History of 6 July
1905 – Fingerprints were exchanged for the first time between officials in Europe and the U.S. The person in question was John Walker.
1917 – During World War I, Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence captured the port of Aqaba from the Turks.
1919 – A British dirigible landed in New York at Roosevelt Field. It completed the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by an airship.
1923 – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was established.
1928 – “The Lights of New York” was previewed in New York’s Strand Theatre. It was the first all-talking movie.
1932 – The postage rate for first class mail in the U.S. went from 2-cents to 3-cents.
1933 – The first All-Star baseball game was held in Chicago. The American League beat the National League 4-2.
1942 – Diarist Anne Frank and her family took refuge from the Nazis in Amsterdam.
1945 – U.S. President Truman signed an order creating the Medal of Freedom.
1945 – Nicaragua became the first nation to formally accept the United Nations Charter.
1947 – “Candid Microphone” began airing on ABC radio.
1948 – Frieda Hennok became the first woman to serve as the commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission.
1957 – Althea Gibson won the Wimbledon women’s singles tennis title. She was the first black athlete to win the event.
1966 – Malawi became a republic within the Commonwealth with Dr. Hastings Banda as its first president.
1967 – The Biafran War erupted. The war lasted two-and-a-half years. About 600,000 people died.
1981 – Former President of Argentina Isabel Peron was freed after five years of house arrest by a federal court.
1981 – The Dupont Company announced an agreement to purchase Conoco, Inc. (Continental Oil Co.) for $7 billion. At the time it was the largest merger in corporate history.
1983 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that retirement plans could not pay women smaller monthly payments solely because of their gender.
1983 – Fred Lynn (California Angels) hit the first grand slam in an All-Star game. The American League defeated the National League 13-3.
1985 – Martina Navratilova won her 4th consecutive Wimbledon singles title.
1985 – The submarine Nautilus arrived in Groton, Connecticut. The vessel had been towed from Mare Island Naval Shipyard.
1988 – Several popular beaches were closed in New York City due to medical waste and other debris began washing up on the seashores.
1989 – The U.S. Army destroyed its last Pershing 1-A missiles at an ammunition plant in Karnack, TX. The dismantling was under the terms of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
1996 – Steffi Graf won her seventh Wimbledon title.
1997 – The Mars Pathfinder released Sojourner, a robot rover on the surface of Mars. The spacecraft landed on the red planet on July 4th.
1997 – In Cambodia, Second Prime Minister Hun Sen ousted First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh and claimed to have the capital under his control.
1998 – Protestants rioted in many parts of Northern Ireland after British authorities blocked an Orange Order march in Portadown.
2000 – A jury awarded former NHL player Tony Twist $24 million for the unauthorized use of his name in the comic book Spawn and the HBO cartoon series. Co-defendant HBO settled with Twist out of court for an undisclosed amount.
2003 – The 70-meter Yevpatoria Planetary Radar sends a METI message (Cosmic Call 2) to five stars: Hip 4872, HD 245409, 55 Cancri (HD 75732), HD 10307 and 47 Ursae Majoris (HD 95128). The messages will arrive at these stars in 2036, 2040, 2044, and 2049, respectively.
2006 – The Nathu La pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-opens for trade after 44 years.
2013 – At least 42 people are killed in a shooting at a school in Yobe State, Nigeria.
2013 – A Boeing 777 operating as Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashes at San Francisco International Airport, killing three and injuring 181 of the 307 people on board.
2013 – A 73-car oil train derails in the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec and explodes into flames, killing at least 47 people and destroying more than 30 buildings in the town’s central area.
Celebrating Birthday’s Today
- 1981 – Nnamdi Asomugha, American football player
- 1981 – Roman Shirokov, Russian footballer
- 1982 – Brandon Jacobs, American football player
- 1982 – Misty Upham, American actress (d. 2014)
- 1983 – Gregory Smith, Canadian actor, director, and producer
- 1984 – Zhang Hao, Chinese figure skater
- 1985 – Ranveer Singh, Indian film actor
- 1986 – Sarah Gronert, a German tennis player
- 1986 – David Karp, American businessman, founded Tumblr
- 1987 – Sophie Auster, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1987 – Manteo Mitchell, American runner
- 1987 – Kate Nash, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress
- 1987 – Caroline Trentini, Brazilian model
- 1988 – Kevin Fickentscher, Swiss footballer
- 1990 – Magaye Gueye, French footballer
- 1992 – Manny Machado, Dominican-American baseball player