Madonna was an early Italian (medieval) word for a noble or otherwise important woman (it survived only in the previous sense), and is widely used in art, especially by Renaissancepainters (see Mona Lisa.)
... jet pioneer
November 30 - Clyfford Still, painter
Deaths:
January 20 - Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, Russian chemist and inventor of the Periodic table
May 19 - ...