Did you know about Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe served as the country's first Prime Minister from 1980 to 1987 and as its second President from 1987 to 2017.
Notable Deaths on September 6
September 6 has 107 recorded notable deaths across history, from 394 to 2025. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
2019 — Robert Mugabe
Zimbabwean politician, 2nd President of Zimbabwe (born 1924)
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Notable Deaths
107 source records
394 – 2025
Today in history
Major events on September 6
See what else happened on this day in history.
Did you know about Nicky Hopkins
Nicholas Christian Hopkins was an English pianist and organist.
Did you know about Kate Millett
Kate Millett attended the University of Oxford, and was the first American woman to be awarded a degree with first-class honors, after studying at St Hilda's College, Oxford.
Did you know about Len Hutton
Len Hutton set a record in 1938 for the highest individual innings in a Test match in only his sixth Test appearance, scoring 364 runs against Australia, a milestone that stood for nearly 20 years.
Did you know about Eugenius
Eugenius renovated the pagan Temple of Venus and Roma and restored the Altar of Victory after continued petitions from the Roman Senate.
More major people who died on September 6
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
1994
Nicky Hopkins
English pianist (born 1944)
Nicholas Christian Hopkins was an English pianist and organist. He performed on many British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, including on songs recorded by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, the Steve Miller Band, Jefferson Airplane, Rod Stewart, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the Hollies, Cat Stevens, Carly Simon, Harry Nilsson, Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton, Jerry Garcia, Jeff Beck, Joe Cocker, Art Garfunkel, Badfinger, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Donovan. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest studio pianists in the history of popular rock music.
2017
Kate Millett
American feminist author and activist (born 1934)
Katherine Murray Millett was an American feminist writer, educator, artist, and activist. She attended the University of Oxford, and was the first American woman to be awarded a degree with first-class honors, after studying at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She has been described as "a seminal influence on second-wave feminism", and is best known for her book, Sexual Politics (1970), which was based on her doctoral dissertation at Columbia University. Journalist Liza Featherstone attributes the attainment of previously unimaginable "legal abortion, greater professional equality between the sexes, and a sexual freedom" in part to Millett's efforts.
1990
Len Hutton
English cricketer (born 1916)
Sir Leonard Hutton was an English cricketer. He played as an opening batsman for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1934 to 1955 and for England in 79 Test matches between 1937 and 1955. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack described him as "one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket". He set a record in 1938 for the highest individual innings in a Test match in only his sixth Test appearance, scoring 364 runs against Australia, a milestone that stood for nearly 20 years. Following the Second World War, he was the mainstay of England's batting. In 1952, he became the first professional cricketer of the 20th century to captain England in Tests; under his captaincy England won the Ashes the following year for the first time in 19 years.
394
Eugenius
Roman usurper
Eugenius was a Western Roman emperor from 392 to 394, unrecognized by the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius I. While Christian himself, Eugenius capitalized on the discontent in the West caused by Theodosius' religious policies targeting pagans. He renovated the pagan Temple of Venus and Roma and restored the Altar of Victory after continued petitions from the Roman Senate. Eugenius replaced Theodosius' administrators with men loyal to him. This included pagans, reviving the pagan cause. His army fought the army of Theodosius at the Battle of the Frigidus, where he was captured and executed.
2000
Abdul Haris Nasution
Indonesian general (born 1918)
Abdul Haris Nasution was a high-ranking Indonesian general and politician. He served in the military during the Indonesian National Revolution and remained in the military during the subsequent turmoil of the Parliamentary democracy and Guided Democracy. Following the fall of President Sukarno from power, he became the Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly under President Suharto. Born into a Batak Muslim family, in the village of Hutapungkut, Dutch East Indies, he studied teaching and enrolled at a military academy in Bandung.
1949
Yang Hucheng
Chinese general (born 1893)
Yang Hucheng was a Chinese general during the Warlord Era of Republican China and Kuomintang (KMT) general during the Chinese Civil War. He was a main supporter of Zhang Xueliang during the Xi'an Incident in late 1936, when the two generals plotted to force Chiang Kai-shek to cease hostilities against the Chinese Red Army and agree to a Second United Front against Japanese incursions into China with the Chinese Communist Party. In retaliation of his involvement in the incident, Yang was forced into exile by Chiang and then imprisoned by the Nationalist spy agency Juntong for 12 years, before being killed along with two of his children, his secretary Song Qiyun and Song's wife and youngest son in September 1949.
1949
Song Qiyun
Chinese communist activist (born 1904)
Song Qiyun was a Chinese journalist and member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Born in Pi County, Jiangsu, to a poor family, he attended the Sixth Normal School but left teaching in 1926 to join the military. As a member of the CCP, he infiltrated the police to gather information on the Kuomintang (KMT) before ultimately joining the 17th Route Army under Yang Hucheng. In this capacity, he served as the editor-in-chief of the Northwest Cultural Daily from 1930 to 1937. Detained by the KMT in 1941, he was imprisoned with his wife Xu Linxia and youngest son Song Zhenzhong, with whom he was executed in 1949.
