December 11 birthdays & history

Famous people born on December 11

• 1911Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian author, playwright, and screenwriter, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1918Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian novelist, historian, and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1803Hector Berlioz, French composer, conductor, and critic
• 1843Robert Koch, German microbiologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1882Max Born, German physicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1943John Kerry, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, 68th United States Secretary of State
• 1969Viswanathan Anand, Indian chess player
• 1810Alfred de Musset, French dramatist, poet, and novelist
• 1931Rajneesh, Indian guru, mystic, and educator
• 1475Pope Leo X, Head of the Catholic Church from 1513 to 1521

What happened on December 11

• 1640A crowd of 1,500 people presented the Root and Branch petition to the Long Parliament, calling for abolishing the episcopacy of the Church of England.
• 1789The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the oldest public universities in the United States and the only one to award degrees in the 18th century, was chartered.
• 1815The U.S. Senate creates a select committee on finance and a uniform national currency, predecessor of the United States Senate Committee on Finance.
• 1816Indiana becomes the 19th U.S. state.
• 1886The London-based football club Arsenal, then known as Dial Square, played their first match on the Isle of Dogs.
• 1901Guglielmo Marconi transmits the first transatlantic radio signal from Poldhu, Cornwall, England to St. John's, Newfoundland.
• 1925Pope Pius XI promulgated the encyclical Quas primas, establishing the Feast of Christ the King.
• 1925Roman Catholic papal encyclical Quas primas introduces the Feast of Christ the King.
• 1931Statute of Westminster 1931: The British Parliament establishes legislative equality between the UK and the Dominions of the Commonwealth—Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ireland.
• 1934Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the final time.
• 1958French Upper Volta and French Dahomey gain self-government from France, becoming the Republic of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) and the Republic of Dahomey (now Benin), respectively, and joining the French Community.
• 1972Apollo 17, the last Apollo mission, landed on the Moon.

Also observed on December 11

• Establishment of Kurdish Women's Union (Iraqi Kurdistan)
• Indiana Day (United States)
• International Mountain Day
• National Tango Day (Argentina)
• Pampanga Day (Pampanga province, Philippines)