Today's 11 November Fun Facts in History

First Gotham - NY Association

1807 Washington Irving's Salmagundi periodical, the first to associate the name "Gotham" with New York City, is published

1865 Mary Edwards Walker, the first female US Army surgeon, is awarded the Medal of Honor
1890 D. McCree patents a portable fire escape that could be attached to businesses and homes, allowing individuals to escape fires
1896 Samuel Pierpont Langley's Number 6 "heavier-than-air" aircraft model flies over 1,500 m (5,000 ft)
1911 In the 11/11/11 cold wave, many cities in the U.S. Midwest break their record highs and lows on the same day as a strong cold front rolls through
1926 U.S. Route 66 is established from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California, spanning 2,448 miles (3,940 km)
1935 Explorer II balloon sets an altitude record of 72,395 feet (22,066 meters) over South Dakota
1961 Adulterous couple ride a dung cart through Staphorst, Netherlands

1987 Van Gogh's "Irises" sells for a record $53.6 million at auction

1988 Oldest known insect fossils (390 million years old) are reported in the journal Science

1994 Bill Gates buys Leonardo da Vinci's "Codex" for $30,800,000, making it the most expensive manuscript ever sold at the time

1999 Last upside-down date until January 1, 6000
2015 Flawless 12 carat Blue Moon Diamond sells for $48.4 million at auction in Geneva

2018 Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba sets new record for their Singles Day sale: $1 billion in 85 seconds; $30.8 billion in 24 hours

2023 Kimba, an escaped circus lion, roams the streets of the Italian seaside town of Ladispoli for five hours before being recaptured [1]