May 11 is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 234 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events [edit]

• 330 – Byzantium is renamed Nova Roma during a dedication ceremony, but it is more popularly referred to as Constantinople.
• 868 – A copy of the Diamond Sutra is printed in China, making it oldest known dated printed book.
• 912 – Alexander becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
• 1310 – In France, fifty-four members of the Knights Templar are burned at the stake as heretics.
• 1502 – Christopher Columbus leaves for his fourth and final voyage to the West Indies.
• 1647 – Peter Stuyvesant arrives in New Amsterdam to replace Willem Kieft as Director-General of New Netherland, the Dutch colonial settlement in present-day New York City.
• 1745 – War of Austrian Succession: Battle of Fontenoy – French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army.
• 1792 – Captain Robert Gray becomes the first documented white person to sail into the Columbia River.
• 1812 – Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons, London.
• 1813 – In Australia, William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth lead an expedition westwards from Sydney. Their route opens up inland Australia for continued expansion throughout the 19th century.
• 1820 – HMS Beagle, the ship that will take Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage, is launched.
• 1846 – President James K. Polk asked for and received a Declaration of War against Mexico, starting the Mexican-American War
• 1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British.
• 1858 – Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. State.
• 1862 – American Civil War: The ironclad CSS Virginia is scuttled in the James River northwest of Norfolk, Virginia.
• 1867 – Luxembourg gains its independence.
• 1880 – Seven people are killed in the Mussel Slough Tragedy, a gun battle in California
• 1891 – The Ōtsu incident: Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Imperial Russia (later Nicholas II) suffers a critical head injury during a sword attack by Japanese policeman Tsuda Sanzō. He is rescued by Prince George of Greece and Denmark.
• 1894 – Pullman Strike: Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike in Illinois.
• 1907 – 32 Shriners are killed when their chartered train derails at a switch near Surf Depot in Lompoc, California.
• 1910 – An act of the U.S. Congress establishes Glacier National Park in Montana.
• 1918 – The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus is officially established.
• 1924 – Mercedes-Benz is formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their two companies.
• 1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded.
• 1942 – William Faulkner's collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, is published.
• 1943 – World War II: American troops invade Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
• 1944 – World War II: The Allies begin a major offensive against the Axis Powers on the Gustav Line.
• 1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Okinawa, the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill is hit by two kamikazes, killing 346 of its crew. Although badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under its own power.
• 1946 – UMNO is created.
• 1949 – Siam officially changes its name to Thailand for the second time. The name had been in use since 1939 but was reverted in 1945.
• 1949 – Israel joins the United Nations.
• 1953 – The 1953 Waco tornado outbreak: an F5 tornado hits downtown Waco, Texas, killing 114.
• 1960 – In Buenos Aires, Argentina, four Israeli Mossad agents capture fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann who is living under the alias of Ricardo Klement.
• 1967 – Andreas Papandreou, Greek economist and socialist politician, is imprisoned in Athens by the Greek military junta.
• 1968 – The Toronto Transit Commission opens the largest expansion of its Bloor–Danforth line, going to Scarborough in the East, and Etobicoke in the West.
• 1970 – The Lubbock Tornado, a F5 tornado, hits Lubbock, Texas, killing 26 and causing $250 million in damage.
• 1973 – Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg has charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times dismissed.
• 1983 – Aberdeen F.C. defeat Real Madrid 2-1 to win the European Cup Winners' Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden.
• 1985 – Bradford City stadium fire: Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in a flash fire at Valley Parade football ground during a match against Lincoln City in Bradford, England.
• 1987 – Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.
• 1987 – In Baltimore, Maryland, the first heart–lung transplant takes place. The surgery is performed by Dr. Bruce Reitz of the Stanford University School of Medicine.
• 1995 – More than 170 countries extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
• 1996 – After the aircraft's departure from Miami, Florida, a fire started by improperly handled chemical oxygen generators in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades killing all 110 on board.
• 1996 – The 1996 Mount Everest disaster: on a single day eight people die during summit attempts on Mount Everest.
• 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.
• 1998 – India conducts three underground atomic tests in Pokhran to include a thermonuclear device.
• 2000 – Second Chechen War: Chechen separatists ambush Russian paramilitary forces in the Republic of Ingushetia.
• 2013 – At least 46 people are killed by a pair of car bombs in Reyhanlı, Turkey.

