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HISTORY & TIMELINE
6 September

A journey through
6 September in history

The story of 6 September runs from Columbus’s departure from La Gomera into the open Atlantic in 1492 to a landmark ruling by India’s Supreme Court in 2018. In between come the Victoria’s return from the first circumnavigation, the Mayflower’s departure from Plymouth, the Battle of Nördlingen, the premiere of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, Bolívar’s Letter from Jamaica, the shooting of President McKinley, Swaziland’s independence, Viktor Belenko’s flight to Japan in a MiG-25, the Soviet recognition of the Baltic states, Cal Ripken’s record-breaking game, the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, the opening of the Beijing Paralympic Games and the launch of NASA’s LADEE probe to the Moon.

Begin the Timeline ↓ ← Back to Explore This Day
JUMP THROUGH TIME
II
THE MIDDLE AGES

Medieval History

Kingdoms, conflict, faith, power and the changing medieval world.

1492
The Church of the Assumption in San Sebastián de La GomeraThe Church of the Assumption in San Sebastián de La GomeraImage: Wouter Hagens · CC BY-SA 3.0
world · Europe

Columbus leaves La Gomera and heads into the open Atlantic

Christopher Columbus’s three ships had left Palos in southern Spain on 3 August 1492, but the Pinta’s rudder broke and they spent several weeks in the Canary Islands making repairs and taking on water, wood and food. On 6 September they sailed from San Sebastián on the island of La Gomera, their last port of call, and headed west into waters no European ship was known to have crossed. After more than a month at sea, with the crews growing restless, they sighted land in the Bahamas on 12 October.

Source: Britannica: Christopher Columbus, the first voyage ↗
III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

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

1522
Magellan's ship Victoria, a detail from Abraham Ortelius's 1589 map of the Pacific OceanMagellan’s ship Victoria, a detail from Abraham Ortelius’s 1589 map of the Pacific OceanImage: Abraham Ortelius · Public domain
world · Global

The Victoria returns to Spain after the first voyage around the world

In September 1519 five Spanish ships and some 250 men under the Portuguese captain Ferdinand Magellan set out to reach the Spice Islands, the Moluccas, by sailing west. They found a passage around the tip of South America and crossed the vast Pacific, but the voyage cost them dearly. Ships were wrecked or deserted, scurvy and hunger killed many of the crew, and in April 1521 Magellan himself was killed in a fight on the island of Mactan in the Philippines. The Basque navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano took command of the Victoria, loaded her with cloves in the Moluccas and brought her home westwards across the Indian Ocean and around Africa, avoiding Portuguese ports. On 6 September 1522 the leaking ship, kept afloat only by constant pumping, reached Sanlúcar de Barrameda at the mouth of the Guadalquivir with just 18 men on board. They had completed the first known voyage around the world. The emperor Charles V gave Elcano a coat of arms showing a globe and the words ‘You were the first to sail around me’.

Source: Britannica: Sebastián del Cano ↗
1620
The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, a painting by William Halsall, 1882The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, a painting by William Halsall, 1882Image: William Halsall · Public domain
world · Americas

The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth for America

A group of English Puritans who had broken away from the Church of England had lived for some years in exile in Leiden, in the Dutch Republic. Hoping to build a community of their own, they joined with other settlers and backers in London to found a colony in North America. In the summer of 1620 they set out from Southampton in two ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell, but the Speedwell leaked so badly that both turned back, first to Dartmouth and then to Plymouth. There the Speedwell was given up, and some of its passengers crowded on to the Mayflower. On 6 September 1620 by the calendar then used in England (16 September by today’s), the Mayflower left Plymouth with 102 passengers and a crew of around 30. After a stormy crossing of more than two months they sighted Cape Cod in November. Before going ashore the men signed the Mayflower Compact, agreeing to govern themselves, and in the following weeks they founded Plymouth Colony in what is now Massachusetts.

Source: Pilgrim Hall Museum: The Mayflower ↗
1634
The Battle of Nördlingen, a painting by Jan van den Hoecke, about 1635The Battle of Nördlingen, a painting by Jan van den Hoecke, about 1635Image: Jan van den Hoecke · Public domain
world · Europe

Imperial and Spanish armies crush the Swedes at Nördlingen

Two years after the death of the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, Sweden and its German Protestant allies still dominated southern Germany. In 1634 an imperial army laid siege to the town of Nördlingen in Swabia and was joined by a Spanish army marching north from Italy. The Swedish commanders Gustav Horn and Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar attacked to relieve the town, and the battle ran over two days. On 6 September their assaults failed with heavy losses and Horn was captured. The defeat ended Swedish control of southern Germany and drew France openly into the Thirty Years’ War.

