June 23, 2013

2013Bobby Bland, American singer-songwriter (born 1930)^[†]

Robert Calvin Bland, known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was an American blues singer. Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was described as "among the great storytellers of blues and soul music... [who] created tempestuous arias of love, betrayal and resignation, set against roiling, dramatic orchestrations, and left the listener drained but awed." The inspiration behind his unique style was a Detroit Preacher, CL Franklin, because Bland studied his sermons. He was sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues" and as the "Sinatra of the Blues". His music was influenced by Nat King Cole.

2013Gary David Goldberg, American screenwriter and producer (born 1944)^[†]

Gary David Goldberg was an American writer and producer for television and film. Goldberg was best known for his work on Family Ties (1982–89), Spin City (1996–2002), and his semi-autobiographical television series Brooklyn Bridge (1991–1993).

2013Frank Kelso, American admiral and politician, United States Secretary of the Navy (born 1933)^[†]

Frank Benton Kelso II was an admiral of the United States Navy, who served as Chief of Naval Operations from 1990 to 1994.

2013Kurt Leichtweiss, German mathematician and academic (born 1927)^[†]

Kurt Leichtweiß was a mathematician specializing in convex and differential geometry.

2013Richard Matheson, American author and screenwriter (born 1926)^[†]

Richard Burton Matheson was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres.

2013Darryl Read, English singer-songwriter, drummer, and actor (born 1951)^[†]

Darryl Michael Roy Read was a British singer, guitarist, drummer, actor, poet and writer. In the late 1960s, Read was a member of Crushed Butler, considered by some to be amongst the forerunners of proto punk and punk rock. He collaborated with musicians such as Bill Legend, Mickey Finn and Ray Manzarek.

2013Nik Wallenda becomes the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope.^[†]

Nikolas Wallenda is an American acrobat, aerialist, daredevil, high wire artist, and author. He is known for his high-wire performances without a safety net. He holds 11 Guinness World Records for various acrobatic feats, and is best known as the first person to walk a tightrope stretched directly over Niagara Falls. Wallenda walked 1,800 feet (550 m) on a steel cable over Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua, his longest walk, on March 4, 2020.

2013Militants storm a high-altitude mountaineering base camp near Nanga Parbat in Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan, killing ten climbers and a local guide.^[†]

Nanga Parbat, known locally as Diamer, is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth and its summit is at 8,126 m (26,660 ft) above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Nanga Parbat is the westernmost major peak of the Himalayas, and thus in the traditional view of the Himalayas as bounded by the Indus and Yarlung Tsangpo/Brahmaputra rivers, it is the western anchor of the entire mountain range.