This list of notable funerals represents significant historical funerals, based on both the number of attendants and estimated television audience.
List Funeral Date Country City No. of attendees Television audienceC. N. Annadurai February 4, 1969 Madras Ali Khamenei July 3–6, 2026 and Tehran July 7, 2026 Qom July 8, 2026 Najaf and Karbala July 9, 2026 Mashhad Qasem Soleimani January 5, 2020 Ahvaz and Mashhad Kerman pays homage to Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani retrieved 6 Feb 2023 January 6, 2020 Tehran and QomJanuary 7, 2020 KermanGamal Abdel Nasser October 1, 1970 Cairo Dahiru Usman BauchiNovember 28, 2025BauchiPope John Paul II April 8, 2005 Rome 2,000,000,000Umm Kulthum February 5, 1975 Cairo Indira Gandhi November 3, 1984 Delhi Eva Perón August 9, 1952 Buenos Aires Ayrton Senna May 5, 1994 São Paulo Senna faz audiência de TVs crescer (in portuguese) TV pesquisa - PUC-Rio de JaneiroBook "Ayrton: O Herói Revelado" - Information about the Brazilian TV ratings (in portuguese) Archivo PDFChiang Kai-shek April 10–16, 1975 Taipei Puneeth RajkumarOctober 29, 2021 Bengaluru Ruhollah Khomeini June 5–6, 1989 Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini, Tehran Victor Hugo June 1, 1885 Paris Ramon Magsaysay March 22, 1957 Manila Benigno Aquino Jr. August 31, 1983 Santo Domingo Church and Manila Memorial Park – Sucat, Metro Manila Berkin ElvanMarch 12, 2014IstanbulJoseph StalinMarch 7, 1953MoscowJ. Jayalalithaa December 6, 2016 Chennai Kim Il-sung July 19, 1994 Pyongyang Mahatma Gandhi February 6, 1948 New Delhi Ziaur Rahman June 2, 1981 Dhaka Khaleda Zia December 30, 2025 Dhaka Bal Thackeray November 18–19, 2012 Shivaji Park, Mumbai Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington November 18, 1852 London Ulysses S. Grant August 8, 1885 New York City Jawaharlal Nehru May 28, 1964 New Delhi Robert F. Kennedy June 8, 1968 New York City, Washington, D.C. Hassan Nasrallah February 23, 2025 Camille Chamoun, Beirut Juan Perón July 2–4, 1974 Buenos Aires Hugo Chávez March 6–8, 2013 Caracas Ilia II of Georgia March 22, 2026 Tblisi Palmiro Togliatti August 24, 1964 Rome Akhtar Raza Khan July 20, 2018 Bareilly Enrico Berlinguer June 13, 1984 Rome The Palm Beach Post - June 14, 1984 GP Koirala March 20, 2010 Kathmandu Ibrahim RugovaJanuary 27, 2006PrishtinaJohnny Hallyday December 9, 2017 Paris M. Karunanidhi August 8, 2018 Chennai Mother Teresa September 13, 1997 Calcutta Muhammad Zia Ul Haq August 19, 1988 Islamabad Pope Shenouda III March 20, 2012 Cairo Diana, Princess of Wales September 6, 1997 London and Althorp, Northamptonshire (2,000 at funeral service) 2,500,000,000Queen Elizabeth IISeptember 19, 2022London(2,000 at funeral service)29,000,000 in the UKQueen Elizabeth the Queen Mother April 9, 2002 London Mao Zedong September 9–18, 1976 Beijing Nelson Mandela (memorial service) December 10–15, 2013 Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Qunu 1,000 for Memorial ServiceVõ Nguyên Giáp October 12–13, 2013 Hanoi M.G. Ramachandran December 25, 1987 Madras Ovadia Yosef October 7, 2013 Jerusalem King Hussein of Jordan February 8, 1999 Amman Pierre Gemayel November 23, 2006 Beirut Mir Osman Ali Khan February 25, 1967 Hyderabad Chaim KanievskyMarch 20, 2022Bnei BrakZubeen