October 6th in History

October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 86 days remaining until the end of the year

Holidays

History

In 105 BC, – Battle of Arausio: The Cimbri inflict the heaviest defeat on the Roman army of Gnaeus Mallius Maximus.

In 69 BC, – Battle of Tigranocerta: Forces of the Roman Republic defeat the army of the Kingdom of Armenia led by King Tigranes the Great.

In 68 BC,Battle of Artaxata: Lucullus averts the bad omen of this day by defeating Tigranes the Great of Armenia.

In 23, – Rebels kill and decapitate the Xin Dynasty emperor Wang Mang two days after the capital Chang’an is sacked during a peasant rebellion.

In 404, – Byzantine Empress Eudoxia has her seventh and last pregnancy which ends in a miscarriage. She is left bleeding and dies of an infection shortly after.

In 1539, – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and his army enter the Apalachee capital of Anhaica (present-day Tallahassee, Florida) by force.

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1) by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg

In 1542,Thomas Wyatt, English poet died this day. (b. 1503) Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 – 11 October 1542) was a 16th-century English ambassador and lyrical poet. He is credited with introducing the sonnet into English. He was born at Allington Castle, near Maidstone in Kent—though his family was originally from Yorkshire. His mother was Anne Skinner and his father, Henry Wyatt, had been one of Henry VII‘s Privy Councillors, and remained a trusted adviser when Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509. In his turn, Thomas Wyatt followed his father to court after his education at St John’s College, Cambridge. None of Wyatt’s poems were published during his lifetime—the first book to feature his verse, Tottel’s Miscellany of 1557, was printed a full fifteen years after his death.

They flee from me, that sometime did me seek,With naked foot stalking within my chamber:Once have I seen them gentle, tame, and meek,That now are wild, and do not once remember,That sometime they have put themselves in dangerTo take bread at my hand ; and now they rangeBusily seeking in continual change

In 1582,  Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day is skipped in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

In 1600,  Jacopo Peri‘s Euridice, the earliest surviving opera, receives its première performance in Florence, signifying the beginning of the Baroque Period

In 1683,  German immigrant families found Germantown in the colony of Pennsylvania, marking the first major immigration of German people to America.

In 1723,   Benjamin Franklin arrives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of 17.

In 1762,   Seven Years’ War: conclusion of the Battle of Manila between Britain and Spain, which resulted in the British occupation of Manila for the rest of the war.

In 1777,  American Revolutionary War: General Sir Henry Clinton leads British forces in the capture of Continental Army Hudson River defenses in the Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery.

In 1789,   French Revolution: Louis XVI returns to Paris from Versailles after being confronted by the Parisian women on 5 October

George Westinghouse.jpg

In 1846,   George Westinghouse, American engineer and inventor was born. (d. 1914) George Westinghouse, Jr (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer who invented the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry. Westinghouse was one of Thomas Edison‘s main rivals in the early implementation of the American electricity system. Westinghouse’s system ultimately prevailed over Edison’s insistence on direct current. In 1911, Westinghouse received the AIEE’s Edison Medal “For meritorious achievement in connection with the development of the alternating current system.

In 1849,   The execution of the 13 Martyrs of Arad after the Hungarian war of independence.

In 1854,   England: The Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead starts shortly after midnight, leading to 53 deaths and hundreds injured.

In 1876,   The American Library Association was founded.

In 1884,   The Naval War College of the United States Navy is founded in Newport, Rhode Island.

In 1889,   American inventor Thomas Edison shows his first motion picture.

In 1903,   The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.

In 1908,   Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia-Herzegovina, sparking a crisis.

In 1910,   Eleftherios Venizelos is elected Prime Minister of Greece for the first time (7 times in total).

In 1923,   The great powers of World War I withdraw from Istanbul.

In 1927,   Opening of The Jazz Singer, the first prominent talking movie.

In 1939,  World War II: Germany’s invasion of Poland ends with the surrender of Polesia army after the Battle of Kock

In 1942,   World War II: The October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.

In 1945,   Baseball: Billy Sianis and his pet billy goat are ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series (see Curse of the Billy Goat).

In 1973,   Egypt launches a coordinated attack with Syria against Israel leading to the Yom Kippur War.

In 1976,   Cubana Flight 455 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados after two bombs, placed on board by terrorists with connections to the CIA, exploded. All 73 people on board are killed.

In 1976,   New Premier Hua Guofeng orders the arrest of the Gang of Four and associates and ends the Cultural Revolution in the People’s Republic of China.

In 1976,   Massacre of students gathering at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand to protest the return of ex-dictator Thanom, by a coalition of right-wing paramilitary and government forces, triggering the return of the military to government.

In 1977,   In Alicante, Spain, fascists attack a group of MCPV militants and sympathizers, and one MCPV sympathizer is killed.

In 1977,   The first prototype of the MiG-29, designated 9-01, makes its maiden flight.

In 1979,   Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit the White House.

In 1981,   Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat is assassinated.

In 1985,   PC Keith Blakelock is murdered as riots erupt in the Broadwater Farm suburb of London.

In 1987,   Fiji becomes a republic.

In 1995,   51 Pegasi is discovered to be the second major star apart from the Sun to have a planet orbiting around it.

In 2000,   Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević resigns.

In 2000,   Argentine vice president Carlos Álvarez resigns.

In 2002,   The French oil tanker Limburg is bombed off Yemen.

In 2007,   Jason Lewis completes the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe.