http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Mar 11, 2004: Terrorists bomb trains in Madrid
On this day in 2004, 191 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 Lockerbie airplane bombing, were initially suspected to be the work of the Basque separatist militant group ETA. This was soon proved incorrect as evidence mounted against an extreme Islamist militant group loosely tied to, but thought to be working in the name of, al-Qaida.
Investigators believe that all of the blasts were caused by improvised explosive devices that were packed in backpacks and brought aboard the trains. The terrorists seem to have targeted Madrid's Atocha Station, at or near which seven of the bombs were detonated. The other bombs were detonated aboard trains near the El Poso del Tio Raimundo and Santa Eugenia stations, most likely because of delays in the trains' journeys on their way to Atocha. Three other bombs did not detonate as planned and were later found intact.
Many in Spain and around the world saw the attacks as retaliation for Spain's participation in the war in Iraq, where about 1,400 Spanish soldiers were stationed at the time. The attacks took place two days before a major Spanish election, in which anti-war Socialists swept to power. The new government, led by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, removed Spanish troops from Iraq, with the last leaving the country in May 2004.
A second bombing, of a track of the high-speed AVE train, was attempted on April 2, but was unsuccessful. The next day, Spanish police linked the occupants of an apartment in Leganes, south of Madrid, to the attacks. In the ensuing raid, seven suspects killed themselves and one Spanish special forces agent by setting off bombs in the apartment to avoid capture by the authorities. One other bomber is believed to have been killed in the train bombings and 29 were arrested. After a five-month-long trial in 2007, 21 people were convicted, although five of them, including Rabei Osman, the alleged ringleader, were later acquitted.
In memory of the victims of the March 11 bombings, a memorial forest of olive and cypress trees was planted at the El Retiro park in Madrid, near the Atocha railway station.
Mar 11, 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev picked to succeed Chernenko
Capping his rapid rise through the Communist Party hierarchy, Mikhail Gorbachev is selected as the new general secretary and leader 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 peasant farmers near Stavropol. As a young man he joined the usual Communist Party youth groups. In 1952, he traveled to Moscow to earn his degree in law. Upon his return to his native town of Stavropol, Gorbachev became extremely active in party politics and began a rapid rise through the Communist Party bureaucracy. Part of his success was due to his intelligence, drive, and ability to see and exploit opportunities. He was also aided by his ability to attach himself to important mentors, such as Yuri Andropov, the head of the dreaded KGB—Russia's secret police. With Andropov's support, Gorbachev was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1971.
During the next decade and a half, Gorbachev worked hard to promote his own career and to support Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. When Brezhnev died in 1982, Andropov took power. Gorbachev's role in the new government expanded, and then Andropov died in 1984. It was widely assumed that Gorbachev would be his successor, but his youth, combined with suspicions from some old-line Communist Party officials that the young man was too reform-minded, led to the selection of Konstantin Chernenko. Gorbachev did not have to wait long for a second chance, however. Chernenko died after less than a year in office. With the rapid-fire deaths of Andropov and Chernenko, Gorbachev had outlived his only serious competition, and he was selected to become the new leader of the Soviet Union on March 11, 1985.
During the next six years, Gorbachev led the Soviet Union through a dizzying pace of domestic reforms and foreign policy changes. He relaxed political oppression and led the push for reform of the nation's crumbling economic system. On the foreign policy scene, he worked hard to secure better relations with the United States, and in 1987, he and President Ronald Reagan signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which reduced the number of medium-range missiles each nation kept in Europe.
The pace of change, however, might have been too rapid. By the late-1980s, the Soviet Union was cracking to pieces. Eastern European satellites were breaking free, various Russian republics were pushing for independence, and the economy was on a downward spiral. In December 1991, Gorbachev resigned as president and the Soviet Union formally ceased to exist.
Mar 11, 1990: Lithuania proclaims its independence
Lithuania proclaims its independence from the USSR, the first Soviet republic to do so. The Soviet government responded by imposing an oil embargo and economic blockade against the Baltic republic, and later sent troops.
