Unlocking the Past: Notable Events on February 11

55 Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman Emperorship, dies under mysterious circumstances in Rome. This clears the way for Nero to become Emperor.
1766 Stamp Act declared unconstitutional in Virginia
1768 Samuel Adams letter, circulates around American colonies, opposing Townshend Act taxes
1790 Society of Friends petitions Congress for abolition of slavery
1794 1st session of US Senate open to the public
1809 American inventor Robert Fulton patents the steamboat
1811 President Madison prohibits trade with Britain for 3rd time in 4 years
1812 Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signs a redistricting bill - first “gerrymander"
1852 First British public female toilet opens (Bedford Street, London)
1861 US House unanimously passes resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state
1895 Georgetown became part of Washington, D.C.
1903 US Congress adopts the Expedition Act, which authorizes the Attorney General to 'expedite' anti-trust cases through the courts, reflecting growing popular support for President Theodore Roosevelt's "trust busting" campaign
1918 US President Woodrow Wilson makes another speech before Congress and announces 'the Four Principles' - freedom of navigation, and end to secret diplomacy, and similar items - that supplement his Fourteen Points
1942 "Archie" comic book debuts
1943 US General Eisenhower selected to command the allied armies in Europe; British General Montgomery not best pleased
1945 Declaration of Liberated Europe signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin after the Yalta Conference
1953 President Eisenhower refuses clemency appeal for Rosenberg couple
1963 CIA Domestic Operations Division created
1964 Beatles 1st live appearance in US, at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C.
1970 Japan becomes 4th nation to put a satellite (Osumi) in orbit
1976 Clifford Alexander Jr confirmed as 1st African American US Secretary of Army
1988 Anthony Kennedy appointed to US Supreme Court
1990 Nelson Mandela is released after 27 years imprisonment in South Africa
1993 President Clinton selects Janet Reno to be first female US Attorney General
1999 Pluto moves further away from the sun than Neptune regaining its status as solar system's outermost planet, a title it will retain for 228 years
2013 Pope Benedict XVI announces his resignation from February 28, the first pope to resign since 1415
2016 Last of Oregon militia occupying Malheur wildlife refuge surrenders to authorities after 41 days
2019 Artificial Intelligence system meant to assist diagnosis in the future, pitted against physicians in test to diagnose 600,000 patients in results published in "Nature Medicine", A.I. wins
2020 Snow falls in Baghdad, Iraq, for only the second time in a century
2020 US Attorney General, William Barr recommends cutting suggested sentence of Roger Stone, prompting prosecutors to resign
2021 US President Joe Biden rescinds the national emergency order used by Donald Trump to fund the border wall with Mexico
2021 World's second oldest person, French nun Sister André, celebrates her 117th birthday after surviving COVID-19 in Toulon

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