June 6 is the 157th day of the year (158th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. 208 days remain until the end of the year.
The date is most famously associated with D-Day on Tuesday, 6 June 1944, when the Western Allies carried out landing and airborne operations in Normandy to begin Operation Overlord during World War II. D-Day (codenamed Operation Neptune) was the largest seaborne invasion in history. It began the liberation of German-occupied France to lay the foundations of Allied victory over Nazi Germany, finally achieved in May 1945.
0913 – Constantine VII, the 8-year-old illegitimate son of Leo VI the Wise, becomes nominal ruler of the Byzantine Empire under the regency of a seven-man council headed by Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, appointed by Constantine's uncle Alexander III on his deathbed.[1]
1513 – Battle of Novara. In the Italian Wars, Swiss troops defeat the French under Louis II de la Trémoille, forcing them to abandon Milan; Duke Massimiliano Sforza is restored.[2]
1523 – Swedish regent Gustav Vasa is elected King of Sweden and, marking a symbolic end to the Kalmar Union, 6 June is designated the country's national day.[3][4]
1762 – In the Seven Years' War, British forces begin the Siege of Havana and temporarily capture the city.[5]
1813 – The Battle of Stoney Creek, considered a critical turning point in the War of 1812. A British force of 700 under John Vincent defeats an American force twice its size under William Winder and John Chandler.[6]
1822 – Alexis St. Martin is accidentally shot in the stomach, leading to William Beaumont's studies on digestion.
1832 – The June Rebellion in Paris is put down by the National Guard.
1844 – The Glaciarium, the world's first mechanically frozen ice rink, opens.
1859 – Australia: Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales (Queensland Day).
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Memphis: Union forces capture Memphis, Tennessee, from the Confederates.
1882 – 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.
1889 – The Great Seattle Fire destroys all of downtown Seattle.
1892 – The Chicago "L" elevated rail system begins operation.
1894 – GovernorDavis H. Waite orders the Coloradostate militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners' strike.
post-19th century[]
1909 – French troops capture Abéché (in modern-day Chad) and install a puppet sultan in the Ouaddai Empire.
1912 – The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begins. It is the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.
1916 – The death of Yuan Shikai marks the beginning of China's Warlord Era.
1918 – World War I: Battle of Belleau Wood: The U.S. Marine Corps suffers its worst single day's casualties while attempting to recapture the wood at Château-Thierry.
1933 – The first drive-in theater opens in Camden, New Jersey, United States.
1934 – New Deal: The U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
1942 – World War II: Battle of Midway. U.S. Navy dive bombers sink the Japanese cruiser Mikuma and four Japanese carriers.
1944 – World War II: The Allied invasion of Normandy—codenamed Operation Overlord—begins with the execution of Operation Neptune (commonly referred to as D-Day), 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.
1974 – A new Instrument of Government is promulgated making Sweden a parliamentary monarchy.
1982 – The Lebanon War begins. Forces under IsraeliDefense MinisterAriel Sharon invade southern Lebanon during Operation Peace for the Galilee, eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.
1985 – 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.
1993 – Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat wins the first presidential election in Mongolia.
2002 – 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.
2004 – Tamil is established as a "classical language" by the President of India, Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, in a joint sitting of the two houses of the Indian Parliament.
