Events of 1911

January

• January 1 - Northern Territory is politically separated from South Australia and transferred to Commonwealth control.
• January 3 - In London, in what becomes known as the Siege of Sidney Street, the Metropolitan Police and the Scots Guards engage in a shootout with a criminal gang of Latvian anarchists held up in a building in the East End.
• January 5 - Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity is founded at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
• January 10 - Major Jimmie Erickson takes the first aerial photograph (over San Diego, California).
• January 12 - The University of the Philippines College of Law is formally established; three future Philippine presidents are among the first enrollees.
• January 18 - Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, marking the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.
• January 21
• First Monte Carlo races (Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo).
• The Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, was formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate (modern Botswana).
• January 26 - Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane.
• January 30 - The destroyer USS Terry makes the first airplane rescue at sea, saving the life of James McCurdy 10 miles from Havana, Cuba

February

• February 18 - First official air mail flight took place in Allahabad, India to Naini, India, when Henri Pequet carried 6,500 letters a distance of 13 km.

March

• March - The first installment of a serialized version of Frederick Winslow Taylor's monograph The Principles of Scientific Management (online version here) appears in American Magazine. The complete series runs in the March, April, and May issues, giving a boost to the efficiency movement.
• March 1 - José Batlle y Ordóñez is elected President of Uruguay.
• March 8 - International Women's Day is celebrated for the first time
• March 10 - Kansas legislature approves House Bill Number 906, effectively the first blue sky law in the United States, culminating an effort by Joseph Norman Dolley, Kansas' banking commissioner.
• March 24 - Denmark abolishes death penalty and flogging
• March 25 - Fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City - 145 dead
• March 29 - United States Army formally adopts the M1911 pistol as its standard sidearm, thus giving the gun its 1911 designation.

April

• April 6 - Dedë Gjon Luli Dedvukaj, Leader of the Malësori Albanians raises the Albanian flag in the town of Tuzi, Montenegro for the first time after Gjergj Kastrioti (Skenderbeg).
• April 13 - Mexican revolution - Rebels take Agua Prieta along the US border. Government troops take the town back April 17 when the rebel leader "Red" Lopez is drunk
• April 19 - Mexican Revolution - Francisco Madero's troops besiege Ciudad Juarez but general Juan J. Navarro refuses his demand of surrender
• April 27 - Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
• April 30 - Sparks from a burning hayshed ignite the Great Fire of 1911, destroying much of downtown Bangor, Maine.

May

• May 8 - Mexican Revolution - Pancho Villa launches an attack against government troops in Ciudad Juarez without Madero's permission. Government troops surrender May 10.
• May 11 - Futurist exhibition in Milan was the first of efforts by the group to make its theories concrete.
• May 15 - The United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be dissolved.
• May 17 - Mexican Revolution - Porfirio Diaz is convinced to resign but he does not do it officially.
• May 21 - Mexican Revolution - Peace treaty between rebels of Madero and government troops in Ciudad Juarez.
• May 23 - Dedication ceremony for the New York Public Library.
• May 24 - Mexican Revolution - Government troops fire at anti-Diaz demonstrators in Mexico City - about 200 dead (official claim only 40).
• May 25 - Mexican Revolution - Diaz signs his resignation and leaves for Veracruz; on May 31 he leaves for exile in France.
• May 30 - The first Indianapolis 500-mile auto race is run. The winner is Ray Harroun in the Marmon 'Wasp' and titanic was lunched

June

• June 7 - Mexican Revolution - Francisco Madero arrives in Mexico City just after a local earthquake.
• June 14
• A national seamen's strike begins in Britain.
• RMS Olympic, sister to the RMS Titanic, begins her maiden voyage at Southampton, England.
• June 15 - IBM incorporated as Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) in New York.
• June 16 - A 772-gram stony meteorite struck earth in Columbia County, Wisconsin near the village of Kilbourn damaging a barn.
• June 17 - The University of Iceland is founded.
• June 22 - Coronation of George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck at Westminster Abbey, London.
• June 28 - The Nakhla meteorite (from Mars) lands in the area of Alexandria, Egypt, purportedly killing a dog.

July

• July 1 - German Warship Panther in the Moroccan port of Agadir triggers Agadir Crisis escalating pre-WW1 tensions. Subsequent climbdown rallies German militancy.
• July 24 - Hiram Bingham rediscovers Machu Picchu.

