January 6

Events

Pre-1600

*1066 – Following the death of Edward the Confessor on the previous day, the Witan meets to confirm Harold Godwinson as the new King of England; Harold is crowned the same day, sparking a succession crisis that will eventually lead to the Norman conquest of England.
*1205 – Philip of Swabia undergoes a second coronation as King of the Romans.
* 1322 – Stephen Uroš III is crowned King of Serbia, having defeated his half-brother Stefan Konstantin in battle. His son is crowned "young king" in the same ceremony.
* 1355 – Charles IV of Bohemia is crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy as King of Italy in Milan.
*1449 – Constantine XI is crowned Byzantine Emperor at Mystras.
* 1492 – The Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella enter Granada at the conclusion of the Granada War.
* 1536 – The first European school of higher learning in the Americas, Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, is founded by Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza and Bishop Juan de Zumárraga in Mexico City.
* 1540 – King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves.
* 1579 – The Union of Arras unites the southern Netherlands under the Duke of Parma (Ottavio Farnese), governor in the name of King Philip II of Spain.

1601–1900

* 1641 – Arauco War: The first Parliament of Quillín is celebrated, putting a temporary hold on hostilities between Mapuches and Spanish in Chile.
*1661 – English Restoration: The Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London, England. The revolt is suppressed after a few days.
*1721 – The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble publishes its findings, revealing details of fraud among company directors and corrupt politicians.
* 1781 – In the Battle of Jersey, the British defeat the last attempt by France to invade Jersey in the Channel Islands.
*1809 – Combined British, Portuguese and colonial Brazilian forces begin the Invasion of Cayenne during the Napoleonic Wars.
* 1838 – Alfred Vail and colleagues demonstrate a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).
*1839 – The Night of the Big Wind, the most damaging storm in 300 years, sweeps across Ireland, damaging or destroying more than 20% of the houses in Dublin.
* 1847 – Samuel Colt obtains his first contract for the sale of revolver pistols to the United States government.
* 1870 – The inauguration of the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria.
*1893 – The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress. The charter is signed by President Benjamin Harrison.
*1900 – Second Boer War: Having already besieged the fortress at Ladysmith, Boer forces attack it, but are driven back by British defenders.

1901–present

* 1907 – Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome, Italy.
*1912 – New Mexico is admitted to the Union as the 47th U.S. state.
* 1912 – German geophysicist Alfred Wegener first presents his theory of continental drift.
*1929 – King Alexander of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes suspends his country's constitution (the January 6th Dictatorship).
* 1929 – Mother Teresa arrives by sea in Calcutta, India, to begin her work among India's poorest and sick people.
*1930 – Clessie Cummins arrives at the National Automobile Show in New York City, having driven a car powered by one of his diesel engines from Indianapolis.
*1941 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms speech in the State of the Union address.
*1946 – The first general election ever in Vietnam is held.
*1947 – Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to offer a round-the-world ticket.
* 1950 – The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with the UK in response.
*1951 – Korean War: Beginning of the Ganghwa massacre, in the course of which an estimated 200–1,300 South Korean communist sympathizers are slaughtered.
*1960 – National Airlines Flight 2511 is destroyed in mid-air by a bomb, while en route from New York City to Miami.
* 1960 – The Associations Law comes into force in Iraq, allowing registration of political parties.
* 1967 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch "Operation Deckhouse Five" in the Mekong River delta.
*1974 – In response to the 1973 oil crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States.
* 1989 – Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh are sentenced to death for conspiracy in the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi; the two men are executed the same day.
*1992 – President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia flees the country as a result of the military coup.
* 1993 – Indian Border Security Force units kill 55 Kashmiri civilians in Sopore, Jammu and Kashmir, in revenge after militants ambushed a BSF patrol.
* 1993 – Four people are killed when Lufthansa CityLine Flight 5634 crashes on approach to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy-en-France, France.
*1994 – American figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked and injured by an assailant hired by her rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
*1995 – A chemical fire in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines, leads to the discovery of plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack.
*2000 – The last natural Pyrenean ibex, Celia, is killed by a falling tree, thus making the species extinct.
*2005 – American Civil Rights Movement: Edgar Ray Killen is indicted for the 1964 murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.
* 2005 – A train collision in Graniteville, South Carolina, United States, releases about 60 tons of chlorine gas.
*2012 – Twenty-six people are killed and 63 wounded when a suicide bomber blows himself up at a police station in Damascus.
*2017 – Five people are killed and six others injured in a mass shooting at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport in Broward County, Florida.
*2019 – Forty people are killed in a gold mine collapse in Badakhshan province, in northern Afghanistan.
* 2019 – Muhammad V of Kelantan resigns as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, becoming the first monarch to do so.
*2021 – Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump attack the United States Capitol to disrupt certification of the 2020 presidential election, resulting in five deaths and evacuation of the U.S. Congress.

