It is March 6th, and 549 years ago today Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born in the Republic of Florence. Known simply as Michelangelo, he was a sculptor, a painter, an architect and a poet. Widely regarded as the greatest sculptor in history, his works can certainly be said to have stood the test of time. But, of course, over that time, things continued to occur on March 6.
After the public announcement of the armistice ending hostilities between Italy and the Allied powers on September 8th, 1943, the Italian navy fled its ports in a desperate bid to reach the safety of Allied forces, even as German forces, carrying a terrifying new weapon, sought to capture or destroy them.
On August 26, 1980, some men wearing jumpsuits drove up in a white Dodge van and rolled a large box into a Casino in Stateline Nevada, saying that they were delivering a copy machine. It wasn’t a copy machine. Thus began what the Federal Bureau of Investigation described as “one of the most unusual cases” in the bureau’s history.
In 1943 the Yorktown, Virginia, Naval Mine Depot manufactured explosive ordnance and loaded it onto ships in the York River bound for the battlefields of WWII. On November 16th, a massive explosion rocked the Depot, leaving enormous craters and shattering glass for miles around.