February 6

Events
Up to 1900
1643 - Abel Tasman becomes the first European to reach Fiji.
1649 - The Parliament of Scotland declares the future Charles II as King.
1685 - James II of England/James VII of Scotland becomes King.
1778 - American Revolutionary War: France recognizes the United States as an independent republic.
1788 - Massachusetts becomes a U.S. state.
1788 - Female convicts are landed at Sydney, leading to a wild night of sex, rape and a riot.
1795 - The First Boer Republic is founded in protest against the Dutch East India Company.
1806 - Battle of Santo Domingo: British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean.
1815 - New Jersey grants the first American railroad charter to John Stevens.
1819 - Singapore is founded.
1820 - Liberia is founded.
1833 - Otto becomes the first King of modern Greece.
1840 - New Zealand is founded with the Treaty of Waitangi.
1843 - The US' first minstrel show, the Virginia Minstrels, begins at Bowery Amphitheatre in new York City.
1851 - Widespread bushfires affect the state of Victoria, Australia.
1862 - American Civil War: The United States Navy gives the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry.
1886 - German chemist Clemens Winkler discovers the chemical element Germanium.
1899 - Spanish-American War: The United States Senate accepts the Treaty of Paris between the United States and Spain.
1900 - An international court of law is created in The Hague, Netherlands.
1901 2000
1911 - 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, is born in Tampico, Illinois.
1917 - The first International Sami Conference takes place in Trondheim, Norway.
1918 - In the United Kingdom, women over the age of 30 years get the right to vote.
1919 - Women aged 21 or over are given the right to vote in Luxembourg.
1922 - Achille Ratti is elected Pope Pius XI.
1934 - Far-right groups rally in front of the Palais Bourbon in an attempted coup against the French Third Republic, creating a political crisis in France.
1936 - The Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, begin.
1942 - World War II: The United Kingdom declares war on Siam, present-day Thailand.
1951 - A Pennsylvania railroad passenger train crashes off the track near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, killing 85 people.
1952 - Accession to the throne of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, after the death of George VI.
1958 - Munich Air Disaster: A plane whose passengers include several Manchester United footballers, crashes shortly after take-off in blizzard conditions in Munich, Germany.
1959 - American Jack Kilby applies for a patent for the Integrated circuit.
1968 - The 1968 Winter Olympics began in Grenoble, France.
1971 - NASA astronaut Alan Shepard becomes the first person to play golf on the Moon.
1973 - Construction begins on the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada.
1978 - New England is hit by a major snowstorm.
1981 - The National Resistance Army of Uganda launches an attack on the Ugandan Army installation in the Central Mubenda District, starting the Ugandan Bush War.
1988 - Michael Jordan makes his signature slam dunk from the free throw line.
1989 - Berlin Wall: Chris Gueffroy becomes the last person to die while trying to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin over the Berlin Wall.
1989 - Talks begin in Warsaw between Poland's Communist leaders and respresentatives of the Solidarity movement.
1994 -- American pop rock band Maroon 5 is formed. (As Kara's Flowers)
1996 - Birgenair Flight 301 crashes off the west coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 people on board. It is the worst accident to involve a Boeing 757.
1998 - Washington, DC's National Airport is renamed in honour of Ronald Reagan.
1999 - An Indonesian ferry sinks off Borneo with the loss of more than 300 lives.
2000 - Second Chechen War: Russia captures Grozny.
From 2001
2005 - Super Bowl XXXIX: The New England Patriots beat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21. During this game, American Dad! is shown for the first time.
2006 - Stephen Harper becomes Prime Minister of Canada.
2012 - Queen Elizabeth II marks 60 years on the throne as Queen of the United Kingdom and several countries in the Commonwealth of Nations, becoming only the second British monarch, after Queen Victoria, to reach this milestone.
2016 - A major earthquake strikes Taiwan, mainly in the south of the island. A collapsed tower block kills at least 116 people and leaves up to 100 missing.
2018 - SpaceX successfully launches its Falcon Heavy rocket.
2018 - A major earthquake strikes the northeast of Taiwan, including the city of Hualien.
