This day, May 6th

Tons of things happened on this day in history. The Renaissance ended with the Sack of Rome by the armies of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V, in May 1527. In eight days, his Spanish troops and German mercenaries killed around 4,000 Romans and looted works of art and literature. Even the Pope, Clement VII, was imprisoned. Though the Renaissance was effectively ended, Rome bounced back and by 1600, it was once again a prosperous city. Holidays Feast day of St. Edbert, Saints Marian and James, St. Evodius of Antioch, St. Petronax, and St. John Before the Latin Gate. Egypt: Sham El-Nessim. Ireland: May Day Bank Holiday. Vatican City: swearing-in of new recruits to Swiss Guards (commemoration of Sack of Rome, 1527). Events 1527 - German troops began sacking Rome, destroying libraries, capturing the Pope, and killing thousands.   1840 - The first postage stamps were issued, in Britain.   1861 - Arkansas seceded from the Union.   1882 - Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese immigrants from the United States for 10 years.   1937 - The hydrogen-filled German dirigible Hindenburg crashed in New Jersey, killing 36 of its passengers. It was the largest dirigible ever built and the pride of Nazi Germany.  1941 - Soviet dictator Josef Stalin assumed the premiership, replacing Vyacheslav M. Molotov.  1954 - Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile during a track meet in England, in 3:59.4.   1957 - Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachusetts was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book "Profiles in Courage."   1960 - Britain's Princess Margaret married Anthony Armstrong-Jones, a commoner, at Westminster Abbey. (They divorced in 1978.)   1994 - A rail tunnel under the English Channel officially opened, connecting Britain and the European mainland for the first time since the Ice Age. Births 1758 - Maximilian Robespierre, French revolutionary.   1856 - Sigmund Freud, Viennese founder of psychoanalysis.   1856 - Robert E. Peary, American explorer, discoverer of the North Pole, explorer of Greenland.   1895 - Rudolph Valentino (Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina), silent-film star.   1915 - Orson Welles, American actor, director, producer, writer.   1931 - Willie (Howard) Mays, American baseball great.  1953 - Tony Blair (born Anthony Charles Lynton Blair), British politician and prime minister.   1961 - George Clooney, American actor, and nephew of Rosemary Clooney. Deaths 1862 - Henry David Thoreau, American poet and writer.   1987 - William Casey, American Central Intelligence Agency Director.  1992 - Marlene Dietrich, German film actress and singer.   2006 - Lillian Gertrud Asplund, the last American survivor of the Titanic disaster.