Thursday 11 July 2024 Calendar with holidays, observances and special days

World Population Day

By the end of the century, the world’s population might be as high as 17 billion or as low as 7 billion, according to the most recent UN estimates. 2015: There are about ..→

Holidays and observances

• All American Pet Photo Day
• Baker's Day in Acambaro, Guanajuato, Mexico
• Bandoneón Day in Argentina
• Bike Week in Willingen
• Cheer Up the Lonely Day
• Day of the Flemish Community (Flemish Community of Belgium)
• Eleventh Night in Northern Ireland
• Engineer's Day in India, Telangana (The Telangana state celebrates Engineers day on July 11th on the birthday of Ali Nawaz Jung Bahadur)
• Free Slurpee Day (Participating stores of the 7-Eleven chain in North America)
• Gospel Day in Kiribati
• International Chocolate Day
• Journalist's Day in Chile
• Memorial Day of the Liberal Revolution of 1893 in Nicaragua
• National Blueberry Muffin Day and National Mojito Day in USA
• National Day of Remembrance of Victims of the Genocide Committed by Ukrainian Nationalists on Citizens of the Second Polish Republic (Narodowy Dzień Pamięci Ofiar Ludobójstwa dokonanego przez ukraińskich nacjonalistów na obywatelach II Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, set on the anniversary of the "bloody sunday" in Volhynia, the culmination of the massacres of Poles in Volhynia, established in 2016)
• National Wildfire Fighter's Day in Mexico
• Remembrance Day for the victims of the genocide of Srebrenica residents in the European Union
• Senior Citizens' Day in Kiribati
• University Teacher's Day in Peru

Events

• In 2017 researchers at George Washington University reveal a new prototype solar cell with 44.5 percent efficiency.
• 1990 – Oka Crisis: First Nations land dispute in Quebec, Canada begins.
• 1979 – America's first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
• 1972 – The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts.
• 1962 – First transatlantic satellite television transmission.
• 1962 – Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth.
• 1960 – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States.
• 1941 – The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party holds its first congress in Nkana.
• 1936 – The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic.
• 1922 – The Hollywood Bowl opens.
• 1921 – Former President of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as 10th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the only person ever to hold both offices.
• 1914 – USS Nevada (BB-36) is launched.
• 1906 – Murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in the United States, inspiration for Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy.
• 1897 – Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon. He later crashes and dies.
• 1895 – Brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière demonstrate movie film technology to scientists.
• 1893 – The first cultured pearl is obtained by Kokichi Mikimoto.
• 1889 – Tijuana, Mexico, is founded.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Stevens; Confederate forces attempt to invade Washington, D.C.
• 1848 – Waterloo railway station in London opens.
• 1804 – A duel occurs in which the Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.
• 1801 – French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons makes his first comet discovery. In the next 27 years he discovers another 36 comets, more than any other person in history.
• 1798 – The United States Marine Corps is re-established; they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War.
• 1796 – The United States takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain under terms of the Jay Treaty.
• 1750 – Halifax, Nova Scotia is almost completely destroyed by fire.
• 1735 – Mathematical calculations suggest that it is on this day that dwarf planet Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune for the last time before 1979.
• 1576 – Martin Frobisher sights Greenland.
• 1405 – Ming admiral Zheng He sets sail to explore the world for the first time.

