Historical Events on Saturday, 11th October

11/10/2018

Soyuz MS-10, launching an intended crew for the ISS, suffers an in-flight abort. The crew lands safely.

Soyuz MS-10 was a crewed Soyuz MS spaceflight that aborted shortly after launch on 11 October 2018 due to a failure of the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle boosters. MS-10 was the 139th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. It was intended to transport two members of the Expedition 57 crew to the International Space Station.

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11/10/2013

A migrant boat sinks in the Channel of Sicily, with at least 359 people drowning.

On 3 October 2013, a boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa. It was reported that the boat had sailed from Misrata, Libya, but that many of the migrants were originally from Eritrea, Somalia and Ghana. An emergency response involving the Italian Coast Guard resulted in the rescue of 155 survivors. On 12 October it was reported that the confirmed death toll after searching the boat was 359, but that further bodies were still missing; a figure of "more than 360" deaths was later reported.

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11/10/2002

A bomb attack in a Myyrmanni shopping mall in Vantaa, Finland kills seven.

The Myyrmanni bombing took place on October 11, 2002, in Myyrmäki, Vantaa, Finland, in Greater Helsinki, at the Myyrmanni shopping mall. A bomb hidden in a backpack exploded in the center of a shopping center killing seven people including the bomber. The blast left a 10-cm deep crater in the floor and blew out the glass dome of the mall. The dead included two teenagers and a seven-year-old. 159 people were injured, including 10 children. 66 victims required hospitalization while the remainder were treated and released at the scene. The bombing took place during the pre-weekend shopping surge late on a Friday afternoon, with 1,000–2,000 people in the shopping center, including many children who had come to see a clown performance.

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11/10/2001

The Polaroid Corporation files for federal bankruptcy protection.

Polaroid Corporation was an American company that made instant film and cameras, which survives as a brand for consumer electronics. The company was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land, to exploit his Polaroid polarizing polymer. Land and Polaroid created the first instant camera, the Land Camera, in 1948.

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11/10/2000

NASA launches STS-92, the 100th Space Shuttle mission.

STS-92 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Discovery. STS-92 marked the 100th mission of the Space Shuttle and Discovery's 28th flight. It was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, 11 October 2000.

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11/10/1999

Air Botswana pilot Chris Phatswe steals an ATR 42 from Sir Seretse Khama International Airport and later crashes it into two other aircraft at the airport, killing himself.

Air Botswana Corporation is Botswana's state-owned national flag carrier, with its headquarters located in Gaborone. It operates scheduled domestic and regional flights from its main base at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport. Air Botswana has been loss-making for several years, and there have been various attempts to privatise the company, and frequent changes to the corporation's management and board, so far without reducing the losses.

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11/10/1991

Prof. Anita Hill delivers her televised testimony concerning sexual harassment during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination.

Anita Faye Hill is an American lawyer, educator and author. She is a professor of social policy, law, and women's studies at Brandeis University and a faculty member of the university's Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She became a national figure in 1991 when she accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, her supervisor at the United States Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, of sexual harassment.

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11/10/1987

The AIDS Memorial Quilt is first displayed during the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, often abbreviated to AIDS Memorial Quilt or AIDS Quilt, is a memorial to celebrate the lives of people who have died of AIDS-related causes. Weighing an estimated 54 tons, it is the largest piece of community folk art in the world, as of 2020. It was conceived in 1985, during the early years of the AIDS pandemic, when social stigma prevented many AIDS victims from receiving funerals. It has been displayed on the Mall in Washington, D.C., several times. In 2020, it returned to San Francisco, where it is cared for by the National AIDS Memorial. It can be seen virtually.

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Start of Operation Pawan by Indian forces in Sri Lanka. Thousands of civilians, insurgents, soldiers die.

Operation Pawan was the code name assigned to the operation by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to take control of Jaffna from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), better known as the Tamil Tigers, in late 1987 to enforce the disarmament of the LTTE as a part of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. In brutal fighting lasting about three weeks, the IPKF took control of the Jaffna Peninsula from the LTTE, something that the Sri Lankan Army had tried but failed to do. Supported by Indian Army tanks, helicopter gunships and heavy artillery, the IPKF routed the LTTE at the cost of 214 soldiers and officers.

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11/10/1986

Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Iceland to continue discussions about scaling back IRBM arsenals in Europe.

Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, he became an important figure in the American conservative movement. The period encompassing his presidency is known as the Reagan era.

