6 June

2024

The launch of SpaceX Starship integrated flight test 4 (IFT-4)

Starship flight test 4

2023

Russo-Ukrainian War: The Kakhovka Dam is destroyed.

Russo-Ukrainian war

2017

Syrian civil war: The Battle of Raqqa begins with an offensive by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to capture the city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Syrian civil war

2002

Eastern Mediterranean event. A near-Earth asteroid estimated at ten meters in diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.

2002 Eastern Mediterranean event

1994

China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303 crashes near Xi'an Xianyang International Airport, killing all 160 people on board.

China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303

1993

Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat wins the first presidential election in Mongolia.

Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat

1992

Copa Airlines Flight 201 breaks apart in mid-air and crashes into the Darién Gap in Panama, killing all 47 aboard.

Copa Airlines Flight 201

1985

The grave of "Wolfgang Gerhard" is opened in Embu, Brazil; the exhumed remains are later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's "Angel of Death"; Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February 1979.

Embu das Artes

1982

1982 Lebanon War: The war begins as forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon during Operation Peace for the Galilee, eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.

1982 Lebanon War

1976

Chief Minister of Sabah Faud Stephens, Peter Joinud Mojuntin, and several other politicians are killed in a plane crash near Kota Kinabalu International Airport in Malaysia.

Chief Minister of Sabah

1975

British referendum results in continued membership of the European Economic Community, with 67% of votes in favour.

Referendum

1971

Soyuz 11 is launched. The mission ends in disaster when all three cosmonauts, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev are suffocated by uncontrolled decompression of the capsule during re-entry on 29 June.

Soyuz 11

1971

Hughes Airwest Flight 706 collides with a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II of the United States Marine Corps over the San Gabriel Mountains, killing 50.

Hughes Airwest Flight 706

1944

World War II: Commencement of Operation Overlord: The Allied invasion of Normandy begins with the execution of Operation Neptune—commonly referred to as D-Day—the largest seaborne invasion in history. Nearly 160,000 Allied troops cross the English Channel with about 5,000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels, and 277 minesweepers participating. By the end of the day, the Allies have landed on five invasion beaches and are pushing inland.

Operation Overlord

1944

World War II: Capture of the Caen canal and Orne river bridges by Allied paratroopers, also known as Operation Coup de Main (incorrectly referred to as Operation Deadstick.)

Capture of the Caen Canal and Orne River bridges

1942

World War II: The United States Navy's victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Midway is a major turning point in the Pacific Theater. All four Japanese fleet carriers taking part—Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū and Hiryū—are sunk, as is the heavy cruiser Mikuma. The American carrier Yorktown and the destroyer Hammann are also sunk.

World War II

1934

New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

New Deal

1933

The first drive-in theater opens in Camden, New Jersey.

Drive-in theater

1925

The original Chrysler Corporation was founded by Walter Chrysler from the remains of the Maxwell Motor Company.

Chrysler