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December 11 in history

166 sourced entries recorded on December 11, from 17 BCE to 2024 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 220Cao Pi receives the abdication of Emperor Xian of Han and proclaims himself emperor of Cao Wei. This ends the Han dynasty, the former emperor being created Duke of Shanyang.source
  • 361Julian becomes sole emperor of the Roman Empire; he rules from Constantinople, and tries to restore paganism. Constantius II is buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles.source
  • 630Conquest of Mecca: A Muslim army (10,000 men) marches on Mecca, which surrenders. Muhammad takes the city from the Qurayshsource
  • 1192Returning from the Third Crusade, Richard I of England is taken prisoner by Leopold V, Duke of Austria, and secured at Dürnstein.source
  • 1282Battle of Orewin Bridge: English forces (some 6,000 men) under Edward I of England defeat a Welsh army near Cilmeri. Llywelyn ap Gruffudd is killed.source
  • 1317King Birger Magnusson has his brothers, Dukes Eric Magnusson and Valdemar Magnusson, captured and thrown into a dungeon during the Nyköping Banquet – as a revenge for their imprisonment of him in the Håtuna games (see 1306). As the brothers soon starve to death in the dungeon, their followers rebel against Birger, throwing Sweden into civil war.source
  • 1327Simon Mepeham is elected as England's new Archbishop of Canterbury as the candidate of the Earl of Lancaster, leader of the regency council. Mepeham defeats the candidate supported by Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer, and soon works with King Edward III to end Mortimer's power in England.source
  • 1393After a three week long siege, the city of Takrit, described in contemporary accounts as "a bandit stronghold said to be impregnable," falls to the troops of the conqueror Timur.source
  • 1445At a monastery in Neuwerk in Halle, with the mediation of the Landgrave Louis II of Hesse, the Archbishop Frederick III of Magdeburg, and the Margrave Frederick II of Brandenburg, William III, Duke of Luxembourg and his brother Frederick II, Elector of Saxony, the two surviving sons of Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, make a final attempt to agree on the division of lands in Thuringia which they had inherited from their father's cousin, Frederick IV, Landgrave of Thuringia. Despite the mediation, Frederick of Saxony and William of Luxembourg are not able to agree and the Saxon Fratricidal War begins a few months later.source
  • 1489Jeannetto de Tassis is appointed Chief Master of Postal Services in Innsbruck; his descendants, the Thurn und Taxis Family, later run much of the postal system of Europe.source
  • 1519At Toruń, the members of the Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland vote to approve a war against the Teutonic Knights and to assess new taxes to recruit mercenary troops.source
  • 1543The Parliament of Scotland votes against ratifying the Treaty of Greenwich that had been signed with England on July 1.source
  • 1555Cardinal Reginald Pole is made a cardinal-priest in the Roman Catholic Church and made the administrator of the See of Canterbury in England, though he will not become the new Archbishop of Canterbury until the following March 20.source
  • 1572The Siege of Haarlem is begun by the Duke of Alva, Spanish Army commander in the Netherlands, and lasts until July 13, 1573.source
  • 1573The Governor of Portuguese India issues an edict depriving Hindu followers of most rights, including the right to receive Jonoa, the share of the village community income.source
  • 1602A surprise attack by forces under the command of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and his brother-in-law, Philip III of Spain, is repelled by the citizens of Geneva (this actually takes place after midnight, in the early morning of December 12, but commemorations/celebrations on Fête de l'Escalade are usually held on December 11 or the closest weekend).source
  • 1605King Sigismund III of Poland marries his former sister-in-law, Constance, daughter of Charles II, Archduke of Austria, after Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor refuses to permit the King to marry Anna of Tyrol. King Sigismund, a widow, had previously been married to Constance's older sister, Anne.source
  • 1618Russia and Poland sign the Truce of Deulino.source
  • 1628Muhammad Imaduddin I becomes the Sultan of Maldives and reigns for the next 29 years.source
  • 1640a crowd of 1,500 Londoners presents the Root and Branch petition to the Long Parliament, calling for the abolition of episcopacy in the Church of England.source
  • 1654Sir William Petty wins the contract from the Commonwealth of England to make a survey of Ireland.source
  • 1658Abaza Hasan Pasha, an Ottoman provincial governor who is attempting to depose the Grand Vizier, wins a battle at the Turkish city of Ilgin, defeating loyalist forces led by Murtaza Pasha. The victory is the last for the rebels. Two months later (February 16, 1659) Abaza Hasan is assassinated after being invited to peace negotiations by the loyalists.source
  • 1675Antonio de Vea expedition enters San Rafael Lake in western Patagonia.source
