March 6

Events

Pre-1600

* 12 BCE – The Roman emperor Augustus is named Pontifex Maximus, incorporating the position into that of the emperor.
* 632 – The Farewell Sermon (Khutbah, Khutbatul Wada') of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
* 845 – The 42 Martyrs of Amorium are killed after refusing to convert to Islam.
* 961 – Byzantine conquest of Chandax by Nikephoros Phokas, end of the Emirate of Crete.
*1204 – The Siege of Château Gaillard ends in a French victory over King John of England, who loses control of Normandy to King Philip II Augustus.
*1323 – Treaty of Paris of 1323 is signed.
* 1454 – Thirteen Years' War: Delegates of the Prussian Confederation pledge allegiance to King Casimir IV of Poland who agrees to commit his forces in aiding the Confederation's struggle for independence from the Teutonic Knights.
* 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Guam.

1601–1900

* 1665 – The first joint Secretary of the Royal Society, Henry Oldenburg, publishes the first issue of ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'', the world's longest-running scientific journal.
* 1788 – The First Fleet arrives at Norfolk Island in order to found a convict settlement.
* 1820 – The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, brings Maine into the Union as a free state, and 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 thirteen-day siege by an army of 3,000 Mexican troops, the 187 Texas volunteers, including frontiersman Davy Crockett and colonel Jim Bowie, defending the Alamo are killed and the fort is captured.
* 1857 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules 7–2 in the ''Dred Scott v. Sandford'' case that the Constitution does not confer citizenship on black people.
* 1869 – Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
* 1882 – The Serbian kingdom is re-founded.
* 1899 – Bayer registers "Aspirin" as a trademark.

1901–present

* 1901 – Anarchist assassin tries to kill German Emperor Wilhelm II.
* 1904 – Scottish National Antarctic Expedition: Led by William Speirs Bruce, the Antarctic region of Coats Land was discovered from the ''Scotia''.
* 1912 – Italo-Turkish War: Italian forces become the first to use airships in war, as two dirigibles drop bombs on Turkish troops encamped at Janzur, from an altitude of 6,000 feet.
* 1930 – International Unemployment Day demonstrations globally initiated by the Comintern.
* 1933 – Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a "bank holiday", closing all U.S. banks and freezing all financial transactions.
* 1943 – Norman Rockwell published '' Freedom from Want'' in ''The Saturday Evening Post'' with a matching essay by Carlos Bulosan as part of the ''Four Freedoms'' series.
* 1943 – World War II: ''Generalfeldmarschall'' Erwin Rommel launches the Battle of Medenine in an attempt to slow down the British Eight Army. It fails, and he leaves Africa three days later.
* 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Fardykambos, one of the first major battles between the Greek Resistance and the occupying Royal Italian Army, ends with the surrender of an entire Italian battalion, the bulk of the garrison of the town of Grevena, leading to its liberation a fortnight later.
*1944 – World War II: Soviet Air Forces bomb an evacuated town of Narva in German-occupied Estonia, destroying the entire historical Swedish-era town.
*1945 – World War II: Cologne is captured by American troops. On the same day, Operation Spring Awakening, the last major German offensive of the war, begins.
* 1946 – Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
* 1951 – Cold War: The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins.
* 1953 – Georgy Malenkov succeeds Joseph Stalin as Premier of the Soviet Union and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
* 1957 – Ghana becomes the first Sub-Saharan country to gain independence from the British.
* 1964 – Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad officially gives boxing champion Cassius Clay the name Muhammad Ali.
* 1964 – Constantine II becomes the last King of Greece.
*1965 – Premier Tom Playford of South Australia loses power after 27 years in office.
* 1967 – Cold War: Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva defects to the United States.
* 1968 – Three rebels are executed by Rhodesia, the first executions since UDI, prompting international condemnation.
*1970 – An explosion at the Weather Underground safe house in Greenwich Village kills three.
* 1975 – For the first time the Zapruder film of the assassination of John F. Kennedy is shown in motion to a national TV audience by Robert J. Groden and Dick Gregory.
* 1975 – Algiers Accord: Iran and Iraq announce a settlement of their border dispute.
* 1984 – In the United Kingdom, a walkout at Cortonwood Colliery in Brampton Bierlow signals the start of a strike that lasted almost a year and involved the majority of the country's miners.
* 1987 – The British ferry capsizes in about 90 seconds, killing 193.
*1988 – Three Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers are shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar in Operation Flavius.
*1992 – The Michelangelo computer virus begins to affect computers.
* 2003 – Air Algérie Flight 6289 crashes at the Aguenar – Hadj Bey Akhamok Airport in Tamanrasset, Algeria, killing 102 out of the 103 people on board.
* 2008 – A suicide bomber kills 68 people (including first responders) in Baghdad on the same day that a gunman kills eight students in Jerusalem.
* 2018 – Forbes names Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person, for the first time, at $112 billion net worth.
*2020 – 32 people are killed and 81 are injured when gunmen open fire on a ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Islamic State claims responsibility for the attack.

