Notable Deaths on June 20

June 20 has 62 recorded notable deaths across history, from 465 to 2024. This page lists every one of them, with the best-known people first.

Caleb Swanigan

2022 — Caleb Swanigan

American basketball player (born 1997)

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Notable Deaths 62 source records 465 – 2024

Major events on June 20

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1963 Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union and the United States sign an agreement to establish the so-called "red telephone" link between Washington, D.C., and Moscow. Source
  2. 1295 The Treaty of Anagni, an attempt mediated by the papacy to end the War of the Sicilian Vespers, is signed by the crown of Aragon, the kingdom of France and kingdom of Naples. Source

Did you know about Caleb Swanigan

Caleb Swanigan completed his senior season in the 2014–15 academic year for Homestead High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, who went on to win the first state championship in the school's history.

Did you know about Miriam Schapiro

In the 1970s, she made the hand fan, a typically small woman's object, heroic by painting it six feet by twelve feet.

Did you know about Hucbald

Hucbald was a Benedictine monk active as a music theorist, poet, composer, teacher, and hagiographer.

Did you know about Angelo Niculescu

Angelo Niculescu is best remembered in Romania for being the national team's coach during the 1970 World Cup.

Did you know about Georges Lemaître

That work led Lemaître to propose what he called the "hypothesis of the primeval atom", now regarded as the first formulation of the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.


More major people who died on June 20

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

2015 Miriam Schapiro

Miriam Schapiro

Canadian-American painter and sculptor (born 1923)
Miriam "Mimi" Schapiro was a Canadian-born artist based in the United States. She was a painter, sculptor, printmaker, and a pioneer of feminist art. She was also considered a leader of the Pattern and Decoration art movement. Her artwork blurs the line between fine art and craft. She incorporated craft elements into her paintings due to their association with women and femininity. She often used icons that are associated with women, such as hearts, floral decorations, geometric patterns, and the color pink. In the 1970s, she made the hand fan, a typically small woman's object, heroic by painting it six feet by twelve feet. "The fan-shaped canvas, a powerful icon, gave her the opportunity to experiment … Out of this emerged a surface of textured coloristic complexity and opulence that formed the basis of her new personal style. The kimono, fans, houses, and hearts were the form into which she repeatedly poured her feelings and desires, her anxieties, and hopes".
930 Hucbald

Hucbald

Frankish monk and music theorist
Hucbald was a Benedictine monk active as a music theorist, poet, composer, teacher, and hagiographer. He was long associated with Saint-Amand Abbey, so is often known as Hucbald of St Amand. Deeply influenced by Boethius' De Institutione Musica, Hucbald's (De) Musica, formerly known as De harmonica institutione, aims to reconcile ancient Greek music theory and the contemporary practice of Gregorian chant with the use of many notated examples. Among the leading music theorists of the Carolingian era, he was likely a near contemporary of Aurelian of Réôme, the unknown author of the Musica enchiriadis, and the anonymous authors of other music theory texts Commemoratio brevis, Alia musica, and De modis.
2015 Angelo Niculescu

Angelo Niculescu

Romanian footballer and manager (born 1921)
Angelo Niculescu was a Romanian football player and manager. He is best remembered in Romania for being the national team's coach during the 1970 World Cup. Niculescu is also credited with inventing the "temporizare" ("delaying") tactics. This strategy involved the team maintaining possession of the ball within its own half, with players exchanging numerous short passes across the field. The goal was to disrupt opponents' patience and force them to press high. This approach is often considered an early form of tiki-taka. Using these tactics, Niculescu qualified Romania for a World Cup after more than 30 years of absence, and secured a notable win against Czechoslovakia.
1966 Georges Lemaître

Georges Lemaître

Belgian priest, physicist, and astronomer (born 1894)
Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître was a Belgian Catholic priest, theoretical physicist, and mathematician who made major contributions to cosmology and astrophysics. He was the first to argue that the recession of galaxies is evidence of an expanding universe and to connect the observational Hubble–Lemaître law with the solution to the Einstein field equations in the general theory of relativity for a homogenous and isotropic universe. That work led Lemaître to propose what he called the "hypothesis of the primeval atom", now regarded as the first formulation of the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.
465 Emperor Wencheng of Northern Wei (born 440)

Emperor Wencheng of Northern Wei (born 440)

