July 11th Major News Events

1977 U.S.A. Rev Martin Luther King Jr.

1977 : The Medal of Freedom was awarded posthumously to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a White House ceremony and presented by President Jimmy Carter. The citation accompanying the medal was: "Martin Luther King, Jr., was the conscience of his generation. He gazed upon the great wall of segregation and saw that the power of love could bring it down. From the pain and exhaustion of his fight to fulfill the promises of our founding fathers for our humblest citizens, he wrung his eloquent statement of his dream for America. He made our nation stronger because he made it better. His dream sustains us yet." Signed, Jimmy Carter.

1978 Spain Truck Crash Kills 200

1978 : A truck carrying liquid gas crashes into a campsite, crowded with holiday makers, in San Carlos de la Rapita, Spain. The truck and liquid gas exploded killing more than 200 people.

1979 Skylab Debris Lands Over Australia

1979 : Parts of Skylab, the first US space station, after breaking up in the atmosphere showers burning debris over Australia and into the Indian Ocean.

1985 U.S.A. Coke Changes Formula

1985 : The Coca Cola company makes one of worst decisions in marketing history when it decides to change it's original formula and introduces "New Coke", this was a resounding flop and the public did not like the taste, after just a short period the old coke product was reintroduced as "Classic Coke."

1987 5 Billion People on Earth

1987 : Today for the first time in history the worlds population exceeds 5 billion when the UN Secretary General proclaimed the infant Matej Gasper born today as the 5 billionth person on Earth.

1987 Australia Bob Hawke

1987 : Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke and his Labour party won for a third term in office.

1998 France Three Tenors

1998 : The worlds most famous three tenors sing at the world cup open-air concert in Paris with a crowd of 100,000 people gathered around the Eiffel Tower. This is the third time the three tenors (Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti) have performed at World Cups (Italy in 1990 and America in 1994) and their concert was watched by an estimated two billion people in 75 countries around the world.

2005 U.S.A. Hurricane Dennis

2005 : Hurricane Dennis the first major hurricane of the season strikes the northern Florida coast near Pensacola Beach, Florida with a storm surge of 15 ft and cuts power for over 1/ million in Florida and Alabama. Following the storms path Florida, Mississippi and Alabama have been declared disaster zones. The hurricane struck Cuba, Dominican Republic and Haiti earlier in week leaving 21 dead and massive damage in it's path.

2007 Hong Kong Democratic Form of Government

2007 : Hong Kong’s government revealed multiple proposals for the formation of a Democratic form of government in the Chinese territory. When Britain returned the city to China after ruling over it for 150 years, an agreement was made between the two countries stating that Hong Kong was eventually supposed to be made into a democracy.

2008 U.S.A. Oil Hits All Time High

2008 : Oil hits an all time high of $147 a barrel following further missile testing by Iran in the Middle East and concerns over oil supplies should tensions increase further between Iran and Israel over Iran's Nuclear program.

2008 U.S.A. David Petraeus

2008 : United States General David Petraeus was confirmed by the United States Senate as the head of United States military operations in the Middle East. General Petraeus was formerly in charge of operations in Iraq.

2012 Presidential Candidate Romney Booed at NAACP

2012 : Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was booed over comments he made while giving a speech to the NAACP, a US civil rights group. The comments that prompted the audience to boo the candidate were when he vowed to kill the Obama healthcare changes and after he stated that he would be a better president for African Americans.

2013 Burma 23 Jailed for Violence

2013 : Twenty-three people were sentenced to jail for their involvement in Muslim-Buddhist violence that took place in Burma. Forty people were killed in the violence and twelve mosques were damaged.