1911

In France the Champagne Riots, in which growers disputed the precise limits of the Champagne region.
January 10 - Major Jimmie Erickson takes the first aerial photograph (over San Diego, California).
January 18 - Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, marking the first time an aircraft landed on a ship
January 21 - First Monte Carlo races
January 26 - Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane.
January 30 - The destroyer USS Terry makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of James McCurdy 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.
March 8 - International Women's Day is celebrated for the first time
March 24 - Denmark abolishes death penalty and flogging
March 29 - United States Army formally adopts the M1911 pistol as its standard sidearm, thus giving the gun its 1911 designation.
April 13 - Mexican revolution - Rebels take Aqua Prieta besides US border. Government troops take the town back April 17 when the rebel leader "Red" Lopez is drunk
May 30 - The first Indianapolis 500-mile auto race is run. The winner is Ray Harroun in the Marmon 'Wasp'.
June 15 - IBM incorporated as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in New York
June 16 - A 772 gram stony meteorite struck earth in Columbia County, Wisconsin near the village of Kilbourn damaging a barn.
June 28 - The Nakhla meteorite (from Mars) lands in the area of Alexandria, Egypt, purportedly killing a dog.
August 8 - Public Law 62-5 sets the number of representatives in the United States House of Representatives at 435. The law will take effect in 1913.
August 22 - Theft of Mona Lisa discovered in Louvre (Vincenzo Peruggia is captured and the painting returned 1913)
September 7 - French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested and put in jail on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum. He is later released.
September 20 - The liner RMS Olympic, sister ship to the RMS Titanic, collides with Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hawke outside Southampton, England.
September 25 - Groundbreaking for Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts begins.
November 3 - Chevrolet officially enters the automobile market to compete with the Ford Model T. ("See the USA, ....")
November 4 - Selandia launched in Denmark, the first ocean going diesel Ship.
November 11 - A record cold snap hits the United States midwest. Many cities break record highs and lows on same day. (see The 11/11/11 cold wave).

Births: Hank Greenberg, baseball player (d. 1986); Butterfly McQueen, American actress (d. 1995) ("I don't know nuthin' 'bout birthin' no babies!"); Ronald Reagan, United States President (d. 2004); Merle Oberon, British actress (d. 1979); Jean Harlow, American actress (d. 1937); L. Ron Hubbard, American author (d. 1986); Joseph Barbera, American cartoonist; Jack Ruby, American killer of Lee Harvey Oswald (d. 1967); Tennessee Williams, American playwright (d. 1983); Robert Johnson, American guitarist and singer (d. 1938); Phil Silvers, American actor and comedian (d. 1985); Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish actress (d. 1998; Hubert H. Humphrey, U.S. Vice President and Senator (d. 1978); Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993); Mitch Miller, American singer and television personality; Ginger Rogers, American actress (d. 1995); Hume Cronyn, Canadian actor (d. 2003); Lucille Ball, American actress (d. 1989); Jane Wyatt, American actress; Roy Rogers, American singer and actor (d. 1998);
David Merrick, American theater producer (d. 2000)

Deaths: Carrie Nation, American temperance activist (b. 1846); Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-born newspaper publisher and journalist (b. 1847)

Nobel prizes
• Physics - Wilhelm Wien
• Chemistry - Maria Sk?odowska-Curie
• Medicine - Allvar Gullstrand
• Literature - Count Maurice (Mooris) Polidore Marie Bernhard Maeterlinck
• Peace - Tobias Michael Carel Asser Alfred Hermann Fried