March 6 - Definition and Overview

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.
• 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.
• 1869 - Dmitri Mendeleev presented 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.
• 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 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, 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, 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)
• 1914 - Kiril Kondrashin, Russian conductor (d. 1981)
• 1923 - Ed McMahon, American 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 (d. 2004)
• 1928 - Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian writer
• 1929 - Günter Kunert, writer and lyricist
• 1930 - Lorin Maazel, French-born American conductor
• 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
• 1941 - Willie Stargell, Baseball Hall of Famer
• 1944 - Kiri Te Kanawa, opera singer
• 1944 - Mary Wilson (singer), singer, member of the Supremes
• 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)
• 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, 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)
• 1948 - Ross Lockridge, Jr., novelist, (b. 1914)
• 1951 - Ivor Novello, actor, musician, composer, (b. 1893)
• 1953 - Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader
• 1965 - Margaret Dumont, actress, (b. 1889)
• 1967 - Nelson Eddy, singer, actor
• 1967 - Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composer, (b. 1882)
• 1971 - Thurston Dart, English harpsichordist and conductor (b. 1921)
• 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 (b. 1935)
• 2003 - John Sanford, author

Holidays and observances

• In 2004, the Jewish holiday of Purim begins.
• In Ghana, march 6 is the national independence day

March 5 - March 7 - February 6 - April 6 -- listing of all days