GargSeptember 21–22, 2025GuwahatiJosip Broz Tito May 8, 1980 Belgrade Pedro Aguirre Cerda November 28, 1941 Santiago Mustafa Kemal AtatürkNovember 11, 1938 Ankara Jerzy Popiełuszko November 3, 1984 Warsaw Carter Harrison III October 31–November 1, 1893 Chicago Also available at: – (funeral procession) (public visitation of casket) John F. Kennedy November 25, 1963 Washington, D.C. Georgi Asparuhov June 30–July 2, 1971 Sofia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk September 21, 1937 Prague Juan Gabriel September 4–5, 2016 Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua and Mexico City August Spies, George Engel, Adolph Fischer, and Albert Parsons (executed Haymarket Affair defendants) November 13, 1887 Chicago Baruch Charney VladeckNovember 2, 1938New York City-750,000B. R. Ambedkar December 6, 1956 Mumbai Carmen Miranda August 12, 1955 Rio de Janeiro Buenaventura Durruti November 23, 1936 Barcelona Engelbert Dollfuss July 30, 1934 Vienna Michael Collins August 28, 1922 Dublin Patriarch Pavle November 19, 2009 Rakovica Monastery, Belgrade Sathya Sai Baba April 24, 2011 Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh Winston Churchill January 30, 1965 London (6,000 at funeral service) Osman Hadi December 20, 2025 Dhaka Necmettin ErbakanMarch 1, 2011IstanbulPope Francis April 21–26, 2025RomeAkbar Hashemi Rafsanjani January 9–11, 2017 Tehran Francisco Franco November 22–23, 1975 Madrid Fernando Poe Jr.December 22, 2004Santo Domingo Church and Manila North Cemetery, Metro Manila Giuseppe Verdi February 27, 1901 Milan January 30, 1901Martin Luther King Jr. April 9, 1968 Atlanta John Monash October 11, 1931 Melbourne Abdulbaki ErolJuly 13, 2023AdıyamanHendrik Verwoerd September 10, 1966 Pretoria South Africa: Death to the Architect. TIME. September 16, 1966. Heydar Aliyev December 15, 2003 Baku Józef Piłsudski May 18, 1935 Kraków Sholem Aleichem May 13, 1916 New York City Emperor Hirohito February 24, 1989 Tokyo PeléJanuary 2–3, 2023SantosWali Rahmani April 4, 2021 Munger Pedro II of Brazil December 9, 1891 Paris Mohammed Burhanuddin January 17, 2014 Raudat Tahera, Mumbai Anton Cermak March 8–10, 1933 Chicago hundreds of thousands: ~50,000 mourners for return of mayor's remains to city (March 8); ~25,000 spectators at funeral service in Chicago Stadium (March 10); ~50,000 marchers and "hundreds of thousands" of additional mourners at funeral procession (March 10) Burhan Wani July 8, 2016 Pulwama Hrant Dink January 23, 2007 Istanbul Khadim Hussain Rizvi November 21, 2020 Lahore Kim Jong-il December 28, 2011 Pyongyang Paul von Hindenburg August 6–7, 1934 Tannenberg Memorial, Hohenstein in Ostpreußen Wilhelm I March 12–16, 1888 Berlin Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht June 13, 1919 BerlinJānis Čakste March 18, 1927 Rīga Rafic Hariri February 16, 2005Beirut Pope Benedict XVI January 5, 2023 Rome Roman Dmowski January 7, 1939 Warsaw 7 stycznia 1939 r. Pogrzeb Romana Dmowskiego (in Polish) http://nowahistoria.interia.pl Zoran Đinđić March 15, 2003 Belgrade Imre Nagy (reburial) June 16, 1989 Budapest Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky August 12, 1985 Bnei Brak Halid Bešlić October 13, 2025 Sarajevo over 1,000,000Lech and Maria Kaczyński April 18, 2010 Kraków Abraham