Today In History

Today In History – June 11

June 11 is the 162nd day of the year (163rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar

In 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. The Declaration committee operated from June 11, 1776, until July 5, 1776, the day on which the Declaration was published. (John Trumbull's 1818 painting of the Committee of Five presenting their draft of the Declaration of Independence to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia)

Our on this day in history archives contain over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

June 11 is the 162nd day of the year (163rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 203 days remain until the end of the year.

EVENTS

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.

1509 – Henry VIII of England marries Catherine of Aragon.

1559 – Don Tristan de Luna y Arellano sails for Florida with party of 1,500, intending to settle on gulf coast (Vera Cruz, Mexico).

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).

1724 – Johann Sebastian Bach leads his cantata O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (O eternity, you word of thunder), BWV 20, on the first Sunday after Trinity, beginning his second cycle, the chorale cantata cycle. (Note: the Sunday is 2 June in 2024.)

1748 – Denmark adopts the characteristic Nordic Cross flag later taken up by all other Scandinavian countries.

1770 – British explorer Captain James Cook runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef.

1775 – The Coronation of Louis XVI in Reims, the last coronation before the French Revolution.

1775 – The American Revolutionary War's first naval engagement, the Battle of Machias, results in the capture of a small British naval vessel.

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.

From left to right: Sherman, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, and Livingston

1805 – A fire consumes large portions of Detroit in the Michigan Territory.

1825 – The first cornerstone is laid for Fort Hamilton in New York City.

1837 – The Broad Street Riot occurs in Boston, fueled by ethnic tensions between Yankees and Irish.

1892 – The Limelight Department, one of the world's first film studios, is officially established in Melbourne, Australia.

1895 – Paris–Bordeaux–Paris, sometimes called the first automobile race in history or the "first motor race", takes place.

1917 – King Alexander assumes the throne of Greece after his father, Constantine I, is deemed to have abdicated under pressure from allied armies occupying Athens.

1919 – Sir Barton wins the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown.

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".

1935 – Inventor Edwin Armstrong gives the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the United States at Alpine, New Jersey.

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.

1955 – Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least one hundred are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports.

1962 – Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.

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.

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.

1970 – After being appointed on May 15, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially receive their ranks as U.S. Army general officers, becoming the first women to do so.

1971 – The U.S. Government forcibly removes the last holdouts to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz, ending 19 months of control.

2001 – Timothy McVeigh is executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.

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.

2008 – The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is launched into orbit.

2010 – The first African FIFA World Cup kicks off in South Africa.