text:
December 16

Pre-1600

 * 714 – Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the Merovingian palace, dies at Jupille (modern Belgium). He is succeeded by his infant grandson Theudoald, while his widow Plectrude holds actual power in the Frankish Kingdom.
 * 755 – An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Yanjing, initiating the An Lushan Rebellion during the Tang dynasty of China.
 * 1431 – Hundred Years' War: Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.
 * 1497 – Vasco da Gama passes the Great Fish River at the southern tip of Africa, where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.
 * 1575 – An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.5 strikes Valdivia, Chile.
 * 1598 – Seven-Year War: Battle of Noryang: The final battle of the Seven-Year War is fought between the China and the Korean allied forces and Japanese navies, resulting in a decisive allied forces victory.

1601–1900

 * 1653 – English Interregnum: The Protectorate: Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
 * 1689 – Convention Parliament: The Declaration of Right is embodied in the Bill of Rights.
 * 1707 – Most Recent Eruption of Mount Fuji.
 * 1761 – Seven Years' War: After a four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress of Kołobrzeg.
 * 1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party: Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians dump hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
 * 1777 – Virginia becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
 * 1782 – British East India Company: Muharram Rebellion: Hada and Mada Miah lead the first anti-British uprising in the subcontinent against Robert Lindsay and his contingents in Sylhet Shahi Eidgah.
 * 1811 – The first two in a series of four severe earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri.
 * 1826 – Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican-controlled Nacogdoches, Texas, and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
 * 1838 – Great Trek: Battle of Blood River: Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius and Sarel Cilliers defeat Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
 * 1850 – The Charlotte Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand.
 * 1863 – American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.
 * 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Nashville: The Union's Army of the Cumberland routs and destroys the Confederacy's Army of Tennessee, ending its effectiveness as a combat unit.
 * 1880 – Outbreak of the First Boer War between the Boer South African Republic and the British Empire.
 * 1882 – Wales and England contest the first Home Nations (now Six Nations) rugby union match.
 * 1883 – Tonkin Campaign: French forces capture the Sơn Tây citadel.

1901–present

 * 1905 – In Rugby Union, The "Match of the Century" is played between Wales and New Zealand at Cardiff Arms Park.
 * 1912 – First Balkan War: The Royal Hellenic Navy defeats the Ottoman Navy at the Battle of Elli.
 * 1914 – World War I: Admiral Franz von Hipper commands a raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby.
 * 1920 – The Haiyuan earthquake of 8.5, rocks the Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000.
 * 1942 – The Holocaust: Schutzstaffel chief Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.
 * 1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.
 * 1951 – A Miami Airlines Curtiss C-46 Commando crashes in Elizabeth, New Jersey, killing all 58 aboard including dancer Doris Ruby.
 * 1960 – A United Airlines Douglas DC-8 and a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation collide over Staten Island, New York and crash, killing all 128 people aboard both aircraft and six more on the ground.
 * 1968 – Second Vatican Council: Official revocation of the Edict of Expulsion of Jews from Spain.
 * 1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The Surrender of the Pakistan Army brings an end to both conflicts. This is commemorated annually as Victory Day in Bangladesh and India respectively.
 * 1971 – The United Kingdom recognizes Bahrain's independence, which is commemorated annually as Bahrain's National Day.
 * 1973 – Aeroflot Flight 2022 crashes in the Soviet Union's (now Russia) Volokolamsky District, killing all 51 aboard, including 4 Lithuanian doctors.
 * 1986 – Jeltoqsan: Riots erupt in Alma-Ata, Kazakh SSR, in response to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's dismissal of ethnic Kazakh Dinmukhamed Kunaev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, and his replacement with Gennady Kolbin, an ethnic Russian from the Russian SFSR.
 * 1989 – Romanian Revolution: Protests break out in Timișoara, Romania, in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László Tőkés.
 * 2011 – Zhanaozen massacre: Violent protests by oil workers take place in Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan, leading to 16 people dead and 100 injured by the security forces.
 * 2013 – A bus falls from an elevated highway in the Philippines capital Manila killing at least 18 people with 20 injured.
 * 2014 – Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants attack an Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 150 people, 132 of them schoolchildren.
 * 2022 – A landslide occurs at a camp at an organic farm near the town of Batang Kali in Selangor, Malaysia, trapping 92 people and killing 31.

Pre-1600

 * 1364 – Emperor Manuel III of Trebizond (d. 1417)
 * 1485 – Catherine of Aragon, Spanish princess, later queen consort of England (d. 1536)
 * 1534 – Hans Bol, Flemish artist (d. 1593)
 * 1582 – Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey (d. 1642)
 * 1584 – John Selden, English jurist and scholar (d. 1654)
 * 1585 – Livia della Rovere, Italian noble (d. 1641)

1601–1900

 * 1605 – Jerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland, English diplomat (d. 1663)
 * 1614 – Eberhard III, Duke of Württemberg (d. 1674)
 * 1630 – Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort, British botanist (d. 1715)
 * 1714 – George Whitefield, English Anglican priest (d. 1770)
 * 1716 – Louis Jules Mancini Mazarini, French poet and diplomat (d. 1798)
 * 1717 – Elizabeth Carter, English poet and scholar (d. 1806)
 * 1730 – Diego Silang, Filipino revolutionary leader (d. 1763)
 * 1742 – Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, German field marshal (d. 1819)
 * 1770 – Ludwig van Beethoven, composer (d. 1827)
 * 1775 – Jane Austen, English novelist (d. 1817)
 * 1775  – François-Adrien Boieldieu, French pianist and composer (d. 1834)
 * 1776 – Johann Wilhelm Ritter, German chemist, physicist, and philosopher (d. 1810)
 * 1778 – John Ordronaux, French-American soldier (d. 1841)
 * 1787 – Mary Russell Mitford, English author and playwright (d. 1855)
 * 1790 – Leopold I of Belgium (d. 1865)
 * 1804 – Viktor Bunyakovsky, Russian mathematician and academic (d. 1889)
 * 1812 – Stuart Donaldson, English-Australian politician, 1st Premier of New South Wales (d. 1867)
 * 1834 – Léon Walras, French-Swiss economist and theorist (d. 1910)
 * 1836 – Ernst von Bergmann, Latvian-German surgeon and academic (d. 1907)
 * 1849 – Mary Hartwell Catherwood, American author and poet (d. 1902)
 * 1861 – Antonio de La Gándara, French painter and illustrator (d. 1917)
 * 1863 – George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, novelist, and poet (d. 1952)
 * 1865 – Olavo Bilac, Brazilian journalist and poet (d. 1918)
 * 1866 – Wassily Kandinsky, Russian-French painter and theorist (d. 1944)
 * 1867 – Amy Carmichael, Irish missionary and humanitarian (d. 1951)
 * 1869 – Hristo Tatarchev, Bulgarian physician and activist, co-founded the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (d. 1952)
 * 1869  – Bertha Lamme Feicht, American electrical engineer (d. 1943)
 * 1872 – Anton Denikin, Russian general (d. 1947)
 * 1882 – Jack Hobbs, English cricketer and journalist (d. 1963)
 * 1882  – Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composer, conductor, and musicologist (d. 1967)
 * 1882  – Walther Meissner, German physicist and engineer (d. 1974)
 * 1883 – Károly Kós, Hungarian-Romanian architect, ethnologist, and politician (d. 1977)
 * 1883  – Max Linder, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1925)
 * 1884 – John Gunn, Australian politician, 29th Premier of South Australia (d. 1959)
 * 1884  – Seibo Kitamura, Japanese sculptor (d. 1987)
 * 1888 – Alexander I of Yugoslavia (d. 1934)
 * 1888  – Alphonse Juin, Algerian-French general (d. 1967)
 * 1889 – Kim Chwa-chin, South Korean guerrilla leader (d. 1930)
 * 1895 – Marie Hall Ets, American author and illustrator (d. 1984)
 * 1896 – Anna Anderson, an imposter who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia (d. 1984)
 * 1899 – Noël Coward, English actor, playwright, and composer (d. 1973)
 * 1900 – Lucille Lortel, American actress and producer (d. 1999)
 * 1900  – V. S. Pritchett, British writer and literary critic (d. 1997)

