Notable Deaths on June 14

Benedict Arnold was an American-born British military officer who served during the American Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of major general before defecting to the British in 1780. General George Washington had given him his fullest trust and had placed him in command of West Point in New York. Arnold was planning to surrender the fort to British forces, but the plot was discovered in September 1780, whereupon he fled to the British lines. In the later part of the war, Arnold was commissioned as a brigadier general in the British Army and placed in command of the American Legion. He led British forces in battle against the army which he had once commanded, and his name became synonymous with treason and betrayal in the United States.

Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist who organised the British suffragette movement and helped women to win the right to vote in Great Britain and Ireland in 1918, partially due to her role in the White Feather Campaign. In 1999, Time named her as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating that "she shaped an idea of women for our time" and "shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back". She was widely criticised for her militant tactics, and historians disagree about their effectiveness, but her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.

Melissa Anne Hortman was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 61st speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives. A member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, she represented northern parts of the Twin Cities metropolitan area in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2005 to 2025, serving as the House minority leader from 2017 to 2019 and as speaker from 2019 to January 2025. During her tenure, she advocated for transportation, environmental rights, abortion rights, police reform, and gun control policies. She was also the chief author of the state's solar energy standard.

Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi was an Italian poet, philosopher, essayist, and philologist. Considered the greatest Italian poet of the 19th century and one of the greatest authors of his time worldwide, as well as one of the principals of literary Romanticism, his constant reflection on existence and on the human condition—of sensuous and materialist inspiration—has also earned him a reputation as a deep philosopher. He is widely seen as one of the most radical and challenging thinkers of the 19th century, and one of the crowns of Italian Romanticism together with Alessandro Manzoni, even if he expressed different and sometimes opposing positions compared to the latter. Although he lived in a secluded town in the conservative Papal States, he came into contact with the main ideas of the Enlightenment, and, through his own literary evolution, created a remarkable and renowned poetic work, related to the Romantic era. The strongly lyrical quality of his poetry made him a central figure in the European and international literary and cultural landscape.

Leonidas Polk was a Confederate general, a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana and founder of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America, which separated from the Episcopal Church of the United States. He was a planter in Maury County, Tennessee, and a second cousin of President James K. Polk. He resigned his ecclesiastical position to become a major-general in the Confederate States Army, when he was called "Sewanee's Fighting Bishop". His official portrait at the University of the South depicts him as a bishop with his army uniform hanging nearby. He is often erroneously referred to as "Leonidas K. Polk" but he had no middle name and never signed any documents as such.

Isabelle Collin Dufresne, known professionally as Ultra Violet, was a French-American artist, actress, and writer. She initially studied and worked with Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí before relocating to New York, where she became closely associated with Pop artist Andy Warhol and his Factory scene. As a Warhol superstar she appeared in several of his underground films. Beyond her work in film, she was an active participant in the 1960s and 1970s avant-garde art scene, collaborating with other notable artists and later documenting her experiences in memoirs that chronicled life at Warhol's Factory and her interactions with the era’s leading cultural figures.

Qiao Shi was a Chinese politician and one of the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He was a member of the party's top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, from 1987 to 1997. He was a contender for the paramount leadership of China, but lost out to his political rival Jiang Zemin, who assumed the post of General Secretary of the party in 1989. Qiao Shi instead served as Chairman of the National People's Congress, then the third-ranked political position, from 1993 until his retirement in 1998. Compared with his peers, including Jiang Zemin, Qiao Shi adopted a more liberal stance in political and economic policy, promoting the rule of law and market-oriented reform of state-owned enterprises.

Antoine, known as the Good, was Duke of Lorraine from 1508 until his death in 1544. Raised at the French court, Antoine would campaign in Italy twice: once under Louis XII and the other with Francis I. During the German Peasants' War, he would defeat two armies while retaking Saverne and Sélestat. Antoine succeeded in freeing Lorraine from the Holy Roman Empire with the Treaty of Nuremberg of 1542. In 1544, while Antoine suffered from an illness, the Duchy of Lorraine was invaded by Emperor Charles V's army on their way to attack France. Fleeing the Imperial armies, Antoine was taken to Bar-le-Duc where he died.

