May 11

May 11 in recent years
2025 (Sunday)
2024 (Saturday)
2023 (Thursday)
2022 (Wednesday)
2021 (Tuesday)
2020 (Monday)
2019 (Saturday)
2018 (Friday)
2017 (Thursday)
2016 (Wednesday)

May 11 is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 234 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

330 – Byzantium is renamed Nova Roma during a dedication ceremony, but is more popularly referred to as Constantinople.
868 – A copy of the Diamond Sutra is printed in China, making it the oldest–known dated printed book.
1502 – Christopher Columbus leaves for his fourth and final voyage to the West Indies.
1647 – Peter Stuyvesant arrives in New Amsterdam to replace Willem Kieft as Director–General of New Netherland, the Dutch colonial settlement in present–day New York City.
1672 – Franco–Dutch War: Louis XIV of France invades the Netherlands.
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 – British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is shot and killed by John Bellingham in the lobby of the British House of Commons.
1813 – In Australia, William Lawson, Gregory B. Laxland and William Wentworth lead an expedition westward from Sydney.
1818 – Charles XIV of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Sweden.
1820 – The HMS Beagle has its official launch. Later, one of its most famous passengers would be Charles Darwin.
1846 – President of the United States James K. Polk asks for a declaration of war against Mexico, starting the Mexican-American War.
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.
1880 – Seven people are killed in the Mussel Slough tragedy, a gun battle in California.
1892 – Johan Petter Johansson of Sweden is granted a patent for the Monkey wrench.
1894 – Pullman Strike: Three thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike in Illinois.

1901 – 2000

1907 – 32 Shriners are killed when their chartered train derails at a switch near Surf Depot in California.
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 Convention.
1918 – The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus is created.
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.
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.
1967 – Andreas Papandreou, Greek economist and socialist, is imprisoned in Athens by the Greek military junta.
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 – Henry "Dickie" Marrow" is murdered in a violent racially–motivated crime in Oxford, N.C..
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.
1974 – An earthquake in Sichuan and Yunnan in China kills 20,000 people.
1976 – The last episode of the TV medical drama Marcus Welby, M.D. is aired.
1983 – Aberdeen F.C. defeats Real Madrid 2–1 to win the European Cup Winners' Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden.
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).
1995 – In New York City, more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
1996 – On what was until that point the deadliest day on Mt. Everest, 8 climbers are killed in a snowstorm.
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 – Nuclear testing: In the Rajasthan Desert, India conducts its first underground nuclear tests violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and inflaming its rival neighbor Pakistan (who already has nuclear weapons).
1998 – ZDTV, "the official technology television network", starts broadcasting. It lasted six years until the G4techTV Merger and it turned into a gaming channel.
2000 – India announces that it's reached the population of 1 billion.

From 2001

2003 – Rafael Palmeiro becomes the 19th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at The Ballpark in Arlington, Texas.
2004 – The Stockline Plastics factory explosion in Glasgow kills nine people.
2005 – The eleventh edition of the International Trade Fair KOSOVA opens in Gjakova, Kosovo.
2010 – David Cameron becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
2011 – Two earthquakes in southern Spain kill at least 10 people.
2013 – Over 40 people are killed in a bomb attack in Turkey's Hatay province, near the Syrian border.
2013 – A parliamentary election is held in Pakistan, with a record voter turnout. This leads to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returning as Prime Minister on June 5.
2013 – Wigan Athletic F.C. wins its first FA Cup after a surprise win over Manchester City in the final, as the first surprise result in the final for a number of years.
2015 – Pablo Picasso's Women of Algiers becomes the most expensive painting to sell at auction, being bought for US$179.3 million.
2016 – Italy legalizes same-sex civil partnerships.
2016 – A series of bomb attacks in Baghdad kills around 90 people.
2016 – President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff is impeached.

