HISTORY TODAY: October 06

1981

Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat is assassinated in Cairo by Islamic fundamentalists. He is succeeded by Vice President Hosni Mubarak.

1014		The Byzantine Emperor Basil earns the title “Slayer of Bulgers” after he orders the blinding of 15,000 Bulgerian troops.
1536		William Tyndale, the English translator of the New Testament, is strangled and burned at the stake for heresy at Vilvoorde, France.
1539		Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and his army enter the Apalachee capital of Anhaica (present-day Tallahassee, Florida) by force.
1696		Savoy, Germany withdraws from the Grand Alliance.
1801		Napoleon Bonaparte imposes a new constitution on Holland.
1866		The Reno brothers–Frank, John, Simeon and William–commit the country’s first train robbery near Seymour, Indiana netting $10,000.
1884		The Naval War College is founded in Newport, Rhode Island. [From MHQ—The Quarterly Journal of Military History]
1908		Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia-Herzegovina, sparking a crisis. [From MHQ—The Quarterly Journal of Military History]
1941		German troops renew their offensive against Moscow.
1966		Hanoi insists the United States must end its bombings before peace talks can begin.
1969		Special Forces Captain John McCarthy is released from Fort Leavenworth Penitentiary, pending consideration of his appeal to murder charges.
1973		Israel is taken by surprise when Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Jordan attack on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, beginning the Yom Kippur War.
1981		Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat is assassinated in Cairo by Islamic fundamentalists. He is succeeded by Vice President Hosni Mubarak.
2000		Yugoslavia’s president Slobodan Milosevic and Argentina’s vice-president Carlos Alvarez both resign from their respective offices.
Born on October 6
1820		Jenny Lind, soprano known as the “Swedish Nightingale.”
1846		George Westinghouse, prolific inventor, held over 100 patents on creations including air brakes for trains.
1887		Le Corbusier, Swiss-born French architect and city planner.
1895		Caroline Gordon, writer (The Strange Children).
1906		Janet Gaynor, film actress.
1908		Carole Lombard, American comediennne and actress.
1908		Sammy Price, jazz pianist.
1914		Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian anthropologist and explorer.
1917		Fannie Lou Hamer, US civil rights advocate; became vice-chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
1931		Riccardo Giacconi, Italian astrophysicist ; won the Nobel Prize in Astrophysics for his pioneering contributions that led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources.
1948		Gerry Adams, Irish politician who was an important figure in Northern Ireland’s peace process; president of Sinn Fein, Northern Ireland’s second-largest political party, since 1983.

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