today.nukz.net: Almanac November 11

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ( November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was a 20th-century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle (1963), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), and Breakfast of Champions (1973) blend satire, gallows humor, and science fiction. As a citizen he was a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union and a critical leftist intellectual. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.

Events

308 – At Carnuntum, Emperor emeritus Diocletian confers with Galerius, Augustus of the East, and Maximianus, the recently returned former Augustus of the West, in an attempt to restore order to the Roman Empire.
1215 – The Fourth Lateran Council meets, defining the doctrine of transubstantiation, the process by which bread and wine are, by that doctrine, said to transform into the body and blood of Christ.
1500 – Treaty of Granada – Louis XII of France and Ferdinand II of Aragon agree to divide the Kingdom of Naples between them.
1620 – The Mayflower Compact is signed in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod.
1634 – Following pressure from Anglican bishop John Atherton, the Irish House of Commons passes An Act for the Punishment for the Vice of Buggery.
1673 – Second Battle of Khotyn in Ukraine: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth forces under the command of Jan Sobieski defeat the Ottoman army. In this battle, rockets made by Kazimierz Siemienowicz are successfully used.
1675 – Gottfried Leibniz demonstrates integral calculus for the first time to find the area under the graph of y = ƒ(x).
1724 – Joseph Blake, alias Blueskin, a highwayman known for attacking "Thief-Taker General" (and thief) Jonathan Wild at the Old Bailey, is hanged in London.
1750 – riots break out in Lhasa after the murder of the Tibetan regent.
1750 – The F.H.C. Society, also known as the Flat Hat Club, is formed at Raleigh Tavern, Williamsburg, Virginia. It is the first college fraternity.
1778 – Cherry Valley Massacre: Loyalists and Seneca Indian forces attack a fort and village in eastern New York during the American Revolutionary War, killing more than forty civilians and soldiers.
1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Dürenstein – 8000 French troops attempt to slow the retreat of a vastly superior Russian and Austrian force.
1813 – War of 1812: Battle of Crysler's Farm – British and Canadian forces defeat a larger American force, causing the Americans to abandon their Saint Lawrence campaign.
1831 – In Jerusalem, Virginia, Nat Turner is hanged after inciting a violent slave uprising.
1839 – The Virginia Military Institute is founded in Lexington, Virginia.
1864 – American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea – Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins burning Atlanta, Georgia to the ground in preparation for his march south.
1865 – Treaty of Sinchula is signed by which Bhutan cedes the areas east of the Teesta River to the British East India Company.
1869 – The Victorian Aboriginal Protection Act is enacted in Australia, giving the government control of indigenous people's wages, their terms of employment, where they could live, and of their children, effectively leading to the Stolen Generations.
1880 – Australian bushranger Ned Kelly is hanged at Melbourne Gaol.
1887 – Anarchist Haymarket Martyrs August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and George Engel are executed.
1887 – Construction of the Manchester Ship Canal begins at Eastham.
1889 – The State of Washington is admitted as the 42nd State of the United States.
1911 – Many cities in the Midwestern United States break their record highs and lows on the same day as a strong cold front rolls through.
1918 – World War I: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car in the forest of Compiègne, France. The fighting officially ends at 11:00 a.m., (the eleventh hour in the eleventh month on the eleventh day) and this is annually honoured with a two-minute silence. The war officially ends on the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28th June, 1919.
1918 – Józef Pilsudski assumes supreme military power in Poland - symbolic first day of Polish independence.
1918 – Emperor Charles I of Austria relinquishes power.
1919 – The Centralia Massacre in Centralia, Washington results the deaths of four members of the American Legion and the lynching of a local leader of the Industrial Workers of the World.
1919 – Lacpleša day – Latvian forces defeat the Freikorps at Riga in the Latvian War of Independence.
1921 – The Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by US President Warren G. Harding at Arlington National Cemetery.
1926 – U.S. Route 66 is established.
1930 – Patent number US1781541 is awarded to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd for their invention, the Einstein refrigerator.
1934 – The Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia is opened.
1940 – World War II: Battle of Taranto – The Royal Navy launches the first aircraft carrier strike in history, on the Italian fleet at Taranto.
