1890: First execution by electric chair. At Auburn Prison in New York, the first execution by electrocution in history is carried out against William Kemmler, who had been convicted of murdering his lover, Matilda Ziegler, with an axe.
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Electrocution as a humane means of execution was first suggested in 1881 by Dr. Albert Southwick, a dentist.
1926: First Woman to Swim Across the English Channel.
Gertrude Ederle, an American Olympic swimmer swam across the English channel a body of water between England and France, in 14 hours and 34 minutes. Only 5 other people, all men, had swum across the channel before Ederle.
1945: American bomber drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima. On August 6, 1945, the United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.
Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold War.
2008: Coup in Mauritania. In the 6th coup in the North African country since 1978, President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was overthrown and General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, a career military officer, was installed in his place.
2009: President Umar Musa Yar’Adua government’s amnesty programme for Niger Delta militants commenced.
1962: Jamaican Independence
The Caribbean island country was first colonized by the Spanish in the early 16th century. In 1655, the British invaded Spanish Jamaica and made it a colony after the Spanish surrendered. Jamaica soon became one of the most profitable colonies of the British Empire, especially after sugarcane was brought to the island by the English. The Jamaica Independence Act of July 1962, which was a result of anti-colonial sentiments that were spreading throughout the globe, gave Jamaica full independence by leaving the Federation of the West Indies.
1965: Voting Rights Act Becomes Law in the United States
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the act, which prohibited any discrimination in voting. The act enforces the 14th and 15th amendments to the US Constitution.
BIRTHS ON THIS DAY: August 6
Lucille Ball (6 August 1911 – 26 April 1989)
On this day in history, August 6, 1911, TV sitcom star. Lucille Désirée Ball is born. Future TV star and producer Lucille Ball was born in Jamestown, New York. She would go on to make television history along with husband Desi Arnaz. She was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by Time in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for her work in all four of these areas. She died at the age of 77.
