April 6
April 6 is the 96th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (97th in leap years ). There are 269 days remaining.
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 St. 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 Township, 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 .
1917 - World War I : United States declares war on Germany (see Wilson's address to Congress (Wikisource) ).
1926 - Walter Varney Airlines makes first commercial flight from Pasco, WA to Elko, NV. 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 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 .
1968 - In London , United Kingdom , Massiel wins the thirteenth Eurovision Song Contest for Spain singing "La, la, la".
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".
1985 - King and Queen Whalnutshia, Derwent Daw and Shannon Winser , forming the first monarchy of the island since 1679 .
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 .
Births
1 - Jesus , according to Mormons and some historians.
1483 - Rafael , Italian painter and architect (d. 1520 )
1815 - Robert Volkmann , composer (d. 1883 )
1823 - Joseph Medill , mayor of Chicago (d. 1899 )
1866 - Butch Cassidy , outlaw (d. 1909 )
1878 - Erich Mühsam , German author (d. 1934 )
1884 - Walter Huston , Academy Award winning actor (d. 1950 )
1890 - Anthony Fokker , Dutch designer of aircraft (d. 1939 )
1892 - Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. , American industrialist (d. 1981 )
1892 - Lowell Thomas , travel writer (d. 1981 )
1903 - Mickey Cochrane , Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1962 )
1926 - Gil Kane , cartoonist (d. 2000 )
1926 - Ian Paisley , United Kingdom politician
1926 - Sergio Franchi , singer, actor (d. 1990 )
1927 - Gerry Mulligan , musician (d. 1996 )
1928 - James D. Watson , geneticist
1929 - André Previn , composer, conductor
1931 - Ivan Dixon , American actor, director
1933 - Roy Goode , legal academic
1937 - Merle Haggard , country musician
1937 - Billy Dee Williams , actor
1938 - Paul Daniels , magician
1938 - Roy Thinnes , American actor
1941 - Phil Austin , comedian
1941 - Hans W. Geissendörfer , German film director
1941 - Zamfir , Romanian musician
1942 - Barry Levinson , producer, director
1944 - Felicity Palmer , English soprano
1947 - John Ratzenberger , actor (Cheers 1951 - Bert Blyleven , baseball pitcher
1952 - Marilu Henner , actress
1954 - Thom Bray , actor and filmographer
1955 - Michael Rooker , actor
1965 - Frank Black , a.k.a Charles Thompson, singer, songwriter (Pixies 1969 - Bret Boone , Major League Baseball All-Star
1969 - Ari Meyers , actress
1969 - Bison Dele , American basketball player (disappeared 2002 )
1970 - Olaf Kölzig , NHL goalie
1975 - Zach Braff , American actor
1976 - Candace Cameron , actress
Deaths
1199 - King Richard I of England (b. 1157 )
1520 - Rafael , Italian painter and architect (b. 1483 )
1528 - Albrecht Dürer , artist (b. 1471 )
1883 - Benjamin Raymond , mayor of Chicago (b. 1801 )
1906 - Alexander Kielland , Norwegian author
1935 - Edwin Arlington Robinson , Pulitzer Prize winning poet (b. 1869 )
1961 - Jules Bordet , Belgian immunologist and microbiologist
1963 - Otto Struve , astronomer, (b. 1897 )
1970 - Sam Sheppard , American accused murderer
1971 - Igor Stravinsky , composer (b. 1882 )
1992 - Isaac Asimov , author , (b. 1920 )
1994 - Juvénal Habyarimana , President of Rwanda (b. 1937 )
1994 - Cyprien Ntaryamira , President of Burundi (b. 1956 )
1996 - Greer Garson , actress (b. 1904 )
1998 - Tammy Wynette , country musician (b. 1942 )
1998 - Wendy O. Williams , American musician (Plasmatics )
2000 - Habib Bourguiba , president of Tunisia (b. 1903 )
2003 - David Bloom , NBC reporter in Iraq War (pulmonary embolism) (b. 1963 )
2003 - Babatunde Olatunji , jazz musician (b. 1927 )
2004 - Marjorie Pay Hinckley , wife of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Gordon B. Hinckley (b. 1911 )
2005 - Rainier III, Prince of Monaco (b. 1923 )
Holidays and observances
External links
April 5 - April 7 - March 6 - May 6 -- listing of all days
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