  • 1676first performance of William Wycherley's play The Plain Dealer.source
  • 1682William Penn meets with Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore for the first discussion of the boundary between the colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland, fixed at 40 degrees north. Recognizing that 40° north would remove Pennsylvania's access to the sea, Penn proposes a purchase of some of Maryland's territory.source
  • 1688Having led his army to Salisbury and been deserted by his troops, James VII and II attempts to flee to France.source
  • 1688the defeated James II attempts to flee to France but is intercepted by fishermen in Kent.source
  • 1697A ball in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles is held to celebrate the Duke of Burgundy and Marie Adélaïde's wedding.source
  • 1732Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Louise are received in Copenhagen and the wedding ceremony is repeated.source
  • 1743Princess Louise of Great Britain, daughter of King George II, weds Frederick, Crown Prince of Denmark and Norway.source
  • 1743The wedding of Crown Prince Frederick (V) and Louise of Great Britain is celebrated at Christiansborg Palace. The couple had already been married by proxy on 10 November in Hanover.source
  • 1743Princess Louise, the King's daughter, marries Frederick, Crown Prince of Denmark and Norway.source
  • 1753Major George Washington and British guide Christopher Gist arrive at Fort Le Boeuf (near modern-day Waterford, Pennsylvania and the city of Erie), a French fortress built in territory claimed by the British Crown Colony of Virginia. Washington presents the fort's commander, French Army Captain Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, a message from Virginia's Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie advising that "The lands upon the Ohio River are so notoriously known to be the property of the Crown of Great Britain that it is a matter of equal concern and surprise... to hear that a body of French fortresses and making settlements upon that river, within His Majesty's dominions," adding that "It becomes my duty to require your peaceable departure." Captain Legardeur provides a reply for Washington to take to Dinwiddie, declaring that the rights of France's King Louis XV to the land "are incontestable", and refuses to back down, leading to beginning of the French and Indian War in 1754.source
  • 1785An edict is issued limiting Masonic lodges throughout the Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Joseph II. With the exception of Vienna, Budapest and Prague, no Empire province may have more than one lodge.source
  • 1789The University of North Carolina, the oldest public university in the United States, is founded.source
  • 1807December 5–11 – Napoleonic Wars: Raid on Griessie – A British Royal Navy squadron attacks the Dutch port of Griessie on Java in the Dutch East Indies, eliminating the last Dutch naval force in the Pacific and concluding the Java campaign of 1806–1807.source
  • 1816Indiana is admitted as the 19th U.S. state.source
  • 1816Indiana is admitted as the 19th U.S. state (see History of Indiana).source
  • 1816December 9–21 – The American Colonization Society is established, to support the emigration of free African Americans to Africa.source
  • 1817William Tucker (see 1815) returns to Otago Harbour from Hobart on the Sophia, Captain Kelly, with other intending settlers. They later land at Whareakeake but Tucker and 2 others are killed and eaten, probably as part of the War of the Shirt (see 1810). In retaliation Kelly fires on the Māori, killing as many as 70, and destroys the kāinga (village) at nearby Otakou. The beach is subsequently given the name Murdering Beach.source
  • 1818Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald takes command of the Chilean Navy.source
  • 1834The Sixth Xhosa War is characterized by severe clashes between white settlers and Bantu peoples in Cape Colony; Dutch-speaking settlers colonize the area north of Orange River.source
  • 1844Health of Towns Association formed to press for public health improvements.source
  • 1845First Anglo-Sikh War: Sikh army crosses the Sutlej in the Punjab.source
  • 1851Victor Hugo's exile in Belgium begins.source
  • 1855Ignacio Comonfort (1812–1863) becomes President of Mexico.source
  • 1865The United States Congress creates the United States House Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on Banking and Commerce, reducing the tasks of the House Committee on Ways and Means.source
  • 1865The U.S. Congress creates the House Appropriations Committee and the Committee on Banking and Commerce, reducing the tasks of the Committee on Ways and Means.source
  • 1878The British present an ultimatum to the Zulu king Cetshwayo, triggering the Anglo-Zulu War.source
  • 1886London Association football club Arsenal, founded as Dial Square by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, play their first match (on the Isle of Dogs). The club is renamed Royal Arsenal soon afterwards, supposedly on December 25.source
