Yearender 2018: Newsmakers the world bid farewell to

New Delhi: The year 2018 has witnessed the demise of several renowned personalities which include people from political, science and sports backgrounds. Here's a look at some of the newsmakers, whose death created a void in their respective professional worlds.

INDIA

Karunanidhi

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) patriarch M Karunanidhi breathed his last on August 7, 2018, in Chennai Kauvery Hospital. Born on June 3, 1924, Karunanidhi was elected to the Tamil 
Nadu Assembly for the first time in 1957. The DMK veteran was also one of the most sworn-in Chief Ministers in the country's history. He took oath as Tamil Nadu CM a whopping five times
. The veteran leader contested in 13 Assembly elections, of the 15 that have been held since Independence. He has had really bad scares in counting in 1980 and 1991. There have also been
elections when has won with massive margins, like the 1996 election which he won with a mindboggling margin of 59.88 per cent. Karunanidhi never contested for a Lok Sabha seat.

Somnath Chatterjee

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee breathed his last on August 13, 2018, following a cardiac arrest. Somnath had been suffering from a kidney-related ailment. A CPI(M) veteran 
Somnath was expelled from his party in 2008. The 89-year-old had undergone dialysis and suffered a haemorrhagic stroke a month before he died. Somnath was a 10-time Lok Sabha 
MP and was a central committee member of the Communist Party. He had stepped into the world of politics in 1968. He served as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009. The 
10-time Lok Sabha MP is survived by his wife Renu, a son and two daughters. Somnath was a die-hard fan and a member of the Mohun Bagan football club. The veteran leader was expelled
from the for refusing to resign as the Speaker after his party withdrew support to the UPA-I government.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee died on August 16, 2018, at All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in Delhi following a prolonged illness. The veteran leader, who led the 
National Democratic Alliance government from 1998-2004, was the first ever person from the BJP to have become the nation's Prime Minister. Vajpayee served as Prime Minister thrice - 
briefly in 1996, and then for two terms between 1998 and 2004. The nation on December 25, 2018, remembered Vajpayee on his 94th birth anniversary. A leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party 
(BJP), Vajpayee, was born on December 25, 1924, in Gwalior and was 10th prime minister of India. The veteran BJP leader served three terms as the prime minister - first for a period of 13 
days in 1996, then for 13 months from 1998 to 1999, and a full term from 1999 to 2004. The administration of Narendra Modi in 2014 declared that Vajpayee's birthday would be marked as 
Good Governance Day. He was conferred India`s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, by then President Pranab Mukherjee in 2015.

Ajit Wadekar

Former Indian cricket team captain Ajit Wadekar died on August 15, 2018, at the age of 77. The legendary cricketer died in a hospital in Mumbai after a prolonged illness. Wadekar is best remembered
for leading the Indian cricket team in its first series win against England in England in 1971. The team under him won the three-match series 1-0, with two draws. He was born as 
Ajit Laxman Wadekar on April 1, 1941, in Mumbai. The left-handed batsman has always been rated as one of the finest players in the cricketing history. Wadekar played 37 Tests and 2 One 
Day International matches. His batting average in Tests was 31.07. The former captain hit 14 Test 50s and one century. He made his international Test debut against West Indies in Mumbai in 
1966, and played his last at Birmingham against England in 1974. His ODI debut was against England at Leeds in 1974 itself. In his one-half century in the ODI format, Wadekar was considered
to be one of the best batsmen to come in at the number 3 slot in Tests and was also a brilliant fielder.

Madan Lal Khurana 

Former Chief Minister of Delhi Madan Lal Khurana died in Delhi following a prolonged illness on October 28, 2018. Khurana was the chief minister of Delhi from 1993 to 1996. He represented
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was a member of RSS. Khurana had also served as Governor of Rajasthan in 2004. He was the third chief minister of Delhi, succeeded by 
Sahib Singh Verma. An ideal swayamsewak and a dedicated Vidhyarti Parishad worker and a strong pillar of the Jan Sangh, Khurana was popular as the 'lion of Delhi'. He died at the age of 
82 and is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters.

