Saturday 11th of December 1475

217th Pope Leo X is born as Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici in Firenze, Toscana, Italy.

Wednesday 11th of December 1782

Mass murderer William Beadle commits suicide by a shot through the head at the age of 52 in Wethersfield, Connecticut, United States.

Earlier that day Beadle slit the throats of his 32-year-old wife Lydia and his children, 11-year-old Ansel Lothrop, 10-year-old Elizabeth, 8-year-old Lydia and 6-year-old Mary.

Sunday 11th of December 1803

Romantic composer Hector Berlioz is born in La Côte-Saint-André, Rhône-Alpes, France.

Monday 11th of December 1843

Bacteriologist Robert Heinrich Herman Koch is born in Clausthal, Niedersachsen, Germany.

Saturday 11th of December 1880

Weapon designer Oliver Fisher Winchester known for the Winchester repeating rifle dies of unknown causes at the age of 70 in New Haven, Connecticut, United States.

Wednesday 11th of December 1912

Film director Carlo Ponti is born in Magenta, Lombardia, Italy.

Thursday 11th of December 1913

Actor Jean Marais is born as Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais in Cherbourg, Normandie, France.

Monday 11th of December 1916

Bandleader and composer Pérez Dámaso Prado aka King of the Mambo is born in Matanzas, Matanzas, Cuba.

Wednesday 11th of December 1918

Writer Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn is born in Kislovodsk, Stavropolsky Kray, Russia.

Thursday 11th of December 1919

War leader Abdel Hakim Mohamed Amer is born in Astal, Minya Governorate, Egypt.

Saturday 11th of December 1920

During a performance of 'L'elisir d'amore' by Donizetti, 47-year-old Tenor Enrico Caruso suffers a throat haemorrhage and starts bleeding heavily from the mouth in Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, Brooklyn, New York, United States.

Caruso's performance was canceled at the end of Act 1.

Friday 11th of December 1936

Serial killer Joseph Kallinger aka The Shoemaker is born as Joseph Lee Brenner III in Northern Liberties Hospital, 802-10 N. 7th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Kallinger was born illigimate to 21-year-old Judith Renner. In December 1937 Kallinger was placed in a foster home after his father had abandoned his mother. On 15 October 1939 he was adopted by Stephen and Anna Kallinger.

Tuesday 11th of December 1951

Murderer Herbert Leonard Mills is executed by hanging by Albert Pierrepoint at the age of 19 in Lincoln Prison, Greetwell Road, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom.

Thursday 11th of December 1952

Victim of Gustaaf Van Eyken aka De Vampier van Muizen Lutgarde Van Der Wilt is born in Bonheiden, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Sunday 11th of December 1960

73-year-old Postal worker and would-be assassin Richard Paul Pavlick plans to blow op President John F. Kennedy in St. Edward Church, 144 North County Road, Palm Beach, Florida, United States.

As Kennedy was preparing to leave for mass Pavlick waited in his dynamite-laden car hoping to detonate his 1950 Buick to cause a fatal explosion. However Pavlick changed his mind after seeing Jacqueline Kennedy and the couple's two small children.

Friday 11th of December 1964

Singer-songwriter Sam Cooke is presumably shot dead by Bertha Franklin at the age of 33 in Hacienda Motel, 9137 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, California, United States.

Cooke supposedly broke into manager Franklin's apartment wearing nothing but a shoe and a raincoat. Singer Etta James told that apart from being shot, Cooke had been so badly beaten that his head was nearly separated from his shoulders, his hands were broken and crushed, and his nose mangled.

Saturday 11th of December 1965

12 Die in an arsoned fire by 25-year-old Arsonist and mass murderer Robert Lee Lassiter in Seeley Club, 2026 West Madison Street, Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Lassiter poured two gallons of gasoline into the doorway and left a trail onto the sidewalk. Not having a match he asked one from a passerby to light his cigarette. Instead Lassiter dropped the match into the gasoline.

Wednesday 11th of December 1968

30-year-old Wiener Aktionist Hermann Nitsch performs his 29. Aktion für das Westdeutsche Fernsehen in the studio of Otto Dresler in Moosach, Bayern, Germany.

Nitsch' 29. Aktion für das Westdeutsche Fernsehen lasted five hours.

Friday 11th of December 1970

45-year-old Wiener Aktionist Otto Muehl performs 'Aktion mit Hammel' in Pädagogische Hochschule, Lange Reihe 81, Bremen, Freie Hansestadt Bremen, Germany.

