Politics

Kim Jong-il (February 16, 1942 - December 17, 2011), was the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea).

Kim's death was reported by North Korean state television on 19 December 2011. The tearful presenter announced that he had died two days earlier of "physical and mental over-work" whilst travelling via train to an area outside Pyongyang.

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Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford (April 8, 1918 – July 8, 2011), better known as Betty Ford, was the wife of former United States President Gerald Ford and served as the First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977. As First Lady, Ford was active in social policy and shattered precedents as a politically active presidential wife.

Following her White House years, she continued to lobby for the ERA and remained active in the feminist movement. She is the founder, and served as the first chairwoman of the board of directors, of the Betty Ford Center for substance abuse and addiction and is a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal (co-presentation with her husband, Gerald R. Ford, October 21, 1998) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (alone, presented 1991, by George H.W. Bush).

On April 8, 2011, Ford turned 93, the same age that her late husband, President Ford reached on his last birthday, July 14, 2006.

Death 0f Betty Ford
Betty Ford died on July 8, 2011 in Rancho Mirage, California.  Cause of death was not released.

After careful monitoring of a compound suspected to be bin Laden's Pakistani residence, U.S. military forces were sent across the border of Afghanistan to launch the attack. Pakistani officials confirmed that bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by the U.S. military.

The body was recovered by the U.S. military and was in its possession. ABC News has reported that the body has been identified by DNA testing. However, Reuters reports that DNA test results will be available in the next few days and that bin Laden's body was identified using facial recognition techniques.

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* She was Grace Kelly's sister-in-law

Princess Antoinette of Monaco, Countess of Polignac, Baroness of Massy (Antoinette Louise Alberte Suzanne Grimaldi; December 28, 1920 – March 18, 2011) was a non-dynastic member of the princely family of Monaco and the elder sister of the late Prince Rainier III and aunt of Albert II, Prince of Monaco. Her parents were Prince Pierre, Duke of Valentinois and Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois.

Her brother, Prince Rainier III, was married to American actress Grace Kelly.

Princess Antoinette Cause of Death

On 18 March 2011 Princess Antoinette died in hospital, aged 90.

 Princess Antoinette with her parents, brother and maternal grandfather.

Robert Carlyle Byrd (born Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr.; November 20, 1917 – June 28, 2010) was a United States Senator from West Virginia. A member of the Democratic Party, Byrd served as a Senator from 1959 to 2010 and was the longest-serving senator and the longest-serving member in the history of the United States Congress.

On June 27, 2010, Byrd became ill and was admitted to Inova Fairfax Hospital in Fairfax County, Virginia, for what was assumed to be heat stroke and dehydration.  However, other medical conditions emerged and Byrd was described as "seriously ill."  Robert Byrd died at approximately 3 a.m. EDT the next day at age 92

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Lech Aleksander Kaczy?ski (June 18, 1949 – April 10, 2010) was the President of the Republic of Poland from 2005 to 2010, a politician of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwo?? (Law and Justice, PiS). Kaczy?ski served as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005, the day before his presidential inauguration. He was the identical twin brother of the former Prime Minister of Poland and current Chairman of the Law and Justice party, Jaros?aw Kaczy?ski.

Death of Lech Kaczy?ski
On 10 April 2010, he and his wife Maria Kaczy?ska died when a Polish Air Force Tupolev Tu-154 crashed while attempting to land at Smolensk-North airport in Russia. There were no survivors on the plane, which was carrying senior Polish government officials on a trip to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre.

Lech Kaczynski was 60 yearsold at the time of his death

All 96 passengers died in a 26 years old plane. most passengers were Polish state delegates. 

News Clip on the Airplane

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Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 26, 2009) was the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. In office since November 1962, Kennedy was in his eighth full (and ninth overall) term in the Senate. At the time of his death, he was the second most senior member of the Senate, after Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and the third-longest-serving senator of all time. For many years the most prominent living member of the Kennedy family, he was the youngest brother of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, both victims of assassinations, and the father of Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy.

Death
On May 17, 2008, Kennedy suffered a seizure, and then another one as he was rushed from the Kennedy Compound to Cape Cod Hospital and then by helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. On May 20, doctors announced that Kennedy had a malignant glioma, a type of cancerous brain tumor.

