August 6 in History

Historical Events on August 6

1777 American Revolutionary War: The bloody Battle of Oriskany prevents American relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix.

1862 American Civil War: The Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas is scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering catastrophic engine failure near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

1914 World War I: First Battle of the Atlantic: 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.

1940 Estonia was illegally annexed by the Soviet Union.

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.

1962 Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

1990 Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

2011 War in Afghanistan: A United States military helicopter is shot down, killing 30 American special forces members and a working dog, 7 Afghan soldiers, and 1 Afghan civilian. It was the deadliest single event for the United States in the War in Afghanistan.

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Famous Birthdays on August 6

1775 Daniel O'Connell

1928 Andy Warhol

1973 Vera Farmiga

1983 Robin van Persie

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Famous Deaths on August 6

1931 Bix Beiderbecke

1969 Theodor W. Adorno

1978 Pope Paul VI

2002 Edsger W. Dijkstra

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