Browsing: May 11

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on May 11th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On May 11, 1812, the lobby of the British House of Commons was the scene of an unprecedented and as yet not repeated historical event, the assassination of a British Prime Minister. On May 11, 1862, Confederate sailors sunk their own ship, the CSS Virginia, in the James River outside of Norfolk, Virginia to avoid capture by Union troops. On May 11,…

A Brief History On May 11, 1812, the lobby of the British House of Commons was the scene of an unprecedented and as yet not repeated historical event, the assassination of a British Prime Minister. Digging Deeper Spencer Perceval had been Prime Minister since October of 1809, representing the Tory party.  Previously he had served as an MP, Solicitor-General, Attorney General, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, the only British politician to hold those offices and then become Prime Minister. On the fateful day, Perceval was shot in the chest by a single pistol round fired by John Bellingham, a British…

A Brief History On May 11, 2020, CNN and other news agencies reported the Iranian Navy while conducting exercises in the Gulf of Oman accidentally killed 19 of their own sailors and wounded another 15.  As we have reported many times in the past, Naval Oops Moments seem to be without any limit, with no navy in the world immune from catastrophic blunders.  We have also reported on incidents concerning so called “friendly fire,” when your own people accidentally shoot, blow up or target their own comrades or equipment.  Sometimes both of these military mishaps come together and combine into…

A Brief History On May 11, 2011, former NBA and current European league basketball player Robert Traylor died of an apparent heart attack at his home in Puerto Rico. He was only 34 years old and had played in a professional basketball game only a couple of weeks prior to his untimely death.  Sadly, the history of basketball is filled with similar sad stories, and today we take a look at some of these athletes that died too young. (By the way, the loss of Kobe Bryant in January of 2020 in a helicopter crash at the age of 41…

A Brief History On May 11, 1945, the man that would become the famous actor and philanthropist, Paul Newman, was assigned to the USS Bunker Hill CV-17, an Essex class aircraft carrier off the coast of Okinawa when not one, but two Japanese suicide (Kamikaze) aircraft slammed into the ship, killing nearly 350 men and injuring another 300, with another 43 missing. Newman, a crew member on carrier aircraft torpedo bombers survived the devastating attack when the pilot of his plane was ill, and the crew had to wait for his recovery to report to the ship. He went on…