Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift.

Historical Events on August 11

  • 3114 BC The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Mayans, begins
  • 2492 BC Traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation.
  • 480 BC Greco-Persian Wars: Battle of Artemisium - Persian naval victory over the Greeks in an engagement fought off north coast of Euboea.

Silvanus Proclaims Himself Emperor

355 Claudius Silvanus, accused of treason, proclaims himself Roman Emperor against Constantius II in Colonia Agrippina (modern Cologne)

  • 1093 Foundation stone for the new Norman Durham cathedral laid by Bishop William of St. Calais in England
  • 1304 Sea battle of Zierikzee, Franco-Holland forces defeat Flemish fleet

Defiance in the Hundred Years' War

1415 Henry V of England and an army of 12,000 sail from Southampton, England, bound for France on a campaign to reassert English sovereignty [1]

  • 1492 Rodrigo de Borja becomes Pope Alexander VI
  • 1522 Uprising of adel/burgerij in Austria fails
  • 1597 Germany throws out English sales people
  • 1611 Emperor Rudolf forces out king of Bohemia
  • 1674 Battle of at Seneffe: French force led by Louis, Grand Condé fights a combined Dutch, Imperial and Spanish force under William of Orange, both sides suffer heavy casualties with neither gaining a clear advantage
  • 1695 English & Dutch fleet capture Dunkerk
  • 1718 Battle of Cape Passaro: British fleet destroys Spanish off Sicily
  • 1772 Explosive eruption blows 4,000' off Papandayan Java, kills 3,000
  • 1786 Captain Francis Light establishes the British colony of Penang in Malaysia
  • 1804 Francis II assumes the title of first Emperor of Austria
  • 1835 George B Airy begins 46-year reign as England's Astronomer Royal
  • 1858 First ascent of the Eiger in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland
  • 1860 US's 1st successful silver mill (Virginia City, Nevada)
  • 1863 Cambodia becomes French protectorate
  • 1866 World's 1st roller rink opens (Newport, Rhode Island)
  • 1874 Harry S Parmelee patents sprinkler head
  • 1877 American astronomer Asaph Hall discovers Mars's moon Deimos
  • 1884 First double-century stand in Test cricket; Percy McDonnell (103) Billy Murdoch (211) for Australia in drawn 3rd Test v England in London
  • 1888 California Theatre closed (now a Pac Tel Phone Store)
  • 1896 Harvey Hubbell patents electric light bulb socket with a pull chain
  • 1904 German-ltalian General Von Trotha defeats Herero in SW Africa
  • 1904 The Russian fleet in the harbor of at Port Arthur is exposed to Russian guns on the hill above the harbor; Russian ships attempt escape, but most are forced back into harbor by Japanese ships
  • 1907 St Louis Cardinals pitcher Ed Karger throws a perfect game vs Boston Doves; wins 4-0 in 7 innings at Robison Field, St. Louis

Royals Meet over Navy

1908 King Edward VII of Britain meets with Emperor Wilhelm of Friedrichshof, Germany; the main point of contention is the increasing size of Germany's navy

  • 1909 SOS 1st used by an American ship, Arapahoe, off Cape Hatteras, NC
  • 1909 Warren Bardsley (136 & 130) 1st to get twin tons in a Test
  • 1914 Jews are expelled from Mitchenick, Poland
  • 1914 John Bray patents animation

Green Bay Packers Founded

1919 Green Bay Packers football club founded by George Calhoun and Curly Lambeau - named after sponsor Indian Packing Company

  • 1919 Weimar Republic begins in Germany
  • 1920 1st peace of Riga-Soviet Union recognizes Independence of Latvia
  • 1923 Dutch Premier de Geer resigns
  • 1924 1st newsreel pictures of US presidential candidates were taken

Speaker Hits 700th Double

1926 Cleveland Indians future Baseball HOF outfielder Tris Speaker hits his 700th double in 7-2 loss to Chicago White Sox at Dunn Field, Cleveland