Lithuanians have lived along the Nemen River and the Baltic Sea for some 3,000 years, and during the medieval period Lithuania was one of the largest states in Europe, stretching from present-day European Russia to as far as the Black Sea. In the late 14th century, Lithuania united with Poland in forming a commonwealth, and with the third partition of Poland in 1795, Lithuania was absorbed into Russia.
In the 19th century, a Lithuanian linguistic and cultural revival began, and with the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Levost between Russia and Germany in 1918, Lithuania achieved independence. For the next two decades, however, Poland, Germany, and the USSR all interfered with Lithuania's affairs. In 1940, Soviet forces occupied the country, but in 1941 the Nazis replaced them. During World War II, many Lithuanians fought alongside the Germans against the Soviet Union, but by 1944 the country was liberated and a pro-Soviet communist regime was installed.
In the late 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, or "openness," led Lithuania to reassert its identity, and on March 11, 1990, formal independence was proclaimed. Sajudis, a non-communist coalition established in 1988, subsequently won control of the Lithuanian parliament and Vytautas Landsbergis became Lithuania's first post-Soviet head of state. In January 1991, Soviet paratroopers and tanks invaded Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, beginning a standoff that lasted until September 6, 1991, when the crumbling Soviet Union agreed to grant independence to Lithuania and the other Baltic republics of Estonia and Latvia.
Mar 11, 1941: FDR signs Lend-Lease
On this day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Lend-Lease program, which provides money and materials for allies in the war, goes into effect.
The Lend-Lease program was devised by Roosevelt as a means of aiding Great Britain in its war effort against the Germans, by giving the chief executive the power to "sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of" any military resources the president deemed ultimately in the interest of the defense of the United States. The reasoning was that if a neighbor was successful in defending his home, the security of your home would be enhanced. It also served to bolster British morale by giving them the sense that they were no longer alone in their struggle against Hitler.
The program was finally authorized by Congress and signed into effect on March 11, 1941. By November, after much heated debate, Congress extended the terms of Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union, even though the USSR had already been the recipient of American military weapons and had been promised $1 billion in financial aid. By the end of the war, more than $50 billion in funds, weapons, aircraft, and ships had been distributed to 44 countries. After the war, the Lend-Lease program morphed into the Marshall Plan, which allocated funds for the revitalization of "friendly" democratic nations-even if they were former enemies.
Mar 11, 1861: Confederate constitution adopted
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 delegation of extensive powers to the states. The constitution also contained substantial differences from the U.S. Constitution in its protection of slavery, which was "recognized and protected" in slave states and territories. However, in congruence with U.S. policy since the beginning of the 19th century, the foreign slave trade was prohibited. The constitution provided for six-year terms for the president and vice president, and the president was ineligible for successive terms. Although a presidential item veto was granted, the power of the central Confederate government was sharply limited by its dependence on state consent for the use of any funds and resources.
Although Britain and France both briefly considered entering the Civil War on the side of the South, the Confederate States of America, which survived until April 1865, never won foreign recognition as an independent government.
Mar 11, 2009: Toyota sells 1 millionth hybrid in U.S.
The Toyota Motor Company announces on this day in 2009 that it has sold over 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 in July 2000.
When the Prius debuted in 1997 it was considered a "gamble," according to a May 2008 report on Wired.com, because "gas was cheap, SUVs ruled the earth and global warming was only beginning to penetrate mainstream consciousness." However, the Prius's hybrid technology--which uses an electric motor to supplement power from the gasoline, resulting in lower emissions and higher gas mileage--quickly developed a following. Upon its arrival in America, the Prius was an early hit in Hollywood and environmentally conscious celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz were spotted driving their Priuses around Los Angeles. For the 2003 Academy Awards, Toyota provided a fleet of Priuses to chauffeur celebrities such as Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart to the ceremony. Between 2000 and February 2009, Toyota sold over 700,000 Priuses in America, or more than half of the 1.2 million Priuses purchased around the planet.
