June 6

Events

Pre-1600

* 913 – Constantine VII, the eight-year-old illegitimate son of Leo VI the Wise, becomes nominal ruler of the Byzantine Empire under the regency of a seven-man council headed by Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, appointed by Constantine's uncle Alexander III on his deathbed.
* 1505 – The M8.2–8.8 Lo Mustang earthquake affects Tibet and Nepal, causing severe damage in Kathmandu and parts of the Indo-Gangetic plain.
* 1513 – Battle of Novara. In the Italian Wars, Swiss troops defeat the French under Louis II de la Trémoille, forcing them to abandon Milan; Duke Massimiliano Sforza is restored.
* 1523 – Swedish regent Gustav Vasa is elected King of Sweden and, marking a symbolic end to the Kalmar Union, 6 June is designated the country's national day.

1601–1900

* 1654 – Swedish Queen Christina abdicated her throne in favour of her cousin Charles Gustav and converted to Catholicism.
* 1762 – In the Seven Years' War, British forces begin the Siege of Havana and temporarily capture the city.
* 1813 – The Battle of Stoney Creek, considered a critical turning point in the War of 1812. A British force of 700 under John Vincent defeats an American force twice its size under William Winder and John Chandler.
* 1822 – Alexis St Martin is accidentally shot in the stomach, leading to William Beaumont's studies on digestion.
* 1832 – The June Rebellion in Paris is put down by the National Guard.
*1844 – The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in London.
* 1859 – Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales. The date is still celebrated as Queensland Day.
*1862 – The First Battle of Memphis, a naval engagement fought on the Mississippi results in the capture of Memphis, Tennessee by Union forces from the Confederates.
* 1882 – The Shewan forces of Menelik II of Ethiopia defeat the Gojjame army in the Battle of Embabo. The Shewans capture Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, and their victory leads to a Shewan hegemony over the territories south of the Abay River.
* 1889 – The Great Seattle Fire destroys all of downtown Seattle.
* 1892 – The Chicago "L" elevated rail system begins operation.
* 1894 – Governor Davis H. Waite orders the Colorado state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners' strike.

1901–present

*1912 – The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begins. It is the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.
*1918 – Battle of Belleau Wood in World War I: the U.S. Marine Corps suffers its worst single day's casualties while attempting to recapture the wood at Château-Thierry (the losses are exceeded at the Battle of Tarawa in November 1943).
* 1925 – The original Chrysler Corporation was founded by Walter Chrysler from the remains of the Maxwell Motor Company.
*1933 – The first drive-in theater opens in Camden, New Jersey.
* 1934 – New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
* 1942 – The United States Navy's victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Midway is a major turning point in the Pacific Theater of World War II. All four Japanese fleet carriers taking part—, , and —are sunk, as is the heavy cruiser . The American carrier and the destroyer are also sunk.
*1944 – Commencement of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, with the execution of Operation Neptune—commonly referred to as D-Day—the largest seaborne invasion in history. Nearly 160,000 Allied troops cross the English Channel with about 5,000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels, and 277 minesweepers participating. By the end of the day, the Allies have landed on five invasion beaches and are pushing inland.
*1971 – '' Soyuz 11'' is launched. The mission ends in disaster when all three cosmonauts, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev are suffocated by uncontrolled decompression of the capsule during re-entry on 29 June.
* 1971 – Hughes Airwest Flight 706 collides with a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II of the United States Marine Corps over the San Gabriel Mountains, killing 50.
*1975 – British referendum results in continued membership of the European Economic Community, with 67% of votes in favour.
* 1982 – The Lebanon War begins. Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon during Operation Peace for the Galilee, eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.
* 1985 – The grave of "Wolfgang Gerhard" is opened in Embu, Brazil; the exhumed remains are later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's "Angel of Death"; Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February 1979.
* 1993 – Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat wins the first presidential election in Mongolia.
*1994 – China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303 crashes near Xi'an Xianyang International Airport, killing all 160 people on board.
* 2002 – Eastern Mediterranean event. A near-Earth asteroid estimated at ten meters in diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.
* 2017 – Syrian civil war: The Battle of Raqqa begins with an offensive by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to capture the city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Births

Pre-1600

* 1436 – Regiomontanus (Johannes Müller von Königsberg), German mathematician, astronomer, and bishop (d. 1476)
* 1519 – Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician, and botanist (d. 1603)
*1599 – Diego Velázquez (''date of baptism''), Spanish painter and educator (d. 1660)

1601–1900

* 1606 – Pierre Corneille, French playwright and producer (d. 1684)
* 1622 – Claude-Jean Allouez, French-American missionary and explorer (d. 1689)
* 1714 – Joseph I of Portugal, King of Portugal from 31 July 1750 until his death (d. 1777)
* 1755 – Nathan Hale, American soldier (d. 1776)
*1756 – John Trumbull, American soldier and painter (d. 1843)
* 1799 – Alexander Pushkin, Russian author and poet (d. 1837)
* 1810 – Friedrich Wilhelm Schneidewin, German philologist and scholar (d. 1856)
* 1841 – Eliza Orzeszkowa, Polish author and publisher (d. 1910)
*1850 – Karl Ferdinand Braun, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate in 1909 for physics (d. 1918)
*1851 – Angelo Moriondo, Italian inventor of the espresso machine (d. 1914)
*1857 – Aleksandr Lyapunov, Russian mathematician and physicist (d. 1918)
*1862 – Henry Newbolt, English historian, author, and poet (d. 1938)
* 1868 – Robert Falcon Scott, English sailor and explorer (d. 1912)
* 1872 – Alix of Hesse, German princess and Russian empress (d. 1918)
*1875 – Thomas Mann, German author and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)
* 1890 – Ted Lewis, American singer, clarinet player, and bandleader (d. 1971)
* 1891 – Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Indian author and academic (d. 1986)
* 1891 – Erich Marcks, German general in WWII who planned Operation Barbarossa (d. 1944)
* 1896 – Henry Allingham, English World War I soldier and supercentenarian (d. 2009)
* 1896 – Italo Balbo, Italian air marshal and fascist politician who played a key role in developing Mussolini's air force (d. 1940)
* 1897 – Joel Rinne, Finnish actor (d. 1981)
* 1898 – Jacobus Johannes Fouché, South African politician, 2nd State President of South Africa (d. 1980)
* 1898 – Ninette de Valois, English ballerina, choreographer, and director (d. 2001)
* 1900 – Manfred Sakel, Ukrainian-American psychiatrist and physician (d. 1957)

1901–present

* 1901 – Jan Struther, English author, poet and hymnwriter who created the character Mrs Miniver (d. 1953)
* 1901 – Sukarno, Indonesian engineer and politician, 1st President of Indonesia (d. 1970)
* 1902 – Jimmie Lunceford, American saxophonist and bandleader (d. 1947)
* 1903 – Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer and conductor (d. 1978)
* 1906 – Max August Zorn, German mathematician and academic who is noted for Zorn's Lemma (d. 1993)
* 1907 – Bill Dickey, American baseball player and manager who played in eight World Series, winning seven (d. 1993)
* 1909 – Isaiah Berlin, Latvian-English historian and philosopher (d. 1997)
* 1915 – Vincent Persichetti, American pianist and composer (d. 1987)
* 1916 – Hamani Diori, Niger

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