Hubbell 1st MLB Victory

1928 NY Giants future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Carl Hubbell registers first MLB victory, a 4-0 shutout of Philadelphia Phillies at the Polo Grounds, NYC

Ruth 1st to Hit 500

1929 New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth becomes first MLB player to hit 500 home runs (off Willis Hudlin) in 6-5 loss to Indians at League Park, Cleveland

  • 1929 Persia & Iraq sign friendship treaty
  • 1929 Russian-Chinese border fights
  • 1934 1st federal prisoners arrive at Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay
  • 1935 Nazi mass demonstration against German Jews
  • 1936 Chaing Kai-shek's troops conquers Kanton

The Life of Emile Zola

1937 "The Life of Emile Zola" directed by William Dieterle and starring Paul Muni premieres in New York (Best Picture 1938)

  • 1939 Sergei Rachmaninov's last appearance in Europe
  • 1940 38 German aircraft shot down over England
  • 1940 German air raid on British ports Portland and Weymouth
  • 1942 - Sept 30] SS begins exterminating 3,500 Jews in Zelov Lodz Poland
  • 1942 999 Jews are taken from Mechelen transit camp in Belgium
  • 1942 British aircraft carrier HMS Eagle hit by 4 German torpedoed and sinks in the Mediterranean Sea, 81 miles south of Mallorca
  • 1942 Lt Gen Montgomery makes landing on Gibraltar
  • 1943 Red Army recaptures Tchukujev, at Kharkov

Strauss' Second Horn Concerto

1943 Richard Strauss' Second Horn Concerto, premieres at the Salzburg Festival with Gottfried von Freiberg as soloist with the Vienna Philharmonic under Karl Böhm

  • 1943 US amphibians land at Brolo on north coast of Sicily

Churchill in Italy

1944 British premier Winston Churchill arrives in Italy

  • 1944 French 5th Armour division recaptures Sées

Barbie Leaves for Auschwitz

1944 Klaus Barbie, Gestapo head of Lyon France leaves for Auschwitz

  • 1944 US air raid on Palembang

Allies Reject Japanese Surrender

1945 Allies refuse Japan's offer to surrender on the condition that Emperor Hirohito retains his status

  • 1948 The weightlifting competition at the London Olympics concludes with the US (4) and Egypt (2) dominant, combining to win all of the 6 gold medals
  • 1949 1st Naples-Capri swim, 17 miles (27 km) (Giovanni Gambi)

Gaston Eyskens Prime Minister

1949 Gaston Eyskens forms Belgian government

  • 1950 17th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: All-Stars 17, Philadelphia 7 (88,885)
  • 1950 Boston Braves pitcher Vern Bickford no-hits Brooklyn Dodgers, 7-0 at Braves Field

Ethel Rosenberg Testifies

1950 Ethel Rosenberg testifies before grand jury on allegations of spying for the Soviet Union

DiMaggio Benched

1950 In a 4 for 38 slump, New York Yankees great Joe DiMaggio is benched for first time; replacement Cliff Mapes hits a HR in 7-6 win over Philadelphia Athletics

  • 1950 King Boudouin I takes oath as royal prince of Belgium
  • 1951 First televised baseball game in colour on WCBS in New York City; Boston Braves beat Brooklyn Dodgers, 8-1
  • 1951 New York Giants (NFL) beat Ottawa Roughriders (CFL), 38-6 in Ottawa
  • 1951 NY Giants lose 4-0 to Philadelphia Phillies at the Polo Grounds, NYC to go 13½ games behind Brooklyn Dodgers; go on to win NL pennant with 98-59-0 record
  • 1952 Hussein Ibn Talal I, proclaimed King of Jordan
  • 1952 Parliament of Jordan forces King Talal bin Abdullah (43) concerns about his mental health
  • 1954 Formal peace treaty ends over 7 yrs of fighting in Indochina between the French and the Communist Viet Minh
  • 1955 Indonesia government of Harahap forms
  • 1956 1st flight 4-motor Cessna 620
  • 1957 Canada's first major commercial airline disaster when Maritime Central Airways DC-4 crashes in a thunderstorm near Québec City, killing all 79 aboard [1]

