What Happened on March 11?

March 11 remembers the Great White Hurricane of 1888 — a blizzard so huge it buried trains and froze the East River solid — plus Japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

• 1888 — Great Blizzard of 1888 begins burying the Northeast

  One of America's worst blizzards slammed into the East Coast on March 11 — up to 58 inches of snow, 50-foot drifts, over 400 deaths, and cities frozen still for days. Read the full story →

• 1918 — Flu outbreak explodes at Camp Funston, Fort Riley

  By mid-March 1918, more than 100 soldiers at this crowded Kansas Army camp lay in the infirmary with a strange flu — the opening chapter of history's worst pandemic. Read the full story →

• 2011 — Magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami strike Japan

  The strongest quake ever recorded in Japan shook the seafloor for six minutes, then sent a tsunami towering over seawalls — reshaping coastlines and the world's thinking about nuclear power. Read the full story →

Famous birthdays

Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) · Douglas Adams (1952–2001) · Rupert Murdoch (1931) · Johnny Knoxville (1971)

Days & observances

World Plumbing Day · National Worship of Tools Day