February 6
Events
Pre-1600
- 590 - Hormizd IV, king of the Sasanian Empire, is overthrown and blinded by his brothers-in-law Vistahm and Vinduyih.
- 1579 - The Diocese of Manila is erected by papal bull, with Domingo de Salazar appointed its first bishop.
1601–1900
- 1685 - James II of England and VII of Scotland is proclaimed King upon the death of his brother Charles II.
- 1694 - The warrior queen Dandara, leader of the runaway slaves in Quilombo dos Palmares, Brazil, is captured and commits suicide rather than be returned to a life of slavery.
- 1778 - American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.
- 1778 - New York became the third state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
- 1788 - Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
- 1806 - Battle of San Domingo: British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean.
- 1819 - The Treaty of Singapore was signed by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, Hussein Shah of Johor, and Temenggong Abdul Rahman, and it is now recognised as the founding of modern Singapore.
- 1820 - The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society depart New York to start a settlement in present-day Liberia.
- 1833 - Otto becomes the first modern King of Greece.
- 1840 - Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, establishing New Zealand as a British colony.
- 1843 - The first minstrel show in the United States, The Virginia Minstrels, opens.
- 1851 - The largest Australian bushfires in a populous region in recorded history take place in the state of Victoria.
- 1862 - American Civil War: Forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote give the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry.
- 1865 - The municipal administration of Finland is established.
- 1899 - Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, is ratified by the United States Senate.
- 1900 - The Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international arbitration court at The Hague, is created when the Senate of the Netherlands ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.
1901–present
- 1918 - British women over the age of 30 who meet minimum property qualifications, get the right to vote when Representation of the People Act 1918 is passed by Parliament.
- 1919 - The five-day Seattle General Strike begins, as more than 65,000 workers in the city of Seattle, Washington, walk off the job.
- 1922 - The Washington Naval Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.
- 1934 - Far-right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon in an attempted coup against the French Third Republic, creating a political crisis in France.
- 1944 - World War II: The Great Raids Against Helsinki begins.
- 1951 - The Canadian Army enters combat in the Korean War.
- 1951 - The Broker, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. The accident kills 85 people and injures over 500 more. The wreck is one of the worst rail disasters in American history.
- 1952 - Elizabeth II becomes Queen of the United Kingdom and her other Realms and Territories and Head of the Commonwealth upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.
- 1958 - Eight Manchester United F.C. players and 15 other passengers are killed in the Munich air disaster.
- 1959 - Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.
- 1959 - At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.
- 1973 - The 7.6 Luhuo earthquake strikes Sichuan Province, causing widespread destruction and killing at least 2,199 people.
- 1976 - In testimony before a United States Senate subcommittee, Lockheed Corporation president Carl Kotchian admits that the company had paid out approximately $3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.
- 1978 - The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of four inches an hour.
- 1981 - The National Resistance Army of Uganda launches an attack on a Ugandan Army installation in the central Mubende District to begin the Ugandan Bush War.
- 1987 - Justice Mary Gaudron becomes the first woman to be appointed to the High Court of Australia.
- 1989 - The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe.
- 1996 - Willamette Valley Flood: Floods in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, United States, causes over US$500 million in property damage throughout the Pacific Northwest.
- 1996 - Birgenair Flight 301 crashed off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 people on board. This is the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 757.
- 1998 - Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport.
- 2000 - Second Chechen War: Russia captures Grozny, Chechnya, forcing the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria government into exile.
- 2006 - Stephen Harper becomes Prime Minister of Canada.
- 2012 - A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits the central Philippine island of Negros, leaving 112 people dead.
- 2016 - An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 strikes southern Taiwan, killing 117 people.
- 2018 - SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, a super heavy launch vehicle, makes its maiden flight.
- 2021 - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken suspends agreements with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to send asylum seekers back to their home countries.
- 2023 - Two earthquakes measuring 7.8 and 7.5 struck near the border between Turkey and Syria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XII. The earthquakes resulted in numerous aftershocks and a death toll of 57,658 people.
