What Happened On This Day ? April 6
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1994
The Rwandan genocide begins
The assassination of Rwandan President, Juvenal Habyarimana, and Burundian President, Cyprien Ntaryamira, triggered a mass slaughter of ethnic Tutsis with up to 1 million victims.
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1965
The first commercial communications satellite is launched
Intelsat I, also known as Early Bird, facilitated the first live TV broadcast of a spacecraft splashdown when Gemini 6 landed in the Atlantic Ocean.
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1924
A team of aviators begins the first round-the-world flight in history
Four aircraft left Seattle on a westbound route around the globe. 157 days later, two of them reached the same location.
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1909
Robert Peary allegedly becomes the first person to reach the North Pole
Peary's claim has never been verified and is widely contested. The first undisputed journey to the North Pole was the 1948 Soviet Sever-2 expedition.
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1896
The first modern Olympic Games are opened in Athens
241 athletes from 14 countries took part in the First Olympiad. The event took place over 1500 years after the last ancient Olympic Games, which originated in Olympia in south-western Greece.
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1963
Rafael Correa
Ecuadorian politician, 54th President of Ecuador
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1929
Andre Previn
German/American pianist, composer, conductor
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1928
James Watson
American biologist, geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate
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1926
Sergio Franchi
Italian/American singer, actor
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1926
Ian Paisley
Irish minister, politician, 2nd First Minister of Northern Ireland
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1992
Isaac Asimov
American chemist, author
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1971
Igor Stravinsky
Russian composer
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1528
Albrecht Durer
German painter, engraver, mathematician
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1520
Raphael
Italian painter, architect
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1199
Richard I of England