Ninety-six people, including President of the Republic of Poland Lech Kaczyński and his wife Maria, Ryszard Kaczorowski, former President of the Republic of Poland in Exile, and Wojciech Seweryn, creator of the monument to the victims of Katyń in Chicago, died in the plane crash near Smolensk on April 10, 2010, while traveling to a memorial commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Katyń Massacre.