On This Day: June 6

Historical Events 📜

• 2024: The launch of SpaceX Starship integrated flight test 4 (IFT-4)
• 2023: Russo-Ukrainian War: The Kakhovka Dam is destroyed.
• 2017: Syrian civil war: The Battle of Raqqa begins with an offensive by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to capture the city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
• 2002: Eastern Mediterranean event. A near-Earth asteroid estimated at ten meters in diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.
• 1994: China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303 crashes near Xi’an Xianyang International Airport, killing all 160 people on board.
• 1993: Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat wins the first presidential election in Mongolia.
• 1992: Copa Airlines Flight 201 breaks apart in mid-air and crashes into the Darién Gap in Panama, killing all 47 aboard.
• 1985: The grave of “Wolfgang Gerhard” is opened in Embu, Brazil; the exhumed remains are later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz’s “Angel of Death”; Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February 1979.
• 1982: 1982 Lebanon War: The war begins as forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon during Operation Peace for the Galilee, eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.
• 1976: Chief Minister of Sabah Faud Stephens, Peter Joinud Mojuntin, and several other politicians are killed in a plane crash near Kota Kinabalu International Airport in Malaysia.
• 1975: British referendum results in continued membership of the European Economic Community, with 67% of votes in favour.
• 1971: Soyuz 11 is launched. The mission ends in disaster when all three cosmonauts, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev are suffocated by uncontrolled decompression of the capsule during re-entry on 29 June.
• 1971: Hughes Airwest Flight 706 collides with a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II of the United States Marine Corps over the San Gabriel Mountains, killing 50.
• 1966: March Against Fear: African-American civil rights activist James Meredith is wounded in an ambush by white sniper James Aubrey Norvell. Meredith and Norvell are photographed by Jack R. Thornell, whose photo will receive the 1967 Pulitzer Prize in Photography, the last one to be awarded in the category.
• 1944: World War II: Commencement of Operation Overlord: The Allied invasion of Normandy begins with the execution of Operation Neptune—commonly referred to as D-Day—the largest seaborne invasion in history. Nearly 160,000 Allied troops cross the English Channel with about 5,000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels, and 277 minesweepers participating. By the end of the day, the Allies have landed on five invasion beaches and are pushing inland.

Famous Births 👶

• 2001: Rayan Aït-Nouri, French-Algerian footballer
• 2000: Haechan, South Korean singer
• 1998: Kenny Pickett, American football player
• 1996: Jack Hetherington, Australian rugby league player
• 1995: Julian Green, American soccer player
• 1994: Yvon Mvogo, Swiss footballer
• 1993: Vic Mensa, American rapper and singer
• 1992: DeAndre Hopkins, American football player
• 1990: Gavin Hoyte, English born footballer who represented Trinidad and Tobago
• 1990: Anthony Rendon, American baseball player
• 1990: Pape Souaré, Senegalese footballer
• 1988: Anthony Pilkington, Irish footballer
• 1986: Gin Wigmore, New Zealand singer and songwriter
• 1985: Sebastian Larsson, Swedish footballer
• 1985: Drew McIntyre, Scottish professional wrestler

Notable Deaths 🕊️

• 2016: Viktor Korchnoi, Russian chess grandmaster; arguably the best player never to become World Chess Champion (born 1931)
• 2016: Peter Shaffer, English playwright and screenwriter; works included Equus and Amadeus (born 1926)
• 2015: Vincent Bugliosi, American lawyer and author; prosecuting attorney in the Tate–LaBianca murders case (born 1934)
• 2015: Ludvík Vaculík, Czech journalist and author; noted for The Two Thousand Words which inspired the Prague Spring (born 1926)
• 2014: Lorna Wing, English psychiatrist and physician; pioneered studies of autism (born 1928)
• 2013: Jerome Karle, American crystallographer and academic; awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research into the molecular structure of chemical compounds (born 1918)
• 2013: Esther Williams, American swimmer and actress (born 1921)
• 2012: Vladimir Krutov, Russian ice hockey player; together with Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov, formed the famed KLM Line. (born 1960)
• 2009: Jean Dausset, French-Spanish immunologist and academic; awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his studies of the genetic basis of immunological reaction (born 1916)
• 2006: Billy Preston, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (born 1946)
• 2005: Anne Bancroft, American film actress; winner of the 1963 Academy Award for Best Actress for The Miracle Worker (born 1931)
• 1996: George Davis Snell, American geneticist and immunologist; awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1980 for his studies of histocompatibility (born 1903)
• 1994: Mark McManus, Scottish actor (born 1935)
• 1994: Barry Sullivan, American film actor (born 1912)
• 1991: Stan Getz, American saxophonist and jazz innovator (born 1927)

Holidays & Observances 🎉

• Christian feast day:
  Claudius of Besançon
• Christian feast day:
  Ini Kopuria (Anglican Church of Melanesia, Church of England, Episcopal Church)
• Christian feast day:
  Marcellin Champagnat
• Christian feast day:
  Blessed Maria Laura Mainetti
• Christian feast day:
  Norbert
• Christian feast day:
  June 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• D-Day Invasion Anniversary
• Engineer’s Day in Taiwan
• Korean Children’s Union Foundation Day in North Korea
• Memorial Day in South Korea
• National Day of Sweden, marking the end of the Kalmar Union and the coronation of King Gustav Vasa
• National Huntington’s Disease Awareness Day in the United States
• Queensland Day
• UN Russian Language Day