Source: Britannica: Battle of Nördlingen (1634) ↗
1791
The Estates Theatre in Prague, where Mozart's La clemenza di Tito was first performedThe Estates Theatre in Prague, where Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito was first performedImage: VitVit · CC BY-SA 4.0
world · Europe

Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito opens in Prague

In 1791 the new emperor Leopold II was to be crowned king of Bohemia in Prague, and the Bohemian Estates wanted an opera for the celebrations. They turned to Mozart, who was popular in Prague after the triumph of Don Giovanni there four years earlier. The subject was an old court favourite: Pietro Metastasio’s libretto about the Roman emperor Titus, who forgives the friends who plotted against him, revised for Mozart by the court poet Caterino Mazzolà. Mozart was busy with The Magic Flute and wrote the new opera at speed; his first biographer said it took him eighteen days, starting on the coach to Prague. La clemenza di Tito was first performed on 6 September 1791 at the National Theatre, now the Estates Theatre, in the presence of the new king. The court is said to have received it coolly, but it soon became one of Mozart’s most performed operas across Europe. Mozart returned to Vienna, where The Magic Flute opened at the end of the month, and he died in December.

Source: Mozarteum Salzburg, Köchel catalogue: La clemenza di Tito, KV 621 ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

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

1815
Simón Bolívar, a portrait by Luis Toro Moreno, 1922, in the Legislative Palace in La PazSimón Bolívar, a portrait by Luis Toro Moreno, 1922, in the Legislative Palace in La PazImage: Luis Enrique Toro Moreno (1897-1933) · Public domain
politics · Americas

Simón Bolívar writes his Letter from Jamaica

In 1815 the cause of independence in Spanish South America seemed lost. Royalist armies had retaken Venezuela and much of New Granada, and Simón Bolívar had gone into exile in British Jamaica. On 6 September 1815, in Kingston, he dated a long letter in reply to an English resident of the island. In it he explained why Spain’s colonies would inevitably break free, surveyed each region’s prospects and set out his hopes for republican government and for unity among the new nations. It became one of the founding texts of Latin American political thought.

Source: Britannica: Letter from Jamaica ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

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

1901
One of the last photographs of President William McKinley, climbing the steps of the Temple of Music in Buffalo on 6 September 1901One of the last photographs of President William McKinley, climbing the steps of the Temple of Music in Buffalo on 6 September 1901Image: E. Benjamin Andrews · Public domain
politics · Americas

President McKinley is shot at the Pan-American Exposition

In 1901 the city of Buffalo, New York, staged the Pan-American Exposition, a world’s fair celebrating the progress of the Americas, lit at night by electricity from the new power station at Niagara Falls. President William McKinley, re-elected the year before, came to visit, and on 5 September he spoke to a vast crowd about trade and America’s place in the world. The next afternoon, 6 September, he stood in the exposition’s Temple of Music to shake hands with members of the public. Among them was Leon Czolgosz, a young anarchist who had hidden a revolver under a handkerchief. He fired twice at close range, hitting the president in the chest and abdomen. McKinley was operated on at the exposition’s hospital and at first seemed to recover, but the wound became infected and he died on 14 September. Theodore Roosevelt became president, and Czolgosz was tried and executed within weeks. After the killing, protecting the president became a full-time task of the Secret Service.

Source: Library of Congress: William McKinley, a resource guide ↗
1968
The King Sobhuza II Memorial Park building in Lobamba, EswatiniThe King Sobhuza II Memorial Park building in Lobamba, EswatiniImage: GreanVigour · CC BY-SA 4.0
politics · Africa

Swaziland becomes independent under King Sobhuza II

The Swazi kingdom, a small, mountainous country between South Africa and Mozambique, came under British control after the South African War at the start of the 1900s. Its king, Sobhuza II, had been chosen as a baby in 1899 and took up his full powers in 1921. For decades he worked to win back land lost to European settlers and to keep Swazi institutions alive under colonial rule. In the 1960s Britain prepared to hand over power. A constitution brought limited self-government, and in 1967 Swaziland became a protected state with Sobhuza recognised as king. On 6 September 1968 it became fully independent as a kingdom within the Commonwealth, with Sobhuza as head of state. He went on to reign until his death in 1982, one of the longest reigns on record. In 2018, the fiftieth anniversary year of independence, the country took the name Eswatini, and 6 September remains its Independence Day.