2018 - "Cheddar Man", the earliest-known human known to have lived in present-day Great Britain, 9,000 year ago, is revealed to have had dark skin and blue eyes.
2023 - Major earthquakes strike the southern of Turkey and Syria.
Births
Up to 1800
1347 - Dorothea of Montau, Prussian saint (d. 1394)
1452 - Joan, Princess of Portugal (d. 1490)
1465 - Scipione del Ferro, Italian mathematician (d. 1526)
1582 - Mario Bettinus, Italian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer (d. 1657)
1605 - Bernard of Corleone, Italian saint (d. 1667)
1608 - Antonio Vieira, Portuguese writer (d. 1697)
1611 - Chongzhen, Emperor of China (d. 1644)
1612 - Antoine Arnauld, French theologian, philosopher and mathematician (d. 1694)
1636 - Heiman Dullaart, Dutch painter (d. 1684)
1643 - Johann Casimir Kolbe von Wartenberg, 1st Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Prussia (d. 1712)
1664 - Mustafa II, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1703)
1665 - Anne, Queen of England, Ireland and Scotland (d. 1714)
1726 - Patrick Russell, Scottish surgeon and naturalist (d. 1805)
1730 - Januarius Zick, German painter (d. 1797)
1736 - Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, German-Austrian sculptor (d. 1783)
1744 - Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon (d. 1795)
1748 - Adam Weishaupt, German philosopher (d. 1811)
1753 - Evariste de Parny, French poet (d. 1814)
1756 - Aaron Burr, 3rd Vice President of the United States (d. 1836)
1757 - Julian Ursan Niemcewicz, Polish scholar and statesman (d. 1841)
1778 - Ugo Foscolo, Italian writer and poet (d. 1827)
1797 - Joseph van Radowitz, Prussian statesman and general (d. 1853)
1799 - George Arnott Walker-Arnott, Scottish botanist (d. 1868)
1801 1900
1802 - Charles Wheatstone, English physicist and inventor (d. 1875)
1811 - Henry George Liddell, English philologist and lexicographer (d. 1898)
1818 - William M. Evarts, American lawyer and statesman (d. 1901)
1818 - Jenaro Quesada y Matheus, Spanish nobleman and politician (d. 1889)
1832 - John Brown Gordon, 32nd Governor of Georgia (d. 1904)
1833 - Jose Maria de Pereda, Spanish novelist (d. 1906)
1838 - Henry Irving, British actor (d. 1905)
1843 - Inoue Kowashi, Japanese statesman (d. 1895)
1846 - Raimundo Andueza Palacio, 24th President of Venezuela (d. 1900)
1847 - Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, American architect (d. 1918)
1852 - Vasily Safonov, Russian pianist, composer and teacher (d. 1918)
1852 - C. Lloyd Morgan, British psychologist (d. 1936)
1854 - Prince Thomas, Duke of Genoa, Italian prince (d. 1931)
1859 - Wilhelm Cohn, German chess player (d. 1913)
1861 - Nikolay Zelinsky, Russian chemist (d. 1953)
1864 - John Henry Mackay, Scottish thinker and writer (d. 1933)
1866 - Karl Sapper, German explorer and linguist (d. 1945)
1870 - James Braid, Scottish golfer (d. 1950)
1872 - Robert Maillart, Swiss engineer (d. 1940)
1879 - Carl Ramsauer, German physicist (d. 1955)
1879 - Magnus Gudmundsson, Prime Minister of Iceland (d. 1937)
1879 - Edwin Samuel Montagu, British statesman (d. 1974)
1880 - Nishinoumi Kajiro II, Japanese sumo wrestler (d. 1931)
1883 - Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich, Russian aircraft designer (d. 1938)
1887 - Josef Frings, German cardinal (d. 1978)
1892 - William P. Murphy, American doctor, won the 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1987)
1893 - Muhammad Zaffarullah Khan, Pakistani politician and diplomat (d. 1985)
1894 - Kirpal Singh, Indian religious leader (d. 1974)
1895 - Babe Ruth, American baseball player (d. 1948)
