Today in History: Amelia Earhart made the first transpacific solo airplane flight by a woman

Following are some of the major events to have occurred on January 11:

1928 – The English writer and poet Thomas Hardy, noted for his novels “The Mayor of Casterbridge” and “Tess of the d’Urbervilles”, died.

1935 – The American aviator Amelia Earhart made the first transpacific solo airplane flight by a woman.

1976 – A three-man military junta seized power from President Guillermo Rodriguez Lara in Ecuador.

1987 – Children set world record for Kung Fu exercises.

2003 – The governor of Illinois commuted the sentences of all the state’s 150 inmates on death row, re-igniting the national debate about capital punishment.

2004 – Mark Tuitert sets new world record in speed skating.

2007 – Tower of London appoints first female Yeoman.

2008 – The New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary, who along with Nepal’s Tenzing Norgay Sherpa became the first to conquer the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, died aged 88.

2008 – World’s first commercial air service from Hobart to Antarctica.

2009 – An Indonesian ferry carrying 250 passengers from Pare-Pare on the west coast of Sulawesi to the city of Samarinda capsized and sank in a storm after being hit by a large wave.

2015 – Hundreds of thousands of French citizens march in unprecedented tribute to victims of Paris attacks.

(Reuters)