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“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Wikiquote (Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience. King has become a national icon in the history of American progressivism.)
July 11th, 472
Roman Empire:
472 - After being besieged in Rome by his own generals, Western Roman Emperor Anthemius is captured in the Old St. Peter's Basilica and put to death.
Wikipedia Image: Relief from a 3rd-century sarcophagus depicting a battle between Romans and Germanic warriors; the central figure is perhaps the emperor Hostilian / Depiction of the Menorah on the Arch of Titus in Rome.
July 11th, 911
Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte: between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy is signed.
Wikipedia Painting: Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte; Edward the Confessor (1005; 1043-1066), credit nmu.edu ● The cliff formations of Étretat, credit Joe Ritchie, Flickr.
July 11th, 1174
Crusades
1174 - Baldwin IV of Jerusalem becomes King of Jerusalem, with Raymond III of Tripoli and William of Tyre as chancellor.
Wikipedia Image: The Siege of Antioch, from a 15th-century miniature; After the successful siege of Jerusalem in 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the First Crusade, became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem; Baldwin I of Jerusalem; Medieval image of Peter the Hermit, leading knights, soldiers and women toward Jerusalem during the First Crusade; The Battle of Ager Sanguinis, 1337 miniature; Pope Innocent III excommunicating the Albigensians, Massacre against the Albigensians by the crusaders; The capture of Jerusalem marked the First Crusade's success.
Crusades: Battle of Montgisard; 1177, by Charles Philippe Larivière.
July 11th, 1302
Franco-Flemish War: Battle of the Golden Spurs (Guldensporenslag in Dutch): a coalition around the Flemish cities defeats the king of France's royal army.
Wikipedia Painting:Battle of the Golden Spurs 1302, from the 14th century.
July 11th, 1346
Charles IV of Luxembourg is elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
Wikipedia Photo: Monument of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor ● Charles bridge in Prague, Czech republic From wiki: The Charles Bridge is a famous historical bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic.
July 11th, 1405
China - Ming Dynasty:
1405 - Ming admiral Zheng He sets sail to explore the world for the first time.
Wikipedia Photo: China from NASA Wordwind Satellite; © Great Wall of China, credit National Geographic; LongJi Terrace, credit National Geographic; Great Bear Rainforest, credit Paul Nicklen, National Geographic; Platoons of clay soldiers were buried with China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di, (required a labor force of 700,000 to build), credit O. Louis Mazzatenta, National Geographic.
July 11th, 1798
United States Marine Corps
1798 - The United States Marine Corps is re-established; they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War.
Wikipedia Photo: Marine Corps War Memorial, The statue of the Iwo Jima soldiers stands out clearly against the night sky in the Rosslyn area of Arlington, Virginia, by Catie Drew.
July 11th, 1801
French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons made his first comet discovery. In the next 27 years he discovered another 36 comets, more than any other person in history.
Wikipedia Comet Hale–Bopp, as seen on 29 March 1997 in Pazin, Croatia
July 11th, 1804
1804 - A duel occurs in which the Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.
Wikipedia Image: Alexander Hamilton hated Aaron Burr (His attacks on the future Vice-President were relentless for years - During those years Burr seems to have either ignored Hamilton or was simply too busy with his own intrigues to care, but all this changed in 1804 - Burr lost his election for Governor of New York, and Alexander Hamilton was one of the reasons - A letter appeared in the Albany register which proclaimed Burr was “a dangerous man who ought not to be trusted” - Not remarkable for the times until the letter writer declared 'I could detail to you a still more despicable opinion which General Hamilton has expressed of Mr. Burr'). Burr called Hamilton out and Hamilton agreed to an “interview” (duel). On the morning of July 11, 1804, the men settled their differences as Vice-President Aaron Burr put a one ounce slug into Alexander Hamilton’s liver. Hamilton died the next day.
July 11th, 1859
Westminster's Big Ben rang for the first time in London.
Wikipedia Photo: Close-Up of the Clock Face of Big Ben Houses of Parliament Westminster London England; The Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament
July 11th, 1864
American Civil War:
1864 - Battle of Fort Stevens; Confederate forces attempt to invade Washington, D.C.
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.