Births

Up to 1900

478 – Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor (d. 565)
1366 – Anne of Bohemia, Queen Consort of Richard II of England (d. 1394)
1568 – Christian I, Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg (d. 1630)
1571 – Niwa Nagashige, Japanese daimyo and retainer (d. 1637)
1715 – Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach, son of Johann Sebastian Bach (d. 1739)
1720 – Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, officer and adventurer (d. 1797)
1722 – Petrus Camper, Dutch anatomist (d. 1789)
1733 – Princess Victoire of France (d. 1799)
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, famous Siamese twins (d. 1874)
1811 – Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel, Swiss politician (d. 1951)
1815 – Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville, British statesman (d. 1891)
1817 – Fanny Cerrito, Italian ballet dancer (d. 1909)
1827 – Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, French sculptor and painter (d. 1875)
1835 – Karlis Baumanis, Latvian composer and poet (d. 1905)
1852 – Charles W. Fairbanks, 26th Vice President of the United States (d. 1918)
1854 – Jack Blackham, Australian cricketer (d. 1932)
1855 – Anatoly Lyadov, Russian composer (d. 1914)
1862 – Franklin S. Billings, Governor of Vermont (d. 1935)
1871 – Stjepan Radic, Croatian politician (d. 1928)
1874 – Einar Jonsson, Icelandic sculptor (d. 1954)
1875 – Harriet Quimby, American pilot (d. 1912)
1881 – Al Cabrera, Spanish–born Cuban baseball player (d. 1964)
1881 – Jan van Gilse, Dutch composer and conductor (d. 1944)
1885 – Joe "King" Oliver, American cornet player and bandleader (d. 1938)
1887 – Paul Wittgenstein, Austrian–born pianist (d. 1961)
1888 – Irving Berlin, Russian–American composer (d. 1989)
1890 – Woodall Rodgers, American attorney, businessman and politician (d. 1961)
1891 – Henry Morgenthau, American politician (d. 1967)
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 movie director (d. 1944)
1897 – George Murdock, American anthropologist (d. 1985)
1899 – Paulino Masip, Spanish playwright (d. 1963)
1900 – Pridi Phanomyong, Prime Minister of Siam (d. 1983)

1901 – 1950

1903 – Charlie Gehringer, American Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1993)
1904 – Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter (d. 1989)
1907 – Rose Ausländer, German poet (d. 1988)
1907 – Rip Sewell, American baseball player (d. 1989)
1911 – Phil Silvers, American actor and comedian (d. 1985)
1912 – Saadat Hasan Manto, Pakistani short story writer of the Urdu language (d. 1955)
1912 – Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (d. 2001)
1913 – Robert Jungk, Austrian publicist (d. 1994)
1914 – Haroun Tazieff, French volcanologist and geologist (d. 1998)
1916 – Camilo José Cela, Spanish writer (d. 2002)
1918 – Richard Feynman, American physicist (d. 1988)
1921 – Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, German politician (d. 2016)
1924 – Antony Hewish, British radio astronomer
1924 – Eugene Dynkin, Russian–born American mathematician (d. 2014)
1924 – Jackie Milburn, English footballer (d. 1988)
1925 – Max Morlock, German footballer (d. 1994)
1925 – Edward J. King, 66th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 2006)
1927 – Mort Sahl, Canadian comedian and political commentator
1927 – Bernard Fox, Welsh–American actor (d. 2016)
1927 – Gene Savoy, American explorer, writer and scholar (d. 2007)
1928 – Marco Ferreri, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 1997)
1930 – Edsger W. Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist (d. 2002)
1930 – William P. Carey, American investment banker and philanthropist (d. 2012)
1932 – Mustafa Tlass, Syrian military officer and politician (d. 2017)
1932 – John Vasconcellos, American politician (d. 2014)
1932 – Valentino Garavani, Italian fashion designer
1933 – Louis Farrakhan, American Black Muslim leader
1934 – Jim Jeffords, American politician, United States Senator from Vermont (d. 2014)
1935 – Dick Leitsch, American LGBT rights activist (d. 2018)
1936 – Tony Barrow, British press officer (d. 2016)
1936 – Carla Bley, American musician and composer
1939 – Frank Quilici, American baseball player (d. 2018)
1940 – Juan Downey, Chilean video artist (d. 1993)
1941 – Graham Miles, English snooker player
1941 – Ian Redpath, Australian cricketer
1943 – Les Chadwick, English musician (Gerry and the Pacemakers)
1945 – Floyd Adams, Jr., American politician (d. 2014)
1946 – Robert Jarvik, American physicist and inventor
1947 – Butch Trucks, American musician
1948 – Shigeru Izumiya, Japanese folk musician
1950 – Jeremy Paxman, British journalist and writer
1950 – John F. Kelly, 28th White House Chief of Staff
1950 – Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Indian actor (d. 2014)

