Murdoch Born: Global Media Empire's Founder
Rupert Murdoch launched The Sun's Page Three in 1970, acquired the Times and Sunday Times in 1981, Fox Broadcasting Company in 1986, and Sky Television in 1989. He built the largest media empire of the twentieth century — newspapers, television, film — across three countries and two different regulatory environments, switching his Australian citizenship for American when US law required it. Born March 11, 1931, in Melbourne. His father was a newspaper man. He inherited a small Adelaide paper and turned it into News Corporation. The phone-hacking scandal at his British tabloids culminated in the closure of the 168-year-old News of the World in 2011. He married four times. He turned 93 in 2024 and was still chair emeritus of his companies.
March 11, 1931
95 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on March 11
The Praetorian Guard didn't just kill the eighteen-year-old emperor—they erased him. After stabbing Elagabalus and his mother Julia Soaemias in a palace latrine…
She'd been ruling for a child emperor — her three-year-old son Michael III — when Theodora risked everything to reverse a policy that had torn the Byzantine Emp…
The Pope refused to create the archbishopric for seven years because he didn't trust King John of Bohemia's loyalty. Charles IV, John's son, had to wait until h…
John Hawkwood’s tactical brilliance dismantled the Veronese army at the Battle of Castagnaro, securing a decisive victory for Padua. By utilizing flooded fields…
English mercenary captain Sir John Hawkwood deployed a feigned retreat to draw Verona's forces into a devastating ambush at Castagnaro, delivering Padua a decis…
The Jesuits armed thousands of Indigenous converts with European muskets and cavalry tactics, then watched them outmaneuver Portuguese slave raiders at their ow…
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