Historical Events on Tuesday, 6th May

06/05/2023

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.

The coronation of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as king and queen of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, took place on Saturday, 6 May 2023 at Westminster Abbey. Charles acceded to the throne on 8 September 2022 upon the death of his mother, Elizabeth II.

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Eight people are killed and seven injured in a mass shooting in Allen, Texas. The perpetrator is killed by a police officer.

On May 6, 2023, a mass shooting occurred at Allen Premium Outlets, an outlet center in Allen, Texas, United States. Nine people, including the perpetrator, were killed during the shooting, the youngest of whom was a three-year-old boy, and seven others were injured. The perpetrator was fatally shot by a police officer already in the area on an unrelated call.

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06/05/2013

Three women, kidnapped and missing for more than a decade, are found alive in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States.

Between 2002 and 2004, Ariel Castro abducted Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus from the roads of Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and later held them captive in his home at 2207 Seymour Avenue in the city's Tremont neighborhood. All three young women were imprisoned at Castro's home until 2013, when Berry successfully escaped with her six-year-old daughter, to whom she had given birth while captive, and contacted the police. Police rescued Knight and DeJesus, and arrested Castro a few hours later.

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06/05/2010

In just 36 minutes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 1,000 points in what is known as the 2010 Flash Crash.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow, is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States.

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06/05/2004

The final episode of the television sitcom Friends was aired.

"The Last One" is the series finale of the American sitcom Friends. Originally shown in its entirety, the episode's two parts were classified as the seventeenth and eighteenth episodes of the tenth season, and the 235th and the 236th episodes overall. It was written by series creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman and directed by executive producer Kevin S. Bright. The series finale first aired on NBC in the United States on May 6, 2004, when it was watched by 52.5 million viewers, making it the most watched entertainment telecast in six years and the fifth most watched overall television series finale in American history as well as the most watched episode from any television series throughout the 2000s decade on American television. In Canada, the finale aired simultaneously on May 6, 2004, on Global, and was viewed by 5.16 million viewers, becoming the second-highest viewed episode of the series.

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06/05/2002

Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is assassinated following a radio-interview at the Mediapark in Hilversum.

Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn, was a Dutch politician, author, civil servant, businessman, sociologist and academic who founded the party Pim Fortuyn List in 2002.

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Founding of SpaceX.

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, doing business as SpaceX, is a private American aerospace and artificial intelligence company headquartered at the Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the company has made numerous advances in rocket propulsion, reusable launch vehicles, human spaceflight and satellite constellation technology. As of 2026, SpaceX conducts more orbital launches annually than any other launch provider, including private competitors and national programs like the Chinese space program. SpaceX, NASA, and the United States Armed Forces work closely together by means of governmental contracts.

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06/05/2001

During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.

Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north and northwest, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and Israel and Lebanon to the southwest. It is a republic under a provisional government and comprises 14 governorates. Damascus is the capital and largest city. With a population of 26 million across an area of 185,180 square kilometres (71,500 sq mi), it is the 56th-most populous and 87th-largest country.

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06/05/1999

The first elections to the devolved Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly are held.

Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories have the power to make legislation relevant to the area, thus granting them a higher level of autonomy.

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06/05/1998

Kerry Wood strikes out 20 Houston Astros to tie the major league record held by Roger Clemens. He threw a one-hitter and did not walk a batter in his fifth career start.

Kerry Lee Wood is an American former baseball pitcher who played 14 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, and New York Yankees. Wood first came to prominence as a 20-year-old rookie, when he recorded 20 strikeouts in a one-hit shutout against the Houston Astros, which some have argued may be the greatest single-game pitching performance in MLB history. The game also made Wood the co-holder of the MLB record for strikeouts in a single game (20) and earned Wood the nickname "Kid K". He was later named the 1998 National League Rookie of the Year.

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Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. unveils the first iMac.

Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman, inventor, and investor. A pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, Jobs co-founded Apple Inc. with his early business partner Steve Wozniak as Apple Computer Company in 1976. After the company's board of directors fired him in 1985, he founded NeXT the same year and purchased Pixar in 1986, becoming its chairman and majority shareholder until 2007. Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 as CEO, where he was closely involved with the creation and promotion of many of the company's most influential products until his resignation in 2011.

