On This Day in History (March 6)

1521 - Ferdinand Magellan discovers Guam on a voyage around the World that started in Spain and then went around the coast of South America, through the Philippines, around the coast of South Africa and back to Spain. He would die 52 days later. Guam is now a territory of the United States.
1820 - The Missouri Compromise was signed into US law by President James Monroe. It allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state but made the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 repealed the part of slavery-free territory. Stupid rednecks.
1836 - The Battle of the Alamo ended after a 13 day siege by 3,000 Mexican troops. The 187 Texas volunteers who defended the fort were defeated and lost the fort. REMEMBER THE ALAMO!!
1857 - The verdict of the Dred Scott v. Sandford case is given by the Supreme Court of the United States. It pretty much said people of African descent (even if they were never slaves) could never be citizens of the US. The 13th and 14th Amendment overturned this. Insanely simple logic also overturned it.
1899 - Bayer registers aspirin as a trademark. It was a powder until 1914 when it became tablets.
1901 - An assassin fails in an attempt to kill Wilhelm II of Germany.
1902 - Unfortunately, Real Madrid is founded as Sociedad Madrid FC. They would go on to win way too many trophies.
1940 - An armistice is signed by Finland and the Soviet Union to end the Winter War. The war lasted from November 30, 1939 to March 13, 1940. USSR had like 1,000,000 troops and Finland had like 250,000 but it was still pretty even. This war resulted in the Moscow Peace Treaty. It gave a few small parts of Finland to the Soviet Union. Over 250,000 Soviets died or went missing due to this war and all you get is a few small parts of Finland? lol, me and a few of my friends could capture a few small parts of Finland.
1945 - Communist government in Romania assumes power under Petru Groza. I know what you are thinking, who cares, I agree.
1946 - Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France which recognizes Vietnam as a state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
1951 - Trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins. I did a paper on this in middle school but forgot most of the information. They were found guilty of being Soviet spies and passing information to the USSR about the American atomic bomb. They were executed by electric chair at Sing Sing (yes the prison they refer to on Law and Order) on June 19, 1953.
1957 - The British colonies of the Gold Coast and British Togoland become the independent Republic of Ghana. 49 years later they beat the US 2-1 in a group game at the 2006 World Cup due to a bullshit penalty call.
1964 - Cassius Clay changes his name to Muhammad Ali.
1964 - Tom O'Hara sets a new world record for the indoor mile run by completing it in 3 minutes, 56.4 seconds. What a beast, I struggle to do it in 10 minutes.
1981 - Walter Cronkite signs off the CBS Evening News for the last time after 19 years. These days he is doing a good job of not dieing and by doing so depriving me of points in a death pool.
1987 - The British ferry MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes in about 90 seconds killing 193 people.
1988 - Students at Gallaudet University in Washington D.C. go on strike in favor of the selection of a deaf university president. The protest was called Deaf President Now (how clever). Gallaudet is a school for the deaf and was oddly run by someone who could hear. They got what they wanted and deaf man Irving King Jordan became the school's President. He served until 2006. I guess protesting was a fifth sense to these guys.
1997 - Picasso's painting Tête de Femme is stolen from a London gallery but was recovered a week later.
2006 - South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds signs a bill into legislation that would ban most abortions in the state.
2007 - Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr. is found guilty on four of five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice trial. He is currently tossin' salad in prison.