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For the 1911 model firearm, see M1911

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January 1 - Pericles Atheneos begins his career in insurance by representing foreign insurance companies in Athens, Greece.D.ATHENEOS INSURANCE GROUP S.A.

January 3 - In London, in what becomes known as the Siege of Sidney Street, the Metropolitan Police and the Scots Guards engage in a shootout with a criminal gang of Latvian anarchists held up in a building in the East End.

January 5 - Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity is founded at Indiana University, Bloomington Indiana.

January 10 - Major Jimmie Erickson takes the first aerial photograph (over San Diego, California).

January 18 - Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, marking the first time an aircraft landed on a ship

January 21 - First Monte Carlo races (Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo)

January 26 - Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane.

January 30 - The destroyer USS Terry makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of James McCurdy 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.

March 1 - José Batlle y Ordóñez is elected President of Uruguay.

March 8 - International Women's Day is celebrated for the first time

March 24 - Denmark abolishes death penalty and flogging

March 25 - Fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City - 145 dead

March 29 - United States Army formally adopts the M1911 pistol as its standard sidearm, thus giving the gun its 1911 designation.

April 6 - Dedë Gjon Luli Dedvukaj, Leader of the Malësori Albanians raises the Albanian flag in the town of Tuzi, Montenegro for the first time after Gjergj Kastrioti (Skenderbeg).

April 13 - Mexican revolution - Rebels take Aqua Prieta besides US border. Government troops take the town back April 17 when the rebel leader "Red" Lopez is drunk

April 19 - Francisco Madero's troops besiege Ciudad Juarez but general Juan J. Navarro refuses his demand of surrender

April 27 - Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.

April 30 - Sparks from a burning hayshed ignite the Great Fire of 1911, destroying much of downtown Bangor, Maine.

May 11 - Futurist exhibition in Milan was the first of efforts by the group to make its theories concrete

May 8 - Pancho Villa launches an attack against government troops in Ciudad Juarez without Madero's permission. Government troops surrender May 10

May 15 - The United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be dissolved.

May 17 - Porfirio Diaz is convinced to resign but he does not do it officially

May 21 - Peace treaty between rebels of Madero and government troops in Ciudad Juarez

May 23 - Dedication ceremony for the New York Public Library.

May 24 - Government troops fire at anti-Diaz demonstrators in Mexico City - about 200 dead (official claim only 40)

May 25 - Diaz signs his resignation and leaves for Veracruz. May 31 he leaves for exile in France

May 30 - The first Indianapolis 500-mile auto race is run. The winner is Ray Harroun in the Marmon 'Wasp'.

June 7 - Francisco Madero arrives in Mexico City just after a local earthquake

June 14 - A national seamen's strike begins in Britain.

June 15 - IBM incorporated as Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) in New York

June 16 - A 772 gram stony meteorite struck earth in Columbia County, Wisconsin near the village of Kilbourn damaging a barn.

June 22 - Coronation of George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck at Westminster Abbey, London.

June 28 - The Nakhla meteorite (from Mars) lands in the area of Alexandria, Egypt, purportedly killing a dog.

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July 1 - German Warship Panther in the Moroccan port of Agadir triggers Agadir Crisis escalating pre-WW1 tensions. Subsequent climbdown rallies German militancy.

July 24 - Hiram Bingham finds Machu Picchu

August 8 - Public Law 62-5 sets the number of representatives in the United States House of Representatives at 435. The law will take effect in 1913.

August 9 - Raunds, Northamptonshire records a temperature of 98°F (36.7°C), the highest UK temperature until 1990.

August 10 - British MPs vote to receive salaries for the first time

August 22 - Theft of Mona Lisa discovered in Louvre (Vincenzo Peruggia is captured and the painting returned 1913)

September 7 - French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested and put in jail on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum. He is later released.

September 11 - Middle Tennessee State University is founded in Murfreesboro, Tennessee as Middle Tennessee Normal School.

September 20 - The liner RMS ''Olympic'', sister ship to the RMS ''Titanic'', collides with Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hawke outside Southampton, England.

September 25 - French navy ship Liberté explodes at anchor in Toulon

September 25 - Groundbreaking for Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts begins.

October 6 - The British Seafarers' Union was formed in Southampton in England.

October 10 - Wuchang Uprising starts the Xinhai Revolution that will lead to the founding of the Republic of China.

