On March 11, 1779, Congress established the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers to help plan, design and prepare environmental
and structural facilities for the U.S. Army.

Made up of civilian workers, members of the Continental Army
and French officers, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers played
an essential role in the critical Revolutionary War battles at
Bunker Hill, Saratoga and Yorktown.

Mississippi River improvements made by the Corps of
Engineers in 1890.

General Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines on March 11,
1942, by PT boat during World War II. He was ordered to
leave by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after the Japanese
took control of the Philippines.

Gen. MacArthur (left) with President Franklin D. 
Roosevelt.       
 
        

        
       

Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 – 5 April 1964)

On March 11, 1903, musician and band leader Lawrence Welk 
was born.

For the generation that grew up on the big bands of the 1930s
and ’40s, The Lawrence Welk Show was a blessed island of
calm in a world gone mad for rock and roll, and it aired like
clockwork every Saturday night from 1955 to 1982.

When ABC dropped The Lawrence Welk Show in 1971, Welk independently arranged a syndication deal that kept him on
the air for another 11 years and made him one of the richest
entertainers in America.

On March 11, 1989, "Cops," a documentary-style television
series that follows police officers and sheriff’s deputies as
they go about their jobs, debuted on Fox. "Cops" went on
to become one of the longest-running shows in television
history. It went off the air in 2020.

The show, which was created by John Langley and Malcolm
Barbour, was a pioneer in reality television. Crews with
camcorders followed law enforcement officers on patrol,
tracking down suspects and making arrests.

With its widely recognized theme song, “Bad Boys” by the
reggae group Inner Circle, "Cops" had spawned numerous
imitators in addition to parody shows.

John Russell Langley (June 1, 1943 – June 26, 2021)