Today is my birthday. It is a reminder that, once again, another year has passed circling the sun. Unfortunately, my birthday has often been coincidental with major, not necessarily, good events. This is not my fault, because some of them happened long before I arrived on this planet. But then, if some of the stories told by my parents are true, my added presence may have contributed somewhat to the chaos. So, to those of you who choose to blame everything on me, please be aware that March 11 is famous for a lot of things, other than my birthday. Some of these are good, some are very bad. I accept zero responsibility other than acknowledging the completion of another cycle around the Sun.
1425 BC Thutmose III, Pharaoh of Egypt, dies (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty).
537 Goths lay siege to Rome
843 Icon veneration officially re-instated in Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople
928 Trpimir II succeeds to the Croatian throne.
1387 The Battle of Castagnaro begins.
1502 Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty, crowned Shah of Persia (rules till 1524)
1513 Giovanni de’ Medici chosen Pope Leo X
1567 Geuzen army leaves Walcheren to return to Oosterweel
1597 Archduke Albrecht occupies Amiens, 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 Mt Etna in Sicily erupts in its largest recorded eruption, killing 15,000
1702 1st English daily newspaper “Daily Courant” published
1708 Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation
1744 English auction house Sotheby’s holds its first ever auction (of books) in London
1779 US Army Corps of Engineers established (1st time)
1789 Benjamin Banneker and Pierre Charles L’Enfant begin to lay out Washington, D.
1791 Samuel Mulliken is 1st to obtain more than one US patent
1795 Battle at Kurdla India: Mahratten beat Mogols
1812 Citizenship granted to Prussian Jews
1823 1st normal school in US opens, Concord Academy, Concord, Vermont
1824 US War Department creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs
1829 Johann Sebastian Bach‘s “St Matthew Passion” is revived by Felix Mendelssohn, aged 20, conducting in Berlin
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 Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania opens 2nd female medical school in the US
1851 Giuseppe Verdi‘s opera “Rigoletto” premieres in Venice
1855 Bowery Boys gang leader William Poole aka “Bill the Butcher” is buried in Brooklyn with 155 carriages and 6,000 mourners
1861 Confederate convention in Montgomery adopts constitution (US Civil War)
1862 Abraham Lincoln removes George McClellen as general-in-chief
1862 General Stonewall Jackson evacuates Winchester Virginia Army of the Potomac. Gen Henry Halleck is named general-in-chief
1863 25th Grand National: George Stevens wins his 2nd GN aboard 4/1 Emblem; winning mare’s full sister Emblematic wins the following year
1864 Dale Dike on Humber River crumbles. The Great Sheffield Flood: the largest man-made disaster ever to befall England kills over 250 people in Sheffield
1865 General William T. Sherman‘s Union forces occupies Fayetteville, North Carolina
1867 Giuseppe Verdi‘s opera “Don Carlos” premieres in Paris
1869 The West first learns of the Giant Panda via French missionary Armand David who receives a skin from a hunter
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
1876 English FA Cup Final, Kennington Oval, London: Wanderers and Old Estonians draw, 1-1; Wanderers win replay, 3-0 for 3rd title
1882 Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association organized in Princeton, New Jersey
1882 Fridtjof Nansen sets out on a sea voyage to study Arctic zoology
1888 Great blizzard of ’88 strikes northeastern USA
1892 1st public basketball game (Springfield, Massachusetts)
1893 Carlos Gardel and his mother, Berthe Gardès, arrive in Buenos Aires, Argentina
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.
1900 British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury rejects peace overtures from the Boer leader Paul Kruger (on 5 March) as demanding too-favourable terms
1901 Cincinnati Enquirer reports Baltimore manager 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, Dey’s Arena, Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Senators beat Rat Portage Thisles, 5-4 for 2-1 challenge series victory
1910 Jack Hobbs scores 187 vs South Africa, his 1st international test hundred only to get out hit wicket
1912 First Stanley Cup challenge game to be played in three 20-minute periods (formerly 30-minute halves), Quebec beats Moncton, 9-3 on way to series sweep
