1911

Events in 1911 52

• 1836 – 1911 W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911) Died 29 May 1911, aged 74 Gilbert was an English dramatist and librettist who, with composer Arthur Sullivan, created the enormously popular Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas including H.M.S. Pinafore and The Mikado. He drowned while rescuing a swimmer in a lake on his estate. His witty lyrics and libretti remained influential on musical theater.
• 1847 – 1911 Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911) Died 29 October 1911, aged 64 Pulitzer was a Hungarian-American newspaper publisher who built the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and New York World into major papers and pioneered sensational "yellow journalism." His will endowed the Columbia School of Journalism and the Pulitzer Prizes. He died aboard his yacht off Charleston, South Carolina.
• 1860 – 1911 Gustav Mahler Late Romantic symphonist Austrian composer and conductor whose vast symphonies — especially the 5th, 9th and Das Lied von der Erde — pushed the Romantic symphony to its limits.
• 1862 – 1911 Emilio Salgari (1862-1911) Died 25 April 1911, aged 48 Salgari was a prolific Italian writer of adventure novels, best known for creating the pirate hero Sandokan. His swashbuckling tales were hugely popular in Italy and influenced generations of adventure fiction. Struggling financially despite his popularity, he died by suicide in Turin.
• 1862 – 1911 Pyotr Stolypin (1862-1911) Died 18 September 1911, aged 49 Stolypin served as Prime Minister of the Russian Empire, pursuing land reforms intended to create a class of independent peasant farmers. He was shot by an assassin at the Kiev Opera House on 14 September 1911 and died four days later. His death removed one of the last reform-minded figures from the tsarist government before the revolutions to come.
• 1905 – 1911 The Partition of Bengal Divide and rule, stated plainly Lord Curzon splits Bengal into a Muslim-majority east and a Hindu-majority west, arguing administrative efficiency for a province of seventy-eight million. Indians read it as an attempt to break the most politically active population in the empire, and the Swadeshi movement — boycott of British goods, promotion of Indian ones — is the response. It is the moment Indian nationalism becomes a mass movement rather than a petitioning society. The partition is reversed in 1911. The line drawn returns in 1947.
• 1905 – 1911 The Persian Constitutional Revolution The first constitution in the Middle East Merchants, clerics and intellectuals take sanctuary in the British legation and in mosques until the Shah concedes an elected assembly. The Majlis meets in 1906 and a constitution is signed in December. The next Shah bombards the parliament building with Russian-officered artillery in 1908 and revolutionaries retake Tehran in 1909 and depose him. Britain and Russia, who had already carved Persia into spheres of influence in 1907, help finish the experiment off. It is the first constitutional revolution in Asia west of Japan and the direct ancestor of Iranian constitutional politics ever since.
• 1911 – 1956 Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1911-1956) Died 27 September 1956, aged 45 American athlete considered one of the greatest all-around sportswomen of the twentieth century, excelling in track and field, basketball, and golf. She won two gold medals at the 1932 Olympics and later dominated women's professional golf, co-founding the LPGA. She died of colon cancer in Texas.
• 1911 – present Chevrolet Iconic American car brand founded Chevrolet was co-founded by racing driver Louis Chevrolet and entrepreneur William C. Durant. The brand became one of America’s most recognizable automotive manufacturers through trucks, muscle cars and affordable passenger vehicles.
• 1911 First South Pole expedition First South Pole expedition Roald Amundsen's Norwegian party reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911, travelling on skis behind sled dogs. Robert Falcon Scott's British team arrived 34 days later to find the Norwegian flag already planted, and all five men died on the return march. The contrast between the two expeditions became the defining story of polar exploration.
• 1911 – 1974 Georges Pompidou (1911-1974) Died 2 April 1974, aged 62 Georges Pompidou served as president of France from 1969 until his death from a blood disorder while still in office. He had previously been prime minister under Charles de Gaulle.
