On This Day in History - March 6th - Almanac

Today is Saturday, March 6, the 65th day of 2021 with 300 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn and Venus. Evening stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include Italian painter/sculptor Michelangelo in 1475; French dramatist Cyrano de Bergerac in 1619; English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1806; Union Army Gen. Philip Sheridan in 1831; humorist/short story writer Ring Lardner in 1885; Texas swing bandleader Bob Wills in 1905; comic actor Lou Costello in 1906; television personality Ed McMahon in 1923; symphony conductor Sarah Caldwell in 1924; former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan in 1926 (age 95); Mercury astronaut L. Gordon Cooper in 1927; Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 1927; former District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry in 1936; Russian cosmonaut/first woman in space Valentina Tereshkova in 1937 (age 84); baseball Hall of Fame member Willie Stargell in 1940; actor Ben Murphy in 1942 (age 79); singer Mary Wilson in 1944; musician/singer David Gilmour in 1946 (age 75); actor/director Rob Reiner in 1947 (age 74); high jumper Dick Fosbury, who created the "Fosbury Flop," in 1947 (age 74); news commentator John Stossel in 1947 (age 74); actor Tom Arnold in 1959 (age 62); actor D.L. Hughley in 1963 (age 58); actor Connie Britton in 1967 (age 54); actor Moira Kelly in 1968 (age 53); basketball star Shaquille O'Neal in 1972 (age 49); rapper Tyler, The Creator, born Tyler Gregory Okonma, in 1991 (age 30); actor Alisha Boe in 1997 (age 24).

On this date in history:

In 1836, Mexican forces captured the Alamo in San Antonio, killing the last of 187 defenders who had held out in the fortified Texas mission for 13 days. Frontiersman Davy Crockett was among those killed on the final day.

In 1853, "La Traviata" by Giuseppe Verdi premiered in Venice, Italy.

In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark ruling that slave Dred Scott couldn't sue for his freedom in a federal court, even though his white owner had died in a "free" state.

In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt declared a national banking holiday in an effort to shore up the banking system.

In 1944, during World War II, U.S. bombers flying from Britain began the first daytime attacks on Berlin.

In 1953, Georgi Malenkov was named premier of the Soviet Union one day after the death of Joseph Stalin.

In 1957, Ghana became an independent country after declaring independence from Britain. The country was led by Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah.

In 1965, Alabama Gov. George Wallace declared "There will be no march between Selma and Montgomery," and that he had ordered the highway patrol to "use whatever measures are necessary to prevent a march."

In 1967, Svetlana Alliluyeva, Joseph Stalin's daughter, defected to the United States. She would return to the Soviet Union 17 years later stating, "In America, I ended up living the life of a suburban housewife, which is not at all what I wanted."

In 1982, an Egyptian court sentenced five Muslim fundamentalists to death for the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. Seventeen others drew prison terms.

In 1987, a British ferry leaving Zeebrugge, Belgium, struck a sea wall and capsized, killing 188 people in the North Sea.

In 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush, addressing a joint session of Congress, declared the Persian Gulf War over.

In 2014, the Crimean Parliament in Ukraine's mostly pro-Russian Crimea region passed a resolution to join Russia.

In 2015, Islamic State militants devastated the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq, using bulldozers to raze the site.

In 2019, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James passed legend Michael Jordan for No. 4 on the NBA's all-time scoring list, ending the game with 32,311 points.

A thought for the day: Minnesota Twins star Kirby Puckett (who died in 2006 at age 45) said at his National Baseball Hall of Fame induction in 2001, "Don't take life for granted because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us."