1830 - The Law of April 6, 1830, said to be the same type of stimulus to the Texas Revolution that the Stamp Act was to the American Revolution, was initiated by Lucas Alamán y Escalada, Mexican minister of foreign relations, and was designed to stop the flood of immigration from the United States to Texas. The law came as a result of the warning and communications of Manuel de Mier y Terán, who made fourteen recommendations directed toward stimulating counter-colonization of Texas by Mexicans and Europeans, encouraging military occupation, and stimulating coastal trade. The law, reasonable from the Mexican point of view, authorized a loan to finance the cost of transporting colonists to Texas, opened the coastal trade to foreigners for four years, provided for a federal commissioner of colonization to supervise empresario contracts in conformity with the general colonization law, forbade the further introduction of slaves into Mexico, and apparently was intended to suspend existing empresario contracts. Article 11, the one most objectionable from the Texan viewpoint, not proposed by Mier y Terán but by Alamán, was intended to prohibit or limit immigration from the United States. Texas colonists were greatly disturbed by news of the law; Stephen F. Austin tried to allay popular excitement but protested the law to Mier y Terán and to President Anastasio Bustamante. Subsequently he was able to secure the repeal of Article 11. Application of the law slowed immigration, voided contracts that had been awarded but not carried toward fulfillment, and suspended two active enterprises: the Nashville or Robertson's colony and the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company. Enforcement of the provisions of the law concerning establishment of customhouses resulted directly in the Anahuac Disturbances of 1832 and indirectly in the battle of Velasco, the conventions of 1832 and 1833, and the accumulation of grievances that helped lead to the revolution.
1836 - Alexander Wray Ewing, early Texas doctor, was appointed surgeon general of the Texas army on April 6, 1836, and treated Sam Houston's wound at the battle of San Jacinto. Ewing incurred President David G. Burnet's wrath by accompanying the wounded Houston to Galveston. He was dismissed by Burnet but was soon reinstated. The Texas Congress blocked President Houston's move to keep Ewing as chief medical officer in 1837, and he was succeeded in this post by Ashbel Smith. Ewing moved to Houston, where he became first president of that city's Medical and Surgical Society in 1838.
1862 - Gen.Albert Sidney Johnston is killed the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee. He commanded the Second Texas Infantry, a Confederate regiment, organized in Galveston in September 1861. The unit was cited for bravery by generals P. G. T. Beauregard and Dabney Maury. The Second Texas Infantry participated on the right wing of Confederate attackers in the capture of the headquarters of three brigades and the encirclement of Gen. Benjamin M. Prentiss's division in the Hornet's Nest and penetrated to within a short distance of the steamboat landing by darkness on April 6. For gallantry on this day, Moore was promoted to brigadier general, and Rogers was promoted to the rank of colonel and placed in command of the regiment.
1911 - Various friends of the late sculptor Elisabet Ney met in her Austin studio to found the Texas Fine Arts Association and the Elisabet Ney Museum. Ney, born in Westphalia in 1833, came to Texas in 1872 and was one of the first professional sculptors in the state.
1934 - Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow committed their last murder by killing a constable in Commerce, Oklahoma. Afterward they were in continuous flight, with law officers in pursuit. They drove into a trap near their hide-out at Black Lake, Louisiana, on May 23, 1934, at 9:15 A.M. and were gunned down in a barrage of 167 bullets, led by famous Texas Ranger, Frank Hamer outside of Gibsland, Louisiana.
1945 - James E. Robinson, entered military service at Waco, Texas, and at the time of his death was assigned to the 861st Field Artillery Battalion, Sixty-third Infantry Division, United States Army. On April 6, 1945, Robinson was a field-artillery observer attached to Company A, 253rd Infantry, near Untergriesheim, Germany. After eight hours of fighting over open terrain, the company had lost its commanding officer and nearly all of its key enlisted men. With only twenty-three unwounded riflemen and carrying his heavy radio equipment, Lieutenant Robinson led his men through intense fire in a charge against the objective. He killed ten of the enemy with point-blank pistol and rifle fire and with his men swept the area of all resistance. Soon afterward he was ordered to seize the town of Kressbach. After encouraging each of his remaining nineteen men, he again led them forward. In the advance he was mortally wounded in the throat, but refused medical attention and continued to direct artillery fire. After the town was taken he walked nearly two miles to an aid station, where he died. By his intrepid leadership Robinson was directly responsible for the successful mission of Company A, against tremendous odds. For his actions he was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. He is buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery at San Antonio.
1968 - HemisFair, the first officially designated international exposition in the southwestern United States, opened in San Antonio. It celebrated the cultural heritage shared by San Antonio and the nations of Latin America. It ran from April to October and attracted 6.3 million visitors. More than thirty nations participated with pavilions or exhibits. It also changed the face of the city. The outstanding structures at the fair that remained after the event included the Institute of Texan Cultures, the Convention Center and Arena, and the 622-foot Tower of the Americas.