On May 11th...

• 1745 – War of the Austrian Succession: French forces defeated the Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian "Pragmatic Army" at the Battle of Fontenoy in the Austrian Netherlands in present day Belgium.
• 1812 – In the lobby of the British House of Commons, Spencer Perceval (pictured) became the first, and to date only, British Prime Minister to be assassinated.
• 1894 – In response to a 28 percent wage cut, 4,000 Pullman Palace Car Company workers went on a strike in Illinois, bringing traffic west of Chicago to a halt.
• 1910 – Glacier National Park, located in the U.S. state of Montana, was designated a national park.
• 1985 – During an association football match between Bradford City and Lincoln City in Bradford, England, a flash fire consumed one side of the Valley Parade stadium, killing 56 attendees.
• 1997 – Deep Blue became the first computer to win a match against a world chess champion, when it defeated Garry Kasparov in six games.