TODAY HISTORY LESSON: MAY 11
330 Constantinople (Byzantium) becomes the capital of the Roman Empire
868 The earliest surviving dated printed book is produced in China. The “Diamond Sutra” is one of the most important texts in Mahayana Buddhism. The British Library in London presently houses the copy.
1573 Henry of Anjou becomes the first elected king of Poland.
1690 In the first major engagement of King William’s War, British troops from Massachusetts seize Port Royal in Acadia (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) from the French.
1751 Pennsylvania Hospital founded by Dr. Thomas Bond and Benjamin Franklin
1812 Waltz introduced into English ballrooms – Most observers consider it disgusting & immoral.
1858 Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state.
1889 Major Joseph Washington Wham takes charge of $28,000 in gold and silver to pay troops at various points in the Arizona Territory. The money was stolen in a train robbery.
1910 Montana’s Glacier National Park forms
1934 A severe two-day dust storm stripped the topsoil from the great plains of the U.S. and created a “Dust Bowl.” The storm was one of many.
1960 Israeli soldiers capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires.
1967 The Siege of Khe Sanh ends with the base is still in American hands.
1969 British comedy troupe Monty Python forms, made up of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin
1973 Charges against Daniel Ellsberg for his role in the Pentagon Papers case were dismissed.
1981 The musical Cats is premiered
1987 1st heart-lung transplant take place (Baltimore)
1995 More than 170 countries agree to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons [1]
1996 ValuJet flight 592 crashes into the Florida Everglades shortly after takeoff. All 110 people on board lost their lives in the crash that was caused by a fire in the cargo compartment.
2001 U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced his decision to approve a 30-day delay of the execution of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh had been scheduled to be executed on May 16, 2001. The delay was because the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had failed to disclose thousands of documents to McVeigh’s defense team.
2003 91% of Lithuanian voters opted to join the European Union—the first former Soviet nation to do so.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