Births[]
pre-19th century[]
1236 – Wen Tianxiang, Chinese general and scholar (d. 1283)
1243 – Alix of Brittany, Dame de Pontarcy, Breton noble (d. 1288)
1296 – Wladyslaw of Legnica (d. 1352)
1436 – Regiomontanus (Johannes Müller von Königsberg), German mathematician, astronomer, and bishop (d. 1476)[8][9]
1519 – Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician, and botanist (d. 1603)[10]
1539 – Catherine Vasa, Regent of East Frisia (d. 1610)
1556 – Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche, English politician and diplomat (d. 1625)
1580 – Godefroy Wendelin, Belgian astronomer and author (d. 1667)
1584 – Yuan Chonghuan, politician, military general and writer (d. 1630)
1599 – Diego Velázquez, Spanish painter and educator (d. 1660)
1606 – Pierre Corneille, French playwright and producer (d. 1684)
1622 – Claude-Jean Allouez, French-American missionary and explorer (d. 1689)
1646 – Hortense Mancini, favourite Italian niece of Cardinal Mazarin (d. 1699)
1661 – Giacomo Antonio Perti, Italian composer and educator (d. 1756)
1699 – Johann Georg Estor, German historian and theorist (d. 1773)
1714 – Joseph I of Portugal (d. 1777)
1735 – Anton Schweitzer, German composer (d. 1787)
1755 – Nathan Hale, American soldier (d. 1776)
1756 – John Trumbull, American soldier and painter (d. 1843)
1772 – Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily (d. 1807)
1799 – Alexander Pushkin, Russian author and poet (d. 1837)
19th century[]
1807 – Thi?u Tr?, Vietnamese emperor (d. 1847)
1810 – Friedrich Wilhelm Schneidewin, German philologist and scholar (d. 1856)
1829 – Honinbo Shusaku, Japanese Go player (d. 1862)
1841 – Eliza Orzeszkowa, Polish author and publisher (d. 1910)
1844 – Konstantin Savitsky, Russian painter and academic (d. 1905)
1850 – Karl Ferdinand Braun, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1918)
1857 – Aleksandr Lyapunov, Russian mathematician and physicist (d. 1918)
1862 – Henry Newbolt, English historian, author, and poet (d. 1938)
1867 – David T. Abercrombie, American surveyor and businessman, founded Abercrombie & Fitch (d. 1931)
1868 – Robert Falcon Scott, English sailor and explorer (d. 1912)
1872 – Alix of Hesse, German princess and Russian empress (d. 1918)
1875 – Thomas Mann, German author and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)
1878 – Vincent de Moro-Giafferi, French lawyer and politician (d. 1956)
1884 – Jock Hutchison, Scottish-American golfer (d. 1977)
1890 – Ted Lewis, American singer, clarinet player, and bandleader (d. 1971)
1891 – Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Indian author and academic (d. 1986)
1891 – Erich Marcks, German general (d. 1944)
1896 – Henry Allingham, English World War I soldier and supercentenarian (d. 2009).[11]
1896 – Italo Balbo, Italian air marshal and politician (d. 1940)
2005 – Anne Bancroft, American film actress; winner of the 1963 Academy Award for Best Actress for The Miracle Worker (b. 1931)[39]
2006 – Billy Preston, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (b. 1946)[40]
2009 – Jean Dausset, French-Spanish immunologist and academic; awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his studies of the genetic basis of immunological reaction (b. 1916)[41]
2012 – Vladimir Krutov, Russian ice hockey player; together with Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov, formed the famed KLM Line. (b. 1960)[42][43]
2013 – Jerome Karle, American crystallographer and academic; awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research into the molecular structure of chemical compounds (b. 1918)[44]
2013 – Esther Williams, American swimmer and actress (b. 1921)[45]
2014 – Lorna Wing, English psychiatrist and physician; pioneered studies of autism (b. 1928)[46]
2015 – Vincent Bugliosi, American lawyer and author; prosecuting attorney in the Tate–LaBianca murders case (b. 1934)[47]
2015 – Ludvík Vaculík, Czech journalist and author; noted for The Two Thousand Words which inspired the Prague Spring (b. 1926)[48]
2016 – Viktor Korchnoi, Russian chess grandmaster; arguably the best player never to become World Chess Champion (b. 1931)[49]
2016 – Peter Shaffer, English playwright and screenwriter; works included Equus and Amadeus (b. 1926)[50]
Holidays and observances[]
Christian feast days[]
Further information: June 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
↑Deming, Mark. "Holly Near". AllMusic. Ann Arbor, Michigan. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
↑"Harvey Fierstein". Jewish Virtual Library. 6 June 1954. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
↑"Wladyslaw Zmuda". Lausanne: International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
↑Carlson, Michael (9 March 2015). "Sam Simon obituary". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
↑"Björn Borg". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Edinburgh. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
↑Fuller, Bonnie. "Natalie Morales". HollywoodLife. Los Angeles. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
↑(???????,??????) Houhanshu, vol. 51. This recorded that Qiao Xuan died in the 6th year of the Guanghe era (178–184) of Emperor Ling's reign at the age of 75 (by East Asian age reckoning). By calculation, his birth year should be around 109. However, a tablet Cai Yong wrote for Qiao Xuan stated that Qiao Xuan died on 6 June 184.
↑Gordon, Matthew S. (2001). The Breaking of a Thousand Swords: A History of the Turkish Military of Samarra (A.H. 200–275 / 815–889 C.E.). Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. pp. 94–95. ISBN978-07-91447-95-6.