- John Adams
John Adams was a Catholic priest and martyr. He was born at Winterbourne St Martin in Dorset at an unknown date (c. 1543?) and became a Protestant minister. He later entered the Catholic Church and travelled to the English College then at Rheims, arriving on December 7 1579. He was ordained a priest at Soissons on December 17 1580. He set out for the mission in England on March 29 1581. He is known to have worked in Hampshire but details of his later, … - Execution Of Saddam Hussein
Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging after being convicted of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal following his trial for the murder of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites in the town of Dujail in 1982 in retaliation for an assassination attempt against him. Saddam was president of Iraq from July 16, 1979 until April 9, 2003, when he was deposed during the 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S.-led forces. - Thomas More
Thomas More Thomas More Thomas More had an education suited to a son of a gentleman, and seemed destined for the legal career mapped out by his father. Although the future held much promise for him, More was unsure of the direction he wanted his life to take. He considered becoming a priest but decided not to enter the Church because of his burning desire to have a family. - Joan Of Arc
Joan of Arc, or Jeanne d'Arc in French, (1412 - May 30, 1431) is a 15th century national heroine of France. She was beatified in 1909 and canonized as a saint in 1920. Joan asserted that she had visions from God which told her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege at Orléans as part of a relief mission. - Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn, Queen Consort of England, 1st Marchioness of Pembroke (ca. 1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was the second wife of King Henry VIII and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, were part of the complex beginning of the considerable political and religious upheaval which was the English Reformation, with Anne herself actively promoting the cause of Church reform. - Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552 or 1554 – 29 October, 1618), was a famed English writer, poet, courtier and explorer. He was responsible for establishing the first English colony in the New World, on June 4, 1584, at Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. When the settlement failed, the ultimate fate of the colonists was never authoritatively ascertained, and it became known as "The Lost Colony". - Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 - 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, was a member of a group of English Roman Catholics who attempted to carry out the Gunpowder Plot on 5 November 1605. - Helen Prejean
Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ (b. April 21, 1939, Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is a Roman Catholic nun, one of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille, who has become a leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. Her crusade began in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1981, through a correspondence she maintained with a convicted murderer, Elmo Patrick Sonnier, who was sentenced to death by electrocution. - Ken Saro-Wiwa
Kenule "Ken" Beeson Saro-Wiwa (October 10, 1941 - November 10, 1995) was a Nigerian author, television producer, and environmentalist. He was the son of Chief Jim Wiwa. Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority whose homelands in the Niger Delta have been targeted for oil extraction since the 1950s. Initially as spokesperson, and then as President, of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), … - Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey, formally Jane of England, a grand-niece of Henry VIII of England, reigned as uncrowned Queen regnant of the Kingdom of England for nine days in July 1553. Though Jane's accession, pursuant to the Will of King Edward VI, may have breached the laws of England, many powers of the land proved willing to accept her as Queen of England, even if only as part of a power-struggle to stop Henry's elder daughter, Princess Mary, a Roman Catholic, … - Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard, also called Katherine Howard was the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England (1540-1542), and sometimes known by his reference to her as "the rose without a thorn". Her birth date and place of birth is unknown, (occasionally cited as 1521, probably in London). She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard, a poor younger son of the 2nd Duke of Norfolk. Catherine married Henry VIII on 28 July 1540, at Oatlands Palace in Surrey, … - Taha Yassin Ramadan
Taha Yasin Ramadan al-Jizrawi was the Vice President of Iraq from March 1991 to the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003. Born in Mosul. He became a bank clerk after completing his education. In 1956 he joined the Ba'ath Party where he worked with Saddam Hussein, becoming a member of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council after the 1963 coup that brought the Ba'ath Party to power. For a time he led the Popular Army, … - John Rogers
