On this day...

1460 Treaty of Alcacovas-Portugal gives Castile Canary Islands for West Africa
1521 Magellan discovers Guam
1646 Joseph Jenkes, MA, receives first colonial machine patent
1665 Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society starts publishing
1775 First Negro Mason in US initiated, Boston
1808 First college orchestra in US founded, at Harvard
1810 Illinois passes first state vaccination legislation in US
1836 3,000 Mexicans beat 182 Texans at the Alamo, after 13 day fight
1857 Dredd Scott decision holds blacks cannot be citizens
1865 Battle of Natural Bridge, Florida
1886 First US alternating current power plant starts, Great Barrington, MA
1886 First US nurses' magazine, The Nightingale, published in NYC
1906 Nora Blatch becomes first woman elected to American Society of Civil Engineers
1935 Frank Bartell cycles record 80.584 mph in LA
1940 First US telecast from an airplane, New York City
1944 USAF begins daylight bombing of Berlin
1945 Hugh Grundy, Winchester England, rocker (The Zombies-She's Not There)
1946 France recognizes Vietnam statehood within Indo-Chinese federation
1947 XB-45, first US four-engine jet bomber, makes first test flight, Muroc, CA
1953 Malenkov becomes chairman of the USSR
1957 Gold Coast (Ghana) gains independence from Britain
1964 Elijah Muhammad renames Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali
1964 Elizabeth Taylor's fourth divorce (Eddie Fisher)
1965 first nonstop helicopter crossing of North America, J.R. Willford
1966 Barry Sadlers' "Ballad of the Green Berets" becomes #1 (13 weeks)
1967 Muhammad Ali is order by selective service to be inducted

Birthdays which occurred on March 6th:

1475 Michelangelo Buonarroti, painter/sculptor/architect
1619 Cyrano de Bergerac, dramatist (A Voyage to the Moon)
1787 Joseph von Fraunhofer, Germany, physicist, studied Sun's spectrum
1791 Anna Claypoole Peale, painted miniatures
1806 Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet (Sonnets from the Portuguese)
1831 Philip Henry Sheridan, Albany NY, general (Union Army)
1885 Ring Lardner, US, writer (You Know Me Al)
1891 Victor Kilian, Jersey City NJ, actor (Gentleman's Agreement)
1898 Jay C. Flippen, Little Rock Ark, actor (Ensign O'Toole)
1898 Jimmy Conzelman, NFL QB/coach/team owner (Chicago)
1900 Robert "Lefty" Grove, baseball pitcher (300 game winner)
1901 Mark Donskoy, Odessa Russia, director (Heart of a Mother)
1903 Elizabeth Pinkston Becker, US, platform diver (Olympic-gold-1928)
1906 Lou Costello, Paterson NJ, comedian/actor (Abbott & Costello)
1909 Obafemi Awolowo, Nigeria, President of Nigeria (1979-83)
1914 Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow, conductor (Hollywood Bowl 1981)
1916 Rochelle Hudson, Oklahoma City OK, actress (That's My Boy)
1920 Roger Price, Charleston WV, actor/writer (Who's There, Droodles)
1921 Julius Rudel, Vienna Austria, conductor (NYC Opera 1957)
1921 Oliver Wright, British Ambassador to United States
1922 Frankie Howerd, British actor/comedian
1923 Ed McMahon, Detroit, TV host and pitchman (Johnny Carson Show, Star Search)
1924 William H. Webster, director of both the FBI & CIA
1926 Alan Greenspan, economist and Federal Reserve Chairman
1927 Andrzej Wajda, Suwalki Poland, director (Ashes & Diamonds, Lotna)
1927 William J. Bell, Chicago, soap opera creator (Young & Restless)
1929 Hal Miller, British MP
1929 Thomas Foley (Rep-D-WA), former US Speaker of the House
1931 David Haddon Whitaker, publisher (Almanac)
1931 John Smith, Los Angeles, actor (Cimarron City, Laramie, Seven Angry Men)
1933 William Davis, author/broadcaster
1934 John Noakes, British TV pitchman
1935 Ronnie Delaney, Ireland, 1500m runner (Olympic-gold-1956)
1937 Ivan Boesky, Detroit, rogue stockbroker
1937 Merle Haggard, country singer
1937 Valentina V Tereshkova-Nikolayev, first woman in space (Vostok 6)
1939 David Spielberg, Weslaco TX, actor (Jessica Novak, The Practice)
1940 Joanna Miles, Nice France, actress (Cross Creek, Delta County USA)
1941 Ann Winterton, British MP
1941 Ben Murphy, Jonesboro Ark, actor (Name of the Game, Winds of War)
1941 Karyn Kupcinet, actress (Carol-Gertrude Berg Show)
1941 Willie Stargell, Pittsburgh Pirate Hall of Fame baseball player
1944 Kiri Te Kanawa, New Zealand, operatic soprano
1944 Mary Wilson, vocalist (Supremes)
1945 Anna Maria Horsford, NYC, actress (Thelma Frye-Amen)
1945 Hugh Grundy, drummer (Zombies-Tell Her No)
1945 Rob Reiner, NYC, actor/director (All in the Family, Stand By Me)
1947 David Gilmour, rock guitarist/vocalist (Pink Floyd)
1947 Kiki Dee, Yorkshire England, singer (Don't Go Breaking My Heart)
1949 Donald York, rocker (Sha Na Na)
1951 Stedman Graham, Oprah Winfrey's man
1953 Jackie Zeman, Englewood NJ, actress (Bobbie-General Hospital)
1959 Tom Arnold, Iowa, comedian (Roseanne)
1969 Andrea Elson, NYC, actress (Lynn-Alf, Alice-Whiz Kids)

Deaths which occurred on March 6th:

1616 Francis Beaumont, Elizabethan dramatist
1900 Gottlieb Daimler, designed first motorcycle
1941 Gutzon Borglum, Mount Rushmore's sculptor, dies at 73
1964 King Paul I, of Hellenes
1965 Margaret Dumont, actress-Marx Brothers', dies at 75
1970 William Hopper, actor (Paul Drake-Perry Mason), dies at 55
1973 Pearl Buck, author (Good Earth)
1976 "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenbloom, light-heavyweight boxing champ (1932-34), dies at 72
1979 Charles Wagenheim, actor (Halligan-Gunsmoke), dies at 83
1982 Ayn Rand, author-philosopher, dies in NY at 77
1983 Thelma Pelish, actress, dies at 55
1984 Henry Wilcoxon, producer, dies of congestive heart failure at 78