Did you know about Aaron Swartz
Aaron Hillel Swartz, also known as AaronSw, was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist.
Notable Deaths on January 11
January 11 has 133 recorded notable deaths across history, from 140 to 2026. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
2013 — Aaron Swartz
American programmer and activist (born 1986)
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Notable Deaths
133 source records
140 – 2026
Today in history
Major events on January 11
See what else happened on this day in history.
- 1964 Surgeon General of the United States Dr. Luther Terry, M.D., publishes the landmark report Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service saying that smoking may be hazardous to health, sparking national and worldwide anti-smoking efforts. Source
- 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei: Municipal health officials in Wuhan announce the first recorded death from COVID-19. Source
Did you know about Miep Gies
Miep Gies was Austrian by birth, but in 1920, at the age of eleven, she was taken in as a foster child by a Dutch family in Leiden to whom she became very attached.
Did you know about Francis Scott Key
The song with Key's lyrics became known as "The Star-Spangled Banner" and slowly gained in popularity as an unofficial anthem, finally achieving official status as the national anthem more than a century later in 1931.
Did you know about Fabrizio De André
Fabrizio Cristiano De André was an Italian singer-songwriter and the most-prominent cantautore of his time.
Did you know about Barbara Pym
After a period of rejection by publishers, her career was revived in 1977 when the critic Lord David Cecil and the poet Philip Larkin nominated her as the most underrated writer of the previous 75 years.
More major people who died on January 11
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
2010
Miep Gies
Austrian-Dutch humanitarian (born 1909)
Hermine "Miep" Gies was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family and four other Dutch Jews from the Nazis in an annex above Otto Frank's business premises during World War II. She was Austrian by birth, but in 1920, at the age of eleven, she was taken in as a foster child by a Dutch family in Leiden to whom she became very attached. Although she was only supposed to stay for six months, this stay was extended to one year because of frail health, after which Gies chose to remain with them, living the rest of her life in the Netherlands.
1843
Francis Scott Key
American lawyer, author, and songwriter (born 1779)
Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer, author, and poet from Frederick, Maryland, best known as the author of the poem "Defence of Fort M'Henry", which was set to a popular British tune and eventually became the American national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner". In 1814 Key observed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812. He was inspired upon seeing an American flag flying over the fort at dawn: his poem was published within a week with the suggested tune of the popular song "To Anacreon in Heaven". The song with Key's lyrics became known as "The Star-Spangled Banner" and slowly gained in popularity as an unofficial anthem, finally achieving official status as the national anthem more than a century later in 1931.
1999
Fabrizio De André
Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1940)
Fabrizio Cristiano De André was an Italian singer-songwriter and the most-prominent cantautore of his time. He is also known as Faber, a nickname given by the friend Paolo Villaggio, as a reference to his liking towards Faber-Castell's pastels and pencils, aside from the assonance with his own name, and also because he was known as il cantautore degli emarginati or il poeta degli sconfitti. His 40-year career reflects his interests in concept albums, literature, poetry, political protest, and French music. He is considered a prominent member of the Genoese School. He sang in both Italian and in other languages such as Genoese. Because of the success of his music in Italy and its impact on the Italian collective memory, many public places such as roads, squares, and schools in Italy are named after De André.
1980
Barbara Pym
English author (born 1913)
Barbara Mary Crampton Pym was an English novelist. In the 1950s, she published a series of social comedies, of which the best known are Excellent Women (1952) and A Glass of Blessings (1958). After a period of rejection by publishers, her career was revived in 1977 when the critic Lord David Cecil and the poet Philip Larkin nominated her as the most underrated writer of the previous 75 years. Her novel Quartet in Autumn (1977) was nominated for the Booker Prize that year, and she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
2013
Nguyễn Khánh
Vietnamese general and politician, 3rd President of South Vietnam (born 1927)
Nguyễn Khánh was a Vietnamese military officer and politician. A general of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, he was the leader of South Vietnam from January 1964 until February 1965 while at the head of a military junta, serving during that time in various capacities, alternatively as head of state and as prime minister. He was involved in or against many coup attempts, failed and successful, from 1960 until his defeat and exile from South Vietnam in 1965. Khánh lived out his later years with his family in exile in the United States. He died in 2013 in San Jose, California, at age 85.
