July 11

Events

Pre-1600

* 472 – After being besieged in Rome by his own generals, Western Roman Emperor Anthemius is captured in St. Peter's Basilica and put to death.
* 813 – Byzantine emperor Michael I, under threat by conspiracies, abdicates in favor of his general Leo the Armenian, and becomes a monk (under the name Athanasius).
*911 – Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy.
* 1174 – Baldwin IV, 13, becomes King of Jerusalem, with Raymond III, Count of Tripoli as regent and William of Tyre as chancellor.
* 1302 – Battle of the Golden Spurs (''Guldensporenslag'' in Dutch): A coalition around the Flemish cities defeats the king of France's royal army.
* 1346 – Charles IV, Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia, is elected King of the Romans.
*1405 – Ming admiral Zheng He sets sail to explore the world for the first time.
* 1410 – Ottoman Interregnum: Süleyman Çelebi defeats his brother Musa Çelebi outside the Ottoman capital, Edirne.
* 1476 – Giuliano della Rovere is appointed bishop of Coutances.
* 1576 – While exploring the North Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage, Martin Frobisher sights Greenland, mistaking it for the hypothesized (but non-existent) island of "Frisland".

1601–1900

* 1616 – Samuel de Champlain returns to Quebec.
* 1735 – Mathematical calculations suggest that it is on this day that dwarf planet Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune for the last time before 1979.
* 1789 – Jacques Necker is dismissed as France's Finance Minister sparking the Storming of the Bastille.
*1796 – The United States takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain under terms of the Jay Treaty.
* 1798 – The United States Marine Corps is re-established; they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War.
* 1801 – French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons makes his first comet discovery. In the next 27 years he discovers another 36 comets, more than any other person in history.
*1804 – A duel occurs in which the Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.
*1833 – Noongar Australian aboriginal warrior Yagan, wanted for the murder of white colonists in Western Australia, is killed.
*1836 – ''The Fly-fisher's Entomology'' is published by Alfred Ronalds. The book transformed the sport and went to many editions.
* 1848 – Waterloo railway station in London opens.
*1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Stevens; Confederate forces attempt to invade Washington, D.C.
*1882 – The British Mediterranean Fleet begins the Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt as part of the Anglo-Egyptian War.
*1889 – Tijuana, Mexico, is founded.
*1893 – The first cultured pearl is obtained by Kōkichi Mikimoto.
* 1893 – A revolution led by the liberal general and politician José Santos Zelaya takes over state power in Nicaragua.
* 1897 – Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon.
* 1899 – Fiat founded by Giovanni Agnelli in Turin, Italy.

1901–present

* 1906 – Murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in the United States, inspiration for Theodore Dreiser's ''An American Tragedy''.
*1914 – Babe Ruth makes his debut in Major League Baseball.
* 1914 – is launched.
*1919 – The eight-hour day and free Sunday become law for workers in the Netherlands.
* 1920 – In the East Prussian plebiscite the local populace decides to remain with Weimar Germany.
*1921 – A truce in the Irish War of Independence comes into effect.
* 1921 – The Red Army captures Mongolia from the White Army and establishes the Mongolian People's Republic.
* 1921 – Former president of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the only person ever to hold both offices.
*1922 – The Hollywood Bowl opens.
* 1924 – Eric Liddell won the gold medal in 400m at the 1924 Paris Olympics, after refusing to run in the heats for 100m, his favoured distance, on a Sunday.
*1934 – Engelbert Zaschka of Germany flies his large human-powered aircraft, the ''Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft'', about 20 meters at Berlin Tempelhof Airport without assisted take-off.
*1936 – The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic.
* 1940 – World War II: Vichy France regime is formally established. Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of the French State.
*1941 – The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party holds its first congress in Nkana.
*1943 – Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak.
* 1943 – World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily: German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily.
*1947 – The '' Exodus 1947'' heads to Palestine from France.
* 1950 – Pakistan joins the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank.
*1957 – Prince Karim Husseini Aga Khan IV inherits the office of Imamat as the 49th Imam of Shia Imami Ismai'li worldwide, after the death of Sir Sultan Mahommed Shah Aga Khan III.
* 1960 – France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso) and Niger: The State of Katanga breaks away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
* 1960 – ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States.
* 1962 – First transatlantic satellite television transmission.
* 1962 – Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth.
*1971 – Copper mines in Chile are nationalized.
*1972 – The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts.
* 1973 – Varig Flight 820 crashes near Paris, France on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on board. In response, the FAA bans smoking in airplane lavatories.
* 1977 – Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated in 1968, is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
*1978 – Los Alfaques disaster: A truck carrying liquid gas crashes and explodes at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain killing 216 tourists.
* 1979 – America's first space station, ''Skylab'', is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
*1982 – The Italy National Football Team defeats West Germany at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium to capture the 1982 FIFA World Cup.
* 1983 – A TAME airline Boeing 737–200 crashes near Cuenca, Ecuador, killing all 119 passengers and crew on board.
*1990 – Oka Crisis: First Nations land dispute in Quebec, Canada begins.
*1991 – Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia killing all 261 passengers and crew on board.
*1995 – Yugoslav Wars: Srebrenica massacre begins; lasts until 22 July.
*2006 – Mumbai train bombings: Two hundred nine people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India.
*2010 – The Islamist militia group Al-Shabaab carried out multiple suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, killing 74 people and injuring 85 others.
* 2010 – Spain defeat the Netherlands to win the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Johannesburg.
*2011 – Ninety-eight containers of explosives self-detonate killing 13 people in Zygi, Cyprus.
*2015 – Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán escapes from the maximum security Altiplano prison in Mexico, his second escape.
*2021 – Richard Branson becomes the first civilian to be launched into space via his Virgin Galactic spacecraft.
*2021 – Italy defeats England in the UEFA Euro 2020 Final to win their second European title.

