Events

Up to 1900 
 12 BC - The Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar is named "Pontifex Maximus", incorporating his position into that of Emperor.
 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.
 1645 - Thirty Years' War: In the Battle of Jankau, the Swedish force under Lennart Torstensson wins, and takes field marshal Melchior von Hatzfeldt prisoner.
 1714 - End of the War of Spanish Succession.
 1788 - The first fleet arrives at Norfolk Island and founds 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, 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.
 1856 – The University of Maryland, College Park is chartered as the Maryland Agricultural College.
 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.
 1882 - The Serbian Kingdom is re-founded.
 1899 – Bayer registers aspirin as a trademark.
 1900 – A coal mine explosion in West Virginia traps 50 coal miners.

1901  2000 
 1901 – In Bremen an assassin attempts to kill Wilhelm II of Germany.
 1902 - The football team Real Madrid is founded, though the word "Real", Spanish for "Royal", is only later added to the team's name.
 1913 - First Balkan War: The Greek army captures the Bizani fortress near Ioannina from the Ottoman Empire.
 1921 - The Portuguese Communist Party is founded.
 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.
 1945 – A communist-dominated government under Petru Groza assumes power in Romania.
 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 – USS 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.
 1954 - Chancellor of West Germany Konrad Adenauer visits the United States.
 1957 – United Kingdom colonies Gold Coast and British Togoland become the independent Republic of Ghana.
 1957 – Israel withdraws its troops from the Sinai Peninsula.
 1960 - Geneva gives women the right to vote, becoming the third canton of Switzerland to do so.
 1962 - The Ash Wednesday storm of 1962 hits the Mid-Atlantic coast of the United States.
 1964 – Prophet Elijah Muhammad officially gives Cassius Clay the name Muhammad Ali meaning "beloved of Allah"
 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.
 1967 - Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Joseph Stalin, defects to the United States.
 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.
 1980 - Komodo National Park is founded in Indonesia, with the aim of protecting the Komodo dragon.
 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.
 1994 – Referendum in Moldova results in the electorate voting against possible reunification with Romania.
 1997 – Picasso's painting Tête de Femme is stolen from a London gallery, and is recovered a week later.

From 2001 
 2003 – An Air Algerie Boeing 737 crashes in Tamanrasset, Algeria, killing 102 out of the 103 people on board.
 2005 – In Moss, Norway, three Edvard Munch paintings are stolen. The thieves are arrested the next day.
 2008 - A suicide bomber kills 68 people in Baghdad, including first responders.
 2008 - A gunman kills eight students in Jerusalem.
 2009 – Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe's opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change, is injured in a car crash in which his wife Susan Tsvangirai is killed.
 2014 - Euromaidan and Crimea Crisis: The regional parliament of Crimea votes by a majority to become part of Russia (instead of Ukraine) and decides to hold a referendum on this, on March 16. Ukraine, the EU and United States declare this move illegal.
 2015 - NASA's Dawn probe enters orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres.
 2019 - Venezuelan political crisis: German ambassador Daniel Kriener is expelled from the country.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1340 – John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (d. 1399)
 1405 – King John II of Castile (d. 1454)
 1459 – Jakob Fugger, German banker (d. 1525)
 1475 – Michelangelo, Italian artist (d. 1564)
 1483 - Francesco Guicciardini, Italian statesman and historian (d. 1540)
 1492 - Juan Luis Vives, Spanish humanist, philosopher and educator (d. 1540)
 1495 - Luigi Alamanni, Italian poet (d. 1556)
 1508 – Humayun, Mogul Emperor (d. 1556)
 1619 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French soldier and poet (d. 1655)
 1663 - Francis Atterbury, British man of letters (d. 1732)
 1706 – George Pocock, British admiral (d. 1792)
 1716 – Pehr Kalm, Swedish explorer and naturalist (d. 1775)
 1724 - Henry Laurens, American merchant, slave trader and political leader (d. 1792)
 1761 - Antoine-François Andréossy, French-Italian nobleman (d. 1828)
 1785 - Karol Kurpinski, Polish composer (d. 1857)
 1787 – Joseph von Fraunhofer, German optician (d. 1826)
 1806 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (d. 1861)
 1812 - Arthur Lufkin Dennison, American watch manufacturer (d. 1895)
 1817 - Princess Clementine of Orleans (d. 1907)
 1818 - William Claflin, 27th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1905)
 1823 - Charles I of Württemberg (d. 1891) 
 1831 - Philip Sheridan, American Civil War Union cavalry officer (d. 1888)
 1834 - George du Maurier, British illustrator and writer (d. 1896)
 1838 - Szymon Winawer, Polish chess player (d. 1919)
 1849 - Georg Luger, Austrian inventor (d. 1923)
 1870 - Oscar Straus, Austrian composer (d. 1954)
 1871 – Afonso Costa, Portuguese politician (d. 1937)
 1882 - John January, American soccer player (d. 1917)
 1884 – Molla Mallory, Norwegian-born American tennis player (d. 1959)
 1885 – Ring Lardner, American writer (d. 1933)
 1886 - Henry Jamison Handy, American swimmer, water polo player and movie maker (d. 1983)
 1893 - Furry Lewis, American blues guitarist (d. 1981)
 1900 - Lefty Grove, American baseball player (d. 1975)

