11th May is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years). 234 days remain until the end of the year. Find out some of the important events that occurred on this day, 11th May, in history.

 

Historical events

330 — Constantinople (Byzantium) becomes the capital of the Roman Empire.

868 — The Diamond Sutra, the world’s oldest surviving, dated, printed, book printed in Chinese and made into a scroll.

1189 — Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and 100,000 crusaders depart Regensburg for the Third Crusade.

1310 — Fifty-four members of the Knights Templar are burned at the stake in France for being heretics.

1421 — Jews are expelled from Styria Austria.

1502 — Explorer of the New World Christopher Columbus begins his fourth and last trip to the “Indies”.

1674 — The Netherlands and Cologne sign a peace treaty.

1751 — Dr Thomas Bond and the United States founding father Benjamin Franklin found the Pennsylvania Hospital.

1752 — First US fire insurance policy issued in Philadelphia.

1792 — Columbia River discovered and named by US Captain Robert Gray.

 

11th May in the 19th Century

1800 — French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck gives a lecture first outlining his theories of evolution at the Muséum national d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France.

1812 — Waltz introduced into English ballrooms. Some observers consider it disgusting and immoral.

1812 — John Bellingham assassinates British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in the lobby of the House of Commons, London. Only one British Prime Minister has ever been assassinated, a fact that brought the only claim to fame for Spencer Perceval. Ironically, descendants of both are later elected to Parliament at the same time.

1816 — American Bible Society forms.

1820 — Launch of HMS Beagle, the ship that would later take a young Charles Darwin on his famous scientific voyage.

1833 — “Lady-of-the-Lake” strikes iceberg and sinks in North Atlantic; kills 215.

1893 — Henri Desgrange establishes the world’s first bicycle world record, travelling 35.325 km an hour.

 

11th May in the 20th Century

1907 — Bank of San Francisco incorporated.

1924 — Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and automobile engineer and inventor Karl Benz and Cie begin their first joint venture. They later merged into Mercedes-Benz.

1942 — Author and Nobel Laureate William Faulkner’s collections of short stories, “Go Down, Moses”, published.

1949 — By a vote of 37-12, Israel becomes the 59th member of the United Nations.

1949 — Siam renames itself Thailand.

1956 — Singer and cultural icon Elvis Presley’s first entry on UK charts with “Heartbreak Hotel”.

1972 — Musician and Beatle John Lennon says FBI tapped his phone on D**k Cavett Show.

1975 — Natalie Cole releases her debut album “Inseparable”, wins 2 Grammys.

1985 — Pop star Madonna’s “Crazy For You” single goes #1.

1987 — First heart-lung transplant takes place in Baltimore. Doctors in Baltimore transplanted the heart and lungs of an auto accident victim to a patient who gave up his own heart to another recipient. Clinton House, the nation’s first living heart donor, dies 14 months later.

1988 — France performs a nuclear test.

 

11th May in the 21st Century

2006 — A Chinese version of a Wikipedia-like website called Baidupedia launches in China. The American website Wikipedia had been growing in popularity in China until the government banned it in 2005. Baidupedia featured a similar format of a user-created encyclopedia. However, it underwent much heavier self-censorship in order to stay in good standing with the Chinese government.

2007 — 265th Pope Benedict XVI canonizes the first Brazilian-born saint, Frei Galvão.

2010 — David Cameron becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after forming a coalition government between the Liberal Democrats and his own Conservative Party.

2013 — Bayern Munich set a new Bundesliga points record of 91.

2013 — Barcelona wins its fourth La Liga title in four years.

2015 — A record price for a work of art at auction: Pablo Picasso’s The Women of Algiers (Version ‘O’) sells for US$179.3 million at Christie’s in New York.

2018 — Mass murder-suicide in Margaret River, Australia, grandfather shoots six members of his family and himself.

2018 — Most popular names in the US for 2017 revealed as Emma for girls, Liam for boys.