1901–present

 * 1901 – Margaret Mead, American anthropologist and author (d. 1978)
 * 1902 – Rafael Alberti, Spanish poet and playwright (d. 1999)
 * 1903 – Hardie Albright, American actor (d. 1975)
 * 1903  – Harold Whitlock, English race walker and coach (d. 1985)
 * 1905 – Piet Hein, Danish mathematician, author, and poet (d. 1996)
 * 1905  – Ruben Nirvi, Finnish linguist and professor (d. 1986)
 * 1907 – Barbara Kent, Canadian-born American film actress (d. 2011)
 * 1908 – Remedios Varo, Spanish-Mexican surrealist painter & anarchist (d. 1963)
 * 1910 – Freddie Brown, Peruvian-English cricketer and sportscaster (d. 1991)
 * 1913 – George Ignatieff, Russian-Canadian scholar and diplomat, 8th Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 1989)
 * 1914 – O. Winston Link, American photographer (d. 2001)
 * 1916 – Ruth Johnson Colvin, American author and educator, founded ProLiteracy Worldwide
 * 1917 – Nabi Bux Khan Baloch, Pakistani author and scholar (d. 2011)
 * 1917  – Pete T. Cenarrusa, American soldier, pilot, and politician, Secretary of State of Idaho (d. 2013)
 * 1917  – Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction writer (d. 2008)
 * 1920 – Frederick Rotimi Williams, Nigerian lawyer and politician (d. 2005)
 * 1921 – Eulalio González, Mexican singer-songwriter, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2003)
 * 1922 – Cy Leslie, American record producer, founded Pickwick Records (d. 2008)
 * 1923 – Menahem Pressler, German-American pianist (d. 2023)
 * 1923  – Ernst Florian Winter, Austrian-American historian and political scientist (d. 2014)
 * 1924 – Nicolas Sidjakov, Latvian-American illustrator (d. 1993)
 * 1926 – James McCracken, American tenor and actor (d. 1988)
 * 1926  – A. N. R. Robinson, Tobagonian lawyer and politician, 3rd President of Trinidad and Tobago (d. 2014)
 * 1926  – Jeffrey Stone, American actor and screenwriter (d. 2012)
 * 1927 – Peter Dickinson, Rhodesian-English author and poet (d. 2015)
 * 1927  – Randall Garrett, American author and poet (d. 1987)
 * 1928 – Terry Carter, American actor, director, and producer (d. 2024)
 * 1928  – Philip K. Dick, American philosopher and author (d. 1982)
 * 1929 – Nicholas Courtney, Egyptian-English actor (d. 2011)
 * 1930 – Bill Brittain, American author (d. 2011)
 * 1930  – Sam Most, American flute player and saxophonist (d. 2013)
 * 1930  – Bill Young, American sergeant and politician (d. 2013)
 * 1932 – Grace Alele-Williams, Nigerian mathematician and academic (d. 2022)
 * 1932  – Quentin Blake, English author and illustrator
 * 1932  – Lin Zhao, Chinese dissident and Christian executed during the Cultural Revolution (d. 1968)
 * 1936 – Morris Dees, American lawyer and activist, co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center
 * 1937 – Joyce Bulifant, American actress
 * 1937  – Edward Ruscha, American painter and photographer
 * 1938 – Frank Deford, American journalist and author (d. 2017)
 * 1938  – Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress, director, and screenwriter
 * 1939 – Philip Langridge, English tenor (d. 2010)
 * 1939  – Gordon Miller, English high jumper
 * 1941 – Lesley Stahl, American journalist and actress
 * 1941  – Roger Neil Wheeler, English general
 * 1942 – Donald Carcieri, American educator and politician, 73rd Governor of Rhode Island
 * 1943 – Steven Bochco, American television writer and producer (d. 2018)
 * 1943  – Patti Deutsch, American actress and comedian (d. 2017)
 * 1944 – Jeff Kanew, American director and screenwriter
 * 1944  – Don Meyer, American basketball player and coach (d. 2014)
 * 1945 – Tony Hicks, English singer and guitarist
 * 1946 – Benny Andersson, Swedish singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
 * 1946  – Charles Dennis, Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
 * 1946  – Trevor Pinnock, English harpsichord player and conductor
 * 1946  – Tom Stern, American cinematographer
 * 1947 – Ben Cross, English actor (d. 2020)
 * 1947  – Vincent Matthews, American sprinter
 * 1947  – Martyn Poliakoff, English chemist and academic
 * 1947  – Trevor Żahra, Maltese novelist, poet and illustrator
 * 1949 – Billy Gibbons, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
 * 1949  – Heather Hallett, English lawyer and judge
 * 1950 – Claudia Cohen, American journalist (d. 2007)
 * 1950  – Roy Schuiten, Dutch cyclist and manager (d. 2006)
 * 1951 – Aykut Barka, Turkish scientist (d. 2002)
 * 1951  – Sally Emerson, English author and poet
 * 1951  – Mike Flanagan, American baseball player, coach, and sportscaster (d. 2011)
 * 1951  – Robben Ford, American guitarist and songwriter
 * 1951  – Mark Heard, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 1992)
 * 1952 – Joel Garner, Barbadian cricketer and manager
 * 1952  – Francesco Graziani, Italian footballer and manager
 * 1953 – Rebecca Forstadt, American voice actress and screenwriter
 * 1955 – Xander Berkeley, American actor and producer
 * 1955  – Carol Browner, American lawyer and environmentalist, 8th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
 * 1955  – Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este
 * 1955  – Chiharu Matsuyama, Japanese singer-songwriter
 * 1956 – Lizzy Mercier Descloux, French musician, singer-songwriter, composer, actress, writer and painter (d. 2004)
 * 1957 – Antonio Vega, Spanish singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2009)
 * 1958 – Bart Oates, American football player and lawyer
 * 1958  – Jeff Ruland, American basketball player
 * 1959 – H. D. Kumaraswamy, Indian social worker and politician, 18th Chief Minister of Karnataka
 * 1959  – Alison La Placa, American actress
 * 1959  – Alexander Lebedev, Russian businessman and politician
 * 1959  – Steve Mattsson, American author and illustrator
 * 1960 – Pat Van Den Hauwe, Belgian footballer and manager
 * 1961 – André Andersen, Russian-Danish keyboard player, songwriter, and producer
 * 1961  – Shane Black, American actor, director, and screenwriter
 * 1961  – Bill Hicks, American comedian and musician (d. 1994)
 * 1961  – LaChanze, American actress, singer, and dancer
 * 1961  – Sam Robards, American actor
 * 1961  – Jon Tenney, American actor and director
 * 1962 – Maruschka Detmers, Dutch-French actress
 * 1962  – William Perry, American football player and wrestler
 * 1963 – Benjamin Bratt, American actor and producer
 * 1963  – Cathy Johnston-Forbes, American golfer
 * 1963  – James Mangold, American director, producer, and screenwriter
 * 1964 – Heike Drechsler, German sprinter and long jumper
 * 1964  – Todd Glass, American comedian
 * 1964  – John Kirwan, New Zealand rugby player and coach
 * 1964  – Georgie Parker, Australian actress
 * 1964  – Billy Ripken, American baseball player and sportscaster
 * 1965 – Melanie Sloan, American lawyer and activist
 * 1965  – J. B. Smoove, American comedian, writer, and actor
 * 1966 – Paul McGinley, Irish golfer
 * 1966  – Clifford Robinson, American basketball player (d. 2020)
 * 1966  – Dennis Wise, English footballer and manager
 * 1967 – Donovan Bailey, Canadian sprinter and sportscaster
 * 1967  – Indrek Kaseorg, Estonian decathlete
 * 1967  – Miranda Otto, Australian actress
 * 1968 – Wendy Doolan, Australian golfer
 * 1968  – Lalah Hathaway, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
 * 1968  – Greg Kovacs, Canadian bodybuilder (d. 2013)
 * 1969 – Simon Grayson, English footballer and manager
 * 1969  – Kent Hehr, Canadian politician
 * 1969  – Adam Riess, American astrophysicist, astronomer, and academic Nobel Prize laureate
 * 1969  – Michelle Smith, Irish swimmer
 * 1969  – Dmitri Tymoczko, American composer and theorist
 * 1969  – Craig White, English cricketer and coach
 * 1970 – Valerie Chow, Canadian-Hong Kong actress and publicist
 * 1970  – Daniel Cosgrove, American actor
 * 1971 – Seyhan Kurt, French-Turkish poet and sociologist
 * 1971  – Paul van Dyk, German musician, producer and DJ
 * 1971  – Michael McCary, American R&B singer
 * 1972 – Charles Gipson, American baseball player
 * 1972  – Paul Leyden, Australian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
 * 1972  – Travis Morrison, American singer-songwriter
 * 1973 – Themba Mnguni, South African footballer
 * 1973  – Scott Storch, American songwriter and producer, founded Storch Music Company
 * 1975 – Valentin Bădoi, Romanian footballer and manager
 * 1975  – Kaba Diawara, French-Guinean footballer
 * 1975  – Benjamin Kowalewicz, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * 1975  – Paul Maynard, English politician
 * 1976 – Jen Golbeck, American computer scientist and academic
 * 1977 – Éric Bélanger, Canadian ice hockey player
 * 1977  – Sylvain Distin, French footballer
 * 1978 – John Morris, Canadian curler and firefighter
 * 1978  – Gunter Van Handenhoven, Belgian footballer and manager
 * 1979 – Trevor Immelman, South African golfer
 * 1979  – Brodie Lee, American wrestler (d. 2020)
 * 1979  – Daniel Narcisse, French handball player
 * 1979  – Mihai Trăistariu, Romanian singer-songwriter
 * 1979  – Jessie Ward, American wrestler and producer
 * 1980 – Danish Kaneria, Pakistani cricketer
 * 1981 – Krysten Ritter, American actress, musician, and model
 * 1981  – Reanna Solomon, Nauruan weightlifter (d. 2022)
 * 1981  – Gareth Williams, Scottish footballer
 * 1982 – Antrel Rolle, American football player
 * 1982  – Anna Sedokova, Ukrainian singer, actress and television presenter
 * 1982  – Stanislav Šesták, Slovak footballer
 * 1983 – Kelenna Azubuike, Nigerian-American basketball player
 * 1983  – Frankie Ballard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * 1983  – Joey Dorsey, American basketball player
 * 1984 – Theo James, English actor
 * 1985 – Stanislav Manolev, Bulgarian footballer
 * 1985  – James Nash, English race car driver
 * 1985  – Amanda Setton, American actress
 * 1986 – Alcides Escobar, Venezuelan baseball player
 * 1986  – Zoltán Kovács, Hungarian footballer (d. 2013)
 * 1986  – Pärt Uusberg, Estonian actor, composer, and conductor.
 * 1987 – Mame Biram Diouf, Senegalese footballer
 * 1987  – Beau Dowler, Australian footballer
 * 1987  – Hallee Hirsh, American actress
 * 1988 – Mats Hummels, German footballer
 * 1988  – Anna Popplewell, English actress
 * 1988  – Alexey Shved, Russian basketball player
 * 1989 – Mikkel Bødker, Danish ice hockey player
 * 1990 – Rebecca Marino, Canadian tennis player
 * 1991 – Craig Goodwin, Australian footballer
 * 1991  – David Johnson, American football player
 * 1992 – Ulrikke Eikeri, Norwegian tennis player
 * 1992  – Anamul Haque, Bangladeshi cricketer
 * 1992  – Pietro Perdichizzi, Belgian footballer
 * 1992  – Tom Rogic, Australian footballer
 * 1993 – Jyoti Amge, Indian actress
 * 1993  – Stephan James, Canadian actor
 * 1994 – Nigel Hayes, American basketball player
 * 1994  – Elliot Lee, English footballer
 * 1994  – Nicola Murru, Italian footballer
 * 1994  – José Rodríguez, Spanish footballer
 * 1998 – Mira Antonitsch, Austrian tennis player

