On This Day in History for August 11

Events in History

Statue of Liberty

1885 $100,000 raised in US for pedestal for Statue of Liberty

1888 California Theatre closed (now a Pac Tel Phone Store)
1896 Harvey Hubbell patents electric light bulb socket with a pull chain
1904 German-ltalian General Von Trotha defeats Herero in SW Africa
1904 The Russian fleet in the harbor of at Port Arthur is exposed to Russian guns on the hill above the harbor; Russian ships attempt escape, but most are forced back into harbor by Japanese ships

Meeting of Interest

1908 King Edward VII of Britain meets with Emperor Wilhelm of Friedrichshof, Germany; the main point of contention is the increasing size of Germany's navy

King of England Edward VII — King of England
Edward VII

1909 SOS 1st used by an American ship, Arapahoe, off Cape Hatteras, NC
1909 Warren Bardsley (136 & 130) 1st to get twin tons in a Test
1914 Jews are expelled from Mitchenick, Poland
1914 John Bray patents animation
1919 Weimar Republic begins in Germany
1920 1st peace of Riga-Soviet Union recognizes Independence of Latvia
1923 Dutch Premier de Geer resigns

1924 1st newsreel pictures of US presidential candidates were taken
1929 Persia & Iraq sign friendship treaty
1929 Russian-Chinese border fights
1933 Temperature reaches 136°F (57.8°C) at San Luis Potosi, Mexico (world record)
1934 1st federal prisoners arrive at Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay
1935 Nazi mass demonstration against German Jews
1936 Chaing Kai-shek's troops conquers Kanton
1939 Sergei Rachmaninov's last appearance in Europe
1940 38 German aircraft shot down over England
1940 German air raid on British ports Portland and Weymouth
1942 - Sept 30] SS begins exterminating 3,500 Jews in Zelov Lodz Poland
1942 999 Jews are taken from Mechelen transit camp in Belgium
1942 British aircraft carrier HMS Eagle torpedoed & sinks
1942 Lt Gen Montgomery makes landing on Gibraltar
1943 Red Army recaptures Tchukujev, at Kharkov
1943 US amphibians land at Brolo on north coast of Sicily

Event of Interest

1944 British premier Winston Churchill arrives in Italy

Soldier, Author and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill — Soldier, Author and British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill

1944 French 5th Armour division recaptures Sées

Event of Interest

1944 Klaus Barbie, Gestapo head of Lyon France leaves for Auschwitz

Gestapo Chief Klaus Barbie — Gestapo Chief
Klaus Barbie

1944 US air raid on Palembang

Event of Interest

1945 Allies refuse Japan's offer to surrender on the condition that Emperor Hirohito retains his status

Emperor of Japan Hirohito — Emperor of Japan
Hirohito

1949 1st Naples-Capri swim, 17 miles (27 km) (Giovanni Gambi)

Event of Interest

1949 Gaston Eyskens forms Belgian government

Prime Minister of Belgium Gaston Eyskens — Prime Minister of Belgium
Gaston Eyskens

1950 King Boudouin I takes oath as royal prince of Belgium

Event of Interest

1950 Ethel Rosenberg testifies before grand jury on allegations of spying for the Soviet Union

Soviet Spy Ethel Rosenberg — Soviet Spy
Ethel Rosenberg

1951 100,000 acres flooded from Mississippi River in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois
1952 Hussein Ibn Talal I, proclaimed King of Jordan
1954 Formal peace treaty ends over 7 yrs of fighting in Indochina between the French and the Communist Viet Minh
1955 Indonesia government of Harahap forms
1956 1st flight 4-motor Cessna 620
1960 Chad declares Independence from France
1962 Andrian G Nikolayev, becomes 3rd Russian in space aboard Vostok 3
1962 Bolotnikov runs world record 10km (28:18.2)
1963 Kingston Trio are mystery guest on "What's My Line?"
1963 Four ANC political detainees escape from Pretoria Central prison in South Africa
1964 Race riot in Paterson NJ
1965 6 day insurrection starts in Watts section of Los Angeles
1965 Watts riots begin in Southeast Los Angeles, lasts 6 days
1967 Al Downing becomes 12th to strike-out side on 9 pitches
1968 Fifteen Guinea Special - last main-line steam passenger train service in Britain. Selection of British Rail steam locomotives make a return 120-mile journey Liverpool to Carlisle, before having their fires dropped for the last time.

