Not forgetting those who, for one reason or another, had fame thrust upon them at the moment of their passing.

A timeline up to December 21:

JANUARY

1: Shirley Chisholm, 80, the first black woman to serve in the US Congress.

3: Indian national security advisor J.N. Dixit, key architect of talks with Pakistan, at 68.

10: Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte of Luxembourg, 77, mother of Grand Duke Henri.

12: Veteran Bollywood actor Amrish Puri, 72, in Bombay.

14: German fashion designer Rudolph Moshammer, 64, strangled by a male prostitute.

15: Victoria de Los Angeles, Spanish opera singer, at 81 in her Barcelona home.

17: Hollywood film star Virginia Mayo, at 84.

17: Former Chinese Communist Party leader and reformer Zhao Ziyang, 85.

22: Consuelo Velazquez, composer of the 1940s hit song "Besame Mucho," in Mexico City at age 88.

28: Jacques Villeret, French comic actor, at 53.

29: Mwaat Yaav Kawel II, ruler of the Lunda people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, at 72 in his native Katanga region.

29: Israeli satirist and playwright Ephraim Kishon, Holocaust survivor, at

FEBRUARY

3: Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, 41, killed by an accidental gas leak.

4: German boxer Max Schmeling, who defeated Joe Louis and defied Adolf Hitler, at 99.

5: Gnassingbe Eyadema, 69, veteran president of the west African state of Togo.

8: American jazz organist Jimmy Smith, at 79 in Phoenix, Arizona.

10: US playwright Arthur Miller, 89, whose works included "Death of a Salesman."

14: Rafiq Hariri, 60, Lebanese tycoon and former prime minister, assassinated in Beirut.

13: Sister Lucia, 97, the last of three Portuguese children who in 1917 said they had seen the Virgin Mary at Fatima, which thereby became a Catholic shrine.

17: Italian orchestral conductor Marcello Viotti, at 50.

20: US author Hunter S. Thompson, an icon of the 1960s counter-culture. Shot himself at 67.

21: Cuban writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante, at his exile home in London, aged 75.

24: Hans-Juergen Wischnewski, German Social Democratic politician, at 82.

25: Peter Benenson, 83, the London-born founder of Amnesty International.

MARCH

4: Chit Maung, Myanmar politician and freedom fighter, at age 90.

6: Gladys Marin, Chilean communist leader, at 63.

6: Physicist Hans Bethe, who helped build the first atom bomb, at 98 in Ithaca, New York.

8: Radical Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov, 53. Killed by Russian special forces.

21: Bobby Short, American pianist and cabaret singer, at 80.

21: US businessman John DeLorean, 80, builder of futuristic sports cars.

22: Japanese architect Kenzo Tange, at 91 in Tokyo.

26: James Callaghan, 92, former British Labour prime minister.

27: Egyptian actor Ahmed Zaki, 58.

29: US celebrity lawyer Johnnie Cochran, 67. Notably defended O.J. Simpson.

31: Terri Schiavo, 41, brain-damaged Florida woman whose 15-year coma placed her at the centre of a bitter political wrangle over euthanasia.

APRIL

2: Pope John Paul II, 84, leader of the Roman Catholic Church, and its first non-Italian leader in over four centuries. A Pole, he was replaced by the German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who took the name Benedict XVI.

5: Saul Bellow, 89, American novelist and Nobel Literature Prize winner.

6: Prince Rainier III of Monaco 81. His marriage to the US film star Grace Kelly brought glamour and an influx of cash to the tiny Mediterranean principality.

9: Eccentric Dutch painter and graphic artist Anton Heyboer, at age 81.

9: Andrea Dworkin, radical American feminist who fought pornography, at 58 in Washington DC.

21: Pakistani field hockey player Feroze Khan, at 100 in Karachi.

23: Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, controversial Australian right-wing politician, aged 94.

23: British actor Sir John Mills, aged 97. His many successes included "Great Expectations" and "Ryan's Daughter".

