September 6 is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years). There are 116 days remaining.

Events

• 3761 BC - The first day of the Hebrew Calendar.
• 394 - Battle of Frigidus: The Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius I defeats and kills the pagan usurper Eugenius and his Frankish general Arbogast.
• 1522 - The Vittoria, one of the surviving ships of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, returns to San Lucar de Barrameda in Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world.
• 1620 - The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America.
• 1628 - Puritans settle Salem which will later become part of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1781 - The Battle of Groton Heights takes place with the result of a British minor victory
• 1847 - Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond and moves in with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord, Massachusetts.
• 1861 - American Civil War: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant bloodlessly capture Paducah, Kentucky, which gives the Union control the mouth of the Tennessee River.
• 1863 - American Civil War: Confederates evacuate Battery Wagner and Morris Island in South Carolina.
• 1870 - Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming, votes in the morning, becoming the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807.
• 1885 - Eastern Rumelia declares its union with Bulgaria.
• 1901 - American anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots and fatally wounds US President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
• 1915 - The first prototype tank is tested for the British Army for the first time.
• 1937 - Spanish Civil War: The start of the Battle of El Mazuco.
• 1939 - World War II: South Africa declares war on Germany.
• 1941 - Holocaust: The requirement to wear the Star of David with the word Jew inscribed, is extended to all Jews over the age of 6 in German-occupied areas.
• 1948 - Juliana becomes Queen of the Netherlands.
• 1949 - Allied military authorities relinquish control of former Nazi Germany assets back to German control.
• 1965 - War of 1965: India attacks Pakistan and announces that its forces will capture Lahore (city of Pakistan) in an hour.
• 1966 - In Cape Town, the South African architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd is stabbed to death during a parliamentary meeting.
• 1968 - Swaziland becomes independent.
• 1970 - Four passenger jets are simultaneously hijacked. Two are taken to Dawson's Field.
• 1972 - Munich Massacre: Israeli athletes and coaches are killed when police assault Black September members in a failed hostage rescue in West Germany.
• 1976 - Cold War: Soviet air force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido in Japan and requests political asylum from the United States.
• 1983 - The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Flight KAL-007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.
• 1985 - Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105, a Douglas DC-9 crashes just after takeoff from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing 31.
• 1986 - In Istanbul, two Arab terrorists from Abu Nidal's terror organization kill 22 and wound six inside the Neve Shalom synagogue during Shabbat services.
• 1991 - The Soviet Union recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
• 1991 - The name Saint Petersburg is restored to Russia's second largest city, which had been renamed Leningrad in 1924.
• 1995 - With the jury absent, Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman invokes his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the murder trial of O. J. Simpson.
• 1995 - Cal Ripken Jr. breaks Lou Gehrig's record of playing 2131 consecutive baseball games.
• 1997 - The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales at Westminster Abbey draws large crowds.
• 2000 - In New York City, the United Nations Millennium Summit begins with more than 180 world leaders present.
• 2001 - Microsoft antitrust case: The United States Justice Department announces that it was no longer seeking to break-up software maker Microsoft and will instead seek a lesser antitrust penalty.

Births

• 1620 - Isabella Leonarda, composer
• 1757 - Marquis de Lafayette, Revolutionary War soldier (d. 1834)
• 1766 - John Dalton, British chemist and physicist (d. 1844)
• 1781 - Anton Diabelli, music publisher, editor and composer
• 1795 - Frances Wright, writer, activist, lecturer (d. 1852)
• 1800 - Catharine Beecher, educator (d. 1878)
• 1829 - Marie Zakrzewska, physician
• 1839 - Louise-Lëonie Rouzade, writer, socialist
• 1857 - Zelia Nuttall, archeologist, historian
• 1859 - Boris Yakovlovic Bukreev, Russian mathematician (d. 1962)
• 1860 - Jane Addams, social worker (d. 1935)
• 1868 - Margaret Dreier Robins, labor leader and reformer
• 1869 - Felix Salten, author (d. 1945)
• 1877 - Buddy Bolden, American jazz musician (d. 1930)
• 1888 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., head of the Kennedy family (d. 1969)
• 1890 - Claire Chennault, soldier (d. 1958)
• 1892 - Sir Edward Appleton, English physicist, winner of the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physics
• 1899 - Billy Rose, composer (d. 1966)
• 1900 - W.A.C. Bennett, British Columbia politician (d. 1979)
• 1901 - Ernst Weber, physicist
• 1904 - Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, boxer (d. 1976)
• 1911 - Harry Danning, MLB All-Star catcher (d. 2004)
• 1928 - Robert M. Pirsig, author, creator of the Metaphysics of Quality
• 1929 - Yash Johar, Indian film producer
• 1937 - Jo Anne Worley, actress
• 1937 - Sergio Aragonés, illustrator
• 1937 - Brigid Berlin, actor and artist
• 1944 - Roger Waters, musician (Pink Floyd)
• 1944 - Swoosie Kurtz, actress
• 1947 - Jane Curtin, actress
• 1958 - Jeff Foxworthy, comedian, actor, author
• 1964 - Rosie Perez, actress
• 1971 - Dolores O'Riordan, musician (The Cranberries)
• 1972 - China Miéville, writer
• 1973 - Greg Rusedski, tennis player
• 1974 - Justin Whalin, actor
• 1974 - Tim Henman, tennis player
• 1979 - Foxy Brown, rapper

Deaths

• 972 - Pope John XIII
• 1511 - Ashikaga Yoshizumi, Ashikaga shogun (b. 1481)
• 1683 - Jean-Baptiste Colbert, French minister of finance
• 1701 - James II of England
• 1708 - Sir John Morden, philanthropist (b. 1623)
• 1782 - Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson
• 1902 - Frederick Augustus Abel, British chemist
• 1951 - Joan Vollmer, wife of William S. Burroughs
• 1952 - Gertrude Lawrence, actress
• 1962 - Hanns Eisler, composer
• 1966 - Hendrik Verwoerd, South African prime minister
• 1966 - Margaret Sanger, birth control activist
• 1984 - Ernest Tubb, country music singer
• 1990 - Len Hutton, English cricketer (b. 1916)
• 1998 - Akira Kurosawa, Japanese film director

Holidays and observances

• Pakistan - Defence Day
• Bulgaria - Unification Day

September 5 - September 7 - August 6 - October 6 - Historical anniversaries