Something to think about.Something to discover.Something to remember.Every day.
⌕ My Time Capsule
HISTORY & TIMELINE
6 October

A journey through
6 October in history

From a Roman defeat on the Rhône to the first planet found circling another sun, 6 October has been a day of upheavals and openings. This timeline follows the date across more than two thousand years.

Begin the Timeline ↓ ← Back to Explore This Day
JUMP THROUGH TIME
III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1789
A print made in 1789 of the women's march on Versailles.A print made in 1789 of the women’s march on Versailles.Image: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain
politics · Europe

The crowd brings the king back to Paris

A crowd, mostly women, set out from Paris for Versailles on 5 October 1789, angry at the price of bread and at a banquet the court had given for a newly arrived regiment. They reached the palace after midnight in the rain, and at six in the morning forced the gate of the Princes’ Courtyard and got into the queen’s apartments. Louis XVI promised bread and agreed to go to Paris. At twenty-five past one on the afternoon of 6 October the royal party left Versailles, the crowd calling that it was bringing back ‘the baker, his wife and the boy’. The king never lived at Versailles again, and the palace ceased to be a royal residence.

Source: Château de Versailles: Departure of the King, 1789 ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1889
Jules Chéret's poster for the Bal au Moulin Rouge, place Blanche, 1889.Jules Chéret’s poster for the Bal au Moulin Rouge, place Blanche, 1889.Image: Didier Descouens · Public domain
culture · Europe

The Moulin Rouge opens in Montmartre

The Moulin Rouge opened at the foot of the hill of Montmartre at eight in the evening on 6 October 1889, with the building work not quite finished. It was the creation of Joseph Oller, helped by Charles Zidler, and the hall was full on the first night. The red windmill and the dancers became one of the most recognisable images of Paris, carried around the world by poster artists - Jules Chéret first, then Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, whose lithographs of the cabaret’s performers are now in museums everywhere.

Source: Moulin Rouge: History, the great periods ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1908
Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal, photographed in 1907 by the Atelier Adele.Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal, photographed in 1907 by the Atelier Adele.Image: Atelier Adele · Public domain
politics · Europe

Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina

Austria-Hungary had occupied and administered Bosnia and Herzegovina since the Congress of Berlin in 1878, but the provinces still belonged in law to the Ottoman Empire. When the Young Turks took power in Constantinople in July 1908, the Austro-Hungarian foreign minister Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal moved to annex them before the new Turkish government could reassert itself. The annexation was announced on 6 October 1908; Britannica dates the formal rescript the following day. Serbia reacted furiously, Russia backed Serbia and then had to withdraw under German pressure, and the Bosnian crisis left resentments that ran on to 1914.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Bosnian crisis of 1908 ↗
1927
A 1926 photograph of Western Electric engineer E. B. Craft, on the left, demonstrating the Vitaphone sound system.A 1926 photograph of Western Electric engineer E. B. Craft, on the left, demonstrating the Vitaphone sound system.Image: Unnamed photographer for Vitaphone / ATT · Public domain
culture · Americas

The Jazz Singer opens and the silent era ends

Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer on 6 October 1927. It was the first feature film to carry synchronised dialogue, and although only about a quarter of it was recorded for sound - the songs and a few exchanges - that was enough. Audiences heard actors speak, and the silent era was over within a few years. The sound came from Vitaphone, a system that played a disc in step with the projector; Warner Bros. had introduced it the year before with Don Juan. The studio was given an honorary Academy Award for the film, which turned a struggling company into a major one.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: The Jazz Singer ↗
1973
Israeli tanks of the 143rd Division on the west bank of the Suez Canal, 15-16 October 1973, nine days into the war.Israeli tanks of the 143rd Division on the west bank of the Suez Canal, 15-16 October 1973, nine days into the war.Image: IDF Spokesperson's Unit photographer · CC BY-SA 3.0
world · Asia

Egypt and Syria attack on Yom Kippur

At two o’clock in the afternoon of 6 October 1973, on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Egyptian and Syrian forces attacked Israeli positions at opposite ends of the country at the same moment. Egyptian troops crossed the Suez Canal into Sinai; Syrian armour pushed into the Golan Heights. Israeli intelligence had not read the months of preparation for what it was, and the surprise was close to complete. The fighting ran until 26 October and changed the arithmetic of the region. Israel recovered and, by the middle of the month, had forces across the canal on the Egyptian side, but the early Arab successes altered the politics that followed. A ceasefire with Egypt was formalised on 11 November 1973 and with Syria on 31 May 1974.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Yom Kippur War ↗
1976
Hua Guofeng, who succeeded Mao Zedong and ordered the arrests.Hua Guofeng, who succeeded Mao Zedong and ordered the arrests.Image: Sigismond Michalowski · CC BY-SA 4.0
politics · Asia