Births

Pre-1600

* 1256 – Gertrude the Great, German mystic (d. 1302)
* 1367 – Richard II of England (d. 1400)
* 1384 – Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent (d. 1408)
* 1412 – Joan of Arc, French martyr and saint (d. 1431)
*1486 – Martin Agricola, German composer and theorist (d. 1556)
* 1488 – Helius Eobanus Hessus, German poet (d. 1540)
*1493 – Olaus Petri, Swedish clergyman (d. 1552)
*1500 – John of Ávila, Spanish mystic and saint (d. 1569)
*1525 – Caspar Peucer, German physician and scholar (d. 1602)
* 1538 – Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria (d. 1612)
* 1561 – Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (d. 1656)
*1587 – Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares (d. 1645)
*1595 – Claude Favre de Vaugelas, French educator and courtier (d. 1650)

1601–1900

*1617 – Christoffer Gabel, Danish politician (d. 1673)
* 1632 – Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton, Scottish peeress (d. 1716)
* 1655 – Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg (d. 1720)
* 1673 – James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, English academic and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire (d. 1744)
* 1695 – Giuseppe Sammartini, Italian oboe player and composer (d. 1750)
* 1702 – José de Nebra, Spanish composer (d. 1768)
* 1714 – Percivall Pott, English surgeon (d. 1788)
*1745 – Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, French co-inventor of the hot air balloon (d. 1799)
* 1766 – José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, Paraguayan lawyer and politician, first dictator of Paraguay (d. 1840)
* 1785 – Andreas Moustoxydis, Greek historian and philologist (d. 1860)
* 1793 – James Madison Porter, American lawyer and politician, 18th United States Secretary of War (d. 1862)
* 1795 – Anselme Payen, French chemist and academic (d. 1871)
*1799 – Jedediah Smith, American hunter, explorer, and author (d. 1831)
* 1803 – Henri Herz, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1888)
* 1807 – Joseph Petzval, German-Hungarian mathematician and physicist (d. 1891)
* 1808 – Joseph Pitty Couthouy, American conchologist and paleontologist (d. 1864)
*1811 – Charles Sumner, American lawyer and politician (d. 1874)
* 1822 – Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist and businessman (d. 1890)
*1832 – Gustave Doré, French painter and sculptor (d. 1883)
* 1838 – Max Bruch, German composer and conductor (d. 1920)
*1842 – Clarence King, American geologist, mountaineer, and critic (d. 1901)
* 1856 – Giuseppe Martucci, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1909)
*1857 – Hugh Mahon, Irish-Australian publisher and politician, 10th Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs (d. 1931)
* 1857 – William Russell, American lawyer and politician, 37th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1896)
* 1859 – Samuel Alexander, Australian-English philosopher and academic (d. 1938)
*1861 – Victor Horta, Belgian architect, designed Hôtel van Eetvelde (d. 1947)
* 1861 – George Lloyd, English-Canadian bishop and theologian (d. 1940)
* 1870 – Gustav Bauer, German journalist and politician, 11th Chancellor of Germany (d. 1944)
*1872 – Alexander Scriabin, Russian pianist and composer (d. 1915)
*1874 – Fred Niblo, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1948)
*1878 – Adeline Genée, Danish-born British ballerina (d. 1970)
* 1878 – Carl Sandburg, American poet and historian (d. 1967)
*1880 – Tom Mix, American cowboy and actor (d. 1940)
* 1881 – Ion Minulescu, Romanian author, poet, and critic (d. 1944)
*1882 – Fan S. Noli, Albanian-American bishop and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Albania (d. 1965)
* 1882 – Sam Rayburn, American lawyer and politician, 48th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1961)
*1883 – Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese-American poet, painter, and philosopher (d. 1931)
* 1891 – Ted McDonald, Australian cricketer (d. 1937)
* 1898 – James Fitzmaurice, Irish soldier and pilot (d. 1965)
* 1899 – Heinrich Nordhoff, German engineer (d. 1968)
*1900 – Maria of Yugoslavia, Queen of Yugoslavia (d. 1961)