1970 Tony Perez becomes 1st to hit a HR in red seats at Riverfront
1970 Two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers are killed by the Irish Republican Army when they set off a booby trap bomb planted in a car near Crossmaglen, County Armagh
1971 Construction begins on Louisiana Superdome
1971 4 people are shot dead in separate incidents in Belfast; three of them by the British Army, as violence continues following the introduction of Internment and Operation Demetrius
1972 "Cheech & Chong Day" in San Antonio Texas
1972 Two IRA members are killed when a bomb they were transporting exploded prematurely
1974 Coup in East-Timor under UDT
1974 Head-on collision between two buses kills 21 (Ankara, Turkey)
1975 Expos' Jose Mangual struck out 5 times in a game
1975 US vetoes proposed admission of North & South Vietnam to UN
1976 Race riot in Cape Town, South Africa; 17 die
1977 Geoff Boycott scores his 100th FC hundred, v Aust at Headingley

Funeral of Pope Paul VI

1978 Funeral of Pope Paul VI held in the Vatican

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*Pope Paul VI's body lying in view in the Vatican after his death*

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1978 Legionnaire's disease bacteria isolated in Atlanta
1979 28°F in Embarrass Minnesota
1980 Angola revises its constitution
1980 Mohammed Ali Radjai appointed premier of Iran
1982 Twins Terry Felton loses & runs career to 0-14 (en route to 0-16)
1982 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1982 The South African Defence Force (SADF) raids Southern Angola

Event of Interest

1984 During a radio voice test, US President Reagan jokes he "signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes."

US President & Actor Ronald Reagan — US President & Actor
Ronald Reagan

1984 Men's choir Maranatha Netherlands forms
1984 USSR performs (underground) nuclear test
1985 Challenger flies to Kennedy Space Center via Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz

Birthdays in History

1081 Henry V, King of Germany (1099-1125) and Holy Roman Emperor (1111-1125), born in Goslar, Saxony (d. 1125) [or born 1086]
1467 Mary of York, English princess (d. 1482)
1667 Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, last of the Medicis (d. 1743)
1673 Richard Mead, physician, born in London, England
1718 Sir Frederick Haldimand, Swiss-born British colonial governor (d. 1791)
1722 Richard Brocklesby, English physician (d. 1797)
1737 Joseph Nollekins, sculptor, born in London, England
1772 Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount/general
1794 James Barton Longacre, American engraver (d. 1869)
1799 Joachim de Barrande, French paleontologist/geologist
1805 Pieter J Elout van Soeterwoude, Dutch judge/member of parliament
1807 David Rice Atchison, American politician (not President of the United States for a day on March 4, 1849), born in Lexington, Kentucky (d. 1886) [1]
1811 Judah P Benjamin, US lawyer/minister of Confederacy navy [or Aug 6]
1823 Charlotte Mary Yonge, England, writer (Heir of Redclyffe)
1828 Edward Saloman, American politician, Governor of Wisconsin (1862-64), born in Ströbeck, Prussian Saxony (d. 1909)
1832 Thomas Ogden Osbord, American lawyer, diplomat and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Licking County, Ohio (d. 1904)
1833 Robert Green Ingersoll, NY, author/politician/agnostic (Att Gen-R-Ill)
1833 Kido Takayoshi, Japanese politician (d. 1877)
1836 Cato M. Guldberg, Norwegian mathematician and chemist (law of mass action), born in Christiania, Norway (d. 1902)
1836 Warren Brown, American politician (d. 1919)
1837 Marie François Sadi Carnot, President of France (1887-94), born in Limoges, France (d. 1894)

Christiaan Eijkman

1858 Christiaan Eijkman, Dutch physician and bacteriologist (Nobel Prize in Medicine-1929), born in Nijkerk, Netherlands (d. 1930)

