Historical Events on February 11

Events 1 - 200 of 213

• 660 BC Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu

• 385 Siricius, bishop of Tarragona, elected as Bishop of Rome; first to style himself Pope
• 824 St Paschal I ends his reign as Pope
• 1543 Battle at Wayna Daga: Ethiopian and Portuguese troops beat Muslim army

• 1659 The assault on Copenhagen by Swedish forces is beaten back with heavy losses
• 1720 Sweden & Prussia sign peace (2nd Treaty of Stockholm)
• 1766 Stamp Act declared unconstitutional in Virginia

• 1790 Society of Friends petitions Congress for abolition of slavery
• 1793 Prussian troops occupy Venlo, Netherlands
• 1794 1st session of US Senate open to the public

• 1808 Anthracite coal 1st burned as fuel, experimentally, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

• 1811 President Madison prohibits trade with Britain for 3rd time in 4 years
• 1812 Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signs a redistricting bill - first "gerrymander"
• 1814 Norway's independence proclaimed
• 1826 University College London founded; known until 1836 as London University
• 1837 American Physiological Society organizes in Boston
• 1840 Gaetano Donizetti's opéra comique "La Fille du Regiment" (The Daughter of the Regiment) premieres at the Salle de la Bourse in Paris, France

• 1851 Inaugural 1st-class cricket match in Australia; Tasmania v Victoria in Launceston; Tasmania wins by 3 wickets
• 1852 First British public female toilet opens (Bedford Street, London)
• 1854 For the 1st time coal gas is used to light major streets in San Francisco
• 1855 Kassa Hailu is crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia, by Abuna Salama III in a ceremony at the church of Derasge Maryam
• 1858 First vision of the Virgin Mary to 14-year-old Bernadette of Lourdes, France
• 1861 US House unanimously passes resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state

• 1873 Spanish Cortes fires king Amadeus I
• 1878 1st US bicycle club, Boston Bicycle Club, forms
• 1878 1st weekly weather report published in UK
• 1889 Meiji constitution of Japan adopted; 1st Diet convenes in 1890
• 1895 -17°F (-27.2°C) in Braemar, Grampian (UK record)
• 1895 Georgetown became part of Washington, D.C.

• 1897 White Rose Mission opens on East 97th Street, NYC
• 1898 Owen Smith of NC, AME Zion minister, named US minister to Liberia
• 1899 -15°F (-26°C), Washington, D.C. (district record)
• 1902 Police beat up universal suffrage demonstrators in Brussels

• 1905 James Blackstone, Seattle, bowls 299½-last pin breaks but stands
• 1905 Pope Pius X publishes encyclical Vehementer nos
• 1907 De Master's Dutch government resigns
• 1907 Passenger ship Larchmont sinks by Block Island, off Rhode Island, 322 die
• 1908 Heemskerk's government begins in Holland
• 1916 Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presents its 1st concert, led by Gustav Strube of the Peabody Institute, at the Lyric Theatre

• 1916 Germany and Austria-Hungary notify the US that they will sink any armed merchant ships starting on 1 March

• 1921 Ambassador Theater opens at 215 W 49th St NYC

• 1922 Influential arts festival Semana de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Week) opens in São Paulo - the beginning of Modernism in Brazil
• 1922 US intervention army leaves Honduras
• 1926 UK transfers administration of Tokelau (Union) Islands in South Pacific to New Zealand
• 1928 II Winter Olympic Games open in St Moritz, Switzerland

• 1929 Vatican City, the world's smallest country, is made an enclave of Rome
• 1932 73°F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in February
• 1932 Johan Grøttumsbraaten leads a Norwegian medal sweep of the Nordic combined event at the Lake Placid Games; retains combined title after also winning in St. Moritz
• 1935 -11°F (-24°C), Ifrane, Morocco (African record low)
• 1935 1st US airplane flight with auto slung beneath fuselage, NY
• 1936 Pumping begins to build Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay
• 1937 44-day sit-down strike at General Motors in Flint Mich ends

• 1941 Sicherheitsdienst complains about Dutch anti German sentiments
• 1942 "Archie" comic book debuts
• 1943 Transport #47 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany

