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 300-1899 330 - Byzantium is renamed Constantinople during a dedication ceremony. 1502 - Christopher Columbus leaves for his fourth and final voyage to the West Indies. 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 John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons, London. 1818 - Charles XIV of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Sweden. 1857 - Indian Mutiny: Indian rebels 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. 1900-1999 1910 - An act of the United States Congress establishes Glacier National Park in Montana. 1911 - The United States becomes a member of the Buenos Aires Convention, a copyright treaty. 1927 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the "Academy" in "Academy Awards," is founded. 1928 - The first analog TV service is inaugurated by WGY, Schenectady, New York. 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 in North America. 1942 - William Faulkner's collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, is published. 1943 - World War II: American troops invade Attu in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces. 1944 - World War II: The Allies start a major offensive against the Axis Powers Gustav Line. 1949 - Siam changes its name to Thailand. 1949 - Israel joins the United Nations. 1953 - The Waco Tornado: An F5 tornado hit in the downtown section of Waco, Texas killing 114. 1960 - In Buenos Aires four Israeli Mossad agents abduct fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann who was using the assumed name Ricardo Klement. 1960 - The first contraceptive pill is made available on the market. 1969 - Vietnam War: Operation Apache Snow - Near the Laos border, American and South Vietnamese forces fight North Vietnamese troops for Ap Bia Mountain (aka Hill 937 or "Hamburger Hill"). 1973 - Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg has his charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times dismissed. 1976 - The last episode of the TV medical drama Marcus Welby, M.D. is aired. 1984 - A transit of Earth from Mars takes place; no one is there to observe it. 1985 - 56 spectators die when a flash fire strikes a football ground during a match in Bradford, England. 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 supercomputer 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). 2000-2099 2004 - The Stockline Plastics factory explosion in Glasgow kills nine people. Births 1500-1899 1571 - Niwa Nagashige, Japanese daimyo and retainer (d. 1637) 1720 - Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, officer and adventurer (d. 1797) 1752 - Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist (d. 1840) 1763 - János Bacsanyi, Hungarian poet (d. 1845) 1801 - Henri Labrouste, architect (d. 1875) 1871 - Stjepan Radic, Croat politician (d. 1928) 1887 - Paul Wittgenstein, pianist (d. 1961) 1888 - Irving Berlin, composer (d. 1989) 1892 - Margaret Rutherford, actress (d. 1972) 1894 - Martha Graham, dancer and choreographer (d. 1991) 1895 - Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher (d. 1986), 1896 - Josip Štolcer-Slavenski Croat composer (d. 1955) 1900-1999 1903 - Charlie Gehringer, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1993) 1904 - Salvador Dalí, surrealist painter: The Persistence of Memory (d. 1989) 1907 - Rose Ausänder, poet (d. 1988) 1911 - Phil Silvers, actor and comedian (d. 1985) 1913 - Robert Jungk, publicist and futurologist (d. 1994) 1916 - Camilo José Cela, writer, 1989 Nobel Prize in Literature (d. 2002) 1918 - Richard Feynman, physicist (d. 1988) 1921 - Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, politician 1928 - Mort Sahl, comedian, political commentator 1930 - Edsger Dijkstra, computer scientist (d. 2002) 1933 - Louis Farrakhan, Black Muslim leader 1938 - Carla Bley, musician and composer 1940 - Juan Downey, video artist (d. 1993) 1941 - Graham Miles, English snooker player 1941 - Eric Burdon, British rock singer ("The Animals") 1946 - Robert Jarvik, physicist and inventor 1950 - Jeremy Paxman, British journalist and author 1952 - Renaud Séchan, French composer 1952 - Mike Lupica, sports journalist 1952 - Shohreh Aghdashloo, actress 1952 - Frances Fisher, actress 1953 - Boyd Gaines, actor 1959 - Martha Quinn, MTV VJ 1963 - Natasha Richardson, actress 1964 - John Parrott, English snooker player 1966 - Christoph Schneider, drummer for Rammstein 1969 - Thomas Lanahan, TV Producer 1975 - Coby Bell, actor 1982 - Jonathan Jackson, actor 1983 - Holly Valance, actress and singer Deaths 1600-1899 1610 - Matteo Ricci, Italian Jesuit missionary (b. 1552) 1778 - William Pitt, the Elder, British Prime Minister (b. 1708) 1812 - Spencer Perceval, British Prime Minister (assassination) (b. 1762) 1871 - John Herschel, British mathematician and astronomer (b. 1792) 1848 - Tom Cribb, bare-knuckle boxer (b. 1781) 1900-1999 1916 - Max Reger, composer (b. 1873) 1920 - William Dean Howells, writer (b. 1837) 1960 - John D. Rockefeller, Jr., philanthropist (b. 1874) 1970 - Johnny Hodges, musician (b. 1906) 1973 - Lex Barker, actor (b. 1919) 1976 - Alvar Aalto, architect (b. 1898) 1981 - Bob Marley, Jamaican roots rock reggae singer and musician (b. 1945) 1985 - Chester Gould, cartoonist (Dick Tracy) (b. 1900) 1987 - Peter Tosh, musician (b. 1944) 1988 - Kim Philby, spy (b. 1912) 2000-2099 2001 - Douglas Adams, science fiction author (b. 1952) 2002 - Joseph Bonanno, Mafioso (aka Joey Bananas) (b. 1905) 2003 - Noel Redding, bassist for The Jimi Hendrix Experience Holidays and observances Roman Empire - Feast of the Lemures (See Larvae) Mother's Day - 2003, 2008, 2014 May 10 - May 12 - April 11 - June 11 -- listing of all days FAVORITE ARTICLES: History of the World    History of the United States    History of Europe    Ancient History    History    Military History    World War I    Bombing of Dresden    California    US Constitution    Frank Sinatra    Boston    Marbury v. Madison This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html You may copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license. You must provide a link to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html To view or edit this article at Wikipedia go to http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_11