Directory

1911 CE

The 1911 Revolution in China ends over two millennia of imperial rule and establishes the Republic of China; The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City kills 146 workers, prompting major labor and safety reforms; The Italo-Turkish War begins as Italy invades Ottoman territories in North Africa, marking the first war with aerial bombardment; The Agadir Crisis heightens tensions between Germany and France in Morocco, escalating prewar rivalries; Roald Amundsen becomes the first person to reach the South Pole; The Coronation of George V and Mary at Westminster Abbey inaugurates the new reign in the United Kingdom.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are added to the Commonwealth of Australia.source
  • May 21 – Mexican Revolution: In Ciudad Juárez, a peace treaty is signed between Madero's rebels and government troops.source
  • May 25 – Mexican Revolution: Porfirio Díaz signs his resignation and leaves for Veracruz; on May 31 he leaves for exile in France.source
  • November 4 – Morocco–Congo Treaty brings the Agadir Crisis to a close. This treaty leads Morocco to be split between France (as a protectorate) and Spain (as the colony of Spanish Sahara), with Germany forfeiting all claims to Morocco. In return, France gives Germany a portion of the French Congo (as Kamerun) and Germany cedes some of German Kamerun to France (as Chad).source
  • December 1 – Outer Mongolia, the predecessor of modern-day Mongolia, is declared independent from the Chinese Empire.source
  • December 29 – Sun Yat-sen is elected Provisional President of the Republic of China.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 3 – Siege of Sidney Street in London: Two Latvian anarchists die, after a seven-hour siege against a combined police and military force. Home Secretary Winston Churchill arrives to oversee events.source
  • February 5 – The revolution in Haiti is suppressed after the leader, General Montreuil Guillaume, is captured by government troops and shot. General Millionard is executed two days later.source
  • April 13 – Mexican Revolution: Rebels take Agua Prieta on the Sonora–Arizona border; government troops take the town back April 17, when the rebel leader "Red" López gets drunk.source
  • April 19 – Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero's troops besiege Ciudad Juárez, but General Juan J. Navarro refuses his surrender demand.source
  • April 27 – Huanghuagang Uprising: In China, rebels take five villages in an attempt to create a power base to fight Imperial rule; those who die are remembered as "The 72 Martyrs" (the event is also called the "Second Guangzhou Uprising" and the "Yellow Flower Mound Revolt").source
  • May 8 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa launches an attack against government troops in Ciudad Juárez without Madero's permission; the government troops surrender on May 10.source
  • May 13–15 – Mexican Revolution: Torreón massacre – Over 300 Chinese residents are massacred by the revolutionary forces of Francisco I. Madero, in the Mexican city of Torreón.source
  • May 24 – Mexican Revolution: Government troops fire at anti-Diaz demonstrators in Mexico City, killing about 200 (officials claim only 40).source
  • July 1 – The presence of the German warship in the Moroccan port of Agadir triggers the Agadir Crisis.source
  • September 18 – Pyotr Stolypin, third Prime Minister of the Russian Empire is assassinated in Kiev by Leftist revolutionary Dmitry Bogrov and is succeeded by Count Vladimir Kokovtsov.source
  • September 29 – Italy declares war on the Ottoman Empire.source
  • October 10 – The Wuchang Uprising starts the Xinhai Revolution that leads to the founding of the Republic of China.source
  • October 16 – Mexican Revolution: Felix Diaz, nephew of Porfirio Díaz, occupies the port of Veracruz, as a sign of rebellion against Madero.source
  • November 1 – The world's first combat aerial bombing mission takes place in Libya, during the Italo-Turkish War. Second Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti of Italy drops several small bombs.source
  • November 5 – Italy annexes Tripoli and Cyrenaica (confirmed by an act of the Italian Parliament on February 25, 1912).source

