Biographies on This Day in History: May 6

Tony Blair
Born On
Tony Blair
prime minister of United Kingdom
May 6, 1953 -
Tony Blair is a British Labour Party leader who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom (1997–2007). He was the youngest prime minister since 1812 and the longest-serving Labour prime minister,...
Marlene Dietrich
Died On
Marlene Dietrich
German American actress
December 27, 1901 - May 6, 1992
Marlene Dietrich was a German American motion-picture actress whose beauty, voice, aura of sophistication, and languid sensuality made her one of the world’s most glamorous film stars. Dietrich’s father,...
Rudolph Valentino
Born On
Rudolph Valentino
American actor
May 6, 1895 - August 23, 1926
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian-born American actor who was idolized as the “Great Lover” of the 1920s silent era of film. (Read Lillian Gish’s 1929 Britannica essay on silent film.) When Guglielmi was...
Chris Paul
Born On
Chris Paul
American basketball player
May 6, 1985 -
Chris Paul is an American professional basketball player who became one of the premier stars of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the early 21st century. Paul’s career single-handedly gives...
Bob Seger
Born On
Bob Seger
American singer, songwriter, and guitarist
May 6, 1945 -
Bob Seger is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who achieved great popularity in the 1970s and ’80s with an earthy sound and lyrical themes rooted in the American Midwest. One of the Midwest’s...
L. Frank Baum, c. 1908
Died On
L. Frank Baum
American author
May 15, 1856 - May 6, 1919
L. Frank Baum was an American writer known for his series of books for children about the imaginary land of Oz. His most famous work, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), is a classic of children’s literature....
“The Say Hey Kid”
Born On
Willie Mays
American baseball player
May 6, 1931 - June 18, 2024
Willie Mays was an American professional baseball player considered by many to be the greatest all-around player in the history of the game. Mays ranks among the all-time leaders in home runs, hits, runs...
Maria Montessori
Died On
Maria Montessori
Italian educator
August 31, 1870 - May 6, 1952
Maria Montessori was an Italian educator and originator of the educational system that bears her name. The Montessori system is based on belief in the creative potential of children, their drive to learn,...
Martin Brodeur
Born On
Martin Brodeur
Canadian ice hockey player
May 6, 1972 -
Martin Brodeur is a Canadian ice hockey player who is the all-time winningest goaltender in the National Hockey League (NHL) with 691 career victories. Brodeur grew up close to the game of ice hockey....
Motilal Nehru.
Born On
Motilal Nehru
Indian political leader
May 6, 1861 - February 6, 1931
Motilal Nehru was a leader of the Indian independence movement, cofounder of the Swaraj (“Self-rule”) Party, and the father of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Motilal, a member of a prosperous...
Robert Edwin Peary.
Born On
Robert Peary
American explorer
May 6, 1856 - February 20, 1920
Robert Peary was a U.S. Arctic explorer usually credited with leading the first expedition to reach the North Pole in 1909. Peary entered the U.S. Navy in 1881 and pursued a naval career until his retirement,...
Born On
Samuel K. Doe
president of Liberia
May 6, 1950 or May 6, 1951 - September 9, 1990 or September 10, 1990
Samuel K. Doe was a soldier and Liberian head of state from 1980 to 1990. Doe, a member of the Krahn (Wee) tribe, enlisted in the army at age 18. He rose through the ranks to become a master sergeant in...
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Still Life with Jug and African Bowl
Born On
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
German artist
May 6, 1880 - June 15, 1938
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a German painter and printmaker who was one of the leaders of a group of Expressionist artists known as Die Brücke (“The Bridge”). His mature style was highly personal and notable...
Richard Shelby
Born On
Richard Shelby
United States senator
May 6, 1934 -
Richard Shelby is an American politician who was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 1986 and represented Alabama from 1987 to 2023; in 1994 he joined the Republican Party. He previously served...
Died On
James C. Wright, Jr.
American politician and legislator
December 22, 1922 - May 6, 2015
James C. Wright, Jr. was an American politician and legislator who was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1954 and began representing Texas the following year. He became speaker...
Giulio Andreotti, 1978.
Died On
Giulio Andreotti
prime minister of Italy
January 14, 1919 - May 6, 2013
Giulio Andreotti was an Italian politician who was one of the country’s most skillful and powerful politicians in the era after World War II. Over a 20-year period, he was a leading figure in the Christian...
Admiral William D. Leahy, chief of staff to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II.
Born On
William Daniel Leahy
United States admiral and politician
May 6, 1875 - July 20, 1959
William Daniel Leahy was an American naval officer who served as personal chief of staff to President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II. Leahy graduated from the United States Naval Academy at...
