On this day in history - August 6

What Happened On This Day – August 6

• 2008 Coup in Mauritania

  In the 6th coup in the North African country since 1978, President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was overthrown and General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, a career military officer, was installed in his place.

• 1965 Voting Rights Act Becomes Law in the United States

  President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the act, which prohibited any discrimination in voting. The act enforces the 14th and 15th amendments to the US Constitution.

• 1962 Jamaican Independence

  The Caribbean island country was first colonized by the Spanish in the early 16th century. In 1655, the British invaded Spanish Jamaica and made it a colony after the Spanish surrendered. Jamaica soon became one of the most profitable colonies of the British Empire, especially after sugarcane was brought to the island by the English. The Jamaica Independence Act of July 1962, which was a result of anti-colonial sentiments that were spreading throughout the globe, gave Jamaica full independence by leaving the Federation of the West Indies.

• 1945 US Bombs Hiroshima

  In the first of the only two times nuclear weapons have been used in warfare, the United States dropped a nuclear bomb, nicknamed Little Boy on the industrial city of Hiroshima in Japan. Over 150,000 people were estimated killed by the resulting explosion. Japan had joined the Second World War in December 1941 on the side of the Axis powers. After the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings 3 days later on August 9, Japan surrendered to the Allies and ended the Pacific War.

• 1926 First Woman to Swim Across the English Channel

  Gertrude Ederle, an American Olympic swimmer swam across the English channel a body of water between England and France, in 14 hours and 34 minutes. Only 5 other people, all men, had swum across the channel before Ederle.