May 6

2024 Calendar

May 6 is the 126th day of the year (127th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 239 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

1191 - King Richard I of England lands in Cyprus during the Third Crusade.
1527 – Spanish and German troops sack Rome, in what is seen by some to be the end of the Renaissance.
1536 - The Siege of Cuzco starts, in which Incan forces attempt to re-take the city from the Spanish.
1536 - Henry VIII of England orders that English language Bibles should be placed in every church.
1542 - St. Francis Xavier reaches Old Goa, capital city of what was then known as Portuguese India.
1659 - English Restoration: A faction of the army removes Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector and re-instates the Rump Parliament.
1682 – King Louis XIV of France moves into the Versailles Palace.
1757 - Battle of Prague: A Prussian army fights an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years' War.
1782 - Building work begins on the Grand Palace, residence of the Kings of Siam, present-day Thailand, in Bangkok.
1816 - The American Bible Society is founded.
1835 - James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.
1840 – The Penny Black postage stamp becomes valid in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1844 - The Glaciarum, the world's first mechanically frozen ice rink, opens.
1861 – Arkansas secedes from the Union.
1861 – Richmond, Virginia is chosen as the capital city of the Confederate States of America.
1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with the Confederates defeating the Army of the Potomac.
1882 – United States Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act.
1889 – The Eiffel Tower is opened to the public as the World Exposition in Paris begins.

1901 – 2000

1902 - British ship Carmorta sinks in a cyclone in Burma's Irrawaddy Delta, killing all 739 people on board.
1910 – Edward VII of the United Kingdom dies. George V succeeds him as king.
1916 - 21 Lebanese nationalists are executed in Martyrs' Square, Beirut by Jamal Pasha.
1919 - The Third Anglo-Afghan War begins.
1930 – An earthquake in present-day Iran kills 2,500 people.
1935 - In the US, the Works Progress Administration is created.
1937 – LZ 129 Hindenburg catches on fire while landing in New Jersey, killing 36 people.
1940 - John Steinbeck is given the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.
1945 - World War II: In the last part of the war, the Prague Offensive begins.
1954 – Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run a mile in less than 4 minutes.
1954 – Alfredo Stroessner comes to power in Paraguay, after leading a military coup against Federico Chaves.
1966 – In the UK, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are sentenced to life in prison for the Moors murders.
1976 – An earthquake in Friuli, Italy kills 989 people and destroys entire villages.
1983 – The so-called Hitler diaries are found to be a hoax.
1991 - Time magazine publishes an article in which Scientology is strongly criticized.
1994 – The Euro Tunnel between the UK and France, opens. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and President of France Francois Mitterrand jointly open it.
1996 – CIA director William Colby is found dead on a Maryland riverbank, eight days after his disappearance.
1998 – Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev moves his seat of government from Almaty to Akmola, which is renamed Astana.
1999 – The first elections to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly are held.

From 2001

2001 – Dennis Tito, the first space tourist, returns to Earth.
2001 - Pope John Paul II becomes the first Pope to set foot in a Mosque, in Damascus.
2002 – Marc Ravalomanana becomes President of Madagascar.
2002 – Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is assassinated by an animal rights activist.
2002 - Jacques Chirac announces that Jean-Pierre Raffarin would become Prime Minister of France.
2004 - The series finale of Friends is shown on NBC in the United States, receiving over 52 million viewers.
2007 – Nicolas Sarkozy is elected President of France.
2010 – The United Kingdom general election, 2010 is held. It ends in a hung parliament, where no party has an overall majority. On May 11, the Conservatives under David Cameron and Liberal Democrats under Nick Clegg agree to form a coalition government.
2010 - Caroline Lucas becomes the first MP from the Green Party of England and Wales.
2011 – After the previous day's election the Scottish National Party under Alex Salmond wins an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament, with 69 out of the 129 seats.
2012 – Francois Hollande is elected President of France, as Nicolas Sarkozy is voted out of office after one term.
2012 – The parliamentary election in Greece ends in an inconclusive result, as both main parties lose votes for supporting austerity measures.
2013 - Ariel Castro kidnappings: Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry (and her child by Castro), and Gina DeJesus are found in Ariel Castro's house in Cleveland, Ohio, where they had been held captive for around ten years.
2023 - The coronation of Charles III is performed at Westminster Abbey.

