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June 6 is the 157th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (158th in leap years), with 208 days remaining.
Events
- 1508 - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor is defeated in Friulia by Venetian forces; he is forced to sign a three year truce and cede several territories to Venice
- 1513 - Italian Wars: Battle of Novara - Swiss troops defeat the French under Louis de la Tremoille, forcing the French to abandon Milan. Duke Massimiliano Sforza is restored.
- 1523 - Gustav Vasa is elected King of Sweden, marking the end of the Kalmar Union.
- 1654 - Christina, reigning queen of the Protestant nation Sweden, abdicates the throne and secretly converts to Catholicism. Charles X succeedes his abdicated cousin Queen Christina to the Swedish throne.
- 1683 - The Ashmolean Museum opens as the world's first university museum.
- 1752 - One third of Moscow is destroyed in a devastating fire, including 18,000 homes.
- 1809 - Sweden promulgates a new Constitution, which restores political power to the Riksdag of the Estates after 20 years of Enlightened absolutism.
- 1813 - War of 1812: Battle of Stoney Creek - A British force of 700 under John Vincent defeat an American force three times its size under William Winder and John Chandler.
- 1833 - U.S. President Andrew Jackson becomes the first President to ride a train.
- 1844 - The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in London.
- 1857 - Sophia of Nassau marries the future King Oscar II of Sweden-Norway.
- 1859 - Queen Victoria signs Letters Patent making Queensland into a separate colony.
- 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Memphis - Union forces capture Memphis, Tennessee from the Confederates.
- 1882 - More than 100,000 inhabitants of Bombay are killed as a cyclone in the Arabian Sea pushes huge waves into the harbour.
- 1912 - Eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begins. Second largest volcanic eruption in historic time.
- 1925 - The Chrysler Corporation is founded by Walter Percy Chrysler.
- 1932 - The Revenue Act of 1932 is enacted, creating the first gas tax in the United States (1 cent per gallon sold).
- 1933 - The first drive-in theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey.
- 1934 - New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Act of 1933 into law, establishing the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- 1944 - World War II: Battle of Normandy begins - Operation Overlord, code named D-Day, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
- 1946 - The Basketball Association of America is formed in New York City.
- 1956 - David Marshall, Singapore's first Chief Minister, resigns.
- 1962 - The Beatles audition for EMI Records.
- 1964 - With a temporary order the rocket launches at Cuxhaven are terminated.
- 1966 - James Meredith, civil rights activist, is shot while trying to march across Mississippi.
- 1971 - Soyuz program: Soyuz 11 launches.
- 1971 - The Ed Sullivan Show goes off the air.
- 1972 - Rock musician David Bowie releases the classic album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
- 1974 - A new Instrument of Government is promulgated making Sweden a parliamentary monarchy.
- 1981 - A passenger train travelling between Mansi and Saharsa, India, jumps the tracks at a bridge crossing the Bagmati river. The government places the official death toll at 268 plus another 300 missing; however, it is generally believed that the actual figure is closer to 1,000 killed.
- 1982 - 1982 Lebanon War begins: Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon in their "Operation Peace for the Galilee," eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.
- 1983 - Bradley Jay is born
- 1984 - The Indian Armed Forces attack the Golden Temple in Amritsar in an effort to flush out terrorists, following an order from Indira Gandhi. 576 combatants are killed and 335 are wounded; independent observers estimate that thousands of unarmed Sikh civilians are also killed in the crossfire.
- 1985 - The grave of one Wolfgang Gerhard is exhumed in Embu, Brazil; the remains found are later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz' "Angel of Death". Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February 1979.
- 1990 - U.S. District court judge Jose Gonzales rules that the rap album As Nasty As They Wanna Be by the 2 Live Crew violates Florida's obscenity law; he declares that the predominant subject matter of the record is "directed to the 'dirty' thoughts and the loins, not to the intellect and the mind."
- 1991 - George and Barbara Loeb, members of the Church of the Creator, are arrested and charged with murder.
- 1991 - Former Diff'rent Strokes child star Dana Plato is given a six-year suspended sentence for robbing a Las Vegas video store five weeks earlier.
- 1993 - Mongolia holds its first direct presidential elections.
- 1996 - The sons of Darlie Routier, Damon and Devon are stabbed to death in their Rowlett, Texas home. Their mother was later convicted of the murder.
- 1997 - New Jersey teenager Melissa Drexler gives birth to a healthy baby in a bathroom stall during her senior prom, then strangles the child with a plastic bag and stashes the corpse in the trash.
- 1999 - 345 prisoners run from the main gate of the Putim maximum security prison in the largest jailbreak in Brazilian history, marking the 10th escape for the 3-year old facility. In the ensuing manhunt, two fugitives are killed and five innocent bystanders are accidentally jailed.