2013
Tom Parry Jones
Welsh chemist, invented the breathalyzer (born 1935)
Thomas Parry Jones OBE was a Welsh scientist, inventor and entrepreneur, who was responsible for developing and marketing the first handheld electronic breathalyser, winning the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement in 1980 for the work. Born and raised on Anglesey, he attended Bangor University and went on to study for his doctorate at University of Alberta, Canada. Prior to his work on the breathalyser at Lion Laboratories, he was a lecturer at the Royal Military College of Science and the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology. He established the Dr Tom Parry Jones Endowment Fund at Bangor University in 2002. After selling Lion Laboratories in 2005, he set up PPM Technology and Welsh Dragon Aviation. A trust was set up in his, and his wife's, names. The Tom and Raj Jones Trust promotes work by young entrepreneurs.
1836
John Molson
Canadian businessman, founded the Molson Brewing Company (born 1763)
John Molson was an English-born brewer and entrepreneur in colonial Quebec, which during his lifetime became Lower Canada. In addition to founding Molson Brewery, he is known for building the first Canadian steamship and the first public Canadian railway. He was a president of the Bank of Montreal, and established a hospital, a hotel, and a theatre in Montreal. Molson was also the "leader" of the freemason's lodge of Montreal from 1826 to 1833. His business dynasty, much of which he passed along to and was expanded by his family, continues to remain influential in Canada.
1902
Johnny Briggs
English cricketer and rugby player (born 1862)
Johnny Briggs was an English left arm spin bowler who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club between 1879 and 1900 and remains the second-highest wicket-taker in the county's history after Brian Statham. In the early days of Test cricket, Briggs‘ batting was considered careless, although still very useful. He was the first bowler in Test cricket to take 100 wickets, and held the record of most wickets in Test cricket on two occasions, the first in 1895 and again from 1898 until 1904, when he was succeeded by Hugh Trumble. He toured Australia a record six times, a feat only equalled by Colin Cowdrey.
1947
Eva Tanguay
Canadian singer (born 1879)
Eva Tanguay was a Canadian and American singer and entertainer who billed herself as "the girl who made vaudeville famous". She was known as "The Queen of Vaudeville" during the height of her popularity from the early 1900s until the early 1920s. Tanguay also appeared in films, and was the first performer to achieve mass-media celebrity in Canada and the US, with publicists and newspapers covering her tours from coast-to-coast, out-earning the likes of contemporaries Enrico Caruso and Harry Houdini. She was later described by Edward Bernays, "the father of public relations", as "our first symbol of emergence from the Victorian age."
2014
Muhammad Habibur Rahman
Indian-Bangladeshi jurist and politician, Prime Minister of Bangladesh (born 1928)
Muhammad Habibur Rahman was a Bangladeshi jurist and statesman who served as Chief Justice of Bangladesh in 1995. He was chief adviser of the 1996 caretaker government that oversaw the June 1996 Bangladeshi general election. He was a faculty member at the Department of Law, University of Rajshahi and University of Dhaka. Besides being a language activist, an advocate of the Bengali language, he wrote extensively and published eight books on the subject. He played a significant role in implementing Bengali in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He wrote Jathashabdo (1974), the first thesaurus in the Bengali language.
1996
Roger Crozier
Canadian-American ice hockey player (born 1942)
Roger Allan Crozier was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He was a goaltender for fourteen seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals. During his career, Crozier was named to the NHL First All-Star Team once, was a Calder Memorial Trophy winner, and was the first player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy while playing for the losing team in the Stanley Cup Final. He was the last goaltender in the NHL to start all of his team's games in the regular season, in 1964–65.
