March 6

March 6 is the 65th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (66th in Leap years). There are 300 days remaining.

It is 啓蟄 (Keichitsu) in the Japanese calendar.

Events

• 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 discovers Guam.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1925 – Pionerskaya Pravda, one of the oldest children's newspapers in Europe, is founded
• 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 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.
• 1992 – The 'Michelangelo' computer virus begins to affect computers.
• 1997 – Picasso's Tete de Femme is stolen from a London gallery, and is recovered a week later.

Births

• 1405 – King John II of Castile (d. 1454)
• 1475 – Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian painter, (d. 1564)
• 1619 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French soldier, poet, (d. 1655)
• 1779 – Antoine-Henri Jomini, general (d. 1869)
• 1806 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet, (d. 1861)
• 1812 – Aaron Lufkin Dennison father of the American System of Watch Manufacturing in Freeport, Maine (d. 1895)
• 1831 – Friedrich von Bodelschwingh, theologian, (d. 1910)
• 1885 – Ring Lardner, writer, (d. 1933)
• 1898 – Therese Giehse, actress, (d. 1975)
• 1903 – Empress Nagako of Japan (d. 2000)
• 1904 – Joseph Schmidt, tenor, (d. 1942)
• 1905 – Bob Wills, country music singer, (d. 1975)
• 1906 – Lou Costello, 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  – Jürgen von Manger, cabaretist, (d. 1994)
• 1923 – Wes Montgomery, American musician (d. 1968)
• 1926 – Alan Greenspan, American economist
• 1926 – Andrzej Wajda, Polish film director
• 1927 – Wes Montgomery, musician
• 1927  – Gordon Cooper, astronaut (d. 2004)
• 1928 – Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian writer
• 1929 – Günter Kunert, writer and lyricist
• 1930 – Lorin Maazel, French-born American conductor
• 1931 – Hal Needham, American stunt man
• 1933 – Ted Abernathy, Major League Baseball player (d. 2004)
• 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
• 1937 – Ivan Boesky, arbitrageur
• 1939 – Adam Osborne, British author, computer designer (d. 2003)
• 1939 – David Spielberg, American actor
• 1940 – Willie Stargell, Baseball Hall of Famer
• 1942 – Ben Murphy, American actor
• 1944 – Kiri Te Kanawa, opera singer
• 1944  – Mary Wilson (singer), singer, member of the Supremes
• 1946 – David Gilmour, musician ("Pink Floyd")
• 1947 – Rob Reiner, actor, comedian, movie producer
• 1947  – Dick Fosbury, athlete
• 1947  – Kiki Dee, singer
• 1948 – Anna Maria Horsford, American actress
• 1949 – Shaukat Aziz, politician
• 1949  – Martin Buchan, Scottish football (soccer) player
• 1953 – Jan Kjærstad, Norwegian author
• 1959 – Tom Arnold, actor, comedian
• 1966 – Yahya Ayyash, Palestinian bomber (d. 1996)
• 1969 – Tari Phillips, basketball player
• 1972 – Shaquille O'Neal, basketball player

Deaths

• 1252 – Saint Rose of Viterbo (b. 1235)
• 1836 – Davy Crockett, frontiersman (b. 1786)
• 1854 – Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, British noble
• 1888 – Louisa May Alcott, novelist, (b. 1832)
• 1899 – Victoria Kaiulani, princess of Hawaii (b. 1875)
• 1905 – John Henninger Reagan, American and Confederate politician (b. 1818)
• 1929 – David Buick, automobile pioneer
• 1932 – John Philip Sousa, band leader, conductor, composer, (b. 1854)
• 1933 – Anton Cermak, mayor of Chicago, wounded weeks earlier by an assassin's bullet intended for Franklin D. Roosevelt, dies of his injuries, (b. 1873)
• 1941 – Gutzon Borglum, Danish sculptor (b. 1867)
• 1948 – Ross Lockridge, Jr., novelist (b. 1914)
• 1951 – Ivor Novello, actor, musician, and composer (b. 1893)
• 1961 – George Formby, British comedian & singer (b. 1904)
• 1965 – Margaret Dumont, actress (b. 1889)
• 1967 – Nelson Eddy, American singer and actor (b. 1901)
• 1967  – Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composer (b. 1882)
• 1969 – Nadya Rusheva, Soviet painter (b. 1952]])
• 1970 – William Hopper, American actor
• 1971 – Thurston Dart, English harpsichordist and conductor
• 1973 – Pearl S. Buck, American writer (b. 1892)
• 1976 – Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom, boxer and actor (b. 1903)
• 1982 – Ayn Rand, Russian-American author, (b. 1905)
• 1985 – Henry Wilcoxon, Dominican actor (b. 1905)
• 1986 – Georgia O'Keeffe, American artist, (b. 1887)
• 1992 – Elvia Allman, American actress
• 1993 – Douglas Marland, soap opera writer (b. 1935)
• 1994 – Melina Mercouri, Greek actress, political activist, politician (b. 1920)
• 1997 – Cheddi Jagan, President of Guyana (b. 1918)
• 1997 – Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica (b. 1924)
• 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)
• 2005 – Hans Bethe, German-American physicist (b. 1906)
• 2005 – Tommy Vance, British radio disc jockey (b. 1943)

Holidays and observances

• In 2004, the Jewish holiday of Purim begins.
• In Ghana, March 6 is the national independence day
• Mothering Sunday in the United Kingdom (2005)
• Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of the season of Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar. (2005)
• Casimir Pulaski Day in Illinois (2006, first Monday of March)

External links

• BBC: On This Day

March 5 – March 7 – February 6 – April 6 — listing of all days