Notable Deaths on June 1

June 1 has 114 recorded notable deaths across history, from 195 BC to 2025. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

Helen Keller

1968 — Helen Keller

American author and activist (born 1880)

By · Wikipedia

Notable Deaths 114 source records 195 BC – 2025

Major events on June 1

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1990 Cold War: George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to end chemical weapon production. Source
  2. 1918 World War I: Western Front: Battle of Belleau Wood: Allied Forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord engage Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince. Source

Did you know about Helen Keller

Helen Keller then communicated primarily using home signs until the age of seven, when she met her first teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan.

Did you know about Adolf Eichmann

Adolf Eichmann participated in the January 1942 Wannsee Conference, at which the implementation of the genocidal Final Solution to the Jewish Question was planned.

Did you know about Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu was a Japanese samurai, daimyo and the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.

Did you know about George Mikan

Invariably playing with thick, round spectacles, the 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m), 245 lb (111 kg) Mikan was one of the pioneers of professional basketball.

Did you know about Hansie Cronje

Cronje also led South Africa to win the 1998 ICC KnockOut Trophy, the first major ICC title the country has won in international cricket.


More major people who died on June 1

Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.

1962 Adolf Eichmann

Adolf Eichmann

German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer, key organizer of the Holocaust (born 1906)
Otto Adolf Eichmann was a German-Austrian official of the Nazi Party, an officer of the Schutzstaffel (SS), a convicted war criminal, and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. He participated in the January 1942 Wannsee Conference, at which the implementation of the genocidal Final Solution to the Jewish Question was planned. Following this, he was tasked by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich with facilitating and managing the logistics involved in the mass deportation of millions of Jews to Nazi ghettos and Nazi extermination camps across German-occupied Europe. He was captured and detained by the Allies in 1945, but he escaped and eventually settled in Argentina. In May 1960, he was tracked down and abducted by Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and put on trial before a special tribunal of the Jerusalem District Court. The highly publicised Eichmann trial resulted in his conviction in Jerusalem, following which he was executed by hanging in 1962.
1616 Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu

Japanese shogun (born 1543)
Tokugawa Ieyasu was a Japanese samurai, daimyo and the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow Oda subordinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The son of a minor daimyo, Ieyasu once lived as a hostage under daimyo Imagawa Yoshimoto on behalf of his father. He later succeeded as daimyo after his father's death, serving as ally, vassal, and general of the Oda clan, and building up his strength under Oda Nobunaga.
2005 George Mikan

George Mikan

American basketball player and coach (born 1924)
George Lawrence Mikan Jr., nicknamed "Mr. Basketball", was an American professional basketball player for the Chicago American Gears of the National Basketball League (NBL) and the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBL, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA). Invariably playing with thick, round spectacles, the 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m), 245 lb (111 kg) Mikan was one of the pioneers of professional basketball. Through his size and play, he redefined basketball as a game dominated in his day by "big men". His prolific rebounding, shot blocking, and ability to shoot over smaller defenders with his ambidextrous hook shot all helped to change the game. He also used the underhanded free-throw shooting technique long before Rick Barry made it his signature shot.
2002 Hansie Cronje

Hansie Cronje

South African cricketer (born 1969)
Wessel Johannes "Hansie" Cronje was a South African international cricketer and captain of the South Africa national cricket team in the 1990s. A right-handed all-rounder, as captain Cronje led his team to victory in 27 Test matches and 99 One Day Internationals. Cronje also led South Africa to win the 1998 ICC KnockOut Trophy, the first major ICC title the country has won in international cricket. In the 1998 ICC KnockOut Trophy Final, Cronje played a major role with the bat with his 61 not out, leading the team to victory by 4 wickets. He was voted the 11th-greatest South African in 2004 despite having been banned from cricket for life due to his role in a match-fixing scandal. In 2002, he died in a plane crash while travelling in a commercial plane from Johannesburg to George.
1981 Carl Vinson