1940 – The German cruiser Atlantis captures top secret British mail, and sends it to Japan.
1940 – Armistice Day Blizzard: An unexpected blizzard kills 144 in the U.S. Midwest.
1942 – World War II: Nazi Germany completes its occupation of France.
1942 – World War II: The Second Battle of El Alamein is won by the British in El Alamein, Egypt.
1944 – Dr. jur. Erich Göstl, a member of the Waffen SS, is presented with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, to recognise extreme battlefield bravery, after losing his face and eyes during the Battle of Normandy.
1960 – A military coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam is crushed.
1961 – thirteen Italian Air Force servicemen, deployed to the Congo as a part of the UN peacekeeping force are massacred by a mob in the course of the Kindu atrocity.
1962 – Kuwait's National Assembly ratifies the Constitution of Kuwait.
1965 – In Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe), the white-minority government of Ian Smith unilaterally declares independence.
1966 – NASA launches Gemini 12.
1967 – Vietnam War: In a propaganda ceremony in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, three American prisoners of war are released by the Viet Cong and turned over to "new left" antiwar activist Tom Hayden.
1968 – Vietnam War: Operation Commando Hunt initiated. The goal is to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos into South Vietnam.
1968 – A second republic is declared in the Maldives.
1972 – Vietnam War: Vietnamization – The United States Army turns over the massive Long Binh military base to South Vietnam.
1975 – Australian constitutional crisis of 1975: Australian Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismisses the government of Gough Whitlam, appoints Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister and announces a general election to be held in early December.
1975 – Independence of Angola.
1981 – Antigua and Barbuda joins the United Nations.
1992 – The General Synod of the Church of England votes to allow women to become priests.
1993 – A sculpture honoring women who served in the Vietnam War is dedicated at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
1999 – The House of Lords Act is given Royal Assent, restricting membership of the British House of Lords by virtue of a hereditary peerage.
2000 – Kaprun disaster: 155 skiers and snowboarders die when a cable car catches fire in an alpine tunnel in Kaprun, Austria.
2001 – Journalists Pierre Billaud, Johanne Sutton and Volker Handloik are killed in Afghanistan during an attack on the convoy they are traveling in.
2004 – New Zealand Tomb of the Unknown Warrior is dedicated at the National War Memorial, Wellington.
2004 – The Palestine Liberation Organization confirms the death of Yasser Arafat from unidentified causes. Mahmoud Abbas is elected chairman of the PLO minutes later.
2006 – Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II unveils the New Zealand War Memorial in London, United Kingdom, commemorating the loss of soldiers from the New Zealand Army and the British Army.
2008 – RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) sets sail on her final voyage to Dubai.

Births

995 – Gisela of Swabia, Holy Roman Empire Empress (d. 1041)
1050 – Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1106)
1154 – King Sancho I of Portugal (d. 1212)
1155 – King Alfonso VIII of Castile (d. 1214)
1220 – Alphonse of Toulouse, son of Louis VIII of France (d. 1271)
1493 – Paracelsus, physician (d. 1541)
1493 – Bernardo Tasso, Italian poet (d. 1569)
1569 – Martin Ruland the Younger, German physician and alchemist (d. 1611)
1579 – Frans Snyders, Flemish painter (d. 1657)
1599 – Ottavio Piccolomini, Austrian-Italian field marshal (d. 1656)
1599 – Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, Queen of Sweden (d. 1655)
1633 – George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, British statesman (d. 1695)
