11 April in history
8 events that happened on 11 April, from 491 to 1970.
✦ Anniversary of the day
491 CE 1,535 years ago
Anastasius I Dicorus becomes Eastern Roman emperor
Anastasius I Dicorus, a career civil servant aged 61, became Eastern Roman emperor after being chosen by Ariadne, the widow of his predecessor Zeno. His reforms of coinage and taxation left a large surplus in the treasury.
1512 CE 514 years ago
French and Ferrarese forces win the Battle of Ravenna
In the War of the League of Cambrai, French and Ferrarese forces under Gaston de Foix and Alfonso I d'Este defeated a Spanish-Papal army under Ramón de Cardona, Viceroy of Naples. Gaston de Foix, aged 22, was killed during the pursuit.
1689 CE 337 years ago
William III and Mary II are crowned joint monarchs
William and Mary were crowned together in Westminster Abbey after accepting the Declaration of Rights. The settlement confirmed the Glorious Revolution and the limits Parliament had placed on the Crown.
1814 CE 212 years ago
Treaty of Fontainebleau sends Napoleon to Elba
The allied powers signed the treaty confirming Napoleon's abdication and granting him the island of Elba as a sovereign principality. He escaped less than a year later for the Hundred Days.
1945 CE 81 years ago
US troops reach Buchenwald concentration camp
American soldiers arrived at Buchenwald near Weimar, where prisoners had already taken control of the camp. Some 56,000 people had died there; Eisenhower later had local Germans brought to see it.
1961 CE 65 years ago
Adolf Eichmann's trial opens in Jerusalem
Adolf Eichmann, a principal organiser of the deportation of Europe's Jews, went on trial in Jerusalem. Survivor testimony broadcast worldwide shaped public understanding of the Holocaust; he was hanged in 1962.
Born on 11 April 1
Died on 11 April 5
Dates as the sources give them: in the Julian calendar before 1582, and in some countries for longer (Britain until 1752, Russia until 1918). Only people whose day of birth or death the records agree on are listed.