July 11 in history — What Happened Today in History

America's first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.

Los Alfaques disaster: A truck carrying liquid gas crashes and explodes at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain, killing 216 tourists.

Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated in 1968, is posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Varig Flight 820 crashes near Paris on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on board. In response, the FAA bans smoking in airplane lavatories.

The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts.

The nationalization of all large copper mines in Chile is completed.

First transatlantic satellite television transmission.

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.

France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso) and Niger.

Congo Crisis: The State of Katanga breaks away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States.

Prince Karim Husseini Aga Khan IV inherits the office of Imamat as the 49th Imam of Shia Imami Ismai'li worldwide, after the death of Sir Sultan Mahommed Shah Aga Khan III.

Pakistan joins the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank.

The Exodus 1947 heads to Palestine from France.

Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak.

World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily: German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily.

The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party holds its first congress in Nkana.

World War II: Vichy France regime is formally established. Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of the French State.

The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic.

Engelbert Zaschka of Germany flies his large human-powered aircraft, the Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft, about 20 meters at Berlin Tempelhof Airport without assisted take-off.

Eric Liddell wins the gold medal in 400m at the 1924 Paris Olympics, after refusing to run in the heats for 100m, his favoured distance, on a Sunday.

The Hollywood Bowl opens.

A truce in the Irish War of Independence comes into effect.

The Red Army captures Mongolia from the White Army and establishes the Mongolian People's Republic.

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.

In the East Prussian plebiscite the local populace decides to remain with Weimar Germany.

The eight-hour day and free Sunday become law for workers in the Netherlands.

Babe Ruth makes his debut in Major League Baseball.

Ryan Strome, Canadian ice hockey player

Vincent Trocheck, American ice hockey player

Mohamed Elneny, Egyptian footballer

Mona Barthel, German tennis player

Connor Paolo, American actor

Adam Jezierski, Polish-Spanish actor and singer

Caroline Wozniacki, Danish tennis player

Tobias Sana, Swedish footballer

Travis Waddell, Australian rugby league player

Shimanoumi Koyo, Japanese sumo wrestler

Étienne Capoue, French footballer

Natalie La Rose, Dutch singer, songwriter and dancer

Shigeaki Kato, Japanese singer

Frank Bolling, American baseball second baseman (born 1931)

Jim Wong-Chu, Canadian poet (born 1949)

Giacomo Biffi, Italian cardinal (born 1928)

Satoru Iwata, Japanese game programmer and businessman (born 1959)

André Leysen, Belgian businessman (born 1927)

Charlie Haden, American bassist and composer (born 1937)

Carin Mannheimer, Swedish author and screenwriter (born 1934)

Bill McGill, American basketball player (born 1939)

Tommy Ramone, Hungarian-American drummer and producer (born 1949)

John Seigenthaler, American journalist and academic (born 1927)

Randall Stout, American architect, designed the Taubman Museum of Art (born 1958)

Emik Avakian, Iranian-American inventor (born 1923)

Egbert Brieskorn, German mathematician and academic (born 1936)