May 11
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May 11
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Today is:
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Born on this Day
0433: Justinian I "the Great," Eastern Roman Emperor
1731: Robert Treat Paine American jurist, member of the Continental
Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was the first attorney general
of Massachusetts, where he became a judge and member of the Massachusetts supreme court.
1811: Chang and Eng Bunker Siamese-born twins who toured the U.S. as
part of a circus act for Barnum and Bailey Circus. They lived full lives, marrying and
fathering 21 children between them.
1854: Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the Linotype typesetting machine
1888: Irving Berlin, U.S. composer. He was born, Israel Baline, in
Temun, Russia. He wrote some 1,500 songs including, "White Christmas,"
"Easter Parade," and "Always." He also wrote music for several stage
shows, including ``Annie Get Your Gun,'' and also wrote ``Alexander's Ragtime Band.''
1892: Dame Margaret Rutherford English actress who gained fame on stage
as Miss Prism in ``The Importance of Being Earnest.'' She appeared in films as Miss Marple
in a series based on Agatha Christie stories. She won an Academy Award in ``The VIPs.''
1893: Dancer-choreographer Martha Graham in Pittsburgh. She is credited
with bringing a new psyhcological depth to modern dance by exploring primal emotions and
ancient rituals. Graham danced 'til she was 75.
1895: William Grant Still was born in Woodville, Massachusetts. He was
the first acclaimed black composer. His music is very traditional. Like Dvorak, Still used
folk idiom in the service of otherwise Germanic classical music.
1903: Lawrence Welk American bandleader who was the popular host of the
nationally televised ``Lawrence Welk Show,'' a musical variety show. He played ``champagne
music,'' often through a haze of machine-produced bubbles.
1904: Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali, in Figueras, Spain.
"The Persistence of Memory", painted by Dali in 1931, is perhaps the most widely
recognized surrealist painting in the world. He also designed film and stage sets,
furniture and jewelry. He was equally celebrated for his theatrical appearance, flamboyant
behavior and genius for self-promotion.
1906: The first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound Jacqueline
Cochrann. She was an Air Force colonel and cosmetics maker.
1912: Phil Silvers American comic actor who began entertaining at the
age of 11. He worked in vaudeville, won a Tony for ``Top Banana,'' and found fame as Sgt.
Bilko in the TV series ``The Phil Silvers Show.''
1912: Actor-comedian Foster Brooks.
1920: Actor Denver Pyle
1927: Comedian Mort Sahl
1933: Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan
1934: Robert Jarvik American physician who invented the artificial
heart.
1935: Actor Doug McClure. He appeared in the TV series ``The
Virginian,'' ``The Men From Shiloh,'' ``Burke's Law'' and ``Kung Fu: The Legend
Continues'' and films ``Riders in the Storm'' and ``Maverick.''
1941: Rock singer Eric Burdon (The Animals; War)
1943: Rock musician Les Chadwick (Gerry & The Pacemakers) (John)
1943: Olympic gold medal skier Nancy Greene
1946: Jarvik heart inventor Dr. Robert Jarvik
1952: Actress Frances Fisher
1953: Actor Boyd Gaines
1955: Country musician Mark Herndon (Alabama)
1959: Video DJ Martha Quinn
1963: Actress Natasha Richardson. She appeared in the films ``Nell,''
``Widow's Peak'' and ``The Handmaid's Tale.''
1963: Country singer-musician Tim Raybon (The Raybon Brothers)
1980: Actor Austin O'Brien ("Promised Land")
1982: Actor Jonathan Jackson
0330: Constantinople was dedicated as the new capital of
the Roman Empire. It was named after the Emperor Constantine and built over the ancient
city of Byzantium.
0603: Death of St. Comgall
0973: Coronation of Edgar as King of England
0994: Death of St. Mayeul
1153: Death of David I, King of Scotland
1191: King Guy of Jerusalem lands on Cyprus to meet
Richard I of England
1435: The Abbot of the Herrzongenburg Monastery grants
some property near Raabs on the Thaya River of Austria to Hannsen Hydler (Hitler) and his
wife for 40 Pounds in the currency of Vienna
1502: Columbus leaves Spain on his fourth, and last,
voyage
1509: Louis II crowned King of Bohemia
1553: Sailing of the "Edward Bonaventure," the
"Bona Esperanza" and the "Bona Confidentia" from England to search for
the Northwest Passage
1559: John Knox preaches a sermon in Perth that leads to a
riot
1573: Death of Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, architect
1573: Henry of Anjou becomes first elected King of Poland
1610: Death of Matteo Ricci, Jesuit missionary in China
1625: Henrietta Marie of France married by proxy to
Charles I, King of England
1640: Rioting in Blackfriars and Southwark, England
1643: "Mercurius Civicus," the first regular
illustrated periodical in London, appeared
1647: Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam to become
governor.
