October 11

October 11 is the 284th day of the year (285th in Leap years). There are 81 days remaining.

Events

• 1582 – Due to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
• 1614 – Adriaen Block and 12 Amsterdam merchants petition the States General for exclusive trading rights in the New Netherland colony.
• 1776 – American Revolution: Battle of Valcour Island – On Lake Champlain 15 American gunboats are defeated but give Patriot forces enough time to prepare defenses of New York City.
• 1809 – Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand.
• 1811 – Inventor John Stevens' boat, the Juliana, begins operation as the first steam-powered ferry (service between New York, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey).
• 1862 – American Civil War: In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart and his men loot Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a raid into the north.
• 1890 – In Washington, DC, the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.
• 1899 – Boer War begins: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupts.
• 1906 – San Francisco public school board sparks United States diplomatic crisis with Japan by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.
• 1929 – JC Penney open Store #1252 in Milford, Delaware, making it a nationwide company with stores in all 48 states.
• 1939 – Manhattan Project: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt is presented with a letter signed by Albert Einstein urging the United States to rapidly develop an atomic bomb program.
• 1942 – World War II: Battle of Cape Esperance – On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.
• 1950 – The Federal Communications Commission issues the first license to broadcast television in color, to CBS (RCA will successfully dispute and block the license from taking effect, however).
• 1954 – Vietnam War: The Viet Minh take control of North Vietnam.
• 1958 – Pioneer program: NASA launches the lunar probe Pioneer 1 (the probe falls back to Earth and burns up).
• 1962 – Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.
• 1967 – Afghan Prime Minister Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal resigns for health reasons
• 1968 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.
• 1975 – Saturday Night Live debuts with George Carlin as the guest host.
• 1984 – Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American women to perform a space walk.
• 1986 – Cold War: US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.
• 1987 – March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights attracts between 500,000 and 600,000 people to protest the Bowers v. Hardwick decision and the U.S. government's handling of the AIDS epidemic; first public display of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
• 1998 – A Congo Air Lines Boeing 727 is shot down by rebels in Kindu, Democratic Republic of the Congo killing 40
• 1999 – The Lord Of The Rings movie begins principal photography.
• 2001 – Polaroid Corporation files for federal bankruptcy protection
• 2001 – USA PATRIOT Act, passes the U.S. Senate.
• 2002 – Bomb attack in a shopping mall in Vantaa, Finland. See Myyrmanni bombing.

Births

• 1582 – Johannes Fleischer, botanist
• 1738 – Arthur Phillip, British admiral, Governor of New South Wales (d. 1814)
• 1788 – Simon Sechter, Austrian music teacher (d. 1867)
• 1815 – Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte (d.1881)
• 1821 – George Williams, English founder of the YMCA (d. 1905)
• 1844 – Henry Heinz, American food manufacturer (d. 1916)
• 1863 – Louis Cyr, famous Canadian strongman (d. 1912)
• 1872 – Harlan F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1946)
• 1881 – Hans Kelsen, Austrian legal theorist
• 1884 – Eleanor Roosevelt, American human rights activist, First Lady (d. 1962)
• 1885 – François Mauriac, French writer (d. 1970)
• 1895 – Jakov Gotovac, Croatian composer (d. 1982)
• 1918 – Jerome Robbins, choreographer (d. 1998)
• 1919 – Art Blakey, jazz drummer (d. 1990)
• 1919 – Jean Vander Pyl, (d. 1999) voice of Wilma Flintstone in The Flintstones cartoon.
• 1924 – Mal Whitfield, American athlete
• 1925 – Elmore Leonard, novelist
• 1928 – Marquis Alfonso de Portago, Grand Prix driver (d. 1957)
• 1930 – Sam Johnson, American politician
• 1932 – Dottie West, country music singer (d. 1991)
• 1939 – Maria Bueno, tennis star
• 1942 – Amitabh Bachchan, Actor, Singer, Producer, UNICEF Ambassador.
• 1949 – Daryl Hall, musician
• 1951 – Jean-Jacques Goldman, French pop singer, songwriter
• 1956 – Nicanor Duarte Frutos, President of Paraguay
• 1957 – Dawn French, comedienne
• 1961 – Steve Young, American football star
• 1966 – Luke Perry, actor
• 1969 – Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands
• 1969 – Ty Murray, rodeo star
• 1974 – Paul C. Kovacs, Software Engineer
• 1977 – Ty Wigginton, Baseball player
• 1981 – Beau Brady, actor
• 1982 – Jermaine V. Mitchell, Rap musician
• 1985 – Michelle Trachtenberg, actress
• 1989 – Michelle Wie, golf prodigy

Deaths

• 1303 – Pope Boniface VIII
• 1531 – Huldreich Zwingli, Swiss Protestant leader (b. 1484
• 1779 – Casimir Pulaski, Polish fighter for American independence (b. 1745)
• 1809 – Meriwether Lewis, American explorer (suicide) (b. 1774)
• 1852 – Ferdinand Eisenstein, mathematician (b. 1823)
• 1896 – Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer (b. 1824)
• 1896  – Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1829)
• 1940 – Lluís Companys, Spanish President of Generalitat of Catalonia, (shot) (b. 1882)
• 1961 – Chico Marx, American comedian (b. 1887)
• 1963 – Edith Piaf, French singer (b. 1915)
• 1963  – Jean Cocteau, French writer (b. 1889)
• 1965 – Dorothea Lange, American photographer (b. 1895)
• 1976 – Alfredo Bracchi, Italian author (b. 1897)
• 1977 – MacKinlay Kantor, American author (b. 1904)
• 1989 – M. King Hubbert, American geophysicist (b. 1904)
• 1991 – Redd Foxx, American comedian, actor (b. 1902)
• 1991 – Steven Jesse Bernstein, poet (suicide)
• 1993 – Jess Thomas, American tenor (b. 1927)
• 1996 – Lars Ahlfors, Finnish mathematician (b. 1907)
• 2000 – Donald Dewar, main author of the Scotland Act and initial First Minister of the Scottish Parliament (b. 1937)
• 2004 – Keith Miller, Australian sportsman (b. 1919)

Holidays

• Roman Empire – Meditrinalia is held in honor of Meditrina
• United States – National Coming Out Day (not a federal holiday)
• United States – General Pulaski Memorial Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

October 10 – October 12 – September 11 – November 11 – more historical anniversaries