Toyota went on to expand its stable of hybrids to include the Lexus RX 400h, the world's first hybrid-powered luxury vehicle, which launched in April 2005, and the Highlander Hybrid SUV, which debuted in June of that same year. A hybrid version of Toyota's bestselling Camry sedan followed in April 2006 and was also the first Toyota hybrid to be made in the U.S.
In 2008, Toyota passed America's General Motors (GM) to become the world's largest automaker. GM, which at the time had been hobbled along with the rest of the auto industry by a global economic crisis and slumping car sales, received criticism for being the home of the gas-guzzling Hummer and for failing to develop a hybrid vehicle when Toyota first launched the Prius (the name is reportedly linked to the Latin for "earlier" and meant to connote a car that's ahead of its time).
The same week that Toyota announced its 1 millionth hybrid sold in America, the Ford Motor Company reported that it had built its 100,000th hybrid vehicle in the U.S.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
1425 BC - Thutmose III, Pharaoh of Egypt, dies (according to
the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty).
417 - Zosimus becomes bishop of Rome
537 - Goths lay siege to Rome
843 - Icon worship officially re-instated in Aya Sofia
Constantinople
928 - Trpimir II succeeds to the Croatian throne.
1387 - The Battle of Castagnaro begins.
1502 - Tebriz] shah Ismail I of Persia crowned
1513 - Giovanni de' Medici chosen Pope Leo X
1563 - League of High Nobles routes 2nd protest against King
Philip II
1567 - Geuzen army leaves Walcheren to return to Oosterweel
1597 - Land guardian Albrecht occupies Amiens on France
1649 - The Frondeurs (French rebels) and the French
government sign the Peace of Rueil.
1665 - NY approves new code guaranteeing Protestants
religious rights
1669 - Volcano Etna in Italy erupts killing 15,000
1702 - 1st English daily newspaper "Daily
Courant," publishes
1708 - Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish
Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation.
1779 - US army Corps of Engineers established (1st time)
1789 - Benjamin Banneker with L'Enfant begin to lay out
Washington DC
1791 - Samuel Mulliken, Phila, is 1st to obtain more than 1
US patent
Pope Leo XPope Leo X
1795 - Battle at Kurdla India: Mahratten beat Mogols
1812 - Citizenship granted to Prussian Jews
1823 - 1st normal school in US opens, Concord Academy,
Concord, Vt
1824 - US War Dept creates the Bureau of Indian Affair
1835 - HMS Beagle anchors off Valparaiso, Chile
1845 - The Flagstaff War: In New Zealand, Chiefs Hone Heke
and Kawiti lead 700 Māoris to chop down the British flagpole and drive settlers
out of the British colonial settlement of Kororareka because of breaches of the
1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
1848 - Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin become
the first Prime Ministers of the Province of Canada to be democratically
elected under a system of responsible government.
1850 - Woman's Medical College of Penn (1st female medical
school)
1851 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Rigoletto,"
premieres in Venice
1861 - Confederate convention in Montgomery, adopts
constitution
1862 - Lincoln removes McClellen as general-in-chief &
makes him head of
1862 - 12] Gen Stonewall Jackson evacuates Winchester Virginia
Army of the Potomac. Gen Henry Halleck is named general-in-chief
1864 - Skirmish at Calfkiller Creek (Sparta), Tennessee
1864 - The Great Sheffield Flood: The largest man-made
disaster ever to befall England kills over 250 people in Sheffield.
1865 - Gen Sherman's Union forces occupies Fayetteville, NC
Composer Giuseppe VerdiComposer Giuseppe Verdi 1867 -
Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Don Carlos," premieres in Paris
1867 - Great Mauna Loa eruption (Hawaiian volcano)
1872 - Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South
Wales, begins; located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain.
