Today in History: Gertrude Ederle Becomes First Woman to Swim the English Channel

August 6 is the 218th (219th in leap years) day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 147.

Railways

• 6 August 1968 Indigenous locomotive manufacturing started in Eskişehir Railway Factory.

Events

• 1571 – With the surrender of Famagusta to the Ottoman Armies, the conquest of Cyprus is completed.
• 1661 – The Treaty of The Hague is signed between the Portuguese Empire and the Dutch Republic.
• 1682 – II. War was declared, culminating in the Siege of Vienna.
• 1726 – The Holy Roman Empire and the Russian Empire allied against the Ottomans.
• 1806 – End of the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1824 – Simón Bolívar defeats the Spanish Empire army at the Battle of Junín in Peru's Junín Region, considered part of the Peruvian War of Independence.
• 1825 - Bolivia gains independence from the Spanish Empire.
• 1890 - The first use of the electric chair took place at Auburn Prison in New York.
• 1914 – World War I: The Kingdom of Serbia declares war on the German Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the Russian Empire.
• 1915 – British, Australian and New Zealand Corps (Anzac) soldiers landed around Suvla Bay, in the Anafartalar region of Çanakkale, and opened the Anafartalar Front.
• 1915 – The Battle of Kirte Vineyards begins.
• 1923 – “Extradition Treaty” was signed between Turkey and America in Lausanne.
• 1924 – Treaty of Lausanne came into effect.
• 1926 - Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
• 1932 – The first Venice Film Festival begins.
• 1945 – II. In World War II, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan: 70.000 people died at that time, and tens of thousands more in the years to come. Over time, the death toll, including cancers caused by radioactivity, exceeded 200.
• 1960 - Cuban Revolution: In retaliation for the US embargo, all American and foreign property in the country is nationalized.
• 1961 – USSR cosmonaut German Titov, who is still the youngest space man in space programs, went into space with Vostok 2.
• 1962 – Jamaica gained its independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1984 – The agreement for the establishment of the Turkey-Iraq second oil pipeline was signed.
• 1991 - Serbian and Croatian leaders reach an unconditional ceasefire agreement.
• 1996 – Chechen insurgents capture the capital Grozny.
• 1997 – A Boeing 747 type passenger plane belonging to Korean Airlines crashes while landing on Guam: 228 people are killed.
• 2007 – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was appointed by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to form the 60th Government of the Republic of Turkey.

Births

• 1605 – Johann Philipp von Schönborn, German clergyman (d. 1673)
• 1638 – Nicholas Malebranche, French philosopher (d. 1715)
• 1651 – François Fénelon, French Roman Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet, and author (d. 1715)
• 1667 – Johann Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (d. 1748)
• 1697 – Nicola Salvi, Italian architect and sculptor (d. 1751)
• 1697 – VII. Karl, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1745)
• 1777 Georges Louis Duvernoy, French zoologist (d. 1855)
• 1809 Alfred Tennyson, English writer (d. 1892)
• 1810 – Ferdinand Barbedienne, French sculptor, engineer, and entrepreneur (d. 1892)
• 1881 – Alexander Fleming, Scottish bacteriologist (discoverer of penicillin) (d. 1955)
• 1900 – Yesari Asım Arsoy, Turkish composer, lyricist and performer (d. 1992)
• 1908 – Necdet Mahfi Ayral, Turkish theater and cinema artist (d. 2004)
• 1911 – Lucille Ball, American actress and comedian (d. 1989)
• 1916 – Erik Nilsson, Swedish football player (d. 1995)
• 1917 – Robert Mitchum, American actor and singer (d. 1997)
• 1926 – Frank Finlay, British film, television and TV actor, stuntman (d. 2016)
• 1927 – Theodor Wagner, Austrian football player
• 1928 – Andy Warhol, American painter, filmmaker, and publisher (d. 1987)
• 1930 – Abbey Lincoln, American jazz vocalist, songwriter, and actor (d. 2010)
• 1931 – Jean-Louis Chautemps, French jazz musician (d. 2022)
• 1932 – Howard Hodgkin, English printmaker and painter (d. 2017)
• 1932 – Ahmet Mekin, Turkish cinema and theater artist
• 1934 – Jeyan Mahfi Ayral Tözüm, Turkish theater, cinema, radio and television series actor
• 1937 – Baden Powell, Brazilian guitarist and composer (d. 2000)
• 1937 – Barbara Windsor, English stage, film and television actress (d. 2020)
• 1946 – Allan Holdsworth, English guitarist, jazz fusion-rock musician and composer (d. 2017)
• 1947 – Mohammed Najibullah, Afghan politician and President of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (d. 1996)
• 1950 - Dorian Harewood, American actor
• 1951 – Catherine Hicks, Emmy Award-nominated American actress
• 1951 – Christophe de Margerie, French businessman (d. 2014)
• 1962 – Michelle Yeoh, Chinese-Malaysian actress
• 1963 – Kevin Mitnick, American hacker
• 1965 – Yuki Kajiura, Japanese-born composer and music producer
• 1967 – Erkan Tan, Turkish journalist and presenter
• 1969 – Elliott Smith, American musician and singer (d. 2003)
• 1970 – M. Night Shyamalan, Indian director, filmmaker, writer and actor
• 1972 – Paolo Bacigalupi, American science fiction writer
• 1972 - Geri Halliwell, British singer
• 1973 – Asia Carrera, American pornographic actress
• 1973 Vera Farmiga, American actress
• 1976 – Melissa George, Australian-American actress
• 1981 - Abdul Kader Keita, Ivory Coast football player
• 1983 – Robin van Persie, Dutch football player
• 1984 – Vedad Ibišević, Bosnian football player
• 1985 – Bafétimbi Gomis, Senegalese-born French national football player
• 1986 – Mehmet Akgün, Turkish-German football player
• 1991 – Erika Selin, Swedish singer
• 1993 – Özgenur Yurtdagülen, Turkish volleyball player
• 1994 – Berk İsmail Ünsal, Turkish football player

