Historical timeline for February 6

Two earthquakes measuring Mww 7.8 and 7.5 struck near the border between Turkey and Syria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XII (Extreme). The earthquakes resulted in numerous aftershocks and a death toll of 57,658 people.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken suspends agreements with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to send asylum seekers back to their home countries.

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, a super heavy launch vehicle, makes its maiden flight.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 strikes southern Taiwan, killing 117 people.

A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits the central Philippine island of Negros, leaving 112 people dead.

Stephen Harper becomes Prime Minister of Canada.

Second Chechen War: Russia captures Grozny, Chechnya, forcing the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria government into exile.

Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport.

Birgenair Flight 301 crashed off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 people on board. This is the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 757.

Willamette Valley Flood: Floods in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, United States, causes over US$500 million in property damage throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe.

Justice Mary Gaudron becomes the first woman to be appointed to the High Court of Australia.

The National Resistance Army of Uganda launches an attack on a Ugandan Army installation in the central Mubende District to begin the Ugandan Bush War.

The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of four inches an hour.

In testimony before a United States Senate subcommittee, Lockheed Corporation president Carl Kotchian admits that the company had paid out approximately $3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.

The Ms 7.6 Luhuo earthquake strikes Sichuan Province, causing widespread destruction and killing at least 2,199 people.

At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.

Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.

Eight Manchester United F.C. players and 15 other passengers are killed in the Munich air disaster.

Elizabeth II becomes Queen of the United Kingdom and her other Realms and Territories and Head of the Commonwealth upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.