March 11th

Events

• 1513 - Leo X is elected pope.
• 1649 - The Frondeurs (rebels) and the French government sign the Peace of Rueil.
• 1702 - The first regular English language newspaper, The Daily Courant. is published for the first time.
• 1818 - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is published.
• 1824 - The United States War Department creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Ely Parker of the Seneca tribe becomes its first director.
• 1845 - The Flagstaff War: Chief Hone-Heke leads 700 Maoris in the burning of the white settlement Kororareka which was built in breach of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
• 1861 - American Civil War: The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted.
• 1888 - The "Great Blizzard of '88" begins along the eastern seaboard of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400.
• 1900 - Boer War: Boer leader Paul Kruger's peace overtures are rejected by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Lord Salisbury.
• 1917 - Baghdad falls to the Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Maude.
• 1927 - In New York City, the Roxy Theatre is opened by Samuel Roxy Rothafel.
• 1941 - World War II: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan.
• 1942 - World War II: General Douglas MacArthur abandons Corregidor.
• 1978 - Palestinian terrorists on the Tel Aviv Haifa highway kill 34 Israelis.
• 1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader.
• 1990 - Lithuania becomes independent from the Soviet Union.
• 1990 - Patricio Aylwin is sworn-in as the first democratically-elected Chilean president since 1973.
• 1991 - A curfew is imposed on black townships in South Africa after fighting between rival political gangs killed 49.
• 1993 - Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn-in the next day becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States.
• 1996 - John Howard comes to power as the twenty-fifth Prime Minister of Australia.
• 1997 - An explosion at a nuclear waste reprocessing plant in Japan exposes 35 workers to low-level radioactive contamination in the worst nuclear accident in Japan's history.

Births

• 1544 - Torquato Tasso, Italian poet, (d. 1595)
• 1876 - Carl Ruggles, composer, (d. 1971)
• 1890 - Vannevar Bush, author of As We May Think, (d. 1974)
• 1892 - Raoul Walsh, film director, (d. 1980)
• 1898 - Dorothy Gish, actress, (d. 1968)
• 1899 - King Frederick IX of Denmark, (d. 1972)
• 1901 - King Leopold III of Belgium, (d. 1983)
• 1903 - Lawrence Welk, Champagne musicmaker, (d. 1992)
• 1907 - Helmut von Moltke, jurist, (d. 1945)
• 1910 - Robert Havemann, chemist, (d. 1982)
• 1915 - Hans Peter Keller, writer, (d. 1989)
• 1915 - Karl Krolow, lyricist and essayist, (d. 1999)
• 1916 - Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, (d. 1995)
• 1919 - Mercer Ellington, musician, composer, (d. 1996)
• 1927 - Joachim Fuchsberger, actor
• 1931 - Rupert Murdoch, publisher, entrepreneur
• 1934 - Sam Donaldson, reporter
• 1936 - Reverend Ralph Abernathy, civil rights leader, (d. 1990)
• 1936 - Antonin Scalia, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court
• 1948 - Dominique Sanda, actress
• 1950 - Bobby McFerrin, singer
• 1950 - Jery Zucker, producer, director, writer
• 1952 - Douglas Adams, science fiction/comedy novelist, (d. 2001)
• 1968 - Lisa Loeb, singer
• 1971 - Johnny Knoxville, ("Jackass"), television personality
• 1979 - Benji and Joel Madden, ("Good Charlotte"), band

Deaths

• 222 - Roman emperor Heliogabalus (b. c. 203) and his mother Julia Soaemias (b. 180), killed by the Pretorian guard
• 1847 - Johnny Appleseed, pioneer, agronomist, (b. 1774)
• 1908 - Revd Benjamin Waugh, social reformer, founder of NSPCC, (b. 1839)
• 1931 - F.W. Murnau, director, (b. 1888)
• 1957 - Admiral Richard E. Byrd, explorer, (b. 1888)
• 1969 - John Wyndham, Author, (b. 1903)
• 1970 - Erle Stanley Gardner, novelist, (b. 1889)
• 1971 - Philo T. Farnsworth, television pioneer, (b. 1906)
• 2002 - James Tobin, economist, (b. 1918)

Holidays and observances

March 10 - March 12 - February 11 - April 11 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By