Births

• 1993 – Rebecca Bross, American gymnast. Rebecca Marie Bross (born July 11, 1993) is an American former artistic gymnast and six-time World Championship medalist.
• 1990 – Patrick Peterson, American football player. Patrick De'mon Peterson Jr. (born July 11, 1990) is an American football cornerback for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL).
• 1984 – Jacoby Jones, American football player. He played for the Texans from 2007 to 2011.
• 1984 – Joe Pavelski, American ice hockey player. Joseph James Pavelski (born July 11, 1984) is an American professional ice hockey player for the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL).
• 1984 – Tanith Belbin, Canadian-American ice dancer. With Agosto, Belbin is the 2006 Olympic silver medalist, four-time World medalist, three-time Four Continents champion (2004–2006), and five-time U.S. champion (2004–2008).
• 1983 – Peter Cincotti, American singer-songwriter and pianist. While in high school, he regularly performed in clubs throughout Manhattan.
• 1982 – Chris Cooley, American football player. Christopher Ken "Chris" Cooley (born July 11, 1982) is a former American football tight end who played for the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL).
• 1981 – Andre Johnson, American football player. Andre Lamont Johnson (born July 11, 1981) is a former American football wide receiver who played most of his 14-year career with the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL).
• 1980 – Kevin Powers, American soldier and author. Kevin Powers (born July 11, 1980) is an American fiction writer, poet, and Iraq War veteran.
• 1977 – Brandon Short, American football player and sportscaster, was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons. He played college football for Penn State University, and was recognized as an All-American.
• 1976 – Eduardo Nájera, Mexican-American basketball player and coach. Eduardo Alonso Nájera Pérez (Spanish pronunciation: ) (born July 11, 1976) is a Mexican retired professional basketball player and currently a scout with the Dallas Mavericks.
• 1975 – Lil' Kim, American rapper and producer. Kimberly Denise Jones (born July 11, 1974 or 1975), known professionally as Lil' Kim, is an American rapper, songwriter, model, and actress.
• 1971 – Leisha Hailey, Japanese-American singer-songwriter and actress. Leisha Hailey (born July 11, 1971) is a Japanese-born American actress and musician known for playing Alice Pieszecki in the Showtime Networks series The L Word.
• 1970 – Justin Chambers, American actor. Chambers began modeling after being approached by a modeling scout in Paris.
• 1968 – Esera Tuaolo, American football player. Esera Tavai Tuaolo (born July 11, 1968), nicknamed "Mr.
• 1967 – Andy Ashby, American baseball player and sportscaster. Andrew Jason Ashby (born July 11, 1967) is an American former professional baseball starting pitcher, who played for the Philadelphia Phillies, Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres, Atlanta Braves, and Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball.
• 1967 – Jhumpa Lahiri, Indian American novelist and short story writer. Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" Lahiri (born July 11, 1967) is an American author known for her short stories, novels and essays in English, and, more recently, in Italian.
• 1966 – Rod Strickland, American basketball player and coach. Rodney Strickland (born July 11, 1966) is an American basketball executive and retired National Basketball Association (NBA) player.
• 1965 – Scott Shriner, American singer-songwriter and bass player. Scott Gardner Shriner (born July 11, 1965) is an American musician best known as a member of the rock band Weezer, with whom he has recorded ten studio albums.
• 1963 – Lisa Rinna, American actress and talk show host. Since 2014, Rinna has reached new levels of notoriety for her starring role on Bravo's hit reality television series The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
• 1960 – David Baerwald, American singer-songwriter, composer, and musician. David Francis Baerwald (born July 11, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and musician.
• 1959 – Richie Sambora, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. He has also released three solo albums: Stranger in This Town in 1991, Undiscovered Soul in 1998, and Aftermath of the Lowdown released in September 2012.
• 1959 – Suzanne Vega, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. Suzanne Nadine Vega (born July 11, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer, best known for her folk-inspired music.
• 1956 – Amitav Ghosh, Indian-American author and academic. Amitav Ghosh is an Indian writer and the winner of the 54th Jnanpith award, best known for his work in English fiction.
• 1956 – Sela Ward, American actress. Sela Ann Ward (born July 11, 1956) is an American actress, author, and producer, best known for her roles on television beginning in the early 1980s.
• 1953 – Leon Spinks, American boxer. Leon Spinks (born July 11, 1953) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 1995.
• 1953 – Mindy Sterling, American actress. Farm, Ms.
• 1951 – Ed Ott, American baseball player and coach. Nathan Edward Ott (born July 11, 1951 in Muncy, Pennsylvania), is an American former professional baseball catcher and coach, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates and California Angels, between 1974 and 1981.
• 1950 – Bonnie Pointer, American singer. Patricia Eva "Bonnie" Pointer (born July 11, 1950) is an American singer, most notable for being a member of the Grammy Award–winning vocal group, The Pointer Sisters.
• 1947 – Jeff Hanna, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and drummer. Hanna (July 11, 1947) is an American singer-songwriter and performance musician, best known for his association with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
• 1946 – Martin Wong, American painter (d. 1999), was a Chinese-American painter of the late twentieth century. His work has been described as a meticulous blend of social realism and visionary art styles.
• 1944 – Lou Hudson, American basketball player and coach (d. 2014), was an American National Basketball Association (NBA) player, who was an All-American at the University of Minnesota and a six-time NBA All-Star, scoring 17,940 total points in 13 NBA seasons (1966–1979).
• 1944 – Patricia Polacco, American author and illustrator. Polacco endured teasing and hid her disability until a school teacher recognized that she could not read and began to help her.
• 1943 – Howard Gardner, American psychologist and academic. He is currently the senior director of Harvard Project Zero, and since 1995, he has been the co-director of The Good Project.
• 1941 – Bill Boggs, American journalist and producer. William "Bill" Boggs III (born July 11, 1941) is an American television host and journalist.
• 1935 – Frederick Hemke, American saxophonist and educator, was an American virtuoso classical saxophonist and influential professor of saxophone at Northwestern University. Hemke helped raise the popularity of classical saxophone, particularly among leading American composers and helped raise the recognition of classical saxophone in solo, chamber, and major orchestral repertoire.
