June 6

Events
Up to 1900
1508 - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor is defeated in Friuli by Venetian troops.
1513 - Italian Wars: Battle of Novara: Swiss troops defeat the French under Louis de la Tremoille, forcing the French to abandon Milan. Duke Massimiliano Sforza is restored to power.
1523 - Gustav Vasa is elected King of Sweden, ending the Kalmar Union.
1586 - Francis Drake's forces raid St. Augustine, Florida.
1644 - The Qing Dynasty Manchu forces under Shunzhi Emperor capture Beijing during the collapse of the Ming Dynasty.
1674 - Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire, is crowned.
1683 - The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum.
1752 - One third of Moscow is destroyed by fire.
1808 - Joseph Bonaparte is proclaimed King of Spain.
1809 - Sweden introduces a new constitution.
1813 - War of 1812: Battle of Stoney Creek - A British force of 700 under John Vincent defeats an American force twice its size under William Winder and John Chandler.
1833 - Andrew Jackson becomes the first President of the United States to ride on a train.
1838 - The Indian Removal Act enters into force. US troops under Winfield Scott start removing Native American Cherokees from their ancestral homeland to a reservation in Oklahoma in what becomes known as the Trail of Tears in which 4,000 to 10,000 Cherokees die.
1844 - The Young Men's Christian Association is founded in London.
1857 - Sophia of Nassau marries future King Oscar II of Sweden-Norway.
1859 - Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales.
1862 - American Civil War: Union forces take Memphis, Tennessee from the Confederates.
1882 - A tropical storm kills over 100,000 people in Bombay (now Mumbai), India.
1889 - The entire downtown area of Seattle is destroyed by fire.
1892 - The Chicago 'L' commuter rail system is introduced.
1901 2000
1912 - The Novarupta Volcano in Alaska erupts in one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century. Because it happened in an uninhabited area, people believed that the nearby Katmai volcano had erupted.
1918 - World War I: Battle of Belleau Wood - The United States Marine Corps suffers its worst single day's casualties while attempting to recapture the wood of Chateau-Thierry.
1920 - The first Reichstag election in Germany's Weimar Republic takes place.
1921 - Southwark Bridge in London is opened to traffic by King George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck.
1931 - Munich's Glass Palace is set on fire. The whole building, along with over 3,000 paintings, is destroyed.
1933 - The first drive-in theatre is opened in Camden, New Jersey.
1934 - Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Act of 1933 into law.
1942 - World War II: In the Battle of Midway US navy dive bombers sink Japanese cruiser Mikuma and four Japanese carriers.
1944 - World War II: The allied D-Day landings take place in Normandy.
1946 - The National Basketball Association is created.
1964 - Under a temporary order, the rocket launches at Cuxhaven, Northern Germany, are abandoned, and never continue.
1966 - Civil Rights activist James Meredith is shot in the back and legs in Mississippi. He survives the attack.
1968 - American politician Robert F. Kennedy dies after being shot on the previous day.
1971 - Soviet space programme: Soyuz 11 launches.
1971 - A mid-air collision between a Hughes Airwest Douglas DC-9 jetliner and a United States Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II jet fighter near Duarte, California, kills 50 people.
1971 - Vietnam War: The Battle of Long Khanh between Australian and Vietnamese Communist forces begins.
1981 - Bihar Train Disaster: A train crash kills an estimated 1,000 people.
1982 - The 1982 Lebanon War begins.
1984 - Tetris, one of the best-selling video games of all time, is released.
1985 - The grave of "Wolfgang Gerhard" in Brazil is exhumed. The remains are found to be those of Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, who died in 1979.
1993 - Mongolians vote in direct Presidential elections for the first time.
1994 - A Tupolev Tu-154 of China Northwest Airlines, crashes shortly after take-off from Xi'an, China, killing 160 people.
1994 - A magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Colombia kills 795 people.
From 2001
2001 - Argentina's former President Carlos Menem is arrested on charges of selling weapons to Ecuador and Croatia.