China arrests the Gang of Four

Four weeks after Mao Zedong’s death, on 6 October 1976, his designated successor Hua Guofeng had four of the most powerful radicals in the Chinese leadership arrested: Mao’s widow Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Hongwen and Yao Wenyuan. They were soon being denounced in wall posters as the Gang of Four. Hua acted with the support of party elders and of the army, above all Marshal Ye Jianying. The arrests are widely taken to mark the end of the Cultural Revolution, the decade of upheaval the four had helped to drive. They were tried in 1980-81.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Gang of Four ↗
1979
Pope John Paul II, who led the Roman Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005.Pope John Paul II, who led the Roman Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005.Image: Gregorini Demetrio · CC BY-SA 3.0
world · Americas

A pope visits the White House for the first time

On 6 October 1979 President Jimmy Carter welcomed Pope John Paul II to the White House, the first time a pope had been received there. The Carters and Vice-President Mondale met him under the North Portico, and the two men talked in private about peace and justice in the world. ‘It gives me great joy to be the first Pope in history to come to the capital of this nation,’ the pope said. The visit closed a week-long journey through six American cities.

Source: White House Historical Association: Papal visits to the White House ↗
1981
Anwar Sadat, president of Egypt from 1970 until his death in 1981.Anwar Sadat, president of Egypt from 1970 until his death in 1981.Image: Government · Public domain
politics · Africa

Anwar Sadat is killed at the October parade

President Anwar Sadat was shot dead in Cairo on 6 October 1981, at the parade marking the anniversary of the 1973 crossing of the Suez Canal. The gunmen were serving soldiers who belonged to Egyptian Islamic Jihad; they were led by Khalid al-Islambuli, whose brother had been arrested in Sadat’s recent sweep against his critics. The killing happened in front of television cameras. Sadat had shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for the settlement with Israel, and that settlement was one of the reasons his standing at home had fallen. A worsening economy and the jailing of opponents did the rest. He was succeeded by his vice-president, Hosni Mubarak.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Anwar Sadat ↗
1995
An artist's impression of 51 Pegasi b, made for the European Southern Observatory.An artist’s impression of 51 Pegasi b, made for the European Southern Observatory.Image: ESO/M. Kornmesser/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org) · CC BY 4.0
science · Europe

The first planet found circling another sun

On 6 October 1995, at a conference in Florence, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the Geneva Observatory announced that they had found a planet orbiting 51 Pegasi, an ordinary star about fifty light years away. It was the first planet detected around a sun-like star, and it was nothing like what anyone had expected: at least half the mass of Jupiter, but going round its star once every 4.2 days. They had found it with the ELODIE spectrograph at the Haute-Provence Observatory in France, by measuring the tiny wobble the planet’s gravity produced in the star’s light. Mayor and Queloz shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics for the work.

Source: University of Geneva: The first exoplanet was discovered 30 years ago at UNIGE ↗
VI
2000 TO TODAY

Modern Day

The events of recent decades that have already become part of the historical record.

2000
Slobodan Milošević, president of Serbia and then of Yugoslavia.Slobodan Milošević, president of Serbia and then of Yugoslavia.Image: Stevan Kragujević · CC BY-SA 3.0
politics · Europe

Slobodan Milošević gives up power

Slobodan Milošević had refused to accept that he had lost the Yugoslav presidential election of September 2000. Strikes spread, and on 5 October crowds converged on Belgrade and stormed the federal parliament; the police did not hold them back. On 6 October Milošević went on television and conceded defeat, and Vojislav Koštunica was sworn in the following day. Milošević was later handed to the international tribunal at The Hague, where he died in custody in 2006 before his trial ended.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Slobodan Milošević ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 6 October, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

EXPLORED THE DEEPER STORY?

Return to the highlights of 6 October

Discover the lighter side of the date with famous birthdays, culture, firsts and lives remembered.

Explore This Day →
← PREVIOUS DAY5 October
HISTORY & TIMELINE6 October
NEXT DAY →7 October