October 11



Events

Up to 1900 
 1138  1138 Aleppo earthquake: A massive earthquake destroys much of Aleppo, Syria.
 1142  A peace treaty between the Jin Dynasty and Southern Song Dynasty is formally ratified when a Jin Dynasty envoy arrives at the Song court.
 1531  Huldrych Zwingli is killed in battle with the Roman Catholic cantons of Switzerland.
 1634  A flood disaster kills 15,000 people in North Friesland, Denmark and Germany.
 1649  After a 10-day siege, the English New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell storms the town of Wexford, Ireland - 2,000 Irish troops and 1,500 civilians are killed.
 1727  King George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Ansbach are crowned king and queen.
 1737  Calcutta is struck by an earthquake, killing around 300,000 people.
 1746  War of Austrian Succession: The French defeat an army consisiting of Austrians, Dutch and British troops.        
 1767  Surveying for the Mason–Dixon line, separating Maryland and Pennsylvania, is completed.
 1776  American War of Independence: In the Battle of Valcou, British forces destroy most United States Navy ships.
 1797  French Revolutionary Wars: The Royal Navy captures eleven Dutch Navy ships without any losses in the Battle of Camperdown.
 1809  Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies in mysterious circumstances.
 1833  A big demonstration at the gates of the legislature of Buenos Aires forces the ousting of governor Juan Ramon Balcarce and his replacement with Juan Jose Viamonte.
 1852  The University of Sydney, Australia is inaugurated.
 1864  Campina Grande, Brazil becomes a city.
 1890  In Washington, DC, the group Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.
 1899  The Second Boer War erupts between the United Kingdom and the Boers of Transvaal and the Orange Free State in present-day South Africa.

1901  2000 
 1906  The San Francisco school board orders Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools (different schools from White American students), sparking a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Japan.
 1910  Former President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to fly in an airplane.
 1912  First Balkan War: The Greek army liberates the city of Kozani.
 1918  The San Fermin earthquake hits Puerto Rico.
 1941  Beginning of the National Liberation War of Macedonia.
 1942  World War II: Battle of Cape Esperance - In northwest Guadalcanal, US troops intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.
 1949  Wilhelm Pieck is elected the first, and only, President of East Germany.
 1954  Frist Indochina War: The Viet Minh takes control of North Vietnam.
 1957  M.I.T. scientists calculate Sputnik's booster rocket's orbit.
 1958  NASA launches the Pioneer 1 lunar probe, which falls back to Earth and burns up.
 1963  West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, aged 87, submits his resignation.
 1968  NASA launches the Apollo 7 mission; Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham on board.
 1975  Saturday Night Live is first broadcast.
 1982  The Tudor warship Mary Rose, which sank in 1545, is salvaged near Portsmouth, England.
 1984  On board the Space Shuttle Challenger, Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a spacewalk.
 1984  An Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-54 airplane crashes into maintenance vehicles in Omsk, Siberia, killing 178 people.
 1986  Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan meet for talks in Reykjavik, Iceland.
 1987  German politician Uwe Barschel is found dead in his hotel room in Geneva, Switzerland.
 1996  A wood lorry and a school bus collide in Jogeva County, Estonia, killing 8 children.
 2000  The 100th Space Shuttle mission launches, with the Space Shuttle Discovery.

