March 11 in History

The influenza pandemic of 1918 was one of the deadliest disease outbreaks in human history. Estimates of the death toll range widely, from about 50 million to 100 million people, out of a world population of under two billion. The number of deaths probably exceeded those of World War I, which killed roughly 15 to 20 million people, and the two catastrophes were closely entangled. Despite its name, the "Spanish flu" almost certainly did not originate in Spain.

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and began a program of reform built around two ideas: perestroika, meaning "restructuring," and glasnost, or "openness." He intended to revive a stagnating socialist system, not to end it. Yet the changes he set in motion loosened the Party's grip on the economy, the press, and the republics, and within seven years the Soviet Union no longer existed.

On 11 March 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck beneath the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of Japan. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the country and one of the largest anywhere in modern times. The tsunami it generated devastated coastal communities, killed roughly 18,000 to 20,000 people (counting the dead and missing), and crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, causing the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

In March 2011, a massive undersea earthquake off Japan's northeastern coast generated a tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, causing meltdowns in three of its reactors. It was the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986, and one of only two events ever rated at the highest level, 7, on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The disaster forced a global reassessment of nuclear safety and reshaped Japan's energy policy.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a global outbreak of disease caused by a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. First identified in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, it spread to nearly every country within a few months and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. It reshaped daily life, strained health systems, and prompted one of the fastest scientific efforts in history.