Births

Deaths

Up to 1900

1471 - Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset, English commander (b. 1438)
1475 – Dieric Bouts, Flemish painter (b. 1415)
1502 - James Tyrrell, English knight (b. 1450)
1596 - Giaches de Wert, Flemish composer (b. 1535)
1638 – Cornelius Jansen, French bishop and religious reformer (b. 1585)
1692 – Nathaniel Lee, English playwright (b. 1653)
1757 - Battle of Prague:
- Maximilian Ulysses Browne, Austrian field marshal (b. 1705)
- Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin, Prussian field marshal (b. 1684)
1757 - Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, English politician (b. 1683)
1840 – Francisco de Paula Santander, Colombian President and independence leader (b. 1792)
1859 – Alexander von Humboldt, German naturalist and explorer (b. 1769)
1862 – Henry David Thoreau, American writer and philosopher (b. 1817)
1872 – George Robert Gray, British zoologist (b. 1808)
1873 - José Antonio Báez, President of Venezuela (b. 1790)
1877 – Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finnish poet (b. 1804)

1901 – 2000

1902 - Bret Harte, American writer (b. 1836)
1910 – King Edward VII of the United Kingdom (b. 1841)
1913 – Alexandros Schinas, Greek anarchist (b. 1870)
1919 – L. Frank Baum, American writer (b. 1856)
1939 - Konstantin Somov, Russian writer (b. 1869)
1949 – Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian writer (b. 1862)
1951 – Hans Andrias Djurhuus, Faroese poet (b. 1883)
1952 – Maria Montessori, Italian educator (b. 1870)
1959 - Ragnar Nurkse, Estonian-American economist and academic (b. 1897)
1961 – Lucian Blaga, Romanian poet, playwright and philosopher (b. 1895)
1967 – Zhou Zuoren, Chinese writer (b. 1885)
1970 - Aleksandr Rodzyanko, Russian general (b. 1897)
1975 - Jozsef Mindszenty, Hungarian cardinal (b. 1892)
1985 - Julie Vega, Filipino actress and singer (b. 1968)
1987 – William Casey, American CIA director (b. 1913)
1990 - Charles Farrell, American actor (b. 1901)
1992 – Marlene Dietrich, German actress (b. 1901)
1992 – Jilly Rizzo, American restaurateur and entertainer (b. 1917)
1998 - Chatichai Choonhavan, Prime minister of Thailand (b. 1920)

From 2001

2002 – Pim Fortuyn, Dutch politician (b. 1948)
2002 – Otis Blackwell, American pianist, singer and songwriter (b. 1932)
2003 - Art Houtteman, American baseball player (b. 1927)
2004 - Virginia Capers, American actress (b. 1925)
2006 – Shigeru Kayano, Japanese Ainu activist (b. 1926)
2006 – Lillian Asplund, RMS Titanic survivor (b. 1906)
2012 - George Lindsey, American actor, comedian, and writer (b. 1928)
2013 - Giulio Andreotti, former Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1919)
2014 - Cornelius Gurlitt, German art collector (b. 1932)
2014 - Wil Albeda, Dutch politician (b. 1925)
2014 - Farley Mowat, Canadian writer and environmentalist (b. 1921)
2014 - Jimmy Ellis, American boxer (b. 1940)
2014 - Bill Dana, American pilot and astronaut (b. 1930)
2015 - Errol Brown, Jamaican-British singer (b. 1943)
2015 - Jim Wright, American politician, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1922)
2015 - Jerome Cooper, American jazz drummer (b. 1946)
2016 - Hannes Bauer, German trombonist (b. 1954)
2016 - Patrick Ekeng, Cameroonian footballer (b. 1990)
2016 - David Hall, American politician, Governor of Oklahoma (b. 1930)
2016 - Margot Honecker, German politician (b. 1927)
2016 - Valeriy Zuyev, Ukrainian footballer (b. 1952)
2016 - Nico de Bree, Dutch footballer (b. 1944)
2016 - Reg Grundy, Australian television producer (b. 1923)
2016 - Candye Kane, American singer-songwriter and pornographic actress (b. 1961)
2016 - Chris Mitchell, Scottish footballer (b. 1988)
2017 - Steven Holcomb, American bobsledder (b. 1980)
2017 - Val Jellay, Australian actress (b. 1927)
2017 - Rais Khan, Pakistani sitarist (b. 1939)
2017 - Marshall Julum Shakya, Nepalese politician (b. 1940)
2017 - Min Bahadur Sherchan, Nepalese mountaineer (b. 1931)
2018 - Cirilo Bautista, Filipino writer (b. 1941)
2018 - Paolo Ferrari, Italian actor (b. 1929)
2018 - Tarcisio Gitti, Italian politician (b. 1936)
2018 - Khaled Mohieddin, Egyptian army general and politician (b. 1922)
2018 - Charles W. Steger, American academic (b. 1947)
2018 - Ray Szmanda, American radio personality and radio presenter (b. 1926)
2018 - Jamal Naji, Palestinian-Jordanian novelist (b. 1954)
2019 - Max Azria, Tunisian-American fashion designer (b. 1949)
2019 - Gjermund Eggen, Norwegian cross-country skier (b. 1941)

Observances

International No Diet Day
Teacher's Day (Jamaica)
Saint George's Day (Eastern Orthodox Churches)

May 6

Events

Up to 1900

1901 – 2000

From 2001

Births

Up to 1800

1801 – 1900

1901 – 1950

1951 – 1975

From 1976

Deaths

Up to 1900

1901 – 2000

From 2001

Observances