Fukushima Daiichi Nucler Power Plant

Fukushima nuclear disaster

Born on This Day

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

Antonin Scalia

1936 - 2016

Supreme Court Justice who sparked a conservative legal movement based on an "originalist" interpretation of the Constitution.

Bobby McFerrin Portrait

Bobby McFerrin

1950 -

Grammy-winning "Don't Worry, Be Happy!" singer-songwriter. Used vocal percussion techniques to become a human beatbox.

Douglas Adams In England

Douglas Adams

1952 - 2001

Author and humorist who wrote the bestselling sci-fi novel series, "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

Antonin ScaliaGetty Images

Bobby McFerrinGetty Images

Douglas AdamsGetty Images

1811

MAR11

In the original rage against the machine, a group of British weavers and textile workers calling themselves "Luddites" begin breaking the new industrial machines they believed would eliminate their livelihoods. Similar protests spread across England.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on March 11th

Mount Etna begins rumbling

Mount Etna begins rumbling on March 11, 1669.

2:56m read read

Etna Erupts

Congress establishes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

On March 11, 1779, Congress establishes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help plan, design and prepare environmental and structural facilities for the U.S. Army. Made up of civilian workers, members of the Continental Army and French officers, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers played an essential role in the critical Revolutionary War battles […]

1:36m read read

Confederate states adopt new constitution

In Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas adopt the Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States of America. The constitution resembled the Constitution of the United States, even repeating much of its language, but was actually more comparable to the Articles of Confederation—the initial post-Revolutionary War U.S. constitution—in its […]

Great Blizzard of ’88 hits East Coast

On March 11, 1888, one of the worst blizzards in American history strikes the Northeast, killing more than 400 people and dumping as much as 55 inches of snow in some areas. New York City ground to a near halt in the face of massive snow drifts and powerful winds from the storm. At the […]

3:02m read read

Great Blizzard Of 1888

Lawrence Welk is born

On March 11, 1903, musician and entertainer Lawrence Welk is born. For the generation that grew up on the big bands of the 1930s and ’40s, The Lawrence Welk Show was a blessed island of calm in a world gone mad for rock and roll, and it aired like clockwork every Saturday night from 1955 […]

2:30m read read

General MacArthur leaves Corregidor

After struggling against great odds to save the Philippines from Japanese conquest, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur abandons the island fortress of Corregidor under orders from President Franklin Roosevelt. Left behind at Corregidor and on the Bataan Peninsula were 90,000 American and Filipino troops, who, lacking food, supplies and support, would soon succumb to the Japanese […]

2:58m read read

“A Raisin in the Sun” debuts on Broadway

Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, the first Broadway play written by a Black woman, opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York on March 11, 1959. Taking its title from the Langston Hughes poem “Harlem,” Hansberry’s story follows a working-class Black family from the South Side of Chicago hoping to improve their lives. […]

The first PFLAG meeting

On March 11, 1973, the first formal meeting of “Parents of Gays,” co-founded by the parents of a gay son, is held in a church in Greenwich Village in New York. In 1982, it became a national organization called “Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays,” or PFLAG—the largest family and ally organization in […]

1:30m read read

PFLAG National Memorial For Founder Jeanne Manford

Mikhail Gorbachev picked to succeed Konstantin Chernenko

Capping his rapid rise through the Communist Party hierarchy, Mikhail Gorbachev is selected as the new general secretary of the Soviet Union, following the death of Konstantin Chernenko the day before. Gorbachev oversaw a radical transformation of Soviet society and foreign policy during the next six years. Gorbachev was born in 1931, the son of […]

2:12m read read

MikhaÃ¯l Gorbatchev

“Cops” makes TV debut

On March 11, 1989, “Cops,” a documentary-style television series that follows police officers and sheriff’s deputies as they go about their jobs, debuts on Fox. “Cops” went on to become one of the longest-running shows in television history. It went off the air in 2020. The show, which was created by John Langley and Malcolm Barbour, […]

0:54m read read

Paul McCartney knighted

On March 11, 1997, Paul McCartney, a former member of the most successful rock band in history, The Beatles, is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his “services to music.” The 54-year-old from Liverpool became Sir Paul in a centuries-old ceremony of pomp and solemnity at Buckingham Palace in central London. Fans waited outside in […]

2:14m read read

Sir Paul Mccartney

Terrorists bomb trains in Madrid

On March 11, 2004, 193 people are killed and nearly 2,000 are injured when 10 bombs explode on four trains in three Madrid-area train stations during a busy morning rush hour. The bombs were later found to have been detonated by mobile phones. The attacks, the deadliest against civilians on European soil since the 1988 […]

2:00m read read

Toyota sells 1 millionth hybrid in U.S.

The Toyota Motor Company announces on March 11, 2009 that it has sold more than 1 million gas-electric hybrid vehicles in the U.S. under its six Toyota and Lexus brands. The sales were led by the Prius, the world’s first mass-market hybrid car, which was launched in Japan in October 1997 and introduced in America […]

1:54m read read

President Trump addresses the nation on COVID-19; announces travel ban

In a primetime Oval Office address, President Donald Trump announces a 30-day travel ban on foreign travel to the U.S. from most European countries as COVID-19 cases surge across the globe. Trump’s TV address came the same day the World Health Organization officially declared the disease a pandemic. U.K. travelers were not included in the restrictions, […]

0:52m read read

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