Born On
A.P. Giannini
American financier
May 6, 1870 - June 3, 1949
A.P. Giannini was an American banker, founder of the California-based Bank of Italy—later the Bank of America—which, by the 1930s, was the world’s largest commercial bank. He was a major pioneer of branch...
Theodore von Kármán
Died On
Theodore von Kármán
American engineer
May 11, 1881 - May 6, 1963
Theodore von Kármán was a Hungarian-born American research engineer best known for his pioneering work in the use of mathematics and the basic sciences in aeronautics and astronautics. His laboratory at...
Judah Benjamin
Died On
Judah P. Benjamin
American politician
August 6, 1811 - May 6, 1884
Judah P. Benjamin was a prominent lawyer in the United States before the American Civil War (1861–65) and in England after that conflict; he also held high offices in the government of the Confederate...
Maurice Maeterlinck, c. 1890.
Died On
Maurice Maeterlinck
Belgian author
August 29, 1862 - May 6, 1949
Maurice Maeterlinck was a Belgian Symbolist poet, playwright, and essayist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1911 for his outstanding works of the Symbolist theatre. He wrote in French and looked...
Born On
Gaston Leroux
French writer
May 6, 1868 - April 15, 1927 or April 16, 1927
Gaston Leroux was a French novelist, best known for his Le Fantôme de l’opéra (1910; The Phantom of the Opera), which later became famous in various film and stage renditions. After leaving school, Leroux...
Died On
William J. Casey
United States government official
March 13, 1913 - May 6, 1987
William J. Casey was a powerful and controversial director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1981 to 1987 during the Ronald Reagan administration. Casey graduated from Fordham University...
Henry II, detail from a statue, c.1235; from a portal in the Bamberg Cathedral, Germany
Born On
Henry II
Holy Roman emperor
May 6, 973 - July 13, 1024
Henry II ; canonized 1146; feast day July 13) was the duke of Bavaria (as Henry IV, 995–1005), German king (from 1002), and Holy Roman emperor (1014–24), last of the Saxon dynasty of emperors. He was canonized...
Born On
Martin Delany
American physician and abolitionist
May 6, 1812 - January 24, 1885
Martin Delany was an African American abolitionist, physician, and editor in the pre-Civil War period; his espousal of black nationalism and racial pride anticipated expressions of such views a century...
André Masséna, duc de Rivoli
Born On
André Masséna, duc de Rivoli, prince d’Essling
French general
May 6, 1758 - April 4, 1817
André Masséna, duc de Rivoli, prince d’Essling was a leading French general of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Orphaned at an early age, Masséna enlisted in the Royal Italian regiment in the French...
Born On
Sir Max Mallowan
British archaeologist
May 6, 1904 - August 19, 1978
Sir Max Mallowan was a British archaeologist who made major contributions as an excavator and educator. After receiving a degree in classics at New College, Oxford, he began his long career as a field...
Max Ophüls: La Ronde
Born On
Max Ophüls
German-French director
May 6, 1902 - March 26, 1957
Max Ophüls was a German motion-picture director whose mastery of fluid camera movement gave his films a characteristic lyrical flow. He was one of the first truly international directors, sensitive to...
Simpson, Sir James Young, 1st Baronet
Died On
Sir James Young Simpson, 1st Baronet
Scottish physician
June 7, 1811 - May 6, 1870
Sir James Young Simpson, 1st Baronet was a Scottish obstetrician who was the first to use chloroform in obstetrics and the first in Britain to use ether. Simpson was professor of obstetrics at the University...
How is a pope elected?
Born On
Marcellus II
pope
May 6, 1501 - May 1, 1555
Marcellus II was the pope from April 9/10 to May 1, 1555. He was one of the few popes in the modern period to retain his baptismal name after becoming pope. He was made cardinal in December 1539 by Pope...
Born On
André Weil
French mathematician
May 6, 1906 - August 6, 1998
André Weil was a French mathematician who was one of the most influential figures in mathematics during the 20th century, particularly in number theory and algebraic geometry. André was the brother of...
Born On
Cemal Paşa
Turkish political leader
May 6, 1872 - July 21, 1922
Cemal Paşa was a Turkish army officer and a leading member of the Ottoman government during World War I. Cemal joined the secret Committee of Union and Progress while a staff officer, becoming a member...
Born On
Christian Morgenstern
German poet
May 6, 1871 - March 31, 1914
Christian Morgenstern was a German poet and humorist whose work ranged from the mystical and personally lyrical to nonsense verse. Morgenstern had studied law at the universities of Breslau and Berlin...
