December
11
Independence
Day
South Africa : December 11 1931
Events
December
11
361
– Julian the Apostate enters Constantinople
as sole Emperor of the Roman Empire.
969 – Byzatine Emperor Nikephoros II is assassinated
by his wife Theofano and her lover, the later
Emperor John I Tzimiskes.
1282 – Llywelyn the Last, the last native Prince
of Wales, is killed at Cilmeri, near Builth
Wells, south Wales.
1602 – A surprise attack by forces under the
command of the Duke of Savoy and his brother-in-law,
Philip III of Spain, is repelled by the citizens
of Geneva.
1789 – The University of North Carolina is chartered
by the North Carolina General Assembly.
1792 – French Revolution: King Louis XVI of
France is put on trial for treason by the National
Convention.
1815 – the U.S. Senate created 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 – Brazilians defeat Paraguayans at the
Battle of Avaí during the Paraguayan War.
1905 – A workers' uprising occurs in Kiev and
establishes the Shuliavka Republic.
1907 – The New Zealand Parliament Buildings
are almost completely destroyed by fire.
1917 – British General Edmund Allenby enters
Jerusalem on foot and declares martial law.
1925 – Roman Catholic papal encyclical Quas
Primas introduces the Feast of Christ the King.
1927 – Guangzhou Uprising: Communist militia
and worker Red Guards launch an uprising in
the Chinese city of Guangzhou, taking over most
of the city and announcing the formation of
a Guangzhou Soviet.
1931 – The British Parliament enacts the Statute
of Westminster 1931, establishing legislative
equality between the self-governing dominions
of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion
of Canada, the Irish Free State, Dominion of
Newfoundland, the Dominion of New Zealand, and
the Union of South Africa.
1934 – Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics
Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment
for the last time.
1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII's abdication
as King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland, the British Dominions
beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India becomes
effective.
1937 – Second Italo-Abyssinian 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 Japan in the wake of the
attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States, in
turn, declares war on Germany and Italy.
1946 – The United Nations International Children's
Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established.
1948 – The United Nations passes General Assembly
Resolution 194, which established and defined
the role of the United Nations Conciliation
Commission as an organization to facilitate
peace in the British Mandate for Palestine.
1958 – French Upper Volta gains self-government
from France, becomes the Republic of Upper Volta,
and joins 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 last
Apollo mission to land on the Moon.
1980 – The Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation, and Liability Act, also known
as CERCLA or 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.
1993 – Forty-eight people are killed when a
block of the Highland Towers collapses near
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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 to Tokyo, killing
one. The captain is able to safely land the
plane.
1997 – The Kyoto Protocol opens for signature.
1998 – Thai Airways Flight 261 crashes near
Surat Thani Airport, killing 101. The pilot
flying the Thai Airways Airbus A310-300 is thought
to have suffered spatial disorientation.
2001 – The People's Republic of China joins
the World Trade Organization.
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
(and many who are not) in Cronulla Sydney. 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 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; Nations
such as Israel and the United States express
concern.
2006 – Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, 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 – Two car bombs explode at the Constitutional
Court building in Algiers and the United Nations
office. An estimated 45 people are killed in
the bombings.
2008 – Bernard Madoff is arrested and charged
with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi
scheme.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Daniel the Stylite
Pope Damasus I
Victoricus, Fuscian, and Gentian
Human Rights and Peace Day (Kiribati)
Indiana Day (United States)
International Mountain Day (International)
National Tango Day (Buenos Aires)
One of the four Agonalia, this day in honor
of Sol Indiges; also the Septimontium festival
(Roman Empire)
Pampanga Day (Pampanga Province, the Philippines)
Remembrance Day of Llywelyn II (Wales)
Republic Day, the day when Upper Volta became
an autonomous republic in the French Community
in 1958. (Burkina Faso)
For details, contact Datacentre
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