1497 Italian explorer John Cabot returns to Bristol from North America, likely Newfoundland, becoming the first European known to do so since the Vikings.
1699 HMS Roebuck, captained by William Dampier, lands at Shark Bay, Western Australia on the first British scientific expedition to Australia.
Aberdare Low-Level railway station was opened by the Taff Vale Railway Company on 6th August 1846 on the line from Abercynon to Cardiff. Aberdare High Level) was opened in 1851 on the adjacent line from the Vale of Neath.
1861 – The United Kingdom annexes Lagos, Nigeria
On August 6, 1861, the British Empire formally annexed Lagos, a strategic port city on the coast of what is now Nigeria. The annexation followed years of increasing British influence and intervention in the region, driven by economic interests and the desire to suppress the transatlantic slave trade.
Lagos, with its valuable location for trade and access to the interior, became a key colonial outpost for the British in West Africa. The annexation marked the beginning of formal British colonial rule in the area, leading to significant political, social, and economic changes.
The establishment of British control over Lagos paved the way for the eventual colonization of the broader Nigerian territory, which would become one of Britain’s most important colonies in Africa.
1923 Henry Sullivan becomes the third person and first American to swim across the English Channel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 27 hours and 25 minutes.
1926 – Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel
On August 6, 1926, American swimmer Gertrude Ederle made history by becoming the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Ederle completed the grueling 21-mile swim from France to England in 14 hours and 34 minutes, breaking the previous men’s record by nearly two hours.
1945 An atomic bomb is dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the US B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay"
The manufacture of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima involved capturing the radioactive isotope U235 by a very fine meshed membrane of nickel powder after it had been separated from uranium ore. The contract for the supply of this mesh was awarded to the Mond nickel works in Clydach, which at the time was the only company in the world that was capable of producing it in sufficient volume
On this day 1946, Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) was initiated into the Circle of Bards at the National Eisteddfod at Mountain Ash by Archdruid Crwys Williams.
6 Aug 1964 Rod Stewart made his TV debut on the BBC show The Beat Room as a member of The Hoochie Coochie Men. The tapes of all but one of the programmes were later destroyed. The only remaining programme (originally broadcast on 5 October 1964) featured Tom Jones, Julie Rogers, The Kinks, John Lee Hooker, and The Syndicats. The show also featured a sextet of female dancers, the Beat Girls formed from an existing group, the Katy-Dids.
6 Aug 1963 The Beatles arrived in Jersey in the Channel Islands, where they spent the day go-carting and relaxing by the pool at The Revere Hotel before playing the first of four nights at the Springfield Ballroom. Some fans had found out where they were staying, but they were happy to chat and be photographed with them.
If Cabot was the first since the Vikings to set foot on the American continent, why does popular belief credit Columbus?
I wonder if the filters made by Mond, were for that uranium-processing or in fact had been developed for something else.
Given the line-up on the surviving tape, what a pity the other Beat Room tapes were destroyed. I suppose the decision was taken by someone who thought they were purely ephemeral and unlikely to interest anyone in future.
