11 December History
- 1688 - James II abdicates the throne because of William of Orange landing in England.
- 1816 - Indiana is admitted to the Union as the 19th state.
- 1861 - A raging fire sweeps the business district of Charleston, South Carolina, adding to an already depressed economic state. A walking tour of Charleston.
- 1862 - Union General Ambrose Burnside occupies Fredericksburg and prepares to attack the Confederates under Robert E. Lee.
- 1863 - Union gunboats Restless, Bloomer and Caroline enter St. Andrew's Bay, Fla., and begin bombardment of both Confederate quarters and saltworks.
- 1882 - A production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe at Boston's Bijou Theatre becomes the first performance in a theatre lit by incandescent electric lights.
- 1927 - Nearly 400 world leaders sign a letter to President Calvin Coolidge asking the United States to join the World Court.
- 1930 - As the economic crisis grows, the Bank of the United States closes its doors.
- 1933 - Reports say Paraguay has captured 11,000 Bolivians in the war over Chaco.
- 1936 - Britain's King Edward VIII abdicates the throne to marry American Wallis Warfield Simpson.
- 1941 - The United States declares war on Italy and Germany.
- 1943 - U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull demands that Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria withdraw from the war.
- 1945 - A Boeing B-29 Superfortress shatters all records by crossing the United States in five hours and 27 minutes.
- 1951 - Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement from baseball.
- 1955 - Israel raids Syrian positions on the Sea of Galilee.
- 1964 - Frank Sinatra, Jr., is returned home to his parents after being kidnapped for the ransom amount of $240,000.
- 1967 - The Concorde, a joint British-French venture and the world's first supersonic airliner, is unveiled in Toulouse, France.
- 1972 - Challenger, the lunar lander for Apollo 17, touches down on the moon's surface, the last time that men visit the moon.
- 1978 - Massive demonstrations take place in Tehran against the shah.
11 December Birthdays
- 1803 - Hector Berlioz, French composer and conductor (Symphonie Fantastique, La Damnation de Faust).
- 1843 - Robert Koch, physician and medical researcher.
- 1882 - Fiorella H. La Guardia, mayor of New York City from 1933 to 1945.
- 1911 - Naguib Mahfouz, Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian novelist.
- 1918 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and winner of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. Famous for The Gulag Archipelago.
- 1922 - Grace Paley, short story writer.
- 1926 - Willie "Big Mama" Thorton, blues singer.
- 1937 - Jim Harrison, novelist and poet (Legends of the Fall).
- 1939 - Tom McGuane, novelist and screenwriter (The Sporting Club, Bushwacked Piano).