February 6: This Day In History

1820 – The first organized emigration back to Africa begins when 86 free African Americans leave New York Harbor aboard the Mayflower of Liberia. They are bound for the British colony of Sierra Leone, which welcomes free African Americans as well as fugitive slaves.

1843 – The first minstrel show in the United States, The Virginia Minstrels, opens (Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City).

1904 – It took 1,231 firefighters 30 hours to put down The Great Baltimore Fire, which started on this day and destroyed 1,500 buildings over an area of some 140 acres

1918 – British women over the age of 30 get the right to vote.

1919 – Seattle General Strike begins. The city was run by a General Strike Committee for six days as tens of thousands of union members stopped work in support of 32,000 striking longshoremen –

1959 – At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.

1961 – Jail-in movement started in Rock Hill, S.C., when students refused to pay fines and requested jail sentences. Students Nonviolent Coordinating Committee urged south-wide “Jail, No Bail” campaign.

1989 – The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe.

2000 – Second Chechen War: Russia captures Grozny, Chechnya, forcing the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria government into exile.

1895 – Babe Ruth, American baseball player (d. 1948)

1911 – Ronald Reagan, American actor and politician, 40th President of the United States (d. 2004)

1912 – Eva Braun, German wife of Adolf Hitler (d. 1945)

1940 – Tom Brokaw, American journalist

1943 – Georgeanna Tillman, American singer and dancer (The Marvelettes) (d. 1980)

1945 – Bob Marley, Jamaican-American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Bob Marley & The Wailers) (d. 1981)

1963 – Kevin Trudeau, American radio host and author