Deaths

• 258 – II. Sixtus, Pope until 31 August 257
• 523 – Hormisdas, Pope from 20 July 514 until his death (b. 450)
• 750 – II. Marwan, Fourteenth and last Umayyad caliph (744-750) (b. 693)
• 1221 – Dominic Nuñez de Guzman, founder of the Dominican order (b. 1170)
• 1272 – István V, King of Hungary, reigning from 1270 to 1272 (b. 1239)
• 1458 – III. Callixtus, Spanish clergyman and Pope (b. 1378)
• 1553 – Girolamo Fracastoro, Italian physician, academic (b. 1478)
• 1637 – Ben Jonson, English writer (b. 1572)
• 1657 – Bohdan Khmelnitsky, founder of the Kazakh Hetmanate (b. 1595)
• 1660 – Diego Velázquez, Spanish painter (b. 1599)
• 1890 – William Kemmler, American convicted murderer (first person executed by electric chair) (b. 1860)
• 1893 – Nabizade Nazım Ottoman-Turkish writer (Tanzimat era) (b. 1862)
• 1931 – Bix Beiderbecke, American musician and one of the most original white trumpet players in jazz history (b. 1903)
• 1959 – Preston Sturges, American film director, screenwriter, and playwright (b. 1898)
• 1963 – Sophus Nielsen, Danish football player and manager (b. 1888)
• 1964 – Cedric Hardwicke, English film and stage actor (b. 1893)
• 1968 – Ivar Tengbom, Swedish architect (b. 1878)
• 1969 – Theodor W. Adorno, German philosopher, sociologist, musicologist, and composer (b. 1903)
• 1973 – Fulgencio Batista, Cuban soldier and President (b. 1901)
• 1976 – Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist (b. 1903)
• 1978 – Pope VI. Paulus was pope from 1963 to 1978 (b. 1897)
• 1979 – Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen, German biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1911)
• 1982 – Feridun Fazıl Tülbentçi, Turkish journalist, poet, writer and novelist (b. 1912)
• 1982 – Samet Ağaoğlu, Azerbaijan-born Turkish writer and politician (b. 1909)
• 1985 – Forbes Burnham, Guyanese politician (b. 1923)
• 1986 – Emilio Fernández, Mexican screenwriter and filmmaker (b. 1904)
• 1990 – Gordon Bunshaft, American architect (b. 1909)
• 1991 – Kemal Demiray, Turkish educator and writer (b. 1912)
• 1991 – Shapur Bahtiyar, Iranian politician and last Prime Minister of Iran under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (assassinated in Paris) (b. 1914)
• 1994 – Domenico Modugno, Italian singer-songwriter (b. 1928)
• 1997 – Tuncay Artun, Turkish writer and Chairman of the Istanbul Stock Exchange
• 1998 – André Weil, French mathematician (b. 1906)
• 1999 – Şemsi Denizer, Turkish trade unionist, Secretary General of TÜRK-İŞ and Chairman of the General Maden-İş Union (as a result of an armed attack) (b. 1951)
• 2001 – Jorge Amado de Faria, Brazilian writer (b. 1912)
• 2001 – Wilhelm Mohnke, SS-Brigadeführer in Nazi Germany (b. 1911)
• 2002 – Edsger Dijkstra, Dutch computer engineer (b. 1930)
• 2004 – Rick James, American musician and composer (b. 1948)
• 2005 – Ibrahim Ferrer, Cuban musician (member of Buena Vista Social Club) (b. 1927)
• 2005 – Robin Cook, British politician (b. 1946)
• 2008 – Peri Han, Turkish film actress (b. 1934)
• 2009 – Bahadır Akkuzu, Turkish guitarist and composer (Kurtalan Ekspres member) (b. 1955)
• 2010 – Tony Judt, British historian (b. 1948)
• 2011 – Kuno Klötzer, German football player and manager (b. 1922)
• 2012 – Marvin Hamlisch, American composer and conductor (b. 1944)
• 2012 – Bernard Lovell, English physicist and radio-astronomer (b. 1913)
• 2013 – Selçuk Yula, Turkish football player (b. 1959)
• 2015 – Orna Porat, Israeli theater actor (b. 1924)
• 2016 – Pete Fountain, American clarinetist (b. 1930)
• 2017 – Nicole Bricq, French politician (b. 1947)
• 2017 – Betty Cuthbert, Australian former female athlete (b. 1938)
• 2018 – Patricia Benoit, American actress and film director (b. 1927)
• 2019 – Umur Bugay, Turkish screenwriter, actor, director and writer (b. 1941)
• 2019 – Sushma Swaraj, Indian female politician and minister (b. 1952)
• 2020 – Shyamal Chakraborty, Indian politician (b. 1944)
• 2020 – Nikolai van der Heyde, Dutch film director and screenwriter (b. 1936)
• 2020 – Fernanda Lapa, Portuguese actress (b. 1943)
• 2020 – Judit Reigl, Hungarian painter (b. 1923)

Holidays and special occasions

• Bolivian Independence Day
• Jamaica Independence Day