Today's 6 December Major Events in History

Photo for the article Today's 6 December Major Events

963 Leo VIII elected Pope
1060 Béla I is crowned King of Hungary in Székesfehérvár
1160 Jean Bodels' mystic play "Jeu de St Nicholas" premieres in Arras

1196 Northern Dutch coast flooded, the "Saint-Nicolas Flood"

1240 Mongols led by Batu Khan occupy and destroy Kyiv after an eight-day siege; out of 50,000 people in the city, only 2,000 survive

Aquinas' Divine Revelation

1273 Thomas Aquinas, thought to have had a mystical experience in Naples, refuses to continue his work "I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me"

Expulsion From Aragon

1424 Don Alfonso V of Aragon grants Barcelona the right to exclude Jews

Pope Clement VII Flees

1527 Pope Clement VII escapes imprisonment in the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, fleeing to Orvieto disguised as a peddler

1534 Quito, Ecuador, founded by Spanish colonists on the ruins of an Inca city

Transit of Venus

1631 Johannes Kepler is the first person to predict the transit of Venus, though no one observes it as it occurs after sunset in Europe

1641 Don Francisco de Mello appointed land guardian of South Netherlands
1648 Pride's Purge: Thomas Pride prevents 96 presbyterians from sitting in English parliament

Charles VI's Pragmatic Sanction

1723 Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI's Pragmatic Sanction with the Diet of Hungary recognizes the King's daughters as successors

1732 1st play in American colonies acted by professional players in New York
1735 First recorded appendectomy performed by Claudius Amyand at St George's Hospital in London

1787 Laurens Pieter van de Speigel is appointed Dutch pension advisor
1790 The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

US National Observatory

1825 US President John Quincy Adams suggests establishment of a national observatory

1841 Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 4 in D minor premieres
1843 Amsterdam-Utrecht railway opens
1845 Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity is founded at Yale College.

La Damnation de Faust

1846 Hector Berlioz's dramatic oratorio "La Damnation de Faust" premieres, conducted by the composer at the Opéra-Comique, Paris

Harriet Tubman Escapes

1849 Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland for the second and final time

Lincoln Orders Execution

1862 US President Abraham Lincoln orders hanging of 39 Santee Sioux Indians

1864 Battle of Deveaux's Neck, South Carolina
1865 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery except as a punishment for crime where the party has been duly convicted [1]
1866 Chicago water supply tunnel 3,227 m into Lake Michigan completed
1869 Colored National Labor Union, 1st Black labor convention meets at Union League Hall in Washington, D.C.
1873 1st international football game in US: Yale 2, Eton (England) 1 in New Haven, Connecticut
1876 1st crematorium in US begins operation, Washington, Pennsylvania
1876 The first cremation takes place at the LeMoyne Crematory in Washington, Pennsylvania, in the US; the first person to be cremated is Baron de Palm

Disputed Election of 1876

1876 US Electoral College casts their votes in the disputed election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden; two sets of conflicting results are returned to Congress the next day

1877 Thomas Edison enters the offices of Scientific American and turns the crank on his cylinder phonograph, astonishing those present by having it say, "Good morning. How do you do? How do you like the phonograph?" [1]

1877 Washington Post publishes 1st edition
1882 Atmosphere of Venus detected during transit
1884 Aluminum capstone is set atop the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., making it the tallest man-made structure in the world, overtaking Cologne Cathedral
1896 Japanese Zen Buddist D. T. Suzuki has an awakening at Engakuji temple, in Kamakura
1897 London becomes the world's first city to host licenced taxicabs
1903 Sumatra Atjehs guerilla leader Panglima Polim surrenders

1906 British grant Transvaal self-government
1907 Coal mine explosions in Monongah, West Virginia kills 361
1912 China votes for universal human rights
1913 White Sox beat Giants 9-4 in exhibition game in Tokyo
1914 German troops over run Lodz
1916 World War I: The Central Powers under General Mackensen capture Bucharest
1917 French munition ship SS Mont Blanc collides with Norwegian SS Imo in Halifax harbour, Canada, resulting explosion kills at least 1,700 and injures more than 9,000 people - world’s largest pre-atomic explosion [1]
1917 Taking advantage of the temporary relaxation of authority in Russia, Finland declares itself a republic, following the Ukraine on 20 November

