May 6 (original) (raw)
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.
- 1682 - Louis XIV of France moves his court to Versailles.
- 1835 - James Gordon Bennett publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.
- 1861 - American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.
- 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 killing 36.
- 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.
- 1981 - A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
- 1994 - Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President Francois 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.
- 1999 - In New York, a parole board votes to release Amy Fisher who had been in prison for 7 years for shooting her lover's wife.
- 2002 - Jean-Pierre Raffarin becomes Prime Minister of France
Births
- 1758 - Maximilian Robespierre, revolutionary († 1794)
- 1856 - Sigmund Freud, psychiatrist, founder of psychoanalysis († 1939)
- 1856 - Robert Peary, explorer († 1920)
- 1861 - Rabindranath Tagore, author († 1941)
- 1868 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia († 1918)
- 1868 - Gaston Leroux, writer († 1927)
- 1871 - Christian Morgenstern, author († 1914)
- 1880 - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, painter († 1938)
- 1882 - Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany, heir of Kaiser Wilhelm II († 1951)
- 1895 - Rudolph Valentino, actor († 1926)
- 1902 - Max Oph�ls, director († 1957)
- 1915 - Orson Welles, director († 1985)
- 1915 - Theodore H. White, writer († 1986)
- 1920 - Ross Hunter, producer († 1996)
- 1921 - Erich Fried, author († 1988)
- 1925 - Hanns Dieter H�sch, 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
- 1953 - Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1961 - George Clooney, actor
- 1970 - George Rivas, Texas 7 ringleader
Deaths
- 680 - Muawiyah I, Umayyad caliph
- 1502 - James Tyrrell, executed; alleged murderer of the Princes in the Tower
- 1910 - King Edward VII of the United Kingdom
- 1919 - L. Frank Baum, writer
- 1987 - William Casey, head of the Central Intelligence Agency
- 1992 - Marlene Dietrich, actress
- 2002 - Pim Fortuyn, Dutch politician
Holidays and observances
See Also:
May 5 - May 7 - April 6 - June 6 -- listing of all days
January, February, March, April, May, June, July,August, September, October, November, December