March 6
is the 65th day of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar (66th in
Leap years). There are 300 days remaining.
*
1447 -
Nicholas V becomes
Pope.
*
1454 -
Thirteen Years' War: Delegates of the
Prussian Confederation pledged allegiance to
Casimir IV of Poland, and the
Polish king agreed to help in their struggle for
independence from the
Teutonic Knights.
*
1460 -
Treaty of Alcaçovas -
Portugal gives the
Canary Islands to
Castile in exchange for claims in
West Africa.
*
1521 -
Ferdinand Magellan arrives at
Guam.
*
1788 - The
First Fleet arrives to
Norfolk Island in order to found a
convict settlement.
*
1820 - The
Missouri Compromise is signed into law by
President James Monroe. The compromise allows
Missouri to enter the
Union as a
slave state, but makes the rest of the northern part of the
Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.
*
1834 -
York,
Upper Canada is incorporated as
Toronto.
*
1836 -
Texas Revolution:
Battle of the Alamo - 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.
*
1853 - The
Giuseppe Verdi opera La Traviata premieres in
Venice.
*
1856 - The
University of Maryland, College Park is chartered as the
Maryland Agricultural College.
*
1857 - The
Supreme Court of the United States rules in the
Dred Scott v. Sandford case.
*
1869 -
Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first
periodic table to the
Russian Chemical Society.
*
1899 -
Bayer registers
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.
*
1921 - The
Portuguese Communist Party is founded as the Portuguese Section of the
Communist International.
*
1925 -
Pionerskaya Pravda, one of the oldest children's newspapers in
Europe, is founded.
* 1925 -
Belgium annexes
Eupen,
Malmedy, and
Sankt Vith.
*
1940 -
Winter War: An armistice is signed by
Finland and the
Soviet Union.
*
1945 - A
communist-dominated
government under
Petru Groza assumes power in
Romania.
*
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.
*
1948 -
USS 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
British Togoland become the independent
Republic of
Ghana.
* 1957 -
Israel withdraws its troops from the
Sinai Peninsula.
*
1964 -
Prophet Elijah Muhammad officially gives
Cassius Clay the name
Muhammad Ali meaning "beloved of
Allah".
* 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
Lie: The Love And Terror Cult to help finance his defense.
*
1975 -
Algiers Accord:
Iran and
Iraq announce a settlement over their border dispute.
*
1981 - After 19 years presenting 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 - The
British ferry
M/S Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes in about 90 seconds after leaving the harbour of
Zeebrugge,
Belgium en route to
Dover,
England across the
English Channel, killing 193.
*
1988 - Students at
Gallaudet University go on strike for the selection of a deaf university president. The protest is called
Deaf President Now.
*
1992 - The
Michelangelo computer virus begins to affect
computers.
*
1994 -
Referendum in
Moldova results in the electorate voting against possible reunification with
Romania.
*
1997 -
Picasso's painting
Tête de Femme is stolen from a
London gallery, and is recovered a week later.
*
2006 -
South Dakota Governor
Mike Rounds signs a bill into legislation that would ban most
abortions in the state.
*
1405 - King
John II of Castile (d.
1454)
*
1459 -
Jacob Fugger, German banker (d.
1525)
*
1475 -
Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian painter (d.
1564)
*
1483 -
Francesco Guicciardini, Italian statesman and historian (d.
1540)
*
1495 -
Luigi Alamanni, Italian poet (d.
1556)
*
1619 -
Cyrano de Bergerac, French soldier, poet (d.
1655)
*
1663 -
Francis Atterbury, British man of letters (d.
1732)
*
1706 -
George Pocock, British admiral (d.
1792)
*
1716 -
Pehr Kalm, Swedish explorer and naturalist (d.
1779)
*
1761 -
Antoine-Francois Andreossy, French General (d.
1828)
*
1779 -
Antoine-Henri Jomini, French general (d.