1901  1950 
 1903 – Empress Kojun of Japan (d. 2000)
 1904 - José Antonio Aguirre, 1st President of the Basque Country (d. 1960)
 1905 - Bob Wills, American bandleader and songwriter (d. 1975)
 1906 – Lou Costello, American actor and comedian (d. 1959)
 1911 - George Webb, English actor (d. 1998)
 1913 - Louise Latimer, American actress (d. 1973)
 1915 - Mohammed Burhanuddin, Indian spiritual leader (d. 2014)
 1917 – Frankie Howerd, English comedian (d. 1992)
 1917 – Donald Davidson, American philosopher (d. 2003)
 1917 – Will Eisner, American illustrator and cartoonist (d. 2005)
 1917 - Samael Aun Weor, Colombian author, lecturer and teacher (d. 1977)
 1919 - Harry Coover, American inventor of Super Glue (d. 2011)
 1920 - Lewis Gilbert, English movie director, movie producer and screenwriter (d. 2018)
 1921 - Leo Bretholz, Austrian-American Holocaust survivor (d. 2014)
 1923 - Wes Montgomery, American musician (d. 1968)
 1923 – Ed McMahon, American television personality (d. 2009)
 1924 – Ottmar Walter, German footballer (d. 2013)
 1924 - Sarah Caldwell, American conductor (d. 2006)
 1924 - William H. Webster, 14th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
 1926 - Ray O'Connor, 22nd Premier of Western Australia (d. 2013)
 1926 – Alan Greenspan, American economist
 1926 – Andrzej Wajda, Polish movie director (d. 2016)
 1927 – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colombian writer, Nobel Prize winner (d. 2014)
 1927 - Gordon Cooper, American astronaut (d. 2004)
 1928 - Glyn Owen, Welsh actor (d. 2004)
 1930 - Lorin Maazel, French-American violinist, composer and conductor (d. 2014)
 1931 - Hal Needham, American stuntman, director, actor and screenwriter (d. 2013)
 1931 - Ed Whitlock, English-Canadian runner (d. 2017)
 1932 – Bronislaw Geremek, Polish social historian and politician (d. 2008)
 1932 - Marc Bazin, Haitian politician (d. 2010)
 1932 - Jean Boht, English actress
 1933 - Ted Abernathy, American baseball player (d. 2004)
 1934 - Red Simpson, American country music singer-songwriter (d. 2016)
 1934 - John Noakes, British television presenter (d. 2017)
 1935 - Ron Delany, Irish middle-distance runner
 1936 – Choummaly Sayasone, former President of Laos
 1936 - Marion Barry, American politician (d. 2014)
 1937 – Valentina Tereshkova, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut, first woman in space
 1939 – Infanta Margarita of Spain
 1939 - Kit Bond, American politician, 47th Governor of Missouri
 1939 - Adam Osborne, writer and computer designer (d. 2003)
 1941 - Peter Broetzmann, German jazz saxophonist
 1944 – Kiri Te Kanawa, New Zealand opera singer
 1944 – Mary Wilson, American singer (d. 2021)
 1946 – David Gilmour, British musician (Pink Floyd)
 1947 - Kiki Dee, British singer-songwriter
 1947 – Rob Reiner, American director
 1948 - Stephen Schwartz, American musical theatre lyricist and composer
 1949 – Shaukat Aziz, Pakistani politician
 1949 - Martin Buchan, Scottish footballer