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06/05/1997

The Bank of England is given independence from political control, the most significant change in the bank's 300-year history.

The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one of the bankers for the government of the United Kingdom, it is the world's second oldest central bank, after Sweden's (1668). It is considered to be one of the world's most important central banks.

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06/05/1996

The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and conducting covert operations. The agency is headquartered in the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Virginia, and is sometimes metonymously called "Langley". A major member of the United States Intelligence Community (IC), the CIA has reported to the director of national intelligence since 2004, and is focused on providing intelligence for the president and the Cabinet, though it also provides intelligence for a variety of other entities including the United States Armed Forces and foreign allies.

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06/05/1994

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel.

Elizabeth II was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime and was the monarch of 15 realms at her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days is the longest of any British monarch, the second-longest of any sovereign state, and the longest of any queen regnant in history.

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06/05/1988

All thirty-six passengers and crew were killed when Widerøe Flight 710 crashed into Mt. Torghatten in Brønnøy.

Widerøe Flight 710, known as the Torghatten Accident, was a controlled flight into terrain into the mountain of Torghatten in Brønnøy Municipality, Norway. The Widerøe-operated de Havilland Canada Dash 7 crashed on 6 May 1988 at 20:29:30 during approach to Brønnøysund Airport, Brønnøy. All thirty-six people on board LN-WFN were killed; the crash remains the deadliest accident involving the Dash 7 and the deadliest in Northern Norway. The direct cause of the accident was that the aircraft had descended from 500 to 170 meters at 8 NM instead of 4 NM from the airport.

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06/05/1984

One hundred and three Korean Martyrs are canonized by Pope John Paul II in Seoul.

The Korean Martyrs were the victims of religious persecution against Catholics during the 19th century in Korea. Among them are 103 Saints and 124 Blesseds officially recognized by the Catholic Church.

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06/05/1983

The Hitler Diaries are revealed as a hoax after being examined by new experts.

The Hitler Diaries were a series of sixty volumes of journals purportedly written by Adolf Hitler, but forged by Konrad Kujau between 1981 and 1983. The diaries were purchased in 1983 for 9.3 million Deutsche Marks by the West German news magazine Stern, which sold serialisation rights to several news organisations. One of the publications involved was The Sunday Times, who asked their independent director, the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, to authenticate the diaries; he did so, pronouncing them genuine. At the press conference to announce the publication, Trevor-Roper announced that on reflection he had changed his mind, and other historians also raised questions concerning their validity. Rigorous forensic analysis, which had not been performed previously, quickly confirmed that the diaries were fakes.

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06/05/1976

The 6.5 Mw  Friuli earthquake affected Northern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving 900–978 dead and 1,700–2,400 injured.

The 1976 Friuli earthquake, also known in Italy as Terremoto del Friuli, occurred on 6 May 1976, at 21:00:13 with a moment magnitude of 6.5 and a maximum EMS intensity of X. The shock occurred in the Friuli region in northeast Italy near the town of Gemona del Friuli. 990 people were killed, up to about 3,000 were injured, and more than 157,000 were left homeless.

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06/05/1975

During a lull in fighting, 100,000 Armenians gather in Beirut for the 60th anniversary commemorations of the Armenian genocide.

On May 6, 1975, a massive gathering took place in the Lebanese capital Beirut, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. Some 100,000 people participated in the march, which was organized jointly by different groups across the Armenian political spectrum.

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06/05/1972

Deniz Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin İnan are executed in Ankara after being convicted of attempting to overthrow the Constitutional order.

Deniz Gezmiş was a Turkish Marxist-Leninist revolutionary, student leader, and political activist in Turkey in the late 1960s. He was one of the founding members of the People's Liberation Army of Turkey (THKO).

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06/05/1966

Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors murders in England.

The Moors murders were a series of child killings committed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in and around Manchester, England, between July 1963 and October 1965. The five victims – Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans – were aged between 10 and 17, and at least four were sexually assaulted. The bodies of two of the victims were discovered in 1965, in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor; a third grave was discovered there in 1987, more than twenty years after Brady and Hindley's trial. Bennett's body is also thought to be buried there, but despite repeated searches it remains undiscovered.

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06/05/1960

More than 20 million viewers watch the first televised royal wedding when Princess Margaret marries Antony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.

