Events on May 6 53
Year 1527
Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. 147 Swiss Guards, including their commander, die fighting the forces of Charles V in order to allow Pope Clement VII to escape into Castel Sant'Angelo.
Year 1536
The Siege of Cuzco commences, in which Incan forces attempt to retake the city of Cuzco from the Spanish.
Year 1536
King Henry VIII orders English-language Bibles be placed in every church. In 1539 the Great Bible would be provided for this purpose.
Year 1659
English Restoration: A faction of the British Army removes Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and reinstalls the Rump Parliament.
Year 1757
Battle of Prague: A Prussian army fights an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years' War.
Year 1757
The end of Konbaung-Hanthawaddy War, and the end of Burmese Civil War (1740-1757).
Year 1757
English poet Christopher Smart is admitted into St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London, beginning his six-year confinement to mental asylums.
Year 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.
Year 1801
Captain Thomas Cochrane in the 14-gun HMS Speedy captures the 32-gun Spanish frigate El Gamo.
Year 1840
The Penny Black postage stamp becomes valid for use in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Year 1857
The British East India Company disbands the 34th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry whose sepoy Mangal Pandey had earlier revolted against the British and is considered to be the First Martyr in the War of Indian Independence.
Year 1863
American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with the defeat of the Army of the Potomac by Confederate troops.
Year 1877
Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Lakota surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.
Year 1882
Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish are stabbed to death by Fenian assassins in Phoenix Park, Dublin.
Year 1889
The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.
Year 1906
The Russian Constitution of 1906 is adopted (on April 23rd by the Julian calendar).
Year 1910
George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII.
Year 1915
Babe Ruth, then a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, hits his first major league home run.
Year 1916
Twenty-one Lebanese nationalists are executed in Martyrs' Square, Beirut by Djemal Pasha.
Year 1916
Vietnamese Emperor Duy Tân is captured while attempting to call upon the people to rise up against the French, and later being deposed and exiled to Réunion island.
Year 1933
The Deutsche Studentenschaft attacked Magnus Hirschfeld's Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, later burning many of its books.
Year 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.
Year 1942
World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
Year 1945
World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
Year 1945
World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.
Year 1949
EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation.
Year 1960
More than 20 million viewers watch the first televised royal wedding when Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.
Year 1966
Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors murders in England.
Year 1972
Deniz Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin İnan are executed in Ankara after being convicted of attempting to overthrow the Constitutional order.
Year 1975
During a lull in fighting, 100,000 Armenians gather in Beirut to commemorate 60th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
Year 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.
Year 1994
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel.
Year 1996
The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.
Year 1997
The Bank of England is given independence from political control, the most significant change in the bank's 300-year history.
Year 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.
Year 1999
The first elections to the devolved Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly are held.
Year 2001
During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.
Year 2002
Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is assassinated following a radio-interview at the Mediapark in Hilversum.
Year 2010
In just 36 minutes DOW Jones plunged nearly a 1000 points in what is known as the 2010 Flash Crash.
Year 2013
Three women missing for more than a decade are found alive in the U.S. city of Cleveland, Ohio.