1951 – 1975

1951 – Ed Stelmach, Canadian politician, former Premier of Alberta
1951 – Johnny Doyle, Scottish footballer (d. 1981)
1952 – Renaud Séchan, French composer
1952 – Mike Lupica, sports journalist
1952 – Shohreh Aghdashloo, Iranian actress
1952 – Frances Fisher, British–American actress
1953 – Boyd Gaines, actor
1953 – David Gest, American television producer (d. 2016)
1956 – Theresa Burke, Canadian journalist
1956 – Alex Lester, British broadcaster
1957 – Peter North, Canadian pornographic actor, director, producer and dancer
1958 – Peter Antonie, Australian rower
1959 – Silvio Barbato, Italian–Brazilian opera conductor and composer (d. 2009)
1959 – Martha Quinn, American television personality
1960 – Jürgen Schult, German athlete
1963 – Gunilla Carlsson, Swedish politician
1963 – Masatoshi Hamada, Japanese comedian
1963 – Natasha Richardson, English actress (d. 2009)
1964 – John Parrott, English snooker player
1965 – Stefano Domenicali, Italian Formula One team principal
1966 – Christoph Schneider, German drummer (Rammstein)
1966 – Nancy Hower, American actress, sceenwriter, director, and producer
1968 – Jeffrey Donovan, American actor
1968 – Ana Jara, Peruvian lawyer and politician, former Prime Minister of Peru
1973 – James Haven, American actor
1973 – Tsuyoshi Ogata, Japanese marathon runner
1974 – DJ Zany, Dutch DJ
1975 – Coby Bell, American actor and producer

From 1976

1977 – Janne Ahonen, Finnish ski jumper
1977 – Victor Matfield, South African rugby player
1978 – Laetitia Casta, French model and actress
1978 – Perttu Kivilaakso, Finnish cellist and composer (Apocalyptica)
1979 – Gonzalo Colsa, Spanish footballer
1979 – Tim Baillie, Scottish slalom canoeist
1980 – Björgólfur Hideaki Takefusa, Icelandic footballer
1980 – Ernest Vardanean, Armenian–Moldovan political scientist and journalist
1981 – Lauren Jackson, Australian basketball player
1982 – Cory Monteith, Canadian actor and musician (d. 2013)
1982 – Jonathan Jackson, actor
1983 – Matt Leinart, American football player
1983 – Holly Valance, Australian actress and singer
1983 – Steven Sotloff, American journalist (d. 2014)
1984 – Andrés Iniesta, Spanish footballer
1984 – Arttu Lappi, Finnish ski jumper
1986 – Abou Diaby, French footballer
1988 – Ace Hood, American rapper
1988 – Marcel Kittel, German cyclist
1988 – Brad Marchand, Canadian ice hockey player
1988 – Severin Freund, German ski jumper
1989 – Giovani dos Santos, Mexican footballer
1989 – Prince Royce, American singer and songwriter
1989 – Cam Newton, American football player
1991 – Mohammad Reza Khanzadeh, Iranian footballer
1992 – Thibaut Courtois, Belgian footballer
1993 – Jirapong Meenapra, Thai sprinter
1993 – Maurice Harkless, American basketball player
1994 – Hagos Gebrhiwet, Ethiopian long–distance runner
1995 – Yassi Pressman, Filipina actress and dancer
1999 – Sabrina Carpenter, American actress and singer
1999 – Madison Lintz, American actress

Deaths

Up to 1975

912 – Leo VI, Byzantine Emperor (b. 866)
1304 – Mahmud Ghazan, Mongol ruler (b. 1271)
1610 – Matteo Ricci, Italian missionary (b. 1552)
1642 – Safi of Persia (b. 1611)
1686 – Otto von Guericke, German physicist and politician (b. 1602)
1760 – Alaungpaya, Burmese ruler (b. 1714)
1778 – William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Prime Minister of Great Britain (b. 1708)
1812 – Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1762).
1848 – Tom Cribb, English boxer (b. 1781)
1849 – Otto Nicolai, German composer (b. 1810)
1871 – John Herschel, British mathematician and astronomer (b. 1792)
1883 – Julie Drouet, French actress (b. 1806)
1887 – Ion Keith-Falconer, Scottish missionary (b. 1856)
1889 – John Cadbury, English businessman (b. 1801)
1891 – A. E. Becquerel, French physicist (b. 1820)
1915 – Arthur Hussey, American golfer (b. 1882)
1916 – Max Reger, German pianist, composer and conductor (b. 1873)
1916 – Karl Schwarzschild, German astronomer and physicist (b. 1873)
1927 – Juan Gris, Spanish Cubist painter (b. 1887)
1929 – Jozef Murgas, Slovakian inventor, architect, botanist, painter, patriot and priest (b. 1864)
1934 – Blaise Diagne, Senegalese politician (b. 1872)
1937 – Afonso Costa, Portuguese politician (b. 1871)
1952 – Alessio Ascalesi, Italian cardinal (b. 1872)
1955 – Gilbert Jessop, English cricketer (b. 1874)
1956 – Walter Sydney Adams, American astronomer (b. 1876)
1960 – John D. Rockefeller, Jr., American philanthropist (b. 1874)
1962 – Hans Luther, Chancellor of Germany in the Weimar Republic (b. 1879)
1963 – Herbert Gasser, American doctor, won the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1888)
1966 – Henry S. Caulfield, 31st Governor of Missouri (b. 1873)
1971 – Seán Lamass, Irish Taoiseach (b. 1902)
1973 – Lex Barker, American actor (b. 1919)

