11 July

Events

• 1302 - Battle of the Golden Spurs (Guldensporenslag in Dutch) - the Flemish cities beat the king of France.
• 1346 - Charles IV of Luxembourg elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1576 - Martin Frobisher sights Greenland.
• 1616 - Samuel de Champlain returns to Quebec.
• 1533 - King Henry VIII of England is excommunicated.
• 1740 - Jews expelled from Little Russia.
• 1750 - Halifax,_Nova Scotia almost completely destroyed by fire.
• 1776 - Captain James Cook begins third voyage.
• 1798 - The United States Marine Corps is established.
• 1804 - In a duel, Vice President Aaron Burr kills Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.
• 1811 - Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro publishes his memoire about molecular content of gases.
• 1848 - The Waterloo railway station in London opens.
• 1859 - A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is published.
• 1864 - Confederate forces attempt an invasion of Washington DC.
• 1893 - The first cultured pearl is obtained by Kokichi Mikimoto.
• 1895 - The brothers Lumière show film for scientists.
• 1897 - Solomon Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to try to reach the North pole by balloon. He later crashes and dies, probably of carbon monoxide poisoning.
• 1914 - Babe Ruth debuts in major league baseball.
• 1919 - Eight-hour working day and free Sunday made into law in the Netherlands.
• 1921 - Former US President William Howard Taft sworn in as 10th Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, becoming the only person to ever be both President and Chief Justice.
• 1921 - Mongolia becomes independent (from China).
• 1936 - Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic.
• 1940 - Vichy Regime formally established in France. (and Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Prime Minister of France).
• 1943 - The Germans counter-attack on Sicily.
• 1944 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt says he will run for a fourth term as president of the United States.
• 1955 - The phrase In God We Trust is added to all US currency.
• 1960 - Dahomey (now Benin), Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), and Niger all gain independence.
• 1962 - First transatlantic satellite television transmission.
• 1962 - Soviet cosmonaut Micolaev is four days in space, a record.
• 1971 - Copper mines in Chile nationalised.
• 1973 - A Brazilian Boeing 707 crashes near Paris on approach to Orly Airport, resulting in the death of 122 people.
• 1975 - Chinese archeologists discover a large burial site with 6,000 clay statutes of warriors from 221 BC.
• 1977 - Martin Luther King is posthumously rewarded the Medal of Freedom.
• 1979 - The space station Skylab returns to Earth.
• 1987 - According to the United Nations, on this day the world population crosses the 5,000,000,000 mark.
• 1991 - A Nigerian DC-8 crashes while landing at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia killing 261
• 1991 - Total solar eclipse in Hawaii.
• 1995 - Full diplomatic relations are established between the United States and Vietnam.
• 1995 - Bosnian Serbs capture the Muslim city of Srebrenica. Many inhabitants are murdered.
• 1995 - A Cubana de Aviacion Antonov AN-24 crashes into the Caribbean off southeast Cuba killing 44

Births

• 1274 - Robert the Bruce, king of Scotland (1306-1329)
• 1657 - King Frederick I of Prussia (1701-1713)
• 1754 - Thomas Bowdler, medical doctor and literary censor
• 1767 - John Quincy Adams, president of the United States (1825-1829)
• 1844 - King Peter of Serbia (+ 1921)
• 1857 - Alfred Binet, phsychologist (+ 1911)
• 1897 - Eugene Bull Connor), sheriff of Birmingham, Alabama, resisted civil rights (+ 1973)
• 1899 - E. B. White, writer (+ 1985)
• 1903 - O. E. Hasse, actor (+ 1978)
• 1906 - Herbert Wehner, politician (+ 1990)
• 1913 - Cordwainer Smith, writer
• 1921 - Ilse Werner, actress
• 1926 - Frederick Buechner, author
• 1927 - Brett Somers, actor
• 1929 - Hermann Prey, bariton (+ 1998)
• 1930 - Harold Bloom, literary critic
• 1931 - Tab Hunter, actor
• 1934 - Giorgio Armani, fashion designer
• 1939 - Seth Gaaikema, Dutch comedian
• 1949 - Liona Boyd, classical guitarist
• 1957 - Michael Rose, musician (Black Uhuru)
• 1959 - Suzanne Vega, singer
• 1959 - Richie Sambora, singer/guitarist (Bon Jovi)
• 1976 - Lil' Kim, rap singer

Deaths

• ca. 155 - Pope Pius I
• 472 - Anthemius, Emperor of the Western Empire (legal murder)
• 1577 - king John III of Portugal
• 1804 - Alexander Hamilton, United States Secretary of the Treasury (duel)
• 1937 - George Gershwin, composer
• 1971 - John W. Campbell, science fiction writer and editor
• 1974 - Pär Lagerkvist, author, 1951 winner of the Nobel Prize for literature
• 1989 - Sir Laurence Olivier, actor
• 2001 - Herman Brood, singer and artist (suicide)

Holidays and observances

• Belgium (partially) - Flemish Day (1302)
• Burkina Faso - Independence Day (1960)
• Benin - Independence Day (1960)
• Niger - Independence Day (1960)
• Mongolia - Naadam Holiday
• Feast Day of Saint Olga (first Russian Saint)
• Feast Day of Saint Benedictus (founder of the Benedictine Order)

July 10 - July 12 - June 11 - August 11 -- listing of all days

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Referenced By