Historical Events on April 11 - On This Day

Historical Events on April 11

Events 1 - 200 of 203

  • 491 Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine Emperor, as Anastasius I - often called the first Byzantine Emperor
  • 672 Deusdedit II begins his reign as Catholic Pope
  • 1079 Bishop Stanislaus of Kraków is executed by order of Bolesław II of Poland
  • 1241 Battle of Mohi: Mongols led by Batu and Subedei defeat Hungarian King Béla IV in the major battle in during Mongolian invasion of Hungary, with 30,000 Hungarians slain

Wars of the Roses

1471 Wars of the Roses: King Edward IV of England seizes London from Henry VI

Battle of Ravenna

1512 Battle of Ravenna: French forces under Gaston de Foix defeat the Holy League in a major battle of the Italian Wars

  • 1551 English premier John Dudley appointed Duke of Northumberland
  • 1564 England & France sign Peace of Troyes
  • 1564 Liege prince-bishop Robert van Bergen resigns

William I Flees Antwerp

1567 Dutch Prince William I of Orange flees from Antwerp to Breda

  • 1579 Venlo joins Union of Utrecht
  • 1580 Drenthe joins Union of Utrecht
  • 1612 Last public burning at the stake in England - Edward Wrightman for heresy in Lichfield

Battle at Montcassel

1677 Battle at Montcassel, French troops beat Prince William III

  • 1689 King William III and Queen Mary II crowned as joint rulers of England, Scotland and Ireland
  • 1713 Great Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, Prussia, Savoy, Portugal & France agree the Treaty of Utrecht; France cedes Maritime provinces in North America to Britain
  • 1750 Jack Slack retains Champion of England boxing title, beats Frenchman Jean Petit in 7 rounds in Harlston, England; acknowledged as first international prize fight
  • 1783 Hostilities formally cease in the American Revolutionary War after the Continental Congress proclaims the "Cessation of Arms" against His Britannic Majesty [1]
  • 1801 Johann von Schiller's "Die Jungfrau von Orleans" premieres in Leipzig

Napoleon Exiled to Elba

1814 Napoléon Bonaparte abdicates unconditionally and is exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean

  • 1828 Foundation of Bahia Blanca, Argentina

Schumann Hears Paganini Play

1830 Robert Schumann hears the violinist Paganini play in Frankfurt

Lewis Chess Pieces

1831 The 12th century Lewis chess pieces are exhibited at the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, shortly after their rediscovery in a sand bank on the Scottish Isle of Lewis

  • 1848 Hungary becomes constitutional monarchy under King Ferdinand of Austria
  • 1853 Steamboat ferry 'Jenny Lind' boiler explosion kills at least 31 passengers in San Francisco Bay, California
  • 1856 Battle of Rivas; Costa Rica beats William Walker's invading Nicaraguans
  • 1862 Confederates surrender at Fort Pulaski, Georgia
  • 1863 Battle of Suffolk, Virginia (Norfleet House)

Lincoln Urges Conciliation

1865 Abraham Lincoln urges a spirit of generous conciliation during reconstruction

  • 1865 Battle of Mobile, Alamaba evacuated by Confederates
  • 1868 The Shogunate is abolished in Japan
  • 1876 Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks organizes in New York City
  • 1876 Sir Charles Gordon ends religious tolerance in Sudan
  • 1881 Spelman College founded as Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary in basement of Friendship Baptist Church, Atlanta
  • 1888 The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam is inaugurated
  • 1890 Ellis Island, New York, designated as an immigration station
  • 1891 8-year old Jewish tailor's daughter disappears in Greece, rumor spreads that she was a Christian girl ritually killed by Jews
  • 1895 Anaheim completes its new electric light system
  • 1896 Hungarian swimmer Alfréd Hajós beats Otto Herschmann of Austria by 0.6s to win the inaugural Olympic 100m freestyle final in 1:22.2 at the Athens Games; also takes out the 1,200m on the same day
  • 1896 Irish tennis player John Boland, representing Great Britain wins both the men's singles and doubles finals at the Athens Olympics; Dionysios Kasdaglis of Greece loses both matches
  • 1899 Treaty of Paris ratifies ends war; Spain cedes Puerto Rico to US

USS Holland

1900 The first modern submarine designed and built by John Philip Holland, USS Holland is acquired by the U.S. Navy

  • 1902 Second Boer War: British forces defeat Boer commandos in Battle of Rooiwal, South Africa
  • 1907 New York Giants future Baseball Hall of Fame backstop Roger Bresnahan becomes first catcher to wear shin guards
  • 1909 Establishment of Tel Aviv by Jewish settlers (named 1910)
  • 1912 Cornerstone of Technion laid in Haifa, Palestine

