Here are some notable figures who died in 2012 from the entertainment, literature, political and scientific spheres among others.
January
4: US photographer Eve Arnold, who took classic pictures of Marilyn Monroe among other stars, at 99, in London.
13: Rauf Denktash, veteran leader of the Turkish-Cypriot population and their breakaway state in Northern Cyprus, at 87, in Nicosia.
20: Pioneering US blues singer Etta James, at 73, in California.
24: Greek film director Theo Angelopoulos.
February
11: US pop singer Whitney Houston, found in her Los Angeles hotel room, at 48, after a long battle with drugs and depression.
16: Anthony Shadid, Pulitzer prize-winning reporter for the New York Times, at 43, after suffering an asthma attack while covering the conflict in Syria.
22: American reporter Marie Colvin, 56, and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik, 28. Killed by government shelling in Syria.
29: Davy Jones, lead singer of the 1960s US pop band The Monkees, at 66, in Florida.
March
17: Pope Shenuda III, leader of the Coptic Church, the largest Christian denomination in the Middle East, at 88, in Cairo.
17: Former Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk, convicted of war crimes in Germany in 2011 after living most of his post-war life in the US, at 91, in a Bavarian care home.
25: Antonio Tabucchi, a prominent Italian writer and critic of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, at 68, in Lisbon.
April
5: Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, the designer of the iconic 911 sportscar, at 76, in Salzburg, Austria.
10: Raymond Aubrac, prominent leader of the French resistance against the Nazis in World War II, at 97, in Paris.
11: Ahmed Ben Bella, first President of an independent Algeria, at 95, in Algiers.
May
8: US children’s author Maurice Sendak, creator of Where the Wild Things Are, at 83, in Connecticut.
15: Mexican author and major novelist in the Spanish-speaking world Carlos Fuentes, at 83, in Mexico City.
17: US disco singer Donna Summer, known such 1970s and 1980s as I Feel Love, at 63, of lung cancer in Florida.
20: Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, the only person convicted over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing which killed 270 people, at 60, in Libya, nearly three years after his release from prison on compassionate grounds.
21: Robin Gibb, singer with the legendary British band the Bee Gees, at 62, in London after a lengthy battle with cancer.
June
5: US science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury, author of The Martian Chronicles among other works, at 91, in Los Angeles.
16: Saudi Arabia announces the death of Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, at 79. He is believed to have died in Geneva.
30: Yitzhak Shamir, two-time Prime Minister of Israel who opposed giving territory to the Palestinians, at 96, near Tel Aviv.
July
23: Sally Ride, the first American woman to go into space, at 61, of cancer in California.
23: John Atta Mills, President of Ghana, at 68, after a brief illness.
August
1: American essayist and novelist Gore Vidal, known for his caustic wit and anti-establishment views, at 86, in Los Angeles.
13: US publisher Helen Gurley Brown, who made Cosmopolitan magazine into a powerhouse with sex tips for women, at 90, in New York.
18: US singer Scott McKenzie, whose San Francisco became the unofficial hymn of the 1960s hippie movement, at 73, in Los Angeles.
21: Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, at 57, in Addis Ababa after a long illness.
25: US astronaut Neil Armstrong, who announced “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”, when he became the first person to set foot on the moon in July 1969, at 82, in Ohio.
September
3: Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon, founder of the worldwide Unification Church and its business empire, at 92, near Seoul.
25: US singer Andy Williams, best known for his rendering of Moon River, at 84, in Missouri.
October
21: US Democratic politician George McGovern, who opposed the Vietnam War but lost the 1972 presidential election to Richard Nixon, at 90, in South Dakota.
27: Hans Werner Henze, Germany’s most prominent composer of contemporary music, at 86, in Dresden.
November
14: Palestinian activist Ahmed Jaabari, head of the military forces of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, killed by an Israeli missile fired at his car.
23: US actor Larry Hagman, famous as JR in the 1980s TV series Dallas, at 81, from cancer in the Texan city for which the series was named.
December
5: American jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck, of Take Five fame, at 91, in Connecticut.
5: Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who designed much of the country’s futuristic capital Brasilia, at 104, in Rio de Janeiro.
11: Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar, who influenced musicians from the Beatles to Yehudi Menuhin, at 92, in San Diego.
14: Maurice Herzog, the French climber who conquered Annapurna in the first recorded ascent of a peak above 8,000 metres, at 93, in a Paris suburb.
17: Dina Manfredini, the world’s oldest person, at 115, in Iowa.
26: Gerry Anderson, the British director and creator of the cult sci-fi animation series Thunderbirds, at 83, in Oxfordshire, England.