# On this day: December 6

December 6 is the 340th day of the year (341st in leap years), with 25 days left until the end of the year.

## December 6 in one line

Headline entries for December 6, from Wikipedia: in 1992, The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, India, was demolished by Hindu Kar Sevaks, who believed that it was built on the birthplace of Rama; born 1942: Peter Handke, Austrian author and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate; died 1956: B. R. Ambedkar, Indian economist and politician, 1st Indian Minister of Justice (born 1891). In 2026 it is a Sunday, in 2027 a Monday.

## Events on December 6

- 963 Leo VIII was ordained a bishop, claiming the Holy See as an antipope supported by Otto the Great. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_VIII)
- 1060 Béla I was crowned King of Hungary in Székesfehérvár. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9la_I_of_Hungary)
- 1240 After days of bombardment, Mongol invaders under Batu Khan breached the walls of Kiev and sacked the city. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Kiev_(1240))
- 1803 Haitian Revolution: Nearly all the final French ships in Haiti were captured by the Royal Navy when they attempted to evade the blockade of Saint-Domingue. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_Saint-Domingue)
- 1846 Mexican–American War: American and Mexican forces clashed at the Battle of San Pasqual, a series of skirmishes near San Diego, California. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Pasqual)
- 1865 Slavery in the United States was officially abolished with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution)
- 1904 President Theodore Roosevelt announced the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, justifying the exercise of "international police power" by the U.S. in the Western Hemisphere. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_Corollary)
- 1907 A mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia, killed 362 people and led to the establishment of the United States Bureau of Mines. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monongah_mining_disaster)
- 1912 The Nefertiti Bust, listed among the "Top 10 Plundered Artifacts" by Time, was found in Amarna, Egypt, before being taken to Germany. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nefertiti_Bust)
- 1917 A ship carrying TNT and picric acid in Halifax Harbour, Canada, caught fire after a collision and caused one of the largest accidental explosions in history. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion)
- 1917 World War I: USS Jacob Jones became the first American destroyer to be sunk by enemy action when it was torpedoed by German submarine SM U-53. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroyer)
- 1933 In United States v. One Book Called Ulysses Judge John M. Woolsey ruled that James Joyce's novel Ulysses was not obscene, allowing it to be imported into the United States. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._One_Book_Called_Ulysses)
- 1941 The British Secret Intelligence Service established a facility known as Camp X in Ontario, Canada, to train covert agents in clandestine operations. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_X)
- 1942 The Holocaust: Members of the German Ordnungspolizei massacred 31 people in Stary Ciepielów and Rekówka within occupied Poland for helping Jews. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stary_Ciepiel%C3%B3w_and_Rek%C3%B3wka_massacre)
- 1956 At the Melbourne Olympics, 14-year-old swimmer Sandra Morgan became the youngest Australian to win an Olympic gold medal. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Morgan)
- 1956 In what became known as the Blood in the Water match at the Melbourne Olympics, the Hungarian water polo team defeated the Soviet Union 4–0 against the background of the Hungarian Revolution. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_in_the_Water_match)
- 1957 The first U.S. attempt to launch a satellite failed with an explosion on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard_TV-3)
- 1967 American physician Adrian Kantrowitz and his team performed the world's first pediatric heart transplant at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Kantrowitz)
- 1975 Four members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army took two people hostage in a house on Balcombe Street in London, surrendering six days later. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balcombe_Street_siege)
- 1982 The Irish National Liberation Army exploded a time bomb in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland, killing eleven British Army soldiers and six civilians. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droppin_Well_bombing)
- 1988 Self-government was granted to the Australian Capital Territory. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Australian_Capital_Territory)
- 1989 25-year-old Marc Lépine, claiming to be "fighting feminism", killed fourteen women before committing suicide at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, Canada. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_L%C3%A9pine)
- 1990 An Italian Air Force military jet, abandoned by its pilot after an on-board fire, crashed into a high school near Bologna, killing 12 students and injuring 88 other people. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Italian_Air_Force_MB-326_crash)
- 1992 The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, India, was demolished by Hindu Kar Sevaks, who believed that it was built on the birthplace of Rama. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demolition_of_the_Babri_Masjid)
- 1999 The Recording Industry Association of America filed a lawsuit against the peer-to-peer file sharing network Napster, alleging that the service facilitated widespread copyright infringement. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster)
- 2017 Under President Donald Trump, the United States government officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_recognition_of_Jerusalem_as_capital_of_Israel)