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 4 – Amundsen and Scott expeditions: Robert Falcon Scott's British Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole arrives in the Antarctic and establishes a base camp at Cape Evans on Ross Island.source
  • January 14 – Amundsen and Scott expeditions: Roald Amundsen's Norwegian South Pole expedition arrives in the Antarctic and establishes a base camp at the Bay of Whales on the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf.source
  • June 21 – arrives in New York at the end of her maiden voyage.source
  • June 28 – departs New York for her maiden eastbound voyage home to Southampton, England.source
  • July 5 – arrives in Southampton ending her maiden eastbound voyage from New York.source
  • July 24 – Hiram Bingham rediscovers Machu Picchu in Peru.source
  • July 28 – The Australasian Antarctic Expedition begins as the SY Aurora departs London.source
  • August 29 – Ishi, the last unassimilated Native American in the U.S. using stone tools, emerges from hiding near Oroville, California.source
  • October 20 – Amundsen and Scott expeditions: Amundsen's expedition sets out for the South Pole from his base camp.source
  • November 1 – Amundsen and Scott expeditions: Capt. Scott's Terra Nova Expedition sets out for the South Pole from his base camp.source
  • December 2 – Australasian Antarctic Expedition sets sail from Hobart.source
  • December 14 – Amundsen and Scott expeditions: Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition reaches the geographical South Pole, 34 days ahead of Capt. Scott. News of Amundsen's success will not reach the outside world until next March.source
  • December 18 – The first exhibition by Der Blaue Reiter group of painters opens in Munich.source

Religion & Belief

  • June 22 – George V and Mary are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, at Westminster Abbey in London.source

Economy & Finance

  • January 26 – The United States and Canada announce the successful negotiation of their first reciprocal trade agreement.source
  • June 23 – Frank C. Mars starts the Mars Candy Factory in Tacoma, Washington, origin of Mars, Incorporated, the global confectionery and pet food brand.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 18 – Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, the first time an aircraft has landed on a ship.source
  • January 21 – First Monte Carlo Rally inaugurated.source
  • May 30 – The first Indianapolis 500 automobile race is held in the United States, won by Ray Harroun at an average speed of 74.59 miles per hour.source
  • August 17–20 – Britain's National Railway strike of 1911, its first national strike of railway workers; on August 19 it leads to the Llanelli riots in Wales which result in 6 deaths.source
  • November 3 – Chevrolet officially enters the automobile market in the United States, in competition with the Ford Model T.source
  • December 24 – Lackawanna Cut-Off railway line opens in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.source

Science & Discovery

  • February 17 – The first "quasi-official" airmail flight occurs, when Fred J. Wiseman carries three letters between Petaluma and Santa Rosa, California.source
  • February 18 – The first official air mail flight, second overall, takes place in British India from Allahabad to Naini when Henri Pequet carries 6,500 letters a distance of 13 km.source
  • April 8 – Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers superconductivity; he presents his findings on April 28.source
  • May 31 – The hull of the is launched in Belfast, on the same day starts her sea trials.source
  • June 14 – departs Southampton, England, for her maiden voyage. On June 15, she arrives in Queenstown, Ireland, to discharge and take up passengers.source
  • June 28 – The Nakhla meteorite falls in the Abu Hummus region of Egypt, providing evidence of water on Mars.source
  • New Zealand-born British physicist Ernest Rutherford deduces the existence of a compact atomic nucleus from experiments involving Rutherford scattering, proposing the Rutherford model of the atom.source

Crime & Justice

  • August 21 – Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is stolen from the Louvre museum in Paris by Vincenzo Peruggia; the painting is returned in 1913.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • March 25 – The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City kills 146 people.source
  • April 18 – , a 5,557-ton Portuguese passenger liner en route from Mozambique to Lisbon, strikes Bellows Rock just off Cape Point and sinks.source
  • April 22 – A passenger train from Port Alfred to Grahamstown, South Africa derails on the Blaauwkrantz Bridge, and plunges into the ravine 200 ft m below, killing 31 and seriously injuring 23.source
  • May 15 –Standard Oil is dissolved by the Supreme Court of the United States into 34 separate oil companies including Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Texaco, and others due to violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Actsource
  • September 25 – French battleship Liberté explodes at anchor in Toulon, France, killing around 300 onboard and in the surrounding area.source
  • December 9 – Cross Mountain Mine disaster: A coal mine explosion near Briceville, Tennessee kills 84 miners, despite rescue efforts led by the United States Bureau of Mines.source

Climate & Environment

  • January 3 – 1911 Kebin earthquake: An earthquake of 8.0 moment magnitude strikes near Almaty in Russian Turkestan, killing 450 or more people.source
  • February 18 – A serious earthquake causes a landslide that creates Lake Sarez in modern-day Tajikistan.source
  • June 7 – Mexican Revolution: Francisco Madero arrives in Mexico City, just after the 1911 Michoacán earthquake.source