Births

Pre-1600

*1340 – John of Gaunt (probable; d. 1399)
* 1405 – John II of Castile (d. 1454)
* 1459 – Jakob Fugger, German merchant and banker (d. 1525)
* 1475 – Michelangelo, Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1564)
* 1483 – Francesco Guicciardini, Italian historian and politician (d. 1540)
* 1493 – Juan Luis Vives, Spanish scholar and humanist (d. 1540)
* 1495 – Luigi Alamanni, Italian poet and diplomat (d. 1556)
* 1536 – Santi di Tito, Italian painter (d. 1603)

1601–1900

*1619 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French author and playwright (d. 1655)
* 1663 – Francis Atterbury, English bishop and poet (d. 1732)
* 1706 – George Pocock, English admiral (d. 1792)
* 1716 – Pehr Kalm, Swedish-Finnish botanist and explorer (d. 1779)
* 1724 – Henry Laurens, English-American merchant and politician, 5th President of the Continental Congress (d. 1792)
* 1761 – Antoine-François Andréossy, French general and diplomat (d. 1828)
* 1779 – Antoine-Henri Jomini, Swiss-French general (d. 1869)
* 1780 – Lucy Barnes, American writer (d. 1809)
* 1785 – Karol Kurpiński, Polish composer and conductor (d. 1857)
* 1787 – Joseph von Fraunhofer, German physicist and astronomer (d. 1826)
* 1806 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English-Italian poet and translator (d. 1861)
*1812 – Aaron Lufkin Dennison, American businessman, co-founded the Waltham Watch Company (d. 1895)
* 1817 – Princess Clémentine of Orléans (d. 1907)
* 1818 – William Claflin, American businessman and politician, 27th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1905)
* 1823 – Charles I of Württemberg (d. 1891)
* 1826 – Annie Feray Mutrie, British painter (d. 1893)
* 1831 – Philip Sheridan, Irish-American general (d. 1888)
* 1834 – George du Maurier, French-English author and illustrator (d. 1896)
* 1841 – Viktor Burenin, Russian author, poet, playwright, and critic (d. 1926)
* 1849 – Georg Luger, Austrian gun designer, designed the Luger pistol (d. 1923)
*1864 – Richard Rushall, British businessman (d. 1953)
* 1865 – Duan Qirui, Chinese warlord and politician (d. 1936)
* 1870 – Oscar Straus, Viennese composer and conductor (d. 1954)
* 1871 – Afonso Costa, Portuguese lawyer and politician, 59th Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1937)
*1872 – Ben Harney, American pianist and composer (d. 1938)
* 1877 – Rose Fyleman, English writer and poet (d. 1957)
* 1879 – Jimmy Hunter, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1962)
* 1882 – F. Burrall Hoffman, American architect, co-designed Villa Vizcaya (d. 1980)
* 1882 – Guy Kibbee, American actor and singer (d. 1956)
* 1884 – Molla Mallory, Norwegian-American tennis player (d. 1959)
* 1885 – Ring Lardner, American journalist and author (d. 1933)
*1892 – Bert Smith, English international footballer (d. 1969)
* 1893 – Furry Lewis, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1981)
* 1893 – Ella P. Stewart, pioneering Black American pharmacist (d. 1987)
* 1895 – Albert Tessier, Canadian priest and historian (d. 1976)
* 1898 – Gus Sonnenberg, American football player and wrestler (d. 1944)
* 1900 – Gina Cigna, French-Italian soprano and actress (d. 2001)
* 1900 – Lefty Grove, American baseball player (d. 1975)
* 1900 – Henri Jeanson, French journalist and author (d. 1970)

