On what date did Babe Ruth die?

Babe Ruth died on August 16, 1948. He died at age 53 at Memorial Hospital in New York City, after suffering from throat cancer. His death came less than two years after his final MLB season with the Boston Braves in 1935.

Ruth’s illness was initially kept largely private, and he was never fully told the seriousness of his diagnosis. He briefly left the hospital in July 1948 to attend the premiere of The Babe Ruth Story, a film about his life, before returning for the final time.

His death prompted an extraordinary public memorial. Ruth’s body lay in state at Yankee Stadium for two days, where tens of thousands of mourners filed past. A Requiem Mass followed at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and he was buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

A common mix-up is confusing the date of his death with the dates of his funeral, which took place from August 17 to 19, 1948.