Events on December 11 49
Year 861
Assassination of the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil by the Turkish guard, who raise al-Muntasir to the throne. Start of the "Anarchy at Samarra".
Year 969
Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas is assassinated by his wife Theophano and her lover, the later Emperor John I Tzimiskes.
Year 1282
Battle of Orewin Bridge: Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last native Prince of Wales, is killed at Cilmeri, near Builth Wells, in mid-Wales.
Year 1602
A 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. (Commemorated annually by the Fête de l'Escalade.)
Year 1688
Glorious Revolution: James II of England, while trying to flee to France, allegedly throws the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames.
Year 1789
The University of North Carolina is chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly.
Year 1792
French Revolution: King Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by the National Convention.
Year 1815
The U.S. Senate creates a select committee on finance and a uniform national currency, predecessor of the United States Senate Committee on Finance.
Year 1899
Second Boer War: In the Battle of Magersfontein the Boers commanded by general Piet Cronjé inflict a defeat on the forces of the British Empire commanded by Lord Methuen trying to relieve the Siege of Kimberley.
Year 1905
A workers' uprising occurs in Kiev, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire), and establishes the Shuliavka Republic.
Year 1917
World War I: British General Edmund Allenby enters Jerusalem on foot and declares martial law.
Year 1920
Irish War of Independence: In retaliation for a recent IRA ambush, British forces burn and loot numerous buildings in Cork city. Many civilians report being beaten, shot at, robbed and verbally abused by British forces.
Year 1925
Roman Catholic papal encyclical Quas primas introduces the Feast of Christ the King.
Year 1927
Guangzhou Uprising: Communist Red Guards launch an uprising in Guangzhou, China, taking over most of the city and announcing the formation of a Guangzhou Soviet.
Year 1931
Statute of Westminster 1931: The British Parliament establishes legislative equality between the UK and the Dominions of the Commonwealth—Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ireland.
Year 1934
Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the last time.
Year 1936
Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII's abdication as King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India, becomes effective.
Year 1941
World War II: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States, following the Americans' declaration of war on the Empire of Japan in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States, in turn, declares war on them.
Year 1941
World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy suffers its first loss of surface vessels during the Battle of Wake Island.
Year 1946
The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established.
Year 1948
Arab-Israeli War: The United Nations passes General Assembly Resolution 194, creating a Conciliation Commission to mediate the conflict.
Year 1958
French Upper Volta and French Dahomey gain self-government from France, becoming the Republic of Upper Volta and the Republic of Dahomey (now Benin), respectively, and joining the French Community.
Year 1960
French forces crack down in a violent clash with protesters in French Algeria during a visit by French President Charles de Gaulle.
Year 1968
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, featuring the Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull, the Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and the Dirty Mac with Yoko Ono, is filmed in Wembley, London.
Year 1978
The Lufthansa heist is committed by a group led by Lucchese family associate Jimmy Burke. It was the largest cash robbery ever committed on American soil, at that time.
Year 1980
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund) is enacted by the U.S. Congress.
Year 1981
El Mozote massacre: Armed forces in El Salvador kill an estimated 900 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadoran Civil War.
Year 1990
Demonstrations by students and workers across Albania begin, which eventually trigger the fall of communism in Albania.
Year 1994
First Chechen War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders Russian troops into Chechnya.
Year 1994
A bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, en route from Manila, Philippines, to Tokyo, Japan, killing one. The captain is able to safely land the plane.
Year 1998
Thai Airways Flight 261 crashes near Surat Thani Airport, killing 101. The pilot flying the Airbus A310-300 is thought to have suffered spatial disorientation.
Year 2005
Cronulla riots: Thousands of White Australians demonstrate against ethnic violence resulting in a riot against anyone thought to be Lebanese in Cronulla, New South Wales; these are followed up by retaliatory ethnic attacks on Cronulla.
Year 2006
The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust is opened in Tehran, Iran, by then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; nations such as Israel and the United States express concern.
Year 2006
Felipe Calderón, the President of Mexico, launches a military-led offensive to put down the drug cartel violence in the state of Michoacán. This effort is often regarded as the first event in the Mexican Drug War.
Year 2007
Insurgency in the Maghreb: Two car bombs explode in Algiers, Algeria, one near the Supreme Constitutional Court and the other near the offices of the United Nations.
Year 2008
Bernard Madoff is arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
Year 2012
At least 125 people are killed and up to 200 injured in bombings in the Alawite village of Aqrab, Syria.