What happened on 11 March?

10 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1985 Gorbachev's leadership of the Soviet Union Glasnost, perestroika, the end of the Cold War and — not by design — the dissolution of the state he led.
2. 2011 Tohoku earthquake and Fukushima disaster M9 megathrust quake and tsunami; meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
3. 1985 Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev takes power and launches the reforms of glasnost and perestroika.
4. 2020 WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic World Health Organization officially designates COVID-19 a pandemic; triggers wave of national lockdowns and emergency measures.
5. 1793 Vendée rebellion Royalist Catholic uprising in western France, brutally suppressed by the Revolution.
6. 1990 Lithuania declares independence First Soviet republic to formally declare independence from the USSR.
7. 1851 Verdi's Rigoletto premieres Tragic opera with the aria 'La donna e mobile'.
8. 1941 Lend-Lease Act US arms its allies before formally entering World War II.
9. 2004 Madrid train bombings Al-Qaeda-linked attack on commuter trains kills 193 in Spain.
10. 1916 Born: Harold Wilson Labour Prime Minister of the 1960s and 1970s, presiding over devaluation and Britain in Europe.