August 11 - Events

Events

• 3114 BC – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamericancivilizations, notably the Mayans, begins.
• 2492 BC – Traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation.
• 480 BC – Greco-Persian Wars: Battle of Artemisium – the Persians win a naval victory over the Greeks in an engagement fought near Artemisium, a promontory on the north coast of Euboea.
• 355 – Claudius Silvanus, accused of treason, proclaims himself Roman Emperor against Constantius II.
• 1755 – Charles Lawrence gives expulsion orders to remove the Acadians from Nova Scotia beginning theGreat Upheaval.
• 1786 – Captain Francis Light establishes the British colony of Penang in Malaysia
• 1804 – Francis II assumes the title of first Emperor of Austria.
• 1858 – The Eiger in the Bernese Alps is ascended for the first time by Charles Barrington accompanied byChristian Almer and Peter Bohren.
• 1898 – Spanish-American War: American troops enter the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
• 1918 – World War I: the Battle of Amiens ends.
• 1919 – The constitution of the Weimar Republic is adopted.
• 1920 – The Latvia-Bolshevist Russia peace treaty, which relinquished Russia's authority and pretenses to Latvia, is signed.
• 1929 – Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.
• 1934 – The first civilian prisoners arrive at the Federal prison on Alcatraz Island.
• 1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a frequency hopping, spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones and Wi-Fi.
• 1952 – Hussein is proclaimed King of Jordan.
• 1960 – Chad declares independence.
• 1965 – Race riots (the Watts riots) begin in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California.
• 1972 – Vietnam War: the last United States ground combat unit departs South Vietnam.
• 1975 – East Timor: Governor Mário Lemos Pires of Portuguese Timor abandons the capital Dili, following a coup by the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) and the outbreak of civil war between UDT and Fretilin.
• 1982 – A bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 830, en route from Tokyo to Honolulu, killing one teenager and injuring 15 passengers.
• 1999 – A total Solar eclipse (Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999)
• 1999 – The Salt Lake City Tornado tears through the downtown district of the city, killing one.
• 2003 – NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
• 2003 – Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.
• 2003 – A heat wave in Paris results in temperatures rising to 112 °F (44 °C), leaving about 144 people dead.