Pre-1600

 * 604 – Houzhu, emperor of the Chen dynasty (b. 553)
 * 705 – Wu Zetian, Empress of the Zhou dynasty (b. 624)
 * 714 – Pepin of Herstal, Frankish statesman (b. 635)
 * 867 – Eberhard of Friuli, Frankish duke (b. 815)
 * 874 – Ado, archbishop of Vienne
 * 882 – John VIII, pope of the Catholic Church
 * 902 – Wei Yifan, chancellor of the Tang dynasty
 * 999 – Adelaide of Italy, Holy Roman Empress (b. 931)
 * 1153 – Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester, Norman nobleman
 * 1263 – Haakon IV, king of Norway (b. 1204)
 * 1316 – Öljaitü, Mongolian ruler (b. 1280)
 * 1325 – Charles, French nobleman (b. 1270)
 * 1378 – Secondotto, marquess of Montferrat (b. 1360)
 * 1379 – John FitzAlan, 1st Baron Arundel, English general and politician, Lord Marshall of England (b. 1348)
 * 1470 – John II, duke of Lorraine (b. 1424)
 * 1474 – Ali Qushji, Uzbek astronomer, mathematician, and physicist (b. 1403)
 * 1515 – Afonso de Albuquerque, Portuguese admiral and politician, 3rd Viceroy of Portuguese India (b. 1453)
 * 1558 – Thomas Cheney, English diplomat and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
 * 1583 – Ivan Fyodorov, Russian printer
 * 1594 – Allison Balfour, Scottish witch
 * 1598 – Yi Sun-sin, Korean general (b. 1545)

1601–1900

 * 1669 – Nathaniel Fiennes, English soldier and politician (b. 1608)
 * 1687 – William Petty, English economist and philosopher (b. 1623)
 * 1751 – Leopold II, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau (b. 1700)
 * 1774 – François Quesnay, French economist, physician, and philosopher (b. 1694)
 * 1783 – Johann Adolph Hasse, German composer and educator (b. 1699)
 * 1783  – Sir William James, 1st Baronet, Welsh-English commander and politician (b. 1720)
 * 1805 – Saverio Cassar, Gozitan priest and rebel leader (b. 1746)
 * 1809 – Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy, French chemist and entomologist (b. 1755)
 * 1859 – Wilhelm Grimm, German anthropologist and author (b. 1786)
 * 1892 – Henry Yesler, American businessman and politician, 7th Mayor of Seattle (b. 1810)
 * 1897 – Alphonse Daudet, French author, poet, and playwright (b. 1840)
 * 1898 – Pavel Tretyakov, Russian businessman and art collector (b. 1832)

1901–present

 * 1908 – American Horse, American tribal leader and educator (b. 1840)
 * 1917 – Frank Gotch, American wrestler (b. 1878)
 * 1921 – Camille Saint-Saëns, French pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1835)
 * 1922 – Gabriel Narutowicz, Lithuanian–Polish engineer and politician, 1st President of the Republic of Poland (b. 1865)
 * 1928 – Elinor Wylie, American poet and author (b. 1885)
 * 1935 – Thelma Todd, American actress and comedian (b. 1905)
 * 1936 – Frank Eugene, American-German photographer and educator (b. 1865)
 * 1940 – Eugène Dubois, Dutch paleoanthropologist (b. 1858)
 * 1940  – Billy Hamilton, American baseball player and manager (b. 1866)
 * 1943 – George Bambridge, English diplomat (b. 1892)
 * 1944 – Betsie ten Boom, Dutch Holocaust victim (b. 1885)
 * 1945 – Giovanni Agnelli, Italian businessman, founded Fiat (b. 1866)
 * 1945  – Fumimaro Konoe, Japanese lawyer and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1891)
 * 1949 – Sidney Olcott, Canadian-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1873)
 * 1952 – Robert Henry Best, American journalist (b. 1896)
 * 1956 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh painter and author (b. 1890)
 * 1961 – Hans Rebane, Estonian journalist and politician, 8th Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1882)
 * 1965 – W. Somerset Maugham, British playwright, novelist, and short story writer (b. 1874)
 * 1968 – Futabayama Sadaji, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 35th Yokozuna (b. 1912)
 * 1968  – Muhammad Suheimat, Jordanian general and politician (b. 1916)
 * 1969 – Alphonse Castex, French rugby union player (b. 1899)
 * 1969  – Soe Hok Gie, Indonesian activist and academic (b. 1942)
 * 1970 – Oscar Lewis, American anthropologist of Latin America (b. 1914)
 * 1974 – Kostas Varnalis, Greek poet and playwright (b. 1884)
 * 1976 – Réal Caouette, Canadian journalist and politician (b. 1917)
 * 1977 – Risto Jarva, Finnish director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1934)
 * 1980 – Colonel Sanders, American businessman, founded KFC (b. 1890)
 * 1980  – Hellmuth Walter, German-American engineer (b. 1900)
 * 1982 – Colin Chapman, English engineer and businessman, founded Lotus Cars (b. 1928)
 * 1983 – Debs Garms, American baseball player (b. 1907)
 * 1984 – Karl Deichgräber, German philologist and academic (b. 1903)
 * 1985 – Thomas Bilotti, American mobster (b. 1940)
 * 1985  – Paul Castellano, American mobster (b. 1915)
 * 1989 – Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, Argentinian race car driver (b. 1913)
 * 1989  – Silvana Mangano, Italian actress (b. 1930)
 * 1989  – Aileen Pringle, American actress (b. 1895)
 * 1989  – Lee Van Cleef, American actor (b. 1925)
 * 1991 – Eszter Tamási, Hungarian actress and journalist (b. 1938)
 * 1993 – Moses Gunn, American actor (b. 1929)
 * 1993  – Kakuei Tanaka, Japanese soldier and politician, 64th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1918)
 * 1996 – Quentin Bell, English historian and author (b. 1910)
 * 1997 – Lillian Disney, American illustrator and philanthropist (b. 1899)
 * 1998 – William Gaddis, American author and academic (b. 1922)
 * 2001 – Stuart Adamson, English-Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1958)
 * 2001  – Stefan Heym, German-American soldier and author (b. 1913)
 * 2003 – Robert Stanfield, Canadian economist, lawyer, and politician, 17th Premier of Nova Scotia (b. 1914)
 * 2003  – Gary Stewart, American singer-songwriter (b. 1945)
 * 2004 – Ted Abernathy, American baseball player (b. 1933)
 * 2004  – Deyda Hydara, Gambian journalist, co-founded The Point (b. 1946)
 * 2004  – Agnes Martin, American painter and educator (b. 1912)
 * 2005 – Kenneth Bulmer, English author (b. 1921)
 * 2005  – Ed Hansen, American director and screenwriter (b. 1937)
 * 2005  – John Spencer, American actor (b. 1946)
 * 2006 – Don Jardine, Canadian wrestler and trainer (b. 1940)
 * 2006  – Taliep Petersen, South African singer-songwriter and director (b. 1950)
 * 2006  – Pnina Salzman, Israeli pianist and educator (b. 1922)
 * 2006  – Stanford J. Shaw, American historian and academic (b. 1930)
 * 2007 – Dan Fogelberg, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1951)
 * 2009 – Roy E. Disney, American businessman (b. 1930)
 * 2009  – Yegor Gaidar, Russian economist and politician, Prime Minister of Russia (b. 1956)
 * 2009  – Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, South African physician and politician, 22nd South African Minister of Health (b. 1940)
 * 2010 – Melvin E. Biddle, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1923)
 * 2010  – Ayinde Barrister, Nigerian fuji musician (b. 1948)
 * 2011 – Robert Easton, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1930)
 * 2011  – Nicol Williamson, Scottish actor (b. 1938)
 * 2012 – Elwood V. Jensen, American biologist and academic (b. 1920)
 * 2012  – Jake Adam York, American poet and academic (b. 1972)
 * 2013 – James Flint, English commander (b. 1913)
 * 2013  – Ray Price, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1926)
 * 2013  – Marta Russell, American journalist, author, and activist (b. 1951)
 * 2014 – Martin Brasier, English paleontologist, biologist, and academic (b. 1947)
 * 2014  – Tim Cochran, American mathematician and academic (b. 1955)
 * 2015 – Peter Dickinson, Rhodesian-English author and poet (b. 1927)
 * 2015  – Lizmark, Mexican wrestler (b. 1950)
 * 2015  – George Earl Ortman, American painter and sculptor (b. 1926)
 * 2017 – Keely Smith, American singer and actress (b. 1928)

Holidays and observances

 * Christian feast day:
 * Adelaide of Italy
 * Haggai
 * Ralph Adams Cram, Richard Upjohn and John La Farge (Episcopal Church (USA))
 * December 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 * Day of Reconciliation, formerly celebrated as Day of the Vow by the Afrikaners (South Africa)
 * Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Kazakhstan from the Soviet Union in 1991.
 * National Day, celebrates the withdrawal of United Kingdom from Bahrain, making Bahrain an independent emirate in 1971.
 * National Sports Day (Thailand)
 * The beginning of the nine-day celebration beginning December 16 and ending December 24, celebrating the trials which Mary and Joseph endured before finding a place to stay where Jesus could be born (Hispanidad):
 * The first day of Las Posadas (Mexico, Latin America)
 * The first day of the Simbang Gabi novena of masses (Philippines)
 * Victory Day observances, celebration of the Indo-Bangla allied victory over Pakistan armed forces and the Liberation of Bangladesh. (Bangladesh and India)

title: December 16


text:
Doctrine and Covenants

The Doctrine and Covenants (sometimes abbreviated and cited as D&C or D. and C.) is a part of the open scriptural canon of several denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. Originally published in 1835 as Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God, editions of the book continue to be printed mainly by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints [RLDS Church]).

