August 6

August 6 is the 218th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (219th in leap years), with 147 days remaining.

Events

• 1806 – Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicates, thus ending the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1825 – Bolivia gains independence from Peru.
• 1861 – British annexation of Lagos, Nigeria.
• 1862 – American Civil War: The Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas is scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering damage in a battle with USS Essex near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• 1890 – At Auburn Prison in New York, the first execution by electric chair is performed, with murderer William Kemmler as the subject.
• 1915 – World War I: Battle of Sari Bair begins – The Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.
• 1926 – Gertrude Ederle becomes first woman to swim across the English Channel.
• 1926  – In New York, the Warner Brothers' Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore.
• 1945 – World War II: An atomic bomb codenamed Little Boy is dropped by the American B-29 Enola Gay on the city of Hiroshima in Japan at 8:16 a.m., killing 80,000 outright with another 60,000 died by the end of the year due to fallout sickness. Ultimately, about 200,000 die due to the atomic bomb.
• 1960 – Cuban Revolution: In response to a United States embargo, Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
• 1962 – Jamaica becomes independent.
• 1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into United States law.
• 1984 – Pop star Prince releases Purple Rain, the album which would launch him to superstardom.
• 1985 – In Hiroshima, tens of thousands mark the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city.
• 1990 – Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait
• 1991 – Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web.
• 1993 – Louis Freeh is confirmed by the United States Senate to be the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
• 1993 – The Fugitive opens in theaters, starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones.
• 1996 – NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms.
• 1996  – Australian census conducted.
• 1997 – Microsoft buys $150 million worth of shares of financially troubled Apple Computer.
• 1997 – A Korean Air Boeing 747-300 crashes into the jungle on Guam on approach to airport, killing 228.
• 2001 – President George W. Bush receives President's Daily Briefing entitled Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US.
• 2002 – Marquis de la Fayette is made Honorary Citizen of the United States
• 2002 – Manaindra Agrawal et al prove the long standing number theory conjecture in the article entitled "Primes in P".

Births

• 1504 – Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1575)
• 1766 – William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist (d. 1828)
• 1809 – Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet (d. 1892)
• 1844 – James Henry Greathead, engineer (d. 1896)
• 1844 – Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1900)
• 1868 – Paul Claudel, French poet (d. 1955)
• 1874 – Charles Fort, writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena (d. 1932)
• 1877 – Wallace H. White, Jr., U.S. Senator from Maine (d. 1952)
• 1880 – Hans Moser, actor (d. 1964)
• 1881 – Leo Carrillo, actor (d. 1961)
• 1881 – Alexander Fleming, scientist (d. 1955)
• 1881 – Louella Parsons, gossip columnist (d. 1972)
• 1889 – John Middleton Murry, English poet (d. 1957)
• 1892 – Hoot Gibson, cowboy actor (d. 1962)
• 1893 – Wright Patman, American politician (d. 1976)
• 1900 – Cecil H. Green, Texas Instruments founder (d. 2003)
• 1902 – Dutch Schultz, bootlegger, gangster (d. 1935)
• 1904 – Jean Desses, French couturier (d. 1970)
• 1911 – Lucille Ball, actress, comedian (d. 1989)
• 1916 – Richard Hofstadter, historian (d. 1970)
• 1917 – Robert Mitchum, actor: Night of the Hunter, Cape Fear (1961 version) (d. 1997)
• 1918 – Otto Wolff von Amerongen, industrialist
• 1922 – Sir Freddie Laker, entrepreneur
• 1928 – Jan Kucera, author
• 1928 – Chung Se Yung, cofounder of the Hyundai Motor Company
• 1928 – Andy Warhol, artist (d. 1987)
• 1930 – Andy Warhol, painter (d. 1987)
• 1932 – Howard Hodgkin, painter and print-maker
• 1943 – Jon Postel, creator of DNS
• 1946 – Roh Moo-hyun, President of South Korea
• 1946 – Masaaki Sakai, Japanese comedian
• 1951 – Daryl Somers, Australian television personality
• 1957 – Jim McGreevey, governor of New Jersey
• 1959 – Joyce Sims, US singer/songwriter
• 1963 – Kevin Mitnick, computer cracker
• 1970 – M. Night Shyamalan, film director, writer, producer, actor
• 1971 – Merrin Dungey, actress
• 1972 – Geri Halliwell, singer
• 1973 – Asia Carrera, erotic actress
• 1976 – Melissa George, actress
• 1978 – Billy Klippert, singer
• 1982 – Adrianne Curry, reality television
• 1990 – JonBenét Ramsey, young beauty queen and young victim of crime (d. 1996)

Deaths

• 258 – Saint Pope Sixtus II
• 523 – Saint Pope Hormisdas
• 1221 – Saint Dominic
• 1458 – Pope Callixtus III
• 1637 – Ben Jonson, English writer (b. 1572)
• 1904 – Eduard Hanslick, music critic
• 1931 – Bix Beiderbecke, jazz musician (b. 1903)
• 1942 – Jonathan Campbell, Film pioneer (b. 1875)
• 1946 – Tony Lazzeri, Major League Baseball player
• 1959 – Preston Sturges, playwright, screenwriter, director
• 1964 – Sir Cedric Hardwicke, actor
• 1966 – Cordwainer Smith, writer
• 1973 – Fulgencio Batista, Cuban dictator
• 1976 – Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist (b. 1903)
• 1978 – Pope Paul VI
• 1983 – Klaus Nomi, singer
• 1991 – Harry Reasoner, reporter
• 1993 – Tex Hughson, Major League Baseball player (b. 1916)
• 1994 – Domenico Modugno, Italian singer & songwriter
• 1998 – Andre Weil, mathematician
• 2001 – Jorge Amado de Faria, Brazilian writer
• 2002 – Edsger Dijkstra, computer scientist (b. 1930)
• 2004 – Rick James, musician

Holidays and observances

• Christianity – Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ
• Bolivia – Independence Day
• Jamaica – Independence Day
• United Arab Emirates – H.H. Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan's Accession Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

August 5 – August 7 – July 6 – September 6 — listing of all days