Events on April 6 63
Year 1199
King Richard I of England dies from an infection following the removal of an arrow from his shoulder.
Year 1250
Seventh Crusade: Ayyubids of Egypt capture King Louis IX of France in the Battle of Fariskur.
Year 1327
The poet Petrarch first sees his idealized love, Laura, in the church of Saint Clare in Avignon.
Year 1580
One of the largest earthquakes recorded in the history of England, Flanders, or Northern France, takes place.
Year 1652
At the Cape of Good Hope, Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp that eventually becomes Cape Town.
Year 1776
American Revolutionary War: Ships of the Continental Navy fail in their attempt to capture a Royal Navy dispatch boat.
Year 1782
King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (Rama I) of Siam (modern day Thailand) establishes the Chakri dynasty.
Year 1793
During the French Revolution, the Committee of Public Safety becomes the executive organ of the republic.
Year 1808
John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company, that would eventually make him America's first millionaire.
Year 1812
British forces under the command of the Duke of Wellington assault the fortress of Badajoz. This would be the turning point in the Peninsular War against Napoleon-led France.
Year 1814
Nominal beginning of the Bourbon Restoration; anniversary date that Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba.
Year 1830
Church of Christ, the original church of the Latter Day Saint movement, is organized by Joseph Smith and others at either Fayette or Manchester, New York.
Year 1841
U.S. President John Tyler is sworn in, two days after having become President upon William Henry Harrison's death.
Year 1860
The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, later renamed Community of Christ, is organized by Joseph Smith III and others at Amboy, Illinois.
Year 1861
First performance of Arthur Sullivan's debut success, his suite of incidental music for The Tempest, leading to a career that included the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
Year 1862
American Civil War: The Battle of Shiloh begins: In Tennessee, forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant meet Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston.
Year 1865
American Civil War: The Battle of Sailor's Creek: Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fights and loses its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia during the Appomattox Campaign.
Year 1866
The Grand Army of the Republic, an American patriotic organization composed of Union veterans of the American Civil War, is founded. It lasts until 1956.
Year 1888
Thomas Green Clemson dies, bequeathing his estate to the State of South Carolina to establish Clemson Agricultural College.
Year 1893
Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is dedicated by Wilford Woodruff.
Year 1895
Oscar Wilde is arrested in the Cadogan Hotel, London, after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.
Year 1896
In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games is celebrated, 1,500 years after the original games are banned by Roman emperor Theodosius I.
Year 1911
During the Battle of Deçiq, Dedë Gjon Luli Dedvukaj, leader of the Malësori Albanians, raises the Albanian flag in the town of Tuzi, Montenegro, for the first time after George Kastrioti (Skanderbeg).
Year 1917
World War I: The United States declares war on Germany (see President Woodrow Wilson's address to Congress).
Year 1926
Varney Airlines makes its first commercial flight (Varney is the root company of United Airlines).
Year 1929
Huey P. Long, Governor of Louisiana, is impeached by the Louisiana House of Representatives.
Year 1930
Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire," beginning the Salt Satyagraha.
Year 1936
Tupelo-Gainesville tornado outbreak: Another tornado from the same storm system as the Tupelo tornado hits Gainesville, Georgia, killing 203.
Year 1941
World War II: Nazi Germany launches Operation 25 (the invasion of Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and Operation Marita (the invasion of Greece).
Year 1945
World War II: Sarajevo is liberated from German and Croatian forces by the Yugoslav Partisans.
Year 1957
Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis buys the Hellenic National Airlines (TAE) and founds Olympic Airlines.
Year 1965
Launch of Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.
Year 1968
In Richmond, Indiana's downtown district, a double explosion kills 41 and injures 150.
Year 1968
Pierre Elliott Trudeau wins the Liberal Leadership Election, and becomes Prime Minister of Canada soon after.
Year 1970
Newhall massacre: Four California Highway Patrol officers are killed in a shootout.
Year 1972
Vietnam War: Easter Offensive: American forces begin sustained air strikes and naval bombardments.
Year 1973
The American League of Major League Baseball begins using the designated hitter.
Year 1974
The Swedish pop band ABBA wins the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Waterloo", launching their international career.
Year 1984
Members of Cameroon's Republican Guard unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya.
Year 1994
The Rwandan Genocide begins when the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down.
Year 1998
Travelers Group announces an agreement to undertake the $76 billion merger between Travelers and Citicorp, and the merger is completed on October 8, of that year, forming Citibank.
Year 2004
Rolandas Paksas becomes the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from office by impeachment.
Year 2005
Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani becomes Iraqi president; Shiite Arab Ibrahim al-Jaafari is named premier the next day.
Year 2008
The 2008 Egyptian general strike starts led by Egyptian workers later to be adopted by April 6 Youth Movement and Egyptian activists.
Year 2011
In San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, over 193 victims of Los Zetas were exhumed from several mass graves.
Year ?
Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger) in the battle of Thapsus.