Today in history

On March 6, 1475, Renaissance artist Michelangelo was born in Caprese, Italy.

In 1747 Casimir Pulaski, the nobleman who became a hero of the American Revolution, was born in Winiary, Poland.

In 1806 poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born in Durham, England.

In 1834 the City of York in Upper Canada was incorporated as Toronto.

In 1836 the Alamo in San Antonio fell to the Mexican army after a 13-day siege. All of the defenders, including Davy Crockett, were killed.

In 1853 Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “La traviata” premiered in Venice.

In 1857 in its landmark Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Scott, a slave, could not sue for his freedom in a federal court.

In 1926 Alan Greenspan, the economist who would become chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, was born in New York City.

In 1930 Clarence Birdseye started to sell prepackaged frozen food for the first time, in Springfield, Mass.

In 1933 a nationwide bank holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt went into effect.

In 1944 American bombers staged their first World War II raid on Berlin. Also in

1944 opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa was born in Gisborne, New Zealand.

In 1953 Georgi Malenkov became Soviet premier after the death of Josef Stalin.

In 1957 the British African colonies of Gold Coast and Togoland united to become the independent state of Ghana.

In 1981 Walter Cronkite signed off for the last time as anchor of “The CBS Evening News.”

In 1982 5 of 24 Muslim fundamentalists accused of involvement in the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat were sentenced to death. Also in 1982 author and philosopher Ayn Rand died in New York; she was 77.

In 1983 a woman in New Bedford, Mass., reported being gang-raped atop a pool table in a tavern; four men later were convicted in the attack.

In 1987, 189 people died when water rushed through the open bow doors of the British ferry Herald of Free Enterprise, causing it to capsize off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.

In 1994 Greek actress-turned-politician Melina Mercouri (“Never on Sunday”) died in New York; she was 70.

In 1997 Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II launched the first official royal Web site.

In 1999 the emir of Bahrain, Sheik Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa, a key Western ally who had ruled for nearly four decades, died; he was 65.

In 2000 a federal jury convicted three New York City police officers of covering up the brutal assault of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima in a police station rest room in 1997.

In 2002 Independent Counsel Robert Ray issued his final report in which he wrote that former President Bill Clinton could have been indicted and probably would have been convicted in the scandal involving former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Also in 2002 federal regulators approved the proposed $22 billion merger of Hewlett-Packard Co. and Compaq Computer Corp.

In 2004 President George W. Bush backed off on plans to require frequent Mexican travelers to the U.S. to be fingerprinted and photographed before crossing the border.

In 2006 South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds signed legislation banning most abortions in his state. (Abortion-rights groups were able to get enough signatures to put the measure to a vote, and the ban was rejected in the November election.) Also in 2006 baseball Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett died in Phoenix; he was 45.

In 2007 Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was found guilty by a jury of four of five charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in the probe into the leaking of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identification to the press. (President George W. Bush later commuted Libby’s prison sentence.)

In 2008 a Palestinian killed eight students at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem before he was slain. Also in 2008 twin bombings in a shopping district in Baghdad killed at least 68 people and wounded 130 others.

In 2013 a male African lion killed Dianna Hanson, a 24-year-old intern, at a big cat sanctuary in Dunlap, Calif. Also in 2013

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky delayed John Brennan’s nomination as CIA director with a 13-hour filibuster over how drones could be used on U.S. soil. Also in 2013 the European Union slapped a $731 million fine against Microsoft for failing to offer users a choice of Web browser.