<script type="text/javascript">

var html = '<div id="x" onclick="alert('.')">123</div>';

$('#test').html(html); // or $(html).appendTo('#test');

var x = $('#x')[0];

alert(typeof x.onclick);

</script>

Results:

MSIE 6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158 and all _normal_ browsers

function

MSIE 6.0.2900.5503.xpsp_sp3_qfe.080423-1303

string

this code:

$('#test').html(html).find('#x').click();

throws an error in IE 6 on windows XP with sp3