A president wounded at a public reception, a Belgian town freed from occupation and a new sovereign state all belong to September 6. Their consequences took far longer than a day. This edition separates the dated moment from the developments that followed.
These 6 entries use independent institutional or first-party records for the date. The older linked features are part of the site’s existing archive; this overview makes the scope and date caveats explicit.
1901: William McKinley is shot
The president was wounded at Buffalo’s Temple of Music. He died on September 14, when Theodore Roosevelt took the oath; September 6 is the date of the shooting, not the death. Read the story → Date source.
1944: Polish forces liberate Ypres
The Polish 1st Armoured Division liberated Ypres. The In Flanders Fields Museum notes that the Last Post ceremony resumed at the Menin Gate that evening. Read the story → Date source.
1968: Swaziland becomes independent
British legislation set September 6 as the day the protectorate ended. The country is known today as Eswatini; the historical name in the older article reflects its name at independence. Read the story → Date source.
2007: Luciano Pavarotti dies
The tenor died at home in Modena. The Metropolitan Opera’s retrospective confirms the date and places his recorded stage work in context. Read the story → Date source.
1522: The Victoria reaches Sanlúcar
The surviving ship of Magellan’s expedition arrived under Juan Sebastián Elcano, completing its circumnavigation. September 6 is the Sanlúcar arrival; Seville came later. Read the story → Date source.
1966: Hendrik Verwoerd is killed
The South African prime minister was stabbed inside parliament. A principal architect of apartheid died, but the system continued for decades. Read the story → Date source.
Editorial method
We do not place an event on this page when the exact calendar day is unknown or contradicted by stronger records. Dates in the sources above refer to the event named in each heading, not every later consequence discussed in the linked story. The page was assembled on September 27, 2026; it is an archive edition for September 6, not a backdated publication.
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Written and fact-checked by the Discover Today in History editorial team.