Kennedy died on August 25, 2009 at his home in Hyannisport, Massachusetts.

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Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver (July 10, 1921- August 11, 2009) was a member of the Kennedy family and helped to found Special Olympics in the 1960s as a national organization. Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, she was the fifth of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Kennedy.

Shriver actively campaigned for her elder brother, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, during his successful 1960 U.S. presidential election.

In 1968, she helped Ann McGlone Burke nationalize the Special Olympics movement and is the only woman to have her portrait appear, during her lifetime, on a U.S. coin – the 1995 commemorative Special Olympics silver dollar.

Her daughter, Maria Shriver, is married to actor and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger who is currently Governor of California (elected 2003).

Death of Eunice Shriver
In the early morning of August 11, 2009, Shriver died at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Massachusetts. The immediate cause of her death has not yet been disclosed, but she was 88 years of age and had suffered from Addison's Disease for many years. The news of her death was first broadcast on MSNBC's morning show Morning Joe, following an e-mail to Time magazine guest Mark Halperin

* Comment closed (for people of politics)

Maria Corazon "Cory" Cojuangco Aquino (January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a President of the Philippines and a world-renowned advocate of democracy, peace, women's empowerment, and religious piety. She served as the 11th president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992. She was the first female president of the Philippines and was Asia's first female president.

Death of Corazon Aquino
Aquino died of cardiopulmonary arrest after complications of colon cancer  at the age of 76 on August 1, 2009, 3:18 a.m., at the Makati Medical Center. Aquino was diagnosed with the disease in March 2008 but kept up public appearances this year. A devout Catholic, she was a regular at weekend mass until shortly before being admitted to hospital in late June.

"Our mother peacefully passed away at 3:18 a.m. (1918 GMT Friday) of cardio-respiratory arrest," her son, Senator Benigno Aquino III, told reporters in Manila.

Corazon Aquino's Achievements on next page

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Awards and Achievements
1986 Time Magazine Woman of the Year
1986 Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award
1986 United Nations Silver Medal
1986 Canadian International Prize for Freedom
1986 Nobel Peace Prize nominee
1986 International Democracy Award from the International Association of Political Consultants
1987 Prize For Freedom Award from Liberal International
1993 Special Peace Award from the Aurora Aragon Quezon Peace Awards Foundation and Concerned Women of the Philippines
1994 One of 100 Women Who Shaped World History (by G.M. Rolka, Bluewood Books, San Francisco, CA)
1995 Path to Peace Award
1996 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding from the U.S. Department of State
1998 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding
1998 Pearl S. Buck Award
1999 One of Time Magazine's 20 Most Influential Asians of the 20th Century
2001 World Citizenship Award
2005 David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Awards
2005 One of the World's Elite Women Who Make a Difference by the International Women's Forum Hall of Fame
2006 One of Time Magazine's 65 Asian Heroes
2008 One of A Different View's 15 Champions of World Democracy
EWC Asia Pacific Community Building Award
Women's International Center International Leadership Living Legacy Award
Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize
United Nations Development Fund for Women Noel Award for Political Leadership

Honorary doctorates
Doctor of International Relations, honoris causa, from:
Boston University
Eastern University
Fordham University
Waseda University in Tokyo
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from:
University of the Philippines
University of Santo Tomas in Manila
Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from:
Ateneo de Manila University
College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York
Xavier University (Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines)
Doctor of Humanities, honoris causa, from:
San Beda College in Manila, 2000
Seattle University, 2002
Stonehill College in Massachusetts
University of Oregon, 1995

Jack French Kemp, (July 13, 1935 – May 2, 2009) was an American politician and professional football player. In the 1996 election, he was Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole's running mate for Vice President. He had previously contended for the presidential nomination in the 1988 Republican primaries. Kemp began his political career with nine terms as a Congressman for Western New York, from 1971 to 1989, and subsequently served as Housing Secretary in the George H. W. Bush administration.

Death of Jack Kemp
Jack Kemp died of Cencer at the age of 73

Before politics, Kemp was a professional quarterback for 13 years in the National Football League (NFL), Canadian Football League (CFL), and American Football League (AFL). He served as captain of both the San Diego Chargers and Buffalo Bills and earned the AFL Most Valuable Player award in 1965 after leading the Bills to a second consecutive championship. He played in the AFL for all 10 years of its existence, appeared in its All-Star game seven times, played in its championship game five times, and set many of the league's career passing records. Kemp also co-founded the AFL Players Association, for which he served five terms as president. During the early part of his football career, he served in the United States Army Reserve.

