During the Revolutionary War, representatives from the United States and France sign the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance in Paris. The Treaty of Amity and Commerce recognized the United States as an independent nation and encouraged trade between France and the America, while the Treaty of Alliance provided for a […]

On February 6, 1865, Confederate General John Pegram, age 33, is killed at the Battle of Hatcher’s Run (also called Dabney’s Mill), Virginia. Pegram graduated from West Point in 1854, and served in various posts in the West before resigning his commission at the start of the Civil War. Pegram then received an appointment as […]

On February 6, future president Ronald Reagan is born in Tampico, Illinois. As the 40th president of the United States, the former movie star was called the “Great Communicator” for his ability to get through to ordinary Americans and give them hope and optimism for their own future and that of their country. Despite his […]

On February 6, 1928, a woman calling herself Anastasia Tschaikovsky and claiming to be the youngest daughter of the murdered Russian czar Nicholas II arrives in New York City. She held a press conference on the liner Berengaria, explaining she was here to have her jaw reset. It was broken, she alleged, by a Bolshevik […]

Wary of his growing antiwar attitude, Benito Mussolini removes Count Galeazzo Ciano, his son-in-law, as head of Italy’s foreign ministry and takes over the duty himself. The removal is part of a widespread dismissal of Il Duce’s cabinet. Ciano had been loyal to the fascist cause since its inception, having taking part in the march […]

In his State of the Union address, President Ronald Reagan defines some of the key concepts of his foreign policy, establishing what comes to be known as the “Reagan Doctrine.” The doctrine served as the foundation for the Reagan administration’s support of “freedom fighters” around the globe. Reagan began his foreign policy comments with the […]

On February 6, 1993, tennis champion Arthur Ashe, the only African American man to win Wimbledon and the U.S. and Australian Opens, dies of complications from AIDS, at age 49 in New York City. Ashe’s body later laid in state at the governor’s mansion in Richmond, Virginia, where thousands of people lined up to pay […]

On February 6, 1998, Austrian pop star Falco is killed when his rental car is struck by a bus while he was vacationing in the Dominican Republic. The accident that killed Johann Hölzel went largely unnoticed in the English-speaking world. But in his native Vienna, February 6, 1998, was something like the Day die Musik […]