Harmonie der Welt

1957 Paul Hindemith's opera "Harmonie der Welt" premieres in Munich, German

  • 1960 Chad declares Independence from France

Sports History

1961 Milwaukee Braves future Baseball HOF pitcher Warren Spahn records career victory #300; beats Cubs, 2-1 at County Stadium, Milwaukee

  • 1962 Andrian G Nikolayev, becomes 3rd Russian in space aboard Vostok 3
  • 1962 Bolotnikov runs world record 10km (28:18.2)
  • 1962 LA Dodgers protest as San Francisco manager Alvin Dark orders Candlestick Park ground crew to water down base paths to hinder MLB All-Star Maury Wills' base-stealing attempts; Giants win 5-4
  • 1963 Four ANC political detainees escape from Pretoria Central prison in South Africa
  • 1963 Kingston Trio are mystery guest on "What's My Line?"
  • 1964 Race riot in Paterson, New Jersey
  • 1964 US premiere of The Beatles' debut film "A Hard Day's Night" in New York City
  • 1965 "Help!" a musical comedy film featuring the Beatles released in the US
  • 1965 Watts riots begin in Southeast Los Angeles, lasts 6 days
  • 1966 The Beatles arrive in Chicago, Illinois for their third (and final) US tour
  • 1967 Al Downing becomes 12th to strike-out side on 9 pitches
  • 1968 Beatles launch "Apple Records" label
  • 1968 Fifteen Guinea Special - last main-line steam passenger train service in Britain. Selection of British Rail steam locomotives make a return 120-mile journey Liverpool to Carlisle, before having their fires dropped for the last time.

Sports History

1968 Satchel Paige (62) and needing 158 days on a MLB payroll to qualify for a pension, is signed by Atlanta Braves; doesn't pitch and becomes coach

Sports History

1969 Future Baseball HOF'er Don Drysdale, the last LA Dodger to play in Brooklyn, retires because of damage to his right pitching shoulder

  • 1970 Cincinnati Reds slugger Tony Perez becomes 1st to hitter to launch a HR into the red seats at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio

Sports History

1970 Future Baseball HOF pitcher Jim Bunning becomes second Cy Young Award winner to win 100 games in both NL and AL, as his Philadelphia Phillies beat Astros 6-5 at Astrodome in Houston, Texas

  • 1970 Two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers are killed by the Irish Republican Army when they set off a booby trap bomb planted in a car near Crossmaglen, County Armagh
  • 1971 4 people are shot dead in separate incidents in Belfast; three of them by the British Army, as violence continues following the introduction of Internment and Operation Demetrius
  • 1971 Construction begins on Louisiana Superdome

Baseball Record

1971 Harmon Killebrew hits HRs #500 & 501

  • 1972 "Cheech & Chong Day" in San Antonio Texas
  • 1972 Two IRA members are killed when a bomb they were transporting exploded prematurely

American Graffiti

1973 "American Graffiti", directed by George Lucas, opens in cinemas across the United States

  • 1973 The birth of hip-hop: DJ Kool Herc uses two turntables, playing the same record simultaneously to create the “merry-go-round” technique, at a party in the Bronx [1]
  • 1974 Coup in East-Timor under UDT
  • 1974 Head-on collision between two buses kills 21 (Ankara, Turkey)
  • 1975 Expos' Jose Mangual struck out 5 times in a game
  • 1975 US vetoes proposed admission of North & South Vietnam to UN

Music History

1976 "The Who" drummer Keith Moon collapses and is hospitalized in Miami, Florida

  • 1976 Race riot in Cape Town, South Africa; 17 die
  • 1977 Geoff Boycott scores his 100th FC hundred, v Aust at Headingley
  • 1978 "C'est Chic" second studio album by Chic is released featuring single "Le Freak" (Billboard Album of the Year 1979)
  • 1978 Legionnaire's disease bacteria isolated in Atlanta
  • 1979 28°F in Embarrass Minnesota
  • 1979 British rock band Led Zeppelin performs for what becomes the final time in England at Knebworth Park, Hertfordshire, before over 200,000 fans
  • 1979 Phillies Tug McGraw gives up record 4th grand slam of year
  • 1980 Angola revises its constitution
  • 1980 Mohammed Ali Radjai appointed premier of Iran

