April 11Birthdays & History

On this day: April 11 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 491Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine emperor, with the name of Anastasius I.Europe
2. 672Consecration of Pope Adeodatus II following the death of Pope Vitalian.Europe
3. 1241Batu Khan defeats Béla IV of Hungary at the Battle of Mohi.Europe
4. 1512War of the League of Cambrai: Franco-Ferrarese forces led by Gaston de Foix and Alfonso I d'Este win the Battle of Ravenna against the Papal-Spanish forces.Europe
5. 1544Italian War of 1542–46: A French army defeats Habsburg forces at the Battle of Ceresole, but fails to exploit its victory.Europe
6. 1689William III and Mary II are crowned as joint sovereigns of Great Britain on the same day that the Scottish Parliament concurs with the English decision of 12 February.Europe
7. 1713France and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Utrecht, bringing an end to the War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne's War). Britain accepts Philip V as King of Spain, while Philip renounces any claim to the French throne.Europe
8. 1727Premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion BWV 244b at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony (now Germany).Europe
9. 1809Battle of the Basque Roads: Admiral Lord Gambier fails to support Captain Lord Cochrane, leading to an incomplete British victory over the French fleet.Europe
10. 1814The Treaty of Fontainebleau ends the War of the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon Bonaparte, and forces him to abdicate unconditionally for the first time.Europe
11. 1856Second Battle of Rivas: Juan Santamaría burns down the hostel where William Walker's filibusters are holed up.Latin America
12. 1868Former shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu surrenders Edo Castle to Imperial forces, marking the end of the Tokugawa shogunate.Asia
13. 1871Funeral of Prince Alexander John of Wales at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham.Europe
14. 1876The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is organized.North America
15. 1881Spelman College is founded in Atlanta, Georgia, as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, an institute of higher education for African-American women.North AmericaAfrica
16. 1885Luton Town F.C. is founded.Europe
17. 1908SMS Blücher, the last armored cruiser to be built by the Imperial German Navy, is launched.Europe
18. 1909The city of Tel Aviv is founded.Middle East
19. 1921Emir Abdullah establishes the first centralised government in the newly created British protectorate of Transjordan.Europe
20. 1935Stresa Front: Opening of the conference between the British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, the Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and the French Minister for Foreign Affairs Pierre Laval to condemn the German violations of the Treaty of Versailles.Europe
21. 1945World War II: American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.North America
22. 1951Korean War: President Truman relieves Douglas MacArthur of the command of American forces in Korea and Japan.AsiaNorth AmericaAsia
23. 1951The Stone of Scone, the stone upon which Scottish monarchs were traditionally crowned, is found on the site of the altar of Arbroath Abbey. It had been taken by Scottish nationalist students from its place in Westminster Abbey.Europe
24. 1952Pan Am Flight 526A ditches near San Juan-Isla Grande Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after experiencing an engine failure, killing 52 people.Latin America
25. 1952Bolivian National Revolution: Rebels take over Palacio Quemado.Latin America
26. 1955The Air India Kashmir Princess is bombed and crashes in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by the Kuomintang.Asia
27. 1957United Kingdom agrees to Singaporean self-rule.EuropeAsia
28. 1961The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.Middle East
29. 1963Pope John XXIII issues Pacem in terris, the first encyclical addressed to all Christians instead of only Catholics, and which described the conditions for world peace in human terms.Europe
30. 1964Brazilian Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco is elected president by the National Congress.Latin AmericaNorth America
31. 1965The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965: Fifty-five tornadoes hit in six Midwestern states of the United States, killing 266 people.North America
32. 1968US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.North America
33. 1968A failed assassination attempt on Rudi Dutschke, leader of the German student movement, leaves Dutschke suffering from brain damage.Europe
34. 1970Apollo Program: Apollo 13 is launched.North America
35. 1976The Apple I is created.North America
36. 1977London Transport's Silver Jubilee AEC Routemaster buses are launched.Europe
37. 1979Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is deposed.Africa
38. 1981A massive riot in Brixton, south London, results in almost 300 police injuries and 65 serious civilian injuries.Europe
39. 1982American-Israeli reservist Alan Harry Goodman carries out a mass shooting at the Dome of the Rock, killing two Palestinians and injuring at least seven others.North AmericaMiddle East
40. 1986FBI Miami Shootout: A gun battle in broad daylight in Dade County, Florida, between two bank/armored car robbers and pursuing FBI agents. During the firefight, FBI agents Jerry L. Dove and Benjamin P. Grogan are killed, while five other agents are wounded. As a result, the popular .40 S&W cartridge was developed.North America
41. 1987The London Agreement is secretly signed between Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres and King Hussein of Jordan.EuropeMiddle East
42. 1990Customs officers in Middlesbrough, England, seize what they believe to be the barrel of a massive gun on a ship bound for Iraq.EuropeMiddle East
43. 1993Guillem Agulló, pro-Catalan independence and anti-fascist Valencian young activist, is assassinated by a group of Spanish nationalists and neo-nazis in Montanejos.Europe
44. 1993Four hundred fifty prisoners riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, and would continue to do so for ten days, citing grievances related to prison conditions, as well as the forced vaccination of Nation of Islam prisoners (for tuberculosis) against their religious beliefs.North America
45. 2001The detained crew of a United States EP-3E aircraft that landed in Hainan, China, after a collision with a J-8 fighter, is released.North AmericaAsia
46. 2001The Australia national men's soccer team sets a world record for the largest victory in an international association football match, winning the game 31–0 against American Samoa at the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifiers for OFC. Australia's Archie Thompson also breaks the record for most goals scored by a player in an international match by scoring 13 goals.Oceania
47. 2002Over two hundred thousand people march in Caracas towards the presidential palace to demand the resignation of President Hugo Chávez. Nineteen protesters are killed.Latin America
48. 2002The Ghriba synagogue bombing by al-Qaeda kills 21 in Tunisia.Africa
49. 2006Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces Iran's claim to have successfully enriched uranium.Middle East
50. 2007Algiers bombings: Two bombings in Algiers kill 33 people and wound a further 222 others.Africa
51. 2008Kata Air Transport Flight 007 crashes while attempting an emergency landing at Chișinău International Airport, killing eight.Europe
52. 2011An explosion in the Minsk Metro, Belarus, kills 15 people and injures 204 others.Europe
53. 2012A pair of great earthquakes occur in the Wharton Basin west of Sumatra in Indonesia. The maximum Mercalli intensity of this strike-slip doublet earthquake is VII (Very strong). Ten are killed, twelve are injured, and a non-destructive tsunami is observed on the island of Nias.Asia
54. 2017The tour bus of the German football team Borussia Dortmund is attacked with roadside bombs in Dortmund, Germany. Three bombs exploded as the bus ferried the team to the Westfalenstadion for the first leg of their quarter-final against Monaco.Europe
55. 2018An Ilyushin Il-76 owned and operated by the Algerian Air Force crashes near Boufarik, Algeria, killing 257.Africa
56. 2021Twenty-year-old Daunte Wright is shot and killed in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, by officer Kimberly Potter, sparking protests in the city, when the officer mistakes her pistol for her taser.North America
57. 2023During the Pazigyi massacre, an airstrike conducted by the Myanmar Air Force kills at least 100 villagers in Pazigyi, Sagaing Region.Asia

Source: Wikipedia "April 11" / CC BY-SA 4.0