December 11

December 11 is the 345th day (346th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 20 days remaining.

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Events

• 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.
• 1931 – Statute of Westminster gives complete legislative independence to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and Newfoundland
• 1934 – A fire at the Hotel Kerns in Lansing, Michigan kills 34 people.
• 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.
• 1954 – The American Nuclear Society is founded
• 1958 – Upper Volta declares its independence from France
• 1970 – John Lennon releases the classic album Plastic Ono Band.
• 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
• 1981 – Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru becomes UN Secretary-General
• 1981 – The Salvadoran armed forces massacre 900 villagers in the El Mozote massacre
• 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

• 1465 – Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Ashikaga shogun (d. 1489)
• 1475 – Pope Leo X (d. 1521)
• 1725 – George Mason, American patriot (d. 1792)
• 1781 – Sir David Brewster, physicist (d. 1868)
• 1801 – Christian Dietrich Grabbe, German writer (d. 1836)
• 1803 – Hector Berlioz, French composer (d. 1869)
• 1810 – Alfred de Musset, French poet (d. 1857)
• 1843 – Robert Koch, bacteriologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1910)
• 1863 – Annie Jump Cannon, astronomer (d. 1941)
• 1873 – Josip Plemelj, mathematician (d. 1967)
• 1880 – Frank Tarrant, Australian cricketer (d. 1951).
• 1882 – Max Born, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)
• 1882 – Fiorello LaGuardia, Mayor of New York City (d. 1947)
• 1882 – Subramanya Bharathy, Tamil Indian poet (d. 1921)
• 1883 – Victor McLaglen, actor (d. 1959)
• 1890 – Mark Tobey, painter (d. 1976)
• 1905 – Gilbert Roland, actor (d. 1994)
• 1908 – Elliot Carter, American composer
• 1911 – Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian novelist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1912 – Carlo Ponti, Italian film producer
• 1913 – Jean Marais, actor (d. 1998)
• 1916 – Dámaso Pérez Prado, Cuban musician (d. 1989)
• 1918 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian author, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1919 – Marie Windsor, actress (d. 2000)
• 1920 – Big Mama Thornton, singer (d. 1984)
• 1924 – Doc Blanchard, American football player
• 1925 – Paul Greengard, scientist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1930 – Jean-Louis Trintignant, French actor
• 1931 – Rita Moreno, Puerto Rican singer, dancer, and actress
• 1933 – Aquilino Pimentel, Jr., Filipino politician
• 1935 – Pranab Mukherjee, Indian politician
• 1936 – Taku Yamasaki, Japanese politician
• 1939 – Tom Hayden, American radical and politician
• 1943 – John Kerry, American politician and Presidential candidate
• 1944 – Brenda Lee, singer
• 1949 – Terri Garr, American film actress
• 1950 – Christina Onassis shipowner (d. 1988)
• 1954 – Jermaine Jackson, musician
• 1958 – Nikki Sixx, musician
• 1969 – Vishwanathan Anand, Indian chess player
• 1981 – Javier Saviola, Argentine footballer

Deaths

• 384 – St. Damasus, Pope
• 1282 – Llywelyn the Last, Prince of Wales
• 1694 – Ranuccio Farnese II, Duke of Parma (b. 1630)
• 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, singer (b. 1931)
• 1983 – Sir Neil Ritchie, British general. (b. 1897)
• 1996 – Willie Rushton, UK comedian, satirist, actor and cartoonist (b. 1937)
• 2003 – Ahmadou Kourouma, author from Côte d'Ivoire
• 2003 – Paulos Tzadua, Roman Catholic cardinal from Ethiopia
• 2004 – M.S. Subbulakshmi, Carnatic vocalist

Annual events

• Tango Day, Buenos Aires

External links

• BBC: On This Day

December 10 – December 12 – November 11 – January 11 — listing of all days