#TodayInHistory – May 11

May 11 – Some important events on this day

330 👉🏼 Constantinople (Byzantium) becomes the capital of the Roman Empire
868 👉🏼 The Diamond Sutra, the world’s oldest surviving, dated, printed, book printed in Chinese and made into a scoll 💎
1189 👉🏼 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and 100,000 crusaders depart Regensburg for the Third Crusade
1751 👉🏼 Pennsylvania Hospital founded by Dr. Thomas Bond and Benjamin Franklin
1772 👉🏼 Amsterdam theater destroyed by fire, 18 killed 🎭
1812 👉🏼 Waltz introduced into English ballrooms. Some observers consider it disgusting and immoral.
1812 👉🏼 British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons, London. Ironically, descendants of both later elected to Parliament at the same time.
1891 👉🏼 The Otsu Scandal: While visiting Japan, Prince Nicholas (later Tsar Nicholas II) survives an assassination attempt
1924 👉🏼 Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie begin their first joint venture (later merge into Mercedes-Benz)

1960 👉🏼 Israeli soldiers capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires.
Toward the end of World War II, SS officer Adolf Eichmann said “I will leap into my grave laughing because the feeling that I have five million human beings on my conscience is for me a source of extraordinary satisfaction”.
He was one of the primary organizers of the Holocaust. Tasked by Reinhard Heydrich with managing the logistics of the Final Solution, Eichmann was a participant in the infamous Wannsee Conference where the decision exterminate the Jews was made; Eichmann and his staff were responsible for organizing the deportations to death camps.
After Germany’s defeat Eichmann fled to Argentina. One of the most wanted Nazis, the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad located him in 1960. After extensive surveillance, on 11 May 1960 a team of Mossad agents launched a successful and audacious operation to abduct him and fly him to Israel to stand trial.
During his trial, reporter Hannah Arendt coined the phrase “the banality of evil” to describe Eichmann, who appeared stiff and lackluster in comparison to the enormity of his crimes. Sentenced to death, Eichmann was executed by hanging on 1 June 1962.

1981 👉🏼 Reggae star Bob Marley dies at 36
1995 👉🏼 In New York City, more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
2000 👉🏼 India’s population officially reaches 1 billion – Astha Arora named India’s billionth baby 👶🏻