Today in History: March 6, Supreme Court issues Dred Scott decision

Today is Friday, March 6, the 65th day of 2026. There are 300 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On March 6, 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, ruled 7-2 that Scott, an enslaved person, was not a U.S. citizen and therefore could not sue for his freedom in federal court; it also ruled that slavery could not be banned from any federal territory. The decision deepened the national divide over slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War.

Also on this date:

In 1820, President James Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise, which allowed Missouri to join the Union as a slave state and Maine to join as a free state, while banning slavery in the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory.

In 1836, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell as Mexican forces led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna stormed the fortress after a 13-day siege; the battle claimed the lives of all the Texian defenders, including William Travis, James Bowie and Davy Crockett.

In 1869, chemist Dmitri Mendeleev introduced his concept of a periodic table of elements at a meeting of the Russian Chemical Society in St. Petersburg.

In 1912, Oreo cookies were first introduced by the National Biscuit Company (later known as Nabisco).

In 1951, the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on federal espionage charges began in New York. (Both were subsequently found guilty, sentenced to death and then executed in 1953).

In 1964, heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay took a new name given to him by Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammed: Muhammad Ali.

In 1970, a bomb being built inside a townhouse in New York's Greenwich Village by members of the Weather Underground militant leftist group accidentally...