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, leaving him in command of the Army of the Potomac, a post McClellan also ended up losing.
1888 - A torrential rainstorm hit the East Coast; the rain turned to snow the next day and would become the infamous "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 soldiers 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 in the National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia.
1941 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Bill, providing war supplies to countries fighting the Axis.
1942 - As Japanese forces continued to advance in the Pacific during World War II, U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines for Australia, where he vowed on March 20, “I shall return” — a promise he kept more than 2 1/2 years later.
1954 - The U.S. Army charged that Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., 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 Gorbachev becomes head of the Soviet Union following the death of Konstanin 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 was sworn in as America's first female attorney general.
1997 - Beatles member Paul McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
2002 - Two columns of light soared skyward from Ground Zero in New York as a temporary memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks six months earlier.
2004 - Ten bombs exploded in quick succession across the commuter rail network in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people in an attack linked to al-Qaida-inspired militants.
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.
2010 - A federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld the use of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency.
2011 - Japan is struck by an enormous 9.0 magnitude earthquake that triggered a deadly 23-foot-high tsunami, about 230 miles northeast of Tokyo. Cooling systems in one of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station fail shortly after the earthquake, causing a nuclear crisis. The quake killed more than 20,000 people.
2012 - U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales shot and killed 16 Afghan villagers — mostly women and children — as they slept; Bales later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
2013 - Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D) was convicted of a raft of crimes, including racketeering conspiracy (he was later sentenced to 28 years in prison).
2018 - Lawmakers in China abolished presidential term limits that had been in place for more than 35 years, opening up the possibility of Xi Jinping holding power for life.
2020 - The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.
2020 - Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced in New York to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual abuse.
2021 - President Joe Biden signed into law a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package that he said would help defeat the virus and nurse the economy back to health; Americans would receive up to $1,400 in direct payments, along with extended unemployment benefits.
Birthdays
20 - Madison Brydges (actress)
29 - Beth Crosby (actress)
31 - Jodie Comer (actress)
31 - Sarah Moliski (actress)
31 - Anthony Davis (basketball player)
32 - Jude Demorest (actress)
40 - Rob Brown (actor)
41 - Melissa Rycroft (actress)
42 - Thora Birch (actress)
43 - LeToya Luckett (singer)
43 - David Anders (actor)
45 - Benji Madden (singer)
45 - Joel Madden (singer)
53 - Johnny Knoxville (actor)
55 - Terrence Howard (actor)
56 - Lisa Loeb (singer)
57 - John Barrowman (actor)
59 - Wallace Langham (actor)
61 - Alex Kinsgton (actor)
62 - Jeffrey Nordling (actor)
62 - Peter Berg (actor)
69 - Nina Hagen (singer)
72 - Susan Richardson (actress)
73 - Cheryl Linn (singer)
74 - Bobby McFerrin (singer)
78 - Mark Metcalf (actor)
79 - Tricia O'Neil (actress)
90 - Sam Donaldson (news correspondent)
93 - Rupert Murdoch (media mogul)
==============================
Today in Sports History - March 11
1892 - The first organized women's basketball game was played. The game was at Smith College between students and faculty members.
1924 - The Montreal Canadiens sweep the Ottawa Senators to win the NHL championship.
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 - Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders becomes the first player in NHL history to score 50 or more goals in nine consecutive seasons.
1986 - The NFL adopts instant replay.
1990 - Jennifer Capriati, 13 years old, played her first professional tennis match.
1991 - Monica Seles ends Steffi Graf's streak of 186 consecutive 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.
2020 - The NBA suspends the 2019-2020 season until further notice after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tests positive for COVID-19.
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, leaving him in command of the Army of the Potomac, a post McClellan also ended up losing.
1888 - A torrential rainstorm hit the East Coast; the rain turned to snow the next day and would become the infamous "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 soldiers 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 in the National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia.
1941 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Bill, providing war supplies to countries fighting the Axis.
1942 - As Japanese forces continued to advance in the Pacific during World War II, U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines for Australia, where he vowed on March 20, “I shall return” — a promise he kept more than 2 1/2 years later.
1954 - The U.S. Army charged that Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., 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 Gorbachev becomes head of the Soviet Union following the death of Konstanin 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 was sworn in as America's first female attorney general.
1997 - Beatles member Paul McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
2002 - Two columns of light soared skyward from Ground Zero in New York as a temporary memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks six months earlier.
2004 - Ten bombs exploded in quick succession across the commuter rail network in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people in an attack linked to al-Qaida-inspired militants.
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.
2010 - A federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld the use of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency.
2011 - Japan is struck by an enormous 9.0 magnitude earthquake that triggered a deadly 23-foot-high tsunami, about 230 miles northeast of Tokyo. Cooling systems in one of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station fail shortly after the earthquake, causing a nuclear crisis. The quake killed more than 20,000 people.
2012 - U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales shot and killed 16 Afghan villagers — mostly women and children — as they slept; Bales later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
2013 - Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D) was convicted of a raft of crimes, including racketeering conspiracy (he was later sentenced to 28 years in prison).
2018 - Lawmakers in China abolished presidential term limits that had been in place for more than 35 years, opening up the possibility of Xi Jinping holding power for life.
2020 - The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.
2020 - Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced in New York to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual abuse.
2021 - President Joe Biden signed into law a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package that he said would help defeat the virus and nurse the economy back to health; Americans would receive up to $1,400 in direct payments, along with extended unemployment benefits.
Birthdays
20 - Madison Brydges (actress)
29 - Beth Crosby (actress)
31 - Jodie Comer (actress)
31 - Sarah Moliski (actress)
31 - Anthony Davis (basketball player)
32 - Jude Demorest (actress)
40 - Rob Brown (actor)
41 - Melissa Rycroft (actress)
42 - Thora Birch (actress)
43 - LeToya Luckett (singer)
43 - David Anders (actor)
45 - Benji Madden (singer)
45 - Joel Madden (singer)
53 - Johnny Knoxville (actor)
55 - Terrence Howard (actor)
56 - Lisa Loeb (singer)
57 - John Barrowman (actor)
59 - Wallace Langham (actor)
61 - Alex Kinsgton (actor)
62 - Jeffrey Nordling (actor)
62 - Peter Berg (actor)
69 - Nina Hagen (singer)
72 - Susan Richardson (actress)
73 - Cheryl Linn (singer)
74 - Bobby McFerrin (singer)
78 - Mark Metcalf (actor)
79 - Tricia O'Neil (actress)
90 - Sam Donaldson (news correspondent)
93 - Rupert Murdoch (media mogul)
==============================
Today in Sports History - March 11
1892 - The first organized women's basketball game was played. The game was at Smith College between students and faculty members.
1924 - The Montreal Canadiens sweep the Ottawa Senators to win the NHL championship.
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 - Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders becomes the first player in NHL history to score 50 or more goals in nine consecutive seasons.
1986 - The NFL adopts instant replay.
1990 - Jennifer Capriati, 13 years old, played her first professional tennis match.
1991 - Monica Seles ends Steffi Graf's streak of 186 consecutive 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.
2020 - The NBA suspends the 2019-2020 season until further notice after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tests positive for COVID-19.