2002 - A near-Earth asteroid explodes over the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Libya.
2004 - Tamil is established as a classical language of India.
2007 - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is stripped of an honorary degree that was given to him by the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
2007 - The G-8 summit is held in Heiligendamm on Germany's Baltic Sea coast.
2012 - The 21st century's last Transit of Venus occurs.
2014 - Big commemorations are held to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
2015 - The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup begins in Canada. In Edmonton, Alberta, Canada defeats China 1-0 through a late penalty.
Births
Up to 1900
1236 - Wen Tianxiang, Chinese general and scholar (d. 1283)
1243 - Alix of Brittany, Dame du Pontarcy, Breton-French noblewoman (d. 1288)
1436 - Regiomontanus (Johannes Muller), German astronomer (d. 1472)
1502 - King John III of Portugal (d. 1557)
1519 - Andrea Cesalpino, Italian botanist (d. 1603)
1553 - Bernardino Baldi, Italian mathematician (d. 1617)
1599 - Diego Velazquez, Spanish painter (d. 1660)
1606 - Pierre Corneille, French dramatist (d. 1684)
1622 - Claude-Jean Allouez, French Jesuit missionary and explorer (d. 1857)
1661 - Giacomo Antonio Perti, Italian composer (d. 1756)
1678 - Louis Alexandre, Count of Toulouse, French aristocrat (d. 1737)
1714 - King Joseph I of Portugal (d. 1777)
1755 - Nathan Hale, American writer, patriot (d. 1776)
1756 - John Trumbull, American painter (d. 1843)
1772 - Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily, Holy Roman Empress (d. 1807)
1799 - Alexander Pushkin, Russian poet (d. 1837)
1807 - Thieu Tri, Emperor of Vietnam (d. 1847)
1810 - Friedrich Wilhelm Schneidewin, German classical scholar (d. 1856)
1821 - Francois-Marie Luzel, French folklorist and Breton language poet (d. 1895)
1829 - Shusaku Honinbo, Japanese Go player (d. 1862)
1850 - Karl Ferdinand Braun, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1918)
1857 - Aleksandr Lyapunov, Russian mathematician (d. 1918)
1862 - Henry John Newbolt, English writer (d. 1938)
1867 - David T. Abercrombie, American businessman (Abercrombie & Fitch) (d. 1931)
1868 - Robert Falcon Scott, English explorer (d. 1912)
1868 - Dawid Janowski, Polish chess player (d. 1927)
1869 - Siegfried Wagner, German composer and conductor (d. 1930)
1872 - Tsarina Alexandra of Russia (d. 1918)
1875 - Thomas Mann, German novelist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (d. 1955)
1880 - W. T. Cosgrave, Irish politician (d. 1965)
1890 - Ted Lewis, American bandleader (d. 1971)
1892 - Donald Duncan, Sr., American marketer, modifier of yo-yo (d. 1971)
1896 - Henry Allingham, British World War I veteran and supercentenarian (d. 2009)
1896 - Italo Balbo, Italian marshal and politician (d. 1940)
1898 - Ninette de Valois, Irish dancer (d. 2001)
1898 - Walter Abel, American actor (d. 1987)
1901 1950
1901 - Sukarno, first President of Indonesia (d. 1970)
1903 - Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer (d. 1978)
1906 - Max August Zorn, German-American mathematician (d. 1993)
1907 - Bill Dickey, American baseball player, coach, manager, and scout (d. 1993)
1909 - Isaiah Berlin, Latvian-born British political philosopher (d. 1997)
1912 - Joan Hartigan, Australian tennis player (d. 2000)
1912 - Maria Montez, Dominican actress (d. 1951)
