Today in History - History - November 11th

1493Explorer Christopher Columbus discovers Saba

1725George Frederick Handel's opera "Tamerlano" premieres in London

2004The death of Yasser Arafat is confirmed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, of unidentified causes. Mahmoud Abbas is elected chairman of the PLO minutes later.

308The Congress of Carnuntum: Attempting to keep peace within the Roman Empire, the leaders of the Tetrarchy declare Maxentius and Licinius to be Augusti, while rival contender Constantine I is declared Caesar of Britain and Gaul.

1994Bill Gates buys Leonardo da Vinci's "Codex" for $30,800,000

1775Mohawk military leader Joseph Brant goes to London to solicit more support from the government and to persuade the Crown to address past Mohawk land grievances in exchange for their participation as allies in the impending war

1993Pope John Paul II hospitalized for 2 days for fractured shoulder

1930Patent number US1781541 was awarded to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd for their invention, the Einstein refrigerator.

1987Roger Clemens wins consecutive Cy Young Awards

1925Robert A. Millikan announces discovery of cosmic rays

1050Henry IV, Goslar, Kaiserpfalz, Holy Roman Emperor (1084—1105)

1962Demi Moore, [Guynes], Roswell NM, actress (Ghost, Striptease, GI Jane)

1974Leonardo DiCaprio, Los Angeles California, American actor (The Departed, Inception, The Wolf of Wall Street)

1885George S Patton, San Gabriel, California, US general (Sicily/Italy/Normandy) "Old Blood & Guts", (d. 1945)

1922Kurt Vonnegut Jr, Ind, author (Slaughterhouse Five, Sirens of Titan)

1821Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, Russia, novelist (Crime & Punishment), (d. 1881)

1980Novelist Norman Mailer (57) weds Norris Church (31) in Brooklyn, New York

1957Country singer June Carter Cash (28) weds former football player Edwin Nix

185820th US President James Garfield (26) weds Lucretia Rudolph (26) in Hiram, Ohio

1838Emma Wedgwood accepts Charles Darwin's marriage proposal (English Naturalist later author of Origin of the Species)

1971Swedish director and writer Ingmar Bergman (53) weds actress Ingrid von Rosen (41)

1944Blues musician B.B. King (19) marries his first wife Martha Denton

1880Ned Kelly, Australian outlaw and bushranger, executed at 25

2004Yasser Arafat, co-founder and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, revolutionary and nobel prize winner dies in Paris at 75