On This Day — 11 July
2000s
2021
Virgin Galactic launches its founder, Richard Branson, into space, the first company ever to do so.
Virgin Galactic
2015
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán escapes from the maximum security Altiplano prison in Mexico, his second escape.
El Chapo
2011
Ninety-eight containers of explosives self-detonate killing 13 people in Zygi, Cyprus.
Evangelos Florakis Naval Base explosion
2010
The Islamist militia group Al-Shabaab carries out multiple suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, killing 74 people and injuring 85 others.
Islamism
2010
In Johannesburg, Spain defeat the Netherlands 1–0 after extra time to win their first FIFA World Cup title.
Spain national football team
2006
Mumbai train bombings: 209 people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India.
2006 Mumbai train bombings
1900s
1995
Yugoslav Wars: Srebrenica massacre begins, lasting until 22 July.
Yugoslav Wars
1991
Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 261 passengers and crew on board.
Nigeria Airways Flight 2120
1990
Oka Crisis: First Nations land dispute in Quebec begins.
Oka Crisis
1983
A TAME airline Boeing 737-200 crashes near Cuenca, Ecuador, killing all 119 passengers and crew on board.
TAME
1982
Italy defeats West Germany 3–1 to win the FIFA World Cup.
Italy national football team
1979
America's first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
Skylab
1978
Los Alfaques disaster: A truck carrying liquid gas crashes and explodes at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain killing 216 tourists.
Los Alfaques disaster
1977
Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated in 1968, is posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Martin Luther King Jr.
1973
Varig Flight 820 crashes near Paris on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on board. In response, the FAA bans smoking in airplane lavatories.
Varig Flight 820
1972
The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts.
World Chess Championship 1972
1971
The nationalization of all large copper mines in Chile is completed.
Chilean nationalization of copper
1962
First transatlantic satellite television transmission.
Satellite television
1962
Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth.
Apollo program
1960
France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso) and Niger.
Republic of Dahomey
1960
Congo Crisis: The State of Katanga breaks away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Congo Crisis
1960
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States.
To Kill a Mockingbird
1957
Prince Karim Husseini Aga Khan IV inherits the office of Imamat as the 49th Imam of Shia Imami Ismai'li worldwide, after the death of Sir Sultan Mahommed Shah Aga Khan III.
Aga Khan IV
1950
Pakistan joins the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank.
Pakistan
1947
The Exodus 1947 heads to Palestine from France.
SS Exodus
1943
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak.
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia
1943
World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily: German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily.
Allied invasion of Sicily
1941
The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party holds its first congress in Nkana.
Northern Rhodesian Labour Party
1940
World War II: Vichy France regime is formally established. Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of the French State.
World War II
1936
The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic.
Robert F. Kennedy Bridge
1934
Engelbert Zaschka of Germany flies his large human-powered aircraft, the Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft, about 20 meters at Berlin Tempelhof Airport without assisted take-off.
Engelbert Zaschka
1924
Eric Liddell won the gold medal in 400m at the 1924 Paris Olympics, after refusing to run in the heats for 100m, his favoured distance, on a Sunday.
Eric Liddell
1922
The Hollywood Bowl opens.
Hollywood Bowl
1921
A truce in the Irish War of Independence comes into effect.
Irish War of Independence
1921
The Red Army captures Mongolia from the White Army and establishes the Mongolian People's Republic.
Red Army
1921
Former president of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the only person ever to hold both offices.
President of the United States
1920
In the East Prussian plebiscite the local populace decides to remain with Weimar Germany.
1920 East Prussian plebiscite
1919
The eight-hour day and free Sunday become law for workers in the Netherlands.
Eight-hour day movement
1914
Babe Ruth makes his debut in Major League Baseball.
Babe Ruth
1914
The US Navy launches the USS Nevada (BB-36) as its first standard-type battleship.
USS Nevada (BB-36)
1906
Murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in the United States, inspiration for Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy.
Murder of Grace Brown
1800s
1899
Fiat founded by Giovanni Agnelli in Turin, Italy.
Fiat
1897
Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon.
Salomon August Andrée
1893
The first cultured pearl is obtained by Kōkichi Mikimoto.
Pearl
1893
A revolution led by the liberal general and politician José Santos Zelaya takes over state power in Nicaragua.
Revolution
1889
Tijuana, Mexico, is founded.
Tijuana
1882
The British Mediterranean Fleet begins the Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt as part of the Anglo-Egyptian War.
Mediterranean Fleet
1864
American Civil War: Battle of Fort Stevens; Confederate forces attempt to invade Washington, D.C.
American Civil War
1848
Waterloo railway station in London opens.
London Waterloo station
1836
The Fly-fisher's Entomology is published by Alfred Ronalds. The book transformed the sport and went to many editions.
The Fly-fisher's Entomology
1833
Noongar Australian aboriginal warrior Yagan, wanted for the murder of white colonists in Western Australia, is killed.
Noongar
1804
A duel occurs in which the Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.
Burr–Hamilton duel
1801
French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons makes his first comet discovery. In the next 27 years he discovers another 36 comets, more than any other person in history.
Jean-Louis Pons
Before 1800
1798
The United States Marine Corps is re-established; they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War.
United States Marine Corps
1796
The United States takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain under terms of the Jay Treaty.
Detroit
1789
Jacques Necker is dismissed as France's Finance Minister sparking the Storming of the Bastille.
Jacques Necker
1735
Mathematical calculations suggest that it is on this day that dwarf planet Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune for the last time before 1979.
Dwarf planet
1616
Samuel de Champlain returns to Quebec.
Samuel de Champlain
1576
While exploring the North Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage, Martin Frobisher sights Greenland, mistaking it for the hypothesized (but non-existent) island of "Frisland".
Atlantic Ocean
1476
Giuliano della Rovere is appointed bishop of Coutances.
Pope Julius II
1410
Ottoman Interregnum: Süleyman Çelebi defeats his brother Musa Çelebi outside the Ottoman capital, Edirne.
Ottoman Interregnum
1405
Ming admiral Zheng He sets sail to explore the world for the first time.
Ming dynasty
1346
Charles IV, Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia, is elected King of the Romans.
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
1302
Battle of the Golden Spurs (Guldensporenslag in Dutch): A coalition around the Flemish cities defeats the king of France's royal army.
Battle of the Golden Spurs
1174
Baldwin IV, 13, becomes King of Jerusalem, with Raymond III, Count of Tripoli as regent and William of Tyre as chancellor.
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem
911
Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy.
AD 911
813
Byzantine emperor Michael I, under threat by conspiracies, abdicates in favor of his general Leo the Armenian, and becomes a monk (under the name Athanasius).
Michael I Rangabe