Events on June 11 59
Year 173
Marcomannic Wars: The Roman army in Moravia is encircled by the Quadi, who have broken the peace treaty (171). In a violent thunderstorm emperor Marcus Aurelius defeats and subdues them in the so-called "miracle of the rain".
Year 631
Emperor Taizong of Tang, the Emperor of China, sends envoys to the Xueyantuo bearing gold and silk in order to seek the release of enslaved Chinese prisoners captured during the transition from Sui to Tang from the northern frontier; this embassy succeeded in freeing 80,000 Chinese men and women who were then returned to China.
Year 786
A Hasanid Alid uprising in Mecca is crushed by the Abbasids at the Battle of Fakhkh. Idris ibn Abdallah flees to the Maghreb, where he later founds the Idrisid dynasty.
Year 1157
Albert I of Brandenburg, also called The Bear (Ger: Albrecht der Bär), becomes the founder of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, Germany and the first Margrave.
Year 1345
The megas doux Alexios Apokaukos, chief minister of the Byzantine Empire, is lynched by political prisoners.
Year 1488
Battle of Sauchieburn: Fought between rebel Lords and James III of Scotland, resulting in the death of the King.
Year 1594
Philip II recognizes the rights and privileges of the local nobles and chieftains in the Philippines, which paved way to the stabilization of the rule of the Principalía (an elite ruling class of native nobility in Spanish Philippines).
Year 1748
Denmark adopts the characteristic Nordic Cross flag later taken up by all other Scandinavian countries.
Year 1775
The American Revolutionary War's first naval engagement, the Battle of Machias, results in the capture of a small British naval vessel.
Year 1776
The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence.
Year 1837
The Broad Street Riot occurs in Boston, fueled by ethnic tensions between Yankees and Irish.
Year 1865
The Naval Battle of the Riachuelo is fought on the rivulet Riachuelo (Argentina), between the Paraguayan Navy on one side and the Brazilian Navy on the other. The Brazilian victory was crucial for the later success of the Triple Alliance (Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina) in the Paraguayan War.
Year 1892
The Limelight Department, one of the world's first film studios, is officially established in Melbourne, Australia.
Year 1895
Paris-Bordeaux-Paris, sometimes called the first automobile race in history or the "first motor race", takes place.
Year 1898
The Hundred Days' Reform, a planned movement to reform social, political, and educational institutions in China, is started by the Guangxu Emperor, but is suspended by Empress Dowager Cixi after 104 days. (The failed reform led to the abolition of the Imperial examination in 1905.)
Year 1901
The boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand are extended by the UK to include the Cook Islands.
Year 1903
A group of Serbian officers stormed the royal palace and assassinated King Alexander Obrenović and his wife, Queen Draga.
Year 1917
King Alexander assumes the throne of Greece after his father, Constantine I, abdicates under pressure from allied armies occupying Athens.
Year 1919
Sir Barton wins the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown.
Year 1920
During the U.S. Republican National Convention in Chicago, U.S. Republican Party leaders gathered in a room at the Blackstone Hotel to come to a consensus on their candidate for the U.S. presidential election, leading the Associated Press to coin the political phrase "smoke-filled room".
Year 1935
Inventor Edwin Armstrong gives the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the United States at Alpine, New Jersey.
Year 1942
World War II: The United States agrees to send Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
Year 1942
Free French Forces retreat from Bir Hakeim after having successfully delayed the Axis advance.
Year 1944
USS Missouri, the last battleship built by the United States Navy and future site of the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, is commissioned.
Year 1955
Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least 100 are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports.
Year 1956
Start of Gal Oya riots, the first reported ethnic riots that target minority Sri Lankan Tamils in the Eastern Province. The total number of deaths is reportedly 150.
Year 1962
Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.
Year 1963
American Civil Rights Movement: Governor of Alabama George Wallace defiantly stands at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending that school. Later in the day, accompanied by federalized National Guard troops, they are able to register.
Year 1963
Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burns himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam.
Year 1963
John F. Kennedy addresses Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which would revolutionize American society by guaranteeing equal access to public facilities, ending segregation in education, and guaranteeing federal protection for voting rights.
Year 1964
World War II veteran Walter Seifert runs amok in an elementary school in Cologne, Germany, killing at least eight children and two teachers and seriously injuring several more with a home-made flamethrower and a lance.
Year 1968
Lloyd J. Old identified the first cell surface antigens that could differentiate among different cell types.
Year 1970
After being appointed on May 15, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially receive their ranks as U.S. Army Generals, becoming the first females to do so.
Year 1971
The U.S. Government forcibly removes the last holdouts to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz, ending 19 months of control.
Year 1978
Altaf Hussain founds the student political movement All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) in Karachi University.
Year 1987
Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant are elected as the first black MPs in Great Britain.
Year 1998
Compaq Computer pays US$9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in the largest high-tech acquisition.
Year 2002
Antonio Meucci is acknowledged as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress.
Year 2008
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes a historic official apology to Canada's First Nations in regard to abuses at a Canadian Indian residential school.
Year 2012
More than 80 people die in a landslide triggered by two earthquakes in Afghanistan; an entire village is buried.
Year 2013
Greece's public broadcaster ERT is shut down by then-prime minister Antonis Samaras.
Year 2015
Greece's public broadcaster ERT is reopened by then-prime minister Alexis Tsipras.