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11/10/1984

Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.

Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan is an American geologist, oceanographer, and former NASA astronaut and US Navy officer. She was a crew member on three Space Shuttle missions.

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Aeroflot Flight 3352 crashes into maintenance vehicles upon landing in Omsk, Russia, killing 178.

Aeroflot Flight 3352 was a regularly scheduled Aeroflot domestic flight in the Soviet Union from Krasnodar to Novosibirsk, with an intermediate landing in Omsk. While landing at Omsk Airport on Thursday, 11 October 1984, the Tupolev Tu-154 crashed into maintenance vehicles on the runway, killing 174 people on board and four on the ground. While a chain of mistakes in airport operations contributed to the accident, its major cause was an air traffic controller falling asleep on duty.

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11/10/1976

George Washington is posthumously promoted to the grade of General of the Armies.

George Washington was a Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War against the British Empire. He is commonly known as the Father of His Country for his role in bringing about American independence.

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11/10/1968

NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful crewed Apollo mission.

Apollo 7 was the first crewed flight in NASA's Apollo program, and saw the resumption of human spaceflight by the agency after the fire that had killed the three Apollo 1 astronauts during a launch rehearsal test on January 27, 1967. The Apollo 7 crew was commanded by Walter M. Schirra, with Command Module Pilot Donn F. Eisele and Lunar Module pilot R. Walter Cunningham.

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11/10/1962

The Second Vatican Council becomes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.

The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the Second Vatican Council or Vatican II, was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for sessions of 8 and 12 weeks.

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11/10/1958

NASA launches Pioneer 1, its first space probe, although it fails to achieve a stable orbit.

Pioneer 1 was an American space probe, the first under the auspices of NASA, which was launched by a Thor-Able rocket on 11 October 1958. It was intended to orbit the Moon and make scientific measurements, but due to a guidance error failed to achieve lunar orbit and was ultimately destroyed upon reentering Earth's atmosphere. The flight, which lasted 43 hours and reached an apogee of 113,800 km, was the second and most successful of the three Thor-Able space probes.

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11/10/1954

In accord with the 1954 Geneva Conference, French troops complete their withdrawal from North Vietnam.

The Geneva Conference was intended to settle outstanding issues resulting from the Korean War and the First Indochina War and involved several nations. It took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 26 April to 21 July 1954. The part of the conference on the Korean question ended without adopting any declarations or proposals and so is generally considered less relevant. On the other hand, the Geneva Accords that dealt with the dismantling of French Indochina proved to have long-lasting repercussions.

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11/10/1950

CBS's field-sequential color system for television is the first to be licensed for broadcast by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

A field-sequential color system (FSC) is a color television system in which the primary color information is transmitted in successive images and which relies on the human vision system to fuse the successive images into a color picture. One field-sequential system was developed in 1940 by Peter Goldmark for CBS, which was its sole user in commercial broadcasting. The Federal Communications Commission adopted it on October 11, 1950, as the standard for color television in the United States. Its regular broadcast debut was on June 25, 1951. However, a few months later, CBS ended color broadcasting on October 20, 1951. In March 1953, CBS withdrew its color system as a standard, creating an opening for all-electronic color systems from other manufacturers.

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11/10/1944

The Tuvan People's Republic is annexed by the Soviet Union.

The Tuvan People's Republic (TPR), known simply as Tuva, was a partially recognized socialist republic that existed between 1921 and 1944 in North Asia. It was located in the same territory as the former Imperial Russian protectorate of Uriankhai Krai, northwest of Mongolia, and now corresponds to the Republic of Tuva, a republic of Russia.

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11/10/1942

World War II: Off Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese force.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

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11/10/1941

Beginning of the National Liberation War of Macedonia.

