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.
1493 Birth of Paracelsus, physician (d. 1541)
1620 Forty-one Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, anchored off Massachusetts, signed a compact calling for a "body politick."
1634 Following pressure from Anglican bishop John Atherton, the Irish House of Commons passes An Act for the Punishment for the Vice of Buggery.
1673 Second Battle of Khotyn in Ukraine: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth forces under the command of Jan Sobieski defeat the Ottoman army. In this battle, rockets made by Kazimierz Siemienowicz are successfully used.
1675 Gottfried Leibniz demonstrates integral calculus for the first time to find the area under the graph of y = ƒ(x)
1750 The F.H.C. Society, also known as the Flat Hat Club, is formed at Raleigh Tavern, Williamsburg, Virginia. It is the first college fraternity.
1821 Birth of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist (d. 1881)
1831 Former slave Nat Turner, who had led a violent insurrection, was executed in Jerusalem, Va.
1839 The Virginia Military Institute is founded in Lexington, Virginia.
1855 Death of Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (b. 1813)
1864 Sherman's March to the Sea – Civil War Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins burning Atlanta, Georgia to the ground in preparation for his march south.
1865 Treaty of Sinchula is signed by which Bhutan cedes the areas east of the Teesta River to the British East India Company.
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.
1885 Birth of George Smith Patton, Jr., American general (d. 1945)
1889 Washington became the 42nd state.
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 outside Compiègne in France. The war officially ends at 11:00 (The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month) and this is annually honoured with a two-minute silence. (I hope Penigma readers will join me in a two-minute silence today in that tradition.)
Death of George Lawrence Price, Canadian soldier, last person to be killed in W.W.I. (b. 1892)
Józef Piłsudski comes to Warsaw and assumes supreme military power in Poland. Poland regains its independence, celebrated each year on this day.
Emperor Charles I of Austria relinquishes power, a pivotal event in the occurrences involved in WW I.
1919 President Woodrow Wilson declares Armistice Day:
"To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with lots of pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations."Armistice Day changed to Veteran's Day in 1954, to honor all veterans, not only those of WW I. The idea of expanding Veterans Day originated with Alfred King, a shoe store owner in Emporia Kansas, who sought the support of his Chamber of Commerce to launch a campaign for the change.
The Centralia Massacre in Centralia, Washington results the deaths of four members of the American Legion and the lynching of a local leader of the Industrial Workers of the World.
Lāčplēša day Latvian forces defeat the Freikorps at Riga in the Latvian War of Independence.
1921 President Warren G. Harding dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.
1926 U.S. Route 66 is established.
1930 Patent number US1781541 is awarded to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd for their invention, the Einstein refrigerator. (Included because I am a science geek.)
1934 The Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia is opened.
1940 World War II: Battle of Taranto – The Royal Navy launches the first aircraft carrier strike in history, on the Italian fleet at Taranto.
Armistice Day Blizzard: An unexpected blizzard kills 144 in the U.S. Midwest.
1942 World War II: Nazi Germany completes its occupation of France.
1944 Dr. jur. Erich Göstl, a member of the Waffen SS, was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery, after losing his face and eyes during the Battle of Normandy.
1966 NASA launches Gemini 12
1972 The U.S. Army turned over its base at Long Binh to the South Vietnamese army, symbolizing the end of direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War.
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.
1992 The Church of England voted to ordain women as priests.
1993 A sculpture honoring women who served in the Vietnam War was dedicated at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
1998 Israel's Cabinet narrowly ratified a land-for-peace agreement with the Palestinians.
2000 Republicans went to court seeking an order to block manual recounts from continuing in Florida's presidential election.
2001 Journalists Pierre Billaud, Johanne Sutton and Volker Handloik are killed in Afghanistan during an attack on the convoy they are traveling in.
2004 New Zealand Tomb of the Unknown Warrior is dedicated at the National War Memorial, Wellington.
2004 Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died in Paris at age 75.
2006 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II unveils the New Zealand War Memorial in London, United Kingdom, commemorating the loss of soldiers from the New Zealand Army and the British Army.
