Watch the newscast from the night the world changed - March 11, 2020

ByEyewitness News WABC logo
Friday, March 11, 2022
The newscast from the night the world changed
The newscast from the night the world changedWatch Eyewitness News at 11 from the night the world changed - March 11, 2020.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- On March 11, 2020, everything changed. It was the date that former President Trump suspended travel from 26 European countries. The UK was not affected by the ban.

"This is not a financial crisis, this is just a temporary moment of time that we will overcome as a nation and world," Trump said at the time.

The pandemic in NYC captured in photos

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Pedestrians wear protective masks during the coronavirus pandemic while walking on the boardwalk Friday, May 22, 2020, in Long Beach, N.Y.
/Frank Franklin II

New York City became a ghost town, with many of the streets seemingly empty.

The NBA had also decided to suspend its season after a player tested positive for COVID-19. That player was Utah Jazz Center Rudy Gobert. He has since recovered.

The NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade in 2020 was also announced at postponed on March 11, 2020. The St. Patrick's Day Foundation still held their gala that night in New York City.

Then, one of America's favorite A-list Hollywood couples, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, announced they had contracted the coronavirus. They quarantined in Australia and returned to America once they recovered.

Ten years ago on that date, 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.

Lastly, on March 11, 1918, what were believed to be the first confirmed U.S. cases of a deadly global flu pandemic were reported among U.S. Army soldiers stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas; 46 would die. The worldwide outbreak of influenza claimed an estimated 20 to 40 million lives.

When did you realize the COVID pandemic changed everything?

Many of us had a moment, most often occurring in March 2020, when we realized that COVID-19 had completely changed our lives forever. Even though we've managed to move forward and adapt to a new normal, that memory still sticks with us. Tell us: What was that moment to you?

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