The book originally contained two parts: a sequence of lectures setting forth basic church doctrine, followed by a compilation of revelations, or "covenants" of the church: thus the name "Doctrine and Covenants". The "doctrine" portion of the book, however, has been removed by both the LDS Church and Community of Christ. The remaining portion of the book contains revelations on numerous topics, most of which were dictated by the movement's founder Joseph Smith, supplemented by materials periodically added by each denomination.

Controversy has existed between the two largest denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement over some sections added to the 1876 LDS edition, attributed to founder Smith. Whereas the LDS Church believes these sections to have been revelations to Smith, the RLDS Church traditionally disputed their authenticity.

History
The Doctrine and Covenants was first published in 1835 as a later version of the Book of Commandments, which had been partially printed in 1833. This earlier book contained 65 early revelations to church leaders, notably Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. Before many copies of the book could be printed, the printing press and most of the printed copies were destroyed by a mob in Missouri. On September 24, 1834, a committee was appointed by the general assembly of the church to organize a new volume containing the most significant revelations. This committee of Presiding Elders, consisting of Smith, Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams, began to review and revise numerous revelations for inclusion in the new work. The committee eventually organized the book into two parts: a "Doctrine" part and a "Covenants" part.

The "Doctrine" part of the book consisted of a theological course now called the "Lectures on Faith". The lectures were a series of doctrinal courses used in the School of the Prophets which had recently been completed in Kirtland, Ohio. According to the committee, these lectures were included in the compilation "in consequence of their embracing the important doctrine of salvation." The "Covenants" part of the book, labeled "Covenants and Commandments of the Lord, to his servants of the church of the Latter Day Saints", contained a total of 103 revelations. These 103 revelations were said to "contain items or principles for the regulation of the church, as taken from the revelations which have been given since its organization, as well as from former ones." Each of the 103 revelations was assigned a "section number"; however, section 66 was mistakenly used twice. Thus, the sections of the original work were numbered only to 102.

On February 17, 1835, after the committee had selected the book's contents, the committee wrote that the resulting work represents "our belief, and when we say this, humbly trust, the faith and principles of this society as a body."

The book was first introduced to the church body in a general conference on August 17, 1835. Smith and Williams, two of the Presiding Elders on the committee, were absent, but Cowdery and Rigdon were present. The church membership at the time had not yet seen the Doctrine and Covenants manuscript as it had been compiled and revised solely by the committee; however, various church members who were familiar with the work "bore record" of the book's truth. At the end of the conference, the church "by a unanimous vote" agreed to accept the compilation as "the doctrine and covenants of their faith" and to make arrangements for its printing.

In 1835, the book was printed and published under the title Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God.

A copy of the Doctrine and Covenants from NASA photographer M. Edward Thomas traveled to the moon and back in 1972 with astronaut John Young aboard Apollo 16.

LDS Church editions
In the LDS Church, The Doctrine and Covenants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands alongside the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Pearl of Great Price as scripture. Together the LDS Church's scriptures are referred to as the "standard works". The LDS Church's version of the Doctrine and Covenants is described by the church as "containing revelations given to Joseph Smith, the Prophet, with some additions by his successors in the Presidency of the Church."

Sections Included in LDS edition
The 138 sections and two official declarations in LDS Church's Doctrine and Covenants break down as follows:
 * Sections 1–134, 137: From the presidency of Joseph Smith (1828–44)
 * Sections 135–136: During the administration of the Quorum of the Twelve (1844–47)
 * Official Declaration 1: From the presidency of Wilford Woodruff (1889–98)
 * Section 138: From the presidency of Joseph F. Smith (1901–18)
 * Official Declaration 2: From the presidency of Spencer W. Kimball (1973–85)

The following sections consist of letters, reports, statements, and other similar documents: 102, 123, 127–131, 134, 135, and Official Declarations 1 and 2.

1844 Edition
In 1844, the church added eight sections not included in the 1835 edition. In the current edition, these added sections are numbered 103, 105, 112, 119, 124, 127, 128, and 135.

1876 Edition
In 1876, a new LDS Church edition renumbered most of the sections in a roughly chronological order instead of the earlier topical order, and included 26 sections not included in previous editions, now numbered as sections 2, 13, 77, 85, 87, 108–111, 113–118, 120–123, 125, 126, 129–132, and 136. Previous editions had been divided into verses with the early versifications generally following the paragraph structure of the original text. It was with the 1876 edition that the currently used versification was first employed.

In 1876, section 101 from the 1835 edition (and subsequent printings) was removed. Section 101 was a "Statement on Marriage" as adopted by an 1835 conference of the church, and contained the following text: "Inasmuch as this Church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication and polygamy, we declare that we believe that one man should have one wife, and one woman but one husband, except in the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again." This section was removed because it had been superseded by section 132 of the modern LDS edition, recorded in 1843, which contains a revelation received by Joseph Smith on eternal marriage and plural marriage, the origin of the principles of which the LDS Church traces to as early as 1831.

During the 1880s, five foreign editions contained two revelations to John Taylor that were received in 1882 and 1883; these revelations "set in order" the priesthood, gave more clarification about the roles of priesthood offices—especially the seventy—and required "men who ... preside over my priesthood" to live plural marriage in order to qualify to hold their church positions. Due to the LDS Church's change in attitude to polygamy in 1890, these sections were not included in future English editions of the Doctrine and Covenants.

1921 Edition
In 1921, the LDS Church removed the "Lectures on Faith" portion of the book, with an explanation that the lectures "were never presented to nor accepted by the Church as being otherwise than theological lectures or lessons". The lectures contain theology concerning the Godhead and emphasize the importance of faith and works.

Latter-day Revelation
In 1930, a small volume edited by apostle James E. Talmage titled Latter-day Revelation: Selections from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants was published, which was a highly edited selective version of the Doctrine and Covenants printed in paragraph format rather than verses. Talmage wrote that the book's purpose was "to make the strictly doctrinal parts of the Doctrine and Covenants of easy access and reduce its bulk" by including only "the sections comprising scriptures of general and enduring value". Ninety-five of the sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were completely omitted—most notably section 132 on plural and celestial marriage—along with parts of 21 others. Twenty complete sections were retained along with parts of 21 others. Fundamentalist Mormons were offended, particularly at the exclusion of section 132, and accused the church of "changing the scriptures." As a result, church president Heber J. Grant ordered the withdrawal of the book from sale with the remaining copies shredded in order to "avoid further conflict with the fundamentalists".

1981 Edition
Sections 137 and 138 were added to the LDS Church's 1981 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, which is the edition currently in use by the church. These were accounts of two visions, one from Joseph Smith in 1837 and the other from his nephew, Joseph F. Smith, in 1918. The revelations were earlier accepted as scripture when added to the Pearl of Great Price in April 1976. No new revelatory sections have been added since 1981.

The LDS Church's 1981 edition contains two "Official Declarations" at the book's conclusion. The 1890 Official Declaration 1 ended the church-authorized practice of plural marriage, and the 1978 Official Declaration 2 announces the opening of priesthood ordination to all worthy male members without regard to race or color. The two Official Declarations are not revelations, but they serve as the formal announcements that a revelation was received. In neither case is the revelation included in the Doctrine and Covenants. The text of Official Declaration 1 has been included in every LDS Church printing of the Doctrine and Covenants since 1908.

Until 1981, editions of the book used code names for certain people and places in those sections that dealt with the United Order. The 1981 LDS edition replaced these with the real names, relegating the code names to footnotes. The Community of Christ edition still uses the code names.

2013 Edition
A new edition was released in 2013. Changes included adjustments and corrections to the book's introduction and section introductions. The changes reflect the modern scholarship that came from The Joseph Smith Papers.

Community of Christ editions
Officials of the Community of Christ (formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints [RLDS Church]) first published an edition of the Doctrine and Covenants in 1864, based on the previous 1844 edition. A general conference of the church in 1878 approved a resolution that declared that the revelations of the Prophet-President Joseph Smith III had equal standing to those previously included in the work. Since that time, the church has continued to add sections to its edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, containing the revelations of succeeding Prophet-Presidents. The most recent addition was formally authorized on April 14, 2010, after being presented to the church for informal consideration on January 17, 2010. The numbers of the sections and versification differ from the edition published by the LDS Church and both modern editions differ from the original 1835 edition numeration.

Sections added to the Community of Christ edition
The 167 sections of the Community of Christ's Doctrine and Covenants break down as follows:
 * Sections 1–113 (includes 108A): From the presidency of Joseph Smith (1828–44)
 * Sections 114–131: From the presidency of Joseph Smith III (1860–1914)
 * Sections 132–138: From the presidency of Frederick M. Smith (1914–46)
 * Sections 139–144: From the presidency of Israel A. Smith (1946–58)
 * Sections 145–152 (includes 149A): From the presidency of W. Wallace Smith (1958–78)
 * Sections 153–160: From the presidency of Wallace B. Smith (1978–96)
 * Sections 161–162: From the presidency of W. Grant McMurray (1996–2004)
 * Sections 163–165: From the presidency of Stephen M. Veazey (2005–)

The following sections are not revelations, but letters, reports, statements, and other similar documents: 99, 108A, 109–113, and 123.

