February 11

Events

• 660 BC – Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu.
• AD 55 – Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman emperorship, dies under mysterious circumstances in Rome. This clears the way for Nero to become Emperor.
• 244 – Emperor Gordian III is murdered by mutinous soldiers in Zaitha (Mesopotamia). A mound is raised at Carchemish in his memory.
• 1177 – John de Courcy's army defeats the native Dunleavey Clan in Ulster. The English establish themselves in Ulster.
• 1534 – Henry VIII of England is recognized as supreme head of the Church of England.
• 1626 – Emperor Susenyos I of Ethiopia and Patriarch Afonso Mendes declare the primacy of the Roman See over the Ethiopian Church, and Catholicism to be the state religion of Ethiopia.
• 1659 – The assault on Copenhagen by Swedish forces is beaten back with heavy losses.
• 1790 – The Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, petitions U.S. Congress for the abolition of slavery.
• 1794 – First session of United States Senate opens to the public.
• 1808 – Jesse Fell burns anthracite on an open grate as an experiment in heating homes with coal.
• 1812 – Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry is accused of "gerrymandering" for the first time.
• 1823 – Carnival tragedy of 1823: About 110 boys are killed during a stampede at the Convent of the Minori Osservanti in Valletta, Malta.
• 1826 – University College London is founded as University of London.
• 1840 – Gaetano Donizetti's opera La fille du régiment receives its first performance in Paris, France.
• 1843 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera I Lombardi alla prima crociata receives its first performance in Milan, Italy.
• 1855 – Kassa Hailu is crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia, by Abuna Salama III in a ceremony at the church of Derasge Maryam.
• 1856 – The Kingdom of Awadh is annexed by the British East India Company and Wajid Ali Shah, the king of Awadh, is imprisoned and later exiled to Calcutta.
• 1858 – Bernadette Soubirous's first vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France.
• 1861 – American Civil War: The United States House of Representatives unanimously passes a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.
• 1873 – King Amadeo I of Spain abdicates.
• 1889 – Meiji Constitution of Japan is adopted; the first National Diet convenes in 1890.
• 1903 – Anton Bruckner's 9th Symphony receives its first performance in Vienna, Austria.
• 1906 – Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer Nos.
• 1919 – Friedrich Ebert (SPD), is elected President of Germany.
• 1929 – Kingdom of Italy and the Vatican sign the Lateran Treaty.
• 1937 – The Flint sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Auto Workers trade union.
• 1938 – BBC Television produces the world's first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Čapek play R.U.R., that coined the term "robot".
• 1939 – A Lockheed P-38 Lightning flies from California to New York in seven hours two minutes.
• 1942 – World War II: The Battle of Bukit Timah is fought in Singapore.
• 1943 – World War II: General Dwight D. Eisenhower is selected to command the allied armies in Europe.
• 1953 – Cold War: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower denies all appeals for clemency for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
• 1953 – The Soviet Union breaks off diplomatic relations with Israel.
• 1959 – The Federation of Arab Emirates of the South, which will later become South Yemen, is created as a protectorate of the United Kingdom.
• 1964 – Greeks and Turks begin fighting in Limassol, Cyprus.
• 1971 – Cold War: Eighty-seven countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union, sign the Seabed Arms Control Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor in international waters.
• 1973 – Vietnam War: First release of American prisoners of war from Vietnam takes place.
• 1978 – Censorship: China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.
• 1979 – The Iranian Revolution establishes an Islamic theocracy under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
• 1981 – Around 100,000 US gallons (380 m³) of radioactive coolant leak into the containment building of TVA Sequoyah 1 nuclear plant in Tennessee, contaminating eight workers.
• 1990 – Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison outside Cape Town, South Africa after 27 years as a political prisoner.
• 1990 – Buster Douglas, a 42:1 underdog, knocks out Mike Tyson in ten rounds at Tokyo to win boxing's world Heavyweight title.
• 1997 – Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
• 1999 – Pluto crosses Neptune's orbit, ending a nearly 20-year period (since 1979) when it was closer to the Sun than the gas giant; Pluto is not expected to interact with Neptune's orbit for another 228 years.
• 2001 – A Dutch programmer launched the Anna Kournikova virus infecting millions of emails via a trick photo of the tennis star.
• 2006 – U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney shot Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old Texas attorney, while participating in a quail hunt on a ranch in Riviera, Texas.
• 2008 – Rebel East Timorese soldiers seriously wound President José Ramos-Horta. Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado is killed in the attack.
• 2011 – Arab Spring: The first wave of the Egyptian revolution culminates in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and the transfer of power to the Supreme Military Council after 18 days of protests.
• 2013 – The Vatican confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI would resign the papacy on 28 February 2013, as a result of his advanced age.
• 2014 – A military transport plane crashes in a mountainous area of Oum El Bouaghi Province in eastern Algeria, killing 77 people.
• 2015 – A university student was murdered as she resisted an attempted rape in Turkey, sparking nationwide protests and public outcry against harassment and violence against women.
• 2016 – A man shoots six people dead at an education center in Jizan Province, Saudi Arabia.
• 2017 – North Korea test fires a ballistic missile across the Sea of Japan.
• 2018 – Saratov Airlines Flight 703 crashes near Moscow, Russia. All 71 people on board die.