1912 Eleftherios Venizelos, leader of the Liberal Party, wins the Greek elections again.
1915 The British declare a blockade of all German ports
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 British forces occupy Baghdad, the capital of Mesopotamia, after Turkish forces evacuated
1918 Moscow becomes capital of revolutionary Russia
1918 Save the Redwoods League founded
1918 US Army mess cook Private Albert Gitchell of Fort Riley, Kansas becomes the first documented case of Spanish flu; start of worldwide pandemic killing 50-100 million
1919 General strike in Germany crushed
1920 Syria proclaims Emir Feisal king after the country has fought off French domination
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 Féin
1927 1st armored commercial car hold-up in US, Pittsburgh
1927 1st golden gloves tournament
1927 Samuel Roxy Rothafel opens famous Roxy Theater (NYC)
1930 William Taft, American 27th President & Chief Justice buried in Arlington Cemetery
1931 Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union
1935 Bank of Canada first opens on Wellington Street, Ottawa
1935 Hermann Goering officially creates the Luftwaffe (German Air Force)
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 Auschwitz Concentration Camp
1942 General MacArthur leaves Corregidor (Bataan) for Australia
1942 Japanese troops 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 Jewish Agency of Jerusalem bombed
1948 WBAL TV channel 11 in Baltimore, MD (CBS) begins broadcasting
1953 1st woman army doctor commissioned (FM Adams)
1954 US Army charges Senator Joseph McCarthy used undue pressure tactics
1956 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women’s Golf, Augusta CC: Louise Suggs wins her 3rd Titleholders title by 1 stroke from Patty Berg
1958 American B-47 accidentally drops nuclear bomb 15,000 ft on a family home in Mars Bluff, South Carolina; creates crater 75 ft across, bomb without its nuclear capsule
1958 Charles Van Doren finally loses on US TV game show “Twenty-One” after winning $129,000 – later revealed to be fixed
1958 Starting this season, AL batters are required to wear batting helmets
1959 Lorraine Hansberry’s stage drama “A Raisin in the Sun”, 1st Broadway play by a black woman, starring Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier, opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, NYC; later transfers to the Belasco Theatre; runs for 530 performances
1959 4th Eurovision Song Contest: Teddy Scholten for Netherlands wins singing “Een beetje” in Cannes
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
1963 US Defense Secretary Robert MacNamara orders the adoption by the US military of the M16 assault rifle, originally designed as the AR-15 by Eugene Stoner
1964 21st Golden Globes: The Cardinal, Sidney Poitier, & Leslie Caron win
1965 Indonesia President Sukarno signs the ‘Supersemar’ order, giving army commander Lt. Gen. Suharto authority to do whatever he “deemed necessary” to restore order
1966 Military coup led by Indonesian General Suharto breaks out
1966 A fire at two ski resorts in Numata, Japan kills 31 people.
1967 Pink Floyd releases 1st single “Arnold Layne”
1967 14th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: North Carolina beats Duke, 82-73
1968 Anti-Zionist Clandestine Radio Voice of El Assifa starts transmitting
1968 Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 12nd string quartet
1968 Otis Redding is the first person in the US to posthumously receive gold record for his single “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”
1970 12th Grammy Awards: Aquarius; Crosby Stills & Nash; Peggy Lee win
1970 Iraqi Ba’th Party recognizes Kurd nation
1971 Jim Morrison leaves for Paris to reorient himself emotionally and creatively and to avoid the jail sentence given to him in Miami. He will never return to the US.
1972 “Inner City” closes at Barrymore Theater NYC after 97 performances
1972 OPEC threatens “appropriate sanctions” against companies that “fail to comply with . . . any action taken by a Member Country in accordance with [OPEC] decisions.”
1972 19th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: North Carolina beats Maryland, 73-64
1974 Mount Etna in Sicily erupted
1974 Rhino Store gives people 5 cents to take home Danny Bonaduce’s Album
1975 Rightist military coup in Portugal under General António de Spínola fails
1975 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1977 Hanafi Muslims hold 130 hostages in Washington, D.C.