John Rogers (c. 1500-4 February 1555) was a minister, Bible translator and commentator, and the first English Protestant martyr under Mary I of England. He was born in the parish of Aston, near Birmingham, and was educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge University, where he graduated B.A. in 1526. In 1532, he was rector of Holy Trinity, Queenhithe, London, and in 1534, he went to Antwerp as chaplain to the English merchants of the Company of the Merchant Adventurers. - Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale (June 6 1755 - September 22 1776) was a captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Widely considered America's first spy, he volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission, but was caught by the British. He is best remembered for his speech before being hanged following the Battle of Long Island, in which he purportedly said, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country". - Awad Hamed Al-Bandar
Awad Hamad al-Bandar (aka: Awad Hamad Bandar Alsa'doon) (January 2, 1945 - January 15, 2007) was an Iraqi chief judge under Saddam Hussein's presidency. He was the head of the Revolutionary Court which issued death sentences against 143 Dujail residents, in the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt on the president on July 8 1982 (a year before the U.S. assumed diplomatic ties with Hussein to help thwart their common enemy: Iran). - John Allen Muhammad
John Allen Muhammad (b. December 31, 1960) is an American serial killer. With his younger partner Lee Boyd Malvo, he carried out the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks, killing 10 people. This was an apparent attempt to extort $10 million. Muhammad and Malvo were arrested in connection with the attacks on October 24, 2002, following tips from alert citizens. His trial for one of the murders (the murder of Dean Harold Meyers in Prince William County, … - John Fisher
Saint John Fisher also John Cardinal Fisher (c. 1469-1535), was an English Catholic bishop, cardinal and martyr. He shares his feast day with Saint Thomas More on June 22 on the Catholic calendar of saints and July 6 on the Anglican calendar of saints. - Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno was an Italian philosopher, priest, cosmologist, and occultist. Bruno is known for his system of mnemonics based upon organized knowledge and as an early proponent of the idea of an infinite and homogeneous universe. Burned at the stake as a heretic by the Roman Inquisition, Bruno is often seen as the first "martyr for science." - Ruben Cantu
Ruben Montoya Cantu (December 5, 1966 - August 24, 1993) was a Texan who was executed for a murder that occurred when he was seventeen years old. During the years following the conviction, the surviving victim, the co-defendant, the District Attorney, and the jury forewoman have all made public statements that cast doubt on Cantu's guilty verdict and death sentence. - Barzan Ibrahim Al-Tikriti
Barzan Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti was one of three uterine half-brothers of Saddam Hussein, and a leader of the "Mukhabarat", the intelligence organisation was believed to have tortured and murdered thousands of opponents of the regime. Despite falling out of favour with Saddam Hussein at one time, he was believed to have been a presidential adviser at the time of his capture. - Ned Kelly
Edward "Ned" Kelly (c. January 1855 - 11 November 1880) is Australia's most famous bushranger, and, to many, a folk hero for his defiance of the colonial authorities. Born near Melbourne to an Irish convict father, as a young man he clashed with the police. After an incident at his home, police parties went in search of him. After killing three policemen, he and his gang were proclaimed outlaws. A final violent confrontation with police at Glenrowan, … - Elizabeth
Elizabeth Wilson (b. ca. 1762-d. 3 Jan 1786) became a figure in the folklore of southeastern Pennsylvania in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries. Elizabeth was hanged for the murder of her children, although many believed her to be innocent of those charges. A pardon was granted by the state and entrusted to her brother, William, but he was unable to deliver it in time to stop the execution. There was tremendous popular interest in her story, … - Louis Riel
Louis Riel was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and leader of the Métis people of the Canadian prairies. He led two resistance movements against the Canadian government that sought to preserve Métis rights and culture as their homelands in the Northwest came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence. The first such resistance was the Red River Rebellion of 1869-1870. - Zheng Xiaoyu
Zheng Xiaoyu was director of the State Food and Drug Administration of the People's Republic of China. He was sentenced to death in the first instance trial at Beijing No.1 Intermediate Court on May 29, 2007. He was executed on July 10, 2007 for corruption and possibly tainted products in Mainland China. - Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer was the Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of the English kings Henry VIII and Edward VI. He is credited with writing and compiling the first two Books of Common Prayer which established the basic structure of Anglican liturgy for over four centuries and influenced the English language through its phrases and quotations. Cranmer was an important figure in the English Reformation which denied papal authority over the English Church. - Rory O'Connor
Rory O'Connor (1883 - 1922) was an Irish republican activist. He is best remembered for his role in the Irish Civil War 1922-1923, his role in which led to his execution. O'Connor was born in Dublin in 1883 and in his youth he worked as a railway engineer in Canada. After his return to Ireland, he became involved in Irish nationalist politics and was interned after the Easter Rising in 1916. - William Joyce