1872 - The Meiji Japanese government officially annexes the
Ryukyu Kingdom into what would become the Okinawa prefecture.
1882 - Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association organized in
Princeton NJ
1888 - Great blizzard of '88 strikes NE US
1892 - 1st public basketball game (Springfield, Mass)
1895 - Spanish cruiser Reina Regente sinks in Straits of
Gibraltar, over 400 die
1897 - A meteorite enters the earth's atmosphere and explodes
over New Martinsville, West Virginia. The debris causes damage but no human
injuries are reported.
1901 - Cincinnati Enquirer reports Balt mgr John McGraw
signed Cherokee Indian Tokohoma, who is really black 2nd baseman Charlie Grant
1904 - Stanley Cup: Ottawa Silver 7 sweep Brandon Wheat
Kings in 2 games
1905 - Stanley Cup: Ottawa Silver 7 beat Rat Portage
Thisles, 2 games to 1
1910 - Jack Hobbs 1st Test ton (187 v SAfr), his only Test
hit wicket
1912 - 1st Stanley Cup game to be played in 3 20-min
periods, formerly played in 30-min halfs, Quebec beats Moncton 9-3 on way to
sweep
1912 - Eleftherios Venizelos, leader of the Liberal Party,
wins the Greek elections again.
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)
1917 - World War I: Baghdad falls to the Anglo-Indian forces
commanded by General Stanley Maude.
1918 - Moscow becomes capital of revolutionary Russia
1918 - Save the Redwoods League founded
1918 - First confirmed cases of the Spanish Flu are observed
at Fort Riley, Kansas.
1919 - General strike in Germany, crushed
1922 - Western Hockey Championship: Vancouver Millionaires
(PCHA) sweep Regina Capitals, in 2 games
1924 - 3rd term of Belgium Theunis government begins
1924 - Eden Phillpotts' "Farmer's Wife," premieres
in London
1924 - NHL Championship: Montreal Canadiens sweeps Ottawa
Senators in 2 games
1926 - Eamon da Valera ends leadership of Sinn Fein
1927 - 1st armored commercial car hold-up in US, Pittsburgh
1927 - 1st golden gloves tournament
1927 - Samuel Roxy Rothafel opens famous Roxy Theater (NYC)
1928 - Netherlands & Belgium tie 1-1 (soccer match in
Amsterdam)
1930 - Pres & Chief Justice William Taft buried in
Arlington
1931 - Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR, abbreviated
as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union.
1934 - Netherlands beats Belgium 9-3, in soccer
1935 - Bank of Canada opens
Nazi Politician Hermann GoeringNazi Politician Hermann
Goering 1935 - Hermann Goering officially creates German Air Force, the
Luftwaffe
1936 - British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin pardons five
convicted Irish militants who promise to join growing conflict with Germany.
1938 - Artur Seyss-Inquart replaces Kurt von Schuschnigg as
Chancellor of Austria; German troops also entered the country
1941 - Bronko Nagurski beats Ray Steele in Minn, to become
wrestling champ
1941 - FDR signs Lend-Lease Bill (lend money to Britain)
1942 - 1st deportation train leaves Paris for Auschewitz
Concentration Camp
1942 - Gen MacArthur leaves Corregidor (Bataan) for
Australia
1942 - Japanese troop land on North-Sumatra
1943 - Nazi Militia forms in Netherlands
1944 - Dutch resistance fighter Joop Westerweel arrested
1945 - 1,000 allied bombers harass Essen, 4,662 ton bombs
1945 - Flemish nazi collaborator Maria Huygens sentenced to
death
1948 - 1st black in the US Tennis Open (Reginald Weir)
1948 - Jewish Agency of Jerusalem bombed
1948 - WBAL TV channel 11 in Baltimore, MD (CBS) begins broadcasting
WW2 General Douglas MacArthurWW2 General Douglas MacArthur
1953 - 1st woman army doctor commissioned (FM Adams)
1953 - American B-47 accidentally drops a nuclear bomb on
South Carolina, the bomb doesn't go off due to 6 safety catches
1954 - US Army charges Senator Joseph McCarthy used undue
pressure tactics
1956 - Louise Suggs wins LPGA Titleholders Golf Championship
1958 - Charles Van Doren finally loses on TV game show
"21"
1958 - Starting this season, AL batters are required to wear
batting helmets
1959 - "Raisin in the Sun," 1st Broadway play by a
black woman, opens
1959 - Teddy Scholten wins Eurovision Song festival with
"A Little Bit"
1960 - Pioneer 5 launched into solar orbit between Earth
& Venus
1961 - Then NHL record 40 penalties, Black Hawks & Maple
Leafs (20 each)
1963 - Somalia drops diplomatic relations with Great Britain
1965 - Indonesia President Sukarno accepts qualifications of
Suharto
1966 - Military coup led by Indonesian Gen Suharto breaks
out
1966 - A fire at two ski resorts in Numata, Japan kills 31
people.
