On this day in history - June 11

What Happened On This Day – June 11

• 2010Africa hosts the FIFA World Cup for the first time

  The 19th association football world cup was opened in Johannesburg, South Africa. The winner of this historic edition was Spain.

• 1959Christopher Cockerell first presents the hovercraft

  The amphibious air-cushion vehicle first crossed the English Channel just weeks after Cockerell first demonstrated his prototype, the SR.N1. The scheduled “flights” between Dover (U.K.) and Calais (France) were discontinued in 2000.

• 1955More than 80 people die in the Le Mans car race disaster

  In one of history's worst car racing accidents, Pierre Levegh's Mercedes crashed into a crowd of spectators and burst into flames.

• 1938China launches the 1938 Yellow River flood

  In what Steven Dutch, a Professor at the University of Wisconsin, called “the world's largest act of environmental warfare in history”, the Chinese government created the flood to halt invading Japanese forces.

• 1817The first predecessor of the bicycle is demonstrated

  Using his revolutionary Laufmaschine, also known as Draisine, a two-wheeler without pedals, German inventor Karl Drais completed a 14 km test run in less than an hour, presenting a viable alternative to transportation by horse.