March 11^th in history

Encyclopædia Britannica presents people and events from this day in history.

Harold Wilson: Biography of the Day

Harold Wilson

"The Labour Party is like a stage-coach. If you rattle along at great speed everybody inside is too exhilarated or too seasick to cause any trouble. But if you stop everybody gets out and argues about where to go next."

Harold Wilson

Harold Wilson, born this day in 1916 and a cabinet minister by age 31, led the Labour Party to victory in four of five general elections and was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1976.

 

Terrorist bombings in Madrid: 11 March 2004 - This Day in History

On this day in 2004, Madrid suffered a series of terrorist attacks when 10 bombs, detonated by Islamist militants, exploded on four trains at three different rail stations, killing 191 people and injuring some 1,800 others.

More Events on this day:

1959: Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun became the first play by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway.

1941: The U.S. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act.

1930: William Howard Taft was the first U.S. president to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

1926: African American civil rights leader Ralph David Abernathy was born in Linden, Alabama.

1544: Torquato Tasso, the greatest Italian poet of the late Renaissance, was born in Sorrento, Kingdom of Naples.