1869)
*
1787 -
Joseph von Fraunhofer, German physicist (d.
1826)
*
1806 -
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, British poet (d.
1861)
*
1812 -
Aaron Lufkin Dennison American watch manufacturer (d.
1895)
*
1841 -
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, French physicist (d.
1902)
*
1882 -
F. Burrall Hoffman, American architect {d.
1980)
*
1885 -
Ring Lardner, American writer (d.
1933)
*
1903 - Empress
Nagako of Japan (d.
2000)
*
1904 -
Joseph Schmidt, Austrian tenor (d.
1942)
*
1905 -
Bob Wills, American singer (d.
1975)
*
1906 -
Lou Costello, American actor comedian (d.
1959)
*
1914 -
Kiril Kondrashin, Russian conductor (d.
1981)
*
1915 -
Pete Gray, American baseball player (d.
2002)
*
1917 -
Will Eisner, American illustrator and cartoonist (d.
2005)
*
1923 -
Ed McMahon, American television personality
* 1923 -
Wes Montgomery, American musician (d.
1968)
*
1926 -
Alan Greenspan, American economist
* 1926 -
Andrzej Wajda, Polish film director
*
1927 -
Gordon Cooper, astronaut (d.
2004)
*
1928 -
Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian writer,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
1930 -
Lorin Maazel, French-born American conductor
*
1931 -
Hal Needham, American stunt man
*
1933 -
Ted Abernathy, baseball player (d.
2004)
*
1934 -
John Noakes, British television presenter
*
1935 -
Ron Delany, Irish athlete
*
1936 -
Marion Barry Jr., Mayor of Washington DC
*
1937 -
Ivan Boesky, American stock trader
* 1937 -
Valentina Tereshkova, cosmonaut
*
1939 -
Adam Osborne, British author and computer designer (d.
2003)
*
1940 -
Willie Stargell, baseball player (d.
2001)
*
1942 -
Ben Murphy, American actor
*
1944 -
Kiri Te Kanawa, New Zealand soprano
* 1944 -
Mary Wilson, American singer (
Supremes)
*
1946 -
David Gilmour, British musician (
Pink Floyd)
*
1947 -
Kiki Dee, British singer
* 1947 -
Dick Fosbury, American athlete
* 1947 -
Martin Kove, American actor
* 1947 -
Teru Miyamoto, Japanese author
* 1947 -
Rob Reiner, American actor, comedian, and film producer
*
1949 -
Shaukat Aziz,
Prime Minister of Pakistan* 1949 -
Martin Buchan, Scottish footballer
*
1951 -
Gerrie Knetemann, Dutch cyclist (d.
2004)
*
1953 -
Jan Kjærstad, Norwegian author
* 1953 -
Jacklyn Zeman, American actress
*
1955 -
Alberta Watson, Canadian actress
*
1959 -
Tom Arnold, American actor and comedian
*
1962 -
Valerie French, American artist and animatronics art director
*
1964 -
Madonna Wayne Gacy, Musician
*
1968 -
Moira Kelly, American actress
*
1969 -
Tari Phillips, American basketball player
*
1971 -
Sean Morley, American professional wrestler
*
1972 -
Terry Murphy, Northern Irish snooker player
* 1972 -
Shaquille O'Neal, American basketball player
*
1976 -
Ken Anderson, American professional wrestler
*
1979 -
Tim Howard, American soccer player
*
1252 -
Saint Rose of Viterbo, Italian saint (b.
1235)
*
1490 -
Ivan the Young, Ruler of Tver (b.
1458)
*
1531 -
Pedrarias Dávila, Spanish conquistador
*
1627 -
Krzysztof Zbaraski, Polish statesman (b.
1580)
*
1754 -
Henry Pelham,
Prime Minister of Great Britain (b.
1694)
*
1758 -
Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington, English politician (b.
1705)
*
1764 -
Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke,
Lord Chancellor of England (b.
