March 11 - What happened today?

Home What happened today in history? Blamepro's Almanac for March 11
In the headlines today:

1997		Paul McCartney is knighted by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. (photo credit: EMI)
1991		Janet Jackson signs a recording contract with Virgin Records worth $40 million for 3 albums. (photo credit: Virgin Records)
1990	Lithuania declares its independence from the USSR.
1985	Mikhail Gorbachev succeeds Konstantin Chernenko as Soviet President.
1977	Three Islamic ambassadors help negotiate the release of nearly 150 hostages held in Washington, DC, by renegade Muslims.
1970	Perry Mason author Erle Stanley Gardner dies.
1959	Lorraine Hansberry's play, A Raisin in the Sun, premieres in New York City.
1953	A US Air Force B-47 accidentally drops an atomic bomb over South Carolina. (Luckily, the bomb had internal safeguards to prevent it from detonating.)
1941	The 'Lend-lease' bill is signed, allowing the US to provide supplies to countries fighting the Axis, during WWII.
1938	Hitler's Nazi troops invade Austria, during WWII.
1932	Spain legalizes divorce.
1930	Babe Ruth signs a two-year deal with the NY Yankees worth $80,000.
1930	William Howard Taft becomes the first US president to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
1888	400 people die when a freak blizzard ravages the northeastern US.
1847	American pioneer John 'Johnny Appleseed' Chapman dies, near Ft. Wayne, Indiana.
1811	The first wedding is held in the White House, as the sister-in-law of James Madison marries a Supreme Court Justice.
1810	Napoleon Bonaparte marries Marie Louise of Austria by proxy.
1702	The first British daily newspaper, The Daily Courant, is published.
1314	Jacques deMolay, the last leader of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake in France.