Friday 11th of December 1970

Members of Radical left organisation the Weather Underground 20-year-old Vivian Bogart and 19-year-old Patricia McLean are arrested after throwing an incendiary bomb in Royal National Bank of New York, Fifth Avenue and 28th Street, New York City, New York, United States.

Wednesday 11th of December 1974

53-year-old Arthur Dahlstedt is stabbed to death by serial killer Vaughn Greenwood aka The Skid Row Slasher in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Thursday 11th of December 1975

39-year-old Multiple murderer Donald Neilson aka The Black Panther is arrested and beaten up by members of the public in Rainworth, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom.

Saturday 11th of December 1976

17-year-old Gregory Godzik is strangled by serial killer John Wayne Gacy aka The Killer Clown in 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States.

Monday 11th of December 1978

15-year-old Robert Jerome Piest is murdered by serial killer John Wayne Gacy aka The Killer Clown in 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States.

Tuesday 11th of December 1979

Gangster Yvan Somville is shot dead in a police-fusillade at the age of 27 in Jacques Sermonlaan, Brussel, Koekelberg, Brabant, Belgium.

Thursday 11th of December 1980

58-year-old Madeleine Humbert is shot in the head by serial killer Nestor Pirotte aka Le Tueur Fou in La Vieille France, Route du Lac, Spa, Liège, Belgium.

Two more guests 39-year-old André Gressani and Alain Demeuse, and Humbert's dog are also found shot in the head.

Saturday 11th of December 1982

Noise music band Club Moral play their 21st concert in Midgard, Kuiperspoort 12, Middelburg, Zeeland, Netherlands.

Saturday 11th of December 1982

10-year-old Olga Stalmachenok is stabbed to death by serial killer Andrei Chikatilo aka The Rostov Ripper in Novoshakhtinsk, Rostov Oblast, Russia.

Stalmachenok was lured off a bus while riding home from her piano lessons.

Wednesday 11th of December 1985

38-year-old Hugh Scrutton is killed in a bomb blast by mathematician and serial bomber Theodore Kaczynski aka The Unabomber in Rentech Computer Store, Sacramento, California, United States.

Scrutton left his computer rental store for lunch when he stopped to pick up what he may have thought to be litter. It was Kaczynski's pipe bomb #11 concealed in a wooden box.

Sunday 11th of December 1994

Murderer Raymond Carl Kinnamon is executed by lethal injection at the age of 53 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

It was 10 years to the day since Kinnamon had shot a man in the back during the robbery of a Houston bar.

Monday 11th of December 1995

Murderer Esequel Banda is executed by lethal injection at the age of 32 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Banda said that he had sold his soul to the Devil and that the Devil had told him to kill six people. Banda's sister testified that on the night of the killing he confessed to stabbing 74-year-old Merle Laird 20 or 30 times and then drinking some blood from her mouth.

Friday 11th of December 1998

101 die in Thai Airways International Airbus A310-300 Flight 261 crash in Surat Thani Airport, Surat Thani, Surat Thani, Thailand.

45 people survived.

Saturday 11th of December 1999

A large worm caught under the house of an artist. Usually they pour whisky over it in a jar, let the worm die in it and rest for 24 hours. Then you drink it to become a strong man in Taling Chan, Central Thailand, Thailand.

Wednesday 11th of December 2002

Double murderer James Paul Collier is executed by lethal injection at the age of 55 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Collier's last meal request was for 30 jumbo shrimp with cocktail sauce, a baked potato, French fries, a T-bone steak, a chocolate malt, one gallon of vanilla ice cream and three cans of Big Red. He was given fried fish, chicken fried steak, baked potato and ice cream. Collier's last words were "The only thing I want to say is that I appreciate the hospitality you guys have shown me and the respect. And the last meal was really good. That is about it."

Tuesday 11th of December 2007

58-year-old Serial killer Robert William 'Willie' Pickton aka The Pig Farmer Killer is sentenced to life with no possibility of parole for 25 years in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.

Thursday 11th of December 2008

Pin-up model Bettie Mae Page aka The Queen of Pinups dies of a heart attack at the age of 85 in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Page was taken to hospital on 6 December and also suffered from pneumonia. Her family eventually agreed to discontinue life support.

Sunday 11th of December 2022

Composer Angelo Daniel Badalamenti known for the Twin Peaks soundtracks dies of natural causes at the age of 85 in Lincoln Park, New Jersey, United States.