06 May History
- 1527 - German troops begin sacking Rome. Libraries are destroyed, the Pope is captured and thousands are killed.
- 1529 - Babur defeats the Afgan Chiefs in the Battle of Ghagra, India.
- 1682 - King Louis XIV moves his court to Versailles, France.
- 1856 - U.S. Army troops from Fort Tejon and Fort Miller prepare to ride out to protect Keyesville, California, from Yokut Indian attack.
- 1861 - Arkansas becomes the ninth state to secede from the Union.
- 1862 - Henry David Thoreau dies of tuberculosis at age 44.
- 1864 - In the second day of the Battle of Wilderness between Union General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Confederate Gen. James Longstreet is wounded by his own men.
- 1877 - Chief Crazy Horse surrenders to U.S. troops in Nebraska.Crazy Horse brought General Custer to his end.
- 1937 - The dirigible Hindenburg explodes in flames at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
- 1941 - Bob Hope gives his first USO show at California's March Field.
- 1942 - General Jonathan Wainwright surrenders Corregidor to the Japanese.
- 1944 - The Red Army besieges and captures Sevastopol in the Crimea.
- 1945 - Axis Sally makes her final propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
- 1954 - British runner Roger Banister breaks the four minute mile.
- 1960 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
- 1962 - The first nuclear warhead is fired from a Polaris submarine.
- 1994 - The Channel Tunnel linking England to France is officially opened.
06 May Birthdays
- 973 - Henry II, Holy Roman emperor.
- 1740 - John Penn, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
- 1758 - Maximilien Robespierre, French revolutionary.
- 1840 - Frederick William Stowe, son of the Harriet Beecher Stowe.
- 1856 - Robert Edward Peary, arctic explorer and the first man to reach the North Pole.
- 1856 - Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis.
- 1868 - Gaston Leroux, French novelist (The Phantom of the Opera).
- 1888 - Russell Stover, candy manufacturer.
- 1895 - Rudolph Valentino, actor, film icon.
- 1902 - Max Ophuls, film director (La Ronde, Lola Montes).
- 1915 - Orson Welles, actor, director, and writer (Citizen Kane).
- 1931 - Willie Mays, baseball player.
- 1942 - Ariel Dorfman, Chilean writer (Death and the Maiden).