• 1944 German troops reconquer Aprilia, Italy
• 1944 U-424 sunk off Ireland
• 1945 1st gas turbine propeller-driven airplane flight tested, Downey, CA

• 1946 World War II: The Royal Navy's Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 116 of 156 captured German U-boats
• 1948 Billy Griffith scores cricket century on debut Eng v WI, out for 140
• 1948 John Costello follows Eamon Da Valera as premier of Ireland
• 1948 Test cricket debut of Frank Worrell for the West Indies vs. England at Port-of-Spain

• 1949 Willie Pep recaptures world featherweight boxing title
• 1950 "Rag Mop" by The Ames Brothers hits #1
• 1950 4th British Empire Games close in Auckland, New Zealand
• 1950 Englishman Jack Holden wins Empire Games marathon in Auckland, New Zealand in 2:32:57; runs last 9 miles barefoot after his shoes fell apart during the race

• 1953 President Eisenhower refuses clemency appeal for Rosenberg couple
• 1953 USSR breaks diplomatic relations with Israel
• 1954 6th Emmy Awards: I Love Lucy, Donald O'Connor & Eve Arden win
• 1956 British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean deny working as spies for Soviet Russia after reappearing in the Soviet Union after going missing 5 years earlier
• 1957 KUMV TV channel 8 in Williston, ND (NBC) begins broadcasting

• 1958 BBC pioneering series "Your Life in Their Hands" first broadcast presented by Dr. Charles Fletcher, 1st major TV series to deal with medicine

• 1958 Marshal Chen Yi succeeds Chu En-lai as Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs
• 1958 Ruth Carol Taylor is 1st African-American woman hired as flight attendant, Ithaca NY
• 1958 WTVC TV channel 9 in Chattanooga, TN (ABC) begins broadcasting
• 1959 Vinoo Mankad ends his final Test Cricket (v WI at Delhi)

• 1961 Robert Weaver sworn in as Administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, the 1st African American to be appointed to a US cabinet-level position
• 1963 American chef Julia Child's show "The French Chef" premieres on WGBH in Boston - one of the first cooking shows in the US
• 1963 Beatles record 10 of the 14 tracks for their 1st UK album "Please Please Me"
• 1963 CIA Domestic Operations Division created
• 1964 Beatles 1st live appearance in US, at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C.
• 1964 Greek & Turks begin fighting in Limassol, Cyprus
• 1964 Taiwan drops diplomatic relations with France
• 1965 Braves propose to pay 5 cents from each ticket to bring a new team to Milwaukee

• 1968 Israeli-Jordan border fight
• 1968 Jeffrey Kramer survives 76-m jump, Washington Bridge, Hudson River New York
• 1968 Madison Square Garden III closes Madison Square Garden IV opens (NYC)
• 1969 Diana Crump becomes 1st US woman jockey to ride against men, Hialelah
• 1969 Dorey Funk Jr beats Gene Kiniski in Tampa, to become NWA champ
• 1970 26.37 cm (10.38") of rainfall, Mt Washington, NH (state 24-hr rec)
• 1970 Japan becomes 4th nation to put a satellite (Osumi) in orbit

• 1971 Montreal Canadien John Believau scores his 500th NHL goal
• 1971 US, UK, USSR, others sign Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons
• 1973 1st one-day international for Pakistan & NZ

• 1973 Philadelphia 76ers lose their 20th NBA game in a row
• 1974 First Major League Baseball arbitration case; Minnesota Twins pitcher Dick Woodson seeking $29,000 wins; Twins offered $23,000
• 1974 Libya nationalizes three US oil companies that had not agreed to 51 percent nationalization in September
• 1974 Titan-Centaur rocket test launch fails

• 1975 Tv drama “Sarah T: Portrait of A Teenage Alcoholic”, starring Linda Blair, premieres on US network NBC
• 1976 Clifford Alexander Jr confirmed as 1st African American US Secretary of Army
• 1976 John Curry wins Britain's first Olympic gold medal in figure skating at Innsbruck Winter Games; finishes men's singles ahead of Soviet skater Vladimir Kovalyov and Canadian Toller Cranston
• 1977 20.2-kg lobster caught off Nova Scotia (heaviest known crustacean)
• 1978 16 Unification church couples wed in NYC

