May 6

[murjax]

1527 - Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. 147 Swiss Guards, including their commander, died fighting the forces of Charles V during the Sack of Rome in order to allow Pope Clement VII to escape into Castel Sant'Angelo.
1536 - King Henry VIII orders translated Bibles be placed in every church.
1542 - Francis Xavier reached Old Goa, the capital of Portuguese India at the time.
1682 - Louis XIV of France moves his court to Versailles.
1757 - Battle of Prague - A Prussian army fought an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years' War.
1816 - The American Bible Society is founded in New York City.
1835 - James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.
1840 - The Penny Black postage stamp is valid for use in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
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 India's Independence.
1860 - Giuseppe Garibaldi's Mille set sail from Genoa to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
1861 - American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.
1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends, with a defeat of the Army of the Potomac under General Joseph Hooker by Confederate troops under Stonewall Jackson.
1877 - Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.
1882 - The Congress of the U.S.A. pass the Chinese Exclusion Act.
1889 - The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.
1910 - George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII.
1935 - New Deal: Executive Order 7034 creates the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
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.
1940 - John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.
1941 - At California's March Field Bob Hope performs his first USO show.
1942 - World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
1945 - World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (first was on December 11, 1941).
1945 - World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.
1954 - Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.
1960 - More than 20 million viewers watch the first ever televised royal wedding service when Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.
1962 - St. Mart

[WebbPA]

1954 - Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.

This was before my time but I understand that it was a huge milestone at the time, as it was considered impossible.

With better training even good amateurs can surpass this today.

[WebbPA]

1957 - U.S. Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book "Profiles in Courage".

Mr. Kennedy's actual contribution to the book is disputed.  See, for example, The Straight Dope.

[WebbPA]

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.

Wikipedia article

The Hindenburg was built by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in 1935 to a new, all-duralumin design. It was a visually striking "ship of the air", at 245 m (804 ft) long and 41 m (135 ft) in diameter, longer than three Boeing 747s placed end-to-end, longer than four Goodyear Blimps end-to-end, and only 24 m (78 ft) shorter than the Titanic. It was originally equipped with cabins for 50 passengers and a crew complement of 61.

The Hindenburg was originally intended to be filled with helium, but a United States military embargo on helium led the Germans to modify the design of the ship to use flammable hydrogen as the lift gas.