1653: Construction begins on the Wall Street wall, NYC
1686: Otto von Guericke, German physicist who demonstrated
the vacuum, died. He also invented the first air pump.
1745: During the War of the Austrian Succession, French
forces besieged Tournai and defeated the English and their allies at the Battle of
Fontenoy. The English lost over 7,000 killed or wounded.
1752: 1st US fire insurance policy is issued, in
Philadelphia.
1778: William Pitt the Elder, British statesman, died. He
conducted most of the Seven Years' War (1756-63) which secured Britain a huge new empire.
1812: British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was
assassinated by a bankrupt broker, John Bellingham, as he entered the House of Commons.
1816: The American Bible Society was formed in New York
City.
1847: Johnny Appleseed American folk hero whose real name
was John Chapman died.
1858: Minnesota became the 32nd state of the Union.
1867: The independence and neutrality of the duchy of
Luxembourg was guaranteed by the European powers under the Treaty of London.
1871: British astronomer Sir John Herschel died. He added
over 500 nebulae and clusters of stars to the known universe.
1894: Workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company in
Illinois went on strike. (The American Railway Union, led by Eugene Debs, subsequently
began a boycott of Pullman that blocked freight traffic in and out of Chicago.)
1900: In an effort to regain the heavyweight boxing title,
James J. Corbett, "Gentleman Jim," was knocked out by James J. Jeffries -- in
the 23rd round.
1910: Glacier National Park in Montana was created by an
act of Congress.
1916: Max Reger was found dead of a heart attack in a
Leipzig hotel room. Reger left behind more music than almost any other modern composer,
opus numbers well above a hundred, including everything from piano miniatures to massive
pieces for organ.
1920: Oxford University permits the admission of women.
1927: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was
founded; although the first Oscars were not presented for several years after its
founding.
1931: The failure of Credit-Anstalt, Austria's largest
bank, marked the beginning of the financial collapse of Central Europe.
1943: During World War Two, American forces landed on
Japanese-held Attu island in the Aleutians. (The territory was retaken in three weeks.)
1944: Allied forces launched a major offensive in central
Italy.
1946: The first packages from the relief agency CARE
(Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe) arrived in Europe, at Le Havre, France.
1947: The B.F. Goodrich Company of Akron, Ohio, announced
the development of a tubeless tire.
1949: Israel was admitted to the United Nations as the
world body's 59th member.
1949: Siam changed its named to Thailand.
1951: Jay Forrester patents computer core memory.
1960: The world's longest liner, SS France, was launched.
1967: Britain, Denmark and Ireland formally applied to
join the European Economic Community.
1968: The French government bowed to Paris student
demands, premier Georges Pompidou announcing concessions in an effort to end more than a
week of the worst street fighting since World War Two.
1971: Steve Dunning of the Cleveland Indians became the
last pitcher to hit a grand slam home run in the American League. When the designated
hitter rule came to the American League, pitchers were rarely sent to bat.
1972: The San Francisco Giants announced that they would
trade Willie Mays to the New York Mets.
1973: Charges against Daniel Ellsberg for his role in the
"Pentagon Papers" case were dismissed by Judge William M. Byrne, who cited
government misconduct.
1979: Barbara Hutton American heiress to the Woolworth
fortune died.
1981: Reggae artist Bob Marley, 36, died in a Miami
hospital.
1982: Abby followed Ann Landers in confessing to re-using
letters without informing readers.
1983: Secretary of State Geroge P. Shultz returned to
Washington from the Mideast, expressing confidence Syria would withdraw its troops from
Lebanon along with Israeli forces.
1984: Eight teen-agers were killed when fire broke out
inside the Haunted Castle attraction at the Six Flags Great Adventure Park in Jackson
Township, New Jersey.
1985: 56 people died and more than 200 were injured when a
flash fire swept a jam-packed soccer stadium in Bradford, England.
1985: Chester Gould American cartoonist who introduced
crime and violence into the comics with the creation of ``Dick Tracy'' died. He created a
rogues' gallery of bizarre criminals and masterminded the strip until his retirement in
1977.
1986: Soviet physicist Yevgeny Velikhov was quoted by the
official news agency Tass as saying the situation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had
reached a turning point, and it was no longer possible for it to get worse.
