List of Famous people who died in 1996

Leonard Ray Blanton was an American businessman and politician who served as Governor of Tennessee from 1975 to 1979. He also served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1967 to 1973. Though he initiated a number of government reforms and was instrumental in bringing foreign investment to Tennessee, his term as governor was marred by scandal, namely over the selling of pardons and liquor licenses.

Yelena Grigorievna Mazanik was the Soviet partisan responsible for the assassination of General-Kommissar of Nazi-occupied Belarus Wilhelm Kube by placing a small timebomb under his bed while working for him as a housemaid. For assassinating him she and her co-conspirators were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 29 October 1943 by decree of the Supreme Soviet.

Tarō Okamoto was a Japanese artist noted for his abstract and avant-garde paintings and sculpture.

Aruna Asaf Ali was an Indian educator, political activist, and publisher. An active participant in the Indian independence movement, she is widely remembered for hoisting the Indian National flag at the Gowalia Tank maidan, Bombay during a Quit India Movement in 1942. Post-independence, she remained active in politics, becoming Delhi's first Mayor.

Neville Ness Wadia was an Indian businessman, philanthropist and a member of the Wadia family, an old Parsi family which, by the 1840s, was one of the leading forces in the Indian shipbuilding industry, having built over a hundred warships for the British and having established trading networks around the world. In addition to his successful business career, one of the Parsi community's most prominent and influential businessmen.

John Martin was an English spree killer who murdered three tourists—Gerard Lowe in Singapore, and Sheila and Darin Damude in Thailand—with another three unconfirmed victims. He posed as a tourist himself when committing the murders, for which British tabloids nicknamed him "the tourist from Hell". He cut up all his victims' bodies, using butchery skills he had acquired in prison, before disposing of them.

Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet was a French entrepreneur and advertising magnate best known as the founder of Publicis Groupe.

Abdul Hafeez Kardar pronunciation (help·info) or Abdul Kardar was a Pakistani cricketer and politician. He was the first captain of the Pakistan Test cricket team. He is one of the only three players to have played Test cricket for both India and Pakistan, the other two being Amir Elahi and Gul Mohammad.

John Neil Reagan was an American radio station manager, CBS senior producer, and senior vice president of McCann Erickson. He was the older brother of the Hollywood star and former United States President Ronald Reagan.

Ryōtarō Shiba , born Teiichi Fukuda , was a Japanese author best known for his novels about historical events in Japan and on the Northeast Asian sub-continent, as well as his historical and cultural essays pertaining to Japan and its relationship to the rest of the world.