Titanic Leaves for NY

1912 RMS Titanic leaves Queenstown, Ireland, for NY

  • 1912 The UK Parliament introduce a Irish home rule bill, granting Ireland its own bicameral parliament and be required to send a representative to the British House of Commons; Protestants in Ulster resist

Huerta Breaks with US

1914 Mexican President Victoriano Huerta breaks off diplomatic relations with the US

  • 1919 The International Labour Organization is founded.
  • 1921 Iowa imposes 1st state cigarette tax
  • 1921 KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania broadcasts 1st radio sporting event, a boxing match between lightweights Johnny Ray and Johnny Dundee
  • 1921 The Emirate of Transjordan created
  • 1921 Turkestan ASSR forms in Russian SFSR
  • 1924 1st men's college swimming championships begin
  • 1924 Socialists win Danish parliamentary elections
  • 1924 WLS-AM in Chicago IL begins radio transmissions
  • 1925 Abd el-Krims Rifkabylen beats French army in Morocco
  • 1926 Flemish Economic Covenant (VEV) forms in Ghent
  • 1927 Chilean general Carlos Ibáñez names himself president
  • 1929 KLO-AM in Ogden UT begins radio transmissions
  • 1929 Loetafoon celluloid film system demonstrated in Amsterdam

Goering Premier of Prussia

1933 Hermann Goering becomes Premier of Prussia

  • 1936 First Butlins holiday camp opens in the UK at Ingoldmells, near Skegness

Red Wings 1st Championship

1936 Stanley Cup Final, Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, ON: Detroit Red Wings beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 for a 3-1 series win; Red Wings first SC Championship

  • 1939 Hungary leaves League of Nations
  • 1941 Jewish Weekly newspaper taken control by Nazis
  • 1941 Nazi occupiers in Netherlands confiscate Jewish assets
  • 1942 US Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal established
  • 1943 American helicopter designer Frank Piasecki, Vertol founder, flies his 1st (single-rotor) craft [1]
  • 1944 RAF bombs census bureau in The Hague
  • 1945 Allied troops liberate Basket-Compascuum

US Forces Liberate Buchenwald

1945 Four soldiers in the Sixth Armored Division of the US Third Army liberate the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald, freeing thousands including Elie Wiesel

  • 1945 SS burns & shoots 1,100 at Gardelegen
  • 1945 US captures Tsugen Shima
  • 1945 US troops conquers Mulheim, Oberhausen, Bochum, Unna, Essen

Prince Rainier III

1950 Prince Rainier III becomes ruler of Monaco

  • 1950 US B-29 bomber shot down over Latvia

Truman Relieves MacArthur

1951 US President Harry Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of command in Korea

  • 1952 The Battle of Nanri island takes place.
  • 1953 Oveta Culp Hobby becomes 1st at Health, Education, & Welfare
  • 1953 US Department of Health, Education and Welfare created

Marty

1955 "Marty" directed by Delbert Mann and starring Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair premieres in New York (Best Picture 1956)

Attempt on Chinese Premier

1955 Chartered Air India plane the "Kashmir Princess" is bombed and crashes into the South China Sea in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by a Kuomintang secret agent

Sobers 1st WI Appearance

1955 Garfield Sobers starts run of 85 uninterrupted Test Cricket appearances for West Indies

  • 1956 French government decides to send 200,000 reservists to Algeria
  • 1956 Singer Nat Cole attacked on stage of Birmingham theater in racial incident
  • 1957 Britain agrees to Singaporean self-rule

Neruda Arrested

1957 Chilean poet Pablo Neruda arrested in Buenos Aires (later released)

  • 1957 Ryan X-13 Vertijet becomes 1st jet to take-off & land vertically
  • 1958 Brooks Hall in Civic Center dedicated in San Francisco, California

Drysdale's 2nd Opening Day HR

1959 Dodger pitcher Don Drysdale hits his 2nd Opening Day HR

  • 1959 Dutch Prince Bernhard visits Lockheed factory
  • 1961 Austrian 4th & last government of Raab resigns

Dylan at Folk City

1961 Bob Dylan makes his 1st appearance at Folk City, Greenwich Village, New York City

  • 1962 New York Mets make a losing debut

Spahn's Left-Handed Record

1963 Milwaukee Braves future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn beats NY Mets, 6-1 for his 328th win; most by a left-hander in MLB history

Catholic Encyclical

1963 Pope John XXIII publishes encyclical "Pacem in terris", that peace between all peoples must be based on truth, justice, love and freedom

  • 1963 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • 1965 40 tornadoes strike US midwest killing 272 & injuring 5,000
  • 1966 Emmett Ashford becomes first African American major league baseball umpire in Washington Senators’ game against the Cleveland Indians at D.C. Stadium

Strangers in the Night

1966 Frank Sinatra records "Strangers in the Night" single for his album of the same name. Later reaches #1 Billboard charts

