January 11

630 –Muhammad and his followers conquer the city of Mecca held by the  Quraysh clans.

1759 – The first American life insurance company, the Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Presbyterian Ministers and of the Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of the Presbyterian Ministers (now part of Unum Group), is incorporated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1805 – The Michigan Territory is created.

1861 – Alabama secedes from the United States.

1879 – After the rejection of an ultimatum sent a month earlier to Zulu king Cetshwayo, British High Commissioner Sir Bartle Frere orders Lord Chelmsford and his army to invade Zululand in Natal, South Africa.

1908 – The Grand Canyon National Monument is created.

1923 – Troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area to force Germany to make its World War I reparation payments.

1927 – Louis B. Mayer, head of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), announces the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, at a banquet in Los Angeles, California.

1935 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

1949 – The first “networked” television broadcasts take place as KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania goes on the air connecting the east coast and midwest programming.

1961 – The Throgs Neck Bridge over the East River, linking the New York City boroughs of The Bronx and Queens, opens.

1964 – Surgeon General of the United States Dr. Luther Terry, M.D., publishes a report saying that smoking may be hazardous to health.

1995 – Intercontinental de Aviación Flight 256, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, crashes during its approach to Cartagena Airport, killing all but 1 passenger, a 9 year old girl who only sustained minor injuries, of the 51 passengers and crew on board

1996 – Shuttle Endeavour is launched on mission STS-72 to retrieve the Japanese Space Flyer Unit orbital experiment satellite, launched in March of the previous year.

2003 – Due to the scandal of Chicago Police Detective Commander Jon Burge torturing criminal suspects, Illinois Governor George Ryan commutes the death sentences of 167 prisoners on Illinois’s death row.

2020 –Municipal health officials in Wuhan, China announce the first recorded death from COVID-19.