The annual commemoration (on 11 November) to mark the armistice that ended hostilities on the Western Front in the First World War.
Armistice Day
Fact of the Day
The Wehrmacht lost more than 400,000 soldiers during the first two months of Operation Barbarossa.
Quote of the Day
"I see that you have made three spelling mistakes
"
~ Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras's last words on being handed a copy of his order of execution, 1790
On This Day
350 General Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans and proclaims himself Emperor.
1486 The Houses of York and Lancaster were united when Henry VII married Elizabeth of York (the eldest daughter of Edward IV).
1562 The Council of Trent was reconvened for its final time. It set out Catholicism's response to the Reformation.
1778 Captain James Cook became the first European to visit the Hawaiian Islands, which he named the Sandwich Islands.
1788 11 British ships with 800 convicts landed at Botany Bay, Australia, intending to found the first penal colony. They moved to a more suitable location eight days later.
1871 Wilhelm I was proclaimed German Emperor, 170 years to the day after Frederick I crowned himself King in Prussia.
1904 Hollywood's quintessential leading man, Cary Grant, was born in Bristol, as Archibald Leach.
1919 The Paris Peace Conference began. It resulted, among other things, in the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations.
1936 Rudyard Kipling, Nobel Prize winner and author of The Jungle Book died. His ashes are buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey.