October 10 - Robert Laird Borden becomes Canada's eighth prime minister.

October 16 - Felipe Diaz, nephew of Porfirio Diaz, occupies the port of Veracruz as a sign of rebellion against Madero

October 18 - revolutionaries under Sun Yat-sen overthrew China's Manchu dynasty.

October 28 - Foundation of The Rosicrucian Fellowship's international headquarters at Mount Ecclesia, Oceanside, California. It had been preceded by its formal constitution in August 8 1909 at Seattle, Washington.

November 17 - Omega Psi Phi Fraternity is founded at Howard University.

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November 3 - Chevrolet officially enters the automobile market to compete with the Ford Model T.

November 4 - Selandia launched in Denmark, the first ocean going diesel Ship.

November 5 - After declaring war on Turkey on September 29, 1911, Italy annexes Tripoli and Cyrenaica (this act was confirmed by an act of the Italian Parliament on February 25, 1912).

November 11 - A record cold snap hits the United States midwest. Many cities break record highs and lows on same day. (see The 11/11/11 cold wave).

November 15 - Prince Louis Honoré Charles Antoine Grimaldi of Monaco, heir to the throne and later Reigning Prince Louis II of Monaco officially recognizes his illegitimate daughter Charlotte Louise Juliette Louvet as Princess Charlotte of Monaco.

November 16 - Earthquake in Swab, South Germany

December 11 - Coronation in New Delhi of George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck as Emperor of India and Empress consort respectively

December 12 - The capital of India was shifted to New Delhi from Calcutta (now Kolkata).

December 14 - Roald Amundsen's expedition reaches the South Pole

December 21 - First robbery of the Bonnot gang

December 24 - Opening of Lackawanna Cutoff, the first of two major cutoffs built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, just three years after it was built.

December 29 - Sun Yat-sen becomes the first President of the Republic of China

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In Canada, the Dominion Parks Branch was established (now Parks Canada), the world's first national park service. In 1911 it fell under the Department of the Interior, and now resides within the Department of the Environment.

First Solvay Congress - meeting of physicists

University of Iceland founded

The Pan Sophic Club, Pennsylvania's oldest independent fraternity, is founded at Grove City College in Grove City, PA.

University of Wales, Bangor moved to new buildings.

1911 Encyclopædia Britannica published.

Rutherford deduces the existence of a compact atomic nucleus from scattering experiments.

Onnes discovers superconductivity.

In France the Champagne Riots, in which growers disputed the precise limits of the Champagne region.

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux is first translated into English.

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January 1 - Roman Totenberg, Polish-American Violinist

January 1 - Hank Greenberg, baseball player (d. 1986)

January 3 - John Sturges, American film director (d. 1982)

January 5 - Jean-Pierre Aumont, French actor (d. 2001)

January 7 - Butterfly McQueen, American actress (d. 1995)

January 11 - Zenko Suzuki, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2004)

January 13 - Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Premier of Queensland (d. 2005)

January 17 - George Joseph Stigler, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)

January 22 - Bruno Kreisky, Chancellor of Austria (d. 1990)

January 24 - C. L. Moore, American writer (d. 1987)

January 25 - Kurt Maetzig, German Director

January 26 - Polykarp Kusch, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)

January 27 - Cornelia Hubertina Doff French author of Dutch origin known as Neel Doff, nominee of the 1911 Prix Goncourt (d. 1942)

January 29 - Peter von Siemens, German industrialist (d. 1986)

January 30 - Roy Eldridge, American jazz musician (d. 1989)

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February 5 - Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (d. 1960)

February 6 - Ronald Reagan, United States President (d. 2004)

February 8 - Elizabeth Bishop, American poet (d. 1979)

February 12 - Stephen H. Sholes, American recording executive (d. 1968)

February 14 - Willem Johan Kolff, Dutch Inventor of hemodialysis

February 17 - Oskar Seidlin, Silesian-born Jewish-American literary scholar (d. 1984)

February 19 - Merle Oberon, British actress (d. 1979)

February 28 - Otakar Vávra, Czech Director

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March 3 - Jean Harlow, American actress (d. 1937)

March 9 - Ebby Halliday, American Realtor

March 8 - Alan Hovhaness, American composer (d. 2000)

March 13 - L. Ron Hubbard, American author (d. 1986)

