6 March
March 6 is the 65th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (66th in Leap years). There are 298 days remaining.
It is 啓蟄 (Keichitsu) in the Japanese calendar.
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 - The Missouri Compromise is signed into law 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 - 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.
- 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.
- 1940 - Winter War: An armistice is signed by Finland and the Soviet Union.
- 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.
- 1957 - Israel withdraws its troops from the Sinai Peninsula
- 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, (d. 1564)
- 1619 - Cyrano de Bergerac, soldier, poet, (d. 1655)
- 1779 - Antoine-Henri Jomini, General (d. 1869)
- 1806 - Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet, (d. 1861)
- 1812 - Aaron Lufkin Dennison father of the American System of Watch Manufacturing in Freeport, Main, U.S.A.
- 1831 - Friedrich von Bodelschwingh, theologian, (d. 1910)
- 1885 - Ring Lardner, writer, (d. 1933)
- 1898 - Therese Giehse, actress, (d. 1975)
- 1904 - Joseph Schmidt, tenor, (d. 1942)
- 1905 - Bob Wills, country music singer, (d. 1975)
- 1906 - Lou Costello, actor, comedian, (d. 1959)
- 1923 - Ed McMahon, television personality
- 1923 - Jürgen von Manger, cabaretist, (d. 1994)
- 1926 - Alan Greenspan, American economist
- 1926 - Andrzej Wajda, Polish film director
- 1927 - Wes Montgomery, musician
- 1927 - Gordon Cooper, astronaut
- 1928 - Gabriel García Márquez, writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1982
- 1929 - Günter Kunert, writer and lyricist
- 1930 - Lorin Maazel, opera conductor
- 1934 - John Noakes, British TV presenter (Blue Peter)
- 1935 - Ron Delany, Irish athlete
- 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
- 1949 - Shaukat Aziz, politician
- 1953 - Jan Kjærstad, Norwegian author
- 1957 - Joseph M. Meli, genealogist, management consultant
- 1959 - Tom Arnold, actor, comedian
- 1963 - D.L. Hughley, actor, comedian
- 1969 - Tari Phillips, basketball player
- 1972 - Shaquille O'Neal, basketball player
Deaths
- 1836 - Davy Crockett, frontiersman (b. 1786)
- 1888 - Louisa May Alcott, novelist, (b. 1832)
- 1899 - Victoria Kaiulani, princess of Hawaii (b. 1875)
- 1929 - David Buick, automobile pioneer
- 1932 - John Philip Sousa, band leader, conductor, composer, (b. 1854)
- 1933 - Anton Cermak, mayor of Chicago, Illinois, wounded weeks earlier by an assassin's bullet intended for Franklin D. Roosevelt, dies of his injuries, (b. 1873)
- 1941 - Gutzon Borglum, sculptor, (b. 1867)
- 1951 - Ivor Novello, actor, musician, composer, (b. 1893)
- 1965 - Margaret Dumont, actress, (b. 1889)
- 1967 - Zoltán Kodály, composer, (b. 1882)
- 1967 - Nelson Eddy, singer, actor
- 1973 - Pearl S. Buck, writer, (b. 1892)
- 1976 - Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom, boxer, actor
- 1982 - Ayn Rand, author, (b. 1905)
- 1986 - Georgia O'Keeffe, artist, (b. 1887)
- 1993 - Douglas Marland, soap opera writer (As the World Turns) (b. 1935)
Holidays and observances
March 5 - March 7 - February 6 - April 6 -- listing of all days