1860 Alfred Coville, French historian (Lesson etats de Normandie)

Eleftherios Venizelos

1864 Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister of Greece (1910-15, 1917-20, 1924, 1928-32, 1933), born in Mournies, Chania, Crete, Ottoman Empire (d. 1936) [NS=23 Aug]

1872 Shidehara Kijuro, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1951)
1877 Adolph M. Christianson, justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court (d. 1954)
1882 Rodolfo Graziani, Italian Marshal, fascist and Viceroy of Italian East Africa, born in Filettino, Italy (d. 1955)
1883 Ernst Stadler, German poet (Der Aufbruch), born in Colmar, Alsace-Lorraine (d. 1914)
1890 Erich Wichman, Dutch fascist painter/sculptor
1892 Hugh MacDiarmid (Christopher Murray Grieve), Scotland, poet (Scots Unbound)
1892 Wladyslaw Anders, Polish general
1892 Eiji Yoshikawa, Japanese novelist (d. 1962)
1897 Louise Bogan, Maine, writer (Sleeping Fury)

Enid Blyton

1897 Enid Blyton, English children's writer, fifth most popular author in the world (Famous Five, Secret Seven, The Adventure), born in London, England (d. 1968)

1898 Arthur Leslie Noel Douglas Houghton, politician/trade unionist
1900 Philip Phillips, American archaeologist (d. 1994)
1902 Christian Castries, French general (Dien Bien Phu)
1903 Michael Whalley Wickham, artist
1905 Erwin Chargaff, Austrian biochemist (d. 2002)
1909 Hugo Buchthal, art historian
1909 Jean Lancaster, director (WRNS)
1911 Alphonse de Waelhens, Flemish philosopher (Psychosis)
1911 Benny Lee, entertainer
1911 Prem Bhatia, journalist
1911 Ronald Batty, bookseller
1911 Thanom Kittikachorn, general/premier Thailand (1958..73)
1912 Eva Ahnert-Rohlfs, German astronomer (d. 1954)
1913 Angus Wilson, England, writer (Mulberry Bush-1955)
1914 José Silva, American parapsychologist (d. 1999)
1917 Dik Browne, cartoonist (Hi & Lois, Hagar the Horrible)
1920 Derry Jeffares, Honorary Prof of English Studies (Stirling U)
1920 William Masselos, pianist/prof (Juilliard 1976), born in Niagara Falls, New York
1920 Mike Douglas, American talk show host (The Mike Douglas Show), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2006)

Alex Haley

1921 Alex Haley, American writer (Autobiography of Malcolm X, Roots), born in Ithaca, New York (d. 1992)

1923 Stan Chambers, American television reporter
1925 Carl Rowan, gun-toting newspaper columnist (Wash Post)
1926 Aaron Klug, Biochemist (Nobel prize for Chemistry 1982), born in Lithuanian (d. 2018)
1926 Bernard Ashley, English businessperson, fashion designer and co-founder of Laura Ashley, born in London (d. 2009)
1926 Claus Von Bulow, socialite accused of murdering his wife
1926 J R S Fincham, geneticist
1927 James Eaton, Lord-Lieutenant of the City of Londonderry
1927 Len Rempt-Halmmans de Jongh, Dutch politician (VVD)
1928 Richard Barratt, former Chief Inspector of Constabulary
1930 Michael Quinlan, civil servant
1930 William A O'Neal, (Gov-D-Ct)
1932 Angela Rumbold, British politician (C), born in Bristol (d. 2010)
1932 Fernando Arrabal, Spanish song/romance writer (Baal Babilonia)
1932 Geoffrey Cass, CEO (Cambridge U Press)
1932 Eric Varley, British politician and cabinet minister, born in Poolsbrook, Derbyshire (d. 2008)
1932 Sam McCluskie, trade unionist
1932 Israel Asper, Canadian tax lawyer (d. 2003)
1932 John Gorrie, English director
1933 Jerry Falwell Sr., American TV evangelist (Moral Majority), born in Lynchburg, Virginia (d. 2007)
1933 Julian Oswald, British Admiral of the Fleet
1934 Bob Hepple, South African-born academic and master of Clare College Cambridge, (d. 2015)
1936 D V Day, Principal (St John's College, Durham U)
1936 J L Thompson, Bishop (Bath & Wells)
1937 Taki Theodoracopoulos, Greek/British journalist/multi-millionaire
1938 Charles Hugh Shirley, publisher
1938 Branko Stanovnik, Slovenian chemist
1941 Elizabeth Holtzman, Bkln DA (D-Rep-NY, Watergate Committee)
1943 Abigail Folger, American heiress and Manson murder victim (d. 1969)

