Today In History - August 6

258 St. Sixtus II ends his reign as Catholic Pope
523 St Hormidas ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1181 A Supernova is observed by Chinese and Japanese astronomers – hardly any written records remain
1787 The Constitutional Convention in began debating
1806 The Holy Roman Empire ends
1815 A US flotilla ends piracy by Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli
1825 Bolivia gains independence from Peru
1854 Congress passes the Confiscation Act
1862 Confederate ironclad the "Arkansas" is badly damaged in a Union attack
1890 The first use of the electric chair in the US: John Hart, put to death in New York for murder
1914 Austria-Hungary declares war against Russia
1914 Serbia declares war against Germany
1919 The first air flight over a major body of water in Australia
1926 New York's Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel
1926 Warner Brothers premiers Vitaphone: a sound-on-disc movie system. "Don Juan" starring John Barrymore was shown in New York
1934 US troops leave Haiti after 19-years
1944 Deportation of 70,000 Jews from Lodz, Poland to Auschwitz begins
1945 "Hiroshima Peace Day" the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by a plane named "Enola Gay"
1946 The US officially submits to jurisdiction of World Court
1948 Bob Mathias wins the Decathlon at the London Olympics
1951 Typhoon flooding kills 4,800 people in Manchuria
1962 Jamaica gains independence from Britain
1964 Sir Cedric Hardwicke dies at age 71
1965 The Beatles release the "Help" album in the UK
1965 Federal Voting Rights Act guarantees black voting rights
1974 Explosion and fire destroy the Great Northern railroad yard in Wenatchee, Washington
1986 Phil Katz releases PKARC version 1.0, for the IBM computer system
1989 The Boston Red Sox retire Carl Yastrezemski's jersey number: #8
1989 The Pilot Union tells its pilots that it's okay to cross the Eastern picket lines
1990 The UN Security Council votes 13-0 (Cuba and Yemen abstain) to place economic sanctions against Iraq
1991 Harry Reasoner (60 Minutes) dies at age 68

1651 Francois Fenelon
1697 Charles VII
1809 Alfred Lord Tennyson
1861 Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt
1868 Paul Claudel
1881 Sir Alexander Fleming
1883 Scott Nearing
1893 Guthrie McClintic
1906 Ken Strong
1908 Helen Jacobs
1910 Charles Crichton
1911 Lucille Ball
1916 Michael Burke
1917 Robert Mitchum
1921 Ella Raines
1922 Sir Freddie Laker
1923 Jack Parnell
1923 Jackie Kelk
1923 William B. Williams
1925 Barbara Bates
1927 Andy Warhol
1927 William David Ford
1930 Abbey Lincoln
1938 Peter Bonerz
1940 Louise Sorel
1943 Michael Anderson, Jr.
1943 Ray Buktenica
1944 Swoosie Kurtz
1945 Ken Norton
1947 Sally Eaton
1950 Dorian Harewood
1950 Nathan Purdee
1950 Winston E. Scott
1951 Catherine Hicks
1952 Carl C. Perkins
1956 Stephanie Kramer
1956 Vinnie Vincent
1959 Joyce Sims
1964 Moosie Drier
1965 David Robinson
1976 Soleil Moon Frye