more events on December 11
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2008
Bernard “Bernie” Madoff arrested and charged with securities fraud in what was called a $50-billion Ponzi scheme.
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2006
President of Mexico Felipe Calderon launches a military-led offensive against drug cartel violence in the state of Michoacan.
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2005
Cronulla riots begin in Cronulla, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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2001
People’s Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization.
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1997
The Kyoto Protocol international treaty intended to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses, opens for signature.
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1981
Hamish Blake, Australian comedian, actor, author; won Gold Logie Award for “Most Popular Personality on Television”; half of award-winning comedy duo Hamish and Andy (Andy Lee).
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Military forces in El Salvador kill over 800 civilians in what is known as the El Mozote massacre during the Salvadoran Civil War.
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1978
Massive demonstrations take place in Tehran against the shah.
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1972
Challenger, the lunar lander for Apollo 17, touches down on the moon’s surface, the last time that men visit the moon.
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1967
The Concorde, a joint British-French venture and the world’s first supersonic airliner, is unveiled in Toulouse, France.
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1964
Frank Sinatra, Jr., is returned home to his parents after being kidnapped for the ransom amount of $240,000.
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1955
Israel raids Syrian positions on the Sea of Galilee.
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1951
Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement from baseball.
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1950
Christina Onassis, businesswoman; inherited and operated the Onassis shipping businessh.
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1945
A Boeing B-29 Superfortress shatters all records by crossing the United States in five hours and 27 minutes.
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1944
Brenda Lee, singer; her 37 US chart hits in the 1960s is surpassed only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Ray Charles and Connie Francis (“I’m Sorry,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”).
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Teri Garr, actress, dancer (Tootsie, Mr. Mom).
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1943
John Kerry, politician; unsuccessful Democratic nominee for President of the United States (2004); secretary of state (2013– ).
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U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull demands that Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria withdraw from the war.
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1941
The United States declares war on Italy and Germany.
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1940
Donna Mills, actress (Knots Landing TV series, Play Misty for Me movie).
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1939
Tom Hayden, social and political activist; author, politician.
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Tom McGuane, novelist and screenwriter (The Sporting Club, Bushwacked Piano).
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1937
Jim Harrison, novelist and poet (Legends of the Fall).
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1936
Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicates the throne to marry American Wallis Warfield Simpson.
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1933
Reports say Paraguay has captured 11,000 Bolivians in the war over Chaco.
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1930
As the economic crisis grows, the Bank of the United States closes its doors.
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1927
Nearly 400 world leaders sign a letter to President Calvin Coolidge asking the United States to join the World Court.
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1926
Willie “Big Mama” Thornton, blues singer.
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1922
Grace Paley, short story writer.
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1918
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and winner of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. Famous for The Gulag Archipelago.
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1911
Naguib Mahfouz, Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian novelist.
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1882
Fiorella H. La Guardia, mayor of New York City from 1933 to 1945.
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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.
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1863
Union gunboats Restless, Bloomer and Caroline enter St. Andrew’s Bay, Fla., and begin bombardment of both Confederate quarters and saltworks.
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1862
Union General Ambrose Burnside occupies Fredericksburg and prepares to attack the Confederates under Robert E. Lee.
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1861
A raging fire sweeps the business district of Charleston, South Carolina, adding to an already depressed economic state.
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1843
Robert Koch, physician and medical researcher.
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1816
Indiana is admitted to the Union as the 19th state.
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1803
Hector Berlioz, French composer and conductor (Symphonie Fantastique, La Damnation de Faust).
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1688
James II abdicates the throne because of William of Orange landing in England.