What Happened on December 6 in History?
Major historical events that occurred on December 6 include the ratification of the 13th Amendment in the U.S., which abolished slavery, and the devastating Halifax Explosion during World War I.
Key Historical Events on December 6
1865: U.S. Abolishes Slavery - Georgia became the 27th state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing the necessary three-fourths majority to officially abolish slavery nationwide, except as punishment for a crime.
1907: Worst U.S. Mining Disaster - An explosion in a network of coal mines in Monongah, West Virginia, killed 361 men and boys, making it the worst mining disaster in U.S. history.
1917: Halifax Explosion - A French munitions ship, the Mont-Blanc, collided with another vessel in the harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The resulting explosion was the largest man-made explosion of the pre-atomic age, killing over 1,900 people and devastating the city.
1917: Finland Declares Independence - Taking advantage of the turmoil of the Russian Revolution, the Parliament of Finland declared the nation's independence from the Russian Empire.
1933: Ulysses Ruled Not Obscene - In a landmark decision for free expression, U.S. Federal Judge John M. Woolsey ruled that James Joyce's novel Ulysses, which had been banned in the U.S. since its publication, was not obscene.
1957: U.S. Satellite Attempt Fails - The United States' first attempt to launch a satellite into orbit ended in spectacular failure when the Vanguard rocket exploded on the launch pad just seconds after ignition, an event the press dubbed "Flopnik".
1969: Altamont Free Concert Violence- The free concert headlined by The Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in California was marred by violence, including the fatal stabbing of concertgoer Meredith Hunter by a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, who had been hired as security.
1973: Gerald Ford Becomes VP - Following Spiro Agnew's resignation amid a tax evasion scandal, the U.S. House of Representatives confirmed Gerald Ford as Vice President under the 25th Amendment.
1989: École Polytechnique Massacre - An anti-feminist gunman murdered 14 young women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, Canada, in the worst mass murder in Canadian history, now commemorated as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
1992: Demolition of the Babri Masjid - A large mob of Hindu activists destroyed the 16th-century Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, India, sparking months of deadly inter-communal riots across the country that killed over 2,000 people.
Other Notable Events
1492: Christopher Columbus landed on the island he named Hispaniola, which is today shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
1877: Thomas Edison made his first sound recording, reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb" into his newly invented phonograph.
1884: The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. was completed with the setting of its aluminum capstone, making it the world's tallest man-made structure at the time.
1912: The renowned bust of Nefertiti was discovered during German excavations at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt.
2006: NASA released photographs from the Mars Global Surveyor providing compelling evidence that liquid water had flowed on the surface of Mars in the recent past.
