Today in History in 1889 Thomas Edison shows his first movie, in 1979 Pope John Paul II visits the White House, and in 1993 Michael Jordan surprisingly announces his retirement from basketball.

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 86 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

105 BC – Battle of Arausio: The Cimbri inflict a major defeat on the Roman army of Mallius Maximus.

69 BC - Battle of Tigranocerta: Forces of the Roman Republic defeat the army of the Kingdom of Armenia led by King Tigranes the Great.

23 - Rebels kill and behead Xin Dynasty Emperor Wang Mang in China.

404 - Byzantine Empress Eudoxia ends her seventh pregnancy in a miscarriage. She bleeds to death shortly after.

891 – Formosus becomes Pope.

1539 - Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and his army enter the Apalachee capital city of Anhaica, present-day Tallahassee, Florida.

1582 – Due to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

1600 – Jacopo Peri's Euridice, the earliest surviving opera, premieres in Florence.

1683 - German immigrant families found Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1762 - Seven Years' War: End of the Battle of Manila between British and Spanish forces, resulting in British occupation of the city until the end of the war.

1777 - American Revolutionary War: General Henry Clinton leads British forces in the capture of the Continental Army defenses on the Hudson River in the Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery.

1789 - French Revolution: Louis XVI of France returns to Paris from Versailles after being confronted by Parisian woman on the previous day.

1849 - Execution of the 13 Martyrs of Arad after the Hungarian War of Independence.

1854 - The Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead begins shortly after midnight, killing 53 people.

1860 - The Introduction of the so-called Section 377 of the British Indian penal code (Law) was enacted in British India respectively.

1871 - The Introduction of the so-called Criminal Tribes Act was enacted in British India respectively.

1876 - The American Library Association is founded.

1884 – The Naval War College of the United States Navy was founded in Newport, Rhode Island.

1889 – Thomas Edison shows his first movie.

1889 – Hans Meyer and Ludwig Purtschneller make the first ascent of Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa in what is now Tanzania.

1903 – The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.

1908 – Austria annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1910 - Eleftherios Venizelos is elected Prime Minister of Greece for the first time.

1921 – International PEN is founded in London.

1923 - The Great Powers of World War I withdraw from Istanbul

1927 – Opening of The Jazz Singer, the first prominent talking movie.

1928 – Chiang Kai-Shek becomes Chairman of the Republic of China.

1939 - World War II: The German invasion of Poland is completed.

1942 - World War II: The United States Marine Corps begins the October Matanikau Action on Guadalcanal, present-day Solomon Islands, against the Imperial Japanese Army.

1955 – A United Airlines DC-4 crashes in Medicine Bow Peak, Wyoming, killing 66 people.

1966 – LSD is declared illegal in the United States.

1973 – The Yom Kippur War begins, as Egypt and Syria launch an attack on Israel.

1976 – Cubana Flight 455 crashes due to sabotage, after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados.

1976 – New Premier Hua Guofeng orders the arrest of the Gang of Four and their associates, putting an end to the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China.

1978 – Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad and Benny Andersson, members of the Swedish pop group ABBA, are married. Incidentally, this is also the day that their single "Summer Night City" hits No.1 in Sweden.

1979 - Pope John Paul II visits the White House.

1981 – President of Egypt Anwar Sadat is assassinated, while inspecting a military parade.

1985 - Police Constable Keith Blakelock is murdered as riots erupt in the Broadwater Farm suburb of London.

1987 – Fiji becomes a Republic.

1991 - The Social Democratic Party under Anibal Cavaco Silva wins the Portuguese parliamentary election.

1993 - Michael Jordan surprisingly announces his retirement from basketball.

1995 – 51 Pegasi, in the constellation of Pegasus, 47.9 light-years away from Earth, was discovered to be the first major star apart from the Sun to have a planet (and extrasolar planet) orbiting around it.

1998 – Gay-bashing: Near Laramie, Wyoming, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard is viciously attacked by two assailants for being gay (he died on October 12).

1999 - Filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy begins in New Zealand.

2000 – Slobodan Milosevic resigns as President of Yugoslavia.

2000 - Argentine Vice President Carlos Alvarez resigns.