I dunno, Jockey Shabalala and I were pretty tight back in the day.

I didn't realize William Conrad did the Cannon ball dive in '94.  Also, Frank Herbert got eaten by a giant sand worm in '86.  I read WAY too many of his Dune books...

A moment of cruel silence please for Charles Schulz and Tom Landry who apparently died in a belgian (that's right, I'm bringing it back) murder-suicide pact 8 years ago today.

People who died on February 12 (by year):
2007 - Randy Stone, American actor and casting director
2007 - Peggy Gilbert, American jazz saxophonist and bandleader
2005 - Sammi Smith, American country music singer
2005 - Rafael Vidal, Venezuelan athlete
2003 - Vali Myers, Australian painter
2001 - Kristina Söderbaum, German actress
2000 - Oliver, American pop singer
2000 - Charles Schulz, American comics author
2000 - Tom Landry, American football coach
2000 - Screamin' Jay Hawkins, American musician
1996 - Bob Shaw, Northern Irish novelist
1995 - Philip Taylor Kramer, American musician (Iron Butterfly)
1995 - Robert Bolt, English writer
1994 - Sue Rodriguez, Canadian assisted suicide advocate
1993 - James Bulger, English murder victim
1992 - Bep van Klaveren, Dutch boxer
1991 - Roger Patterson, American death metal bass player
1989 - Thomas Bernhard, Austrian playwright and novelist
1985 - Nicholas Colasanto, American actor
1984 - Julio Cortázar, Argentine writer
1983 - Eubie Blake, American musician and songwriter
1982 - Victor Jory, Canadian actor
1980 - Muriel Rukeyser, American poet
1979 - Jean Renoir, French director
1976 - Sal Mineo, American actor
1971 - James C. Penney, American department store founder
1958 - Douglas Hartree, English mathematical physicist (b.1897)
1957 - Eric Alfred Knudsen, American folklorist
1954 - Dziga Vertov, Russian filmmaker
1951 - Choudhary Rehmat Ali, Pakistani nationalist
1949 - Hassan al Banna, Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood
1935 - Auguste Escoffier, French chef
1933 - Henri Duparc, French composer
1931 - Samedbey Mehmandarov, Russian general
1929 - Lillie Langtry, British singer and actress
1916 - Richard Dedekind, German mathematician
1915 - Émile Waldteufel, French composer
1903 - Gaspar Núñez de Arce, Spanish dramatist and statesman
1896 - Ambroise Thomas, French opera composer
1894 - Hans von Bülow, German pianist and composer
1804 - Immanuel Kant, German philosopher
1799 - Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italian biologist
1789 - Ethan Allen, American patriot
1771 - King Adolf Frederick of Sweden
1763 - Pierre de Marivaux, French writer
1762 - Laurent Belissen, French composer
1728 - Agostino Steffani, Italian diplomat and composer
1724 - Elkanah Settle, English writer
1700 - Aleksei Shein, Russian general and statesman
1630 - Fynes Moryson, English traveler and writer
1624 - George Heriot, Scottish goldsmith and philanthropist
1612 - Christopher Clavius, German astronomer
1595 - Archduke Ernest of Austria, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands
1590 - François Hotman, French lawyer and writer
1571 - Nicholas Throckmorton, English diplomat and politician
1554 - Lady Jane Grey, claimant to the English throne
1554 - Lord Guilford Dudley, consort of Lady Jane Grey
1538 - Albrecht Altdorfer, German painter

It has to take a lot of contempt for the greeting card industry to just up and die on Valentines day.  The only name I recognize on today's list is James Bond ("American ornithologist" - who'd buy that cover?).

