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.
More Essex class aircraft carriers were built than any other capital ship in the 20th century, and the class would be witness to events that would come to define the modern world, and the age of the aircraft carrier.
The Reconquista, or Christian reconquest of Iberia, took nearly 800 years. The fighting did not come without great attempts by Muslim powers across the strait trying to reestablish their presence in mainland Europe. The last gasp of that effort came in the 1330s, when the powerful Marinid sultanate of what is modern Morocco invaded in an attempt to reverse Christian gains and secure the perilous position of the Sultanate of Granada.