History of Today in India – 11 March

Explore the history of today 11 March in India, including important events, famous personalities, and milestones for UPSC SSC,Banking & PSC exams.

Last updated on 11 March 2026, 04:23 AM

📜 Important Events on 11 March in World History

11 Mar 2023: The Burmese military kills at least 30 villagers, including 3 Buddhist monks, during the Pinlaung massacre in Shan State, Myanmar. Read more
11 Mar 2021: US President Joe Biden signs the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law. Read more
11 Mar 2020: The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the COVID-19 virus epidemic a pandemic. Read more
11 Mar 2018: A Bombardier Challenger 604 crashes into the Zagros Mountains near the Iranian city of Shar-e-kord, killing all 11 people on board. Read more
11 Mar 2012: A U.S. soldier kills 16 civilians in the Panjwayi District of Afghanistan near Kandahar. Read more
11 Mar 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. Read more
11 Mar 2010: Economist and businessman Sebastián Piñera is sworn in as President of Chile. Aftershocks of the 2010 Pichilemu earthquakes hit central Chile during the ceremony. Read more
11 Mar 2009: Winnenden school shooting: Fifteen are killed and nine are injured before recent graduate Tim Kretschmer shoots and kills himself, leading to tightened weapons restrictions in Germany. Read more
11 Mar 2008: Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-123, carrying the first component of the Japanese Kibō module to the International Space Station. Read more
11 Mar 2006: Michelle Bachelet is inaugurated as the first female president of Chile. Read more
11 Mar 2004: Madrid train bombings: Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid, Spain kill 191 people. Read more
11 Mar 2003: The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural session in The Hague. Read more
11 Mar 1990: Lithuania declares independence from the Soviet Union. Read more
11 Mar 1990: Patricio Aylwin is sworn in as the first democratically elected President of Chile since 1970. Read more
11 Mar 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. Read more
11 Mar 1983: Bob Hawke is appointed Prime Minister of Australia. Read more
11 Mar 1982: Fifteen people are killed when Widerøe Flight 933 crashes into the Barents Sea near Gamvik, Norway. Read more
11 Mar 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. Read more
11 Mar 1978: Coastal Road massacre: At least 37 are killed and more than 70 are wounded when Fatah hijack an Israeli bus, prompting Israel's Operation Litani. Read more
11 Mar 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. Read more
11 Mar 1946: Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, is captured by British troops. Read more
11 Mar 1945: World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy attempts a large-scale kamikaze attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet anchored at Ulithi atoll in Operation Tan No. 2. Read more
11 Mar 1945: World War II: The Empire of Vietnam, a short-lived Japanese puppet state, is established. Read more
11 Mar 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. Read more
11 Mar 1927: In New York City, Samuel Roxy Rothafel opens the Roxy Theatre. Read more
11 Mar 1917: World War I: Mesopotamian campaign: Baghdad falls to Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Frederick Stanley Maude. Read more
11 Mar 1892: The Saint-Germain bombing ushers France into the Ère des attentats (1892-1894). Read more
11 Mar 1888: The Great Blizzard of 1888 begins along the eastern seaboard of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400 people. Read more
11 Mar 1879: Shō Tai formally abdicates his position of King of Ryūkyū, under orders from Tokyo, ending the Ryukyu Kingdom. Read more
11 Mar 1872: Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales, begins; it is located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain. Read more
11 Mar 1864: The Great Sheffield Flood kills 238 people in Sheffield, England. Read more
11 Mar 1861: American Civil War: The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted. Read more
11 Mar 1851: The first performance of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi takes place in Venice. Read more
11 Mar 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. Read more
11 Mar 1845: Flagstaff War: Unhappy with translational differences regarding the Treaty of Waitangi, chiefs Hōne Heke, Kawiti and Māori tribe members chop down the British flagpole for a fourth time and drive settlers out of Kororāreka, New Zealand. Read more