Pervez Musharraf

1943 Pervez Musharraf, Pakistani general and politician, 10th President of Pakistan (2001-2008), born in Delhi, British India

1944 David Pearl, British judge
1946 Marilyn Vos Savant, writer/world's highest IQ (228), born in St Louis, Missouri
1947 Georgios Karatzaferis, Greek politician
1948 Don Boyd, Scottish director and producer (Goldeneye, 21, East of Elephant Rock), born in Nairn
1948 Jan Palach, Czech student protester (d. 1969)
1949 Tim Hutchinson, American politician (Rep-R-Arkansas 1997-2003), born in Bentonville, Arkansas

Steve Wozniak

1950 Steve Wozniak, American pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and co-founder of Apple Computer, born in San Jose, California

1950 Gennidy Nikonov, Russian weapons inventor
1951 Donald DeCicco, Brockton Mass, fictional ID of Beldar in Coneheads
1955 Sylvia Hermon, British politician
1955 Marc Bureau, French Canadian politician
1956 Pierre-Louis Lions, French mathematician
1957 Masayoshi Son, Korean-Japanese chief executive of SoftBank Mobile and chairman of Sprint Corporation, born in Tosu, Saga
1959 Yoshiaki Murakami, Japanese investor
1961 Frederick W Sturckow, USMC capt/astronaut (sk: STS 88), born in La Mesa, California
1964 Jim Lee, Korean-born comic book artist
1965 Shinji Mikami, Japanese video game designer (Resident Evil)

Weddings in History

Wedding of Interest

1886 Education pioneer Booker T. Washington (30) weds Olivia Davidson (32) Athens, Ohio

Wedding of Interest

1925 Physicist James Chadwick (33) weds Aileen Stewart-Brown

Wedding of Interest

1949 Molecular biologist Francis Crick (33) weds artist Odile Speed (29)

Divorces in History

1993 Director Oliver Stone files for divorce from Elizabeth

Deaths in History

480 BC Leonidas, King of Sparta (b. circa 540 BC)
353 Magnentius, Roman usurper (b. 303)
449 Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople
897 Wilfred the Hairy, Count of Barcelona
1171 Louis I, Earl of Wage/Rieneck, dies
1180 Guillaume de/Willem van Sens, Fren master builder (Canterbury), dies
1183 Christian I, archbishop of Mainz, dies
1204 King Guttorm of Norway (b. 1199)
1253 Saint Clare of Assisi, Italian follower of Francis of Assisi and founder of the Order of Poor Ladies (the Poor Clares), dies at 59
1394 Jan III, mister of Polanen, dies
1456 Janos Hunyadi, Hungarian general strategist, dies at about 49
1464 Nicholas van Cusa, philosopher/bishop of Brixen, dies
1490 French van Brederode, leader of Hoeksen, dies at about 25
1494 Hans Memling [John Memlinc], Flemish painter (Passietaferelen), dies
1519 Johann Tetzel, Dominican monk, dies at about 79
1522 Martin Siebenborger, mayor of Vienna, beheaded
1578 Pedro Nunes [Nonius], Port mathematician/astronomer (nonius), dies
1589 Maarten Schenck van Nideggen, lt col (80 year war), dies at about 49
1596 Hamnet Shakespeare, son of William Shakespeare (b. 1585)
1614 Lavinia Fontana, Italian painter, dies at 61
1656 Prince Octavio Piccolomini, Duke of Amalfi, Austrian field marshal (b. 1599)
1656 Ottavio Piccolomini, Italian nobleman and marshal, dies at 56
1774 Tiphaigne de la Roche, French writer (b. 1722)
1813 Henry James Pye, English poet, British Poet Laureate (1790-1813), dies at 68
1844 Jernej Kopitar, Slovene philologist and linguist (Slavic Grammatica), dies at 63
1851 Lorenz Oken, German naturalist, dies at 72
1852 Nicolaas Plomp, Dutch architect (Strugle), dies at 70
1854 Macedonio Melloni, Italian physicist (radiant light), dies at 56
1860 James Wilson, politician
1868 Thaddeus Stevens, US Radical Republican congressional leader (Rep-R), dies at 76
1886 Lydia Koidula, Estonian poet (b. 1843)
1890 John Henry Newman, English cardinal, dies at 89
1892 Enrico Betti, Italian mathematician (b. 1813)
1901 Francesco Crispi, Italian statesman, dies at 82
1903 Eugenio Maria de Hostos, Puerto Rican educator and nationalist (b. 1839)
1908 Khudiram Bose, Indian freedom fighter (b. 1889)

