6 October

In resolution 40/202 of 17 December 1985, the UN General Assembly designated the first Monday of October of every year as World Habitat Day. In 2010, World Habitat Day is commemorated on 4 October.

The theme of this year's World Habitat Day is "Better City, Better Life" – the same as for the Shanghai Expo, where the United Nations has a pavilion.

Currently, more than half of all people live in towns and cities, and this figure is expected to increase to two-thirds within the next two generations.

With the right actions and policies cities can successfully harness the potential of sustainable living, mitigate inequalities and disparities, and provide a home for people of all ages and cultures and economic means.

By improving access to decent shelter, basic services and safe public spaces cities can improve the lives of individuals. They can also play a key role in mitigating climate change by promoting energy conservation and environmental sustainability.

Events

105 BC – Battle of Arausio: The Cimbri inflict the heaviest defeat on the Roman army of Gnaeus Mallius Maximus.
69 BC – Battle of Tigranocerta: Forces of the Roman Republic defeat the army of the Kingdom of Armenia led by King Tigranes the Great.
68 BC – Battle of Artaxata: Lucullus averts the bad omen of this day by defeating Tigranes the Great of Armenia.
404 – Byzantine Empress Eudoxia has her seventh and last pregnancy who ends in a miscarriage. She is left bleeding and dies of an infection shortly after.
1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day is skipped in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1600 – Jacopo Peri's Euridice, the earliest surviving opera, receives its première performance in Florence, signifying the beginning of the Baroque Period
1683 – German immigrant families found Germantown in the colony of Pennsylvania, marking the first major immigration of German people to America.
1762 – Seven Years' War: conclusion of the Battle of Manila between Britain and Spain, which resulted in the British occupation of Manila for the rest of the war.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: General Sir Henry Clinton leads British forces in the capture of Continental Army Hudson River defenses in the Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery.
1789 – French Revolution: Louis XVI returns to Paris from Versailles after being confronted by the Parisian women on 5 October
1849 – The execution of the 13 Martyrs of Arad after the Hungarian war of independence.
1854 – England: The Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead starts shortly after midnight, leading to 53 deaths and hundreds injured.
1876 – The American Library Association was founded.
1884 – The Naval War College of the United States Navy is founded in Newport, Rhode Island.
1889 – American inventor Thomas Edison shows his first motion picture.
1898 – Ossian Everett Mills founds Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia in Boston, Massachusetts.
1903 – The High Court of Australia sat for the first time.
1908 – Austria annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1910 – Eleftherios Venizelos is elected Prime Minister of Greece for the first time (7 times in total).
1923 – The great powers of World War I withdraw from Istanbul
1927 – Opening of The Jazz Singer, the first prominent talking movie.
1939 – World War II: Germany's invasion of Poland ends with the surrender of Polesia army after the Battle of Kock
1945 – Baseball: Billy Sianis and his pet billy goat are ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series (see Curse of the Billy Goat).
1973 – Egypt launches a coordinated attack with Syria against Israel leading to the Yom Kippur War.
1976 – Cubana Flight 455 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados after two bombs, placed on board by terrorists with connections to the CIA, exploded. All 73 people on board are killed.
1976 – New Premier Hua Guofeng orders the arrest of the Gang of Four and associates and ends the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China.
1976 – Massacre of students gathering at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand to protest the return of ex-dictator Thanom, by a coalition of right-wing paramilitary and government forces, triggering the return of the military to government.
1977 – In Alicante, Spain, fascists attack a group of MCPV militants and sympathizers, and one MCPV sympathizer is killed.
1977 – The first prototype of the MiG-29, designated 9-01, makes its maiden flight.
1979 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit the White House.
1981 – Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat is assassinated.
1985 – PC Keith Blakelock is murdered as riots erupt in the Broadwater Farm suburb of London.
1987 – Fiji becomes a republic.
1995 – 51 Pegasi is discovered to be the first major star apart from the Sun to have a planet (and extrasolar planet) orbiting around it.
2000 – Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević resigns.
2000 – Argentine vice president Carlos Álvarez resigns.
2002 – The French oil tanker Limburg is bombed off Yemen.
2007 – Jason Lewis completes the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe.

Holidays and observances

Armed Forces Day (Montenegro)
Christian Feast Day:
Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher
Bruno of Cologne
Faith
Mary Frances of the Five Wounds of Jesus
Pardulphus
Sagar of Laodicea
October 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of Commemoration and National Mourning (Turkmenistan)
Dukla Pass Victims Day (Slovakia)
German-American Day (United States)
Teacher's Day (Sri Lanka)
Yom Kippur War commemoration, and its related observance:
Armed Forces Day (Egypt)
Tishreen Liberation Day (Syria)