Births [edit]

• 482 – Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor (d. 565)
• 1366 – Anne of Bohemia, queen of Richard II of England (d. 1394)
• 1571 – Niwa Nagashige, Japanese warlord (d. 1637)
• 1715 – Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach, German child of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach (d. 1739)
• 1715 – Ignazio Fiorillo, Italian composer (d. 1787)
• 1720 – Baron Münchhausen, German nobleman (d. 1797)
• 1722 – Petrus Camper, Dutch anatomist (d. 1789)
• 1733 – Princess Victoire of France (d. 1799)
• 1752 – Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist (d. 1840)
• 1763 – János Batsányi, Hungarian poet (d. 1845)
• 1771 – Laskarina Bouboulina, Greek naval commander (d. 1825)
• 1799 – John Lowell, American philanthropist (d. 1836)
• 1801 – Henri Labrouste, French architect (d. 1875)
• 1811 – Chang and Eng Bunker, Thai-American conjoined twins (d. 1874)
• 1811 – Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel, Swiss politician, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1893)
• 1817 – Fanny Cerrito, Italian ballet dancer (d. 1909)
• 1824 – Jean-Léon Gérôme, French painter and sculptor (d. 1904)
• 1827 – Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, French sculptor and painter (d. 1875)
• 1835 – Kārlis Baumanis, Latvian composer (d. 1905)
• 1838 – Walter Goodman, English painter, illustrator, and author (d. 1912)
• 1852 – Charles W. Fairbanks, American politician, 26th United States Vice President (d. 1918)
• 1854 – Jack Blackham, Australian cricketer (d. 1932)
• 1861 – Frederick Russell Burnham, American scout and adventurer (d. 1947)
• 1869 – Archibald Warden, British tennis player (d. 1943)
• 1870 – Otto von Friesen, Swedish runologist, linguist, and educator (d. 1942)
• 1871 – Frank Schlesinger, American astronomer (d. 1943)
• 1875 – Harriet Quimby, American aviatrix (d. 1912)
• 1881 – Al Cabrera, Spanish-Cuban baseball player (d. 1964)
• 1881 – Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian physicist (d. 1963)
• 1881 – Jan van Gilse, Dutch composer and conductor (d. 1944)
• 1882 – Joseph Marx, Austrian composer, teacher and critic (d. 1964)
• 1885 – Joe "King" Oliver, American cornet player and bandleader (d. 1938)
• 1888 – Irving Berlin, American composer (d. 1989)
• 1888 – Willis A. Lee, American naval admiral (d. 1945)
• 1890 – Woodall Rodgers, American attorney, businessman, and politician, Mayor of Dallas (d. 1961)
• 1892 – Margaret Rutherford, English actress (d. 1972)
• 1894 – Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (d. 1991)
• 1895 – William Grant Still, American composer (d. 1978)
• 1896 – Josip Štolcer-Slavenski Croatian composer (d. 1955)
• 1897 – Kurt Gerron, German director (d. 1944)
• 1897 – Robert E. Gross, American businessman (d. 1961)
• 1899 – Paulino Masip, Spanish playwright (d. 1963)
• 1903 – Charlie Gehringer, American baseball player (d. 1993)
• 1904 – Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter (d. 1989)
• 1907 – Rose Ausländer, German poet (d. 1988)
• 1907 – Rip Sewell, American baseball player (d. 1989)
• 1909 – Ellis R. Dungan, American-Indian director (d. 2001)
• 1909 – Herbert Murrill, English composer (d. 1952)
• 1911 – Mitchell Sharp, Canadian politician (d. 2004)
• 1911 – Phil Silvers, American actor and comedian (d. 1985)
• 1912 – Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (d. 2001)
• 1912 – Saadat Hasan Manto, Pakistani writer (d. 1955)
• 1913 – Robert Jungk, Austrian publicist (d. 1994)
• 1914 – Haroun Tazieff, French volcanologist and geologist (d. 1998)
• 1916 – Camilo José Cela, Spanish writer, Nobel laureate (d. 2002)
• 1918 – Sheila Burnford, British novelist (d. 1984)
• 1918 – Richard Feynman, American physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1988)
• 1918 – Phil Rasmussen, American lieutenant (d. 2005)
• 1920 – Denver Pyle, American actor (d. 1997)
• 1921 – Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, German politician