Carl Vinson

American lawyer and politician (born 1883)
Carl Vinson was an American politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for over 50 years and was influential in the 20th century expansion of the U.S. Navy. He was a member of the Democratic Party and represented Georgia in the House from 1914 to 1965. He was known as "The Father of the Two-Ocean Navy". He is the longest-serving member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Georgia. From 1961 to 1965, he served as the dean of the US House of Representatives as the longest serving member of the body.
1965 Curly Lambeau

Curly Lambeau

American football player and coach, founded the Green Bay Packers (born 1898)
Earl Louis "Curly" Lambeau was an American professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). Lambeau, along with his friend and fellow Green Bay, Wisconsin settler, George Whitney Calhoun, founded the Green Bay Packers in 1919. He served as team captain in the team's first year before becoming player-coach in 1920. As a player, Lambeau lined up as a halfback, which in the early years of the NFL was the premier position. He was the team's primary runner and passer, accounting for 35 touchdowns in 77 games. He won an NFL championship in 1929 and subsequently retired from playing.
2015 Joan Kirner

Joan Kirner

Australian educator and politician, 42nd Premier of Victoria (born 1938)
Joan Elizabeth Kirner was an Australian politician who was the 42nd Premier of Victoria, serving from 1990 to 1992. A Labor Party member of the Parliament of Victoria from 1982 to 1994, she was a member of the Legislative Council before later winning a seat in the Legislative Assembly. Kirner was a minister and briefly deputy premier in the government of John Cain Jr., and succeeded him as premier following his resignation. She was Australia's third female head of government and second female premier, Victoria's first, and held the position until her party was defeated in a landslide at the 1992 state election.
1833 Oliver Wolcott Jr.

Oliver Wolcott Jr.

American lawyer and politician, 2nd United States Secretary of the Treasury, 24th Governor of Connecticut (born 1760)
Oliver Wolcott Jr. was an American politician and judge. He was the second United States secretary of the treasury, a judge of the United States Circuit Court for the Second Circuit, and the 24th governor of Connecticut. His adult life began with working in Connecticut, followed by participating in the U.S. federal government in the Department of Treasury, before returning to Connecticut, where he spent his life before his death. Throughout his time in politics, Wolcott's political views shifted from Federalist, to Toleration, and finally Jacksonian. Oliver Wolcott Jr. is the son to Oliver Wolcott Sr., part of the Griswold-Wolcott family.
1354 Kitabatake Chikafusa (born 1293)

Kitabatake Chikafusa (born 1293)

Kitabatake Chikafusa was a Japanese court noble and writer of the 14th century who supported the Southern Court in the Nanboku-cho period, serving as advisor to five Emperors. Some of his greatest and most famous work was performed during the reign of Emperor Go-Daigo, under whom he proposed a series of reforms, amounting to a revival or restoration of political and economic systems of several centuries earlier. In addition to authoring a history of Japan and a number of works defending the right of Go-Daigo's line to the throne, Kitabatake fought in defense of the Southern Court as a member of the Murakami branch of the Minamoto clan.
1938 Ödön von Horváth

Ödön von Horváth

Croatian-French author and playwright (born 1901)
Edmund Josef von Horváth was an Austro-Hungarian playwright and novelist who wrote in German, and went by the nom de plume Ödön von Horváth. He was one of the most critically admired writers of his generation prior to his untimely death. He enjoyed a series of successes on the stage with socially poignant and romantic plays, including Revolte auf Côte 3018 (1927), Sladek (1929), Italienische Nacht (1930), Hin und Her (1934), and Der Jüngste Tag (1937). His novels include Der ewige Spießer (1930), Ein Kind unserer Zeit (1938), and Jugend ohne Gott (1937).
1954 Martin Andersen Nexø

Martin Andersen Nexø

Danish-German journalist and author (born 1869)
Martin Andersen Nexø was a Danish writer. He was one of the authors in the Modern Breakthrough movement or more precisely "Det Folkelige Gennembrud" - the popular breakthrough - 1890s-1920, a movement dominated by writers from a shallow social background (in Danish art and literature. He was a socialist throughout his life and during the Second World War moved to the Soviet Union, and afterwards to Dresden in East Germany. However, Nexø was never a doctrinate Marxist - his perspective primarily dominated by social outrage combined with humanism and even religious idealism.
1971 Reinhold Niebuhr

