December 11

Events
Up to 1900
220 - China: Cao Pi forces Emperor Xian of Han to abdicate the Han Dynasty throne. The Cao Wei Empire is created.
361 - Julian the Apostate enters Constantinople as the sole Emperor of the Roman Empire.
630 - The Prophet Muhammad leads an army of 10,000 to conquer Mecca.
969 - Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas is murdered by his wife Theophano and her lover, later-Emperor John I Tzimiskos.
1282 - Llywelyn the Last, the last native-born Prince of Wales, is killed at Cilmeri, near Bulith Wells, South Wales.
1602 - A surprise attack by forces under the command of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and his brother-in-law, Philip III of Spain, is repelled by the citizens of Geneva.
1792 - Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by the National Convention.
1816 - Indiana becomes the 16th State of the US.
1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Fredericksburg begins.
1868 - Brazil defeats Paraguay at the Battle of Avay during the Paraguayan War.
1872 - King Kamehameha V of Hawaii dies on his 42nd birthday, ending the line of the Kamehamehas. His cousin, William Charles Lunalilo, succeeds him as King.
1901 2000
1905 - A workers' uprising occurs in Kiev, present-day Ukraine, then a part of the Russian Empire, and creates the Shuliavka Republic.
1907 - The New Zealand Parliament buildings are almost completely destroyed by fire.
1917 - British General Edmund Allenby enters Jerusalem on foot and declares martial law.
1920 - Irish War of Independence: In retaliation for an IRA ambush, British forces burn and loot numerous buildings in the city of Cork. There were reports from civilians of beatings, shootings and verbal abuse by the forces.
1927 - Guangzhou Uprising: Communist militia and worker red guards launch an uprising in the city of Guangzhou, taking over most of the city and announcing the formation of the Guangzhou Soviet.
1931 - The British Parliament enacts the Statute of Westminster, establishing legislative equality between the self-governing Dominions of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland and the Union of South Africa.
1934 - Bill W., co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last alcoholic drink and enters treatment for the last time.
1936 - United Kingdom: Edward VIII abdicates (resigns) the throne in order to marry his love, Wallis Warfield Simpson, making George VI King.
1937 - Italy leaves the League of Nations.
1941 - World War II: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The US, in turn, declares war on Germany and Italy.
1941 - World War II: Poland declares war on the Empire of Japan.
1946 - UNICEF is established.
1958 - French Upper Volta and French Dahomey, in western Africa, gain self-government from France, becoming the Republic of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) and the Republic of Dahomey (now Benin) respectively.
1960 - French forces crack down in a violent clash with protestors in then-French Algeria during a visit by Charles de Gaulle.
1961 - Adolf Eichmann is found guilty of Crimes Against Humanity at his trial in Jerusalem, Israel. He is sentenced to death on December 15 and executed on May 31 of the following year.
1962 - Arthur Lucas becomes the last person to be executed in Canada.
1964 - Che Guevara speaks to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
1972 - Apollo 17 becomes the last manned mission to land on the Moon.
1978 - The Lufthansa heist carried out at JFK International Airport near New York City by an associate of the Lucchese Crime Family, James Burke. At least $5 million in cash (17.9 million) and $875,000 ($3.1 million) worth of jewels are stolen.
1981 - Armed forces in El Salvador, kill around 900 civilians, in an anti-guerrilla campaign.
1990 - Demonstrations by workers and students across Albania begin. This eventually leads to the end of Communist rule in Albania and an end to the country's diplomatic isolation.
1993 - 48 people are killed when a block of the Highland Towers collapses in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1994 - Boris Yeltsin orders Russian troops into Chechnya.
1994 - A bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434 from Manila to Tokyo, killing 1 person. The pilot is able to safely land the plane safely.
1995 - Lithuania applies to join the EU.
1997 - The Kyoto protocol is opened for signature.
1998 - Thai Airways Flight 261 crashes near Surat Thani Airport, killing 101 people.
1999 - Turkey applies to join the EU.
From 2001
2001 - The People's Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization.
2005 - Riots against Lebanese youths happen in Cronulla, a suburb of Sydney, Australia
2005 - The Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, catches fire.
2006 - The Mexican Drug War begins.
2007 - Two car bombs explode at the Constitutional building and UN office in Algiers, Algeria, killing around 45 people.
2008 - Bernard Madoff is arrested on fraud charges.
2010 - Two bombs explode in central Stockholm, killing 1, and injuring 2.
2012 - At least 125 people are killed and up to 200 injured in bombings in the Alawite village in Agrab, Syria.
2016 - St. Mark's Coptic Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt, is bombed, killing at least 25 people.