🎂 Important Births on 11 March in World History

11 Mar 2004: Margarita Kolosov, German rhythmic gymnast Margarita Kolosov is a German rhythmic gymnast. She is a two-time German all-around champion. She is also a two-time World team silver medalist. Margarita has been competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the women's rhythmic individual all-around, where she came in fourth place. Read more
11 Mar 2003: Tristan Vukčević, Serbian-Swedish basketball player Tristan Tsalikis Vukčević is a Serbian-Greek professional basketball player for the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also represents the Serbian national team. Read more
11 Mar 1997: Travis Konecny, Canadian ice hockey player Travis Konecny is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a forward and alternate captain for the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Flyers selected him in the first round, 24th overall, of the 2015 NHL entry draft. Read more
11 Mar 1997: Ray Spalding, American basketball player Raymond Mark Spalding is an American professional basketball player for the Noblesville Boom of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for the Louisville Cardinals, and was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round of the 2018 NBA draft. Read more
11 Mar 1996: Conor Garland, American ice hockey player Conor Garland is an American professional ice hockey player who is a winger for the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League (NHL). Garland was drafted in the fifth round, 123rd overall, by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2015 NHL entry draft, and has also played in the NHL for the Vancouver Canucks. Read more
11 Mar 1994: Andy Robertson, Scottish footballer Andrew Henry Robertson is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Premier League club Liverpool and captains the Scotland national team. He is also the vice-captain of Liverpool. Read more
11 Mar 1993: Jodie Comer, English actress Jodie Comer is an English actress of screen and stage. Her accolades include two British Academy Television Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Tony Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and two nominations for a Golden Globe Award. Read more
11 Mar 1993: Anthony Davis, American basketball player Anthony Marshon Davis Jr., nicknamed "AD" and "the Brow", is an American professional basketball player for the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Davis, a power forward and center, is a ten-time NBA All-Star and has been named to five All-NBA Teams and five NBA All-Defensive Teams. In 2021, he was named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. Davis is widely regarded as one of the greatest power forwards of all time. Read more
11 Mar 1992: Austin Swift, American producer and actor Austin Kingsley Swift is an American music executive, producer, and actor who has appeared in films such as Live by Night and I.T.. The younger brother of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, he has appeared in and produced several of her music videos, and manages elements of her music licensing for multimedia uses. Read more
11 Mar 1990: Ayumi Morita, Japanese tennis player Ayumi Morita is a Japanese former professional tennis player. She reached a career-high ranking of No. 40 in the world in October 2011. At junior level, she reached a combined career-high ranking of No. 3. Read more
11 Mar 1989: Malcolm Delaney, American basketball player Malcolm Hakeem Delaney is an American former professional basketball player. He is from Baltimore, Maryland, and attended Towson Catholic High School. Delaney played college basketball for the Virginia Tech Hokies men's basketball team. At the end of his college career, Delaney declared for the 2011 NBA draft. He was not drafted, and instead began his professional basketball career overseas, playing one season each for Élan Chalon, Budivelnyk Kyiv, and Bayern Munich, and later joined Lokomotiv Kuban for two seasons. In 2016, he earned an All-EuroLeague First Team selection. Read more
11 Mar 1989: Orlando Johnson, American basketball player Orlando Vincent Johnson is an American basketball coach, administrator, and former professional player. He played college basketball for Loyola Marymount and UC Santa Barbara. Read more
11 Mar 1989: Anton Yelchin, Russian-American actor (died 2016) Anton Viktorovich Yelchin was an American actor. Born in the Soviet Union to a Russian Jewish family, he immigrated to the United States with his parents at the age of six months. He began his career as a child actor, appearing as the lead of the mystery drama film Hearts in Atlantis (2001) and as a series regular on the Showtime comedy-drama Huff (2004–2006). His fame grew when he guest-starred in a 2004 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm and when he played the title character in Charlie Bartlett (2007). Read more
11 Mar 1988: Pedro Báez, Dominican baseball player Pedro Alberys Báez is a Dominican former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros. Signed as an international free agent in 2007, Báez made his MLB debut with the Dodgers in 2014, and, in 2020, was a member of the Dodgers' World Series championship club. Read more
11 Mar 1988: Fábio Coentrão, Portuguese footballer Fábio Alexandre da Silva Coentrão is a Portuguese former professional footballer. Mainly a left-back, he also operated as a winger and occasionally as a defensive midfielder. Read more
11 Mar 1988: Cecil Lolo, South African footballer (died 2015) Cecil Sonwabile Lolo was a South African professional footballer, who played as a defender and midfielder for Ajax Cape Town. Read more
11 Mar 1987: Marc-André Gragnani, Canadian ice hockey player Marc-André Gragnani is a former Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman. He most recently played with Djurgårdens IF then of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). He spent four-and-a-half seasons playing for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League and their American Hockey League affiliate, the Portland Pirates. He also played half a season with Vancouver before signing with Carolina as a free agent. On July 3, 2015, Gragnani signed a one-year, two-way contract with the New Jersey Devils for whom he appeared four times. Read more
11 Mar 1987: Tanel Kangert, Estonian cyclist Tanel Kangert is an Estonian former road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional from 2008 to 2022. Read more
11 Mar 1987: Ngonidzashe Makusha, Zimbabwean sprinter and long jumper Ngonidzashe Makusha is a Zimbabwean sprinter and long jumper. He is the national record holder over 100 m and long jump for Zimbabwe with 9.89 s (+1.3 m/s) and 8.40 m (0.0 m/s), respectively. Both performances were achieved during the 2011 NCAA Division I Championships in Des Moines, Iowa where he completed the 100 m – long jump double gold. Makusha was one of the only four, now five, athletes to win the 100 m – long jump double gold at the NCAA championships. The four others are DeHart Hubbard (1925), Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis (1981), and Jarrion Lawson (2016). Read more
11 Mar 1986: Dario Cologna, Swiss skier Dario Cologna is a Swiss retired cross-country skier. He has four overall World Cup victories, four Olympic gold medals, one World Championships gold medal and four Tour de Ski victories in his career. Read more
11 Mar 1985: Paul Bissonnette, Canadian ice hockey player Paul Albert Bissonnette, nicknamed "Biz Nasty", is a Canadian professional ice hockey analyst and former player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Phoenix Coyotes. Read more
11 Mar 1985: Daniel Vázquez Evuy, Equatoguinean footballer Daniel Vázquez Evuy, known as Evuy, is a former footballer who played as a defender. Born and raised in Spain to a Spanish father and an Equatorial Guinean mother, he capped for the Equatorial Guinea national team. Read more
11 Mar 1985: Cassandra Fairbanks, American journalist and activist Cassandra MacDonald is an American journalist and activist. As a journalist, she has worked for the Russian state-owned international news agency Sputnik (2015–2017), far-right American conspiracy theory websites Big League Politics (2017) and The Gateway Pundit, as well as Timcast. Read more
11 Mar 1985: Stelios Malezas, Greek footballer Stelios Malezas is a Greek professional football manager and former player. Read more
11 Mar 1985: Greg Olsen, American football player and commentator Gregory Walter Olsen Jr. is an American professional football sportscaster and former tight end who played for 14 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Miami Hurricanes and was selected by the Chicago Bears in the first round of the 2007 NFL draft. Olsen played most of his career for the Carolina Panthers, with whom he made three Pro Bowls, and became the first tight end in NFL history to record three consecutive seasons with at least 1,000 receiving yards. Olsen played his final season with the Seattle Seahawks in 2020. Following his retirement Olsen joined Fox as a sportscaster and is formerly the lead color commentator for the NFL on Fox. Read more
11 Mar 1985: Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Australian footballer Nikolai David Topor-Stanley is an Australian former soccer player who played as a centre-back. He played for A-League clubs Sydney FC, Perth Glory, Newcastle Jets, Western Sydney Wanderers and Western United. He has also played in international squads, the Olyroos and Socceroos, for Australia. Read more
11 Mar 1984: Rob Brown, American actor Robert Brown is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the films Finding Forrester (2000), Coach Carter (2005), Take the Lead (2006), and The Express: The Ernie Davis Story (2008), and for starring in the HBO series Treme (2010–13) and NBC series Blindspot (2015-2020). Read more
11 Mar 1983: Lukáš Krajíček, Czech ice hockey player Lukáš Krajíček is a Czech former professional ice hockey defenceman. He has previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Florida Panthers, Vancouver Canucks, Tampa Bay Lightning and Philadelphia Flyers, in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) for HC Dinamo Minsk and for HC Oceláři Třinec of the Czech Extraliga (ELH). Read more
11 Mar 1982: Brian Anderson, American baseball player Brian Nikola Anderson is an American former professional baseball player. He played all or part of five seasons in Major League Baseball with the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox as an outfielder, a position he played professionally until before the 2010 season. He also played for the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees organizations as a pitcher. He is currently an assistant coach at Northwestern. Read more
11 Mar 1982: Thora Birch, American actress, producer, and director Thora Birch is an American actress. She made her film debut with a starring role in Purple People Eater (1988) and won a Young Artist Award for "Best Actress Under Nine Years of Age". Birch rose to prominence as a child star during the 1990s through a string of parts in films, such as Paradise (1991), Patriot Games (1992), Hocus Pocus (1993), Monkey Trouble (1994), Now and Then (1995), and Alaska (1996). Her breakthrough into adult-oriented roles came with her portrayal of Jane Burnham in American Beauty (1999), for which she was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress. Read more
11 Mar 1981: David Anders, American actor David Anders Holt, known professionally as David Anders, is an American television and stage actor. He is best known for his roles as Julian Sark on Alias, as Adam Monroe on Heroes, as John Gilbert in the TV series The Vampire Diaries, as Victor Frankenstein / Dr. Whale on ABC's Once Upon a Time, and as Blaine "DeBeers" McDonough on iZombie. Although Anders is American, a few of his roles have required him to use a British Home counties accent. Read more
11 Mar 1981: Lee Evans, American football player Lee Evans III is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Wisconsin Badgers. Evans was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the first round of the 2004 NFL draft with the 13th overall pick. He also played for the Baltimore Ravens. Read more