Culture & Society

  • January 5 – Egypt's Zamalek SC is founded as a general sports and Association football club by Belgian lawyer George Merzbach as Qasr El Nile Club.source
  • January 26 – Premiere of Richard Strauss's opera Der Rosenkavalier in Dresden.source
  • March 19 – International Women's Day is celebrated for the first time across Europe.source
  • April 3 – Jean Sibelius conducts the premiere of his Symphony No. 4, in Helsinki.source
  • April 26 – HŠK Građanski Zagreb (predecessor of GNK Dinamo Zagreb), a Croatian Association football club, is founded in Zagreb.source
  • June 11 – The Sixth Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance opens in Stockholm, Sweden.source
  • June 13 – Igor Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka is premiered by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Paris with Vaslav Nijinsky in the lead.source
  • July 25 – Headington Football Club merge with Headington Quarry to create Headington United, which much later becomes Oxford United F.C. in England.source
  • August 27 – CSKA Moscow, a professional multi-sports club in Russia, is officially founded.source
  • October 4 – China adopts "Cup of Solid Gold" as its first national anthem. However, it is never performed publicly and is replaced a few months later with a new composition.source
  • November 17 – Omega Psi Phi fraternity is founded on the campus of Howard University, in Washington, D.C.source
  • December 12 – The Delhi Durbar is held to mark the coronation of George V and Queen Mary as Emperor and Empress of India, and the transfer of the capital of British India from Calcutta to Delhi.source
  • The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition is published under American management in England, by Cambridge University Press.source

Births

  • January 13 – Joh Bjelke-Petersen, 31st Premier of Queensland (d. 2005)source
  • January 16 – Eduardo Frei Montalva, Chilean politician, 29th President of Chile (d. 1982)source
  • February 12 – Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (Carroll Daly), 5th President of Ireland (d. 1978)source
  • February 19 – Bill Bowerman, American track athlete, co-founder of Nike, Inc. (d. 1999)source
  • March 13 – L. Ron Hubbard, American author, founder of Scientology (d. 1986)source
  • March 25 – Jack Ruby, American mobster, killer of Lee Harvey Oswald (d. 1967)source
  • May 27 – Hubert Humphrey, American politician, Vice President of the United States (1965–1969) (d. 1978)source
  • June 29 – Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, German-born Prince Consort of the Netherlands (1948–1980) (d. 2004)source
  • June 30 – Czesław Miłosz, Polish-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)source
  • August 6 – Lucille Ball, American actress, television producer and co-owner of Desilu Productions (d. 1989)source
  • August 17 – Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian chess player, world champion (d. 1995)source
  • August 25 – Võ Nguyên Giáp, General of the Vietnam People's Army (d. 2013)source
  • September 7 – Todor Zhivkov, 36th Prime Minister of Bulgaria (d. 1998)source
  • October 26 – Mahalia Jackson, African-American gospel singer (d. 1972)source

Deaths

  • February 23 – Giuditta Vannini, Italian Roman Catholic religious professed, blessed (b. 1859)source
  • March 1 – Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)source
  • April 10 – Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Lithuanian artist and composer (b. 1875)source
  • April 14 – Addie Joss, American baseball player, Major League Baseball Hall of Fame member (b. 1880)source
  • May 9 – Thomas Wentworth Higginson, American Unitarian minister and abolitionist (b. 1823)source
  • May 29 – W. S. Gilbert, English dramatist (b. 1836)source
  • June 7 – Maurice Rouvier, French statesman, Prime Minister of France (b. 1842)source
  • July 25 – Carmen Salles y Barangueras, Spanish Roman Catholic religious professed and saint (b. 1848)source
  • September 4 – John Francon Williams, Welsh-born journalist, writer, geographer, historian, cartographer and inventor (b. 1854)source
  • September 18 – Pyotr Stolypin, 3rd Prime Minister of Russia (assassinated) (b. 1862)source
  • October 14 – John Marshall Harlan, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1833)source
  • October 29 – Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-born newspaper publisher, journalist (b. 1847)source
  • October 31 – John Joseph Montgomery, American glider pioneer (b. 1858)source
  • December 9 – Blessed Bernard Mary of Jesus, Italian Roman Catholic priest, blessed (b. 1831)source