Sports History

1980 Yanks Reggie Jackson hits his 400th HR off Chicago's Britt Burns

  • 1982 The South African Defence Force (SADF) raids Southern Angola
  • 1982 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • 1984 101,799 fans at soccer match Brazil vs France

Olympic Games

1984 A British 1-2 in the 1,500m at the Los Angeles Olympics with Sebastian Coe edging teammate Steve Cram to become the only man to successfully defend his Olympic 1,500m title

World Record

1984 Carl Lewis duplicates Jesse Owens' 1936 feat, winning his 4th Olympic gold medal as part of the US 4 x 100m relay team; world record (37.83)

Sports History

1984 Cincinnati Reds retire Johnny Bench's #5 uniform

Event of Interest

1984 During a radio voice test, US President Reagan jokes he "signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes."

  • 1984 Future 4-weight world boxing champion Pernell Whitaker wins the lightweight gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics
  • 1984 Ian Ferguson of New Zealand wins his 3rd canoeing gold medal of the LA Olympics taking out the K-4 1000 a day after victories in the K-1 500 & K-2 500
  • 1984 Men's choir Maranatha Netherlands forms
  • 1984 USSR performs (underground) nuclear test
  • 1985 Challenger flies to Kennedy Space Center via Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz
  • 1985 Rudolf Povarnitsin of USSR sets new high jump world record (7'10"12)
  • 1987 France & Great-Britain send minesweepers to Persian Gulf

Sports History

1988 225 at bats after #299, Met Gary Carter is 59th to hit 300th HR

Meeting of Interest

1988 Al-Qaeda formed at a meeting between Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Dr Fadl in Peshawar, Pakistan

  • 1988 Charlotte Colisieum in Charlotte NC opens
  • 1988 Meir Kahane renounced US citizenship to stay in Israeli Parliament
  • 1989 "Nightmare on Elm Street 5: Dream Child" premieres
  • 1989 Geoff Marsh & Mark Taylor complete 329 opening stand v England
  • 1990 ArenaBowl IV, Joe Louis Arena, Detroit: Detroit Drive beats Dallas Texans 51-27, Art Schlichter MVP
  • 1990 Egypt & Morocco troops land in Saudi Arabia to prevent Iraqi invasion
  • 1991 400,000 demonstrate for democracy in Madagascar, 31 killed
  • 1991 Shiite Muslims release US hostage Edward Tracy
  • 1991 Space shuttle STS 43 (Atlantis 9) lands
  • 1991 Wilson Alvarez hurls a no-hitter in his 1st big league start

Sports History

1992 Oakland A's rip Jose Canseco for leaving stadium before end of game

  • 1993 NY Islander Brian Mullen, 31, suffers a mild stroke

Papal Visit

1993 Pope John Paul II visits Mexico

Sports History

1993 Red Sox Roger Clemens pitches 2,000th strike out (Danny Tartabul-NY)

  • 1994 João Bernardo "Nino" Vieira, elected President of Guinea-Bissau
  • 1997 Benin legalizes Jan 10th as a voodoo holiday

Event of Interest

1998 Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian National Authority president, Yasser Arafat, arrives in Cape Town on his first state visit to South Africa at the invitation of President Nelson Mandela

  • 1999 American rock group "KISS" receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
  • 1999 The Salt Lake City Tornado tears through the downtown district of the city, killing one.
  • 1999 Total solar eclipse in India-North -France (2m23s)
  • 2003 A heat wave in Paris results in temperatures rising to 112°F (44° C), leaving about 144 people dead.
  • 2003 Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.
  • 2003 NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
  • 2007 Jason Koumas makes his Wigan Athletic debut
  • 2008 Abhinav Bindra wins men's 10m air rifle at the Beijing Olympics, the first ever individual Olympic gold medal for India, and India's first gold medal in any Olympic event since 1980

