List of Famous people who died at 79

Gaetano Kanizsa was an Italian psychologist and artist of Jewish descent and of Slovenian Catholic descent who last served as a founder of the Institute of Psychology of Trieste.

Amiri Baraka, previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous books of poetry and taught at several universities, including the University at Buffalo and Stony Brook University. He received the PEN/Beyond Margins Award in 2008 for Tales of the Out and the Gone.

Carlos Paredes ComSE was a virtuoso Portuguese guitar player and composer. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of Portuguese guitar of all-time.

Abdulrahman Fawzi was an Egyptian professional football player and manager, who played as a winger. He played for Al-Masry SC and Zamalek SC as well as the Egypt national football team. He took part at the 1934 FIFA World Cup, where he scored twice for Egypt in their 4–2 loss against Hungary, which was the first time that an African team had competed at the FIFA World Cup. He was thus, the first African footballer to score at the World Cup. He would have been the first African to score a hat trick at the World Cup but his third goal was disallowed. The Egyptian goalkeeper that day, Mustafa Mansour, later said:

"When the game was 2–2, my colleague Fawzi took the ball from the centre and dribbled past all the Hungarian players to score a third goal. But, the referee cancelled the goal as an offside!"

Gerard Fitt, Baron Fitt was a politician in Northern Ireland. He was a founder and the first leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), a social democratic and Irish nationalist party.