What also happened on the 11th of December: 11 Dec, 1946 - U.S.A. -- UNICEF Established The United Nations General Assembly establishes (UNICEF) United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II. 11 Dec, 1936 - Great Britain -- King Edward VIII Abdicates 1936 : Britain's King Edward VIII abdicates the throne in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson, Edward had expressed his desire to marry his mistress, Mrs. Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American socialite but the the marriage was opposed by the government on religious, legal, political, and moral grounds. 11 Dec, 1913 - Canada -- To Much Cheese In Moose Jaw W.S. Fiddler, who was moving some theatre equipment, died as a result of his excessive overindulgence in cheese. He fell down dead in from of the Majestic Theatre at the age of 50. Doctors claimed that acute indigestion from eating excessive amounts of cheese led to heart failure. 11 Dec, 1923 - Mexico -- Rebels December 11th, 1923 : Rebels were fighting 28,000 of President Obregon's government troops in Vera Cruz and Jalisco. They captured 200 prisoners, many weapons, and horses. The fighting was very intense. 11 Dec, 1936 - U.S.A. -- American Jewish Congress The Olympic games were to be held in Berlin in 1936 and the American Jewish Congress protested the fact that Nazi Germany was not giving Jewish athletes equality with the other athletes. 11 Dec, 1941 - World War II -- War Declared ON America Hitler and Mussolini announce they are at war with America who retaliates with its own declaration of war . 11 Dec, 1944 - Canada -- Snow Storm The city of Toronto is battered with its worst-ever snowfall on a single day with 20 inches of snow falling and 21 people died as a result of the record storm . 11 Dec, 1945 - Germany -- General George S. Patton Jr News from Frankfurt Germany said that the famous tank General George S. Patton Jr. was suffering from a broken neck. A fracture of the third neck vertebrae was putting pressure on his spinal cord and the general became paralyzed. 11 Dec, 1950 - Korea -- US Troops December 11th, 1950 : Exhausted and frozen U.S. troops with shot up vehicles landed on the Hamhung shore in North Korea. The 20,000 American soldiers were engaged in a fifty mile long battle with Chinese communists. 11 Dec, 1961 - Vietnam -- First Direct US Military Involvement 1961 : A U.S. aircraft carrier carrying Army helicopters arrived in Saigon the first direct American military support for South Vietnam's battle against Communist guerrillas. 11 Dec, 1967 - Vietnam -- Viet Cong Forty-six American soldiers were wounded and seven were killed in three confrontations with the Viet Cong 50 miles north of Saigon. Packages of heroine were found on some of the Viet Cong soldiers. An army doctor speculated that it makes them intoxicated so that they don't fear getting injured or dying. 11 Dec, 1975 - Iceland -- Cod War An Icelandic gunboat opens fire on unarmed British fishery support vessels in the North Atlantic Sea, as part of the ongoing COD WAR caused when Iceland extended its control over fishing rights from 50 to 200 nautical miles from its coast . 11 Dec, 1979 - Cuba -- Castro Regime December 11th, 1979 : Huber Matos, a favoured lieutenant under Castro, came to despise his former leader. Matos was to spend 20 years in prison under inhuman conditions because he didn't't believe in what Castro was doing. Matos claimed that Castro became communist rather than trying democracy because under communism he could rule Cuba for a lifetime. 11 Dec, 1979 - Rhodesia -- Britain Gets Back Control The Rhodesian Parliament hands power back to Britain until democratic elections can take place. The country will be renamed Zimbabwe after the elections. 11 Dec, 1981 - El Salvador -- 900 killed in Massacre Salvadoran armed forces kill nearly 1000 civilians as part of an anti-guerrilla campaign in the village of El Mozote and surrounding areas in El Salvador. The news was suppressed for a month by the authorities but reporters from the New York Times and the Washington Post did visit and confirm the murders and exposed them in January 1982 11 Dec, 1985 - U.S.A. -- The Unabomber The Unabomber kills his first victim, Hugh Scrutton who is killed in his computer store in Sacramento, California, by a mail package that explodes in his hands. The Unabomber had detonated his first bomb in May 1978 on the Chicago campus of the University of Illinois 11 Dec, 1986 - Spain -- Pesticides Scientists have discovered that pesticides have poisoned 5,000-10,000 birds during the previous September in Spain.. The enormous numbers of deaths occurred in a rice growing region on the Atlantic seaboard in southern Spain.
