September 6

1492 – Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.

1522 – The Victoria returns to Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain, the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition and the first known ship to circumnavigate the world.

1620 – The Pilgrims finally set sail from Plymouth, England on the Mayflower to settle in North America

1628 – Puritans settle Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1767– Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, later General Lafayette of the Continental Army, is born at Château de Chavaniac, France

1781 – Revolutionary forces under Lieutenant Colonel William Ledyard suffer defeat and are massacred by British forces under traitor General Benedict Arnold at Groton Heights Connecticut.

1861 – Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant capture Paducah, Kentucky, gaining control of the mouth of the Tennessee river where it enters the Ohio

1863 – Confederate forces evacuate Battery Wagner and Morris Island in South Carolina after being under siege by Union forces for over 60 days.

1901 – At the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots and mortally wounds President William McKinley, who dies of gangrene 8 days later.

1915 – During World War I, the first tank prototype, developed by William Foster & Co. for the British army, was completed and given its first test drive.

1939 – Lacking equipment to identify friend from foe (IFF), a flight of British fighters scramble to intercept what they believe are incoming Nazi planes, resulting in the first British fighter pilot loss of World War II in a ‘friendly fire’ incident , shooting down 2 of their own returning fighters, killing one of the pilots, Flight Officer Montague Hulton-Harrop RAF

1946 – U.S. Secretary of State James Byrnes announces that the U.S. will follow a policy of economic reconstruction in postwar Germany.

1966 – Racial eugenicist and abortion advocate, Margaret Sanger dies in Tucson, Arizona.

1970 – 3 passenger jets bound to New York,  TWA Flight 741 from Frankfurt, a Boeing 707, and Swissair Flight 100 from Zürich, a Douglas DC-8,  and El Al Flight 219, a Boeing 707, from Tel Aviv, are simultaneously hijacked by Palestinian terrorist members of the PFLP and taken to Dawson’s Field, Jordan.

1972 – During a failed rescue attempt, 9 Israeli athletes,  along with a German policeman are murdered at the hands of the Palestinian “Black September” terrorist group after being taken hostage at the Munich Olympic Games. 2 other Israeli athletes were slain in the initial attack the previous day. The failure of the rescue attempt leads directly to the forming of the German counter-terrorist unit GSG-9 which leads to other nations forming such units, including the U.S. Army’s 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta.

1976 – Soviet Air Defense Forces pilot Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate in Japan and requests political asylum in the U.S.

1984 – Grand Olde Opry performer and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Ernest Tubb dies in Nashville, Tennesee

1985 – Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105, a Douglas DC-9, crashes near Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport shortly after take off, killing all 31 passengers and crew aboard.

1995 – Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles, plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking the record held by Lou Gehrig since 1939.

1997 – The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place in London

2007 – Israel executes Operation Orchard, an air strike to destroy a nuclear reactor in Syria, at the Al Kibar site in the Deir ez-Zor region of Syria

2018 – Burt Reynolds dies. age 82, of a heart attack at the Jupiter Medical Center in Jupiter, Florida.

2020 –  American baseball player Lou Brock, dies, age 81 at Mercy Hospital  St Louis.