• 1911 – present IBM IBM — International Business Machines Corporation — is the longest-lived major technology company in history, founded in 1911 and continuously transforming itself through every era of computing. From tabulating machines for the US Census to mainframes for banks and governments, from the IBM PC that defined personal computing to Deep Blue's defeat of Garry Kasparov, from Watson's Jeopardy! triumph to the hybrid cloud and AI services company IBM is today — no technology company has survived and reinvented itself across more technological eras. IBM has employed more Nobel Prize winners than most countries, holds more US patents than any other company most years, and once controlled 80% of the world's computing capacity.
• 1911 – 1972 Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972) Died 27 January 1972, aged 60 Jackson was widely regarded as the greatest gospel singer of her era, known for her powerful voice and performances at civil rights events including the 1963 March on Washington. She recorded extensively and helped bring gospel music to mainstream audiences. She died of heart failure in Chicago.
• 1911 – 1938 Robert Johnson (1911-1938) Died 16 August 1938, aged 27 Robert Johnson was a Mississippi Delta blues singer and guitarist. His handful of recordings deeply influenced rock and blues, and he became the subject of the legend that he sold his soul at a crossroads.
• 1911 – 1969 Robert Taylor (1911-1969) Died 8 June 1969, aged 57 Robert Taylor was an American film actor and one of the leading MGM leading men of the 1930s and 1940s. He died of lung cancer on 8 June 1969.
• 1911 – 1995 Butterfly McQueen (1911-1995) American actress, Prissy in Gone with the Wind, who left Hollywood rather than keep playing maids.
• 1911 – 2004 Ronald Reagan 40th President — ended the Cold War Ronald Reagan (Feb 6, 1911 – Jun 5, 2004) was the 40th President 1981-1989. Former Hollywood actor, he rebuilt US military strength, cut taxes, and is credited with helping end the Cold War through pressure on the Soviet Union.
• 1911 – 1979 Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) Died 6 October 1979, aged 68 American poet Elizabeth Bishop, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a US Poet Laureate, died in Boston. Known for her precise, observational style, she published relatively little in her lifetime but is regarded as one of the twentieth century's finest poets. She died on 6 October 1979.
• 1911 – 1982 King Khalid of Saudi Arabia (1911-1982) Died 13 June 1982, aged 69 King of Saudi Arabia from 1975 until his death. He died of a heart attack in Taif and was succeeded by his half-brother Fahd.
• 1911 – 1986 L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986) Died 24 January 1986, aged 74 American author who founded the Church of Scientology in 1954 after publishing the book Dianetics. He spent his final years in seclusion in California, continuing to direct the organization from hiding. His movement remains controversial and influential decades after his death.
• 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Garment factory blaze kills 146 workers in New York A fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Manhattan on 25 March 1911, killing 146 garment workers, mostly young immigrant women. Locked exit doors and inadequate fire escapes trapped many victims. The disaster spurred sweeping reforms in workplace safety and labor law in the United States.
• 1911 – 1983 Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) Died 25 February 1983, aged 71 Tennessee Williams was an American playwright whose works, including A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, won two Pulitzer Prizes and reshaped American theatre. He is regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of the twentieth century. His plays remain widely performed and adapted.
• 1911 Rutherford's Nuclear Model of the Atom Physicist proposes a dense atomic nucleus Ernest Rutherford published his analysis of alpha particle scattering experiments in May 1911, proposing that atoms consist of a tiny, dense, positively charged nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons. The model overturned J. J. Thomson's earlier "plum pudding" theory. It became the foundation of modern nuclear physics.
• 1911 Standard Oil Antitrust Breakup US Supreme Court orders the dissolution of Standard Oil The US Supreme Court ruled on 15 May 1911 that Standard Oil violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered it broken into 34 independent companies. The decision reshaped American corporate law and ended John D. Rockefeller's oil monopoly. Several successor firms later became ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Marathon.
