This date, in 1897 the NEW YORK JOURNAL published Mark Twain’s comment:

Over the years, this morphed into the more familiar “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

As a nearly-unrelated side note:

In 1944 they made a rather solemn movie, THE ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN, starring Frederick March as Twain. I always thought it was a shame they didn’t get Groucho Marx for the part!