December 11th is

Have a Bagel Day

International Mountain Day *

UNICEF Founding Day *

World Choral Day *

Worldwide Candle Lighting Day *

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MORE! Louis XVI, Grace Paley and ‘Bill W’ Wilson, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Islam – Mawlid al-Nabi (the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday)

Austria – Mayrhofen:
Altitude Comedy Festival

Burkina Faso –
Republic Proclamation Day

France –
Les Deux Alpes: Rise Festival
Lyon: Fête des Lumières

Finland – Helsinki:
St. Thomas Christmas Market

Switzerland – Geneva: Fête de l’Escalade
(1602 victory over attacking troops of Duke of Savoy)

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On This Day in HISTORY

361 – Julian enters Constantinople as sole Emperor of the Roman Empire

630 – Muhammad leads an army of 10,000 to conquer Mecca.

1282 – Battle of Orewin Bridge: Llewelyn ap Gruffydd, the last native Prince of Wales, is killed at Cilmeri, in central Wales

1688 – Glorious Revolution: James II of England, trying to flee to France, allegedly throws the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames

1719 – The first recorded sighting of the aurora borealis takes place in New England

1769 – Edward Beran of London patents venetian blinds

1789 – North Carolina General Assembly charters the University of North Carolina

1792 – King Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by the revolutionary National Convention

1815 – The U.S. Senate creates a select committee on finance and a uniform national currency, predecessor of the United States Senate Committee on Finance

1816 – Indiana becomes the 19th U.S. state

1844 – Dr. Horace Wells becomes the first patient to have a tooth extracted under anesthetic (Nitrous Oxide)

1882 – Boston’s Bijou Theater has its premiere performance, the first American playhouse lit exclusively by electricity

1922 – Grace Paley born, American author and poet

1925 – Roman Catholic papal encyclical Quas primas (Latin: ‘in the first’) introduces the Feast of Christ the King – endorsing Christ’s claim to kingship as creator and redeemer, extending it over all societies as well as individuals, which owe Christ obligations and submission as king

1926 – Big Mama Thornton born, American singer-songwriter 

1928 – Buenos Aires police thwart an assassination of President-elect Herbert Hoover

1930 – The Bank of the United States in New York fails

1931 – Statute of Westminster 1931: British Parliament establishes legislative equality between the UK and the Dominions of the Commonwealth—Australia, Canada,  Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ireland

1934 – Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the last time

1937 – The Fascist Council in Rome withdraws Italy from the League of Nations

1943 – Mayor La Guardia dedicates New York’s City Center of Music and Drama, in a former Masonic Temple, which was slated for demolition but saved by LaGuardia

1946 – The UN General Assembly establishes the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to provide relief to children in war-devastated countries, expanding its mission as times changed, becoming a vocal advocate for children, and taking part in the drafting of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which was ratified by the UN General Assembly in 1989

1948 – Arab–Israeli War: The United Nations passes General Assembly Resolution 194, creating a Conciliation Commission to mediate the conflict

1958 – French Upper Volta and French Dahomey gain self-government from France, becoming the Republic of Upper Volta and the Republic of Dahomey (now Benin), and joining the French Community

1960 – French forces crack down in a violent clash with protesters in French Algeria during a visit by French President Charles de Gaulle

1961 – An aircraft carrier carrying Army helicopters arrives in Saigon, the first direct American military support for South Vietnam

1962 – Arthur Lucas, convicted of murder, is the last person to be executed in Canada.

1964 – Che Guevara speaks at the United Nations General Assembly 

1967 – A Concorde prototype is shown for the first time, in Toulouse, France

1968 – The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, featuring the Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull, the Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and the Dirty Mac with Yoko Ono, is filmed in Wembley, London

1971 – James Brown releases his 32nd album, Revolution of the Mind

1972 – Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and last Apollo mission to land on the Moon

1976 – Bob Seger releases his album Night Moves

1980 – Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act is enacted by U.S. Congress, setting up a $1.6 billion “superfund” for cleaning up chemical spills and toxic waste dumps

1985 – General Electric Company agrees to buy RCA Corporation for $6.3 billion, which includes NBC

1986 – South Africa expands its media restrictions by imposing prior censorship and banning coverage of a wide range of peaceful anti-apartheid protests
1987 – Charlie Chaplin’s trademark cane and bowler hat sold at Christie’s for £82,500

1990 – Alberto Grau, a Venezuelan composer and choral director, launches World Choral Day in Helsinki, Finland

1991 – Salman Rushdie, under Islamic death sentence for blasphemy, makes his first public appearance since 1989, at a dinner in NYC marking the 200th anniversary of the First Amendment

1994 – Thousands of Russian troops, armored columns and jets enter Chechnya

1997 – The Compassionate Friends, which began in Britain is an online support group for those who have lost a child (of any age). The U.S. Society, which  incorporated in 1978 in Illinois,  begins Candle Lighting Day * as a national memorial for children who have died too young and a way to help their bereaved families find solace and healing, but it has grown into an international observance

1998 –The  House Judiciary Committee’s Republican majority push through three articles of impeachment against U.S. President Clinton

2001 – U.S. President George W. Bush announces he will withdraw the U.S. from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia

2003 – The UN General Assembly designates December 11 as International Mountain Day * to increase awareness of the importance of mountains to life, and the need to protect them, while building alliances to improve the lives and preserving the cultures of mountain peoples across the globe. Mountains cover 22% of the earth’s land surface

2009 – The popular game Angry Birds is released

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Visuals

• Worldwide Candle Lighting Day poster
• International flags
• Julian’s coronation in Constantinople as sole Emperor of the Roman Empire
• Aurora Borealis as seen in New England
• Louis XVI, roi de France et de Navarre, revêtu du grand costume royal en 1779, portrait by Antoine-François Callet
• Boston’s Bijou Theatre – program cover
• Grace Paley with ‘save the world’ quote
• ‘Bill W’ Wilson with ‘AA’ quote
• UNICEF banner
• Salman Rushdie with ‘freedom of thought’ quote
• Washington Post headline – Clinton’s impeachment
• Angry Birds promo

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