1951  1975 
 1951 - Stedman Graham, American writer
 1951 - Walter Trout, American composer, guitarist and singer
 1953 - Carolyn Porco, American planetary scientist
 1953 – Madhav Kumar Nepal, Nepalese politician
 1954 – Harald Schumacher, German footballer
 1955 – Cyprien Ntaryamira, President of Burundi (d. 1994)
 1955 - Alberta Watson, Canadian actress (d. 2015)
 1959 – Tom Arnold, American actor and comedian
 1959 - Tommy Sheppard, Northern Irish-Scottish politician
 1963 - Gary Stevens, American jockey
 1963 - Suzanne Crough, American actress (d. 2015)
 1964 – Sandro Rosell, Spanish football manager
 1966 – Alan Davies, English actor and comedian
 1967 - Connie Britton, American actress
 1967 - Julio Bocca, Argentine ballet dancer and director
 1967 - Shuler Hensley, American actor and singer
 1968 - Moira Kelly, American actress
 1969 - Amy Pietz, American actress
 1970 – Chris Broderick, American musician
 1971 – Karst Tates, Dutch attempted assassin (d. 2009)
 1972 – Shaquille O'Neal, American basketball player
 1973 - Michael Kelly, American basketball player

From 1976 
 1976 – Ken Anderson, American professional wrestler
 1977 – Giorgos Karagounis, Greek footballer
 1978 – Lara Cox, Australian actress
 1978 - Teruaki Kurobe, Japanese footballer
 1979 – Rufus Hound, English comedian
 1979 - Garry Monk, English footballer and manager
 1979 – Tim Howard, American soccer player
 1981 - Tim Brown, New Zealand footballer
 1981 – Zlatan Muslimovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina footballer
 1981 - Ellen Muth, American actress
 1983 – Andranik Teymourian, Iranian footballer
 1985 - Bakaye Traoré, French-born Malian footballer
 1985 - Yael Stone, Australian actress
 1986 - Paul Aguilar, Mexican footballer
 1986 - Danny Jones, Welsh rugby league player (d. 2015)
 1986 – Charlie Mulgrew, Scottish footballer
 1987 – Kevin-Prince Boateng, German-Ghanaian footballer
 1987 – Hannah Taylor-Gordon, British actress
 1987 - José Manuel Flores, Spanish footballer
 1988 - Agnes Carlsson, Swedish singer
 1988 - Simon Mignolet, Belgian footballer
 1989 - Lee Seung-Yeoul, South Korean footballer
 1989 – Agnieszka Radwanska, Polish tennis player
 1990 - Clara Lago, Spanish actress
 1991 - Lex Luger, American producer
 1991 - Tyler, The Creator, American rapper and producer
 1991 - Rodrigo, Brazilian-Spanish footballer
 1992 - Momoko Tsugunaga, Japanese actress and singer
 1992 - Sarah De Bono, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
 1993 - Andres Renteria, Colombian footballer
 1994 - Nathan Redmond, English footballer
 1994 - Marcus Smart, American basketball player
 1996 - Timo Werner, German footballer
 2001 – Aryana Engineer, Canadian actress

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 1052 - Emma of Normandy (b. 985)
 1252 - Saint Rose of Viterbo, Italian saint (b. 1235)
 1282 - Agnes of Bohemia (b. 1211)
 1466 – Francesco I Sforza, Italian ruler (b. 1401)
 1490 – Ivan the Young, ruler of Tver (b. 1458)
 1627 - Krzysztof Zbaraski, Polish statesman (b. 1580)
 1754 – Henry Pelham, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1694)
 1764 - Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1690)
 1836 – Davy Crockett, American historical figure (b. 1786)
 1836 - James Bowie, Texan pioneer (b. 1796)
 1836 - William Travis, Texan soldier (b. 1809)
 1842 – Constanze Mozart, wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (b. 1763)
 1860 - Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer, German cellist and composer (b. 1783)
 1881 – Horatia Nelson, daughter of Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton (b. 1801)
 1888 – Louisa May Alcott, American writer (b. 1832)
 1895 – Camilla Collett, Norwegian writer and feminist (b. 1813)
 1899 – Victoria Kaiulani, Hawaiian princess (b. 1875)
 1900 – Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer (b. 1834)

