October 6
is the 279th day of the year (280th in
leap years). There are 86 days remaining.
*
105 BC -
Battle of Arausio: The
Cimbri inflict a major defeat on the
Roman army of
Gnaeus Mallius Maximus.
*
68 BC -
Battle of Artaxata:
Lucullus averts the bad omen of this day by defeating
Tigranes the Great of Armenia.
*
891 -
Formosus becomes
Pope.
*
1582 - Due to the implementation of the
Gregorian calendar, this day is skipped in
Italy,
Poland,
Portugal and
Spain.
*
1600 -
Jacopo Peri's
Euridice, the earliest surviving
opera, premieres in
Florence.
*
1789 -
French Revolution:
Louis XVI returns to
Paris from
Versailles after being confronted by the
Parisian women on
5 October*
1849 - The execution of the
13 Martyrs of Arad after the Hungarian war of independence.
*
1884 - The
Naval War College of the
United States Navy was founded in
Newport, Rhode Island.
*
1889 -
Thomas Edison shows his first
motion picture.
*
1898 -
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity founded at the
New England Conservatory in
Boston, Massachusetts.
*
1903 - The
High Court of Australia sits for the first time.
*
1908 -
Austria annexes
Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
*
1921 -
International PEN is founded in
London.
*
1922 - The great powers of the first world war withdraw from
Istanbul*
1927 - Opening of
The Jazz Singer, the first prominent talking movie.
*
1928 -
Chiang Kai-Shek becomes
Chairman of the Republic of China.
*
1939 - Last
Polish army is defeated in
World War II.
*
1945 -
Baseball: Bill Sianis and his pet billy goat are ejected from
Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the
1945 World Series (see
Curse of the Billy Goat).
*
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 Crossing: 80,000 Egyptian troops cross the
Suez Canal, starting the
Yom Kippur War.
2-28 Air Battle: 2 Israeli
Phantoms shot down 7 Egyptian
MiG-17s.
*
1976 -
Cubana Flight 455 crashes due to a bomb placed by
anti-Castrist militants, 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.
* 1976 - Students gathering at
Thammasat University in
Bangkok,
Thailand to protest the return of ex-dictator
Thanom are massacred by a coalition of right-wing paramilitary and government forces, triggering the return of the military to government.
*
1977 - In
Alicante,
Spain, a group of
MCPV militants and sympathizers were attacked by fascists while putting up posters. Miquel Grau, a 20-year old MCPV sympathizer, is killed.
*
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.
*
1996 - American singers
Faith Hill and
Tim McGraw married after touring on their Spontaneous Combustion Tour.
*
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 -
Slobodan Milošević resigns.
*
2002 - The French oil tanker
Limburg is bombed off
Yemen.
* 2002 -
Opus Dei founder
Josemaría Escrivá is
canonized.
*
1289 - King
Wenceslaus III of Bohemia (d.
1306)
*
1459 -
Martin Behaim, German navigator and geographer (d.
1507)
*
1510 -
Rowland Taylor, English clergyman (d.
1555)
*
1552 -
Matteo Ricci, Italian Jesuit missionary (d.
1610)
*
1573 -
Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, English patron of the theater (d.
1624)
*
1610 -
Charles de Sainte-Maure, duc de Montausier, French soldier (d.
1690)
*
1716 -
George Montague-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, English statesman (d.
1771)
*
1769 - Sir
Isaac Brock, British commander (d.
1812)
*
1773 - King
Louis-Philippe of France (d.
1850)
*
1801 -
Hippolyte Carnot, French statesman (d.
1888)
*
1803 -
Heinrich Wilhelm Dove, German physicist (d.
1879)
*
1820 -
Jenny Lind, Swedish soprano (d.
1887)
*
1831 -
Richard Dedekind, German mathematician (d.
1916)
*
1838 -
Giuseppe Cesare Abba, Italian patriot and writer (d.
1910)
*
1846 -
George Westinghouse, American engineer and inventor (d.
1914)
*
1872 -
Mikhail Kuzmin, Russian writer (d.
1936)
*
1882 -
Karol Szymanowski, Polish composer and pianist (d.
1937)
*
1886 -
Edwin Fischer, Swiss pianist and conductor (d.
1960)
*
1887 -
Le Corbusier, Swiss architect (d.
1965)
*
1888 -
Roland Garros, French pilot (d.
1918)
*
1900 -
Stan Nichols, English cricketer (d.
1961)
*
1903 -
Ernest Walton, Irish physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1995)
*
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, British politician (d.
2002)
*
1912 -
Pauline Gore, mother of American Vice President
Al Gore (d.
2004)
*
1914 -
Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer (d.
2002)
*
1917 -
Fannie Lou Hamer, American civil rights activist
*
1920 -
Pietro Consagra, Italian sculptor (d.
2005)
* 1920 -
Lord Donaldson of Lymington, British judge (d.
2005)
*
1922 -
Joe Frazier, baseball player
*
1925 -
Shana Alexander, American columnist (d.
2005)
*
1930 -
Hafez al-Assad,
President of Syria (d.
2000)
* 1930 -
Richie Benaud, Australian cricket player
*
1931 -
Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh, Russian astronomer (d.
