Events on June 6 50
Year 913
Emperor Alexander III dies of exhaustion while playing the game tzykanion (Byzantine name for polo). He is succeeded by his 8-year-old nephew Constantine VII.
Year 1513
Italian Wars: Battle of Novara. Swiss troops defeat the French under Louis II de la Trémoille, forcing the French to abandon Milan. Duke Massimiliano Sforza is restored.
Year 1523
Gustav Vasa, the Swedish regent, is elected King of Sweden, marking a symbolic end to the Kalmar Union. This is the Swedish national day.
Year 1644
The Qing dynasty Manchu forces led by the Shunzhi Emperor capture Beijing during the collapse of the Ming dynasty.
Year 1654
Queen Christina abdicates the Swedish throne and is succeeded by her cousin Charles X Gustav.
Year 1762
Seven Years' War: British forces begin a siege of Havana, Cuba, and temporarily capture the city in the Battle of Havana.
Year 1809
Sweden promulgates a new Constitution, which restores political power to the Riksdag of the Estates after 20 years of enlightened absolutism. At the same time, Charles XIII is elected to succeed Gustav IV Adolf as King of Sweden.
Year 1813
War of 1812: Battle of Stoney Creek: A British force of 700 under John Vincent defeats an American force twice its size under William Winder and John Chandler.
Year 1822
Alexis St. Martin is accidentally shot in the stomach, leading to William Beaumont's studies on digestion.
Year 1859
Australia: Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales (Queensland Day).
Year 1862
American Civil War: Battle of Memphis: Union forces capture Memphis, Tennessee, from the Confederates.
Year 1882
More than 100,000 inhabitants of Bombay are killed when a cyclone in the Arabian Sea pushes huge waves into the harbour.
Year 1882
The Shewan forces of Menelik II of Ethiopia defeat the Gojjame army in the Battle of Embabo. The Shewans capture Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, and their victory leads to a Shewan hegemony over the territories south of the Abay River.
Year 1894
Governor Davis H. Waite orders the Colorado state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners' strike.
Year 1909
French troops capture Abéché (in modern-day Chad) and install a puppet sultan in the Ouaddai Empire.
Year 1912
The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begins. It is the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.
Year 1918
World War I: Battle of Belleau Wood: The U.S. Marine Corps suffers its worst single day's casualties while attempting to recapture the wood at Château-Thierry.
Year 1921
Southwark Bridge in London is opened to traffic by King George V and Queen Mary.
Year 1932
The Revenue Act of 1932 is enacted, creating the first gas tax in the United States, at a rate of 1 cent per US gallon ( 1⁄4¢/L) sold.
Year 1934
New Deal: The U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Year 1939
Judge Joseph Force Crater, known as the "Missingest Man in New York", is declared legally dead.
Year 1942
World War II: Battle of Midway. U.S. Navy dive bombers sink the Japanese cruiser Mikuma and four Japanese carriers.
Year 1944
World War II: The Battle of Normandy begins. D-Day, code named Operation Overlord, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
Year 1946
The Basketball Association of America is founded in New York City; the BAA was the precursor to the modern National Basketball Association
Year 1954
The grand opening of the sculpture of Yuriy Dolgorukiy took place in Moscow. This statue is one of the main monuments of Moscow.
Year 1964
Under a temporary order, the rocket launches at Cuxhaven, Germany are terminated. They never resume.
Year 1968
Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy: Robert F. Kennedy, Democratic Party senator from New York and brother of 35th President John F. Kennedy, dies from gunshot wounds inflicted on June 5.
Year 1971
A midair collision between a Hughes Airwest Douglas DC-9 jetliner and a United States Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II jet fighter near Duarte, California, claims 50 lives.
Year 1971
Vietnam War: The Battle of Long Khanh between Australian and Vietnamese communist forces begins.
Year 1974
A new Instrument of Government is promulgated making Sweden a parliamentary monarchy.
Year 1981
Bihar train disaster: A passenger train travelling between Mansi and Saharsa, India, jumps the tracks at a bridge crossing the Bagmati River. The government places the official death toll at 268 plus another 300 missing; however, it is generally believed that the death toll is closer to 1,000.
Year 1982
The Lebanon War begins. Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon during Operation Peace for the Galilee, eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.
Year 1985
The grave of "Wolfgang Gerhard" is opened in Embu, Brazil; the exhumed remains are later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's "Angel of Death"; Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February 1979.
Year 2002
Eastern Mediterranean event. A near-Earth asteroid estimated at ten meters in diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The resulting explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.
Year 2004
Tamil is established as a "classical language" by the President of India, Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, in a joint sitting of the two houses of the Indian Parliament.
Year 2005
In Gonzales v. Raich, the United States Supreme Court upholds a federal law banning cannabis, including medical marijuana.