Today is Sunday, March 11, the 70th day of 2018. There are 295 days left in the year.

►Birthdays: Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is 87. Former ABC News correspondent Sam Donaldson is 84. Singer Bobby McFerrin is 68. Movie director Jerry Zucker is 68. Singer Cheryl Lynn is 67. Actress Susan Richardson is 66. Singer Pete Droge is 49. Actor Terrence Howard is 49. Rock musician Rami Jaffee is 49. Actor Johnny Knoxville is 47. Actor Rob Brown is 34.

In 1513, Giovanni de’ Medici was proclaimed pope, succeeding Julius II; he took the name Leo X.

In 1888, the Blizzard of ‘88, also known as the ‘‘Great White Hurricane,’’ began inundating the Northeast, resulting in some 400 deaths.

In 1918, what are believed to be the first US cases of a deadly global flu pandemic were reported among Army soldiers stationed at Fort Riley, Kan.; 46 would die. (The worldwide outbreak of influenza claimed an estimated 20 to 40 million lives.)

In 1957, Charles Van Doren’s 14-week run on the rigged NBC game show ‘‘Twenty-One’’ ended as he was ‘‘defeated’’ by attorney Vivienne Nearing; Van Doren’s take was $129,000. American explorer Richard E. Byrd died in Boston at age 68.

In 1965, the Rev. James J. Reeb, a white minister from Boston, died two days after being beaten during civil rights disturbances in Selma, Ala.

In 1985, Mikhail S. Gorbachev was chosen to succeed the late Konstantin U. Chernenko as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.

In 1993, Janet Reno was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to be US attorney general.

In 2004, 10 bombs exploded in quick succession across the commuter rail network in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people in an attack linked to Al Qaeda-inspired militants.

In 2011, a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami struck Japan’s northeastern coast, killing nearly 20,000 people and severely damaging the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station.