Sunday · November 15, 2026
Get the app
Edited daily
American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250th
The events of October 6 · Read the full edition → · More from October 6 →
19791776 Club

A pope walks into the White House for the first time; Carter greets John Paul II

Five days into his first American journey, the Polish pontiff arrives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for a meeting no predecessor ever had.

By October 6, 1979, Pope John Paul II had already said Mass on Boston Common, prayed at St. Patrick's Cathedral, and drawn crowds in Philadelphia and Chicago. That afternoon he arrived in Washington and walked into the White House to meet President Jimmy Carter, becoming the first pope ever to set foot inside the building. The two men spoke, and the Pope delivered a high-profile address on relations between church and state before his eight-day American tour closed with his departure two days later…

1776 Club

This story is held for members.

Members read every story of the day — and tomorrow's, and the next.

Join the 1776 Club
$17.76 your first year · then $39.99/yr · cancel anytime
More from October 6
1777

Forts Clinton and Montgomery fall in an hour; the Hudson chain goes down with them

Sir Henry Clinton lands 2,100 men at Stony Point and marches them in from the landward side, where the Americans had never finished the landward defenses.
2008

MESSENGER finds a 716-kilometer scar on Mercury's southern hemisphere

The second of three planned flybys doubles as a gravity-assist maneuver and a discovery run.
1942

Five Marine battalions cross the Matanikau in a pincer; the Japanese line east of the river breaks

A carefully drawn trap at the river mouth and an inland footbridge catches Japanese troops before they can finish digging in near Henderson Field.
19901776 Club
Six hours after liftoff, the European-built probe begins a five-year detour through Jupiter toward the Sun's unseen poles.
Read this as a member →
Read the full October 6 edition →Everything that happened on October 6 →
More from Cold War America
1948

The Tribune's early edition crowns Dewey; the returns say otherwise

A printers' strike pushed the press deadline hours earlier, and about 150,000 copies roll before the count turns.
1962

Tightrope flies from Johnston Island, and Operation Fishbowl is finished

A low-yield device on an XM-33 Strypi rocket ends the Atomic Energy Commission's high-altitude test series in the Pacific.
1979

Students storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran and seize hostages; they want the Shah sent home

Hundreds of students blindfold Marines and embassy staff and march them before photographers, with Washington's decision to shelter the exiled Shah as their stated grievance.
1956

Britain calls a ceasefire at Suez one day after its paratroopers land

Britain announces a ceasefire under Eisenhower's pressure on the day Americans vote him a second term.
The Daily Record · free by email

Tomorrow's edition in your inbox — one featured story, one quote, and today's flag status. Free, every morning.

The full experience

Read every story, narrated, in the app.

Take this story with you.

The complete daily edition, the deep-cut narration, and a library that's yours — the 1776 Club lives in the app.

Your membership comes with you — every event, narrated, with flag alerts, CarPlay, and your saved library.

Download on the App Store