1916 - Henriette Roosenburg, Dutch journalist (d. 1972)
1916 - Hamani Diori, first President of Niger (d. 1989)
1917 - Kirk Kerkorian, American businessman (d. 2015)
1918 - Edwin G. Krebs, American biochemist (d. 2009)
1919 - Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, 6th Secretary-General of NATO (d. 2018)
1924 - Orna Porat, German-Israeli actress (d. 2015)
1925 - Fitzhugh L. Fulton, American pilot (d. 2015)
1925 - Maxine Kumin, American poet and author (d. 2014)
1926 - Klaus Tennstedt, German conductor (d. 1998)
1928 - George Deukmejian, 35th Governor of California (d. 2018)
1928 - Elio Sgreccia, Italian cardinal (d. 2019)
1929 - Sunil Dutt, Indian actor and politician
1930 - Frank Tyson, English cricketer (d. 2015)
1932 - Billie Whitelaw, British actress (d. 2014)
1932 - Anne Claire Poirier, Canadian director, actor and screenwriter
1932 - David Scott, American colonel, engineer and astronaut
1933 - Heinrich Rohrer, Swiss physicist (Nobel Prize 1986 for scanning tunneling microscope) (d. 2013)
1934 - King Albert II of Belgium
1934 - Gilbert Cates, producer, director
1934 - Roy Innis, American activist
1935 - Bobby Mitchel, American football player
1936 - Levi Stubbs, American musician (The Four Tops) (d. 2008)
1936 - Mompati Merafhe, Vice President of Botswana (d. 2015)
1938 - Ryuchi Matsuda, Japanese author (d. 2013)
1938 - Prince Louis of Orleans-Braganza
1939 - Louis Andriessen, Dutch composer
1939 - Gary U.S. Bonds, musician
1939 - Marian Wright Edelman, American activist
1940 - Larry Lujack, American disc jockey
1940 - Willie John McBride, Irish rugby player, coach and manager
1942 - Klaus Bednarz, German journalist (d. 2015)
1942 - Sandra Morgan, Australian swimmer
1942 - Norberto Rivera Carrera, Mexican cardinal
1943 - Asif Iqbal, Pakistani cricketer
1943 - Richard Smalley, American chemist (d. 2005)
1944 - Edgar Froese, German musician (d. 2015)
1944 - Phillip Sharp, American biologist
1945 - David Dukes, American actor (d. 2000)
1947 - David Blunkett, British politician
1947 - Robert Englund, American actor (aka. Freddy Krueger)
1949 - Ioannis Matzourakis, Greek footballer and manager
1949 - Noli de Castro, 14th Vice President of the Philippines
1950 - Chantal Akerman, Belgian movie director (d. 2015)
1951 1975
1952 - Yukihiro Takahashi, Japanese drummer, producer and actor
1952 - Jean Hamel, Canadian ice hockey player
1953 - Jack Novak, American football player
1954 - Wladyslaw Zmuda, Polish footballer
1954 - Harvey Fierstein, American actor
1954 - Cynthia Rylant, writer
1955 - Sandra Bernhard, American actress, comedian
1955 - Sam Simon, American producer and writer (d. 2015)
1956 - Bjorn Borg, Swedish tennis player
1956 - Bubbi Morthens, Icelandic singer, songwriter and musician
1957 - Mike Gatting, English cricketer
1959 - Jimmy Jam, American keyboardist, songwriter and producer
1960 - Gary Graham, American actor
1960 - Steve Vai, American musician
1961 - Tom Araya, Chilean-American musician (Slayer)
1963 - Eric Cantor, American politician
1963 - Wolfgang Drechsler, German social scientist
1963 - Jason Isaacs, British actor
1964 - Jay Bentley, American singer and bass player
1964 - Jay Lake, American author (d. 2014)
1966 - Tony Yeboah, Ghanaian footballer
1967 - Max Casella, American actor
1967 - Paul Giamatti, American actor
1969 - Fernando Redondo, Argentine footballer
1970 - Albert Ferrer, Spanish footballer