Source: Britannica: Eswatini, colonial administration ↗
1976
A MiG-25RBS reconnaissance aircraft in the Ukrainian Air Force Museum at VinnytsiaA MiG-25RBS reconnaissance aircraft in the Ukrainian Air Force Museum at VinnytsiaImage: George Chernilevsky · CC BY-SA 3.0
politics · Asia

A Soviet pilot lands his MiG-25 in Japan and asks for asylum

The MiG-25 was the Soviet Union’s fastest fighter, and Western air forces knew little about it. On 6 September 1976 Lieutenant Viktor Belenko broke away from a training flight over the Soviet Far East, flew low across the Sea of Japan and landed at Hakodate airport on the island of Hokkaido, overrunning the runway. He asked for asylum in the United States, which granted it. Japanese and American specialists examined the aircraft before it was returned to the Soviet Union in crates, and Belenko later became an American citizen.

Source: CIA Museum: Former Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko’s knee-pad notebook with flight data ↗
1991
People in Lithuania join hands in the Baltic Way, the human chain across the three Baltic states, on 23 August 1989People in Lithuania join hands in the Baltic Way, the human chain across the three Baltic states, on 23 August 1989Image: Rimantas Lazdynas · CC BY-SA 3.0
politics · Europe

The Soviet Union recognises the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania won their independence after the First World War, but in 1940 the Soviet Union occupied and annexed them. Many Western countries never accepted the annexation. In the late 1980s, as Mikhail Gorbachev loosened controls, mass movements grew in all three countries; on 23 August 1989 around two million people joined hands in a human chain, the Baltic Way, stretching from Tallinn to Vilnius. Lithuania declared the restoration of its independence in March 1990, and Estonia and Latvia moved the same way. Moscow answered with pressure and, in January 1991, deadly force in Vilnius and Riga. Then in August 1991 hard-liners tried to overthrow Gorbachev. As the coup collapsed, Estonia and Latvia declared full independence, and country after country recognised the three states. On 6 September 1991 the Soviet Union’s new State Council did the same. Less than two weeks later all three joined the United Nations, and in 2004 they became members of NATO and the European Union.

Source: Britannica: Estonia, independence lost and regained ↗
1995
Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles in 1996Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles in 1996Image: Joe Shlabotnik · CC BY 2.0
sport · Americas

Cal Ripken Jr. plays his 2,131st game in a row

Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees played in 2,130 consecutive games between 1925 and 1939, a run ended only by the illness that would kill him. His record was thought to be unbreakable. Then, from 30 May 1982, the Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. played in every game his team took part in, season after season, through injuries and losing years. On 6 September 1995, at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Ripken played his 2,131st game in a row against the California Angels. When the game became official in the middle of the fifth inning, the crowd, including President Bill Clinton, stood and cheered for more than twenty minutes, and Ripken was pushed out by his team-mates to jog around the field shaking hands with fans. He also hit a home run in the Orioles’ 4-2 win. He did not choose to sit out a game until 20 September 1998, after 2,632 in a row.

Source: National Baseball Hall of Fame: Cal Ripken breaks Lou Gehrig’s record ↗
1997
Flowers and tributes left outside Kensington Palace in September 1997Flowers and tributes left outside Kensington Palace in September 1997Image: Maxwell Hamilton · CC BY 2.0
world · Europe

The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales

Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997, at the age of 36. Her funeral took place at Westminster Abbey on 6 September. Huge crowds lined the route of the procession through London, and the service was watched on television around the world. Elton John sang a new version of his song Candle in the Wind, and Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, gave the address. She was buried that afternoon on an island in a lake at Althorp, her family’s home in Northamptonshire.

