On this day: 11 May
Events, births and deaths on 11 May. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Robert Benton
10 years ago2016
- Events · 11 May 2016 Baghdad bombings
100 years ago1926
Within 10 years of that
- 1918 · Births · Richard Feynman
- 1916 · Births · Camilo José Cela
- 1930 · Births · Edsger W. Dijkstra
1000 years ago1026
Nothing recorded for that year.
Events · 19
- 1745Battle of Fontenoy — battle in 1745
- 1812assassination of Spencer Perceval — 1812 murder of the British prime minister
- 1858Minnesota — state of the United States of America
- 1878Hödel assassination attempt — Attack by Max Hödel on Wilhelm I
- 1891Ōtsu incident — 1891 failed assassination attempt on Nicholas II of Russia
- 1910Glacier National Park — national park in Flathead and Glacier counties in Montana, United States
- 1928Jinan Incident — 1928 conflict between Chinese Nationalist troops and Japanese soldiers in Jinan, Shandong, China
- 1939Battles of Khalkhin Gol — 1939 Soviet–Japanese battle in Mongolia
- 1973Aeroflot Flight 6551 — 1973 Aeroflot Il-18 crash
- 1985Bradford City stadium fire — Disaster in Bradford, England, UK, on 11 May 1985
- 1996ValuJet Flight 592 — aviation accident in 1996
- 1997Deep Blue versus Kasparov, 1997, Game 6 — chess game between human and computer
- 2000Galashki ambush — 2000 incident in Russia
- 2010Cameron–Clegg coalition — Government of the United Kingdom
- 2011Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence — Council of Europe convention against gender violence signed in Istanbul, Turkey
- 20112011 Lorca earthquake — earthquake in Lorca (Murcia)
- 20132013 Reyhanlı bombings — 2013 bombings in Turkey
- 201611 May 2016 Baghdad bombings — 2016 Islamist terror attacks in Baghdad, Iraq
- 2022killing of Shireen Abu Akleh — assassination of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by the Israeli forces
Births · 60
- 482(Julian date)Justinian I — Eastern Roman Emperor who ruled from 527 to 565 (482-565)
- 1733Princess Victoire of France — French princess; the seventh child and fifth daughter of King Louis XV of France (1733-1799)
- 1752Johann Friedrich Blumenbach — German physician, naturalist, physiologist, and anthropologist (1752 – 1840)
- 1852Charles W. Fairbanks — American politician; Vice President of the United States from 1905 to 1909 (1852–1918)
- 1875Harriet Quimby — American aviator, screenwriter (1875-1912)
- 1881Theodore von Kármán — Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer and physicist (1881–1963)
- 1888Irving Berlin — American composer and lyricist (1888–1989)
- 1889Paul Nash — British painter and war artist (1889–1946)
- 1890Helge Løvland — Norwegian athletics competitor (1890–1984)
- 1894Martha Graham — American dancer and choreographer (1894–1991)
- 1895Jacques Brugnon — French tennis player (1895-1978)
- 1901Rose Ausländer — Jewish poet from the Bukowina writing in German and English (1901-1988)
- 1904Salvador Dalí — Spanish artist (1904–1989)
- 1906Jacqueline Cochran — American aviator and businesswoman (1906–1980)
- 1911Phil Silvers — American entertainer, comedic actor, songwriter (1911-1985)
- 1912Saadat Hasan Manto — Indo-Pakistani novelist, playwright and writer (1912-1955)
- 1916Camilo José Cela — Spanish writer (1916–2002)
- 1918Richard Feynman — American theoretical physicist (1918–1988)
- 1924Antony Hewish — English physicist and radio astronomer (1924–2021)
- 1928Arthur Foulkes — Bahamian politician
- 1929Eva Schloss — Austrian‑British Holocaust survivor and memoirist (1929–2026)
- 1930Edsger W. Dijkstra — Dutch computer scientist (1930–2002)
- 1932Valentino — Italian fashion designer (1932–2026)
- 1933Louis Farrakhan — American religious (born 1935), leader of Nation of Islam (since 1981)
- 1937Ildikó Újlaky-Rejtő — Hungarian fencer
Deaths · 53
- 912(Julian date)Leo VI the Wise — Byzantine Emperor
- 1610Matteo Ricci — Italian Catholic missionary (1552–1610)
- 1778William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham — Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768 (1708–1778)
- 1779John Hart — American Founding Father and politician from Hopewell, New Jersey
- 1812Spencer Perceval — 19th-century prime minister of the United Kingdom (1762–1812)
- 1848Tom Cribb — British boxer (1781-1848)
- 1849Juliette Récamier — French salon-holder (1777-1849)
- 1871John Frederick William Herschel — English polymath, mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor and photographer (1792–1871)
- 1889John Cadbury — British businessman (1801–1889)
- 1916Karl Schwarzschild — German physicist, astronomer and mathematician (1873–1916)
- 1920William Dean Howells — American author, critic, and playwright (1837–1920)
- 1920James Colosimo — Italian-American mobster (1878-1920)
- 1927Juan Gris — Spanish artist (1887–1927)
- 1929Jozef Murgaš — Slovak entomologist, painter, inventor and roman catholic priest (1864-1929)
- 1931Lorrin A. Thurston — Hawaiian politician (1858–1931)
- 1934Blaise Diagne — Senegalese politician (1872-1934)
- 1938George Lyon — Amateur golfer (1858-1938)
- 1942Sakutarō Hagiwara — Japanese writer (1886–1942)
- 1950Royal Harwood Frost — American astronomer (1879-1950)
- 1955Gilbert Jessop — Cricket player of England. (1874-1955)
- 1956Walter Sydney Adams — American astronomer
- 1960John D. Rockefeller Jr. — American financier and philanthropist (1874–1960)
- 1963Herbert Spencer Gasser — American physiologist (1888-1963)
- 1979Lester Flatt — American singer-songwriter
- 1980Dyre Vaa — Norwegian artist (1903-1980)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.