Births
Pre-1600
- 885 - Emperor Daigo of Japan
- 1402 - Louis I, Landgrave of Hesse, Landgrave of Hesse
- 1452 - Joanna, Princess of Portugal
- 1453 - Girolamo Benivieni, Florentine poet
- 1465 - Scipione del Ferro, Italian mathematician and theorist
- 1536 - Sassa Narimasa, Japanese samurai
- 1577 - Beatrice Cenci, Italian murderer
- 1582 - Mario Bettinus, Italian mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher
1601–1900
- 1605 - Bernard of Corleone, Italian saint
- 1608 - António Vieira, Portuguese priest and philosopher
- 1611 - Chongzhen Emperor of China
- 1612 - Antoine Arnauld, French mathematician, theologian, and philosopher
- 1643 - Johann Kasimir Kolbe von Wartenberg, Prussian politician, 1st Minister President of Prussia
- 1649 - Augusta Marie of Holstein-Gottorp, German noblewoman
- 1664 - Mustafa II, Ottoman sultan
- 1665 - Anne, Queen of Great Britain, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland
- 1695 - Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss-Russian mathematician and theorist
- 1719 - Alberto Pullicino, Maltese painter
- 1726 - Patrick Russell, Scottish surgeon and zoologist
- 1732 - Charles Lee, English-American general
- 1736 - Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, German-Austrian sculptor
- 1744 - Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon
- 1748 - Adam Weishaupt, German philosopher and academic, founded the Illuminati
- 1753 - Évariste de Parny, French poet and author
- 1756 - Aaron Burr, American colonel and politician, 3rd Vice President of the United States
- 1758 - Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Belarusian-Polish poet, playwright, and politician
- 1769 - Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn, Austrian general
- 1772 - George Murray, Scottish general and politician, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
- 1778 - Ugo Foscolo, Italian author and poet
- 1781 - John Keane, 1st Baron Keane, Irish general and politician, Governor of Saint Lucia
- 1796 - John Stevens Henslow, English botanist and geologist
- 1797 - Joseph von Radowitz, Prussian general and politician, Foreign Minister of Prussia
- 1799 - Imre Frivaldszky, Hungarian botanist and entomologist
- 1800 - Achille Devéria, French painter and lithographer
- 1802 - Charles Wheatstone, English-French physicist and cryptographer
- 1811 - Henry Liddell, English priest, author, and academic
- 1814 - Auguste Chapdelaine, French missionary and saint
- 1818 - William M. Evarts, American lawyer and politician, 27th United States Secretary of State
- 1820 - Thomas C. Durant, American railroad tycoon
- 1829 - Joseph Auguste Émile Vaudremer, French architect, designed the La Santé Prison and Saint-Pierre-de-Montrouge
- 1832 - John Brown Gordon, American general and politician, 53rd Governor of Georgia
- 1833 - José María de Pereda, Spanish author and academic
- 1833 - J. E. B. Stuart, American general
- 1834 - Edwin Klebs, German-Swiss pathologist and academic
- 1834 - Ema Pukšec, Croatian-German soprano
- 1834 - Wilhelm von Scherff, German general and author
- 1838 - Henry Irving, English actor and manager
- 1838 - Israel Meir Kagan, Lithuanian-Polish rabbi and author
- 1839 - Eduard Hitzig, German neurologist and psychiatrist
- 1842 - Alexandre Ribot, French academic and politician, Prime Minister of France
- 1843 - Inoue Kowashi, Japanese scholar and politician
- 1843 - Frederic William Henry Myers, English poet and philologist, co-founded the Society for Psychical Research
- 1845 - Isidor Straus, German-American businessman and politician
- 1847 - Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, American architect, designed the Plaza Hotel
- 1852 - C. Lloyd Morgan, English zoologist and psychologist
- 1852 - Vasily Safonov, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor
- 1861 - Nikolay Zelinsky, Russian chemist and academic
- 1864 - John Henry Mackay, Scottish-German philosopher and author
- 1866 - Karl Sapper, German linguist and explorer
- 1872 - Robert Maillart, Swiss engineer, designed the Salginatobel Bridge and Schwandbach Bridge
- 1874 - Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Indian religious leader, founded the Gaudiya Math
- 1875 - Leonid Gobyato, Russian general
- 1876 - Henry Blogg, English fisherman and sailor
- 1879 - Othon Friesz, French painter
- 1879 - Magnús Guðmundsson, Icelandic lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Iceland
- 1879 - Edwin Samuel Montagu, English politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
- 1879 - Carl Ramsauer, German physicist and author
- 1880 - Nishinoumi Kajirō II, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 25th Yokozuna
- 1884 - Marcel Cohen, French linguist and scholar
- 1887 - Josef Frings, German cardinal
- 1890 - Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Pakistani activist and politician
- 1890 - James McGirr, Australian politician, 28th Premier of New South Wales
- 1892 - Maximilian Fretter-Pico, German general
- 1892 - William P. Murphy, American physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1893 - Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, Pakistani politician and diplomat, 1st Minister of Foreign Affairs for Pakistan
- 1894 - Eric Partridge, New Zealand-English lexicographer and academic
- 1894 - Kirpal Singh, Indian spiritual master
- 1895 - Robert La Follette Jr., American politician
- 1895 - María Teresa Vera, Cuban singer, guitarist and composer
- 1895 - Babe Ruth, American baseball player and coach
- 1898 - Harry Haywood, American soldier and politician
- 1899 - Ramon Novarro, Mexican-American actor, singer, and director