Liberal Party Victory

1921 Canada's Liberal Party and its leader Mackenzie King defeats Arthur Meighen's Conservative Party and Thomas Crerar' Progressive Party in general election, goes on to form a minority government

1922 1st constitution of Irish Free State comes into operation
1922 1st electric power line commercial carrier in US, Utica, NY

First US Presidential Radio Address

1923 1st US Presidential address broadcast on radio by President Calvin Coolidge

1925 Italy, Britain and Egypt sign Jaghbub accord, ceding the previous Libyan territory of Jaghbub to Egypt
1925 Record 73,000 pay to watch Chicago Bears beat NY Giants 19-7
1928 The Banana Massacre: Colombian troops fire on striking United Fruit Company workers in Ciénaga, killing about 1,000 people
1929 Turkey introduces female suffrage

Ulysses Ban Lifted

1933 Ban on James Joyce's novel "Ulysses" in the US is lifted

1938 117 Spanish knights under capt Piet Laros return to Netherlands

Ribbentrop-Bonnet Pact

1938 The Franco-German Declaration (Ribbentrop-Bonnet Pact) is signed in Paris, recognizing existing borders and pledging both sides to resolve disputes without war

1939 5th Heisman Trophy Award: Nile Kinnick, Iowa (HB)
1940 Gestapo arrest German resistance fighter/poster artist Helen Ernst

1941 Dutch and British pilots sight the Japanese invasion fleet heading for Singapore
1941 New York City Council agrees to build Idlewild Airport (now JFK) in Queens
1942 RAF bombs Philips factory (150 die)
1944 US 95th Infantry division reaches Westwall

Everglades National Park

1947 The Everglades National Park in Florida is dedicated by President Harry S. Truman

Mirabile Illud

1950 Pope Pius XII publishes the encyclical Mirabile illud on the crusade of prayer for peace

1952 Czech government tells Israeli ambassador that he is persona non grata
1953 Brown's Lou "Toe" Groza kicks 8 PATs, beating Giants 62-14

1955 New York psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers wins the top prize of $64,000 on the TV game show "The $64,000 Question" with her expert knowledge of boxing, a subject she initially knew little about
1956 Against the background of the Soviet invasion of Hungary the nations square off at the Melbourne Olympics in a famous water polo match; game called off with Hungary leading 4-0 and near riot halted by police; Hungary goes on to win gold medal
1956 Australian swimmer David Theile sets world record 1:02.2 to win the 100m backstroke gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics
1956 Australian women's 4 × 100m freestyle relay team of Dawn Fraser, Faith Leech, Sandra Morgan and Lorraine Crapp swim world record 4:17.1 and beat powerful US team to win the gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics
1956 German WWII prisoner of war Helmut Bantz and Soviet gymnast Valentin Muratov tie for the vault gold medal with 18.85 points at the Melbourne Olympics

Mandela Arrested

1956 Nelson Mandela and 156 others are arrested for political activities in South Africa

1956 Randhir Singh Gentle scores the winner as India beats Pakistan, 1-0 in the Melbourne Olympics field hockey final to win it's 6th consecutive gold medal in the sport
1956 Soviet gymnast Viktor Chukarin follows his parallel bars gold medal with the individual all-round title and teams gold at the Melbourne Olympics
1957 AFL-CIO votes to expel Teamsters (readmitted in October 1987)
1957 First US attempt to launch a satellite fails when the Vanguard rocket explodes
1957 Indonesia begins nationalizing Dutch possessions
1957 Roger Sessions' 3rd Symphony premieres in Boston with Charles Munch conducting the Boston Symphony
1958 US lunar probe Pioneer 3 reaches 107,269 km, falls back
1960 MLB American League grants American entertainer and businessman Gene Autry a franchise: Los Angeles Angels

1961 27th Heisman Trophy Award: Ernie Davis, Syracuse RB, becomes first African American to win

1962 US abandons Skybolt ballistic missile program

Presidential Medal of Freedom

1963 President Lyndon B. Johnson confers Presidential Medal of Freedom on 31 recipients selected by JFK, including: contralto Marian Anderson; diplomat Ralph Bunche; cellist Pablo Casals; Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter; labor leader George Meaney; architect Mies van der Rohe; pianist Rudolf Serkin; writers E. B. White and Thorton Wilder; and painter Andrew Wyeth; as well as posthumously to JFK himself, and Pope John XXIII

