What Happened on June 6th in History
30 historical events on this date
The June Rebellion in Paris is put down by the National Guard.
The June Rebellion, also called the Paris Uprising of 1832, was an anti-monarchist insurrection of Parisian republicans on 5 and 6 June 1832.
The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in London.
YMCA, formerly known as the Young Men's Christian Association, is a worldwide youth organization based in Vernier, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120...
Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales. The date is still celebrated as Queensland Day.
Queensland is a state in northeastern Australia, the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the...
American Civil War: The First Battle of Memphis, a naval engagement fought on the Mississippi River, results in the capture of Memphis, Tennessee by Union forces from the Confederates.
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the...
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.
Shewa, formerly romanized as Shua, Shoa, Showa, Shuwa, is a historical region of Ethiopia which was formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire. The modern Ethiopian capital Addis...
The Great Seattle Fire destroys all of downtown Seattle.
The Great Seattle Fire was a fire that destroyed the entire central business district of Seattle, Washington, on June 6, 1889. The conflagration lasted for less than a day, burning through the...
The Chicago "L" elevated rail system begins operation.
The Chicago "L" is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs in the U.S. state of Illinois. Operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), it is the...
Governor Davis H. Waite orders the Colorado state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners' strike.
The governor of Colorado is the head of government of the U.S. state of Colorado. The governor is the head of the executive branch of Colorado's state government and is charged with enforcing state...
The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begins. It is the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.
Novarupta is a volcano located on the Alaska Peninsula on a slope of Trident Volcano in Katmai National Park and Preserve, about 290 miles (470 km) southwest of Anchorage. Novarupta was formed in...
World War I: U.S. Marine Corps suffers its worst single day's casualties during the Battle of Belleau Wood while attempting to recapture the wood at Château-Thierry (the losses are exceeded at the Battle of Tarawa in November 1943).
World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the...
The original Chrysler Corporation is founded by Walter Chrysler from the remains of the Maxwell Motor Company.
FCA US, LLC, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler, is one of the "Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills,...
The first drive-in theater opens in Camden, New Jersey.
A drive-in theater/theatre or drive-in cinema is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand, and a large parking area for...
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.
The New Deal was a 1933–1938 series of economic, social, and political reforms in response to the Great Depression in the United States under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He introduced the...
World War II: 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. All four Japanese fleet carriers taking part—Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū and Hiryū—are sunk, as is the heavy cruiser Mikuma. The American carrier Yorktown and the destroyer Hammann are also sunk.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
World War II: Commencement of Operation Overlord: The Allied invasion of Normandy begins 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.
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was...
World War II: Capture of the Caen canal and Orne river bridges by British paratroopers, also known as Operation Coup de Main (incorrectly referred to as Operation Deadstick.)
The capture of the Caen Canal and Orne River bridges was an operation by airborne forces of the British Army that took place in the early hours of 6 June 1944 as part of the Normandy landings of the...
March Against Fear: African-American civil rights activist James Meredith is wounded in an ambush by white sniper James Aubrey Norvell. Meredith and Norvell are photographed by Jack R. Thornell, whose photo will receive the 1967 Pulitzer Prize in Photography, the last one to be awarded in the category.
The March Against Fear was a major 1966 demonstration in the Civil Rights Movement in the South. Activist James Meredith launched the event on June 5, 1966, intending to make a solitary walk from...
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.
Soyuz 11 was the only crewed mission to board the world's first space station, Salyut 1. The crew – Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev – arrived at the space station on 7 June...
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.
Hughes Airwest Flight 706 was a regularly scheduled flight operated by American domestic airline Hughes Airwest from Los Angeles, California, to Seattle, Washington, with several intermediate stops....
British referendum results in continued membership of the European Economic Community, with 67% of votes in favour.
A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either binding, resulting in the adoption of a new policy,...
Chief Minister of Sabah Faud Stephens, Peter Joinud Mojuntin, and several other politicians are killed in a plane crash near Kota Kinabalu International Airport in Malaysia.
The chief minister of Sabah is the head of government of Sabah, Malaysia. Since September 2020, the position has been held by Hajiji Noor from the Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah from the coalition of...
1982 Lebanon War: The war begins as 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.
The 1982 Lebanon War, also called the Second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, began on 6 June 1982, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. The invasion followed a series of attacks and counter-attacks...
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.
Embu das Artes, previously and commonly known simply as Embu, is a Brazilian municipality in the State of São Paulo. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo. The population is 259,788 in...
Copa Airlines Flight 201 breaks apart in mid-air and crashes into the Darién Gap in Panama, killing all 47 aboard.
Copa Airlines Flight 201 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, Panama, to Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in Cali, Colombia. On 6...
Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat wins the first presidential election in Mongolia.
Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat was a Mongolian politician who served as the first president of Mongolia from 1990 to 1997. He was the first Mongolian president to be elected by direct popular vote.
China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303 crashes near Xi'an Xianyang International Airport, killing all 160 people on board.
China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303 was a domestic flight from Xi'an to Guangzhou, People's Republic of China. On June 6, 1994, the aircraft operating the flight, a Tupolev Tu-154M, broke up...
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.
The 2002 Eastern Mediterranean Event was a high-energy upper atmosphere explosion over the Mediterranean Sea, around 34°N 21°E on June 6, 2002. This explosion, similar in power to a small atomic...
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).
The Syrian civil war was an armed conflict that began with the Syrian revolution in March 2011, when popular discontent with the Ba'athist regime ruled by Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale...
Russo-Ukrainian war: The Kakhovka Dam is destroyed.
The Russo-Ukrainian war began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia occupied Crimea and annexed it from Ukraine. It then supported Russian separatist...
The launch of SpaceX Starship integrated flight test 4 (IFT-4)
Starship flight test 4 was the fourth flight test of the SpaceX Starship launch vehicle. SpaceX performed the flight test on June 6, 2024. The prototype vehicles flown were the Starship Ship 29...