August 6 - Events

Events

• 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.
• 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 executedby electric chair.
• 1901 – Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.
• 1909 – Alice Huyler Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip.
• 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 to be never seen again.
• 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.
• 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: in response to a United States embargo, Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
• 1962 – Jamaica becomes independent.
• 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.
• 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 theInternet.
• 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.
• 2008 – A military junta led by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz stages a coup d'état in Mauritania, overthrowing president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.