This list of notable funerals represents considerable historical funerals, based on both the number of attendants and estimated television audience.
Funeral | Date | Country | City | No. of attendees | Television audience |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Funeral of Ludwig van Beethoven | March 29, 1827 | Austrian Empire | Vienna | ~20,000 [1] | |
Funeral of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington | November 18, 1852 | United Kingdom | London | 1,500,000 [2] | |
Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln | April 19 – May 3, 1865 | United States | East and Midwest | 150,000 [3] | |
State funeral of Victor Hugo | June 1, 1885 | French Third Republic | Paris | 2,000,000–3,000,000 [4] | |
Funeral of August Spies, George Engel, Adolph Fischer, and Albert Parsons | November 13, 1887 | United States | Chicago | ~500,000 [5] | |
Funeral of Wilhelm I | March 12–16, 1888 | German Empire | Berlin | 200,000 [6] | |
State funeral of Pedro II of Brazil | December 9, 1891 | French Third Republic | Paris | 200,000–300,000 [7] [8] | |
Funeral of Henry George | October 29, 1897 | United States | New York City | 100,000 [9] | |
Funeral of Giuseppe Verdi | January 30, 1901 | Italy | Milan | 10,000 (private ceremony) [10] | |
February 27, 1901 | 300,000 (State funeral) [10] | ||||
Funeral of Sholem Aleichem | May 13, 1916 | United States | New York City | at least 250,000 [11] | |
Funerals of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht | June 13, 1919 | Weimar Republic | Berlin | 200,000 [12] | |
Funeral of Michael Collins | August 28, 1922 | Ireland | Dublin | 500,000 [13] | |
Funeral of Rudolph Valentino | August 30, 1926 | United States | New York City | at least 100,000 [14] | |
State funeral of Jānis Čakste | March 18, 1927 | Latvia | Rīga | up to 200,000 [15] | |
Funeral of Engelbert Dollfuss | July 30, 1934 | Federal State of Austria | Vienna | Approx.500,000 [16] | |
Funeral of Paul von Hindenburg | August 6–7, 1934 | Nazi Germany | Tannenberg Memorial, Hohenstein in Ostpreußen | 200,000 [17] | (via radio, not television) at least 1,000,000 [18] |
State funeral of Józef Piłsudski | May 18, 1935 | Poland | Kraków | up to 250,000 [19] [20] | |
Funeral of Huey Long | September 12, 1935 | United States | Baton Rouge | ~200,000 [21] | |
State funeral of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk | September 21, 1937 | Czechoslovakia | Prague | 500–750,000 [22] | |
Funeral of Roman Dmowski | January 7, 1939 | Poland | Warsaw | 200,000 [23] | |
State funeral of Pedro Aguirre Cerda | November 28, 1941 | Chile | Santiago | 700,000 [24] | |
Funeral of Mahatma Gandhi | February 6, 1948 | India | New Delhi | at least 2,000,000 [25] [26] | |
Funeral of John Garfield | May 23, 1952 | United States | New York | 10,000 [27] [28] | |
State funeral of Eva Perón | August 9, 1952 | Argentina | Buenos Aires | 3,000,000 [29] | |
Funeral of Carmen Miranda | August 12, 1955 | Brazil | Rio de Janeiro | 500,000 [30] | |
Funeral of B. R. Ambedkar | December 6, 1956 | India | Mumbai | at least 500,000 [31] | |
State funeral of Gershon Agron | November 2, 1959 | Israel | Jerusalem | at least 40,000 [32] [33] | |
State funeral of John F. Kennedy | November 25, 1963 | United States | Washington, D.C. | 550,000 [34] | 41,500,000 [35] |
State funeral of Jawaharlal Nehru | May 28, 1964 | India | New Delhi | 1,500,000 [36] | |
State funeral of Winston Churchill | January 30, 1965 | United Kingdom | London | (6,000 at funeral service) 500,000 [37] [38] | 350,000,000 [37] |