1967 - Pink Floyd releases their 1st single (Arnold Layne)
US Senator Joseph McCarthyUS Senator Joseph McCarthy 1968 -
Anti-Zionist Clandestine Radio Voice of El Assifa starts transmitting
1968 - Dmitri Shostakovitch completes his 12nd string
quartet
1968 - Otis Redding posthumously receives gold record for
" Dock of the Bay"
1970 - 12th Grammy Awards: Aquarius, Crosby Stills &
Nash, Peggy Lee win
1970 - Iraq Ba'th Party recognizes Kurd nation
1972 - "Inner City" closes at Barrymore Theater
NYC after 97 performances
1973 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA S&H Green Stamp Golf
Classic
1974 - Mount Etna in Sicily erupted
1974 - Rhino Store gives people 5 cents to take home Danny
Bonaduce's Album
1975 - Portugal military coup under general Spinola fails
1975 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern
Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1977 - Moslems hold 130 hostages in Wash DC
1978 - Terrorists attack mail truck at Tel Aviv, 45 killed
1978 - USF-led Bill Cartwright scores 23 points as the Dons
oust NC
1979 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Sunstar Golf Classic
1979 - Randy Hold receives 67 min in penalties in a 60 min
NHL hockey game
1980 - Rod Marsh bowls 10 overs for 51 runs in dull Aust v
Pak cricket draw
1981 - Chile constitution takes effect, Augusto Pinochet 2nd
term begins
1981 - Johnny Mize & Rube Foster elected to baseball
Hall of Fame
1982 - Failed military coup under Rambocus/Hawker in
Suriname
1982 - Harrison Williams (Sen-D-NJ) resigned rather than
face expulsion
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem BeginIsraeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin 1982 - Menachem Begin & Anwar Sadat sign peace treaty in
Wash DC
1983 - Ice Dance Championship at Helsinki Finland won by
Torvill & Dean (GRB)
1983 - Ice Pairs Championship at Helsinki won by Valova
& Vasiliev (URS)
1983 - Ladies Figure Skating Champ in Helsinki won by
Rosalynn Sumners (USA)
1983 - Men's Fig Skating Championship in Helsinki won by
Scott Hamilton (USA)
1984 - Chris Johnson wins LPGA Samaritan Turquoise Golf
Classic
1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev replaces Konstantin Chernenko as
Soviet leader
1986 - 1 million days since traditional foundation of Rome,
4/21/753 BC
1986 - 12th People's Choice Awards
1986 - 187.27 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
1986 - Islander Mike Bossy, 1st NHLer to score 50 goals in 9
straight seasons
1986 - Japanese probe Sakigake flies by Halley's Comet at
6.8 million km
1986 - NFL adopts instant replay rule
1987 - Wayne Gretzky scores 1,500th NHL point
1988 - Utrecht conservatory destroyed by fire
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Mikhail GorbachevGeneral Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Gorbachev 1988 - British pound note ceases to be legal tender, replaced
by one pound coin
1990 - 16th People's Choice Awards
1990 - Lithuania declares it's Independence
1990 - Maggie Will wins Desert Inn LPGA Golf International
1991 - Janet Jackson signs $40M 3 album deal with Virgin
records
1991 - John Smith, amateur wrestler, wins James E Sullivan
Award
1991 - Monica Seles ends Steffi Graf's streak of 186 weeks
ranked as #1
1993 - Men's Figure Skating Championship in Prague won by
Kurt Browning CAN
1994 - Eduardo Frei succeeds Patricio Aylwin as president of
Chile
1995 - -36.8°F (-38.2°C) in Chosedachar, Komi-district, on
67°N
1995 - Pres Nazarbajev disbands Kazachstan parliament
1995 - Sinn Fein party leader, Gerry Adams, arrives in US
1995 - Yolanda Chen hop-skip-jumps world indoor record
15.03m
1996 - Chris Harris scores 130 in losing NZ side v
Australia, World Cup
1996 - Mark Waugh scores 110 v NZ for his third century of
the World Cup
Tennis Player Steffi GrafTennis Player Steffi Graf 1996 -
The EU Database Directive is passed.
