Famous People Who Died in June a to z

Grace Abbott is best known for her social activism on behalf of immigrants and children. She headed the Children's Bureau from 1921 to 1934.

Hafez al-Assad served as president of Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000. He is widely criticized for his brutal tactics but also praised for stabilizing the country.

Alexander the Great was the King of Macedonia. During his leadership he united Greece, reestablished the Corinthian League and conquered the Persian Empire.

Mel Allen was a sportscaster and lead announcer for the New York Yankees baseball team from 1940 to 1964. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1978.

James Arness is an American actor best known for portraying Marshal Matt Dillon on the TV show Gunsmoke for 20 years.

Benedict Arnold was an American Revolutionary War general best known for his defection from the Continental Army to the British side of the conflict in 1780.

Jean Arthur was an American actress best known for her roles in films such as Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and The More The Merrier.

Fred Astaire was an American dancer of stage and film who is best known for a number of successful musical comedy films in which he starred with Ginger Rogers.

Scottish engineer John Logie Baird was the first man to televise pictures of objects in motion. He also demonstrated color television, in 1928.

Anne Bancroft was an Oscar Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress famous for her roles in The Miracle Worker and The Graduate. She was married to comedian and film director Mel Brooks.

Joseph Banks was a late-18th to early-19th century British explorer and botanist who pushed for the advancement of science.

Sir James Matthew Barrie was a Scottish dramatist, best known for writing the play Peter Pan.

Chris Benoit was a popular professional wrestler who, in 2007, killed his wife and son and then committed suicide.

French composer Georges Bizet is best known for the realistic opera Carmen, a work that established itself as the model of opéra comique.

Arna Bontemps was an African-American author best known for his novels, children’s books and poems written during the 1930s-1970s.

Lizzie Borden is best known for her arrest and trial for the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother. She was acquitted in 1893.

Lucrezia Borgia was an Italian noblewoman and daughter of Pope Alexander VI. A notorious reputation precedes her, and she is inextricably, and perhaps unfairly, linked to the crimes and debauchery of her family.

American fantasy and horror author Ray Bradbury is best known for his novels Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man and The Martian Chronicles.

James Buchanan was the 15th president of the United States. He served from 1857 to 1861, during the build-up to the Civil War.

American singer-songwriter Tim Buckley was known for combining folk, rock and other musical styles during his tragically short career.

Simon Cameron was a Pennsylvania senator who later served as President Abraham Lincoln's secretary of war.

Actor, writer, and comedian George Carlin was known for his stand-up routines as well as TV appearances and roles in such films as 1987's Outrageous Fortune.

Helen Carter is best known as a performer in The Carter Family band.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary was an active abolitionist and the first female African-American newspaper editor in North America.

Giovanni Giacomo Casanova, an 18th Century figure, is known for his archetypal reputation as a seducer of women.

Ray Charles was a pioneer of soul music, integrating R&B, gospel, pop and country to creat hits like "Unchain My Heart," "Hit the Road Jack" and "Georgia on My Mind." A blind genius, he is considered one of the greatest artists of all time.

Samuel Chase was an associate Supreme Court justice until he was impeached. His political views gradually turned from support of states’ rights to Federalism.

U.S. short-story writer and novelist John Cheever’s story collections include The Stories of John Cheever, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1978.

Liz Claiborne was a fashion designer and icon who created a clothing empire. She's also the first woman to found a company (Liz Claiborne Inc.) that landed on the Fortune 500 list.

Appointed Attorney General by President Harry Truman, Tom C. Clark went on to become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

Henry Clay was an American statesman. He promoted several major governmental compromises to balance the rights of free and slave states.

The 22nd and 24th president, Grover Cleveland is the only POTUS to serve two nonconsecutive terms, as well as the first to be married in the White House.

Rosemary Clooney was a popular singer beginning in the 1950s and had a No. 1 hit with "Come On-a My House." She was aunt to actor George Clooney.