11 Mar 1981: Russell Lissack, English musician Russell Dean Lissack is an English musician. He is the lead guitarist of London-based indie rock group Bloc Party, whom he founded with Kele Okereke in 1999. He released a self-titled album with side project Pin Me Down in 2010, and was a touring member of Ash from 2010 to 2011. Read more
11 Mar 1981: LeToya Luckett, American singer-songwriter and actress LeToya Nicole Luckett-Coles is an American R&B singer and actress. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as a founding member of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child, one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. As a member of Destiny's Child, she achieved four US Top 10 hit singles, "No, No, No", "Bills, Bills, Bills", "Jumpin', Jumpin'", and
"Say My Name", sold over 25 million records, and won two Grammy Awards. In the 2000s, she began her solo career after leaving the group and signing a record deal with Capitol Records. Read more
11 Mar 1980: Rich Hill, American baseball player Richard Joseph Hill, nicknamed "Dick Mountain", is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Rays, New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, and Kansas City Royals. He is tied with Edwin Jackson for the MLB record by playing for fourteen teams. He has played during each MLB season from 2005 through 2025, and he was the oldest active MLB player in 2024 and 2025. Read more
11 Mar 1980: Mark Rober, American YouTuber and engineer Mark Rober is an American YouTuber, engineer, inventor, and educator. He is known for his YouTube videos on popular science and do-it-yourself gadgets. Before he became a YouTuber, Rober was an engineer with NASA for nine years, where he spent seven years working on the Curiosity rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He later worked for four years at Apple as a product designer in their Special Projects Group, where he authored patents involving virtual reality in self-driving cars. Read more
11 Mar 1980: Dan Uggla, American baseball player Daniel Cooley Uggla is an American former professional baseball second baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Florida Marlins, Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, and Washington Nationals. In 2010, Uggla won the Silver Slugger Award at second base. Read more
11 Mar 1979: Elton Brand, American basketball player Elton Tyron Brand is an American former professional basketball player and the general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After playing college basketball for Duke, he was selected with the first overall pick in the 1999 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls, and later played for the Philadelphia 76ers, the Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks and Atlanta Hawks. He was a two-time NBA All Star and an All-NBA Second Team selection in 2006. Read more
11 Mar 1979: Fred Jones, American basketball player Frederick Terrell Jones is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Oregon Ducks and was the winner of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest at the 2004 NBA All-Star Game. Read more
11 Mar 1979: Benji Madden, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Benjamin Levi Madden is an American musician and songwriter. He is the rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist for the rock band Good Charlotte—for which he has received various awards—as well as pop rock collaboration the Madden Brothers. He formed both of these acts with his identical twin brother, Joel Madden, with whom he was a coach on The Voice Australia from 2015 to 2016. Read more
11 Mar 1979: Joel Madden, American singer-songwriter and producer Joel Rueben Madden is an American singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist for the rock band Good Charlotte. He is also part of the pop rock collaboration the Madden Brothers with his identical twin brother Benji Madden. Read more
11 Mar 1978: Didier Drogba, Ivorian footballer Didier Yves Drogba Tébily (French pronunciation: [didje iv dʁɔɡba tebili]; born 11 March 1978) is an Ivorian former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is the all-time top scorer and former captain of the Ivory Coast national team. He also ranks fourth for the all-time African men's top goalscorers in international football. Best known for his career at Chelsea, he is the club’s all-time top goalscorer as a foreign player and the club's fourth-highest goalscorer of all time. Widely regarded as one of the greatest African players of all time, Drogba was named African Footballer of the Year twice in 2006 and 2009. Read more
11 Mar 1978: Albert Luque, Spanish footballer Albert Luque Martos is a Spanish former footballer who played as a left winger or striker. Read more
11 Mar 1977: Becky Hammon, American-Russian basketball player and coach Rebecca Lynn Hammon is an American-Russian professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is considered among the most influential figures in basketball, as a pioneer for female coaches in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and one of the greatest players and coaches in WNBA history. Read more
11 Mar 1977: Michal Handzuš, Slovak ice hockey player Michal Handzuš is a Slovak former professional ice hockey centre. Handzuš played for hometown club, HC ’05 Banská Bystrica of the Slovak Extraliga before joining the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1998. Handzuš played for the St. Louis Blues, Phoenix Coyotes, Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and the Chicago Blackhawks, with whom he won the Stanley Cup with in 2013. Read more
11 Mar 1976: Thomas Gravesen, Danish footballer Thomas Gravesen is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
11 Mar 1974: Bobby Abreu, Venezuelan baseball player Bob Kelly Abreu, nicknamed "El Comedulce" and "La Leche", is a Venezuelan former professional baseball right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, and New York Mets. Read more
11 Mar 1971: Johnny Knoxville, American actor and entertainer Philip John Clapp, known professionally as Johnny Knoxville, is an American stunt performer, actor, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known as a co-creator and star of the MTV reality stunt show Jackass (2000–2001) and its subsequent movies. Read more
11 Mar 1971: Martin Ručinský, Czech ice hockey player Martin Ručinský is a Czech former professional ice hockey player who played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). Ručínský was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in the first round as the 20th overall selection in the 1991 NHL entry draft on 22 June 1991. Read more
11 Mar 1971: Lee Sang-hoon, South Korean baseball player Lee Sang-hoon, nicknamed "Samson" for his long hair, is a retired professional baseball player who played in Major League Baseball, Nippon Professional Baseball, and the KBO League. Read more
11 Mar 1969: Terrence Howard, American actor and producer Terrence Dashon Howard is an American actor performing on film and television. He has received a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and two Independent Spirit Awards. Read more
11 Mar 1969: Soraya, Colombian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 2006) Soraya Raquel Lamilla Cuevas was a Colombian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, arranger and record producer. Read more
11 Mar 1969: Michael Rulli, American politician and businessman Michael Anthony Rulli is an American politician and businessman serving as the U.S. representative for Ohio's 6th congressional district since 2024. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as an Ohio State Senator for the 33rd district from 2019 to 2024. Read more
11 Mar 1968: Lisa Loeb, American singer-songwriter Lisa Anne Loeb is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author and actress. She started her career with "Stay " (1994) from the film Reality Bites, the first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 for an artist without a recording contract. She achieved additional top-20 singles with "Do You Sleep?" in 1996 and "I Do" in 1998. Her albums Tails (1995) and Firecracker (1997) were certified gold. Read more
11 Mar 1967: John Barrowman, Scottish-American actor and singer John Scot Barrowman is a Scottish-American actor, author, presenter, singer and comic book writer. He is known for his roles as Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who and its spin-off Torchwood (2006–2011), and as Malcolm Merlyn in the Arrowverse (2012–2019). Read more
11 Mar 1967: Sergei Bautin, Belarusian ice hockey player and coach (died 2022) Sergei Viktorovich Bautin was a Soviet-born ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League for the Winnipeg Jets, Detroit Red Wings and the San Jose Sharks. Read more
11 Mar 1967: Brad Carson, American lawyer and politician Brad Rogers Carson is an American lawyer and politician who was the 21st president of the University of Tulsa from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he served two terms in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2005. Read more
11 Mar 1966: John Thompson III, American basketball player and coach John Robert Thompson III is an American professional basketball coach and executive who has been the assistant coach for the United States men's national basketball team since 2017. He previously served as the head coach of the men's basketball team at Georgetown University. Read more
11 Mar 1965: Nigel Adkins, English footballer and manager Nigel Howard Adkins is an English professional football manager and former footballer and physiotherapist. He was most recently the manager and technical director at Tranmere Rovers. Read more
11 Mar 1965: Jesse Jackson, Jr., American lawyer and politician Jesse Louis Jackson Jr. is an American former politician. He served as the U.S. representative from Illinois's 2nd congressional district from 1995 until his resignation in 2012. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the son of activist and former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson and, prior to his career in elected office, worked for his father in both the elder Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign and his social justice, civil rights and political activism organization, Operation PUSH. Jackson's then-wife, Sandi Jackson, served on the Chicago City Council. He served as a national co-chairman of the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign. Jackson established a consistent liberal record on both social and fiscal issues, and he has co-authored books on civil rights and personal finance. Read more
11 Mar 1965: Wallace Langham, American actor James Wallace Langham II is an American actor. He is known for his roles in television shows, playing the role of Phil the Head Writer on The Larry Sanders Show (1992–1998), Josh Blair in Veronica's Closet (1997–2000), and as David Hodges on the crime drama television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000–2015), a role he would reprise in CSI: Vegas (2021). He began his career in 1985 under the stage name Wally Ward before reverting to his real name in 1989. He would have roles in films such as Weird Science, Michael, Daddy Day Care, Little Miss Sunshine, The Social Network and Ford v Ferrari, and make appearances in series such as ER, The West Wing, For All Mankind and Physical. Read more
11 Mar 1965: Jenny Packham, English fashion designer Jenny Packham is a British fashion designer. She mostly makes ready-to-wear clothes and wedding dresses. She is the sister of naturalist and television presenter Chris Packham. Read more