1897 - Alberto Cavalcanti, Brazilian movie director and producer (d. 1982)
1901 1950
1901 - Ben Lyon, American actor (d. 1979)
1903 - Claudio Arrau, Chilean pianist (d. 1991)
1905 - Wladyslaw Gomulka, Polish politician (d. 1982)
1905 - Jan Werich, Czech actor, playwright and writer (d. 1980)
1908 - Michael Maltese, American screenwriter (d. 1981)
1908 - Amintore Fanfani, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1999)
1911 - Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States (d. 2004)
1912 - Eva Braun, wife of Adolf Hitler (d. 1945)
1913 - Mary Leakey, Kenyan archaeologist (d. 1996)
1914 - Thurl Ravenscroft, American voice actor and singer (d. 2005)
1917 - Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hungarian-American actress (d. 2016)
1919 - Takashi Yanase, Japanese manga artist
1921 - Carl Neumann Degler, American historian and author (d. 2014)
1922 - Patrick Macnee, British actor (d. 2015)
1922 - Denis Norden, British comedy writer and television presenter
1922 - Haskell Wexler, American cinematographer, movie producer and director (d. 2015)
1922 - Clifford Darling, Governor-General of the Bahamas (d. 2011)
1923 - Gyula Lorant, Hungarian footballer (d. 1981)
1924 - Billy Wright, English footballer (d. 1994)
1924 - Ivo Garrani, Italian actor (d. 2015)
1924 - Jin Yong, Hong Kong author and publisher
1929 - Colin Murdoch, New Zealand pharmacist and inventor (d. 2008)
1929 - Sixten Jernberg, Swedish cross-country skier (d. 2012)
1929 - Pierre Brice, French actor (d. 2015)
1931 - Mamie Van Doren, American actress
1931 - Ricardo Vidal, Filipino cardinal (d. 2017)
1932 - Camilo Cienfuegos, Cuban revolutionary (d. 1959)
1932 - Francois Truffaut, French movie director (d. 1984)
1936 - Donnie Brooks, American pop music singer (d. 2007)
1939 - Mike Farrell, American actor
1939 - Jair Rodrigues, Brazilian musician and singer (d. 2014)
1940 - Tom Brokaw, American television journalist
1940 - Jimmy Tarbuck, English comedian and actor
1942 - Valentina Titova, Russian actress
1942 - Sarah Brady, American gun control campaigner (d. 2015)
1943 - Gayle Hunnicutt, American actress
1943 - Georgeanna Tillman, American singer
1944 - Michael Tucker, American actor
1945 - Bob Marley, Jamaican Reggae musician (d. 1981)
1946 - Kate McGarrigle, Canadian singer and songwriter (d. 2010)
1947 - Bill Staines, American singer-songwriter
1948 - Claude Le Roy, French footballer and coach
1948 - Bunny Rugs, Jamaican singer (d. 2014)
1949 - Mike Batt, British composer
1949 - Manuel Orantes, Spanish tennis player
1950 - Natalie Cole, American singer (d. 2015)
1950 - Timothy M. Dolan, American cardinal
1951 1975
1951 - Kevin Whately, British actor
1952 - Viktor Giacobbo, Swiss writer, comedian and actor
1952 - Ricardo La Volpe, Argentine football coach
1954 - Bob Sirois, Canadian ice hockey player
1956 - Jerry Marotta, American drummer (Orleans)
1957 - Simon Phillips, American drummer (d. 2007)
1957 - Robert Townsend, American actor
1960 - Jeremy Bowen, British journalist
1960 - Frank Jeske, East German footballer (d. 1994)
1961 - Malu Dreyer, German politician
1961 - Yury Onufriyenko, Ukrainian-Russian cosmonaut
1962 - Axl Rose, American singer (Guns N' Roses)
1962 - Stavros Lambrinidis, Greek politician
1963 - Quentin Letts, British journalist and critic
1964 - Gord Downie, Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, writer and activist (d. 2017)
1966 - Rick Astley, British singer
1967 - Zard, Japanese singer (d. 2007)
1967 - Anita Cochran, American singer
1968 - Adolfo Valencia, Colombian footballer
1969 - David Hayter, American actor