Election of Interest

1967 Harlem (NYC) voters defy Congress and re-elect Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in special election to fill the seat from which he had been expelled

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead

1967 Tom Stoppard's play "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead" debuts in London at the Old Vic

  • 1968 Polish Marshal Spychalski succeeds Ochab as president
  • 1968 Political activist Rudi Dutschke (28) seriously wounded by an East German neo-Nazi's assassination attempt in West Berlin, West Germany

Event of Interest

1968 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the 1968 Civil Rights Act

  • 1968 WHED TV channel 15 in Hanover, NH (PBS) begins broadcasting
  • 1970 Apollo 13 launched to Moon; unable to land, returns in 6 days
  • 1970 Beatles' "Let It Be" single goes #1 & stays #1 for 2 weeks
  • 1970 San Francisco beats Cincinnati 2-1, only day Reds aren't in 1st place in 1970
  • 1971 "Johnny Johnson" opens/closes at Edison Theater NYC for 1 performance
  • 1971 WBFF TV channel 45 in Baltimore, MD (IND) begins broadcasting
  • 1972 Benjamin Hooks named to Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 1st African-American to serve
  • 1972 USSR performs underground nuclear test
  • 1974 WW II war criminal JP Philippa arrested

Baseball Trade

1975 Hank Aaron returns to County Stadium as a Milwaukee player after his off-season trade from the Atlanta Braves; Brewers beat Cleveland Indians, 6-2

  • 1975 J. P. Parisé scores an 11 sec OT goal, to see the NY Islanders eliminate the NY Rangers in their ever 1st playoff advance

Event of Interest

1976 The Apple I computer, created by Steve Wozniak is released

Luckenbach, Texas

1977 "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)" single released by Waylon Jennings (Billboard Song of the Year, 1977)

  • 1977 Ireland sets fishing zone at 50 mile

Fall of Kampala

1979 Tanzanian army captures Kampala, the capital of Uganda forcing Ugandan dictator Idi Amin to flee into exile in Libya

  • 1980 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulates sexual harassment

Coming Up

1980 Paul McCartney releases single "Coming Up"

Boxing Title Fight

1981 Larry Holmes beats Trevor Berbick by unanimous decision in Las Vegas to retain his WBC heavyweight boxing title

  • 1981 Race riot in London area of Brixton

Event of Interest

1981 Ronald Reagan arrives home from hospital after Hinkley shot him

  • 1983 In the first 'supergrass' trial in Northern Ireland, fourteen Ulster Volunteer Force members are jailed for a total of two hundred years
  • 1983 NASA launches RCA-F
  • 1984 Challenger astronauts complete 1st in space satellite repair
  • 1984 Chinese troops invade Vietnam

Appointment of Interest

1984 General Secretary Konstantin Chernenko named President of the Soviet Union

  • 1984 Soyuz T-11 returns to Earth
  • 1986 A 1921 Canadian 50 cent coin is auctioned in New York for $22,000
  • 1986 Dodge Morgan sailed solo nonstop around world in 150 days
  • 1986 Halley's Comet makes closest approach to Earth this trip, 63 M km
  • 1986 KXA-AM in Seattle WA changes call letters to KRPM
  • 1987 Yankees score 12 runs in 7th inning vs KC Royals
  • 1987 Zoja Ivanova wins 2nd female World Cup marathon (2:30:39)
  • 1988 Royal Concert building in Amsterdam reopens

Sports History

1989 1st playoff goal scored by a goalie, Ron Hextall of visiting Philadelphia Flyers shoots into Washington Capitols empty net while his team is shorthanded in 8-5 win

  • 1989 Flyers, scores short-handed into an empty net beating Caps 8-5
  • 1990 Customs officers in Middlesbrough, United Kingdom, say they have seized what they believe to be the barrel of a massive gun on a ship bound for Iraq.
  • 1990 MLB California Angels Mark Langston & Mike Witt, no-hit Seattle, 1-0
  • 1990 NY Lotto pays $35 million to two winner (#s are 6-14-24-32-34-51)
  • 1990 NY Rangers beat NY Islanders 6-1, Rangers lead 3-1 in preliminary playoffs
  • 1991 NYC's Museum of Broadcasting becomes "Museum of Radio & Television"
  • 1991 Space Shuttle STS 37 (Atlantis 8) lands at Edwards Air Force Base, California
  • 1991 UN Security Council issues formal cease fire with Iraq declaration
  • 1992 BPAA US Open by Robert Lawrence
  • 1992 Irish Republican Army bombs London financial district, killing 3
  • 1992 MLB Cleveland Indians set team record for long game loss to Boston Red Sox (19 innings - 6½ hr)
  • 1993 450 prisoners riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, and continue for ten days, citing grievances about prison conditions and the forced vaccination of Nation of Islam prisoners (for tuberculosis)
  • 1993 Kirsan Ilumzjinov installed as president of Kalmukkie
  • 1996 Detroit Red Wings become 2nd NHL team to win 60 games in a season
  • 1996 Revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical "The King & I", starring Lou Diamond Phillips and Donna Murphy, premieres at Neil Simon Theater, NYC; runs for 781 performances
  • 2000 MLB: Pacific Bell Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco, California and Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan open

