11 January History
- 49 BC - Julius Caesar leads his army across the Rubicon River, plunging Rome into civil war.
- 1843 - Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star-Spangled Banner," dies in Baltimore.
- 1861 - Alabama secedes from the Union.
- 1862 - Lincoln accepts Simon Cameron's resignation as Secretary of War.
- 1887 - At Fort Smith, Arkansas, hangman George Maledon dispatches four victims in a multiple hanging.
- 1904 - British troops massacre 1,000 dervishes in Somaliland.
- 1916 - Russian General Yudenich launches a WWI winter offensive and advances west.
- 1923 - The French enter the town of Essen in the Ruhr valley, to extract Germany's resources as war payment.
- 1934 - The German police raid the homes of dissident clergy in Berlin.
- 1941 - Adolf Hitler orders forces to be prepared to enter North Africa to assist the Italian effort, marking the establishment of the Afrika Korps.
- 1940 - Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., becomes the U.S. Army's first black general, his son would later become a general as well.
- 1942 - Japan invades the Dutch East Indies at Borneo.
- 1943 - The Soviet Red Army encircles Stalingrad.
- 1948 - President Harry S. Truman proposes free, two-year community colleges for all who want an education.
- 1949 - Negotiations in China between the Nationalists and Communists open as Tientsin is virtually lost to the Communists.
- 1964 - A collection of previously unexhibited paintings by Pablo Picasso are displayed for the first time in Toronto.
- 1980 - Honda announces it will build the first Japanese-owned passenger-car assembly plant in the United States–in Ohio.
11 January Birthdays
- 1757 - Alexander Hamilton, first U.S. Secretary of Treasury, killed in a duel with Aaron Burr.
- 1864 - H. George Selfridge, founder of Selfridge and Co., Ltd., coined the phrase "the customer is always right."
- 1903 - Alan Patton, South African novelist (Cry, the Beloved Country).