06 December History
- 1492 - Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Santo Domingo in search of gold.
- 1776 - Phi Beta Kappa, the first scholastic fraternity, is founded at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg.
- 1812 - The majority of Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Armeé staggers into Vilna, Lithuania, ending the failed Russian campaign.
- 1861 - Union General George G. Meade leads a foraging expedition to Gunnell's farm near Dranesville, Virginia.
- 1862 - President Abraham Lincoln orders the hanging of 39 of the 303 convicted Indians who participated in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. They are to be hanged on December 26.
- 1863 - The monitor Weehawken sinks in Charleston Harbor.
- 1876 - Jack McCall is convicted for the murder of Wild Bill Hickok and sentenced to hang.
- 1877 - Thomas A. Edison makes the first sound recording when he recites "Mary had a Little Lamb" into his phonograph machine.
- 1906 - Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge flies a powered, man-carrying kite that carries him 168 feet in the air for seven minutes at Baddeck, Nova Scotia.
- 1917 - The Bolsheviks imprison Czar Nicholas II and his family in Tobolsk.
- 1921 - Ireland's 26 southern counties become independent from Britain forming the Irish Free State.
- 1922 - Benito Mussolini threatens Italian newspapers with censorship if they keep reporting "false" information.
- 1934 - American Ambassador Davis says Japan is a grave security threat in the Pacific.
- 1938 - France and Germany sign a treaty of friendship.
- 1939 - Britain agrees to send arms to Finland, which is fighting off a Soviet invasion.
- 1941 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues a personal appeal to Emperor Hirohito to use his influence to avoid war.
- 1945 - The United States extends a $3 billion loan to Great Britain to help compensate for the termination of the Lend-Lease agreement.
- 1947 - Florida's Everglades National Park is established.
- 1948 - The "Pumpkin Spy Papers" are found on the Maryland farm of Whittaker Chambers. They become evidence that State Department employee Alger Hiss is spying for the Soviet Union.
- 1976 - Democrat Tip O'Neill is elected speaker of the House of Representatives. He will serve the longest consecutive term as speaker.
06 December Birthdays
- 1421 - Henry VI, the youngest king of England to accede to the throne (only 269 days old).
- 1886 - Joyce Kilmer, American poet, best known for "Trees."
- 1896 - Ira Gershwin, American lyricist and musical collaborator with his brother George.
- 1898 - Alfred Eisenstaedt, photojournalist.
- 1898 - Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish economist and sociologist.
- 1901 - Eliot Porter, nature photographer.
- 1920 - Dave Brubeck, jazz pianist and composer.
- 1942 - Peter Handke, playwright and poet.