Events on October 11 45
Year 1142
A peace treaty between the Jin dynasty and Southern Song dynasty is formally ratified when a Jin envoy visits the Song court during the Jin-Song wars.
Year 1311
The Ordinances of 1311 are published, imposing a series of regulations upon King Edward II of England by the peerage and clergy.
Year 1531
Huldrych Zwingli is killed in battle with the Roman Catholic cantons of Switzerland.
Year 1582
Due to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, this date does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
Year 1614
Adriaen Block and 12 Amsterdam merchants petition the States General for exclusive trading rights in the New Netherland colony.
Year 1634
The Burchardi flood: "The second Grote Mandrenke" killed around 15,000 men in North Friesland, Denmark and Germany.
Year 1649
Sack of Wexford: After a ten-day siege, English New Model Army troops (under Oliver Cromwell) stormed the town of Wexford, killing over 2,000 Irish Confederate troops and 1,500 civilians.
Year 1767
Surveying for the Mason-Dixon line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed.
Year 1776
American Revolutionary War: Battle of Valcour Island: On Lake Champlain a fleet of American boats is defeated by the Royal Navy, but delays the British advance until 1777.
Year 1797
Battle of Camperdown: Naval battle between Royal Navy and Royal Netherlands Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars. The outcome of the battle was a decisive British victory.
Year 1809
Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand.
Year 1811
Inventor John Stevens' boat, the Juliana, begins operation as the first steam-powered ferry (service between New York City, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey).
Year 1840
The Maronite leader Bashir Shihab II surrenders to the Ottoman Empire and later is sent to Malta in exile.
Year 1852
The University of Sydney, Australia's oldest university, is inaugurated in Sydney.
Year 1862
American Civil War: In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart and his men loot Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a raid into the north.
Year 1865
Paul Bogle led hundreds of black men and women in a march in Jamaica, starting the Morant Bay rebellion.
Year 1899
Second Boer War begins: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupts.
Year 1906
San Francisco public school board sparks a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Japan by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.
Year 1910
Former President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane. He flew for four minutes with Arch Hoxsey in a plane built by the Wright brothers at Kinloch Field (Lambert-St. Louis International Airport), St. Louis, Missouri.
Year 1918
The 7.1 Mw San Fermín earthquake shakes Puerto Rico with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 76-116 people. A destructive tsunami contributed to the damage and loss of life.
Year 1942
World War II: Battle of Cape Esperance: On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.
Year 1950
Television: CBS's mechanical color system is the first to be licensed for broadcast by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
Year 1957
Space Race: Operation Moonwatch scientists calculate Sputnik 1's booster rocket's orbit.
Year 1958
Pioneer program: NASA launches the lunar probe Pioneer 1 (the probe falls back to Earth and burns up).
Year 1962
Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.
Year 1968
Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.
Year 1972
A race riot occurs on the United States Navy aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk off the coast of Vietnam during Operation Linebacker.
Year 1976
George Washington's appointment, posthumously, to the grade of General of the Armies by congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 is approved by President Gerald R. Ford.
Year 1984
Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.
Year 1984
An Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-154 crashes into maintenance vehicles upon landing in Omsk, Russia, killing 178.
Year 1986
Cold War: U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.
Year 1987
First public display of AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
Year 1987
Start of Operation Pawan by Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka that killed thousands of ethnic Tamil civilians and hundreds of Tamil Tigers and Indian Army soldiers.
Year 2000
NASA launches STS-92, the 100th Space Shuttle mission, using Space Shuttle Discovery.