Reuters historical calendar - December 11

London, Dec 10 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on December 11 in history: 1901 - Italian Guglielmo Marconi sent the first transatlantic radio signal from Poldhu, in southwestern England, to St Johns, Newfoundland, in Canada.

1941 - Italy and Germany declared war on the United States; the US Congress declared war on both, as did Cuba, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala. Poland declared war on Japan.

1946 - The United Nations General Assembly created the UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to provide relief to children in war-torn countries.

1973 - West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and Czech Prime Minister Lubomir Strougal formally signed a treaty nullifying the 1938 Munich pact, which sanctioned Hitler's seizure of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.

1990 - Albania's ruling Communist Party authorised the formation of opposition political parties.

1993 - After 45 years of talks, a United Nations panel approved the creation of a new Commissioner for Human Rights to respond quickly to major human rights crises around the world.

1994 - Russia poured tanks and troops into Chechnya to end the rebel territory's three-year drive for independence.

1997 - The world's first treaty to reduce greenhouse gases was finally agreed after marathon talks in Kyoto, Japan.

2001 - China became a member of the World Trade Organisation.

REUTERS PB RK1015