May 6

• May 6, 523
  Thrasamund, King of the Vandals and Alans, dies and Hilderic succeeds
• May 6, 1085
  Alfonso VI of León and Castile occupies the city of Toledo
• May 6, 1527
  Spanish and German mutinous mercenaries sack Rome during the conflict between Emperor Charles V and the League of Cognac — the alliance of France, Milan, Venice, Florence and the Papacy, which is considered the end of the Italian Renaissance
• May 6, 1576
  The Fifth War of Religion in France ends with the Edict of Beaulieu by which the Huguenots are granted freedom of worship in all places except Paris
• May 6, 1682
  King Louis XIV of France officially establishes his court in new Palace of Versailles, some 20 kilometres southwest of the French capital, making it the centre of political power
• May 6, 1757
  Frederik II of Prussia beat emperor's army at the Battle at Prague
• May 6, 1794
  After the French declared an end to slavery, Toussaint Louverture, Haitian rebel leader, ends his alliance with the Iberian monarchy and embraces the French Republicans
• May 6, 1856
  Sigmund Freud, father of psychology and the Viennese physician who discovered the unconscious, is born
• May 6, 1856
  Robert Peary, arctic explorer, is born
• May 6, 1877
  Chief Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their final losing battle against the U.S. Cavalry in Montana and surrenders
• May 6, 1882
  President Chester A. Arthur signs the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibits the immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States for 10 years
• May 6, 1889
  The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public with opening of Universal Exposition in Paris, France and becomes the tallest structure in the world until the Chrysler Building in New York City built in 1930
• May 6, 1896
  Samuel Pierpont Langley, American physicist and aviation pioneer, launches the first reasonably large, steam-powered model aircraft
• May 6, 1910
  George V ascends to British throne after death of his father Edward VII and becomes King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India
• May 6, 1919
  German East Africa is assigned to Britain and France, German Southwest Africa to South Africa after Paris Peace Conference disposes of German colonies
• May 6, 1937
  Hindenburg, the largest rigid airship by envelope volume, is destroyed by fire during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast in New Jersey
• May 6, 1942
  American forces at Corregidor Island surrenders to the Japanese, putting all of the Philippines under Japanese control
• May 6, 1953
  John Heysham Gibbon, an American surgeon, performes the first successful open heart procedure on a human utilizing Gibbon's heart lung machine
• May 6, 1981
  A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Lin's design for the US Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries
• May 6, 1994
  Channel Tunnel, 50.5-kilometre rail tunnel linking Folkestone in the United Kingdom, with Coquelles in northern France beneath the English Channel, is opened
• May 6, 2000
  Operation Palliser, begun by British forces, effectively ending Sierra Leone Civil War
• May 6, 2001
  The first space tourist, United States multimillionaire Dennis Tito, returns to Earth aboard Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-31, while Soyuz TM-32, which delivered the crew to the International Space Station, is left docked as a new lifeboat
• May 6, 2007
  Nicolas Sarkozy is elected President of the French Republic, defeating Ségolène Royal with 53 percent of the vote in the French Presidential Election