After his days in political office, Kemp remained active as a political advocate and commentator, and served on corporate and non-profit organization boards. He also authored, co-authored, and edited several books. He promoted American football and advocated for retired professional football players. Kemp was the benefactor of Pepperdine University's Jack F. Kemp Institute of Political Economy. In January 2009, he was diagnosed with cancer.

On February 5, 2009, the Supreme Court released a statement that Justice Bader Ginsburg had been hospitalized at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for surgery for pancreatic cancer, and is expected to remain in the hospital for seven to ten days, according to her surgeon, Dr. Murray Brennan. This has been confirmed by several news outlets, including the Associated Press, Fox News, and NBC News. This is Ginsburg's second bout with cancer. She had surgery for for colorectal cancer in 1999 and underwent chemotherapy for eight months

Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg (born March 15, 1933, Brooklyn, New York) is an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. She was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton with the support of Republican Judiciary Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch in 1993 and generally votes with the liberal wing of the court. She is the second female Justice, Sandra Day O'Conner being the first, and the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

Claiborne Pell (November 22, 1918 – January 1, 2009) was a former United States Senator from Rhode Island, serving six terms from 1961 to 1997, and was best known as the sponsor of the Pell Grant, which provides financial aid funding to U.S. college students. A Democrat, he was that state's longest serving senator.

Death of Claiborne Pell
Claiborne Pell suffered from Parkinson's Disease. Pell died on January 1, 2009. He was 90 years old

Pell attended St. George's School in Newport, Rhode Island, then received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Princeton University in 1940, and a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1946. While in Princeton, he was a member of Colonial Club.

Pell was married to the former Nuala O'Donnell, a descendant of the Hartford family and, as such, one of the heirs to the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company fortune

William Mark Felt, Sr. (August 17, 1913 – December 18, 2008) was a former agent of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, who retired in 1973 as the Bureau's Associate Director. After thirty years of denying his involvement with reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Felt revealed himself on May 31, 2005 to be the Watergate scandal whistleblower called "Deep Throat."

Death OF William Mark Felt
At 12:45pm on December 18, 2008, Felt died of congestive heart failure in his sleep at a hospice care facility in Santa Rosa, California. He was 95 years old. His death was reported in the Washington Post by Bob Woodward.

Robert Anthony "Tony" Snow (June 1, 1955 – July 12, 2008) was a White House Press Secretary, the third under President George W. Bush. Snow also worked for President George H. W. Bush as chief speechwriter and Deputy Assistant of Media Affairs. Snow served as White House Press Secretary from May 2006 until his resignation effective September 2007.

Between his two White House stints, Snow was a broadcaster and newspaper columnist. After years of regular guest-hosting for The Rush Limbaugh Show and providing news commentary for National Public Radio, he launched his own talk radio program, The Tony Snow Show, which went on to become nationally syndicated. He was also a regular personality on Fox News Channel since 1996, hosting Fox News Sunday, Weekend Live, and often substituting as host of The O'Reilly Factor. In April of 2008, shortly before his death, Snow joined CNN as a commentator.

Death of Tony Snow
On the early morning of July 12, 2008, Tony Snow died at Georgetown University Hospital as a result of colon cancer that had spread to his liver
Tony Snow was 53 years old at the time of his death

Tony Snow on Comey and FISA

• Please share your memory - leave your comment
• Tony snow's biography & illness continues on next page

Music
Snow was an avid musician. He played the trombone, flute, piccolo, accordion, saxophone, and guitar, and belonged to a cover band, Beats Workin', which featured fellow Washington-area professionals. Beats Workin' played publicly with a number of rock bands, including Snow's friends Skunk Baxter (The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan) and Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. He was featured on an episode of VH1 Classic's Rock 'n Roll Fantasy Camp.

Career

Early career
Snow began his newspaper career in 1979 in newspapers as an editorial writer for The Greensboro Record in North Carolina, next working as an editorial writer at The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia (1981–82), editorial page editor of The Daily Press in Newport News (1982–84), deputy editorial page editor of The Detroit News (1984–87) and editorial page editor of The Washington Times (1987–91). Also, The Detroit News published his commentary from 1993 to 2000, and he was a Counterpoint Columnist for USA Today from 1994 to 2000.

