April 6

From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

[edit] Births

• 1937 - Billy Dee Williams

[edit] Deaths

• 2004 - Victor Argo

[edit] Events

• 648 BC - Earliest solar eclipse recorded by the Ancient Greeks.
• 402 - Stilicho stymies the Visigoths under Alaric in the Battle of Pollentia
• 1320 - The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath.
• 1327 - The poet Petrarch first saw his idealized love Laura in the church of Saint Claire in Avignon.
• 1652 - Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp at the Cape of Good Hope, which will eventually develop into Cape Town.
• 1782 - Rama I succeeds King Taksin of Thailand, who was overthrown in a coup d'état.
• 1808 - John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company.
• 1830 - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is formed by Joseph Smith, Jr. at Fayette, New York.
• 1832 - Indian Wars: Black Hawk War begins - The Sauk warrior Black Hawk enters into war with the United States.
• 1841 - John Tyler is inaugurated as the 10th President of the United States.
• 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Shiloh begins - In Tennessee, forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant meet Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston at Shiloh.
• 1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Sayler's Creek - Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fights its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia.
• 1869 - Celluloid is patented.
• 1886 - Vancouver, British Columbia is incorporated as a city.
• 1895 - Oscar Wilde is arrested after losing a libel case against the John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry.
• 1896 - In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games after 1,500 years after being banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I.
• 1893 - Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints dedicated by Wilford Woodruff.
• 1903 - The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) began, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Israel and the west.
• 1909 - Robert Peary allegedly reaches the North Pole.
• 1911 - Dedë Gjon Luli Dedvukaj, Leader of the Malësori Albanians raises the Albanian flag in the town of Tuzi, Montenegro for the first time after Gjergj Kastrioti (Skenderbeg).
• 1917 - World War I: United States declares war on Germany (see Wilson's address to Congress).
• 1926 - Walter Varney Airlines makes first commercial flight from Pasco, Washington, to Elko, Nevada. Varney is the root company of United Airlines.
• 1930 - Gandhi raised a lump of mud and salt (some say just a pinch, some say just a grain) and declared, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire." Thus he started Salt Satyagraha.
• 1930 - Hostess Twinkies are invented.
• 1930 - Will Rogers starts broadcasting The Will Rogers Program on radio.
• 1931 - Little Orphan Annie debuts on the Blue Network of NBC.
• 1936 - Tupelo-Gainesville Outbreak: Another tornado from the same storm system as the Tupelo tornado hits Gainesville, Georgia, killing 203.
• 1941 - World War II: Operation Castigo begins - Germany invades Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Greece.
• 1965 - Early Bird, the first communications satellite to be placed in synchronous orbit, is launched.
• 1968 - In London, United Kingdom, Massiel wins the thirteenth Eurovision Song Contest for Spain singing "La, la, la."
• 1970 - Four California Highway Patrol officers die in one of the worst cop killings in the CHP's history; this is known as the Newhall Incident.
• 1972 - Vietnam War: Easter Offensive - The first day of clear weather in three days allows American forces to start sustained air strikes and naval bombardments.
• 1973 - Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft.
• 1974 - The California Jam Rock concert begins.
• 1974 - In Brighton, United Kingdom, ABBA wins the nineteenth Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden singing "Waterloo."
• 1984 - Members of Cameroon's Republican Guard from country's northern region attack various government buildings in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya.
• 1987 - Sugar Ray Leonard takes the middleweight boxing title from Marvin Hagler.
• 1993 - Russian nuclear accident at Tomsk 7.
• 1994 - The Rwandan Genocide begins when the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down by extremists.
• 1998 - Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of hitting India.
• 1998 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 49.82 to close at 9,033.23 -- its first-ever close above 9,000.
• 2001 - Miller Park opens in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• 2004 - Rolandas Paksas becomes the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from the post by impeachment.