Based on the above, the number of revelations (accounting for sections that are not revelations) presented by each Community of Christ president, are as follows:

 * Joseph Smith: 107
 * Joseph Smith III: 17
 * Frederick M. Smith: 7
 * Israel A. Smith: 6
 * W. Wallace Smith: 9
 * Wallace B. Smith: 8
 * W. Grant McMurray: 2
 * Stephen M. Veazey: 3

Portions removed from the Community of Christ edition
The Community of Christ removed the "Lectures on Faith" in 1897. The 1970 World Conference concluded that several sections that had been added between the 1835 and 1844 editions—mainly dealing with the subjects of temple worship and baptism for the dead—had been published without proper approval of a church conference. As a result, the World Conference removed sections 107, 109, 110, 113, and 123 to a historical appendix, which also includes documents that were never published as sections. Of these, only section 107 was a revelation. The World Conference of 1990 subsequently removed the entire appendix from the Doctrine and Covenants. Section 108A contained the minutes of a business meeting, which, because of its historical nature, was moved to the Introduction in the 1970s. After 1990, the Introduction was updated, and what was section 108A was removed entirely.

Doctrinal developments in the Community of Christ edition
The ongoing additions to the Community of Christ edition provide a record of the leadership changes and doctrinal developments within the denomination. When W. Grant McMurray became Prophet-President, he declared that instruction specific to leadership changes would no longer be included, so that the focus of the work could be more doctrinal in nature, and less administrative. The record of these leadership changes are still maintained in the form of published "letters of counsel." Prophet-President Stephen M. Veazey has conformed to this pattern. Although these letters are not formally published in the Doctrine and Covenants, they are still deemed to be inspired, and are dealt with in the same manner that revelations are (that is, they must be deliberated and approved by the voting members of a World Conference).

A modern revelation that resulted in some "disaffection" and "led to intense conflict in scattered areas of the RLDS Church" is contained in the Community of Christ version's section 156, presented by Prophet–President Wallace B. Smith and added in 1984, which called for the ordination of women to the priesthood and set out the primary purpose of temples to be "the pursuit of peace". A resulting schism over the legitimacy of these change led to the formation of the Restoration Branches movement, the Restoration Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

While some of the prose in the new revelations seems designed to guide the denomination on matters of church governance and doctrine, others are seen as inspirational. One such example can be cited from section 161, presented as counsel to the church by W. Grant McMurray in 1996: "Become a people of the Temple—those who see violence but proclaim peace, who feel conflict yet extend the hand of reconciliation, who encounter broken spirits and find pathways for healing."

Editions used by other denominations
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite) uses the 1846 edition that was published in Nauvoo, Illinois; this version is virtually identical to the 1844 edition. Most recently a facsimile reprint was produced for the church at Voree, Wisconsin by Richard Drew in 1993.

The Church of Christ (Temple Lot) contends that the thousands of changes made to the original revelations as published in the Book of Commandments (including the change of the church's name) are not doctrinal and result from Joseph Smith's fall from his original calling. As a result, the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) prefers to use reprints of the Book of Commandments text.

The Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite) accepts the 1844 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, including the Lectures on Faith, which it insists are as much inspired as the revelations themselves.

The Restoration Branches generally use the older RLDS Church Doctrine and Covenants, typically sections 1–144.

The Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints uses the older RLDS Church version of the Doctrine and Covenants up to section 144, and also 19 new revelations from their previous president, Frederick Niels Larsen.

"Remnant" movement, a spiritual movement in schism with the LDS Church, published an online "Restoration" edition of the Doctrine and Covenants in 2017. It includes any sections authored by Joseph Smith. It also: includes a new version of D&C 54, as revised by Denver Snuffer; excludes the Kirtland Temple visitation by Elijah and other angelic beings in D&C 110; excludes portions based on fragmentary teachings by Smith in D&C 129; includes Smith's Lectures on Faith; and includes a new appendix titled, "A Prophet’s Prerogative," by Jeff Savage.

Chart comparison of editions
The following chart compares the current editions of the Doctrine and Covenants used by the LDS Church (LDS ed.) and Community of Christ (CofC ed.) with the 1833 Book of Commandments (BofC), the 1835 edition published in Kirtland, and the 1844 edition published in Nauvoo. Unless otherwise specified, the document is styled a "revelation" of the person delivering it.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Doctrine and Covenants


text:
Death

Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose shortly after death. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. Some organisms, such as Turritopsis dohrnii, are biologically immortal, however they can still die from means other than aging. Death is generally applied to whole organisms; the equivalent for individual components of an organism, such as cells or tissues, is necrosis. Something that is not considered an organism, such as a virus, can be physically destroyed but is not said to die, as a virus is not considered alive in the first place.

As of the early 21st century, 56 million people die per year. The most common reason is cardiovascular disease, which is a disease that affects the heart or blood vessels. As of 2022, an estimated total of 109 billion humans have died, or roughly 93.8% of all humans to ever live. A substudy of gerontology known as biogerontology seeks to eliminate death by natural aging in humans, often through the application of natural processes found in certain organisms. However, as humans do not have the means to apply this to themselves, they have to use other ways to reach the maximum lifespan for a human, often through lifestyle changes, such as calorie reduction, dieting, and exercise. The idea of lifespan extension is considered and studied as a way for people to live longer.

Determining when a person has definitively died has proven difficult. Initially, death was defined as occurring when breathing and the heartbeat ceased, a status still known as clinical death. However, the development of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) meant that such a state was no longer strictly irreversible. Brain death was then considered a more fitting option, but several definitions exist for this. Some people believe that all brain functions must cease. Others believe that even if the brainstem is still alive, the personality and identity are irretrievably lost, so therefore, the person should be considered entirely dead. Brain death is sometimes used as a legal definition of death. For all organisms with a brain, death can instead be focused on this organ. The cause of death is usually considered important and an autopsy can be done. There are many causes, from accidents to diseases.

Many cultures and religions have a concept of an afterlife that may hold the idea of judgment of good and bad deeds in one's life. There are also different customs for honoring the body, such as a funeral, cremation, or sky burial. After a death, an obituary may be posted in a newspaper, and the "survived by" kin and friends usually go through the grieving process.

Problems of definition
The concept of death is the key to human understanding of the phenomenon. There are many scientific approaches and various interpretations of the concept. Additionally, the advent of life-sustaining therapy and the numerous criteria for defining death from both a medical and legal standpoint have made it difficult to create a single unifying definition.

Defining life to define death
One of the challenges in defining death is in distinguishing it from life. As a point in time, death seems to refer to the moment when life ends. Determining when death has occurred is difficult, as cessation of life functions is often not simultaneous across organ systems. Such determination, therefore, requires drawing precise conceptual boundaries between life and death. This is difficult due to there being little consensus on how to define life.

It is possible to define life in terms of consciousness. When consciousness ceases, an organism can be said to have died. One of the flaws in this approach is that there are many organisms that are alive but probably not conscious. Another problem is in defining consciousness, which has many different definitions given by modern scientists, psychologists and philosophers. Additionally, many religious traditions, including Abrahamic and Dharmic traditions, hold that death does not (or may not) entail the end of consciousness. In certain cultures, death is more of a process than a single event. It implies a slow shift from one spiritual state to another.

Other definitions for death focus on the character of cessation of organismic functioning and human death, which refers to irreversible loss of personhood. More specifically, death occurs when a living entity experiences irreversible cessation of all functioning. As it pertains to human life, death is an irreversible process where someone loses their existence as a person.

Definition of death by heartbeat and breath
Historically, attempts to define the exact moment of a human's death have been subjective or imprecise. Death was defined as the cessation of heartbeat (cardiac arrest) and breathing, but the development of CPR and prompt defibrillation have rendered that definition inadequate because breathing and heartbeat can sometimes be restarted. This type of death where circulatory and respiratory arrest happens is known as the circulatory definition of death (CDD). Proponents of the CDD believe this definition is reasonable because a person with permanent loss of circulatory and respiratory function should be considered dead. Critics of this definition state that while cessation of these functions may be permanent, it does not mean the situation is irreversible because if CPR is applied fast enough, the person could be revived. Thus, the arguments for and against the CDD boil down to defining the actual words "permanent" and "irreversible," which further complicates the challenge of defining death. Furthermore, events causally linked to death in the past no longer kill in all circumstances; without a functioning heart or lungs, life can sometimes be sustained with a combination of life support devices, organ transplants, and artificial pacemakers.

Brain death
Today, where a definition of the moment of death is required, doctors and coroners usually turn to "brain death" or "biological death" to define a person as being dead; people are considered dead when the electrical activity in their brain ceases. It is presumed that an end of electrical activity indicates the end of consciousness. Suspension of consciousness must be permanent and not transient, as occurs during certain sleep stages, and especially a coma. In the case of sleep, electroencephalograms (EEGs) are used to tell the difference.

The category of "brain death" is seen as problematic by some scholars. For instance, Dr. Franklin Miller, a senior faculty member at the Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of Health, notes: "By the late 1990s... the equation of brain death with death of the human being was increasingly challenged by scholars, based on evidence regarding the array of biological functioning displayed by patients correctly diagnosed as having this condition who were maintained on mechanical ventilation for substantial periods of time. These patients maintained the ability to sustain circulation and respiration, control temperature, excrete wastes, heal wounds, fight infections and, most dramatically, to gestate fetuses (in the case of pregnant "brain-dead" women)."

