Watch the newscast 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
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.
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