The wedding of Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones took place on Friday, 6 May 1960 at Westminster Abbey in London. Princess Margaret was the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II, while Antony Armstrong-Jones was a noted society photographer.

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06/05/1954

Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.

Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister was an English neurologist and middle-distance athlete who ran the first sub-4-minute mile.

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06/05/1949

EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation.

The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was an early British computer. Inspired by John von Neumann's seminal First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, the machine was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in England to provide a service to the university. EDSAC was the second electronic digital stored-program computer, after the Manchester Mark 1, to go into regular service.

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06/05/1945

World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.

Mildred Elizabeth Gillars was an American broadcaster employed by Nazi Germany to disseminate Axis propaganda during World War II. Following her capture in post-war Berlin, Gillars became the first woman to be convicted of treason against the United States. In March 1949, she was sentenced to ten to thirty years' imprisonment. Gillars was paroled in 1961. Along with Rita Zucca she was nicknamed "Axis Sally".

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World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.

The Prague offensive was the last major military operation of World War II in Europe. The offensive was fought on the Eastern Front from 6 May to 11 May 1945. Fought concurrently with the Prague uprising, the offensive significantly helped the liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945. The offensive was one of the last engagements of World War II in Europe and continued after Nazi Germany's unconditional capitulation on 8/9 May.

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06/05/1942

World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

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06/05/1941

At California's March Field, Bob Hope performs his first USO show.

California is a state in the Western United States that lies on the Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California to the south. With almost 40 million residents across an area of 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2), it is the largest state by population, third-largest state by area and the largest state economy in the U.S., with a GDP of approximately $4.3 trillion.

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The first flight of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.

The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is a World War II-era fighter aircraft produced by the American company Republic Aviation from 1941 through 1945. One of the main United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) fighters, it found success in the European and Pacific theaters as an escort fighter well-suited to high-altitude air-to-air combat. It also served as the foremost American fighter-bomber in the ground-attack role.

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06/05/1940

John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.

John Ernst Steinbeck was an American writer and novelist. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception". He has been called "a giant of American letters".

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06/05/1937

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.

The Hindenburg disaster was an airship accident that occurred on May 6, 1937, in Manchester Township, New Jersey, United States. The LZ 129 Hindenburg was a German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of the Hindenburg class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume. Filled with hydrogen, it caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst. The accident caused 35 fatalities among the 97 people on board, and an additional fatality on the ground.

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06/05/1935

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.

The New Deal was a 1933–1938 series of economic, social, and political reforms in response to the Great Depression in the United States under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He introduced the phrase when accepting the Democratic Party presidential nomination in the 1932 United States presidential election, winning in a landslide over incumbent Herbert Hoover, whose administration was widely viewed as ineffective. Roosevelt attributed the Depression to inherent market instability and inadequate aggregate demand, and argued that stabilizing and rationalizing the economy required massive government intervention.

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06/05/1933

The Deutsche Studentenschaft attacked Magnus Hirschfeld's Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, later burning many of its books.

The German Student Union from 1919 until 1945, was the merger of the general student committees of all German universities, including Danzig, Austria and the former German universities in Czechoslovakia.

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06/05/1916

Twenty-one Lebanese nationalists are executed in Martyrs' Square, Beirut by Djemal Pasha.

Martyrs' Square, historically known as "Al Burj" or "Place des Cannons", is the historical central public square of Beirut, Lebanon.

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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.

Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of Mainland Southeast Asia. With an area of about 331,000 square kilometres and a population of over 102 million, it is the world's 16th-most populous country. One of two communist states in Southeast Asia, Vietnam is bordered by China to the north, and Laos and Cambodia to the west; it lies along the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest and the South China Sea to the east, where it has shared and disputed maritime borders with other countries. Its capital is Hanoi, while its largest city is Ho Chi Minh City.

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06/05/1915

Babe Ruth, then a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, hits his first major league home run.

George Herman "Babe" Ruth was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", he began his MLB career as a star left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees. Ruth is regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture and is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. In 1936, Ruth was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of its "first five" members.

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Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: The SY Aurora broke loose from its anchorage during a gale, beginning a 312-day ordeal.

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 is considered to be the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Conceived by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition was an attempt to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent. After Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition in 1911, this crossing remained, in Shackleton's words, the "one great main object of Antarctic journeyings". Shackleton's expedition failed to accomplish this objective but became recognised instead as an epic feat of endurance.

