On this day in history

May 11

28 births · 16 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence

15 years ago

Born this day

1904

Salvador Dalí

Would be 122

Photo (modified): Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964. · Public domain

Oldest record

1544th

Justinian I

birth anniversary

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Famous births28

AD 482 · 1544 yrs

Justinian I

Justinian I (Latin: Iustinianus, Ancient Greek: Ἰουστινιανός, romanized: Ioustinianós; 482 – 14 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii ('restoration of the Empire').

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 83

View profile Photo (modified): Petar Milošević · CC BY-SA 4.0

1556 · 470 yrs

Feodor I of Russia

Feodor I Ioannovich (Russian: Феодор I Иoаннович) or Fyodor I Ivanovich (Russian: Фёдор I Иванович; 31 May 1557 – 17 January 1598), nicknamed the Blessed (Блаженный), was Tsar of all Russia from 1584 until his death in 1598.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 41

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown painter · Public domain

1720 · 306 yrs

Baron Munchausen

Baron Munchausen is a fictional German nobleman created by the German writer Rudolf Erich Raspe in his 1785 book Baron Munchausen's Narrative of His Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia. The character is loosely based on Hieronymus Karl Friedrich Freiherr von Münchhausen.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 76

View profile Photo (modified): G. Bruckner · Public domain

1752 · 274 yrs

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (German:; 11 May 1752 – 22 January 1840) was a German medical doctor, naturalist, physiologist, and anthropologist. He is considered to be a main founder of zoology and anthropology as comparative, scientific disciplines.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 87

View profile Photo (modified): Attributed to Hugo Bürkner · Public domain

1824 · 202 yrs

Jean-Léon Gérôme

Jean-Léon Gérôme (French:; 11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 79

View profile Photo (modified): Nadar · Public domain

1852 · 174 yrs

Charles W. Fairbanks

Charles Warren Fairbanks (May 11, 1852 – June 4, 1918) was the 26th vice president of the United States under President Theodore Roosevelt serving from 1905 to 1909. A member of the Republican Party, Fairbanks was previously a senator from Indiana from 1897 to 1905.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 66

View profile Photo (modified): Harris & Ewing · Public domain

1888 · 138 yrs100 Club

Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin (born Israel Isidore Beilin; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-born American songwriter and composer. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 138

View profile Photo (modified): Pach Brothers · Public domain

1894 · 132 yrs

Martha Graham

Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer responsible for creating the Graham technique. Graham danced and taught for over seventy years.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 132

View profile Photo (modified): Los Angeles Daily News · CC BY 4.0

1895 · 131 yrs

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Jiddu Krishnamurti (pronounced /ˈdʒɪduː ˌkrɪʃnəˈmʊərti/; 11 May 1895 – 17 February 1986) was an Indian spiritual figure, speaker, and writer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyWould be 131

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1900 · 126 yrs

Pridi Banomyong

Pridi Banomyong (Thai: ปรีดี พนมยงค์, RTGS: Pridi Phanomyong, pronounced; 11 May 1900 – 2 May 1983), also known by his noble title Luang Praditmanutham (Thai: หลวงประดิษฐ์มนูธรรม), was a Thai lawyer, professor, activist, politician, democratic socialist, and senior statesman.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 126

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1904 · 122 yrs

Salvador Dalí

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí de Púbol (11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí, was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in his work.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 122

View profile Photo (modified): Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964. · Public domain

1916 · 110 yrs

Camilo José Cela

Camilo José Cela y Trulock, 1st Marquess of Iria Flavia (Spanish:; 11 May 1916 – 17 January 2002) was a Spanish novelist, poet, story writer and essayist associated with the Generation of '36 movement.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 110

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown photographer · CC BY 4.0

Showing 12 of 28

Famous deaths16

AD 912 · 1114 yrs

Leo VI the Wise

Leo VI, also known as Leo the Wise (Greek: Λέων ὁ Σοφός, romanized: Léōn ō Sophós; 19 September 866 – 11 May 912), was Byzantine emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty (although his parentage is unclear), he was reportedly very well read, leading to his epithet.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 45

View profile Photo (modified): Byzantinischer Mosaizist des 9. Jahrhunderts · Public domain