From 2001 
 2002  7 people are killed in a bomb attack on a shopping mall in Vantaa, Finland.
 2006  A small aircraft piloted by baseball player Cory Lidle crashes into a residential building (a building where people live) in New York City, killing both Lidle and his flight instructor, with 21 people being injured.
 2008  Austrian far-right politician Jörg Haider is killed in a car crash.
 2012  The UN designates this the first International Day of the Girl Child.
 2013  The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons wins the Nobel Peace Prize, the second time in a row that an organization has won the prize outright.
 2013  At least 30 people die when a boat carrying them from North Africa gets into trouble off Lampedusa, in the Mediterranean Sea, just over a week after over 300 people are killed in a similar accident there.
 2014  Charles Michel becomes Prime Minister of Belgium, replacing Elio Di Rupo.
 2019  Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1335  Taejo of Joseon, ruler of Korea (d. 1408)
 1616  Andreas Gryphius, German poet (d. 1664)
 1661  Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat (d. 1742)
 1671  King Frederick IV of Denmark (d. 1730)
 1672  Pylyp Orlyk, Ukrainian diplomat (d. 1742)
 1675  Samuel Clarke, English philosopher (d. 1729)
 1738  Arthur Phillip, British admiral, Governor of New South Wales (d. 1814)
 1739  Grigory Potemkin, Russian military leader and statesman (d. 1791)
 1755  Fausto Elhuyar, Spanish chemist (d. 1833)
 1758  Hermann Wilhelm Olbers, German physician and astronomer (d. 1840)
 1788  Simon Sechter, Austrian music teacher (d. 1867)
 1806  Alexander Karadordevic, Prince of Serbia (d. 1886)
 1814  Jean Baptiste Lamy, first Archbishop of Santa Fe (d. 1888)
 1815  Pierre Napoléon Bonaparte, Italian-born adventurer (d. 1881)
 1821  George Williams, English founder of the YMCA (d. 1905)
 1844  Henry Heinz, American food manufacturer (d. 1916)
 1846  Carlos Pellegrini, President of Argentina (d. 1906)
 1863  Louis Cyr, famous Canadian strongman (d. 1912)
 1865  Hans E. Kinck, Norwegian philologist and author (d. 1926)
 1871  Johan Oscar Smith, Norwegian religious leader (d. 1943)
 1872  Harlan F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1946)
 1872  Emily Davison, British Women's Rights activist (d. 1913)
 1876  Paul Masson, French cyclist (d. 1944)
 1879  Ernst Mally, Austrian philosopher (d. 1944)
 1881  Hans Kelsen, Austrian legal theorist
 1881  Lewis Fry Richardson, British meteorologist (d. 1953)
 1884  Friedrich Bergius, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1949)
 1884  Eleanor Roosevelt, American human rights activist, First Lady of the United States (d. 1962)
 1884  Sig Ruman, American actor (d. 1967)
 1885  François Mauriac, French writer (d. 1970)
 1885  Alfred Haar, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1933)
 1887  Willie Hoppe, American billiards champion (d. 1959)
 1891  Kim Seong-Su, Korean journalist and politician (d. 1955)
 1895  Jakov Gotovac, Croatian composer (d. 1982)
 1899  Eddie Dyer, American baseball player (d. 1964)

1901  1950 
 1902  Jayaprakash Narayan, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1979)
 1905  Jean-Marie Villot, French cardinal (d. 1979)
 1905  Fred Trump, American businessman, father of Donald Trump (d. 1999)
 1911  Juan Carlos Zabala, Argentine long-distance runner (d. 1983)
 1913  Joe Simon, American comic book artist and writer (d. 2011)
 1918  Jerome Robbins, choreographer (d. 1998)
 1919  Art Blakey, American jazz drummer (d. 1990)
 1919  Kader Firoud, Algerian footballer (d. 2005)
 1919  Jean Vander Pyl, voice of Wilma Flintstone in The Flintstones cartoon (d. 1999).
 1920  James Aloysius Hickey, American cardinal (d. 2004)
 1920  Edgar Negret, Colombian sculptor (d. 2012)
 1924  Mal Whitfield, American runner (d. 2015)
 1925  Elmore Leonard, American novelist (d. 2013)
 1926  Jean Alexander, English actress (d. 2016)
 1926  Thich Nhat Wanh, Vietnamese author, monk and poet
 1926  Neville Wran, former Premier of New South Wales (d. 2014)
 1927  Princess Joséphine Charlotte of Belgium (d. 2005)
 1927  William Perry, former United States Secretary of Defense
 1927  Jim Prior, English politician (d. 2016)
 1928  Marquis Alfonso de Portago, Grand Prix driver (d. 1957)
 1929  Curtis Amy, American saxophonist (d. 2002)
 1929  Raymond Moriyama, Canadian architect
 1929  Liselotte Pulver, Swiss actress
 1930  Ronnie Simpson, Scottish footballer (d. 2004)
 1932  Dottie West, country music singer (d. 1991)
 1936  C. Gordon Fullerton, American astronaut (d. 2013)
 1937  Bobby Charlton, English footballer
 1937  Jaan Kundla, Estonian politician
 1939  Maria Bueno, Brazilian tennis player (d. 2018)
 1940  Pouri Banayi, Iranian actress
 1942  Amitabh Bachchan, Indian actor, singer, producer, UNICEF Ambassador.
 1942  Richard Wilson, Baron Wilson of Dinton, British academic and politician
 1943  John Nettles, British actor
 1943  Ilmar Reepalu, Swedish politician
 1946  Sawao Kato, Japanese gymnast
 1946  Oba Chandler, American convicted murderer (d. 2011)
 1947  Lucas Papademos, Greek economist and former Prime Minister of Greece
 1947  Al Atkins, English singer-songwriter (Judas Priest)
 1948  Cecilia, Spanish singer (d. 1976)
 1948  Peter Turkson, Ghanaian cardinal
 1949  Daryl Hall, musician
 1950  Robert Pugh, Welsh actor

