May 11

Events

• 330 - Constantinople is consecrated.
• 868 - A copy of the Diamond Sutra is printed in China, making it the oldest known dated printed book.
• 912 - Alexander becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
• 1745 - War of the Austrian Succession: French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch–Hanoverian army.
• 1792 - Robert Gray commands the first expedition to sail into the Columbia River.
• 1812 - Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the British House of Commons.
• 1813 - William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth discover a route across the Blue Mountains, opening up inland Australia to settlement.
• 1833 - The Lady of the Lake strikes an iceberg off Newfoundland and sinks with the loss of up to 265 passengers and crew.
• 1846 - President James K. Polk asked for a Declaration of War against Mexico, starting the Mexican–American War.
• 1857 - Indian Rebellion of 1857: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British.
• 1858 - Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd state of the United States.
• 1880 - Seven people are killed in the Mussel Slough Tragedy, a gun battle in California.
• 1889 - 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.
• 1894 - Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike.
• 1910 - An act of the U.S. Congress establishes Glacier National Park in Montana.
• 1943 - World War II: American troops invade Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
• 1945 - World War II: Off the coast of Okinawa, the aircraft carrier is hit by two kamikazes.
• 1960 - Adolf Eichmann is captured by the Mossad in Argentina.
• 1963 - Racist bombings in Birmingham, Alabama, disrupt nonviolence in the Birmingham campaign and precipitate a crisis involving federal troops.
• 1970 - The 1970 Lubbock tornado kills 26 and causes $250 million in damage.
• 1973 - Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg's charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times are dismissed.
• 1985 - Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in the Bradford City stadium fire.
• 1987 - Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.
• 1996 - After the aircraft's departure from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled chemical oxygen generators in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board.
• 1997 - 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.
• 1998 - India conducts three underground atomic tests in Pokhran.
• 2000 - Second Chechen War: Chechen separatists ambush Russian paramilitary forces in the Republic of Ingushetia.
• 2010 - 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.
• 2011 - An earthquake of magnitude 5.1 hits Lorca, Spain.
• 2013 - Fifty-two people are killed in a bombing in Reyhanlı, Turkey.
• 2014 - Fifteen people are killed and 46 injured in Kinshasa in a stampede caused by tear gas being thrown into soccer stands by police officers.
• 2016 - One hundred and ten people are killed in an ISIL bombing in Baghdad.

  Births

• 1571 - Niwa Nagashige, Japanese daimyō
• 1715 - Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach, German organist
• 1752 - Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German physician, physiologist, and anthropologist
• 1797 - José Mariano Salas, Mexican general and politician
• 1811 - Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel, Swiss politician
• 1852 - Charles W. Fairbanks, American journalist and politician, 26th United States Vice President
• 1854 - Jack Blackham, Australian cricketer
• 1869 - Archibald Warden, English tennis player
• 1871 - Frank Schlesinger, American astronomer and author
• 1875 - Harriet Quimby, American pilot and screenwriter
• 1881 - Al Cabrera, Spanish-Cuban baseball player and manager
• 1881 - Jan van Gilse, Dutch composer and conductor
• 1881 - Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, and engineer
• 1888 - Irving Berlin, Belarusian-American pianist and composer
• 1888 - Willis Augustus Lee, American admiral
• 1889 - Paul Nash, British painter
• 1890 - Willie Applegarth, English-American sprinter
• 1890 - Helge Løvland, Norwegian decathlete
• 1894 - Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer
• 1895 - Jacques Brugnon, French tennis player
• 1895 - William Grant Still, American composer and conductor
• 1896 - Josip Štolcer-Slavenski, Croatian composer and academic
• 1897 - Robert E. Gross, American businessman
• 1901 - Rose Ausländer, Ukrainian-English poet and author
• 1901 - Gladys Rockmore Davis, American painter
• 1902 - Edna Ernestine Kramer, American mathematician
• 1903 - Charlie Gehringer, American baseball player and manager
• 1904 - Salvador Dalí, Spanish artist
• 1905 - Lise de Baissac, Mauritian-born SOE agent, war hero
• 1905 - Catherine Bauer Wurster, American architect and public housing advocate
• 1907 - Rip Sewell, American baseball player and coach
• 1911 - Mitchell Sharp, Canadian economist and politician, 23rd Canadian Minister of Finance
• 1911 - Phil Silvers, American actor and comedian
• 1912 - Saadat Hasan Manto, Indian-Pakistani author and screenwriter
• 1916 - Camilo José Cela, Spanish author and politician, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1918 - Richard Feynman, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1921 - Robin Barbour, Scottish minister and author
• 1921 - Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, German politician
• 1924 - Antony Hewish, English astronomer and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1925 - Edward J. King, American football player and politician, 66th Governor of Massachusetts
• 1927 - Bernard Fox, British actor
• 1927 - Gene Savoy, American explorer, author, and scholar
• 1930 - Edsger W. Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist and academic
• 1930 - Stanley Elkin, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist
• 1932 - Valentino Garavani, Italian fashion designer
• 1933 - Louis Farrakhan, American religious leader
• 1934 - Jim Jeffords, American captain, lawyer, and politician
• 1934 - Jack Twyman, American basketball player
• 1935 - Francisco Umbral, Spanish journalist and author
• 1937 - Ildikó Újlaky-Rejtő, Hungarian Olympic and world champion foil fencer
• 1938 - Narendra Patel, Baron Patel, Tanzanian-English obstetrician, academic, and politician
• 1941 - Eric Burdon, English musician
• 1941 - Ian Redpath, Australian cricketer and coach
• 1943 - Nancy Greene, Canadian skier and politician
• 1944 - John Benaud, Australian cricketer
• 1948 - Jack Cantoni, French rugby player
• 1948 - Nirj Deva, Sri Lankan-English politician
• 1950 - Jeremy Paxman, English journalist and author
• 1950 - Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Indian actor
• 1951 - Ed Stelmach, Canadian farmer and politician, 13th Premier of Alberta
• 1954 - John Gregory, English footballer and manager
• 1955 - John DeStefano, Jr., American politician, 49th Mayor of New Haven
• 1957 - Mike Nesbitt, Northern Irish journalist and politician
• 1962 - Steve Bono, American football player
• 1964 - Bobby Witt, American baseball player
• 1964 - Floyd Youmans, American baseball player, coach, and manager
• 1967 - Alberto García Aspe, Mexican footballer and manager
• 1969 - Mitch Healey, Australian rugby league player and coach
• 1969 - Simon Vroemen, Dutch runner
• 1970 - Harold Ford, Jr., American lawyer and politician
• 1970 - Jason Queally, English cyclist
• 1972 - Tomáš Dvořák, Czech decathlete and coach
• 1973 - Tsuyoshi Ogata, Japanese runner
• 1974 - Darren Ward, English-Welsh footballer and coach
• 1974 - Tony Warner, English born Trinidadian international footballer and coach
• 1975 - Francisco Cordero, Dominican-American baseball player
• 1976 - Kardinal Offishall, American rapper and record producer/executive
• 1977 - Pablo Gabriel García, Uruguayan footballer
• 1977 - Victor Matfield, South African rugby player, coach, and sportscaster
• 1977 - Bobby Roode, Canadian professional wrestler
• 1978 - Laetitia Casta, French model and actress
• 1982 - Cory Monteith, Canadian actor and singer
• 1983 - Matt Leinart, American football player
• 1983 - Steven Sotloff, American-Israeli journalist
• 1983 - Holly Valance, Australian actress, singer and model
• 1984 - Andrés Iniesta, Spanish footballer
• 1986 - Abou Diaby, French footballer
• 1986 - Miguel Veloso, Portuguese footballer
• 1987 - Lim Seul-ong, South Korean singer and actor
• 1987 - Monica Roșu, Romanian gymnast
• 1988 - Jeremy Maclin, American football player
• 1988 - Brad Marchand, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1989 - Alyssa Brown, Canadian artistic gymnast
• 1989 - Giovani dos Santos, Mexican international footballer
• 1989 - Cam Newton, American football player
• 1992 - Thibaut Courtois, Belgian footballer
• 1992 - Pablo Sarabia, Spanish footballer
• 1993 - Maurice Harkless, American-Puerto Rican basketball player
• 1994 - Hagos Gebrhiwet, Ethiopian runner
• 1995 - Gelson Martins, Portuguese footballer
• 1999 - Sabrina Carpenter, American singer and actress
• 1999 - Kaitlyn Dias, American actress and voice artist

