August 11

Events

Pre-1600

* 3114 BC – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Maya, begins.
* 2492 BC – Traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation.
* 106 – The south-western part of Dacia (modern Romania) becomes a Roman province: Roman Dacia.
* 355 – Claudius Silvanus, accused of treason, proclaims himself Roman Emperor against Constantius II.
* 490 – Battle of Adda: The Goths under Theodoric the Great and his ally Alaric II defeat the forces of Odoacer on the Adda River, near Milan.
* 923 – The Qarmatians of Bahrayn capture and pillage the city of Basra.
* 1315 – The Great Famine of Europe becomes so dire that even the king of England has difficulties buying bread for himself and his entourage.
* 1332 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Dupplin Moor: Scots under Domhnall II, Earl of Mar are routed by Edward Balliol.
*1473 – The Battle of Otlukbeli: Mehmed the Conqueror of the Ottoman Empire decisively defeats Uzun Hassan of Aq Qoyunlu.
*1492 – Rodrigo de Borja is elected as Head of the Catholic Church, taking the name Pope Alexander VI.

1601–1900

*1675 – Franco-Dutch War: Forces of the Holy Roman Empire defeat the French in the Battle of Konzer Brücke.
* 1786 – Captain Francis Light establishes the British colony of Penang in Malaysia.
*1804 – Francis II assumes the title of first Emperor of Austria.
* 1812 – Peninsular War: French troops engage British- Portuguese forces in the Battle of Majadahonda.
* 1813 – In Colombia, Juan del Corral declares the independence of Antioquia.
* 1858 – The Eiger in the Bernese Alps is ascended for the first time by Charles Barrington accompanied by Christian Almer and Peter Bohren.
*1871 – An explosion of guncotton occurs in Stowmarket, England, killing 28.
* 1898 – Spanish–American War: American troops enter the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

1901–present

*1918 – World War I: The Battle of Amiens ends.
* 1919 – Germany's Weimar Constitution is signed into law.
*1920 – The Latvian–Soviet Peace Treaty, which relinquished Russia's authority and pretenses to Latvia, is signed, ending the Latvian War of Independence.
* 1929 – Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.
* 1934 – The first civilian prisoners arrive at the Federal prison on Alcatraz Island.
* 1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones, two-way radio communications, and Wi-Fi.
* 1945 – Poles in Kraków engage in a pogrom against Jews in the city, killing one and wounding five.
* 1952 – Hussein bin Talal is proclaimed King of Jordan.
* 1959 – Sheremetyevo International Airport, the second-largest airport in Russia, opens.
*1960 – Chad declares independence from France.
*1961 – The former Portuguese territories in India of Dadra and Nagar Haveli are merged to create the Union Territory Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
* 1962 – Vostok 3 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev becomes the first person to float in microgravity.
*1965 – Race riots (the Watts Riots) begin in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California.
*1969 – The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine following their liftoff from the moon.
* 1972 – Vietnam War: The last United States ground combat unit leaves South Vietnam.
*1975 – East Timor: Governor Mário Lemos Pires of Portuguese Timor abandons the capital Dili, following a coup by the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) and the outbreak of civil war between UDT and Fretilin.
* 1979 – Two Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-134s collide over the Ukrainian city of Dniprodzerzhynsk and crash, killing all 178 aboard both airliners.
*1982 – A bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 830, en route from Tokyo, Japan to Honolulu, Hawaii, killing one passenger and injuring 15 others.
* 1984 – " We begin bombing in five minutes": United States President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, jokes while preparing to make his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio.
* 1988 – A meeting between Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, and leaders of Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Afghanistan culminates in the formation of Al-Qaeda.
* 1992 – The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota opens. At the time the largest shopping mall in the United States.
* 2000 – An air rage incident occurs on board Southwest Airlines Flight 1763 when 19-year-old Jonathan Burton attempts to storm the cockpit, but he is subdued by other passengers and dies from his injuries.
*2003 – NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
* 2003 – Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.
*2006 – The oil tanker MT ''Solar 1'' sinks off the coast of Guimaras and Negros Islands in the Philippines, causing the country's worst oil spill.
* 2012 – At least 306 people are killed and 3,000 others injured in a pair of earthquakes near Tabriz, Iran.
* 2017 – At least 41 people are killed and another 179 injured after two passenger trains collide in Alexandria, Egypt.

Births

Pre-1600

* 1086 – Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1125)
* 1384 – Yolande of Aragon (d. 1442)
* 1472 – Nikolaus von Schönberg, Catholic cardinal (d. 1537)
*1510 – Margaret Paleologa, Sovereign Marchioness of Montferrat (d. 1566)