Andrew Carnegie

1919 Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American industrialist, steel tycoon, philanthropist and one of the richest Americans ever, dies of bronchial pneumonia at 83

1935 William Watson, British poet (Purple East), dies at 77
1936 Blas Infante, Spanish writer and politician (b. 1885)
1937 Bakr Sidqi, general/dictator of Iraq, dies

Edith Wharton

1937 Edith Wharton [-Jones], US Pulitzer prize-winning author (House of Mirth), dies at 75

1939 Jean Bugatti, Italian automobile designer (b. 1909)
1953 Ludwig Strauss, German-Israeli writer (Heimliche Gegenwart), dies at 60
1954 Santo Trafficante, Sr., Sicilian-American mobster, dies at 68

Jackson Pollock

1956 Jackson Pollock, abstract artist, dies in auto accident (East Hampton)

1966 Frank Nelson, English politician and civil servant (head of the Special Operations Executive, 1940-42), dies at 83
1968 Lucien Cerfaux, Belgian New Testament scholar, dies at 85
1972 Max Theiler, South African-American virologist who developed vaccine for Yellow Fever (Nobel Prize 1951), dies at 73
1972 Rose Schneiderman, American socialist, feminist, trade union leader and secretary of labor for New York State (1937-44), dies at 90
1975 Anthony C McAuliffe, US gen/commandant 101st div (Nuts!), dies at 77
1977 John Howard Lawson, American scriptwriter and playwright (Blockade, Algiers, Sahara), dies at 82
1980 Paul Robert, French lexicographer and publisher (b. 1910)
1984 Alfred A Knopf, American publisher (1966 Alexander Hamilton Medal), dies at 91
1987 Clara Peller, commercial spokesperson (Wendy's), dies at 86
1988 Pauline Lafont, daughter of Bernadette, dies in hiking accident at 25
1991 Jef Contryn, Flemish pioneer puppet theatre, dies at 89
1994 Gordon Cullen, architect, dies at 80
1995 Douglas John Gorman, businessman, dies at 58
1995 Kenneth Lo, cookery writer and restaurateur, dies at 81
1995 Alonzo Church, American Mathematician whose work provided foundation for computer science, dies at 92
1996 Sigmund Koch, psychologist/philosopher, dies at 79
2002 Galen Rowell, American photographer and mountain climber (b. 1940)
2003 Diana Mitford, English biographer, famous beauty, wife of Oswald Mosley and one of the Mitford sisters, dies at 93
2003 Armand Borel, Swiss mathematician (b. 1923)
2006 Mike Douglas, American talk show host (The Mike Douglas Show), dies at 86
2010 Geoffrey Johnson Smith, Scottish Conservative politician (1959-2001), dies at 86
2010 Dan Rostenkowski, American politician (Rep-D-Il, 1959-94), convicted of mail fraud, dies at 82

V. S. Naipaul

2018 V. S. Naipaul, Trinidadian-British writer (Middle Passage), dies at 85