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

Events

• 1527 - Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance.
• 1536 - King Henry VIII orders Bibles be placed in every church.
• 1682 - Louis XIV of France moves his court to Versailles.
• 1757 - Battle of Prague - A Prussian army fought an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years' War.
• 1816 - The American Bible Society is founded in New York City.
• 1835 - James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.
• 1840 - The Penny Black postage stamp is valid for use in the United_Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
• 1861 - American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.
• 1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends, with a defeat of the Army of the Potomac under General Joseph Hooker by Confederate troops under Stonewall Jackson.
• 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. Thirty-six people are killed.
• 1940 - John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.
• 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).
• 1945 - World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.
• 1954 - Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.
• 1960 - Princess Margaret's wedding day.
• 1966 - Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors Murders in England.
• 1981 - A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
• 1988 - An airplane going from Namsos to Brønnøysund in Norway crashes into the side of the Torghatten mountain, killing all 36 passengers and crew.
• 1994 - Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand inaugurate the opening of the Channel Tunnel – a tunnel under the English Channel linking England and France for the first time since the end of the Great Ice Age.
• 1998 - The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.
• 1999 - In New York, a parole board votes to release Amy Fisher, in prison for the last 7 years for shooting her lover's wife.
• 2002 - Jean-Pierre Raffarin becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 2002 - The World Wrestling Federation announces that they have changed their name to World Wrestling Entertainment after losing a court battle with the World Wildlife Fund.
• 2004 - The last episode of the popular television sitcom Friends airs.

Births

• 1397 - Sejong the Great of Joseon, ruler of Korea (d. 1450)
• 1501 - Pope Marcellus II (d. 1555)
• 1574 - Pope Innocent X (d. 1655)
• 1638 - Henry Capell, 1st Baron Capell, First Lord of the British Admiralty (d. 1696)
• 1713 - Charles Batteux, French philosopher (d. 1780)
• 1758 - André Masséna, French marshal (d. 1817)
• 1758 - Maximilien Robespierre, French Revolutionary (d. 1794)
• 1769 - Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1824)
• 1797 - Joseph Brackett, American religious leader and composer (d. 1882)
• 1856 - Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist (d. 1939)
• 1856 - Robert Peary, American explorer (d. 1920)
• 1861 - Rabindranath Tagore, Indian author (d. 1941)
• 1861 - Motilal Nehru, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1931)
• 1868 - Gaston Leroux, French writer (d. 1927)
• 1868 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (d. 1918)
• 1871 - Victor Grignard, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1935)
• 1871 - Christian Morgenstern, German author (d. 1914)
• 1879 - Bedrich Hrozny, Czech orientalist and linguist (d. 1952)
• 1880 - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German painter (d. 1938)
• 1882 - Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany (d. 1951)
• 1895 - Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (d. 1926)
• 1902 - Harry Golden, American journalist (d. 1981)
• 1902 - Max Ophüls, German-born director (d. 1957)
• 1904 - Moshe Feldenkrais, Ukrainian-born founder of the Feldenkrais method (d. 1984)
• 1904 - Harry Martinson, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1978)
• 1906 - Enrique Laguerre, Puerto Rican writer (d. 2005)
• 1915 - Orson Welles, American director (d. 1985)
• 1915 - Theodore H. White, American writer (d. 1986)
• 1920 - Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, first Prime Minister of Fiji and President of Fiji (d. 2004)
• 1921 - Erich Fried, German author (d. 1988)
• 1929 - Paul Lauterbur, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 1931 - Willie Mays, baseball player
• 1937 - Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, American boxer
• 1945 - Jimmie Dale Gilmore, American musician
• 1945 - Bob Seger, American singer
• 1947 - Martha Nussbaum, American philosopher
• 1948 - Mary MacGregor, American singer
• 1952 - Michael O'Hare, American actor
• 1953 - Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1955 - Tom Bergeron, American game show host
• 1960 - Roma Downey, Northern Irish actress
• 1960 - John Flansburgh, American musician (They Might Be Giants)
• 1960 - Bob Mattera,
• 1961 - George Clooney, American actor
• 1964 - Dana Hill, American actress (d. 1996)
• 1969 - Jim Magilton, Northern Irish footballer
• 1970 - Melania Trump, Slovenian model and wife of American real estate tycoon Donald Trump
• 1972 - Martin Brodeur, Canadian hockey player
• 1980 - Taebin, Korean R&B singer/rapper (1TYM)
• 1989 - Bobby Buch, Physics/Statistician prodigy. Also is a guru with prime numbers

Deaths

• 680 - Muawiyah I, caliph (b. 602)
• 1502 - James Tyrrell, alleged murderer of the Princes in the Tower (executed)
• 1555 - Pope Marcellus II (b. 1501)
• 1596 - Giaches de Wert, Flemish composer (b. 1535)
• 1620 - Hayyim ben Joseph Vital, Palestinian-born Kabbalist (b. 1543)
• 1631 - Robert Bruce Cotton, English poltician
• 1638 - Cornelius Jansen, French bishop and religious reformer (b. 1585)
• 1708 - François de Laval, first bishop of New France (b. 1623)
• 1757 - Maximilian Ulysses Reichsgraf von Browne, Austrian field marshal (b. 1705)
• 1757 - Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, British politician (b. 1683)
• 1757 - Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin, Prussian field marshal (b. 1684)
• 1859 - Alexander von Humboldt, German naturalist and explorer (b. 1769)
• 1862 - Henry David Thoreau, American author and philosopher (b. 1817)
• 1877 - Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finnish poet (b. 1804)
• 1902 - Bret Harte, American author (b. 1836)
• 1910 - King Edward VII of the United Kingdom (b. 1841)
• 1919 - L. Frank Baum, American writer (b. 1856)
• 1939 - Konstantin Somov, Russian writer (b. 1869)
• 1949 - Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)
• 1952 - Maria Montessori, Italian educator (b. 1870)
• 1961 - Lucian Blaga, Romanian poet, playwright, and philosopher (b. 1895)
• 1963 - Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian-born physicist (b. 1881)
• 1987 - William Casey, American Central Intelligence Agency director (b. [[1913)
• 1992 - Marlene Dietrich, German actress (b. 1901)
• 1995 - Noel Brotherston, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1956)
• 1995 - Maria Pia de Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Braganca (b. 1907)
• 2002 - Pim Fortuyn, Dutch politician (b. 1948)
• 2004 - Philip Kapleau, American Zen teacher (b. 1912)

Holidays and observances

• Feast day of Saint Justus in the Roman Catholic Church

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day

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