Notable Deaths on June 12

Silvio Berlusconi was an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 2013; a member of the Senate of the Republic from 2022 until his death in 2023, and previously from March to November 2013; and a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2022, and previously from 1999 to 2001. At the time of his death in 2023, he had a net worth of US$6.8 billion according to Forbes, making him the 352nd-richest man in the world and the third-wealthiest person in Italy.

Jerry Alan West was an American basketball player and executive. He played professionally for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and is universally regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. His nicknames included "the Logo", in reference to his silhouette being the basis for the NBA logo; "Mr. Clutch", for his ability to make a big play in a key situation such as his famous buzzer-beating 60-foot shot that tied game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the New York Knicks; "Mr. Outside", in reference to his perimeter play with the Lakers and "Zeke from Cabin Creek" for the creek near his birthplace of Chelyan, West Virginia.

Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich, was an English lawyer, statesman, and nobleman who served as Lord Chancellor of England during the reign of King Edward VI from 1547 to 1551. He amassed considerable wealth and influence through his involvement in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, acquiring extensive lands and properties formerly owned by the Roman Catholic Church in England. He also played a prominent role in the prosecution of individuals perceived as threats to the crown’s authority, including the Catholic figures Thomas More and John Fisher, as well as the Protestant martyr Anne Askew. In 1564, he founded Felsted School in Essex along with its associated almshouses, leaving a lasting legacy in education and charitable institutions.

James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, 1st Duke of Liria and Jérica, 1st Duke of Fitz-James was a French-English army officer who was the eldest illegitimate son of James II of England by Arabella Churchill, the sister of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. Born and raised in France, Berwick was a senior Jacobite commander in his father's army during the Williamite War in Ireland. He subsequently became a successful general in the service of Louis XIV and in 1706 he was made a Marshal of France. Berwick was honored with noble titles from the kings of both France and Spain, in addition to his English ducal title which was attainted in 1695. He was decapitated by a cannonball during the Siege of Philippsburg in 1734.

Charles-Pierre-François Augereau, duc de Castiglione was a French military commander and a Marshal of the Empire who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. After serving in the Revolutionary Wars, he earned rapid promotion while fighting against Spain and soon found himself as a division commander under Napoleon Bonaparte in Italy. He fought in all of Bonaparte's battles of 1796 with great distinction. During the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon entrusted Augereau with important commands. He distinguished himself as a corps commander at Jena, although at Eylau he led a charge into a snowstorm that proved disastrous. His life ended under a cloud because of his poor timing in switching sides between Napoleon and Louis XVIII. Napoleon wrote of Augereau that he "has plenty of character, courage, firmness, activity; is inured to war; is well liked by the soldiery; is fortunate in his operations". Augereau is generally counted as one of the most capable generals of the Napoleonic Wars.

Neil Edward Goldschmidt was an American businessman and Democratic politician from the state of Oregon who held local, state, and federal offices over three decades, including mayor of Portland, Oregon, the United States Secretary of Transportation under President Jimmy Carter and the 33rd governor of Oregon. At one time, Goldschmidt was considered the most powerful and influential figure in Oregon's politics; in 2004, Goldschmidt's career and legacy were irreparably damaged by revelations of the ongoing sexual abuse of a young teenage girl which began in 1973, during his first term as mayor of Portland.

Philip Villamin Vera Cruz was a Filipino American labor leader and farmworker. He helped found the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), which later merged with the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW) in 1966. In 1971, he was appointed as the organization’s second vice president, the highest-ranking Filipino American in the union. He wanted his work to cross both ethnic and generational lines. Thus, it included Filipino, Mexican, and Black workers, and he advocated for retirees he found were neglected in the broader movement for racial equality in America. Some of his major projects included chairing efforts to build the Paulo Agbayani Retirement Village, opened in 1974, which housed Filipino farmworkers who had aged out of the labor force and helping organize the Delano Grape Strike. In 1977, Vera Cruz resigned from the UFW. He had grown apart from the president, Cesar Chavez, due to disagreements over the Union's mission and actions.

María Teresa Gertrudis de Jesús Carreño García was a Venezuelan pianist, composer, soprano, and conductor. Over the course of her 54-year concert career, she became an internationally renowned virtuoso pianist and was often referred to as the "Valkyrie of the Piano". Carreño was an early adopter of the works of one of her students, American composer and pianist Edward MacDowell (1860–1908) and premiered several of his compositions across the globe. She also frequently performed the works of Norwegian composer and pianist Edvard Grieg (1843–1907). Carreño composed approximately 75 works for solo piano, voice and piano, choir and orchestra, and instrumental ensemble. Several composers dedicated their compositions to Carreño, including Amy Beach and Edward MacDowell.

Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, musician, novelist, and singer-songwriter of Georgian-Armenian ancestry. He was one of the founders of the Soviet genre called "author song", or "guitar song", and the author of about 200 songs, set to his own poetry. His songs are a mixture of Russian poetic and folk song traditions and the French chansonnier style represented by such contemporaries of Okudzhava as Georges Brassens. Though his songs were never overtly political, the freshness and independence of Okudzhava's artistic voice presented a subtle challenge to Soviet cultural authorities, who were thus hesitant for many years to give him official recognition.

Francis John Walker, QC was an Australian politician and judge. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Georges River between 1970 and 1988 and subsequently a member of the Australian House of Representatives representing Robertson between 1990 and 1996, both for the Australian Labor Party. During his parliamentary careers, Walker held a range of ministerial responsibilities. He was the first New South Wales Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and was responsible for some of the first legislation that recognised the obligation to financially compensate indigenous Australians for the loss of their land. He has been given credit for achieving one of the first big breakthroughs in the protection of Australia's natural environment, the saving of the Terania Creek rainforest.

Philip Bennett was a Welsh rugby union player who played as a fly-half for Llanelli RFC and the Wales national team. He began his career in 1966, and a year later he had taken over from Barry John as Llanelli's first-choice fly-half. He made 414 appearances for the Scarlets over the course of a 15-year career he scored 131 tries, 43 drop goals, 293 pens and 523 conversions. He made his Wales debut in 1969, but it was not until John's retirement from rugby in 1972 that Bennett became a regular starter for his country. He led Wales to the Five Nations Championship title, including the Grand Slam in 1978, which culminated with his retirement from Wales duty.

James Francis Dorsey was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, and big band leader. He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards "I'm Glad There Is You " and "It's the Dreamer in Me". His other major recordings were "Tailspin", "John Silver", "So Many Times", "Amapola", "Brazil", "Pennies from Heaven", "Grand Central Getaway", and "So Rare". He played clarinet on the seminal jazz standards "Singin' the Blues" in 1927 and the original 1930 recording of "Georgia on My Mind", which were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Miroslav Dvořák was a Czechoslovak ice hockey defenseman. He played three seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Philadelphia Flyers from 1982 to 1985. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1969 to 1989, was mainly spent with HC České Budějovice in the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League. Internationally, Dvořák played for the Czechoslovak national team at several Ice Hockey World Championships, winning gold medals in 1976 and 1977, along with six silver medals, and a silver medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics.

Sir Herbert Edward Read, was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read was co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary Arts. As well as being a prominent English anarchist, he was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of existentialism. He was co-editor with Michael Fordham and Gerhard Adler of the British edition in English of The Collected Works of C. G. Jung.

Charles Emmanuel II ; 20 June 1634 – 12 June 1675) was Duke of Savoy and ruler of the Savoyard states from 4 October 1638 until his death in 1675 and under regency of his mother Christine of France until 1648. He was also Marquis of Saluzzo, Count of Aosta, Geneva, Moriana and Nice, as well as claimant king of Cyprus, Jerusalem and Armenia. At his death in 1675, his second wife Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours acted as regent for their 9-year-old son.

Marc-Joseph Marion "Macé" du Fresne was a French privateer, East India captain, and explorer. The expedition he led to find the hypothetical Terra Australis in 1771 made important geographic discoveries in the south Indian Ocean and anthropological discoveries in Tasmania and New Zealand. In New Zealand, they spent longer living on shore than any previous European expedition. Half way through the expedition's stay, Marion was killed during a military assault by Ngare Raumati: one of the oldest Māori tribes from the Whangārei region.

Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Umar al-Zamakhshari was a medieval Muslim scholar of Iranian descent. He travelled to Mecca and settled there for five years and has been known since then as 'Jar Allah'. He was a Mu'tazilite theologian, linguist, poet and interpreter of the Quran. He is best known for his book Al-Kashshaf, which interprets and linguistically analyzes Quranic expressions and the use of figurative speech for conveying meaning. This work is a primary source for all major linguists.

Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar was a Spanish conquistador and adelantado who was first governor of Cuba. In 1511 he led the successful conquest and colonization of Cuba. As the first governor of the island, he established several municipalities that remain important to this day and positioned Cuba as a center of trade and a staging point for expeditions of conquest elsewhere. From Cuba, he chartered important expeditions that led to the Spanish discovery and conquest of the Aztec Empire.

Guo Moruo, courtesy name Dingtang, was a Chinese author, poet, historian, archaeologist, and government official. A prominent Chinese writer in the May Fourth Movement and later in the Mao era, he was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. The persecution led him to denounce his colleagues and his past work and demand that all of it be burned, an act for which he was labeled "shameless". He regained prominence in the 1970s and is generally well-regarded in modern China.