Historical Events on Thursday, 6th November

06/11/2016

Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces launch an offensive to capture the ISIL-held city of Raqqa.

The Syrian civil war was an armed conflict that began with the Syrian revolution in March 2011, when popular discontent with the Ba'athist regime ruled by Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring. The Assad regime responded to the protests with lethal force, which led to a series of defections, the emergence of armed opposition groups, and the civilian uprising descending into a civil war. The war lasted almost 14 years and culminated in the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024. Many sources regard this as the end of the civil war. Post-war clashes and disputes have continued into 2026.

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06/11/2012

Tammy Baldwin becomes the first openly gay politician to be elected to the United States Senate.

Tammy Suzanne Green Baldwin is an American politician and lawyer serving since 2013 as the junior United States senator from Wisconsin. A member of the Democratic Party, she has also served as the secretary of the Senate Democratic Caucus since 2017. Baldwin has been the dean of the United States congressional delegation from Wisconsin since 2023, when Representative Ron Kind retired.

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06/11/2004

An express train collides with a stationary car near the village of Ufton Nervet, England, killing seven and injuring 120.

The Ufton Nervet rail crash occurred on 6 November 2004 when a passenger train collided with a stationary car on a level crossing on the Reading–Taunton line near Ufton Nervet, Berkshire, England. The collision derailed the train, and seven people—including the drivers of the train and the car—were killed. An inquest found that all railway personnel and systems were operating correctly, and the crash was caused by the suicide of the car driver.

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06/11/2002

Jiang Lijun is detained by Chinese police for signing the Open Letter to the 16th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.

Jiang Lijun is a Chinese freelance writer. He has been detained by the Chinese government since November 2002 for posting articles on the Internet which the government considered subversive. He is a native of Tieling in Liaoning.

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A Fokker 50 crashes near Luxembourg Airport, killing 20 and injuring three.

The Fokker 50 is a turboprop-powered airliner manufactured and supported by Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. It was designed as an improved version of the successful Fokker F27 Friendship. The Fokker 60 is a stretched freighter version of the Fokker 50.

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06/11/1995

Cleveland Browns relocation controversy: Art Modell announces that he signed a deal that would relocate the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore.

The Cleveland Browns relocation controversy—colloquially called "The Move" by fans—followed the announcement by Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell that his National Football League (NFL) team would move from its longtime home of Cleveland to Baltimore for the 1996 NFL season.

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06/11/1988

Lancang–Gengma earthquakes: At least 730 are killed after two powerful earthquakes rock the China–Myanmar border in Yunnan Province.

On 6 November 1988, two earthquakes struck Lancang and Gengma counties, Yunnan, near the China–Myanmar border. These earthquakes measured moment magnitude (Mw ) 7.0 and 6.9, respectively, spaced 12 minutes apart. These earthquakes were assigned a maximum China seismic intensity of IX and X, respectively. Between 748 and 939 people were killed; more than 7,700 were injured. Both earthquakes caused damage and economic losses estimated at CN¥ 2.05 billion. Moderately large aftershocks continued to rock the region, causing additional casualties and damage.

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06/11/1986

Sumburgh disaster: A British International Helicopters Boeing 234LR Chinook crashes 2.5 miles (4.0 km) east of Sumburgh Airport killing 45 people. It is the deadliest civilian helicopter crash on record.

On 6 November 1986, a Boeing-Vertol Model 234LR Chinook helicopter returning workers from the Brent oilfield crashed on approach to land at Sumburgh Airport in the Shetland Islands. At 2.5 mi (4.0 km) from the runway the helicopter had a catastrophic forward transmission failure which caused the tandem rotor blades to collide. The helicopter crashed into the sea and sank. Forty-three passengers and two crew members were killed in the crash; one passenger and one crew member survived with injuries.

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06/11/1985

Colombian conflict: leftist guerrillas of the 19th of April Movement seize control of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá.

The Colombian conflict began on May 27, 1964, and is a low-intensity asymmetric war between the government of Colombia, far-right paramilitary groups, crime syndicates and far-left guerrilla groups fighting each other to increase their influence in Colombian territory. Some of the most important international contributors to the Colombian conflict include multinational corporations, the United States, Cuba, and the drug trafficking industry.

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06/11/1977

The Kelly Barnes Dam, located above Toccoa Falls College near Toccoa, Georgia, fails, killing 39.

Kelly Barnes Dam was an earthen embankment dam on Toccoa Creek in Stephens County, Georgia, United States, just outside the city of Toccoa. Heavy rainfall caused it to collapse on November 6, 1977, and the resulting flood killed 39 people and caused $2.8 million in damage. The dam was never rebuilt.

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06/11/1976

Uttawar forced sterilisations: Mass vasectomy of nearly 800 men of Uttawar village, Palwal district, Haryana during India's Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi.

The Uttawar forced sterilisations were mass vasectomy drives on November 6, 1976, imposed on the male population of Uttawar, a Meo Muslim-majority village in Palwal district, Haryana, during India’s Emergency (1975–1977) imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Villagers woke up to the sound of police loudspeakers at 03:00. The police gathered 400 men at the bus stop. In the process of finding more villagers, police broke into homes and looted. This event made international news and is today remembered as one of the most coercive and controversial episodes of Sanjay Gandhi’s programme of compulsory sterilisation, which resulted in over 800 sterilisation cases.