1963 Test Cricket debut of Graeme Pollock at the Gabba
1963 The Beatles begin a tradition of releasing a Christmas record for fan club members
1964 "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" 1st airs on TV
1964 KTVR TV channel 13 in La Grande, OR (PBS) begins broadcasting

1965 2 trucks crash into a crowd of dancers in Sotouboua Togo, kills 125
1965 Pakistan's Islamic Ideology Advisory Committee recommends that Islamic Studies be made a compulsory subject for Muslim students from primary to graduate level.
1967 USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan, USSR

Beggar's Banquet

1968 Decca Records releases Rolling Stones album "Beggar's Banquet" in UK, the last during Brian Jones' lifetime (US release the next day)

1968 Major League Baseball dismisses Commissioner William Eckert after 3 years
1968 PBA National Bowling Championship won by Wayne Zahn (29)
1968 WKID (WSCV) TV channel 51 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (IND) 1st broadcast

Altamont Free Concert

1969 300,000 attend a free concert featuring The Rolling Stones in Altamont, California; the event is marred by violence and four deaths

1969 USSR performs nuclear test
1970 Cleveland Cavaliers 1st NBA home victory, beating Buffalo Braves 108-106
1971 A woman dies trying to salvage property from the Salvation Army Citadel in Belfast after bomb which started a large fire in an adjoining building
1971 Lewis Franklin Powell confirmed as US Supreme Court justice
1973 Bahrain's constitution goes into effect

1st Unelected Vice President

1973 Gerald Ford sworn-in as first unelected Vice President, succeeds Spiro Agnew who resigned over corruption allegations

1973 NL votes to move San Diego Padres to Washington, D.C. (doesn't happen)

1975 41st Heisman Trophy Award: Archie Griffin, Ohio State (RB); his second consecutive win makes him the only repeat recipient
1975 Balcombe Street Siege: for 6 days, four Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers hold two hostages at an apartment in London, England

Pieter Menten Arrested

1976 Dutch war criminal Pieter Menten arrested in Zurich, Switzerland

1977 South Africa grants Bophuthatswana independence
1978 Spain adopts a constitution
1980 NASA launches Intelsat V satellite, no. 502
1981 Rob de Castella of Australia sets Marathon record at 2:08:18
1982 Droppin Well bombing: 11 British soldiers and 6 civilians are killed by an Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) time bomb at the Droppin’ Well Bar in Ballykelly, County Londonderry
1983 A bomb planted on a bus in Jerusalem explodes, kills 6 Israelis
1984 France performs a nuclear test
1984 Hijackers aboard Kuwaiti jetliner kill 2nd hostage
1986 52nd Heisman Trophy Award: Vinny Testaverde, Miami Fla (QB)
1986 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll
1987 3 satanist Missouri teenagers bludgeon comrade to death for "fun"
1987 Christa Rothenburger skates female world record 500m (39.39 sec)
1988 Agnes Neil Williams purchases Baltimore Orioles for $70 million Eli Jacobs becomes CEO of Baltimore Orioles
1988 Carlos Andres Perez re-elected president of Venezuela
1988 Merv Hughes takes 13 wickets v WI at the WACA but Australia lose
1988 Milwaukee Bucks win their 1,000th NBA game (2nd fastest)
1988 Nelson Mandela is transferred to Victor Vester Prison, Capetown
1988 STS-27 Atlantis lands in California after secret mission

Arafat Meets US Jews

1988 Yasser Arafat meets prominent American Jews in Stockholm, Sweden

1989 Mafia drug kingpin bombs security force at Bogota, kills 52
1989 Worst Canadian mass murder: Marc Lepine kills 14 women at U Montreal
1990 Baseball player "Shoeless" Joe Jackson's signature sells for $23,100 at auction
1990 NHL grants conditional membership to Tampa Bay Lightning

1991 "Star Trek VI-Undiscovered Country" premieres
1992 A large mob of Hindu activists destroys the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, India, leading to an estimated 2,000 deaths in the ensuing riots

Rice's Touchdown Record

1992 San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice catches NFL record 101st touchdown in a 27-3 win over the Miami Dolphins at Candlestick Park