Sir Henry Vane, often referred to as Harry Vane and Henry Vane the Younger to distinguish him from his father, was an English politician and colonial administrator. He was briefly present in North America, serving one term as the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1636-37), and supported the creation of Roger Williams' Rhode Island Colony and Harvard College. A proponent of religious tolerance, as governor, he defended Anne Hutchinson and her right to teach religious topics in her home; this put him in direct conflict with the Puritan leaders in the Massachusetts Colony. He returned to England after losing re-election and eventually, Hutchinson was banned from the colony.

Bernie Faloney was a professional football player in the Canadian Football League and an outstanding American college football player for the Maryland Terrapins. Born in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, Faloney is a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, the Western Pennsylvania Hall of Fame, and the University of Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame. Faloney's jersey No. 10 was retired by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1999. In 2005, Faloney was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. In 2006, Faloney was voted to the Honour Roll of the CFL's Top 50 Players of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.

Robert Richard Chappuis was an American football player who played halfback and quarterback for the University of Michigan Wolverines in 1942, 1946, and 1947. His college years were interrupted by service in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. Chappuis flew 21 missions as a radio operator and aerial gunner on B-25 bombers in the European Theater. His aircraft was shot down in February 1945 in the Lombardy region of Northern Italy. Chappuis parachuted from the plane before it crashed, and Italian partisans rescued him by hiding Chappuis and two other crew members for the final three months of the war.

Ruth McCue Bell Graham was an American Christian author. She was born in Qingjiang, Jiangsu, China, the second of five children. Her parents, Virginia Leftwich Bell and L. Nelson Bell, were medical missionaries at the Presbyterian Hospital 300 miles (480 km) north of Shanghai. At age 13 she was enrolled in Pyeng Yang Foreign School in Pyongyang, Korea, where she studied for three years. She completed her high school education at Montreat, North Carolina, while her parents were there on furlough. She graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.

Pierre "Peter" Charles L'Enfant was a French-American artist, professor, and military engineer. In 1791, L'Enfant designed the baroque-styled plan for the development of Washington, D.C., after it was designated to become the capital of the United States following its relocation from Philadelphia. His work, known as the L'Enfant Plan, inspired plans for other major world capitals, including Brasília, New Delhi, and Canberra. In the U.S., plans for the development of three major cities, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Sacramento, were inspired from L'Enfant's plan for Washington, D.C.

Albert II was a male rhesus macaque monkey who was the first mammal and first primate to travel to outer space. He flew from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, United States, to an altitude of 83 miles (134 km) aboard Blossom No. 4B, a U.S. V-2 sounding rocket on June 14, 1949. Albert died upon landing after a parachute failure caused his capsule to strike the ground at high speed. Albert's respiratory and cardiological data were recorded up to the moment of impact.

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known works, Ficciones (transl. Fictions) and El Aleph, published in the 1940s, are collections of short stories exploring motifs such as dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, archives, mirrors, fictional writers, and mythology. Borges's works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre, and have had a major influence on the magical realist movement in 20th century Latin American literature.

Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, known as Lord Stanley of Preston from 1886 to 1893, was a British Conservative politician and military officer who served as Colonial Secretary from 1885 to 1886 and Governor General of Canada from 1888 to 1893. An avid sportsman, he built Stanley House Stables in England and presented Canada with the Stanley Cup, the championship trophy in ice hockey. He was also one of the original inductees of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Giovanni Borgia, 2nd Duke of Gandía was the second child of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei and a member of the House of Borgia. He was the brother of Cesare, Gioffre, and Lucrezia Borgia. Giovanni Borgia was the pope's favourite son, and Alexander VI granted him important positions and honours. He was murdered in Rome on 14 June 1497. The case remained unsolved and is still considered one of the most notorious scandals of the Borgia era.

Methodius I of Constantinople or Methodios I was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 11 March 843 until his death on 14 June 847. He is best known for restoring the veneration of icons in the Byzantine Church in 843, marking the end of the second period of Byzantine Iconoclasm. He is venerated as a saint in both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, and his feast day is celebrated on 14 June.

Dewitt Clinton Senter was an American politician who served as the 18th governor of Tennessee from 1869 to 1871. He had previously served in the Tennessee House of Representatives (1855–1861), where he opposed secession on the eve of the Civil War. He was elected to the Tennessee Senate following the war, and was chosen as Speaker of the Senate in 1867. As speaker, he became governor upon the resignation of William G. Brownlow in 1869.