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This day in history

This day in history: 11 August

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Key facts

369 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 11 August.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2023: Luna 25 launches from the Vostochny Cosmodrome.

Holidays and observances

August 11 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Blessed John Sandys and Stephen Rowsham

Blessed Maurice Tornay

Clare of Assisi

Flag Day (Pakistan)

Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Chad from France in 1960

John Henry Newman (Church of England)

Mountain Day (Japan)

Events

2023Luna 25 launches from the Vostochny Cosmodrome.

2017At least 41 people are killed and another 179 injured after two passenger trains collide in Alexandria, Egypt.

2012At least 306 people are killed and 3,000 others injured in a pair of earthquakes near Tabriz, Iran.

2006The oil tanker MT Solar 1 sinks off the coast of Guimaras and Negros Islands in the Philippines, causing the country's worst oil spill.

2003Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.

2003NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.

2000An air rage incident occurs on board Southwest Airlines Flight 1763 when 19-year-old Jonathan Burton attempts to storm the cockpit, but he is subdued by other passengers and dies from his injuries.

1996The killing of Tassos Isaac by Turkish nationalists of the Grey Wolves in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.

1995The Russell Hill subway accident in Toronto kills three and injures 30, due to a combination of human error and a safety system design flaw.

1992The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota opens. At the time, it is the largest shopping mall in the United States.

1991Nickelodeon's first line of "Nicktoons" (Doug, Rugrats and Ren & Stimpy) premiere on the channel.

1988A meeting between Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, and leaders of Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Afghanistan culminates in the formation of Al-Qaeda.

1984"We begin bombing in five minutes": United States President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, jokes while preparing to make his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio.

1982A bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 830, en route from Tokyo, Japan to Honolulu, Hawaii, killing one passenger and injuring 15 others.

1979Two Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-134s collide over the Ukrainian city of Dniprodzerzhynsk and crash, killing all 178 aboard both airliners.

1975East Timor: Governor Mário Lemos Pires of Portuguese Timor abandons the capital Dili, following a coup by the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) and the outbreak of civil war between UDT and Fretilin.

1973At the 1520 Sedgwick Avenue apartment building in The Bronx, New York, DJ Kool Herc hosts a house party widely considered to mark the birthplace of hip-hop culture and music. DJ Kool Herc demonstrates a new technique of beat juggling and Co

1972Vietnam War: The last United States ground combat unit leaves South Vietnam.

1969The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine following their liftoff from the Moon.

1965Race riots (the Watts Riots) begin in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California.

1962Vostok 3 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev becomes the first person to float in microgravity.

1961The former Portuguese territories in India of Dadra and Nagar Haveli are merged to create the Union Territory Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

1960Chad declares independence from France.

1959Sheremetyevo International Airport, the second-largest airport in Russia, opens.

1952Hussein bin Talal is proclaimed King of Jordan.

1945Poles in Kraków engage in a pogrom against Jews in the city, killing one and wounding five.

1942Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones, two-way radio communications, and Wi-F

1934The first civilian prisoners arrive at the Federal prison on Alcatraz Island.

1929Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.

1920The 1920 Cork hunger strike begins which eventually results in the deaths of three Irish Republicans including the Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney.

1920The Latvian–Soviet Peace Treaty, which relinquished Russia's authority and pretenses to Latvia, is signed, ending the Latvian War of Independence.

1919Germany's Weimar Constitution is signed into law.

1918World War I: The Battle of Amiens ends.

1898Spanish–American War: American troops enter the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

1871An explosion of guncotton occurs in Stowmarket, England, killing 28.

1858The Eiger in the Bernese Alps is ascended for the first time by Charles Barrington accompanied by Christian Almer and Peter Bohren.

1813In Colombia, Juan del Corral declares the independence of Antioquia.

1812Peninsular War: French troops engage British-Portuguese forces in the Battle of Majadahonda.

1804Francis II assumes the title of first Emperor of Austria.

