TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2017

On this day in history:

1860 - Explorers Burke and Wills first reach Cooper Creek on their expedition to cross Australia from south to north.

1880 - Australian outlaw and bank robber Ned Kelly was hanged at the Melbourne jail at age 25.

1918 - World War I came to an end when the Allies and Germany signed an armistice.

1918 - Poland was re-established shortly after the surrender of Germany.

1920 - The body of an unknown British soldier was buried in Westminster Abbey. The service was recorded with the first electronic recording process developed by Lionel Guest and H.O. Merriman.

1942 - During World War II, Germany completed its occupation of France.

1958 - Victoria becomes the first Australian state to give official recognition to a floral emblem.

1965 - The government of Rhodesia declared its independence from Britain. The country later became known as Zimbabwe.

1975 - Australia’s Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, dismisses Gough Whitlam as Prime Minister.

1975 - Civil war broke out when Angola gained independence from Portugal.

1987 - Vincent Van Gogh’s “Irises” was sold for a then record 53.9 million dollars in New York.

1992 - The Church of England voted to ordain women as priests.

1994 - In Gaza, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at an Israeli military checkpoint killing three soldiers.

1998 - Israel’s Cabinet ratified a land-for-peace agreement with the Palestinians.

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.

2012 - A strong earthquake with the magnitude 6.8 hits northern Burma, killing at least 26 people.

2014 - Fifty-eight people are killed in a bus crash in the Sukkur District in southern Pakistan’s Sindh province.