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“The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.”
~ Alexander Hamilton
Wikiquote (Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 – July 12, 1804) was an American politician, statesman, writer, lawyer, and soldier. He was the principal author of the Federalist Papers, the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, the son-in-law of Philip Schuyler, and was killed in a duel by Aaron Burr.)
January 11th, 1055
Byzantine Empire (East Roman Empire):
1055 - Theodora is crowned Empress of the Byzantine Empire.
Wikipedia Image: The Baptism of Constantine painted by Raphael's pupils (1520–1524, fresco, Vatican City, Apostolic Palace); Mural of Saints Cyril and Methodius, 19th century, Troyan Monastery, Bulgaria; Justinian I depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna; The Greek fire was first used by the Byzantine Navy during the Byzantine-Arab Wars (from the Madrid Skylitzes, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid); Alexios I, founder of the Komnenos dynasty.
January 11th, 1158
Vladislav II becomes King of Bohemia.
Wikipedia Image: Bohemia as the heart of Europa regina, 1570.
January 11th, 1693
Earthquake:
1693 - Sicily earthquake; Mount Etna erupts in Sicily, and destroys parts of Sicily and Malta.
1962 - An earthquake induced rock and snow avalanche on Mount Huascaran, Peru causing 4,000 deaths.
Wikipedia Image: Preliminary Determination of Epicenters / Aleppo Syria; Anchorage, Alaska - March 28, 1964 Prince William Sound USA earthquake and tsunami; 8.9 Mega Earthquake Strikes Japan; Tsunami Swirls Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture March 12 2011. credit NOAA / NGDC, NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, USGS, National Geographics.
January 11th, 1787
Timeline of discovery of Solar System planets and their moons: William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
Wikipedia Image: Uranus rings, artist rendition.
January 11th, 1861
American Civil War:
1861 - Alabama secedes from the Union.
1863 - Battle of Fort HindmanBattle (Arkansas Post); Union General John Alexander McClernand and Admiral David Dixon Porter capture the Arkansas River for the Union.
1863 - Action off Galveston Light; CSS Alabama encounters and sinks the USS Hatteras off Galveston Lighthouse in Texas.
Wikipedia Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war.
● Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● Battle of Mobile Bay (1890) by Xanthus Russell Smith.
● Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.
January 11th, 1879
Anglo-Zulu War:
1879 - begins, fought between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom.
Wikipedia Photo: Zambia Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe;
A n'anga (or faith healer) of the majority (70%) Shona people, holding a kudu horn trumpet; Matabele and Zulu warriors, traditions continue to this day in ceremonies for special events.
January 11th, 1908
The Grand Canyon National Park is created.
Wikipedia Photo: Grand Canyon National Park; A view from the South Rim; An aerial view of the Little Colorado River Gorge near East Rim of Grand Canyon; View of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon; South rim in winter.
January 11th, 1917
World War I:
1917 - Kingsland munitions factory explosion; occurs as a result of sabotage.
1919 - Romania reincorporates Transylvania
Post World War I:
1923 - Occupation of the Ruhr; Troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area to force Germany to make its World War I reparation payments.
Wikipedia Photo: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV Tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.III biplanes. National Archives and Records Administration.
January 11th, 1922
First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.
Wikipedia Computer-generated image: Insulin, credit NASA.
January 11th, 1927
Louis B. Mayer, head of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), announces the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, at a banquet in Los Angeles, California.
Wikipedia Photo: Goldwyn's Leo the Lion logo, has become perhaps the most famous movie studio logo in the world; An Academy Award is an award bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors and writers.