1996 - John Winston Howard becomes the 25th Prime Minister
of Australia. His term in office is the second longest in Australian history,
ending on December 3, 2007.
1997 - 3rd Blockbuster Entertainment Awards
1997 - Ashes of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry are
launched into space
1997 - Beatle McCartney knighted Sir Paul by Queen Elizabeth
II
1997 - SF Giant J T Snow suffers a fractured eye socket when
hit by a pitch
1999 - Infosys becomes the first Indian company listed on
the NASDAQ stock exchange.
2003 - The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural
session in The Hague.
2004 - Terrorists explode simultaneous bombs on Madrid's
rail network ripping through a commuter train and rocking three stations,
killing 190
2006 - Michelle Bachelet is inaugurated as first female
president of Chile.
2009 - Winnenden school shooting - 17 people are killed at a
school in Germany.
2010 - Sebastián Piñera become chilean president.
2011 - An earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes 130
km (80 miles) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of
people. This event also triggered the second largest nuclear accident in
history, and one of only two events to be classified as a Level 7 on the
International Nuclear Event Scale.
2012 - US soldier kills 16 civilians in Afghanistan
2013 - European Union bans the sale of cosmetics that have
been tested on animals
Queen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth IIQueen of the United
Kingdom Elizabeth II 2013 - North Korea cuts the phone line with South Korea,
breaching the 1953 armistice
2013 - Falkland Islands’ sovereignty referendum: 99.8%
choose to remain an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom
537 - The Goths began their siege on Rome. 1302 - The characters Romeo and Juliet were married this day according to William Shakespeare. 1649 - The peace of Rueil was signed between the Frondeurs (rebels) and the French government. 1665 - A new legal code was approved for the Dutch and English towns, guaranteeing religious observances unhindered. 1702 - The Daily Courant, the first regular English newspaper was published. 1791 - Samuel Mulliken became the first person to receive more than one patent from the U.S. Patent Office. 1810 - The Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria. 1824 - The U.S. War Department created the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Seneca Indian Ely Parker became the first Indian to lead the Bureau. 1845 - Seven hundred Maoris led by their chief, Hone-Heke, burned the small town of Kororareka. The act was in protest to the settlement of Maoriland by Europeans, which was a breach of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. 1861 - A Confederate Convention was held in Montgomery, Alabama, where a new constitution was adopted. 1865 - Union General William Sherman and his forces occupied Fayetteville, NC. 1867 - In Hawaii, the volcano Great Mauna Loa erupted. 1882 - The Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association was formed in Princeton, NJ. 1888 - The "Blizzard of '88" began along the U.S. Atlantic Seaboard shutting down communication and transportation lines. More than 400 people died.(March 11-14) 1900 - British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury rejected the peace overtures offered from the Boer leader Paul Kruger. 1901 - Britain rejected an amended treaty to the canal agreement with Nicaragua. 1901 - U.S. Steel was formed when industrialist J.P. Morgan purchased Carnegie Steep Corp. The event made Andrew Carnegie the world's richest man. 1905 - The Parisian subway was officially inaugurated. 1907 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt induced California to revoke its anti-Japanese legislation. 1907 - In Bulgaria, Premier Nicolas Petkov was killed by an anarchist. 1909 - The first gold medal to a perfect-score bowler was awarded to A.C. Jellison by the American Bowling Congress. 1927 - Samuel Roxy Rothafel opened the famous Roxy Theatre in New York City. 1930 - Babe Ruth signed a two-year contract with the New York Yankees for the sum of $80,000. 