Lincoln April 19 – May 3, 1865 East and Midwest Corazon Aquino August 1–5, 2009 Manila Cathedral and Manila Memorial Park – Sucat, Metro Manila (August 3 figures only) Stefan Wyszyński May 31, 1981 Warsaw Moshe Feinstein March 24, 1986 New York City and Israel Ronald Reagan June 7, 2004 Simi Valley, California and Washington, D.C. "United States Capitol Police Press Releases: Lying In State for former President Reagan" . United States Capitol Police. Retrieved on March 9, 2008 Uğur MumcuJanuary 27, 1993IstanbulAleksandar Ranković August 22, 1983 Belgrade Alparslan TürkeşApril 8, 1997AnkaraKostis PalamasFebruary 12, 1943AthensÉdith Piaf October 11, 1963 Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris Édith Piaf funeral – Video – French TV, 14 October 1963, INABob Marley May 21, 1981 Kingston Bobby Sands May 7, 1981 Belfast Henry George October 29, 1897 New York City Charles de Gaulle November 12, 1970 Colombey Lee Kuan Yew March 23–29, 2015 Mandai ~1,500,000 (paid respects) (funeral cortege)~9,000Lorenzo Bandini May 10, 1967 Reggiolo Mahmut UstaosmanoğluJune 24, 2022IstanbulMuhammad Ali (memorial service) June 10, 2016 Louisville, Kentucky (funeral procession)15,000 (memorial service) 1,000,000,000 Robert Menzies May 19, 1978 Melbourne Turgut ÖzalApril 21, 1993Ankarahttps://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/9986 |title=TÜRKİYE CUMHURİYETİ CUMHURBAŞKANLARININ CENAZE MERASİMLERİ|website=Dergipark.org.tr|access-date=August 17, 2026}}Gianni Agnelli January 26, 2003 Turin paid their respects while he lay in state Yahya Ayyash January 6, 1996 Gaza Yisroel Avrohom Portugal April 2, 2019 Brooklyn, New York City Zubayer Ahmad Ansari April 18, 2020 Brahmanbaria Bhupen HazarikaNovember 5–9, 2011Guwahati Joel TeitelbaumAugust 20, 1979Kiryas Joel Simcha Bunim AlterJune 8, 1992Mount of Olives Nahum Meir SchaikewitzNovember 26, 1905New York City Charlie Kirk (memorial service) September 21, 2025 Glendale~5,200,000George BestDecember 3, 2005Belfast Elvis Presley August 16–18, 1977 Memphis Selena Quintanilla-PérezApril 3, 1995Corpus Christi, TexasJuliana of the NetherlandsMarch 30, 2004DelftAlso, 50,000 people paid their respects at the coffin while Juliana lay in state prior to the funeral. 3,246,000 Shane WarneMarch 30, 2022Melbourne1,500,000Richard Nixon April 26–27, 1994 Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Yorba Linda, California Jaime GarzónAugust 14, 1999BogotáYisrael AlterFebruary 21, 1977Mount of OlivesMeir ShapiroOctober 29, 1933LublinAndré HazesSeptember 27, 2004Amsterdam6,000,000 (5 million in the Netherlands and 1 million in Belgium)Gershon AgronNovember 2, 1959 Jerusalem Ozjasz Thon November 12, 1936 Kraków Pim Fortuyn May 10, 2002 Driehuis 2,000,000Ludwig van Beethoven March 29, 1827 Vienna Rico YanApril 4, 2002Manila Memorial Park – Sucat, Parañaque Moshe TeitelbaumAugust 25, 2006Willamsburg and Kiryas JoelAharon RokeachAugust 18, 1957Har HaMenuchotMichael Jackson (memorial service)July 7, 2009 Staples Center, Los Angeles 3,000,000,000Hank WilliamsJanuary 4, 1953 Montgomery John Garfield May 23, 1952 New York Raila OdingaOctober 15, 2025NairobiWisława Szymborska February 9, 2012 Kraków Czesław Miłosz August 27, 2004 Kraków Ibn Taymiyya September 26, 1328 Damascus
References