11 Mar 1964: Peter Berg, American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor Peter Berg is an American director, producer, writer, and actor. His directorial film works include the black comedy Very Bad Things (1998), the action comedy The Rundown (2003), the sports drama Friday Night Lights (2004), the action thriller The Kingdom (2007), the superhero comedy-drama Hancock (2008), the military science fiction war film Battleship (2012), the war film Lone Survivor (2013), the disaster drama Deepwater Horizon (2016), the Boston Marathon bombing drama Patriots Day (2016), the action thriller Mile 22 (2018), and the action comedy Spenser Confidential (2020), the latter five all starring Mark Wahlberg. In addition to cameo appearances in the last six of these titles, he has had prominent acting roles in films including Never on Tuesday (1989), Shocker (1989), ‘’A Midnight Clear’’(1992), The Last Seduction (1994), The Great White Hype (1996), Cop Land (1997), Corky Romano (2001), Collateral (2004), Smokin' Aces (2006), and Lions for Lambs (2007). Read more
11 Mar 1964: Raimo Helminen, Finnish ice hockey player and coach Raimo Ilmari Helminen is a Finnish former professional ice hockey player. He is often called "Raipe" or "Maestro" by his fans. He is the world record holder for most international games played by a hockey player, as well as for tied for being the hockey player in the most Olympic Games, and his 26 seasons as a professional is one of the longest careers in professional hockey history. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2012. Read more
11 Mar 1964: Vinnie Paul, American drummer, songwriter and producer (died 2018) Vincent Paul Abbott was an American musician best known for being the drummer and co-founder of the heavy metal band Pantera. He also co-founded Damageplan in 2003 with his younger brother, "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, and was a member of Hellyeah for 12 years from 2006 until his death in 2018. Several outlets have ranked Abbott as among the greatest metal drummers of all time. Read more
11 Mar 1964: Shane Richie, English actor and singer Shane Patrick Paul Roche, known as Shane Richie, is an English actor, comedian, presenter and singer. Following initial success as a stage and screen performer, he became best known for his portrayal of the character Alfie Moon in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders and then in its spin-off RTÉ Drama Redwater in 2017. In 2020, he appeared on the twentieth series of I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here and finished in fourth place. Read more
11 Mar 1963: Gary Barnett, English footballer and manager Gary Lloyd Barnett is an English former professional footballer and football coach. He made nearly 400 appearances in the Football League playing as a midfielder for Oxford United, Wimbledon, Fulham, Huddersfield Town, Leyton Orient and Kidderminster Harriers. After leaving Leyton Orient in the summer of 1995, he was on trial with Norwegian club IL Hødd. As player-manager of League of Wales club Barry Town, he was honoured with the League of Wales Manager of the Year award in three consecutive seasons, for leading the club to a succession of domestic honours and to the first round proper of the 1996–97 UEFA Cup. Read more
11 Mar 1963: Alex Kingston, English actress Alexandra Elizabeth Kingston is an English actress. Active from the early 1980s, Kingston became noted for her television work in both Britain and the US in the 1990s, including her regular role as Dr. Elizabeth Corday in the NBC medical drama ER (1997–2004) and her title role in the ITV miniseries The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders (1996), which earned her a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress. Read more
11 Mar 1963: David LaChapelle, American photographer and director David LaChapelle is an American photographer, music video director, and film director. He is best known for his work in fashion and photography, which often references art history and sometimes conveys social messages. His photographic style has been described as "hyper-real and slyly subversive" and as "kitsch pop surrealism". Once called "the Fellini of photography", LaChapelle has worked for international publications and has had his work exhibited in commercial galleries and institutions around the world. Read more
11 Mar 1962: Matt Mead, American politician, 32nd Governor of Wyoming Matthew Hansen Mead is an American attorney, businessman and politician who served as the 32nd Governor of Wyoming from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the United States Attorney for the District of Wyoming from 2001 to 2007. Read more
11 Mar 1962: Jeffrey Nordling, American actor Jeffrey Richard Nordling is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Jake Manning in Once and Again, Larry Moss in 24, Nick Bolen in Desperate Housewives, and Gordon Klein in Big Little Lies, as well as Coach Orion in D3: The Mighty Ducks. Read more
11 Mar 1961: Elias Koteas, Canadian actor Elias Koteas is a Canadian actor who has performed in lead and supporting roles in numerous films and television series. He won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film Ararat (2002). Read more
11 Mar 1961: Bruce Watson, Canadian-Scottish guitarist Bruce William Watson is a Canadian-born Scottish guitarist, best known for being a member of Big Country. Read more
11 Mar 1960: Warwick Taylor, New Zealand rugby player Warwick Thomas Taylor is a former New Zealand rugby union player. He won 24 caps for the All Blacks between 1983 and 1988 and played in the victorious New Zealand team at the 1987 Rugby World Cup. Read more
11 Mar 1959: Nina Hartley, American pornographic actress/director, sex educator, sex-positive feminist, and author Marie Louise Hartman, known professionally as Nina Hartley, is an American pornographic film actress and sex educator.
By 2017 she had appeared in more than one thousand adult films.
She has been described by Las Vegas Weekly as an "outspoken feminist" and "advocate for sexual freedom", and by CNBC as "a legend in the adult world". Read more
11 Mar 1958: Anissa Jones, American child actress (died 1976) Mary Anissa Jones was an American child actress known for her role as Buffy Davis on the CBS sitcom Family Affair, which ran from 1966 to 1971. She died from a drug overdose, five years after the show ended. Read more
11 Mar 1957: Qasem Soleimani, Former Iranian commander of the Quds Force (died 2020) Qasem Soleimani was an Iranian military officer who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). From 1998 until his assassination by the United States in 2020, he was the commander of the Quds Force, an IRGC division primarily responsible for extraterritorial and clandestine military operations, and played a key role in the Syrian civil war through securing Russian intervention. He was described as "the single most powerful operative in the Middle East" and a "genius of asymmetric warfare". Former Mossad director Yossi Cohen said Soleimani's strategies had "personally tightened a noose around Israel's neck". Read more
11 Mar 1956: Willie Banks, American triple jumper William Augustus Banks III is an American athlete. Born at Travis Air Force Base, California, he grew up in San Diego County and went to Oceanside High School. Banks is an Eagle Scout. Read more
11 Mar 1956: Helen Rollason, English sports journalist and sportscaster (died 1999) Helen Frances Rollason was a British sports journalist and television presenter, who in 1990 became the first female presenter of the BBC's sports programme Grandstand. She was also a regular presenter of Sport on Friday, and of the children's programme Newsround during the 1980s. Read more
11 Mar 1955: Leslie Cliff, Canadian swimmer Leslie G. Cliff,, later known by her married name Leslie Tindle, is a Canadian former competitive swimmer who participated in the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and Pan American Games. Read more
11 Mar 1955: Nina Hagen, German singer-songwriter Catharina "Nina" Hagen is a German singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her theatrical vocals and rise to prominence during the punk and Neue Deutsche Welle movements in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She is known as "The Godmother of German Punk". Read more
11 Mar 1954: David Newman, American composer and conductor David Louis Newman is an American composer and conductor known particularly for his film scores. In a career spanning more than thirty years, he has composed music for nearly 100 feature films, as well as the 1997 and 1998 versions of the 20th Century Fox fanfare. He received an Academy Award nomination for writing the score to the 1997 film Anastasia, contributing to the Newmans being the most nominated Academy Award extended family, with a collective 92 nominations in various music categories. Read more
11 Mar 1954: Gale Norton, American politician, 48th United States Secretary of the Interior Gale Ann Norton is an American politician and attorney who served as the 48th United States Secretary of the Interior under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 35th Attorney General of Colorado from 1991 to 1999. Norton was the first woman to hold each of those posts. Read more
11 Mar 1953: Derek Daly, Irish-American race car driver and sportscaster Derek Patrick Daly is an Irish former racing driver, businessman and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from 1978 to 1982. Read more
11 Mar 1953: Jimmy Iovine, American record producer and businessman, co-founded Beats Electronics James Iovine is an American entrepreneur, former record executive, and media proprietor. He co-founded Interscope Records in 1990, and served as chairman and CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M, an umbrella music unit formed by Universal Music Group, from 1999 to 2014. Read more
11 Mar 1953: Bernie LaBarge, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist Bernie LaBarge is a Canadian performing and session guitarist, singer and songwriter, and producer. Read more
11 Mar 1952: Douglas Adams, English author and playwright (died 2001) Douglas Noël Adams was an English author, humorist, and screenwriter, best known as the creator of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy evolved into a "trilogy" of six books, which sold more than 14 million copies in his lifetime. It was adapted into a 1981 television series, several stage plays, comics, a 1984 video game, and a 2005 feature film. Read more
11 Mar 1951: Dominique Sanda, French model and actress Dominique Marie-Françoise Renée Varaigne, professionally known as Dominique Sanda, is a French actress. Read more
11 Mar 1950: Bobby McFerrin, American singer-songwriter, producer, and conductor Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, and conductor. His vocal techniques include singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch—for example, sustaining a melody while also rapidly alternating with arpeggios and harmonies—as well as scat singing, polyphonic overtone singing, and improvisational vocal percussion. McFerrin performs and records regularly as an unaccompanied solo vocal artist and has frequently collaborated with other artists from both the jazz and classical scenes. Read more
11 Mar 1950: Jerry Zucker, American director, producer, and screenwriter Jerry Gordon Zucker is an American filmmaker. With his brother David and Jim Abrahams, he is part the filmmaking trio Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker. Read more
11 Mar 1948: Roy Barnes, American politician, 80th Governor of Georgia Roy Eugene Barnes is an American attorney and politician who served as the 80th governor of Georgia from 1999 to 2003. As of 2026, he is the most recent Democrat to serve as governor of Georgia. Read more
11 Mar 1948: Jim McMillian, American basketball player (died 2016) James M. McMillian was an American professional basketball player. After starring at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn, McMillian played college basketball for the Columbia Lions. He led Columbia to a three-year mark of 63–14, and their last NCAA Tournament appearance in 1968, his sophomore year. The tourney ended with a third-place finish for Columbia in the East regional, and Columbia ended that 1967–68 season the sixth-ranked college team in the nation. Read more
11 Mar 1947: Tristan Murail, French composer and educator
Tristan Murail is a French composer associated with the "spectral" technique of composition. Among his compositions is the large orchestral work Gondwana. Read more
