December 11
220 – Emperor Xian of Han is forced to
abdicate the throne by Cao Cao's
son Cao Pi, ending the Han dynasty.
361 – Julian enters Constantinople as
sole Roman Emperor.
861 –
Assassination of the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil by
the Turkish guard, who raise al-Muntasir to
the throne, start of the "Anarchy at Samarra".
969 – Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas is assassinated
by his wife Theophano and her lover, the later
Emperor John I Tzimiskes.
1041 – Michael V, adoptive son of
Empress Zoë of Byzantium, is proclaimed emperor
of the Eastern Roman Empire.
1282 – Battle of Orewin Bridge: Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last
native Prince of Wales, is killed at Cilmeri near Builth Wells in mid-Wales.
1602 –
A surprise attack by forces under the command of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy,
and his brother-in-law, Philip III of Spain, is repelled by the
citizens of Geneva.
(Commemorated annually by the Fête de l'Escalade.)
1640 –
The Root and Branch petition,
signed by 15,000 Londoners calling for the abolition of the episcopacy,
is presented to the Long Parliament.
1675 – Antonio de Vea expedition enters San Rafael Lake in
western Patagonia.
1688 – Glorious Revolution: James II of England, while trying to flee
to France, throws the Great Seal of the Realm into
the River Thames.
1792 – French Revolution:
King Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by
the National Convention.
1815 –
The U.S. Senate creates a select
committee on finance and a uniform national currency, predecessor of the United States Senate Committee on
Finance.
1816 – Indiana becomes
the 19th U.S. state.
1868 – Paraguayan War: Brazilian troops defeat
the Paraguayan Army at the Battle of Avay.
1899 – Second Boer War:
In the Battle of Magersfontein the Boers commanded
by general Piet Cronjé inflict a defeat on the forces of
the British Empire commanded
by Lord Methuen trying
to relieve the Siege of Kimberley.
1901 – Guglielmo
Marconi transmits the first transatlantic radio signal
from Poldhu, Cornwall, England to Saint John's, Newfoundland.
1905 –
A workers' uprising occurs in Kyiv,
Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire),
and establishes the Shuliavka Republic.
1907 –
The New Zealand Parliament Buildings are
almost completely destroyed by fire.
1913 –
More than two years after it was stolen from the Louvre, Leonardo da Vinci's
painting Mona Lisa is recovered in Florence,
Italy. The thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, is immediately arrested.
1917 – World War I:
British General Edmund Allenby enters Jerusalem on
foot and declares martial law.
1920 – Irish War of Independence:
In retaliation for a recent IRA ambush, British forces burn and loot
numerous buildings in Cork city. Many civilians report
being beaten, shot at, robbed and verbally abused by British forces.
1925 – Roman Catholic papal encyclical Quas primas introduces
the Feast of Christ the King.
1927 – Guangzhou Uprising: Communist Red Guards launch an
uprising in Guangzhou, China, taking over most of the city
and announcing the formation of a Guangzhou Soviet.
1931 – Statute of Westminster 1931:
The British Parliament establishes
legislative equality between the UK and the Dominions of
the Commonwealth—Australia,
Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ireland.
1934 – Bill Wilson,
co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last
drink and enters treatment for the final time.
1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII's
abdication as King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions
beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India,
becomes effective.
1937 – Second Italo-Ethiopian War: Italy leaves
the League of Nations.
1941 – World War II: Germany and
Italy declare war on the United States, following the Americans' declaration of
war on the Empire of Japan in the wake of
the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United
States, in turn, declares war on them.
1941 – World War
II: Poland declares war on
the Empire of Japan.
1941 – World War
II: The Imperial Japanese Navy suffers
its first loss of surface vessels during the Battle of Wake Island.
1946 –
The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)
is established.
1948 – Arab–Israeli War: The United Nations passes General Assembly Resolution 194,
creating a Conciliation Commission to
mediate the conflict.
1958 – French Upper Volta and French Dahomey gain
self-government from France, becoming the Republic of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso)
and the Republic of Dahomey (now Benin),
respectively, and joining the French Community.
1960 –
French forces crack down in a violent clash with protesters in French Algeria during
a visit by French President Charles de Gaulle.
1962 – Arthur Lucas,
convicted of murder, is the last person to be executed in Canada.
1964 – Che Guevara speaks
at the United Nations General Assembly in
New York City.
1972 – Apollo 17 becomes
the sixth and final Apollo mission to
land on the Moon.
1978 –
The Lufthansa heist is committed by a
group led by Lucchese family associate Jimmy Burke. It was the largest
cash robbery ever committed on American soil, at that time.
1980 –
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund)
is enacted by the U.S. Congress.
1981 – El Mozote massacre: Armed forces in El Salvador kill
an estimated 900 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadoran Civil War.
1990 –
Demonstrations by students and workers across Albania begin,
which eventually trigger the fall of communism in Albania.
1990 – Several
fatal collisions in the 1990 Interstate 75 fog disaster result
in a total of 12 deaths and 42 being injured
1993 –
A block of the Highland Towers condominium complex collapses
following a landslide caused by heavy rain and water
flowing from a construction site at Ampang district in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia. 48 of its residents die, including one who died in hospital after
being rescued alive, leaving only two survivors.
1994 – First Chechen War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders
Russian troops into Chechnya.
1994 – A bomb
explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434,
en route from Manila, Philippines,
to Tokyo, Japan, killing one. The captain is able to land the plane safely.
1997 –
The Kyoto Protocol opens for
signature.
1998 – Thai Airways Flight 261 crashes near Surat Thani Airport, killing 101. The pilot
flying the Airbus A310-200 is thought to
have suffered spatial disorientation.
1999 – SATA Air Açores Flight 530M crashes
into Pico da Esperança on São Jorge Island in the Azores,
killing 35.
2001 –
China joins the World Trade Organization (WTO).
2005 –
The Buncefield Oil Depot catches fire in Hemel
Hempstead, England.
2005 – Cronulla riots: Thousands of White Australians
demonstrate against ethnic violence resulting in a riot against anyone thought
to be Lebanese in Cronulla, New South Wales; these are
followed up by retaliatory ethnic attacks on Cronulla.
2006 –
The International
Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust is
opened in Tehran, Iran,
by then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; nations such as Israel and
the United States express concern.
2006 – Felipe Calderón, the President of Mexico, launches a military-led offensive to put
down the drug cartel violence in the state of Michoacán.
This effort is often regarded as the first event in the Mexican Drug War.
2007 – Insurgency in the Maghreb: Two car bombs explode in Algiers, Algeria,
one near the Supreme Constitutional Court and the other near the offices of the
United Nations.
2008 – Bernie Madoff is
arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
2009 –
Finnish game developer Rovio Entertainment releases the hit
mobile game Angry Birds internationally
on iOS.
2012 –
At least 125 people are killed and up to 200 injured in bombings in
the Alawite village
of Aqrab, Syria.
2017 – New York City Subway bombing:
A pipe bomb partially detonates in the New York City Subway, in the Times Square–42nd
Street/Port Authority Bus Terminal. Four people are
injured, including the perpetrator.
2019 –
The results of the 2019 Bougainvillean independence
referendum are announced. The results are overwhelmingly
one-sided. Over 98% of voters vote for Bougainville's
independence.
2020 –
The Food and Drug Administration issues
an Emergency Use Authorization on
the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine,
the first COVID-19 vaccine to be approved by
the agency.