October 11

What happened that day?

• 2013: A migrant boat sinks in the Channel of Sicily with at least 34 people dead.
• 2002: A bomb attack in a shopping mall in Vantaa, Finland kills seven.
• 2001: The Polaroid Corporation files for federal bankruptcy protection.
• 2000: NASA launches STS-92, the 100th Space Shuttle mission, using Space Shuttle Discovery.
• 1987: Start of Operation Pawan by Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka that killed thousands of ethnic Tamil civilians and hundreds of Tamil Tigers and Indian Army soldiers.
• 1987: First public display of AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
• 1986: Cold War: U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.
• 1984: An Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-154 crashes into maintenance vehicles upon landing in Omsk, Russia, killing 178.
• 1984: Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.
• 1976: George Washington's appointment, posthumously, to the grade of General of the Armies by congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 is approved by President Gerald R. Ford.
• 1972: A race riot occurs on the United States Navy aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk off the coast of Vietnam during Operation Linebacker.
• 1968: Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.
• 1962: Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.
• 1958: Pioneer program: NASA launches the lunar probe Pioneer 1 (the probe falls back to Earth and burns up).
• 1957: Space Race: Operation Moonwatch scientists calculate Sputnik 1's booster rocket's orbit.
• 1954: First Indochina War: The Viet Minh take control of North Vietnam.
• 1950: Television: CBS's mechanical color system is the first to be licensed for broadcast by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
• 1944: Tuvan People's Republic, formerly Tannu Tuva, is annexed by the U.S.S.R.
• 1942: World War II: Battle of Cape Esperance: On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.
• 1941: Beginning of the National Liberation War of Macedonia.
• 1918: The 7.1 Mw San Fermín earthquake shakes Puerto Rico with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 76-116 people. A destructive tsunami contributed to the damage and loss of life.
• 1912: First Balkan War: The Greek Army liberates the city of Kozani.
• 1910: Former President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane. He flew for four minutes with Arch Hoxsey in a plane built by the Wright brothers at Kinloch Field (Lambert-St. Louis International Airport), St. Louis, Missouri.
• 1906: San Francisco public school board sparks a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Japan by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.
• 1899: The Western League is renamed the American League.
• 1899: Second [Boer](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Boer) War begins: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupts.
• 1890: In Washington, D.C., the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.
• 1865: Paul Bogle led hundreds of black men and women in a march in Jamaica, starting the Morant Bay rebellion.
• 1862: American Civil War: In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart and his men loot Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a raid into the north.
• 1852: The University of Sydney, Australia's oldest university, is inaugurated in Sydney.
• 1840: The Maronite leader Bashir Shihab II surrenders to the Ottoman Empire and later is sent to Malta in exile.
• 1811: Inventor John Stevens' boat, the Juliana, begins operation as the first steam-powered ferry (service between New York City, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey).
• 1809: Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand.
• 1797: Battle of Camperdown: Naval battle between Royal Navy and Royal Netherlands Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars. The outcome of the battle was a decisive British victory.
• 1776: American Revolutionary War: Battle of Valcour Island: On Lake Champlain a fleet of American boats is defeated by the Royal Navy, but delays the British advance until 1777.
• 1767: Surveying for the Mason-Dixon line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed.
• 1727: George II and Caroline of Ansbach are crowned King and Queen of Great Britain.
• 1649: Sack of [Wexford](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Wexford): After a ten-day siege, English New Model Army troops (under Oliver Cromwell) stormed the town of Wexford, killing over 2,000 Irish Confederate troops and 1,500 civilians.
• 1634: The Burchardi flood: "The second Grote Mandrenke" killed around 15,000 men in North Friesland, Denmark and Germany.
• 1614: Adriaen Block and 12 Amsterdam merchants petition the States General for exclusive trading rights in the New Netherland colony.
• 1582: Due to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, this date does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
• 1531: Huldrych Zwingli is killed in battle with the Roman Catholic cantons of Switzerland.
• 1311: The Ordinances of 1311 are published, imposing a series of regulations upon King Edward II of England by the peerage and clergy.
• 1142: A peace treaty between the Jin dynasty and Southern Song dynasty is formally ratified when a Jin envoy visits the Song court during the Jin-Song wars.
• 1138: A massive earthquake strikes Aleppo.