  • 1895Svante Arrhenius becomes the first scientist to deliver quantified data about the sensitivity of global climate to atmospheric carbon dioxide (the "Greenhouse effect"), as he presents his paper "On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air Upon The Temperature of the Ground" to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.source
  • 1899Second Boer War: Battle of Magersfontein – Boers defeat British forces trying to relieve the Siege of Kimberley.source
  • 1905December 7–18 – Moscow Uprising: A Bolshevik-led revolt is suppressed by the army.source
  • 1905In support of the Moscow Uprising, the Council of Workers' Deputies of Kiev stages a mass uprising, establishing the Shuliavka Republic in the city, December 12–16.source
  • 1910Lars Olsen Skrefsrud, missionary and language researcher in India (born 1840).source
  • 1911Russian Invasion of Tabriz and two other northern cities of Iran begins.source
  • 1915December 4–18 – The 'Peace Ship' Oscar II chartered by industrialist Henry Ford sails from Hoboken, New Jersey to Oslo on an independent and eventually unsuccessful mission to broker a peace conference.source
  • 1915December 9–14 – Sankebetsu brown bear incident: was the worst bear attack in Japanese history, killing seven settlers in Rokusensawa, Sankebetsu, Tomamae, Rumoi, Hokkaidō, Japan.source
  • 1917WWI: General Edmund Allenby leads units of the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force into Jerusalem on foot through, the Jaffa Gate.source
  • 1922The trial of Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters ends at the Old Bailey in London, for the murder of Thompson's husband; both are found guilty and sentenced to hang.source
  • 1925Bernardino Machado takes over as Presidentsource
  • 1925Pope Pius XI's encyclical Quas primas, on the Feast of Christ the King, is promulgated.source
  • 1931The Parliament of the United Kingdom enacts the Statute of Westminster, which establishes a status of legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the Commonwealth of Australia, Canada, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland, the Dominion of New Zealand and the Union of South Africa.source
  • 1936Taking the opportunity to free itself further from ties to the United Kingdom, the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State passes the Constitution (Amendment No. 27) Act 1936, removing most powers from the office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State, and the Executive Authority (External Relations) Act 1936 (signed into law December 12), assenting to the abdication and restricting the power of the monarch in relation to Ireland to international affairs.source
  • 1936Edward VIII abdication crisis: The British Parliament passes His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 on behalf of the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The King performs his last act as sovereign by giving Royal Assent to the Act, and his brother Prince Albert, Duke of York, becomes King, reigning as King George VI. The former King, now HRH Prince Edward, makes a broadcast to the nation explaining his decision to abdicate, and leaves the country for Austria.source
  • 1937Italy withdraws from the League of Nations.source
  • 1941Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The U.S. responds in kind.source
  • 1941World War II – Italy, in conjunction with Germany, declare war on the United States, following the United States declaration of war on Japan and the attack on Pearl Harbor.source
  • 1941Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") delivers her first propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.source
  • 1946UNICEF (the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) is founded.source
  • 1948December 11–12 – Malayan Emergency: Batang Kali massacre: Scots Guards shoot 24 Chinese villagers in Malaya.source
  • 1959Georgian-born Australian amateur ocean rower Michael 'Tarzan' Fomenko arrives in Dutch New Guinea having paddled a dugout canoe from Queensland for months via the islands of the Torres Strait for supplies. National papers such as The Canberra Times had been following his progress throughout.source
  • 1959Charles Robberts Swart is appointed the 11th Governor-General of the Union of South Africa.source
  • 1961The Vietnam War officially began for the United States, as the USS Core arrived at Saigon Harbor. The ship brought in two helicopter units, the 8th Transportation Company from Fort Bragg and the 57th Transportation Company from Fort Lewis, with 33 H-21 Shawnee helicopters, and 400 U.S. Army personnel.source
  • 1961Adolf Eichmann is pronounced guilty of crimes against humanity for his part in The Holocaust by a war crimes tribunal of three Israeli judges. On December 15 he is sentenced to death.source
  • 1964Che Guevara addresses the United Nations General Assembly. A bazooka attack is launched at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City.source
  • 1967Supersonic airliner Concorde is unveiled in Toulouse, France.source
  • 1967The Concorde aircraft is unveiled in Toulouse.source
  • 1967The 6.6 Mw Koynanagar earthquake shook western India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing 177–180 and injuring 2,272.source