• 1934 – Giorgio Armani, Italian fashion designer, founded the Armani Company. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, and by 2001 was acclaimed as the most successful designer of Italian origin, with an annual turnover of $1.6 billion and a personal fortune of $8.1 billion as of 2017.
• 1933 – Frank Kelso, American admiral and politician, United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 2013), was an admiral of the United States Navy, who served as Chief of Naval Operations from 1990 to 1994.
• 1933 – Jim Carlen, American football player and coach (d. 2012), was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at West Virginia University (1966–1969) and Texas Tech University (1970–1974).
• 1932 – Alex Hassilev, French-born American folk singer and musician (The Limeliters), was one of the founding members of the group The Limeliters and produced the rock album The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds. He was educated at Harvard and the University of Chicago.
• 1931 – Dick Gray, American baseball player (d. 2013), was an American professional baseball player. He was an infielder in Major League Baseball, playing mainly as a third baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers and St.
• 1931 – Tab Hunter, American actor and singer, was an American actor, singer, film producer and author. He appeared in over 40 films and was a well-known Hollywood star and heartthrob of the 1950s and 1960s, known for his blond, clean-cut good looks.
• 1931 – Thurston Harris, American doo-wop singer (d. 1990), was a male American singer, popular in the early to mid-1950s.
• 1930 – Harold Bloom, American literary critic, was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. Following the publication of his first book in 1959, Bloom wrote more than fifty books, including twenty books of literary criticism, several books discussing religion, and a novel.
• 1930 – Trevor Storer, English businessman, founded Pukka Pies (d. 2013), was a British businessman and founder of the Pukka Pies company in 1963, which was originally called Trevor Storer's Home Made Pies. He was the author of Bread Salesmanship, which became the training manual for Allied Bakeries in the 1960s.
• 1928 – Bobo Olson, American boxer (d. 2002). He was the World Middleweight champion between October 1953 and December 1955, the longest reign of any champion in that division during the 1950s.
• 1927 – Theodore Maiman, American-Canadian physicist and engineer (d. 2007), was an American engineer and physicist who is widely credited with the invention of the laser. Maiman's laser led to the subsequent development of many other types of lasers.
• 1926 – Frederick Buechner, American minister, theologian, and author. His work encompasses different genres, including fiction, autobiography, essays and sermons, and his career has spanned more than six decades.
• 1925 – Peter Kyros, American lawyer and politician (d. 2012), was a U.S. Representative from Maine.
• 1924 – Brett Somers, Canadian-American actress and singer (d. 2007), was a Canadian-American actress, singer, and game-show personality who was born in New Brunswick and raised in Maine. Brett was best known as a panelist on the 1970s game show Match Game and for her recurring role as Blanche Madison opposite her real-life husband, actor Jack Klugman, on The Odd Couple.
• 1923 – Richard Pipes, Polish-American historian and academic, was an American academic who specialized in Russian history, particularly with respect to the Soviet Union, who espoused a strong anti-communist point of view throughout his career. In 1976 he headed Team B, a team of analysts organized by the Central Intelligence Agency who analyzed the strategic capacities and goals of the Soviet military and political leadership.
• 1922 – Gene Evans, American actor (d. 1998), was an American actor who appeared in numerous television series, made-for-television movies, and feature films between 1947 and 1989.
• 1920 – Zecharia Sitchin, Russian-American author (d. 2010), was an author of books proposing an explanation for human origins involving ancient astronauts. Sitchin attributed the creation of the ancient Sumerian culture to the Anunnaki, which he stated was a race of extraterrestrials from a planet beyond Neptune called Nibiru.
• 1916 – Mortimer Caplin, American tax attorney, educator, and IRS Commissioner, was an American lawyer and educator, and the founding member of Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered.
• 1913 – Cordwainer Smith, American sinologist, author, and academic (d. 1966), was the pen-name used by American author Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (July 11, 1913 – August 6, 1966) for his science fiction works. Linebarger was a noted East Asia scholar and expert in psychological warfare. ("Cordwainer" is an archaic word for "a worker in cordwain or cordovan leather; a shoemaker", and a "smith" is "one who works in iron or other metals; esp. a blacksmith or farrier": two kinds of skilled workers with traditional materials.) Linebarger also employed the literary pseudonyms "Carmichael Smith" (for his political thriller Atomsk), "Anthony Bearden" (for his poetry) and "Felix C.
• 1912 – William F. Walsh, American captain and politician, 48th Mayor of Syracuse (d. 2011), was a Republican-Conservative member of the United States House of Representatives from New York State.
• 1910 – Irene Hervey, American actress (d. 1998), was an American film, stage, and television actress who appeared in over fifty films and numerous television series spanning her five-decade career.
• 1899 – E. B. White, American essayist and journalist (d. 1985), was an American writer. For more than fifty years, he was a contributor to The New Yorker magazine.
• 1897 – Bull Connor, American police officer (d. 1973), was an American politician who served as Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Birmingham, Alabama, for more than two decades. He strongly opposed activities of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
• 1882 – James Larkin White, American miner, explorer, and park ranger (d. 1946), was a cowboy, guano miner, cave explorer, and park ranger for the National Park Service. He is best remembered as the discoverer, early promoter and explorer of what is known today as Carlsbad Caverns in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico.
• 1881 – Isabel Martin Lewis, American astronomer and author (d. 1955?), was an American astronomer who was the first woman hired by the United States Naval Observatory as assistant astronomer. In 1918, Lewis was elected a member of the American Astronomical Society.
• 1850 – Annie Armstrong, American missionary (d. 1938), was a lay Southern Baptist denominational leader instrumental in the founding of the Woman's Missionary Union.
• 1767 – John Quincy Adams, American lawyer and politician, 6th President of the United States (d. 1848), was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States Secretary of State from 1817 to 1825.
• 1653 – Sarah Good, American woman accused of witchcraft (d. 1692), was one of the first three women to be accused of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials, which occurred in 1692 in colonial Massachusetts.

