April 10, 1931 - Marshall Applewhite

Marshall Herff Applewhite Jr. (May 17, 1931 – March 24, 1997), also known as Do, among other names, was an American religious leader who founded and led the Heaven's Gate new religious movement (often described as a cult), and organized their mass suicide in 1997.

As a young man, Applewhite attended several universities and served in the United States Army. He initially pursued a career in education until he resigned from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, in 1970, citing emotional turmoil. His father's death a year later brought on severe depression. In 1972, Applewhite developed a close friendship with Bonnie Nettles, a nurse; together, they discussed mysticism at length and concluded that they were called as divine messengers. They operated a bookstore and teaching center for a short while and then began to travel around the U.S. in 1973 to spread their views.

Content sourced from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall Applewhite under CC BY-SA 4.0.