Born On
Theodore H. White
American historian
May 6, 1915 - May 15, 1986
Theodore H. White was an American journalist, historian, and novelist, best known for his astute, suspenseful accounts of the 1960 and 1964 presidential elections. The son of a lawyer, White grew up in...
Konrad Henlein.
Born On
Konrad Henlein
Sudeten-German politician
May 6, 1898 - May 10, 1945
Konrad Henlein was a Sudeten-German politician who agitated for German annexation of the Czechoslovak Sudeten area and in World War II held administrative posts in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Henlein,...
Died On
Agnes Smedley
American journalist and writer
February 23, 1892 - May 6, 1950
Agnes Smedley was a journalist and writer best known for a series of articles and books centred on her experiences in China during the growth of Chinese communism. Smedley grew up under straitened circumstances....
Doumer, c. 1930
Died On
Paul Doumer
president of France
March 22, 1857 - May 6, 1932
Paul Doumer was the 13th president of the French Third Republic whose term was cut short by an assassin’s bullet. In 1889 Doumer was elected as a Radical deputy from the Yonne département, and his reputation...
Born On
Joseph Joubert
French writer
May 6, 1754 - May 3, 1824
Joseph Joubert was a French man of letters who wrote on philosophical, moral, and literary topics. Joubert went to Paris in 1778; there he came into contact with Denis Diderot and Louis, marquis de Fontanes,...
Born On
Ferdinand III
grand duke of Tuscany
May 6, 1769 - June 18, 1824
Ferdinand III was the grand duke of Tuscany whose moderate, enlightened rule distinguished him from other Italian princes of his time. He became grand duke on July 21, 1790, when his father, Leopold II,...
Died On
Élie-Joseph Cartan
French mathematician
April 9, 1869 - May 6, 1951
Élie-Joseph Cartan was a French mathematician who greatly developed the theory of Lie groups and contributed to the theory of subalgebras. In 1894 Cartan became a lecturer at the University of Montpellier,...
Born On
Randall Jarrell
American poet and critic
May 6, 1914 - October 14, 1965
Randall Jarrell was an American poet, novelist, and critic who is noted for revitalizing the reputations of Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, and William Carlos Williams in the 1950s. Childhood was one of the...
Oscar W. Underwood
Born On
Oscar W. Underwood
American politician
May 6, 1862 - January 25, 1929
Oscar W. Underwood was a U.S. congressman from Alabama (1895–1927) who drafted the Underwood Tariff Act of 1913. After studying law at the University of Virginia he was admitted to the bar in 1884. Underwood...
Born On
Paul Lauterbur
American chemist
May 6, 1929 - March 27, 2007
Paul Lauterbur was an American chemist who, with English physicist Sir Peter Mansfield, won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2003 for the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a...
Born On
William Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside
British field marshal
May 6, 1880 - September 22, 1959
William Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside was a British field marshal. After serving in the South African War, he commanded Allied forces in World War I in northern Russia (1918) and later in northern...
Bernard Leach: vase
Died On
Bernard Leach
British potter
January 5, 1887 - May 6, 1979
Bernard Leach was one of the foremost modern British potters who influenced contemporary ceramic design. The son of a colonial judge, Leach had lived in Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore by 1897. In that...
François de Montmorency Laval, portrait by Frère Luc
Died On
François de Montmorency Laval
French bishop
April 30, 1623 - May 6, 1708
François de Montmorency Laval was the first Roman Catholic bishop in Canada, who laid the foundations of church organization in France’s North American possessions. Born into one of the greatest families...
Mindszenty, József
Died On
József Mindszenty
Hungarian bishop
March 29, 1892 - May 6, 1975
József Mindszenty was a Roman Catholic clergyman who personified uncompromising opposition to fascism and communism in Hungary for more than five decades of the 20th century. Politically active from the...
Born On
Ariel Dorfman
Chilean author
May 6, 1942 -
Ariel Dorfman is a Chilean American author and human rights activist whose plays and novels engage with the vibrant politically engaged Latin American literary tradition of Pablo Neruda and Gabriel García...
Born On
Robert H. Dicke
American physicist
May 6, 1916 - March 4, 1997
Robert H. Dicke was an American physicist noted for his theoretical work in cosmology and investigations centring on the general theory of relativity. He also made a number of significant contributions...
Francisco de Paula Santander
Died On
Francisco de Paula Santander
Colombian statesman and soldier
April 2, 1792 - May 6, 1840
Francisco de Paula Santander was a soldier and statesman who fought beside Simón Bolívar in the war for South American independence and who served as president of the newly formed New Granada (Colombia)...