August 6Birthdays & History

On this day: August 6 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 258Pope Sixtus II is arrested while celebrating mass and then beheaded with several of his deacons.Europe
2. 686The Umayyad forces suffer a decisive defeat against the pro-Alid forces under Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar in the battle of Khazir.Middle East
3. 768Antipope Constantine II is deposed and blinded by the Lombard troops of primicerius Christopher.Europe
4. 1284The Republic of Pisa is defeated in the Battle of Meloria by the Republic of Genoa, thus losing its naval dominance in the Mediterranean.Europe
5. 1538Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.Latin America
6. 1585Toyotomi Hideyoshi is officially appointed kampaku (Imperial Regent).Asia
7. 1661The Treaty of The Hague is signed by Portugal and the Dutch Republic.Europe
8. 1777American Revolutionary War: The bloody Battle of Oriskany prevents American relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix.North America
9. 1787Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States are delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.North America
10. 1806Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, declares the moribund empire to be dissolved, although he retains power in the Austrian Empire.Europe
11. 1819Norwich University is founded in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States.North America
12. 1824Peruvian War of Independence: Patriot forces led by Simón Bolívar defeat the Spanish Royalist army in the Battle of Junín.Latin AmericaEurope
13. 1825The Bolivian Declaration of Independence is proclaimed.Latin America
14. 1861Britain imposes the Lagos Treaty of Cession to suppress slavery in what is now Nigeria.EuropeAfrica
15. 1862American Civil War: The Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas is scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering catastrophic engine failure near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.North America
16. 1870Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Spicheren is fought, resulting in a German victory.Europe
17. 1870Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Wörth results in a decisive German victory.Europe
18. 1890At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.North America
19. 1901Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.North America
20. 1914World War I: U-boat campaign: Two days after the United Kingdom had declared war on Germany over the German invasion of Belgium, ten German U-boats leave their base in Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea.Europe
21. 1914World War I: Serbia declares war on Germany; Austria declares war on Russia.Europe
22. 1915World War I: Battle of Sari Bair: The Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.Middle EastEurope
23. 1917World War I: Battle of Mărășești between the Romanian and German armies begins.Europe
24. 1926Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel.Europe
25. 1926First public screening using the Vitaphone processNorth America
26. 1940Estonia is annexed by the Soviet Union.Europe
27. 1942Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress.EuropeNorth America
28. 1945World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.AsiaNorth America
29. 1956After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network makes its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena in New York in the Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena series.North America
30. 1958Law of Permanent Defense of Democracy, outlawing the Communist Party of Chile and banning 26,650 persons from the electoral lists, is repealed in Chile.Latin America
31. 1960Cuban Revolution: Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.Latin AmericaNorth America
32. 1962Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom.Latin AmericaEurope
33. 1965US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.North America
34. 1986A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimeters (13 inches) of rain in a day on Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.EuropeOceania
35. 1990Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.Middle East
36. 1991Takako Doi, chair of the Social Democratic Party, becomes Japan's first female speaker of the House of Representatives.Asia
37. 1991Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW makes its first appearance as a publicly available service on the Internet.Europe
38. 1996NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms.North America
39. 1997Korean Air Flight 801 crashed at Nimitz Hill, Guam, killing 229 of the 254 people on board.AsiaOceania
40. 2001Erwadi fire incident: Twenty-eight mentally ill persons tied to a chain are burnt to death at a faith based institution at Erwadi, Tamil Nadu.Asia
41. 2008A military junta led by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz stages a coup d'état in Mauritania, overthrowing president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.Africa
42. 2010Flash floods across a large part of Jammu and Kashmir, India, damages 71 towns and kills at least 255 people.Asia
43. 2011War in Afghanistan: A United States military helicopter is shot down, killing 30 American special forces members and a working dog, seven Afghan soldiers, and one Afghan civilian. It was the deadliest single event for the United States in the War in Afghanistan.AsiaNorth America
44. 2012NASA's Curiosity rover lands on the surface of Mars.North America
45. 2015A suicide bomb attack kills at least 15 people at a mosque in the Saudi city of Abha.Middle East

Source: Wikipedia "August 6" / CC BY-SA 4.0