Historical Events on December 11

Events 1 - 200 of 210

• 359 Honoratus, first known Prefect of the City of Constantinople, takes office, after the Emperor Constantius creates a new senate for the East
• 384 St Damasus I dies and ends his reign as Catholic Pope. Began reign 366
• 435 K'inich Yax K'uk Mo', founding ruler of Maya city of Copán, marks completion of an important calendrical cycle under Maya Long Count calendar (Stela 63). Oldest known inscription from Copán.

• 1395 John "Eleanor" Rykener, a male cross-dressing prostitute, is brought to court in London for "committing that detestable unmentionable and ignominious vice" in late medieval England's only recorded case on same-sex intercourse (verdict unknown)
• 1419 Heretic Nicolaas Serrurier exiled from Florence
• 1477 Duchess Maria of Burgundy ends the 'Great Privilege' in states of The Netherlands
• 1572 Spanish troops begin siege of Haarlem

• 1618 The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia agree to the Truce of Deulino ending the Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618)

• 1665 "Messiah" Sjabtai Tswi festival in Smyrna

• 1710 Battle of Villa Viciosa: France beats the Habsburgers
• 1719 1st recorded display of Aurora Borealis in north American colonies (New England)

• 1812 1st newspaper on Curacao (Curacao Gazette & Commercial Advertiser)
• 1816 Citizens of Geneva thwart Savoyard invaders
• 1816 Indiana becomes 19th state of the Union
• 1844 1st dental use of nitrous oxide in Hartford, Connecticut

• 1866 1st yacht race across Atlantic Ocean; schooners Fleetwing, Vesta and the Henrietta, with NY playboy Gordon Bennett on board, leave Sandy Hook for the Scilly Isles (the Henrietta wins)
• 1872 Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback takes office in Louisiana as the first African American US Governor

• 1888 French Panama Canal Company fails
• 1893 11 fishing ships wash up at Wadden Sea, 22 killed

• 1902 The US signs a treaty with Cuba allowing for a 20 percent reduction of tariff rates on imported Cuban products
• 1903 British forces under MacDonald & Younghusband march into Tibet
• 1905 120°F (49°C), Rivadavia, Argentina (South American record)
• 1905 A workers uprising occurs, establishing the Shuliavka Republic in Kiev
• 1905 British government of Campbell-Bannerman forms

• 1907 New Zealand Parliament Buildings almost completely destroyed by fire
• 1908 Frederick Delius' orchestral work "In a Summer Garden" premieres in London
• 1909 Canadian Football exhibition game played in Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, Hamilton Tigers beat Ottawa Rough Riders, 11-6 before 15,000
• 1909 Colored moving pictures demonstrated at Madison Square Garden, NYC
• 1913 "Mona Lisa" recovered two years after it was stolen from the Louvre Museum
• 1914 Stockton Street Tunnel (San Francisco) completed

• 1917 13 black soldiers hanged for participation in Houston riot
• 1917 German-occupied Lithuania proclaims independence from Russia
• 1919 Boll weevil monument dedicated in Enterprise, Alabama

• 1930 Bank of the United States closes in New York City
• 1931 Japan leaves the Gold Standard
• 1931 Statute of Westminster gives complete legislative independence to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland (Free State), and Newfoundland (not then part of Canada)
• 1932 San Francisco's coldest day (27°F) - it snows
• 1934 1935 All-Star Game is assigned to Cleveland
• 1934 1st successful penalty shot by a Toronto Maple Leaf - Charlie Conacher stopped by New York Rangers Andy Aitkenhead at Madison Square Garden
• 1934 1st Toronto Maple Leaf penalty shot, Conacher unsuccessful vs Rangers
• 1934 Ford C. Frick becomes president of baseball's National League
• 1934 NL votes to permit night baseball (up to 7 games per home team)

• 1937 Italy withdraws from League of Nations

• 1941 Axis powers Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy declare war against the United States
• 1941 Dutch government in London declares war on Italy
• 1941 Japanese attack Wake Island (only failed WW II-landing)
• 1941 Japanese occupy Guam
• 1941 NY Giants acquire future Baseball Hall of Fame first baseman Johnny Mize from Cardinals for 3 players & $50,000
• 1942 Australian Dutch guerrilla troops evacuated to Timor near Australia
• 1944 Surprise attack on House of Keeping Axe, 29 prisoners freed
• 1945 Het Parool publishes 1st Captain Rob-strip

