1. On September 6, 1901, President William McKinley was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley died eight days later, making him the third U.S. president to be assassinated, and Vice President Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th President of the United States.

2. On September 6, 1948, Tennessee-born Johnny Majors made his college football debut for the University of Tennessee. Majors went on to become an All-American, and later returned to Knoxville to coach the Volunteers, leading them to a national championship in 1998.

3. On September 6, 1952, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, KTLA in Los Angeles, aired the first live telecast of a college football game between the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Southern California. Tennessee-born sportscaster Red Barber called the game.

4. On September 6, 1968, the X-15, a rocket-powered aircraft designed for hypersonic flight research, reached a speed of Mach 6.7 (4,520 miles per hour) at an altitude of 108,000 feet, setting a new world record. Tennessee-born pilot William J. "Pete" Knight flew the aircraft on its record-setting flight.

5. On September 6, 2008, Knoxville-born songwriter and music executive Buddy Killen died at the age of 73. Killen was a prolific writer of hit country songs, including "It's Four in the Morning" (Faron Young), "I Can't Stop Loving You" (Don Gibson), and "The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA" (Donna Fargo), and was later inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was also a successful music publisher and record label owner, helping to launch the careers of numerous country music stars.