August 6
Events
Pre-1600
- 686 - The Ummayad forces suffer a decisive defeat against the pro-Alid forces under Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar in the battle of Khazir.
- 1284 - The Republic of Pisa is defeated in the Battle of Meloria by the Republic of Genoa, thus losing its naval dominance in the Mediterranean.
- 1538 - Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
1601–1900
- 1661 - The Treaty of The Hague is signed by Portugal and the Dutch Republic.
- 1777 - American Revolutionary War: The bloody Battle of Oriskany prevents American relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix.
- 1787 - Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States are delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 1806 - Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, declares the moribund empire to be dissolved, although he retains power in the Austrian Empire.
- 1819 - Norwich University is founded in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States.
- 1824 - Peruvian War of Independence: Patriot forces led by Simón Bolívar defeat the Spanish Royalist army in the Battle of Junín.
- 1825 - The Bolivian Declaration of Independence is proclaimed.
- 1861 - Britain imposes the Lagos Treaty of Cession to suppress slavery in what is now Nigeria.
- 1862 - American Civil War: The Confederate ironclad is scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering catastrophic engine failure near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
- 1870 - Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Spicheren is fought, resulting in a German victory.
- 1870 - Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Wörth results in a decisive German victory.
- 1890 - At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.
1901–present
- 1901 - Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.
- 1914 - World War I: U-boat campaign: Two days after the United Kingdom had declared war on Germany over the German invasion of Belgium, ten German U-boats leave their base in Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea.
- 1914 - World War I: Serbia declares war on Germany; Austria declares war on Russia.
- 1915 - World War I: Battle of Sari Bair: The Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.
- 1917 - World War I: Battle of Mărășești between the Romanian and German armies begins.
- 1926 - Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
- 1926 - First public screening using the Vitaphone process
- 1940 - Estonia is annexed by the Soviet Union.
- 1942 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress.
- 1945 - World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
- 1956 - After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network makes its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena in New York in the Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena series.
- 1958 - Law of Permanent Defense of Democracy, outlawing the Communist Party of Chile and banning 26,650 persons from the electoral lists, is repealed in Chile.
- 1960 - Cuban Revolution: Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
- 1962 - Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
- 1965 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
- 1986 - A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimeters of rain in a day on Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- 1990 - Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
- 1991 - Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW makes its first appearance as a publicly available service on the Internet.
- 1991 - Takako Doi, chair of the Social Democratic Party, becomes Japan's first female speaker of the House of Representatives.
- 1996 - NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms.
- 1997 - Korean Air Flight 801 crashed at Nimitz Hill, Guam, killing 229 of the 254 people on board.
- 2001 - Erwadi fire incident: Twenty-eight mentally ill persons tied to a chain are burnt to death at a faith based institution at Erwadi, Tamil Nadu.
- 2008 - A military junta led by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz stages a coup d'état in Mauritania, overthrowing president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.
- 2010 - Flash floods across a large part of Jammu and Kashmir, India, damages 71 towns and kills at least 255 people.
- 2011 - War in Afghanistan: A United States military helicopter is shot down, 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 United States in the War in Afghanistan.
- 2012 - NASA's Curiosity rover lands on the surface of Mars.
