The following is a list of notable deaths in February 2017. For notable deaths of other months in 2017, please see "Months".
Thomas Joseph Simpson
Thomas Joseph Simpson (November 6, 1921 – January 28, 2017) was a Canadian Royal Navy veteran. He was one of only 114 Canadians to receive the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) for World War II service. He was born in Windsor, Ontario.
Simpson died on January 28, 2017 in Windsor at the age of 95.
Masaya Nakamura (Namco)
On 30 January 2017, it was announced that Nakamura died on 22 January at the age of 91.
Erland Kolding Nielsen
Erland Kolding Nielsen (13 January 1947 – 23 January 2017) was a Danish librarian and academic. He was best known as director of The Royal Library. He was also the president of the library organisation LIBER from 2003 to 2006. He was born in Frederiksberg.
Kolding Nielsen died on 23 January 2017 at the age of 70.
Sambre
The Sambre is a river that flows through France and Belgium. It empties into the Meuse at the city of Namur from the left side, and has a length of 193 km.
The Sambre river springs from the French commune of Fontenelle in the Hauts-de-France region at an altitude of 210 m. It continues through the Belgian provinces of Hainaut and Namur, passing the city of Charleroi.
Elizabeth Báthory
Elizabeth Bathory (1560–1614) was a countess who lived in Transylvania, then a part of the Kingdom of Hungary. She was from a very important family that included kings, cardinals, knights, and judges. Her family ruled Transylvania as an independent region within the Hungarian kingdom. She was well-educated, beautiful and wealthy. She was also virtually untouchable as a member of the Bathory family.
She may have been a vicious female serial killer. It is impossible to know what part of her story is fact and what part is fiction. Her gruesome legend has become a part of folklore. She is the central character in a number of books, plays and movies. As the "blood countess", she has often been compared to another fictional character, Count Dracula. Some scholars now that Báthory was not a murderer but instead may have been the victim of a political betrayal.
According to her legend, she was supposed to have tortured and killed over 650 servant girls. It also claimed she bathed in human blood. That, after hearing of all the deaths and tortures going on in her castle, the countess and her servants were put on trial. Her servants were said to have been executed. Báthory herself was walled up in a room in her own castle. There were only slits for air and food. She was found dead three and a half years later. After her death, the story of the evil countess began.
In 2008 a movie was made about her called "Bathory" starring Anna Friel. The movie suggested she did not spend her time bathing in blood. It was a rumor spread by those who were after her wealth.
Charles Michel
Charles Y.J.Gh. Michel (born December 21, 1975 in Namur) is a Belgian lawyer and politician of the Mouvement réformateur. From October 11, 2014 through October 27, 2019, he was the Prime Minister of Belgium.
Former European Commissioner Louis Michel is his father.
Michel Jr. studied at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the University of Amsterdam. He successively worked as a lawyer in Brussels.
He held several political posts like government minister of Development Cooperation and an alderman and mayor of Wavre (last one still incumbent).
On 2 July 2019, the President of the European Council Donald Tusk announced a deal reached by EU Leaders which would make Michel his replacement and took office on 1 December 2019.
Louis d'Orléans, Prince of Condé
Prince Louis of Orléans, "Prince of Condé" ("Louis Philippe Marie Léopold"; 1845 – 24 May 1866 was a French prince given the title of Prince of Condé at birth. He died in Australia in 1866 at age 20.
He was born on 15 November, 1845 at the Château de Saint Cloud outside Paris. He was the eldest son of Henri d'Orleans, Duke of Aumale and his wife Princess Carolina Augusta of the Two Sicilies. Through his father Louis was he was a grandson of Louis Philippe I. As a result of this Louis was a "Prince of Orléans" at birth. He was later given the courtesy title of Prince of Condé. Following the French Revolution of 1848, he and his parents fled to England. He was educated at the "Royal High School" in Edinburgh. He was also the first member of a royal house to visit the Australian continent. This is where he died after catching a cold. He was eventually buried at the Royal Chapel of Dreux in France.
Dana Air Flight 992
Dana Air Flight 992 was a scheduled passenger flight from Abuja to Lagos, Nigeria. The aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas MD-83. On July 3, 2012, both engines stopped working. The aircraft crashed into a neighborhood in Lagos. All 153 people on-board the flight died. Ten people on the ground also died.
Bocas del Toro Province
Bocas del Toro (meaning "Mouths of the Bull") is a province of Panama. The province is in the northwestern part of the country, bordering Costa Rica. The provincial capital is the city of Bocas del Toro on Colón Island.
Christopher Columbus, looking for a way to the Pacific Ocean during its fourth voyage to the Americas, visited this region in 1502 and named the island known now as Colón Island as "Isla del Drago" (the Dragon's Island).
During colonial times, Bocas del Toro was part of the Veraguas province. When the country was part of Colombia, the government made the district of Bocas del Toro in 1834. In 1850, Bocas del Toro became part of Chiriquí but later was made part of the Colón province.
On 16 November 1903, Bocas del Toro was separated from the Colón province and became one province. In 1941, it was divided in two districts, Bocas del Toro and Crimamola. In 1970, the district of Bocas del Toro became the district of Changuinola, the Bastimentos district was eliminated and three new districts were created.
The limits of the districts were changed in 1997 when the Ngäbe-Buglé "comarca" was created.
The Bocas del Toro province borders the Caribbean Sea to the north, Limón Province of Costa Rica to the west, Chiriquí Province to the south, and Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca to the east. The Sixaola river forms part of the border with Costa Rica.
Bocas del Toro province has an area of . The province includes the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea; the main islands of the archipelago are:
The national parks in the province are "Isla Bastimentos National Marine Park" (), which contains most of Bastimentos islands and some smaller nearby islands, and "La Amistad International Park" (), which spans the Costa Rica–Panama border. Bocas del Toro contains most of the Panamanian section of the park, which covers . The Costa Rican section of the park covers .
The people of the province are known as "Bocatoreños" (women:"Bocatoreñas").
The Bocas del Toro province had a population, in 2010, of 125,461, for a population density of inhabitants/km.
Evolution of the population in Bocas del Toro province
The Bocas del Toro province is divided in four districts, which are divided into 30 "corregimientos". The new district of Almirante was created on 8 June 2015 with territory of the Changuinola district.
The main economic activity in the mainland of the province is farming, with plantain as the main commercial crop. In the islands, the main activities are fishing and tourism.
Marta Becket
Marta Becket (August 9, 1924 – January 30, 2017) was an dancer, choreographer and painter. She was born in New York City. She performed for more than 40 years at her own theater, the Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley Junction, California. She retired in 2012.
The 2000 documentary movie about Becket's life, "Amargosa" won a 2003 Emmy Award for cinematographer Curt Apduhan, in addition to the movie's numerous festival awards and nominations.