• 1922 – Nestor Chylak, American baseball umpire (d. 1992)
• 1922 – Ameurfina Melencio-Herrera, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
• 1924 – Eugene Dynkin, Russian mathematician
• 1924 – Antony Hewish, English radio astronomer, Nobel laureate
• 1924 – Ninfa Laurenzo, restaurateur, founded Ninfa's
• 1925 – Edward J. King, American politician, 66th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 2006)
• 1927 – Mort Sahl, Canadian comedian and political commentator
• 1927 – Bernard Fox, English actor
• 1927 – Gene Savoy, American author, explorer, scholar, and cleric (d. 2007)
• 1928 – Yaacov Agam, Israeli sculptor
• 1928 – Brother Andrew, Dutch missionary
• 1928 – Marco Ferreri, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 1997)
• 1928 – Vern Rapp, American baseball manager and coach
• 1929 – Fernand Lindsay, Canadian churchman, educator, organist, and festival director (d. 2009)
• 1930 – Edsger Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist (d. 2002)
• 1930 – Bud Ekins, American stuntman (d. 2007)
• 1932 – Valentino Garavani, Italian fashion designer, founded Valentino SpA company
• 1933 – Louis Farrakhan, American Nation of Islam leader
• 1933 – Zoran Radmilovic, Serbian actor
• 1934 – Jim Jeffords, American politician
• 1934 – Arthur Labatt, Canadian businessman
• 1935 – Kit Lambert, English producer and manager (d. 1981)
• 1935 – Doug McClure, American actor (d. 1995)
• 1935 – Francisco Umbral, Spanish novelist (d. 2007)
• 1936 – Carla Bley, American musician, bandleader, and composer
• 1939 – Carlos Lyra, Brazilian musician
• 1939 – Dante Tinga, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
• 1940 – Juan Downey, Chilean artist (d. 1993)
• 1941 – Eric Burdon, English singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and painter (The Animals and War)
• 1941 – Graham Miles, English snooker player
• 1942 – Rachel Billington, English author
• 1943 – Les Chadwick, English bassist (Gerry and the Pacemakers)
• 1943 – Nancy Greene, Canadian alpine skier
• 1943 – Juliet Harmer, English actress
• 1946 – Robert Jarvik, American scientist, researcher, and entrepreneur, developed the Artificial heart
• 1946 – Plume Latraverse, Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, and author
• 1947 – Butch Trucks, American drummer (The Allman Brothers Band and The 31st of February)
• 1948 – Nirj Deva, Sri Lankan-English politician
• 1948 – Shigeru Izumiya, Japanese singer, actor, and poet
• 1950 – Dane Iorg, American baseball player
• 1950 – Jeremy Paxman, English journalist and author
• 1951 – Ed Stelmach, Canadian politician, 13th Premier of Alberta
• 1952 – Shohreh Aghdashloo, Iranian actress
• 1952 – Frances Fisher, English actress
• 1952 – Mike Lupica, American journalist
• 1952 – Renaud, French composer
• 1952 – Warren Littlefield, American television executive
• 1953 – David Gest, American concert promoter and media personality
• 1953 – Céline Lomez, Canadian actress and singer
• 1954 – John Gregory, English football manager
• 1954 – Lubomir Stoykov, Bulgarian journalist and broadcaster
• 1955 – John DeStefano, Jr., American politician
• 1956 – Theresa Burke, Canadian journalist
• 1956 – Alex Lester, English broadcaster
• 1957 – Mike Nesbitt, Irish journalist and politician
• 1957 – Peter North, Canadian porn actor
• 1958 – Christian Brando, American actor (d. 2008)
• 1958 – Dan Ireland, American director
• 1958 – Phil Smyth, Australian basketball player
• 1958 – Walt Terrell, American baseball player
• 1959 – Martha Quinn, American television and radio host
• 1960 – Gildor Roy, French-Canadian actor and singer
• 1960 – Steven Woloshen, Canadian experimental filmmaker and animator
• 1961 – Luis Felipe, Cuban gangster, founder of the Latin Kings
• 1963 – Gunilla Carlsson, Swedish politician
• 1963 – Masatoshi Hamada, Japanese comedian
• 1963 – Natasha Richardson, English-American actress (d. 2009)