- 2015 - A suicide bomb attack kills at least 15 people at a mosque in the Saudi city of Abha.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1180 - Emperor Go-Toba of Japan
- 1504 - Matthew Parker, English archbishop
- 1572 - Fakhr-al-Din II, Druze emir
1601–1900
- 1605 - Bulstrode Whitelocke, English lawyer
- 1609 - Richard Bennett, English-American politician, Colonial Governor of Virginia
- 1619 - Barbara Strozzi, Italian composer and singer-songwriter
- 1622 - Tjerk Hiddes de Vries, Dutch admiral
- 1638 - Nicolas Malebranche, French priest and philosopher
- 1644 - Louise de La Vallière, French mistress of Louis XIV
- 1651 - François Fénelon, French archbishop and poet
- 1656 - Claude de Forbin, French general
- 1666 - Maria Sophia of Neuburg
- 1667 - Johann Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician
- 1697 - Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor
- 1715 - Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, French author
- 1765 - Petros Mavromichalis, Greek general and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Greece
- 1766 - William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist and physicist
- 1768 - Jean-Baptiste Bessières, French general and politician
- 1775 - Daniel O'Connell, Irish lawyer and politician, Lord Mayor of Dublin
- 1809 - Alfred, Lord Tennyson, English poet
- 1826 - Thomas Alexander Browne, English-Australian author
- 1835 - Hjalmar Kiærskou, Danish botanist
- 1844 - Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- 1844 - James Henry Greathead, South African-English engineer
- 1848 - Susie Taylor, American writer and first black Army nurse
- 1846 - Anna Haining Bates, Canadian-American giant
- 1868 - Paul Claudel, French poet and playwright
- 1874 - Charles Fort, American author
- 1877 - Wallace H. White Jr., American lawyer and politician
- 1880 - Hans Moser, Austrian actor and singer
- 1881 - Leo Carrillo, American actor
- 1881 - Alexander Fleming, Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, and botanist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1881 - Louella Parsons, American journalist
- 1883 - Constance Georgina Adams, South African botanist
- 1883 - Scott Nearing, American economist and educator
- 1886 - Edward Ballantine, American composer and academic
- 1886 – Florence Goodenough, American child psychologist
- 1887 - Dudley Benjafield, English racing driver
- 1889 - George Kenney, Canadian-American general
- 1889 - John Middleton Murry, English poet and author
- 1891 - William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim, English field marshal and politician, 13th Governor-General of Australia
- 1895 - Frank Nicklin, Australian politician, 28th Premier of Queensland
- 1900 - Cecil Howard Green, English-American geophysicist and businessman, co-founded Texas Instruments
1901–present
- 1901 - Dutch Schultz, American gangster
- 1903 - Virginia Foster Durr, American civil rights activist
- 1904 - Jean Dessès, Greek-Egyptian fashion designer
- 1904 - Henry Iba, American basketball player and coach
- 1906 - Vic Dickenson, American trombonist
- 1908 - Maria Ludwika Bernhard, Polish classical archaeologist and a member of WWII Polish resistance
- 1908 - Helen Jacobs, American tennis player and commander
- 1908 - Lajos Vajda, Hungarian painter and illustrator
- 1909 - Diana Keppel, Countess of Albemarle
- 1910 - Adoniran Barbosa, Brazilian musician, singer, composer, humorist, and actor
- 1910 - Charles Crichton, English director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1911 - Lucille Ball, American actress, television producer and businesswoman
- 1911 - Norman Gordon, South African cricketer
- 1911 - Constance Heaven, English author and actress
- 1912 - Richard C. Miller, American photographer
- 1914 - Gordon Freeth, Australian lawyer and politician, 24th Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs
- 1916 - Richard Hofstadter, American historian and academic
- 1916 - Dom Mintoff, Maltese journalist and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Malta
- 1917 - Barbara Cooney, American author and illustrator
- 1917 - Robert Mitchum, American actor
- 1918 - Norman Granz, American-Swiss record producer and manager
- 1919 - Pauline Betz, American tennis player
- 1920 - John Graves, American author
- 1920 - Ella Raines, American actress
- 1922 - Freddie Laker, English businessman, founded Laker Airways
- 1922 - Dan Walker, American lawyer and politician, 36th Governor of Illinois
- 1923 - Jess Collins, American painter
- 1923 - Paul Hellyer, Canadian engineer and politician, 16th Canadian Minister of Defence
- 1924 - Samuel Bowers, American white supremacist, co-founded the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
- 1924 - Ella Jenkins, American folk singer
- 1926 - Elisabeth Beresford, English journalist and author
- 1926 - Frank Finlay, English actor
- 1926 - Clem Labine, American baseball player and manager
- 1926 - János Rózsás, Hungarian author
- 1926 - Norman Wexler, American screenwriter
- 1928 - Herb Moford, American baseball player
- 1928 - Andy Warhol, American painter, photographer and film director