State funeral of Hendrik Verwoerd | September 10, 1966 | South Africa | Pretoria | 250,000 [39] | |
Funeral of Mir Osman Ali Khan | February 25, 1967 | India | Hyderabad | 800,000 [40] [41] | |
Funeral of Lorenzo Bandini | May 10, 1967 | Italy | Reggiolo | 100,000 [42] | |
Funeral of Martin Luther King Jr. | April 9, 1968 | United States | Atlanta | 300,000 [43] | 120,000,000 [35] |
State Funeral of Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu C. N. Annadurai | February 3, 1969 | India | Madras | 15,000,000 [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] | |
State funeral of Ho Chi Minh | September 9, 1969 | North Vietnam | Hanoi | 250,000 [51] | |
State funeral of Gamal Abdel Nasser | October 1, 1970 | Egypt | Cairo | at least 5,000,000 [52] [53] [54] | |
State funeral of Juan Perón | July 2–4, 1974 | Argentina | Buenos Aires | at least 1,135,000 [55] | |
Funeral of Umm Kulthum | February 3, 1975 | Egypt | Cairo | at least 1,000,000 [56] [57] | |
State funeral of Chiang Kai-shek | April 10–16, 1975 | Taiwan | Taipei | at least 2,500,000 [58] | |
State funeral of Francisco Franco | November 22–23, 1975 | Spain | Madrid | 300,000–500,000 [59] [60] | |
State funeral of Mao Zedong | September 9–18, 1976 | China | Beijing | at least 1,000,000 [61] | |
Funeral of Elvis Presley | August 16–18, 1977 | United States | Memphis | 75,000 [62] | |
State funeral of Sir Robert Menzies | May 19, 1978 | Australia | Melbourne | ~100,000 [63] | |
State funeral of Houari Boumédiène | December 29, 1978 | Algeria | Algiers | ||
State funeral of Park Chung-hee | November 3, 1979 | South Korea | Seoul | ~2,000,000 [64] | |
State funeral of Josip Broz Tito | May 8, 1980 | Yugoslavia | Belgrade | ~700,000 [65] | |
Funeral of Bobby Sands | May 7, 1981 | United Kingdom | Belfast | at least 100,000 [66] | |
State funeral of Bob Marley | May 21, 1981 | Jamaica | Kingston | ~100,000 [67] | |
State funeral of Ziaur Rahman | June 2, 1981 | Bangladesh | Dhaka | ~2,000,000 [68] [69] | |
Funeral of Aleksandar Ranković | August 22, 1983 | Yugoslavia | Belgrade | ~100,000 [70] [71] [72] | |
Funeral of Benigno Aquino Jr. | August 31, 1983 | Philippines | Metro Manila | at least 2,000,000 [73] | |
Funeral of Enrico Berlinguer | June 13, 1984 | Italy | Rome | at least 1,000,000 [74] | |
State Funeral of Indira Gandhi | November 3, 1984 | India | Delhi | at least 1,000,000 [75] | |
Funeral of M.G. Ramachandran | December 24, 1987 | India | Madras | at least 1,000,000 [75] | |
State Funeral of Muhammad Zia Ul Haq | August 19, 1988 | Pakistan | Islamabad | ~1,000,000 [76] | |
State funeral of Hirohito | February 24, 1989 | Japan | Tokyo | at least 250,000 [77] | |
State funeral of Ruhollah Khomeini | June 5–6, 1989 | Iran | Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini, Tehran | ~10,200,000 [52] | |
Re-burial of Imre Nagy | June 16, 1989 | Hungary | Budapest | 150–250,000 [78] | |
Funeral of Uğur Mumcu | January 27, 1993 | Turkey | Istanbul | 100–150,000 [79] | |
State Funeral of Turgut Özal | April 21, 1993 [80] | Turkey | Ankara | at least 100,000 [81] | |
Funeral of Richard Nixon | April 26–27, 1994 | United States | Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Yorba Linda, California | at least 54,000 [82] | 28,300,000 [83] |
Funeral of Ayrton Senna | May 5, 1994 | Brazil | São Paulo | at least 3,000,000 [34] | (in Brazil) at least 100,000,000 [84] [85] |
State funeral of Kim Il-sung | July 19, 1994 | North Korea | Pyongyang | 2,000,000 [86] | |
Funeral of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez | April 3, 1995 | United States | Corpus Christi, Texas | at least 70,000 | |
