Historical Events on March 11

On This Day in History: March 11

1. In 843, the veneration of icons was officially reintroduced in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, marking an end to Byzantine iconoclasm.
2. In 1708, Queen Anne withheld royal assent to the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoed a bill.
3. In 1789, Benjamin Banneker and Pierre Charles L’Enfant began designing the layout of Washington D.C., which shaped the future U.S. capital.
4. In 1862, Abraham Lincoln removed George McClellan as General-in-Chief of the U.S. Army, citing his cautious military strategy.
5. In 1864, England’s worst man-made disaster, the Great Sheffield Flood, killed more than 250 people.
6. In 1893, future tango icon Carlos Gardel and his mother, Berthe Gardès, emigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
7. In 1900, British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury rejected Boer leader Paul Kruger’s peace proposal, saying his terms were too favourable to the Boers.
8. In 1912, in the first Stanley Cup game played over three 20-minute periods, Quebec defeated Moncton 9–3 to win the series.
9. In 1922, the Vancouver Millionaires defeated the Regina Capitals two games to one to win the Western Hockey Championship.
10. The first Golden Gloves boxing tournament was held in 1927, beginning a prestigious amateur competition.
11. In 1930, the 27th US President and Chief Justice William Taft was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
12. In 1941 Bronko Nagurski regained the world wrestling title from Ray Steele in Minnesota, avenging his loss the previous year.
13. In 1945, during World War II, 1,000 Allied bombers targeted Essen, dropping 4,662 tons of bombs.
14. In 1958, an American B-47 aircraft accidentally dropped an atomic bomb (without a nuclear core) on a house in Mars Bluff, South Carolina, creating a 75-foot deep crater.
15. In 1972, OPEC threatened sanctions against companies that refused to comply with member countries’ decisions, and claimed greater control over global oil policies.