What happened on the day I was born - May 11th
- 330 - Byzantium is renamed Nova Roma during a dedication ceremony, but is more popularly referred to as Constantinople.
- 1310 - 54 members of the Knights Templar are burned at the stake in France for being heretics.
- 1502 - Christopher Columbus leaves for his fourth and final voyage to the West Indies.
- 1818 - Charles XIV of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Sweden.
- 1820 - Launch of HMS Beagle the ship that took young Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage.
- 1862 - American Civil War: The ironclad CSS Virginia is scuttled in the James River northwest of Norfolk, Virginia.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Yellow Tavern – Confederate General JEB Stuart is mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, Virginia.
- 1867 - Luxembourg gains its independence.
- 1924 - Mercedes-Benz formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging the two companies.
- 1927 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded.
- 1943 - World War II: American troops invade Attu in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
- 1944 - World War II: The Allies start a major offensive against the Axis Powers on the Gustav Line.
- 1949 - Siam changes its name to Thailand.
- 1949 - Israel joins the United Nations.
- 1960 - The first contraceptive pill is made available on the market.
- 1969 - Vietnam War: Operation Apache Snow – Near the Laos border, American and South Vietnamese forces fight North Vietnamese troops for Ap Bia Mountain (aka Hill 937 or "Hamburger Hill").
- 1984 - A transit of Earth from Mars takes place; no one is there to observe it.
- 1987 - The first heart-lung transplant takes place (Baltimore, Maryland). The surgery is performed by Dr. Bruce Reitz, of Stanford University School of Medicine
- 1995 - In New York City, more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
- 1997 - IBM's Deep Blue chess-playing supercomputer defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player.
- 1998 - India conducts three underground nuclear tests in Pokhran, including a thermonuclear device.
- 2000 - Last performance of the musical Cats in London's West End.
- 2006 - A science team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign successfully convert pig waste into crude oil.
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