While "brain death" is viewed as problematic by some scholars, there are proponents of it that believe this definition of death is the most reasonable for distinguishing life from death. The reasoning behind the support for this definition is that brain death has a set of criteria that is reliable and reproducible. Also, the brain is crucial in determining our identity or who we are as human beings. The distinction should be made that "brain death" cannot be equated with one in a vegetative state or coma, in that the former situation describes a state that is beyond recovery.

EEGs can detect spurious electrical impulses, while certain drugs, hypoglycemia, hypoxia, or hypothermia can suppress or even stop brain activity temporarily; because of this, hospitals have protocols for determining brain death involving EEGs at widely separated intervals under defined conditions.

Neocortical brain death
People maintaining that only the neo-cortex of the brain is necessary for consciousness sometimes argue that only electrical activity should be considered when defining death. Eventually, the criterion for death may be the permanent and irreversible loss of cognitive function, as evidenced by the death of the cerebral cortex. All hope of recovering human thought and personality is then gone, given current and foreseeable medical technology. Even by whole-brain criteria, the determination of brain death can be complicated.

Total brain death
At present, in most places, the more conservative definition of death (irreversible cessation of electrical activity in the whole brain, as opposed to just in the neo-cortex) has been adopted. One example is the Uniform Determination Of Death Act in the United States. In the past, the adoption of this whole-brain definition was a conclusion of the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research in 1980. They concluded that this approach to defining death sufficed in reaching a uniform definition nationwide. A multitude of reasons was presented to support this definition, including uniformity of standards in law for establishing death, consumption of a family's fiscal resources for artificial life support, and legal establishment for equating brain death with death to proceed with organ donation.

Problems in medical practice
Aside from the issue of support of or dispute against brain death, there is another inherent problem in this categorical definition: the variability of its application in medical practice. In 1995, the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) established the criteria that became the medical standard for diagnosing neurologic death. At that time, three clinical features had to be satisfied to determine "irreversible cessation" of the total brain, including coma with clear etiology, cessation of breathing, and lack of brainstem reflexes. These criteria were updated again, most recently in 2010, but substantial discrepancies remain across hospitals and medical specialties.

Donations
The problem of defining death is especially imperative as it pertains to the dead donor rule, which could be understood as one of the following interpretations of the rule: there must be an official declaration of death in a person before starting organ procurement, or that organ procurement cannot result in the death of the donor. A great deal of controversy has surrounded the definition of death and the dead donor rule. Advocates of the rule believe that the rule is legitimate in protecting organ donors while also countering any moral or legal objection to organ procurement. Critics, on the other hand, believe that the rule does not uphold the best interests of the donors and that the rule does not effectively promote organ donation.

Signs
Signs of death or strong indications that a warm-blooded animal is no longer alive are:
 * Respiratory arrest (no breathing)
 * Cardiac arrest (no pulse)
 * Brain death (no neuronal activity)

The stages that follow after death are:
 * Pallor mortis, paleness which happens in 15–120 minutes after death
 * Algor mortis, the reduction in body temperature following death. This is generally a steady decline until matching ambient temperature
 * Rigor mortis, the limbs of the corpse become stiff (Latin rigor) and difficult to move or manipulate
 * Livor mortis, a settling of the blood in the lower (dependent) portion of the body
 * Putrefaction, the beginning signs of decomposition
 * Decomposition, the reduction into simpler forms of matter, accompanied by a strong, unpleasant odor.
 * Skeletonization, the end of decomposition, where all soft tissues have decomposed, leaving only the skeleton.
 * Fossilization, the natural preservation of the skeletal remains formed over a very long period

Legal
The death of a person has legal consequences that may vary between jurisdictions. Most countries follow the whole-brain death criteria, where all functions of the brain must have completely ceased. However, in other jurisdictions, some follow the brainstem version of brain death. Afterward, a death certificate is issued in most jurisdictions, either by a doctor or by an administrative office, upon presentation of a doctor's declaration of death.

Misdiagnosis

There are many anecdotal references to people being declared dead by physicians and then "coming back to life," sometimes days later in their coffin or when embalming procedures are about to begin. From the mid-18th century onwards, there was an upsurge in the public's fear of being mistakenly buried alive and much debate about the uncertainty of the signs of death. Various suggestions were made to test for signs of life before burial, ranging from pouring vinegar and pepper into the corpse's mouth to applying red hot pokers to the feet or into the rectum. Writing in 1895, the physician J.C. Ouseley claimed that as many as 2,700 people were buried prematurely each year in England and Wales, although some estimates peg the figure to be closer to 800.

In cases of electric shock, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for an hour or longer can allow stunned nerves to recover, allowing an apparently dead person to survive. People found unconscious under icy water may survive if their faces are kept continuously cold until they arrive at an emergency room. This "diving response," in which metabolic activity and oxygen requirements are minimal, is something humans share with cetaceans called the mammalian diving reflex.

As medical technologies advance, ideas about when death occurs may have to be reevaluated in light of the ability to restore a person to vitality after longer periods of apparent death (as happened when CPR and defibrillation showed that cessation of heartbeat is inadequate as a decisive indicator of death). The lack of electrical brain activity may not be enough to consider someone scientifically dead. Therefore, the concept of information-theoretic death has been suggested as a better means of defining when true death occurs, though the concept has few practical applications outside the field of cryonics.

Causes
The leading cause of human death in developing countries is infectious disease. The leading causes in developed countries are atherosclerosis (heart disease and stroke), cancer, and other diseases related to obesity and aging. By an extremely wide margin, the largest unifying cause of death in the developed world is biological aging, leading to various complications known as aging-associated diseases. These conditions cause loss of homeostasis, leading to cardiac arrest, causing loss of oxygen and nutrient supply, causing irreversible deterioration of the brain and other tissues. Of the roughly 150,000 people who die each day across the globe, about two thirds die of age-related causes. In industrialized nations, the proportion is much higher, approaching 90%. With improved medical capability, dying has become a condition to be managed.

In developing nations, inferior sanitary conditions and lack of access to modern medical technology make death from infectious diseases more common than in developed countries. One such disease is tuberculosis, a bacterial disease that killed 1.8 million people in 2015. In 2004, malaria caused about 2.7 million deaths annually. The AIDS death toll in Africa may reach 90–100 million by 2025.

According to Jean Ziegler, the United Nations Special Reporter on the Right to Food, 2000 – Mar 2008, mortality due to malnutrition accounted for 58% of the total mortality rate in 2006. Ziegler says worldwide, approximately 62 million people died from all causes and of those deaths, more than 36 million died of hunger or diseases due to deficiencies in micronutrients.

Tobacco smoking killed 100 million people worldwide in the 20th century and could kill 1 billion people worldwide in the 21st century, a World Health Organization report warned.

Many leading developed world causes of death can be postponed by diet and physical activity, but the accelerating incidence of disease with age still imposes limits on human longevity. The evolutionary cause of aging is, at best, only beginning to be understood. It has been suggested that direct intervention in the aging process may now be the most effective intervention against major causes of death.

Selye proposed a unified non-specific approach to many causes of death. He demonstrated that stress decreases the adaptability of an organism and proposed to describe adaptability as a special resource, adaptation energy. The animal dies when this resource is exhausted. Selye assumed that adaptability is a finite supply presented at birth. Later, Goldstone proposed the concept of production or income of adaptation energy which may be stored (up to a limit) as a capital reserve of adaptation. In recent works, adaptation energy is considered an internal coordinate on the "dominant path" in the model of adaptation. It is demonstrated that oscillations of well-being appear when the reserve of adaptability is almost exhausted.

In 2012, suicide overtook car crashes as the leading cause of human injury deaths in the U.S., followed by poisoning, falls, and murder.

Accidents and disasters, from nuclear disasters to structural collapses, also claim lives. One of the deadliest incidents of all time is the Failure of the 1975 Banqiao Dam Failure, with varying estimates, up to 240,000 dead. Other incidents with high death tolls are the Wanggongchang explosion (when a gunpowder factory ended up with 20,000 deaths), a collapse of a wall of Circus Maximus that killed 13,000 people, and the Chernobyl disaster that killed between 95 and 4,000 people.

Natural disasters kill around 45,000 people annually, although this number can vary to millions to thousands on a per-decade basis. Some of the deadliest natural disasters are the 1931 China floods, which killed an estimated 4 million people, although estimates widely vary; the 1887 Yellow River flood, which killed an estimated 2 million people in China; and the 1970 Bhola cyclone, which killed as many as 500,000 people in Pakistan. If naturally occurring famines are considered natural disasters, the Chinese famine of 1906–1907, which killed 15–20 million people, can be considered the deadliest natural disaster in recorded history.

In animals, predation can be a common cause of death. Livestock have a 6% death rate from predation. However, younger animals are more susceptible to predation. For example, 50% of young foxes die to birds, bobcats, coyotes, and other foxes as well. Young bear cubs in the Yellowstone National Park only have a 40% chance to survive to adulthood from other bears and predators.

Autopsy

An autopsy, also known as a postmortem examination or an obduction, is a medical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a human corpse to determine the cause and manner of a person's death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present. It is usually performed by a specialized medical doctor called a pathologist.

Autopsies are either performed for legal or medical purposes. A forensic autopsy is carried out when the cause of death may be a criminal matter, while a clinical or academic autopsy is performed to find the medical cause of death and is used in cases of unknown or uncertain death, or for research purposes. Autopsies can be further classified into cases where external examination suffices, and those where the body is dissected and an internal examination is conducted. Permission from next of kin may be required for internal autopsy in some cases. Once an internal autopsy is complete the body is generally reconstituted by sewing it back together.

A necropsy, which is not always a medical procedure, was a term previously used to describe an unregulated postmortem examination. In modern times, this term is more commonly associated with the corpses of animals.

