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.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.