What Happened on May 11th in History
30 historical events on this date
William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth discover a route across the Blue Mountains, opening up inland Australia to settlement.
William Lawson, MLC was a British soldier, explorer, land owner, grazier and politician. In 1800, he migrated to Sydney, New South Wales, and from 1819, he served as the commandant of the Bathurst,...
Indian Rebellion of 1857: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857â58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power, including military forces, on behalf...
Minnesota becomes the 32nd U.S. state.
Minnesota is a state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin...
Hödel assassination attempt by anarchist Max Hödel targeting the German Kaiser, Wilhelm I.
The Hödel assassination attempt, or the assassination attempt on Wilhelm I of 11 May 1878, was an armed attack carried out by Max Hödel, a young German anarchist, against the Kaiser, Wilhelm I....
Seven people are killed in the Mussel Slough Tragedy, a gun battle in California.
The Mussel Slough Tragedy was a shootout over disputed land titles between settlers and the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP). It took place on May 11, 1880, on a farm located 5.6 miles (9Â km)...
An attack upon a U.S. Army paymaster and escort results in the theft of over $28,000 and the award of two Medals of Honor.
The Wham Paymaster robbery was an armed robbery of a United States Army paymaster and his escort on May 11, 1889, in the Arizona Territory. Major Joseph W. Wham was transporting a payroll consisting...
Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike.
The Pullman Strike comprised two interrelated strikes in 1894 that shaped national labor policy in the United States during a period of deep economic depression. First came a strike by the American...
Uruguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering...
In the deadliest of a series of tornadoes, an F5 tornado kills 114 in Waco, Texas.
A deadly series of at least 33 tornadoes hit at least 10 different U.S. states on May 9â11, 1953. Tornadoes appeared daily from Minnesota in the north to Texas in the south. The strongest and...
The 1970 Lubbock tornado kills 26 and causes $250Â million in damage.
During the evening hours of May 11, 1970, an extremely violent multiple-vortex tornado struck a large portion of the city of Lubbock, located in the state of Texas, United States. The incident...
Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg's charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times are dismissed.
The Pentagon Papers, officially titled Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force, is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political and...
Aeroflot Flight 6551 crashes in Semey, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (now Kazakhstan), killing all 63 aboard.
Aeroflot Flight 6551 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight on an Ilyushin Il-18B from Baku to Novosibirsk with a stopover in Tashkent that crashed on 11 May 1973 over Semipalatinsk in the Kazakh...
Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in the Bradford City stadium fire.
The Bradford City stadium fire occurred during a Football League Third Division match on Saturday 11 May 1985 at the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, killing 56 spectators...
Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.
Niklaus Barbie was a German officer of the Schutzstaffel and Sicherheitsdienst who worked in Vichy France during World War II. He became known as the "Butcher of Lyon" for having personally tortured...
After the aircraft's departure from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled chemical oxygen generators in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board.
ValuJet Flight 592 was a regularly scheduled flight from Miami to Atlanta in the United States. On May 11, 1996, the ValuJet Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9 operating the route crashed into the...
Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.
Deep Blue was a customized IBM RS/6000 SP supercomputer for chess-playing designed by computer scientist Feng-hsiung Hsu. It was the first computer to win a game, and the first to win a match,...
India conducts three underground atomic tests in Pokhran.
Pokhran-II was a series of five nuclear weapon tests conducted by India in May 1998. The bombs were detonated at the Indian Army's Pokhran Test Range in Rajasthan. It was the second instance of...
Second Chechen War: Chechen separatists ambush Russian paramilitary forces in the Republic of Ingushetia.
The Second Chechen War took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russian Federation and the breakaway Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from August 1999 to April...
An American soldier in Iraq opens fire on a counseling center at Camp Liberty in Baghdad, killing five other US soldiers and wounding three.
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. Located within the Middle East, it is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf...
Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on the final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle which belongs to NASA, the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. Atlantis was manufactured by the Rockwell...
David Cameron takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats form the country's first coalition government since the Second World War.
David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton, is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition...
An earthquake of magnitude 5.1 hits Lorca, Spain.
The 2011 Lorca earthquake was a moderate 5.1 Mw earthquake that occurred 18:47 CEST on 11 May 2011, near the town of Lorca, causing significant localized damage in the Region of Murcia, Spain, and...
The Istanbul Convention is signed in Istanbul, Turkey.
The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, is a human rights treaty of the Council of Europe...
Fifty-two people are killed in a bombing in Reyhanlı, Turkey.
The 2013 Reyhanlı car bombings took place on 11 May 2013, when two car bombs exploded in the Turkish town of Reyhanlı, a town of 64,000 people, 5 km from the Syrian border and the busiest land...
Fifteen people are killed and 46 injured in Kinshasa, DRC, in a stampede caused by tear gas being thrown into soccer stands by police officers.
Kinshasa, formerly named LĂ©opoldville from 1881 to 1966, is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kinshasa is one of the world's fastest-growing megacities, with an...
One hundred and ten people are killed in an ISIL bombing in Baghdad.
In May 2016, the Islamic State conducted a series of bombing attacks in and around Shia neighbourhoods in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, killing and wounding hundreds. According to IS, attacks were...
The Burmese military executes at least 37 villagers during the Mon Taing Pin massacre in Sagaing, Myanmar.
The Tatmadaw, also known as the Sit-Tat, is the armed forces of Myanmar. It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force....
Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is killed while covering a raid in Jenin. Israel eventually admitted and apologized for the murder, after initial denials.
Shireen Abu Akleh was a prominent Palestinian-American journalist who worked as a reporter for 25 years for Al Jazeera, before she was killed by Israeli forces while wearing a blue press vest and...
Start/Middle of the May 2024 Solar Storms, the most powerful set of geomagnetic storms since the 2003 Halloween solar storms.
The solar storms of May 2024 were a series of powerful solar storms with extreme solar flares and geomagnetic storm components that occurred from 10 to 13 May 2024 during solar cycle 25. They are...
The 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is held in Malmö, Sweden. Nemo from Switzerland win with their song "The Code", making them the contest's first non-binary winner.
The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was the 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted of two semi-finals on 7 and 9 May and a final on 11 May 2024, held at the Malmö Arena in Malmö,...