October 1, 2014

2014Lynsey de Paul, English singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress (born 1948)^[†]

Lynsey de Paul was an English singer-songwriter and record producer. After initially writing hits for others, she had her own chart hits in the UK and Europe in the 1970s, starting with UK top 10 single "Sugar Me", and became the first British female artist to achieve a number one with a self-written song. She represented the UK in the 1977 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing in second place and scoring another chart-topping hit in Switzerland, and had a successful career as a songwriter, record producer, actress and television celebrity.

2014Shlomo Lahat, Israeli general and politician (born 1927)^[†]

Shlomo "Chich" Lahat was a major general in the Israel Defense Forces and former Head of the Manpower Directorate. He served as the eighth mayor of Tel Aviv in 1974–1993, for four consecutive terms. After election on the Likud ticket in 1974, he was re-elected in 1978, 1983 and 1989. He coined the slogan about Tel Aviv being "the city that never stops."

2014José Martínez, Cuban-American baseball player and coach (born 1942)^[†]

José Martínez Azcuis was a Cuban-born professional baseball player, coach, executive and scout. As a player, he appeared in 96 Major League Baseball (MLB) games during 1969 and 1970 for the Pittsburgh Pirates, primarily as a second baseman. Martínez threw and batted right-handed and was listed as 6 feet 0 inches (1.83 m) and 178 pounds (81 kg).

2014Robert Serra, Venezuelan criminologist and politician (born 1987)^[†]

Robert Serra was a Venezuelan politician from Maracaibo and a member of the Venezuelan National Assembly for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

2014A series of explosions at a gunpowder plant in Bulgaria completely destroys the factory, killing 15 people.^[†]

The 2014 Gorni Lom explosions were a series of explosions that began on the afternoon of October 1, 2014, at 16:59 pm local time at the former Midzhur Ammo Plant in the village of Gorni Lom, in Bulgaria's northwestern Vidin Province. The series of blasts completely destroyed the factory, killing 13 men and 2 women who were inside and injuring 3 others who were some distance away. As a result of the blast, October 3 was declared a day of national mourning in the country.

2014A double bombing of an elementary school in Homs, Syria kills over 50 people.^[†]

The Homs school bombing occurred on 1 October 2014 in Homs, Syria in an Alawite majority neighborhood during the Syrian civil war. The attacker initially detonated an IED that was in front of the Akrama al-Makhzumi Al-Muhdatha elementary school. Then he blew himself up at another gate of a nearby school, Akrama al-Makhzumi. The double bombing killed 54 people: 47 children, 3 members of security forces and 4 adult civilians. The attack was the deadliest strike to occur in a government controlled area in over a year, with no group immediately taking responsibility.