Event of Interest

2008 Airbnb is founded by Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk

  • 2008 Japanese swimmer Kosuke Kitajima repeats 1st leg of his Athens Olympics 100/200m breaststroke double at the Beijing Games winning the 100m in world record 58.91; goes on to win 200m event

World Record

2008 The US 4 x 100m freestyle replay team of Michael Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones & Jason Lezak beats France by 8 seconds to win gold and smash world record at the Beijing Olympics

  • 2009 "Need You Now" album released by Lady Antebellum (Billboard Album of the Year 2010)
  • 2011 Rock group "The Go-Go’s" receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in front of the former nightclub called "The Masque"
  • 2012 13 people are killed and 15 injured by a lightning strike at a Mosque in Bangladesh
  • 2012 153 people are killed and 1300 injured in Tabriz and Ahar, Iran after two earthquakes of up to 6.4 magnitude
  • 2013 2 people are killed and 30 are injured after a bus crash in the Alps of southern France
  • 2013 22 people are killed by flash floods in Kabul, Afghanistan

Agreement of Interest

2015 Greek Debt crisis: European Commission announces a bailout with Greece and its creditors has been agreed "in principle"

  • 2015 Japan's Sendai Nuclear Power Plant restarts the first nuclear reactor since the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
  • 2015 Largest ever outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in New York - 12 dead, with over 100 cases in the South Bronx
  • 2015 Spain's top matador Francisco Rivera Ordóñez Jr. is gored and injured by a bull in Huesca
  • 2016 A Greenland shark declared oldest vertebrate animal in the world at 392 years by international team of scientists
  • 2016 American Simone Manuel and Penny Oleksiak of Canada dead heat for the gold medal in coveted 100m freestyle at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; tie in Olympic record 52.70; Sarah Sjöström (Sweden) takes bronze; her 3rd medal of the Games
  • 2016 American super-swimmer Michael Phelps wins men's 200m individual medley in 1:54.66 at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; 3rd athlete and 1st swimmer to win 4 consecutive Olympic gold medals in one event
  • 2016 Fiji wins inaugural men's rugby sevens gold medal with a comfortable 43-7 rout of Great Britain at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics
  • 2017 Chinese crime writer Liu Yongbiao after announcing novel called "Beautiful Writer who Killed", arrested for murders of four people nearly 22 years ago
  • 2017 Fipronil contaminated eggs now affecting fifteen EU countries, Hong Kong and Switzerland according to European Commission
  • 2019 Argentine President Mauricio Macri suffers defeat in preliminary election to Alberto Fernández, prompting 20% fall in the value of the peso

Election of Interest

2020 Belarus's opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya flees the country amid large-scale protests over the country's disputed election results that returned Dictator Alexander Lukashenko to power

COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 President Vladimir Putin in a propaganda stunt announces Russia has become the 1st country to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine, called “Sputnik V", despite no scientific data being published or phase 3 trials having even begun

Appointment of Interest

2020 US Democratic candidate for President Joe Biden announces California Senator Kemala Harris is his running mate, the 1st woman of color selected by a major party

Contract of Interest

2021 Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi confirms signing a rich 2-year contract with French Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain after leaving FC Barcelona

  • 2021 Sicily records highest-ever temperature in Europe of 48.8 degrees Celsius (119.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in city of Siracusa (unverified)
  • 2021 Torrential rains cause flash flooding in Turkey's northwestern provinces of Kastamonu, Sinop and Barti, killing at least 77 with more missing [1]
  • 2022 "Monster" wildfire south-east of Bordeaux fought by 1,000 firefighters has burnt through 7,400 hectares (18,286 acres) part of France's driest summer since 1961 [1]

Event of Interest

2022 US Attorney General Merrick Garland says he personally approved FBI search of Trump's property, on same day Washington Post source says FBI search was for missing documents on nuclear weapons [1]