1930 - U.S. President Howard Taft became the first U.S. president to be buried in the National Cemetery in Arlington, VA. 1935 - The German Air Force became an official department of the Reich. 1941 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the Lend-Lease Act, which authorized the act of providing war supplies to the Allies. 1946 - Communists and Nationalists began fighting as the Soviets pulled out of Mukden, Manchuria. 1946 - Pravda denounced Winston Churchill as anti-Soviet and a warmonger. 1947 - The DuMont network aired "Movies For Small Fry." It was network television's first successful children's program. 1948 - Reginald Weir became the first black tennis player to participate in a U.S. Indoor Lawn Tennis Association tournament. 1959 - The Lorraine Hansberry drama A Raisin in the Sun opened at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theater. 1964 - U.S. Senator Carl Hayden broke the record for continuous service in the U.S. Senate. He had worked 37 years and seven days. 1965 - The American navy began inspecting Vietnamese junks in an effort to end arms smuggling to the South. 1969 - Levi-Strauss started selling bell-bottomed jeans. 1978 - Bobby Hull (Winnipeg Jets) joined Gordie Howe by getting his 1,000th career goal. 1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev was named the new chairman of the Soviet Communist Party. 1986 - Popsicle announced its plan to end the traditional twin-stick frozen treat for a one-stick model. 1988 - A cease-fire was declared in the war between Iran and Iraq. 1990 - Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union. It was the first Soviet republic to break away from Communist control. 1990 - In Chile, Patricio Aylwin was sworn in as the first democratically elected president since 1973. 1992 - Former U.S. President Nixon said that the Bush administration was not giving enough economic aid to Russia. 1993 - Janet Reno was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become the first female attorney general. 1993 - North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty refusing to open sites for inspection. 1994 - In Chile, Eduardo Frei was sworn in as President. It was the first peaceful transfer of power in Chile since 1970. 1997 - An explosion at a nuclear waste reprocessing plant caused 35 workers to be exposed to low levels of radioactivity. The incident was the worst in Japan's history. 1998 - The International Astronomical Union issued an alert that said that a mile-wide asteroid could come very close to, and possibly hit, Earth on Oct. 26, 2028. The next day NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that there was no chance the asteroid would hit Earth. 2002 - Two columns of light were pointed skyward from ground zero in New York as a temporary memorial to the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
1861 The Confederate States of America adopted its constitution. 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. It caused more than 400 deaths. 1930 William Howard Taft became the first U.S. president to be buried in the National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. 1941 President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Bill. 1942 General Douglas MacArthur leaves the Philippines saying, "I shall return." 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became head of the Soviet Union following the death of Konstantin Chernenko. At 54, he was the youngest member of the ruling Politburo. 1990 A newly elected parliament in Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union. 1990 Augusto Pinochet of Chile, dictator since 1973, steps down. 1993 Janet Reno won unanimous Senate confirmation to be the first female U.S. Attorney General. 2004 Over 200 people were killed and over 1,400 were injured when bombs exploded in Madrid train stations. Al-Qaeda took responsibility for the attacks. 2011 Japan is hit by an enormous 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 earthquake, causing a nuclear crisis.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/mar11.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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