2016 - President of Italy Sergio Mattarella nominates Paolo Gentiloni to form a government, after the resignation of Matteo Renzi.
2019 - Test cricket is played in Pakistan for the first time since 2009, when the Sri Lankan national team was attacked there.
2019 - The Autonomous Region of Bougainville is revealed to have voted, by a big majority, in favour of independence from Papua New Guinea.
2019 - Time Magazine names climate change activist Greta Thunberg as its Person of the Year; she is the youngest person to be named as such, being almost 17 years old at the time of the announcement.
Births
Up to 1900
1465 - Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Japanese shogun (d. 1489)
1475 - Pope Leo X (d. 1521)
1566 - Manuel Cardoso, Portuguese composer (d. 1650)
1709 - Louise Elisabeth d'Orleans, French consort of King Louis I of Spain (d. 1742)
1712 - Francesco Algarotti, Italian philosopher (d. 1764)
1725 - George Mason, American statesman (d. 1792)
1750 - Isaac Shelby, 1st and 5th Governor of Kentucky (d. 1826)
1758 - Carl Friedrich Zelter, German composer, conductor and educator (d. 1832)
1761 - Gian Domenico Romagnosi, Italian physicist (d. 1835)
1764 - Sir John Gladstone, 1st Baronet, Scottish merchant, slave owner and politician (d. 1851)
1781 - David Brewster, Scottish physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor and writer (d. 1868)
1792 - Joseph Mohr, Austrian composer (d. 1848)
1801 - Christian Dietrich Grabbe, German playwright (d. 1836)
1803 - Hector Berlioz, French composer (d. 1869)
1810 - Alfred de Musset, French dramatist, poet and novelist (d. 1857)
1830 - Kamehameha V, King of Hawai'i (d. 1872)
1843 - Robert Koch, German doctor, won the 1905 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1910)
1856 - Georgi Plekhanov, Russian revolutionary and theoretician (d. 1918)
1858 - Vladimir Nemirovich Danchenko, Russian playwright, director and producer (d. 1943)
1863 - Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer (d. 1941)
1867 - Antonio Conte, Italian fencer (d. 1953)
1873 - Josip Plemelj, Slovenian mathematician (d. 1967)
1882 - Max Born, German physicist (d. 1970)
1882 - Fiorello La Guardia, 99th Mayor of New York City (d. 1947)
1883 - Victor McLaglen, British actor (d. 1959)
1890 - Carlos Gardel, French-Argentine singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1935)
1890 - Mark Tobey, American painter (d. 1976)
1899 - Julio de Caro, Argentine composer, musician and conductor (d. 1980)
1901 1925
1901 - Dave Halliday, Scottish footballer (d. 1970)
1905 - Erskine Hamilton Childers, 4th President of Ireland (d. 1974)
1905 - Gilbert Roland, American actor (d. 1984)
1906 - Pietro Serantoni, Italian footballer (d. 1964)
1908 - Elliott Carter, American composer (d. 2012)
1908 - Hakun Djurhuus, Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 1987)
1908 - Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese director (d. 2015)
1908 - Carlos Arias Navarro, Spanish politician (d. 1989)
1908 - Amon Goeth, German SS officer and war criminal (d. 1946)
1910 - Noel Rosa, Brazilian singer, songwriter and guitarist (d. 1937)
1911 - Qian Xuesen, Chinese scientist (d. 2009)
1911 - Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian writer (d. 2006)
1912 - Carlo Ponti, Italian movie producer (d. 2007)
1913 - Jean Marais, French actor (d. 1998)
1916 - Perez Prado, Cuban-Mexican singer, pianist, composer and bandleader (d. 1989)
1918 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer (d. 2008)
1919 - Marie Windsor, American actress (d. 2000)
1919 - Cliff Michelmore, British television presenter (d. 2016)
1921 - Liz Smith, British actress (d. 2016)
1921 - Maila Nurmi, Finnish-American actress (d. 2008)
1921 - Pierre Bec, French Occitan language linguist, philologist and poet (d. 2014)
1923 - Betsy Blair, American actress (d. 2009)
1925 - Paul Greengard, American neuroscientist (d. 2019)
1925 - Patrick Reyntiens, English stained glass artist
1926 1950
1926 - Big Mama Thornton, American blues singer (d. 1984)
1927 - John Buscema, American comic artist (d. 2002)
