WASHINGTON D.C. - APRIL 2: President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to send U.S. troops into battle against Germany in World War I, in his address to Congress in Washington D.C. on April 2, 1917.

1917

The United States officially enters World War I

Born on This Day

Portrait Of Merle Haggard

Merle Haggard

1937 - 2016

Singer, songwriter and guitarist with 38 No. 1 country hits, including "Okie From Muskogee."

CBS Radio

André Previn

1929 - 2019

Oscar and Grammy-winning composer, conductor and jazz pianist. Second husband of actress Mia Farrow.

DYNASTY

Billy Dee Williams

1937 -

Actor who broke out with 1970s hit "Mahogany." Best known as rakish Lando Calrissian in the original "Star Wars" trilogy.

Merle Haggard

Getty Images

André Previn

CBS via Getty Images

Billy Dee Williams

Disney General Entertainment Con

1930

APR

6

Looking for a way to keep his company’s shortcake-baking machinery busy when strawberries are out of season, James Dewar tries injecting one of the cakes with cream filling. He dubs his creation the Twinkie.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on April 6th

1830

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints established

In Fayette, New York, Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church), organizes the Church of Christ during a meeting with a small group of believers. Born in Vermont in 1805, Smith claimed in 1823 that he had been visited by a Christian angel named […]

1841

John Tyler is inaugurated as 10th president

On April 6, 1841, John Tyler is sworn in as president. Tyler was elected as William Harrison’s vice president earlier in 1841 and was suddenly thrust into the role of president when Harrison died one month into office. He was the first vice president to immediately assume the role of president after a sitting president’s […]

1:56m read read

1862

Battle of Shiloh begins

The Civil War explodes in the west as the armies of Union General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston collide at Shiloh, near Pittsburgh Landing in Tennessee. The Battle of Shiloh became one of the bloodiest engagements of the war, and the level of violence shocked North and South alike. For six […]

1896

First modern Olympic Games

On April 6, 1896, the Olympic Games, a long-lost tradition of ancient Greece, are reborn in Athens 1,500 years after being banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I. At the opening of the Athens Games, King Georgios I of Greece and a crowd of 60,000 spectators welcomed athletes from 13 nations to the international competition. The […]

3:10m read read

1909

Robert Peary almost reaches the North Pole

On April 6, 1909, American explorer Robert Peary accomplishes a long elusive dream, when he, assistant Matthew Henson and four Inuits reach what they determine to be the North Pole. Decades after Peary’s death, however, navigational errors in his travel log surfaced, placing the expedition in all probability a few miles short of its goal. […]

1:44m read read

1924

First successful around-the-world flight begins

On April 6, 1924, eight American pilots depart Seattle’s Sand Point Naval Air Station in four modified Navy torpedo bombers, in hopes of becoming the first people to travel around the entire globe by air—something attempted unsuccessfully by several European flyers in previous years. After 175 days (flying time: 371 hours 11 minutes), and a […]

1:46m read read

1941

Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece

The German air force launches Operation Castigo, the bombing of Belgrade, on April 6, 1941, as 24 divisions and 1,200 tanks drive into Greece. The attack on Yugoslavia was swift and brutal, an act of terror resulting in the death of 17,000 civilians—the largest number of civilian casualties in a single day since the start […]

0:48m read read

1970

Sam Sheppard, the inspiration for “The Fugitive,” dies

On April 6, 1970, Sam Sheppard, a doctor convicted of murdering his pregnant wife in a trial that caused a media frenzy in the 1950s, dies of liver failure. After a decade in prison, Sheppard was released following a re-trial. His story is rumored to have loosely inspired the television series and movie The Fugitive. […]

2:00m read read

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