October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 86 days remain until the end of the year.
1903 – The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.
1915 – Combined Austro-Hungarian and German Central Powers, reinforced by the recently joined Bulgaria launched a new offensive against Serbia under command of August von Mackensen.
1915 – Entente forces land in Thessaloniki, to open the Macedonian front against the Central Powers.
1923 – The Turkish National Movement enters Constantinople.
1942 – World War II: American troops force the Japanese from their positions east of the Matanikau River during the Battle of Guadalcanal.
1973 – Egypt and Syria launch coordinated attacks against Israel, beginning the Yom Kippur War.
1976 – Cubana de Aviación Flight 455 is destroyed by two bombs, placed on board by an anti-Castro militant group.
1976 – Premier Hua Guofeng arrests the Gang of Four, ending the Cultural Revolution in China.
1979 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit the White House.
1981 – Assassination of Anwar Sadat. The third president of Egypt, Sadat was killed by members of the terrorist group Takfir Wal-Hajira during a parade held to commemorate the 8th anniversary of Operation Badr – a military operation where Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal and overran the Bar Lev Line in Israel. The military operation stated the Yom Kippur War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states. The assassination is thought to be a result of Sadat’s efforts to bring peace to the region which started with the Camp David Accords in 1978.
1994 – Abacha’s national Constitutional Conference okays multiparty system for the Fourth Republic in Nigeria.
1995 – The first planet orbiting another sun, 51 Pegasi b, is discovered.
2007 – Jason Lewis completes the first human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth.
2007 – First successful human powered attempt to circumnavigate the world. Englishman Jason Lewis set out on the journey, also called Expedition 360 on July 12, 1994, from Greenwich, London. The over 46,000-mile expedition around the world took him 4,833 days, during which he used only human-powered modes of transportation including bicycles, roller blades, and a pedal powered boat.
2010 – Instagram, a mainstream photo-sharing application, is founded.
2018 – President Donald Trump appoints Brett Kavanaugh as Supreme Court Associate Justice, ending a contentious confirmation process.
