This Day in History - July 11th

1979: Skylab crashes into Australia

After breaking up in the atmosphere, the American space station Skylab comes crashing down on Australia and into the Indian Ocean five years after its last manned mission ended - no one was injured. Launched in 1973, Skylab was the world’s first successful space station, safely able to house three separate three-man crews for extended periods of time. Originally the spent third stage of a Saturn 5 moon rocket, the cylinder-shaped station was 118-feet tall, weighed 77 tons and carried an assortment of scientific equipment. The crews of Skylab spent more than 700 hours observing the sun and also provided important information about the biological effects of living in space for prolonged periods of time.

Also On This Day

2000

In South Africa the World Aids Conference announces trials for a new HIV vaccine which will begin in Britain.

1997

A Cubana de Aviacion plane, the national airline of Cuba, crashes into the Caribbean Sea off the south eastern coast of Cuba killing 44 people.

1995

The Bosnian Serb army forces Dutch peacekeepers to withdraw from the United Nations safe area of Srebrenica. The Serb army subsequently commits one of Europe’s worst genocides in Srebrenica killing in excess of 7000 Muslims.

1995

America and Vietnam establish full diplomatic relations.

1991

In Britain, Labour MP Terry Fields is sentenced to 60 days in prison for refusing to pay the Poll Tax.

1978

A truck carrying liquid gas crashes into a crowded campsite in San Carlos de la Rapita, Spain killing more than 200 people.

1977

In England, The Gay News and its editor Denis Lemon are found guilty of blasphemous libel after the secretary of the National Viewers and Listeners Association, Mary Whitehouse, pursued a private prosecution of the paper.

1975

China’s Terracotta Army uncovered near the ancient capital of Xian. More than 8,000 life sized warriors were buried around 206BC to guard the tomb of the first Chinese Emperor.

1945

The Second World War: The Soviet Union promises to hand power over to British and U.S. forces in West Berlin.

1921

Mongolia gains independence from China.

1914

Babe Ruth makes his Major League Baseball debut in America.

1889

The Mexican city of Tijuana is founded.

1804

In America Vice President Aaron Burr fatally shoots his long-time political antagonist Alexander Hamilton, who dies the next day.

1789

In France, Louis XVI, dismisses Jacques Necker as Finance Minister which eventually leads to the storming of the Bastille.

1656

Ann Austin and Mary Fisher, two Englishwomen, become the first Quakers to immigrate to the American colonies, arriving in a ship at Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.