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This day in history

This day in history: 6 February

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Key facts

412 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 6 February.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2023: Two earthquakes measuring Mww 7.8 and 7.5 struck near the border between Turkey and Syria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XII (Extreme). The earthquakes resulted in numerous aftershocks and a death toll of 57,658 people.

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day: Amand

Christian feast day: Dorothea of Caesarea

Christian feast day: February 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Hildegund, O.Praem.

Christian feast day: Jacut

Christian feast day: Mateo Correa Magallanes (one of Saints of the Cristero War)

Christian feast day: Mél of Ardagh

Christian feast day: Paul Miki and Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan

Christian feast day: Relindis (Renule) of Maaseik

Christian feast day: Vedastus

International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (United Nations)

Ronald Reagan Day (California, United States)

Events

2023Two earthquakes measuring Mww 7.8 and 7.5 struck near the border between Turkey and Syria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XII (Extreme). The earthquakes resulted in numerous aftershocks and a death toll of 57,658 people.

2021U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken suspends agreements with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to send asylum seekers back to their home countries.

2018SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, a super heavy launch vehicle, makes its maiden flight.

2016An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 strikes southern Taiwan, killing 117 people.

2012A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits the central Philippine island of Negros, leaving 112 people dead.

2006Stephen Harper becomes Prime Minister of Canada.

2000Second Chechen War: Russia captures Grozny, Chechnya, forcing the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria government into exile.

1998Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport.

1996Birgenair Flight 301 crashed off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 people on board. This is the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 757.

1996Willamette Valley Flood: Floods in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, United States, causes over US$500 million in property damage throughout the Pacific Northwest.

1989The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe.

1987Justice Mary Gaudron becomes the first woman to be appointed to the High Court of Australia.

1981The National Resistance Army of Uganda launches an attack on a Ugandan Army installation in the central Mubende District to begin the Ugandan Bush War.

1978The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of four inches an hour.

1976In testimony before a United States Senate subcommittee, Lockheed Corporation president Carl Kotchian admits that the company had paid out approximately $3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.

1973The Ms 7.6 Luhuo earthquake strikes Sichuan Province, causing widespread destruction and killing at least 2,199 people.

1959At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.

1959Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.

1958Eight Manchester United F.C. players and 15 other passengers are killed in the Munich air disaster.

1952Elizabeth II becomes Queen of the United Kingdom and her other Realms and Territories and Head of the Commonwealth upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in

1951The Broker, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. The accident kills 85 people and injures over 500 more. The wreck is one of the worst rail disasters in American history.

1951The Canadian Army enters combat in the Korean War.

1944World War II: The Great Raids Against Helsinki begins.

1934Far-right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon in an attempted coup against the French Third Republic, creating a political crisis in France.

1922The Washington Naval Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.

1919The five-day Seattle General Strike begins, as more than 65,000 workers in the city of Seattle, Washington, walk off the job.

1918British women over the age of 30 who meet minimum property qualifications, get the right to vote when Representation of the People Act 1918 is passed by Parliament.

1900The Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international arbitration court at The Hague, is created when the Senate of the Netherlands ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.

1899Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, is ratified by the United States Senate.

1865The municipal administration of Finland is established.

1862American Civil War: Forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote give the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry.

1851The largest Australian bushfires in a populous region in recorded history take place in the state of Victoria.

1843The first minstrel show in the United States, The Virginia Minstrels, opens (Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City).

1840Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, establishing New Zealand as a British colony.

1833Otto becomes the first modern King of Greece.

1820The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society depart New York to start a settlement in present-day Liberia.

1819The Treaty of Singapore was signed by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, Hussein Shah of Johor, and Temenggong Abdul Rahman, and it is now recognised as the founding of modern Singapore.

1806Battle of San Domingo: British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean.

1788Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1778American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.

