On this Day in History: April 11

A closer look at key historic events that took place on April 11:

In 1979, Ugandan President Idi Amin is overthrown

Idi Amin was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin seized power in a military coup in January 1971, overthrowing the government of Milton Obote. His brutality earned him the nickname “Butcher of Uganda.” The number of people killed during his rule range from 100,000 to 500,000. He also engaged in military conflicts, including a failed invasion of Tanzania in 1978, which ultimately led to his downfall.

Undated file photo of Idi Amin, the former president of Uganda. EPA PHOTO/EPA FILES/THE JOHANNESBURG STAR BW ONLY

In 1961, the trial of Adolf Eichmann begins

Adolf Eichmann was a high-ranking Nazi official who was one of the main architects of the Holocaust. His trial started in Jerusalem, Israel, on April 11, 1961. Eichmann was responsible for organizing and implementing the deportation of Jews to extermination camps during World War II. On December 15 of that same year he was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to death by hanging, the only death sentence ever imposed by an Israeli court.

Adolf Eichmann stands in his glass cage, flanked by guards, in the Jerusalem courtroom where he was tried for war crimes during WWII. (1962) (AP-Photo)

In 1848, the March Laws are confirmed

The March Laws were a set of constitutional reforms implemented in the Kingdom of Hungary within the Austrian Empire in 1848. They aimed to establish a constitutional monarchy in Hungary, granting significant political and civil rights to its citizens and limiting the power of the Habsburg monarchy. Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria confirmed the March Laws on April 11, 1848.

Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria (1793-1875). Wikimedia Commons. 1850

In 1815, Mount Tambora erupts

Mount Tambora is a volcano on the island of Sumbawa in what is now Indonesia erupted on April 11, 1815, in what is the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. It expelled as much as 150 cubic km of ash, pumice and other rock, and aerosols into the atmosphere and killed 10,000 people.

In 1814, Napoleon abdicates at Fontainebleau

At the end of the Napoleonic wars, Napoleon Bonaparte signed the the Treaty of Fontainebleau, unconditionally abdicating the throne. The Treaty wrote that France’s Emperor “renounced for himself, his successors and descendants, to all rights of sovereignty and domination in France and in Europe. He agreed to reside on the island of Elba, erected as a principality, which would be owned by him in full sovereignty and ownership”