November 11
Many countries mark today ("eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month") in relation to the end of World War I:
as
Armistice Day in New Zealand, France, Belgium, and Serbia;
as
Nat'l Independence Day in Poland (commemorating the anniversary of Poland's assumption of independent statehood in 1918);
as
Remembrance Day in The United Kingdom and The Commonwealth of Nations;
and as
Veteran's Day in The United States.
Today is observed as
Singles' Day in China, celebrating the pride of being single.
Events
1100 –
Henry I of England marries
Matilda of Scotland, the daughter of
Malcolm III of Scotland and a direct descendant of the Saxon king
Edmund Ironside.
1215 –
The Fourth Lateran Council meets, defining the doctrine of
transubstantiation, the process by which bread and wine are, by that doctrine, said to transform into the body and blood of Christ.
1620 –
The Mayflower Compact is signed in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod.
1634 – Following pressure from Anglican bishop
John Atherton, the Irish House of Commons passes An Act for the Punishment for the Vice of Buggery. Apparently,
exceptions were made for Catholic priests and alterboys.
1675 –
Gottfried Leibniz demonstrates
integral calculus for the first time to find the area under the graph of y = ƒ(x).
1724 –
Joseph Blake, alias Blueskin, a highwayman known for attacking "Thief-Taker General" (and thief)
Jonathan Wild at the
Old Bailey, is hanged in London.
1805 – Napoleonic Wars:
Battle of Dürenstein: About 8,000 French troops attempt to slow the retreat of a vastly superior (24,000 men) Russian and Austrian force.
1839 – The
Virginia Military Institute is founded in Lexington, Virginia.
1864 – American Civil War: General
William Tecumseh Sherman begins burning Atlanta to the ground in preparation for his
march to the sea.
1869 – The Victorian
Aboriginal Protection Act is enacted in Australia, giving the government control of indigenous people's wages, their terms of employment, where they could live, and of their children, effectively leading to the
Stolen Generations.
1880 – Australian bushranger
Ned Kelly is hanged at Melbourne Gaol.
1887 – August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and George Engel are executed as a result of the
Haymarket affair.
1889 – The
State of Washington is admitted as the 42nd state of the United States.
1911 – Many cities in the Midwestern United States
break their record highs and lows on the same day as a strong cold front rolls through.
1918 – World War I:
Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car in the forest of Compiègne.
1921 –
The Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by US President
Warren G. Harding at
Arlington National Cemetery.
1926 – The
United States Numbered Highway System is established.
1934 – The
Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia is opened.
1940 – World War II: In the
Battle of Taranto, the Royal Navy launches the first all-aircraft ship-to-ship naval attack in history.
1972 - The
Allman Brothers Band bass player
Berry Oakley was killed when his motorcycle hit a bus at the same intersection as former band member
Duane Allman, who had died a year earlier. Oakley was 24 years old.
1975 –
Australian constitutional crisis of 1975: Australian Governor-General
Sir John Kerr dismisses the government of
Gough Whitlam, appoints
Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister and announces a general election to be held in early December.
2000 –
Kaprun disaster: One hundred fifty-five skiers and snowboarders die when a cable car catches fire in an alpine tunnel in Kaprun, Austria.
2004 –
New Zealand Tomb of the Unknown Warrior is dedicated at the National War Memorial, Wellington.
2004 – The
Palestine Liberation Organization confirms the death of
Yasser Arafat from
unidentified causes.
Mahmoud Abbas is elected chairman of the PLO minutes later.
2004 -
Coldplay fan Sarah Sainsbury wrote to the band asking for their autographs so she could sell them to raise funds at her school charity. Coldplay sent her a triple platinum disc worth over £4,000.
2015 -
Phil Taylor better known as "Philthy Animal" Taylor and drummer with
Motörhead died aged 61. He was in the The classic mark IV Motörhead line-up of
Lemmy, Taylor, and
Fast Eddie Clarke who recorded ten studio albums and the live album
No Sleep 'til Hammersmith.
Births
1821 – Fyodor Dostoyevsky; 1885 – George S. Patton
; 1899 – Pat O'Brien (
Angels With Dirty Faces, Some Like It Hot); 1904 – Alger Hiss; 1909 – Robert Ryan;
1925 – Jonathan Winters
; 1940 – Barbara Boxer; 1945 – Daniel Ortega; 1947 - Pat Daugherty♪ ♫(Black Oak Arkansas); 1951 – Fuzzy Zoeller; 1951 – Marc Summers (hosted Nickelodeon's
Double Dare); 1953 – Marshall Crenshaw
; 1953 – Andy Partridge
(XTC); 1956 – Ian Craig Marsh♪ ♫(The Human League); 1959 – Carl 'The Truth' Williams
; 1960 – Stanley Tucci; 1962 – Demi Moore; 1964 – Calista Flockhart; 1965 – Max Mutchnick (co-creator
Will & Grace, Boston Common); 1971 – David DeLuise ('Bug' on
3rd Rock From The Sun); 1972 – Adam Beach (
Windtalkers); 1973 – Jason White
; 1974 – Leonardo DiCaprio
Deaths
1831 – Nat Turner; 1855 – Søren Kierkegaard; 1880 – Ned Kelly; 1917 – Liliuokalani♪ ♫(last reigning Queen of Hawaii); 1945 – Jerome Kern♪ ♫; 1972 – Berry Oakley
(Allman Bros); 1976 – Alexander Calder
; 1984 – Martin Luther King, Sr.; 1999 – Mary Kay Bergman (original voice for most of the female characters on
South Park); 2004 – Yasser Arafat; 2015 - Phil 'Philthy Animal' Taylor
(Motörhead)