Born on this Day 6th March
1421 King Henry VI of England
1475 Michelangelo
1619 Cyrano De Bergerac
1870 Oscar Strauss
1905 Lou Costello
1923 Frankie Howerd
1936 Jean Boht
1944 Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
1944 Dave Gilmour
1947 Kiki Dee
1951 Gerry Francis
1955 Rick Buckler
1958 Nick Park

Died on this Day
1888 Louisa May Alcott
1900 Gottlieb Daimler
1965 Herbert Morrison

Music

1913 The word ‘JAZZ’ was first used in print, in the San Francisco Bulletin.

1968 Sandie Shaw married fashion designer Jeff Banks.

1970 The album ‘Life’ was released by Charles Manson, head of ‘The Family’, who killed actress Sharon Tate.

Sport

1992 Rory Underwood, who has scored more tries and played more games than any other player, confirmed his retirement from international rugby.

1992 James Wattana of Thailand became the first overseas player to win a ranking tournament for two years after beating John Parrot by 9 frames to 3 in the final of the Strachan Snooker Championship near Bristol.

People & Showbiz

1983 A Buckingham Palace official claimed that the figure of £1500 alleged to be the weekly clothes shopping bill for the Princess of Wales was distorted.

1995 Dame Vera Lynn launched a nationwide campaign to draw attention to the hardships still being suffered by many of the survivors of the Second World War. She was asking for a penny contribution for each of the 50 years of peace since 1945.

1995 Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, secured the rights to the stage version of the classic Judy Garland film, “A Star Is Born” from Warner Brothers. The show would be brought to the West End and Broadway.

General Events

1768 The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica is published.

1836 The Battle of the Alamo ended with the Mexican General Santa Anna storming the Texas fort and killing most of the defenders, including Davy Crockett.

1897 London becomes the world’s first city to host licenced taxicabs.

1930 Frozen foods, developed from an Eskimo technique by Clarence Birdseye, were first put on sale in stores in Springfield, Massachusetts.

1957 75-year-old Eamon de Valera won Ireland’s General Election.

1961 Mini cabs were introduced in London for the first time.

1967 British police began using helicopters for the first time.

1984 Nearly seven hundred housewives were taken to skin specialists after complaining they were suffering from skin rashes after using New Persil Automatic washing powder.

1984 Christine Piff from Crowthorne, Berkshire, launched a support froup for people who required operations to remove cancer from their faces.

1992 Companies throughout the world were struck by the Michelangelo computer virus – so called because it strikes on the anniversary of the artist’s birthday – with reports of damage coming from Britain, US, Japan, South Africa, Uruguay, Egypt and Slovenia.

2006 NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.