre, and acted during many years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he played in three to four major productions each year. And yet he is better known with the grand public for his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the TV series "Star Trek: Next Generation" (1987-1994) and four movie spin-offs, or as Professor Xavier in the movie series "X-Men" in four movies (2000-2012).
Patrick Stewart was honoured as Knight of the British Empire in 2010. He died October 28, 2026.
13. Fatima Banez
Answer: Other
Maria Fatima Banez Garcia was born in Andalusia in 1967. She studied law and economics in Madrid, and completed her education with a Harvard degree in business administration. In 1995 she joined the Partido Popular (People's Party, the main conservative party in Spain) and in 2000 she was elected as Member of Parliament.
The Partido Popular became the largest party in Spain in 2011, and Mariano Rajoy became Prime minister. He named Fatima Banez Minister of Employment and Social Security, the first woman to act in this office. Banez would keep this office until June 2018, when the Partido Popular lost almost half of its parliamentary seats in the elections. Moreover, Banez filled in for Alfonso Alonso as Spanish Minister of Health, Social Services and Equality when Alonso had to defend himself in a trial for corruption during the summer of 2016.
When Catalonia voted for independence in 2017 (a declaration invalidated by the Spanish Supreme Court), Fatima Banez filled in the office of Catalan Minister of Welfare, Work and Family - combining this with her office in the national government. But in June 2018, she lost both her national office and her Catalan office. She retired from politics to enter a career in the private sector, and soon rose to preside the Confederacion Española de Organizaciones Empresariales (the Spanish trade union of employers).
On October 28, 2026, Fatima Banez took the train to go to a meeting. Alas, the train collided and Banez was one of the fatal victims.
14. Eddie Gray
Answer: Music
Eddie Gray was born as Edward Zgorecki in 1948. He joined the band Tommy James & The Shondells as a guitarist in 1967, and also wrote songs for the band.
Gray left the band in 1970, and from then on the band's success dwindled. Tommy James & The Shondells reached the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100 twice with "Hanky Panky" (1966) and with "Crimson and Clover" (1968). Eddie Gray played guitar on "Crimson and Clover", and on two more great hits as per the Billboard Hot 100: "Mony Mony" (1968) which reached to number two and "Crystal Blue Persuasion" (1969) which reached to number three.
Eddie Gray died October 28, 2026.
15. Barry Rushworth
Answer: Sports
Barry Rushworth was born in 1941 in New South Wales, Australia. He played professional rugby league, at the centre position.
His junior career was marked by two games for New South Wales, scoring three tries. Also in his sole selection for Australia he scored a try. As a professional he joined the Parramatta Eels in 1964 and remained there eight seasons. In a total of 104 games for the Eels, Rushworth scored 25 tries.
Barry Rushworth died October 29, 2026.
16. Horst Fascher
Answer: Music
Horst Fascher was born in 1936 in Hamburg. He tried a career in boxing, but was banned for life after a street fight. He then applied for a job as bartender in a nightclub near the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, and gradually evolved from just occasionally watch rock and roll bands performing to managing them.
Fascher became a close friend to the Beatles and hosted them on New Years' Eve in 1962. A tape recording of this concert was released fifteen years later, including a song with Horst Fascher singing along, and another where Horst's brother Fred also joined in the singing.
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ponycargirl before going online.
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