People who died on February 14 (by year):
2007 - Gareth Morris, British flautist
2006 - Darry Cowl, French musician and actor
2006 - Lynden David Hall, British singer
2006 - Shoshana Damari, Israeli singer and actress
2005 - Rafik Hariri, Lebanese politician and billionaire businessman
2005 - Najai Turpin, American boxer
2004 - Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist
2003 - Johnny Longden, English jockey
2003 - Dolly, first cloned mammal
2002 - Nándor Hidegkuti, Hungarian footballer
1999 - Buddy Knox, American singer and songwriter
1999 - John Ehrlichman, American presidential advisor
1995 - Michael V. Gazzo, American actor
1995 - U Nu, Burmese politician
1994 - Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (executed)
1989 - James Bond, American ornithologist
1988 - Frederick Loewe, Austrian-American composer
1987 - Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky, Russian composer
1983 - Lina Radke, German athlete
1980 - Luitkonwar Rudra Baruah, Assamese composer and actor
1979 - Adolph Dubs, American diplomat
1975 - P. G. Wodehouse, English writer
1975 - Julian Huxley, British biologist
1974 - Stewie Dempster, New Zealand cricketer
1970 - Herbert Strudwick, English cricketer (b. 1880).
1969 - Vito Genovese, American gangster
1967 - Sig Ruman, German-American actor
1959 - Baby Dodds, American jazz drummer
1958 - Abdul Rab Nishtar, veteran leader of Pakistan Movement,
1952 - Maurice De Waele, Belgian cyclist
1949 - Yusuf Salman Yusuf, Iraqi-Assyrian communist leader
1943 - David Hilbert, German mathematician
1943 - Dora Gerson, German actress, cabaret singer, and Holocaust victim
1942 - Adnan Bin Saidi, Officer of the Malay Regiment killed in the defense of Singapore
1929 - Tom Burke, American runner
1922 - Heikki Ritavuori, Finnish politician (assassinated)
1894 - Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian mathematician
1891 - William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War General
1885 - Jules Vallès, French writer
1881 - Fernando Wood, New York City mayor
1870 - St. John Richardson Liddell, American Civil War Confederate General
1831 - Henry Maudslay, English inventor
1831 - Vicente Guerrero, Mexican revolutionary hero
1808 - John Dickinson, American lawyer and Governor of Delaware and Pennsylvania
1780 - William Blackstone, English jurist
1779 - James Cook, British naval captain and explorer
1744 - John Hadley, inventor
1737 - Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain
1714 - Maria Luisa of Savoy, Queen Consort of Spain
1676 - Abraham Bosse, French engraver and artist
1571 - Odet de Coligny, French cardinal and Protestant
1405 - Timur, Mongol conqueror
1400 - King Richard II of England (murdered)
1317 - Marguerite of France, queen of Edward I of England
869 - Saint Cyril, Greek monk, scholar, theologian and linguist (b. 827)

I'm a transplant to Dallas so I remember Robert L. Thornton only because that's what they refer to part of the interstate near where I live.  I remember McLean Stevenson because I watched MASH back when it was good.  And of course Friedrich Ludwig was my favorite Prussian general.

People who died on February 15 (by year):
2007 - Walker Edmiston, actor
2005 - Pierre Bachelet, French singer and songwriter
2005 - Samuel Francis, American journalist
2004 - Jan Miner, American actress
2004 - Jens Evensen, Norwegian minister and International Court of Justice judge
2002 - Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor
2002 - Howard K. Smith, American journalist
1999 - Henry Way Kendall, American physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate
1999 - Big L (Lamont Coleman), American rapper
1998 - Louie Spicolli, American professional wrestler
1996 - Lucio Agostini, Canadian composer and conductor
1996 - McLean Stevenson, American actor
1996 - Tommy Rettig, American actor
1992 - William Schuman, American composer
1992 - María Elena Moyano, Peruvian activist
1988 - Richard Feynman, American physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate
1984 - Ethel Merman, American singer and actress
1981 - Karl Richter, German conductor
1981 - Mike Bloomfield, American musician
1974 - Kurt Atterberg, Swedish composer
1973 - Tim Holt, American actor
1973 - Wally Cox, American actor
1971 - Dimitrios Loundras, Greek gymnast
1966 - Gerard Ciołek, Polish architect and historian of gardens
1965 - Nat King Cole, American singer and musician
1964 - Robert L. Thornton, American businessman, philanthropist, and Mayor of Dallas, Texas
1959 - Owen Willans Richardson, British physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate
1939 - Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Russian painter
1932 - Minnie Maddern Fiske, American actress
1928 - H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1911 - Theodor Escherich, German pediatrician
1869 - Mirza Ghalib, Indian poet
1857 - Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer
1849 - Pierre François Verhulst, Belgian mathematician
1848 - Hermann von Boyen, Prussian field marshal
1847 - Germinal Pierre Dandelin, Belgian mathematician
1844 - Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1843 - Theodoros Kolokotronis, Greek general in the Greek War of Independence
1839 - Chevalier de Lorimier, Quebec notary and Patriote
1835 - Henry Hunt, British politician
1818 - Friedrich Ludwig, Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, Prussian general
1781 - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German author and philosopher
1775 - Peter Dens, Belgian Catholic theologian
1738 - Matthias Braun, Czech sculptor
1637 - Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor
1621 - Michael Praetorius, German composer
1145 - Pope Lucius II