Name the American military veteran and novelist who passed away recently.

Boyz n the Hood director John Singleton, who was the first African American and the youngest-ever film-maker to be nominated for the best director Oscar, passed away at the age of 51 after suffering from hypertension. He was born on 6th January 1968 in Los Angeles, California, U.S.In 1991, he released the Boyz n the Hood film which reflected his own background growing up in South Central Los Angeles.

Father of modern legal education in India, NR Madhava Menon passed away recently. He was 84. Menon conceptualised 5-year integrated LLB course, replacing the earlier 3-year course.

Sulagitti Narasamma (97), the renowned social worker and Padma Shri awardee, has passed away in Bengaluru on December 26, 2018. Born in 1920, she hailed from a community that was at the time referred to as 'untouchable'. She is best known for extending free of cost midwife services to women at a time when medical help was hard to come by in rural areas. It is believed that she learned the art from her grandmother, Marigemma, at a very young age. She had helped deliver more than 15,000 babies in Krishnapura, a remote village in Pavagada taluk in Karnataka. Her work received special recognition in Krishnapura & was conferred an honorary doctorate by the Tumkur University in 2014. She was also conferred with the Padma Shri by President Ram Nath Kovind on March 20, 2018.

Dr. TS Kanaka, the continent's first woman neurosurgeon, passed away after a brief illness at the age of 86. She was the third woman neurosurgeon in the whole world. Born on March 31, 1932, and raised in Chennai, she obtained her MBBS degree in December 1954, and Master of Surgery in Neurosurgery in March 1968.

Odia singer Chitta Jena died with the illness in Cuttack, Odisha. Chitta Jena was 76 years old. He was popular for his versatility and talent. He made his debut as a playback singer in 1974 in the movie Mana Akasha. He awarded Prafulla Kar Samman for his remarkable achievement in the field of music.

South African Born biologist, Sydney Brenner passed away at the age of 92. He was born in Gauteng, South Africa. Brenner made contributions to work on the nature of genetic code and other areas of molecular biology. He Shared a Nobel Prize in 2002 in Physiology with Bob Horvitz and John Sulston for developing a tiny transparent worm into a test bed for biological discoveries.

Public Relations Officer (PRO) in the prime minister's office and senior journalist Jagdish Thakkar passed away in New Delhi. Thakkar, 72, who was unwell for some time, passed away at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

Veteran Rabindra Sangeet singer Dwijen Mukhopadhyay died at his residence in Salt Lake,West Bengal following various age-related ailments at the age of 91. Dwijen Mukhopadhyay was known for his rendition of 'Jagoo Durga' on All India Radio and he was honoured with Padmabhushan and Banga Bibhusan. He was born in 1927 and recorded over 1000 songs of Tagore during his lifetime.

Jerry Merryman, one of three people at Texas Instruments (TI) credited with inventing the world's first handheld electronic calculator in 1960s, died at the age of 86 years at Dallas, Texas. He helped to develop the calculator while he was working at TI alongside James Van Tassel and his boss Jack Kilby, the co-creator of the first integrated circuit and Nobel Prize winner. The team filed a patent for the finished prototype in 1967 for the battery-powered product known as "Cal-Tech" which could fit in the palm of the hand and was capable of addition, multiplication, subtraction and division.

Prominent writer and academician, Maramraju Satyanarayana Rao passed away following a cardiac arrest. He was 84. He was born at Jayyaram village in Mahabubabad district in Telangana. He had worked as professor of political science and registrar of Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad. He has also authored several books.