11 Mar 1946: Mark Metcalf, American actor Mark Metcalf is an American television and film actor often playing the role of an antagonistic and aggrieved authority figure. Read more
11 Mar 1945: Dock Ellis, American baseball player and coach (died 2008) Dock Phillip Ellis Jr. was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher from 1968 through 1979, most notably as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates teams that won five National League Eastern Division titles in six years between 1970 and 1975 and won the World Series in 1971. Ellis also played for the New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Texas Rangers and New York Mets. In his MLB career, Ellis accumulated a 138–119 (.537) record, a 3.46 earned run average, and 1,136 strikeouts. Read more
11 Mar 1945: Harvey Mandel, American guitarist Harvey "The Snake" Mandel is an American guitarist best known as a member of Canned Heat. He also played with Charlie Musselwhite and John Mayall as well as maintaining a solo career. Read more
11 Mar 1943: Arturo Merzario, Italian race car driver Arturo Francesco "Art" Merzario is an Italian racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from 1972 to 1979. Read more
11 Mar 1941: Shelly Zegart, quilt historian (died 2025) Rochelle Zegart was an American quilt collector, historian, and advocate. She was involved in the establishment of several quilting organizations and is best known for her work promoting quilting as an art form and archiving quilting history. Read more
11 Mar 1940: Alberto Cortez, Argentinian-Spanish singer-songwriter (died 2019) Alberto Cortez was an Argentine singer and songwriter. Cortez and his wife Renée Govaerts lived in Madrid. Read more
11 Mar 1936: Antonin Scalia, American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (died 2016) Antonin Gregory Scalia was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectual anchor for the originalist and textualist position in the Court's conservative wing. For catalyzing an originalist and textualist movement in American law, he has been described as one of the most influential jurists of the twentieth century, and one of the most important justices in the history of the Supreme Court. Scalia was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018, and the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University was named in his honor. Read more
11 Mar 1934: Sam Donaldson, American journalist Samuel Andrew Donaldson Jr. is an American retired television reporter and news anchor. He broadcast with ABC News from 1967 to 2009. He was well known as the White House Correspondent with a booming loud voice, which could get the attention of President Reagan, amazingly cutting through the noise of whirling helicopter blades. He was a panelist and co-anchor of Sunday's This Week on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). Read more
11 Mar 1932: Leroy Jenkins, American violinist and composer (died 2007) Leroy Jenkins was an American composer and violinist/violist. Read more
11 Mar 1932: Nigel Lawson, English journalist and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (died 2023) Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, was a British politician, journalist and climate change denier. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament for Blaby in Leicestershire from 1974 to 1992, and served in Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet from 1981 to 1989. Prior to entering the Cabinet, he served as the Financial Secretary to the Treasury from May 1979 until his promotion to Secretary of State for Energy. He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in June 1983 and served until his resignation in October 1989. In both Cabinet posts, Lawson was a key proponent of Thatcher's policies of privatisation of several key industries. Read more
11 Mar 1931: Rupert Murdoch, Australian-American businessman and media magnate Keith Rupert Murdoch is an Australian and American former business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including in the United Kingdom, in Australia, in the United States, book publisher HarperCollins, and the television broadcasting channels Sky News Australia and Fox News. He was also the owner of Sky, 21st Century Fox, and the now-defunct News of the World. With a net worth of US$21.7 billion as of 2 March 2022, Murdoch is the 31st richest person in the United States and the 71st richest in the world according to Forbes magazine. Due to his extensive wealth and influence over media and politics, Murdoch has been described as an oligarch. Read more
11 Mar 1930: David Gentleman, English illustrator and engraver David William Gentleman is an English artist. He studied art and painting at the Royal College of Art under Edward Bawden and John Nash. He has worked in watercolour, lithography and wood engraving, at scales ranging from platform-length murals for Charing Cross Underground Station in London to postage stamps and logos. Read more
11 Mar 1930: Claude Jutra, Canadian actor, director and screenwriter (died 1986) Claude Jutra was a Canadian actor, film director, and screenwriter. Read more
11 Mar 1929: Timothy Carey, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1994) Timothy Agoglia Carey was an American film and television character actor who was typically cast as manic or violent characters who are driven to extremes. He is particularly known for his collaborations with Stanley Kubrick in the films The Killing (1956) and Paths of Glory (1957), and for appearing in the two John Cassavetes directed films Minnie and Moskowitz (1971) and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976). Other notable film credits include Crime Wave (1954), East of Eden (1955), One-Eyed Jacks (1961), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), Head (1968) and The Outfit (1973). Read more
11 Mar 1929: Jackie McGlew, South African cricketer (died 1998) Derrick John "Jackie" McGlew was a cricketer who played for Natal and South Africa. He was educated at Merchiston Preparatory School and Maritzburg College, where he was Head Dayboy Prefect and captain of both cricket and rugby in 1948. Read more
11 Mar 1927: Vince Boryla, American basketball player, coach, and executive (died 2016) Vincent Joseph Boryla was an American basketball player, coach and executive. His nickname was "Moose". He graduated from East Chicago Washington High School in 1944. He played basketball at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Denver, where he was named a consensus All-American in 1949. Boryla was part of the U.S. team that won the gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. Read more
11 Mar 1927: Freda Meissner-Blau, Austrian activist and politician (died 2015) Freda Meissner-Blau was an Austrian politician, activist, and prominent figurehead in the Austrian environmental movement. She was a founder and the federal spokesperson of the Austrian Green Party. Read more
11 Mar 1927: Robert Mosbacher, American businessman, and politician, United States Secretary of Commerce (died 2010) Robert Adam Mosbacher Sr. was an American businessman, accomplished yacht racer, and a Republican politician. A longtime friend and political ally of George H. W. Bush, Mosbacher served in Bush's Cabinet as Secretary of Commerce from 1989 to 1992. Read more
11 Mar 1927: Josep Maria Subirachs, Spanish sculptor and painter (died 2014) Josep Maria Subirachs i Sitjar was a Spanish sculptor and painter of the late 20th century. His best known work is probably the Passion Facade of the basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona. He was controversial, as he did not make any concessions to the style of the architect who designed the building, Antoni Gaudí. Read more
11 Mar 1926: Ralph Abernathy, American minister and activist (died 1990) Ralph David Abernathy Sr. was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was ordained in the Baptist tradition in 1948. Being a leader of the civil rights movement, Abernathy was a close friend and mentor of Martin Luther King Jr. and collaborated with him and E. D. Nixon to create the Montgomery Improvement Association, which led to the Montgomery bus boycott and co-created and was an executive board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Abernathy became president of the SCLC following the assassination of King in 1968 and led the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C., in addition to other marches and demonstrations for disenfranchised Americans. He also served as an advisory committee member of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE). Read more
11 Mar 1925: Margaret Oakley Dayhoff, American biochemist and academic (died 1983) Margaret Belle (Oakley) Dayhoff was an American biophysicist and a pioneer in the field of bioinformatics. Dayhoff was a professor at Georgetown University Medical Center and a noted research biochemist at the National Biomedical Research Foundation, where she pioneered the application of mathematics and computational methods to the field of biochemistry. She dedicated her career to applying the evolving computational technologies to support advances in biology and medicine, most notably the creation of protein and nucleic acid databases and tools to interrogate the databases. She originated one of the first substitution matrices, point accepted mutations (PAM). The one-letter code used for amino acids was developed by her, reflecting an attempt to reduce the size of the data files used to describe amino acid sequences in an era of punch-card computing. Read more
11 Mar 1923: Louise Brough, American tennis player (died 2014) Althea Louise Brough Clapp was an American tennis player. In her career between 1939 and 1959, she won six Grand Slam titles in singles as well as numerous doubles and mixed-doubles titles. At the end of the 1955 tennis season, Lance Tingay of the London Daily Telegraph ranked her world No. 1 for the year. Read more
11 Mar 1922: Cornelius Castoriadis, Greek economist and philosopher (died 1997) Cornelius Castoriadis was a Greek-French philosopher, sociologist, social critic, economist, psychoanalyst, author of The Imaginary Institution of Society, and co-founder of the Socialisme ou Barbarie collective. Read more
11 Mar 1922: Abdul Razak Hussein, Malaysian lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Malaysia (died 1976) Abdul Razak bin Hussein was a Malaysian lawyer and politician who served as the second prime minister of Malaysia from 1970 until his death in 1976. He also served as the first deputy prime minister of Malaysia from 1957 to 1970. He is referred to as the "Father of Development" of Malaysia. Read more
11 Mar 1922: José Luis López Vázquez, Spanish actor, costume designer, scenic designer and assistant director (died 2009) José Luis López Vázquez de la Torre MMT was a Spanish actor, comedian, costume designer, scenic designer, and assistant director whose career spanned nearly seven decades. He was one of the most prolific and successful actors in Spain in the 20th century, starring in 262 films between 1946 and 2007. Internationally he was best known for his lead role in the surrealist horror telefilm La cabina (1972). Read more
11 Mar 1921: Astor Piazzolla, Argentine tango composer and bandoneon player (died 1992) Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. A virtuoso bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with a variety of ensembles.
In 1992, American music critic Stephen Holden described Piazzolla as "the world's foremost composer of Tango music". Read more
11 Mar 1920: Nicolaas Bloembergen, Dutch-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2017) Nicolaas Bloembergen was a Dutch-American physicist and Nobel laureate, recognized for his work in developing driving principles behind nonlinear optics for laser spectroscopy. During his career, he was a professor at Harvard University and later at the University of Arizona and at Leiden University in 1973. Read more
11 Mar 1916: Harold Wilson, English academic and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1995) James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, was a British politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1964 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1976. He was Leader of the Labour Party from 1963 to 1976, Leader of the Opposition twice from 1963 to 1964 and again from 1970 to 1974, and a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1983. Wilson is the only Labour leader to have formed governments following four general elections. Read more