• 1946 Spain suspended from UN
• 1946 United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established by resolution 57(I) of the UN General Assembly
• 1947 Pacific Coast League application for major league status rejected
• 1948 WHEN (now WTVH) TV channel 5 in Syracuse, NY (CBS) begins broadcasting
• 1948 WMC TV channel 5 in Memphis, Tennessee (NBC) begins broadcasting
• 1949 Chicago Bear Johnny Lujack passes for 6 touchdowns vs Chicago Cards (52-29)
• 1949 WOAI (now KMOL) TV channel 4 in San Antonio, TX (NBC) 1st broadcast
• 1950 Baseball owners vote 9-7 not to renew Commissioner Chandler's contract

• 1951 "The Wild Side of Life" single recorded by Hank Thompson and His Brazos Valley Boys (Billboard Song of the Year, 1952)

• 1953 KTVA TV channel 11 in Anchorage (CBS) becomes Alaska's 1st TV station
• 1954 Philadelphia Phillies owners reluctantly purchase Connie Mack Stadium (Shibe Park) from the A's
• 1954 USS Forrestal aircraft carrier christened in Newport News, Virginia
• 1956 Anti-Russian demonstrations in Stettin & Wroclaw, Poland
• 1958 4th (last) Dutch government of Willem Drees falls

• 1958 Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) gains autonomy from France

• 1960 Black Sunday - Riot in Algiers; pro-independence demonstrations turn violent, 114 die
• 1960 Cleveland Brown's Bernie Parrish sets club record for longest interception return with a 92 yard run

• 1961 Motown Records releases "Please, Mr. Postman" by the Marvelettes; it is the group and the label's 1st #1 pop song, topping the charts for 13 weeks

• 1966 Al Nelson sets NFL record returning missed field goal, 100 yards

• 1967 6.6 earthquake in Koynanagar, India, kills at least 177, injures over 2,000 and lightly damages the Koyna Dam
• 1967 Beatles' Apple Music signs its 1st group - Grapefruit
• 1967 People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) established
• 1967 Supersonic airliner prototype "Concorde" 1st shown (France)
• 1968 KECC (now KECY) TV channel 9 in El Centro, CA (CBS) 1st broadcast

• 1968 US Soccer Football Association refuses to let NASL disband
• 1969 Libya adopts constitution
• 1970 Start of the 1st Test match at the WACA, Australia v England
• 1971 A bomb explodes outside a furniture showroom on the mainly-Protestant and loyalist Shankill Road, Belfast; four civilians (including two babies) were killed and nineteen wounded
• 1971 The Libertarian Party of the United States is formed
• 1972 American Astronauts Eugene Cernan & Harrison 'Jack" Schmitt, a become 11th & 12th people on the Moon
• 1972 New York Jets' Don Maynard becomes all time pro reception leader (632)
• 1973 Houston Astro César Cedeño jailed for the death of a 19-year-old woman
• 1973 NA Soccer League awards LA, San Francisco, Seattle & Vancouver franchises

• 1975 US 1st class postage rises from 10 cents to 13 cents
• 1977 Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams, leaders of the group 'Peace People' (an organization dedicated to encouraging a peaceful resolution of 'the Troubles' in Northern Ireland) receive the Nobel Peace Prize
• 1978 6 masked men bound 10 employees at Lufthansa cargo area at NYC Kennedy Airport and made off with $5.8M in cash & jewelry; all of the participants and some associates were later killed on order of the alleged organized crime mastermind, loot never recovered
• 1978 NBC premiere of "A Woman Called Moses"
• 1979 Geoff Boycott scores cricket century in a limited-over international

• 1980 The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (known as either CERCLA or Superfund) is enacted by the U.S. Congress.
• 1981 Argentine President General Roberto Viola flees
• 1981 El Mozote massacre: Salvadoran armed forces kill an estimated 900 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the country's civil war.

