On March 11

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 virus epidemic a pandemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) officialy declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic.

U.S. Army soldier Robert Bales murdered sixteen civilians and wounded six others in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.

A massive earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan and triggered a nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

During the inauguration of Chilean president Sebastián Piñera, earthquakes registering 6.9 and 7.0 .mw-parser-output .tooltip-dotted{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}Mw struck the O'Higgins Region near the city of Pichilemu, causing widespread damage.

A teenage gunman engaged in a shooting spree at a secondary school in Winnenden, Germany, killing 16, including himself.

Georgian authorities accused Russia of orchestrating a helicopter attack in the Kodori Valley, in the breakaway territory of Abkhazia.

The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Janet Reno as the first female United States attorney general.

The anime film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki was released.

After hijacking a bus north of Tel Aviv, Israel, members of the Palestine Liberation Organization faction Fatah engaged in a shootout with police, resulting in the deaths of 38 civilians and most of the perpetrators.

The Great Blizzard of 1888 struck the northeastern United States, producing snowdrifts in excess of 50 ft (15 m) and confining some people to their houses for up to a week.

The first performance of Verdi's Rigoletto took place at La Fenice in Venice (poster pictured).

Māori forces, led by chiefs Te Ruki Kawiti and Hōne Heke, attacked the British settlement of Kororāreka, New Zealand, beginning the Flagstaff War.

During a period of activity known as the Great Eruption, Eta Carinae (pictured) briefly became the second-brightest star in the night sky.

Queen Anne withheld royal assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, in the most recent veto by a British monarch of a bill that had been passed by Parliament.

Mount Etna in Sicily began erupting, eventually producing the largest lava flow in the volcano's history, and damaging Catania and other towns.