March 6
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 Alcacovas - 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 Tete 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-Francois Andreossy, 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 Wurttemberg (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 - Jose 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 Traore, 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 - Jose 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 - Jurgen 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 Niemoller, 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 - Sergio 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 - Jose Pedro Perez-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