TODAY IN HISTORY: DECEMBER 6

 

December 6

1060 – Béla I is crowned king of Hungary.

1240 – Mongol invasion of Rus': Kyiv, defended by Voivode Dmytro, falls to the Mongols under Batu Khan.

1492 – After exploring the island of Cuba for gold (which he had mistaken for Japan), Christopher Columbus lands on an island he names Hispaniola.

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: 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.

1790 – The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia.

1803 – Five French warships attempting to escape the Royal Naval blockade of Saint-Domingue are all seized by British warships, signifying the end of the Haitian Revolution.

1865 – Georgia ratifies the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

1882 – Transit of Venus, second and last of the 19th century.

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.

1912 – The Nefertiti Bust is discovered.

1916 – World War I: The Central Powers capture Bucharest.

1917 – Finland declares independence from the Russian Empire.

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: Camp X opens in Canada to begin training Allied secret agents for the war.

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.

1969 – Altamont Free Concert: At a free concert performed by the Rolling Stones, eighteen-year old Meredith Hunter is stabbed to death by Hells Angels security guards.

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 387–35 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States. (On November 27, the Senate confirmed him 92–3.)

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 bombs 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.

1990 – A military jet of the Italian Air Force, abandoned by its pilot after an on-board fire, crashed into a high school near Bologna, Italy, killing 12 students and injuring 88 other people.

1991 – Yugoslav Wars: In Croatia, forces of the Serb-dominated Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) heaviest bombardment of Dubrovnik during a siege of 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 Chávez is victorious in presidential elections.

1999 – A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.: The Recording Industry Association of America sues the peer-to-peer file-sharing service Napster, alleging copyright infringement.

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 94 on board and 12 more on the ground.

2006 – NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.

2015 – Venezuelan parliamentary election: For the first time in 17 years, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela loses its majority in parliament.

2017 – Donald Trump's administration officially announces the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.