11 March in history
8 events that happened on 11 March, from 1513 to 2020.
1513 CE 513 years ago
Giovanni de' Medici proclaimed Pope Leo X
The son of Lorenzo the Magnificent was announced as pope at 37. A lavish patron of Raphael and others, he promoted the indulgence campaign for St Peter's that provoked Martin Luther in 1517.
1702 CE 324 years ago
The Daily Courant, Britain's first daily newspaper, appears
Published by Elizabeth Mallet near Fleet Street, the single-sheet Courant carried foreign news translated from continental papers. It ran until 1735, founding the British daily press.
1811 CE 215 years ago
Luddite machine-breaking begins in Nottinghamshire
After a protest in Nottingham was dispersed, framework knitters broke dozens of stocking frames at Arnold. Attacks on machinery spread across the Midlands and North under the name of 'Ned Ludd'.
✦ Anniversary of the day
1917 CE 109 years ago
British and Indian troops capture Baghdad
General Stanley Maude's army entered Baghdad after the Ottoman garrison withdrew, avenging the surrender at Kut a year earlier. Britain went on to rule Mesopotamia, later Iraq, under a League mandate.
1941 CE 85 years ago
Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act
The act allowed the United States to lend or lease war supplies to nations whose defence was vital to America. Britain, the Soviet Union and China received some 50 billion dollars of aid.
1985 CE 41 years ago
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader
The 54-year-old Gorbachev was chosen General Secretary the day after Konstantin Chernenko's death. His policies of glasnost and perestroika unleashed forces that ended the Soviet Union in 1991.
2020 CE 6 years ago
WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic
The World Health Organization described the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic, with cases in over 100 countries. Lockdowns followed worldwide, and millions died in the years that followed.
