History of the Day for:
June 6
- 1833: Andrew Jackson became the first U.S. president to ride in a railroad car.
- 1844: The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was formed in London.
- 1925: Walter Percy Chrysler founded the Chrysler Corporation.
- 1932: The first U.S. federal tax on gasoline was passed.
- 1933: The first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden, N.J.
- 1934: The Securities and Exchange Commission was established.
- 1942: Japanese forces retreated in the World War II Battle of Midway.
- 1944: Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, beginning the "D-Day" invasion of Europe.
- 1966: Activist James Meredith was shot and wounded as he walked along a Mississippi highway to encourage black voter registration.
- 1968: Senator Robert F. Kennedy died of gunshot wounds at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 42.
- 1971: "The Ed Sullivan Show" concluded its run on CBS.
- 1985: Authorities in Brazil exhumed the remains of Dr. Josef Mengele, the "Angel of Death" of the Nazi Holocaust.
- 1990: U.S. District court judge Jose Gonzales rules that the rap album As Nasty As They Wanna Be by 2 Live Crew violates Florida's obscenity law; he declares that the predominant subject matter of the record is "directed to the 'dirty' thoughts and the loins, not to the intellect and the mind."
- 1993: Mongolia holds its first direct presidential elections.
- 1999: In Australian Rules Football, Tony Lockett breaks the record for career goals, previously 1299 by Gordon Coventry and which had stood since 1937.
- 1999: At the Putim maximum security prison in Brazil, 345 prisoners run from the main gate in the largest jailbreak in Brazilian history, marking the 10th escape for the three-year-old facility. In the ensuing manhunt, two fugitives are killed and five innocent bystanders are accidentally jailed.
- 2002: Eastern Mediterranean Event. A near-Earth asteroid estimated at 10 metres diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The resulting explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.
- 2004: Tamil is established as a Classical language by the President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in a joint sitting of the two houses of the Indian Parliament.
- 2005: The United States Supreme Court upholds a federal law banning marijuana, including medical marijuana, in Gonzales v. Raich.
- 2007: A German man jumps on to the Popemobile in Vatican City, Rome. It is a possible attempt to injure or kill Pope Benedict XVI. The Pope is not injured and Bodyguards wrestled the man to the ground.