History of the Day for:
April 6
- 648 BC: The earliest total solar eclipse chronicled by the Greeks was observed.
- 1652: Cape Colony, the first European settlement in South Africa, was established.
- 1663: King Charles II signed the Carolina Charter.
- 1722: Peter the Great ended the tax on men with beards.
- 1830: The Mormon Church was organized by Joseph C. Smith and Oliver Cowdery at Fayette, N.Y.
- 1862: The Battle of Shiloh began when the Confederates attacked Union forces in Tennessee.
- 1868: Brigham Young, the Mormon Church leader, married his 27th (and last) wife.
- 1869: The first plastic Celluloid was patented.
- 1886: The city of Vancouver, British Columbia, was incorporated.
- 1889: George Eastman placed the Kodak Camera on sale for the first time.
- 1896: The first modern Olympic games formally opened in Athens, Greece, after a 1,500 year break.
- 1906: The first animated cartoon was copyrighted.
- 1909: Explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew A. Henson became the first men to reach the North Pole.
- 1917: Congress approved a declaration of war against Germany and the U.S. entered World War I.
- 1930: Hostess Twinkies were invented by James Dewar.
- 1936: A tornado killed 203 and injured 1,800 in Gainesville Ga.
- 1938: Teflon was invented by Roy J. Plunkett.
- 1941: World War II: Nazi Germany launches Operation 25 (the invasion of Yugoslavia) and Operation Marita (the invasion of Greece).
- 1947: The first Tony Awards were presented.
- 1954: The TV Dinner was first put on sale by Swanson & Sons.
- 1957: New York City ended its trolley car service.
- 1965: The U.S. launched the "Early Bird" Intelsat 1, the first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite.
- 1973: The U.S. launched Pioneer 11 to Jupiter and Saturn.
- 1980: Post It Notes were introduced.
- 1992: Microsoft announced Windows 3.1, upgrading Windows 3.0; The U.S. Supreme Court limited some undercover sting operations, ruling a Nebraska farmer was entrapped by postal agents into buying mail-order child pornography.
- 1994: The Rwandan Genocide begins when the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down.
- 1998: Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of hitting India.
- 1998: Travelers Group announced an agreement to undertake the $76 billion merger between Travelers and Citicorp, and the merger is completed on October 8, of that year, forming Citibank.
- 2004: Rolandas Paksas becomes the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from office by impeachment.
- 2005: Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani becomes Iraqi president; Shiite Arab Ibrahim al-Jaafari is named premier the next day.
- 2009: A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near L'Aquila, Italy, killing at least 253.