March 11
1861 - The Confederate States of America adopted its constitution.
1862 - During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln removed Gen. George B. McClellan as general-in-chief of the Union armies.
1888 - A torrential rainstorm hit the East Coast. The rain turned to snow the next day and it became the "Blizzard of 1888," the most famous snowstorm in American history, causing more than 400 deaths.
1918 - What were believed to be the first confirmed U.S. cases of a deadly global flu pandemic were reported among U.S. Army soldiers stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas; 46 would die. (The worldwide outbreak of influenza claimed an estimated 20 to 40 million lives.)
1930 - William Howard Taft became the first U.S. president to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
1941 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Bill, providing war supplies to countries fighting the Axis.
1942 - Gen. Douglas MacArthur leaves the Philippines during World War II saying, "I shall return."
1954 - The U.S. Army charged that Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) and his subcommittee’s chief counsel, Roy Cohn, had exerted pressure to obtain favored treatment for Pvt. G. David Schine, a former consultant to the subcommittee. (The confrontation culminated in the famous Senate Army-McCarthy hearings.)
1985 - Mikhail S. Gorbachev became head of the Soviet Union following the death of Konstantin Chernenko. At age 54, he was the youngest member of the ruling Politburo.
1990 - A newly elected parliament in Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
1993 - Janet Reno won unanimous Senate confirmation to be the first female U.S. Attorney General.
1993 - North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
2002 - Two columns of light soared skyward from ground zero in New York as a temporary memorial to the victims six months after the Sept. 11 attacks.
2004 - Over 200 people were killed and more than 1,400 injured when bombs exploded in Madrid train stations. (al-Qaeda took responsibility for the attacks).
2006 - Former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic was found dead of a heart attack in his prison cell in the Netherlands, abruptly ending his four-year U.N. war crimes trial; he was 64.
2011 - Japan is hit by an enormous 9.0 magnitude earthquake that triggers a deadly 23-foot tsunami in the country's north, about 230 miles northeast of Tokyo. Cooling systems in one of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station fail shortly after the quake, causing a nuclear crisis.
2011 - Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed a measure to eliminate most union rights for public employees, a proposal which had provoked three weeks of protests.
2012 - Sixteen Afghan villagers – mostly women and children – were shot dead as they slept, allegedly by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales.
2016 - Nancy Reagan’s life was celebrated by 1,000 invited guests gathered at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, to pay final tribute to the former first lady who had died five days earlier at the age of 94.
2020 - The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic.
2020 - In an Oval Office address to the nation, President Donald Trump said he was sharply restricting travel from Europe to the U.S. as a result of the pandemic.
2020 - Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual abuse after delivering a rambling plea for mercy in a New York courtroom.
2020 - Russian lawmakers approved constitutional reforms that would let Vladimir Putin stay in power until 2036.
Birthdays
28 - Jodie Comer (actress)
28 - Anthony Davis (basketball player)
29 - Jude Demorest (actress)
37 - Rob Brown (actor)
38 - Melissa Rycroft (TV personality)
39 - Thora Birch (actress)
40 - LeToya Luckett (singer)
40 - David Anders (actor)
50 - Johnny Knoxville (actor)
52 - Terrence Howard (actor)
52 - Pete Droge (singer)
53 - Lisa Loeb (singer)
54 - John Barrowman (actor)
58 - Alex Kingston (actor)
59 - Jeffrey Nordling (actor)
59 - Peter Berg (actor)
60 - Elias Koteas (actor)
66 - Nina Hagen (singer)
69 - Susan Richardson (actress)
70 - Cheryl Lynn (singer)
75 - Mark Metcalf (actor)
76 - Tricia O'Neil (actress)
87 - Sam Donaldson (news correspondent)
90 - Rupert Murdoch (media mogul)
============================================
Today in Sports History - March 11
1978 - Bobby Hull (Winnipeg Jets) joined Gordie Howe by getting his 1,000th career goal.
1979 - Randy Holt (Los Angeles Kings) was penalized nine times for 67 minutes in the first period of a game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
1986 - The NFL votes to adopt instant replay for use in games.
1990 - Jennifer Capriati played her first professional tennis match, at 13 years old.
1991 - Monica Seles ends Steffi Graf's streak of 186 weeks as the world's top-ranked female tennis player.
2004 - Todd Bertuzzi (Vancouver Canucks) was suspended by the NHL for hitting Steve Moore (Colorado Avalanche) in the side of the head from behind and driving his head into the ice in a game on March 8. Moore landed face-first with Bertuzzi on top of him. Moore suffered a broken neck, a concussion and deep cuts on his face. The NHL suspended Bertuzzi for the remainder of the regular season and the playoffs and announced that his eligibility would be assessed the following season and would take into account Moore's health and the progression of his recovery. The Canucks organization was also fined $250,000.
2004 - Major league baseball banned THG. The health policy advisory committee of management and the players' association unanimously determined that THG builds muscle mass.
2020 - The NBA suspended its season "until further notice" after a member of the Utah Jazz tested positive for the coronavirus.
