April 6: What Happened on This Day in History (High_school Level)?

(Page last edited 10/12/2017)

1. 1327 - The poet Petrarch first sees his idealized love, Laura, in the church of Saint Clare in Avignon.
2. 1652 - At the Cape of Good Hope, Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp that eventually becomes Cape Town.
3. 1712 - The New York Slave Revolt of 1712 begins near Broadway.
4. 1793 - During the French Revolution, the Committee of Public Safety becomes the executive organ of the republic.
5. 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.
6. 1917 - World War I: The United States declares war on Germany.
7. 1930 - Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire," beginning the Salt Satyagraha.
8. 1947 - The first Tony Awards are presented for theatrical achievement.
9. 1965 - Launch of Early Bird, the first communications satellite to be placed ingeosynchronous orbit.
10. 1994 - The Rwandan Genocide begins when the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down.
11. Famous Birthdays: Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (French poet), Gustave Moreau (French painter), Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen (German biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate), Edmond H. Fischer (Chinese-American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate), James Watson (American biologist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate)

For famous birthdays and other daily events in history, visit our Daily Dose Activities.

Click Here for Yesterday in History: April 5

Click Here for Tomorrow in History: April 7

For more history resources on Internet 4 Classrooms, visit our Social Studies and History index. For Pre K-8th Grade Level History and Social Studies Resources, visit our Grade Level Index.