24: Israeli war hero and former president Ezer Weizman, 81.

MAY

2: Bob Hunter, 63, a Canadian who in 1971 helped found environmental group Greenpeace.

3: Indian general Jagjit Singh Aurora, 89. Architect of the 1971 war with Pakistan that led to the birth of Bangladesh.

10: Zhang Chunqiao, member of the infamous Gang of Four during China's so-called Cultural Revolution, at 88.

17: Keiiti Aki, pioneering Japanese seismologist, aged 75.

19: Israeli detective writer Batya Gur, of cancer aged 57.

20: French philosopher Paul Ricoeur, aged 92.

25: Indian film star turned politician Sunil Dutt, at age 75.

25: Indian-born film director and producer Ismail Merchant, famous for titles such as "A Room With A View" and "Howard's End", in London at age 68.

30: Pakistan cricketer Fazal Mahmood, nicknamed the "Hero of the Oval", at

JUNE

1: George Mikan, US basketball star, in Arizona aged 80.

2: Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir, killed in a Beirut bomb attack aged 45.

6: Anne Bancroft, 73, American actress who played Mrs Robinson in the 1967 film "The Graduate."

11: Bulgarian opera singer Ghena Dimitrova, aged 64.

13: Portuguese Communist Party leader Alvaro Cunhal, at 91.

13: Portuguese poet Eugenio de Andrade, 82.

15: Italian orchestral conductor Carlo Maria Giulini, 91.

20: American author Larry Collins, at his home in France aged 75.

21: Cardinal Jaime Sin of the Philippines, who helped topple the Marcos dictatorship, at 76.

22: US physicist Jack Kilby, inventor of the integrated circuit, at 81.

24: Australian World War I veteran Peter Casserly, at 105.

JULY

5: Jordanian banking mogul Abdul Majeed Shoman, at age 94.

5: US screenwriter Ernest Lehman, 89. Wrote the script for "West Side Story".

6: US detective novel writer Ed MacBain, 78.

7: French novelist Claude Simon, Nobel prizewinner and leader of the "nouveau roman" movement.

17: British Conservative politician Edward Heath, who as prime minister took his country into the then-European Common Market, at 89.

19: US general William Westmoreland, 91. Commanded US forces in Vietnam War.

20: Spanish flamenco singer Antonio Nunez Montoya, in Seville at age 75.

20: Canadian-born actor James Doohan, who played "Scotty" in the cult TV science fiction series "Star Trek", at age 85. "Beam me up, Scotty," was the catchphrase.

20: Charles Chibitty, 83, last surviving native American "code-talker" who used his indigenous language skills to guide US troops during the 1944 Normandy landings of World War II.

22: Nigerian labour leader Michael Omiunus Imoudu, at 99.

27: Dutch comic strip artist Marten Toonder, aged 93. Author of the "Tom Puss and Mr. Bumble" strip.

30: Sudanese politician John Garang, longtime leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, in a helicopter crash at age 60. He had just been named a vice president, following the long-awaited conclusion of a peace deal.

31: Dutch politician Wim Duisenberg, first president of the European Central Bank, at age 70.

AUGUST

1: King Fahd, who ruled Saudi Arabia for 23 years. He was believed to be 84.

6: Former British foreign secretary Robin Cook, who quit Tony Blair's government in protest at the war in Iraq, of a heart attack at age 59.

6: Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer, of "Buena Vista Social Club" fame, at 78 in Havana.

10: US actress Barbara Bel Geddes, who played the Ewing family matriarch in the hit TV series "Dallas", at age 82.

12: Sri Lankan foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, seen as a traitor by his fellow Tamils, shot dead at his Colombo home at age 73.

13: David Lange, former New Zealand prime minister who took on both France and the US over their nuclear policies, at 63.

16: Brother Roger, founder of the Taize ecumenical movement in France. Stabbed to death by a mentally disturbed woman at age 90.

