December 6 in History

Historical Events on December 6

963

Pope Leo VIII is appointed to the office of Protonotary and begins his papacy as antipope of Rome.
1060

Béla I is crowned king of Hungary.
1240

Mongol invasion of Rus': Kiev under Daniel of Galicia and Voivode Dmytro falls to the Mongols under Batu Khan.
1534

The city of Quito in Ecuador is founded by Spanish settlers led by Sebastián de Belalcázar.
1648

Colonel Thomas Pride of the New Model Army purges the Long Parliament of MPs sympathetic to King Charles I of England, in order for the King's trial to go ahead; came to be known as "Pride's Purge".
1704

Battle of Chamkaur (1704): During the Mughal-Sikh Wars, an outnumbered Sikh Khalsa defeats a Mughal army.
1745

Charles Edward Stuart's army begins retreat during the second Jacobite Rising.
1768

The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica is published.
1790

The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia.
1865

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, banning slavery.
1877

The first edition of The Washington Post is published.
1884

The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., is completed.
1897

London becomes the world's first city to host licensed taxicabs.
1904

Theodore Roosevelt articulated his "Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the U.S. would intervene in the Western Hemisphere should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.
1907

A coal mine explosion at Monongah, West Virginia, kills 362 workers.
1916

World War I: The Central Powers capture Bucharest.
1917

Finland declares independence from Russia.
1917

Halifax Explosion: A munitions explosion near Halifax, Nova Scotia kills more than 1,900 people in the largest artificial explosion up to that time.
1917

World War I: USS Jacob Jones is the first American destroyer to be sunk by enemy action when it is torpedoed by German submarine SM U-53.
1921

The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed in London by British and Irish representatives.
1922

One year to the day after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Irish Free State comes into existence.
1928

The government of Colombia sends military forces to suppress a month-long strike by United Fruit Company workers, resulting in an unknown number of deaths.
1933

U.S. federal judge John M. Woolsey rules that James Joyce's novel Ulysses is not obscene.
1941

World War II: The United Kingdom and Canada declare war on Finland in support of the Soviet Union during the Continuation War. Camp X opens in Canada to begin training Allied Secret Agents for the War.
1947

The Everglades National Park in Florida is dedicated.
1953

Vladimir Nabokov completes his controversial novel Lolita.
1956

A violent water polo match between Hungary and the USSR takes place during the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, against the backdrop of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
1957

Project Vanguard: A launchpad explosion of Vanguard TV3 thwarts the first United States attempt to launch a satellite into Earth orbit.
1967

Adrian Kantrowitz performs the first human heart transplant in the United States.
1971

Pakistan severs diplomatic relations with India, initiating the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
1973

The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States House of Representatives votes 387 to 35 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States. (On November 27, the Senate confirmed him 92 to 3.)
1975

The Troubles: Fleeing from the police, a Provisional IRA unit takes a British couple hostage in their flat on Balcombe Street, London, beginning a six-day siege.
1977

South Africa grants independence to Bophuthatswana, although it is not recognized by any other country.
1978

Spain ratifies the Spanish Constitution of 1978 in a referendum.
1982

The Troubles: The Irish National Liberation Army bombed a pub frequented by British soldiers in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland, killing eleven soldiers and six civilians.
1989

The École Polytechnique massacre (or Montreal Massacre): Marc Lépine, an anti-feminist gunman, murders 14 young women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal.
1991

In Croatia, forces of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) bombard Dubrovnik after laying siege to the city for seven months.
1992

The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, India, is demolished, leading to widespread riots causing the death of over 1,500 people.
1997

A Russian Antonov An-124 Ruslan cargo plane crashes into an apartment complex near Irkutsk, Siberia, killing 67.
1998

in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez is victorious in presidential elections.
2005

An Iranian Air Force C-130 military transport aircraft crashes into a ten-floor apartment building in a residential area of Tehran, killing all 84 on board and 44 more on the ground.
2006

NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.
2015

Venezuelan elections are held. For the first time in 17 years the United Socialist Party of Venezuela loses its majority in parliament.

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