1911
1911 was a Common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar).
Years:
1908 1909 1910 - 1911(MCMXI) - 1912 1913 1914 Decades:
1880s 1890s 1900s - 1910s - 1920s 1930s 1940s Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1911 by topic: Arts Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television Science and Technology Archaeology - Aviation - Rail transport - Radio - Science Countries Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - South Africa Other Births - Deaths - Sport - State leaders - Religious leaders - Video gaming
Events
January-June
- January 1 - Northern Territory is separated from South Australia
- 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 10 - Major Jimmie Erickson takes the first aerial photograph (over San Diego, California).
- 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
- 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.
- March 1 - Jose Ordonez is elected President of Uruguay.
- March 8 - International Women's Day is celebrated for the first time
- 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 13 - Mexican Revolution - Rebels take Aqua Prieta besides US border. Government troops take the town back April 17 when the rebel leader "Red" Lopez is drunk
- April 19 - Francisco Madero's troops besiege Ciudad Juarez but general Juan J. Navarro refuses his demand of surrender
- May 11 - Futurist exhibition in Milan was the first of efforts by the group to make its theories concrete
- May 8 - Pancho Villa launches an attack against government troops in Ciudad Juarez without Madero's permission. Government troops surrender May 10
- 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 - Porfirio Diaz is convinced to resign but he does not do it officially
- May 21 - Peace treaty between rebels of Madero and government troops in Ciudad Juarez
- May 23 - Dedication ceremony for the New York Public Library.
- May 24 - Government troops fire at anti-Diaz demonstrators in Mexico City - about 200 dead (official claim only 40)
- May 25 - Diaz signs his resignation and leaves for Veracruz. 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'.
- June 7 - Francisco Madero arrives in Mexico City just after a local earthquake
- June 14 - A national seamen's strike begins in Britain.
- June 15 - IBM incorporated as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company 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 22- Coronation of George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck at Westminster Abbey, London.
July-October
- 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 finds Machu Picchu
- 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)
- 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 29 - French navy ship Liberte explodes anchored in Toulon
- October 6 - The British Seafarers' Union was formed in Southampton in England.
- October 10 - Wuchang Uprising which led to the founding of the Republic of China.
- October 10 - Robert Laird Borden becomes Canada's eighth prime minister.
- October 16 - Felipe 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 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-December
- 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).
- 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
- 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 29 - Sun Yat-sen becomes the first President of the Republic of China
Unknown dates
- First Solvay Congress - meeting of physicists
- University of Iceland founded
- University of Wales, Bangor moved to new buildings.
- 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica published.
- End of Qing Dynasty in China.
- Rutherford deduces the existence of a compact atomic nucleus from scattering experiments.
- Onnes discovers Superconductivity.
Births
January-March
- January 1 - 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 22 - Bruno Kreisky, Chancellor of Austria (d. 1990)
- January 24 - C. L. Moore, American writer (d. 1987)
- 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 12 - Stephen H. Sholes, American recording executive (d. 1968)
- February 19 - Merle Oberon, British actress (d. 1979)
- March 3 - Jean Harlow, American actress (d. 1937)
- March 8 - Alan Hovhaness, American composer (d. 2000)
- March 13 - L. Ron Hubbard, American author (d. 1986)
- March 16 - Josef Mengele, Nazi Germany war criminal (d. 1979)
- March 20 - Alfonso García Robles, Mexican diplomat and politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1991)
- March 24 - Joseph Barbera, American cartoonist
- March 25 - Jack Ruby, American killer of Lee Harvey Oswald (d. 1967)
- March 26 - Tennessee Williams, American playwright (d. 1983)
- March 29 - Brigitte Horney, German-born actress (d. 1988)
- March 31 - Elisabeth Grümmer, Alsatian soprano (d. 1986)
April-June
- April 5 - Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (d. 1960)
- April 8 - Melvin Calvin, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997)
- April 8 - Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher and essayist (d. 1995)
- April 11 - Stanislawa Walasiewicz, Polish-born runner(d. 1980)
- April 26 - Marianne Hoppe, German actress (d. 2002)
- May 8 - Robert Johnson, American guitarist and singer (d. 1938)
- 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)
- May 17 - Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish actress (d. 1998)
- May 18 - Big Joe Turner, American singer (d. 1985)
- May 20 - Gardner Fox, American writer (d. 1986)
- May 20 - Milt Gabler, American record producer (d. 2001)
- May 26 - Ben Alexander, American actor (d. 1969)
- May 27 - Hubert H. Humphrey, U.S. Vice President and Senator (d. 1978)
- May 27 - Teddy Kollek, Austrian-born mayor of Jerusalem
- May 27 - Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993)
- May 28 - Fritz Hochwälder, Austrian author (d. 1986)
- May 31 - Maurice Allais, French economicst, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 13 - Luis Alvarez, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)
- June 24 - 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)
- June 29 - Bernard Herrmann, American composer (d. 1975)
- June 30 - Czesław Miłosz, Polish-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
July-September
- July 4 - Mitch Miller, American singer and television personality
- July 9 - Mervyn Peake, British writer and illustrator (d. 1968)
- July 16 - Ginger Rogers, American actress (d. 1995)
- July 18 - Hume Cronyn, Canadian actor (d. 2003)
- July 21 - Marshall McLuhan, Canadian author (d. 1980)
- July 27 - Lupita Tovar, Mexican actress
- August 9 - William Alfred Fowler, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
- August 12 - Jane Wyatt, American actress
- August 14 - Shri Vethathiri Maharishi, Indian yogi
- August 17 - Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian chess player (d. 1995)
- August 23 - Betty Robinson, American athelete (d. 1999)
- August 23 - Birger Ruud, Norwegian athelete (d. 1998)
- August 27 - Kay Walsh, British actress (d. 2005)
- 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 19 - William Golding, English writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)
- September 23 - Frank Moss, U.S. Senator from Utah (d. 2003)
October-December
- 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 26 - Sid Gillman, American football coach (d. 2003)
- October 30 - Ruth Hussey, American actress (d. 2005)
- November 2 - Odysseas Elytis, Greek writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
- November 5 - Roy Rogers, American singer and actor (d. 1998)
- November 27 - David Merrick, Broadway producer (d. 2000)
- December 3 - Nino Rota, Italian composer (d. 1979)
- December 11 - Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- December 13 - Trygve Haavelmo, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
- Decmeber 13 - Kenneth Patchen, American poet and painter (d. 1972)
Unknown dates
- Yolande Beekman, French-born World War II heroine (d. 1944)
Deaths
- March 1 - Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- April 25 - Emilio Salgari, Italian writer (b. 1862)
- May 18 - Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer (b. 1860)
- May 21 - Williamina Fleming, Scottish astronomer (b. 1857)
- May 29 - William S. Gilbert, English dramatist (b. 1836)
- June 9 - Carrie Nation, American temperance activist (b. 1846)
- August 1 - Edwin Austin Abbey, American painter (b. 1852)
- August 8 - William P. Frye, U.S. Senator (b. 1830)
- September 16 - Edward Whymper, British explorer (b. 1840)
- October 14 - John Marshall Harlan, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1833)
- October 29 - Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-born newspaper publisher and journalist (b. 1847)
- December 10 - Joseph Dalton Hooker, English botanist (b. 1817)
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