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06/05/1910

George V becomes King of Great Britain, Ireland, and many overseas territories, on the death of his father, Edward VII.

George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.

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06/05/1906

The Russian Constitution of 1906 is adopted (on April 23 by the Julian calendar).

The Russian Constitution of 1906 refers to a major revision of the 1832 Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire, which transformed the formerly absolutist state into one in which the emperor agreed for the first time to share his autocratic power with a parliament. It was enacted on 6 May [O.S. 23 April] 1906, on the eve of the opening of the first State Duma. This first-ever Russian Constitution was a revision of the earlier Fundamental Laws, which had been published as the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire in 1832. It was granted during the Russian Revolution of 1905, in a last-ditch effort by the imperial government to preserve its own existence and keep the empire from disintegration.

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06/05/1901

The first issue of Gorkhapatra, the oldest still running state-owned Nepali newspaper was published.

Gorkhapatra is the oldest Nepali language state-owned national daily newspaper of Nepal. It was started as a weekly newspaper in May 1901 and became a daily newspaper in 1961. It is managed by the Gorkhapatra Sansthan. The Rising Nepal is an English-language sister newspaper of Gorkhapatra.

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06/05/1889

The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.

The Eiffel Tower is a lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889.

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06/05/1882

Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish are stabbed to death by Fenian assassins in Phoenix Park, Dublin.

Thomas Henry Burke was an Irish civil servant who served as Permanent Under Secretary at the Irish Office for many years before being assassinated during the Phoenix Park Murders on Saturday 6 May 1882. The assassination was carried out by an Irish republican organisation known as the Irish National Invincibles.

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The United States Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both meet in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

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06/05/1877

Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Lakota surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.

Crazy Horse was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by White American settlers on Native American territory and to preserve the traditional way of life of the Lakota people. His participation in several famous battles on the northern Great Plains, among them the Fetterman Fight in 1866, in which he acted as a decoy, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, in which he led a war party to victory, earned him great respect from both his enemies and his own people.

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06/05/1863

American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with a major defeat of the Union's Army of the Potomac under Joseph Hooker by the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee.

The Battle of Chancellorsville, April 30 – May 6, 1863, was a major battle of the American Civil War (1861–1865), and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville campaign.

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06/05/1861

American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

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06/05/1857

The East India Company disbands the 34th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry whose sepoy Mangal Pandey had earlier revolted against the British in the lead up to the War of Indian Independence.

The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies, and later with East Asia. The company gained control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent and Hong Kong. At its peak, the company was the largest corporation in the world by various measures and had its own armed forces in the form of the company's three presidency armies, totalling about 260,000 soldiers, twice the size of the British Army at certain times.

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06/05/1840

The Penny Black postage stamp becomes valid for use in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was first issued in the United Kingdom on 1 May 1840 but was not valid for use until 6 May. The stamp features a profile of 21 years old Queen Victoria.

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06/05/1835

James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.

James Gordon Bennett Sr. was a British-born American businessman who was the founder, editor and publisher of the New York Herald and a major figure in the history of American newspapers.

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06/05/1801

Captain Thomas Cochrane in the 14-gun HMS Speedy captures the 32-gun Spanish frigate El Gamo.

Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, Marquess of Maranhão, styled Lord Cochrane between 1778 and 1831, was a British naval officer, politician and mercenary. Serving during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in the Royal Navy, his naval successes led Napoleon to nickname him le Loup des Mers. He was successful in virtually all his naval actions.

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06/05/1782

Construction begins on the Grand Palace, the royal residence of the King of Siam in Bangkok, at the command of King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke.

The Grand Palace is a complex of buildings at the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. The palace has been the official residence of the Kings of Siam since 1782. The king, his court, and his royal government were based on the grounds of the palace until 1925. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, resided at the Chitralada Royal Villa and his successor King Vajiralongkorn resides at the Amphorn Sathan Residential Hall, both in the Dusit Palace, but the Grand Palace is still used for official events. Several royal ceremonies and state functions are held within the walls of the palace every year. The palace is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Thailand, with over eight million people visiting each year.

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06/05/1757

Battle of Prague: A Prussian army fights an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years' War.

The Battle of Prague, also known as Battle of Štěrboholy, was fought on 6 May 1757, during the Third Silesian War and the broader Seven Years' War, between the Kingdom of Prussia and Habsburg Austria. Although Frederick the Great's army of 64,000 Prussians forced 60,000 Austrians to retreat, he lost 14,300 men and decided he was not strong enough to attack Prague.

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The end of Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War, and the end of Burmese Civil War (1740–1757).

The Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War was the war fought between the Konbaung Dynasty and the Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom of Burma (Myanmar) from 1752 to 1757. The war was the last of several wars between the Burmese-speaking north and the Mon-speaking south that ended the Mon people's centuries-long dominance of the south.

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English poet Christopher Smart is admitted into St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London, beginning his six-year confinement to mental asylums.

Christopher Smart was an English poet. He was a major contributor to two popular magazines, The Midwife and The Student, and a friend to influential cultural icons like Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding. Smart, a high church Anglican, was widely known throughout London.

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06/05/1682

Louis XIV of France moves his court to the Palace of Versailles.

Louis XIV was King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. He is a symbol of the Age of Absolutism in Europe for styling himself as Le Roi Soleil, which portrayed him as supreme leader. He presided over a great expansion of the French colonial empire and a patronage of arts in his court at the Palace of Versailles that defined the Baroque style of French architecture. His reign of 72 years and 110 days remains the longest of any monarch in history.

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06/05/1659

English Restoration: A faction of the British Army removes Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and reinstalls the Rump Parliament.

The Stuart Restoration was the return in May 1660 of the Stuart monarchy to the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, ending the Interregnum and the Commonwealth of England that had been established after the execution of Charles I in January 1649. The Commonwealth had been governed by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell and, briefly, his son Richard Cromwell, before political instability and the intervention of General George Monck led to the Declaration of Breda and the return of Charles II from exile. Charles landed at Dover on 25 May 1660 and entered London on 29 May, his thirtieth birthday. He was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661. The term "Restoration" is also used more broadly to describe the reign of Charles II (1660–1685), and sometimes that of his brother James II (1685–1688).

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06/05/1594

The Dutch city of Coevorden held by the Spanish, falls to a Dutch and English force.

Coevorden is a municipality and city in the province of Drenthe, in the northeast of the Netherlands. It shares a provincial border with Overijssel and an international one with Germany. The city itself is located between Emmen and Hardenberg on the N34 road, about 2 km from the German border.

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06/05/1542

Francis Xavier reaches Old Goa, the capital of Portuguese India at the time.

Francis Xavier, venerated as Saint Francis Xavier, was a Navarrese cleric and missionary. He co-founded the Society of Jesus and, as a representative of the Portuguese Empire, led the first Christian mission to Japan.

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06/05/1541

King Henry VIII orders English-language Bibles be placed in every church. In 1539 the Great Bible would be provided for this purpose.

Henry VIII was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. After the pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry passed legislation that severed England and Ireland from the Roman Catholic Church and established the monarch as Supreme Head of the Church of England, initiating the English Reformation. He subsequently married five more times; two marriages were annulled and two wives were executed.

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06/05/1536

The Siege of Cuzco commences, in which Incan forces attempt to retake the city of Cuzco from the Spanish.

The 10-month siege of Cusco by the Inca army under the command of Sapa Inca Manco Inca Yupanqui started on 6 May 1536 and ended in March 1537. The city was held by a garrison of Spanish conquistadors and Indian auxiliaries led by Hernando Pizarro. The Incas hoped to restore their empire (1438–1533) with this action, but it was ultimately unsuccessful.

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06/05/1527

Spanish and German troops sack Rome; many scholars consider this the end of the Renaissance.

The Sack of Rome, then part of the Papal States, followed the capture of Rome on 6 May 1527 by the mutinous troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, during the War of the League of Cognac. Charles V only intended to threaten military action to make Pope Clement VII come to his terms. However, the Imperial army were largely unpaid and mutinied. Despite being ordered not to storm Rome, they broke into the scarcely defended city and began looting, killing, and holding citizens for ransom without any restraint. Clement VII took refuge in Castel Sant'Angelo after the Swiss Guard were annihilated in a delaying rear guard action; he remained there until a ransom was paid to the pillagers.

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