Emperor Wencheng of Northern Wei ( 魏文成帝), Han name Tuoba Jun (拓跋濬), Xianbei name Wulei (烏雷), was an emperor of the Xianbei-led Northern Wei dynasty of China. He became emperor aged 12 in the aftermath of the eunuch Zong Ai's assassinations of his grandfather Emperor Taiwu and uncle Tuoba Yu, and he was generally described by historians as a ruler who sought foremost to allow his people to rest after his grandfather's expansionist policies and extensive campaigns, and who also reformed the laws to become more lenient.
1787 Carl Friedrich Abel

Carl Friedrich Abel

German viol player and composer (born 1723)
Carl Friedrich Abel was a German composer of the early Classical era. He was a renowned player of the viola da gamba, and produced significant compositions for that instrument. He was director of music at the Dresden court from 1743, and moved to London in 1759, becoming chamber-musician to Queen Charlotte in 1764. He founded a subscription concert series there with Johann Christian Bach. According to the Catalogue of Works of Carl Friedrich Abel (AbelWV), he left 420 compositions, with a focus on chamber music.
1969 Bishnu Prasad Rabha

Bishnu Prasad Rabha

Indian artist, painter, actor, dancer, writer, music composer and politician (born 1909)
Bishnu Prasad Rabha was an Indian cultural figure from Assam, known for his contributions to music, dance, painting, literature, and political activism. As an advocate of the people's cultural movement, he drew heavily from various genres of classical and folk cultural traditions. Considered a doyen of the culture of Assam, the people of Assam affectionately call him Kalaguru. He is also called by Marxists Sainik Silpi for his active participation in the armed struggle led by the Revolutionary Communist Party of India (RCPI).
1815 Guillaume Philibert Duhesme

Guillaume Philibert Duhesme

French general (born 1766)
Guillaume Philibert, 1st Count Duhesme was a French Army officer, politician and writer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He was a commander of the Imperial Guard, Governor of Catalonia and a Peer of France. Napoleon wrote that "he was a fearless soldier, covered with wounds and of the greatest bravery, an accomplished general, who always stood firm in good and bad fortune". Duhesme is regarded as one of the most able French infantry generals of the Napoleonic Wars.
1875 Joseph Meek

Joseph Meek

American police officer and politician (born 1810)
Joseph Lafayette Meek was an American pioneer, mountain man, law enforcement official, and politician in the Oregon Country and later Oregon Territory of the United States. A trapper involved in the fur trade before settling in the Tualatin Valley, Meek played a prominent role at the Champoeg Meetings of 1843, where he was elected sheriff. He was later elected to and served in the Provisional Legislature of Oregon before being appointed as the United States Marshal for the Oregon Territory.
2012 Judy Agnew

Judy Agnew

Second Lady of the United States. (born 1921)
Elinor Isabel "Judy" Agnew was the second lady of the United States from 1969 to 1973. She was the wife of the 39th vice president of the United States, Spiro Agnew, who had previously served as Governor of Maryland and Baltimore County Executive. Although Judy Agnew attempted to avoid political discussion during her tenure as second lady, preferring to cultivate her image primarily as a wife and mother, her dismissive remarks about the women's liberation movement were quoted by media.
1909 Friedrich Martens

Friedrich Martens

Estonian-Russian historian, lawyer, and diplomat (born 1845)
Friedrich Fromhold Martens, or Friedrich Fromhold von Martens, was a diplomat and jurist in service of the Russian Empire who made important contributions to the science of international law. He represented Russia at the Hague Peace Conferences and helped to settle the first cases of international arbitration, notably the dispute between France and the United Kingdom over Newfoundland. As a scholar, he is probably best remembered today for having edited 15 volumes of Russian international treaties (1874–1909).
1351 Margareta Ebner

Margareta Ebner

German nun and mystic (born 1291)
Margareta Ebner was a German professed religious from the Dominican Nuns. Beginning in 1311, Ebner experienced a series of spiritual visions in which Jesus Christ gave her messages which she recorded in letters and a journal at the behest of her spiritual director. Much of Ebner's religious life took place amidst a period of bitter feuding between Pope John XXII and Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Bavarian, in which she and her convent faithfully backed Louis.
1876 John Neal

John Neal

American writer, critic, editor, lecturer, and activist (born 1793)
John Neal was an American writer, critic, editor, lecturer, and activist. Considered both eccentric and influential, he delivered speeches and published essays, novels, poems, and short stories between the 1810s and 1870s in the United States and Great Britain, championing American literary nationalism and regionalism in their earliest stages. Neal advanced the development of American art, fought for women's rights, advocated the end of slavery and racial prejudice, and helped establish the American gymnastics movement.
840 Louis the Pious

Louis the Pious

Carolingian emperor (born 778)
Louis the Pious, also called the Fair and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only surviving son of Charlemagne and Hildegard, he became the sole ruler of the Franks after his father's death in 814. He held this position until his death in 840, save for November 833 to March 834 when Louis was deposed.
1995 Emil Cioran

