Also available in: Português (Brasil)
What happened on June 6
Every June 6 carries a layer of history: wars that began or ended, inventions, premieres, treaties, and people born or lost on this day across the centuries. We gathered 12 of the most striking events recorded on June 6, plus notable births and deaths, each with its year and a link to the Wikipedia article where the story continues. It is a fast way to answer "what happened on June 6" without digging through many sources: the list arrives ranked by relevance and dated.
Notable events
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2021 | A man rammed a pickup truck into Muslim Pakistani Canadian pedestrians in Ontario, Canada, killing four members of the same family. 2021 London, Ontario, truck attack |
| 2017 | Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces opened the Second Battle of Raqqa, the final phase of the Raqqa campaign, capturing the de facto capital of the Islamic State four months later. Syrian civil war |
| 1985 | The remains of Josef Mengele, a Nazi physician notorious for performing human experiments on Auschwitz inmates, were exhumed in Embu das Artes, Brazil. Josef Mengele |
| 1982 | Falklands War: The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Cardiff engaged and destroyed a British Army helicopter in a friendly-fire incident. Falklands War |
| 1976 | A plane crashed near Kota Kinabalu International Airport, Malaysia, killing politicians Fuad Stephens and Peter Joinud Mojuntin, along with nine others. 1976 Sabah Air GAF Nomad crash |
| 1971 | Hughes Airwest Flight 706 collided with a US Marine Corps jet near Duarte, California, killing 50 people. Hughes Airwest Flight 706 |
| 1971 | Vietnam War: Australian forces attacked a heavily fortified North Vietnamese base camp at the Battle of Long Khánh. Vietnam War |
| 1944 | World War II: Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious military operation in history, began with Allied troops landing on the beaches of Normandy in France. World War II |
| 1912 | The largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century began, forming the volcano Novarupta in the Alaska Peninsula. Novarupta |
| 1894 | Governor Davis Hanson Waite ordered the Colorado state militia to protect and support miners engaged in a five-month strike in Cripple Creek. Davis Hanson Waite |
| 1882 | The Shewan army defeated Gojjame forces at the Battle of Embabo, an event that contributed to the supremacy of Shewa within the Ethiopian Empire. Shewa |
| 1822 | Alexis St. Martin, a Canadian voyageur, was accidentally shot in the stomach; medical investigations of his injury led to a greater understanding of the processes of digestion. Coureur des bois |
Births
| Year | Who |
|---|---|
| 2001 | Rayan Aït-Nouri, French-Algerian footballer Rayan Aït-Nouri |
| 2000 | Haechan, South Korean singer Haechan |
| 1998 | Kenny Pickett, American football player Kenny Pickett |
| 1996 | Jack Hetherington, Australian rugby league player Jack Hetherington |
Deaths
| Year | Who |
|---|---|
| 2016 | Viktor Korchnoi, Russian chess grandmaster; arguably the best player never to become World Chess Champion (born 1931) Viktor Korchnoi |
| 2016 | Peter Shaffer, English playwright and screenwriter; works included Equus and Amadeus (born 1926) Peter Shaffer |
| 2015 | Vincent Bugliosi, American lawyer and author; prosecuting attorney in the Tate-LaBianca murders case (born 1934) Vincent Bugliosi |
| 2015 | Ludvík Vaculík, Czech journalist and author; noted for The Two Thousand Words which inspired the Prague Spring (born 1926) Ludvík Vaculík |
A single anniversary does not explain on its own why a day matters: one June 6 can hold a scientific milestone, a tragedy and the birth of an artist, centuries apart. That is why we date every row and link the source, so you can follow what interests you. The selection mixes 12 events, 4 births and 4 deaths; the full list, with every reference, lives on Wikipedia.
Source, license and method
This page curates the day's anniversaries for June 6 from Wikipedia, delivered through the Wikimedia "On this day" feed (the encyclopedia's own open dataset). It is not original research: the facts, years and wording come from Wikipedia and are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike (CC BY-SA 4.0), which requires crediting the source and keeping the same license. We pick each day's most relevant items, favouring the editors' own selection and the most prominent articles, and every row links back to the matching entry. For the full list and primary references, see the day's article on Wikipedia (June 6).
Continue in the dates cluster
Anniversaries are just a doorway. People who arrive asking about the date usually also want: What day is it today, in every calendar, Moon phase today and the Date and age calculators.
Last updated: · Methodology and sources