Cricket History

2000 South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje is sacked after admitting dishonesty following match-fixing allegations in India

  • 2001 Detained crew of a United States EP-3E aircraft that landed in Hainan, People's Republic of China after a collision with an J-8 fighter are released

Coup d'état

2002 An attempted coup d'état takes place in Venezuela against President Hugo Chávez.

  • 2002 The Ghriba synagogue bombing by Al Qaeda kills 21 in Tunisia

Event of Interest

2006 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has successfully enriched uranium

  • 2007 Two bombings in the Algerian capital of Algiers kill 33 people and wounds a further 222

Event of Interest

2009 Michael van Gerwen wins his first tournament victory in the PDC by beating Vincent van der Voort in the final of the Players Championship in Taunton

  • 2010 "The night of Sora Aoi", Japanese porn actress Sora Aoi joins twitter prompting many Chinese fans to try and circumnavigate Chinese censorship
  • 2011 Minsk Metro bombing in Belarus kills at least 15 and injures over 200
  • 2012 2011 London riot looter is jailed for 11 years after starting a fire at a furniture retailer
  • 2012 8.6 magnitude earthquake and 8.2 aftershock occurs off the coast of Indonesia

Buffett Diagnosed with Cancer

2012 Billionaire Warren Buffett is diagnosed with prostate cancer

  • 2012 Prime Minister of Greece, Lucas Papademos, resigns and calls an election for May 6
  • 2012 South Korean legislative elections result in the governing Saenuri Party retaining governance
  • 2013 14 people are killed in clashes between drug traffickers and police in Michoacán, Mexico
  • 2013 57 people are killed by the Syrian Army in Daraa Governorate, Syria
  • 2013 Fossilized dinosaur eggs with embryos are discovered in China
  • 2013 Two women are beheaded for sorcery in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea

Film & TV History

2015 Amy Schumer hosts the 2015 MTV Movie Awards

Meeting of Interest

2015 Barack Obama and Raúl Castro meet in Panama, the first meeting of US and Cuban heads of state since the Cuban Revolution

  • 2016 UN-backed ceasefire comes into effect in Yemen conflict between Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and government forces
  • 2016 Updated "Tree of Life" published in "Nature Microbiology" by scientists from Berkeley University in California
  • 2019 EU leaders agree to a six-month extension to Brexit after UK parliament fails to reach any consensus

Event of Interest

2019 Ex-Pope Benedict XVI claims Catholic sexual abuse caused in part by 1960s sexual revolution

  • 2019 First day of voting in Indian general elections, the world's largest democracy with 900 million eligible voters in the world's largest-ever election (till 23rd May)
  • 2019 Israel's Beresheet spacecraft, the first privately-funded mission to the moon, crashes on the moon

Anti Omar al-Bashir Protest

2019 Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is overthrown and arrested by the army in Khartoum after 29 years in power following massive street protests

Event of Interest

2019 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London by police and arrested on failure to appear in court on US extradition charges

  • 2020 Brazil is the 1st country in the southern hemisphere to report more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19, with 1,056 deaths and 19,638 cases
  • 2021 20-year-old Daunte Wright shot and killed at a traffic stop by police officer in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, who says they mistook their gun for a taser
  • 2021 Peruvian general election: Free Peru party wins most seats but not a majority, Pedro Castillo wins presidency (not declared till 19 July)
  • 2021 Tropical cyclone Seroja makes landfall in Western Australia near the town of Kalbarri with winds up to 170km/h (105mph)
  • 2022 Mayor of Ukrainian city Mariupol says over 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege, with the likely death toll twice this, as bodies are " carpeted through the streets” [1]

Election of Interest

2022 Shehbaz Sharif elected Pakistan's new Prime Minister by the country's parliament, replacing Imran Khan [1]

  • 2023 Largest cosmic explosion ever recorded (AT2021lwx)- fireball 100 x size of the solar system with a brightness 2trillion x the sun’s, thought to be large gas cloud entering a supermassive black hole eight million lights years away [1]
  • 2023 Myanmar military kill at least 133 civilians, including children, in an airstrike on Kanbalu township in an area not under control of the military junta [1]
  • 2023 NHL Boston Bruins break record for most team points in a season at 133, in a 5-2 victory over visiting Washington Capitols; Montreal Canadiens held record of 132 since 1977