April 6

1250 – At Faraskur Egypt, the last major battle of the failed Seventh Crusade occurs, with moslem Ayyubids under Ghayath al-Din Turanshah capturing King Louis IX of France for ransom.

1453 – The Ottoman emperor Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople  which falls on May 29.

1712 – 23 enslaved Africans stage a rebellion in New York City, killing 9 people and wounding 6 more before being recaptured, with most of them being later executed.

1808 – In New York City, John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company, that would eventually make him America’s first millionaire.

1830 – The original church of the Latter Day Saints movement is organized by Joseph Smith and others in New York.

1841 –  2 days after having become President upon William Henry Harrison’s death,  John Tyler finally takes the oath of office.

1860 – The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is organized by Joseph Smith III and others at Amboy, Illinois.

1865 – Around Sayler’s Creek near Farmville, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia fights and loses its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia.

1888 – Thomas Green Clemson dies, bequeathing his estate to the State of South Carolina to establish Clemson Agricultural College.

1896 – In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games is celebrated, 1,500 years after the original games are banned by Roman emperor Theodosius I.

1909 – Robert Peary and Matthew Henson become the first people to reach the North Pole.

1917 – Agreeing to President Woodrow Wilson’s request, Congress declares war on Germany.

1926 – Varney Airlines, the progenitor of United Airlines, makes its first commercial flight with pilot Leon D. Cuddeback flying an airmail delivery from Pasco, Washington to Elko, Nevada

1929 – Huey P. Long, Governor of Louisiana, is impeached by the Louisiana House of Representatives.

1930 – Mahatma Gandhi finishes his Salt March to the west coast of India and makes untaxed salt from the water of the Arabian sea at Dandi, Gujarat.

1936 – Another tornado from the same storm system as the Tupelo tornado hits Gainesville, Georgia, killing 203 people.

1965 – Intelsat 1 Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1968 – In Richmond, Indiana’s downtown district, a natural gas leak under the Marting Arms sporting goods store explodes, causing a secondary explosion of stored gunpowder, killing 41 people and injuring another 150.

1970 – In Valencia, California, 4 California Highway Patrol officers are killed in a shootout  with 2 heavily armed ‘career criminals’ after pulling them over for a previously reported crime. Both criminals escape from the 3 other officers arriving at the scene, but one later commits suicide while barricaded in house, while the other later surrenders and is sentenced to death, which is later reduced to life imprisonment. 39 years later, he commits suicide in his prison cell. As a result of this shootout, CHP completely revamps its weapons training program

1973 – The Pioneer 11 spacecraft is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida to explore the outer solar system, finally entering interstellar space in 1990.

1997 – In Greene County, Tennessee, a group of 6 young people carjack and kidnap the Lillelid family, murdering the parents and their 6 year old daughter, but only seriously wounding the 2 year old son. Later arrested in Arizona after being expelled from Mexico, the six are all sentenced at court in Tennessee to multiple life terms, with an additional 25 years in prison, after taking a plea bargain to take the death penalty off the table.

1998 – Travelers Group announces an agreement to merge with Citicorp, forming Citibank.

2017 – In response to a Syrian chemical attack on rebel forces 2 days previously, President Trump orders the U.S. military to attack the Shayrat Airbase in Syria that intelligence assets believed was where the Syrian air forces were based. The following morning, U.S. Naval forces launch 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles with 58 successfully striking their targets.