Bonds' $43m Contract

1992 San Francisco Giants sign a record $43 million contract with Pirates outfielder Barry Bonds

1993 Gunda Niemann skates ladies world record 5 km 7:13.29

Dumb & Dumber

1994 "Dumb & Dumber", directed by the Farrelly brothers and starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, premieres in Los Angeles

1994 Maltese Falcon auctioned for $398,590
1994 Orange County California files for bankruptcy
1994 Warner Brothers announces a 5th TV network in US, to begin on Jan 11, 1995
1995 Michael Jackson collapses while rehearsing for an HBO special
1996 Mashonaland defeat England in first-class tour match

Great Court of the British Museum

2000 Great Court of the British Museum is redesigned by Foster & Partners with the largest covered courtyard in Europe and is opened by Queen Elizabeth II [1]

2001 The Canadian province of Newfoundland is renamed Newfoundland and Labrador

2005 Several villagers are shot dead during protests in Dongzhou, China
2006 NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor that suggest the presence of liquid water on Mars
2008 American pin-up model Bettie Page (85) is hospitalized in critical condition after suffering a heart attack

The Birds of America

2010 A record price for a printed book is set when a first edition of "The Birds of America" by John James Audubon is auctioned for £7,321,250 at Sotheby's, London

2012 7 people are killed and 770 injured during Egyptian protests
2012 A 243 million year old Nyasasaurus fossil is discovered in Tanzania
2012 Typhoon Bopha’s death toll rise to 418 with 318 missing and 179,000 displaced
2013 A 2-year old boy dies from Ebola in Meliandou, Guinea

New Post for Abuse Cases

2013 Pope Francis gives his ascent to a proposal to create a permanent post on the Pontifical Commission on cases of sin and sexual abuse of minors

Andrej Babiš Sworn In

2017 Andrej Babiš is sworn as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic

2017 Astronomers announce the discovery of the most distant supermassive black hole, ULAS J1342+0928, 13.1 billion light-years away with a mass about 800 million times that of the Sun, in the journal "Nature"
2017 Brazilian drug lord Rogério da Silva arrested in Rio
2017 Britain's top Brexit negotiator David Davis admits there has been "no systematic impact assessment" on effects of Brexit
2017 Skirball wildfire near Los Angeles closes the Interstate 405 as thousands forced to evacuate
2017 Starbucks' largest cafe, at 30,000 square feet and half the size of a football field, opens in Shanghai, China
2017 Time Magazine names their Person of the Year "The Silence Breakers", people who came forward to report sexual misconduct

Trump Recognizes Jerusalem

2017 US President Donald Trump officially recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital, announcing plans to move US embassy there

2018 Luxembourg is the first country to make all public transport free
2018 Senegal's new Museum of Black Civilisations is opened in Dakar by President Macky Sall
2018 Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry explodes for franchise-record 238 yards and four touchdowns in 30-9 win v Jacksonville Jaguars in Nashville; 99-yard TD run ties Dallas Cowboys HOF RB Tony Dorsett's longest run in NFL history
2018 The discovery of the oldest-known plague sample, found in 4,900-year-old remains of a 20-year-old woman in Gökhem, southern Sweden, is published in "Cell"
2020 Japanese space capsule Hayabusa-2 lands safely back on earth in Australia, carrying first significant rock samples from an asteroid, the Ryugu
2020 US President Donald Trump orders about 700 troops withdrawn from Somalia

Aung San Suu Kyi Sentenced

2021 Former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to four years (later reduced to two) for inciting public unrest and breaching Covid-19 protocols [1]

2021 New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announces a COVID-19 mandate for all private employers effective December 27, to combat Omicron, 1st in the country
2022 Argentine Vice-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner found guilty of fraud, sentenced to six years in prison and banned from holding office [1]
2022 Donald Trump's real estate company Trump Organization convicted of tax fraud in New York [1]
2022 Indonesia passes a new criminal code outlawing sex outside marriage, even for foreigners [1]

2022 The 1,574th and last Boeing 747 jumbo jet rolls off the production line in Everett, Washington [1]
2023 South Fork Wind, the first large-scale offshore wind farm, begins supplying electricity to the US 35 miles off Montauk [1]