Still learning like Lenin, truckers protest again, and Wagner guards Maduro in Venezuela Friday, January 25, 2019 This day in history (81 years ago): On January 25, 1938, the legendary singer-songwriter, poet, and actor Vladimir Vysotsky was born in Moscow. He died in 1980 at the age of 42, due to an advanced coronary condition brought about by years of tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse, aggravated by stress.