July 11 facts for kids

July 11 is the 192nd day of the year (193rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 173 days remain until the end of the year.

July 11th is a day filled with many interesting events throughout history, from ancient times to the modern era. It's a day when kings were crowned, important treaties were signed, and new inventions changed the world. Many famous people were also born or passed away on this date. Let's explore some of the most notable happenings on July 11th!

Important Events on July 11th

Early History (Before 1600)

• 472 – The Western Roman Emperor Anthemius was captured in St. Peter's Basilica and killed after his city, Rome, was surrounded by his own generals.
• 813 – Byzantine emperor Michael I gave up his throne and became a monk. His general, Leo the Armenian, became the new emperor.
• 911 – The Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte was signed between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy. This treaty was very important for the history of France.
• 1174 – Baldwin IV, who was only 13 years old, became the King of Jerusalem.
• 1302 – The Battle of the Golden Spurs took place. In this battle, cities from the Flemish area defeated the French king's army.
• 1405 – The famous Ming admiral Zheng He began his first journey to explore the world by sea.
• 1476 – Giuliano della Rovere was appointed as a bishop in France.
• 1576 – Explorer Martin Frobisher saw Greenland while trying to find the Northwest Passage. He thought it was a different island.

Later History (1601–1900)

• 1616 – Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer, returned to Quebec in Canada.
• 1735 – Scientists believe that on this day, the dwarf planet Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune. This was the last time it happened before 1979.
• 1789 – Jacques Necker was fired as France's Finance Minister. This event helped spark the Storming of the Bastille, a key moment in the French Revolution.
• 1796 – The United States took control of Detroit from Great Britain, as agreed in the Jay Treaty.
• 1798 – The United States Marine Corps was officially started again after being disbanded following the American Revolutionary War.
• 1801 – French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons discovered his first comet. He went on to find 36 comets, more than anyone else in history!
• 1804 – A famous duel took place where Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr seriously wounded Alexander Hamilton, a former Secretary of the Treasury.
• 1836 – The important book The Fly-fisher's Entomology by Alfred Ronalds was published. It changed the sport of fly-fishing.
• 1848 – The Waterloo railway station in London, England, officially opened.
• 1864 – During the American Civil War, Confederate forces tried to attack Washington, D.C., in the Battle of Fort Stevens.
• 1882 – The British navy began attacking Alexandria in Egypt as part of the Anglo-Egyptian War.
• 1889 – The city of Tijuana, Mexico, was founded.
• 1893 – The first cultured pearl was successfully created by Kōkichi Mikimoto.
• 1899 – The famous car company Fiat was founded by Giovanni Agnelli in Turin, Italy.

Modern Times (1901–Present)

• 1914 – The legendary baseball player Babe Ruth played his first game in Major League Baseball.
• 1914 – The US Navy launched the USS Nevada (BB-36), which was its first "standard-type" battleship.
• 1919 – A law was passed in the Netherlands giving workers an eight-hour day and free Sundays.
• 1921 – A truce, or temporary stop to fighting, began in the Irish War of Independence.
• 1921 – The Red Army took control of Mongolia and created the Mongolian People's Republic.
• 1921 – Former president of the United States William Howard Taft became the 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He is the only person to have held both of these high offices.
• 1922 – The famous Hollywood Bowl outdoor music venue opened in California.
• 1924 – Eric Liddell won a gold medal in the 400m race at the Paris Olympics. He had refused to run in his favorite 100m race because it was on a Sunday.
• 1936 – The Triborough Bridge in New York City opened to traffic.
• 1940 – During World War II, the Vichy France government was officially formed, with Philippe Pétain as its leader.
• 1943 – German and Italian troops launched a counter-attack against Allied forces in Sicily during the Allied invasion of Sicily.
• 1950 – Pakistan joined the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank, important global financial organizations.
• 1957 – Prince Karim Husseini became Aga Khan IV, the 49th leader of the Shia Imami Ismai'li community worldwide.
• 1960 – France passed laws for the independence of Dahomey (now Benin), Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), and Niger.
• 1960 – The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was first published in the United States. It became a very famous and important novel.
• 1962 – The first television broadcast was sent across the Atlantic Ocean using a satellite.
• 1962 – NASA announced that they would use "lunar orbit rendezvous" to land astronauts on the Moon and bring them back to Earth as part of the Project Apollo.
• 1971 – Copper mines in Chile were taken over by the government.
• 1972 – The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 began between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky.
• 1977 – Martin Luther King Jr., a leader in the Civil Rights Movement who passed away in 1968, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
• 1979 – America's first space station, Skylab, re-entered Earth's atmosphere and was destroyed over the Indian Ocean.
• 1982 – The Italy National Football Team won the 1982 FIFA World Cup by defeating West Germany.
• 1983 – A TAME airline Boeing 737–200 crashed near Cuenca, Ecuador, sadly killing all 119 people on board.
• 1990 – The Oka Crisis, a land dispute involving First Nations people in Quebec, Canada, began.
• 1991 – Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with the loss of all 261 passengers and crew.
• 1995 – The Srebrenica massacre began during the Yugoslav Wars.
• 2010 – Spain won the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Johannesburg, defeating the Netherlands.
• 2015 – Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán escaped from a high-security prison in Mexico for the second time.
• 2021 – Richard Branson became the first civilian to travel into space aboard his Virgin Galactic spacecraft.

