October 11 in History

The FCC licensed CBS's mechanical color television system for broadcast, making it the first approved color standard in the United States. Though the system was soon superseded by RCA's compatible electronic alternative, the license represented the critical regulatory step that launched the transition from black-and-white to color broadcasting.

The Jin and Song dynasties had been at war for fifteen years. The treaty signed in 1142 gave Jin control of all of northern China. The Song paid annual tribute of 250,000 taels of silver and 250,000 bolts of silk. The Song general who'd been winning the war — Yue Fei — was recalled to the capital and executed for treason. His crime was opposing the treaty. The border held for another century.

October 5 through 14, 1582 never happened in Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain. Pope Gregory XIII deleted ten days to fix the Julian calendar's drift from the solar year — a problem that'd been accumulating since Julius Caesar. Thursday, October 4 was followed immediately by Friday, October 15. People rioted, convinced the Pope had stolen their lives. Landlords still demanded full rent. Protestant countries refused the "Papist calendar" for centuries. Britain adopted it in 1752. Russia in 1918. Ten days gone, and nobody's gotten them back.

Adriaen Block petitioned for exclusive trading rights in New Netherland in 1614 after his ship, the Tyger, burned in New York Harbor and he spent the winter building a replacement from scratch. Block and his crew constructed the Onrust — the first ship built in New York — using local timber and salvaged hardware. While waiting for spring, Block explored Long Island Sound and the Connecticut River. His maps were so detailed that Dutch merchants used them for 50 years. He got his monopoly. It lasted three years before competition broke it.

The New Netherland Company secures exclusive Dutch trading rights from the States General, establishing a foothold that would soon birth New Amsterdam. This monopoly directly fueled the colony's rapid expansion and created conditions for decades of Anglo-Dutch rivalry over the Hudson River valley.

Oliver Cromwell's forces stormed Wexford after a ten-day siege. They'd offered terms: surrender and live. The town was negotiating when a English officer found an unguarded gate and rushed in. Cromwell's troops killed 2,000 Irish Confederate soldiers and 1,500 civilians in three hours. Cromwell called it "a righteous judgment of God." The sack of Wexford followed the massacre at Drogheda by three weeks. Ireland remembers both.

Benedict Arnold commanded 15 American gunboats at Valcour Island in 1776, facing a British fleet with twice the firepower. Arnold knew he'd lose. He fought anyway, for two days, to buy time for the Continental Army to fortify New York. He lost 11 boats and retreated with the survivors. The British won the battle but arrived at Fort Ticonderoga too late in the season to attack. They withdrew to Canada for winter. Arnold's defeat delayed the British invasion by a year. Losing slowly was the strategy.

The Battle of Valcour Island in 1776 was a strategic engagement during the American Radical War where an American fleet, despite being defeated by the Royal Navy, managed to delay British advances on Lake Champlain. This delay was crucial as it provided the Continental Army with valuable time to regroup and prepare for future confrontations.

Admiral Adam Duncan caught the Dutch fleet off Camperdown and smashed through their line in a storm. Sixteen British ships against fifteen Dutch. The British captured eleven Dutch ships and killed 1,100 sailors. Duncan lost one ship and 200 men. The Dutch had been trying to link up with the French and Spanish fleets to invade Ireland. After Camperdown, the Dutch navy never left port again. Britain controlled the North Sea for the next century.