1969 - Tim Sherwood, English footballer and manager
1969 - Masaharu Fukuyama, Japanese singer-songwriter and producer
1970 - Dina Sherman, American voice actress
1971 - Brian Stepanek, American actor
1971 - Simon Stephens, English playwright
1975 - Tomoko Kawase, Japanese singer
From 1976
1976 - Princess Marie of Denmark
1976 - Kasper Hvidt, Danish handball player
1977 - Josh Stewart, American actor
1979 - Alice Weidel, German politician
1980 - Ben Lawson, Australian actor
1980 - Luke Ravenstahl, 59th Mayor of Pittsburgh
1981 - Calum Best, American-English model
1981 - Jens Lekman, Swedish musician
1981 - Shim Eun Jin, South Korean singer
1982 - Tank, Taiwanese singer
1982 - Alice Eve, English actress
1983 - Melrose Bickerstaff, American model and fashion designer
1984 - Piret Jarvis, Estonian singer
1984 - Darren Bent, English footballer
1985 - Kris Humphries, American basketball player
1986 - Mathew Tait, English rugby player
1988 - Bailey Hanks, American actress
1989 - Jonny Flynn, American basketball player
1989 - Craig Cathcart, Irish footballer
1989 - Sophie Bennett, Canadian actress and singer
1990 - Adam Henrique, Canadian ice hockey player
1991 - Maxi Iglesias, Spanish actor
1991 - Anna Sidorova, Russian curler
1992 - Cara McCollum, American journalist and beauty queen (d. 2016)
1993 - Teresa Scanlan, American model
1993 - Tinashe, American singer-songwriter, dancer and actress
1995 - Jongup, South Korean singer
1995 - Sam McQueen, English footballer
Deaths
Up to 1900
891 - Saint Photius I the Great, Patriarch of Constantinople
1215 - Hojo Tokimasa, Emperor of Japan (b. 1138)
1378 - Jeanne de Bourbon, Queen of France (b. 1338)
1497 - Johannes Ockeghem, Belgian composer (b. 1410)
1593 - Jacques Amyot, French writer (b. 1513)
1593 - Emperor Ogimachi of Japan (b. 1517)
1612 - Christopher Clavius, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1538)
1617 - Prospero Alpini, Italian scientist (b. 1553)
1685 - Charles II, King of England, Ireland and Scotland (b. 1630)
1695 - Ahmed II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1643)
1740 - Pope Clement XII (b. 1652)
1783 - Lancelot "Capability" Brown, English gardener (b. 1716)
1793 - Carlo Goldoni, Italian playwright (b. 1707)
1804 - Joseph Priestley, English-American theologian, philosopher, chemist and physicist (b. 1733)
1834 - Richard Lemon Lander, English explorer (b. 1804)
1855 - Josef Munzinger, Swiss Federal Councillor (b. 1791)
1899 - Leo von Caprivi, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1831)
1899 - Prince Alfred of Saxe-Coburg Gotha (b. 1874)
1901 2000
1910 - Alfonso Maria Fusco, Italian Roman Catholic priest (b. 1839)
1916 - Ruben Dario, Nicaraguan writer (b. 1867)
1918 - Gustav Klimt, Austrian painter (b. 1862)
1929 - Maria Christina of Austria, Queen of Spain (b. 1858)
1931 - Motilal Nehru, Indian politician (b. 1861)
1933 - Jackson Showalter, American chess player (b. 1860)
1938 - Marianne von Werefkin, Russian-Swiss painter (b. 1860)
1942 - Jaan Soots, Estonian general and politician (b. 1880)
1950 - Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist (b. 1884)
1952 - George VI, King of the United Kingdom (b. 1895)
1956 - Henri Chretien, French astronomer, professor and inventor (b. 1879)
1958 - Manchester United players killed in the Munich Air Disaster:
David Pegg, English footballer (b. 1935)
Tommy Taylor, English footballer (b. 1932)
Geoff Bent, English footballer (b. 1932)
Roger Byrne, English footballer (b. 1929)
Eddie Colman, English footballer (b. 1936)
Mark Jones, English footballer (b. 1933)