1927 - Stein Eriksen, Norwegian skier (d. 2015)
1929 - Kenneth MacMillan, Scottish dancer and choreographer (d. 1992)
1930 - Jean-Louis Trintignant, French actor
1930 - Chus Lampreave, Spanish actress (d. 2016)
1931 - Rita Moreno, Puerto Rican singer and actress
1931 - Ronald Dworkin, American philosopher and scholar (d. 2013)
1931 - Pierre Pilote, Canadian ice hockey player
1931 - Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Indian philosopher and spiritual leader (d. 1990)
1932 - Enrique Bermudez, Nicaraguan army officer, founder of the Contras (d. 1991)
1932 - Anne Heywood, English actress
1933 - Aquilino Pimentel, Jr., politician from the Philippines
1935 - Pranab Mukherjee, former President of India
1935 - Ron Carey, American actor (d. 2002)
1936 - Hans van den Broek, French-Dutch politician
1938 - Enrico Macias, Algerian-French singer
1938 - McCoy Tyner, American jazz pianist
1939 - Tom Hayden, American politician and activist (d. 2016)
1940 - Donna Mills, American actress
1941 - Max Baucus, United States Senator from Montana
1941 - Rogier van Otterloo, Dutch conductor and composer (d. 1988)
1941 - J. P. Parise, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2015)
1942 - Anna Carteret, British actress
1942 - Derek Parfit, British philosopher (d. 2017)
1943 - John Kerry, 68th United States Secretary of State
1944 - Teri Garr, American actress and dancer
1944 - Lynda Day George, American television and movie actress
1944 - Brenda Lee, American singer
1944 - Juan E. Mendez, American human rights activist
1946 - Rhoma Irama, Indonesian singer-songwriter
1947 - David E. Stone, American sound editor
1950 - Christina Onassis, American-Greek heiress and shopping magnate (d. 1988)
1951 1975
1951 - Spike Edney, British musician
1951 - Ria Stalman, Dutch athlete
1952 - Andrea de Carlo, Italian writer
1952 - Susan Seidelman, American movie director
1953 - Bess Armstrong, American actress
1954 - Jermaine Jackson, American singer
1954 - Brad Bryant, American golfer
1954 - Santiago Creel, Mexican politician
1956 - Andrew Lansley, British politician
1957 - Antonio Napolioni, Italian bishop
1958 - Nikki Sixx, American musician (Motley Crue)
1958 - Chris Hughton, English-Irish footballer and manager
1958 - Isabella Hofmann, American actress
1960 - Rachel Ritman, English composer
1961 - Macky Sall, President of Senegal
1961 - Ingo Appelt, Austrian bobsledder and politician
1961 - Marco Pierre White, English chef and TV personality
1962 - Denise Biellmann, Swiss figure skater
1963 - Mario Been, Dutch footballer
1963 - John Lammers, Dutch footballer
1963 - Jon Brion, American singer-songwriter, composer and producer
1963 - Nigel Winterburn, English footballer
1964 - Michel Courtemanche, French Canadian comedian
1964 - Franco Ballerini, Italian road racing cyclist (d. 2010)
1966 - Goran Kropp, Swedish mountaineer (d. 2002)
1966 - Gary Dourdan, American actor
1967 - Mo'Nique, American comedienne and actress
1967 - Michaela Tabb, English snooker referee
1968 - Fabrizio Ravanelli, Italian footballer
1969 - Viswanathan Anand, Indian chess player and world champion
1969 - Max Martini, American actor
1969 - Alessandro Melli, Italian footballer
1970 - Victoria Fuller, American model, artist and actress
1972 - Andriy Husin, Ukrainian footballer (d. 2014)
1972 - Sami Al-Jaber, Saudi footballer
1972 - Daniel Alfredsson, Swedish ice hockey player
1973 - Mos Def, American musician and actor
1974 - Rey Mysterio, Mexican-American professional wrestler
1974 - Ben Shephard, English journalist and TV host
From 1976
1976 - Shareef Abdur-Rahim, American basketball player
1979 - Rider Strong, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter
1981 - Nicki Benz, Ukrainian-German model and pornographic actress
1981 - Javier Saviola, Argentine footballer
1981 - Mohamed Zidan, Egyptian footballer
1981 - Zacky Vengeance, American musician (Avenged Sevenfold)
1984 - Leighton Baines, English footballer
1985 - Mario Gjurovski, Macedonian footballer
1985 - Aiko Kayo, Japanese singer and voice actress
1985 - Anja Prislan, Slovenian tennis player
1986 - Roy Hibbert, American basketball player