11 Mar 1915: Vijay Hazare, Indian cricketer (died 2004) Vijay Samuel Hazare was an Indian cricketer. He captained India in 14 matches between 1951 and 1953. In India's 25th Test match, nearly 20 years after India achieved Test status, he led India to its first Test cricket win in 1951–52 against England at Madras, winning by an innings and eight runs in a match that began on the day that King George VI died. He received the C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996, the highest honour bestowed by BCCI on a former player. Read more
11 Mar 1915: J. C. R. Licklider, American computer scientist and psychologist (died 1990) Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider, known simply as J. C. R. or "Lick", was an American psychologist and computer scientist who is considered to be among the most prominent figures in computer science development and general computing history. Read more
11 Mar 1915: Dude Martin, American country singer, bandleader, radio and television host (died 1991) John Stephen McSwain, better known by his stage name Dude Martin, was an American country singer and bandleader, radio and early television personality. Read more
11 Mar 1913: Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke, German colonel and pilot (died 1944) Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was a German Luftwaffe pilot during World War II, a fighter ace credited with 162 enemy aircraft shot down in 732 combat missions. He claimed most of his victories over the Eastern Front, and 25 over the Western Front, including four four-engined bombers. Read more
11 Mar 1911: Sir Fitzroy Maclean, 1st Baronet, Scottish general and politician (died 1996) Sir Fitzroy Hew Royle Maclean, 1st Baronet, was a British Army officer, writer and politician. A Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) from 1941 to 1974 Maclean was one of only two soldiers who during the Second World War enlisted in the British Army as a private and rose to the rank of brigadier, the other being future fellow Conservative MP Enoch Powell. Read more
11 Mar 1910: Robert Havemann, German chemist and academic (died 1982) Robert Havemann was an East German chemist, physicist, and dissident. Read more
11 Mar 1908: Matti Sippala, Finnish javelin thrower (died 1997) Matti Kalervo Sippala was a Finnish athlete. His main event was the javelin throw, in which he won the silver medal at both the 1932 Summer Olympics and the 1934 European Championships, but he was also a good pentathlete, breaking the unofficial world record in 1931. Read more
11 Mar 1907: Jessie Matthews, English actress, singer, and dancer (died 1981) Jessie Margaret Matthews was an English actress, dancer and singer who rose to fame in the 1920s and 1930s, with her career continuing into the post-war period. Read more
11 Mar 1903: Ronald Syme, New Zealand historian and scholar (died 1989) Sir Ronald Syme, was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman Empire since Edward Gibbon. His great work was The Roman Revolution (1939), a masterly and controversial analysis of political life in the Roman Republic following the assassination of Julius Caesar, offering critical views about Octavian in particular that challenged widely accepted views in contemporary academia. Read more
11 Mar 1903: Lawrence Welk, American accordion player and bandleader (died 1992) Lawrence Welk was an American accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1951 to 1982. The program was known for its light and family-friendly style, and the easy listening music featured became known as "champagne music" to his radio, television, and live-performance audiences. Read more
11 Mar 1899: Frederik IX of Denmark (died 1972) Frederik IX was King of Denmark from 1947 to 1972. Read more
11 Mar 1899: James H. Douglas, Jr., American lawyer, and politician, United States Deputy Secretary of Defense (died 1988) James Henderson Douglas Jr. was an American lawyer and government official who was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, serving under both President Herbert Hoover and President Franklin Roosevelt. During the Eisenhower Administration, he served in the United States Department of Defense as Secretary of the Air Force and Deputy Secretary of Defense. Read more
11 Mar 1898: Dorothy Gish, American actress (died 1968) Dorothy Elizabeth Gish was an American stage and screen actress. Dorothy and her older sister Lillian Gish were major movie stars of the silent era. Dorothy also had great success on the stage, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Dorothy Gish was noted as a fine comedian, and many of her films were comedies. Read more
11 Mar 1897: Henry Cowell, American pianist and composer (died 1965) Henry Dixon Cowell was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher, teacher, and the husband of ethnomusicologist Sidney Robertson Cowell. Earning a reputation as an extremely controversial performer and eccentric composer, Cowell became a leading figure of American avant-garde music for the first half of the 20th century — his writings and music serving as a great influence to similar artists at the time, including Lou Harrison, George Antheil, and John Cage, among others. He is considered one of America's most important and influential composers. Read more
11 Mar 1893: Wanda Gág, American author and illustrator (died 1946) Wanda Hazel Gág was an American artist, author, translator, and illustrator. She is best known for writing and illustrating the children's book Millions of Cats, the oldest American picture book still in print. Gág was also a noted print-maker, receiving international recognition and awards. Growing Pains, a book of excerpts from the diaries of her teen and young adult years, received widespread critical acclaim. Two of her books were awarded Newbery Honors and two received Caldecott Honors. The New York Public Library included Millions of Cats on its 2013 list of 100 Great Children's Books. Read more
11 Mar 1890: Vannevar Bush, American engineer and academic (died 1974) Vannevar Bush was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, who during World War II headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), through which almost all wartime military R&D was carried out, including important developments in radar and the initiation and early administration of the Manhattan Project. He emphasized the importance of scientific research to national security and economic well-being, and was chiefly responsible for the movement that led to the creation of the National Science Foundation. Read more
11 Mar 1887: Raoul Walsh, American actor and director (died 1980) Raoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent cinema actor George Walsh. He portrayed John Wilkes Booth in the silent film The Birth of a Nation (1915) and directed the widescreen epic The Big Trail (1930) starring John Wayne in his first leading role, The Roaring Twenties starring James Cagney, Gladys George, Priscilla Lane and Humphrey Bogart, High Sierra (1941) starring Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart, and White Heat (1949) starring James Cagney, Edmond O'Brien, Virginia Mayo and Margaret Wycherly. He directed his last film in 1964. His work has been noted as influences on directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Martin Scorsese. Read more
11 Mar 1885: Malcolm Campbell, English race car driver (died 1948) Major Sir Malcolm Campbell was a British racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times, using vehicles called Blue Bird, including a 1921 Grand Prix Sunbeam. His son, Donald Campbell, carried on the family tradition by holding both land speed and water speed records. Read more
11 Mar 1884: Lewi Pethrus, Swedish minister and hymn-writer (died 1974) Lewi Pethrus was a Swedish Pentecostal minister who played a decisive role in the formation and development of the Pentecostal movement in his country. In 1964, he founded the political party the Christian Democrats. Read more
11 Mar 1880: Harry H. Laughlin, American eugenicist and sociologist (died 1943) Harry Hamilton Laughlin was an American educator and eugenicist. He served as the superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office from its inception in 1910 to its closure in 1939, and was among the most active individuals influencing American eugenics policy, especially compulsory sterilization legislation. Read more
11 Mar 1876: Carl Ruggles, American composer and painter (died 1971) Carl Ruggles was an American composer, painter and teacher. His pieces employed "dissonant counterpoint", a term coined by fellow composer and musicologist Charles Seeger to describe Ruggles' music. His method of atonal counterpoint was based on a non-serial technique of avoiding repeating a pitch class until a generally fixed number of eight pitch classes intervened. He is considered a founder of the ultramodernist movement of American composers that included Henry Cowell and Ruth Crawford Seeger, among others. He had no formal musical education, yet was an extreme perfectionist—writing music at a painstakingly slow rate and leaving behind a very small output. Read more
11 Mar 1870: Louis Bachelier, French mathematician and theorist (died 1946) Louis Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Bachelier was a French mathematician at the turn of the 20th century. He is credited with being the first person to model the stochastic process now called Brownian motion, as part of his doctoral thesis The Theory of Speculation. Read more
11 Mar 1863: Andrew Stoddart, English cricketer and rugby player (died 1915) Andrew Ernest Stoddart was an English sportsman who played international cricket for England, and rugby union for England and the British Isles. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1893. Read more
11 Mar 1822: Joseph Louis François Bertrand, French mathematician, economist, and academic (died 1900) Joseph Louis François Bertrand was a French mathematician and historian of science whose work emphasized number theory, differential geometry, probability theory, economics and thermodynamics. Read more
11 Mar 1819: Henry Tate, English businessman and philanthropist, founded Tate & Lyle (died 1899) Sir Henry Tate, 1st Baronet was a British sugar merchant, sugar-baker and philanthropist, known for establishing the Tate Gallery and Henry Tate & Sons, which later became Tate & Lyle. Read more
11 Mar 1818: Marius Petipa, French-Russian dancer and choreographer (died 1910) Marius Ivanovich Petipa was a French and Russian ballet dancer, pedagogue and choreographer. He is considered one of the most influential ballet masters and choreographers in ballet history. Read more
11 Mar 1815: Anna Bochkoltz, German operatic soprano, voice teacher and composer (died 1879) Anna Juliane Bochkoltz was a German operatic soprano, voice teacher and composer. She performed her first concert in 1843, then studied in Brussels and Paris. After singing concerts in Paris, London and Berlin, she appeared in the 1850s on opera stages in Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, Munich and Coburg. She was known for the range of her voice, and was regarded as one of the important dramatic coloratura sopranos of her era, appearing as Mozart's Donna Anna, Beethoven's Fidelio and Bellini's Norma. She later taught singing in Vienna, Strasbourg and Paris. Read more
11 Mar 1811: Urbain Le Verrier, French mathematician and astronomer (died 1877) Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier was a French astronomer and mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for predicting the existence and position of Neptune using only mathematics. Read more
11 Mar 1806: Louis Boulanger, French Romantic painter, lithographer and illustrator (died 1867) Louis Candide Boulanger was a French Romantic painter, pastellist, lithographer and a poet, known for his religious and allegorical subjects, portraits, genre scenes. Read more

