History for December 6

History for December 6 - On-This-Day.com:
Ira Gershwin 1896 - Lyricist, brother of composer George Gershwin, Agnes Moorehead 1906, Wally Cox 1924


James Naughton 1945, Tom Hulce 1953, JoBeth Williams 1953


1865 - The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment abolished slavery in the U.S.


1884 - The construction of the Washington Monument was completed by Army engineers. The project took 34 years.


1907 - In Monongah, WV, 361 people were killed in America's worst mine disaster.


1917 - More than 1,600 people died when two munitions ships collided in the harbor at Halifax, Nova Scotia.


1926 - In Italy, Benito Mussolini introduced a tax on bachelors.


1973 - Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the vice-president of the United States after vice-president Spiro Agnew resigned.


1994 - Orange County, CA, filed for bankruptcy protection due to investment losses of about $2 billion. The county is one of the richest in the U.S. and became the largest municipality to file for bankruptcy.


1998 - In Venezuela, former Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez was elected president. He had staged a bloody coup attempt against the government six years earlier.