August

• August 8 - Public Law 62-5 sets the number of representatives in the United States House of Representatives at 435. The law will take effect in 1913.
• August 9 - Raunds, Northamptonshire records a temperature of 98°F (36.7°C), the highest UK temperature until 1990.
• August 10 - British MPs vote to receive salaries for the first time.
• August 22 - Theft of Mona Lisa discovered in [Louvre] (Vincenzo Peruggia is captured and the painting returned 1913).
• August 29 - The Diocese of Kottayam was erected on this day (Kerala, India), for the Knanaya Catholic people of the Syro-Malabar Church. In 2005 the diocese was raised to the rank of Archdiocese. For details on the community see "knanaya" in Wikipedia. Added by JVL (RM)

September

• September 7 - French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested and put in jail on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum. He is later released.
• September 11 - Middle Tennessee State University is founded in Murfreesboro, Tennessee as Middle Tennessee Normal School.
• September 20 - The liner RMS Olympic, sister ship to the RMS Titanic, collides with Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hawke outside Southampton, England.
• September 25
• French navy ship Liberté explodes at anchor in Toulon
• Groundbreaking for Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, begins.
• September 30 - A concrete dam owned by the Bayless Pulp & Paper Mill breaks, wiping out the town of Austin, Pennsylvania and continuing downstream about 8 miles into the village of Costello.

October

• October - First Solvay Congress - meeting of physicists
• October 6 - The British Seafarers' Union was formed in Southampton in England.
• October 10
• Wuchang Uprising starts the Xinhai Revolution that will lead to the founding of the Republic of China.
• Robert Laird Borden becomes Canada's eighth prime minister.
• October 16 - Mexican Revolution - Felix Diaz, nephew of Porfirio Diaz, occupies the port of Veracruz as a sign of rebellion against Madero
• October 18 - revolutionaries under Sun Yat-sen overthrew China's Manchu dynasty.
• October 24 - Orville Wright remained in the air 9 minutes and 45 seconds in a glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina setting a new world record that stood for 10 years.
• October 28 - Foundation of The Rosicrucian Fellowship's international headquarters at Mount Ecclesia, Oceanside, California. It had been preceded by its formal constitution in August 8 1909 at Seattle, Washington.

November

• November 3 - Chevrolet officially enters the automobile market to compete with the Ford Model T.
• November 4 - Selandia launched in Denmark, the first ocean going diesel Ship.
• November 5 - After declaring war on Turkey on September 29, 1911, Italy annexes Tripoli and Cyrenaica (this act was confirmed by an act of the Italian Parliament on February 25, 1912).
• November 11
• A record cold snap hits the United States midwest. Many cities break record highs and lows on same day. (see The 11/11/11 cold wave).
• Big fire struck Visoko burning over 450 houses and other objects. The upper city area was completely burned, as well all the houses down the main street alongside Beledija.
• November 15 - Prince Louis Honoré Charles Antoine Grimaldi of Monaco, heir to the throne and later Reigning Prince Louis II of Monaco officially recognizes his illegitimate daughter Charlotte Louise Juliette Louvet as Princess Charlotte of Monaco.
• November 16 - Earthquake in Swab, South Germany
• November 17 - Omega Psi Phi Fraternity is founded at Howard University.

December

• December 11 - Coronation in New Delhi of George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck as Emperor of India and Empress consort respectively
• December 12 - The capital of India was shifted to New Delhi from Calcutta (now Kolkata).
• December 14 - Roald Amundsen's expedition reaches the South Pole
• December 21 - First robbery of the Bonnot gang
• December 23 - Stanislavski and Craig's seminal production of Hamlet opened at the Moscow Arts Theatre
• December 24 - Opening of Lackawanna Cutoff, the first of two major cutoffs built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, just three years after it was built.
• December 29 - Sun Yat-sen becomes the first President of the Republic of China

Undated

• First Urdu language typewriter made available.
• In Canada, the Dominion Parks Branch was established (now Parks Canada), the world's first national park service. In 1911 it fell under the Department of the Interior, and now resides within the Department of the Environment.
• Appleby College, a Canadian university-preparatory schools, is founded.
• University of Wales, Bangor moves to new buildings.
• 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica published.
• Ernest Rutherford deduces the existence of a compact atomic nucleus from scattering experiments.
• Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers superconductivity.
• Southern Methodist University is founded in Dallas, Texas.
• 1 out of every 7 employed persons is a domestic servant in Great Britain.