• 1981 Spacelab I arrives at Kennedy Space Center
• 1981 UN Security Council chooses Javier Pérez de Cuélla of Peru as the 5th Secretary-General of the United Nations
• 1981 Wash Capitals biggest margin of victory (9) beating Toronto 11-2

• 1984 Mauretania military coup under Col Maawiya Ould Sid'ahmed Taya
• 1985 Computer store owner in Sacramento California killed by package bomb
• 1985 Dow Jones closes above 1,500 for 1st time (1,511.70)
• 1985 General Electric acquires RCA Corp & its subsidiary, NBC
• 1985 NHL Record 62 points scored, Edmonton (36) beats Chicago (26) 12-9 & ties record of 21 goals
• 1986 South Africa censors press

• 1989 Mark Davis signs record $3.25 million per year KC Royals contract
• 1990 13 die in 83 vehicle accident in Chattanooga Tn I-75, due to fog
• 1990 US 69th manned space mission STS 35 (Columbia 11) returns from space

• 1991 William Kennedy Smith found not guilty of rape
• 1992 Nor'easter storm hits NY, doing $ Billion worth of damage

• 1992 WNEW AM radio on 1130 in NYC ends transmitting after 58 years
• 1993 59th Heisman Trophy Award: Charlie Ward, Florida State (QB)
• 1993 Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle elected President of Chile
• 1994 Russian Federation forces attack city of Grozny, beginning the First Chechen War, in which the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria gains its independence from Russia
• 1994 Russian troops enter Chechnya
• 1995 Thomas O Hicks buys NHL Dallas Stars for $84 million
• 1997 Delegates from 150 industrial nations attending a UN climate conference in Kyoto, Japan, reach agreement to control heat-trapping greenhouse gases
• 1997 Federal judge orders Microsoft not to bundle IE4 in Windows
• 1998 Thai Airways Airbus A310-200 crashes near Surat Thani Airport, killing 101
• 2000 66th Heisman Trophy Award: Chris Weinke, Florida State (QB)
• 2001 The People's Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization.

• 2004 70th Heisman Trophy Award: Matt Leinart, USC (QB)
• 2005 Cronulla riots: thousands of white Australians demonstrate against ethnic violence, resulting in a riot against anyone thought to be Lebanese (and many who were not) in Cronulla Sydney. These are followed by ethnic attacks on Cronulla.
• 2005 The Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead, England, is rocked by explosions, causing a huge oil fire.

• 2007 Two car bombs go off at the Constitutional Court building in Algiers and the United Nations office. An estimated 45 people are killed in the bombings.

• 2009 Angry Birds, a Finnish puzzle video game released internationally

• 2010 Two explosions occur in a busy shopping district of Stockholm, Sweden, killing one and injuring two others. Officials say the incident is being treated as a terrorist attack.

• 2011 Mosconi Cup nine-ball pool, Las Vegas, Nevada: Team Europe retains trophy with an 11-7 win over US; MVP: Niels Feijen (Netherlands)
• 2012 125 people are killed and 200 are injured by bombings in Aqrab, Syria

• 2012 HSBC bank settles with US authorities to pay $1.9 billion for drug cartel money laundering
• 2013 20 people are killed by the bubonic plague in a small Madagascan village

• 2014 World's 1st penis transplant procedure by a team from Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa

• 2015 Unrest in Burundi leads to clashes between authorities and protesters in Bujumbura, killing at least 87
• 2016 Bombing at a chapel in Cairo, Egypt, kills 25 and wounds 45

• 2016 Kyrgyzstan votes in a referendum to change the constitution to give the government more power
• 2017 Attempted suicide terrorist bomb attack in New York wounds 3, bomb fails to fully detonate
• 2017 Landmark trial for Huntington's disease in London announces positive results - first time a drug has been able to slow an incurable brain disorder
• 2017 Rahul Gandhi, son of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, is elected leader of the Indian National Congress
• 2017 Saudi Arabia announces an end to its 35 year ban on cinemas
• 2017 Six wildfires in Southern California now cover area larger than New York City and Boston combined

• 2018 The Arctic is experiencing "unprecedented warmth" caused by human-caused climate change, according to US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Report

• 2019 Bougainville votes to become independent of Papua New Guinea in a referendum

• 2019 Discovery of the earliest figurative artwork in the world, (43,900 years old), figures part human part animal, from cave in Sulawesi, Indonesia, reported in journal "Nature"
• 2019 India passes controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill clearing way for citizenship for immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan but not if they are Muslim
• 2019 Militants attack army base in Ates, Niger, killing at least 71. Islamic State claim responsibility.
• 2020 America's FDA authorizes the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use
• 2020 European Union leaders agree to cut net carbon emissions by 55% in the next decade
• 2020 First same-sex civil union registered in Bolivia after a two-year legal battle by activists

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