World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia started with the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. Under the pressure of the Yugoslav Partisan movement, part of the Macedonian communists began in October 1941 a political and military campaign to resist the occupation of Vardar Macedonia. Officially, the area was called then Vardar Banovina, because the use of very name Macedonia was avoided in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Most of its territory was occupied by Bulgaria, while its westernmost part was ceded to Albania, both aided by German and Italian troops. Initially, there was no organised resistance in the region because the majority of the Macedonian Slavs nurtured strong pro-Bulgarian sentiments, although this was an effect from the previous repressive Kingdom of Yugoslavia rule which had negative impact on the majority of the population. Even the local Communists, separated from the Yugoslav and joined the Bulgarian Communist Party. However, even those Macedonians who felt that they were Bulgarians soon discovered that the Bulgarians from Bulgaria were suspicious of them and considered them "backward Bulgarians" or second-class Bulgarians. In fact, Bulgarian authorities began a process of oppressive Bulgarianization as they realised that only part of the Macedonian population felt Bulgarian or was pro-Bulgarian. The occupation troops acted just as viciously and arrogantly toward the local population as did the officials. Thus, they soon became an object of disgust from the population, especially the great majority that felt themselves Macedonians developed strong resentment towards the Bulgarian regime as it acted the same way as the Serbian one before.

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11/10/1937

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor tour Nazi Germany for 12 days and meet Adolf Hitler on 22 October.

Edward VIII, later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 until his abdication in December of the same year.

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11/10/1918

The 7.1 Mw San Fermín earthquake shakes Puerto Rico. The quake and resulting tsunami kill up to 116 people.

Seismic magnitude scales are used to describe the overall strength or "size" of an earthquake. These are distinguished from seismic intensity scales that categorize the intensity or severity of ground shaking (quaking) caused by an earthquake at a given location. Magnitudes are usually determined from measurements of an earthquake's seismic waves as recorded on a seismogram. Magnitude scales vary based on what aspect of the seismic waves are measured and how they are measured. Different magnitude scales are necessary because of differences in earthquakes, the information available, and the purposes for which the magnitudes are used.

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11/10/1912

First Balkan War: The day after the Battle of Sarantaporo, Greek troops liberate the city of Kozani.

The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan states' combined armies overcame the initially numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies, achieving rapid success.

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11/10/1910

Piloted by Arch Hoxsey, Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane.

Archibald Hoxsey was an American aviator who worked for the Wright brothers.

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11/10/1906

San Francisco sparks a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Japan by ordering segregated schools for Japanese students.

The Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 was an informal agreement between the United States of America and the Empire of Japan whereby Japan would not allow further emigration of laborers to the United States and the United States would not impose restrictions on Japanese immigrants already present in the country. The goal was to reduce tensions between the two Pacific nations such as those that followed the Pacific Coast race riots of 1907 and the segregation of Japanese students in public schools. The agreement was not a treaty and so was not voted on by the United States Congress. It was superseded by the Immigration Act of 1924.

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11/10/1899

The Second Boer War erupts in South Africa between the British-ruled Cape Colony, and the Boer-ruled Transvaal and Orange Free State.

The Second Boer War, also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the Boer republics over Britain's influence in Southern Africa.

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11/10/1890

In Washington, D.C., the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.

The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution is a federally chartered lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a patriot of the American Revolution. A non-profit and non-political group, the organization promotes historical preservation, education and patriotism. Its membership is limited to direct lineal descendants of soldiers or others of the American Revolution era who aided the revolution and its subsequent war. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age. DAR has over 190,000 current members in the United States and other countries. The organization's original motto, "Home and Country", was changed in the twentieth century to "God, Home, and Country".

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11/10/1865

Hundreds of black men and women march in Jamaica, starting the Morant Bay rebellion.

The Morant Bay Rebellion began with a protest march to the courthouse by hundreds of people led by preacher Paul Bogle in Morant Bay, Jamaica. Some were armed with sticks and stones. After seven men were shot and killed by the volunteer militia, the protesters attacked and burned the courthouse and nearby buildings. Twenty-five people died. Over the next two days, poor freedmen rose in rebellion across most of St. Thomas-in-the-East parish.

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11/10/1862

American Civil War: Confederate troops conduct a raid on Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

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11/10/1852

The University of Sydney, Australia's oldest university, is inaugurated in Sydney.

The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the world's first universities to admit students solely on academic merit, and opened its doors to women on the same basis as men. The university comprises eight academic faculties and university schools, through which it offers bachelor, master and doctoral degrees.

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11/10/1840

The Maronite leader Bashir Shihab II surrenders to the Ottoman Empire and later is sent to Malta in exile.

Bashir Shihab II was a Lebanese emir who ruled the Emirate of Mount Lebanon between 1788 –1840. Born to a branch of the Shihab family which had converted from Sunni Islam, the religion of previous Shihabi emirs, he was the only Maronite ruler of the Mount Lebanon Emirate.

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11/10/1811

The Juliana begins operation as the first steam-powered ferry in New York harbor.