- 2002 - The United States House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee announces it is probing Martha Stewart's ImClone stock sales.
- 2002 - Internet cartoon Weebl and Bob debuts.
Births
- 1502 - King John III of Portugal (d. 1557)
- 1553 - Bernardino Baldi, Italian mathematican (d. 1617)
- 1599 - Diego Velázquez, Spanish painter (d. 1660)
- 1606 - Pierre Corneille, French dramatist (d. 1648)
- 1622 - Claude-Jean Allouez, French Jesuit missionary and explorer (d.1857)
- 1755 - Nathan Hale, American writer, patriot (d. 1776)
- 1756 - John Trumbull, American painter (d. 1843)
- 1799 - Alexander Pushkin Russian poet (d. 1837)
- 1810 - Friedrich Wilhelm Schneidewin, German classical scholar (d. 1856)
- 1829 - Shusaku Honinbo, Japanese Go player (d. 1862)
- 1850 - Karl Ferdinand Braun, German physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1909 (d. 1918)
- 1857 - Aleksandr Lyapunov, Russian mathematician (d. 1918)
- 1862 - Henry John Newbolt, English author (d. 1938)
- 1868 - Robert Falcon Scott, English explorer (d. 1912)
- 1872 - Tsarina Alexandra of Russia (d. 1918)
- 1875 - Thomas Mann, German novelist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature 1929 (d. 1955)
- 1890 - Ted Lewis, American bandleader (d. 1971)
- 1898 - Ninette de Valois, Irish dancer (d. 2001)
- 1901 - Sukarno, first President of independent Indonesia (d. 1970)
- 1903 - Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer (d. 1978)
- 1906 - Max August Zorn, mathematician (d. 1993)
- 1907 - Bill Dickey, baseball star, coach, manager, scout (d. 1993)
- 1916 - Henriette Roosenburg, Dutch journalist (d. 1972)
- 1926 - Klaus Tennstedt, German conductor (d. 1998)
- 1934 - King Albert II of Belgium
- 1934 - Gilbert Cates, producer, director
- 1935 - Dalai Lama, Tibetan religious leader
- 1936 - Levi Stubbs, American musician (The Four Tops)
- 1939 - Louis Andriessen, Dutch composer
- 1939 - Gary U.S. Bonds, musician
- 1940 - Larry Lujack, American disc jockey
- 1945 - David Dukes, American actor (d. 2000)
- 1947 - David Blunkett, British Labour Party politician
- 1954 - Harvey Fierstein, American actor
- 1956 - Björn Borg, Swedish tennis player
- 1960 - Gary Graham, American actor
- 1960 - Steve Vai, American musician
- 1961 - Tom Araya, Chilean musician (Slayer)
- 1963 - Wolfgang Drechsler, German social scientist
Deaths
- 68 - Nero, Emperor of Rome (suicide) (b. 37)
- 1557 - John III of Portugal (b. 1502)
- 1799 - Patrick Henry, American revolutionary (b. 1736)
- 1829 - Shanawdithit, last known Beothuk Indian of Newfoundland
- 1832 - Jeremy Bentham, English philosopher (b. 1748)
- 1843 - Friedrich Hölderlin, German poet, novelist, and dramatist (b. 1770)
- 1865 - William Quantrill, Confederate raider (b. 1837)
- 1878 - Robert Stirling, Scottish inventor (b. 1790)
- 1891 - Sir John A. Macdonald, first Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1815)
- 1916 - Yuan Shikai, Chinese military official and politician (b. 1859)
- 1922 - Lillian Russell, American actress
- 1941 - Louis Chevrolet, American automotive pioneer, race car driver (b. 1878)
- 1946 - Gerhart Hauptmann, Silesian dramatist (b. 1862)
- 1961 - Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist (b. 1875)
- 1968 - Robert F. Kennedy, former United States Attorney General and Senator from New York (b. 1925)
- 1976 - J. Paul Getty, American industrialist (b. 1892)
- 1979 - Jack Haley, American actor (b. 1898)
- 1981 - Carleton S. Coon, American anthropologist (b. 1904)
- 1984 - A. Bertram Chandler, Australian author (b. 1912)
- 1991 - Stan Getz, American musician, composer (b. 1927)
- 1996 - Damon and Devon Routier, sons of Darlie Routier
- 1999 - Anne Haddy, Australian actress (b. 1930)
- 2002 - Hans Janmaat, controversial far-right politician in the Netherlands
Holidays and observances
June 5 - June 7 - May 6 - July 6 -- listing of all days
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