Ongoing

• Champagne Riots
• Mexican Revolution

Births

January-February

• January 1
• Roman Totenberg, Polish-American violinist
• Hank Greenberg, baseball player (d. 1986)
• January 3 - John Sturges, American film director (d. 1982)
• January 5 - Jean-Pierre Aumont, French actor (d. 2001)
• January 7 - Butterfly McQueen, American actress (d. 1995)
• January 11 - Zenko Suzuki, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2004)
• January 13 - Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Premier of Queensland (d. 2005)
• January 17 - George Joseph Stigler, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
• January 19 – Ken Nelson, American record producer and music executive (d. 2008)
• January 22 - Bruno Kreisky, Chancellor of Austria (d. 1990)
• January 24 - C. L. Moore, American writer (d. 1987)
• January 25 - Kurt Maetzig, German director
• January 26 - Polykarp Kusch, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)
• January 29 - Peter von Siemens, German industrialist (d. 1986)
• January 30 - Roy Eldridge, American jazz musician (d. 1989)
• February 5 - Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (d. 1960)
• February 6 - Ronald Reagan, United States President (d. 2004)
• February 8 - Elizabeth Bishop, American poet (d. 1979)
• February 11 - Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (Carroll Daly), fifth president of Ireland (d. 1978)
• February 12 - Stephen H. Sholes, American recording executive (d. 1968)
• February 14 - Willem Johan Kolff, Dutch inventor of hemodialysis
• February 17 - Oskar Seidlin, Silesian-born Jewish-American literary scholar (d. 1984)
• February 19 - Merle Oberon, British actress (d. 1979)
• February 28 - Otakar Vávra, Czech director

March-April

• March 3 - Jean Harlow, American actress (d. 1937)
• March 6 - Nikolai Baibakov, Soviet statesman (d. 2008)
• March 8 - Alan Hovhaness, American composer (d. 2000)
• March 9 - Ebby Halliday, American realtor
• March 12 - Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Mexican president (d. 1979)
• March 13
• L. Ron Hubbard, American author (d. 1986)
• Marie Rudisill, American author and Fruitcake Lady (d. 2006)
• March 15 - Ursula Vaughan Williams, British author (d. 2007)
• March 16
• Pierre Harmel, Belgian Prime minister
• Josef Mengele, Nazi Germany war criminal (d. 1979)
• March 18 - Al Benton, baseball player (d. 1968)
• March 20 - Alfonso García Robles, Mexican diplomat and politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1991)
• March 24
• Joseph Barbera, American cartoonist (d. 2006)
• Jane Drew, English architect (d. 1996)
• March 25 - Jack Ruby, American killer of Lee Harvey Oswald (d. 1967)
• March 26
• Bernard Katz, German-born biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2003)
• Tennessee Williams, American playwright (d. 1983)
• March 27 - Erich Heller, British philosopher, long resident in the U.S. (d. 1990)
• March 29 - Brigitte Horney, German-born actress (d. 1988)
• March 31 - Elisabeth Grümmer, Alsatian soprano (d. 1986)
• March 31 - Freddie Green, jazz guitarist (d. 1987)
• April 3 - Michael Woodruff, British/Australian pioneering transplant surgeon (d. 2001)
• April 6 - Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen, German biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1979)
• April 8
• Melvin Calvin, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997)
• Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher and essayist (d. 1995)
• April 11 - Stanislawa Walasiewicz, Polish-born runner (d. 1980)
• April 13 - William Tuttle, American makeup artist (d. 2007)
• April 15 - Muhammad Metwally Al Shaarawy, Egyptian Muslim jurist (d. 1998)
• April 17 - Lester Rodney, American journalist
• April 18
• Maurice Goldhaber, Austrian-American physicist
• Huntington Hartford, American businessman and heir to A&P (d. 2008)
• April 23 - Ronald Neame, British film cinematographer, producer, screenwriter and director
• April 26 - Marianne Hoppe, German actress (d. 2002)

