Dead of the Day January 8: French President Francois Mitterrand (26 October 1916 – 8 January 1996)

French president from 1981 to 1995, Francois Mitterand, died of cancer on January 8, 1996, one year after he was out of office. He is credited with making it possible for very left wing candidates to win a French election – as he was head of France’s socialist party.

January 8 is also the death day of Israeli Prime Minster Menachim Begin in 1992 – he died at 78 of a heart attack. And the florid French poet Paul Verlaine, part of France’s 19th century Romantic movement, died in 1996, at age 52.