Welcome back to Touring History, the podcast that rummages through humanity’s past, points at the weird, the wild, and the worryingly familiar, and says, “Huh, we’ve done this before.” I’m Alain Touring, and today, we’re looking at March 11th—a day that reminds us that history is like your Wi-Fi: occasionally brilliant, but mostly full of repeated errors.
Let’s start with birthdays. Douglas Adams, born in 1952, gave us The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which taught us that towels are essential and that panicking is for amateurs.
Anton Yelchin, born in 1989, was a rising star best known for playing Chekov in Star Trek before his tragic passing.
And Terrence Howard, born in 1969, starred in Empire and also briefly tried to convince the world that one times one equals two, proving that even Hollywood math can be wildly speculative.
March 11, 2011 - A devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, leading to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. The fallout from Fukushima reshaped global nuclear policy and reinforced the uncomfortable truth that nature remains undefeated. Meanwhile, politicians today still debate whether climate change is real—despite nature consistently hitting us with Category 5 “I told you so” events.
March 11, 1851 - Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto premiered in Venice. Featuring the iconic aria La donna è mobile, the song was kept secret until the last minute to prevent leaks—a 19th-century version of DRM protection. Today, artists still try to prevent leaks, except now they have to battle TikTok users who post entire albums before they’re even released.
March 11, 1941 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Act, allowing the U.S. to send vital supplies to Allied nations before officially entering World War II. It was a strategic move that tilted the war against the Axis powers—and also proof that America has always been good at spending money it doesn’t technically have.
March 11, 1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Soviet Union, ushering in glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). His reforms unintentionally led to the USSR’s collapse. He later won a Nobel Peace Prize, making him one of the few leaders to receive an award for, essentially, undoing their own job description.
March 11, 1990 - Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare independence, effectively setting off a chain reaction that ended the USSR. It was the geopolitical equivalent of the first person leaving a bad group chat—soon, everyone was out.
March 11, 1985 - The first commercial dot-com domain name, symbolics.com, was registered. This moment marked the dawn of the internet as we know it—a simpler time, before social media turned it into a 24/7 outrage machine.
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And we’re back! Now, let’s talk about space.
March 11, 1977 - Astronomers discovered the Rings of Uranus, making it the second planet after Saturn known to have rings. Unlike Saturn’s majestic halo, Uranus’s rings are faint and moody—basically the indie version of planetary rings.
March 11, 1958 - The U.S. Air Force Academy opened in Colorado, training generations of military leaders. It’s also home to the Air Force Falcons, whose football games are almost as intense as their flight drills.
March 11, 2004 - Spain suffered its deadliest terrorist attack, the Madrid train bombings, which killed 193 people during rush hour. The attacks led to major shifts in Spain’s counterterrorism policies and showed, yet again, that history’s darkest days often come with little warning.
March 11, 1997 - Paul McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, proving that if you play your cards right, rock and roll can get you a sword tap from the British monarchy. Meanwhile, Mick Jagger remains somehow not knighted, despite single handedly keeping the leather pants industry alive for decades.
March 11, 1983 - IBM released the PC XT, one of the first personal computers with a hard drive. It had a whopping 10MB of storage. Barely enough to hold a few cat videos by today’s standards, but revolutionary at the time.
And that’s March 11th! If you enjoyed today’s episode, subscribe, leave a review, and remember: history doesn’t just repeat itself, it does so while we all pretend it’s brand new. See you tomorrow, and until then, make your day historical!
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