May 11
is the 131st day of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar (132nd in
leap years). There are 234 days remaining.
*
330 -
Byzantium is renamed
Nova Roma during a dedication ceremony, but is more popularly referred to as
Constantinople.
*
1310 - 54 members of the
Knights Templar are burned at the stake in
France for being heretics.
*
1502 -
Christopher Columbus leaves for his fourth and final voyage to the
West Indies.
*
1745 -
War of Austrian Succession:
Battle of Fontenoy – At
Fontenoy,
French forces defeat an
Anglo-
Dutch-
Hanoverian army.
*
1792 -
Captain Robert Gray becomes the first documented
Caucasian to visit the
Columbia River.
*
1812 -
Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by
John Bellingham in the
lobby of the
House of Commons,
London.
*
1818 -
Charles XIV of
Sweden-Norway is crowned king of
Sweden.
*
1857 -
Indian Mutiny:
Indian rebels seize
Delhi from the
British.
*
1858 -
Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd
U.S. state.
*
1862 -
American Civil War: The
ironclad CSS Virginia is scuttled in the
James River northwest of
Norfolk, Virginia.
*
1864 -
American Civil War:
Battle of Yellow Tavern –
Confederate General JEB Stuart is mortally wounded at
Yellow Tavern, Virginia.
*
1867 -
Luxembourg gains its
independence.
*
1894 -
Pullman Strike: Three thousand
Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat
strike in
Illinois.
*
1907 - A derailment outside Lompoc, California kills 32
Shriners when their chartered train jumps off the tracks at a switch near Surf Depot.
*
1910 - An act of the
U.S. Congress establishes
Glacier National Park in
Montana.
*
1911 - The
United States becomes a signatory to the
Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
*
1927 - The
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded.
*
1928 - The first analog
TV service is inaugurated by
WGY,
Schenectady, New York.
*
1934 -
Dust Bowl: A strong two-day
dust storm removes massive amounts of
Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst dust storms of the
Dust Bowl in
North America.
*
1942 -
William Faulkner's collections of short stories,
Go Down, Moses, is published.
*
1943 -
World War II:
American troops invade
Attu in the
Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying
Japanese forces.
*
1944 -
World War II: The
Allies start a major offensive against the
Axis Powers on the
Gustav Line.
*
1946 -
UMNO is created
*
1949 -
Siam changes its name to
Thailand.
*1949 -
Israel joins the
United Nations.
*
1953 - The
Waco Tornado: An
F5 tornado hits downtown
Waco, Texas, killing 114.
*
1960 - In
Buenos Aires,
Argentina, four
Israeli
Mossad agents capture fugitive
Nazi Adolf Eichmann, living under the assumed name
Ricardo Klement.
*1960 - The first
contraceptive pill is made available on the market.
*
1964 -
Terence Conran opened the first
Habitat store on
London's
Fulham Road.
*
1969 -
Vietnam War:
Operation Apache Snow – Near the
Laos border,
American and
South Vietnamese forces fight
North Vietnamese troops for
Ap Bia Mountain (aka
Hill 937 or "
Hamburger Hill").
*
1970 - The
Lubbock Tornado: An
F5 tornado hits downtown
Lubbock, Texas, killing 26.
*
1973 - Citing government misconduct,
Daniel Ellsberg has his charges for his involvement in releasing the
Pentagon Papers to
The New York Times dismissed.
*
1984 - A
transit of Earth from Mars takes place; no one is there to observe it.
*
1985 - 56 spectators die when a
flash fire strikes a
football ground during a match in
Bradford, England.
*
1987 -
Klaus Barbie goes on trial in
Lyon for
war crimes committed during
World War II.
*1987 - The first
heart-
lung transplant takes place (
Baltimore, Maryland). The surgery is performed by
Dr. Bruce Reitz, of
Stanford University School of Medicine*
1995 - In
New York City, more than 170 countries decide to extend the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
*
1996 - After taking-off from
Miami, a fire started by improperly handled
oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of
Atlanta-bound
ValuJet Flight 592 causes the
Douglas DC-9 to crash in the
Florida Everglades killing all 110 on board.
*
1997 -
IBM's
Deep Blue chess-playing
supercomputer defeats
Garry Kasparov in the
last game of the rematch, becoming the first
computer to beat a world-champion
chess player.
*
1998 -
India conducts three underground nuclear tests in
Pokhran, including a
thermonuclear device.
*
1998 - An
election is held in the
Philippines where
actor Joseph Estrada emerged as winner for
President.
*
2000 - Last performance of the musical
Cats in
London's
West End.
*
2002 -
Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the
Netherlands unveiled the
Man With Two Hats monument in
Ottawa on May 11, 2002, and the other in
Apeldoorn on May 2, 2000. Symbolically linking both
Netherlands and
Canada for their assistance throughout the
Second World War.
*
2004 - The
Stockline Plastics factory explosion in
Glasgow kills nine people.
*
2006 - A science team at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign successfully convert pig waste into crude oil (see:
porcine petroleum).
*
1571 -
Niwa Nagashige, Japanese warlord (d.
1637)
*
1720 -
Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, German officer and adventurer (d.
1797)
*
1722 -
Petrus Camper, Dutch anatomist (d.
1789)
*
1752 -
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist (d.
1840)
*
1763 -
János Bacsanyi, Hungarian poet (d.
1845)
*
1801 -
Henri Labrouste, French architect (d.
1875)
*
1811 -
Chang and Eng Bunker, Siamese Twins
*
1811 -
Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d.
1893)
*
1824 -
Jean-Léon Gérôme, French painter and sculptor (d.
1904)
*
1827 -
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, French sculptor and painter (d.
1875)
*
1871 -
Stjepan Radic, Croatian politician (d.
1928)
*
1881 -
Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian physicist (d.
1963)
* 1881 -
Al Cabrera, Baseball player (d.
1964)
*
1887 -
Paul Wittgenstein, Austrian-born pianist (d.
1961)
*
1888 -
Irving Berlin, American composer (d.
1989)
* 1888 -
Willis A. Lee,
World War II U.S. naval admiral *
1890 -
Woodall Rodgers, mayor of
Dallas, Texas (d.
1961)
*
1892 -
Margaret Rutherford, English actress (d.
1972)
*
1894 -
Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (d.
1991)
*
1895 -
Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher (d.
1986)
*
1896 -
Josip Štolcer-Slavenski Croatian composer (d.
1955)
*
1897 -
Kurt Gerron German director (d.
1944)
*
1903 -
Charlie Gehringer, baseball player (d.
1993)
*
1904 -
Salvador Dalí, Catalan painter (d.
1989)
*
1907 -
Rose Ausländer, German poet (d.
1988)
*1907 -
Rip Sewell, professional baseball player (d.
1989)
*
1911 -
Phil Silvers, American actor and comedian (d.
1985)
*
1912 -
Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (d.
2001)
*
1913 -
Robert Jungk, Austrian publicist (d.
1994)
*
1916 -
Camilo José Cela, Spanish writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
2002)
*
1918 -
Richard Feynman, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1988)
*
1921 -
Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, German politician
*
1924 -
Antony Hewish, English radio astronomer,
Nobel laureate*
1927 -
Mort Sahl, Canadian comedian and political commentator
*
1928 -
Yaacov Agam, Israeli sculptor
*
1930 -
Edsger Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist (d.
2002)
*
1933 -
Louis Farrakhan, American Black Muslim leader
*
1935 -
Doug McClure, American actor (d.
1995)
*
1938 -
Carla Bley, American musician and composer
*
1940 -
Juan Downey, Chilean video artist (d.
1993)
*
1941 -
Eric Burdon, British singer (
The Animals)
* 1941 -
Graham Miles, English snooker player
*
1946 -
Robert Jarvik, American physicist and inventor
*
1948 -
Shigeru Izumiya, Japanese folk musician
*
1950 -
Jeremy Paxman, British journalist and author
* 1950 -
Dane Iorg, baseball player
*
1952 -
Renaud Séchan, French composer
* 1952 -
Mike Lupica, American sports journalist
* 1952 -
Shohreh Aghdashloo, Iranian actress
* 1952 -
Frances Fisher, English-born actress
*
1954 -
Lubomir Stoykov, Bulgarian journalist and broadcaster
*
1955 -
John DeStefano, Jr., American politician
*
1956 -
Theresa Burke, Canadian journalist
* 1956 -
Alex Lester, British broadcaster
*
1957 -
Peter North, Canadian porn star
*
1959 -
Martha Quinn, American television personality
*
1963 -
Natasha Richardson, English-born actress
*
1964 -
John Parrott, English snooker player
* 1964 -
Katie Wagner, American television reporter
*
1965 -
Greg Dulli, American musician
*
1966 -
Christoph Schneider, German drummer (
Rammstein)
*
1972 -
Anita Hegh, Australian actress
*
1977 -
Janne Ahonen, Finnish ski jumper
*
1978 -
Laetitia Casta, French supermodel and actress
*
1979 -
Erin Lang, Canadian musician
*
1981 -
Lauren Jackson, Australian basketball player
* 1981 -
Dan Ortmeier, Professional baseball player
*
1982 -
Jonathan Jackson, American actor
*
1983 -
Matt Leinart, American football player
* 1983 -
Holly Valance, New Zealand-born actress and singer
*
1984 -
Andres Iniesta, Spanish football player
*
1986 -
Vassiriki Diaby, French footballer
* 1987 -
Monica Roşu, Romanian gymnast
*
912 -
Leo VI,
Byzantine Emperor (b.