19: Mo Mowlam, popular British Labour politician who helped craft a peace deal for Northern Ireland, of illness at 55.

21: US inventor Robert Moog, 71. Created the musical synthesizer that bore his name.

29: Indonesian Muslim thinker Nurcholis Majid, at 66.

31: British scientist Joseph Rotblat, Nobel Peace Prize winner and campaigner against nuclear weapons, at 96.

SEPTEMBER

3: US Chief Justice William Rehnquist, a leading conservative on the Supreme Court for three decades, at 80.

10: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, US singer and guitarist known for Cajun music, blues and jazz, in Texas after leaving his home in New Orleans to avoid Hurricane Katrina. He was 81.

14: US film director Robert Wise, at 91. Hits included "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music."

20: Holocaust survivor and tireless Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, at his home in Vienna aged 96. Helped bring countless former officials of the Hitler regime to justice after World War II.

27: Belgian abstract sculptor Pol Bury, 83.

OCTOBER

3: British television comedian Ronnie Barker, aged 76.

10: Former Ugandan president Milton Obote, in exile in South Africa at age 81. Led his country to independence from Britain, but a second spell in power in the 1980s saw major human rights abuses.

11: Turkish nationalist writer Attila Ilhan, at 80.

12: Syrian interior minister Ghazi Kanaan, 63, reportedly by suicide.

17: Ba Jin, China's most acclaimed modern writer, at 100 in Shanghai.

18: Russian politician Alexander Yakovlev, a key figure in the perestroika reforms of the 1980s, in Moscow at 81.

20: Jean-Michel Folon, Belgian artist popular for his posters, at 71.

20: US jazz singer and pianist Shirley Horn, at 71.

23: Yon Hyong-Muk, close confidant of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, at age 73.

23: Stella Obasanjo, wife of Nigerian President Olesun Obasanjo, at age 59 after undergoing surgery in Spain.

24: Rosa Parks, 92, US civil rights activist who in 1955 refused to sit in the back of an Alabama bus to make way for a white man.

26: Rong Yiren, former Chinese vice president nicknamed 'the Red Capitalist,' at age 89.

28: Cape Verde singer and musician Fernando Quejas, a renowned practitioner of the bluesy "mornas" genre, in Portugal at 83.

NOVEMBER

3: German fashion editor and lifestyle guru Aenne Burda, who based an empire on dress patternbooks, at age 96.

5: British writer John Fowles, author of "The French Lieutenant's Woman," at 79.

11: British photographer Lord Patrick Lichfield, who snapped the wedding pictures of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, at 66.

11: Austrian-born writer Peter Drucker, author of cult business management books, at 95 in California.

19: Japanese banker Sohei Nakayama, who helped rebuild his country after World War II, at 99.

20: American opera singer James King, at 80 in Florida.

25: Northern Irish footballer George Best, a legendary figure for Manchester United in the 1960s and 70s, at 59 after a long history of alcohol abuse.

28: British drummer Tony Meehan, a founder of the pop instrumental group The Shadows, at age 62.

DECEMBER

5: Edward Masry, crusading US lawyer, at 73 in California. The case that made him famous was recounted in the Oscar-winning film "Erin Brokovich."

5: Liu Binyan, exiled Chinese dissident writer who had sought asylum in the United States, at 80 in New Jersey.

10: US actor Richard Pryor, of a heart attack at 65. He broke barriers with his unflinching racial satire.

10: Eugene McCarthy, former Democratic US senator and presidential candidate who campaigned against the Vietnam War, at 89.

12: Indian filmmaker Ramanand Sagar, who made a hit TV adaptation of the Hindu epic "Ramayana," at 87.

12: Lebanese journalist and member of parliament Gibran Tueni, at 48 in a massive bomb attack.

13: Stanley "Tookie" Williams, 51, former Los Angeles gang leader whose case became a cause celebre for anti-capital punishment campaigners, by lethal injection in San Quentin prison, California.

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