Emil Cioran

Romanian-French philosopher and educator (born 1911)
Emil Mihai Cioran was a Romanian philosopher, aphorist, and essayist who published works in both Romanian and French. His work has been noted for its pervasive philosophical pessimism, style, and aphorisms. His works frequently engaged with issues of suffering, decay, and nihilism. In 1937, Cioran moved to the Latin Quarter of Paris, which became his permanent residence, wherein he lived in seclusion with his partner, Simone Boué, until his death in 1995.
1978 Mark Robson

Mark Robson

Canadian-American director and producer (born 1913)
Mark Robson was a Canadian-American film director, producer, and editor. Robson began his 45-year career in Hollywood as a film editor. He later began working as a director and producer. He directed 34 films during his career, including Champion (1949), Bright Victory (1951), The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), Peyton Place (1957), The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), Von Ryan's Express (1965), Valley of the Dolls (1967), and Earthquake (1974).
1847 Juan Larrea

Juan Larrea

Argentinian captain and politician (born 1782)
Juan Larrea was a Spanish businessman and politician in Buenos Aires during the early nineteenth century. He headed a military unit during the second British invasion of the River Plate, and worked at the Buenos Aires Cabildo. He took part in the ill-fated Mutiny of Álzaga. Larrea and Domingo Matheu were the only two Spanish-born members of the Primera Junta, the first national government of Argentina.
1952 Luigi Fagioli

Luigi Fagioli

Italian race car driver (born 1898)
Luigi Cristiano Fagioli was an Italian racing driver, who competed in Grand Prix motor racing from 1928 to 1949, and Formula One from 1950 to 1951. Nicknamed "the Abruzzi Robber", Fagioli won the 1951 French Grand Prix with Alfa Romeo aged 53, and remains the oldest driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix. Fagioli was runner-up in the European Drivers' Championship in 1935 with Mercedes.
2002 Erwin Chargaff

Erwin Chargaff

Austrian-American biochemist and academic (born 1905)
Erwin Chargaff was an Austro-Hungarian-born American biochemist, writer, and professor of biochemistry at Columbia University medical school. A Bucovinian Jew who immigrated to the United States during the Nazi regime, he penned a well-reviewed autobiography, Heraclitean Fire: Sketches from a Life Before Nature. Through careful experimentation, Chargaff discovered two rules, called Chargaff's rules, which helped lead to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA.
1840 Pierre Claude François Daunou

Pierre Claude François Daunou

French historian and politician (born 1761)
Pierre Claude François Daunou was a French statesman of the French Revolution and Empire. An author and historian, he served as the nation's archivist under both the Empire and the Restoration, contributed a volume to the Histoire littéraire de la France, and published more than twenty volumes of lectures he delivered when he held the chair of history and ethics at the Collège de France.
1947 Bugsy Siegel

Bugsy Siegel

American mobster (born 1906)
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was an American mobster who was a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Along with his childhood friend and fellow gangster Meyer Lansky, Siegel was influential within the Jewish-American mob, the Italian-American Mafia, and the largely Italian-Jewish coalition known as the National Crime Syndicate. Described as "handsome" and "charismatic," Siegel became one of the first front-page celebrity gangsters.
1974 Horace Lindrum

Horace Lindrum

Australian snooker player (born 1912)
Horace Lindrum was an Australian professional player of snooker and English billiards. Lindrum won the 1952 World Snooker Championship defeating New Zealander Clark McConachy. The tournament is disputed, as it had only two participants, and other players boycotted the event to play in the 1952 World Professional Match-play Championship. Lindrum won the Australian Professional Billiards Championship on multiple occasions, first winning the event in 1934.
1820 Manuel Belgrano

Manuel Belgrano

Argentinian general, economist, and politician (born 1770)
Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano, usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano, was an Argentine public servant, economist, lawyer, politician, journalist, and military leader. He took part in the Argentine Wars of Independence and designed what became the flag of Argentina. Argentines regard him as one of the main Founding Fathers of the country. He was also a supporter of free trade.
1869 Hijikata Toshizō

Hijikata Toshizō

Japanese commander (born 1835)
Hijikata Toshizō was a Japanese swordsman of the Bakumatsu period and Vice-Commander of the Shinsengumi. As Vice-Commander, he served the Tokugawa Shogunate and co-led his group in its resistance against the imperial rule brought about by the Meiji Restoration. He fought against the Imperial Army during the Boshin War until his death at the Battle of Hakodate, which ended the war.
2017 Prodigy