1668 – Johann Albert Fabricius, German scholar and bibliographer (d. 1736)
1696 – Andrea Zani, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1757)
1743 – Carl Peter Thunberg, Swedish naturalist (d. 1828)
1748 – King Charles IV of Spain (d. 1819)
1791 – Josef Munzinger, Swiss Federal Councillor (d. 1855)
1792 – Mary Anne Evans, Welsh wife of Benjamin Disraeli (d. 1872)
1821 – Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist (d. 1881)
1836 – Thomas Bailey Aldrich, American poet and novelist (d. 1907)
1852 – Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, Austro-Hungarian field marshal (d. 1925)
1857 – Janet Erskine Stuart, Sacred Heart educator (d. 1914)
1858 – Marie Bashkirtseff, Russian painter (d. 1884)
1863 – Paul Signac, French painter (d. 1935)
1864 – Alfred Hermann Fried, Austrian pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1921)
1869 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy (d. 1947)
1872 – David I. Walsh, 46th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1947)
1882 – King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden (d. 1973)
1883 – Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (d. 1969)
1885 – George Smith Patton, Jr., American general (d. 1945)
1887 – Roland Young, American actor (d. 1953)
1888 – Abul Kalam Azad, Indian independence movement leader (d. 1958)
1891 – Rabbit Maranville, American baseball player (d. 1954)
1898 – René Clair, French film director (d. 1981)
1899 – Pat O'Brien, American film actor (d. 1983)
1901 – F. Van Wyck Mason, American author (d. 1978)
1901 – Magda Goebbels, wife of Nazi minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels (d. 1945)
1901 – Sam Spiegel, Austrian-born American film producer (d. 1985)
1904 – Alger Hiss, American government official and spy (d. 1996)
1904 – J. H. C. Whitehead, British mathematician (d. 1960)
1907 – Orestis Laskos, Greek film director, screenwriter and poet (d. 1992)
1909 – Robert Ryan, American actor (d. 1973)
1911 – Roberto Matta, Chilean painter (d. 2002)
1912 – Thomas C. Mann, American diplomat (d. 1999)
1914 – Howard Fast, American author (d. 2003)
1914 – James G. Baker, American astronomer and optician (d. 2005)
1914 – Henry Wade, American lawyer (d. 2001)
1914 – Taslim Olawale Elias, Nigerian jurist and former ICJ president (d. 1991)
1915 – William Proxmire, American politician (d. 2005)
1915 – Anna Schwartz, American economist and author (d. 2012)
1916 – Robert Carr, British conservative politician (d. 2012)
1918 – Stubby Kaye, American comic actor (d. 1997)
1919 – Kalle Päätalo, Finnish novelist (d. 2000)
1920 – Roy Jenkins, British politician (d. 2003)
1921 – Terrel Bell, American politician (d. 1996)
1922 – Kurt Vonnegut Jr., American novelist (d. 2007)
1925 – June Whitfield, British comedian
1925 – Jonathan Winters, American comedian and actor
1926 – Harry Lumley, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1998)
1927 – Mose Allison, American jazz pianist and singer
1928 – Carlos Fuentes, Mexican writer
1928 – Gracita Morales, Spanish actress (d. 1995)
1929 – Hans Magnus Enzensberger, German writer
1929 – LaVern Baker, American singer (d. 1997)
1930 – Hank Garland, American guitar virtuoso (d. 2004)
1930 – Hugh Everett, American physicist (d. 1982)
1930 – Vernon Handley, English conductor (d. 2008)
1931 – Veronica Hurst, British actress
1932 – Germano Mosconi, Italian journalist and former-anchorman
1936 – Jack Keller, American songwriter (d. 2005)
1936 – Susan Kohner, American actress
1936 – Mala Sinha, Bollywood film actress
1937 – Stephen Lewis, Canadian politician and diplomat
1938 – Ants Antson, Estonian speed skater
1938 – Haruhiro Yamashita, Japanese gymnast
1939 – Denise Alexander, American actress
1939 – Harihar Swain, Indian politician (d. 2012)
1940 – Barbara Boxer, American politician
1943 – Doug Frost, Australian swimming coach
1944 – Kemal Sunal,Turkish actor
1945 – Daniel Ortega, President of Nicaragua
1945 – Vince Martell, American guitarist (Vanilla Fudge)
