Saturday 11th of March 1544

Poet Torquato Tasso is born in Sorrento, Campania, Italy.

Friday 11th of March 1864

244 die in Dale Dyke Dam break in Dale Dike Reservoir, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

The reservoir was being filled for the first time. The immediate cause was a crack in the embankment but the source of the crack was never determined.

Friday 11th of March 1921

Composer and bandoneon player Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla aka El Gran is born in Mar del Plata, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Wednesday 11th of March 1931

Media tycoon Rupert Keith Murdoch is born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Wednesday 11th of March 1931

Expressionist film director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau known for the horror film Nosferatu dies of head injuries suffered in a car crash at the age of 43 in Santa Barbara, California, United States.

The day before Murnau's 14-year-old Filippino servant crashed their hired Rolls Royce against an electric pole.

Monday 11th of March 1935

Start of the trial against 65-year-old Serial killer, child rapist and cannibal Albert Hamilton Howard Fish aka The Cannibal aka The Werewolf of Wysteria aka The Moon Maniac in Westchester County Courthouse, White Plains, New York, United States.

Wednesday 11th of March 1942

Murderer Harold Dorian Trevor is executed by hanging by Albert Pierrepoint at the age of 62 in Wandsworth Prison, London, Wandsworth, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Saturday 11th of March 1944

Discovery of human remains from at least 20 bodies in the basement of 47-year-old Doctor and serial killer Marcel André Henri Félix Petiot aka The Triangular Chamber of Death Murderer in 21 Rue Le Sueur, Paris, XVIe, Île-de-France, France.

Petiot's neighbors in Rue Le Sueur complained to police of a foul stench in the area and of large amounts of smoke billowing from a chimney of the house. Fearing a chimney fire, the police summoned firemen, who entered the house and found a roaring fire in a coal stove in the basement.

Monday 11th of March 1946

45-year-old SS-Obersturmbannführer and longest serving commandant of Auschwitz-KZ Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss is arrested in Gottrupel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Tuesday 11th of March 1947

Con artist Victor Lustig aka The Count known for trying to sell the Eiffel Tower twice dies of pneumonia at the age of 57 in Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, Springfield, Missouri, United States.

Friday 11th of March 1955

Biologist, pharmacologist and botanist Alexander Fleming known for discovering Penicillin dies of a heart attack at the age of 74 in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Tuesday 11th of March 1958

Victim of Dean Corll aka The Candyman William Ray 'Billy' Lawrence is born in Houston, Texas, United States.

Friday 11th of March 1960

Murderer Robert Dwight Fenton is executed by the gas chamber at the age of 26 in Arizona State Prison Complex, 1305 E Butte Avenue, Florence, Arizona, United States.

Monday 11th of March 1963

Lieutenant-colonel and military air weaponry engineer Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry known for attempting to assassinate President De Gaulle is executed by the firing squad at the age of 36 in Fort d'Ivry, Ivry-sur-Seine, Val-de-Marne, France.

Friday 11th of March 1966

46-year-old Psychologist and writer Timothy Francis Leary known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs is sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for the possession and transportation of marihuana in Laredo, Texas, United States.

Miss Helen Loftis, a U.S. employee, testified that she found three ounces of marijuana in a silver snuff box concealed between Miss Leary's legs, the Associated Press reports.

Tuesday 11th of March 1969

Child killer Jean-Laurent Olivier is executed by the Guillotine by André Olbrecht at the age of 25 in Amiens, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.

Wednesday 11th of March 1970

Lawyer and writer Erle Stanley Gardner known for creating Perry Mason dies of unknown causes at the age of 81 in Temecula, California, United States.

Friday 11th of March 1977

44-year-old Film director Roman Polanski is arrested and charged with furnishing Quaaludes to a minor, child-molesting, unlawful sexual intercourse, rape by the use of drugs, oral copulation and sodomy of 13-year-old Samantha Geirner in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Saturday 11th of March 1978

Musician Claude Antoine Marie François aka Cloclo dies of electrocution at the age of 39 in 46 Boulevard Exelmans, Paris, XVIe, Île-de-France, France.

Claude was at his apartment with an American girlfriend named Kathleen and a French secretary. In the afternoon he took a shower in preparation for a trip to the recording studio. After finishing his shower he noticed that the light bulb in the socket hanging over the shower was burned out. With his feet in the water he reached up to change it and was instantly electrocuted. Efforts to revive him failed. He was pronounced dead at 3:30pm.

Friday 11th of March 1983

47-year-old Serial killer Arnfinn Nesset is found guilty of murdering 22 of his patients at the Orkdal nursing home during a three-year period in Trondheim, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway.

Nesset poisoned the patients with the drug curacit.

Tuesday 11th of March 1997

37-year-old Joyce L. Dickerson-Peay is raped and killed by serial killer Alfred Gaynor aka The Springfield Strangler in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States.

Wednesday 11th of March 1998

Murderer Jerry Lee Hogue is executed by lethal injection at the age of 48 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Hogue's last words were "O.K., I’m ready".

Monday 11th of March 2002

Economist James Tobin known for the Tobin Tax dies of unknown causes at the age of 84 in New Haven, Connecticut, United States.

Tuesday 11th of March 2003

Murderer Bobby Glen Cook is executed by lethal injection at the age of 42 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Cook's last meal request was for a double meat cheeseburger, jalapenos and trimmings on the side, vanilla malt, french fries, onion rings, ketchup, picante sauce (hot), vanilla ice cream, 2 Cokes, 2 Dr Peppers, chicken fried steak sandwich with cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomatoes and salad dressing. Cook's last words were "I know this is wrong. I am going home to the Lord".

Thursday 11th of March 2004

191 die in Cercanías commuter train system bomb explosion in Atocha station, Madrid, Área metropolitana de Madrid, .

All four trains had departed the Alcalá de Henares station between 07:01 and 07:14. The explosions took place between 07:37 and 07:40. Atocha Station (train number 21431) - Three bombs exploded. El Pozo del Tío Raimundo Station (train number 21435) - Two bombs exploded. Santa Eugenia Station (train number 21713) - One bomb exploded. Calle Téllez (train number 17305) - Four bombs exploded. Over 2000 people were injured. On 3 April 2004 the presumed perpetrators committed suicide by setting off explosives, killing themselves and one of the police officers in Leganés, south of Madrid.

Wednesday 11th of March 2009

Spree killer and mass murderer Tim Kretschmer known from The Winnenden School Shooting commits suicide by a shot through the head at the age of 18 in Albertville-Realschule, Albertviller-Straße 32, Winnenden, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Kretschmer killed 13 people, including nine students and three teachers at the school before killing himself during a shootout with the police in Wendlingen where he shot two more people.

Tuesday 11th of March 2014

Multiple murderer Raymond Leslie Morris aka The Monster of Cannock Chase dies of natural causes at the age of 85 in HM Prison, Ribbleton Street, Preston, St. Matthew, Lancashire, United Kingdom.

Morris spent 45 years in prison.

Monday 11th of March 2019

Serial killer Angus Robertson Sinclair aka The World's End Murderer dies of bronchopneumonia, ischaemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease at the age of 74 in Glenochil Prison, Tullibody, Scotland, United Kingdom.