On this day: May 11

Events on May 11

• 330 Constantine the Great dedicates the much-expanded and rebuilt city of Byzantium, changing its name to New Rome and declaring it the new capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. Wikipedia
• 868 A copy of the Diamond Sutra was printed in Tang-dynasty China, making it the world's oldest dated printed book. Wikipedia
• 1068 Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror, is crowned Queen of England. Wikipedia
• 1813 William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth departed westward from Sydney on an expedition to become the first confirmed Europeans to cross the Blue Mountains. Wikipedia
• 1820 HMS Beagle, the ship that would take Charles Darwin on his voyage, was launched. Wikipedia
• 1858 Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted as the 32nd U.S. state. Wikipedia
• 1858 Minnesota becomes the 32nd U.S. state. Wikipedia
• 1878 Hödel assassination attempt by anarchist Max Hödel targeting the German Kaiser, Wilhelm I. Wikipedia
• 1894 In response to a 28-percent wage cut, 4,000 Pullman Palace Car Company workers went on strike in Illinois, bringing rail traffic west of Chicago to a halt. Wikipedia
• 1910 Glacier National Park was established in the U.S. state of Montana. Wikipedia
• 1919 Uruguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty. Wikipedia
• 1928 After a week-long standoff punctuated by military clashes, Japanese forces captured the city of Jinan, Shandong in China. Wikipedia
• 1963 African Americans rioted in Birmingham, Alabama, in response to two bombings, perceiving local police to be complicit with the perpetrators. Wikipedia
• 1973 Aeroflot Flight 6551 crashes in Semey, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (now Kazakhstan), killing all 63 aboard. Wikipedia
• 1987 Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II. Wikipedia
• 1997 Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in six games to become the first chess computer to win a match against a world champion. Wikipedia
• 1997 Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format. Wikipedia
• 2000 Second Chechen War: Chechen separatists ambush Russian paramilitary forces in the Republic of Ingushetia. Wikipedia
• 2009 An American soldier in Iraq opens fire on a counseling center at Camp Liberty in Baghdad, killing five other US soldiers and wounding three. Wikipedia
• 2009 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on the final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Wikipedia
• 2010 David Cameron took office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats formed the country's first coalition government since the Second World War. Wikipedia
• 2010 David Cameron takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats form the country's first coalition government since the Second World War. Wikipedia
• 2010 Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party after failing to strike a coalition agreement with the Liberal Democrats. Wikipedia
• 2011 The Istanbul Convention is signed in Istanbul, Turkey. Wikipedia
• 2014 Fifteen people are killed and 46 injured in Kinshasa, DRC, in a stampede caused by tear gas being thrown into soccer stands by police officers. Wikipedia
• 2024 The 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is held in Malmö, Sweden. Nemo from Switzerland win with their song "The Code", making them the contest's first non-binary winner. Wikipedia

Born on May 11

• 1752 Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German physician, physiologist, and anthropologist (died 1840): 94 Wikipedia
• 1811 Chang and Eng Bunker, Siamese-American showmen, the original conjoined twins (died 1874) Wikipedia
• 1852 Charles W. Fairbanks, American journalist and politician, 26th United States Vice President (died 1918) Wikipedia
• 1881 Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, and engineer (died 1963) Wikipedia
• 1888 Irving Berlin, Belarusian-American pianist and composer (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1894 Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (died 1991) Wikipedia
• 1895 Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher and speaker (died 1986) Wikipedia
• 1904 Salvador Dalí, Spanish artist (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1916 Camilo José Cela, Spanish author and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2002) Wikipedia
• 1918 Richard Feynman, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1988) Wikipedia
• 1924 Antony Hewish, English astronomer and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2021) Wikipedia
• 1930 Edsger W. Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist and academic (died 2002) Wikipedia
• 1932 Valentino Garavani, Italian fashion designer (died 2026) Wikipedia
• 1963 Natasha Richardson, English actress (died 2009) Wikipedia
• 1978 Laetitia Casta, French model and actress Wikipedia
• 1984 Andrés Iniesta, Spanish footballer Wikipedia
• 1986 Abou Diaby, French footballer Wikipedia
• 1989 Giovani dos Santos, Mexican footballer Wikipedia
• 1992 Thibaut Courtois, Belgian footballer Wikipedia
• 1992 Pablo Sarabia, Spanish footballer Wikipedia
• 1999 Sabrina Carpenter, American singer and actress Wikipedia
• 2000 Yūki Tsunoda, Japanese racing driver Wikipedia

Died on May 11

• 912 Leo VI the Wise, Byzantine Emperor, the second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty (born 866) Wikipedia
• 1610 Matteo Ricci, Italian priest and mathematician (born 1552) Wikipedia
• 1778 William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, English politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain (born 1708) Wikipedia
• 1812 Spencer Perceval, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1762) Wikipedia
• 1916 Karl Schwarzschild, German astronomer and physicist (born 1873): xix Wikipedia
• 1927 Juan Gris, Spanish painter and sculptor (born 1887) Wikipedia
• 1963 Herbert Spencer Gasser, American physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1888): 169 Wikipedia
• 1981 Bob Marley, Jamaican singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1945) Wikipedia
• 1981 Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1897) Wikipedia
• 1988 Kim Philby, British-Soviet double agent (born 1912) Wikipedia
• 1990 Stratos Dionysiou, Greek Singer, composer and lyricist (born 1935) Wikipedia
• 2001 Douglas Adams, English novelist and screenwriter (born 1952) Wikipedia
• 2019 Peggy Lipton, American actress, model, and singer (born 1946) Wikipedia
• 2020 Jerry Stiller, American comedian, actor (born 1927) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Anthimus of Rome Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gangulphus of Burgundy Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed John Rochester Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ignatius of Laconi Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Majolus of Cluny Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Mamertus, the first of the Ice Saints Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “May 11” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.