March 13 - Marie Rudisill American Author and Fruitcake Lady

March 15 - Ursula Vaughan Williams, British Author

March 16 - Pierre Harmel, Belgian Prime minister

March 16 - Josef Mengele, Nazi Germany war criminal (d. 1979)

March 20 - Alfonso García Robles, Mexican diplomat and politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1991)

March 24 - Joseph Barbera, American cartoonist

March 25 - Jack Ruby, American killer of Lee Harvey Oswald (d. 1967)

March 26 - Bernard Katz, German-born biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2003)

March 26 - Tennessee Williams, American playwright (d. 1983)

March 27 - Erich Heller, British philosopher, long resident in the U.S. (d. 1990)

March 29 - Brigitte Horney, German-born actress (d. 1988)

March 31 - Elisabeth Grümmer, Alsatian soprano (d. 1986)

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April 3 - Michael Woodruff, British/Australian pioneering transplant surgeon (d. 2001).

April 5 - Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (d. 1960)

April 6 - Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen, German biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1979)

April 8 - Melvin Calvin, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997)

April 8 - Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher and essayist (d. 1995)

April 11 - Stanislawa Walasiewicz, Polish-born runner (d. 1980)

April 13 - William Tuttle American Make-up Artist

April 15 - Muhammad Metwally Al Shaarawy Egyptian Muslim jurist (d.1998)

April 17 - Lester Rodney, American Journalist

April 18 - Maurice Goldhaber, Austrian-American Physicist

April 18 - Huntington Hartford, American Businessman and Heir to A&P

April 23 - Ronald Neame, British film cinematographer, producer, screenwriter and director

April 26 - Marianne Hoppe, German actress (d. 2002)

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May 5 - Andor Lilienthal, Hungarian Chess Grandmaster

May 8 - Robert Johnson, American guitarist and singer (d. 1938)

May 10 - Bel Kaufman, German born American Author

May 11 - Phil Silvers, American actor and comedian (d. 1985)

May 11 - Doodles Weaver, American actor and comedian (d. 1983)

May 15 - Max Frisch, Swiss author (d. 1991)

May 17 - Lisa Fonssagrives, Swedish model (d. 1992)

May 17 - Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish actress (d. 1998)

May 18 - Big Joe Turner, American singer (d. 1985)

May 20 - Gardner Fox, American writer (d. 1986)

May 20 - Milt Gabler, American record producer (d. 2001)

May 20 - Helvetia "Vet" Boswell of the 1940's popular Big Band/Swing group The Boswell Sisters was born in New Orleans, Louisiana

May 22 - Anatol Rapoport, Russian born American mathematical psychologist

May 24 - Carleen Hutchins, American Violin Maker

May 26 - Ben Alexander, American actor (d. 1969)

May 27 - Hubert H. Humphrey, U.S. Vice President and Senator (d. 1978)

May 27 - Teddy Kollek, Austrian-born mayor of Jerusalem

May 27 - Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993)

May 28 - Fritz Hochwälder, Austrian author (d. 1986)

May 31 - Maurice Allais, French eeconomist, Nobel Prize laureate

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June 13 - Luis Alvarez, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)

June 15 - W.V. Awdry, English children's writer (d. 1997)

June 20 - Paul Pietsch, German Racer and Magazine Magnate

June 24 - Ernesto Sabato, Argentine Writer

June 24 - Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentine race car driver (d. 1995)

June 25 - William Howard Stein, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1980)

June 26 - Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American athlete and golfer (d. 1956)

June 29 - Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (d. 2004)

June 29 - Bernard Herrmann, American composer (d. 1975)

June 30 - Czesław Miłosz, Polish-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)

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July 4 - Mitch Miller, American singer and television personality

July 4 - Frederick Seitz, American Scientist

July 6 - LaVerne Andrews, member of the 1940's Big Band/Swing group The Andrews Sisters is born in Mound, Minnesota (d. 1967)

July 7 - Gian-Carlo Menotti, Italian born American Composer

July 9 - John Archibald Wheeler American Physicist

July 9 - Mervyn Peake, British writer and illustrator (d. 1968)

July 16 - Ginger Rogers, American actress (d. 1995)

July 17 - Ted Anderson, English footballer (d. 1979)

July 18 - Hume Cronyn, Canadian actor (d. 2003)

July 21 - Marshall McLuhan, Canadian author (d. 1980)

