March 6
March 6 is the 65th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (66th in Leap years). There are 298 days remaining.
Events:
- 1447 - Nicholas V becomes Pope
- 1460 - Treaty of Alcacovas - Portugal gives Castile the Canary Islands in exchange for claims in West Africa
- 1521 - Ferdinand Magellan discovers Guam
- 1820 - For the second time the Missouri Compromise is signed by President James Monroe. The compromise allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, but made the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.
- 1834 - York, Upper Canada is incorporated as Toronto.
- 1836 - After a 13-day siege by an army of 3,000 Mexican troops, the 189 Texas volunteers defending the Alamo are defeated and the fort taken.
- 1857 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case.
- 1899 - Bayer registeres aspirin as a trademark.
- 1900 - A coal mine explosion in West Virginia traps 50 coal miners.
- 1901 - In Bremen an assassin attempts to kill Wilhelm II of Germany.
- 1946 - Vietnam War: Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
- 1947 - The Newport News, the first air-conditioned naval ship, is launched from Newport News, Virginia.
- 1951 - The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins
- 1953 - Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov succeeds Josef Stalin as Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
- 1957 - United Kingdom colonies Gold Coast and Togoland become the independent Republic of Ghana.
- 1960 - Vietnam War: The United States announces that 3,500 American troops are going to be sent to Vietnam.
- 1964 - Constantine II becomes King of Greece
- 1964 - Tom O'Hara sets a new world record for the indoor mile run by completing it in 3 minutes, 56.4 seconds.
- 1970 - Cult leader and suspected murderer Charles Manson releases an album titled Lies to help finance his defense.
- 1975 - Algiers Accord: Iran and Iraq announce a settlement over their border dispute.
- 1981 - After 19 years hosting the CBS Evening News Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time.
- 1983 - The United States Football League begins its first year of competition
- 1984 - Twelve month long strike in British coal industry begins
- 1987 - Off the coast of Belgium in the English Channel, the British ferry The Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes killing 189.
- 1992 - The 'Michelangelo' computer virus begins to affect computers.
- 1997 - Picasso's Tete de Femme is stolen from a London gallery (it was recovered a week later).
Births:
- 1475 - Michelangelo Buonarroti, painter (+ 1564)
- 1619 - Cyrano de Bergerac, soldier, poet
- 1806 - Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet (+ 1861)
- 1831 - Friedrich von Bodelschwingh, theologian (+ 1910)
- 1885 - Ring Lardner, writer (+ 1933)
- 1898 - Therese Giehse, actress (+ 1975)
- 1904 - Joseph Schmidt, tenor (+ 1942)
- 1905 - Bob Wills, country music singer (+ 1975)
- 1906 - Lou Costello, actor, comedian (+ 1959)
- 1923 - Ed McMahon, television personality
- 1923 - Jürgen von Manger, cabaretist (+ 1994)
- 1926 - Alan Greenspan, American economist
- 1927 or 1928 - Gabriel García Márquez, writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1982
- 1927 - Wes Montgomery, musician
- 1927 - Gordon Cooper, astronaut
- 1929 - Günter Kunert, writer and lyricist
- 1930 - Lorin Maazel, opera conductor
- 1936 - Marion Barry Jr., mayor of Washington, DC
- 1937 - Valentina Tereshkova, cosmonaut
- 1941 - Willie Stargell, Baseball Hall of Famer
- 1944 - Kiri Te Kanawa, opera singer
- 1946 - David Gilmour, musican ("Pink Floyd")
- 1947 - Rob Reiner, actor, comedian, movie producer
- 1947 - Dick Fosbury, athlete
- 1947 - Kiki Dee, singer
- 1959 - Tom Arnold, actor, comedian
- 1972 - Shaquille O'Neal, basketball player
Deaths:
- 1888 - Louisa May Alcott, novelist
- 1929 - David Buick, automobile pioneer
- 1932 - John Philip Sousa, band leader, conductor, composer
- 1933 - Anton Cermak, mayor of Chicago, Illinois, wounded weeks earlier by an assassin's bullet intended for Franklin D. Roosevelt, dies of his injuries
- 1941 - Gutzon Borglum, sculptor
- 1951 - Ivor Novello, actor, musician, composer
- 1965 - Margaret Dumont, actress
- 1967 - Zoltán Kodály, composer
- 1967 - Nelson Eddy, singer, actor
- 1973 - Pearl S. Buck, writer
- 1976 - Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom, boxer, actor
- 1982 - Ayn Rand, author
- 1986 - Georgia O'Keefe, artist
Holidays and observances:
See Also: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
March 5 - March 7 - February 6 - April 6 - more historical anniversaries