1970 - James "Munky" Shaffer, American musician (Korn guitarist)
1970 - Richard Di Natale, Australian politician
1971 - Petr Korbel, Czech table tennis player
1972 - Cristina Scabbia, Italian rock music singer
1974 - Uncle Kracker, American rock musician
1975 - Staci Keanan, American actress
From 1976
1976 - Jonathan Nolan, British-American author, producer and director
1977 - Bryn Williams, Welsh chef
1978 - Mariana Popova, Bulgarian singer
1978 - Carl Barat, British singer and guitarist (The Libertines)
1978 - Judith Barsi, American actress (d. 1988)
1981 - Jackson Vroman, American-Lebanese basketball player (d. 2015)
1983 - Gemma Bissix, English actress
1983 - Michael Krohn-Dehli, Danish footballer
1984 - Noor Sabri, Iraqi footballer
1984 - Roman Hubnik, Czech footballer
1984 - Shannon Stewart, American model
1985 - Sebastian Larsson, Swedish footballer
1985 - Becky Sauerbrunn, American soccer player
1986 - Bhavana, Indian actress
1986 - Kim Hyun-joong, South Korean singer, dancer and actor
1986 - Junichi Tazawa, Japanese-American baseball player
1987 - Niklas Hjalmarsson, Swedish ice hockey player player for the Chicago Blackhawks
1988 - Maria Alyokhina, Russian singer and activist (Pussy Riot)
1988 - Israel Dagg, New Zealand rugby player
1990 - Raisa Andriana, Indonesian singer
1990 - Vid Belec, Slovenian footballer
1990 - Ellie Kendrick, English actress
1990 - Ryan Higa, American actor, comedian and YouTube personality
1990 - Rodri, Spanish footballer
1990 - Neha Kakkar, Indian singer
1992 - Hyuna, South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter, model, dancer and television presenter
1992 - Megumi Murakami, Japanese singer
1995 - Julian Green, American soccer player
Deaths
Up to 1950
1134 - Norbert of Xanten, German bishop and saint (b. 1060)
1252 - Robert Passelewe, English bishop
1393 - Emperor Go-En'yu of Japan (b. 1359)
1480 - Vecchietta, Italian painter, sculptor and painter (b. 1412)
1560 - Joao de Castro, Portuguese seafarer (b. 1500)
1563 - Ikeda Nagamasa, Japanese commander (b. 1519)
1583 - Nakagawa Kiyohide, Japanese daimyo (b. 1556)
1799 - Patrick Henry, American politician, 1st Governor of Virginia (b. 1736)
1832 - Jeremy Bentham, English philosopher (b. 1748)
1840 - Marcellin Champagnat, French priest and saint (b. 1789)
1843 - Friedrich Holderlin, German poet (b. 1770)
1861 - Count Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1810)
1878 - Robert Stirling, Scottish clergyman and inventor (b. 1790)
1881 - Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian composer (b. 1820)
1891 - John A. Macdonald, first Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1815)
1916 - Yuan Shikai, Chinese military officer and politician (b. 1859)
1922 - Lillian Russell, American actress (b. 1861)
1935 - Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy, English field marshal and politician, 12th Governor-General of Canada (b. 1862)
1941 - Louis Chevrolet, Swiss-American racing driver and businessman (b. 1878)
1943 - Guido Fubini, Italian mathematician (b. 1879)
1946 - Gerhart Hauptmann, German dramatist (b. 1862)
1948 - Louis Lumiere, French movie pioneer (b. 1864)
1951 2000
1954 - Fritz Kasparek, Austrian mountaineer (b. 1910)
1961 - Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (b. 1875)
1962 - Yves Klein, French painter (b. 1928)
1968 - Robert Kennedy, American politician (b. 1925)
1968 - Randolph Churchill, son of Winston Churchill (b. 1911)
1976 - J. Paul Getty, American industrialist (b. 1892)
1979 - Jack Haley, American actor (b. 1898)
1980 - Ruth Aarons, American table tennis player (b. 1918)
1987 - Fulton Mackay, Scottish actor and playwright (b. 1922)
1991 - Stan Getz, American saxophonist (b. 1927)
1992 - Larry Riley, American actor (b. 1953)
1994 - Mark McManus, Scottish actor (b. 1935)
1996 - George Davis Snell, American geneticist (b. 1903)
1996 - Harry Andersson, Swedish footballer (b. 1913)
1997 - Magda Gabor, Hungarian actress (b. 1915)
From 2001
2003 - Dave Rowberry, English singer-songwriter and pianist (The Animals) (b. 1940)
2004 - Simon Cumbers, Irish-born journalist (b. 1968)
2005 - Anne Bancroft, American actress (b. 1931)
2006 - Billy Preston, American singer and musician (b. 1946)
2009 - Jean Dausset, French immunologist (b. 1916)
2012 - Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, Japanese royal (b. 1946)
2012 - Vladimir Krutov, Russian ice hockey player (b. 1960)
2013 - Jerome Karle, American chemist (b. 1918)
2013 - Tom Sharpe, English author (b. 1928)
2013 - Esther Williams, American swimmer and actress (b. 1921)
2014 - Ado Bayero, Nigerian chieftain, politician and diplomat (b. 1930)
2014 - Eric Hill, British author and illustrator (b. 1927)
2014 - Alexander Shilov, Russian chemist (b. 1930)
2014 - Lorna Wing, British psychiatrist and Autism researcher (b. 1928)
2015 - Pierre Brice, French actor (b. 1929)
2015 - Richard Johnson, English actor (b. 1927)
2015 - Ronnie Gilbert, American folk singer, songwriter and activist (b. 1926)
2015 - Aarthi Agarwal, Indian actress (b. 1984)
2015 - Sergey Sharikov, Russian fencer (b. 1974)
2015 - Ludvik Vaculik, Czech journalist and author (b. 1926)
2016 - Ayaz Jani, Pakistani poet and journalist (b. 1967)
2016 - Viktor Korchnoi, Russian-Swiss chess player (b. 1931)
2016 - Peter Shaffer, English playwright (b. 1926)
2016 - Kimbo Slice, Bahamian-American mixed martial artist (b. 1974)
2016 - Steve Pisanos, American air force officer (b. 1919)
2016 - Theresa Saldana, American actress (b. 1954)
2017 - Horace Burrell, Jamaican soccer executive (b. 1950)
2017 - Vin Garbutt, British folk singer (b. 1947)
2017 - Adnan Khashoggi, Saudi businessman and arms dealer (b. 1935)
2017 - Latifur Rahman, Bangladeshi politician (b. 1936)
2017 - Sandra Reemer, Dutch singer (b. 1950)
2017 - Marta Antal-Rudas, Hungarian javelin thrower (b. 1937)
2017 - Ragnhild Queseth Haarstad, Norwegian politician (b. 1939)
2017 - Francois Houtart, Belgian theologian (b. 1925)
2017 - Walter Noll, German-American mathematician (b. 1925)
2018 - Tinus Bosselaar, Dutch footballer (b. 1936)
2018 - Mateja Matevski, Macedonian poet (b. 1929)
2018 - Kira Muratova, Ukrainian film director, screenwriter and actress (b. 1934)
2018 - Ralph Santolla, American guitarist (b. 1969)
2018 - Red Schoendienst, American baseball player (b. 1923)
2018 - Mary Wilson, Baroness Wilson of Rievaulx, British poet (b. 1916)
2018 - Franz M. Wuketits, Austrian biologist and epistemologist (b. 1955)
2019 - Dr. John, American singer-songwriter (b. 1941)
2019 - Alexander Kuznetsov, Russian-American actor (b. 1959)
2019 - Johnny Robinson, English footballer (b. 1936)
Observances
National holiday (Sweden)
Birthday of King Albert II of Belgium
D-Day
Queensland Day
Teachers' Day (Bolivia)
Engineers' Day (Argentina)
UN Russian language Day
June 06