Prodigy

American music artist (born 1974)
Albert Johnson, known professionally as Prodigy, was an American rapper. He was best known for being one half of the rap duo Mobb Deep along with Havoc, yet Prodigy still had a solo career, regularly collaborating with producer The Alchemist. Prodigy released eight albums during his career in Mobb Deep, as well as six solo studio albums and one posthumous album.
1888 Johannes Zukertort

Johannes Zukertort

Polish-English chess player (born 1842)
Johannes Hermann Zukertort was a Polish-born British-German chess master. He was one of the leading world players for most of the 1870s and 1880s, but lost to Wilhelm Steinitz in the World Chess Championship 1886, which is generally regarded as the first World Chess Championship match. He was also defeated by Steinitz in 1872 in an unofficial championship.
1810 Axel von Fersen the Younger

Axel von Fersen the Younger

Swedish general and politician (born 1755)
Hans Axel von Fersen, also known as Axel von Fersen the Younger and as Axel de Fersen in France, was a Swedish count, military officer, courtier, ambassador, Marshal and Lord of the Realm. He gained international renown for his close association with Queen Marie Antoinette of France and his prominent involvement in the French Revolution.
1925 Josef Breuer

Josef Breuer

Austrian physician and psychologist (born 1842)
Josef Breuer was an Austrian physician who made discoveries in neurophysiology, and whose work during the 1880s with his patient Bertha Pappenheim, known as Anna O., led to the development of the "cathartic method" for psychiatric disorders. The method was a major initiatory factor for psychoanalysis, as developed by Breuer's friend and collaborator Sigmund Freud.
2024 Donald Sutherland

Donald Sutherland

Canadian actor and producer (born 1935)
Donald McNichol Sutherland was a Canadian actor. With a career spanning six decades, he received numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards as well as a BAFTA Award nomination. Considered one of the best actors never nominated for an Academy Award, he received an Academy Honorary Award in 2017.
1837 William IV

William IV

King of the United Kingdom (born 1765)
William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded his elder brother George IV, becoming the last king and penultimate monarch of the United Kingdom's House of Hanover.
981 Adalbert

Adalbert

archbishop of Magdeburg
Adalbert of Magdeburg, sometimes incorrectly shortened to "Albert", known as the Apostle of the Slavs, was the first Archbishop of Magdeburg and a successful missionary to the Polabian Slavs to the east of what was contemporarily Germany. He was later canonised and his liturgical feast day was assigned as 20 June.
1975 Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain

Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain

Haitian anthropologist (born 1898)
Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain was the first woman Haitian anthropologist. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain was a student of Bronisław Malinowski who worked in 1949 with Alfred Métraux, and participated in a UNESCO project in Haiti. She married Jean Comhaire, a Belgian who headed the Anthropology Department of University of Nsukka. Subsequently, she worked in Africa.
2024 Taylor Wily

Taylor Wily

American actor, sumo wrestler and mixed martial artist (born 1968)
Taylor Tuli Wily was an American actor, sumo wrestler and mixed martial artist. He competed in UFC where he was billed as Teila Tuli and also competed in sumo wrestling. As an actor, he was known for his recurring role as Kamekona Tupuola on both Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum P.I.
2005 Jack Kilby

Jack Kilby

American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1923)
Jack St. Clair Kilby was an American electrical engineer who took part, along with Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor, in the realization of the first integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments in 1958. For this invention, Kilby shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.
1870 Jules de Goncourt

Jules de Goncourt

French historian and author (born 1830)
Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt was a French writer, who published books together with his brother Edmond. Jules was born and died in Paris. His death at the age of 39 was at Auteuil of a stroke brought on by syphilis.
1997 Cahit Külebi

Cahit Külebi

Turkish poet and author (born 1917)
Cahit Külebi was a leading Turkish poet and author. He has an important place in contemporary Turkish poetry due to his attachment to folk poetry traditions. His poetry is enriched with simple yet ironic language, embellished with original descriptions.
2013 Ingvar Rydell

Ingvar Rydell

Swedish footballer (born 1922)
Gustav Ingvar Rydell was a Swedish football forward who played for Malmö FF. He also represented Sweden in the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. and won a bronze medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Finland.
1984 Estelle Winwood

Estelle Winwood

English actress (born 1883)
Estelle Winwood was an English actress who moved to the United States mid-career and became celebrated for her wit and longevity, starring in film and TV roles until her nineties.
2011 Ryan Dunn

