6 October - Definition and Overview

October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in Leap years). There are 86 days remaining.

Events

200 BCE-1899

• 105 BCE - Battle of Arausio: The Cimbri inflict a major defeat on the Roman army of Mallius Maximus
• 891 - Formosus becomes Pope
• 1600 - Jacopo Peri's Euridice, the earliest surviving opera, premieres in Florence
• 1884 - The Naval War College of the United States Navy was founded in Newport, Rhode Island.
• 1889 - Thomas Edison shows his first motion picture.

1900-1999

• 1908 - Austria annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• 1921 - International PEN is founded in London.
• 1927 - Opening of The Jazz Singer, the first prominent talking movie
• 1928 - Chiang Kai-Shek becomes Chairman of the Republic of China
• 1955 - A United Airlines DC-4 crashes in Medicine Bow Peak, Wyoming, killing 66 people
• 1966 - LSD is declared illegal in the United States
• 1973 - The Yom Kippur War begins
• 1976 - Cubana CUT-1201 crashes due to sabotage, after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados
• 1976 - New Premier Hua Guofeng orders the arrest of the Gang of Four and their associates, putting an end to the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China.
• 1981 - Anwar al-Sadat is assassinated
• 1995 - 51 Pegasi, in the constellation of Pegasus, 47.9 light-years away from Earth, was discovered to be the first major star apart from the Sun to have a planet (and extrasolar planet) orbiting around it.
• 1998 - Gay-bashing: Near Laramie, Wyoming, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard is viciously attacked by two assailants for being gay (he died on October 12).

2000-2099

• 2000 - Slobodan Milosevic resigns
• 2002 - French oil tanker Limburg is bombed off Yemen.

Births

1400-1899

• 1459 - Martin Behaim, navigator, geographer (d. c. 1507)
• 1510 - Rowland Taylor, pastor, martyr (d. 1555)
• 1773 - King Louis-Philippe of France (d. 1850)
• 1820 - Jenny Lind, singer (d. 1887)
• 1831 - Richard Dedekind, German mathematician (d. 1916)
• 1846 - George Westinghouse, American engineer, inventor (d. 1914)
• 1868 - George Horace Lorimer, editor of the Saturday Evening Post (d. 1937)
• 1882 - Karol Szymanowski, composer (d. 1937)
• 1886 - Edwin Fischer, pianist and conductor (d. 1960)
• 1887 - Le Corbusier, Swiss architect (d. 1965)

1900-1999

• 1905 - Helen Wills Moody, American tennis player (d. 1998)
• 1906 - Janet Gaynor, American actress (d. 1984)
• 1908 - Carole Lombard, American actress (d. 1942)
• 1910 - Barbara Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, British Labour politician (d. 2002)
• 1914 - Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer, leader of the Kon-Tiki expedition (d. 2002)
• 1917 - Fannie Lou Hamer, American civil rights activist
• 1930 - Hafez al-Assad, President of Syria (d. 2000)
• 1930 - Richie Benaud, Australian cricket player
• 1935 - Bruno Sammartino, "The Italian Strongman"
• 1946 - Lloyd Doggett, American politician
• 1948 - Gerry Adams, Irish politician
• 1950 - David Brin, science fiction author
• 1951 - Manfred Winkelhock, German auto racing driver (d. 1985)
• 1969 - Troy Shaw, English snooker player
• 1993 - Demi Garcia, young Tejano singer

2000-2999

• 2000 - Rachel Pace, American child actress
• 2000 - Amanda Pace, American child actress

Deaths

Prior to 1800

• 1542 - Thomas Wyatt, English poet

1800-1899

• 1873 - Sir Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, Polish explorer and geologist (b. 1797)
• 1892 - Alfred Lord Tennyson, British poet laureate

1900-1999

• 1962 - Tod Browning, American film director
• 1981 - Anwar Sadat, Egyptian president (assassinated)
• 1983 - Terence Cardinal Cooke, tenth bishop (seventh archbishop) of the Roman Catholic diocese of New York (b. 1921)
• 1985 - Murder of PC Keith Blakelock in the Broadwater Farm Riot, London
• 1985 - Nelson Riddle, bandleader (b. 1921)
• 1988 - Larry Walters, who used 45 helium balloons and a lawnchair to propel himself to 16,000 feet in 1982
• 1989 - Bette Davis, American actress
• 1992 - Denholm Elliott, actor
• 1993 - Agnes de Mille, dancer, choreographer

2000-2099

• 2002 - Claus von Amsberg, husband of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
• 2003 - Mildred O'Neill, widow of former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Tip O'Neill

Holidays and observances

• German-American Day (U.S. observance, since 1987)
• National Day or Victory Day in Egypt; celebrates the results of the October war in 1973

October 5 - October 7 - September 6 - November 6 - more historical anniversaries