History of 11 September
1904 – The U.S. battleship Connecticut was launched in New York.
1910 – In Hollywood, the first commercially successful electric bus line opened.
1926 – In Honolulu Harbor, HI, the Aloha Tower was dedicated.
1936 – Boulder Dam in Nevada was dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt by turning on the dam’s first hydroelectric generator. The dam is now called Hoover Dam.
1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave orders to attack any German or Italian vessels found in U.S. defensive waters. The U.S. had not officially entered World War II at this time.
1941 – Charles A. Lindbergh brought on charges of anti-Semitism with a speech in which he blamed “the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration” for trying to draw the United States into World War II.
1941 – In Arlington, VA, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Pentagon took place.
1951 – Florence Chadwick became the first woman to swim the English Channel from both directions.
1952 – Dr. Charles Hufnagel successfully replaced a diseased aorta valve with an artificial valve made of plastic.
1954 – The Miss America beauty pageant made its network TV debut on ABC. Miss California, Lee Ann Meriwether, was the winner.
1959 – The U.S. Congress passed a bill authorizing the creation of food stamps.
1964 – “Friday Night Fights” was seen for the last time.
1965 – The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) arrived in South Vietnam and was stationed at An Khe.
1967 – The Carol Burnett Show premiered on CBS.
1970 – The last “Get Smart” episode aired on CBS-TV.
1974 – “Little House On The Prairie” made its television debut.
1974 – The St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Mets set a National League record when they played 25 innings. It was the second-longest game in professional baseball history.
1977 – The Atari 2600 was released. It was originally sold as the Atari VCS. The system was discontinued on January 1, 1992.
1985 – Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds) achieved hit number 4,192 to break the record held by Ty Cobb.
1985 – A U.S. satellite passed through the tail of the Giacobini-Zinner comet. It was the first on-the-spot sampling of a comet.
1990 – U.S. President Bush vowed “Saddam Hussein will fail” while addressing Congress on the Persian Gulf crisis. In the speech, Bush spoke of an objective of new world order – “freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace”.
1991 – Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev announced that thousands of troops would be drawn out of Cuba.
1997 – John Lee Hooker received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1997 – Scotland voted to create its own Parliament after 290 years of union with England.
1998 – Independent counsel Kenneth Starr sent a report to the U.S. Congress accusing President Clinton of 11 possible impeachable offenses.
1999 – The Wall Street Journal reported that Bayer Corp. had quit putting a wad of cotton in their bottles of aspirin. Bayer had actually stopped the practice earlier in the year.
2001 – In the U.S., four airliners were hijacked and were intentionally crashed. Two airliners hit the World Trade Center, which collapsed shortly after, in New York City, NY. One airliner hit the Pentagon in Arlington, VA. Another airliner crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. About 3,000 people were killed.
2007 – Russia tests the largest conventional weapon ever, the Father of All Bombs.
2008 – A major Channel Tunnel fire breaks out on a freight train, resulting in the closure of part of the tunnel for six months.
2011 – The National September 11 Memorial & Museum opens on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
2012 – Terrorists attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Four Americans were brutally murdered and ten others were injured.
2015 – A crane collapses onto the Masjid al-Haram mosque in Saudi Arabia, killing 111 people and injuring 394 others.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Andrea Dossena, Italian footballer
- 1981 – Hallowicked, American wrestler
- 1981 – Charles Kelley, American singer-songwriter
- 1982 – Elvan Abeylegesse, Ethiopian-Turkish runner
- 1983 – Vivian Cheruiyot, Kenyan sprinter
- 1983 – Ike Diogu, American basketball player
- 1983 – Jacoby Ellsbury, American baseball player
- 1984 – Aled de Malmanche, New Zealand rugby player
- 1984 – Benson Stanley, New Zealand rugby player
- 1985 – Shaun Livingston, American basketball player
- 1985 – Zack Stortini, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1986 – Dwayne Jarrett, American football player
- 1986 – Chiliboy Ralepelle, South African rugby player
- 1987 – Robert Acquafresca, Italian footballer
- 1987 – Tyler Hoechlin, American actor
- 1988 – Mike Moustakas, American baseball player
- 1990 – Jo Inge Berget, Norwegian footballer
- 1990 – Jarrod Croker, Australian rugby league player
- 1991 – Jordan Ayew, Ghanaian footballer
- 1991 – Rhema Obed, English footballer
- 1991 – Kygo, Norwegian DJ
- 1992 – Jonathan Adams, English discus thrower
- 1992 – JC Caylen, American YouTube personality
- 1993 – Farrah Moan, American drag queen, and entertainer