October 11
is the 284th day of the year (285th in
leap years). There are 81 days remaining.
*
1582 - Due to the implementation of the
Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in this year in
Italy,
Poland,
Portugal and
Spain.
*
1614 -
Adriaen Block and 12
Amsterdam merchants petition the
States General for exclusive trading rights in the
New Netherland colony.
*
1776 -
American Revolution:
Battle of Valcour Island - On
Lake Champlain 15
American gunboats are defeated but give Patriot forces enough time to prepare defenses of
New York City.
*
1809 - Along the
Natchez Trace in
Tennessee, explorer
Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand.
*
1811 - Inventor
John Stevens' boat, the
Juliana, begins operation as the first
steam-powered
ferry (service between
New York, New York, and
Hoboken, New Jersey).
*
1850 - The
University of Sydney is established in
Sydney,
Australia, with a staff of three
professors and 24
students as the nation's oldest
university.
*
1862 -
American Civil War: In the aftermath of the
Battle of Antietam,
Confederate General
J.E.B. Stuart and his men loot
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a raid into the north.
*
1864 -
Campina Grande ,
Brazil was established as a
city.
*
1865 -
Paul Bogle led hundreds of black men and women in a march in
Jamaica, starting the
Morant Bay rebellion.
*
1890 - In
Washington, DC, the
Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.
*
1899 -
Second Boer War begins: In
South Africa, a war between the
United Kingdom and the
Boers of the
Transvaal and
Orange Free State erupts.
*
1906 -
San Francisco public school board sparks
United States diplomatic crisis with
Japan by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.
*
1910 - Ex-president
Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane. He flew for four minutes in a plane built by the
Wright Brothers at Kinloch aviation field,
St. Louis, Missouri.
*
1929 -
JC Penney opens store #1252 in
Milford, Delaware, making it a nationwide company with stores in all 48
U.S. states.
*
1930 -
Collingwood Football Club in
Melbourne,
Australia, won the premiership (football competition) for the fourth consecutive year.
*
1932 -
Franklin D. Roosevelt receives letter from
Einstein about atom bomb.
*
1942 -
World War II:
Battle of Cape Esperance - On the northwest coast of
Guadalcanal,
United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a
Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.
*
1944 -
Tuvinian People's Republic or formerly
Tannu Tuva was annexed by the U.S.S.R
*
1950 - The U.S.
Federal Communications Commission issues the first license to broadcast
television in color, to
CBS (
RCA will successfully dispute and block the license from taking effect, however).
*
1954 -
First Indochina War: The
Viet Minh take control of
North Vietnam.
*
1958 -
Pioneer program:
NASA launches the lunar probe
Pioneer 1 (the probe falls back to
Earth and burns up).
*
1962 -
Second Vatican Council:
Pope John XXIII convenes the first
ecumenical council of the
Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.
*
1967 -
Afghan Prime Minister Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal resigns for health reasons
*
1968 -
Apollo program:
NASA launches
Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with
astronauts
Wally Schirra,
Donn F. Eisele and
Walter Cunningham aboard.
*
1975 -
Saturday Night Live debuts with
George Carlin as the guest host.
*
1982 - The
Mary Rose, a Tudor gunship which sunk on July 18th 1545, is raised from the sea bed in the Solent Channel, near to Portsmouth.
*
1984 - Aboard the
Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut
Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first
American woman to perform a
space walk.
*
1986 -
Cold War:
U.S. President
Ronald Reagan and
Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev meet in
Reykjavík,
Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate
missile arsenals in
Europe.
*
1987 -
March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights attracts between 500,000 and 600,000 people to protest the
Bowers v. Hardwick decision and the U.S. government's handling of the
AIDS epidemic; first public display of the
NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
*
1998 - A
Congo Airlines Boeing 727 is shot down by rebels in Kindu,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 40
*
1999 -
The Lord of the Rings movies begin principal photography.
*
2000 - The 100th
Space Shuttle mission (
STS-92) is flown.
*
2001 - The
Polaroid Corporation files for federal
bankruptcy protection.
*
2002 - A
bomb attack in a shopping mall in
Vantaa,
Finland. See
Myyrmanni bombing.
*
1616 -
Andreas Gryphius, German writer (d.
1664)
*
1661 -
Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat (d.
1742)
*
1671 - King
Frederick IV of Denmark (d.
1730)
*
1675 -
Samuel Clarke, English philosopher (d.
1729)
*
1738 -
Arthur Phillip, British admiral, Governor of New South Wales (d.
1814)
*
1758 -
Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers, German astronomer (d.
1840)
*
1786 -
Stevenson Archer (1786-1848), American Congressman
*
1788 -
Simon Sechter, Austrian music teacher (d.
1867)
*
1814 -
Jean Baptiste Lamy, first
Archbishop of Santa Fe*
1815 -
Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte, Italian-born adventurer and politician (d.
1881)
*
1821 -
George Williams, English founder of the YMCA (d.
1905)
*
1844 -
Henry Heinz, American food manufacturer (d.
1916)
*
1863 -
Louis Cyr, Canadian strongman (d.
1912)
*
1872 -
Harlan Fiske Stone, 12th
Chief Justice of the United States (d.
1946)
*
1881 -
Hans Kelsen, Austrian legal theorist
*
1884 -
Friedrich Bergius, German chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1949)
* 1884 -
Eleanor Roosevelt,
First Lady of the United States (d.
1962)
*
1885 -
François Mauriac, French writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1970)
*
1895 -
Jakov Gotovac, Croatian composer (d.
1982)
*
1899 -
Eddie Dyer, baseball player (d.
1964)
*
1918 -
Jerome Robbins, American choreographer (d.
1998)
*
1919 -
Art Blakey, American jazz drummer (d.