Jacques Cousteau was a French undersea explorer, researcher, photographer and documentary host who invented diving and scuba devices, including the Aqua-Lung. He also conducted underwater expeditions and produced films and television series, including the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. 

Stephen Crane was a 19th century American writer best known for his novels The Red Badge of Courage and Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.

George Custer was an American general who in 1876 led 210 men into battle at Little Bighorn against Native Americans. Custer and his men were killed.

Gala Dalí is best known as the wife, business manager and muse of Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí.

Willie Davenport was an Olympic athlete and medal winner and one of only a few Americans to compete in both the Summer and Winter games.

Militant suffragette Emily Wilding Davison fought to gain equal voting rights for British women before dying at the Epsom Derby in 1913.

British comedian Richard Dawson is best known for his role as Corporal Newkirk in the World War II sitcom Hogan's Heroes and as the host of Family Feud.

Some people believe it was Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, who really wrote the plays attributed to William Shakespeare.

Ferdinand Waldo Demara, Jr. traveled the country posing as a Navy officer, a surgeon, a teacher, and more, beginning in the 1940s. He is known as the "Great Imposter" for pulling off some of the greatest identity hoaxes in history.

Educator John Dewey originated the experimentalism philosophy. A proponent of social change and education reform, he founded The New School for Social Research.

Charles Dickens was the well-loved and prolific British author of numerous works that are now considered classics.

Jimmy Dorsey was known for playing the clarinet and alto saxophone in the Dorsey Brothers, which performed with all the big names in big band and swing music.

Thomas Eakins was a naturalist figure painter, portraitist and sculptor. He is considered one of the most influential artists in U.S. history.

J. Presper Eckert Jr. was the award-winning co-inventor of the first general purpose digital computer.

Nicknamed "The Ox," bass guitarist John Entwistle was a founding member of the legendary rock band the Who.

Medgar Evers was a civil rights activist who organized voter-registration efforts, demonstrations and boycotts of companies that practiced discrimination.

Charles W. Fairbanks was a U.S. attorney and senator who was the country’s 26th vice president under Theodore Roosevelt.

American actor Peter Falk is best known for his role as the television detective Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo.

Farrah Fawcett was an American actress best known for her role in the TV series Charlie’s Angels. She was also famous for her pin-up status and her signature hairstyle.

Franz Ferdinand's assassination on June 28, 1914, at the hand of a Serbian terrorist group the "Black Hand," led to the beginning of World War I.

Saint John Fisher was a Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal who was martyred when he resisted King Henry VII's encroachments on the Church.

Ella Fitzgerald, known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist who interpreted much of the Great American Songbook.

Shelby Foote was an American historian and novelist who wrote The Civil War: A Narrative. He was also a significant contributor to the Ken Burns series The Civil War.

Writer and critic E.M. Forster is the author of Howards End, A Passage to India and A Room With a View.

Playwright Christopher Fry wrote a series of major plays in free verse, with undertones of religion and mysticism, including A Phoenix Too Frequent (1946).

Actress and singer Judy Garland was the star of many classic musical films, and was known for her tremendous talent and troubled life.

Marcus Garvey was a proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, inspiring the Nation of Islam and the Rastafarian movement.

Antoni Gaudí was a Barcelona-based Spanish architect whose free-flowing works were greatly influenced by nature.

Hall of Fame first baseman Lou Gehrig played for the New York Yankees in the 1920s and 1930s, setting the mark for consecutive games played. He died of ALS in 1941.

Billionaire businessman J. Paul Getty became president of the Getty Oil Company after his father George Getty’s death. His Getty Foundation funds the J. Paul Getty Museum and other artist endeavors.

Stan Getz was an American jazz saxophonist best known for his popularization of the bossa nova sound.

Organized crime boss, Sam Giancana climbed to the top of Chicago's underworld and became a player on the national stage through shadowy ties to the Kennedys.