August 6

Independence Day
Bolivia : August 6 1825
Jamaica : August 6 1962

Events August 6

1284 – The Republic of Pisa is defeated in the Battle of Meloria by the Republic of Genoa, thus losing its naval dominance in the Mediterranean.
1506 – The Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Crimean Khanate in the Battle of Kletsk
1538 – Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
1661 – The Treaty of The Hague is signed by Portugal and the Dutch Republic.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The bloody Battle of Oriskany prevents American relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix.
1787 – Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States are delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
1806 – Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicates ending the Holy Roman Empire.
1819 – Norwich University is founded in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States.
1825 – Bolivia gains independence from Spain.
1845 – The Russian Geographical Society is founded in Saint Petersburg.
1861 – The United Kingdom annexes 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.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War: the Battle of Wörth results in a decisive Prussian victory.
1890 – At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.
1901 – Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.
1912 – The Bull Moose Party meets at the Chicago Coliseum.
1914 – World War I: First Battle of the Atlantic – two days after the United Kingdom had declared war on Germany over the German invasion of Belgium, ten German U-boats leave their base in Helgoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea.
1914 – World War I: Serbia declares war on Germany; Austria declares war on Russia.
1915 – World War I: Battle of Sari Bair – the Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.
1917 – World War I: Battle of Mărăşeşti between the Romanian and German armies begins.
1926 – Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
1926 – In New York City, the Warner Brothers' Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore.
1926 – Harry Houdini performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping.
1930 – Judge Joseph Force Crater steps into a taxi in New York and disappears never to be seen again.
1940 – Estonia was illegally annexed by the Soviet Union.
1942 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress.
1945 – World War II: Hiroshima is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
1953 – Venerable Pius XII establishes the Dioceses of Norwich and Bridgeport and makes the Diocese of Hartford an archdiocese.
1956 – After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network makes its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena in New York in the Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena series.
1960 – Cuban Revolution: Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
1962 – Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1964 – Prometheus, a bristlecone pine and the world's oldest tree, is cut down.
1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
1965 – The largest swimming pool in Europe was opened in Fürstenfeld, Austria.
1966 – Braniff Airlines Flight 250 crashes in Falls City, NE killing all 42 on board.
1976 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto lays the foundation stone of Port Qasim, Karachi.
1986 – A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimeters (13 inches) of rain in a day on Sydney.
1988 – The Tompkins Square Park Police Riot in New York City spurs a reform of the NYPD, held responsible for the event.
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. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.
1991 – Doi Takako, chair of the Social Democratic Party, becomes Japan's first female speaker of the House of Representatives.
1993 – Heavy rains and debris kill 72 in the Kagoshima and Aira areas of Kyūshū, Japan.
1996 – NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms.
1997 – Korean Air Flight 801, a Boeing 747-300, crashes into the jungle on Guam on approach to airport, killing 228.
2001 – Erwadi fire incident, 28 mentally ill persons tied to chain were burnt to death at a faith based institution at Erwadi, Tamil Nadu.
2008 – A military junta led by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz stages a coup d'état in Mauritania, overthrowing president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.
2011 – A helicopter containing members of Navy SEAL 6 is shot down in Afghanistan killing 38.

Holidays and observances

Christian Feast Day:
Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ
Justus and Pastor
August 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
H.H. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan's Accession Day. (United Arab Emirates)
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony (Hiroshima, Japan)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Bolivia from Spain in 1825.
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Jamaica from the United Kingdom in 1962.
The beginning of Tanabata festival. (Sendai, Japan)

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