6 May 2024 (MIA)

1527 – Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. 147 Swiss Guards, including their commander, die fighting the forces of Charles V in order to allow Pope Clement VII to escape into Castel Sant’Angelo.

1536 – The Siege of Cuzco begins; Incan forces attempt to retake the city of Cuzco from the Spanish.

1536 – King Henry VIII orders English-language Bibles be placed in every church. In 1539 the Great Bible would be provided for this purpose.

1542 – Francis Xavier reaches Old Goa, the capital of Portuguese India at the time.

1659 – English Restoration: A faction of the British Army removes Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and reinstalls the Rump Parliament.

1682 – Louis XIV of France moves his court to the Palace of Versailles.

1757 – Battle of Prague: A Prussian army fights an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years’ War.

1782 – Construction begins on the Grand Palace, the royal residence of the King of Siam in Bangkok, at the command of King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke.

1801 – Captain Thomas Cochrane in the 14-gun HMS Speedy captures the 32-gun Spanish frigate El Gamo.

1835 – James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.

1840 – The Penny Black postage stamp becomes valid for use in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1844 – The Glaciarium, the world’s first mechanically frozen ice rink, opens.

1857 – The British East India Company disbands the 34th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry whose sepoy Mangal Pandey had earlier revolted against the British and is considered to be the First Martyr in the War of Indian Independence.

1861 – American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.

1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with the defeat of the Army of the Potomac by Confederate troops.

1882 – The United States Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act.

1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.

1902 – Macario Sakay establishes the Tagalog Republic with himself as President.

1906 – The Russian Constitution of 1906 is adopted (on April 23rd by the Julian calendar).

1910 – George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII.

1915 – Babe Ruth hits his first major league home run while pitching for the Boston Red Sox.

1916 – Twenty-one Lebanese nationalists are executed in Martyrs’ Square, Beirut by Djemal Pasha.

1930 – The 7.1 Mw Salmas earthquake shakes northwestern Iran and southeastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). Up to three-thousand people were killed.

1933 – The Deutsche Studentenschaft attacked Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, later burning many of its books.

1935 – New Deal: Executive Order 7034 creates the Works Progress Administration.

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.

1941 – The first flight of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.

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.

1945 – World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.

1949 – EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation.

1954 – Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.

1960 – More than 20 million viewers watch the first televised royal wedding when Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.

1962 – St. Martín de Porres is canonized by Pope John XXIII.

1966 – Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors murders in England.

1972 – Deniz Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin İnan are executed in Ankara for attempting to overthrow the Constitutional order.

1975 – During a lull in fighting, 100,000 Armenians gather in Beirut to commemorate 60th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

1976 – An earthquake strikes the Friuli region of northeastern Italy, causing 989 deaths and the destruction of entire villages.

1981 – A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin’s design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.

1983 – The Hitler Diaries are revealed as a hoax after examination by experts.

1984 – One hundred three Korean Martyrs are canonized by Pope John Paul II in Seoul.

1989 – Cedar Point opens Magnum XL-200, the first roller coaster to break the 200 ft height barrier, therefore spawning what is known as the “coaster wars.”

1994 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel.

1994 – Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones files a lawsuit against United States President Bill Clinton, alleging that he had sexually harassed her in 1991.

1996 – The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.

1997 – The Bank of England is given independence from political control, the most significant change in the bank’s 300-year history.

1998 – Kerry Wood strikes out 20 Houston Astros to tie the major league record held by Roger Clemens. He threw a one-hitter and did not walk a batter in his fifth career start.

1999 – The first elections to the devolved Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly are held.

2001 – During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.

2002 – After a radio-interview at the Mediapark in Hilversum the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is assassinated.

2004 – The series finale of the television sitcom Friends is aired on NBC. The finale attracts 52.46 million viewers, making it the sixth most watched television series finale in U.S. history.

2012 – François Hollande elected 24th President of France.

2013 – Three women missing for more than a decade are found alive in the U.S. city of Cleveland, Ohio. Their captor, Ariel Castro, is taken into custody.

2017 – France bans too thin fashion models and makes labeling of digitally enhanced photos mandatory.

2019 – French telecom company Orange and its former CEO with other executives go on trial in France for psychological harassment of their staff that unions claim resulted in 19 suicides and 12 other attempts.

2020 – UK becomes the first European country to report over 30,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

2020 – Irish organization repays a 170 year old favor, raising over $2 million (to date) for US Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation badly affected by COVID-19. In 1840s, Choctaw Nation sent $170 to aid Irish potato famine.