July 6 - Definition and Overview

July 6 is the 187th day of the year (188th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 178 days remaining.

Events

1200-1899

• 1253 - Mindaugas crowned king of Lithuania.
• 1483 - Richard III crowned king of England.
• 1484 - Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cao finds the mouth of Congo River
• 1609 - Bohemia is granted Freedom of religion.
• 1630 - Thirty-Years War: 4,000 Swedish troops under Gustavus Adolphus land in Germany.
• 1785 - The dollar is unanimously chosen as the money unit for the United States. This is the first time a nation has adopted a decimal currency system.
• 1799 - Ranjit Singh's 25,000 men start march towards Lahore.
• 1801 - Battle of Algeciras: The French fleet beats the British fleet.
• 1854 - In Jackson, Michigan, the first convention of the U.S. Republican Party is held.
• 1885 - Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies. The patient is Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.
• 1887 - David Kalakaua, monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, is forced at gunpoint, at the hands of Americans, to sign the Bayonet Constitution giving Americans more power in Hawaii while stripping Hawaiian citizens of their rights.
• 1892 - Dadabhai Naoroji elected as first Indian MP in Britain.

1900-1999

• 1908 - Robert Peary sets sail for the Arctic on the expedition on which he later reaches the North Pole.
• 1917 - Arabian troops led by T.E. Lawrence capture Aqaba from the Turks.
• 1919 - The British dirigible R-34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic by an airship.
• 1923 - Treaty of Union signed between Russia, Transcaucasia, Ukraine and Belarus, establishing the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
• 1928 - The ten world's largest hailstone falls in Potter, Nebraska.
• 1939 - Holocaust: The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed.
• 1944 - The Hartford Circus Fire, one of America's worst fire disasters, kills approximately 168 people and injures over 700 in Hartford, Connecticut.
• 1957 - Althea Gibson wins the Wimbledon championships becoming the first black athlete to do so.
• 1957 - John Lennon and Paul McCartney (The Beatles) first meet.
• 1964 - A Hard Day's Night, the first Beatles film, premieres.
• 1964 - Malawi declares its independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1966 - Malawi becomes a republic.
• 1967 - Biafran War: Nigerian forces invade Biafra, beginning the war.
• 1974 - The radio program A Prairie Home Companion makes its first live broadcast.
• 1975 - The Comoros declare their independence from France.
• 1988 - The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires killing 167 oil workers.
• 1988 - Controversial presidential election held in Mexico.
• 1989 - At 01:23:45 AM the time and date by British reckoning was 01:23:45 6/7/89. This was also true 12 hours later excepting 24-hour time.

2000-2099

• 2003 - The Corsicans rejected a referendum for increased autonomy from France by a very thin majority: 50.98 percent against, and 49.02 percent for.
• 2004 - In an "exclusive" The New York Post erroneously reports that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has selected Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt as his running mate.

Births

1700-1899

• 1766 - Alexander Wilson, poet, ornithologist, naturalist, painter (d. 1813)
• 1796 - Nikolai Romanov, future tsar Nikolai I of Russia (d. 1855)
• 1838 - Vatroslav Jagic Croatian slavist (d. 1923)
• 1884 - Harold Vanderbilt, businessman
• 1887 - Walter Flex, writer (d. 1917)
• 1898 - Hanns Eisler, composer (d. 1962)

1900-1999

• 1907 - Frida Kahlo, painter (d. 1954)
• 1915 - LaVerne Andrews, singer (Andrews Sisters)
• 1918 - Sebastian Cabot, actor (d. 1977)
• 1919 - Ernst Haefliger, Swiss tenor
• 1921 - Nancy Reagan, actress, former First Lady
• 1923 - Wojciech Jaruzelski, president of Poland
• 1925 - Merv Griffin, game show developer, TV show host
• 1925 - Bill Haley, singer: Bill Haley and the Comets (d. 1981)
• 1927 - Janet Leigh, actress: Psycho, The Manchurian Candidate, Touch of Evil
• 1927 - Hein Donner, chess player
• 1927 - Dolores Claman, musician, composer
• 1927 - Pat Paulsen, comedian, frequent Presidential candidate (d. 1997)
• 1935 - Tenzin Gyatso, (Lhamo Dhondrup) fourteenth Dalai Lama
• 1937 - Ned Beatty, actor: Deliverance, Nashville
• 1937 - Vladimir Ashkenazy, pianist, conductor
• 1946 - Sylvester Stallone, actor: Rambo, Copland, Cliffhanger
• 1946 - George W. Bush, President of the United States
• 1951 - Geoffrey Rush, actor, Oscar winner
• 1953 - Nanci Griffith, singer-songwriter
• 1956 - Kenny G, American saxophonist
• 1958 - Jennifer Saunders, British actress-comedian
• 1976 - 50 Cent, rapper

Deaths

1100-1899

• 1189 - Henry II of England (b. 1133)
• 1249 - Alexander II of Scotland (b. 1198)
• 1415 - Jan Hus, reformer (burned for heresy)
• 1476 - Regiomantus, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1436)
• 1533 - Ludovico Ariosto, Italian poet (b. 1474)
• 1535 - Sir Thomas More, English writer and philosopher (executed)
• 1553 - Edward VI, king of England
• 1762 - Peter III, tsar of Russia (murdered)
• 1893 - Guy de Maupassant, French author (b. 1850)

1900-1999

• 1916 - Odilon Redon, painter
• 1932 - Kenneth Grahame, author (The Wind in the Willows)
• 1960 - Aneurin Bevan, British politician
• 1962 - William Faulkner, novelist
• 1966 - Sad Sam Jones, Major League Baseball player (b. 1892)
• 1971 - Louis Armstrong, jazz musician
• 1973 - Otto Klemperer, conductor
• 1982 - Bob Johnson ("Indian Bob"), Major League Baseball player (b. 1905)
• 1989 - János Kádár, Hungarian political leader
• 1998 - Roy Rogers, cowboy actor, singer
• 1999 - Joaquin Rodrigo, composer

2000-2099

• 2002 - John Frankenheimer, film director
• 2003 - Buddy Ebsen, American actor
• 2004 - Thomas Klestil, politician, diplomat, Austrian president at time of death

Holidays and observances

• Comoros - Independence Day (1975)
• Czech Republic - Jan Hus Day (1415)
• Feast day of St Maria Goretti
• Lithuania - Day of Statehood
• Malawi - Independence Day (1964)
• Malawi - Republic Day (1966)

July 5 - July 7 - June 6 - August 6 -- listing of all days