• 1911 – 1998 Maureen O'Sullivan (1911-1998) Irish actress, Jane to Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan and mother of Mia Farrow.
• 1911 Resignation of Porfirio Diaz Mexican dictator steps down after decades in power Facing military defeats and the advance of Francisco Madero's revolutionary forces, President Porfirio Diaz resigned on 25 May 1911 after ruling Mexico for over three decades. He went into exile in France. His departure opened a new, turbulent phase of the Mexican Revolution.
• 1911 – 1978 Hubert Humphrey (1911-1978) Died 13 January 1978, aged 66 Humphrey served as US Vice President under Lyndon Johnson and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1968, losing narrowly to Richard Nixon. He died of bladder cancer shortly after returning to the Senate.
• 1911 – 1993 Vincent Price (1911-1993) Died 25 October 1993, aged 82 Vincent Price was an American actor renowned for his distinctive voice and roles in horror films such as "House of Wax" and "The Fly." He also narrated the spoken-word segment of Michael Jackson's "Thriller." He died of lung cancer in Los Angeles.
• 1911 – 1995 Juan Manuel Fangio El Maestro Won five World Championships in the 1950s with four different teams (Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Mercedes, Ferrari).
• 1911 – 2004 Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) Died 14 August 2004, aged 93 Milosz was a Polish poet, essayist, and diplomat who defected to the West during the Cold War. He won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature for a body of work grappling with totalitarianism and exile.
• 1911 Agadir Crisis German gunboat diplomacy inflames Franco-German rivalry over Morocco Germany sent the gunboat Panther to the Moroccan port of Agadir on 1 July 1911 to challenge French control over Morocco. The move provoked a tense diplomatic standoff with France and Britain, pushing Europe closer to war. The crisis was resolved by a November 1911 accord giving France a protectorate over Morocco in exchange for territory in the French Congo.
• 1911 – 1995 Ginger Rogers (1911-1995) Died 25 April 1995, aged 83 Ginger Rogers was an American actress and dancer best remembered for her ten films with Fred Astaire, including Top Hat and Swing Time. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Kitty Foyle in 1941. Her partnership with Astaire remains one of the most celebrated in Hollywood history.
• 1911 – 2003 Hume Cronyn (1911-2003) Canadian actor who with his wife Jessica Tandy formed one of the great partnerships of American theatre.
• 1911 – 1980 Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) Died 31 December 1980, aged 69 Canadian philosopher and media theorist famous for coining the phrase "the medium is the message" and predicting the rise of a global electronic "village." His work anticipated the internet age and profoundly influenced media and communication studies. He taught for decades at the University of Toronto.
• 1911 – 1989 Lucille Ball (1911-1989) Died 26 April 1989, aged 77 Lucille Ball starred in and produced I Love Lucy, one of the most popular and influential television sitcoms in American history. She was also a pioneering studio executive as head of Desilu Productions. Her comedic performances remain widely syndicated decades later.
• 1911 – 1977 E. F. Schumacher (1911-1977) Died 4 September 1977, aged 66 E. F. Schumacher was a German-born British economist best known for his book Small Is Beautiful, which argued for human-scale, sustainable economics. His ideas influenced the later environmental and appropriate-technology movements.
• 1911 Parliament Act 1911 British law curtails the House of Lords' veto power The British Parliament passed the Parliament Act on 18 August 1911, removing the House of Lords' power to veto most legislation and limiting its delay to two years. The act resolved a constitutional crisis triggered by the Lords' rejection of the 1909 budget. It also introduced a maximum five-year term for the House of Commons.
• 1911 Theft of the Mona Lisa Leonardo's painting vanishes from the Louvre An employee of the Louvre, Vincenzo Peruggia, stole the Mona Lisa from the museum on 21 August 1911, hiding it in his apartment for over two years. The theft made international headlines and dramatically increased the painting's fame. It was recovered in Florence in December 1913.