1987 - Natalia Gordienko, Moldovan dancer and singer
1988 - Ashley Hinshaw, American actress and model
1991 - Anna Bergendahl, Swedish singer
1992 - Tiffany Alvord, American singer
1992 - Gen Shoji, Japanese footballer
1993 - Yalitza Aparicio, Mexican actress
1996 - Hailee Steinfeld, American actress and singer
Deaths
Up to 1900
384 - Pope Damasus I
969 - Nikephoros II Phokas, Byzantine Emperor (b. 912)
1198 - Averroes, Spanish-Arab philosopher (b. 1126)
1241 - Emperor Ogedei of Japan
1282 - Prince Llywelyn the Last of Wales
1282 - Michael VIII Palaiologus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1225)
1474 - Henry IV of Castile
1532 - Pietro Accotti, Italian cardinal (b. 1455)
1582 - Pedro Alvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, Spanish general and politician (b. 1508)
1694 - Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma (b. 1630)
1797 - Richard Brocklesby, English physician (b. 1722)
1826 - Maria Leopoldina of Austria (b. 1797)
1840 - Emperor Kokaku of Japan (b. 1771)
1872 - Kamehameha V, King of Hawai'i (b. 1830)
1901 2000
1906 - Charles Townsend, American fencer (b. 1872)
1909 - Innokenty Annensky, Russian poet (b. 1855)
1918 - Ivan Cankar, Slovenian author, poet and playwright (b. 1876)
1937 - Jaan Anvelt, Soviet-Estonian Communist, revolutionary and writer (b. 1884)
1938 - Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian pacifist (b. 1869)
1941 - John Gillespie Magee, Jr., American pilot and poet (b. 1922)
1941 - Emile Picard, French mathematician (b. 1856)
1945 - Charles Fabry, French actress and dancer (b. 1867)
1950 - Leslie Comrie, New Zealand astronomer (b. 1893)
1957 - Musidora, French actress and movie director (b. 1889)
1959 - Jim Bottomley, American baseball player (b. 1900)
1964 - Sam Kilbride, American actor (b. 1888)
1964 - Alma Mahler, wife of Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius and Franz Werfel (b. 1879)
1964 - Percy Kilbride, American actor (b. 1888)
1968 - Arthur Hays Sulzberger, American publisher (b. 1891)
1971 - Maurice McDonald, American businessman (b. 1902)
1978 - Vincent de Vigneaud, American chemist (b. 1901)
1989 - Louise Dahl-Wolfe, American photographer (b. 1895)
1992 - Michael Robbins, English actor (b. 1930)
1993 - Raymond D. Gary, American politician, 15th Governor of Oklahoma (b. 1908)
1993 - Paul Mebus, German footballer (b. 1920)
1996 - Willie Rushton, British cartoonist, author and publisher (b. 1937)
1997 - Eddie Chapman, British World War II spy (b. 1914)
1998 - Max Streibl, German politician (b. 1932)
From 2001
2001 - Mainza Chona, 1st Prime Minister of Zambia (b. 1930)
2004 - Arthur Lydiard, New Zealand runner and coach (b. 1917)
2006 - Elizabeth Bolden, American supercentenarian (b. 1890)
2008 - Bettie Page, American model (b. 1923)
2008 - Ali Alatas, Indonesian politician (b. 1932)
2011 - John Patrick Foley, American cardinal (b. 1935)
2012 - Galina Vishnevskaya, Russian operatic soprano (b. 1926)
2012 - Ravi Shankar, Indian sitarist (b. 1920)
2013 - Nadir Afonso, Portuguese painter (b. 1920)
2013 - Barbara Branden, American writer (b. 1929)
2014 - Tom Adams, English actor (b. 1938)
2014 - Giorgio Ardisson, Italian actor (b. 1931)
2015 - H. Arnold Steinberg, Canadian business and education administrator (b. 1933)
2017 - Keith Chegwin, English television presenter and actor (b. 1957)
2017 - Aline Griffith, Dowager Countess of Romanones, American-Spanish aristocrat, socialite and writer (b. 1923)
2017 - Charles Robert Jenkins, American soldier (b. 1940)
2017 - Vera Katz, German-born American politician, former Mayor of Portland, Oregon (b. 1933)
2017 - Suzanna Leigh, British actress (b. 1945)
2017 - Walter Mafli, Swiss painter (b. 1915)
2018 - Winifred Griffin, New Zealand swimmer (b. 1932)
2018 - Hiwi Tauroa, New Zealand rugby union player (b. 1927)
2019 - David Bellamy, English naturalist and writer (b. 1933)
2019 - James McCarthy, American oceanographer (b. 1944)
Observances
Republic Day (Burkina Faso)
Indiana Day
International Mountain Day
Human Rights and Peace Day (Kiribati)
National Tango Day (Argentina)
Days of the year