January 11, 1940
-Fleet Landing Exercise (FLEX) No. 6 begins at Culebra, Puerto Rico. Lack of transports compels the Navy to substitute combatant ships in that role for purposes of the exercise; an important exception is the prototype high speed transport Manley (APD-1), converted from a World War I-emergency program "flush-deck, four-pipe" destroyer, which amply proves her worth.
-Gunboat Charleston (PG-51) suffers damage when she runs aground at Colon, C.Z.
-U.S. freighter Tripp is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities.

January 11, 1942
-Operation Paukenschlag ("roll of the kettledrums") descends upon the eastern seaboard of the U.S. like a "bolt from the blue." The first group of five German submarines takes up station off the east coast of the United States on this date. Over the next month, these boats (U-66, U-109, U-123, U-125 and U-130) will sink 26 Allied ships; the presence of the enemy off the eastern seaboard takes U.S. Navy antisubmarine forces by surprise.

January 11, 1944
-Brazilian 10th Military Region forces take custody of 22 survivors of German blockade runner Rio Grande who reach Fortaleza, Brazil.
-In the Mediterranean Sea, the U.S. freighter Daniel Webster, damaged by German aerial torpedo the previous day, reaches Oran under escort of British frigate HMS Barle; rescue tug ATR-47 brings Daniel Webster into port where she is subsequently written off as a total loss. There are no fatalities among the ship's complement (which includes a 29-man Armed Guard).

January 11, 1945
-Motor minesweeper YMS-14 is sunk in collision with destroyer Herndon (DD-638) in north channel of Boston, Massachusetts, Harbor.

__________________
Bill Murray
Why do we press harder on the remote control when we know the batteries are getting weak?