1690)
*
1796 -
Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, French writer (b.
1713)
*
1836 -
Davy Crockett, American frontiersman (b.
1786)
*
1854 -
Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, British soldier and politician (b.
1778)
*
1888 -
Louisa May Alcott, American novelist (b.
1832)
*
1895 -
Camilla Collett, Norwegian writer and feminist (b.
1813)
*
1899 -
Victoria Kaiulani, Hawaiian princess (b.
1875)
*
1905 -
John Henninger Reagan, American Confederate politician (b.
1818)
*
1932 -
John Philip Sousa, American band leader, conductor, and composer (b.
1854)
*
1933 -
Anton Cermak, Mayor of Chicago (b.
1873)
*
1941 -
Gutzon Borglum, Danish sculptor (b.
1867)
*
1948 -
Ross Lockridge, Jr., American novelist (b.
1914)
*
1950 -
Albert Lebrun,
President of France (b.
1871)
*
1951 -
Ivor Novello, Welsh actor, musician, and composer (b.
1893)
* 1951 -
Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Ukraianian politician and statesman (b.
1880)
*
1952 -
Jürgen Stroop, Nazi SS-leader (executed) (b.
1895)
*
1961 -
George Formby, British comedian and singer (b.
1904)
*
1964 - King
Paul of Greece (b.
1901)
*
1965 -
Margaret Dumont, American actress (b.
1889)
*
1967 -
John Haden Badley, author and educator (b.
1865)
* 1967 -
Nelson Eddy, American singer and actor (b.
1901)
* 1967 -
Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composer (b.
1882)
*
1969 -
Nadya Rusheva, Russian painter (b.
1952)
*
1970 -
William Hopper, American actor (b.
1915)
*
1971 -
Thurston Dart, English harpsichordist and conductor (b.
1921)
*
1973 -
Pearl S. Buck, American writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1892)
*
1976 -
Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom, American boxer and actor (b.
1903)
*
1981 -
George Geary, English cricketer (b.
1893)
*
1982 -
Ayn Rand, Russian-American author (b.
1905)
*
1985 -
Henry Wilcoxon, Dominican actor (b.
1905)
*
1986 -
Georgia O'Keeffe, American artist (b.
1887)
*
1993 -
Douglas Marland, American writer (b.
1935)
*
1994 -
Melina Mercouri, Greek actress, political activist, and politician (b.
1920)
*
1997 -
Cheddi Jagan,
President of Guyana (b.
1918)
* 1997 -
Michael Manley,
Prime Minister of Jamaica (b.
1924)
*
1998 -
Frank Barrett, Baseball player (b.
1913)
*
1999 -
Isa ibn Salman Al Khalifah, emir of Bahrain (b.
1933)
*
2000 -
John Colicos, Canadian actor (b.
1928)
*
2001 -
Kim Walker, American actress (b.
1968)
*
2003 -
John Sanford, American author (b.
1904)
*
2004 -
Frances Dee, American actress (b.
1909)
* 2004 -
Ray Fernandez, wrestler (b.
1957)
*
2005 -
Hans Bethe, German-born physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1906)
* 2005 -
Tommy Vance, British radio disc jockey (b.
1943)
* 2005 -
Danny Gardella, baseball player (b.
1920)
*
2006 -
Kirby Puckett, American
Hall of Fame baseball player (b.
1960)
* 2006 -
Dana Reeve, American actress, wife of
Christopher Reeve (b.
1961)
* In
2004, the
Jewish holiday of
Purim begins.
* In
Ghana, - The
National independence day.
*
Casimir Pulaski Day in
Illinois (
2006, first
Monday of
March).
Liturgical feasts
*
Saint Chrodegang*
Saint Fridolin*
Saint Coleta of Ghent*
On this day in Canada*
NY Times: On this day*
BBC: On This DayMarch 5 -
March 7 -
February 6 -
April 6 --
listing of all days