Ryan Dunn

American television personality (born 1977)
Ryan Matthew Dunn was an American stunt performer and television personality. He was one of the stars of the MTV reality stunt show Jackass and its film franchise from 2000-2011.
1999 Clifton Fadiman

Clifton Fadiman

American game show host, author, and critic (born 1902)
Clifton Paul "Kip" Fadiman was an American intellectual, author, editor, and radio and television personality. He began his work in radio, and switched to television later in his career.
2012 Andrew Sarris

Andrew Sarris

American critic (born 1928)
Andrew Sarris was an American film critic. He was a leading proponent and popularizer of the auteur theory of film criticism, particularly in The American Cinema (1968).
2010

Harry B. Whittington

English palaeontologist and academic (born 1916)
Harry Blackmore Whittington FRS was a British palaeontologist who made a major contribution to the study of fossils of the Burgess Shale and other Cambrian fauna. His works are largely responsible for the concept of Cambrian explosion, whereby modern animal body plans are explained to originate during a short span of geological period. With initial work on trilobites, his discoveries revealed that these arthropods were the most diversified of all invertebrates during the Cambrian Period. He was responsible for setting the standard for naming and describing the delicate fossils preserved in Konservat-Lagerstätten.
1176 Mikhail of Vladimir

Mikhail of Vladimir

Russian prince
Mikhalko (Mikhail) Yuryevich was Grand Prince of Vladimir in 1174, and from 1175 to 1176. He was a son of Yuri Dolgoruky.
1597 Willem Barentsz

Willem Barentsz

Dutch cartographer and explorer (born 1550)
Willem Barentsz, anglicized as William Barents or Barentz, was a Dutch navigator, cartographer, and Arctic explorer.
1605 Feodor II of Russia (born 1589)

Feodor II of Russia (born 1589)

Feodor II Borisovich Godunov was Tsar of all Russia from April to June 1605, during the Time of Troubles.
1668

Heinrich Roth

German missionary and scholar (born 1620)
Heinrich Roth, also known as Henricus Rodius or Henrique Roa, was a German missionary and pioneering Sanskrit scholar.
1776 Benjamin Huntsman

Benjamin Huntsman

English businessman (born 1704)
Benjamin Huntsman was an English inventor and manufacturer of cast or crucible steel.
1800 Abraham Gotthelf Kästner

Abraham Gotthelf Kästner

German mathematician and academic (born 1719)
Abraham Gotthelf Kästner was a German mathematician and epigrammatist.
1872 Élie Frédéric Forey

Élie Frédéric Forey

French general (born 1804)
Élie Frédéric Forey was a Marshal of France.
1906 John Clayton Adams

John Clayton Adams

English painter (born 1840)
John Clayton Adams or J. Clayton Adams was an English landscape artist.
1929 Emmanouil Benakis

Emmanouil Benakis

Greek merchant and politician, 35th Mayor of Athens (born 1843)
Emmanouil Benakis was a Greek merchant and politician, considered a national benefactor of Greece.
1945 Bruno Frank

Bruno Frank

German author, poet, and playwright (born 1878)
Bruno Frank was a German author, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and humanist.
1958 Kurt Alder

Kurt Alder

German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1902)
Kurt Alder was a German chemist and Nobel laureate.
1963 Raphaël Salem

Raphaël Salem

Greek-French mathematician and academic (born 1898)
Raphaël Salem was a Greek mathematician after whom the Salem numbers and Salem–Spencer sets are named, and whose widow founded the Salem Prize.
1965 Bernard Baruch

Bernard Baruch

American financier and politician (born 1870)
Bernard Mannes Baruch was an American financier and statesman.
2002 Tinus Osendarp

Tinus Osendarp

Dutch runner (born 1916)
Martinus Bernardus "Tinus" Osendarp was a Dutch sprint runner.
2004

Jim Bacon

Australian politician, 41st Premier of Tasmania (born 1950)
James Alexander Bacon, AC was an Australian politician who served as Premier of Tasmania from 1998 to 2004.
2005

Larry Collins

American journalist, historian, and author (born 1929)
John Lawrence Collins Jr. was an American writer and historian.
2010 Roberto Rosato

Roberto Rosato

Italian footballer (born 1943)
Roberto Rosato was an Italian footballer, who played as a defender.
2012 Heinrich IV

Heinrich IV

Prince Reuss of Köstritz (born 1919)
Heinrich IV, Prince Reuss was the head of the German formerly princely House of Reuss.
2012 LeRoy Neiman

LeRoy Neiman

American painter (born 1921)
LeRoy Neiman was an American artist known for his brilliantly colored, expressionist paintings and screenprints of athletes, musicians, and sporting events.

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