1978 Terrorists attack mail truck at Tel Aviv, 45 killed
1978 USF-led Bill Cartwright scores 23 points as the Dons oust NC
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‘s second term begins
1981 Johnny Mize and Rube Foster are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
1982 Failed military coup under Rambocus and Hawker in Suriname
1982 Harrison Williams (Sen-D-NJ) resigns rather than face expulsion
1982 Detroit Pistons play the Chicago Bulls, with final score of Detroit 152 to Chicago 144 and Detroit having 20 blocked shots
1982 US boycotts Libyan crude oil
1983 Ice Dance Championship at Helsinki, Finland won by Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean (Great Britain)
1983 Ice Pairs Championship at Helsinki won by Valova & Vasiliev (Soviet Union)
1983 Ladies’ Figure Skating Championship in Helsinki won by Rosalynn Sumners (USA)
1983 Men’s Figure Skating Championship in Helsinki won by Scott Hamilton (USA)
1983 9th People’s Choice Awards: Burt Reynolds, Jane Fonda & Katharine Hepburn win (Motion Picture) and Tom Selleck, Linda Evans & Loretta Swit win (TV)
1984 31st ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Maryland beats Duke, 74-62
1985 Mikhail Gorbachev replaces Konstantin Chernenko as Soviet leader
1986 1 million days since the foundation of Rome on April 21st, 753 BC
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
1988 Utrecht conservatory destroyed by fire
1988 British pound note ceases to be legal tender, replaced by one pound coin
1990 16th People’s Choice Awards: Dustin Hoffman & Meryl Streep win (Dramatic Motion Picture) and Bill Cosby & Phylicia Rashad win (TV)
1990 Lithuania declares its Independence
1990 37th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: #14 Georgia Tech beats Virginia, 70-61
1990 31st SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Alabama beats Ole Miss, 70-51
1990 11th Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament: Connecticut beats Syracuse, 78-75
1991 17th People’s Choice Awards: Mel Gibson & Julia Roberts win (Dramatic Motion Picture) and Bill Cosby & Kirstie Alley win (TV)
1991 Janet Jackson signs $40M 3 album deal with Virgin records
1991 John Smith, US 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 President Nazarbajev disbands Kazakhstan parliament
1995 Sinn Féin party leader, Gerry Adams, arrives in US
- 1995Yolanda 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
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 December 3, 2007.
1997 Beatle Paul McCartney knighted by Queen Elizabeth II
1997 San Francisco 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.
2000 21st Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament: St. John’s beats Connecticut, 80-70
2001 48th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: #3 Duke beats #6 North Carolina, 79-53
2001 42nd SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Kentucky beats Ole Miss, 77-55
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 the first female president of Chile
2006 27th Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament: Syracuse beats Pittsburgh, 65-61
2007 54th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: #8 North Carolina beats NC State, 89-80
2007 48th SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Florida beats Arkansas, 77-56
2008 Plácido Domingo named “The King of Singers” in BBC Music Magazine, based on voting by 16 renowned opera critics for the April 2008 issue
2009 Winnenden school shooting – 17 people are killed at a school in Germany.
2010 Sebastián Piñera becomes Chilean president for the 1st time
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 at Fukushima nuclear plant
2012 US soldier kills 16 civilians in Afghanistan
2012 59th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: #17 Florida State beats #4 North Carolina, 85-82
2012 53rd SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Vanderbilt beats Kentucky, 71-64
2013 European Union bans the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals
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
2013 Laureus World Sports Awards, Municipal Theater, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Sportsman: Usain Bolt; Sportswoman: Missy Franklin; Team: FC Bayern Munich
2014 Refugees from Syria pour into the Kingdom of Jordan
2017 At least 65 killed in landslide at rubbish dump near Addis Ababa, Ethopia
2017 England retains the Six Nations Rugby Championship with 61-21 win over Scotland at Twickenham; England’s 11th consecutive Six Nations win and equals NZ’s record of 18 consecutive international wins
2018 China’s National People’s Congress approves removal of term limits for a leader, will allow Xi Jinping presidency for life
2018 Superhero movie “The Black Panther” becomes the fifth Marvel movie to earn $1 billion worldwide
2018 Greek football Super League suspended after PAOK Salonika’s president Ivan Savvidis invades pitch with a gun after goal disallowed
2019 Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, refutes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s statement “Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people – and only it.”
2019 Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika (82) changes his mind saying he will not seek a fifth term and postpones elections after mass protests
2020 COVID-19 declared a pandemic by the head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, with 121,564 cases worldwide and 4,373 deaths
2020 Harvey Weinstein is sentenced to 23 years in prison for a criminal sex act and rape in New York
2020 Smallest dinosaur ever discovered – skull preserved in piece of amber smaller than a fingertip from a mine in Myanmar, reported in “Nature”
2020 11-year bull market ends as the Dow Jones industrial average falls more than 20%, becoming a bear market
2020 NBA suspends 2019-20 season until further notice after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tests positive for COVID-19
2021 British Prince William says the royal family is “very much not a racist family” in first public comments since interview by brother Harry and wife Meghan
2021 Digital art work “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” a digital college by Beeple, with a non-fungible token, sells for record $69.3 million in online auction by Christie’s
Two years ago, I celebrated my Birthday by watching COVID turn into a world-wide pandemic. Today I watch the horrific cost of having someone like Joe Biden pretending to be President of the United States.
Sorry.
TDM