Historical Events on May 6

  • 1835: The first issue of the New York Herald is published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr. on this day.
  • 1840: The Black Penny postage stamp officially became valid to be used in Great Britain and Ireland.
  • 1861: Arkansas officially secedes from the United States.
  • 1863: The Army of the Potomac is defeated by Confederate forces at the Battle of Chancellorsville during the American Civil War.
  • 1877: Chief Crazy Horse surrenders to U.S Army forces in Nebraska.
  • 1882: The Chinese Exclusion Act is passed by the U.S. Congress.
  • 1889: At the Universal Exposition in Paris, France, the Eiffel Tower is opened officially to the public.
  • 1915: Babe Ruth hits his first major league home run on this day. He was playing for the Boston Red Sox.
  • 1942: The last of the American forces on Corregidor in the Philippines surrender to Japanese forces during World War II.
  • 1945: Mildred Gillars – also known as Axis Sally – delivers her last propaganda broadcast to allied troops during the Second World War.
  • 1945: The Prague Offensive begins during WWII.
  • 2001: Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque while he was on a trip in Syria.
  • 2010: The 2010 Flash Crash occurs on this day. This is when the DOW Jones plunged almost a thousand points in just under 40-minutes.

Famous Birthdays on May 6

  • Austrian psychoanalyst and neurologist, Sigmund Freud is born in 1856.
  • American admiral and explorer, Robert Peary is born in 1856.
  • French chemist and Nobel Prize laureate, Victor Grignard is born in 1871.
  • Swedish novelist and Nobel Prize laureate, Harry Martinson is born in 1904.
  • American director, actor and screenwriter, Orson Welles is born in 1915.
  • American chemist, biophysicist and Nobel Prize laureate, Paul Lauterbur is born in 1929.
  • American actress Gabourey Sidibem is born in 1983.
  • Ukrainian-Russian NHL player Anton Babchuk is born in 1984.
  • Slovakian tennis player Dominika Cibulková is born in 1986.