This day in history

June 11, 2011

► Today is Saturday, June 11, the 162d day of 2011. There are 203 days left in the year.

► Today’s birthdays: Opera singer Rise Stevens is 98. Actor Gene Wilder is 78. Actor Chad Everett is 74. Comedian Johnny Brown is 74. International Motorsports Hall of Famer Jackie Stewart is 72. Singer Joey Dee is 71. Actress Adrienne Barbeau is 66. Rock musician Frank Beard (ZZ Top) is 62. Animal rights activist Ingrid Newkirk is 62. Rock singer Donnie Van Zant is 59. Actor Peter Bergman is 58. Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Montana is 55. Actor Hugh Laurie is 52. Singer Gioia Bruno (Expose) is 48. Rock musician Dan Lavery (Tonic) is 45. Country singer-songwriter Bruce Robison is 45. Actor Peter Dinklage is 42. Country musician Smilin’ Jay McDowell is 42. Rock musician Tai Anderson (Third Day) is 35. Actor Joshua Jackson is 33. Christian rock musician Ryan Shrout is 31. Actor Shia LaBeouf is 25.

► In 1509, England’s King Henry VIII married his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

► In 1770, Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia.

► In 1910, voters in Oklahoma chose Oklahoma City to be the state’s capital.

► In 1919, Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner.

► In 1985, Karen Ann Quinlan, the comatose patient whose case prompted a historic right-to-die court decision, died in New Jersey at 31.

► In 2001, Timothy McVeigh, 33, was executed by injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

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