Source: Westminster Abbey: Diana, Princess of Wales ↗
VI
2000 TO TODAY

Modern Day

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

2008
The Beijing National Stadium during the 2008 Summer ParalympicsThe Beijing National Stadium during the 2008 Summer ParalympicsImage: li yong · CC BY-SA 2.0
sport · Asia

The Beijing Paralympic Games open

Two weeks after the Olympic Games closed, the Beijing National Stadium, the ‘Bird’s Nest’, filled again for the opening of the 13th Paralympic Games on 6 September 2008. Around 90,000 spectators watched a ceremony of more than 4,800 performers, and China’s president Hu Jintao declared the Games open. The cauldron was lit by Hou Bin, a Chinese high jumper with one leg, who hauled himself and his wheelchair up a rope to the stadium roof. Thousands of athletes from nearly 150 countries took part.

Source: International Paralympic Committee: Spectacular opening of Beijing Paralympic Games ↗
2013
A Minotaur V rocket carrying NASA's LADEE probe lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia, on the night of 6 September 2013A Minotaur V rocket carrying NASA’s LADEE probe lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia, on the night of 6 September 2013Image: Carla Cioffi · Public domain
world · Americas

NASA’s LADEE probe sets off to study the Moon’s thin atmosphere

The Moon is often described as airless, but it is wrapped in an extremely thin layer of gas, so sparse that its atoms hardly ever collide. Apollo astronauts also reported a strange glow on the lunar horizon before sunrise, which some scientists thought might be dust lifted above the surface. NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, LADEE, was built to find out. It was launched at 11:27 p.m. local time on 6 September 2013 on a Minotaur V rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, the first deep-space mission to leave from there. The night launch was seen by people along much of the east coast of the United States. LADEE reached lunar orbit a month later and measured the gases and dust around the Moon. It also tested sending data to Earth by laser, at record speeds. When its work was done it was steered down to crash on the far side of the Moon in April 2014, as planned.

Source: NASA: LADEE liftoff! The journey begins ↗
2018
The Supreme Court of India in New DelhiThe Supreme Court of India in New DelhiImage: Pinakpani · CC BY-SA 4.0
world · Asia

India’s Supreme Court decriminalises gay sex

Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a law from British rule in 1860, made ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’ a crime. Delhi’s High Court read it down in 2009, but the Supreme Court restored it in 2013. On 6 September 2018, in a case brought by the dancer Navtej Singh Johar and others, five judges of the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the section could no longer be used against consensual sex between adults of the same sex, because it violated their rights to equality, dignity and privacy.

Source: Supreme Court of India: Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India, judgment of 6 September 2018 ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

Britannica: Christopher Columbus, the first voyage↗Britannica: La Gomera↗Britannica: Sebastián del Cano↗National Geographic: Magellan got the credit, but this man was first to sail around the world↗Pilgrim Hall Museum: The Mayflower↗Mayflower 400 UK: The day the Pilgrims left Plymouth on the Mayflower↗Britannica: Battle of Nördlingen (1634)↗Wikipedia: Battle of Nördlingen (1634)↗Mozarteum Salzburg, Köchel catalogue: La clemenza di Tito, KV 621↗National Theatre Prague: The Estates Theatre, history↗Britannica: Letter from Jamaica↗Banco de la República, Enciclopedia: Simón Bolívar↗Library of Congress: William McKinley, a resource guide↗University at Buffalo Libraries: Rare McKinley assassination documents↗Britannica: Eswatini, colonial administration↗Parliament of the Kingdom of Eswatini: Background↗CIA Museum: Former Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko’s knee-pad notebook with flight data↗National Museum of the US Air Force: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25↗Britannica: Estonia, independence lost and regained↗Britannica: Latvia, the Soviet occupation and independence↗National Baseball Hall of Fame: Cal Ripken breaks Lou Gehrig’s record↗SABR Games Project: September 6, 1995, Cal Ripken surpasses Lou Gehrig’s ‘unbreakable’ record↗Westminster Abbey: Diana, Princess of Wales↗The Royal Family: Diana, Princess of Wales↗International Paralympic Committee: Spectacular opening of Beijing Paralympic Games↗International Paralympic Committee: Beijing 2008↗NASA: LADEE liftoff! The journey begins↗NASA Science: LADEE mission↗Supreme Court of India: Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India, judgment of 6 September 2018↗Supreme Court Observer: Navtej Singh Johar, judgment of the court in plain English↗
WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 6 September, 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.

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