• 1963 – Roark Critchlow, Canadian actor
• 1964 – Tim Blake Nelson, American actor
• 1964 – John Parrott, English snooker player
• 1964 – Katie Wagner, American reporter
• 1964 – Bobby Witt, American baseball player
• 1964 – Floyd Youmans, American baseball player
• 1965 – Stefano Domenicali, Italian race car manager
• 1965 – Greg Dulli, American musician (The Twilight Singers, The Afghan Whigs, and The Gutter Twins)
• 1965 – Monsour del Rosario, Filipino martial artist and actor
• 1966 – Christoph Schneider, German musician (Rammstein and Feeling B)
• 1967 – Alberto García Aspe, Mexican footballer
• 1968 – Jeffrey Donovan, American actor
• 1970 – Nicky Katt, American actor
• 1970 – Glenn Hugill, English television presenter and producer
• 1970 – Harold Ford Jr., American politician
• 1972 – Anita Hegh, Australian actress
• 1972 – Daniel Ornellas, Zimbabwean bassist
• 1974 – Kevin Brown, English-Canadian ice hockey player
• 1974 – Stanley Gene, Papua New Guinean rugby league footballer
• 1974 – Billy Kidman, American wrestler
• 1974 – Benoît Magimel, French actor
• 1974 – Darren Ward, Welsh footballer
• 1975 – Coby Bell, American actor
• 1975 – Francisco Cordero, Dominican baseball player
• 1975 – Ziad Jarrah, Lebanese hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 93 (d. 2001)
• 1977 – Janne Ahonen, Finnish ski jumper
• 1977 – Gonzalo Colsa, Spanish footballer
• 1977 – Pablo García, Uruguayan footballer
• 1977 – Victor Matfield, South African rugby player
• 1978 – Laetitia Casta, French model and actress
• 1978 – Perttu Kivilaakso, Finnish cellist and composer (Apocalyptica)
• 1979 – Erin Lang, Canadian singer, musician, and composer
• 1980 – Ernest Vardanean, Moldovan journalist of Armenian origin
• 1981 – Lauren Jackson, Australian basketball player
• 1981 – Daniel Ortmeier, American baseball player
• 1981 – Dusán Mukics, Slovene journalist
• 1981 – Austin O'Brien, American actor
• 1982 – Jonathan Jackson, American actor
• 1982 – Andrew Walter, American football player
• 1982 – Cory Monteith, Canadian actor and singer
• 1982 – Guji Lorenzana, Filipino singer and actor
• 1983 – Matt Leinart, American football player
• 1983 – Daizee Haze, American wrestler
• 1983 – Holly Valance, Australian actress, model, and singer
• 1983 – Hanna Verboom, Dutch actress
• 1983 – Frédéric Xhonneux, Belgian decathlete
• 1984 – John Bowie, American football player
• 1984 – Gerald Clayton, Dutch-American pianist and composer
• 1984 – Andrés Iniesta, Spanish footballer
• 1984 – Marvin Wijks, Dutch footballer
• 1985 – Matt Giraud, American singer-songwriter and musician
• 1985 – Sifow, Japanese singer
• 1985 – Beau Ryan, Australian professional Rugby League footballer
• 1986 – Abou Diaby, French footballer
• 1986 – Ronny Heberson Furtado de Araújo, Brazilian footballer
• 1986 – Manuel Schenkhuizen, Dutch gamer
• 1986 – Miguel Veloso, Portuguese footballer
• 1987 – Justin King, American football player
• 1987 – Louis Murphy, American football player
• 1987 – Monica Roşu, Romanian gymnast
• 1988 – Ace Hood, American rapper and songwriter
• 1988 – Jeremy Maclin, American football player
• 1988 – Brad Marchand, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1988 – Marcel Kittel, German cyclist
• 1989 – Gianluigi Bianco, Italian footballer
• 1989 – Giovani dos Santos, Mexican footballer
• 1989 – Cam Newton, American football player
• 1991 – Alex Nimely, Liberian-English footballer
• 1991 – Babacar Cisse, Senegalese Engineer
• 1992 – Thibaut Courtois, Belgian footballer
• 1993 – Jirapong Meenapra, Thai sprinter
• 1996 – Valeria Patiuk, Israeli tennis player

Deaths [edit]

• 912 – Leo VI the Wise, Byzantine Emperor (b. 866)
• 1304 – Ghazan, Mongol ruler (b. 1271)
• 1610 – Matteo Ricci, Italian missionary (b. 1552)
• 1672 – Charles Seton, 2nd Earl of Dunfermline (b. 1615)
• 1686 – Otto von Guericke, German scientist, inventor, and politician (b. 1602)
• 1708 – Jules Hardouin Mansart, French architect (b. 1646)
