May 6th

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 Ophüls, 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 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
• 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

May 5 - May 7 - April 6 - June 6 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December