On March 6, 1836, Mexican forces captured the Alamo in San Antonio killing the last of 187 defenders who had held out in the fortified mission for 13 days. Famous frontiersman Davy Crockett was among those killed on the final day.
In 1806, poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born in Durham, England.
In 1820, the Missouri Compromise was enacted allowing Missouri to join the United States a slave state but leaving the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.
In 1834, the city of York in Upper Canada was incorporated as Toronto.
In 1853, Verdi's opera "La Traviata" premiered in Venice, Italy.
AP Highlight in History:
On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court in Dred Scott v. Sandford ruled that Scott, a slave, was not an American citizen and could not sue for his freedom in federal court, and said Congress had no right to limit the expansion of slavery.
In 1935, retired Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., died in Washington, two days shy of his 94th birthday.
In 1944, U.S. heavy bombers staged the first full-scale American raid on Berlin.
In 1967, the daughter of Josef Stalin, Svetlana Alliluyeva, appeared at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and declared her intention to defect to the West.
In 1970, a bomb being built inside a Greenwich Village townhouse by the radical Weathermen accidentally went off, destroying the house and killing three group members.
In 1981, Walter Cronkite gave his final broadcast as anchor for the "CBS Evening News."
Cronkite signs offIn 1982, an Egyptian court sentenced five Muslim fundamentalists to death for the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. Seventeen others drew prison terms.
In 1983, in a case that drew much notoriety, Cheryl Araujo was gang-raped atop a pool table in a tavern in New Bedford, Mass., called Big Dan's; four men were later convicted of the attack. (Araujo was killed in a car accident in 1986.)
In 1987, 193 people died when the British ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. Also in 1987, an earthquake and flood in northeastern Ecuador killed more than 300 people and ruptured a main oil pipeline.
In 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush declared the Persian Gulf War over.
In 1997, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II launched the first official royal Web site.
In 1999, the emir of Bahrain (Sheik Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa), a key Western ally who had ruled for nearly four decades, died shortly after a meeting with Defense Secretary William Cohen; he was 65.
In 2000, three New York City officers were convicted of a cover-up in a brutal police station attack on Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. (The convictions of Thomas Wiese, Thomas Bruder and Charles Schwarz were later overturned, but Schwarz, whose conviction for participating in the attack was also overturned, was found guilty of perjury in a 2002 trial.)
In 2002, Robert Ray, who succeeded Kenneth Starr as special prosecutor, said there was sufficient evidence to convict U.S. President Bill Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Monica Lewinski case. But, he said Clinton had agreed to admit he gave false testimony under oath, thus avoiding prosecution.
In 2003, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States could lead a coalition of nations that would disarm Iraq even without U.N. authority. Also in 2003, the U.S. Senate approved a U.S.-Russian agreement whereby each country would reduce deployed nuclear warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 by 2012.
In 2004, President George W. Bush backed off on plans to require frequent Mexican travelers to the U.S. to be fingerprinted and photographed before crossing the border. A water taxi capsized in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, killing five people.
In 2005, Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena claimed American soldiers gave no warning before they opened fire on the car carrying her to the Baghdad airport, killing the Italian agent who'd just won her freedom after a month in captivity. The White House called the shooting a "horrific accident" and restated its promise to investigate fully. Hans Bethe, the winner of the 1967 Nobel Prize in physics who'd played a central role in the building of the atomic bomb, died in Ithaca, N.Y. at age 98.
In 2006, Gov. Mike Rounds signed legislation banning most abortions in South Dakota. (The ban was later rejected by the state's voters). Baseball Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett died at age 45. Also in 2006, officials said the 2005 hurricane season was the costliest disaster in U.S. history with Congress considering another $20 billion in relief. The federal government already had committed $88 billion to help areas devastated by hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
In 2007, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted of lying to FBI agents and to a grand jury and of obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to the media.
