May 11

May 11 is the 131st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (132nd in leap
years). There are 234 days remaining.

Events

   * 330 - Byzantium is renamed Constantinople during a dedication ceremony.
   * 1745 - War of Austrian Succession: Battle of Fontenoy - At Fontenoy,
     French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army.
   * 1792 - Captain Robert Gray becomes the first white man to discover the
     Columbia River.
   * 1812 - Prime Minster Spencer Perceval is assassinated by a bankrupt
     banker in the lobby of the British House of Commons .
   * 1857 - Indian Mutiny: Indian rebel seize Delhi from the British.
   * 1858 - Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state.
   * 1862 - American Civil War: The ironclad CSS Virginia is scuttled in the
     James River northwest of Norfolk, Virginia.
   * 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Yellow Tavern - Confederate
     General JEB Stuart is mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, Virginia.
   * 1894 - Pullman Strike: Three thousand Pullman Palace Car Company
     workers go on a "wildcat" (without Union approval) strike in Illinois.
   * 1910 - An act of the United States Congress establishes Glacier
     National Park in Montana.
   * 1927 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the "Academy"
     in "Academy Awards," is founded.
   * 1934 - Dust Bowl: A strong two-day dust storm removes massive amounts
     of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst dust storms of the Dust
     Bowl.
   * 1943 - World War II: American troops invade Attu in the Aleutian
     Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
   * 1949 - Siam changes its name to Thailand.
   * 1960 - In Buenos Aires four Mossad agents abduct fugitive Nazi Adolf
     Eichmann who was using the assumed name "Ricardo Klement."
   * 1987 - Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed
     during World War II.
   * 1987 - The first heart-lung transplant takes place (Baltimore,
     Maryland).
   * 1995 - In New York City, more than 170 countries decide to extend the
     Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
   * 1996 - After taking-off from Miami, a fire started by
     improperly-handled oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound
     ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida
     Everglades killing all 110 on board.
   * 1997 - IBM's Deep Blue chess-playing super computer defeats Garry
     Kasparov becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess
     player.
   * 1998 - Nuclear testing: In the Rajasthan Desert, India conducts its
     first underground nuclear tests violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation
     Treaty and inflaming its rival neighbor Pakistan (who already has
     nuclear weapons).

Births

   * 1720 - Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von MŸnchhausen, officer and
     adventurer (+ 1797)
   * 1801 - Henri Labrouste, architect (+ 1875)
   * 1887 - Paul Wittgenstein, pianist (+ 1961)
   * 1888 - Irving Berlin, composer (+ 1989)
   * 1892 - Margaret Rutherford, actress (+ 1972)
   * 1894 - Martha Graham, dancer, choreographer (+ 1991)
   * 1895 - Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher (+ 1986)
   * 1896 - Mari Sandoz, writer (+ 1966)
   * 1904 - Salvador Dal’, surrealist painter: The Persistence of Memory (+
     1989)
   * 1907 - Rose AusŠnder, poet (+ 1988)
   * 1911 - Phil Silvers, actor, comedian (+ 1985)
   * 1913 - Robert Jungk, publicist and futurologist (+ 1994)
   * 1916 - Camilo JosŽ Cela, writer. Nobel Prize in Literature (+ 2002)
   * 1918 - Richard Feynman, physicist (+ 1988)
   * 1921 - Hildegard Hamm-BrŸcher, politician
   * 1928 - Mort Sahl, comedian, political commentator
   * 1933 - Louis Farrakhan, Black Muslim leader
   * 1940 - Juan Downey, video artist (+ 1993)
   * 1946 - Robert Jarvik, physicist, inventor
   * 1952 - Renaud, French composer
   * 1952 - Frances Farmer, actress
   * 1952 - Mike Lupica, sports journalist
   * 1963 - Natasha Richardson, actress

Deaths

   * 1812 - Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of Great Britain
     (assassination)
   * 1916 - Max Reger, composer
   * 1973 - Lex Barker, actor
   * 1987 - Peter Tosh, musician
   * 1981 - Bob Marley, musician
   * 1988 - Kim Philby, spy
   * 2001 - Douglas Adams, science fiction author

Holidays and observances

   * Roman Empire - Feast of the Lemures (See Larvae)

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