Today in History: March 11

2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake and resulting tsunami struck Japan’s northeastern coast, killing nearly 20,000 people and severely damaging the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.

Also on this date:

In 1918, what were believed to be the first confirmed U.S. cases of a deadly global flu pandemic were reported among U.S. Army soldiers stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas; 46 soldiers would die. (The influenza outbreak would ultimately kill an estimated 20 million to 40 million people worldwide.)

In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Act, which provided war supplies to Allied countries during World War II.

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was chosen to succeed the late Konstantin Chernenko as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.

In 2004, three days before general elections in Spain, 10 bombs exploded in quick succession inside commuter trains in Madrid, killing 193 people in an attack linked to al-Qaida-inspired militants.

In 2006, former Serb leader Slobodan Milošević was found dead at age 64 of a heart attack in his prison cell in the Netherlands, abruptly ending his four-year U.N. war crimes trial.

In 2010, a federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld the use of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency.

In 2012, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales shot and killed 16 Afghan villagers — mostly women and children — as they slept. (Bales later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.)

In 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package that he said would help defeat the virus and nurse the economy back to health. Lower-income Americans would receive up to $1,400 in direct payments, along with extended unemployment benefits.

Today’s birthdays: Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is 94. Former ABC News correspondent Sam Donaldson is 91. Musician Flaco Jimenez is 86. Singer Bobby McFerrin is 75. Actor Elias Koteas is 64. Actor Alex Kingston is 62. Actor John Barrowman is 58. Singer Lisa Loeb is 57. Actor Terrence Howard is 56. Actor Johnny Knoxville is 54. Basketball Hall of Famer Becky Hammon is 48. Rock musicians Benji and Joel Madden (Good Charlotte; The Madden Brothers) are 46. Singer LeToya Luckett is 44. Actor Thora Birch is 43. Actor Jodie Comer is 32.