1945 – Chris Dreja, British musician (The Yardbirds)
1946 – Al Holbert, American racing driver and team owner (d. 1988)
1948 – Vincent Schiavelli, American actor d.2005
1950 – Mircea Dinescu, Romanian poet
1950 – Jim Peterik, American musician and songwriter (Survivor)
1951 – Kim Peek, American megasavant (d. 2009)
1951 – Marc Summers, American game show host
1951 – Bill Moseley, American actor
1953 – Marshall Crenshaw, American musician
1953 – Andy Partridge, English musician (XTC)
1954 – Mary Gaitskill, American novelist
1955 – Dave Alvin, American songwriter and guitarist
1956 – Ian Craig Marsh, British musician
1957 – Oleg Vishnepolsky, American aphorist, software developer
1958 – Luz Casal, Spanish singer
1958 – Carlos Lacamara, Cuban-born American actor
1959 – Lee Haney, American bodybuilder
1960 – Lawrence Bayne, Canadian actor
1960 – Colin Harvey, English author (d. 2011)
1960 – Chuck Hernandez, American baseball coach
1960 – Paquito Ochoa, Jr., Filipino politician
1960 – Peter Parros, American actor
1960 – Stanley Tucci, American actor and director
1962 – Mic Michaeli, Swedish keyboardist
1962 – Georgios Mitsibonas, Greek footballer (d. 1997)
1962 – Demi Moore, American actress
1962 – James Morrison, Australian musician
1963 – Monty Sopp, American professional wrestler
1964 – Anabel Alonso, Spanish actress
1964 – Calista Flockhart, American actress
1965 – Max Mutchnick, American TV writer and producer
1966 – Alison Doody, Irish actress
1967 – Gil de Ferran, Brazilian racing driver
1967 – Frank John Hughes, American actor
1968 – David L. Cook, American singer and comedian
1969 – Carson Kressley, American television personality
1970 – Lee Battersby, Australian author
1971 – Jennifer Celotta, American TV producer and writer
1971 – Paul Chaloner, English sportscaster
1971 – David DeLuise, American actor
1972 – Adam Beach, Canadian actor
1972 – Tyler Christopher, American actor
1973 – Jason White, American musician (Green Day)
1973 – Melissa Stark, American sportscaster/journalist
1974 – Leonardo DiCaprio, American actor
1974 – Static Major, American singer (d. 2008)
1974 – Wajahatullah Wasti, Pakistani cricketer
1975 – Angelica Vale Mexican actress
1975 – Denisa Legac, sex therapist and hypnotherapist, active in Austria, Croatia, and the United States of America
1976 – Lisa Gleave, Australian-American actress and model
1976 – Jason Grilli, American baseball player
1976 – Jesse F. Keeler, Canadian musician
1977 – Ben Hollioake, English cricketer (d. 2002)
1977 – Maniche, Portuguese footballer
1978 – Lou Vincent, New Zealand cricketer
1980 – Jaeson Ma, American pastor
1980 – Willie Parker, American football player
1980 – Edmoore Takaendesa, Zimbabwean-born German rugby player
1981 – Natalie Glebova, Russian/Canadian beauty queen, Miss Universe 2005
1981 – Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg
1982 – Gonzalo Canale, Argentine-born Italian rugby player
1982 – Jeremy Williams, British actor
1983 – Brittny Gastineau, American socialite
1983 – Philipp Lahm, German footballer
1983 – Arouna Koné, Ivorian footballer
1985 – Austin Collie, American football player
1985 – Kalan Porter, Canadian singer-songwriter
1985 – Jessica Sierra, American singer
1985 – Robin Uthappa, Indian cricketer
1986 – Mark Sanchez, American football player
1986 – Victor Cruz, American football player
1986 – François Trinh-Duc, French rugby player
1987 – Chanelle Hayes, British reality TV star
1987 – Yuya Tegoshi, Japanese singer (NEWS, Tegomass)
1988 – Kyle Naughton, English footballer
1989 – Adam Rippon, American figure skater
1989 – Reina Tanaka, Japanese pop singer (Morning Musume)
1989 – Lewis Williamson, British racing driver
1991 – Christa B. Allen, American actress
1994 – Connor Price, Canadian actor

Deaths

405 – Arsacius of Tarsus, Tarsian religious figure (before 324)
826 – (feast day) Theodore the Studite, Byzantine monk (b. 759)
865 – Petronas the Patrician, Byzantine General
1623 – Philippe de Mornay, French writer (b. 1549)