Snow also wrote a syndicated column for Creators Syndicate between 1993 and 2000. As a nationally syndicated columnist, his commentaries appeared in more than 200 newspapers nationwide. Snow won numerous awards during his print career, including citations from the Virginia Press Association, the Detroit Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, The Associated Press and Gannett.

He appeared on radio and television programs worldwide including The McLaughlin Group, The MacNeil–Lehrer NewsHour, Face the Nation, Crossfire, and Good Morning America. Until 1994, Snow was the writer, correspondent and host of a PBS news special, The New Militant Center.

In 1991, Snow took a sabbatical from journalism to work in the White House for President George H. W. Bush, first as chief speechwriter (Deputy Assistant to the President for Communications and Director of Speechwriting) and later as Deputy Assistant to the President for Media Affairs (1992–1993).

From 1996 to 2003, he served as the first host of FOX News Sunday, a Sunday morning interview and roundtable program produced by Fox News, airing on affiliates of the Fox Broadcasting Company and later in the day on Fox News Channel.

Snow served as the primary guest host of Rush Limbaugh's program from the mid-1990s on. He was also a frequent commentator on National Public Radio. Snow's own Tony Snow Show on Fox News Radio premiered in late 2003. It ended when he became White House Press Secretary in April 2006.

Return to the White House
In April 2006, Snow was named White House Press Secretary to replace Scott McClellan in the George W. Bush administration. His appointment to the position was formally announced on April 26, 2006. The position of White House Press Secretary has historically been filled by individuals from news media backgrounds.

His selection as press secretary was initially criticized because of some of his past comments about Bush. Bush acknowledged Snow's prior criticisms during the announcement of his appointment, stating that Snow was "not afraid to express his own opinions". Snow considered having input into the administration's policy debates a requirement for him to take the position.

Snow began his new press secretary duties on May 8, 2006.

On July 3, 2007, Snow had a combative press conference with White House reporters about the President's decision to commute a prison term for top Vice-Presidential aide Irving Lewis "Scooter" Libby, sentenced to 30 months in prison for obstruction of justice; Bush had once vowed to fire any White House staffer convicted in the case. When Snow denied Libby's commutation was motivated by party politics, one reporter accused Snow of "insulting their intelligence."

In his final press briefing on September 13, 2007, Snow commented that he would miss the duties of the position. "I love these briefings," he said.

Illness
Snow, having suffered for years from ulcerative colitis, was at an increased risk for colon cancer. On February 2005, this risk proved real, as he developed cancer in his colon. After having his colon removed, he returned to work in April 2005. On March 23, 2007, Snow announced that he would be undergoing surgery the following Monday to remove and investigate an abdominal growth. On March 27, the White House announced that the growth was cancerous and had metastasized. In Snow's absence, the press briefings began to be covered by Deputy Dana Perino. On April 21, Snow made an appearance at the annual White House Correspondent's Association Dinner, where he introduced a joking tape by David Letterman. Snow returned to work on April 30, 2007. On May 12, Snow delivered the Commencement Address for the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C., where he was presented with a degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa. On September 19, it was reported in the AP that a cancerous growth was found inside his brain. Though Snow has been reluctant to describe himself as terminally ill, on September 27, he admitted to Jay Leno on The Tonight Show that he will have cancer for the rest of his life, "unless and until they find a cure." He then announced on October 4 on the Late Show With David Letterman that his cancer was in remission.

On April 23, 2008, the Associated Press reported that Snow was admitted to a Spokane hospital with an undisclosed illness. On April 22, he canceled appearances scheduled at Eastern Washington University. He was also expected to appear that day on CNN to analyze the Pennsylvania primary which occurred that day.

On May 28, 2008, he was forced to cancel speaking appearance at Ohio's Ashland University because of an unspecified illness and was told by his doctors he couldn't travel.

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Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson (December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969, having been the wife of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources. The former First Lady was an entrepreneur, creating the $150 million LBJ Holdings Company, and was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honors.

Cause of death:
natural causes, Lady Bird Johnson was 94 years of at time of her death

Lady Bird Johnson Tribute