Along with the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) crisis that has killed over 1.8 million people worldwide, destroyed economies and brought to the fore the inadequacies of health systems, the world will remember the year 2020 for the death of many influential figures.
While some figures lost their battles to coronavirus, others died of natural causes. From Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Pranab Mukherjee the list of people this year took away is long. Here are a few of them:
Pranab Mukherjee: Mukherjee, who served as President of India from 2012 to 2017, passed away on August 31. The veteran politician suffered a fall at his house in Delhi and was operated to remove a blood clot in his brain. Mukherjee was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress.
Diego Maradona: Maradona, an Argentinian football legend who helped his country win the FIFA world cup in 1986, passed away at the age of 60 on November 25 after suffering a heart attack.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A women’s rights champion, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death on September 18, 2020. She died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer at the age of 87.
Irrfan Khan: The Indian actor, best known for his roles in The Namesake, Life of Pi, Haider, Paan Singh Tomar, Slumdog Millionaire and Piku, died on April 30 after a long battle with neuroendocrine tumour.
Sean Connery: Scottish actor Sean Connery, best known for his role as James Bond, died at the age of 90. He appeared as James Bond in every film from Dr. No to You Only Live Twice, plus Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again, between 1962 and 1983.
Jon Huber: Wrestling legend Jon Huber, also known as Luke Harper and Brodie Lee, passed away at the age of 41 on December 27. He was facing some lung issues, according to his wife Amanda. During his run in the WWE, Huber won the Tag Team titles twice. He also won the Intercontinental Championship. After joining AEW, he won the AEW TNT Championship.
Mahashay Dharampal Gulati: Also known as MDH uncle and Dadaji, Gulati was India’s masala king and founder and face of MDH. He died at the age of 97 after a cardiac arrest on December 3. He was a remarkable post-Partition refugee success story. He started as a tangewala (horse-cart puller) in Delhi and built MDH, started by his father Chuni Lal Gulati as a small shop in Sialkot in 1919, into a Rs 2,500-crore brand.