There can be a number of causes. The most likely is that the class search path if configured badly on your computer. The easiest way to configure a working class search path is to not do it; the default works perfectly. If you haven't touched the class search path, it could be that some software installer has done it without you being aware.
Try running with the command "java -classpath . assignment6" and see if it works. If it does, the problem was with the class path. How to change the class path permanently depends on the operating system you use.
If it doesn't work, there are still a few other things than can be tried ..
http://mindprod.com/jgloss/runerrormessages.html#NOCLASSDEFFOUNDERROR