2004)
* 1931 -
Riccardo Giacconi, Italian-born physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
1935 -
Bruno Sammartino, Italian strongman
*
1938 -
Serge Nubret, French bodybuilder
*
1942 -
Britt Ekland, Swedish actress
*
1943 -
Michael Durrell, American actor
* 1943 -
Alexander Maxovich Shilov, Russian painter
*
1945 -
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,
President of Brazil *
1946 -
Lloyd Doggett, American politician
* 1946 -
Tony Greig, South African-born cricketer
*
1948 -
Gerry Adams, Northern Irish politician
*
1950 -
David Brin, American author
*
1951 -
Manfred Winkelhock, German race car driver (d.
1985)
*
1953 -
Klaas Bruinsma, Dutch drug lord (d.
1991)
*
1963 -
Chip Foose, Automobile Customizer
* 1963 -
Elisabeth Shue, American film actress
*
1966 -
Niall Quinn, Irish footballer
*
1969 -
Troy Shaw, English snooker player
* 1969 -
Adrienne Armstrong, wife of
Billie Joe Armstrong*
1970 -
Darren Oliver, baseball player
*
1972 -
Mark Schwarzer, Australian footballer
*
1973 -
Sylvain Legwinski, French footballer
* 1973 -
Jeff Davis, American comedian
* 1973 -
Ioan Gruffudd, Welsh actor
* 1973 -
Rebecca Lobo, American basketball player
*
1974 -
Walter Centeno, Costa Rican footballer
*
1976 -
Taylor Hicks,
American Idol Season 5 Winner
*
1981 -
Zurab Khizanishvili, Georgian footballer
*1981 -
José Luis Perlaza, Ecuadorian footballer
*
1982 -
MC Lars, American hip-hop artist
*
1014 -
Samuil, Tsar of Bulgaria (b.
958)
*
1101 -
Bruno of Cologne, German founder of the Carthusian order
*
1413 -
Dawit I, Emperor of Ethiopia (b.
1382)
*
1536 -
William Tyndale, English Bible translator (burned at the stake)
*
1542 -
Thomas Wyatt, English poet (b.
1503)
*
1641 -
Matthijs Quast, Dutch explorer
*
1644 -
Elisabeth of France, wife of
Philip IV of Spain (b.
1602)
*
1660 -
Paul Scarron, French writer
*
1661 -
Guru Har Rai, seventh Sikh Guru
*
1688 -
Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, English statesman (b.
1652)
*
1762 -
Francesco Manfredini, Italian composer (b.
1684)
*
1873 -
Sir Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, Polish explorer and geologist (b.
1797)
*
1891 -
Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish politician (b.
1846)
*
1892 -
Alfred Lord Tennyson, British poet (b.
1809)
*
1912 -
Auguste Marie Francois Beernaert, Belgian statesman, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (b.
1829)
*
1946 -
Johnny O'Keefe, Australian singer (b.
1935)
*
1947 -
Leevi Madetoja, Finnish composer (b.
1887)
*
1951 -
Otto Fritz Meyerhof, German-born physician and biochemist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1884)
*
1959 -
Bernard Berenson, American art historian (b.
1865)
*
1973 -
Francois Cevert, French race car driver {b.
1944}
*
1962 -
Tod Browning, American film director (b.
1880)
*
1980 -
Hattie Jacques, British comedy actress (b.
1922)
* 1980 -
Jean Robic, French cyclist (b.
1921)
*
1981 -
Anwar Sadat,
President of Egypt, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (assassinated) (b.
1918)
*
1983 -
Terence Cardinal Cooke, American Catholic archbishop (b.
1921)
*
1985 -
Nelson Riddle, American bandleader (b.
1921)
*
1989 -
Bette Davis, American actress (b.
1908)
*
1992 -
Denholm Elliott, English actor (b.
1922)
* 1992 -
Bill O'Reilly, Australian cricketer (b.
1902)
*
1997 -
Johnny Vander Meer, baseball player (b.
1914)
*
1999 -
Amalia Rodrigues, Portuguese singer and actress (b.
1920)
* 1999 -
Gorilla Monsoon, Professional wrestler/commentator (b.
1937)
*
2000 -
Richard Farnsworth, American actor (b.
1930)
*
2002 -
Claus von Amsberg, Prince of the Netherlands and husband of
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (b.
1926)
*
2003 -
Timothy Treadwell, Enviromentalist (b.
1957)
*
RC Saints -
Saint Bruno,
St Faith* Also see
October 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)*
Egypt -
National Day or Victory Day; celebrates the results of the
October war in 1973
*
U.S. -
German-American Day observed since
1987;
Mad Hatter Day*
Judaism -
Fast of Gedalia (
2005)
*
Ireland -
Ivy Day, formerly honoring the Irish revolutionary
Padraig Pearse, commemmorates the death of
Charles Stewart Parnell.
*
French Republican Calendar -
Âne (Donkey) Day, fifteenth day in the
Month of Vendémiaire*
BBC: On This DayOctober 5 -
October 7 -
September 6 -
November 6 – more
historical anniversaries