• 1723 – Jean Galbert de Campistron, French dramatist (b. 1656)
• 1760 – Alaungpaya, Myanmar founder of Konbaung Dynasty (b. 1714)
• 1777 – George Pigot, 1st Baron Pigot, English governor (b. 1719)
• 1778 – William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, English statesman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1708)
• 1779 – John Hart, American delegate and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (b. 1711)
• 1812 – Spencer Perceval, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1762)
• 1848 – Tom Cribb, English boxer (b. 1781)
• 1849 – Juliette Récamier, French society leader (b. 1777)
• 1871 – John Herschel, British mathematician and astronomer (b. 1792)
• 1887 – Jean Baptiste Boussingault, French chemist (b. 1802)
• 1891 – A. E. Becquerel, French physicist (b. 1820)
• 1915 – Arthur Hussey, American golfer (b. 1882)
• 1916 – Max Reger, German composer (b. 1873)
• 1916 – Karl Schwarzschild, German astronomer and physicist (b. 1873)
• 1920 – William Dean Howells, American writer (b. 1837)
• 1927 – Juan Gris, Spanish cubist artist (b. 1887)
• 1929 – Jozef Murgaš, Slovak inventor, architect, botanist, painter, patriot, and priest (b. 1864)
• 1934 – Blaise Diagne, Sengalese politician (b. 1872)
• 1934 – Orest Khvolson, Russian physicist (b. 1852)
• 1938 – George Lyon, Canadian golfer (b. 1858)
• 1939 – Evgenii Miller, Russian general (b. 1867)
• 1940 – Chujiro Hayashi, Japanese Physician (b. 1880)
• 1955 – Gilbert Laird Jessop, English cricketer (b. 1874)
• 1960 – John D. Rockefeller, Jr., American philanthropist (b. 1874)
• 1963 – Herbert Spencer Gasser, American physiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1888)
• 1966 – Alfred Wintle, English soldier and author (b. 1897)
• 1967 – James E. Brewton, American painter and printmaker (b. 1930)
• 1970 – Johnny Hodges, American saxophonist (b. 1906)
• 1973 – Lex Barker, American actor (b. 1919)
• 1976 – Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect and designer (b. 1898)
• 1979 – Lester Flatt, American singer-songwriter and musician (Foggy Mountain Boys and Nashville Grass) (b. 1914)
• 1981 – Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1897)
• 1981 – Bob Marley, Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician (Bob Marley & The Wailers) (b. 1945)
• 1985 – Chester Gould, American cartoonist (b. 1900)
• 1986 – Alexander Akimov, Ukrainian Chernobyl worker (b. 1953)
• 1986 – Henry P. McIlhenny, American philanthropist (b. 1910)
• 1986 – Fritz Pollard, American football player (b. 1894)
• 1988 – Kim Philby, English spy (b. 1912)
• 1990 – Stratos Dionysiou, Greek singer (b. 1935)
• 1994 – Timothy Carey, American actor (b. 1928)
• 1996 – Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigerian politician, President of Nigeria (b. 1904)
• 1996 – Rodney Culver, American football running back (b. 1969)
• 1996 – Rob Hall, New Zealand mountaineer (b. 1961)
• 1996 – Walter Hyatt, American songwriter and musician (b. 1949)
• 1996 – Candi Kubeck, American pilot of Valujet Flight 592 (b. 1961)
• 1996 – Ademir Marques de Menezes, Brazilian footballer (b. 1922)
• 1996 – Yasuko Namba, Japanese mountaineer (b. 1949)
• 1996 – Sam Ragan, American author, journalist and poet (b. 1915)
• 1997 – Ernie Fields, American musician, arranger, and bandleader (b. 1905)
• 1998 – Oreste Kirkop, Maltese tenor and actor (b. 1923)
• 1999 – Giorgos Kappis, Greek actor (b. 1929)
• 2000 – René Muñoz, Cuban actor and screenwriter (b. 1938)
• 2000 – Paula Wessely, Austrian actress (b. 1907)
• 2001 – Douglas Adams, English author (b. 1952)
• 2002 – Joseph Bonanno, Sicilian-American mafioso (b. 1905)
• 2002 – Renaude Lapointe, French-Canadian journalist and senator (b. 1912)
• 2002 – Bill Peet, American children's illustrator (b. 1915)
• 2003 – Noel Redding, English bassist (The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Road, Fat Mattress, and The Noel Redding Band) (b. 1945)