1987: Emmanuel Vitria died in Marseilles in southern
France at age 67, 18 years after receiving a transplanted human heart. He was the
longest-surviving heart transplant patient.
1987: In a medical first, doctors in Baltimore
transplanted the heart and lungs of an auto accident victim to a patient who gave up his
own heart to a second recipient. (Clinton House, the nation's first living heart donor,
died 14 months later.)
1987: Former National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane
began testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings. The trial of former Gestapo official Klaus
Barbie began in Lyons, France.
1987: The trial of former Gestapo official Klaus Barbie
began in Lyons, France.
1987: The government of Indian imposed direct rule on
Punjab because of the terror campaign being waged by Sikh extremists.
1988: Master spy Harold "Kim" Philby (Harold
Adrian Russell), the notorious "Third Man" of a British espionage ring, died in
the Soviet Union at age 76.
1988: Fans of Irving Berlin paid tribute on his 100th
birthday with celebrations that included a gala at New York's Carnegie Hall.
1989: Kenya announced that it would seek a worldwide ban
on the trade of ivory -- a move intended to preserve its fast-dwindling elephant herds.
1989: President Bush ordered nearly 2,000 combat troops to
Panama, saying the increase in U.S. military strength there was designed "to protect
the lives of American citizens.""
1990: President Bush, on a two-day trip of college
commencement speeches, told reporters aboard Air Force One that there were "no
conditions" going into a budget summit with Congress.
1991: Ho Dam, senior member of North Korea's communist
party, died. As foreign minister in 1977, he was the first senior North Korean official to
visit the United States.
1991: President Bush dispatched an amphibious task force
with thousands of Marines and dozens of helicopters to help cyclone-ravaged Bangladesh
with disaster relief efforts.
1992: A three-day ordeal on Oregon's Mount Hood ended
safely for three climbers stranded with minimal gear by a sub-zero whiteout.
1992: EC foreign ministers decided to recall their
ambassadors from Belgrade and to seek Yugoslavia's suspension from the CSCE.
1992: Twelve European countries recalled their ambassadors
from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia to protest Serb involvement in Bosnia's ethnic war.
1992: Nera White and Luisa Harris (Stewart) became the
first women to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
1993: The Senate approved the so-called "motor
voter" bill, designed to make voter registration easier.
1993: The Senate Armed Services Committee heard emotional
testimony from Marine Colonel Fred Peck, who affirmed his love for his homosexual son,
Scott, while restating his opposition to lifting the ban on openly gay servicemen.
1994: Arkansas put to death two convicted murderers; it
was the first time a state executed two people on the same day since the U.S. Supreme
Court allowed states to restore the death penalty in 1976.
1994: Deir Al-Balah became the first Gaza town to come
under Palestinian self-rule.
1994: Haiti's military-backed government installed Emile
Jonassaint as new provisional president.
1994: Italian media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi was installed
as prime minister at the head of a coalition government that brought neo-fascists to power
for the first time since World War Two.
1994: South African President Nelson Mandela named his
main black political rival, Zulu chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, and his estranged wife
Winnie, to his new government of national unity.
1995: A United Nations conference indefinitely extended
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which was originally set to expire after 25 years.
1996: An Atlanta-bound ValuJet DC-9 caught fire shortly
after takeoff from Miami and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people
on board.
1996: Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria's first president, died.
Widely known as ``Zik of Africa,'' the politician, scholar, poet and journalist helped to
end the Biafran civil war. Azikiwe became president in 1963.
1997: The "Deep Blue" IBM computer demolishd an
overwhelmed Garry Kasparov and won the six-game chess match between man and machine in New
York.
1998: A French mint produced the first coins of Europe's
single currency, the euro.
1998: India set off three underground atomic blasts, its
first nuclear tests in 24 years.
1998: Attorney General Janet Reno requested an independent
counsel to investigate Labor Secretary Alexis Herman for alleged influence-peddling and
solicitation of illegal campaign contributions.
1999: Stung by an espionage scandal, Energy Secretary Bill
Richardson said he would halt the Clinton administration's aggressive declassification of
Cold War-era nuclear documents.
1999: In Beijing, protests outside the U.S. Embassy over
NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade eased after state-run television aired
U.S. and NATO apologies for the attack.
2000: Pope John Paul the Second named Bishop Edward M. Egan of Bridgeport, Connecticut, the new head of the New York archdiocese, succeeding the late Cardinal John O'Connor.
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