Ananth Kumar

Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar died at the age of 59 in the wee hours of November 12 in Bengaluru. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader died at a private hospital after
battling cancer. Kumar represented Bengaluru South Lok Sabha constituency for six terms since 1996. The departed leader was also Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers in the NDA-
led government since May 2014. Kumar had climbed the political ladder steadily from being an RSS worker to becoming a Union minister in his thirties. He had been in the inner circle of the central leadership of the BJP - be it during the heydays of Atal Bihari Vajpayee or LK Advani and then Narendra Modi. A lawyer by qualification, Kumar was born on July 22, 1959, in Bengaluru. He pursued his graduation in Arts from KS Arts College in Hubli and later went on to complete LLB from JSS Law College. He is survived by wife Tejaswini and two daughters, Aishwarya and Vijeta.

WORLD

Stephen Hawking

Renowned British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking died on March 14 after suffering from complications due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) - a progressive neurodegenerative disease. He was 76. Born in 1942, Hawking was known as one of the biggest pioneers of science - his life and work fascinating people for decades. Best known for his work on black holes, the cosmologist theorized that contrary to the prevailing scientific belief that black holes were inescapable for all forms of matter and energy, they actually emitted a form of radiation - now known as Hawking radiation. He also played a key role in the mathematical effort to unify Einstein's general theory of relativity with the emergent field of quantum physics. Hawking skyrocketed to public prominence in 1988, when he published his first general-audience book, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. He was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, more than half a century ago and was given just 10 years to live. Despite his condition, he garnered many achievements to his name, including beating the odds of survival with his medical condition. In 2002, Hawking was ranked number 25 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons and in 2009, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the former president of the US Barack Obama.

Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan, the former United NationsSecretary-Generall and Nobel Peace Prize laureate died after a short illness on August 18, 2018. He was 80. Annan, of Ghanaian nationality, died in hospital in Bern, Switzerland, in the early hours of August 18, 2018. He was the first black African to take up the role UN chief, serving two terms from 1997 to 2006. He and the UN were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in 2001 for his commitment towards human rights, fight against HIV in Africa and opposition to international terrorism. Annan was a global statesman and a deeply committed internationalist who fought throughout his life for a fairer and more peaceful world. During his distinguished career and leadership of the United Nations, he was an ardent champion of peace, sustainable development, human rights and the rule of law. After stepping down from the United Nations, he continued to work tirelessly in the cause of peace through his chairmanship of the Kofi Annan Foundation and as chair of The Elders, the group founded by Nelson Mandela. Annan was a son of Ghana and felt a special responsibility towards Africa. He was particularly committed to African development and deeply engaged in many initiatives, including his chairmanship of the Africa Progress Panel and his early leadership of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). He is survived by his wife Nane and children Ama, Kojo and Nina.

George HW Bush and Barbara Bush

Former US President George Herbert Walker Bush died on December 1, 2018, at the age of 94. He was the 41st president of the United States and lived longer than any of his predecessors. The former US President presided over the end of the Cold War and routed Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army but lost a chance for a second term after breaking a no-new-taxes pledge. Bush Senior, as he was popularly known, was suffering from a form of Parkinson's disease due to which he had been confined to a wheelchair or motorised scooter in recent years. He has frequently been in and out of hospitals due to his declining health. His death comes just eight months after the death of his wife Babara who died at the age of 73. A day after he attended his wife's funeral in April, he was admitted to hospital for a blood infection. He had to be admitted for 13 days. He had attended his wife's funeral in Houston in a wheelchair and wore a pair of colourful socks festooned with books, in honour of his late wife's commitment to literacy. The elder Bush, a Republican like his sons, also served as vice president for eight years during Ronald Reagan's two terms as president, before being elected to the White House himself.  He defeated former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, the Democratic nominee, in the 1988 presidential campaign, and lost his 1992 re-election bid to Democrat Bill Clinton.