May 6
May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (127th in leap years). There are 239 days remaining.
Events
- 1527 - Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance.
- 1536 - King Henry VIII orders Bible be placed in every church.
- 1682 - Louis XIV of France moves his court to Versailles.
- 1816 - The American Bible Society is founded in New York City.
- 1835 - James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.
- 1861 - American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.
- 1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends, with a defeat of the Army of the Potomac under General Joseph Hooker by Confederate troops under Stonewall Jackson.
- 1877 - Realizing that his people were weakened by cold and hunger, Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.
- 1889 - The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.
- 1910 - George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII.
- 1935 - New Deal: Executive Order 7034 creates the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
- 1937 - Hindenburg disaster: The German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people are killed.
- 1940 - John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.
- 1941 - At California's March Field Bob Hope performs his first USO show.
- 1942 - World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
- 1945 - World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (first was on December 11, 1941).
- 1954 - Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.
- 1966 - Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors Murders in England.
- 1981 - A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
- 1988 - An airplane going from Namsos to Brønnøysund in Norway crashes into the side of the Torghatten mountain, and all the 36 passengers and crew dies.
- 1994 - Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand inaugurate the opening of the Chunnel – a tunnel under the English Channel linking England and France for the first time since the end of the Great Ice Age.
- 1998 - The body of former CIA director William Colby was found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he’d disappeared.
- 1999 - In New York, a parole board votes to release Amy Fisher, in prison for the last 7 years for shooting her lover's wife.
- 2002 - Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is assassinated during the 2002 Dutch national election campaign by Volkert van der Graaf.
- 2002 - Jean-Pierre Raffarin becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 2002 - The World Wrestling Federation announces that they have changed their name to World Wrestling Entertainment after losing a court battle with the World Wildlife Fund.
- 2004 - The last episode of the popular television sitcom Friends airs.
Births
- 1501 - Pope Marcellus II (d. 1555)
- 1574 - Pope Innocent X (d. 1655)
- 1758 - Maximilien Robespierre, revolutionary (d. 1794)
- 1758 - André Masséna, French soldier (d. 1817)
- 1769 - Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1824)
- 1797 - Joseph Brackett, American religious leader and composer (d. 1882)
- 1856 - Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist (d. 1939)
- 1856 - Robert Peary, explorer (d. 1920)
- 1861 - Rabindranath Tagore, author (d. 1941)
- 1868 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (d. 1918)
- 1868 - Gaston Leroux, writer (d. 1927)
- 1871 - Victor Grignard, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1935)
- 1871 - Christian Morgenstern, author (d. 1914)
- 1879 - Bedřich Hrozný, Czech orientalist and linguist (d. 1952)
- 1880 - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, painter (d. 1938)
- 1882 - Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany, heir of Kaiser Wilhelm II (d. 1951)
- 1895 - Rudolph Valentino, actor (d. 1926)
- 1902 - Max Ophüls, director (d. 1957)
- 1902 - Harry Golden, American journalist (d. 1981)
- 1904 - Moshe Feldenkrais, founder of the Feldenkrais method (d. 1984)
- 1906 - Enrique Laguerre, Puerto Rican writer (d. June 16, 2005)
- 1915 - Orson Welles, director (d. 1985)
- 1915 - Theodore H. White, writer (d. 1986)
- 1920 - Ross Hunter, producer (d. 1996)
- 1920 - Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, first Prime Minister and later President of Fiji (d. 2004)
- 1921 - Erich Fried, author (d. 1988)
- 1925 - Hanns Dieter Hüsch, cabaretist
- 1931 - Willie Mays, Baseball Hall of Famer
- 1937 - Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, boxer
- 1945 - Bob Seger, rock music singer
- 1945 - Jimmie Dale Gilmore, musician
- 1947 - Martha Nussbaum, philosopher
- 1952 - Michael O'Hare, American actor
- 1953 - Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1955 - Tom Bergeron, game show host
- 1960 - John Flansburgh, musician
- 1961 - George Clooney, actor
- 1964 - Dana Hill, actress
- 1970 - George Rivas, Texas 7 ringleader
- 1972 - Martin Brodeur, hockey player
- 1980 - Kate Lawler, Big Brother contestant
Deaths
- 680 - Muawiyah I, Umayyad caliph (b. 602)
- 1502 - James Tyrrell, alleged murderer of the Princes in the Tower (executed)
- 1555 - Pope Marcellus II (b. 1501)
- 1859 - Alexander von Humboldt, German naturalist and explorer (b. 1769)
- 1862 - Henry David Thoreau, American author and philosopher (b. 1817)
- 1902 - Bret Harte, American author (b. 1836)
- 1910 - King Edward VII of the United Kingdom (b. 1841)
- 1911 - George Maledon, American judge
- 1919 - L. Frank Baum, writer (b. 1856)
- 1949 - Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian writer (b. 1862)
- 1952 - Maria Montessori, educator (b. 1870)
- 1961 - Lucian Blaga, Romanian poet, playwright, and philosopher (b. 1895)
- 1987 - William Casey, American Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (b. 1913)
- 1992 - Marlene Dietrich, German actress (b. 1901)
- 2002 - Pim Fortuyn, Dutch politician (assassinated) (b. 1948)
Holidays and observances
External links
May 5 – May 7 – April 6 – June 6 – listing of all days
See also: May 6, 1501, 1502, 1527, 1536
