1. On July 6, 1844, the town of Fort Des Moines was established by Captain James Allen and a company of soldiers. This marked the beginning of a settlement that would eventually grow into the city of Des Moines, the capital of Iowa.

2. July 6, 1863, saw the Battle of Rock Island Rapids, which was fought between Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. The battle took place near the city of Rock Island, Illinois, which is across the Mississippi River from Davenport, Iowa.

3. In 1892, the town of Grinnell, Iowa, became the first in the world to have a pneumatic garbage collection system. This system involved a series of underground pipes that would transport garbage from individual homes to a central collection station, reducing the need for manual collection.

4. On July 6, 1933, a group of men led by John Dillinger robbed the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa. This was one of several bank robberies committed by Dillinger and his gang during their crime spree across the Midwest.

5. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who holds the record for the most time spent in space by a NASA astronaut, was born in Beaconsfield, Iowa on July 6, 1960. Whitson has spent a total of 665 days in space over the course of three separate missions.