July 11th, 1882
1882 Anglo-Egyptian War:, British Mediterranean fleet begins the Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt.
Wikipedia Photo: Bombardment of Alexandria "Well Done Condor" by Charles Dixon
July 11th, 1893
The first cultured Pearl is obtained by Kokichi Mikimoto.
Wikipedia Photo: Kokichi Mikimoto, father of the modern cultured pearl.
July 11th, 1895
The Lumière brothers demonstrate film technology to scientists.
Wikipedia Photo: Auguste and Louis Lumière (Auguste Lumière (left) and Louis Lumière (right))
July 11th, 1906
The Gillette-Brown murder inspires Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy.
Wikipedia Photo: George Stevens' A Place in the Sun. Upon its release in 1951, Elizabeth Taylor was hailed for her performance as Angela Vickers. The film, based on Theodore Dreiser's novel, An American Tragedy, was an indictment of "the American dream"
July 11th, 1914
Babe Ruth's Major league baseball.
Wikipedia Photo: Babe Ruth, Outfielder / Pitcher, best known as 'Babe' Ruth and nicknamed 'the Bambino' and 'the Sultan of Swat', an American baseball player who spent 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) playing for three teams (1914–1935)
July 11th, 1940
World War II:
1940 - The Vichy government is formally established. Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Prime Minister of France.
1943 - Allied invasion of Sicily: German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily.
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.
July 11th, 1943
World War II: Holocaust;
1943 - Massacres of Poles in Volhynia.
Wikipedia Photo: World War II, The Holocaust. Sources: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum USHMM, History 1900s, Internet Masters of Education Technology IMET, Techno Friends, Veterans Today, Concern.
July 11th, 1947
British mandate for Palestine, SS Exodus: ship that carried Jewish emigrants, that left France and heads to Palestine.
Wikipedia Photo: The “Exodus 1947,” a ship filled with Jewish Holocaust survivors who wanted to immigrate to Palestine, after it was seized by the British Navy in a deadly struggle at sea and brought to Haifa in July, 1947.
July 11th, 1960
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published.
Wikipedia Photo: o Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - First edition cover - late printing
July 11th, 1972
World Chess Championship 1972: The first game between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts.
Wikipedia Photo: World Chess Championship 1972; ● Bobby Fischer (right) plays Boris Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972. ● Photograph: J Walter Green, AP
July 11th, 1979
America's first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
Wikipedia Photo: Skylab program: launch on Saturn V; Skylab above the Earth as seen during Skylab 4 mission, credit NASA.
July 11th, 1991
Aviation accidents and incidents:
1991 - Cubana de Aviación Antonov An-24 crashes into the Caribbean off southeast Cuba killing 44 people.
1991 - Nigeria Airways Flight 2120; Nationair DC-8 during an emergency landing at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing 261.
1983 - TAME 737-200 crash; A Boeing 737 crashes into hilly terrain after a tail strike in Cuenca, Ecuador, claiming 119 lives.
1973 - Varig Flight 820; crashes near Paris, France on approach to Orly Airport.
Wikipedia Photo: ● Pan AM 747 ● U.S. Airways flight 1549 also known as the "Miracle on the Hudson" navigates an exit ramp near Burlington, New Jersey, June 5, 2011 ● Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane as a ferry pulls up to it after it landed in the Hudson River in New York, Reuters ● US Airways plane crashes into New York Hudson River, Photo: AP
July 11th, 2011
Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2011 - Evangelos Florakis Naval Base explosion;Evangelos Florakis Naval Base explosion: Ninety-eight containers of explosives self-detonate killing 13 people in Zygi, Cyprus.
2010 - Kampala attacks (2010); At least 74 people are killed in twin suicide bombings at two locations in Kampala, Uganda Kampala, Uganda.
2006 - Mumbai train bombings (2006); 209 people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India.
1995 - Srebrenica massacre; is carried out.
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)
July 11th, 2012
Astronomers announce the discovery of S/2012 P 1, the fifth moon of Pluto.
Wikipedia Image: Pluto, center and it's previously known moon Charon, below Pluto and right of center, shine brightly. Two newly discovered moons appear more faintly to the right of the pair. ● Artist's concept above shows the Pluto system from the surface of one of the candidate moons. credit: NASA