January 11th, 1935
Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
Wikipedia Photo: Amelia Earhart in 1935; Amelia Earhart appears above in her flight gear in this undated photo, credit Associated Press; Amelia Earhart and her mother in Boston, when 300,000 turned out to cheer the three flyers who made the non-stop flight across the Atlantic, July 1928; Amelia Earhart sitting on her plane, ca. 1935. George Palmer Putnam Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers, Courtesy of Purdue University Libraries, Karnes Archives and Special Collections; Amelia Earhart and Harpo Marx, dressed as a dog catcher, ca. 1932. George Palmer Putnam Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers, Courtesy of Purdue University Libraries, Karnes Archives and Special Collections; Amelia Earhart standing in front of the propellers on her plane, ca. 1935. George Palmer Putnam Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers, Courtesy of Purdue University Libraries, Karnes Archives and Special Collections; Amelia Earhart with arms spread in front of her plane, ca. February 12, 1937. George Palmer Putnam Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers, Courtesy of Purdue University Libraries, Karnes Archives and Special Collections.
January 11th, 1942
World War II:
1942 - Battle of Kuala Lumpur; Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.
1943 - The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
1943 - Italian-American anarchis Carlo Tresca is assassinated in New York.
Post World War II:
1946 - Enver Hoxha, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Albania, declares the People's Republic of Albania with himself as head of state.
Wikipedia Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.
Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943.
January 11th, 1949
First recorded case of snowfall in Los Angeles, California.
Wikipedia Photo: Greater Los Angeles Skyline
January 11th, 1962
Cold War:
1962 - While tied to its pier in Polyarny, the Soviet submarine B-37 is destroyed when fire breaks out in its torpedo compartent.
Wikipedia Photo: Lockheed C-130 Hercules; RAF Menwith Hill, a large site in the United Kingdom, part of ECHELON and the UKUSA Agreement; New Zealand nuclear test, British nuclear tests near the Malden and Christmas Islands in the mid-Pacific in 1957 and 1958; Nevada nuclear tests, Nevada Division of Environmental Protection Bureau of Federal Facilities.
January 11th, 1964
Surgeon General of the United States Doctor Luther Terry, M.D., publishes the landmark report Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States saying that smoking may be hazardous to health, sparking national and worldwide anti-smoking efforts.
Wikipedia Image: On January 1st, 1971, Cigarette advertisements are banned on American television - 1950's Lucky Strike cigarette ad, courtesy of Cornelia Cotton Gallery; The Marlboro Man is assuredly the most successful and most controversial manly brand icon on the list. Created in 1954 by advertiser Leo Burnett, the Marlboro Man was a lone, rugged cowboy who always had a Marlboro cigarette coolly dangling from his lips; In the 1950s and 1960s, cigarettes as Christmas gifts, Ronald Reagan touting Chesterfield cigarettes; Camel cigarettes, picture of the typical “cool guy” from around the fifties; Camel 1993 Cigarette Ad - Joe Camel Lights Hanging by the Convertible.
January 11th, 1972
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971:
1972 - East Pakistan renames itself Bangladesh.
Wikipedia Image: Map Satellite India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet AR, Bangladesh.
January 11th, 1996
Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Endeavour (Mission STS-72); NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour, marking the start of the 74th Space Shuttle mission and the 10th flight of Endeavour.
Wikipedia Photo: Space Shuttle Discovery credit NASA
Hubble Space Telescope; Artist's concept of the star Fomalhaut and the Jupiter-type planet that the Hubble Space Telescope observed. A ring of debris appears to surround Fomalhaut as well. The planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the 200-million-year-old star every 872 years. credit: ESA, NASA, and L. Calcada (ESO for STScI); Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), Visible Light (2006-04-26); Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) credit NASA.
January 11th, 2008
Bernard Madoff is arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme
Wikipedia Image: New York Magazine Cover | Bernie Madoff, Monster - Guilty of 11 counts of fraud + money laundering.
January 11th, 2017
Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2017 - New York City attempted bombing; A bomb detonated in the New York City Subway, in the Times Square - 42nd Street/Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.
2012 - Aqrab massacre: At least 125 people are killed and up to 200 injured in bombings in the Alawite village of Aqrab, Syria.
Wikipedia Photo: Middle East satellite image, NASA. ● Camels are seen early morning on a beach in the Marina area of Dubai October 16, 2008. (Steve Crisp, Reuters) ● A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic, AFP / GettyImages) ● Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images) ● Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tires and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. (Ben Curtis, AP) ● The Iron Dome defense system fires to interecpt incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov, AP)