| 6 August 1600 | France, Savoy, Italy, Holy Roman Empire [wars] | King Henry IV of France leads an invasion of the duchy of Savoy following the breakdown of negotiations for the return of the town of Saluzzo, which Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, annexed in 1588. |
| 6 August 1623 | Papal States, Italy, France [political events] | Maffeo Barberini is elected Pope Urban VIII following the death of Pope Gregory XV on 8 July; fearing the growth of Habsburg power, he leans towards France. |
| 6 August 1623 | Austria, Bohemia, Holy Roman Empire, Transylvania, Ottoman Empire, Habsburg Monarchy [Thirty Years War (1618–48)] | The army of Christian of Brunswick is annihilated by the forces of Count Johan Tserclaus von Tilly at Stadtlohn, giving the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II complete control of Austria and Bohemia. The plan by Gabor Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania, to invade Austrian territory lies in shreds. |
| 6 August 1637 | England [births and deaths] | Ben Jonson, a leading English dramatist, lyric poet, and critic of the Jacobean age, whose works include The Alchemist (1610), dies in London, England (65). |
| 6 August 1647 | UK [British Civil Wars (1642–51)] | The New Model Army, under Oliver Cromwell, enters London, England, and takes control of Parliament and the City of London. |
| 6 August 1806 | Europe, Austrian Empire [political events] | The Holy Roman Empire comes to an end; Francis II formally resigns as Holy Roman Emperor and becomes Francis I, Emperor of Austria. |
| 6 August 1881 | Scotland [births and deaths] | Alexander Fleming, Scottish bacteriologist who discovers penicillin, born in Lochfield, Ayr, Scotland (–1955). |
| 6 August 1914 | Austria-Hungary, Russian Empire [World War I (1914–18)] | Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia. |
| 6 August 1927 | [births and deaths] | Andy Warhol, US artist and film-maker, a leading exponent of Pop Art in the 1960s, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (–1987). |
| 6–13 August 1929 | Netherlands, Germany [political events] | At the Reparations Conference in The Hague in the Netherlands, Germany accepts the Young Plan for German World War I reparations; in return, the Allies agree to evacuate the Rhineland by June 1930. |
| 6 August 1930 | Canada [political events] | Following the general election victory of the Conservatives in July, the Liberal leader William Mackenzie King resigns as prime minister of Canada; he is succeeded by the Conservative leader Richard B Bennett. |
| 6 August 1945 | Japan, USA [World War II (1939–45)] | The US B-29 bomber Enola Gay drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, destroying two-thirds of the city. |
| 6 August 1962 | Jamaica [decolonization] | Jamaica becomes independent within the British Commonwealth. |
| 6 August 1965 | USA [civil rights] | The Voting Rights Act becomes law in the USA, making illegal the southern states' practice of disenfranchising black voters by imposing taxation, literacy, or other requirements on potential voters. |
| 6 August 1993 | UK [everyday life] | The royal family opens Buckingham Palace, London, England, to the general public. Vistors pay £8 a head. |
| 6–8 August 1996 | Chechnya, Russia [political events] | Chechen rebels launch a major offensive on Grozny, capturing key points in the capital of the disputed Russian republic. |
