History of the Day for:
December 6
- 1768: The first edition of Encyclopaedia Brittanica was published in Scotland.
- 1790: Congress moved from New York to Philadelphia.
- 1821: Beethoven finished his piano sonata, Opus 109.
- 1847: Abraham Lincoln became a member of the House of Representatives.
- 1849: Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in Maryland.
- 1865: The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, abolishing slavery.
- 1870: Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina became the first black in the House of Representatives.
- 1873: The first international football game occurred in the United State, between Yale and Eton.
- 1884: Army engineers completed construction of the Washington Monument, 36 years after work began.
- 1902: Martha Washington became the first U.S. woman to have her likeness appear on a U.S. stamp.
- 1912: China voted for universal human rights.
- 1917: Finland declared its independence from Russia.
- 1923: A presidential address was broadcast on radio for the first time as President Calvin Coolidge spoke to a joint session of Congress.
- 1924: The U.S. Border Patrol was organized.
- 1935: "A Night at the Opera," starring the Marx Brothers, opened at the Capitol.
- 1945: The microwave oven was patented.
- 1955: N.Y. psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers won the top prize on the TV quiz show "The $64,000 Question" by correctly answering questions on boxing.
- 1956: Nelson Mandela and 156 others were jailed in South Africa on political charges.
- 1960: Domino's Pizza was founded by Thomas S. Monaghan.
- 1961: Syracuse running back Ernest Davis became the first black to win the Heisman Trophy.
- 1968: James Taylor released his debut LP on the Beatles' Apple Records label.
- 1969: The Rolling Stones held a free concert at the Altamont Speedway in San Francisco The event was marred when Hell's Angels security guards stabbed 18-year-old Meredith Hunter to death for supposedly pointing a gun at Mick Jagger.
- 1973: House minority leader Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the first unelected vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew, who resigned from office on Oct. 10.
- 1978: Spain adopted its constitution.
- 1989: The École Polytechnique Massacre (or Montreal Massacre): Marc Lépine, an anti-feminist gunman, murders 14 young women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal.
- 1991: In Croatia, forces of the Yugoslav People's Army bombard Dubrovnik after laying siege to the city since May.
- 1992: Extremist Hindu activists demolish Babri Masjid – a 16th century mosque in Ayodhya, India which had been used as temple since 1949.
- 1997: A Russian Antonov An-124 transport cargo plane crashes into an apartment complex near Irkutsk, Siberia, killing 67.
- 1998: Hugo Chávez Frías, Venezuelan military and politician, is elected President of Venezuela.
- 2001: The Canadian province of Newfoundland is renamed Newfoundland and Labrador.
- 2005: Several villagers are shot dead during protests in Dongzhou, China.
- 2006: NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.