On This Day — 6 August
2000s
2015
A suicide bomb attack kills at least 15 people at a mosque in the Saudi city of Abha.
2015 Abha mosque bombing
2012
NASA's Curiosity rover lands on the surface of Mars.
NASA
2011
War in Afghanistan: A United States military helicopter is shot down, killing 30 American special forces members and a working dog, seven Afghan soldiers, and one Afghan civilian. It was the deadliest single event for the United States in the War in Afghanistan.
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
2010
Flash floods across a large part of Jammu and Kashmir, India, damages 71 towns and kills at least 255 people.
2010 Ladakh floods
2008
A military junta led by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz stages a coup d'état in Mauritania, overthrowing president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.
Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz
2001
Erwadi fire incident: Twenty-eight mentally ill persons tied to a chain are burnt to death at a faith based institution at Erwadi, Tamil Nadu.
Erwadi fire incident
1900s
1997
Korean Air Flight 801 crashed at Nimitz Hill, Guam, killing 229 of the 254 people on board.
Korean Air Flight 801
1996
NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms.
NASA
1991
Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW makes its first appearance as a publicly available service on the Internet.
Tim Berners-Lee
1991
Takako Doi, chair of the Social Democratic Party, becomes Japan's first female speaker of the House of Representatives.
Takako Doi
1990
Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
Gulf War
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, New South Wales, Australia.
New South Wales
1965
US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
Lyndon B. Johnson
1962
Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
Jamaica
1960
Cuban Revolution: Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
Cuban Revolution
1958
Law of Permanent Defense of Democracy, outlawing the Communist Party of Chile and banning 26,650 persons from the electoral lists, is repealed in Chile.
Law of Permanent Defense of Democracy
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.
1955
1945
World War II: Hiroshima, Japan 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.
World War II
1942
Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress.
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
1940
Estonia is annexed by the Soviet Union.
Estonia
1926
Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
Gertrude Ederle
1926
First public screening using the Vitaphone process
Vitaphone
1917
World War I: Battle of Mărășești between the Romanian and German armies begins.
Battle of Mărășești
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.
Battle of Sari Bair
1914
World War I: U-boat campaign: 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 Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea.
World War I
1914
World War I: Serbia declares war on Germany; Austria declares war on Russia.
Serbia
1901
Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.
Kiowa
1800s
1890
At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.
Auburn Correctional Facility
1870
Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Spicheren is fought, resulting in a German victory.
Franco-Prussian War
1870
Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Wörth results in a decisive German victory.
Battle of Wörth
1862
American Civil War: The Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas is scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering catastrophic engine failure near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
American Civil War
1861
Britain imposes the Lagos Treaty of Cession to suppress slavery in what is now Nigeria.
Lagos Treaty of Cession
1825
The Bolivian Declaration of Independence is proclaimed.
Bolivian Declaration of Independence
1824
Peruvian War of Independence: Patriot forces led by Simón Bolívar defeat the Spanish Royalist army in the Battle of Junín.
Peruvian War of Independence
1819
Norwich University is founded in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States.
Norwich University
1806
Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, declares the moribund empire to be dissolved, although he retains power in the Austrian Empire.
Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor
Before 1800
1787
Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States are delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Constitution of the United States
1777
American Revolutionary War: The bloody Battle of Oriskany prevents American relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix.
American Revolutionary War
1661
The Treaty of The Hague is signed by Portugal and the Dutch Republic.
Treaty of The Hague (1661)
1585
Toyotomi Hideyoshi is officially appointed kampaku (Imperial Regent).
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
1538
Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
Bogotá
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.
Republic of Pisa
686
The Ummayad forces suffer a decisive defeat against the pro-Alid forces under Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar in the battle of Khazir.
Umayyad Caliphate