Charles Fort: A Fortean Chronology, 1911.

"In the New York Herald, 26th November 1911, there is an account of the hanging of three men, for the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, on Greenberry Hill, London. The names of the murderers were Green, Berry and Hill." - Wild Talents, Charles Fort.

January

  • January 1: Northern Territory is politically separated from South Australia and transferred to Commonwealth control.
  • January 3: In London, in what becomes known as the Siege of Sidney Street, the Metropolitan Police and the Scots Guards engage in a shootout with a criminal gang of Latvian anarchists held up in a building in the East End.
  • January 18: Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, marking the first time an aircraft lands on a ship.
  • January 20: Black rain fell upon Switzerland.
  • January 21: The first Monte Carlo races (Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo) are held.
  • January 22: A carbonaceous substance fell at Rajpunta, India.
  • January 26: Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane.
  • January 30: The destroyer USS Terry makes the first airplane rescue at sea, saving the life of John McCurdy 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.

 

February

  • February 18: The first official air mail flight takes place from Allahabad, India to Naini, India, when Henri Pequet carries 6,500 letters a distance of 13 km.
March
  • March 7: A gret and ominous blackness descends upon Louisville, Ky., for about an hour and a half. (Books233)
  • March 8: International Women's Day is celebrated for the first time.
  • March 24: Denmark abolishes the death penalty and flogging.
  • March 25: A fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City kills 146.

 

April

  • April 6: Dedë Gjon Luli Dedvukaj, leader of the Malësori Albanians, raises the Albanian flag in the town of Tuzi, Montenegro, for the first time after Gjergj Kastrioti (Skenderbeg).
  • April 13: Mexican Revolution, Rebels take Agua Prieta on the Sonora–Arizona border; government troops take the town back April 17 when the rebel leader "Red" López is drunk.
  • April 19: Mexican Revolution, Francisco I. Madero's troops besiege Ciudad Juárez but general Juan J. Navarro refuses his demand of surrender.
  • April 24: A soldier, garrisoned at Colchester, England, is unaccountably struck senseless. the following night a second soldier was taken to hospital having been "struck senseless by an unseen assailant." Four nights later a third soldier is taken to hospital suffering from a blow about which he could tell nothing. (Books859) 
  • April 30: Sparks from a burning hayshed ignite the Great Fire of 1911, destroying much of downtown Bangor, Maine.

 

May

  • May 1: Unaccountable explosions are heard and fires break out at the house of Mr J.A. Harvey, 356 York Road, Wandsworth, London. (Books943)
  • May 8: Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa launches an attack against government troops in Ciudad Juarez without Madero's permission. Government troops surrender May 10.
  • May 11: A Futurist exhibition in Milan is the first of efforts by the group to make its theories concrete.
  • May 15: The United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be dissolved.
  • May 17: Mexican Revolution: Porfirio Diaz is convinced to resign but does not do so officially.
  • May 21: Mexican Revolution, A peace treaty is signed between the rebels of Madero and government troops in Ciudad Juarez.
  • May 23: The New York Public Library is officially dedicated.
  • May 24: Mexican Revolution, Government troops fire at anti-Diaz demonstrators in Mexico City, killing about 200 (officials claim only 40).
  • May 25: Mexican Revolution, Porfirio Diaz signs his resignation and leaves for Veracruz; on May 31 he leaves for exile in France.
  • May 30: The first Indianapolis 500-mile auto race is run. The winner is Ray Harroun in the Marmon 'Wasp'.
  • May 31: The hull of the White Star Line's new flagship, Titanic, is launched at Harland and Wolff Shipyards in Belfast.

 

June

  • June 7: Mexican Revolution, Francisco Madero arrives in Mexico City just after a local earthquake.
  • June 14: The RMS Olympic, sister to the RMS Titanic, begins her maiden voyage at Southampton, England.
  • June 16: A 772-gram stony meteorite strikes earth in Columbia County, Wisconsin near the village of Kilbourn, damaging a barn.
  • June 22: George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck are crowned at Westminster Abbey, London.
  • June 24: At Eaton, Bucks, England, the ground was found covered with masses of jelly, the size of peas, after a heavy rainfall.
  • June 28: The Nakhla meteorite (from Mars) lands in the area of Alexandria, Egypt, purportedly killing a dog.

 

July

  • July 1: The presence of the German warship Panther in the Moroccan port of Agadir triggers the Agadir Crisis, escalating pre-WW1 tensions; a subsequent climbdown rallies German militancy.
  • July 21: Denise Moore (aka Jane Wright) becomes the first woman & woman pilot to be killed in an airplane crash at Etampes France
  • July 24: Hiram Bingham rediscovers Machu Picchu.

 

August

  • August 9: Raunds, Northamptonshire records a temperature of 98°F (36.7°C), the highest UK temperature until 1990.
  • August 22: The theft of the Mona Lisa is discovered in the Louvre (Vincenzo Peruggia is captured and the painting returned in 1913).

 

September

  • September 7: French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested and put in jail on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum. He is later released.
  • September 20: The liner RMS Olympic, sister ship to the RMS Titanic, collides with the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hawke outside Southampton, England.
  • September 25: The French Navy ship Liberté explodes at anchor in Toulon.
  • September 29: Italy declares war on Turkey.
  • September 30: A concrete dam owned by the Bayless Pulp & Paper Mill breaks, wiping out the town of Austin, Pennsylvania and continuing downstream about 8 miles into the village of Costello.

 

October

  • The first Solvay Congress of physicists convenes.
  • October 10: The Wuchang Uprising starts the Xinhai Revolution that leads to the founding of the Republic of China.
  • October 16: Mexican Revolution, Felix Diaz, nephew of Porfirio Diaz, occupies the port of Veracruz as a sign of rebellion against Madero.
  • October 18: Revolutionaries under Sun Yat-sen overthrow China's Manchu dynasty.
  • October 24: Orville Wright remains in the air 9 minutes and 45 seconds in a glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, setting a new world record that stands for 10 years.

 

November

  • November 4: The MS Selandia (the first ocean going diesel ship) is launched in Denmark.
  • November 5: Italy annexes Tripoli and Cyrenaica (this act is confirmed by an act of the Italian Parliament on February 25, 1912).
  • November 11: Large hailstones are noted falling at the University of Missouri: they exploded like pistol shots. (Books285)
  • November 11: A record cold snap hits the United States Midwest; many cities break record highs and lows on the same day (The 11/11/11 cold wave.
  • November 11: A big fire strikes Visoko, Bosnia, burning over 450 houses and other objects. The upper city area is completely burned, as well as all the houses down the main street alongside Beledija.
  • November 16: An earthquake strikes Swab, South Germany. Flashes and other luminous appearances occur in the sky seconds before the earthquake. (Books505)
  • November 30: Construction begins on the White Star Liner SS Gigantic at the Harland and Wolff Shipyards in Belfast. She will eventually be renamed HMHS Britannic.

 

December

  • December 11: George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck are crowned as Emperor of India and Empress consort, respectively, in New Delhi.
  • December 12: The capital of India is shifted to New Delhi from Calcutta.
  • December 14: Roald Amundsen's expedition reaches the South Pole.
  • December 21: The Bonnot Gang carries out their first robbery in Paris, France.
  • December 29: Sun Yat-sen becomes the first President of the Republic of China.