TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MARCH 11
1302 Romeo & Juliet’s wedding day, according to Shakespeare
1502 Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty, crowned Shah of Persia (rules till 1524)
1665 A new legal code is approved for the Dutch and English towns, guaranteeing religious observances unhindered.
1665 New York approves new code guaranteeing Protestants religious rights
1702 The Daily Courant, the first regular English newspaper is published.
1779 US army Corps of Engineers established (1st time)
1811 Ned Ludd leads a group of workers in a wild protest against mechanization.
1823 1st normal school in US opens, Concord Academy, Concord VT
1824 The U.S. War Department creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Seneca Indian Ely Parker becomes the first Indian to lead the Bureau.
1861 The Confederate States of America adopted its constitution.
1888 A torrential rainstorm hit the East Coast. The rain turned to snow the next day and it became the Blizzard of 1888, the most famous snowstorm in American history. It caused more than 400 deaths.
1905 The Parisian subway is officially inaugurated.
1907 President Teddy Roosevelt induces California to revoke its anti-Japanese legislation.
1918 Moscow becomes capital of revolutionary Russia
1927 1st armored commercial car hold-up in US, Pittsburgh
1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizes the Lend-Lease Act which authorizes the act of giving war supplies to the Allies.
1942 General Douglas MacArthur leaves the Philippines saying, “I shall return.”
1973 An FBI agent is shot at Wounded Knee in South Dakota.
1982 Menachem Begin & Anwar Sadat sign peace treaty in Washington DC
1985 Mikhail Gorbachev is named the new Soviet leader.
1990 Lithuania becomes the first Soviet republic to declare its independence
1993 Janet Reno won unanimous Senate confirmation to be the first female U.S. Attorney General.
2004 191 people die as several bombs explode on Madrid commuter trains
2011 The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster strikes Japan
The nuclear meltdowns occurred after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami. It was the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
