On the day of his death, a statement was issued on Bowie's social media accounts, saying he “died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer.” Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, arranger, painter, and actor, Bowie – whose five-decade career spanned music, theater and fashion and pioneered glam rock – died two days after his birthday on which he released his 25th and last studio album, Blackstar. Following his death producer Tony Visconti revealed that Bowie had planned the album to be his swan song and a “parting gift” for his fans before his death. Changing the face of music and bending the gender divide into a pretzel, David Robert Jones was born in Brixton, London. Throughout his career, he sold an estimated 140 million records worldwide. In the UK, he was awarded nine Platinum album certifications, eleven Gold and eight Silver, and in the US, received five Platinum and seven Gold certifications. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Combining wisdom with humour, masculinity with femininity, seriousness with palyfulness, Bowie gave the world much. He released 27 studio albums, 9 live albums, 49 compilation albums, and 3 soundtracks. He appeared in 28 films, has nine characters/pseudonyms and has had around 170 books written about him.

In a life so documented, here are a few Bowieisms you may not not be familiar with. And, as one Twitter follower put it: If you’re ever sad, just remember the world is 4.543 billion years old and you somehow managed to exist at the same time as David Bowie.
– His first No.1 in the United States was Fame, in 1975. Co-written by John Lennon, it features the late Beatle on backing vocals.
– Bowie’s first hit in the UK – 1969’s Space Oddity – was used by the BBC in its coverage of the moon landing.
– 29-year-old Bowie was arrested for cannabis possession in Rochester, New York in 1976.
– Bowie shares his birthday with Elvis Presley, who was 12 years older. In her book, Stardust, Angie Bowie writes that Bowie could do a “devastating” impersonation of Presley. And Elvis once considered recording a cover version of Bowie’s 1976 hit, Golden Years.
– Bowie says he was moonwalking years before Michael Jackson wowed the world in 1983’s Billie Jean. He wrote on his official website that choreographer Toni Basil taught him a type of moonwalk for his 1974 Diamond Dogs tour.
– In the 1986 Jim Henson movie Labyrinth, Bowie plays Jareth The Goblin King.
– Bowie declined the CBE in 2000 and a knighthood in 2003. He said: “I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that. I seriously don’t know what it’s for. It’s not what I spent my life working for.”
– A new spider species discovered in Malaysia in 2009 was called Heteropoda Davidbowie.
– Almost a decade before The Cocteau Twins popularised the approach, Bowie sang in a completely self-invented language on the 1977 Low album track, Subterraneans.
– Arcade Fire and TV On The Radio are two of Bowie’s favourite bands of the last 10 years.