On this day in history - August 11

What Happened On This Day – August 11

• 1999 Last Total Solar Eclipse of the Millennium

  The eclipse was visible from Europe, most of Asia and Africa and in parts of North America. Because of its path through heavily populated parts of the world, the solar eclipse is thought to be one of the most viewed eclipses in recorded history.

• 1992 Mall of America Opens its Doors to Shoppers

  Located in in Bloomington, Minnesota, the mall is the largest shopping Mall in the United States. Spanning 4,870,000 sq ft, it has an indoor theme park and attracts about 40 million visitors each year.

• 1962 The Soviet Space Agency Launches Vostok 3

  The spacecraft was piloted by Andriyan Nikolayev, the first cosmonaut to have orbited the Earth 64 times in 4 days.

• 1960 Chad gains its independence from the French

  The Central African country came under French rule in 1900 after the Battle of Kousséri. Francois Tombalbay became independent Chad's first president.

• 1948 The first Olympic Games after the 1938 Berlin Olympics open in London

  The next two games after Berlin, scheduled to be held in Tokyo and Helsinki were cancelled due to the Second World War. The first Olympics to be broadcast on television, the London Olympics was popularly known at the time as the Austerity Games. This was because of the cutbacks the host nation had to do due to the post-war economy.