Notable Deaths on June 16

June 16 has 110 recorded notable deaths across history, from 840 to 2026. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

Tony Gwynn

2014 — Tony Gwynn

American baseball player and coach (born 1960)

By · Wikipedia

Notable Deaths 110 source records 840 – 2026

Major events on June 16

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1981 US President Ronald Reagan awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Ken Taylor, Canada's former ambassador to Iran, for helping six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979–81; he is the first foreign citizen bestowed the honor. Source
  2. 2012 China successfully launches its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, carrying three astronauts, including the first female Chinese astronaut Liu Yang, to the Tiangong-1 orbital module. Source

Did you know about Tony Gwynn

Tony Gwynn was a 15-time All-Star and won seven Silver Slugger Awards and five Gold Glove Awards.

Did you know about Susan Tyrrell

Tyrrell's career began in theater in New York City in the 1960s in Broadway and off Broadway productions.

Did you know about Hugh the Great

Hugh the Great played an active role in bringing King Louis IV of France back from England in 936.

Did you know about John Reith

John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith was a Scottish broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom.

Did you know about Charles Sturt

Charles Napier Sturt was a British officer and explorer of Australia, and part of the European exploration of Australia.


More major people who died on June 16

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

2012 Susan Tyrrell

Susan Tyrrell

American actress (born 1945)
Susan Tyrrell was an American character actress. Tyrrell's career began in theater in New York City in the 1960s in Broadway and off Broadway productions. Her first film was Shoot Out (1971). She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Oma in John Huston's Fat City (1972). In 1978, Tyrrell received the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Andy Warhol's Bad (1977). Her New York Times obituary described her as "a whiskey-voiced character actress (with) talent for playing the downtrodden, outré, and grotesque."
956 Hugh the Great

Hugh the Great

Frankish nobleman (born 898)
Hugh the Great was the duke of the Franks and count of Paris. He was the most powerful magnate in France. Son of King Robert I of France and Beatrice of Vermandois, Hugh was Margrave of Neustria. He played an active role in bringing King Louis IV of France back from England in 936. Seeking an alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great, he married Otto's younger sister Hedwig of Saxony in 937. They were the parents of Hugh Capet. Hedwig's sister, Gerberga of Saxony, was Louis' wife. Although he often fought against Louis, he supported the accession of Louis and Gerberga's son, Lothair of France.
1971 John Reith

John Reith

1st Baron Reith, Scottish broadcaster, co-founded BBC (born 1889)
John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith was a Scottish broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom. In 1922, he was employed by the BBC, then the British Broadcasting Company Ltd., as its general manager; in 1923 he became its managing director, and in 1927 he was employed as the Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation created under a royal charter. His concept of broadcasting as a way of educating the masses marked for a long time the BBC and similar organisations around the world.
1869 Charles Sturt

Charles Sturt

Indian-English botanist and explorer (born 1795)
Charles Napier Sturt was a British officer and explorer of Australia, and part of the European exploration of Australia. He led several expeditions into the interior of the continent, starting from Sydney and later from Adelaide. His expeditions traced several of the westward-flowing rivers, establishing that they all merged into the Murray River, which flows into the Southern Ocean. He was searching to prove his own passionately held belief that an "inland sea" was located at the centre of the continent. He reached the rank of Captain, served in several appointed posts, and on the Legislative Council.
1961 Marcel Junod

Marcel Junod

Swiss physician and anesthesiologist (born 1904)
Marcel Junod was a Swiss medical doctor and one of the most accomplished field delegates in the history of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). After medical school and a short position as a surgeon in Mulhouse, France, he became an ICRC delegate and was deployed in Ethiopia during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and in Europe as well as in Japan during World War II. In 1947, he wrote a book with the title Warrior without Weapons about his experiences. After the war, he worked for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) as chief representative in China, and settled back in Europe in 1950. He founded the anaesthesiology department of the Cantonal Hospital in Geneva and became the first professor in this discipline at the University of Geneva. In 1952, he was appointed a member of the ICRC and, after many more missions for this institution, was Vice-President from 1959 until his death in 1961.
1993 Lindsay Hassett