Famous Births on July 11th

Born Before 1900

• 1274 – Robert the Bruce, a famous Scottish king.
• 1558 – Robert Greene, an English author and playwright.
• 1561 – Luis de Góngora, a Spanish poet.
• 1657 – Frederick I of Prussia, a King of Prussia.
• 1767 – John Quincy Adams, the 6th President of the United States.
• 1834 – James Abbott McNeill Whistler, an American-English painter.
• 1881 – Isabel Martin Lewis, an American astronomer and author.
• 1892 – Thomas Mitchell, an American actor and screenwriter.
• 1899 – E. B. White, a beloved American essayist and journalist, known for children's books like Charlotte's Web.

Born After 1900

• 1920 – Yul Brynner, a famous Russian actor and dancer.
• 1924 – César Lattes, a Brazilian physicist.
• 1924 – Brett Somers, a Canadian-American actress and singer.
• 1927 – Theodore Maiman, an American-Canadian physicist and engineer, known for building the first working laser.
• 1930 – Harold Bloom, an American literary critic.
• 1931 – Tab Hunter, an American actor and singer.
• 1934 – Giorgio Armani, a world-famous Italian fashion designer.
• 1943 – Howard Gardner, an American psychologist known for his theory of multiple intelligences.
• 1944 & Patricia Polacco, an American author and illustrator of children's books.
• 1952 – Stephen Lang, an American actor.
• 1953 – Leon Spinks, an American boxer.
• 1953 – Mindy Sterling, an American actress.
• 1956 – Sela Ward, an American actress.
• 1958 – Hugo Sánchez, a famous Mexican footballer and coach.
• 1959 – Richie Sambora, an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, known from the band Bon Jovi.
• 1959 – Suzanne Vega, an American singer-songwriter.
• 1962 – Pauline McLynn, an Irish actress and author.
• 1963 – Lisa Rinna, an American actress and talk show host.
• 1964 – Craig Charles, an English actor and TV presenter.
• 1967 – Jhumpa Lahiri, an Indian American novelist and short story writer.
• 1970 – Justin Chambers, an American actor.
• 1971 – Leisha Hailey, an American singer-songwriter and actress.
• 1975 – Lil' Kim, an American rapper and producer.
• 1978 – Kathleen Edwards, a Canadian singer-songwriter.
• 1980 – Tyson Kidd, a Canadian wrestler.
• 1981 – Andre Johnson, an American football player.
• 1984 – Caroline Wozniacki, a Danish tennis player.
• 1996 – Alessia Cara, a Canadian singer-songwriter.

Notable Deaths on July 11th

Passed Away Before 1900

• 472 – Anthemius, a Roman emperor.
• 969 – Olga of Kiev, a powerful ruler in early Russian history.
• 1174 – Amalric I of Jerusalem, a King of Jerusalem.
• 1593 – Giuseppe Arcimboldo, an Italian painter known for his unique portraits made of fruits, vegetables, and other objects.

Passed Away After 1900

• 1909 – Simon Newcomb, a Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician.
• 1937 – George Gershwin, a famous American pianist, songwriter, and composer.
• 1974 – Pär Lagerkvist, a Swedish novelist and playwright who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1989 – Laurence Olivier, a highly respected English actor, director, and producer.
• 1994 – Gary Kildall, an American computer scientist who founded Digital Research.
• 2007 – Lady Bird Johnson, the 43rd First Lady of the United States, known for her work in beautifying America.
• 2008 – Michael E. DeBakey, a pioneering American surgeon.
• 2009 – Arturo Gatti, a Canadian-Italian boxer.
• 2014 – Charlie Haden, an American jazz bassist and composer.
• 2014 – Tommy Ramone, a Hungarian-American drummer and producer, known from the band The Ramones.
• 2015 – Satoru Iwata, a Japanese game programmer and businessman, who was the president of Nintendo.
• 2023 – Milan Kundera, a Czech-French writer.

Holidays and Celebrations

• China National Maritime Day (China)
• Day of the Bandoneón (Argentina) – A day to celebrate a special musical instrument.
• Day of the Flemish Community (Flemish Community of Belgium) – A day to celebrate the culture of the Flemish people in Belgium.
• Gospel Day (Kiribati)
• Imamat Day (Isma'ilism) – A special day for the Ismaili community.
• The first day of Naadam (July 11–15) (Mongolia) – A traditional festival in Mongolia.
• World Population Day (International) – A day to raise awareness about global population issues.

See also

In Spanish: 11 de julio para niños