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06/11/1971

The United States Atomic Energy Commission tests the largest U.S. underground hydrogen bomb, code-named Cannikin, on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians.

The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by the U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S. Truman signed the McMahon/Atomic Energy Act on August 1, 1946, transferring the control of atomic energy from military to civilian hands, effective on January 1, 1947. This shift gave the members of the AEC complete control of the plants, laboratories, equipment, and personnel assembled during the war to produce the atomic bomb.

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06/11/1963

Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ is appointed to head the South Vietnamese government by General Dương Văn Minh's junta, five days after the latter deposed and assassinated President Ngô Đình Diệm.

Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ was a South Vietnamese politician who was the first vice president of South Vietnam, serving under President Ngô Đình Diệm from 1956 until Diệm's overthrow and assassination in 1963. He also served as the first prime minister of South Vietnam, serving from November 1963 to late January 1964. Thơ was appointed to head a civilian cabinet by the military junta of General Dương Văn Minh, which came to power after overthrowing and assassinating Diệm, the nation's first president. Thơ's rule was marked by a period of confusion and weak government, as the Military Revolutionary Council (MRC) and the civilian cabinet vied for power. Thơ lost his job and retired from politics when Minh's junta was deposed in a January 1964 coup by General Nguyễn Khánh.

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06/11/1947

Meet the Press, the longest running television program in history, makes its debut on NBC Television.

Meet the Press also known as Meet the Press with Kristen Welker is a weekly American television Sunday morning talk show broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though its format has changed since the debut episode on November 6, 1947. Meet the Press specializes in interviews with leaders in Washington, D.C., across the country, and around the world on issues of politics, economics, foreign policy, and other public affairs, along with panel discussions that provide opinions and analysis. In January 2021, production moved to NBC's bureau on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

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06/11/1943

World War II: The 1st Ukrainian Front liberates Kyiv from German occupation.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

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06/11/1936

Spanish Civil War: The republican government flees from Madrid to Valencia, leading to the formation of the Madrid Defense Council in its stead.

The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalist rebels. Republicans were loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic and included socialists, anarchists, communists, and separatists, supported by the Soviet Union. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of fascist Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists, supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy and initially led by a military junta, until General Francisco Franco was appointed supreme leader on 1 October 1936 for what he called the Spanish State. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war was variously viewed as class struggle, religious struggle, or struggle between republican democracy and dictatorship, revolution and counterrevolution, or fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.

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06/11/1900

President William McKinley is re-elected, along with his vice-presidential running mate, Governor Theodore Roosevelt of New York.

William McKinley was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party, he led a realignment that made Republicans largely dominant in the industrial states and nationwide for decades. McKinley successfully led the U.S. in the Spanish–American War and oversaw a period of American expansionism, with the annexations of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and American Samoa.

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06/11/1869

In New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers College defeats Princeton University (then known as the College of New Jersey), 6–4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game.

New Brunswick is a city in and the county seat of Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A regional commercial hub for Central New Jersey, the city is both a college town and a commuter town for residents working in New York City within the New York metropolitan area. The New Brunswick station is a major stop for NJ Transit on the Northeast Corridor rail line, 33 miles (53 km) southwest of New York Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan. The city is located on the southern banks of the Raritan River, in the heart of the Raritan Valley Region.

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06/11/1860

Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States with only 40% of the popular vote, defeating John C. Breckinridge, John Bell, and Stephen A. Douglas in a four-way race.

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War, defeating the Confederate States and playing a major role in the abolition of slavery.

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06/11/1792

Battle of Jemappes in the French Revolutionary Wars.

The Battle of Jemappes took place near the town of Jemappes in Hainaut, Austrian Netherlands, near Mons during the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. One of the first major offensive battles of the war, it was a victory for the armies of the infant French Republic, and saw the French Armée du Nord, which included many inexperienced volunteers, defeat a substantially smaller regular Austrian army.

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06/11/1217

The Charter of the Forest is sealed at St Paul's Cathedral, London by King Henry III, acting under the regency of William Marshall, 1st Earl of Pembroke which re-establishes for free men rights of access to the royal forest that had been eroded by William the Conqueror and his heirs.

The Charter of the Forest of 1217 re-established rights of access for free men to the royal forest that had been eroded by King William the Conqueror and his heirs. Many of its provisions were in force for centuries afterwards. It was originally sealed in England by the young King Henry III, acting under the regency of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke.

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06/11/0963

Synod of Rome: Emperor Otto I calls a council at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Pope John XII is deposed on charges of an armed rebellion against Otto.

The Synod of Rome (963) was a possibly uncanonical synod held in St. Peter's Basilica from 6 November until 4 December 963, under the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I to depose Pope John XII. The events of the synod were recorded by Liutprand of Cremona.

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06/11/0447

A powerful earthquake destroys large portions of the Walls of Constantinople, including 57 towers.

The walls of Constantinople are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople since its founding as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification system of antiquity, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built.

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