Lindsay Hassett

Australian cricketer and soldier (born 1913)
Arthur Lindsay Hassett was an Australian cricketer who played for Victoria and the Australian national team. The diminutive Hassett was an elegant middle-order batsman, described by Wisden as, "... a master of nearly every stroke ... his superb timing, nimble footwork and strong wrists enabled him to make batting look a simple matter". His sporting career at school singled him out as a precocious talent, but he took a number of seasons to secure a regular place in first-class cricket and initially struggled to make large scores. Selected for the 1938 tour of England with only one first-class century to his name, Hassett established himself with three consecutive first-class tons at the start of the campaign. Although he struggled in the Tests, he played a crucial role in Australia's win in the Fourth Test, with a composed display in the run-chase which sealed the retention of the Ashes. Upon returning to Australia, he distinguished himself in domestic cricket with a series of high scores, becoming the only player to score two centuries in a match against Bill O'Reilly—widely regarded as the best bowler in the world.
1981 Thomas Playford IV

Thomas Playford IV

Australian politician, 33rd Premier of South Australia (born 1896)
Sir Thomas Playford was an Australian politician from the state of South Australia. He served as Premier of South Australia and leader of the Liberal and Country League (LCL) from 5 November 1938 to 10 March 1965. Though controversial, it was the longest term of any elected government leader in Australian history. His tenure as premier was marked by a period of population and economic growth unmatched by any other Australian state. He was known for his parochial style in pushing South Australia's interests, and was known for his ability to secure a disproportionate share of federal funding for the state as well as his shameless haranguing of federal leaders. His string of election wins was supported by a system of malapportionment later dubbed the "Playmander".
1929 Vernon Louis Parrington

Vernon Louis Parrington

American historian and scholar (born 1871)
Vernon Louis Parrington was an American literary historian, scholar, and college football coach. The first two volumes of his is three-volume history of American letters, Main Currents in American Thought, won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1928 and was one of the most influential books for American historians of its time. The third volume approximately half completed was completed by his associates and students after his sudden death in 1929. Parrington taught at the College of Emporia, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Washington. He was also the head football coach at the College of Emporia from 1893 to 1896 and Oklahoma from 1897 to 1900. Parrington founded the American studies movement in 1927.
1902 Ernst Schröder

Ernst Schröder

German mathematician and academic (born 1841)
Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Ernst Schröder was a German mathematician mainly known for his work on algebraic logic. He is a major figure in the history of mathematical logic, by virtue of summarizing and extending the work of George Boole, Augustus De Morgan, Hugh MacColl, and especially Charles Peirce. He is best known for his monumental Vorlesungen über die Algebra der Logik, in three volumes, which prepared the way for the emergence of mathematical logic as a separate discipline in the twentieth century by systematizing the various systems of formal logic of the day.
1952 Andrew Lawson

Andrew Lawson

Scottish-American geologist and academic (born 1861)
Andrew Cowper Lawson was a Scots-born Canadian geologist who became professor of geology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the editor and co-author of the 1908 report on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake which became known as the "Lawson Report". He was also the first person to identify and name the San Andreas Fault in 1895, and after the 1906 quake, the first to delineate the entire length of the San Andreas Fault which previously had been noted only in the San Francisco Bay Area. He also named the Franciscan Complex.
2011 Östen Mäkitalo

Östen Mäkitalo

Swedish engineer and academic (born 1938)
Östen Mäkitalo was a Swedish electrical engineer. He is considered to be one of the most important developers in modern times together with Laila Ohlgren, both engineers at Telia. Together they developed the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system and were the leading figures, representing Telia and Sweden, in the meetings with the other Nordic countries to find a common standard. Later they developed GSM and led the meetings to find a European and later world standard for mobile communication. They are many times considered the developer of the cellular phone and mobile telephony.
1918 Bazil Assan

