Timeline December 1911

Events in December 1911 12

• 1905 – 1911 The Partition of Bengal Divide and rule, stated plainly Lord Curzon splits Bengal into a Muslim-majority east and a Hindu-majority west, arguing administrative efficiency for a province of seventy-eight million. Indians read it as an attempt to break the most politically active population in the empire, and the Swadeshi movement — boycott of British goods, promotion of Indian ones — is the response. It is the moment Indian nationalism becomes a mass movement rather than a petitioning society. The partition is reversed in 1911. The line drawn returns in 1947.
• 1905 – 1911 The Persian Constitutional Revolution The first constitution in the Middle East Merchants, clerics and intellectuals take sanctuary in the British legation and in mosques until the Shah concedes an elected assembly. The Majlis meets in 1906 and a constitution is signed in December. The next Shah bombards the parliament building with Russian-officered artillery in 1908 and revolutionaries retake Tehran in 1909 and depose him. Britain and Russia, who had already carved Persia into spheres of influence in 1907, help finish the experiment off. It is the first constitutional revolution in Asia west of Japan and the direct ancestor of Iranian constitutional politics ever since.
• 1911 – 1976 Lee J. Cobb (1911-1976) American actor, the original Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman and the angry juror in 12 Angry Men.
• 1911 Lee J. Cobb born in New York Lee J. Cobb is born in New York.
• 1911 – 1986 Broderick Crawford (1911-1986) American actor, Oscar winner for All the King's Men and star of Highway Patrol.
• 1911 Broderick Crawford born in Philadelphia Broderick Crawford is born in Philadelphia.
• 1911 Marie Curie Wins Second Nobel Prize Chemistry prize honors the discovery of radium and polonium Marie Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on 10 December 1911 for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium and her work isolating radium. She remains the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. The award came amid a public scandal in the French press over her personal life.
• 1911 – 2006 Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006) Died 30 August 2006, aged 94 Naguib Mahfouz, the Egyptian novelist and Nobel laureate, died from complications after a fall in Cairo. He was the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded in 1988. His Cairo Trilogy remains a landmark of modern Arabic literature.
• 1911 Delhi Durbar of 1911 George V crowned Emperor of India in a grand imperial ceremony King George V and Queen Mary attended a lavish durbar in Delhi on 12 December 1911 to mark his succession as Emperor of India. The ceremony was attended by hundreds of Indian princes and dignitaries. George V announced during the event that India's capital would move from Calcutta to Delhi.
• 1911 National Insurance Act 1911 Britain establishes state health and unemployment insurance The British Parliament passed the National Insurance Act, receiving royal assent on 16 December 1911, creating the country's first system of compulsory health and unemployment insurance for workers. It was a cornerstone of David Lloyd George's Liberal welfare reforms. The act required contributions from workers, employers, and the state.
• 1911 – 2010 Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) Died 31 May 2010, aged 98 Bourgeois was a French-American artist known for her large-scale sculptures, including her iconic spider forms, exploring themes of family, memory, and the body. She continued producing major work into her nineties and became one of the most celebrated sculptors of the 20th century. She died of a heart attack in New York City.
• 1911 – 1988 Klaus Fuchs (1911-1988) Died 28 January 1988, aged 76 Klaus Fuchs was a German-born physicist who passed atomic bomb secrets from the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union during and after World War II. He was convicted of espionage in Britain in 1950 and served nine years in prison before moving to East Germany. His disclosures significantly accelerated the Soviet nuclear weapons program.