Death before birth
Death before birth can happen in several ways: stillbirth, when the fetus dies before or during the delivery process; miscarriage, when the embryo dies before independent survival; and abortion, the artificial termination of the pregnancy. Stillbirth and miscarriage can happen for various reasons, while abortion is carried out purposely.

Stillbirth
Stillbirth can happen right before or after the delivery of a fetus. It can result from defects of the fetus or risk factors present in the mother. Reductions of these factors, caesarean sections when risks are present, and early detection of birth defects have lowered the rate of stillbirth. However, 1% of births in the United States end in a stillbirth.

Miscarriage
A miscarriage is defined by the World Health Organization as, "The expulsion or extraction from its mother of an embryo or fetus weighing 500g or less." Miscarriage is one of the most frequent problems in pregnancy, and is reported in around 12–15% of all clinical pregnancies; however, by including pregnancy losses during menstruation, it could be up to 17–22% of all pregnancies. There are many risk-factors involved in miscarriage; consumption of caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, drugs, having a previous miscarriage, and the use of abortion can increase the chances of having a miscarriage.

Abortion
An abortion may be performed for many reasons, such as pregnancy from rape, financial constraints of having a child, teenage pregnancy, and the lack of support from a significant other. There are two forms of abortion: a medical abortion and an in-clinic abortion or sometimes referred to as a surgical abortion. A medical abortion involves taking a pill that will terminate the pregnancy no more than 11 weeks past the last period, and an in-clinic abortion involves a medical procedure using suction to empty the uterus; this is possible after 12 weeks, but it may be more difficult to find an operating doctor who will go through with the procedure.

Senescence

Senescence refers to a scenario when a living being can survive all calamities but eventually dies due to causes relating to old age. Conversely, premature death can refer to a death that occurs before old age arrives, for example, human death before a person reaches the age of 75. Animal and plant cells normally reproduce and function during the whole period of natural existence, but the aging process derives from the deterioration of cellular activity and the ruination of regular functioning. The aptitude of cells for gradual deterioration and mortality means that cells are naturally sentenced to stable and long-term loss of living capacities, even despite continuing metabolic reactions and viability. In the United Kingdom, for example, nine out of ten of all the deaths that occur daily relates to senescence, while around the world, it accounts for two-thirds of 150,000 deaths that take place daily.

Almost all animals who survive external hazards to their biological functioning eventually die from biological aging, known in life sciences as "senescence." Some organisms experience negligible senescence, even exhibiting biological immortality. These include the jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii, the hydra, and the planarian. Unnatural causes of death include suicide and predation. Of all causes, roughly 150,000 people die around the world each day. Of these, two-thirds die directly or indirectly due to senescence, but in industrialized countries – such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany – the rate approaches 90% (i.e., nearly nine out of ten of all deaths are related to senescence).

Physiological death is now seen as a process, more than an event: conditions once considered indicative of death are now reversible. Where in the process, a dividing line is drawn between life and death depends on factors beyond the presence or absence of vital signs. In general, clinical death is neither necessary nor sufficient for a determination of legal death. A patient with working heart and lungs determined to be brain dead can be pronounced legally dead without clinical death occurring.

Life extension
Life extension refers to an increase in maximum or average lifespan, especially in humans, by slowing or reversing aging processes through anti-aging measures. Aging is the most common cause of death worldwide. Aging is seen as inevitable, so according to Aubrey de Grey little is spent on research into anti-aging therapies, a phenomenon known as pro-aging trance.

The average lifespan is determined by vulnerability to accidents and age or lifestyle-related afflictions such as cancer or cardiovascular disease. Extension of lifespan can be achieved by good diet, exercise, and avoidance of hazards such as smoking. Maximum lifespan is determined by the rate of aging for a species inherent in its genes. A recognized method of extending maximum lifespan is calorie restriction. Theoretically, the extension of the maximum lifespan can be achieved by reducing the rate of aging damage, by periodic replacement of damaged tissues, molecular repair, or rejuvenation of deteriorated cells and tissues.

A United States poll found religious and irreligious people, as well as men and women and people of different economic classes, have similar rates of support for life extension, while Africans and Hispanics have higher rates of support than white people. 38% said they would desire to have their aging process cured.

Researchers of life extension can be known as "biomedical gerontologists." They try to understand aging, and develop treatments to reverse aging processes, or at least slow them for the improvement of health and maintenance of youthfulness. Those who use life extension findings and apply them to themselves are called "life extensionists" or "longevists." The primary life extension strategy currently is to apply anti-aging methods to attempt to live long enough to benefit from a cure for aging.

Cryonics

Cryonics (from Greek κρύος 'kryos-' meaning 'icy cold') is the low-temperature preservation of animals, including humans, who cannot be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future.

Cryopreservation of people and other large animals is not reversible with current technology. The stated rationale for cryonics is that people who are considered dead by current legal or medical definitions, may not necessarily be dead according to the more stringent 'information-theoretic' definition of death.

Some scientific literature is claimed to support the feasibility of cryonics. Medical science and cryobiologists generally regard cryonics with skepticism.

Location

Around 1930, most people in Western countries died in their own homes, surrounded by family, and comforted by clergy, neighbors, and doctors making house calls. By the mid-20th century, half of all Americans died in a hospital. By the start of the 21st century, only about 20 to 25% of people in developed countries died outside of a medical institution. The shift from dying at home towards dying in a professional medical environment has been termed the "Invisible Death." This shift occurred gradually over the years until most deaths now occur outside the home.

Psychology
Death studies is a field within psychology. To varying degrees people inherently fear death, both the process and the eventuality; it is hard wired and part of the 'survival instinct' of all animals. Discussing, thinking about, or planning for their deaths causes them discomfort. This fear may cause them to put off financial planning, preparing a will and testament, or requesting help from a hospice organization.

Mortality salience is the awareness that death is inevitable. However, self-esteem and culture are ways to reduce the anxiety this effect can cause. The awareness of someone's own death can cause a deepened bond in their in-group as a defense mechanism. This can also cause the person to become very judging. In a study, two groups were formed; one group was asked to reflect upon their mortality, the other was not, afterwards, the groups were told to set a bond for a prostitute. The group that did not reflect on death had an average of $50, the group who was reminded about their death had an average of $455.

Different people have different responses to the idea of their deaths. Philosopher Galen Strawson writes that the death that many people wish for is an instant, painless, unexperienced annihilation. In this unlikely scenario, the person dies without realizing it and without being able to fear it. One moment the person is walking, eating, or sleeping, and the next moment, the person is dead. Strawson reasons that this type of death would not take anything away from the person, as he believes a person cannot have a legitimate claim to ownership in the future.

Society and culture

In society, the nature of death and humanity's awareness of its mortality has, for millennia, been a concern of the world's religious traditions and philosophical inquiry. Including belief in resurrection or an afterlife (associated with Abrahamic religions), reincarnation or rebirth (associated with Dharmic religions), or that consciousness permanently ceases to exist, known as eternal oblivion (associated with Secular humanism).

Commemoration ceremonies after death may include various mourning, funeral practices, and ceremonies of honoring the deceased. The physical remains of a person, commonly known as a corpse or body, are usually interred whole or cremated, though among the world's cultures, there are a variety of other methods of mortuary disposal. In the English language, blessings directed towards a dead person include rest in peace (originally the Latin, requiescat in pace) or its initialism RIP.

Death is the center of many traditions and organizations; customs relating to death are a feature of every culture around the world. Much of this revolves around the care of the dead, as well as the afterlife and the disposal of bodies upon the onset of death. The disposal of human corpses does, in general, begin with the last offices before significant time has passed, and ritualistic ceremonies often occur, most commonly interment or cremation. This is not a unified practice; in Tibet, for instance, the body is given a sky burial and left on a mountain top. Proper preparation for death and techniques and ceremonies for producing the ability to transfer one's spiritual attainments into another body (reincarnation) are subjects of detailed study in Tibet. Mummification or embalming is also prevalent in some cultures to retard the rate of decay.

Some parts of death in culture are legally based, having laws for when death occurs, such as the receiving of a death certificate, the settlement of the deceased estate, and the issues of inheritance and, in some countries, inheritance taxation.

Capital punishment is also a culturally divisive aspect of death. In most jurisdictions where capital punishment is carried out today, the death penalty is reserved for premeditated murder, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some countries, sexual crimes, such as adultery and sodomy, carry the death penalty, as do religious crimes, such as apostasy, the formal renunciation of one's religion. In many retentionist countries, drug trafficking is also a capital offense. In China, human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are also punished by the death penalty. In militaries around the world, courts-martial have imposed death sentences for offenses such as cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny. Mutiny is punishable by death in the United States.

Death in warfare and suicide attacks also have cultural links, and the ideas of dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, which translates to "It is sweet and proper to die for one's country", is a concept that dates to antiquity. Additionally, grieving relatives of dead soldiers and death notification are embedded in many cultures. Recently in the Western world—with the increase in terrorism following the September 11 attacks but also further back in time with suicide bombings, kamikaze missions in World War II, and suicide missions in a host of other conflicts in history—death for a cause by way of suicide attack, including martyrdom, have had significant cultural impacts.

Suicide, in general, and particularly euthanasia, are also points of cultural debate. Both acts are understood very differently in different cultures. In Japan, for example, ending a life with honor by seppuku was considered a desirable death, whereas according to traditional Christian and Islamic cultures, suicide is viewed as a sin.

Death is personified in many cultures, with such symbolic representations as the Grim Reaper, Azrael, the Hindu god Yama, and Father Time. In the west, the Grim Reaper, or figures similar to it, is the most popular depiction of death in western cultures.