  • 1968William Craig, NI Minister of Home Affairs, is dismissed from the Northern Ireland cabinet.source
  • 1969Korean Air Lines YS-11 hijackingsource
  • 1969Korean Air Lines YS-11 hijackingsource
  • 1971Nihat Erim forms the new government of Turkey (34th government; Nihat Erim has served two times as prime minister).source
  • 1972Apollo 17 lands on the Moon.source
  • 1973Tal Berman, Israeli TV host and Radio broadcaster.source
  • 1978Iranian Revolution: Two million demonstrate against the Shah in Iran.source
  • 1978Ahmet Enünlü wins gold in Mr. Universe bodybuilding competition.source
  • 1978Lufthansa heist: Six men rob a Lufthansa cargo facility in New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport.source
  • 1981Boxing: Muhammad Ali loses to Trevor Berbick; this proves to be Ali's last-ever fight.source
  • 1981El Mozote massacre: In El Salvador, army units kill 900 civilians.source
  • 1982Swedish pop group ABBA make their final public performance on the British TV programme The Late, Late Breakfast Show.source
  • 1983Hussain Muhammad Ershad takes charge as the President of Bangladesh.source
  • 1988SES launches its first satellite, Astra 1A, from the Centre Spatial Guyanais, in French Guiana.source
  • 1989The International Trans-Antarctica Expedition, a group of six explorers from six nations, reaches the South Pole.source
  • 1990Fall of communism in Albania: Ramiz Alia, leader of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania, following massive demonstrations by students and workers, announces that a free national election will be held next spring of 1991 with political parties other than the Party of Labour permitted; an opposition Democratic Party is formed the following day.source
  • 1990A multi-vehicle traffic collision known as the 1990 Interstate 75 fog disaster occurs; 12 deaths and 42 were caused by this eventsource
  • 1993One of the three blocks of the Highland Towers near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia collapses, killing 48.source
  • 1994Russian president Boris Yeltsin orders troops into Chechnya.source
  • 1994A bomb, allegedly planted by Ramzi Yousef, explodes aboard Philippine Airlines Flight 434 bound for Tokyo, killing a Japanese businessman. The bombing, with another one at a movie theater in Manila on Dec. 1, is part of a test run for Project Bojinka.source
  • 1996Tung Chee-hwa is appointed to become the new leader of Hong Kong after it reverts to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997, at the end of a 99-year lease to the United Kingdom.source
  • 1997The Kyoto Protocol is adopted by a United Nations committee.source
  • 1998Thai Airways International Flight 261 crashes upon attempted landing at Surat Thani International Airport, killing 101, the second-deadliest air crash in Thailand.source
  • 199950 killed as Bangladesh ferry capsizes.source
  • 2003December 5–13 – 2003 SEA Games was held. This was the first time Vietnam staged the SEA Games.source
  • 2006Mexican drug war: Felipe Calderón sends the Mexican military to combat the drug cartels and put down the violence in the state of Michoacán, initiating Mexico's drug war.source
  • 2006Analog terrestrial television is switched off permanently in the Netherlands.source
  • 2008Bernard Madoff is arrested for securities fraud after he was turned in by his sons for operating the largest Ponzi scheme in history, later known as the Madoff investment scandal.source
  • 2009December 7–18 – The UNFCCC's 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference is held in Copenhagen, Denmark.source
  • 2012December 6–16 – The 2012 FIFA Club World Cup is held in Japan and won by Sport Club Corinthians Paulista.source
  • 2015OpenAI, a non-profit artificial intelligence research company, is founded.source
  • 2019December 2–13 – The 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference takes place in Madrid, Spain, after Chilean President Sebastián Piñera announced in October that his country could not host the conference due to political unrest in the country.source
  • 2019The World Trade Organization is left unable to intervene in trade disputes after the U.S. blocks the appointment of new panel members.source
  • 2019Music legend Baaba Maal, who was born in Podor promises to fight to stop the desertification in the Sahel by planting trees.source
  • 2021New York City FC defeat the Portland Timbers at Providence Park in Portland, Oregon 5–3 on penalties after a 1–1 draw, and win MLS Cup title for the first time in their history.source
  • 2021December 10–December 11 – A late season tornado outbreak occurs in the Southern and Midwestern United States, causing major damage and killing at least 94 people. One of the longest-tracked tornadoes in history occurred, which impacted western Kentucky, particularly Mayfield.source
  • 2023December 10–12 – 2023 Egyptian presidential election: Incumbent President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi wins a third term with 89.6 percent of the vote in the election.source
  • 2024FIFA announces that Morocco, Portugal and Spain will jointly host the 2030 World Cup, with anniversary matches to be held in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, while Saudi Arabia is confirmed as the host for 2034.source

