The year in review: Influential people who have died in 2026

Gloria Steinem, author and activist for women's movement, died in September; she co-founded Ms. Magazine.

Tung Chee-hwa, shipping tycoon, died in September; he was the first leader of Hong Kong after British colonial rule ended in 1997.

Japanese baseball great Isao Harimoto, jazz singer Cassandra Wilson and former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl also died in September.

Diane Crump, 77, died Jan. 1; in 1969 she became the first woman to ride professionally in a horse race and in 1970 the first female jockey in the Kentucky Derby.

January: Deaths including Diane Crump, Aldrich Ames, Béla Tarr, Glenn Hall, Bob Weir, Scott Adams, Claudette Colvin, Valentino Garavani, William Foege, Catherine O'Hara and others. · February: Deaths including X.J. Kennedy, Chuck Negron, Mickey Lolich, James Van Der Beek, Robert Duvall, Frederick Wiseman, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Eric Dane, Bill Mazeroski, Neil Sedaka and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. · March: Deaths including Kermit Gosnell, Lou Holtz, Bernard LaFayette, 'Country' Joe McDonald, Alexander Butterfield, Nicholas Haysom, Chuck Norris, Umberto Bossi and Robert S. Mueller III. · September: Deaths of Gloria Steinem, Tung Chee-hwa, Isao Harimoto, Cassandra Wilson and Jon Kyl.

77 age at death · 1997 year · 502 NHL record starts · 86 age at death · 99 age at death