1951  1975 
 1951  Jean-Jacques Goldman, French pop singer, songwriter
 1951  Kim Ja-ok, South Korean actress (d. 2014)
 1951  Charles Shyer, American director, producer and writer
 1953  David Morse, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter
 1955  Hans-Peter Briegel, German footballer
 1956  Nicanor Duarte Frutos, former President of Paraguay
 1957  Dawn French, British comedienne
 1958  Gregory Dudek, Canadian computer scientist and academic
 1959  Allan Little, Scottish BBC correspondent
 1961  Steve Young, American football player
 1962  Joan Cusack, American actress
 1962  Andy McCoy, Finnish-Swedish singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer
 1963  Jordi Villacampa, Spanish basketball player
 1963  Prince Faisal bin Al-Hussein of Jordan
 1963  Ronny Rosenthal, Israeli footballer
 1965  Sean Patrick Flanery, American actor
 1965  Juan Ignacio Cirac, Spanish physicist
 1966  Luke Perry, American actor (d. 2019)
 1966  Todd Snider, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
 1967  Daniel Razon, Filipino TV host, singer and minister
 1968  Claude Lapointe, Canadian ice hockey player
 1969  Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands
 1969  Merieme Chadid, Moroccan astronomer
 1972  Cherokee Parks, American basketball player
 1973  Steven Pressley, Scottish footballer
 1975  Orlando Maturana, Colombian footballer

From 1976 
 1976  Emily Deschanel, American actress
 1976  Dominic Aitchison, Scottish bass player and songwriter
 1976  Raivo Kotov, Estonian architect
 1976  Claudia Black, Australian actress
 1977  Ty Wigginton, American baseball player
 1979  Bae Doona, South Korean model and actress
 1979  Andy Douglas, American professional wrestler
 1980  Juan José Ribera, Chilean footballer
 1981  Beau Brady, Australian actor
 1982  Jermaine V. Mitchell, Rap musician
 1983  Bradley James, British actor
 1983  Ruslan Ponomariov, Ukrainian chess player
 1985  Michelle Trachtenberg, actress
 1985  Alvaro Fernandez, Uruguayan footballer
 1985  Margaret Berger, Norwegian singer
 1987  Mike Conley, Jr., American basketball player
 1988  Cinthia Fernandez, Argentine acrobat-dancer, actress and model
 1988  Omar Gonzalez, American soccer player
 1988  Seamus Coleman, Irish footballer
 1989  Michelle Wie, American golfer
 1991  Jack Garratt, English singer and songwriter
 1992  Cardi B, American rapper
 1992  Emilia Bottas, Finnish swimmer
 1993  Sean Murray, Irish footballer
 2001  Daniel Maldini, Italian footballer

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 1188  Robert I, Count of Dreux (b. 1123)
 1303  Pope Boniface VIII
 1347  Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1282)
 1424  Jan Zizka, Czech general (b. 1360)
 1531  Huldrych Zwingli, Swiss Protestant leader (b. 1484)
 1705  Guillaume Amontons, French physicist and instrument maker (b. 1663)
 1708  Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus, German mathematician, physicist and physician and philosopher (d. 1651)
 1779  Casimir Pulaski, Polish fighter for American independence (b. 1745)
 1809  Meriwether Lewis, American explorer (suicide) (b. 1774)
 1811  Johann Conrad Ammann, Swiss physician and naturalist (b. 1724)
 1813  Robert Kerr, Scottish physician, writer and zoologist (b. 1757)
 1830  José de La Mar, President of Peru (b. 1778)
 1852  Ferdinand Eisenstein, mathematician (b. 1823)
 1889  James Prescott Joule, English physicist (b. 1818)
 1896  Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer (b. 1824)
 1896  Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1829)

