What Happened on February 11th in History
30 historical events on this date
The Flint sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Auto Workers trade union.
The 1936â1937 Flint sit-down strike, also known as the General Motors sit-down strike, or the great GM sit-down strike, was a sitdown strike at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, United...
BBC Television produces the world's first ever science fiction television programme, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Äapek play R.U.R. that coined the term "robot".
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream...
World War II: Second day of the Battle of Bukit Timah is fought in Singapore.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
The New Testament of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the first significant challenge to the Authorized King James Version, is published.
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events relating to first-century Christianity. The New...
Cold War: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower denies all appeals for clemency for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist...
Israeli-Soviet relations are severed.
The State of Israel is represented in the Russian Federation through an embassy in Moscow and a consulate-general in Saint Petersburg. Russia is represented in Israel through an embassy in Tel Aviv...
The Federation of Arab Emirates of the South is created as a protectorate of the United Kingdom.
The Federation of the Emirates of South Arabia was an organization of states within the British Aden Protectorate in what would become South Yemen. The Federation of six states was inaugurated in...
The Beatles record their first album, Please Please Me.
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band in...
Japan launches Ohsumi, becoming the fourth nation to put an object into orbit using its own booster.
The Ohsumi satellite, Japanâs first artificial satellite, was launched on February 11, 1970, at 04:25 UTC by the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science (ISAS) from the Kagoshima Space Center,...
Cold War: The Seabed Arms Control Treaty opens for signature, outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor in international waters.
The Seabed Arms Control Treaty is a multilateral agreement between the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and 91 other countries banning the emplacement of nuclear weapons or "weapons of...
Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314 crashes at the Cranbrook/Canadian Rockies International Airport in Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada with 42 deaths and seven survivors.
On 11 February 1978, Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314, a Boeing 737-200, crashed at Cranbrook/Canadian Rockies International Airport, near Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada, killing 43 of the...
The Iranian Revolution establishes an Islamic theocracy under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolution, culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Imperial State of Iran by the...
Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison outside Cape Town, South Africa after 27 years as a political prisoner.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid activist, statesman, and revolutionary who was the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first Black...
Buster Douglas, a 42:1 underdog, knocks out Mike Tyson in ten rounds at Tokyo to win boxing's world Heavyweight title.
James "Buster" Douglas is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1981 and 1999. He reigned as undisputed world heavyweight champion in 1990 after defeating Mike Tyson in what is...
Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
Space Shuttle Discovery is a retired American Space Shuttle orbiter. The spaceplane was one of the orbiters from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the third of five fully operational orbiters to be...
Pluto crosses Neptune's orbit, ending a nearly 20-year period when it was closer to the Sun than the gas giant; Pluto is not expected to interact with Neptune's orbit again until 2231.
Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest...
Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-99 to conduct the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission.
Space Shuttle Endeavour is a retired orbiter from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the fifth and final operational Shuttle built. It embarked on its first mission, STS-49, in May 1992 and its 25th...
A Dutch programmer launches the Anna Kournikova virus infecting millions of emails via a trick photo of the tennis star.
The Anna Kournikova virus was a computer worm that emerged in February 2001. Disguised as an email attachment purportedly containing a picture of Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova, the worm...
Rebel East Timorese soldiers seriously wound President José Ramos-Horta. Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado is killed in the attack.
Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of...
Arab Spring: The first wave of the Egyptian revolution culminates in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and the transfer of power to the Supreme Military Council after 17 days of protests.
The Arab Spring was a series of pro-democracy anti-government protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response...
The Vatican confirms that Pope Benedict XVI will resign the papacy as a result of his advanced age.
Pope Benedict XVI was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 2005 until his resignation in 2013. Following his resignation, he chose to be known as "pope emeritus", a title...
Militants claiming to be from the Sultanate of Sulu invade Lahad Datu District, Sabah, Malaysia, beginning the Lahad Datu standoff.
The Sultanate of Sulu was a Sunni Muslim Tausƫg state that ruled the Sulu Archipelago, coastal areas of Zamboanga City, and certain portions of Palawan in today's Philippines, alongside parts of...
A military transport plane crashes in a mountainous area of Oum El Bouaghi Province in eastern Algeria, killing 77 people.
On 11 February 2014, a C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft of the Algerian Air Force, carrying 74 passengers and 4 crew members, crashed into Djebel Fertas mountain near AĂŻn Kercha, Algeria....
A university student is murdered as she resists an attempted rape in Turkey, sparking nationwide protests and public outcry against harassment and violence against women.
Ăzgecan Aslan was a Turkish university student who was murdered while resisting attempted rape on 11 February 2015 on a minibus in Mersin, Turkey. Her burnt body was discovered on 13 February. The...
The European Space Agency's Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle is launched on a Vega rocket.
The European Space Agency is a 23-member international organisation devoted to space exploration. It has its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 3,000 people globally as of 2025. ESA was...
A man shoots seven people dead at an education center in Jizan Province, Saudi Arabia.
On February 11, 2016, a gunman identified as 30-year-old teacher Abdullah Jaber Al-Malki, killed seven people and wounded one at an education office in Ad Dair, in Saudi Arabia's Jizan Province...
North Korea test fires a ballistic missile across the Sea of Japan.
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the...
Saratov Airlines Flight 703 crashes near Moscow, Russia with 71 deaths and no survivors.
Saratov Airlines Flight 703 was a domestic passenger flight from Moscow Domodedovo Airport to Orsk Airport in Russia. On 11 February 2018, the aircraft serving the flight, an Antonov An-148-100B,...
COVID-19 pandemic: The World Health Organization officially names the coronavirus outbreak as COVID-19, with the virus being designated SARS-CoV-2.
The global COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It spread to other parts of Asia and...
2024 Finnish presidential election: Alexander Stubb is elected as the 13th president of Finland.
Presidential elections were held in Finland on 28 January 2024, with a second round held on 11 February. Voters elected a president of the Republic for a six-year term. Incumbent president Sauli...