TODAY in HISTORY: August 06

Following are some of the major events to have occurred on August 06

 

Reuters


1914 - Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia, and Serbia declared war on Germany in World War One.

 

1926 - American Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel, taking just over 14 hours.

 

1932 - The first annual film festival began in Venice. Italy, France, Germany, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union took part.

 

1945 - The U.S. Air Force dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. It was carried by the B-29 bomber "Enola Gay". At least 117,000 people were killed.

 

1952 - Plane crash causes fatal fire on carrier USS Boxer.

 

1962 - Jamaica became independent after 300 years of British rule.

 

1978 - Pope Paul VI, who succeeded John XXIII in 1963, died. A conservative, he reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's prohibition of artificial birth control in his encyclical "Humanae Vitae". He was succeeded by John Paul I.

 

1996 - U.S. scientists said they had found evidence of ancient life on Mars in remnants of a meteorite discovered in Antarctica.

 

2005 - Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who quit government over the 2003 invasion of Iraq, died. He was 59.

 

2012 - NASA's Curiosity rover lands on Mars.

 

2016 - Players take part in the world's first "Pokemon Go" competition in Hong Kong.