1601–1900

*1673 – Richard Mead, English physician and astrologer (d. 1754)
* 1718 – Frederick Haldimand, Swiss-English general and politician, 22nd Governor of Quebec (d. 1791)
* 1722 – Richard Brocklesby, English physician (d. 1797)
* 1748 – Joseph Schuster, German composer (d. 1812)
* 1778 – Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, Prussian gymnast, educator, and politician (d. 1852)
* 1794 – James B. Longacre, American engraver (d. 1869)
* 1807 – David Rice Atchison, American general, lawyer, and politician (d. 1886)
* 1808 – William W. Chapman, American lawyer and politician (d. 1892)
* 1816 – Frederick Innes, Scottish-Australian politician, 9th Premier of Tasmania (d. 1882)
*1833 – Robert G. Ingersoll, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 1899)
* 1833 – Kido Takayoshi, Japanese samurai and politician (d. 1877)
* 1836 – Warren Brown, American historian and politician (d. 1919)
* 1837 – Marie François Sadi Carnot, French engineer and politician, 4th President of the French Republic (d. 1894)
* 1855 – John Hodges, Australian cricketer (d. 1933)
* 1858 – Christiaan Eijkman, Dutch physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1930)
*1860 – Ottó Bláthy, Hungarian engineer and chess player (d. 1939)
*1870 – Tom Richardson, English cricketer (d. 1912)
*1874 – Princess Louise Charlotte of Saxe-Altenburg (d. 1953)
*1877 – Adolph M. Christianson, American lawyer and judge (d. 1954)
* 1878 – Oliver W. F. Lodge, English poet and author (d. 1955)
* 1881 – Aleksander Aberg, Estonian wrestler (d. 1920)
* 1884 – Hermann Wlach, Austrian-Swiss actor (d. 1962)
*1885 – Stephen Butterworth, English physicist and engineer (d. 1958)
* 1891 – Stancho Belkovski, Bulgarian architect and educator (d. 1962)
* 1891 – Edgar Zilsel, Austrian historian and philosopher of science, linked to the Vienna Circle (d. 1944)
* 1892 – Hugh MacDiarmid, Scottish poet and linguist (d. 1978)
* 1892 – Eiji Yoshikawa, Japanese author (d. 1962)
* 1897 – Enid Blyton, English author, poet, and educator (d. 1968)
* 1897 – Louise Bogan, American poet and critic (d. 1970)
* 1898 – Peter Mohr Dam, Faroese educator and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 1968)
* 1900 – Charley Paddock, American sprinter (d. 1943)
* 1900 – Philip Phillips, American archaeologist and scholar (d. 1994)

1901–present

* 1902 – Alfredo Binda, Italian cyclist (d. 1986)
* 1902 – Lloyd Nolan, American actor (d. 1985)
* 1902 – Christian de Castries, French general (d. 1991)
* 1905 – Erwin Chargaff, Austrian-American biochemist and academic (d. 2002)
* 1905 – Ernst Jaakson, Estonian diplomat (d. 1998)
* 1907 – Ted a'Beckett, Australian cricketer and lawyer (d. 1989)
* 1908 – Don Freeman, American author and illustrator (d. 1978)
* 1908 – Torgny T:son Segerstedt, Swedish sociologist and philosopher (d. 1999)
* 1909 – Yūji Koseki, Japanese composer (d. 1989)
* 1909 – Uku Masing, Estonian philosopher and theologian (d. 1985)
*1911 – Thanom Kittikachorn, Thai field marshal and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Thailand (d. 2004)
*1912 – Eva Ahnert-Rohlfs, German astronomer and academic (d. 1954)
* 1912 – Raphael Blau, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1996)
* 1913 – Paul Dupuis, Canadian actor (d. 1976)
* 1913 – Bob Scheffing, American baseball player and manager (d. 1985)
* 1913 – Angus Wilson, English author and academic (d. 1991)
* 1915 – Morris Weiss, American author and illustrator (d. 2014)
* 1916 – Johnny Claes, English-Belgian race car driver and trumpet player (d. 1956)
* 1919 – Luis Olmo, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and manager (d. 2017)
*1920 – Mike Douglas, American singer and talk show host (d. 2006)
* 1920 – Chuck Rayner, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2002)
*1921 – Alex Haley, American historian and author (d. 1992)
*1922 – John "Mule" Miles, American baseball player (d. 2013)
* 1923 – Stan Chambers, American journalist and actor (d. 2015)
* 1925 – Floyd Curry, Canadian ice hockey player and manager (d. 2006)
* 1925 – Arlene Dahl, American actress, businesswoman and writer (d. 2021)
* 1926 – Aaron Klug, Lithuanian-English chemist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)
* 1927 – Raymond Leppard, English harpsichord player and conductor (d. 2019)
* 1927 – Stuart Rosenberg, American director and producer (d. 2007)
*1932 – Fernando Arrabal, Spanish actor, director, and playwright
* 1932 – Izzy Asper, Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician, founded Canwest (d. 2003)
* 1932 – Geoffrey Cass, English businessman
* 1932 – Peter Eisenman, American architect, designed the City of Culture of Galicia
* 1932 – John Gorrie, English director and screenwriter
*1933 – Jerry Falwell, American minister and television host (d. 2007)
* 1933 – Jerzy Grotowski, Polish director and producer (d. 1999)
* 1933 – Tamás Vásáry, Hungarian pianist and conductor
* 1934 – Bob Hepple, South African lawyer and academic (d. 2015)
* 1936 – Andre Dubus, American short story writer, essayist, and memoirist (d. 1999)
* 1936 – Bill Monbouquette, American baseball player and coach (d. 2015)
* 1936 – Jonathan Spence, English-American historian and academic (d. 2021)
*1937 – Anna Massey, English actress (d. 2011)
* 1937 – Patrick Joseph McGovern, American businessman, founded International Data Group (d. 2014)
*1939 – James Mancham, first President of Seychelles (d. 2017)
* 1939 – Ronnie Dawson, American singer and guitarist (d. 2003)
* 1940 – Glenys Page, New Zealand cricketer (d. 2012)
* 1941 – John Ellison, American-Canadian musician and songwriter
* 1942 – Mike Hugg, English drummer and keyboard player
* 1943 – Jim Kale, Canadian bass player
* 1943 – Pervez Musharraf, Pakistani general and politician, 10th President of Pakistan

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