July 11

Events

Pre-1600

* 813 – Byzantine emperor Michael I, under threat by conspiracies, abdicates in favor of his general Leo the Armenian, and becomes a monk (under the name Athanasius).
* 911 – Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy.
* 1174 – Baldwin IV, 13, becomes King of Jerusalem, with Raymond III, Count of Tripoli as regent and William of Tyre as chancellor.
* 1302 – Battle of the Golden Spurs (''Guldensporenslag'' in Dutch): A coalition around the Flemish cities defeats the king of France's royal army.
* 1346 – Charles IV, Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia, is elected King of the Romans.
* 1405 – Ming admiral Zheng He sets sail to explore the world for the first time.
* 1410 – Ottoman Interregnum: Süleyman Çelebi defeats his brother Musa Çelebi outside the Ottoman capital, Edirne.
* 1476 – Giuliano della Rovere is appointed bishop of Coutances.
* 1576 – While exploring the North Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage, Martin Frobisher sights Greenland, mistaking it for the hypothesized (but non-existent) island of "Frisland".

1601–1900

* 1616 – Samuel de Champlain returns to Quebec.
* 1735 – Mathematical calculations suggest that it is on this day that dwarf planet Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune for the last time before 1979.
* 1789 – Jacques Necker is dismissed as France's Finance Minister sparking the Storming of the Bastille.
* 1796 – The United States takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain under terms of the Jay Treaty.
* 1798 – The United States Marine Corps is re-established; they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War.
* 1801 – French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons makes his first comet discovery. In the next 27 years he discovers another 36 comets, more than any other person in history.
* 1804 – A duel occurs in which the Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.
* 1833 – Noongar Australian aboriginal warrior Yagan, wanted for the murder of white colonists in Western Australia, is killed.
* 1836 – '' The Fly-fisher's Entomology'' is published by Alfred Ronalds. The book transformed the sport and went to many editions.
* 1848 – Waterloo railway station in London opens.
* 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Stevens; Confederate forces attempt to invade Washington, D.C.
* 1882 – The British Mediterranean Fleet begins the Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt as part of the Anglo-Egyptian War.
* 1889 – Tijuana, Mexico, is founded.
* 1893 – The first cultured pearl is obtained by Kōkichi Mikimoto.
* 1893 – A revolution led by the liberal general and politician José Santos Zelaya takes over state power in Nicaragua.
* 1897 – Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon.
* 1899 – Fiat founded by Giovanni Agnelli in Turin, Italy.

1901–present

* 1906 – Murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in the United States, inspiration for Theodore Dreiser's '' An American Tragedy''.
* 1914 – Babe Ruth makes his debut in Major League Baseball.
* 1914 – The US Navy launches the as its first standard-type battleship.
* 1919 – The eight-hour day and free Sunday become law for workers in the Netherlands.
* 1920 – In the East Prussian plebiscite the local populace decides to remain with Weimar Germany.
* 1921 – A truce in the Irish War of Independence comes into effect.
* 1921 – The Red Army captures Mongolia from the White Army and establishes the Mongolian People's Republic.
* 1921 – Former president of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the only person ever to hold both offices.
* 1922 – The Hollywood Bowl opens.
* 1924 – Eric Liddell won the gold medal in 400m at the 1924 Paris Olympics, after refusing to run in the heats for 100m, his favoured distance, on a Sunday.
* 1934 – Engelbert Zaschka of Germany flies his large human-powered aircraft, the ''Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft'', about 20 meters at Berlin Tempelhof Airport without assisted take-off.
*1936 – The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic.
* 1940 – World War II: Vichy France regime is formally established. Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of the French State.
* 1941 – The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party holds its first congress in Nkana.
*1943 – Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak.
* 1943 – World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily: German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily.
* 1947 – The '' Exodus 1947'' heads to Palestine from France.
*1950 – Pakistan joins the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank.
* 1957 – Prince Karim Husseini Aga Khan IV inherits the office of Imamat as the 49th Imam of Shia Imami Ismai'li worldwide, after the death of Sir Sultan Mahommed Shah Aga Khan III.
* 1960 – France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso) and Niger.
* 1960 – Congo Crisis: The State of Katanga breaks away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
* 1960 – ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States.
*1962 – First transatlantic satellite television transmission.
* 1962 – Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth.
*1971 – The nationalization of all large copper mines in Chile is completed.
*1972 – The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts.
*1973 – Varig Flight 820 crashes near Paris on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on board. In response, the FAA bans smoking in airplane lavatories.
* 1977 – Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated in 1968, is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
*1978 – Los Alfaques disaster: A truck carrying liquid gas crashes and explodes at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain killing 216 tourists.
*1979 – America's first space station, '' Skylab'', is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
* 1982 – The Italy National Football Team defeats West Germany at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium to capture the 1982 FIFA World Cup.
*1983 – A TAME airline Boeing 737–200 crashes near Cuenca, Ecuador, killing all 119 passengers and crew on board.
* 1990 – Oka Crisis: First Nations land dispute in Quebec begins.
* 1991 – Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 261 passengers and crew on board.
* 1995 – Yugoslav Wars: Srebrenica massacre begins; lasts until 22 July.
* 2006 – Mumbai train bombings: 209 people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India.
*2010 – The Islamist militia group Al-Shabaab carries out multiple suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, killing 74 people and injuring 85 others.
* 2010 – Spain defeats the Netherlands to win the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Johannesburg.
*2011 – Ninety-eight containers of explosives self-detonate killing 13 people in Zygi, Cyprus.
* 2015 – Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán escapes from the maximum security Altiplano prison in Mexico, his second escape.
* 2021 – Richard Branson becomes the first civilian to be launched into space via his Virgin Galactic spacecraft.

Births

Pre-1600

* 154 – Bardaisan, Syrian astrologer, scholar, and philosopher (died 222)
* 1274 – Robert the Bruce, Scottish king (died 1329)
* 1406 – William, Margrave of Hachberg-Sausenberg (died 1482)
* 1459 – Kaspar, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, German nobleman (died 1527)
* 1558 – Robert Greene, English author and playwright (died 1592)
* 1561 – Luis de Góngora, Spanish cleric and poet (died 1627)

1601–1900

* 1603 – Kenelm Digby, English astrologer, courtier, and diplomat (died 1665)
* 1628 – Tokugawa Mitsukuni, Japanese daimyō (died 1701)
* 1653 – Sarah Good, American woman accused of witchcraft (died 1692)
* 1657 – Frederick I of Prussia (died 1713)
* 1662 – Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria (died 1726)
* 1709 – Johan Gottschalk Wallerius, Swedish chemist and mineralogist (died 1785)
* 1723 – Jean-François Marmontel, French historian and author (died 1799)
* 1754 – Thomas Bowdler, English physician and philanthropist (died 1825)
* 1760 – Peggy Shippen, American wife of Benedict Arnold and American Revolutionary War spy (died 1804)
* 1767 – John Quincy Adams, American lawyer and politician, 6th President of the United States (died 1848)
* 1826 – Alexander Afanasyev, Russian ethnographer and author (died 1871)
* 1832 – Charilaos Trikoupis, Greek lawyer and politician, 55th Prime Minister of Greece (died 1896)
* 1834 – James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American-English painter and illustrator (died 1903)
* 1836 – Antônio Carlos Gomes, Brazilian composer (died 1896)
* 1846 – Léon Bloy, French author and poet (died 1917)
* 1849 – N. E. Brown, English plant taxonomist and authority on succulents (died 1934)
* 1850 – Annie Armstrong, American missionary (died 1938)
* 1866 – Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (died 1953)
* 1875 – H. M. Brock, British painter and illustrator (died 1960)
*1880 – Friedrich Lahrs, German architect and academic (died 1964)
* 1881 – Isabel Martin Lewis, American astronomer and author (died 1966)
* 1882 – James Larkin White, American miner, explorer, and park ranger (died 1946)
*1886 – Boris Grigoriev, Russian painter and illustrator (died 1939)
* 1888 – Carl Schmitt, German philosopher and jurist (died 1985)
* 1892 – Thomas Mitchell, American actor, singer, and screenwriter (died 1962)
* 1894 – Erna Mohr, German zoologist (died 1968)
* 1895 – Dorothy Wilde, English author and poet (died 1941)
* 1897 – Bull Connor, American police officer (died 1973)
* 1899 – Wilfrid Israel, German businessman and philanthropist (died 1943)
* 1899 – E. B. White, American essayist and journalist (died 1985)

1901–present

* 1901 – Gwendolyn Lizarraga, Belizean businesswoman, activist, and politician (died 1975)
* 1903 – Rudolf Abel, English-Russian colonel (died 1971)
* 1903 – Sidney Franklin, American bullfighter (died 1976)
* 1904 – Niño Ricardo, Spanish guitarist and composer (died 1972)
* 1905 – Betty Allan, Australian statistician and biometrician (died 1952)
* 1906 – Harry von Zell, American actor and announcer (died 1981)
* 1906 – Herbert Wehner, German politician, Minister of Intra-German Relations (died 1990)
* 1909 – Irene Hervey, American actress (died 1998)
* 1909 – Jacques Clemens, Dutch catholic priest (died 2018)
* 1910 – Sally Blane, American actress (died 1997)
* 1911 – Erna Flegel, German nurse who was still present in the ''Führerbunker'' when it was captured by Soviet troops (died 2006)
*1912 – Sergiu Celibidache, Romanian conductor and composer (died 1996)
* 1912 – Peta Taylor, English cricketer (died 1989)
* 1912 – William F. Walsh, American captain and politician, 48th Mayor of Syracuse (died 2011)
* 1913 – Paul Gibb, English cricketer (died 1977)
* 1913 – Cordwainer Smith, American sinologist, author, and academic (died 1966)
* 1915 – Leonard Goodwin, British protozoologist (died 2008)
* 1916 – Mortimer Caplin, American tax attorney, educator, and IRS Commissioner (died 2019)
* 1916 – Hans Maier, Dutch water polo player (died 2018)
* 1916 – Alexander Prokhorov, Australian-Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2002)
* 1916 – Reg Varney, English actor and screenwriter (died 2008)
* 1916 – Gough Whitlam, Australian lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, 21st Prime Minister of Australia (died 2014)
*1918 – Venetia Burney, English educator, who named Pluto (died 2009)
* 1918 – Roy Krenkel, American illustrator (died 1983)
* 1920 – Yul Brynner, Russian actor and dancer (died 1985)
* 1920 – Zecharia Sitchin, Russian-American author (died 2010)
* 1922 – Gene Evans, American actor (died 1998)
* 1922 – Fritz Riess, German-Swiss racing driver (died 1991)
* 1923 – Richard Pipes, Polish-American historian and academic (died 2018)
* 1923 – Tun Tun

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