1990)
* 1919 -
Jean Vander Pyl, American voice actress (d.
1999)
*
1924 -
Mal Whitfield, American athlete
*
1925 -
Elmore Leonard, American novelist
*
1926 -
Neville Wran, Premier of New South Wales
* 1926 -
Thich Nhat Hanh, religious leader and peace activist
*
1928 -
Alfonso de Portago, Spanish race car driver (d.
1957)
*
1930 -
Sam Johnson, American politician
*
1932 -
Dottie West, American singer (d.
1991)
*
1937 -
Bobby Charlton, English former professional footballer
*
1939 -
Maria Bueno, Brazilian tennis player
* 1939 -
Austin Currie, Northern Irish politician
*
1942 -
Amitabh Bachchan, Indian actor, singer, anchor and producer
*
1943 -
John Nettles, English actor
*
1944 -
Mike Fiore, baseball player
*
1946 -
Sawao Kato, Japanese gymnast
*
1949 -
Daryl Hall, American musician
*
1951 -
Jean-Jacques Goldman, French singer and songwriter
*
1953 -
David Morse, American actor
*
1956 -
Nicanor Duarte Frutos,
President of Paraguay*
1957 -
Dawn French, Welsh comedienne
*
1960 -
Curt Ford, baseball player
*
1961 -
Amr Diab, Egyptian pop-star
* 1961 -
Steve Young, NFL Football Player
*
1962 -
Nicola Bryant, British actress
* 1962 -
Joan Cusack, American actress and comedienne
*
1964 -
Michael J. Nelson, American actor/writer on
Mystery Science Theater 3000*
1965 -
Sean Patrick Flanery, American actor
*
1966 -
Luke Perry, American actor
*
1967 -
David Starr, American racecar driver
* 1967 -
Tazz, American professional wrestler and commentator
* 1967 -
Tony Chimel, American professional wrestling ring announcer
*
1969 -
Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands*
1970 -
U-God, American rapper
* 1970 -
Andy Marriott, English footballer
*
1971 -
Petra Haden, American musician (
The Rentals)
*
1972 -
Claudia Black, Australian actress
*
1973 -
Dmitri Young, baseball player
* 1973 -
Takeshi Kaneshiro, Actor/Model
*
1977 -
Claudia Palacios, Colombian television journalist
* 1977 -
Ty Wigginton, baseball player
*
1978 -
Carlos Kali, Angolan footballer
*
1985 -
Michelle Trachtenberg, American actress
*
1989 -
Michelle Wie, American golfer
*
1188 -
Robert I of Dreux, son of
Louis VI of France*
1303 -
Pope Boniface VIII*
1347 -
Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor (b.
1282)
*
1424 -
Jan Zizka, leader of the
Hussites (b.
1370)
*
1531 -
Huldrych Zwingli, Swiss Protestant leader (b.
1484)
*
1611 -
John Cowell, English jurist (b.
1554)
*
1705 -
Guillaume Amontons, French physicist and instrument maker (b.
1663)
*
1708 -
Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, German mathematician (b.
1651)
*
1721 -
Edward Colston, English merchant and philanthropist (b.
1636)
*
1725 -
Hans Herr, Swiss-born Mennonite bishop (b.
1639)
*
1779 -
Kazimierz Pułaski, Polish fighter for American independence (b.
1745)
*
1809 -
Meriwether Lewis, American explorer (b.
1774)
*
1811 -
Johann Conrad Ammann, Swiss physician and naturalist (b.
1724)
*
1821 -
John Ross Key, American judge and lawyer (b.
1754)
*
1852 -
Ferdinand Eisenstein, German mathematician (b.
1823)
*
1889 -
James Prescott Joule, English physicist (b.
1818)
*
1896 -
Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer (b.
1824)
* 1896 -
Edward White Benson,
Archbishop of Canterbury (b.
1829)
*
1935 -
Steele Rudd, Australian author (b.
1868)
*
1940 -
Lluís Companys, President of Generalitat of Catalonia (shot) (b.
1882)
* 1940 -
Vito Volterra, Italian mathematician and physicist (b.
1860)
*
1961 -
Chico Marx, American comedian (b.
1887)
*
1963 -
Jean Cocteau, French writer (b.
1889)
* 1963 -
Édith Piaf, French singer and actress (b.
1915)
*
1965 -
Dorothea Lange, American photographer (b.
1895)
*
1976 -
Alfredo Bracchi, Italian author (b.
1897)
*
1977 -
MacKinlay Kantor, American author (b.
1904)
*
1989 -
M. King Hubbert, American geophysicist (b.
1904)
*
1991 -
Steven Jesse Bernstein, American underground poet (suicide) (b.
1950)
* 1991 -
Redd Foxx, American comedian and actor (b.
1922)
*
1993 -
Jess Thomas, American tenor (b.
1927)
*
1996 -
Lars Ahlfors, Finnish mathematician (b.
1907)
*
2000 -
Donald Dewar, First Minister of Scotland (b.
1937)
*
2004 -
Keith Miller, Australian sportsman (b.
1919)
*
2005 -
Edward Szczepanik, Polish economist and Prime Minister in exile (b.
1915)
*
Roman Empire -
Meditrinalia is held in honor of
Meditrina*
RC Saints - memorial of the blessed
Pope John XXIII;
Saints Andronicus, Probus, and Tarachus*
United States -
National Coming Out Day (not a
federal holiday)
*
United States - in
Indiana:General
Pulaski Memorial Day
*
French Republican Calendar -
Pressoir (Wine-Press) Day, twentieth day in the
Month of Vendémiaire*
BBC: On This DayOctober 10 -
October 12 -
September 11 -
November 11 – more
historical anniversaries