887
Boso of Provence
Frankish nobleman
Boso of Provence was the first non-Carolingian pretender to the royal throne of West Francia in 879, who failed to achieve wider recognition, being accepted only in Lower Burgundy and Provence, where he ruled as king from 879 to 887. By 882, he had already lost much of his Burgundian domains, and had to retreat to his remaining possessions in Provence. By ancestry, he was a Frankish nobleman of the Bosonid family, who was related to the Carolingian dynasty and previously served as a count in several south-eastern counties of the West Frankish realm.
2015
Jenő Buzánszky
Hungarian footballer and coach (born 1925)
Jenő Buzánszky was a Hungarian football player and coach. He played as a right back for Hungary and during the 1950s he was a member of the legendary squad known as the Golden Team. Other members of the team included Ferenc Puskás, Zoltán Czibor, Sándor Kocsis, József Bozsik and Nándor Hidegkuti. He was the only member of the team not to play for either Honvéd or MTK Hungária FC. After 274 league games he retired as a player and became a coach. In 1996, he became a deputy chairman of the Hungarian Football Federation.
2018
Edgar Ray Killen
American murderer (born 1925)
Edgar Ray Killen was an American Ku Klux Klan organizer who planned and directed the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, three civil rights activists participating in the Freedom Summer of 1964. He was found guilty in state court of three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005, the forty-first anniversary of the crime, and sentenced to 60 years in prison. He appealed the verdict, but the sentence was upheld on April 12, 2007, by the Supreme Court of Mississippi. He died in prison on January 11, 2018, at age 93.
2007
Robert Anton Wilson
American psychologist, author, poet, and playwright (born 1932)
Robert Anton Wilson was an American writer, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson helped publicize Discordianism through his writings and interviews. In 1999 he described his work as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations, to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models or maps, and no one model elevated to the truth". Wilson's goal was "to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone but agnosticism about everything."
1554
Min Bin
king of Arakan (born 1493)
Min Bin was a king of Arakan, a former state in Myanmar (Burma), from 1531 to 1554, "whose reign witnessed the country's emergence as a major power". Aided by Portuguese mercenaries and their firearms, his powerful navy and army pushed the boundaries of the kingdom deep into Bengal, where coins bearing his name and styling him sultan were struck, and even interfered in the affairs of mainland Burma. He carried the esteemed title "Lord of the White Umbrella" (ထီးဖြူရှင်). He was additionally known as Zabuk Shah by the neighbouring Bengal.
2013
Mariangela Melato
Italian actress (born 1941)
Mariangela Caterina Melato, sometimes billed as Maria Angela Melato, was an Italian actress. She is most remembered for her roles in films of director Lina Wertmüller, including The Seduction of Mimi (1972), Love and Anarchy (1973), and Swept Away (1974). In cinema, she also appeared in films of Claude Chabrol, Elio Petri and Vittorio De Sica, and on stage in productions by Dario Fo, Luchino Visconti and Luca Ronconi. Her roles in English-language films include the 1980 science fiction film Flash Gordon, So Fine (1981) and Dancers (1987).
1954
Oscar Straus
Austrian composer (born 1870)
Oscar Nathan Straus was a Viennese composer of operettas, film scores, and songs. He also wrote about 500 cabaret songs, chamber music, and orchestral and choral works. His original name was actually Strauss, but for professional purposes he deliberately omitted the final 's'. He wished not to be associated with the musical Strauss family of Vienna. However, he did follow the advice of Johann Strauss II in 1898 about abandoning the prospective lure of writing waltzes for the more lucrative business of writing for the theatre.
1995
Theodor Wisch
German general (born 1907)
Theodor Peter Johann Wisch was a high-ranking member of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was a commander of the SS Division Leibstandarte (LSSAH) and a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. He assumed command of the LSSAH in April 1943. He was seriously wounded in combat on the Western Front by a naval artillery barrage in the Falaise Pocket on 20 August 1944, and replaced as division commander by SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke.