Wednesday, October 11, 2017

THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― OCTOBER 11

October 11 is the 284th day of the year (285th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 81 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday (58 in 400 years each) than on Friday or Saturday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Monday or Wednesday (56).

GENERAL POLASKI MEMORIAL DAY  

1582 – Because of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain. 


1634 – The Burchardi flood: "The second Grote Mandrenke" killed around 15,000 in North Friesland, Denmark and Germany.

1649 – The Sack of Wexford: After a ten-day siege, English New Model Army troops (under Oliver Cromwell) stormed the town of Wexford, killing over 2,000 Irish Confederate troops and 1,500 civilians.



1767 – Surveying for the Mason–Dixon line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed.

1809 – Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand.

1862 – American Civil War: In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart and his men loot Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a raid into the north.

1865 – Paul Bogle led hundreds of black men and women in a march in Jamaica, starting the Morant Bay rebellion.

1910 – Former President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane. He flew for four minutes with Arch Hoxsey in a plane built by the Wright brothers at Kinloch Field (Lambert–St. Louis International Airport), St. Louis, Missouri.

1968 – The Apollo space program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.

1975 – The NBC sketch comedy/variety show Saturday Night Live debuts with George Carlin as the host and Andy Kaufman, Janis Ian and Billy Preston as guests.

1976 – George Washington's appointment, posthumously, to the grade of General of the Armies (5-Star) by congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 is approved by President Gerald R. Ford.



1984 – Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.


1986 – Cold War: U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.


2001 – The Polaroid Corporation files for federal bankruptcy protection.


TODAY'S BIRTHS

1739 – Grigory Potemkin, Russian general and politician (d. 1791)

1835 – Theodore Thomas, American conductor, founded the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (d. 1905)

1844 – Henry J. Heinz, American businessman, founded the H. J. Heinz Company (d. 1916)

1926 – Thích Nhất Hạnh, Vietnamese monk, author, and poet

From Wikipedia and Googleexcept as noted.

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