🕊️ Important Deaths on 11 March in World History

11 Mar 2025: Junior Bridgeman, American basketball player and businessman (born 1953) Ulysses Lee "Junior" Bridgeman Jr. was an American professional basketball player and businessman. Bridgeman played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers from 1975 until 1987. Following his career, Bridgeman owned hundreds of fast-food restaurants, became a Coca-Cola bottler and distributor, and acquired Ebony and Jet magazines. Despite never making more than $350,000 a season during his NBA career, Bridgeman had a net worth of over $1.4 billion, making him one of the wealthiest former athletes in the world. Read more
11 Mar 2025: Clive Revill, New Zealand actor and singer (born 1930) Clive Selsby Revill was a New Zealand actor and singer, best known for his performances in musical theatre and the London stage. A veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he also starred in numerous films and television programmes, often in character parts. He was a two-time Tony Award nominee, as Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Irma La Douce and Best Actor in a Musical for Oliver!. Read more
11 Mar 2024: Paul Alexander, Polio survivor (born 1946) Paul Richard Alexander was an American paralytic polio survivor, attorney and author. After contracting polio in 1952 at the age of six, he spent the remainder and vast majority of his life in an iron lung, and is currently recognized as the person to have spent the longest period of time occupying one at almost 72 years. Decades following his disablement, Alexander earned a bachelor's degree and Juris Doctor at the University of Texas at Austin, and was admitted to the bar in 1986. He self-published a memoir in 2020 and, late in life, built a following on TikTok. Read more
11 Mar 2022: Rupiah Banda, President of Zambia (born 1937) Rupiah Bwezani Banda was a Zambian politician who served as the fourth president of Zambia from 2008 to 2011, taking over from Levy Mwanawasa. Banda was an active participant in politics from early in the presidency of Kenneth Kaunda, during which time he held several diplomatic posts. Read more
11 Mar 2021: Ray Campi, American singer and musician (born 1934) Raymond Charles Campi was an American singer, musician and songwriter, nicknamed "The Rockabilly Rebel". He first recorded in the mid-1950s. Campi's trademark was his white double bass, which he often jumped on top of and "rode" while playing. He was a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Read more
11 Mar 2021: Takis Mousafiris, Greek composer and songwriter (born 1936) Takis Mousafiris was a Greek composer, lyricist and songwriter. He collaborated with several notable Greek singers such as Stratos Dionysiou, Dimitris Mitropanos, Rita Sakellariou and Tolis Voskopoulos, among others. He sometimes used two pseudonyms for his works, Antonis Zannas and Nikos Michael. Read more
11 Mar 2018: Ken Dodd, English comedian and singer (born 1927) Sir Kenneth Arthur Dodd was an English comedian, actor and singer. He was described as "the last great music hall entertainer" and was primarily known for his live stand-up performances. As a singer he sold more than 100 million records. Read more
11 Mar 2018: Siegfried Rauch, German actor (born 1932) Siegfried Rauch was a German film and television actor. In a career spanning over 60 years, he appeared in several international film productions and had leading roles in numerous German television productions. Read more
11 Mar 2018: Karl Lehmann, German cardinal (born 1936) Karl Lehmann was a German prelate and cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Mainz from 1983 to 2016, being elevated to the cardinalate in 2001. Read more
11 Mar 2018: Mary Rosenblum, American science fiction and mystery author (born 1952) Mary Rosenblum was an American science fiction and mystery author. Read more
11 Mar 2016: Iolanda Balaș, Romanian high jumper (born 1936) Iolanda Balaș was a Romanian athlete, an Olympic champion and former world record holder in the high jump. She was the first Romanian woman to win an Olympic gold medal and is considered to have been one of the greatest high jumpers of the twentieth century. Read more
11 Mar 2016: Doreen Massey, English geographer and political activist (born 1944) Doreen Barbara Massey was a British social scientist and geographer. She specialized in Marxist geography, feminist geography, and cultural geography, as well as other topics. She was Professor of Geography at the Open University. Read more
11 Mar 2015: Walter Burkert, German philologist and scholar (born 1931) Walter Burkert was a German scholar of Greek mythology and cult. Read more
11 Mar 2015: Jimmy Greenspoon, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player (born 1948) James Boyd Greenspoon was an American keyboard player and composer, best known as a member of the band Three Dog Night. Read more
11 Mar 2014: Dean Bailey, Australian footballer and coach (born 1967) Dean Bailey was an Australian rules football player and coach. He played for the Essendon Football Club and was the senior coach of the Melbourne Football Club, as well as an assistant coach at Essendon and Port Adelaide and the Strategy & Innovation Coach at the Adelaide Football Club. Bailey died of lung cancer on 11 March 2014. Read more
11 Mar 2014: Joel Brinkley, American journalist and academic (born 1952) Joel Graham Brinkley was an American syndicated columnist. He taught in the journalism program at Stanford University from 2006 until 2013, after a 23-year career with The New York Times.
He won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1980 and was twice a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. Read more
11 Mar 2013: Martin Adolf Bormann, German priest and theologian (born 1930) Martin Adolf Bormann was a German theologian and laicized Catholic priest. He was the eldest of the ten children of Martin Bormann. Read more
11 Mar 2013: Simón Alberto Consalvi, Venezuelan journalist and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Venezuela (born 1927) Simón Alberto Consalvi was a Venezuelan politician, journalist, diplomat and historian. Read more
11 Mar 2012: James B. Morehead, American colonel and pilot (born 1916) James Bruce Morehead was an American fighter pilot in World War II as a flying ace. He flew combat missions over a three-year span of the war with a total of eight aerial victories. He was awarded two Distinguished Service Crosses, a Silver Star, two Distinguished Flying Crosses and sixteen Air Medals Read more
11 Mar 2010: Hans van Mierlo, Dutch politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands (born 1931) Henricus Antonius Franciscus Maria Oliva "Hans" van Mierlo was a Dutch politician and journalist who co-founded Democrats 66 (D66). Read more
11 Mar 2006: Bernie Geoffrion, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1931) Joseph André Bernard Geoffrion, nicknamed "Boom Boom", was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. Generally considered one of the innovators of the slapshot, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972 following a 16-year career with the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers of the National Hockey League. In 2017 Geoffrion was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history. Read more
11 Mar 2006: Slobodan Milošević, Serbian lawyer and politician, 3rd President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (born 1941) Slobodan Milošević was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 until his overthrow in 2000. Milošević played a major role in the Yugoslav Wars and became the first sitting head of state charged with war crimes. Read more
11 Mar 2002: James Tobin, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1918) James Tobin was an American economist who served on the Council of Economic Advisers and consulted with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and taught at Yale University. He contributed to the development of key ideas in the Keynesian economics of his generation and advocated government intervention in particular to stabilize output and avoid recessions. His academic work included pioneering contributions to the study of investment, monetary and fiscal policy and financial markets. He also proposed an econometric model for censored dependent variables, the well-known tobit model. Read more
11 Mar 1999: Herbert Jasper, Canadian psychologist, anatomist, and neurologist (born 1906) Herbert Henri Jasper was a Canadian psychologist, physiologist, neurologist, and epileptologist. Read more
11 Mar 1999: Camille Laurin, Canadian psychiatrist and politician (born 1922) Camille Laurin was a psychiatrist and Parti Québécois (PQ) politician in the Canadian province of Quebec. A MNA member for the riding of Bourget, he is considered the father of Quebec's language law known informally as "Bill 101". Read more
11 Mar 1996: Vince Edwards, American actor and director (born 1928) Vince Edwards was an American actor, director, and singer. He was best known for his TV role as Dr. Ben Casey and as Major Cliff Bricker in the 1968 war film The Devil's Brigade. Read more
11 Mar 1995: Myfanwy Talog, Welsh actress and singer (born 1945) Myfanwy Talog Williams, known professionally as Myfanwy Talog, was a Welsh actress and the long-term partner of English actor David Jason. Read more
11 Mar 1992: Richard Brooks, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1912) Richard Brooks was an American film director, screenwriter, journalist and novelist. He directed 24 feature films between 1950 and 1985, and was known for his portrayals of hard-hitting subject matter, psychologically-complex characters, and his independently-minded auteurist approach to filmmaking. Read more
11 Mar 1989: James Kee, American lawyer and politician (born 1917) James Kee was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives for West Virginia's 5th congressional district from 1965 to 1973, succeeding his mother Elizabeth Kee. His father John Kee served in the same House seat from 1933 to 1951. Read more
11 Mar 1989: John J. McCloy, American lawyer and diplomat (born 1895) John Jay McCloy was an American lawyer, diplomat, banker, and high-ranking bureaucrat. He served as Assistant Secretary of War during World War II under Henry Stimson. In this capacity he dealt with German sabotage and political tensions in the North Africa Campaign. He was the prime mover of Japanese internment, as well as a high-ranking Federal bureaucrat who opposed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Read more
11 Mar 1986: Sonny Terry, American singer and harmonica player (born 1911) Saunders Terrell, known as Sonny Terry, was an American Piedmont blues and folk musician, who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and occasionally imitations of trains and fox hunts. Read more
11 Mar 1982: Edmund Cooper, English poet and author (born 1926)

