March 6
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Featured Event
© World History Archive/age fotostock
Dmitri Mendeleevâs periodic table is first presented
On this day in 1869, Dmitri Mendeleevâs paper âThe Dependence Between the Properties of the Atomic Weights of the Elementsâ was presented to the Russian Chemical Society. It was the first to show a periodic table organized horizontally and vertically by element property. Sixty elements were known at the time, but they had not been organized successfully. Mendeleev noticed periodic patterns and left gaps for elements that had not yet been discovered. Although his table did not initially receive widespread attention, the discovery of predicted elements gallium (1875), scandium (1879), and germanium (1886) brought his periodic table widespread acceptance. [Read todayâs edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Alexander Mokletsov/RIA Novosti Archive (image no. 612748)
Soviet astronaut Valentina Tereshkova, born this day in 1937, became the first woman to travel in space, completing 48 Earth orbits aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6 in June 1963, and was named a Hero of the Soviet Union.
Famous Birthdays
More on March 6
© Circa Images/GHI/Universal History ArchiveâUniversal Images Group/Getty Images
2016
Nancy Reaganâwho was first lady during the 1981â89 administration of her husband, President Ronald Reagan, and was noted as his most trusted adviser and the most zealous protector of his reputationâdied in Los Angeles. [Test your knowledge of the first ladies of the United States.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZ62-116606)
1986
Georgia OâKeeffeâwhose well-known works included large-format paintings of natural forms, especially flowers and bonesâdied at age 98. She helped to establish a new and significant space for female artists in a realm that was (and continues to be) dominated by men. [Take our quiz about famous artists, painters, and architects.]
Frank Wolfe/The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum
1981
Journalist Walter Cronkite, who was known as âthe most trusted man in America,â signed off as the longtime anchor of the CBS Evening News. That same year, Pres. Jimmy Carter awarded Cronkite the Presidential Medal of Freedom. [See Cronkiteâs commentary on the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald and the Warren Commission]
© PL Gould/Images PressâArchive Photos/Getty Images
1964
Boxer Cassius Clay took the name Muhammad Ali, which was given to him by his spiritual mentor, Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam. [Watch a video about Aliâs life and career.]
EncyclopĂŠdia Britannica, Inc.
1957
Ghana became an independent nation, led by Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah. [Learn more about the colonization of Africa by European powers]
© Lutfi Ozkok
1927
Gabriel GarcĂa MĂĄrquez, who won a Nobel Prize for Literature for his novel Cien años de soledad (1967; One Hundred Years of Solitude), was born in Aracataca, Colombia. [Take our literature quiz.]
© Lee Boltin
1924
The Egyptian government opened the mummy case of King Tutankhamen, ruler of Egypt in the 14th century bce, whose burial chamber had been discovered in 1922 by British archaeologist Howard Carter. [What do you know about ancient Egypt?]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-USZ62-110441)
1899
The German company Bayer trademarked the name Aspirin for its analgesic (pain-relieving) drug made from acetylsalicylic acid. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about human health.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. 3a08411u)
1857
U.S. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney announced the Dred Scott decision, which ruled that an enslaved man (Dred Scott), who had resided in a state where slavery was prohibited, was not entitled to his freedom; that African Americans could never be U.S. citizens; and that the Missouri Compromise (1820) was unconstitutional. The decision is widely agreed, particularly among constitutional scholars, to be one of the worst decisions ever rendered by the Supreme Court. [Why the Dred Scott decision is one of the worst U.S. Supreme Court rulings in history.]
© Juulijs/Fotolia
1853
Giuseppe Verdiâs opera La traviata premiered at La Fenice opera house in Venice. [Test the range of your operatic knowledge in this quiz.]
© cbphoto/stock.adobe.com
1836
The Alamo in Texas fell to Mexican General Antonio LĂłpez de Santa Anna after a 13-day siege. It was memorialized by the popular phrase, âRemember the Alamo!â [Discover how well you know the Texas Revolution.]
© Hemera TechnologiesâPhotos.com/Getty Images
1834
Toronto, now the financial and commercial center of Canada, was incorporated. [Test your knowledge of Canada.]
EncyclopĂŠdia Britannica, Inc.
1820
U.S. President James Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise, which allowed Missouri to be admitted to the union as the 24th state (1821); the legislation marked the beginning of the sectional conflict over the extension of slavery that led to the American Civil War. [How much do you know about the history of slavery in North America?]
H. Roger-Viollet
1619
French satirist and dramatist Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, who was the basis of many romantic but unhistorical legends, was born in Paris. [Take our quiz about the theater.]
Wellcome Library, London (CC BY 4.0)
1475
Renaissance artist Michelangeloâwho exerted an unparalleled influence on Western sculpture, painting, and architecture and whose works rank among the most famous in existenceâwas born in the Republic of Florence. [Take our Leonardo da Vinci versus Michelangelo quiz.]