June 11

Historic Events

2013

Greece's public broadcaster ERT is shut down by then-prime minister Antonis Samaras. It would be opened exactly two years later by then-prime minister Alexis Tsipras. ›

2012

Seventy-five people die in a landslide triggered by two earthquakes in Afghanistan; an entire village is buried. ›

2010

The first FIFA World Cup held on African soil kicks off in South Africa. ›

2008

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes a historic official apology to Canada's First Nations in regard to abuses at a Canadian Indian residential school. ›

2008

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is launched into orbit. ›

2007

Mudslides in Chittagong, Bangladesh, kill 130 people. ›

2004

Cassini–Huygens makes its closest flyby of the Saturn moon Phoebe. ›

2002

Antonio Meucci is acknowledged as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress. ›

2001

Timothy McVeigh is executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing. ›

1998

Compaq Computer pays US$9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in the largest high-tech acquisition. ›

1987

Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant are elected as the first black MPs in Great Britain. ›

1981

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake at Golbaf, Iran, kills at least 2,000. ›

1978

Altaf Hussain founds the student political movement All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) in Karachi University. ›

1971

The U.S. Government forcibly removes the last holdouts to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz, ending 19 months of control. ›

1970

After being appointed on May 15, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially receive their ranks as U.S. Army general officers, becoming the first women to do so. ›

1968

Lloyd J. Old identifies the first cell surface antigens that could differentiate among different cell types. ›

1964

World War II veteran Walter Seifert attacks an elementary school in Cologne, Germany, killing at least eight children and two teachers, and seriously injuring several more, with a home-made flamethrower and a lance. ›

1963

American Civil Rights Movement: Governor of Alabama George Wallace defiantly stands at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending that school. Later in the day, accompanied by federalized National Guard troops, they are able to register. ›

1963

Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burns himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam. ›

1963

John F. Kennedy addresses Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which would revolutionize American society by guaranteeing equal access to public facilities, ending segregation in education, and guaranteeing federal protection for voting rights. ›

1962

Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island. ›

1956

Start of Gal Oya riots, the first reported ethnic riots that target minority Sri Lankan Tamils in the Eastern Province. The total number of deaths is reportedly 150. ›

1955

Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least one hundred are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports. ›

1944

USS Missouri, the last battleship built by the United States Navy and future site of the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, is commissioned. ›

1942

World War II: The United States agrees to send Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union. ›

1942

Free French Forces retreat from Bir Hakeim after having successfully delayed the Axis advance. ›

1940

World War II: The Siege of Malta begins with a series of Italian air raids. ›

1938

Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Wuhan starts. ›

1937

Great Purge: The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin executes eight army leaders. ›

1936

Inventor Edwin Armstrong demonstrates FM broadcasting to an audience of engineers at the FCC in Washington, DC. ›

1936

The London International Surrealist Exhibition opens. ›

1920

During the U.S. Republican National Convention in Chicago, U.S. Republican Party leaders gather in a room at the Blackstone Hotel to come to a consensus on their candidate for the U.S. presidential election, leading the Associated Press to coin the political phrase "smoke-filled room". ›

1919

Sir Barton wins the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown. ›

1917

King Alexander assumes the throne of Greece after his father, Constantine I, is deemed to have abdicated under pressure from allied armies occupying Athens. ›

1903

A group of Serbian officers storms the royal palace and assassinates King Alexander I of Serbia and his wife, Queen Draga. ›

1901

The boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand are extended by the UK to include the Cook Islands. ›

1898

The Hundred Days' Reform, a planned movement to reform social, political, and educational institutions in China, is started by the Guangxu Emperor, but is suspended by Empress Dowager Cixi after 104 days. (The failed reform led to the abolition of the Imperial examination in 1905.) ›

1895

Paris–Bordeaux–Paris, sometimes called the first automobile race in history or the "first motor race", takes place. ›

1892

The Limelight Department, one of the world's first film studios, is officially established in Melbourne, Australia. ›

1882

Nationalist riots break out in Alexandria directed against foreign domination. More than 50 Europeans are killed, including the British consul. ›

1865

The Naval Battle of the Riachuelo is fought on the rivulet Riachuelo (Argentina), between the Paraguayan Navy on one side and the Brazilian Navy on the other. The Brazilian victory was crucial for the later success of the Triple Alliance (Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina) in the Paraguayan War. ›

1837

The Broad Street Riot occurs in Boston, fueled by ethnic tensions between Yankees and Irish. ›

1825

The first cornerstone is laid for Fort Hamilton in New York City. ›

1805

A fire consumes large portions of Detroit in the Michigan Territory. ›

1788

Russian explorer Gerasim Izmailov reaches Alaska. ›

1776

American Revolution: The Second Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence. ›

1775

The Coronation of Louis XVI in Reims, the last coronation before the French Revolution. ›

1775

The American Revolutionary War's first naval engagement, the Battle of Machias, results in the capture of a small British naval vessel. ›

1770

British explorer Captain James Cook runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef. ›

1748

Denmark adopts the characteristic Nordic Cross flag later taken up by all other Scandinavian countries. ›

1724

Johann Sebastian Bach leads his cantata O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (O eternity, you word of thunder), BWV 20, on the first Sunday after Trinity, beginning his second cycle, the chorale cantata cycle. ›

1702

Anglo-Dutch forces skirmish with French forces before the walls of Nijmegen and prevent its fall. ›

1685

James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, lands at Lyme in Dorset with loyal followers with the intent to depose king James II of England. ›

1594

Philip II recognizes the rights and privileges of the local nobles and chieftains in the Philippines, which paved way to the stabilization of the rule of the Principalía (an elite ruling class of native nobility in Spanish Philippines). ›

1559

Don Tristan de Luna y Arellano sails for Florida with a party of 1,500, intending to settle on the gulf coast (Vera Cruz, Mexico). ›

1509

Henry VIII of England marries Catherine of Aragon. ›

1488

The Battle of Sauchieburn is fought between rebel Lords and James III of Scotland, resulting in the death of the king. ›

1482

The Treaty of Fotheringhay is signed between the English and Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany, the rebellious brother of king James III of Scotland. ›

1429

Hundred Years' War: Start of the Battle of Jargeau. ›

1345

The megas doux Alexios Apokaukos, chief minister of the Byzantine Empire, is lynched by political prisoners. ›

1157

Albert I of Brandenburg, also called The Bear (Ger: Albrecht der Bär), becomes the founder of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, Germany and the first margrave. ›

1118

Roger of Salerno, Prince of Antioch, captures Azaz from the Seljuk Turks. ›

1042

Empress Zoe Porphyrogenita marries Constantine Monomachos, who is crowned the following day as Byzantine Emperor. ›

1011

Lombard Revolt: Greek citizens of Bari rise up against the Lombard rebels led by Melus and deliver the city to Basil Mesardonites, Byzantine governor (catepan) of the Catepanate of Italy. ›

980

Vladimir the Great consolidates the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea. He is proclaimed ruler (knyaz) of all Kievan Rus'. ›

786

A Hasanid Alid uprising in Mecca is crushed by the Abbasids at the Battle of Fakhkh. ›

631

Emperor Taizong of Tang sends envoys to the Xueyantuo bearing gold and silk in order to seek the release of Chinese prisoners captured during the transition from Sui to Tang. ›

173

Marcomannic Wars: The Roman army in Moravia is encircled by the Quadi, who have broken the peace treaty (171). In a violent thunderstorm, emperor Marcus Aurelius defeats and subdues them in the so-called "miracle of the rain". ›