Reinhold Niebuhr

American theologian and academic (born 1892)
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American Mainline Protestant theologian in the Reformed tradition, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of America's leading public intellectuals for several decades of the 20th century and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. A public theologian, he wrote and spoke frequently about the intersection of religion, politics, and public policy, with his most influential books including Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man.
1983 Prince Charles

Prince Charles

Count of Flanders (born 1903)
Prince Charles, Count of Flanders was a member of the Belgian royal family who served as regent of Belgium from 1944 until 1950, while a judicial commission investigated his elder brother, King Leopold III of Belgium, as to whether he betrayed the Allies of World War II by an allegedly premature surrender in 1940 and collaboration with the Nazis during the occupation of Belgium. Charles' regency ended when Leopold was allowed to return to Belgium. Shortly after returning and resuming his monarchical duties, Leopold abdicated in favour of his son, Baudouin.
1908 Allen Butler Talcott

Allen Butler Talcott

American painter (born 1867)
Allen Butler Talcott was an American landscape painter. After studying art in Paris for three years at Académie Julian, he returned to the United States, becoming one of the first members of the Old Lyme Art Colony in Connecticut. His paintings, usually landscapes depicting the local scenery and often executed en plein air, were generally Barbizon and Tonalist, sometimes incorporating elements of Impressionism. He was especially known and respected for his paintings of trees. After eight summers at Old Lyme, he died there at the age of 41.
1941 Hugh Walpole

Hugh Walpole

New Zealand-English author (born 1884)
Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE was an English novelist. He was the son of an Anglican clergyman, intended for a career in the church but drawn instead to writing. Among those who encouraged him were the authors Henry James and Arnold Bennett. His skill at scene-setting and vivid plots, as well as his high profile as a lecturer, brought him a large readership in the United Kingdom and North America. He was a best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s but has been largely neglected since his death.
2012 Pádraig Faulkner

Pádraig Faulkner

Irish educator and politician, 19th Irish Minister of Defence (born 1918)
Pádraig Faulkner was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann from 1980 to 1981, Minister for Defence 1979 to 1980, Minister for Posts and Telegraphs and Minister for Tourism and Transport from 1977 to 1979, Minister for Education from 1969 to 1973, Minister for the Gaeltacht and Minister for Lands from 1968 to 1969 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Gaeltacht from 1965 to 1968. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Louth constituency from 1957 to 1987.
1434 King Wladislaus II of Poland

King Wladislaus II of Poland

Jogaila, later Władysław II Jagiełło, was Grand Duke of Lithuania beginning in 1377 and King of Poland from 1386 until his death. As Grand Duke, he ruled Lithuania from 1377 to 1381 and from 1382 to 1401, at which time he became the Supreme Duke of Lithuania in exchange for naming his cousin Vytautas as the new Grand Duke. Władysław II initially served as King of Poland alongside his wife Jadwiga until her death in 1399, and then the sole ruler until his own death in 1434.
1925 Thomas R. Marshall

Thomas R. Marshall

American politician, 28th Vice President of the United States (born 1854)
Thomas Riley Marshall was the 28th vice president of the United States from 1913 to 1921 under President Woodrow Wilson. A prominent lawyer in Indiana, he became an active and well-known member of the Democratic Party by stumping across the state for other candidates and organizing party rallies that later helped him win election as the 27th governor of Indiana. In office, he attempted to incorporate items from his progressive agenda into the Constitution of Indiana, but was blocked by the Indiana Supreme Court.
1815 Louis-Alexandre Berthier

Louis-Alexandre Berthier

French general and politician, French Minister of War (born 1753)
Louis-Alexandre Berthier, prince de Neuchâtel et Valangin, prince de Wagram was a French military commander who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was twice Minister of War of France and was made a Marshal of the Empire in 1804. Berthier served as chief of staff to Napoleon Bonaparte from his first Italian campaign in 1796 until his first abdication in 1814. The operational efficiency of the Grande Armée owed much to his considerable administrative and organizational skills.

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