May 11
1858
Minnesota became the 32nd state in the United States.
1894
The Pullman Strike began.
1949
Siam changed its name to Thailand.
1960
Israeli agents captured Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.
1973
Charges against Daniel Ellsberg for his role in the Pentagon Papers case were dismissed.
1981
Reggae performer Bob Marley died of cancer in Miami at the age of 36.
1997
IBM’s supercomputer, Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov, the reigning world champion, in a six-game chess match (2 for blue, 1 for Kasparov, and 3 ties).
1998
India set off atomic blasts.
2003
91% of Lithuanian voters opted to join the European Union—the first former Soviet nation to do so.
Birthdays
Salvador Dali
1904–89, Spanish surrealist painter.
Irving Berlin
songwriter (1888)
Dame Margaret Rutherford
actress (1892)
Martha Graham
modern dancer, choreographer (1894)
Camilo José Cela
novelist and poet (1916)
Richard Feynman
physicist (1918)
Louis Farrakhan
religious leader (1933)
Natasha Richardson
actress (1963)