Born on this day

2002Ona Huczkowski, Finnish actress

2000Conor Gallagher, English footballer

1998Adley Rutschman, American baseball player

1996Kevon Looney, American basketball player

1995Leon Goretzka, German footballer

1995Nyck de Vries, Dutch racing driver

1995Sam McQueen, English footballer

1993Teresa Scanlan, American beauty pageant titleholder, Miss America 2011

1992Víctor Mañón, Mexican footballer

1991Aleksandar Katai, Serbian footballer

1991Eva Wacanno, Dutch tennis player

1991Fei Yu, Chinese footballer

1991Ida Njåtun, Norwegian speed skater

1991Tobias Eisenbauer, Austrian ice dancer

1990Adam Henrique, Canadian ice hockey player

1990Aida Rybalko, Lithuanian figure skater

1990Jermaine Kearse, American football player

1989Craig Cathcart, Northern Irish footballer

1989Jonny Flynn, American basketball player

1988Bailey Hanks, American actress, singer, and dancer

1987Pedro Álvarez, Dominican-American baseball player

1987Travis Wood, American baseball player

1986Tony Johnson, American mixed martial artist

1986Yunho, South Korean singer and actor

1985Fallulah, Danish singer-songwriter

1985Kris Humphries, American basketball player

1984Antoine Wright, American basketball player

1984Darren Bent, English international footballer

1984Piret Järvis, Estonian singer-songwriter and guitarist

1983Dimas Delgado, Spanish footballer

1983Jamie Whincup, Australian race car driver

1983S. Sreesanth, Indian cricketer

1982Elise Ray, American gymnast

1982Tank, Taiwanese singer-songwriter

1981Alison Haislip, American actress and producer

1981Calum Best, American-English model and actor

1981Jens Lekman, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist

1981Ricky Barnes, American golfer

1981Shim Eun-jin, South Korean singer and actress

1980Kerry Jeremy, Antiguan cricketer

Died on this day

2025Nigel McCrery, English screenwriter, producer and writer (born 1953)

2025Virginia Halas McCaskey, American football executive (born 1923)

2024Sebastian Piñera, former Chilean president (born 1949)

2023Greta Andersen, Danish swimmer (born 1927)

2022Lata Mangeshkar, Indian singer and music composer (born 1929)

2021George Shultz, American politician, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Labor (born 1920)

2020Jhon Jairo Velásquez, Colombian hitman and drug dealer (born 1962)

2019Manfred Eigen, German Nobel Prize winning biophysical chemist (born 1927)

2019Rosamunde Pilcher, British author (born 1924)

2018Donald Lynden-Bell, English astrophysicist (born 1935)

2017Alec McCowen, English actor (born 1925)

2017Inge Keller, German actress (born 1923)

2017Irwin Corey, American comedian and actor (born 1914)

2017Joost van der Westhuizen, South African rugby union footballer (born 1971)

2016Dan Gerson, American screenwriter (born 1966)

2016Dan Hicks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1941)

2015Alan Nunnelee, American lawyer and politician (born 1958)

2015André Brink, South African author and playwright (born 1935)

2015Pedro León Zapata, Venezuelan cartoonist (born 1929)

2014Maxine Kumin, American author and poet (born 1925)

2014Ralph Kiner, American baseball player and sportscaster (born 1922)

2014Vaçe Zela, Albanian-Swiss singer and guitarist (born 1939)

2014Vasiľ Biľak, Slovak politician (born 1917)

2013Chokri Belaid, Tunisian lawyer and politician (born 1964)

2013Menachem Elon, German-Israeli academic and jurist (born 1923)

2012Antoni Tàpies, Spanish painter and sculptor (born 1923)

2012David Rosenhan, American psychologist and academic (born 1929)

2012Janice E. Voss, American engineer and astronaut (born 1956)

2011Gary Moore, Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1952)

2009James Whitmore, American actor (born 1921)

Quote of the day

“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what is left and live it properly.”

Marcus Aurelius

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From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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