1. On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision in the landmark case Dred Scott v. Sandford, which declared that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court.

2. On March 6, 1862, the Battle of New Bern took place in the Civil War. Union troops, led by General Ambrose Burnside, captured the city of New Bern, North Carolina, securing an important port for the Union Navy and opening up a path towards the Confederate capital at Richmond.

3. On March 6, 1909, Virginia Governor William Hodges Mann signed into law the "Sterilization Act," which authorized the forced sterilization of people deemed "feeble-minded," "insane," or "criminal." Virginia was the first state to enact such a law, and it served as a model for other states and countries around the world.

4. On March 6, 1923, Edgar Allan Poe's former residence in Richmond, Virginia was opened as a museum. The building, known as the Poe Museum, is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the acclaimed author, who spent much of his life in Virginia and set many of his stories and poems there.

5. On March 6, 1960, a sit-in protest was held at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Norfolk, Virginia, marking the first such protest in the state. The demonstrators, led by students from Norfolk State College and Virginia Union University, were protesting segregation and discrimination against African Americans in public places. The protest sparked a wave of similar sit-ins across the South, and helped to galvanize the civil rights movement.