What Happened on March 11
Significant Events
- 843 Icon veneration officially re-instated in Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople
- 1502 Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty, crowned Shah of Persia (rules till 1524)
- 1918 Moscow becomes capital of revolutionary Russia
- 1966 Military coup led by Indonesian General Suharto breaks out
- 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev replaces Konstantin Chernenko as Soviet leader
- 2011 9.0 magnitude earthquake strikes 130 km (80 miles) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people and causing the second worst nuclear accident in history
- 2018 China's National People's Congress approves removal of term limits for a leader, will allow Xi Jinping presidency for life
March 11 in Film & TV
- 1958 Charles Van Doren finally loses on US TV game show "Twenty-One" after winning $129,000 - later revealed to be fixed
March 11 in Music
- 1851 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Rigoletto" premieres in Venice
March 11 in Sport
- 1917 1st NHL championship game ever played, Toronto Arenas beats Montreal Canadiens 7-3 in 1st of 2 game set (second game on March 13)
Famous Birthdays
James Franklin Hyde
(1903 - 1999)
Harold Wilson
(1916 - 1995)
Ralph Abernathy
(1926 - 1990)
Rupert Murdoch
87 Years Old
Douglas Adams
(1952 - 2001)
Thora Birch
36 Years Old
Would You Believe?
The West first learns of the Giant Panda via French missionary Armand David who receives a skin from a hunter
On March 11, 1869
Famous Weddings
- 1302 Romeo & Juliet's wedding day, according to Shakespeare
- 1598 Countess Charlotte of Nassau marries duke Claude de la Tremoille
- 1787 Naval officer Horatio Nelson (28) weds Frances Nisbet at Montpelier Estate on the island of Nevis
- 1949 CBS news correspondent Mike Wallace (30) weds actress Buff Cobb (21) in Cook County, Illinois
- 2009 Actress and singer Mandy Moore (28) weds alt-country/rock singer-songwriter Ryan Adams (37) in Savannah, Georgia
Famous Divorces
- 1958 Actress Agnes Moorehead (57) divorces actor and film director Robert Gist (40) after 5 years of marriage
Elagabalus
Alexander Fleming
Richard E. Byrd
Erle Stanley Gardner
Slobodan MilosevicMarch in History
One-Man War Finally Ends
Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda finally surrendered on this day – nearly 30 years after the Second World War had ended.
March 9, 1974
Mr. Watson come here, I want you
Alexander Graham Bell spoke only briefly by phone to his assistant on this day in 1876, but it proved to be a pioneering moment in telecoms history.
March 10, 1876
Wave of Doubt over Britannia
The composer who put "Rule, Britannia!" to music was born on this day, but the original words are not quite what they bellow out at the Last Night of the Proms.
March 12, 1710
Sportsman Who Became Larger Than Life
Nothing suggested that Daniel Lambert, born on this day, would evolve from an athletic youngster to the mountain of a man that he became.
March 13, 1770