In Brazil, death is counted officially when it is registered by existing family members at a cartório, a government-authorized registry. Before being able to file for an official death, the deceased must have been registered for an official birth at the cartório. Though a Public Registry Law guarantees all Brazilian citizens the right to register deaths, regardless of their financial means of their family members (often children), the Brazilian government has not taken away the burden, the hidden costs, and fees of filing for a death. For many impoverished families, the indirect costs and burden of filing for a death lead to a more appealing, unofficial, local, and cultural burial, which, in turn, raises the debate about inaccurate mortality rates.

Talking about death and witnessing it is a difficult issue in most cultures. Western societies may like to treat the dead with the utmost material respect, with an official embalmer and associated rites. Eastern societies (like India) may be more open to accepting it as a fait accompli, with a funeral procession of the dead body ending in an open-air burning-to-ashes.

Origins of death
The origin of death is a theme or myth of how death came to be. It is present in nearly all cultures across the world, as death is a universal happening. This makes it an origin myth, a myth that describes how a feature of the natural or social world appeared. There can be some similarities between myths and cultures. In North American mythology, the theme of a man who wants to be immortal and a man who wants to die can be seen across many Indigenous people. In Christianity, death is the result of the fall of man after eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In Greek mythology, the opening of Pandora's box releases death upon the world.

Consciousness
Much interest and debate surround the question of what happens to one's consciousness as one's body dies. The belief in the permanent loss of consciousness after death is often called eternal oblivion. The belief that the stream of consciousness is preserved after physical death is described by the term afterlife. Neither is likely to be confirmed without the ponderer having to die.

Near-death experiences (NDEs) are the closest thing people have to an afterlife that we know. Some people who have had near-death experiences report that they have seen the afterlife while they were dead. Seeing a being of light and talking with it, life flashing before the eyes, and the confirmation of cultural beliefs of the afterlife are all themes that happen during the moments they are dead.

In biology

After death, the remains of a former organism become part of the biogeochemical cycle, during which animals may be consumed by a predator or a scavenger. Organic material may then be further decomposed by detritivores, organisms that recycle detritus, returning it to the environment for reuse in the food chain, where these chemicals may eventually end up being consumed and assimilated into the cells of an organism. Examples of detritivores include earthworms, woodlice, and millipedes.

Microorganisms also play a vital role, raising the temperature of the decomposing matter as they break it down into yet simpler molecules. Not all materials need to be fully decomposed. Coal, a fossil fuel formed over vast tracts of time in swamp ecosystems, is one example.

Natural selection
The contemporary evolutionary theory sees death as an important part of the process of natural selection. It is considered that organisms less adapted to their environment are more likely to die, having produced fewer offspring, thereby reducing their contribution to the gene pool. Their genes are thus eventually bred out of a population, leading at worst to extinction and, more positively, making the process possible, referred to as speciation. Frequency of reproduction plays an equally important role in determining species survival: an organism that dies young but leaves numerous offspring displays, according to Darwinian criteria, much greater fitness than a long-lived organism leaving only one.

Death also has a role in competition, where if a species out-competes another, there is a risk of death for the population, especially in the case where they are directly fighting over resources.

Extinction

Death plays a role in extinction, the cessation of existence of a species or group of taxa, reducing biodiversity, due to extinction being generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species (although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point). Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively.

Evolution of aging and mortality
Inquiry into the evolution of aging aims to explain why so many living things and the vast majority of animals weaken and die with age. However, there are exceptions, such as Hydra and the jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii, which research shows to be biologically immortal.

Organisms showing only asexual reproduction, such as bacteria, some protists, like the euglenoids and many amoebozoans, and unicellular organisms with sexual reproduction, colonial or not, like the volvocine algae Pandorina and Chlamydomonas, are "immortal" at some extent, dying only due to external hazards, like being eaten or meeting with a fatal accident. In multicellular organisms and also in multinucleate ciliates with a Weismannist development, that is, with a division of labor between mortal somatic (body) cells and "immortal" germ (reproductive) cells, death becomes an essential part of life, at least for the somatic line.

The Volvox algae are among the simplest organisms to exhibit that division of labor between two completely different cell types, and as a consequence, include the death of somatic line as a regular, genetically regulated part of its life history.

Grief in animals
Animals have sometimes shown grief for their partners or "friends." When two chimpanzees form a bond together, sexual or not, and one of them dies, the surviving chimpanzee will show signs of grief, ripping out their hair in anger and starting to cry; if the body is removed, they will resist, they will eventually go quiet when the body is gone, but upon seeing the body again, the chimp will return to a violent state.

Furthermore, anthropologist Barbara J. King has suggested that one way to evaluate the expression of grief in animals is to look for altered behaviors such as social withdrawal, disrupted eating or sleeping, expression of affect, or increased stress reactions in response to the death of a family member, mate, or friend. These criteria do not assume the ability to anticipate death, understand its finality, or experience emotions equivalent to those of humans, but at the same time do not rule out the possibility of those abilities existing in some animals or that different kinds of emotional experiences might constitute grief. Based on these criteria, King gives examples of observed potential mourning behaviors in animals such as cetaceans, apes and monkeys, elephants, domesticated animals (including dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, and farmed animals), giraffes, peccaries, donkeys, prairie voles, and some species of birds.

Death of abiotic factors
Some non-living things can be considered dead. For example, a volcano, batteries, electrical components, and stars are all nonliving things that can "die," whether from destruction or cessation of function.

A volcano, a break in the earth's crust that allows lava, ash, and gases to escape, has three states that it may be in, active, dormant, and extinct. An active volcano has recently or is currently erupting; in a dormant volcano, it has not erupted for a significant amount of time, but it may erupt again; in an extinct volcano, it may be cut off from the supply of its lava and will never be expected to erupt again, so the volcano can be considered to be dead.

A battery can be considered dead after the charge is fully used up. Electrical components are similar in this fashion, in the case that it may not be able to be used again, such as after a spill of water on the components, the component can be considered dead.

Stars also have a life-span and, therefore, can die. After it starts to run out of fuel, it starts to expand, this can be analogous to the star aging. After it exhausts all fuel, it may explode in a supernova, collapse into a black hole, or turn into a neutron star.

Buddhism
In Buddhist doctrine and practice, death plays an important role. Awareness of death motivated Prince Siddhartha to strive to find the "deathless" and finally attain enlightenment. In Buddhist doctrine, death functions as a reminder of the value of having been born as a human being. Rebirth as a human being is considered the only state in which one can attain enlightenment. Therefore, death helps remind oneself that one should not take life for granted. The belief in rebirth among Buddhists does not necessarily remove death anxiety since all existence in the cycle of rebirth is considered filled with suffering, and being reborn many times does not necessarily mean that one progresses.

Death is part of several key Buddhist tenets, such as the Four Noble Truths and dependent origination.

Christianity

While there are different sects of Christianity with different branches of belief, the overarching ideology on death grows from the knowledge of the afterlife. After death, the individual will undergo a separation from mortality to immortality; their soul leaves the body, entering a realm of spirits. Following this separation of body and spirit (death), resurrection will occur. Representing the same transformation Jesus Christ embodied after his body was placed in the tomb for three days, each person's body will be resurrected, reuniting the spirit and body in a perfect form. This process allows the individual's soul to withstand death and transform into life after death.

Hinduism

In Hindu texts, death is described as the individual eternal spiritual jiva-atma (soul or conscious self) exiting the current temporary material body. The soul exits this body when the body can no longer sustain the conscious self (life), which may be due to mental or physical reasons or, more accurately, the inability to act on one's kama (material desires). During conception, the soul enters a compatible new body based on the remaining merits and demerits of one's karma (good/bad material activities based on dharma) and the state of one's mind (impressions or last thoughts) at the time of death.

Usually, the process of reincarnation makes one forget all memories of one's previous life. Because nothing really dies and the temporary material body is always changing, both in this life and the next, death means forgetfulness of one's previous experiences.

Islam
The Islamic view is that death is the separation of the soul from the body as well as the beginning of the afterlife. The afterlife, or akhirah, is one of the six main beliefs in Islam. Rather than seeing death as the end of life, Muslims consider death as a continuation of life in another form. In Islam, life on earth right now is a short, temporary life and a testing period for every soul. True life begins with the Day of Judgement when all people will be divided into two groups. The righteous believers will be welcomed to janna (heaven), and the disbelievers and evildoers will be punished in jahannam (hellfire).

Muslims believe death to be wholly natural and predetermined by God. Only God knows the exact time of a person's death. The Quran emphasizes that death is inevitable, no matter how much people try to escape death, it will reach everyone. (Q50:16) Life on earth is the one and only chance for people to prepare themselves for the life to come and choose to either believe or not believe in God, and death is the end of that learning opportunity.

Judaism
There are a variety of beliefs about the afterlife within Judaism, but none of them contradict the preference for life over death. This is partially because death puts a cessation to the possibility of fulfilling any commandments.

Language
The word "death" comes from Old English dēaþ, which in turn comes from Proto-Germanic *dauþuz (reconstructed by etymological analysis). This comes from the Proto-Indo-European stem *dheu- meaning the "process, act, condition of dying."

The concept and symptoms of death, and varying degrees of delicacy used in discussion in public forums, have generated numerous scientific, legal, and socially acceptable terms or euphemisms. When a person has died, it is also said they have "passed away", "passed on", "expired", or "gone", among other socially accepted, religiously specific, slang, and irreverent terms.

As a formal reference to a dead person, it has become common practice to use the participle form of "decease", as in "the deceased"; another noun form is "decedent".

Bereft of life, the dead person is a "corpse", "cadaver", "body", "set of remains", or when all flesh is gone, a "skeleton". The terms "carrion" and "carcass" are also used, usually for dead non-human animals. The ashes left after a cremation are lately called "cremains".

title: Death