May-June

• May 1 - Anthony Salerno, member of the U.S. La Cosa Nostra and a leader in the Genovese Family (d. 1992)
• May 5 - Andor Lilienthal, Hungarian Chess Grandmaster
• May 8 - Robert Johnson, American guitarist and singer (d. 1938)
• May 10 - Bel Kaufman, German born American author
• May 11
• Phil Silvers, American actor and comedian (d. 1985)
• May 11 - Doodles Weaver, American actor and comedian (d. 1983)
• May 15 - Max Frisch, Swiss author (d. 1991)
• May 17
• Lisa Fonssagrives, Swedish model (d. 1992)
• Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish actress (d. 1998)
• May 18 - Big Joe Turner, American singer (d. 1985)
• May 20
• Gardner Fox, American writer (d. 1986)
• Milt Gabler, American record producer (d. 2001)
• May 22 - Anatol Rapoport, Russian-born American mathematical psychologist (d. 2007)
• May 24
• Carleen Hutchins, American violin maker
• Barbara West, Second-to-last living survivor of the Titanic sinking (d. 2007)
• May 26 - Ben Alexander, American actor (d. 1969)
• May 27
• Hubert H. Humphrey, U.S. Vice President and Senator (d. 1978)
• Teddy Kollek, Austrian-born mayor of Jerusalem (d. 2007)
• Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993)
• May 28 - Fritz Hochwälder, Austrian author (d. 1986)
• May 31 - Maurice Allais, French economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• June 13 - Luis Alvarez, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)
• June 15 - W.V. Awdry, English children's writer (d. 1997)
• June 20 - Paul Pietsch, German racer and magazine magnate
• June 24
• Ernesto Sabato, Argentine writer
• Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentine race car driver (d. 1995)
• June 25 - William Howard Stein, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1980)
• June 26 - Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American athlete and golfer (d. 1956)
• June 29
• Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (d. 2004)
• Bernard Herrmann, American composer (d. 1975)
• June 30 - Czesław Miłosz, Polish-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)

July-August

• July 1 - Sergei Sokolov, Marshal of the Soviet Union
• July 4
• Mitch Miller, American singer and television personality
• Frederick Seitz, American scientist (d. 2008)
• July 5 - Georges Pompidou, President of France (d. 1974)
• July 6 - LaVerne Andrews, member of the 1940s Big Band/Swing group The Andrews Sisters is born in Mound, Minnesota (d. 1967)
• July 7 - Gian-Carlo Menotti, Italian born American composer (d. 2007)
• July 9
• John Archibald Wheeler, American physicist (d. 2008)
• Mervyn Peake, British writer and illustrator (d. 1968)
• July 16
• Jerry Burke, American musician (d. 1965)
• Ginger Rogers, American actress (d. 1995)
• July 17 - Ted Anderson, English footballer (d. 1979)
• July 18 - Hume Cronyn, Canadian actor (d. 2003)
• July 21 - Marshall McLuhan, Canadian author (d. 1980)
• July 27 - Lupita Tovar, Mexican actress
• August 6 - Lucille Ball, American actress (d. 1989)
• August 9 - William Alfred Fowler, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
• August 10 - A. N. Sherwin-White, English historian of Ancient Rome (d. 1993)
• August 11 - William H. Avery, American politician
• August 12 - Jane Wyatt, American actress (d. 2006)
• August 18 - Amelia Boynton Robinson, American civil rights activist
• August 17 - Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian chess player (d. 1995)
• August 23
• Betty Robinson, American athlete (d. 1999)
• Birger Ruud, Norwegian athlete (d. 1998)
• August 25 - Võ Nguyên Giáp, Vietnamese General, First Indochina War, Vietnam War
• August 27 - Kay Walsh, British actress (d. 2005)

September-October

• September 2 - Floyd Council, American musician (d. 1976)
• September 6 - Harry Danning, baseball player (d. 2004)
• September 9 - John Gorton, nineteenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 2002)
• September 15 - Joseph Pevney, American director
• September 19 - William Golding, English writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)
• September 20 - Shriram Sharma Acharya, founder of All world Gayatri Pariwar (d. 1990)
• September 23 - Frank Moss, U.S. Senator from Utah (d. 2003)
• September 24 - Herbert Jeffreys, American singer and actor
• September 27 - John Harvey, stage and film actor (d. 1982)
• September 29 - Charles Court, Australian politician (d. 2007)
• October 5
• Flann O'Brien, Irish humorist (d. 1966)
• Pierre Dansereau, Canadian ecologist
• October 9 - Joe Rosenthal, American photographer (d. 2006)
• October 10 - Clare Hollingworth, British journalist
• October 13 - Ashok Kumar, Indian actor (d. 2001)
• October 14 - Le Duc Tho, Vietnamese general and politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1990)
• October 15 - James H. Schmitz, German-born American science fiction writer (d. 1981)
• October 26 - Sid Gillman, American football coach (d. 2003)
• October 30 - Ruth Hussey, American actress (d. 2005)