2024
Cathy Merrick
Canadian First Nations leader (born 1961/1962)
Catherine Ann Merrick was a Cree woman from Pimicikamak Cree Nation and the Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. Merrick began her political career in 2001 as a Councillor for her home nation of Pimicikamak Cree Nation; she served in that position for 12 years. She then became the second female Chief of Pimicikamak and served in this role until 2018. As Chief, Merrick supported the development of a $55-million healthcare centre within the community. In October 2022, Merrick became the first woman to be elected Grand Chief to the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, succeeding Arlen Dumas. She was re-elected to this position in July 2024.
1625
Thomas Dempster
Scottish historian and scholar (born 1579)
Thomas Dempster was a Scottish scholar and historian. Born into the aristocracy in Aberdeenshire, which comprises regions of both the Scottish Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands, he was sent abroad as a youth for his education. The Dempsters were Catholic in an increasingly Protestant country and had a reputation for being quarrelsome. Thomas' brother James, outlawed for an attack on his father, spent some years as a pirate in the northern islands, escaped by volunteering for military service in the Low Countries and was drawn and quartered there for insubordination. Thomas' father lost the family fortune in clan feuding and was beheaded for forgery.
1949
Xu Linxia
Chinese communist activist (born 1904/1905)
Xu Linxia was a Chinese communist. Born in Pi County, she attended the No. 3 Normal School before joining the Kuomintang (KMT). After the dissolution of the First United Front, she joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), becoming a leader of its women's branch in Pi. She married Song Qiyun in 1928, and the couple had seven children. Xu was detained by the KMT in 1941, together with her youngest son Song Zhenzhong; her husband was also arrested that year. The three were executed in 1949. Xu has been recognized by the CCP with the title of revolutionary martyr.
1944
James Cannon Jr.
American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (born 1864)
James Cannon Jr. was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1918. He was a prominent leader in the temperance movement in the United States in the 1920s, until derailed by scandal. H. L. Mencken said in 1934: "Six years ago he was the undisputed boss of the United States. Congress was his troop of Boy Scouts, and Presidents trembled whenever his name was mentioned.... But since that time there has been a violent revolution, and his whole world is in collapse."
1959
Edmund Gwenn
English actor (born 1877)
Edmund Gwenn was an English actor. On film, he is best remembered for his role as Kris Kringle in the Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street (1947), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the corresponding Golden Globe Award, and a Photoplay Award. He received a second Golden Globe, Photoplay Award, and another Academy Award nomination for the comedy film Mister 880 (1950). He is also remembered for his appearances in four films directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
2014
Seth Martin
Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1933)
Seth Martin was a Canadian ice hockey goalie. He played 30 games in the National Hockey League with the St. Louis Blues during the 1967–68 season. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1953 to 1973, was spent in senior and minor leagues. Internationally Martin played for the Canadian national team at four World Championships, winning a gold medal in 1961, and the 1964 Winter Olympics. He was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 1997.
2010
Boris Chetkov
Russian painter (born 1926)
Boris Alexandrovitch Chetkov was a Russian painter and glass artist whose works ranged across genres but can be loosely aligned with Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism and Figurative Expressionism. His theories on art and use of colour also align him broadly with Modernism and Kandinsky though in his painting he worked largely in isolation from his peers and remained disconnected from the international art community until the end of Communism. He was a member of the Saint Petersburg Union of Artists.
1959
Kay Kendall
English actress and comedian (born 1927)
Justine Kay Kendall McCarthy was an English actress and singer. She began her film career in the musical film London Town (1946), a financial failure. Kendall worked regularly until her appearance in the comedy film Genevieve (1953) brought her widespread recognition. Prolific in British films, Kendall also achieved some popularity with American audiences, and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her role in the musical-comedy film Les Girls (1957).
1949
Song Zhenzhong
Chinese child internee (born 1941)
Song Zhenzhong, popularly known as Little Radish Head, was the son of Chinese Communist Party members Song Qiyun and Xu Linxia. Held by the Kuomintang for the majority of his life, he was killed together with his parents as part of a mass killing of detainees. He has been identified as "China's youngest martyr", and featured extensively in film and literature, including in Chinese state propaganda. He has also been commemorated with multiple monuments.
2020
Lou Brock
American baseball player (born 1939)
Louis Clark Brock was an American professional baseball left fielder. He began his 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the 1961 Chicago Cubs but spent most of it as a left fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals. An All-Star for six seasons, Brock was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985 in his first year of eligibility and was inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2014.
2021
Jean-Paul Belmondo
French actor (born 1933)
Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo was a French actor, producer and distributor. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s thanks to the success of the film Breathless (1960), he also acted in other films that modernized cinema such as Two Women (1960), Le Doulos (1962), That Man from Rio (1964), Greed in the Sun (1964), and Weekend at Dunkirk (1964). With the film That Man from Rio, he also became a stuntman.
1998
Akira Kurosawa
Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1910)
Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. With a bold and dynamic style strongly influenced by Western cinema yet distinct from it, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Known as a hands-on filmmaker, he was heavily involved with all aspects of production as a director, writer, producer, and editor.