William Joyce, the man generally associated with the nickname Lord Haw-Haw, was a fascist politician and Nazi propaganda broadcaster to the United Kingdom during World War II. He was executed for treason by the British as a result of his wartime activities. - Dick Turpin
Richard (Dick) Turpin is a legendary English rogue and the most famous historical highwayman. In life Richard Turpin was a violent man who progressively went from deer stealing, to burglary, to highway robbery, and even murder, for which he was executed in York. After his death, as “Dick” Turpin, he became the subject of legend, romanticised in English ballads and popular theatre of the 18th and 19th century, and later in film and television of the 20th century, … - William Alexander
William Alexander (18 September, 1880 - 18 October 1917) was a Canadian World War I soldier who served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in France. His execution by firing squad following a charge of desertion sparked controversy in Canada. He was one of 25 Canadian soldiers executed during the course of the Great War. - Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England. As he was an advocate of the Divine Right of Kings, many in England feared that he was attempting to gain absolute power. There was widespread opposition to many of his actions, especially the levying of taxes without Parliament's consent. - John Hamilton
John Hamilton, Scottish prelate and politician, was a natural son of James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran. At a very early age he became a monk and Abbot of Paisley, and after studying in Paris he returned to Scotland, where he soon rose to a position of power and influence under his half-brother, the regent Arran. He was made Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland in 1543 and bishop of Dunkeld two years later; in 1546 he followed David Beaton as archbishop of St Andrews, … - William Taylor
William Taylor was a mediæval theologian and priest, executed as a Lollard. Nothing is known of Taylor's career before he named as Principal of St Edmund Hall, Oxford in a rent roll for 1405-1406. One sermon from 1406 survives, and was republished by the Early English Text Society in 1993. Taylor next appears as a longstanding excommunicate on 12 February 1420 before Archbishop Chichele. On 14 February he was absolved from his excommunication. - Frances Newton
Frances Elaine Newton was an African-American woman who was executed by lethal injection in the state of Texas for the April 7, 1987 murder of her husband, Adrian, 23, her son, Alton, 7, and daughter, Farrah, 21 months. All three victims were shot with a .25 caliber pistol which belonged to a man Newton was alleged to have been seeing. The prosecution suggested that the motive for the killings was to collect the US $100,000 life insurance policy. - Gilles de Rais
Gilles de Rais (also spelled Retz was a French noble, soldier, and one time brother-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He was later accused and ultimately convicted of torturing, raping and murdering dozens, if not hundreds, of young children, mainly boys. Along with Erzsébet Báthory, another sadistic aristocrat acting more than a century later, he is considered by some historians to be a precursor of the modern serial killer. - Jan Hus
Jan Hus (alternative spellings John Hus, Jan Huss, John Huss) (c. 1370 Husinec (Prachatice District), Bohemia - July 6, 1415 Konstanz, Germany) was a Czech religious thinker, philosopher, reformer, and master at Charles University in Prague. His followers became known as Hussites. The Roman Catholic Church considered his teachings heretical, and Hus was excommunicated in 1411, condemned by the Council of Constance, … - Breaker Morant
Harry 'Breaker' Harbord Morant was an Anglo-Australian drover, horseman, poet, and soldier whose renowned skill with horses earned him the nickname "The Breaker." Articulate, intelligent, and well educated, he was also a published poet and became one of the better-known "back-block bards" of the 1890s, with the bulk of his work appearing in "The Bulletin" magazine. - Richard Ramirez
Ricardo "Richard" Muñoz Ramirez aka The Nightstalker (born February 29, 1960 in El Paso, Texas) is a convicted serial killer awaiting execution on California's death row at San Quentin State Prison. Prior to his capture, Ramirez was dubbed the "Night Stalker" by the news media as he terrorized California with a series of car and home abductions, rapes, and murders during the first half of 1985. - John Ball
John Ball (d. 15 July 1381) was an English Lollard priest who took a prominent part in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. - Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy was a Hungarian politician, appointed Prime Minister of Hungary on two occasions. Nagy's second term ended when his non-Soviet-backed government was brought down by Soviet invasion in the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1956, resulting in Nagy's execution on charges of treason two years later. - Fred A. Leuchter
Frederick A. (Fred) Leuchter, Jr. is an American execution technician who rose to controversy for his testimony in defense of Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel. He claims to have improved the electric chair to make it more humane, to have designed a lethal injection machine, and to have acted as a consultant about gallows and gas chambers, although a number of U.S. states he claims to have acted as a consultant for have denied such a relationship ever existed.
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