Christopher Columbus "Chris" Kraft Jr. (February 28, 1924 – July 22, 2019) was an American NASA engineer and manager. He was important in the creation of the agency's Mission Control operation.
Kraft Jr. was born in Phoebus, Virginia. He studied at the Virginia Tech and graduated in 1944.
Kraft was hired by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the organization before the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He worked for over ten years in aeronautical research before being asked in 1958 to join the Space Task Group, a small team entrusted with the responsibility of putting America's first man in space. He was given the job to the flight operations division, Kraft became NASA's first flight director.
He was on duty during such historic missions as America's first manned spaceflight, first manned orbital flight, and first spacewalk.
He retired in April 1982.
In 2011, the Mission Control Center building was named after him.
In 1950, Kraft married Betty Anne Turnbull. They had two children. He was an Episcopalian. Kraft died on July 22, 2019 in Houston, Texas, aged 95, two days after the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonwalks.
Peter Jones (politician)
Peter Vernon Jones (28 January 1933 – 16 January 2017) was an Australian politician. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1974 to 1986 from the seat of Narrogin. He was the Deputy Leader of the National Country Party in Western Australia. He was later a member of the Liberal Party.
Jones was born in Launceston, Tasmania. He married Margaret Antonia Maslin in 1960. They had three children.
Jones died on 16 January 2017 in Perth, Western Australia. He was 83.
Ronald Buxton
Ronald Carlile Buxton (20 August 1923 – 10 January 2017) was a British politician and civil engineer. He was a member of the Conservative Party. He served as a Member of Parliament for Leyton from 1965 to 1966.
Buxton was born in Norfolk. He married Phyllida in 1959. They had four children.
Buxton died on 10 January 2017 at the age of 93.
Nigel Spearing
Nigel John Spearing (8 October 1930 – 8 January 2017) was a British politician. He was a member of the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament for South Newham from 1974 to 1997. Before this, he served as a Member of Parliament for Acton from 1970 to 1974. He was born in Hammersmith, London.
Spearing died from Alzheimer's disease on 8 January 2017. He was 86.
Les Lazarowitz
Leslie "Les" Lazarowitz (October 2, 1941 – January 6, 2017) was an American sound engineer. He was active between 1971 and 1999. He was nominated for two Academy Awards in the Best Sound category. He was best known for movies including "Taxi Driver" (1976), "Raging Bull" (1980), "Tootsie" (1982), "Carlito's Way" (1993) and "Groundhog Day" (1993).
Lazarowitz died from cancer on January 6, 2017 in Florida. He was 75.
Claude Lebey
Claude Lebey (born Claude Jolly; 20 November 1923 – 10 January 2017) was a French food critic and writer. He was known for writing the food book "Guide Lebey". He also wrote for the news magazines "Paris Match" and "L'Express". He co-presented a show on TF1 between 1974 and 1981.
Lebey died on 10 January 2017 in Provence at the age of 93.
Steve Wright (bassist)
Steve Wright ( – January 16, 2017) was an American bass guitarist. He played with The Greg Kihn Band. He was from El Cerrito, California.
Wright died from a heart attack on January 16, 2017 in Sacramento, California.
Sergei Aman
Sergei Aman (, born 12 February 1957) is a Russian writer and journalist.
Sergei Aman was born in former Soviet Union in Turkmenia. He graduated the Moscow State University in 1985.
In 1995 Sergei Aman became a journalist of the daily "Moskovskij Komsomolets". Also he worked in "Vechernyaya Moskva", "Stupeni", "The New Medical Gazette", magazine "Auto M".
The most famous book of Sergei Aman is "Journalists" (novel). He published this novel in 2013. Also he wrote the love story "Nights after" in the book “On the Edge of Magellanic Clouds”.
In 2018 Sergei Aman published the novel "Everything Will Be Okay, We're All Going to Die!"
Sergei Aman lives in Moscow. His hobby is sport fishing from a boat.
Brenda C. Barnes
Brenda C. Barnes ( – January 17, 2017) was an American businesswoman. She served as the chief executive officer of Sara Lee from 2005 to 2010. She was also the first female CEO of PepsiCo from 1996 to 1997.
Barnes died from a stroke on January 17, 2017 in Naperville of Chicago, Illinois. She was 63. Her three children outlived her.
Yaron Ben-Dov
Yaron Ben-Dov (11 January 1970 – 6 January 2017) was an Israeli footballer. He played for Ironi Rishon LeZion, Maccabi Netanya and Hapoel Tel Aviv. He was born in Netanya.
Ben-Dov died after an illness on 6 January 2017 at the age of 46.
Srirangam
Srirangam is an island in the Kaveri River. It is a part of the city of Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, India. It is a famous place because it is one of the 108 Divya Desams, or holy places, according to Hinduism.
Srirangam is border by the Kaveri River and its tributary Kollidam River. Srirangam can be considered the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world, as it covers an area of about 631000 m2 with a perimeter of 4km (10,710 ft).
There are many other famous temples near Srirangam. They include Rockfort Temple, Samayapuram Mariamman Temple, and Vayalur Murugan Temple.
Ion Besoiu
Ion Besoiu (11 March 1931 – 18 January 2017) was a Romanian actor. He played the lead role in the television series "Toate pînzele sus". He appeared in movies when Romania was under a Communist one-party state rule. Those movies include "Thirst" (1961), "Michael the Brave" (1970), "The Actor and the Savages" (1975), "Mihail, câine de circ" (1979), "The Last Assault" (1985). His later roles included "Loverboy" (2011) and "Bucharest Non Stop" (2015). He was born in Sibiu.
Besoiu died on 18 January 2017 in Bucharest at the age of 85.
Gustav Frištenský
Gustav Frištenský (18 May 1879 – 6 April 1957) was a Czech strongman and Greco-Roman wrestler. He competed in the first half of the 20th century. During his career, he competed in almost 10,000 fights. His first fight was when he was just 19 years old and the last one was when he was 72. Frištenský was a legend among Czech strongmen.
Gustav Frištenský was born in Kamhajek (now part of the village of Křečhoř). He had 3 brothers and 2 sisters. When he was child, he was small so nobody thought he could become famous sportsman. As teenager he started to lift weights and wrestle. He was learning to be a blacksmith but after suffering serious burns on his hand by a horseshoe, he left his craft. Frištenský went to Brno and he became a butcher in the butchery of Moritz Soffer. He trained in the gymnasium of the Hellas sports club. Soon, he left his job in butchery and started to focus on wrestling. In 1900, Frištenský participated in an international competition in Prague. There he won in weightlifting, wrestling and the discus throw. In 1901 he became the Moravia champion in wrestling and discus throw. In 1902, he became the Austria-Hungary champion. The following year he was the European champion.