Funeral of Sibel Yalçın | June 16, 1995 | Turkey | Istanbul | at least 10,000 | |
Funeral of Yahya Ayyash | January 6, 1996 | Palestine | Gaza | at least 100,000 [87] | |
Funeral of Alparslan Türkeş | April 8, 1997 | Turkey | Ankara | at least 100,000 [88] | |
Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales | September 6, 1997 | United Kingdom | London and Althorp, Northamptonshire | (2,000 at funeral service) at least 1,000,000 [89] [90] | 2.5×10 9 [90] |
State funeral of Mother Teresa | September 13, 1997 | India | Calcutta | 1,000,000 [91] | at least 1,000,000 [35] |
State funeral of King Hussein of Jordan | February 8, 1999 | Jordan | Amman | ~800,000 [92] | |
State funeral of Pierre Trudeau | October 3, 2000 | Canada | Montreal | at least 1,000 [93] | |
Funeral of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother | April 9, 2002 | United Kingdom | London | at least 1,000,000 [94] | |
State funeral of Zoran Đinđić | March 15, 2003 | FR Yugoslavia | Belgrade | 200,000 [95] [96] | |
State funeral of Heydar Aliyev | December 15, 2003 | Azerbaijan | Baku | 250,000 [97] | |
State funeral of Ronald Reagan | June 7, 2004 | United States | Simi Valley, California and Washington, D.C. | 104,684 [98] | 35,700,000 [99] |
Funeral of Fernando Poe Jr. | December 22, 2004 | Philippines | Metro Manila | ~300,000 [100] | |
Funeral of Pope John Paul II | April 8, 2005 | Vatican City | Rome | 4,000,000 [101] [102] | 2×10 9 [35] |
State Funeral of Ibrahim Rugova | January 27, 2006 | Kosovo | Pristhina | 1,000,000 [103] | |
State funeral of Gerald Ford | December 30, 2006 – January 3, 2007 | United States | Washington, D.C., and Grand Rapids, Michigan | 3,700 [104] | 15,000,000 [83] |
Funeral of Hrant Dink | January 23, 2007 | Turkey | Istanbul | at least 200,000 [105] | |
Funeral of Dursun Karataş | August 11, 2008 | Turkey | Istanbul | 15,000–20,000 [106] | |
Michael Jackson memorial service | July 7, 2009 | United States | Staples Center, Los Angeles | 17,500 [107] | 3×10 9 [108] [109] |
Funeral of Corazon Aquino | August 1–5, 2009 | Philippines | Metro Manila | ~122,000 [110] | |
State funeral of Pavle, Serbian Patriarch | November 19, 2009 | Serbia | Rakovica Monastery, Belgrade | at least 500,000 [111] | |
Funeral of Necmettin Erbakan | March 1, 2011 | Turkey | Istanbul | 400,000–2,000,000 [112] [113] | |
State funeral of Sri Sathya Sai Baba | April 24, 2011 | India | Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh | 500,000 [114] | |
Funeral of Otto von Habsburg | July 16, 2011 | Austria | Vienna | ~101,000 [115] | 413,000–557,000 [116] |
Funeral of Bhupen Hazarika | November 9, 2011 | India | Guwahati | at least 600,000 [117] | |
State funeral of Kim Jong-il | December 28, 2011 | North Korea | Pyongyang | 200,000 [118] | |
Funeral of Pope Shenouda III | March 20, 2012 | Egypt | Cairo | at least 1,000,000 [119] | |
State funeral of Bal Thackeray | November 18–19, 2012 | India | Shivaji Park, Mumbai | 1,000,000–2,000,000 [120] [121] | |
State funeral of Hugo Chávez | March 6–8, 2013 | Venezuela | Caracas | 1,000,000–3,000,000 [122] | |
Funeral of Margaret Thatcher | April 17, 2013 | United Kingdom | London | at least 1,000 [123] | at least 4,000,000 [124] |
Funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef | October 7, 2013 | Israel | Jerusalem | 850,000 [125] [126] | |
State funeral of Võ Nguyên Giáp | October 12–13, 2013 | Vietnam | Hanoi | at least 1,000,000 [127] | |
Commemoration of Nelson Mandela | December 10–15, 2013 | South Africa | Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Qunu | at least 1,000 [128] [129] | (state funeral) at least 1,000,000 [129] |