Births

  • 17 BCEGnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, son of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Antonia Major (died AD 40)source
  • 1445Eberhard I, Duke of Württemberg (died 1496)source
  • 1465Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Japanese shōgun (died 1489)source
  • 1475Pope Leo X (died 1521)source
  • 1529Fulvio Orsini, Italian humanist historian (died 1600)source
  • 1595Hŏ Mok, Korean politician, poet and scholar (died 1682)source
  • 1668Apostolo Zeno, Italian poet and journalist (died 1750)source
  • 1712Francesco Algarotti, Venetian philosopher (died 1764)source
  • 1725George Mason, American founding father (died 1792)source
  • 1750Isaac Shelby, Welsh-descended American politician (born in US; died 1826)source
  • 1781Sir David Brewster, Scottish physicist (died 1868)source
  • 1803Hector Berlioz, French composer (died 1869)source
  • 1810Alfred de Musset, French poet (died 1857)source
  • 1843Robert Koch, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 1910)source
  • 1918Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2008)source
  • 1935Pranab Mukherjee, Indian politician, 13th President of India (died 2020)source
  • 1943John Kerry, American politician, 68th U.S. Secretary of Statesource

Deaths

  • 861al-Fath ibn Khaqan, chief confidante and councillor of al-Mutawakkilsource
  • 861Al-Mutawakkil, Abbasid caliph (born 822), On the night of 11 December, about one hour after midnight, the Turk guards burst in the chamber where the Caliph and al-Fath were having supper. Al-Fath was killed trying to protect the Caliph, who was killed next. His son, Al-Muntasir, who now assumed the caliphate, initially claimed that al-Fath had murdered his father, and that he had been killed after; within a short time, however, the official story changed to al-Mutawakkil choking on his drink.source
  • 861Caliph al-Mutawakkil is assassinated by his Turkish guard, starting the period of troubles known as the "Anarchy at Samarra" (861–870). He is succeeded by his son Al-Muntasir, as ruler of the Abbasid Caliphate.source
  • 969Nikephoros II, emperor of the Byzantine Empiresource
  • 969Emperor Nikephoros II is murdered in the royal palace of Boukoleon at Constantinople after a 6-year reign. Former friends have acted on the instructions of his wife Theophano. Nikephoros is succeeded by his nephew John I Tzimiskes, who becomes co-emperor and regent. He sends Theophano into exile to the island of Prinkipo (Prince Islands).source
  • 1066Conan II, duke of Brittanysource
  • 1121Al-Afdal Shahanshah, Fatimid caliph (born 1066)source
  • 1198Averroes (or Ibn Rushd), Arab polymath and physician, dies. He is the author of more than 100 books, for which he is known in the western world as The Commentator and Father of Rationalism.source
  • 1198Averroes, Arab judge and physician (born 1126)source
  • 1282Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, prince of Wales (born 1223)source
  • 1282Michael VIII Palaiologos, Byzantine emperorsource
  • 1291Francesco Lippi, Italian monk and hermit (born 1211)source
  • 1418Louis of Piedmont (born 1364)source
  • 1472Margaret of York, English princess (born 1472)source
  • 1474King Henry IV of Castile (born 1425)source
  • 1582Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, Spanish general (born 1507)source
  • 1610Adam Elsheimer, German artist working in Rome who died at only thirty-two (born 1578)source
  • 1634Fadrique de Toledo, 1st Marquis of Villanueva de Valdueza, Spanish noble and admiral (born 1580)source
  • 1686Louis, Grand Condé, French general (born 1621)source
  • 1704Roger L'Estrange, English pamphleteer, author (born 1616)source
  • 1718December 11 (November 30 Old Style) – King Charles XII of Sweden is killed at the Siege of Fredriksten in the Great Northern War, the last European monarch to die on a battlefield. His death ends the first era of absolute monarchy in Sweden. Five days later, when the news reaches Stockholm, his sister Princess Ulrika Eleonora proclaims herself Queen regnant of Sweden.source
  • 1718December 11 (November 30 Old Style) – King Charles XII of Sweden (shot during siege) (born 1682)source
  • 1737John Strype, English historian and biographer (born 1643)source
  • 1756Maria Amalia, Holy Roman Empress (born 1701)source
  • 1757Colley Cibber, English poet laureate, actor-manager (born 1671)source
  • 1826Queen-Empress Maria Leopoldina, consort of Pedro IV of Portugal & I of Brazil (born 1797)source
  • 1826Maria Leopoldina of Austria, first Empress of Brazilsource
  • 1838Francisco Manuel Trigoso, politician (born 1777).source
  • 1840Emperor Kōkaku of Japan (born 1771)source
  • 1920Burning of Cork in Ireland: British forces set fire to some 5 acres of the centre of Cork, including the City Hall, in reprisal attacks, after a British auxiliary is killed in a guerilla ambush.source
  • 1924Samuel Gompers, American labor leader (born 1850)source
  • 1985Hugh Scrutton is killed outside his Sacramento, California, computer rental store by a Unabomber explosive, becoming the first fatality of the bombing campaign.source