On this day: May 6

Events on May 6

• 1527 Spanish and German troops sack Rome; many scholars consider this the end of the Renaissance. Wikipedia
• 1682 Louis XIV of France moves his court to the Palace of Versailles. Wikipedia
• 1757 Battle of Prague: A Prussian army fights an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years' War. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1861 American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union. Wikipedia
• 1877 Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Lakota surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska. Wikipedia
• 1889 The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris. Wikipedia
• 1915 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: SY Aurora, anchored in McMurdo Sound, broke loose during a gale, beginning a 312-day ordeal in the Ross Sea and Southern Ocean for her 18-man crew. Wikipedia
• 1916 Vietnamese Emperor Duy Tân is captured while calling upon the people to rise up against the French, and is later deposed and exiled to Réunion island. Wikipedia
• 1935 New Deal: Under the authority of the newly-enacted Federal Emergency Relief Administration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 7034 to create the Works Progress Administration. Wikipedia
• 1937 The German airship Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during an attempt to dock at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, killing 36 people. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1940 John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath. Wikipedia
• 1941 At California's March Field, Bob Hope performs his first USO show. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: Japanese troops overcame fierce American and Philippine resistance to win the Battle of Corregidor. Wikipedia
• 1954 At Oxford's Iffley Road Track, English runner Roger Bannister became the first person to run the mile in under four minutes. Wikipedia
• 1972 Deniz Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin İnan are executed in Ankara after being convicted of attempting to overthrow the Constitutional order. Wikipedia
• 1984 One hundred and three Korean Martyrs are canonized by Pope John Paul II in Seoul. Wikipedia
• 1994 Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel. Wikipedia
• 1996 The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared. Wikipedia
• 1998 Steve Jobs unveiled the iMac G3' personal computer. Wikipedia
• 1998 Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. unveils the first iMac. Wikipedia
• 2001 During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque. Wikipedia
• 2023 The coronation of Charles III and Camilla as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms is held in Westminster Abbey, London. Wikipedia
• 2023 King Charles III and Queen Camilla were crowned at Westminster Abbey in London. Wikipedia

Born on May 6

• 973 Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1024) Wikipedia
• 1501 Marcellus II, pope of the Catholic Church (died 1555) Wikipedia
• 1574 Innocent X, pope of the Catholic Church (died 1655) Wikipedia
• 1758 Maximilien Robespierre, French politician (died 1794) Wikipedia
• 1856 Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and psychoanalyst (died 1939) Wikipedia
• 1856 Robert Peary, American admiral and explorer (died 1920) Wikipedia
• 1871 Victor Grignard, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1935) Wikipedia
• 1880 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German-Swiss painter (died 1938) Wikipedia
• 1895 Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (died 1926) Wikipedia
• 1904 Harry Martinson, Swedish novelist, essayist, and poet Nobel Prize laureate (died 1978) Wikipedia
• 1915 Orson Welles, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1985) Wikipedia
• 1918 Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, emir of Abu Dhabi and first president of the United Arab Emirates (died 2004) Wikipedia
• 1929 Paul Lauterbur, American chemist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2007) Wikipedia
• 1943 Andreas Baader, German terrorist, co-founded the Red Army Faction (died 1977) Wikipedia
• 1953 Tony Blair, British politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Wikipedia
• 1961 George Clooney, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1983 Dani Alves, Brazilian footballer Wikipedia
• 1985 Chris Paul, American basketball player Wikipedia
• 1987 Dries Mertens, Belgian footballer Wikipedia
• 1993 Naomi Scott, English actress and singer Wikipedia
• 1994 Mateo Kovačić, Croatian international footballer Wikipedia
• 2002 Cole Palmer, English footballer Wikipedia

Died on May 6

• 988 Dirk II, count of Frisia and Holland Wikipedia
• 1236 Roger of Wendover, Benedictine monk and chronicler Wikipedia
• 1540 Juan Luís Vives, Spanish scholar (born 1492) Wikipedia
• 1859 Alexander von Humboldt, German geographer and explorer (born 1769) Wikipedia
• 1862 Henry David Thoreau, American essayist, poet, and philosopher (born 1817) Wikipedia
• 1877 Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Swedish-Finnish poet and hymn-writer (born 1804) Wikipedia
• 1910 Edward VII of the United Kingdom (born 1841) Wikipedia
• 1919 L. Frank Baum, American novelist (born 1856) Wikipedia
• 1949 Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian-French poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1862) Wikipedia
• 1952 Maria Montessori, Italian-Dutch physician and educator (born 1870) Wikipedia
• 1963 Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, and engineer (born 1881) Wikipedia
• 1992 Marlene Dietrich, German-American actress and singer (born 1901) Wikipedia
• 2013 Giulio Andreotti, Italian journalist and politician, 41st Prime Minister of Italy (born 1919) Wikipedia
• 2026 Ted Turner, American media mogul (born 1938) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Dominic Savio Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Evodius of Antioch (Roman Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: François de Laval Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Jacinto Vera (Roman Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Lucius of Cyrene Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Maria Caterina Troiani Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Peter Nolasco Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Petronax of Monte Cassino Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Rosa Maria Benedetta Gattorno Custo Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: St George's Day related observances (Eastern Orthodox Church): Day of Bravery, also known as Gergyovden (Bulgaria) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: St George's Day related observances (Eastern Orthodox Church): Đurđevdan (Gorani, Roma) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: St George's Day related observances (Eastern Orthodox Church): Yuri's Day in the Spring (Russian Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: St John before the Latin Gate Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: May 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• International No Diet Day Wikipedia
• Martyrs' Day (Lebanon and Syria) Wikipedia
• National Azulejo Day (Portugal) Wikipedia
• The first day of Hıdırellez (Turkey) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “May 6” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.