Today in History for March 11, 2015

March 11, 1544 – The poet Torquato Tasso was born in Sorrento, Italy.

March 11, 1619 - It was curtains for the Flower sisters who were burned at the stake on charges of witchcraft in England. It seems their mother, who was also on trial with them, sealed their fate when she picked up a piece of bread and declaimed on the witness stand 'May this cake choke me if I am guilty.' She then proceeded to drop dead after a bite.

March 11, 1692 – In connection with the Salem witchcraft trials, Ann Putnam Jr. showed symptoms of affliction by witchcraft. Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott and Mary Warren later alleged affliction as well.

March 11, 1702 – The Daily Courant, England's first national daily newspaper was published for the first time.

March 11, 1779 - Congress established the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

March 11, 1818 – “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” was first published. The book, by 21-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, is frequently called the world’s first science fiction novel.

March 11, 1824 – The United States Department of War created the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Seneca Indian Ely Parker became the first Indian to lead the Bureau.

March 11, 1847 - John “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman passed away at the age of 70 in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

March 11, 1847 – Confederate veteran J.C. Johnson was born. He enlisted as a private in the Confederate army on Feb. 1, 1863, served with Co. B, 3rd Alabama Cavalry and was wounded at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. He died in Conecuh County, Ala. in April 10, 1914.

March 11, 1861 – The Confederate Congress, meeting in Montgomery, adopted a permanent constitution for the Confederate States of America to replace the provisional constitution adopted the previous month.The seceded states then ratified the essentially conservative document, which was based largely on the United States Constitution.

March 11, 1862 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued War Order No. 3. The move made several changes to the Union command structure. Three departments were created with Henry Halleck in charge of the west, John C. Frémont in command of troops in the Appalachian region, and George McClellan in the east.

March 11, 1865 - Union General William Sherman and his forces occupied Fayetteville, N.C.

March 11, 1888 - The Great Blizzard of 1888 wreaked havoc across the Northeast US with some areas receiving as much as 50 inches of snow.

March 11, 1901 - The Cincinnati Enquirer reported the signing of a mysterious player named “Chief Tokohama” to baseball’s Baltimore Orioles by manager John McGraw. Chief Tokohama was later revealed to be Charlie Grant, an African-American second baseman.

March 11, 1909 – Conecuh County Sheriff J.F. Irwin returned from Louisiana, where he went in search of a fugitive wanted in Castleberry, Ala. for stealing a lot of staves. (A stave is a thin, shaped strip of wood or metal, set edge to edge to form or strengthen the wall of a barrel or bucket.)

March 11, 1913 – The Evergreen Baptist Orphanage celebrated its 20th anniversary with “appropriate exercises.”

March 11, 1915 – The Monroe Journal reported that 17 of the 31 persons taking the Alabama state bar examination passed, including C.C. McNabb, L.R. Hanna, C.W. Walker, R.S. Allen, E.W. Turlington, W.H. Levie and H.D. Moorer, all of Birmingham; H.A. Burns and A.V. VanderGraff, both of Tuscaloosa; D.B. Goode of Camden; Y. Shaver and W.M. Rogers, both of Montgomery; R.H. Jones of Evergreen; A.C. Lee of Monroeville; J.B. Young of Huntsville; J.S. Mullins of Geneva; and Manley A. Collins of Greensboro.

March 11, 1916 – Children’s book author Ezra Jack Keats was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. He went on to win the 1963 Caldecott Medal for his book, “The Snowy Day.”

March 11, 1918 – The first case of the Spanish flu occurred, the start of a devastating worldwide pandemic.

March 11, 1930 - Babe Ruth signed a two-year contract with the New York Yankees for the sum of $80,000.

March 11, 1930 - U.S. President Howard Taft became the first U.S. president to be buried in the National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.

March 11, 1948 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Frisco City High School’s boys basketball team beat Lyeffion, 50-17, in the First District Basketball Tournament. The Courant also reported that Damascus beat Conecuh County High School, 34-21.

March 11, 1952 – Writer Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge, England. He is best known for his five book series, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

March 11, 1959 – Lorraine Hansberry’s play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” opened on Broadway.

March 11, 1964 - Alabama author Libba Bray was born in Montgomery, Ala.

March 11, 1969 - The movie “Satyricon,” for which Alabama author Eugene Walter served as a translator, was released in the United States.

March 11, 1978 – Sparta Academy hosted a four-team spring football jamboree that included Sparta, Fort Dale Academy, South Butler Academy and Greenville Academy.

March 11, 1980 – In Lovecraftian fiction, Henri-Laurent de Marigny vanished, leaving behind a lengthy manuscript to Wingate Peaslee, the director of the Wilmarth Foundation, the contents of which are known only to the members of that organization.

March 11, 1980 – Major League Baseball second baseman Dan Uggla was born in Louisville, Ky.

March 11, 1989 – COPS, a documentary-style television series that followed police officers and sheriff’s deputies as they went about their jobs, debuted on Fox.

March 11, 2002 - Two columns of light were pointed skyward from ground zero in New York as a temporary memorial to the victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

March 11, 2004 - Major League Baseball banned THG. The health policy advisory committee of management and the players' association unanimously determined that THG builds muscle mass.

March 11, 2004 – Two days after its approval by the Alabama Senate, House Joint Resolution No. 100, which proposed designating Conecuh Ridge Alabama Fine Whiskey as the state spirit, was certified by the Clerk of the House. The resolution was passed on to Gov. Bob Riley for his signature on March 18.

March 11, 2012 – Former NFL center Wayne Frazier passed away in Brewton, Ala. at the age of 76. Frazier played for Evergreen High School, Auburn University, the San Diego Chargers, the Houston Oilers, the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs. He is best known for being one of the starters in the first Super Bowl in 1967.