What Happened On This Day – March 6
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1987 193 people die when a ferry capsizes in the North Sea
The Herald of Free Enterprise sank just minutes after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.
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1967 Stalin's daughter defects to the West
The Soviet dictator's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, caused an international uproar when she approached the United States embassy in New Delhi and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
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1957 Ghana becomes the first African country to gain independence from colonial rule
Ghana emerged as a sovereign state from the former British colonies Gold Coast and Togoland. Kwame Nkrumah was the country's first leader.
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1899 The painkiller Asprin is registered as a trademark
Acetylsalicylic acid was first isolated in 1897 by German chemist Felix Hoffmann. Today, the medication is sold by Bayer and is on the World Health Organization's list of essential medicines.
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1869 The first periodic table of chemical elements is presented
Dmitri Mendeleev presented the system to the Russian Chemical Society on that day.
Births On This Day,
March 6
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1972 Shaquille O'Neal
American basketball player, actor, rapper
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1946 David Gilmour
English singer-songwriter, guitarist
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1936 Marion Barry
American politician, 2nd Mayor of the District of Columbia
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1926 Alan Greenspan
American economist
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1475 Michelangelo
Italian painter, sculptor
Deaths On This Day,
March 6
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2007 Jean Baudrillard
French philosopher
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1986 Georgia O'Keeffe
American painter
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1982 Ayn Rand
Russian/American author, philosopher
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1900 Gottlieb Daimler
German engineer, businessman, co-founded Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft
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1842 Constanze Mozart
German wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart