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On this day in history - March 6

What Happened On This Day – March 6

  • 1987 193 people die when a ferry capsizes in the North Sea

    The Herald of Free Enterprise sank just minutes after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.

  • 1967 Josef Stalin's daughter defects to the West

    The Soviet dictator's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, caused an international uproar when she approached the United States embassy in New Delhi and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

  • 1957 Ghana becomes the first African country to gain independence from colonial rule

    Ghana emerged as a sovereign state from the former British colonies Gold Coast and Togoland. Kwame Nkrumah was the country's first leader.

  • 1899 The painkiller Asprin is registered as a trademark

    Acetylsalicylic acid was first isolated in 1897 by German chemist Felix Hoffmann. Today, the medication is sold by Bayer and is on the World Health Organization's list of essential medicines.

  • 1869 The first periodic table of chemical elements is presented

    Dmitri Mendeleev presented the system to the Russian Chemical Society on that day.

Illustration of stork, signifying birth

Births On This Day,
March 6

  • 1972 Shaquille O'Neal

    American basketball player, actor, rapper

  • 1946 David Gilmour

    English singer-songwriter, guitarist

  • 1936 Marion Barry

    American politician, 2nd Mayor of the District of Columbia

  • 1926 Alan Greenspan

    American economist

  • 1475 Michelangelo

    Italian painter, sculptor

Illustration of tombstone, signifying death

Deaths On This Day,
March 6

  • 2007 Jean Baudrillard

    French philosopher

  • 1986 Georgia O'Keeffe

    American painter

  • 1982 Ayn Rand

    Russian/American author, philosopher

  • 1900 Gottlieb Daimler

    German engineer, businessman, co-founded Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft

  • 1842 Constanze Mozart

    German wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart