TODAY IN HISTORY

March 11, 1985

Mikhail S. Gorbachev was chosen to succeed the late Konstantin U. Chernenko as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1513

Giovanni de’ Medici was proclaimed pope, succeeding Julius II; he took the name Leo X.

1888

The Blizzard of ‘88, also known as the “Great White Hurricane,” began inundating the northeastern United States, resulting in some 400 deaths.

1918

What are 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 would die.

1935

The Bank of Canada began operations, issuing its first series of bank notes.

1941

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Bill, providing war supplies to countries fighting the Axis.

1954

The U.S. Army charged that Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, RWis., and his subcommittee’s chief counsel, Roy Cohn, had exerted pressure to obtain favored treatment for Pvt. G. David Schine, a former consultant to the subcommittee.

1959

The Lorraine Hansberry drama “A Raisin in the Sun” opened at New York’s Ethel Barrymore Theater.

1977

More than 130 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims were freed after ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined the negotiations.

1993

Janet Reno was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to be U.S. attorney general.

2004

Ten bombs exploded in quick succession across the commuter rail network in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people.