Today in History: May 11

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330 – Byzantium is renamed Nova Roma during a dedication ceremony, but it is more popularly referred to as Constantinople. 868 – A copy of the Diamond Sutra is printed in China, making it the oldest known dated printed book. 912 – Alexander becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1310 – Philip IV of France has fifty-four members of the Knights Templar burned at the stake, ostensibly for heresy. 1502 – Christopher Columbus departs Cádiz on his fourth and final voyage to the Americas. 1647 – Peter Stuyvesant arrives in New Amsterdam to replace Willem Kieft as Director-General of New Netherland, the Dutch colonial settlement in present-day New York City. 1672 – Franco-Dutch War: Louis XIV of France invades the Dutch Republic. 1745 – War of the Austrian Succession: French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch–Hanoverian army. 1792 – Robert Gray commands the first expedition to sail into the Columbia River. 1812 – Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the British House of Commons. 1813 – William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth discover a route across the Blue Mountains, opening up inland Australia to settlement. 1833 – The Lady of the Lake strikes an iceberg and sinks with the loss of up to 265 passengers and crew. 1846 – President James K. Polk asked for a Declaration of War against Mexico, starting the Mexican–American War. It is approved on May 13. 1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British. 1858 – Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. State. 1862 – American Civil War: The ironclad CSS Virginia is scuttled in the James River. 1867 – Luxembourg gains its independence. 1880 – Seven people are killed in the Mussel Slough Tragedy, a gun battle in California. 1889 – An attack upon a U.S. Army paymaster and escort results in the theft of over $28,000 and the award of two Medals of Honor. 1891 – Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Imperial Russia (later Nicholas II) suffers a critical head injury in an sword attack by a Japanese policeman. He is rescued by Prince George of Greece and Denmark. 1894 – Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike. 1910 – An act of the U.S. Congress establishes Glacier National Park in Montana. 1918 – The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus is officially established. 1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded. 1942 – William Faulkner's collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, is published. 1943 – World War II: American troops invade Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces. 1944 – World War II: The Allies begin a major offensive against the Axis powers on the Gustav Line. 1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Okinawa, the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill is hit by two kamikazes, killing 346 of its crew. Although badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under its own power. 1949 – Siam officially changes its name to Thailand for the second time. The name had been in use since 1939 but was reverted in 1945. 1953 – The 1953 Waco tornado outbreak kills 114. 1960 – In Buenos Aires, Argentina, four Israeli Mossad agents capture fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann who is living under the alias of Ricardo Klement. 1963 – Racist bombings in Birmingham, Alabama disrupt nonviolence in the Birmingham campaign and precipitate a crisis involving federal troops. 1970 – The 1970 Lubbock tornado kills 26 and causes $250 million in damage. 1972 – The United States performs a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site, which was part of Operation Grommet. 1973 – Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg's charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times are dismissed. 1985 – Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in the Bradford City stadium fire. 1987 – Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II. 1995 – More than 170 countries extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions. 1996 – After the aircraft's departure from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled chemical oxygen generators in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board. 1996 – The 1996 Mount Everest disaster kills eight people. 1997 – Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format. 1998 – India conducts three underground atomic tests in Pokhran. 2000 – Second Chechen War: Chechen separatists ambush Russian paramilitary forces in the Republic of Ingushetia. 2011 – An Earthquake of magnitude 5.1 hits Spain. 2013 – Fifty-two people are killed in a bombing in Reyhanlı, Turkey. 2014 – Fifteen people are killed and 46 injured in Kinshasa in a stampede caused by tear gas being thrown into soccer stands by police officers attempting to defuse a hostile incident. 2016 – More than 110 people are killed in an ISIL bombing in Baghdad.