1976 – 2010

1976 – Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (b. 1898)
1981 – Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist (b. 1897)
1981 – Bob Marley, Jamaican reggae musician (b. 1945)
1984 – Toni Turek, German footballer (b. 1919)
1986 – Alexander Akimov, Ukrainian Chernobyl worker (b. 1953)
1988 – Kim Philby, British agent and spy (b. 1912)
1994 – Timothy Carey, American actor (b. 1928)
1996 – Yasuko Namba, Japanese mountaineer (b. 1949)
1996 – Ademir Marques de Menezes, Brazilian footballer (b. 1922)
1996 – Nnamdi Azikiwe, first President of Nigeria (b. 1904)
1996 – Rob Hall, New Zealand mountaineer (b. 1961)
1998 – Ernst Ising, German mathematician (b. 1900)
2000 – Paula Wessely, Austrian actress (b. 1907)
2001 – Douglas Adams, English writer (b. 1952)
2002 – Joseph Bonanno, Italian mob boss (b. 1905)
2002 – Bill Peet, American screenwriter and animator (b. 1915)
2003 – Noel Redding, English musician (b. 1945)
2006 – Floyd Patterson, American boxer (b. 1935)
2007 – Malietoa Tanumafili II, Samoan Head of State (b. 1913)
2008 – Bruno Neves, Portuguese cyclist (b. 1981)

From 2011

2011 – Maurice Goldhaber, physicist (b. 1911)
2014 – Francisco Sobrino, Mexican–Spanish sculptor (b. 1932)
2014 – Barbara Knudson, American actress (b. 1927)
2014 – Reg Gasnier, Australian rugby league player (b. 1939)
2015 – Jef Geeraerts, Belgian writer (b. 1930)
2015 – Stan Cornyn, American record label executive (b. 1933)
2015 – John Hewie, South African–Scottish footballer (b. 1927)
2015 – John Watts, Grenadian politician (b. 1921)
2016 – Motiur Rahman Nizami, Bangladeshi politician (b. 1943)
2016 – Peter Behrens, German musician (b. 1947)
2016 – Tony Cozier, Barbadian cricket writer and commentator (b. 1940)
2016 – Katherine Dunn, American writer (b. 1945)
2016 – Michael Ratner, American lawyer (b. 1943)
2016 – Joe Temperley, Scottish saxophonist (b. 1929)
2017 – Gabriel Chiramel, Indian Roman Catholic priest, educator, zoologist and writer (b. 1914)
2017 – Mark Colvin, British–born Australian journalist and radio presenter (b. 1952)
2017 – Clelio Darida, Italian politician, former Mayor of Rome (b. 1927)
2018 – Mikhail Alperin, Ukrainian–Norwegian jazz pianist (b. 1956)
2018 – Gérard Genette, French literary theorist (b. 1930)
2018 – Hugo Guerra, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1966)
2018 – Peter Mayer, British–American publisher (b. 1936)
2018 – Bengt Nilsson, Swedish high jumper (b. 1934)
2018 – Ulla Sallert, Swedish actress (b. 1923)
2019 – Gianni De Michelis, Italian politician (b. 1940)
2019 – Silver King, Mexican wrestler and actor (b. 1968)
2019 – Peggy Lipton, American actress and model (b. 1946)
2019 – Pua Magasiva, New Zealand actor (b. 1980)
2019 – Jon Gittens, English footballer (b. 1964)
2019 – Robert D. Maxwell, American colonel (b. 1920)
2019 – Thomas Silverstein, American murderer (b. 1952)

Observances

National Technology Day (India)
Statehood Day (Minnesota)