What happened on March 11? Today in history
Many important events took place in the world and in Turkey on March 11. Here are some of the events that occurred on this day in history...
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Today in history, March 11, has been the scene of many important events in Turkey and around the world.
Here are some of those events:
Turkey Joined the IMF
On March 11, 1947, Turkey joined the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These organizations were established after World War II to ensure international economic cooperation and maintain global financial stability. By joining these institutions, Turkey took an important step toward integrating into the global economy and achieving its development goals. Turkey signed 19 stand-by agreements with the IMF and most recently received an 11.5 billion dollar loan in 2008. Turkey fully repaid its debt to the IMF in 2013 and ended its relations with the organization.
The Netherlands Won Eurovision
On March 11, 1959, the 4th Eurovision Song Contest was held in Cannes, France. In the competition, which saw the participation of 11 countries, Teddy Scholten, representing the Netherlands, came in first with the song Een beetje.
COVID-19 Declared a Pandemic
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, which emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, and spread across the world, a pandemic. A pandemic means that a disease is spreading across a very wide geography and affecting a large number of people. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized that the declaration of a pandemic did not mean the outbreak could not be controlled, but that countries needed to take more serious and decisive measures. On the same day, it was announced that the first COVID-19 case had been seen in Turkey. Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca announced that a male patient had tested positive and was under treatment. Since that day, more than 2.8 million COVID-19 cases have been detected in Turkey, and 29 thousand people have lost their lives.
Other developments in history are as follows:
1918 - The liberation of Fındıklı from occupation. The Fındıklı district of Rize had been occupied by the Russians during World War I. On March 11, 1918, the Turkish army recaptured Fındıklı, ensuring the liberation of the district.
2004 - In the bombing attacks on train stations in Madrid, 191 people died and more than 1,800 people were injured.