  Deaths

• 1610 - Matteo Ricci, Italian priest and mathematician
• 1686 - Otto von Guericke, German physicist and politician
• 1778 - William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, English soldier and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1779 - John Hart, American lawyer and politician
• 1812 - Spencer Perceval, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1848 - Tom Cribb, English boxer
• 1849 - Juliette Récamier, French businesswoman
• 1882 - Frederick Innes, Scottish-Australian politician, 9th Premier of Tasmania
• 1889 - John Cadbury, English businessman and philanthropist, founded the Cadbury Company
• 1908 - Charles Kingston, Australian politician, 20th Premier of South Australia
• 1916 - Karl Schwarzschild, German astronomer and physicist
• 1918 - George Elmslie, Australian politician, 25th Premier of Victoria
• 1920 - James Colosimo, Italian-American mob boss
• 1920 - William Dean Howells, American novelist, literary critic, and playwright
• 1927 - Juan Gris, Spanish painter and sculptor
• 1929 - Jozef Murgaš, Slovak-American priest, architect, botanist, and painter
• 1938 - George Lyon, Canadian golfer and cricketer
• 1955 - Gilbert Jessop, English cricketer
• 1960 - John D. Rockefeller Jr., American businessman and philanthropist
• 1963 - Herbert Spencer Gasser, American physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1967 - James E. Brewton, American painter
• 1979 - Lester Flatt, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1981 - Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1981 - Bob Marley, Jamaican singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1983 - Zenna Henderson, American writer
• 1985 - Chester Gould, American cartoonist, created Dick Tracy
• 1986 - Fritz Pollard, American football player and coach
• 1988 - Kim Philby, British-Soviet double agent
• 1994 - Timothy Carey, American actor, director, and producer
• 2001 - Douglas Adams, English novelist and screenwriter
• 2002 - Renaude Lapointe, Canadian journalist and politician
• 2002 - Bill Peet, American animator and screenwriter
• 2003 - Noel Redding, English bass player
• 2005 - Léo Cadieux, Canadian politician, 17th Canadian Minister of National Defence
• 2006 - Floyd Patterson, American boxer and actor
• 2007 - Malietoa Tanumafili II, Samoan ruler
• 2008 - John Rutsey, Canadian drummer
• 2009 - Abel Goumba, Central African physician and politician, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic
• 2009 - Claudio Huepe, Chilean economist and politician, Chilean Minister Secretary-General of Government
• 2009 - Sardarilal Mathradas Nanda, Indian admiral
• 2010 - Doris Eaton Travis, American dancer and vaudevillian
• 2011 - Robert Traylor, American basketball player

  Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day:
• *Anthimus of Rome
• *Gangulphus of Burgundy
• *Majolus of Cluny
• *Mamertus, the first of the Ice Saints
• *May 11
• National Technology Day
• Statehood Day
• Vietnam Human Rights Day