Births

Pre-1600

* 154 – Bardaisan, Syrian astrologer, scholar, and philosopher (d. 222)
* 1274 – Robert the Bruce, Scottish king (d. 1329)
* 1406 – William, Margrave of Hachberg-Sausenberg (d. 1482)
*1459 – Kaspar, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, German nobleman (d. 1527)
* 1558 – Robert Greene, English author and playwright (d. 1592)
* 1561 – Luis de Góngora, Spanish cleric and poet (d. 1627)

1601–1900

* 1603 – Kenelm Digby, English astrologer, courtier, and diplomat (d. 1665)
* 1628 – Tokugawa Mitsukuni, Japanese daimyō (d. 1701)
* 1653 – Sarah Good, American woman accused of witchcraft (d. 1692)
* 1657 – Frederick I of Prussia (d. 1713)
* 1662 – Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria (d. 1726)
* 1709 – Johan Gottschalk Wallerius, Swedish chemist and mineralogist (d. 1785)
*1723 – Jean-François Marmontel, French historian and author (d. 1799)
* 1754 – Thomas Bowdler, English physician and philanthropist (d. 1825)
* 1760 – Peggy Shippen, American wife of Benedict Arnold and American Revolutionary War spy (d. 1804)
* 1767 – John Quincy Adams, American lawyer and politician, 6th President of the United States (d. 1848)
* 1826 – Alexander Afanasyev, Russian ethnographer and author (d. 1871)
* 1832 – Charilaos Trikoupis, Greek lawyer and politician, 55th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1896)
*1834 – James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American-English painter and illustrator (d. 1903)
*1836 – Antônio Carlos Gomes, Brazilian composer (d. 1896)
*1846 – Léon Bloy, French author and poet (d. 1917)
* 1849 – N. E. Brown, English plant taxonomist and authority on succulents (d. 1934)
* 1850 – Annie Armstrong, American missionary (d. 1938)
*1866 – Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (d. 1953)
*1875 – H. M. Brock, British painter and illustrator (d. 1960)
* 1880 – Friedrich Lahrs, German architect and academic (d. 1964)
* 1881 – Isabel Martin Lewis, American astronomer and author (d. 1966)
*1882 – James Larkin White, American miner, explorer, and park ranger (d. 1946)
* 1886 – Boris Grigoriev, Russian painter and illustrator (d. 1939)
* 1888 – Carl Schmitt, German philosopher and jurist (d. 1985)
*1892 – Thomas Mitchell, American actor, singer, and screenwriter (d. 1962)
* 1894 – Erna Mohr, German zoologist (d. 1968)
* 1895 – Dorothy Wilde, English author and poet (d. 1941)
* 1897 – Bull Connor, American police officer (d. 1973)
* 1899 – Wilfrid Israel, German businessman and philanthropist (d. 1943)
* 1899 – E. B. White, American essayist and journalist (d. 1985)

1901–present

* 1901 – Gwendolyn Lizarraga, Belizean businesswoman, activist, and politician (d. 1975)
* 1903 – Rudolf Abel, English-Russian colonel (d. 1971)
* 1903 – Sidney Franklin, American bullfighter (d. 1976)
* 1904 – Niño Ricardo, Spanish guitarist and composer (d. 1972)
* 1905 – Betty Allan, Australian statistician and biometrician (d. 1952)
* 1906 – Harry von Zell, American actor and announcer (d. 1981)
* 1906 – Herbert Wehner, German politician, Minister of Intra-German Relations (d. 1990)
*1909 – Irene Hervey, American actress (d. 1998)
* 1909 – Jacques Clemens, Dutch catholic priest (d. 2018)
* 1910 – Sally Blane, American actress (d. 1997)
* 1911 – Erna Flegel, German nurse who was still present in the ''Führerbunker'' when it was captured by Soviet troops (d. 2006)
*1912 – Sergiu Celibidache, Romanian conductor and composer (d. 1996)
* 1912 – Peta Taylor, English cricketer (d. 1989)
* 1912 – William F. Walsh, American captain and politician, 48th Mayor of Syracuse (d. 2011)
*1913 – Paul Gibb, English cricketer (d. 1977)
* 1913 – Cordwainer Smith, American sinologist, author, and academic (d. 1966)
* 1916 – Mortimer Caplin, American tax attorney, educator, and IRS Commissioner (d. 2019)
* 1916 – Hans Maier, Dutch water polo player (d. 2018)
* 1916 – Alexander Prokhorov, Australian-Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)
* 1916 – Reg Varney, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2008)
* 1916 – Gough Whitlam, Australian lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, 21st Prime Minister of Australia (d. 2014)
* 1918 – Venetia Burney, English educator, who named Pluto (d. 2009)
* 1920 – Yul Brynner, Russian actor and dancer (d. 1985)
* 1920 – Zecharia Sitchin, Russian-American author (d. 2010)
*1922 – Gene Evans, American actor (d. 1998)
* 1922 – Fritz Riess, German-Swiss racing driver (d. 1991)
* 1923 – Richard Pipes, Polish-American historian and academic (d. 2018)
* 1923 – Tun Tun