Funeral of Berkin Elvan | March 12, 2014 | Turkey | Istanbul, and all around Turkey (as a part of the Gezi park protests) | 2,000,000 [130] | |
State funeral of Lee Kuan Yew | March 23–29, 2015 | Singapore | Mandai | 100,000 (funeral cortege) [131] [132] | |
Muhammad Ali memorial service | June 10, 2016 | United States | Louisville, Kentucky [133] | ~100,000 (funeral procession) 15,000 (memorial service) [134] |
1,000,000,000 [135] |
Funeral of Burhan Wani | July 8, 2016 | India | Pulwama | nearly 200,000 [136] | |
Funeral of Ömer Halisdemir | July 17, 2016 | Turkey | Çukurkuyu, Niğde | 5,000 [137] [138] | |
Funeral of Juan Gabriel | September 4–5, 2016 | Mexico | Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua and Mexico City | 500,000–1,000,000 [139] | |
State funeral of J. Jayalalithaa | December 5, 2016 | India | Chennai | at least 1,000,000 [140] | |
State funeral of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani | January 9–11, 2017 | Iran | Tehran | 330,000–2,500,000 [141] | |
Funeral of Bhumibol Adulyadej | October 26, 2017 | Thailand | Bangkok | at least 1,000 [142] | (state funeral) at least 1,000,000 [142] |
Funeral of Johnny Hallyday | December 9, 2017 | France | Paris | 1,000,000 [143] | 15,000,000 [144] |
Funeral of Sridevi | February 26, 2018 | India | Mumbai | ~1,000,000 [145] | |
Funeral of Akhtar Raza Khan | July 20, 2018 | India | Bareilly | at least 12,500,000 [146] [147] [148] | |
Funeral of M. Karunanidhi | August 7, 2018 | India | Chennai | at least 3,000,000 [149] | |
Funeral of Muhammad Abdul Wahhab | November 18, 2018 | Pakistan | Raiwind Markaz, Lahore | at least 1,000,000 [150] [151] | |
State funeral of George H. W. Bush | December 3–6, 2018 | United States | Washington, D.C. and Houston, Spring, & College Station, Texas | 1,000 [152] | 17,500,000 [83] |
Funeral of the Skulener Rebbe | April 2, 2019 | United States | Brooklyn, New York City | at least 100,000 [153] | |
Funeral of Qasem Soleimani | January 4, 2020 | Iraq | Baghdad and Kadhimiya | at least 1,000 [154] | |
January 5, 2020 | Iran | Ahvaz and Mashhad | at least 7,000,000 [155] | ||
January 6, 2020 | Tehran and Qom [156] | ||||
January 7, 2020 | Kerman [156] | ||||
Funeral of Zubayer Ahmad Ansari | April 18, 2020 | Bangladesh | Brahmanbaria | at least 100,000 [157] | |
Funeral of Khadim Hussain Rizvi | November 21, 2020 | Pakistan | Lahore | 200,000 [158] | |
Funeral of Wali Rahmani | April 4, 2021 | India | Munger | 200,000-500,000 [159] [160] [161] | |
Funeral of Puneeth Rajkumar | October 29, 2021 | India | Bengaluru | 3,000,000 [162] [163] [164] [165] [166] | 50,000,000 |
State Funeral of Lata Mangeshkar | February 6, 2022 | India | Mumbai | at least 1,000 [167] | |
Funeral of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky | March 20, 2022 | Israel | Bnei Brak | 750,000 [168] [169] | |
Funeral of Mahmut Ustaosmanoğlu | June 24, 2022 | Turkey | Istanbul | at least 100,000 [170] | |
State funeral of Elizabeth II | September 19, 2022 | United Kingdom | London | (2,000 at funeral service) at least 1,000,000 [171] [172] | At least 4,000,000,000 worldwide [173] (29,000,000 in the UK) [174] |
State funeral of Pelé | January 2–3, 2023 | Brazil | Santos | over 230,000 [175] [176] | |
Funeral of Pope Benedict XVI | January 5, 2023 | Vatican City | Rome | 200,000 [177] | |
Funeral of Abdulbaki Erol | July 13, 2023 | Turkey | Adıyaman | 250,000 [178] | |
Funeral of | December 28, 2023 | India | Chennai | 1,600,000 | At least
40,000,000 |