• 1978 EOKA disbands in Cyprus

• 1981 Australia all out 83 v India at MCG chasing 143 to win

• 1983 4th largest snowfall in NYC history (18"(46 cm))

• 1984 10th NASA Space Shuttle Mission (41B): Challenger 4 returns to Earth

• 1985 Kent Hrbek signs 5-year $6 million contract with Minnesota Twins
• 1985 King Hussein of Jordan & PLO leader Arafat sign accord

• 1986 Activist Anatoly Scharansky released by USSR, leaves country
• 1986 Iran begins Fajr-8 offensive against Iraq
• 1987 British Airways begins trading stocks
• 1987 Philippines constitution goes into effect
• 1987 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1989 Barbara Clementine Harris consecrated 1st female bishop (Episcopalian)
• 1989 US Episcopal Church Diocese of Massachusetts installs Barbara Harris (59) as 1st female bishop of a US Episcopal church

• 1991 Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) forms in The Hague, Netherlands
• 1992 F-16 jet crashes at residential district of Hengelo, Netherlands (No deaths)
• 1992 Michael Johnson runs indoor world record 400m (44.97 sec)
• 1993 Irina Privalova runs world record 60m indoor (6.92 secs)

• 1994 Space shuttle STS-60 (Discovery 18), lands
• 1995 Danyon Loader swims world record 400m freestyle (340.46)
• 1995 Sandra Volker swims European record 50m backstroke (27.67 sec)
• 1995 Space shuttle STS-63 (Discovery 19), lands
• 1995 West Indies score 5-660 against NZ

• 1997 STS 82 (Discovery 22) launches

• 1998 Lyrics to "Candle in the Wind 1997" auctioned for $442,500
• 1999 Pluto moves further away from the sun than Neptune regaining its status as solar system's outermost planet, a title it will retain for 228 years

• 2007 A national referendum in Portugal legalises non-therapeutic abortion when requested by the woman during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.
• 2008 In East Timor, assassination attempts made on independence activists Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos-Horta. Both fail.

• 2012 Israeli Air Force conducts four air strikes in Gaza Strip
• 2013 18 coal miners are killed in an explosion in the Komi region, Russia

• 2014 11 people are killed after a grenade was tossed into a movie theatre in Peshawar, Pakistan
• 2014 77 people are killed after a military transport plane crashes in Algeria
• 2014 Peace talks resume in Geneva as leaders attempt to bring an end to the civil war in Syria
• 2014 Slopestyle freestyle skiing event makes Olympic debut at Sochi Winter Games; Canadian Dara Howell is inaugural women's gold medallist
• 2015 Francesco Schettino, Captain of the Costa Concordia that ran aground 2012, is convicted of manslaughter in Grosseto and sentenced to 16 years in jail
• 2016 Discover of gravitational waves (through collision of two black holes) announced by physicists from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo)
• 2016 Last of Oregon militia occupying Malheur wildlife refuge surrenders to authorities after 41 days
• 2016 Riot between rival drug cartels at a prison in Monterrey, Mexico, leaves 52 dead
• 2016 Sixth Democratic presidential candidates debate, broadcast on CNN and PBS, and held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• 2018 Dutchman Sven Kramer becomes only male speed skater to win same Olympic event 3 times, claiming gold in the 5,000m at Pyongchang; first man to win total 8 Olympic medals in the sport

• 2018 Norway sweeps the medals in the Olympic 30k cross country skiathlon at Pyeongchang; Simen Hegstad Krüger wins gold ahead of teammates Martin Johnsrud Sundby & Hans Christer Holund
• 2018 Russian airliner crashes south-east of Moscow, killing all 71 on board
• 2019 Artificial Intelligence system meant to assist diagnosis in the future, pitted against physicians in test to diagnose 600,000 patients in results published in "Nature Medicine", A.I. won, just
• 2020 "The Hot Wing King" a play by Katori Hall premieres off-Broadway at Signature Theatre in New York (Pulitzer Prize 2021 for Drama) [1]

• 2020 Largest wave ever surfed by a woman by Brazilian Maya Gabeira riding a 73.5ft (22.4m) wave at Nazaré, Portugal
• 2020 Snow falls in Baghdad, Iraq, for only the second time in a century

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