On this day: March 11

Events on March 11

• 843 Triumph of Orthodoxy: Empress Theodora II restores the veneration of icons in the Orthodox churches in the Byzantine Empire. Wikipedia
• 1343 Arnošt of Pardubice becomes the last Bishop of Prague (3 March 1343 O.S.), and, a year later, the first Archbishop of Prague. Wikipedia
• 1387 Battle of Castagnaro: Padua, led by John Hawkwood, is victorious over Giovanni Ordelaffi of Verona. Wikipedia
• 1669 Mount Etna in Sicily began erupting, eventually producing the largest lava flow in the volcano's history, and damaging Catania and other towns. Wikipedia
• 1851 The first performance of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi takes place in Venice. Wikipedia
• 1861 American Civil War: The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted. Wikipedia
• 1864 The Great Sheffield Flood kills 238 people in Sheffield, England. Wikipedia
• 1917 World War I: Mesopotamian campaign: Baghdad falls to Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Frederick Stanley Maude. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan. Wikipedia
• 1946 Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, is captured by British troops. Wikipedia
• 1977 The 1977 Hanafi Siege: Around 150 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims are set free after ambassadors from three Islamic nations join negotiations. Wikipedia
• 1978 After hijacking a bus north of Tel Aviv, Israel, members of the Palestine Liberation Organization faction Fatah engaged in a shootout with police, resulting in the deaths of 38 civilians and most of the perpetrators. Wikipedia
• 1981 Hundreds of students protest in the University of Pristina in Kosovo, then part of Yugoslavia, to give their province more political rights. The protests then became a nationwide movement. Wikipedia
• 1984 The anime film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki was released. Wikipedia
• 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev is elected to the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, making Gorbachev the USSR's de facto, and last, head of state. Wikipedia
• 2003 The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural session in The Hague. Wikipedia
• 2004 Madrid train bombings: Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid, Spain kill 191 people. Wikipedia
• 2007 Georgian authorities accused Russia of orchestrating a helicopter attack in the Kodori Valley, in the breakaway territory of Abkhazia. Wikipedia
• 2008 Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-123, carrying the first component of the Japanese Kibō module to the International Space Station. Wikipedia
• 2011 An earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes 130 km (81 mi) 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. Wikipedia
• 2012 A U.S. soldier kills 16 civilians in the Panjwayi District of Afghanistan near Kandahar. Wikipedia
• 2020 The World Health Organization (WHO) officialy declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. Wikipedia
• 2020 The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the COVID-19 virus epidemic a pandemic. Wikipedia
• 2020 The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 virus epidemic a pandemic. Wikipedia
• 2021 US President Joe Biden signs the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law. Wikipedia
• 2023 The Burmese military kills at least 30 villagers, including 3 Buddhist monks, during the Pinlaung massacre in Shan State, Myanmar. Wikipedia

Born on March 11

• 1278 Mary of Woodstock, daughter of Edward I of England (died c. 1332) Wikipedia
• 1544 Torquato Tasso, Italian poet and educator (died 1595) Wikipedia
• 1811 Urbain Le Verrier, French mathematician and astronomer (died 1877) Wikipedia
• 1818 Marius Petipa, French-Russian dancer and choreographer (died 1910) Wikipedia
• 1890 Vannevar Bush, American engineer and academic (died 1974) Wikipedia
• 1899 Frederik IX of Denmark (died 1972) Wikipedia
• 1916 Harold Wilson, English academic and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1995) Wikipedia
• 1920 Nicolaas Bloembergen, Dutch-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1921 Astor Piazzolla, Argentine tango composer and bandoneon player (died 1992) Wikipedia
• 1931 Rupert Murdoch, Australian-American businessman and media magnate Wikipedia
• 1936 Antonin Scalia, American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1950 Bobby McFerrin, American singer-songwriter, producer, and conductor Wikipedia
• 1952 Douglas Adams, English author and playwright (died 2001) Wikipedia
• 1955 Nina Hagen, German singer-songwriter Wikipedia
• 1957 Qasem Soleimani, Former Iranian commander of the Quds Force (died 2020) Wikipedia
• 1969 Terrence Howard, American actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1971 Johnny Knoxville, American actor and entertainer Wikipedia
• 1978 Didier Drogba, Ivorian footballer Wikipedia
• 1988 Fábio Coentrão, Portuguese footballer Wikipedia
• 1989 Anton Yelchin, Russian-American actor (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1993 Anthony Davis, American basketball player Wikipedia
• 1994 Andy Robertson, Scottish footballer Wikipedia

Died on March 11

• 222 Elagabalus, Roman emperor (born 203) Wikipedia
• 1689 Sambhaji, second Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire (born 1657) Wikipedia
• 1722 John Toland, Irish philosopher and theorist (born 1670) Wikipedia
• 1907 Jean Casimir-Perier, French lawyer and politician, 6th President of France (born 1847) Wikipedia
• 1908 Edmondo De Amicis, Italian journalist and author (born 1846) Wikipedia
• 1931 F. W. Murnau, German-American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1888) Wikipedia
• 1955 Alexander Fleming, Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, and botanist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1881) Wikipedia
• 1957 Richard E. Byrd, American admiral and explorer (born 1888) Wikipedia
• 1969 John Wyndham, English author (born 1903) Wikipedia
• 1970 Erle Stanley Gardner, American lawyer and author (born 1889) Wikipedia
• 1971 Philo Farnsworth, American inventor, developer of the first all electronic television system (born 1906) Wikipedia
• 2002 James Tobin, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1918) Wikipedia
• 2006 Slobodan Milošević, Serbian lawyer and politician, 3rd President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (born 1941) Wikipedia
• 2022 Rupiah Banda, President of Zambia (born 1937) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Alberta of Agen Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Constantine Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Óengus of Tallaght Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Sophronius of Jerusalem Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Vindicianus Wikipedia
• Day of Restoration of Independence from the Soviet Union in 1990 (Lithuania) Wikipedia
• Moshoeshoe Day (Lesotho) Wikipedia
• Saudi Flag Day Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “March 11” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.