December 11th in History

Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan tests the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) at the Taurus-Littrow landing site, December 11, 1972

Today in History

  • Indiana becomes the 19th US state (1816)
  • Edward VIII’s abdication as King of the United Kingdom takes effect (1936)
  • World War II: Germany and Italy declare war on the US following the US declaration of war on Japan (1941)
  • UNICEF is established (1946)
  • Apollo 17, the last Apollo mission, lands on the Moon (1972)
  • Bernard Madoff is arrested for his $50 billion Ponzi scheme (2008)

Birthdays

  • George Mason, founding father (1725)
  • Hector Berlioz, composer (1803)
  • Kamehameha V, Hawaiian monarch (1830; died on the same day in 1872)
  • John Labatt, brewer (1838)
  • Fiorello La Guardia, NYC mayor (1882)
  • Walter Knott, berry farmer (1889)
  • Marge, cartoonist, creator of Little Lulu (1904)
  • Алекса́ндр Солжени́цын (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn), dissident (1918)
  • Big Mama Thornton, blues singer (1926)
  • John Buscema, comic book artist (1927)
  • Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, mystic (1931)
  • Rita Moreno, performer (1931)
  • McCoy Tyner, jazz pianist (1938)
  • Tom Hayden, politician and activist (1939)
  • Donna Mills, actress (1940)
  • John Kerry, politician (1943)
  • Brenda Lee, singer (1944)
  • Teri Garr, actress (1947)
  • Jermaine Jackson, singer-songwriter (1954)
  • Mos Def, rapper (1973)

Deaths

  • Kamehameha V, Hawaiian monarch (1872; born on the same day in 1830)
  • Oliver Winchester, gun manufacturer (1880)
  • Sam Cooke, singer-songwriter (1964)
  • Robert Q. Lewis, game show host (1991)
  • Bettie Page, pin-up model (2008)
  • Ravi Shankar, sitar player (2012)

Holidays and Celebrations

  • Human Rights and Peace Day (Kiribati)
  • Indiana Day (United States)
  • International Mountain Day (International)
  • National Noodle Ring Day
  • National Tango Day (Buenos Aires)
  • One of the four Agonalia, this day in honor of Sol Indiges; also the Septimontium festival (Roman Empire)
  • Pampanga Day (Pampanga Province, the Philippines)
  • Republic Day, the day when Upper Volta became an autonomous republic in the French Community in 1958. (Burkina Faso)
December 11 is the 345th day of the year (346th in leap years). There are 20 days remaining until the end of the year.