Events on February 11 50
Year 244
Emperor Gordian III is murdered by mutinous soldiers in Zaitha (Mesopotamia). A mound is raised at Carchemish in his memory.
Year 1177
John de Courcy's army defeats the native Dunleavey Clan in Ulster. The English establish themselves in Ulster.
Year 1626
Emperor Susenyos I of Ethiopia and Patriarch Afonso Mendes declare the primacy of the Roman See over the Ethiopian Church, and Catholicism to be the state religion of Ethiopia.
Year 1790
The Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, petitions U.S. Congress for the abolition of slavery.
Year 1808
Jesse Fell burns anthracite on an open grate as an experiment in heating homes with coal.
Year 1812
Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry is accused of "gerrymandering" for the first time.
Year 1823
Carnival tragedy of 1823: About 110 boys are killed during a stampede at the Convent of the Minori Osservanti in Valletta, Malta.
Year 1840
Gaetano Donizetti's opera La fille du régiment receives its first performance in Paris, France.
Year 1843
Giuseppe Verdi's opera I Lombardi alla prima crociata receives its first performance in Milan, Italy.
Year 1855
Kassa Hailu is crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia, by Abuna Salama III in a ceremony at the church of Derasge Maryam
Year 1856
The Kingdom of Awadh is annexed by the British East India Company and Wajid Ali Shah, the king of Awadh, is imprisoned and later exiled to Calcutta.
Year 1858
Bernadette Soubirous's first vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France.
Year 1861
American Civil War: The United States House of Representatives unanimously passes a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.
Year 1889
Meiji Constitution of Japan is adopted; the first National Diet convenes in 1890.
Year 1903
Anton Bruckner's 9th Symphony receives its first performance in Vienna, Austria.
Year 1938
BBC Television produces the world's first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Čapek play R.U.R., that coined the term "robot".
Year 1939
A Lockheed P-38 Lightning flies from California to New York in 7 hours 2 minutes.
Year 1943
World War II: General Dwight D. Eisenhower is selected to command the allied armies in Europe.
Year 1953
U.S.President Dwight D. Eisenhower denies all appeals for clemency for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
Year 1959
The Federation of Arab Emirates of the South, which will later become South Yemen, is created as a protectorate of the United Kingdom.
Year 1971
Eighty-seven countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union, sign the Seabed Arms Control Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor in international waters.
Year 1973
Vietnam War: First release of American prisoners of war from Vietnam takes place.
Year 1978
Censorship: China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.
Year 1979
The Iranian Revolution establishes an Islamic theocracy under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Year 1981
Around 100,000 US gallons (380 m3) of radioactive coolant leak into the containment building of TVA Sequoyah 1 nuclear plant in Tennessee, contaminating eight workers.
Year 1990
Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison outside Cape Town, South Africa after 27 years as a political prisoner.
Year 1990
Buster Douglas, a 42:1 underdog, knocks out Mike Tyson in ten rounds at Tokyo to win boxing's world Heavyweight title.
Year 1997
Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
Year 1999
Pluto crosses Neptune's orbit, ending a nearly 20-year period (since 1979) when it was closer to the Sun than the gas giant; Pluto is not expected to interact with Neptune's orbit for another 228 years.
Year 2001
A Dutch programmer launched the Anna Kournikova virus infecting millions of emails via a trick photo of the tennis star.
Year 2006
Then U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney shot Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old Texas attorney, while participating in a quail hunt on a ranch in Riviera, Texas.
Year 2008
Rebel East Timorese soldiers seriously wound President José Ramos-Horta. Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado is killed in the attack.
Year 2011
The first wave of the Egyptian revolution culminates in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and the transfer of power to the Supreme Military Council after 18 days of protests.
Year 2013
The Vatican confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI would resign the papacy on 28 February 2013, as a result of his advanced age.
Year 2014
A military transport plane crashes in a mountainous area of Oum El Bouaghi Province in eastern Algeria, killing 77 people.
Year 2015
A university student was murdered as she resisted an attempted rape in Turkey, sparking nationwide protests and public outcry against harassment and violence against women.
Year 2016
A man shoots six people dead at an education center in Jizan Province, Saudi Arabia.
Year ?
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman emperorship, dies under mysterious circumstances in Rome. This clears the way for Nero to become Emperor.