Bazil Assan

Romanian engineer and explorer (born 1860)
Bazil George Assan was a Romanian engineer, explorer and economist. Belonging to a wealthy family in Bucharest, Assan was an important figure in the industrialization of the Kingdom of Romania. He studied engineering, commerce and economics, which impulsed him to discover the globe. In 1896, he became the first Romanian to travel to the Arctic, and between 1897 and 1898, he became the first Romanian to travel around the world. His travels were later presented to King Carol I of Romania. Assan died on 16 June 1918 in Montreux, Switzerland.
1858 John Snow

John Snow

English epidemiologist and physician (born 1813)
John Snow was an English physician and a leader in the development of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered one of the founders of modern epidemiology and early germ theory, in part because of his work in tracing the source of a cholera outbreak in London's Soho, which he identified as a particular public water pump. Snow's findings inspired fundamental changes in the water and waste systems of London, which led to similar changes in other cities, and a significant improvement in general public health around the world.
1944 George Stinney

George Stinney

wrongfully convicted African-American teenager (born 1929)
George Junius Stinney Jr. was an African American boy who was wrongfully executed at the age of 14 after being convicted, during an unfair trial, for the murders of two white girls – 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and 8-year-old Mary Emma Thames – in his hometown of Alcolu, South Carolina. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death on a single day in April 1944 and then executed by electric chair on June 16, 1944, after Governor Olin D. Johnston refused to grant him clemency.
1969 Harold Alexander

Harold Alexander

1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, English field marshal and politician, 17th Governor General of Canada (born 1891)
Field Marshal Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, was a British Army officer who served in both of the world wars. Alexander was born in London and was educated at Harrow school before moving on to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, for training as an army officer of the Irish Guards. He rose to military prominence through his service in the First World War, and continued his career through various British campaigns across Europe and Asia during the interwar period.
1626 Christian

Christian

Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel, German Protestant military leader (born 1599)
Christian the Younger of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, known as der tolle Halberstädter, was a German Protestant military leader during the early years of the Thirty Years' War. Christian fought in support of Frederick V of the Palatinate during the "Palatinate Phase" (1620-1623) of the war; his opponents were the forces of the Imperial House of Habsburg, Habsburg Spain, and the Catholic League. Christian was a member of the House of Welf, titular Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and administrator of the Prince-Bishopric of Halberstadt
2024 Ludwig Adamovich Jr.

Ludwig Adamovich Jr.

Austrian constitutional scholar (born 1932)
Ludwig Karl Adamovich, commonly known as Ludwig Adamovich Jr., was an Austrian constitutional scholar, civil servant, and educator. From 1956 to 1984, Adamovich worked for the Constitutional Service of the Austrian Chancellery; he also taught law at the University of Graz. From 1984 to 2002, he served as the president of the Austrian Constitutional Court. From 2004, Adamovich acted, on an honorary basis, as an advisor on matters of constitutional law to Presidents Heinz Fischer and Alexander Van der Bellen.
1974 Amalie Sara Colquhoun

Amalie Sara Colquhoun

Australian landscape and portrait painter (born 1894)
Amalie Sara Colquhoun was an Australian landscape and portrait painter who is represented in national and state galleries. In addition to painting landscapes, portraits and still lifes, Colquhoun designed and supervised the construction of stained glass windows for three of Ballarat's churches, St Andrew's Kirk, Lydiard Street Uniting Church and Mount Pleasant Methodist Church. She studied in both Melbourne and Sydney, exhibited in England and Australia and taught in the school she started with her husband in Melbourne.
2025 Kim Woodburn

Kim Woodburn

English television personality and expert cleaner (born 1942)
Patricia Mary "Kim" Woodburn was an English television personality, writer, and expert cleaner. Known as the "Queen of Clean", she came to prominence by co-presenting the Channel 4 series How Clean Is Your House? (2003–2009) and its Canadian version, Kim's Rude Awakenings (2008–2009). Woodburn maintained a media career that spanned over two decades and went on to appear on various reality television shows, most notably I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (2009) and Celebrity Big Brother (2017).

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