July 27 - Lupita Tovar, Mexican actress

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August 6 - Lucille Ball, American actress (d. 1989)

August 9 - William Alfred Fowler, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)

August 11 - William H. Avery, American Politician

August 12 - Jane Wyatt, American actress

August 14 - Shri Vethathiri Maharishi, Indian yogi (d. 2006)

August 18 - Amelia Boynton Robinson, American Civil Rights Activist

August 17 - Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian chess player (d. 1995)

August 23 - Betty Robinson, American athlete (d. 1999)

August 23 - Birger Ruud, Norwegian athlete (d. 1998)

August 27 - Kay Walsh, British actress (d. 2005)

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September 2 - Floyd Council, American musician (d. 1976)

September 6 - Harry Danning, baseball player (d. 2004)

September 9 - John Gorton, nineteenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 2002)

September 15 - Joseph Pevney, American Director

September 19 - William Golding, English writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)

September 20 - Shriram Sharma Acharya founder of All world Gayatri Pariwar(d. 1990)

September 23 - Frank Moss, U.S. Senator from Utah (d. 2003)

September 24 - Herbert Jeffreys, American Singer and Actor

September 29 - Charles Court, Australian Politician

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October 5 - Flann O'Brien, Irish humorist (d. 1966)

October 5 - Pierre Dansereau, Canadian Ecologist

October 9 - Joe Rosenthal, American photographer (d. 2006)

October 10 - Clare Hollingworth, British Journalist

October 13 - Ashok Kumar, Indian actor (d. 2001)

October 14 - Le Duc Tho, Vietnamese general and politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1990)

October 15 - James H. Schmitz, German-born American science fiction writer (d. 1981)

October 26 - Sid Gillman, American football coach (d. 2003)

October 30 - Ruth Hussey, American actress (d. 2005)

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November 1 - Sidney Wood, American Tennis Player

November 1 - Henri Troyat, French Writer

November 2 - Odysseas Elytis, Greek writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)

November 5 - Roy Rogers, American singer and actor (d. 1998)

November 12 - Chad Varah, British Priest and Humanitarian

November 13 - Buck O'Neil, American Baseball Player and Manager

November 27 - David Merrick, American theater producer (d. 2000)

November 28 – Václav Renč, Czech poet, dramatist and translator (d. 1973)

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December 3 - Nino Rota, Italian composer (d. 1979)

December 11 - Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)

December 11 - Val Guest, British film director (d. 2006)

December 13 - Trygve Haavelmo, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)

December 13 - Kenneth Patchen, American poet and painter (d. 1972)

December 18 - Jules Dassin, American Director

December 20 - Hortense Calisher, American Author

December 21 - Josh Gibson, baseball player (d. 1947)

December 23 - Niels Kaj Jerne, English-born immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)

December 25 - Louise Bourgeois, French born American Artist

December 27 - Anna Russell, Britsh Comedian and Singer

December 30 - Jeanette Nolan, American Actress (d. 1998)

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Yolande Beekman, French-born World War II heroine (d. 1944)

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Harry Bailey, the younger brother of George Bailey in the film It's A Wonderful Life (1946).

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January 17 - Sir Francis Galton, English explorer and biologist (b. 1822)

March 1 - Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)

April 25 - Emilio Salgari, Italian writer (b. 1862)

May 18 - Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer (b. 1860)

May 21 - Williamina Fleming, Scottish astronomer (b. 1857)

May 29 - William S. Gilbert, English dramatist (b. 1836)

June 9 - Carrie Nation, American temperance activist (b. 1846)

August 1 - Edwin Austin Abbey, American painter (b. 1852)

August 8 - William P. Frye, U.S. Senator (b. 1830)

September 16 - Edward Whymper, British explorer (b. 1840)

October 7 - John Hughlings Jackson, English neurologist (b. 1835)

October 14 - John Marshall Harlan, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1833)

October 29 - Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-born newspaper publisher and journalist (b. 1847)

December 10 - Joseph Dalton Hooker, English botanist (b. 1817)

William George Aston, British consular official (b. 1841)

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Physics - Wilhelm Wien

Chemistry - Maria Skłodowska-Curie

Medicine - Allvar Gullstrand

Literature - Count Maurice (Mooris) Polidore Marie Bernhard Maeterlinck

Peace - Tobias Michael Carel Asser Alfred Hermann Fried

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M1911