April 9, 2007

2007Egon Bondy, Czech philosopher and poet (born 1930)^[†]

Egon Bondy, born Zbyněk Fišer, was a Czech writer, with prolific and distinctive output in poetry, prose and philosophy, one of the leading personalities of the Prague underground within Communist Czechoslovakia. From the 1950s down to the 1980s, his non-conformism made him a target of the totalitarian regime, but he himself also collaborated with the regime's secret police (StB) by informing on other dissidents in his circle.

2007Dorrit Hoffleit, American astronomer and academic (born 1907)^[†]

Ellen Dorrit Hoffleit was an American senior research astronomer at Yale University. She is best known for her work in variable stars, astrometry, spectroscopy, meteors, and the Bright Star Catalog. She is also known for her mentorship of many young women and generations of astronomers.