March 11 is the 70th day of the year (71st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 295 days remain until the end of the year.
1502 Founder of the Safavid dynasty, Ismail I, is crowned Shah of Persia (rules till 1524) 1513 Giovanni de' Medici chosen Pope Leo X 1669 Mt Etna in Sicily erupts in its largest recorded eruption, killing 15,000 1708 Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation 1744 English auction house Sotheby's holds its first ever auction (of books) in London 1779 US Army Corps of Engineers established 1789 Benjamin Banneker and Pierre Charles L'Enfant begin to lay out Washington, D.C. 1791 Samuel Mulliken is the first to obtain more than one U.S. patent 1812 Citizenship granted to Prussian Jews 1823 1st normal school in .U.S opens, Concord Academy, Concord, Vermont 1829 Johann Sebastian Bach's 'St Matthew Passion' is revived by Felix Mendelssohn, aged 20, conducting in Berlin, Germany 1848 Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin become the first Prime Ministers of the Province of Canada to be democratically elected under a system of responsible government 1850 Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania opens, 2nd female medical school in the U.S.
1851 Giuseppe Verdi's opera 'Rigoletto' premieres in Venice 1855 Bowery Boys gang leader William Poole aka 'Bill the Butcher' is buried in Brooklyn with 155 carriages and 6,000 mourners 1861 Confederate convention in Montgomery adopts constitution 1862 Abraham Lincoln removes George McClellan as General-in-Chief of the US Army 1862 Confederate Army General Stonewall Jackson begins evacuation of Winchester, Virginia 1864 The Great Sheffield Flood: the largest man-made disaster ever to befall England kills over 250 people in Sheffield 1865 General William T. Sherman's Union forces occupies Fayetteville, North Carolina 1867 Giuseppe Verdi's opera 'Don Carlos' premieres in Paris 1869 The West first learns of the Giant Panda via French missionary Armand David who receives a skin from a hunter 1872 Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales, begins; located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain 1882 Norwegian scientist and explorer Fridtjof Nansen sets out on his first expedition on a sea voyage to study Arctic zoology 1888 Great blizzard of '88 strikes northeastern USA 1892 1st public basketball game 1895 Boston opens its 'palace for the people' Boston Public Library’s McKim Building in Copley Square designed by Charles Follen McKim - the first major Beaux Arts building in the US 1895 Spanish cruiser Reina Regente sinks in Straits of Gibraltar, over 400 die 1897 A meteorite enters the earth's atmosphere and explodes over New Martinsville, West Virginia. The debris causes damage but no human injuries are reported.
1900 British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury rejects peace overtures from the Boer leader Paul Kruger 1901 Cincinnati Enquirer reports Baltimore manager John McGraw signed Cherokee Indian Tokohoma, who is really black second baseman Charlie Grant 1904 Stanley Cup: Ottawa Silver Sevens beat Brandon Wheat City, 2-0 at the Aberdeen Pavilion, Ottawa for a 2 game sweep and back-to-back titles 1905 Stanley Cup, Dey's Arena, Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Senators beat Rat Portage Thisles, 5-4 for 2-1 challenge series victory 1915 The British declare a blockade of all German ports 1917 1st NHL championship game ever played, Toronto Arenas beats Montreal Canadiens 7-3 in 1st of 2 game set (second game on March 13) 1917 British forces occupy Baghdad, the capital of Mesopotamia, after Turkish forces evacuated 1918 Conservationists John Merriam, Madison Grant, and Henry Fairfield Osborn found 'Save the Redwoods League' - a non-profit forest conservation land trust in San Francisco, California founded 1924 Eden Phillpotts' 'Farmer's Wife' premieres in London