IT HAPPENED TODAY
1778:
British forces take St Lucia in the West Indies from the French.
1831:
Nat Turner, the leader of a bloody slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia, was hanged in Jerusalem, the county seat.
1880:
Australian outlaw Ned Kelly (above) was hanged outside Melbourne Jail.
1887:
Construction of the Manchester Ship Canal starts at Eastham.
1918:
The Armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany in a railway carriage in the forest of Compiegne to end the First World War.
1920:
King George V (below) unveiled the Cenotaph in Whitehall.
1925:
The BBC broadcast its first radio play, The White Chateau by Reginald Berkley.
1940:
Willys-Overland launched the Jeep (so-called from the initials GP, for general purpose car).
1946:
Stevenage was designated the first new town in Britain.
1952:
The first video recorder was demonstrated in Beverly Hills, California, by inventors John Mullin and Wayne Johnson.
1965:
Ian Smith’s all-white Rhodesia government unilaterally declared independence from Britain (UDI).
1987:
Van Gogh’s Irises fetched £29.3m at Sotheby’s in New York.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
Prince Harry led the country in remembering the fallen on Armistice Day, laying a wreath at the National Memorial Arboretum.
BIRTHDAYS:
June Whitfield, actress, 92; Veronica Hurst, actress, 86; Barbara Boxer, American politician, 77; Kathy Lette, comedienne and author, 59; Demi Moore (above), actress, 55; Calista Flockhart, actress, 53; Mark Draper, former footballer, 47; Leonardo DiCaprio, actor, 43.