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
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Did You Know?

1 million days since the foundation of Rome on April 21st, 753 BC

On March 11, 1986

Famous Birthdays

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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
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Famous Deaths

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March in History