866)
*
1304 -
Mahmud Ghazan, Mongol ruler (b.
1271)
*
1610 -
Matteo Ricci, Italian Jesuit missionary (b.
1552)
*
1672 -
Charles Seton, 2nd Earl of Dunfermline, English royalist (b.
1615)
*
1708 -
Jules Hardouin Mansart, French architect (b.
1646)
*
1723 -
Jean Galbert de Campistron, French dramatist (b.
1656)
*
1777 -
George Pigot, Baron Pigot, British governor of Madras (b.
1719)
*
1778 -
William Pitt, the Elder,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b.
1708)
*
1812 -
Spencer Perceval,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (assassinated) (b.
1762)
*
1871 -
John Herschel, British mathematician and astronomer (b.
1792)
*
1848 -
Tom Cribb, English boxer (b.
1781)
*
1849 -
Jeanne Françoise Julie Adélaïde Récamier, French socialite (b.
1777)
*
1887 -
Jean Baptiste Boussingault, French chemist (b.
1802)
*
1891 -
A. E. Becquerel, French physicist (b.
1820)
*
1916 -
Max Reger, German composer (b.
1873)
* 1916 -
Karl Schwarzschild, German astronomer and physicist (b.
1873)
*
1920 -
William Dean Howells, American writer (b.
1837)
*
1934 -
Orest Khvolson, Russian physicist (b.
1852)
*
1938 -
Evgenii Miller, Russian counter-revolutionary (b.
1867)
*
1955 -
Gilbert Jessop, English cricketer (b.
1874)
*
1960 -
John D. Rockefeller, Jr., American philanthropist (b.
1874)
*
1963 -
Herbert Spencer Gasser, American physiologist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1888)
*
1970 -
Johnny Hodges, American musician (b.
1906)
*
1973 -
Lex Barker, American actor (b.
1919)
*
1976 -
Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (b.
1898)
*
1981 -
Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1897)
* 1981 -
Bob Marley, Jamaican singer and musician (b.
1945)
*
1985 -
Chester Gould, American cartoonist (b.
1900)
*
1986 -
Henry P. McIlhenny, American philanthropist (b.
1910)
*1986 -
Fritz Pollard, American football player (b.
1894)
*
1988 -
Kim Philby, British spy (b.
1912)
*
1996 -
Ademir Marques de Menezes, Brazilian football player (b.
1922)
*
2001 -
Douglas Adams, English author (b.
1952)
*
2002 -
Joseph Bonanno, Italian-born gangster (b.
1905)
*
2003 -
Noel Redding, English bassist (
The Jimi Hendrix Experience) (b.
1945)
*
2004 -
John Whitehead, American singer (
McFadden & Whitehead) (b.
1949)
*
2006 -
Floyd Patterson, American boxer (b.
1935)
* 2006 -
Frankie Thomas, American actor (b.
1921)
*
Roman Empire -
Feast of the Lemures (See
Larvae).
*
Holiday of the City of Miskolc (since
1992).
*
Feast day of the following
saints in the
Roman Catholic Church:
**
Saint Mamertus, first of the
Ice Saints**
Saint Francis of Girolamo**
Saint Gengou Gangulphus**
Saint Gauthier of Esterp**
Blessed John Rochester**
Saint James Walworth**
Saint Majolus of Cluny**
Saint Odilo of Cluny**
Saint Bertilla**
Saint Estella*
BBC: On This Day*
The New York Times: On This Day*
On This Day in CanadaMay 10 -
May 12 -
April 11 -
June 11 –
listing of all days
