11 December
December 11 is the 345th day (346th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 20 days remaining.
Events
- 1205 - John Grey, Bishop of Norwich, elected Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1792 - King Louis XVI of France goes on trial for treason
- 1816 - Indiana becomes the 19th U.S. state.
- 1816 - Citizens of Geneva, Switzerland repel attack by Savoy
- 1901 - Guglielmo Marconi sends the first trans-Atlantic radio signal, from Cornwall to Newfoundland
- 1917 - Lithuania declares its independence (Kingdom of Lithuania)
- 1931 - Statute of Westminster gives complete legislative independence to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and Newfoundland
- 1937 - Edward VIII's abdication as King of the United Kingdom becomes effective.
- 1937 - Italy leaves the League of Nations
- 1941 - Germany and Italy declare war on the United States
- 1946 - The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established.
- 1958 - Upper Volta declares its independence from France
- 1971 - The United States Libertarian Party is formed.
- 1972 - Apollo 17 lands on the Moon
- 1981 - Muhammad Ali's last fight – he loses to Trevor Berbick
- 1994 - Boris Yeltsin orders Russian troops into Chechnya
- 1994 - A small bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman. The bombing was a field test done by Ramzi Yousef to test explosives that would have been used in Project Bojinka, a terrorist attack plan that would be exposed after an apartment fire.
- 1998 - A Thai Airways Airbus A310-200 crashes just short of runway at Surat Thani airport, located in southern Thailand, killing 101.
- 2001 - DrinkOrDie raids.
- 2001 - The People's Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization
Births
- 1475 - Pope Leo X (d. 1521)
- 1725 - George Mason, U.S. patriot, "Father of the Bill of Rights" (d. 1792)
- 1781 - Sir David Brewster, physicist (d. 1868)
- 1801 - Christian Dietrich Grabbe, writer (d. 1836)
- 1803 - Hector Berlioz, composer (d. 1869)
- 1810 - Alfred de Musset, poet (d. 1857)
- 1843 - Robert Koch, bacteriologist and 1905 Nobel laureate (d. 1910)
- 1863 - Annie Jump Cannon, astronomer (d. 1941)
- 1873 - Josip Plemelj, mathematician (d. 1967)
- 1882 - Max Born, physicist and 1954 Nobel laureate (d. 1970)
- 1882 - Fiorello LaGuardia, mayor of New York City (d. 1947)
- 1882 - Subramanya Bharathy, a Tamil Indian poet (d. 1921)
- 1883 - Victor McLaglen, actor (d. 1959)
- 1890 - Mark Tobey, painter (d. 1976)
- 1905 - Gilbert Roland, actor (d. 1994)
- 1911 - Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian novelist, 1988 Nobel laureate
- 1912 - Carlo Ponti, Italian film producer
- 1913 - Jean Marais, actor (d. 1998)
- 1918 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian author, 1970 Nobel laureate
- 1919 - Marie Windsor, actress (d. 2000)
- 1920 - Big Mama Thornton, singer (d. 1984)
- 1924 - Doc Blanchard, Heisman Trophy winner
- 1925 - Paul Greengard, scientist, 2001 Nobel laureate
- 1930 - Jean-Louis Trintignant, actor
- 1931 - Rita Moreno, singer, dancer, actress
- 1935 - Pranab Mukherjee, Indian politician
- 1936 - Taku Yamasaki, Japanese politician
- 1939 - Tom Hayden, American radical and politician
- 1943 - John Kerry, US politician
- 1944 - Booker T. Jones, musician
- 1944 - Brenda Lee, singer
- 1950 - Christina Onassis shipowner (d. 1988)
- 1954 - Jermaine Jackson, musician
- 1958 - Nikki Sixx, musician
Deaths
- 384 - St. Damasus, Pope
- 1282 - Llywelyn the Last, Prince of Wales
- 1920 - Olive Schreiner, writer (b. 1855)
- 1941 - John Gillespie Magee, Jr., American poet and aviator (b. 1922)
- 1945 - Charles Fabry, physicist
- 1950 - Leslie Comrie, astronomer and computing pioneer (b. 1893)
- 1964 - Sam Cooke (b. 1931)
- 1996 - Willie Rushton, UK comedian, satirist, actor and cartoonist (b. 1937)
Holidays and observances
Annual events
December 10 - December 12 - November 11 - January 11 -- listing of all days