Edmund Cooper was an English poet and prolific writer of speculative fiction, romances, technical essays, several detective stories, and a children's book. These were published under his own name and several pen names. Read more
11 Mar 1982: Horace Gregory, American poet, translator, and academic (born 1898) Horace Gregory was a prize-winning American poet, translator of classic poetry, literary critic and college professor. He was awarded the Bollingen Prize in 1965. Read more
11 Mar 1978: Claude François, French entertainer (born 1939) Claude Antoine Marie François, also known by the nickname Cloclo, was a French pop singer, composer, songwriter, record producer, drummer and dancer. François co-wrote the lyrics of "Comme d'habitude", the original version of "My Way", and composed the music of "Parce que je t'aime mon enfant", the original version of "My Boy". Among his other famous songs are "Le Téléphone Pleure", "Le lundi au soleil", "Magnolias for Ever" and "Alexandrie Alexandra". He also enjoyed considerable success with French-language versions of English-language songs, including "Belles! Belles! Belles!", "Cette année là" and "Je vais à Rio". Read more
11 Mar 1971: Philo Farnsworth, American inventor (born 1906) Philo Taylor Farnsworth was an American inventor who was granted the first patent for the television by the United States Government. He also invented a video camera tube and the image dissector. He commercially produced and sold a fully functioning television system—complete with receiver and camera—which he produced commercially through the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation from 1938 to 1951, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Read more
11 Mar 1971: Whitney Young, American activist (born 1921) Whitney Moore Young Jr. was an American civil rights leader. Trained as a social worker, he spent most of his career working to end employment discrimination in the United States and turning the National Urban League from a relatively passive civil rights organization into one that aggressively worked for equitable access to socioeconomic opportunity for the historically disenfranchised. Young was influential in the United States federal government's War on Poverty in the 1960s. Read more
11 Mar 1970: Erle Stanley Gardner, American lawyer and author (born 1889) Erle Stanley Gardner was an American author and lawyer, best known for the Perry Mason series of legal detective stories. Gardner also wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces as well as a series of nonfiction books, mostly narrations of his travels through Baja California and other regions in Mexico. Read more
11 Mar 1969: John Wyndham, English author (born 1903) John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was an English science fiction writer best known for his works published under the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names, such as John Beynon and Lucas Parkes. Some of his works were set in post-apocalyptic landscapes. His best known works include The Day of the Triffids (1951), filmed in 1962, and The Midwich Cuckoos (1957), which was filmed in 1960 as Village of the Damned, in 1995 under the same title, and again in 2022 in Sky Max under its original title. Read more
11 Mar 1967: Geraldine Farrar, American soprano and actress (born 1882) Alice Geraldine Farrar was an American lyric soprano who also frequently sang dramatic roles. She was noted for her beauty, acting ability, and "the intimate timbre of her voice." In the 1910s, she also found success as an actress in silent films. Farrar had a large following among young women, who were nicknamed "Gerry-flappers". Read more
11 Mar 1960: Roy Chapman Andrews, American paleontologist and explorer (born 1884) Roy Chapman Andrews was an American explorer, adventurer, and naturalist who became the director of the American Museum of Natural History. He led a series of expeditions through the politically disturbed China of the early 20th century into the Gobi Desert and Mongolia. The expeditions made important discoveries and brought the first-known fossil dinosaur eggs to the museum. Chapman's popular writing about his adventures made him famous. Read more
11 Mar 1959: Lester Dent, American author (born 1904) Lester Dent was an American pulp-fiction writer, best known as the creator and main writer of the series of novels about the scientist and adventurer Doc Savage. The 159 Doc Savage novels that Dent wrote over 16 years were credited to the house name Kenneth Robeson. Read more
11 Mar 1957: Richard E. Byrd, American admiral and explorer (born 1888) Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. was an American naval officer, and pioneering aviator, polar explorer, and organizer of polar logistics. Aircraft flights in which he served as a navigator and expedition leader crossed the Atlantic Ocean, a segment of the Arctic Ocean, and a segment of the Antarctic Plateau. He is also known for discovering Mount Sidley, the largest dormant volcano in Antarctica. Read more
11 Mar 1956: Aleksanteri Aava, Finnish poet (born 1883) Aleksanteri Aava, born Aleksanteri (Santeri) Kuparinen, was a Finnish poet and smallholder. Read more
11 Mar 1955: Alexander Fleming, Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, and botanist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1881) Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish physician and microbiologist. He shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases".
This was the first antibiotic substance discovered. His discovery in 1928 of what was later named benzylpenicillin from the mould Penicillium rubens has been described as the "single greatest victory ever achieved over disease". Read more
11 Mar 1955: Oscar F. Mayer, German-American businessman, founded Oscar Mayer (born 1859) Oscar Ferdinand Mayer was a German American who founded the processed-meat firm Oscar Mayer that bears his name. Read more
11 Mar 1952: Pierre Renoir, French actor and director (born 1885) Pierre Renoir was a French stage and film actor. He was the son of the impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and elder brother of the film director Jean Renoir. He is also noted for being the first actor to play Georges Simenon's character Inspector Jules Maigret in
Night at the Crossroads, directed by his brother. Read more
11 Mar 1949: Henri Giraud, French general and politician (born 1879) Henri Honoré Giraud was a French Army general best known for his escape from German captivity in 1942 and subsequently as one of the leaders of the French Resistance and a rival of Charles de Gaulle. He was outmanoeuvred by de Gaulle and sidelined in April 1944, leading to his resignation. Read more
11 Mar 1944: Hendrik Willem van Loon, Dutch-American journalist and historian (born 1882) Hendrik Willem van Loon was a Dutch-American historian, journalist, and children's book author. Read more
11 Mar 1944: Edgar Zilsel, Austrian historian and philosopher of science, linked to the Vienna Circle (born 1891) Edgar Zilsel was an Austrian-American historian and philosopher of science. Read more
11 Mar 1937: Joseph S. Cullinan, American businessman, co-founded Texaco (born 1860) Joseph Stephen Cullinan was a U.S. oil industrialist. Although he was a native of Pennsylvania, his lifetime business endeavors would help shape the early phase of the oil industry in Texas. He founded The Texas Company, which would eventually be known as Texaco Incorporated. Read more
11 Mar 1931: F. W. Murnau, German-American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1888) Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau was a German film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is regarded as one of cinema's most influential filmmakers for his work in the silent era. Read more
11 Mar 1915: Thomas Alexander Browne, English-Australian author (born 1826) Thomas Alexander Browne was a British-born Australian police magistrate and author. He published many of his works under the pseudonym Rolf Boldrewood. He is best known for his 1882 bushranging novel Robbery Under Arms. He served as the goldfields commissioner in New South Wales. In his capacity as police magistrate and warden of goldfields, he was entrusted with the administration of justice at Gulgong, Dubbo, Armidale, and Albury. He acted as police magistrate during the period between 1870 and 1895. Read more
11 Mar 1908: Edmondo De Amicis, Italian journalist and author (born 1846) Edmondo De Amicis was an Italian novelist, journalist, poet, and short-story writer. His best-known book is the children's novel Heart. Read more
11 Mar 1908: Benjamin Waugh, English minister and activist (born 1839) Benjamin Waugh was a Victorian era social reformer and campaigner who founded and directed the UK charity, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in the late 19th century. He was also a journalist, public speaker and organiser who helped secure Britain’s first legislation on children’s rights. Read more
11 Mar 1907: Jean Casimir-Perier, French lawyer and politician, 6th President of France (born 1847) Jean Paul Pierre Casimir-Perier was a French politician who served as President of France from June 1894 to January 1895. Read more
11 Mar 1898: William Rosecrans, American general and politician (born 1819) William Starke Rosecrans was an American inventor, coal-oil company executive, diplomat, politician, and U.S. Army officer. He gained fame for his role as a Union general during the American Civil War. He was the victor at prominent battles in the Western theater of the American Civil War. However, his direct military career ended after his defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. Read more
11 Mar 1874: Charles Sumner, American lawyer and politician (born 1811) Charles Sumner was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American advocate for the abolition of slavery, and after the war he was a key figure in the Reconstruction era, during which he and other Radical Republicans successfully fought to end slavery and ensure basic rights for Black Americans. He continued advocating for racial equality until his death, lobbying in his final days for a civil rights bill that served as a model for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Historians credit Sumner with coining the phrase "equality before the law," which he first used as part of an early attempt to integrate Boston's public school system. Read more
11 Mar 1870: Moshoeshoe I of Lesotho (born 1786) Moshoeshoe I was the first king of Lesotho. He was the first son of Mokhachane, a minor chief of the Bamokoteli lineage, a branch of the Bakoena (crocodile) clan. In his youth, he helped his father gain power over some other smaller clans. In 1820, at the age of 34, Moshoeshoe succeeded his father as the Bamokoteli chief and formed his own clan. He and his followers settled at the Butha-Buthe Mountain. He became the first and ultimately longest-serving King of Lesotho in 1822. Read more
11 Mar 1869: Vladimir Odoyevsky, Russian philosopher and critic (born 1803) Prince Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoyevsky was a Russian philosopher, writer, music critic, philanthropist and pedagogue. He became known as the "Russian Hoffmann" and even the "Russian Faust" on account of his keen interest in phantasmagoric tales and musical criticism. Read more
11 Mar 1863: Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet, English general (born 1803) Lieutenant-General Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet was a British army officer who served in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Read more
11 Mar 1851: Marie-Louise Coidavid, Queen of Haiti (born 1778) Queen Marie Louise Coidavid was the Queen of Haiti from 1811 to 1820 as the spouse of Henri Christophe. Read more
11 Mar 1851: George McDuffie, American lawyer and politician, 55th Governor of South Carolina (born 1790) George McDuffie was the 55th governor of South Carolina and a member of the United States Senate. Though he began his political career as a partisan of Andrew Jackson, he became one of South Carolina's most outspoken advocates of nullification. Read more
11 Mar 1820: Benjamin West, American-English painter and academic (born 1738) Benjamin West was an American-born painter who specialised in history painting, creating such works as The Death of Nelson, The Death of General Wolfe, the Treaty of Paris, and Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky. Read more

Why is 11 March Important in World History?

Several significant political, cultural, educational, and sporting events took place on 11 March, making it an important topic for general knowledge and competitive examinations.

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What happened on 11 March in World history?

On 11 March, several important historical events, notable births, and major milestones occurred in World history.

Is History of Today important for competitive exams?

Yes, History of Today is frequently asked in UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, and State PSC exams as part of static GK and current awareness sections.