Frank Swift, English footballer (b. 1913)
Walter Crickmer, English footballer and manager (b. 1900)
1964 - Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the Philippines (b. 1869)
1981 - Frederika of Hanover, Queen Consort of Greece (b. 1917)
1981 - Hugo Montenegro, American movie music composer (b. 1925)
1984 - Jorge Guillen, Spanish poet (b. 1893)
1986 - Frederick Coutts, Scottish 8th General of the Salvation Army (b. 1899)
1986 - Minoru Yamasaki, American architect (b. 1912)
1989 - Chris Gueffroy, German, last person to die crossing the Berlin Wall (b. 1968)
1990 - Jimmy van Heusen, American composer (b. 1913)
1991 - Salvador Luria, Italian biologist (b. 1912)
1991 - Danny Thomas, American signer, comedian and actor (b. 1914)
1993 - Arthur Ashe, American tennis player (b. 1943)
1994 - Joseph Cotten, American actor (b. 1905)
1994 - Jack Kirby, American comic book writer (b. 1917)
1996 - Guy Madison, American actor (b. 1922)
1998 - Falco, Austrian singer (b. 1957)
1998 - Carl Wilson, American musician (The Beach Boys) (b. 1946)
1999 - Don Dunstan, 35th Premier of South Australia (b. 1926)
1999 - Jimmy Roberts, American tenor (b. 1924)
From 2001
2002 - Max Perutz, Austrian molecular biologist (b. 1914)
2009 - James Whitmore, American actor (b. 1921)
2010 - John Dankworth, British jazz musician (b. 1927)
2011 - Josefa Iloilo, 3rd President of Fiji (b. 1920)
2011 - Gary Moore, Northern Irish musician (b. 1952)
2012 - Antoni Tapies, Catalan artist (b. 1923)
2012 - Janice E. Voss, American astronaut (b. 1956)
2013 - Chokri Belaid, Tunisian lawyer and politician (b. 1964)
2013 - Stuart Freeborn, British make-up artist (b. 1914)
2014 - Ralph Kiner, American baseball player (b. 1922)
2015 - Marisa Del Frate, Italian actress (b. 1931)
2015 - Alan Nunnelee, American politician (b. 1958)
2015 - Assia Djebar, Algerian novelist, translator and filmmaker (b. 1936)
2015 - Andre Brink, South African writer (b. 1935)
2015 - Kathrine Windfeld, Danish movie director (b. 1966)
2015 - Norm Drucker, American basketball player (b. 1920)
2016
Dan Hicks, American singer-songwriter (b. 1941)
Robin Chandler Duke, American social advocate and diplomat (b. 1923)
Birte Tove, Danish actress (b. 1945)
Eddy Wally, Belgian singer (b. 1932)
2017 - Boy Asistio, Filipino politician (b. 1936)
2017 - Ritchie Yorke, Australian-English author and broadcaster (b. 1944)
2017 - Jose Gea Escolano, Spanish archbishop (b. 1929)
2017 - Roger Walkowiak, French cyclist (b. 1927)
2017 - Irwin Corey, American actor and comedian (b. 1914)
2017 - Joost van der Westhuizen, South African rugby player (b. 1971)
2017 - Inge Keller, German actress (b. 1923)
2017 - Alec McCowen, English actor (b. 1925)
2017 - Ivar Aronsson, Swedish rower (b. 1928)
2017 - Neil Gehrels, American astronomer (b. 1952)
2017 - Djelloul Khatib, Algerian independence activist and politician (b. 1936)
2017 - Raymond Smullyan, American mathematician and philosopher (b. 1919)
2018 - John Perry Barlow, American writer, songwriter and internet activist (b. 1947)
2018 - Liliana Bodoc, Argentine author (b. 1958)
2018 - Jao Tsung-I, Chinese-Hong Kong scholar (b. 1917)
2018 - Joe Knollenberg, American politician (b. 1933)
2018 - Madavoor Vasudevan Nair, Indian dancer (b. 1929)
Observances
Waitangi Day in New Zealand
International day of zero tolerance for female genital mutilation
Sami National Day (Finland, Norway, Sweden, parts of Russia)
Ronald Reagan Day (California, Wisconsin, Illinois)
Accession Day (since 1952), in the United Kingdom and all the other countries of which Queen Elizabeth II is Head of State
February 06