1901–present

* 1903 – Empress Kōjun of Japan (d. 2000)
* 1904 – José Antonio Aguirre, Spanish lawyer and politician, 1st President of the Basque Country (d. 1960)
* 1905 – Bob Wills, American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader (d. 1975)
* 1906 – Lou Costello, American actor and comedian (d. 1959)
* 1909 – Obafemi Awolowo, Nigerian lawyer and politician (d. 1987)
* 1909 – Stanisław Jerzy Lec, Polish poet and author (d. 1966)
* 1910 – Emma Bailey, American auctioneer and author (d. 1999)
* 1912 – Mohammed Burhanuddin, Indian spiritual leader, 52nd Da'i al-Mutlaq (d. 2014)
* 1913 – Ella Logan, Scottish-American singer and actress (d. 1969)
* 1917 – Donald Davidson, American philosopher and academic (d. 2003)
* 1917 – Will Eisner, American illustrator and publisher (d. 2005)
* 1917 – Frankie Howerd, English comedian (d. 1992)
* 1918 – Howard McGhee, American trumpeter (d. 1987)
* 1920 – Lewis Gilbert, English director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2018)
* 1921 – Leo Bretholz, Austrian-American holocaust survivor and author (d. 2014)
* 1923 – Ed McMahon, American comedian, game show host, and announcer (d. 2009)
* 1923 – Wes Montgomery, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 1968)
* 1924 – Ottmar Walter, German footballer (d. 2013)
* 1924 – William H. Webster, American lawyer and jurist, 14th Director of Central Intelligence
* 1926 – Ann Curtis, American swimmer (d. 2012)
* 1926 – Alan Greenspan, American economist and politician
* 1926 – Ray O'Connor, Australian politician, 22nd Premier of Western Australia (d. 2013)
* 1926 – Andrzej Wajda, Polish director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2016)
* 1927 – William J. Bell, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2005)
* 1927 – Gordon Cooper, American engineer, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2004)
* 1927 – Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2014)
* 1929 – Tom Foley, American lawyer and politician, 57th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 2013)
* 1929 – David Sheppard, English cricketer and bishop (d. 2005)
* 1930 – Lorin Maazel, French-American violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 2014)
* 1932 – Marc Bazin, Haitian lawyer and politician, 49th President of Haiti (d. 2010)
* 1932 – Bronisław Geremek, Polish historian and politician, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2008)
* 1933 – Ted Abernathy, American baseball player (d. 2004)
* 1933 – William Davis, German-English journalist and economist (d. 2019)
* 1933 – Augusto Odone, Italian economist and inventor of Lorenzo's oil (d. 2013)
* 1934 – Red Simpson, American singer-songwriter (d. 2016)
* 1935 – Ron Delany, Irish runner and coach
* 1935 – Derek Kevan, English footballer (d. 2013)
* 1936 – Bob Akin, American race car driver and journalist (d. 2002)
* 1936 – Marion Barry, American lawyer and politician, 2nd Mayor of the District of Columbia (d. 2014)
* 1936 – Choummaly Sayasone, Laotian politician, 5th President of Laos
* 1937 – Ivan Boesky, American businessman
* 1937 – Valentina Tereshkova, Russian general, pilot, and astronaut
* 1938 – Keishu Tanaka, Japanese politician, 17th Japanese Minister of Justice
* 1939 – Kit Bond, American lawyer and politician, 47th Governor of Missouri
* 1939 – Adam Osborne, Thai-Indian engineer and businessman, founded the Osborne Computer Corporation

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