Deaths

• 2015 – James U. Cross, American general (b. 1925)
• 2015 – Lawrence K. Karlton, American lawyer and judge (b. 1935)
• 2014 – Bill McGill, American basketball player (b. 1939)
• 2014 – Charlie Haden, American bassist and composer (b. 1937)
• 2014 – John Seigenthaler, American journalist and academic (b. 1927)
• 2014 – Randall Stout, American architect, designed the Taubman Museum of Art (b. 1958)
• 2014 – Tommy Ramone, Hungarian-American drummer and producer (b. 1949)
• 2013 – Emik Avakian, Iranian-American inventor (b. 1923)
• 2013 – Eugene P. Wilkinson, American admiral (b. 1918)
• 2012 – Art Ceccarelli, American baseball player and coach (b. 1930)
• 2012 – Donald J. Sobol, American soldier and author (b. 1924)
• 2012 – Marion Cunningham, American author (b. 1922)
• 2012 – Marvin Traub, American businessman and author (b. 1925)
• 2012 – Richard Scudder, American journalist and publisher, co-founded MediaNews Group (b. 1913)
• 2011 – Rob Grill, American singer-songwriter and bass player (b. 1943)
• 2010 – Walter Hawkins, American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and pastor (b. 1949)
• 2009 – Reg Fleming, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1936)
• 2008 – Michael E. DeBakey, American surgeon and educator (b. 1908)
• 2007 – Lady Bird Johnson, American beautification activist; 43rd First Lady of the United States (b. 1912)
• 2007 – Ed Mirvish, American-Canadian businessman and philanthropist, founded Honest Ed's (b. 1914)
• 2006 – Barnard Hughes, American actor (b. 1915)
• 2005 – Frances Langford, American actress and singer (b. 1913)
• 2004 – Laurance Rockefeller, American financier and philanthropist (b. 1910)
• 1999 – Helen Forrest, American singer (b. 1917)
• 1994 – Gary Kildall, American computer scientist, founded Digital Research (b. 1942)
• 1987 – Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman, American rabbi and scholar (b. 1901)
• 1983 – Ross Macdonald, American-Canadian author (b. 1915)
• 1971 – John W. Campbell, American journalist and author (b. 1910)
• 1966 – Delmore Schwartz, American poet and short story writer (b. 1913)
• 1937 – George Gershwin, American pianist, songwriter, and composer (b. 1898)
• 1909 – Simon Newcomb, Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician (b. 1835)
• 1825 – Thomas P. Grosvenor, American soldier and politician (b. 1744)
• 1806 – James Smith, Irish-American lawyer and politician (b. 1719)
• 1775 – Simon Boerum, American farmer and politician (b. 1724)