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.
Births On This Day,
June 11
-
1956Joe Montana
.American football player
-
1933Gene Wilder
American actor
-
1910Jacques Cousteau
French biologist, author, inventor, co-developed the aqua-lung
-
1864Richard Strauss
German composer, conductor
-
1572Ben Jonson
English writer
Deaths On This Day,
June 11
-
1979John Wayne
American actor, director, producer
-
1974Julius Evola
Italian philosopher
-
1936Robert E. Howard
American author
-
1934Lev Vygotsky
Russian psychologist
-
1859Klemens von Metternich
German/Austrian politician, 1st State Chancellor of the Austrian Empire