Today in History

Today is Tuesday, March 6, the 65th day of 2018. There are 300 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On March 6, 1836, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell as Mexican forces led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna stormed the fortress after a 13-day siege; the battle claimed the lives of all the Texan defenders, nearly 200 strong, including William Travis, James Bowie and Davy Crockett.

On this date:

In 1475, Italian artist and poet Michelangelo was born in Caprese (kah-PRAY'-say) in the Republic of Florence.

In 1853, Verdi's opera "La Traviata" premiered in Venice, Italy.

In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Dred Scott v. Sandford, ruled 7-2 that Scott, a slave, was not an American citizen and therefore could not sue for his freedom in federal court.

In 1933, a national bank holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt aimed at calming panicked depositors went into effect. Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, wounded in an attempt on Roosevelt's life the previous month, died at a Miami hospital at age 59.

In 1944, U.S. heavy bombers staged the first full-scale American raid on Berlin during World War II.

In 1953, Georgy Malenkov was named premier of the Soviet Union a day after the death of Josef Stalin.

In 1967, the daughter of Josef Stalin, Svetlana Alliluyeva (ah-lee-loo-YAY'-vah), appeared at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and declared her intention to defect to the West. Singer-actor Nelson Eddy, 65, died in Palm Beach, Florida.

In 1970, a bomb being built inside a Greenwich Village townhouse by the radical Weathermen accidentally went off, destroying the house and killing three group members.

In 1983, in a case that drew much notoriety, a woman was gang-raped atop a pool table in a tavern in New Bedford, Massachusetts, called Big Dan's; four men were later convicted of the attack.

In 1988, the board of trustees at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., a liberal arts college for the deaf, selected Elisabeth Zinser, a hearing woman, to be school president; outraged students shut down the campus, forcing selection of a deaf president, I. King Jordan, instead.

In 1998, the U.S. Army honoured three Americans who risked their lives and turned their weapons on fellow soldiers to stop the slaughter of Vietnamese villagers at My Lai (mee ly) in 1968.

In 2016, former first lady Nancy Reagan died in Los Angeles at age 94.

Ten years ago: A Palestinian killed eight students at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem before he was slain; Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip praised the operation in a statement, and thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of Gaza to celebrate. Twin bombings in a shopping district in Baghdad killed at least 68 people and wounded 130 others.

Five years ago: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a critic of the Obama administration's drone policy, launched an old-style filibuster to block Senate confirmation of John Brennan's nomination to be CIA director; Paul lasted nearly 13 hours before yielding the floor. Syria's accelerating humanitarian crisis hit a grim milestone as the number of U.N.-registered refugees topped 1 million, half of them children.

One year ago: Without fanfare, President Donald Trump signed a scaled-back version of his controversial ban on many foreign travellers, one that still barred new visas for people from six Muslim-majority countries and temporarily shut down America's refugee program. Robert Osborne, the genial face of Turner Classic Movies and a walking encyclopedia of classic Hollywood, died in New York at age 84. The world's most famous sled dog race, the Iditarod, started with 71 mushers setting off from the heart of Alaska and embarking on a nearly 1,000-mile trek across the wilderness. (Mitch Seavey, 57. won the race in 8 days, 3 hours and 40 minutes.)

Today's Birthdays: Former FBI and CIA director William Webster is 94. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is 92. Dancer-actress Carmen de Lavallade is 87. Former Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova is 81. Former Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., is 79. Actress-writer Joanna Miles is 78. Actor Ben Murphy is 76. Opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is 74. Singer Mary Wilson (The Supremes) is 74. Rock musician Hugh Grundy (The Zombies) is 73. Rock singer-musician David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) is 72. Actress Anna Maria Horsford is 71. Actor-director Rob Reiner is 71. Singer Kiki Dee is 71. Fox News reporter John Stossel is 71. Composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz is 70. Rock singer-musician Phil Alvin (The Blasters) is 65. Sports correspondent Armen Keteyian is 65. Actor Tom Arnold is 59. Actor D.L. Hughley is 54. Country songwriter Skip Ewing is 54. Actor Shuler Hensley is 51. Actress Connie Britton is 51. Actress Moira Kelly is 50. Actress Amy Pietz is 49. Rock musician Chris Broderick (Megadeth) is 48. Basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal is 46. Country singer Trent Willmon is 45. Country musician Shan Farmer (Ricochet) is 44. Rapper Beanie Sigel is 44. Rapper Bubba Sparxxx is 41. Rock musician Chris Tomson (Vampire Weekend) is 34. Actor Eli Marienthal is 32. Actor Jimmy Galeota is 32. Rapper/producer Tyler, the Creator is 27. Actor Dillon Freasier is 22. Actress Savannah Stehlin is 22. Actress Millicent Simmonds (Film: "Wonderstruck") is 15.

Thought for Today: "Best be yourself, imperial, plain and true!" — Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (1806-1861).

News from © The Associated Press, 2018