Col. John Stevens, III was an American lawyer, engineer, and inventor who constructed the first U.S. steam locomotive, first steam-powered ferry, and first U.S. commercial ferry service from his estate in Hoboken. He was influential in the creation of U.S. patent law.

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11/10/1797

The Royal Navy decisively defeats the Batavian Navy at Camperdown during the French Revolutionary Wars.

The Battle of Camperdown was fought on 11 October 1797 between the Royal Navy's North Sea Fleet under Admiral Adam Duncan and a Batavian Navy fleet led by Vice-Admiral Jan Willem de Winter. Duncan's fleet won a complete victory over de Winter's in what was the most significant engagement between British and Batavian forces during the French Revolutionary Wars, capturing eleven ships without losing any of their own.

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11/10/1776

American Revolution: A fleet of American boats on Lake Champlain is defeated by the Royal Navy, but delays the British advance until 1777.

The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a political movement in the Thirteen Colonies of Great Britain and the United States which the colonies founded. The movement began as a rebellion demanding reform and evolved into a revolution resulting in a complete separation that entirely replaced the social and political order. These changes were the outcome of the associated American Revolutionary War and the consequential sovereign independence of the former colonies as the United States. The Second Continental Congress, as the provisional government, established the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander-in-chief in 1775. The following year, the Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July. Throughout most of the war, the outcome appeared uncertain. However, in 1781, a decisive victory by Washington and the Continental Army in the Siege of Yorktown led King George III and the Fox–North coalition in government to negotiate the cessation of colonial rule and the acknowledgment of American sovereignty, formalized in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. The Constitution took effect in 1789 and the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791.

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11/10/1649

Cromwell's New Model Army sacks Wexford, killing over 2,000 Irish Confederate troops and 1,500 civilians.

The Sack of Wexford took place from 2 to 11 October 1649, during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, part of the 1641–1653 Irish Confederate Wars. English Commonwealth forces under Oliver Cromwell stormed the town after negotiations broke down, killing most of the Irish Confederate and Royalist garrison. Many civilians also died, either during the sack, or drowned attempting to escape across the River Slaney.

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11/10/1634

The Burchardi flood kills around 15,000 in North Friesland, Denmark and Germany.

The Burchardi flood was a storm tide that struck the North Sea coast of North Frisia, Dithmarschen and southwest Jutland on the night between 11 and 12 October 1634. Overrunning dikes, it shattered the coastline and caused thousands of deaths and catastrophic material damage. Much of the island of Strand washed away, forming the islands Nordstrand, Pellworm and several halligen.

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11/10/1614

The New Netherland Company applies to the States General of the Netherlands for exclusive trading rights in what is now the northeastern United States.

New Netherland Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants.

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11/10/1311

The peerage and clergy restrict the authority of English kings with the Ordinances of 1311.

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. England shares a land border with Scotland to the north and another land border with Wales to the west, and is surrounded by the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south, the Celtic Sea to the south-west, and the Irish Sea to the west. Continental Europe lies to the south-east, and Ireland to the west. In the 2021 census, the population was 56,490,048. London is both the largest city and the capital.

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11/10/1142

A peace treaty ends the Jin–Song wars.

The Treaty of Shaoxing was the agreement and truce that ended the protracted military conflicts between the Jin dynasty and the Southern Song dynasty. It also legally drew up the boundaries of the two countries and forced the Song dynasty to renounce all claims to its former territories north of the Qinling Huaihe Line, which included its former capital of Kaifeng. Emperor Gaozong of Song subsequently executed the anti-Jin faction general Yue Fei after the treaty.

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11/10/1138

A massive earthquake strikes Aleppo; it is one of the most destructive earthquakes ever.

The 1138 Aleppo earthquake was among the deadliest earthquakes in history. Its name was taken from the city of Aleppo, in northern Syria, where the most casualties were sustained. The earthquake also caused damage and chaos to many other places in the area around Aleppo. The earthquake occurred on 11 October 1138 and was preceded by a smaller quake on the 10th. It is frequently listed as the third deadliest earthquake in history, following on from the Shensi and Tangshan earthquakes in China. However, the figure of 230,000 deaths reported by Ibn Taghribirdi in the fifteenth century is most likely based on a historical conflation of this earthquake with earthquakes in November 1137 on the Jazira plain and the large seismic event of 30 September 1139 in the Transcaucasian city of Ganja.

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