1901  2000 
 1915  Jean-Henri Fabre, French writer, poet and naturalist (b. 1823)
 1916  King Otto of Bavaria (b. 1848)
 1940  Lluís Companys, Spanish President of Generalitat of Catalonia, (shot) (b. 1882)
 1940  Vito Volterra, Italian mathematician and physicist (b. 1860)
 1961  Chico Marx, American comedian (b. 1887)
 1963  Édith Piaf, French singer (b. 1915)
 1963  Jean Cocteau, French writer (b. 1889)
 1965  Dorothea Lange, American photographer (b. 1895)
 1965  Walther Stampfli, Swiss politician (b. 1884)
 1971  Tamanoumi Masahiro, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1944)
 1976  Alfredo Bracchi, Italian writer (b. 1897)
 1977  MacKinlay Kantor, American writer (b. 1904)
 1987  Uwe Barschel, German politician (b. 1944)
 1989  M. King Hubbert, American geophysicist (b. 1904)
 1991  Redd Foxx, American comedian and actor (b. 1902)
 1993  Jess Thomas, American tenor (b. 1927)
 1996  Lars Ahlfors, Finnish mathematician (b. 1907)
 1996  Renato Russo, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1940)
 1998  Richard Denning, American actor (b. 1914)
 2000  Donald Dewar, main writer of the Scotland Act and initial First Minister of the Scottish Parliament (b. 1937)

From 2001 
 2003  Edward Breathitt, Governor of Kentucky (b. 1924)
 2004  Keith Miller, Australian sportsman (b. 1919)
 2005  Edward Szczepanik, Polish economist and Prime Minister-in-exile (b. 1915)
 2006  Cory Lidle, American baseball player (b. 1972)
 2007  Werner von Trapp, one of the von Trapp family singers (b. 1915)
 2007  Sri Chinmoy, Indian spiritual teacher (b. 1931)
 2008  Jörg Haider, Austrian far-right politician (car crash) (b. 1950)
 2012  Helmut Haller, German footballer (b. 1939)
 2012  Edgar Negret, Colombian sculptor (b. 1920)
 2013  María de Villota, Spanish racing driver (b. 1980)
 2013  Erich Priebke, German Nazi war criminal (b. 1913)
 2014  Carmelo Simeone, Argentine footballer (b. 1933)
 2014  Tanhum Cohen-Mintz, Israeli basketball player (b. 1939)
 2015  Steve Mackay, American saxophonist (b. 1949)
 2016  Patricia Barry, American actress (b. 1922)
 2017  James R. Ford, American politician (b. 1925)
 2017  Clifford Husbands, Governor-General of Barbados (b. 1926)
 2018  Doug Ellis, English businessman (b. 1924)
 2018  Labinot Harbuzi, Swedish footballer (b. 1986)
 2018  Dieter Kemper, German cyclist (b. 1937)
 2018  Pran Nevile, Indian art historian (b. 1922)
 2018  Yoshito Sengoku, Japanese politician (b. 1946)
 2018  Hege Skjeie, Norwegian political scientist and columnist (b. 1955)
 2018  Greg Stafford, American game designer (b. 1948)
 2018  Hebe Uhart, Argentine novelist and columnist (b. 1936)
 2019  Sam Bobrick, American television writer (b. 1932)
 2019  Robert Forster, American actor (b. 1941)
 2019  John Giorno, American poet and performance artist (b. 1936)
 2019  Kadri Gopalnath, Indian saxophonist and composer (b. 1949)
 2019  Alexei Leonov, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut (b. 1934)
 2020  Hugo Arana, Argentine actor and comedian (b. 1943)
 2020  Harold Betters, American jazz trombonist (b. 1928)
 2020  Gary F. Jones, American racehorse trainer (b. 1944)
 2020  Terry McBrayer, American politician (b. 1937)
 2020  Ilya Moiseev, Russian chemist (b. 1929)
 2020  Joe Morgan, American baseball player (b. 1943)
 2020  John A. Ruthven, American wildlife artist (b. 1924)

Observances
 International Day of the Girl Child
 National Coming Out Day in some countries
 Revolution Day (Republic of Macedonia)
 Old Michaelmas (Christianity)

Days of the year