December 6 Holidays

Finland Independence Day marks December 6, 1917, when Finland declared independence from Russia — a declaration made possible by the chaos of the Russian Revolution — establishing a Nordic republic that would become one of the world’s highest-ranked in education, press freedom, and happiness. National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women is a Canadian national day of mourning for December 6, 1989, when 14 women were shot and killed at the École Polytechnique in Montreal by a gunman who explicitly targeted women — an act that Canadian Parliament designated as a national day of mourning. National Miners Day was established by Congress to honor the coal miners and hard rock miners whose labor has powered American industry — observed on December 6, the date of the 1907 Monongah coal mine disaster in West Virginia, the worst mining disaster in U.S. history, which killed an estimated 361 men. Día de la Constitución is a Spanish national holiday on December 6 marking the 1978 Spanish Constitution’s ratification by referendum — the founding document of Spain’s democratic monarchy after four decades of Francoist dictatorship.