- 1929 - Mike Elliott, Jamaican saxophonist
- 1929 - Roch La Salle, Canadian politician, 42nd Canadian Minister of Public Works
- 1930 - Abbey Lincoln, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1931 - Chalmers Johnson, American scholar and author
- 1932 - Michael Deeley, English screenwriter and producer
- 1932 - Howard Hodgkin, English painter
- 1932 - Charles Wood, English playwright and screenwriter
- 1933 - A. G. Kripal Singh, Indian cricketer
- 1934 - Piers Anthony, English-American soldier and author
- 1934 - Chris Bonington, English mountaineer and author
- 1934 - Billy Boston, Welsh rugby player and soldier
- 1935 - Fortunato Baldelli, Italian cardinal
- 1935 - Octavio Getino, Spanish-Argentinian director and screenwriter
- 1937 - Baden Powell de Aquino, Brazilian guitarist and composer
- 1937 - Charlie Haden, American bassist and composer
- 1937 - Barbara Windsor, English actress
- 1938 - Paul Bartel, American actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1938 - Peter Bonerz, American actor and director
- 1938 - Bert Yancey, American golfer
- 1940 - Mukhu Aliyev, Russian philologist and politician, 2nd President of Dagestan
- 1940 - Egil Kapstad, Norwegian pianist and composer
- 1940 - Louise Sorel, American actress
- 1941 - Ray Culp, American baseball player
- 1942 - Byard Lancaster, American saxophonist and flute player
- 1943 - Jon Postel, American computer scientist and academic
- 1944 - Inday Badiday, Filipino journalist and actress
- 1944 - Michael Mingos, English chemist and academic
- 1944 - Martin Wharton, English bishop
- 1945 - Ron Jones, English director and production manager
- 1946 - Allan Holdsworth, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer
- 1947 - Radhia Cousot, French computer scientist and academic
- 1949 - Dino Bravo, Italian-Canadian wrestler
- 1950 - Dorian Harewood, American actor
- 1951 - Catherine Hicks, American actress
- 1951 - Daryl Somers, Australian television host and singer
- 1952 - Pat MacDonald, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1952 - David McLetchie, Scottish lawyer and politician
- 1952 - Ton Scherpenzeel, Dutch keyboard player, songwriter, and producer
- 1954 - Mark Hughes, English-Australian rugby league player
- 1956 - Bill Emmott, English journalist and author
- 1957 - Bob Horner, American baseball player
- 1957 - Jim McGreevey, American lawyer and politician, 52nd Governor of New Jersey
- 1958 - Randy DeBarge, American singer-songwriter and bass player
- 1959 - Rajendra Singh, Indian environmentalist
- 1959 - Joyce Sims, American singer
- 1960 - Dale Ellis, American basketball player
- 1961 - Mary Ann Sieghart, English journalist and radio host
- 1962 - Michelle Yeoh, Malaysian-Hong Kong actress and producer
- 1963 - Charles Ingram, English soldier, author, and game show contestant
- 1963 - Kevin Mitnick, American computer security consultant, author, and convicted hacker
- 1964 - Kemi Omololu-Olunloyo, Nigerian journalist, activist, social media expert, and pharmacist
- 1965 - Stéphane Peterhansel, French racing driver
- 1965 - Yuki Kajiura, Japanese pianist and composer
- 1965 - David Robinson, American basketball player and lieutenant
- 1968 - Jack de Gier, Dutch footballer
- 1969 - Simon Doull, New Zealand cricketer and sportscaster
- 1969 - Elliott Smith, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1970 - M. Night Shyamalan, Indian-American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1972 - Geri Halliwell, English singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
- 1972 - Jason O'Mara, Irish actor
- 1973 - Vera Farmiga, American actress
- 1973 - Stuart O'Grady, Australian cyclist
- 1975 - Jason Crump, English-Australian motorcycle racer
- 1975 - Renate Götschl, Austrian skier
- 1975 - Víctor Zambrano, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1976 - Soleil Moon Frye, American actress
- 1976 - Melissa George, Australian-American actress
- 1977 - Leandro Amaral, Brazilian footballer
- 1977 - Jimmy Nielsen, Danish footballer and manager
- 1977 - Luciano Zavagno, Argentinian footballer
- 1979 - Francesco Bellotti, Italian cyclist
- 1979 - Jaime Correa, Mexican footballer
- 1979 - Travis Reed, American basketball player
- 1981 - Leslie Odom Jr., American actor and singer
- 1981 - Diána Póth, Hungarian figure skater
- 1983 - Robin van Persie, Dutch footballer
- 1984 - Vedad Ibišević, Bosnian footballer
- 1984 - Maja Ognjenović, Serbian volleyball player
- 1984 - Jesse Ryder, New Zealand cricketer
- 1985 - Mickaël Delage, French cyclist
- 1985 - Bafétimbi Gomis, French footballer
- 1985 - Garrett Weber-Gale, American swimmer
- 1986 - Raphael Pyrasch, German rugby player
- 1987 - Leanne Crichton, Scottish footballer
- 1991 - Wilmer Flores, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1991 - Jiao Liuyang, Chinese swimmer
- 1995 - Rebecca Peterson, Swedish tennis player
- 1999 - Hunter Greene, American baseball player
- 1999 - Rebeka Masarova, Spanish-Swiss tennis player
- 2002 - Nessa Barrett, American singer-songwriter
- 2004 - Takhmina Ikromova, Uzbekistani rhythmic gymnast