On this day: 6 May

Years ago today

Events · 24

• 1104(Julian date)
  Siege of Acre — 1104 siege
• 1527(Julian date)
  Sack of Rome, 1527 — 1527 siege
• 1536(Julian date)
  Siege of Cusco — 1536–1537 siege in South America
• 1757
  Battle of Prague — 1757 battle of the Seven Years' War
• 1801
  Action of 6 May 1801 — 1801 naval battle between Spanish and British ships
• 1835
  New York Herald — newspaper of New York City (1835-1924)
• 1882
  Phoenix Park murders — assassination of two senior civil servants in Phoenix Park, Dublin
• 1901
  Gorkhapatra — State-run daily newspaper of Nepal
• 1935
  Works Progress Administration — United States government New Deal agency (1935–1939) employing millions of unemployed people to carry out public works projects
• 1937
  Hindenburg disaster — 1937 airship accident in New Jersey
• 1945
  Prague offensive — last major military operation on the Eastern Front (6–11 May 1945)
• 1949
  Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator — 1940s-1950s British computer
• 1960
  wedding of Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones — May 1960 wedding of British royal Princess Margaret and British photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones
• 1976
  1976 Friuli earthquake — May 1976 earthquake in Italy
• 1987
  1987 Daxing'anling Wildfire — major wildfire in China and the Soviet Union
• 1988
  Widerøe Flight 710 — 1988 aviation accident in Norway
• 1991
  The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power — 1991 newsmagazine article on Scientology
• 2002
  assassination of Pim Fortuyn — 2002 assassination of politician Pim Fortuyn
• 2008
  death of Mark Saunders — Death that occurred in May 2008 in London
• 2010
  2010 Flash Crash — United States trillion-dollar stock market crash that lasted for 36 minutes
• 2012
  2012 French presidential election — 2012 presidential election in France
• 2014
  2014 Guangzhou attack — mass stabbing in Guangzhou, China
• 2023
  coronation of Charles III and Camilla — initiation rite to crown King Charles III
• 2023
  2023 Allen, Texas shooting — criminal mass shooting in Allen, US

Births · 60

• 973(Julian date)
  Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor — Holy Roman Emperor from 1014 to 1024
• 1501(Julian date)
  Marcellus II — pope of the Catholic Church and bishop of Rome from 9 April to 1 May 1555
• 1574(Julian date)
  Innocent X — pope from 1644 to 1655
• 1635
  Johann Joachim Becher — German physicist, scientific alchemist, pioneer of chemistry, scholar, courtier, and adventurer
• 1668
  Alain-René Lesage — French writer (1668–1747)
• 1758
  Maximilien Robespierre — French revolutionary lawyer and politician (1758–1794)
• 1758
  André Masséna — French military commander during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1758-1817)
• 1769
  Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany — Grand Duke of Tuscany (1769-1824)
• 1856
  Sigmund Freud — Austrian psychiatrist and founder of psychoanalysis (1856–1939)
• 1856
  Robert Peary — explorer from the United States (1856–1920)
• 1861
  Motilal Nehru — Indian lawyer and politician (1861–1931)
• 1868(Julian date)
  Nicholas II of Russia — 14th and last Emperor of Russia (1894–1917)
• 1868
  Gaston Leroux — French author and journalist (1868–1927)
• 1871
  Victor Grignard — French chemist (1871-1935)
• 1871
  Christian Morgenstern — German author (1871-1914)
• 1872
  Djemal Pasha — Turkish general and politician (1872-1922)
• 1872
  Willem de Sitter — Dutch cosmologist (*1872 – †1934)
• 1879
  Bedřich Hrozný — Czech archeologist, linguist and orientalist (1879-1952)
• 1880
  Ernst Ludwig Kirchner — German painter, sculptor, engraver and printmaker (1880–1938)
• 1882
  Wilhelm, German Crown Prince — Prussian Crown Prince (1882-1951)
• 1895
  Rudolph Valentino — Italian actor (1895–1926)
• 1896
  Rolf Sievert — Swedish medical physicist, professor (1896–1966)
• 1902
  Max Ophüls — German film director (1902-1957)
• 1904
  Harry Martinson — Swedish writer (1904–1978)
• 1906
  André Weil — French mathematician (1906-1998)

Deaths · 60

• 223(Julian date)
  Cao Ren — Chinese Han dynasty general (168–223)
• 850(Julian date)
  Ninmyō — Emperor of Japan
• 988(Julian date)
  Dirk II, Count of Holland — Dutch noble (ca. 932-988) (901-988)
• 1187(Julian date)
  Ruben III, Prince of Armenia — ruler of Cilician Armenia
• 1236(Julian date)
  Roger of Wendover — early 13th-century English monk and chronicler
• 1471
  Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset — Duke of Somerset
• 1475(Julian date)
  Dieric Bouts — 15th-century Dutch painter
• 1527(Julian date)
  Charles III, Duke of Bourbon — French general, count of Montpensier; (1490-1527)
• 1540(Julian date)
  Juan Luis Vives — Spanish philosopher
• 1596
  Giaches de Wert — Franco-Flemish composer
• 1638
  Cornelius Jansen — Bishop and theologian (1585-1638)
• 1708
  François de Laval — Catholic saint, First Bishop of Quebec
• 1757
  Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin — German general
• 1757
  Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton — Irish and English politician (1683-1757)
• 1782
  Christine Kirch — German astronomer
• 1796
  Adolph Freiherr Knigge — German writer and leading Illuminati member (1752–1796)
• 1859
  Alexander von Humboldt — Prussian geographer, naturalist and explorer (1769–1859)
• 1862
  Henry David Thoreau — American essayist, poet, and philosopher (1817–1862)
• 1872
  George Robert Gray — English ornithologist, author and museum curator (1808–1872)
• 1877
  Johan Ludvig Runeberg — Finland’s national poet, author of Finland’s national anthem, Swedish-speaking writer and poet (1804–77)
• 1882
  Lord Frederick Cavendish — British politician (1836-1882)
• 1910
  Edward VII — King of the United Kingdom from 1901 to 1910
• 1919
  L. Frank Baum — American author of children's books (1856–1919)
• 1928
  Myrtle Corbin — American sideshow performer (1868–1928)
• 1938
  Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire — British politician (1868-1938)