On April 11

On this day in ...
... 1992, in Mali's capital city of Bamako, the Pacte nationale (English summary) was signed with the aim of ending years of fighting between the government of Mali and Tuareg rebels in the northern part of the country. The agreement called for greater democracy in elections and governance, and a subsequent plan called for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR). The U.N. Development Programme has written of this period:

The National Pact initially brought peace. But in this poverty-stricken, drought-afflicted democracy, the newly elected government had no money to finance DDR, and western donors were remarkably unsupportive of the new President. The disappointed Tuareg movements took up arms again, determined to obtain a share of the national pie. Meanwhile, opposition parties refused to accept that they had been beaten in a fair election, bringing students into the streets. By 1994, the fragility of the government was extreme and civil war was a real threat.

... 1689 (320 years ago today), London-born Princess Mary and her Hague-born cousin, William of Orange, were crowned co-rulers of England. This coronation of William III and Mary II (left) followed William's 1688 invasion of the island country and ouster of King James II, Protestant Mary's Catholic father, on invitation of Protestants in Parliament. It's written that "Parliament ... wanted the throne to be the sole possession of Mary, with William serving as Prince Consort, but Mary refused due to her self-imposed subservience to her husband." The couple's reign was marked by armed conflict in Ireland and Flanders and by Mary's delivery of 3 stillborn children, so that on William's death in 1702 Mary's sister became England's Queen Anne.

(Prior April 11 posts are here and here.)

On April 11

On this day in ...
... 1713 (295 years ago today), a series of pacts known collectively as the Peace of Utrecht were signed in that Dutch city. Signatories to these documents that signaled the end of Queen Anne's War in North America -- named in recognition of the English monarch at right -- included England, France, the Netherlands, and Spain. Together the treaties "put an end to French expansion and signaled the rise of the British Empire."
... 1911, Stanisława Walasiewicz was born in Poland. When she was 2 she and her family immigrated to the United States, where she became a runner. Competing for Poland in the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, her time of 11.9 seconds broke the world record for 100 meters; in the same race at the 1936 Games in Berlin, she lost to Helen Stephens. (See a copyright-protected photo of the 2 of them shaking hands after that race here.) Walasiewicz became a U.S. citizen and married a boxer in 1947, and, as Stella Walsh Olsen (left), won her last U.S. championship 4 years later. She and Stephens both entered the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1975. Killed in an armed robbery in 1980 in Cleveland, upon autopsy Walsh Olsen was discovered to possess male as well as female genitals, a condition that before 1992 would have, if known, disqualified an athlete from official competition. (photo credit)

On this day

On March 11, ...
... 2003 (5 years ago today), at The Hague, Netherlands, 7 women and 11 men, representing 18 countries, were sworn in as the 1st judges of the International Criminal Court, a newly established permanent tribunal charged with adjudicating the world's most heinous crimes. (photo credit) A 2d round of elections was held in 2006. Women serving as ICC judges today are: Akua Kuenyehia of Ghana, 1st Vice-President; Elizabeth Odio Benito of Costa Rica; Navanethem Pillay of South Africa; Fatoumata Dembele Diarra of Mali; Anita Ušacka of Latvia; Sylvia Steiner of Brazil; and Ekaterina Trendafilova of Bulgaria. As posted above, the from-the-inception inclusion of women sets the ICC apart from other tribunals, among them the WTO Appellate Body.
... 1708 (300 years ago today), a bill intended to reorganize the Scottish Militia failed as Queen Anne withheld Royal Assent. The act marked the last time that British monarch has vetoed a law passed by Parliament.