1786Captain Francis Light establishes the British colony of Penang in Malaysia.

Born on this day

2002Marvin Harrison Jr., American football player

2001Moyuka Uchijima, Japanese tennis player

1999Changbin, South Korean rapper

1999Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, Indonesian badminton player

1997Sarah Clelland, Scottish footballer

1995Brad Binder, South African motorcycle racer

1994Anton Cooper, New Zealand cross-country cyclist

1994Joseph Barbato, French footballer

1994Song I-han, South Korean singer

1994Storm Sanders, Australian tennis player

1993Alyson Stoner, American actor, singer, and dancer

1992Tomi Lahren, American conservative political commentator

1991Cristian Tello, Spanish footballer

1990Lenka Juríková, Slovak tennis player

1989Junior Heffernan, Irish cyclist and triathlete

1989Sebastian Huke, German footballer

1988Mustafa Pektemek, Turkish footballer

1988Patty Mills, Australian basketball player

1988Rabeh Al-Hussaini, Filipino basketball player

1987Dany N'Guessan, French footballer

1987Drew Storen, American baseball player

1986Hélène Defrance, French sailor

1986Mokhtar Benmoussa, Algerian footballer

1986Pablo Sandoval, Venezuelan baseball player

1985Asher Roth, American rapper

1985Jacqueline Fernandez, Bahraini–Sri Lankan actress

1984Lucas di Grassi, Brazilian race car driver

1984Melky Cabrera, Dominican baseball player

1984Mojtaba Abedini, Iranian Olympic fencer

1983Chris Hemsworth, Australian actor

1983Luke Lewis, Australian rugby league player

1983Pavel 183, Russian painter

1982Andy Lee, American football player

1981Daniel Poohl, Swedish journalist

1980Daniel Lloyd, English cyclist and sportscaster

1980Lee Suggs, American football player

1979Walter Ayoví, Ecuadorian footballer

1978Charlotte Leslie, British politician

1978Isy Suttie, English comedian, musician, actress, and writer

1978Lillian Nakate, Ugandan politician

Died on this day

2025Danielle Spencer, American actress

2025Miguel Uribe Turbay, Colombian precandidate to presidency

2024Ángel Salazar, Cuban-American comedian and actor

2024Noël Treanor, Irish Roman Catholic prelate

2023Mike Ahern, Australian politician, 32nd Premier of Queensland

2022Anne Heche, American actress

2022Hanae Mori, Japanese fashion designer

2020Sumner Redstone, American billionaire businessman

2020Trini Lopez, American singer and guitarist

2019Sergio Obeso Rivera, Mexican Roman Catholic cardinal

2018Terry A. Davis, American computer programmer, creator of TempleOS

2018V S Naipaul, British writer, Nobel Prize laureate

2017Segun Bucknor, Nigerian musician and journalist

2017Yisrael Kristal, Polish-Israeli supercentenarian; oldest living Holocaust survivor and one of the ten oldest men ever

2015Harald Nielsen, Danish footballer and manager

2015Richard Oriani, Salvadoran-American metallurgist and engineer

2015Serge Collot, French viola player and educator

2014Kika Szaszkiewiczowa, Polish author and blogger

2014Raymond Gravel, Canadian priest and politician

2014Robin Williams, American actor and comedian

2014Sam Hall, American diver, legislator, and mercenary

2014Vladimir Beara, Croatian footballer and manager

2013David Howard, English ballet dancer and educator

2013Raymond Delisle, French cyclist

2013Zafar Futehally, Indian ornithologist and author

2012Lucy Gallardo, Argentinian-Mexican actress and screenwriter

2012Michael Dokes, American boxer

2012Red Bastien, American wrestler, trainer, and promoter

2012Sid Waddell, British Sports commentator, television presenter, producer, writer & director

2010James Mourilyan Tanner, British paediatric endocrinologist

Quote of the day

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”

Epictetus

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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