Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/August 11
This is a list of selected August 11 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
August 11: First day of Ramadan (Islam, 2010); Independence Day in Chad (1960)
- 3114 BC – The epoch of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, a non-repeating, vigesimal calendar used by the Maya civilization and several other Mesoamerican cultures, occurred.
- 1492 – The first papal conclave held in the Sistine Chapel elected Roderic Borja as Pope Alexander VI (pictured) to succeed Pope Innocent VIII.
- 1828 – William Corder was hanged at Bury St Edmunds, England, for murdering Maria Marten at the Red Barn.
- 1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil received a patent for their "Secret Communications System", an early technique of frequency-hopping spread spectrum that later became the basis for many forms of today's wireless communication systems.
- 1965 – Violent race rioting began in the Watts district of Los Angeles, lasting for six days and leaving 34 people dead and 1,032 others injured.