May 11

2023 Calendar

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[change | change source]

Up to 1900[change | change source]

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[change | change source]

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.