🌟 Editor's Note
Good morning — it’s Wednesday, March 11. Today, we’re jumping into the first Shah of Persia, the Constitution of the Confederate States, the Great Blizzard of 1888, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and much more — all quick, to the point, and easy to follow.
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🚀 Time Machine
-843
Icon veneration was officially reinstated in Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople.
-1669
Multiple eruptions on Mount Etna in Sicily kill more than 20,000 people and leave thousands homeless.
-1861
Delegates from several states adopted the Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States in Montgomery, Alabama.
-1888
One of the worst blizzards in American history hit the Northeast, killing more than 400 people and dumping 55 inches of snow.
-1957
Charles Van Doren loses on "Twenty-One" after winning $129,000, which was later revealed to be fixed.
-1973
"Parents of Gays," founded by the parents of a gay son, holds its first formal meeting in Greenwich Village in New York.
-1985
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader.
-2004
10 bombs exploded on trains by al-Qaeda in Madrid during rush hour, killing 193 people and injuring nearly 2,000.
-2011
Thousands of people die in a 9.0 magnitude earthquake 80 miles east of Sendai, Japan, causing the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
-2018
China's National People's Congress removes term limits for leaders, making Xi Jinping president for life.
-2020
COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, with 121,564 cases and 4,373 deaths reported worldwide.
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📸 Snapshot
Rare picture of the first men to fly over Everest on the Houston-Mount expedition, 1933
🗨️ Last Words
“Ah! The times were good! It was I who was so unhappy.”