A mushroom cloud over Hiroshima, Japan

Today in History

• Judge Crater steps into a taxicab and is never seen again (1930)
• The B-29 Enola Gay drops an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan (1945)
• LBJ signs the Voting Rights Act (1965)
• Tim Berners-Lee releases his plans for the World Wide Web (1991)
• The Ramones play their farewell concert (1996)
• NASA’s Curiosity rover lands on Mars (2012)

Birthdays

• Alfred, Lord Tennyson, poet (1809)
• Charles Fort, investigator of strange phenomena (1874)
• Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin (1881)
• Louella Parsons, gossip columnist (1881)
• Hoot Gibson, actor (1892)
• Lucille Ball, actress (1911)
• Robert Mitchum, actor (1917)
• Freddie Laker, airline entrepreneur (1922)
• Andy Warhol, artist (1928)
• Piers Anthony, writer (1934)
• M. Night Shyamalan, director (1970)
• Soleil Moon Frye, actress (1976)

Deaths

• Ben Jonson, poet and playwright (1637)
• Bix Beiderbecke, young man with a horn (1931)
• Richard Bong, US fighter ace and Medal of Honor winner (1945)
• Preston Sturges, director (1959)
• Fulgencio Batista, Cuban president (1973)
• Harry Reasoner, television journalist (1991)
• Rick James, musician (2004)
• John Hughes, filmmaker (2009)
• Marvin Hamlisch, composer (2012)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Children’s Day (Tuvalu)
• Independence Day (Bolivia, Jamaica)
• Kadooment Day (Barbados)
• National Lighthouse Day (US)
• National Root Beer Float Day (US)
• Peace Memorial Ceremony (Hiroshima)
• Railway Troops Day (Russia)

August 6 is the 218th day of the year (219th in leap years). There are 147 days remaining until the end of the year.