1638 – Cornelis van Haarlem, Dutch painter (b. 1562)
1724 – Joseph Blake, English highwayman (b. c. 1700)
1812 – Platon Levshin, Metropoitan of Moscow (b. 1737)
1831 – Nat Turner, American slave rebel (b. 1800)
1855 – Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (b. 1813)
1861 – King Pedro V of Portugal (b. 1837)
1862 – James Madison Porter, American politician (b. 1793)
1880 – Ned Kelly, Australian bushranger (b. c.1855)
1880 – Lucretia Mott, American feminist and abolitionist (b. 1793)
1884 – Alfred Brehm German zoologist (b. 1827)
1887 – Haymarket defendants:
- George Engel (b. 1836)
- Adolph Fischer (b. 1858)
- Albert Parsons (b. 1848)
- August Spies (b. 1855)
1917 – Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii (b. 1838)
1918 – George Lawrence Price, Canadian WWI soldier (b. 1892)
1919 – Pavel Chistyakov, Russian painter (b. 1832)
1920 – Dirk Boest Gips, Dutch sports shooter (b. 1864)
1921 – Léon Moreaux, French sports shooter (b. 1852)
1931 – Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese industrialist (b. 1840)
1938 – Mary Mallon, Irish-born American carrier of typhoid (b. 1869)
1939 – Bob Marshall, American conservationist (b. 1901)
1939 – Jan Opletal, Czech student and anti-Nazi demonstrator (b. 1915)
1945 – Jerome Kern, American composer (b. 1885)
1948 – Fred Niblo, American film actor, director, producer (b. 1874)
1949 – Loukas Kanakaris-Roufos, Greek politician (b. 1878)
1950 – Alexandros Diomidis, Greek banker and statesman (b. 1875)
1953 – Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (b. 1866)
1962 – Joseph Ruddy, American freestyle swimmer and water polo player (b. 1878)
1972 – Berry Oakley, American musician (Allman Brothers Band) (b. 1948)
1973 – Artturi Ilmari Virtanen, Finnish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
1974 – Alfonso Leng, Chilean composer (b. 1894)
1976 – Alexander Calder, American artist (b. 1898)
1977 – Greta Keller, Austrian cabaret singer and actress (b. 1903)
1977 – Abraham Sarmiento, Jr., Filipino journalist and political activist (b. 1950)
1979 – Dimitri Tiomkin, Ukrainian-born American film composer (b. 1894)
1984 – Martin Luther King, Sr., American civil rights figure (b. 1899)
1985 – Pelle Lindbergh, Swedish ice hockey player (b. 1959)
1988 – William Ifor Jones, Welsh conductor and organist (b. 1900)
1990 – Alexis Minotis, Greek actor (b. 1898)
1990 – Yiannis Ritsos, Greek poet (b. 1909)
1990 – Attilio Demaría, Argentinian footballer (b. 1909)
1993 – Erskine Hawkins, American trumpeter and big band leader (b. 1914)
1994 – John A. Volpe, American politician and Nixon administration cabinet member (b. 1908)
1994 – Pedro Zamora, Cuban-born American TV personality and AIDS activist (b. 1972)
1994 – Tadeusz Zychiewicz, Polish journalist, art historian and publicist (b. 1922)
1997 – Rod Milburn, American athlete (b. 1950)
1998 – Frank Brimsek, American ice hockey player (b. 1913)
1999 – Mary Kay Bergman, American voice actress (b. 1961)
1999 – Jacobo Timerman, Argentine writer and journalist (b. 1923)
2000 – Sandra Schmitt, German freestyle skier (b. 1981)
2003 – Miquel Martí i Pol, Catalan poet (b. 1929)
2004 – Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1929)
2004 – Richard Dembo, French director and screenwriter (b. 1948)
2005 – Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield, British photographer (b. 1939)
2005 – Peter Drucker, American management theorist (b. 1909)
2005 – Moustapha Akkad, Syrian-American film producer and director (b. 1930)
2005 – Keith Andes, American actor (b. 1920)
2006 – Belinda Emmett, Australian actress (b. 1974)
2006 – Harry Lehotsky, American-born Canadian pastor and activist (b. 1957)
2007 – Delbert Mann, American film director (b. 1920)
2008 – Herb Score, American baseball player (b. 1933)
2009 – Dhanpat Rai Nahar, Indian labour leader (b. 1919)
2010 – Baby Marie Osborne, American actress (b. 1911)
2011 – Francisco Blake Mora, Mexican Secretary of the Interior (b. 1966)