06 September History
- 394 - Theodosius becomes sole ruler of Italy after defeating Eugenius at the Battle of the River Frigidus.
- 1422 - Sultan Murat II ends a vain siege of Constantinople.
- 1522 - One of the five ships that set out in Ferdinand Magellan's trip around the world makes it back to Spain. Only 15 of the original 265 men that set out survived. Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.
- 1688 - Imperial troops defeat the Turks and take Belgrade, Serbia.
- 1793 - French General Jean Houchard and his 40,000 men begin a three-day battle against an Anglo-Hanoveraian army at Hondschoote, southwest Belgium, in the wars of the French Revolution.
- 1847 - Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond and moves back into town, to Concord, Massachusetts.
- 1861 - Union General Ulysses S. Grant's forces capture Paducah, Kentucky from Confederate forces.
- 1870 - The last British troops to serve in Austria are withdrawn.
- 1901 - President William McKinley is shot while attending a reception at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, by 28-year-old anarchist Leon Czolgosz. McKinley dies eight days later, the third American president assassinated.
- 1907 - The luxury liner Lusitania leaves London for New York on her maiden voyage.
- 1918 - The German Army begins a general retreat across the Aisne, with British troops in pursuit.
- 1936 - Aviator Beryl Markham flies the first east-to-west solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1937 - The Soviet Union accuses Italy of torpedoing two Russian ships in the Mediterranean.
- 1941 - Germany announces that all Jews living in the country will have to begin wearing a Star of David.
- 1943 - The United States asks the Chinese Nationals to join with the Communists to present a common front to the Japanese.
- 1953 - The last American and Korean prisoners are exchanged in Operation Big Switch, the last official act of the Korean War.
- 1965 - Indian troops invade Lahore; Pakistan paratroopers raid Punjab.
- 1976 - A Soviet pilot lands his MIG-25 in Tokyo and asks for political asylum in the United States.
- 1988 - Lee Roy Young becomes the first African-American Texas Ranger in the force's 165-year history.
06 September Birthdays
- 1757 - Marie Joseph du Motier, Marquis de LaFayette, French soldier and statesman who aided George Washington during the American Revolution.
- 1766 - John Dalton, English scientist who developed the atomic theory of matter.
- 1800 - Catherine Esther Beecher, educator who promoted higher education for women.
- 1860 - Jane Adams, known for her work as a social reformer, pacifist, and founder of Hull House in Chicago in 1889, first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (1931).
- 1899 - Billy Rose, songwriter famous for "It's Only a Paper Moon," and "Me and My Shadow".
- 1928 - Robert Pirzig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.