Milestones: March 11, 2024

March 11, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

Share this:

DATES BACK TO AMERICAN REVOLUTION — CONGRESS, ON MARCH 11, 1779, ESTABLISHED THE U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS to help plan, design and prepare environmental and structural facilities for the U.S. Army. The corps’ makeup wasn’t only soldiers from the Continental Army and its French allies, but also civilian workers who proved instrumental in the battle of Bunker Hill, Saratoga and Yorktown. After the Revolutionary War, the corps disbanded but was reestablished in 1794 as the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers, with the same purpose and service to the federal government. After another hiatus, the Corps of Engineers itself was re-established as an enduring division of the federal government in 1802.

These fortifications later became the foundations for the Statue of Liberty, which France presented to the United States in 1886.

✰✰✰

THE GREAT BLIZZARD — THE NORTHEASTERN U.S. GOT SOCKED WITH ONE OF THE WORST BLIZZARDS IN AMERICAN HISTORY, on Sunday, March 11, 1888. More than 400 people died and some areas between Washington, DC and Maine got more than 50 inches (over four feet) of snow. The blizzard, with its high winds and snow drifts, stopped all activity in New York. The previous day, East Coast dwellers had enjoyed temperatures in the mid-50s. That was before a collision of cold Canadian Arctic air and the warmer and moist Gulf stream air mass that created the monster storm. Even though some die-hard New Yorkers tried to reach the New York Stock Exchange the next day, officials realized the dangers of the elevated transit system, as well as above-ground utilities.

The Great Blizzard of 1888 prompted the NYC government to move the water and gas lines underground, and began work on a subterranean transit system — the subway, which proved to be vulnerable to flooding, such as in the October 2012 Superstorm Sandy.

✰✰✰

SIR PAUL — QUEEN ELIZABETH II, ON MARCH 11, 1997, KNIGHTED FORMER BEATLE AND WINGS FOUNDER PAUL McCARTNEY, honoring him for his “services to music.” The ceremony, steeped in centuries of British tradition, took place at Buckingham Palace, and the Beatles’ chief living singer/songwriter became Sir Paul. Fellow Beatle John Lennon had been assassinated more than 16 years prior, but McCartney dedicated his knighthood to him and the other two living Beatles, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, as well as to the people of Liverpool.

At the time of his knighting, McCartney was suffering personal adversity, as his wife Linda battled breast cancer, and could not attend the ceremonies, although their children did. Linda McCartney lost her fight against cancer on April 17, 1998.

✰✰✰

BELOVED BANDLEADER — BIG-BAND LEADER LAWRENCE WELK WAS BORN ON MARCH 11, 1903. IN NORTH DAKOTA of parents from Germany’s Alsace-Lorraine region, in what was part of the German Empire prior to World War I, but is now part of France. Welk worked on his family farm but really wanted to be a musician, and his father taught and encouraged him by letting him play his now-antique accordion. Young Lawrence then brokered a deal with his parents who agreed to give him a loan so he could purchase a high-quality accordion, in exchange for working on the family farm until he turned 21. Welk later earned his music degree and performed in traveling orchestras. He made his television debut in 1952, and ABC picked up his orchestra program in 1955; through a brokered deal he stayed in syndication until 1982.

The Lawrence Welk Show, with him playing the accordion. as well as conducting, became a stalwart for families, who faithfully tuned in every Saturday night for a diversion from workaday life.

✰✰✰

ONE MILLION PRIUSES — THE VEHICLE FIRST DUBBED AS A “GAMBLE” ON MARCH 11, 2009, BECAME A BEST-SELLER for automaker Toyota Motor Company, which on March 11, 2009, exceeded its millionth sale of its gas-electric hybrid vehicles in the U.S. under its six Toyota and Lexus brands. Prius, which was the first gas-electric model, had debuted 12 years earlier in Japan and was introduced to the U.S. market in 2000. The Prius utilized hybrid technology – with the electric motor supplementing power from the gasoline, which netted both an environmental and economic benefit. Prius’ lower emissions and higher gas mileage quickly became popular and Toyota sold more than 700,000 Prius vehicles in America, roughly more than half of the 1.2 million Priuses sold worldwide.

Reportedly, the name Prius is Latin for “earlier,” and its idiom connotation means “ahead of its time.”

See previous milestones, here.