## Born on December 6

- 1421 Henry VI of England (died 1471) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VI_of_England)
- 1478 Baldassare Castiglione, Italian courtier, diplomat, and author (died 1529) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldassare_Castiglione)
- 1778 Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, French physicist and chemist (died 1850) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Louis_Gay-Lussac)
- 1792 William II of the Netherlands (died 1849) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_II_of_the_Netherlands)
- 1823 Max Müller, German-English philologist and orientalist (died 1900) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_M%C3%BCller)
- 1841 Frédéric Bazille, French painter and soldier (died 1870) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Bazille)
- 1848 Johann Palisa, Austrian astronomer (died 1925) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Palisa)
- 1849 August von Mackensen, German field marshal (died 1945) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_von_Mackensen)
- 1898 Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish sociologist and economist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1987) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunnar_Myrdal)
- 1920 George Porter, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2002) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Porter)
- 1920 Dave Brubeck, American pianist and composer (died 2012) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Brubeck)
- 1933 Henryk Górecki, Polish composer and academic (died 2010) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henryk_G%C3%B3recki)
- 1942 Peter Handke, Austrian author and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Handke)
- 1947 Geoffrey Hinton, British-Canadian computer scientist, cognitive scientist, and cognitive psychologist, Nobel Prize laureate [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Hinton)
- 1948 Keke Rosberg, Finnish racing driver [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keke_Rosberg)
- 1950 Joe Hisaishi, Japanese pianist, composer, and conductor [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hisaishi)
- 1957 Andrew Cuomo, American politician, 56th Governor of New York [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Cuomo)
- 1959 Satoru Iwata, Japanese game programmer and businessman (died 2015) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoru_Iwata)
- 1979 Tim Cahill, Australian footballer [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Cahill)
- 1981 Federico Balzaretti, Italian footballer [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Balzaretti)
- 1982 Alberto Contador, Spanish cyclist [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Contador)
- 1994 Giannis Antetokounmpo, Greek-Nigerian basketball player [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giannis_Antetokounmpo)

## Died on December 6

- 343 Saint Nicholas, Greek bishop and saint (born 270) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas)
- 1185 Afonso I of Portugal (born 1109) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afonso_I_of_Portugal)
- 1352 Pope Clement VI (born 1291) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_VI)
- 1658 Baltasar Gracián, Spanish priest and author (born 1601) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltasar_Graci%C3%A1n)
- 1882 Anthony Trollope, English novelist, essayist, and short story writer (born 1815) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Trollope)
- 1889 Jefferson Davis, American general and politician, President of the Confederate States of America (born 1808) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis)
- 1892 Werner von Siemens, German engineer and businessman, founded the Siemens Company (born 1816) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_von_Siemens)
- 1956 B. R. Ambedkar, Indian economist and politician, 1st Indian Minister of Justice (born 1891) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._R._Ambedkar)
- 1961 Frantz Fanon, Martinique-French psychiatrist and author (born 1925) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frantz_Fanon)
- 1976 João Goulart, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 24th President of Brazil (born 1918) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_Goulart)
- 1988 Roy Orbison, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1936) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Orbison)
- 1990 Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Malaysia (born 1903) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunku_Abdul_Rahman)
- 1991 Richard Stone, English economist and statistician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1913) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stone)
- 1993 Don Ameche, American actor (born 1908) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Ameche)

## Holidays and observances

- Anniversary of the Founding of Quito (Ecuador) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_Ecuador)
- Armed Forces Day (Ukraine) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_Day)
- Christian feast day: Abraham of Kratia [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_of_Cratia)
- Christian feast day: Aemilianus (Roman Catholic Church) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aemilianus_(African_martyr))
- Christian feast day: Denise and companions [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise%2C_Dativa%2C_Leontia%2C_Tertius%2C_Emilianus%2C_Boniface%2C_Majoricus%2C_and_Servus)
- Christian feast day: Blessed János Scheffler [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A1nos_Scheffler)
- Christian feast day: María del Monte Carmelo Sallés y Barangueras [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Salles_y_Barangueras)
- Christian feast day: Nicholas of Myra, and its related observances: Saint Nicholas Day, where Saint Nicholas/Santa Claus leaves little presents in children's shoes. (International) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas_Day)
- Christian feast day: December 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_6_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics))
- Constitution Day (Spain) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_Spain)
- Day of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of Azerbaijan [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Finland from Russia in 1917. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(Finland))
- National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women (Canada) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Day_of_Remembrance_and_Action_on_Violence_Against_Women)

## Sources

- [Wikipedia — “December 6”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_6) — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
- [Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/December 6”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Selected_anniversaries/December_6) — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/) — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
- [vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence)](https://github.com/vacanza/holidays) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article [“December 6”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_6) and the articles it links to ([authors and history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_6?action=history)), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/); this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for December 6 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.

## December 6 in the calendar

| Year | Weekday | ISO week | Moon (UTC) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2026 | Sunday | 2026-W49 | 🌘 Waning Crescent |
| 2027 | Monday | 2027-W49 | 🌓 First Quarter |
| 2028 | Wednesday | 2028-W49 | 🌖 Waning Gibbous |
| 2029 | Thursday | 2029-W49 | 🌒 Waxing Crescent |
| 2030 | Friday | 2030-W49 | 🌔 Waxing Gibbous |

Moon phases are for the day in UTC; at the edges of a phase your local date can differ.

## Public holidays on December 6

- [🇪🇸 Spain](https://whathappen.today/holidays/spain/): Constitution Day (2027)

[Today's holidays in 28 countries →](https://whathappen.today/holidays/)

## Nearby dates

[← December 5](https://whathappen.today/on-this-day/december-5/) · [December 7 →](https://whathappen.today/on-this-day/december-7/)

[All 366 days](https://whathappen.today/on-this-day/)

Last updated: 15 October 2026

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Web page: https://whathappen.today/on-this-day/december-6/