In 2008, in the deadliest attack on Israeli citizens in two years, a Palestinian gunman fired hundreds of rounds of automatic weapons fire at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem, killing eight students. Also in 2008, at least 68 people died in a series of coordinated bombings in a mostly Shiite shopping district in Baghdad.
In 2009, the government reported the jobless rate reached 8.1 percent in Feb. 2009. The figure represented the loss of 651,000 jobs. While acknowledging an "astounding" number of job losses, President Barack Obama told critics of his $787 billion economic recovery plan in Columbus, Ohio, that it was saving jobs and said, "I know we did the right thing." (The Congressional Budget Office now estimates the plan will cost $862 billion.) Also in 2009, the White House said President Barack Obama planned to reverse former President George W. Bush's policy limiting federal funding for stem-cell research.
Today's Birthdays: Orchestra conductor Julius Rudel is 89. Former FBI and CIA director William Webster is 86. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is 84. Author Gabriel Garcia Marquez is 83. Orchestra conductor Lorin Maazel is 80. Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova is 73. Country singer Doug Dillard is 73. Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., is 71. Actress-writer Joanna Miles is 70. Actor Ben Murphy is 68. Opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is 66. Singer Mary Wilson (The Supremes) is 66. Rock musician Hugh Grundy (The Zombies) is 65. Rock singer-musician David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) is 64. Actor-director Rob Reiner is 63. Singer Kiki Dee is 63. Rock singer-musician Phil Alvin (The Blasters) is 57. Actor Tom Arnold is 51. Former child actress Suzanne Crough is 47. Actor D.L. Hughley is 46. Country songwriter Skip Ewing is 46. Actress Yvette Wilson is 46. Actor Shuler Hensley is 43. Actress Connie Britton is 42. Actress Moira Kelly is 42. Actress Amy Pietz is 41. Rock musician Chris Broderick (Megadeth) is 40. NBA player Shaquille O'Neal is 38. Country singer Trent Willmon is 37. Country musician Shan Farmer (Ricochet) is 36. Rapper Beanie Sigel is 36. Rapper Bubba Sparxxx is 33. Rock musician Chris Tomson (Vampire Weekend) is 26. Actor Eli Marienthal is 24. Actor Jimmy Galeota is 24.
Those Born On This Date Include: Italian painter and sculptor Michelangelo (1475); French dramatist Cyrano de Bergerac (1619); Union Army Gen. Philip Sheridan (1831); humorist and short story writer Ring Lardner (1885); baseball pitcher Lefty Grove (1900); Texas swing bandleader Bob Wills (1905); comic actor Lou Costello (Abbott and Costello) (1906); one-armed professional baseball player Pete Gray (1915); TV personality Ed McMahon (1923); symphony conductor Sarah Caldwell (1924); Mercury astronaut L. Gordon Cooper (1927).
March 6 In Entertainment
In 1966, the British prime minister received a petition from Beatles fans, asking that the Cavern Club in Liverpool be reopened. The club, where the Beatles performed more than 300 dates, was closed because of financial problems.
In 1970, serial killer Charles Manson's album "Lie" was released.
In 1978, Billy Joel was awarded a rare platinum single for "Just The Way You Are."
In 1992, the last episode of "The Cosby Show" was taped in New York. New York Mayor David Dinkins and the group Boyz II Men were on hand.
In 1996, musicians Johnny and Edgar Winter sued DC Comics over a horror comic with two characters called Johnny and Edgar Autumn. The case went all the way to the California Supreme Court. The Winters lost.
In 1999, country singer George Jones nearly killed himself in a car accident near his home in Nashville. He later pleaded guilty to drunk driving.
In 2000, all the original members of Earth, Wind and Fire played together for the first time in 20 years as they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Maurice White had announced the previous week he had Parkinson's disease. Eric Clapton also became the first person to be inducted into the Rock Hall three times; among the newest honorees were James Taylor & Bonnie Raitt.
In 2005, actress Teresa Wright died in New Haven, Conn. at age 86.
Thought for Today: "Best be yourself, imperial, plain and true!" — Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (1806-1861).
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