November-December

• November 1
• Sidney Wood, American tennis player
• Henri Troyat, French writer (d. 2007)
• November 2 - Odysseas Elytis, Greek writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
• November 5 - Roy Rogers, American singer and actor (d. 1998)
• November 12 - Chad Varah, British priest and humanitarian (d. 2007)
• November 13 - Buck O'Neil, American baseball player and manager (d. 2006)
• November 24 - Erik Bergman, Finnish composer (d. 2006)
• November 25 - Roelof Frankot, Dutch painter (d. 1984)
• November 27
• David Merrick, American theater producer (d. 2000)
• Fe del Mundo, Filipino pediatrician and National Scientist
• November 28 – Václav Renč, Czech poet, dramatist and translator (d. 1973)
• December 3 - Nino Rota, Italian composer (d. 1979)
• December 8 - Lee J. Cobb, American actor (d. 1976)
• December 11
• Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)
• Val Guest, British film director (d. 2006)
• December 13
• Trygve Haavelmo, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
• Kenneth Patchen, American poet and painter (d. 1972)
• December 18 - Jules Dassin, American director (d. 2008)
• December 20 - Hortense Calisher, American author
• December 21 - Josh Gibson, baseball player (d. 1947)
• December 23 - Niels Kaj Jerne, English-born immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)
• December 25 - Louise Bourgeois, French born American artist
• December 26 - Arsenio Lacson, Filipino politician and sportswriter (d. 1962)
• December 27 - Anna Russell, British comedian and singer (d. 2006)
• December 30 - Jeanette Nolan, American actress (d. 1998)
• date unknown
• Yolande Beekman, French-born World War II heroine (d. 1944)
• Jaime Ornelas Camacho, Portuguese-born politician

Deaths

January - June

• January 17 - Sir Francis Galton, English explorer and biologist (b. 1822)
• February 4 - Piet Cronjé, Boer general (b. 1836)
• February 15 - Theodor Escherich, paediatrician (b. 1857)
• March 1 - Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
• April 10 - Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Lithuanian artist and composer (b. 1875)
• April 25 - Emilio Salgari, Italian writer (b. 1862)
• April 29 - Georg, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe (b. 1846)
• May 18 - Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer (b. 1860)
• May 21 - Williamina Fleming, Scottish astronomer (b. 1857)
• May 27 - Thursday October Christian II, Pitcairn Islands leader (b. 1820)
• May 29 - William S. Gilbert, English dramatist (b. 1836)
• June 2 - Axel Olof Freudenthal, philologist and politician (b. 1836)
• June 9 - Carrie Nation, American temperance activist (b. 1846)
• June 25 - Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy (b. 1843)

July - December

• July 2 - Clement A. Evans, Confederate general (b. 1833)
• July 15 - Louisa Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (b. 1832)
• July 16 - August Harambašić, Croatian writer (b. 1861)
• August 1 - Edwin Austin Abbey, American painter (b. 1852)
• August 8 - William P. Frye, U.S. Senator (b. 1830)
• August 12 - Jules Brunet, French military leader (b. 1838)
• September 16 - Edward Whymper, British explorer (b. 1840)
• October 7 - John Hughlings Jackson, English neurologist (b. 1835)
• October 14 - John Marshall Harlan, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1833)
• October 24 - Ida Lewis, lighthouse keeper (b. 1842)
• October 29 - Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-born newspaper publisher and journalist (b. 1847)
• October 31 - John Joseph Montgomery, American glider pioneer (b. 1858)
• November 26 - Komura Jutarō, Japanese statesman (b. 1855)
• December 10 - Joseph Dalton Hooker, English botanist (b. 1817)
• December 22 - Odilon Lannelongue, French surgeon (b. 1840)
• December 25 - Arthur F. Griffith, American calculating prodigy (b. 1880)
• date unknown - William George Aston, British consular official (b. 1841)

Nobel prizes

• Physics - Wilhelm Wien
• Chemistry - Maria Skłodowska-Curie
• Medicine - Allvar Gullstrand
• Literature - Count Maurice (Mooris) Polidore Marie Bernhard Maeterlinck
• Peace - Tobias Michael Carel Asser Alfred Hermann Fried

Notes

External links

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