• 2004 – Mick Doyle, Irish rugby player and coach (b. 1941)
• 2004 – John Whitehead, American singer-songwriter and producer (McFadden & Whitehead) (b. 1949)
• 2005 – Michalis Genitsaris, Greek singer and composer (b. 1917)
• 2005 – Léo Cadieux, Canadian politician (b. 1908)
• 2006 – Floyd Patterson, American boxer (b. 1935)
• 2006 – Frankie Thomas, American actor (b. 1921)
• 2006 – Yossi Banai, Israeli singer and actor (b. 1932)
• 2007 – Malietoa Tanumafili II, Samoan head of state (b. 1913)
• 2007 – Bernard Gordon, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1918)
• 2008 – Dottie Rambo, American singer-songwriter (The Rambos) (b. 1934)
• 2008 – John Rutsey, Canadian drummer (Rush) (b. 1953)
• 2008 – Bruno Neves, Portuguese cyclist (b. 1981)
• 2009 – Pat Booth, English model, photographer, and author (b. 1943)
• 2009 – Lude Check, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1917)
• 2009 – Abel Goumba, African politician (b. 1926)
• 2009 – Claudio Huepe, Chilean politician, engineer, and economist (b. 1939)
• 2009 – Bill Kelso, American baseball player (b. 1940)
• 2009 – Mark Landon, American actor (b. 1948)
• 2009 – Shanthi Lekha, Sri Lankan actress (b. 1929)
• 2009 – Sardarilal Mathradas Nanda, Indian admiral (b. 1915)
• 2009 – Peter Philips, Australian politician (b. 1927)
• 2009 – Leonard Shlain, American surgeon and writer (b. 1937)
• 2010 – Robert H. Burris, American biochemist and educator (b. 1914)
• 2010 – John Fugh, Chinese-American general (b. 1934)
• 2010 – Brian Gibson, English footballer (b. 1928)
• 2010 – Timothy Grubb, English show jumper (b. 1954)
• 2010 – Rauf Jabbarov, Azerbaijani boxing manager and trainer (b. 1935)
• 2010 – Maciej Kozłowski, Polish actor (b. 1957)
• 2010 – Richard LaMotta, American inventor, businessman, lawyer, inventor of Chipwich (b. 1942)
• 2010 – Bud Mahurin, American pilot (b. 1918)
• 2010 – Emmanuel Ngobese, South African soccer player (b. 1980)
• 2010 – Jeff Shaw, Australian lawyer, politician, and judge (b. 1949)
• 2010 – Doris Eaton Travis, American actress, dancer, and author (b. 1904)
• 2010 – Bob Watt, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1927)
• 2011 – Maurice Goldhaber, Austrian-American physicist (b. 1911)
• 2011 – Leo Kahn, American businessman, co-founder of Staples Inc. (b. 1916)
• 2011 – Reach Sambath, Cambodian journalist (b. 1964)
• 2011 – Elisabeth Svendsen, English animal welfare advocate, founded The Donkey Sanctuary (b. 1930)
• 2011 – Robert Traylor, American basketball player (b. 1977)
• 2011 – Glyn Williams, Welsh footballer (b. 1918)
• 2011 – Snooky Young, American trumpeter (Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, and Count Basie Orchestra)
• 2012 – Jack Benaroya, American real estate developer and philanthropist (b. 1921)
• 2012 – Patrick Bosch, Dutch footballer (b. 1964)
• 2012 – Tony DeZuniga, Filipino comic-book artist (b. 1932)
• 2012 – Ramesh Mehta, India playwright, director, actor, and translator (b. 1923)
• 2013 – Doug Finley, Canadian Senator (b. 1946)

Holidays and observances [edit]

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Abgar V of Edessa (Eastern Orthodox Church)
  • Anthimus of Rome
  • Anthony de Sant'Ana Galvão
  • Cyril and Methodius (Eastern Orthodox Church; commemoration, Anglicanism)
  • Francis of Girolama
  • Gangulphus of Burgundy
  • Majolus of Cluny
  • Mamertus, the first of the Ice Saints
  • Odilo of Cluny
  • May 11 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Earliest date on which Whit Monday can fall, while June 14 is the latest; celebrated on the day after Pentecost. (Christianity)
• Nisga'a Day, celebration of the effective date of the Nisga'a Final Agreement. (Nisga'a Nation)
• One of the three days of the Feast of the Lemures. (Roman Empire)
• National Technology Day (India)
• Statehood Day (Minnesota)

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: May 11

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada