Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date
Friday, July 11, 2025
Today is the 192nd day of 2025. There are 173 days left in this year.
Notable Events
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".
1668
Notable Buccaneer Henry Morgan with an English Privateer force lands at Porto Bello in an attempt to capture the fortified and lucrative Spanish city.
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 U.S. Marine Corps was created by an act of Congress.
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
Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel near Weehawken, N.J.
1804
A duel occurs in which the Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.
1864
Confederate forces led by Gen. Jubal Early began an invasion of Washington, D.C., turning back the next day.
1882
The British Mediterranean Fleet begins the Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt as part of the Anglo-Egyptian War.
1899
Fiat founded by Giovanni Agnelli in Turin, Italy.
1914
19-year-old Babe Ruth made his Major League Baseball debut for the Boston Red Sox and was the winning pitcher in their 4-3 victory against Cleveland.
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.
1936
The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic.
1943
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak.
1952
The Republican National Convention, meeting in Chicago, nominated Dwight D. Eisenhower for president and Richard M. Nixon for vice president.
1955
The Air Force Academy was dedicated at Lowry Air Base in Colorado.
1960
The iconic novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" was published by author Harper Lee. It would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize a year later.
1960
France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso) and Niger.
1962
First transatlantic satellite television transmission.
1962
At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth.
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
The Medal of Freedom was awarded posthumously to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a White House ceremony.
1978
A truck carrying liquid gas crashes and explodes at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain killing 216 tourists.
1979
The abandoned United States space station Skylab made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia.
1983
A TAME airline Boeing 737-200 crashes near Cuenca, Ecuador, killing all 119 passengers and crew on board.
1987
The global population was announced to have officially reached 5 billion people, inspiring the creation of an annual World Population Day on July 11 to raise awareness of overpopulation.
1991
Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 261 passengers and crew on board.
1995
The United States normalized relations with Vietnam.
1998
Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie, a casualty of the Vietnam War, was laid to rest near his Missouri home after the positive identification of his remains, which had been enshrined at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington, Va.
1999
A U.S. Air Force cargo jet dropped off emergency medical supplies at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Research Center for a physician at the center who had discovered a lump in her breast.
2006
Mumbai train bombings: Two hundred nine people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India.
2010
The Islamist militia group Al-Shabaab carried out multiple suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, killing 74 people and injuring 85 others.
2011
Ninety-eight containers of explosives self-detonate killing 13 people in Zygi, Cyprus.
2015
Notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who was facing extradition to the United States, escaped from a Mexican prison using a specially constructed underground tunnel. He would be recaptured six months later and was eventually extradited.
2021
Richard Branson becomes the first civilian to be launched into space via his Virgin Galactic spacecraft.
Notable Births
1274
Robert the Bruce, Scottish king (d. 1329)
1653
Sarah Good, American woman accused of witchcraft (d. 1692)
1760
Peggy Shippen, American wife of Benedict Arnold and American Revolutionary War spy (d. 1804)
1767
John Quincy Adams, American lawyer and politician, 6th President of the United States (d. 1848)
1897
Bull Connor, American police officer (d. 1973)
1911
Erna Flegel, German nurse who was still present in the Führerbunker when it was captured by Soviet troops (d. 2006)
1920
Yul Brynner, Russian actor and dancer (d. 1985)
1931
Thurston Harris, American doo-wop singer (d. 1990)
1931
Tab Hunter, American actor and singer (d. 2018)
1934
Giorgio Armani, Italian fashion designer, founded the Armani Company
1959
Richie Sambora, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
Notable Deaths
1937
George Gershwin, American pianist, songwriter, and composer (b. 1898)
1989
Laurence Olivier, English actor, director, and producer (b. 1907)
1994
Gary Kildall, American computer scientist, founded Digital Research (b. 1942)
2004
Laurance Rockefeller, American financier and philanthropist (b. 1910)
2014
Tommy Ramone, he was the drummer for the influential punk rock band the Ramones from its debut in 1974 to 1978, later serving as its producer, and was the longest-surviving original member of the Ramones. (b. 1949)
2020
Marc Angelucci, American attorney and men's rights activist, Vice-president of the National Coalition for Men. (b. 1968)
2024
Shelley Duvall was an American actress. Known for her collaborations with Robert Altman and for playing eccentric characters. (b. 1949)