• 1911 – 1985 Konstantin Chernenko (1911-1985) Died 10 March 1985, aged 73 Chernenko led the Soviet Union as General Secretary of the Communist Party from February 1984 until his death. His brief, ailing tenure was followed immediately by the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev. He died in Moscow on 10 March 1985.
• 1911 – 1996 Bill Monroe Mandolinist, singer, bandleader American musician who created bluegrass with his Blue Grass Boys, named after his home state of Kentucky.
• 1911 First Transcontinental Flight Across the United States Cal Rodgers completes a coast-to-coast journey by airplane Aviator Cal Rodgers departed Sheepshead Bay, New York, on 17 September 1911 aiming to win a $50,000 prize for the first transcontinental flight. He landed in Pasadena, California, on 5 November 1911 after numerous crashes and repairs, arriving too late to claim the prize. His flight demonstrated that long-distance air travel across a continent was possible.
• 1911 Italo-Turkish War Begins Italy invades Ottoman Libya Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire on 29 September 1911 and invaded Tripolitania and Cyrenaica in present-day Libya. The conflict introduced the first use of aircraft in warfare for reconnaissance and bombing. It ended in 1912 with the Ottomans ceding Libya to Italy.
• 1911 Wuchang Uprising Mutiny sparks the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing dynasty Republican soldiers in the New Army mutinied in Wuchang, Hubei province, on 10 October 1911. The uprising triggered a nationwide revolt that ended over two thousand years of imperial rule in China. Within months provincial assemblies declared independence from the Qing court.
• 1911 – 1998 Roy Rogers (1911-1998) Died 6 July 1998, aged 86 Roy Rogers, the American singer and actor known as "King of the Cowboys" for his many Western films and television appearances, died on 6 July 1998. He was one of the most popular Western stars of the mid-20th century.
• 1911 – 1976 Lee J. Cobb (1911-1976) American actor, the original Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman and the angry juror in 12 Angry Men.
• 1911 – 1986 Broderick Crawford (1911-1986) American actor, Oscar winner for All the King's Men and star of Highway Patrol.
• 1911 Marie Curie Wins Second Nobel Prize Chemistry prize honors the discovery of radium and polonium Marie Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on 10 December 1911 for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium and her work isolating radium. She remains the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. The award came amid a public scandal in the French press over her personal life.
• 1911 – 2006 Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006) Died 30 August 2006, aged 94 Naguib Mahfouz, the Egyptian novelist and Nobel laureate, died from complications after a fall in Cairo. He was the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded in 1988. His Cairo Trilogy remains a landmark of modern Arabic literature.
• 1911 Delhi Durbar of 1911 George V crowned Emperor of India in a grand imperial ceremony King George V and Queen Mary attended a lavish durbar in Delhi on 12 December 1911 to mark his succession as Emperor of India. The ceremony was attended by hundreds of Indian princes and dignitaries. George V announced during the event that India's capital would move from Calcutta to Delhi.
• 1911 National Insurance Act 1911 Britain establishes state health and unemployment insurance The British Parliament passed the National Insurance Act, receiving royal assent on 16 December 1911, creating the country's first system of compulsory health and unemployment insurance for workers. It was a cornerstone of David Lloyd George's Liberal welfare reforms. The act required contributions from workers, employers, and the state.
• 1911 – 2010 Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) Died 31 May 2010, aged 98 Bourgeois was a French-American artist known for her large-scale sculptures, including her iconic spider forms, exploring themes of family, memory, and the body. She continued producing major work into her nineties and became one of the most celebrated sculptors of the 20th century. She died of a heart attack in New York City.
• 1911 – 1988 Klaus Fuchs (1911-1988) Died 28 January 1988, aged 76 Klaus Fuchs was a German-born physicist who passed atomic bomb secrets from the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union during and after World War II. He was convicted of espionage in Britain in 1950 and served nine years in prison before moving to East Germany. His disclosures significantly accelerated the Soviet nuclear weapons program.