1901–present

* 1903 – Maurice Abravanel, Greek-American pianist and conductor (d. 1993)
* 1910 – Kid Chocolate, Cuban boxer (d. 1988)
* 1910 – Wright Morris, American author and photographer (d. 1998)
* 1910 – Yiannis Papaioannou, Greek composer and educator (d. 1989)
*1912 – Jacques Ellul, French philosopher and critic (d. 1994)
* 1912 – Danny Thomas, American actor, comedian, producer, and humanitarian (d. 1991)
*1913 – Edward Gierek, Polish lawyer and politician (d. 2001)
* 1913 – Loretta Young, American actress (d. 2000)
*1914 – Godfrey Edward Arnold, Austrian-American physician and academic (d. 1989)
*1915 – Don Edwards, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 2015)
* 1915 – John C. Lilly, American psychoanalyst, physician, and philosopher (d. 2001)
* 1915 – Alan Watts, English-American philosopher and author (d. 1973)
* 1916 – Park Mok-wol, influential Korean poet and academic (d. 1978)
* 1917 – Koo Chen-fu, Taiwanese businessman and diplomat (d. 2005)
* 1920 – John Maynard Smith, English biologist and geneticist (d. 2004)
* 1920 – Sun Myung Moon, Korean religious leader; founder of the Unification Church (d. 2012)
* 1920 – Early Wynn, American baseball player, coach, and sportscaster (d. 1999)
*1921 – Marianne Grunberg-Manago, Russian-French biochemist and academic (d. 2013)
* 1921 – Cary Middlecoff, American golfer and sportscaster (d. 1998)
* 1923 – Vladimir Kazantsev, Russian runner (d. 2007)
* 1923 – Norman Kirk, New Zealand engineer and politician, 29th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1974)
* 1923 – Jacobo Timerman, Argentinian journalist and author (d. 1999)
* 1924 – Kim Dae-jung, South Korean soldier and politician, 8th President of South Korea, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2009)
* 1924 – Earl Scruggs, American banjo player (d. 2012)
*1925 – John DeLorean, American engineer and businessman, founded the DeLorean Motor Company (d. 2005)
* 1926 – Ralph Branca, American baseball player (d. 2016)
* 1926 – Pat Flaherty, American race car driver (d. 2002)
* 1926 – Mickey Hargitay, Hungarian-American actor and bodybuilder (d. 2006)
* 1927 – Jesse Leonard Steinfeld, American physician and academic, 11th Surgeon General of the United States (d. 2014)
*1928 – Capucine, French actress and model (d. 1990)
*1930 – Vic Tayback, American actor (d. 1990)
*1931 – E. L. Doctorow, American novelist, playwright, and short story writer (d. 2015)
* 1931 – Graeme Hole, Australian cricketer (d. 1990)
* 1931 – Dickie Moore, Canadian ice hockey player and businessman (d. 2015)
*1932 – Stuart A. Rice

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