December 11 in history: Actor Dilip Kumar was born in Peshawar in 1922

Bengaluru, Dec 11: Today is Thursday, December 11, 2014. What happened on this day in history? Oneindia takes a look at the past:

1843: Famous French scientist Robert Koch was born in Germany.

1845: The first Angli-Sikh war begins. In 1849, Punjab lost its independence.

1861: Raging fire breaks out in the business district of Charleston in South Carolina in the USA.

1872: Modern Assamese poet Rajkhova Benudhar was born.

1882: The first theatre performance lit by incandescent electric lights held in Boston's Bijou Theatre.

1884: Nitrous oxide used for the first time in dentistry.

1913: Leonardo da Vinci's famous portrait Mona Lisa, which was stolen from the Louvre Museum in 1911, recovered.

1922: Yusuf Khan, popularly known as Dilip Kumar, was born in Peshawar in modern-day Pakistan.

1927: Nearly 400 world leaders sign a letter to US President Calvin Coolidge asking his country to join the World Court.

1930: The Bank of the United States closes its doors during the deepening economic crisis.

1935: President Pranab Mukherjee was born in West Bengal's Mirati village.

1936: Duke of Windsor Edward VIII abdicates the throne to marry American socialite Wallis Warfield Simpson.

1941: The United States declares war on Italy and Germany.

1945: A Boeing B-29 Superfortress crosses the United States in five hours and 27 minutes.

1946: UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) was established.

1951: Noted US baseball player Joe DiMaggio retired.

1958: Wilson Jones became India's first individual world champion by winning the Amateur Billiards Championship.

1967: The Concorde, the world's first supersonic airliner, is unveiled in Toulouse, France.

1972: Challenger, the lunar lander for Apollo 17, touches the moon's surface, the last time that men visit the moon.

1978: Massive demonstrations in Tehran against the Shah.

1981: Over 800 civilians killed in El Mozote massacre during the Salvadoran Civil War.

1990: TN Seshan appointed the Chief Election Commissioner.

1994: Russian troups invaded Chechnya in an unsuccessful attempt to restore Moscow's supremacy in the region.

1997: The Kyoto Protocol international treaty opens for signature.

1999: Gopalakrishna Gandhi, former High Commissioner to South Africa and governor of West Bengal was conferred the honorary doctorate by the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa.

2001: People's Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization.

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