On This Day: February 11th

Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu.

Jesse Fell burns anthracite on an open grate as an experiment in heating homes with coal.

First session of United States Senate opens to the public.

The assault on Copenhagen by Swedish forces is beaten back with heavy losses.

Sir Francis Drake with an English force captures and occupies the Spanish colonial port of Cartagena de Indias for two months, obtaining a ransom and booty.

A naval expedition led by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa founds Nombre de Jesús, the first of two short-lived Spanish settlements in the Strait of Magellan.

At the Convocation of Canterbury, the Catholic bishops comprising the Upper House of the Province of Canterbury agree to style Henry VIII supreme head of the English church and clergy "so far as the law of Christ allows".

Robert of Chester completes his translation from Arabic to Latin of the Liber de compositione alchemiae, marking the birth of Western alchemy.

Guo Wei, a court official, leads a military coup and declares himself emperor of the new Later Zhou.

The death under mysterious circumstances of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman Empire, on the eve of his coming of age clears the way for Nero to become Emperor.