1610 · 416 yrs

Matteo Ricci

Matteo Ricci (Italian:; Latin: Matthaeus Riccius; Chinese: 利玛窦; pinyin: Lì Mǎdòu; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610) was an Italian Jesuit who served in the court of Ming dynasty China and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 57

View profile Photo (modified): Chinese brother Emmanuel Pereira (born Yu Wen-hui 游文辉) · Public domain

1686 · 340 yrs

Otto von Guericke

Otto von Guericke (UK: GAIR-ik-ə, US: G(W)AIR-ik-ə, -⁠ee; German:; spelled Gericke until 1666; 30 November 1602 – 21 May 1686) was a German scientist, inventor, mathematician, and physicist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 83

View profile Photo (modified): Anselm van Hulle, 1601-1674 · Public domain

1778 · 248 yrs

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham (15 November 1708 – 11 May 1778) was a British Whig statesman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768. Historians call him "Chatham" or "Pitt the Elder" to distinguish him from his son William Pitt the Younger, who also served as prime minister.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 69

View profile Photo (modified): After Richard Brompton · Public domain

1812 · 214 yrs

Spencer Perceval

Spencer Perceval (1 November 1762 – 11 May 1812) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1809 until his assassination in May 1812. He is the only British prime minister to have been assassinated, and the only solicitor-general or attorney-general to have become prime minister.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 49

View profile Photo (modified): George Francis Joseph · Public domain

1871 · 155 yrs

John Frederick William Herschel

Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor and experimental photographer who invented the blueprint and did botanical work. Herschel originated the use of the Julian day system in astronomy.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 79

View profile Photo (modified): Julia Margaret Cameron · Public domain

1881 · 145 yrs

Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Henri Frédéric Amiel (French:; 27 September 1821 – 11 May 1881) was a Swiss moral philosopher, poet, and critic.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 59

View profile Photo (modified): Jean-François Artus · Public domain

1916 · 110 yrs

Karl Schwarzschild

Karl Schwarzschild (German:; 9 October 1873 – 11 May 1916) was a German physicist and astronomer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 42

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1927 · 99 yrs

Juan Gris

José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (Spanish:; French:), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic genre Cubism, his works are among the movement's most distinctive.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 139

View profile Photo (modified): Guillaume Apollinaire · Public domain

1962 · 64 yrs

Hans Luther

Hans Luther (10 March 1879 – 11 May 1962) was a German politician and Chancellor of Germany for 482 days in 1925 to 1926. As Minister of Finance, he helped stabilise the Mark during the hyperinflation of 1923.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 147

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

1963 · 63 yrs

Herbert Spencer Gasser

Herbert Spencer Gasser (July 5, 1888 – May 11, 1963) was an American physiologist, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1944 for his work with action potentials in nerve fibers while on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis, awarded jointly with Joseph Erlanger.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 138

View profile Photo (modified): Esselte · Public domain

1976 · 50 yrs

Alvar Aalto

Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (Finnish:; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 128

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

Showing 12 of 16

Events5

1745 · 281 yrs

Battle of Fontenoy

The Battle of Fontenoy, 11 May 1745, took place during the War of the Austrian Succession, near Tournai, in Belgium. A French army of 50,000 under Marshal Saxe defeated a Pragmatic Army of roughly the same size, led by the Duke of Cumberland.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1939 · 87 yrs

Battles of Khalkhin Gol

The Battles of Khalkhin Gol (Russian: Бои на Халхин-Голе, romanized: Boy na Khalkhin-Gole; Mongolian: Халхын голын байлдаан, romanized: Khalkhyn golyn baildaan), known in Japan as the Nomonhan Incident (Japanese: ノモンハン事件, Hepburn: Nomonhan jiken) after Nomonhan Burd Obo, were the decisive engagements of the undeclared…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

2011 · 15 yrs

Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence

The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, is a human rights treaty of the Council of Europe opposing violence against women and domestic violence which was opened for signature on 11 May 2011, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tragedy

2014 · 12 yrs

2014 Spanish Grand Prix

The 2014 Spanish Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2014) was a Formula One motor race held on 11 May 2014 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Catalonia, Spain.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

2021 · 5 yrs

2021 Kazan school attack

On 11 May 2021, a school shooting and a school bombing occurred in Kazan, Tatarstan, in the western part of Russia. Seven 8th-grade students and two teachers were murdered, all by gunfire, and 23 others were injured.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tragedy

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