October 11 is the 284th day of the year (285th in Leap years). There are 81 days remaining.
1614 - Adriaen Block and 12 Amsterdam merchants petition the States General for exclusive trading rights in the New Netherland colony.
1776 - American Revolution: Battle of Valcour Island - On Lake Champlain 15 American gunboats are defeated but give Patriot forces enough time to prepare defenses of New York City.
1809 - Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand.
1811 - Inventor John Stevens' boat, the Juliana, begins operation as the first steam-powered ferry (service between New York, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey).
1862 - American Civil War: In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart and his men loot Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a raid into the north.
1890 - In Washington, DC, the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.
1899 - Boer War begins: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupts.
1906 - San Francisco public school board sparks United States diplomatic crisis with Japan by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.
1929 - JC Penney open Store #1252 in Milford, Delaware, making it a nationwide company with stores in all 48 states.
1939 - Manhattan Project: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt is presented with a letter signed by Albert Einstein urging the United States to rapidly develop an atomic bomb program.
1942 - World War II: Battle of Cape Esperance - On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.
1950 - The Federal Communications Commission issues the first license to broadcast television in color, to CBS (RCA will successfully dispute and block the license from taking effect, however).
1954 - Vietnam War: The Viet Minh take control of North Vietnam.
1962 - Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.
1968 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.
1975 - Saturday Night Live debuts with George Carlin as the guest host.
1984 - Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American women to perform a space walk.
1986 - Cold War: US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjav�k, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.
1987 - March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights attracts between 500,000 and 600,000 people to protest the Bowers v. Hardwick decision and the U.S. government's handling of the AIDS epidemic; first public display of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
1999 - The Lord Of The Rings movie begins principal photography.
2001 - USA PATRIOT Act, passes the U.S. Senate.
2002 - Bomb attack in a shopping mall in Vantaa, Finland. See Myyrmanni bombing.
1919 - Jean Vander Pyl, (d. 1999) voice of Wilma Flintstone in The Flintstones cartoon.
1942 - Amitabh Bachchan, Actor, Singer, Producer, UNICEF Ambassador.
1977 - Ty Wigginton, Baseball player; Claudia Palacios, Colombian journalist and newsreader.
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