1901  2000 
 1925 – Georgy Lvov, Russian politician (b. 1861)
 1930 - Alfred von Tirpitz, German admiral (b. 1849)
 1932 – John Philip Sousa, American conductor and composer (b. 1854)
 1933 – Anton Cermak, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1873)
 1935 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., American politician (b. 1841)
 1941 - Gutzon Borglum, Danish sculptor (b. 1867)
 1950 – Albert Lebrun, President of France (b. 1871)
 1951 – Ivor Novello, Welsh actor, musician and composer (b. 1893)
 1951 - Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Ukrainian politician and statesman (b. 1880)
 1952 - Jürgen Stroop, German SS officer (b. 1895) 
 1961 – George Formby, English comedian, singer and musician (b. 1904)
 1964 – King Paul of Greece (b. 1901)
 1965 - Margaret Dumont, American actress (b. 1889)
 1967 – Zoltan Kodaly, Hungarian composer (b. 1882)
 1967 - Nelson Eddy, American actor and singer (b. 1901)
 1971 – Thurston Dart, English harpsichordist and conductor (b. 1921)
 1973 – Pearl S. Buck, American writer, Nobel Prize winner (b. 1892)
 1982 – Ayn Rand, Russian-American writer (b. 1905)
 1984 – Martin Niemöller, German theologian (b. 1892)
 1986 – Georgia O'Keeffe, American artist (b. 1887)
 1990 - Taro Kagawa, Japanese footballer (b. 1922)
 1994 - Ken Noritake, Japanese footballer (b. 1922)
 1994 – Melina Mercouri, Greek actress and politician (b. 1920)
 1997 – Cheddi Jagan, President of Guyana (b. 1918)
 1997 – Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica (b. 1924)
 1999 – Isa ibn Salman Al Khalifah, Emir of Bahrain (b. 1933)

From 2001 
 2002 - Bryan Fogarty, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1969)
 2004 - Frances Dee, American actress (b. 1909)
 2005 – Hans Bethe, German physicist (b. 1906)
 2006 - King Floyd, American singer-songwriter (b. 1945)
 2006 - Dana Reeve, American actress and activist (b. 1961)
 2007 – Jean Baudrillard, French theorist and photographer (b. 1929)
 2009 - Francis Magalona, Filipino media artist and photographer (b. 1964)
 2009 – Susan Tsvangirai, wife of Morgan Tsvangirai (b. 1958)
 2011 – Jan Popluhar, Slovakian footballer (b. 1935)
 2012 - Francisco Xavier do Amaral, 1st President of East Timor (b. 1937)
 2013 - Alvin Lee, British guitarist (b. 1944)
 2013 - Stompin' Tom Connors, Canadian country musician (b. 1936)
 2014 - Jojon, Indonesian comedian (b. 1947)
 2014 - Manlio Sgalambro, Italian philosopher and writer (b. 1924)
 2014 - Maurice Faure, French diplomat and politician (b. 1922)
 2014 - Sérgio Guerra, Brazilian economist and politician (b. 1947) 
 2014 - Martin Nesbitt, American politician (b. 1946)
 2014 - Frank Jobe, American surgeon (b. 1925)
 2014 - Sheila MacRae, English-American actress (b. 1921)
 2014 - Ron Murphy, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1933)
 2014 - Alemayehu Atomsa, Ethiopian politician (b. 1969)
 2015 - Ram Sundar Das, Indian politician, Chief Minister of Bihar (b. 1921)
 2015 - Kishore Te, Indian movie editor (b. 1978)
 2015 - Fred Craddock, American minister (b. 1928)
 2015 - Vasilios Magginas, Greek politician (b. 1949)
 2016 - Kalabhavan Mani, Indian actor (b. 1971)
 2016 - Nancy Reagan, First Lady of the United States (b. 1921)
 2016 - Elizabeth Garrett, American educator (b. 1963)
 2016 - Sheila Varian, American horse breeder (b. 1937)
 2017 - Bill Hougland, American basketball player and businessman (b. 1930)
 2017 - Robert Osborne, American film historian and actor (b. 1932)
 2017 - Alberto Zedda, Italian conductor and musicologist (b. 1928)
 2017 - Eddy Pauwels, Belgian cyclist (b. 1935)
 2017 - Geoffrey Wainwright, British archaeologist (b. 1937)
 2018 - Indra Bahadur Rai, Indian writer (b. 1927)
 2018 - John Sulston, English biologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1942)
 2018 - Peter Nicholls, Australian writer (b. 1939)
 2018 - Shammi, Indian actress (b. 1929)
 2018 - Peter Freund, Romanian-American physicist (b. 1936)
 2019 - John Habgood, English bishop, academic and life peer (b. 1927)
 2019 - José Pedro Pérez-Llorca, Spanish lawyer, politician and diplomat (b. 1940)
 2019 - Carolee Schneemann, American artist (b. 1939)

Observances 
 Independence Day (Ghana)
 Alamo Day (Texas)
 Foundation Day (Norfolk Island)

March 06