AUGUST 6 | Birthdays and Events
Famous Birthdays
People born on August 6
William Hyde Wollaston
Died: December 2, 1828
Chemist and physicist who discovered the chemical elements palladium and rhodium.
Susie Taylor
Died: October 6, 1912
The first African-American nurse during the American Civil War.
Jonathan Homer Lane
Died: May 3, 1880
Astrophysicist who mathematically analyzed the Sun as a gaseous body.
Leo Carrillo
Died: September 10, 1961
Actor best known for his role as Pancho in the television series The Cisco Kid.
Alexander Fleming
Died: March 11, 1955
Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, and botanist who discovered penicillin and it's uses to treat infections.
Arthur Simon Flegenheimer
Died: October 24, 1935
Mobster known as Dutch Schultz who was based in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s.
Lucille Ball
Died: April 26, 1989
Actress, television producer and businesswoman known for her role in I Love Lucy. She was also the first women to run a major television studio (Desilu Productions) which approved and produced the original pilots and early seasons for Star Trek and Mission: Impossible.
Andy Warhol
Died: February 22, 1987
Painter, photographer and film director who was a leading figure in the Pop Art movement. He is said to have coined the phrase "15 minutes of fame."
Jon Postel
Died: October 16, 1996
Computer scientist who was a major contributor to the creation of the Internet.
Michelle Yeoh
Malaysian-Hong Kong actress who is considered one of the greatest female action movie stars. She is easily recognized for her roles in Tomorrow Never Dies and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Historical Events on August 6
Events that occurred on August 6 throughout history
the first private military school in the U.S. is founded.
Norwich University is founded in Vermont and becomes the first private military school in the U.S.
Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement.
Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the reservation and replacing tribal lands with individual allotments and homesteads for outsiders.
German U-boats leave Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea.
German U-boats leave their base in Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea in response to the UK declaring war on Germany of the German invasion of Belgium.
The first woman swims across the English Channel.
Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel. The 19-year old swam 21 miles from France to England in 14 hours and 31 minutes. She beat the standing men's record by two hours.
The first reigning queen addressed a joint session of Congress.
Queen Wilhelmina (Netherlands) becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress. Her message emphasized unity with Allied forces and shared the "No surrender" motto as she referred to her own nation being under Nazi occupation.
Hiroshima, Japan, is bombed by a U.S. atomic bomb.
The U.S. drops the atomic bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb kills around 70,000 people instantly, and tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation, including oil refineries, sugar mills, and mines. As result, the U.S. severed diplomatic ties and imposed economic sanctions.
Jamaica becomes independent from the UK.
Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom after 300 years of British rule.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. The Act outlawed discriminatory voting tests, authorized federal examiners to register qualified voters in areas with persistent racial discrimination and directed the Attorney General to challenge poll taxes in state and local elections
Files are released describing the idea for the World Wide Web as a service to the public.
English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web as a publicly available service on the Internet. Berners-Lee invented HTML, the URL system, and HTTP.
A U.S. military helicopter is shot down in Afghanistan.
A U.S. military helicopter is shot down in Afghanistan, 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 U.S. in the War in Afghanistan.
A NASA rover lands on Mars.
NASA's Curiosity rover lands on the surface of Mars with a goal of finding out if Mars could support tiny life form.