6 March in history
6 events that happened on 6 March, from 1204 to 1957.
1204 CE 822 years ago
Philip II of France takes Château Gaillard
French troops captured Richard the Lionheart's great castle above the Seine after a six-month siege, some climbing in through a latrine chute. Normandy fell to France within months.
✦ Anniversary of the day
1820 CE 206 years ago
President Monroe signs the Missouri Compromise
Missouri was to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free one, with slavery barred from the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36°30'. The balance held for three decades.
1836 CE 190 years ago
The Alamo falls to Santa Anna
Mexican troops stormed the mission at dawn after a 13-day siege, killing nearly all of its roughly 200 defenders, including Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett. 'Remember the Alamo' became the Texan battle cry.
1857 CE 169 years ago
US Supreme Court decides Dred Scott v. Sandford
Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that Black Americans could not be citizens and that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories. The decision deepened the crisis that led to civil war.
1930 CE 96 years ago
Clarence Birdseye's frozen foods go on sale
Shops in Springfield, Massachusetts, began selling quick-frozen vegetables, fruit, fish and meat using Birdseye's process. Frozen food went on to transform shopping and diets.
1957 CE 69 years ago
Ghana becomes independent
The Gold Coast became independent as Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah, the first sub-Saharan colony to win independence from a European power after the war. It inspired independence movements across Africa.
