What Happened On This Day ? June 11
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2010
Africa hosts the FIFA World Cup for the first time
The 19th association football world cup was opened in Johannesburg, South Africa. The winner of this historic edition was Spain.
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1959
Christopher Cockerell first presents the hovercraft
The amphibious air-cushion vehicle first crossed the English Channel just weeks after Cockerell first demonstrated his prototype, the SR.N1. The scheduled “flights” between Dover (U.K.) and Calais (France) were discontinued in 2000.
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1955
More than 80 people die in the Le Mans car race disaster
In one of history's worst car racing accidents, Pierre Levegh's Mercedes crashed into a crowd of spectators and burst into flames.
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1938
China launches the 1938 Yellow River flood
In what Steven Dutch, a Professor at the University of Wisconsin, called “the world's largest act of environmental warfare in history”, the Chinese government created the flood to halt invading Japanese forces.
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1817
The first predecessor of the bicycle is demonstrated
Using his revolutionary Laufmaschine, also known as Draisine, a two-wheeler without pedals, German inventor Karl Drais completed a 14 km test run in less than an hour, presenting a viable alternative to transportation by horse.
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1956
Joe Montana
. American football player
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1933
Gene Wilder
American actor
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1910
Jacques Cousteau
French biologist, author, inventor, co-developed the aqua-lung
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1864
Richard Strauss
German composer, conductor
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1572
Ben Jonson
English writer
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1979
John Wayne
American actor, director, producer
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1974
Julius Evola
Italian philosopher
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1936
Robert E. Howard
American author
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1934
Lev Vygotsky
Russian psychologist
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1859
Klemens von Metternich
German/Austrian politician, 1st State Chancellor of the Austrian Empire