Medical milestones, landmark publications, and notable births and deaths associated with March 11.

Events

2020 – The World Health Organization (WHO) officially decelared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.

WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic. March 11, 2020

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Births

1835 – Sydney Ringer (1835-1910), British clinician, physiologist and pharmacologist; developed Ringers Solution (1882)

1875 – Jay Albion Heidbrink (1875-1957), American dentist; designed the Heidbrink Kineto-O-Meter , Heidbrink Valve, Heidbrink Model 75-B Oxygen Tent, Heidbrink Celluloid Mask, and the Heidbrink wrench

1900 – Francis John Murphy (1900-1972), American anaesthetist; developed the Murphy Endotracheal Tube and the Murphy eye (1941)

1932 – Yvonne Barr (1932-2016), Irish virologist; identification of Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) (1964)

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Deaths

1922 – Augustus Desiré Waller (1856-1922), Franco-British physiologist; recorded the first human electrocardiogram At St Mary’s Hospital in May 1877

2012 – Ruth Wynne-Davies (1926-2012), English orthopaedic surgeon; described Wynne-Davies Ligamentous Laxity (1970)

2015 – Mette Warburg (1926-2015), Danish ophthalmologist; described Walker-Warburg syndrome (1971)

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Further reading

• WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 – 11 March 2020