On March 6, 1836, the Alamo falls after a thirteen day siege by an army of 3,000 Mexican troops. The 187 Texas volunteers, including frontiersman Davy Crockett and Colonel Jim Bowie are killed. “Remember the Alamo” becomes the rallying cry of those who successfully win an independent Republic of Texas.
On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court delivered perhaps its most infamous decision in Dred Scott case, affirming the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the Western territories, thereby negating the doctrine of popular sovereignty in deciding whether new states will be free or slave states.
On March 6, 1947, John Stossel, author and television reporter and commentator, is born in Chicago Heights, Illinois.
On March 6, 1967, Joseph Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva defected to the United States.
On March 6, 1970, a bomb blast at a house in Greenwich Village killed three members of the Weather Underground.