History of 11 April
1981 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan returned to the White House from the hospital after recovering from an assassination attempt on March 30.
1981 – In the Brixton area of London, a race riot erupted that resulted in the injury of more than 300 people.
1984 – China invaded Vietnam.
1984 – General Secretary Konstantin U. Cherenkov was named the president of the Soviet Union.
1985 – Scientists in Hawaii measured the distance between the earth and moon within one inch.
1985 – The White House announced that President Reagan would visit the Nazi cemetery at Bitburg.
1986 – Dodge Morgan sailed solo nonstop around the world in 150 days.
1986 – In Groton, CT, the submarine Nautilus exhibit opened to the public.
1986 – Kellogg’s stopped giving tours of its breakfast-food plant. The reason for the end of the 80-year tradition was said to be that company secrets were at risk due to spies from other cereal companies.
1991 – U.N. Security Council issued a formal cease-fire with Iraq.
1996 – Forty-three African nations signed the African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty.
1996 – Seven-year-old Jessica Dubroff was killed with her father and flight instructor when her plane crashed after takeoff from Cheyenne, Wyoming. Jessica had hoped to become the youngest person to fly cross-country.
1998 – Northern Ireland’s biggest political party, the Ulster Unionists, announced its backing of the historic peace deal.
1999 – Daouda Malam Wanke was designated president of Niger. President Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara had been assassinated on April 9.
2001 – China agreed to release 24 crewmembers of a U.S. surveillance plane. The EP-3E Navy crew had been held since April 1 on Hainan, where the plane had made an emergency landing after an in-flight collision with a Chinese fighter jet. The Chinese pilot was missing and presumed dead.
2007 – Apple announced that the iTunes Store had sold more than two million movies.
2010 – The FIFA World Cup opener in South Africa. It was the first time it was held in Africa.
2011 – An explosion in the Minsk Metro, Belarus kills 15 people and injures 204 others.
2012 – A pair of great earthquakes occur in the Wharton Basin west of Sumatra in Indonesia. The maximum Mercalli intensity of this strike-slip doublet earthquake was VII (Very strong). Ten were killed, twelve were injured, and a non-destructive tsunami was observed on the island of Nias.
2018 – An Ilyushin Il-76 which was owned and operated by the Algerian Air Force crashes near Boufarik, Algeria, killing 257.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Alessandra Ambrosio, Brazilian model
- 1981 – Alexandre Burrows, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1981 – Veronica Pyke, Australian cricketer
- 1982 – Ian Bell, English cricketer
- 1982 – Peeter Kümmel, Estonian skier
- 1983 – Jennifer Heil, Canadian skier
- 1983 – Rubén Palazuelos, Spanish footballer
- 1983 – Nicky Pastorelli, Dutch race car driver
- 1984 – Kelli Garner, American actress
- 1984 – Nikola Karabatić, French handball player
- 1985 – Pablo Hernández Domínguez, Spanish footballer
- 1985 – Will Minson, Australian footballer
- 1986 – Sarodj Bertin, Haitian model, and human rights lawyer
- 1986 – Dai Greene, Welsh hurdler
- 1986 – Lena Schöneborn, German pentathlete
- 1987 – Joss Stone, English singer-songwriter and actress
- 1988 – Leland Irving, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1989 – Torrin Lawrence, American sprinter (d. 2014)
- 1990 – Dimitrios Anastasopoulos, Greek footballer
- 1990 – Thulani Serero, South African footballer
- 1991 – Thiago Alcântara, Spanish footballer
- 1996 – Dele Alli, English footballer
- 1997 – Georgia Bohl, Australian swimmer
- 1997 – Miriam Kolodziejová, a Czech tennis player