1861 - The Confederate States of America adopted its constitution.
1862 - During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln removed Gen. George B. McClellan as general-in-chief of the Union armies.
1888 - A torrential rainstorm hit the East Coast. The rain turned to snow the next day and it became the "Blizzard of 1888," the most famous snowstorm in American history, causing more than 400 deaths.
1918 - What were believed to be the first confirmed U.S. cases of a deadly global flu pandemic were reported among U.S. Army soldiers stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas; 46 would die. (The worldwide outbreak of influenza claimed an estimated 20 to 40 million lives.)
1930 - William Howard Taft became the first U.S. president to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
1941 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Bill, providing war supplies to countries fighting the Axis.
1942 - Gen. Douglas MacArthur leaves the Philippines during World War II saying, "I shall return."
1954 - The U.S. Army charged that Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) and his subcommittee’s chief counsel, Roy Cohn, had exerted pressure to obtain favored treatment for Pvt. G. David Schine, a former consultant to the subcommittee. (The confrontation culminated in the famous Senate Army-McCarthy hearings.)
1985 - Mikhail S. Gorbachev became head of the Soviet Union following the death of Konstantin Chernenko. At age 54, he was the youngest member of the ruling Politburo.
1990 - A newly elected parliament in Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
1993 - Janet Reno won unanimous Senate confirmation to be the first female U.S. Attorney General.
1993 - North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
2002 - Two columns of light soared skyward from ground zero in New York as a temporary memorial to the victims six months after the Sept. 11 attacks.
2004 - Over 200 people were killed and more than 1,400 injured when bombs exploded in Madrid train stations. (al-Qaeda took responsibility for the attacks).
2006 - Former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic was found dead of a heart attack in his prison cell in the Netherlands, abruptly ending his four-year U.N. war crimes trial; he was 64.
2011 - Japan is hit by an enormous 9.0 magnitude earthquake that triggers a deadly 23-foot tsunami in the country's north, about 230 miles northeast of Tokyo. Cooling systems in one of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station fail shortly after the quake, causing a nuclear crisis.
2011 - Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed a measure to eliminate most union rights for public employees, a proposal which had provoked three weeks of protests.
2012 - Sixteen Afghan villagers – mostly women and children – were shot dead as they slept, allegedly by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales.
2016 - Nancy Reagan’s life was celebrated by 1,000 invited guests gathered at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, to pay final tribute to the former first lady who had died five days earlier at the age of 94.
2020 - The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic.
2020 - In an Oval Office address to the nation, President Donald Trump said he was sharply restricting travel from Europe to the U.S. as a result of the pandemic.
2020 - Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual abuse after delivering a rambling plea for mercy in a New York courtroom.
2020 - Russian lawmakers approved constitutional reforms that would let Vladimir Putin stay in power until 2036.
Birthdays
28 - Jodie Comer (actress)
28 - Anthony Davis (basketball player)
29 - Jude Demorest (actress)
37 - Rob Brown (actor)
38 - Melissa Rycroft (TV personality)
39 - Thora Birch (actress)
40 - LeToya Luckett (singer)
40 - David Anders (actor)
50 - Johnny Knoxville (actor)
52 - Terrence Howard (actor)
52 - Pete Droge (singer)
53 - Lisa Loeb (singer)
54 - John Barrowman (actor)
58 - Alex Kingston (actor)
59 - Jeffrey Nordling (actor)
59 - Peter Berg (actor)
60 - Elias Koteas (actor)
66 - Nina Hagen (singer)
69 - Susan Richardson (actress)
70 - Cheryl Lynn (singer)
75 - Mark Metcalf (actor)
76 - Tricia O'Neil (actress)
87 - Sam Donaldson (news correspondent)
90 - Rupert Murdoch (media mogul)
============================================
Today in Sports History - March 11
1978 - Bobby Hull (Winnipeg Jets) joined Gordie Howe by getting his 1,000th career goal.
1979 - Randy Holt (Los Angeles Kings) was penalized nine times for 67 minutes in the first period of a game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
1986 - The NFL votes to adopt instant replay for use in games.
1990 - Jennifer Capriati played her first professional tennis match, at 13 years old.
1991 - Monica Seles ends Steffi Graf's streak of 186 weeks as the world's top-ranked female tennis player.
2004 - Todd Bertuzzi (Vancouver Canucks) was suspended by the NHL for hitting Steve Moore (Colorado Avalanche) in the side of the head from behind and driving his head into the ice in a game on March 8. Moore landed face-first with Bertuzzi on top of him. Moore suffered a broken neck, a concussion and deep cuts on his face. The NHL suspended Bertuzzi for the remainder of the regular season and the playoffs and announced that his eligibility would be assessed the following season and would take into account Moore's health and the progression of his recovery. The Canucks organization was also fined $250,000.
2004 - Major league baseball banned THG. The health policy advisory committee of management and the players' association unanimously determined that THG builds muscle mass.
2020 - The NBA suspended its season "until further notice" after a member of the Utah Jazz tested positive for the coronavirus.
