Today in History

1688 – Dutch Prince Willem III’s invasion fleet sails to England, where he becomes King William II.

1880 – Australian bushranger Ned Kelly, right, is hanged in Melbourne, aged 25, for the murder of Constable Thomas Lonigan.

1918 – World War I ends at 11am as an armistice between Germany and the Allies comes into effect. New Zealand celebrates the next day.

1951 – Juan Peron is elected for the second of three presidential terms in Argentina.

1952 – The first video recorder is demonstrated by inventors John Mullin and Wayne Johnson in Beverly Hills, California.

1975 – Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam is removed from office by Governor-General Sir John Kerr.

1991 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir vows not to give up occupied territories.

1992 – Church of England votes to allow the ordination of women.

1994 – A 72-page manuscript of Leonardo da Vinci’s scientific diagrams and notes is sold in New York for a record US$30.8 million.

2000 – Republicans go to court, seeking to block manual recounts from continuing in Florida’s razorthin presidential election; a cable car crammed with skiers and snowboarders catches fire while being pulled through an Alpine tunnel in Austria, killing 155 people.

2002 – Microsoft chairman Bill Gates pledges US$100 million to fight Aids in India.

2004 – Death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

2018 – Democratic Republic of Congo announces its worst outbreak of Ebola with 198 deaths.

Birthdays

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian author (1821-81); George Patton, US general (1885-1945); Daniel Ortega, Nicaraguan politician (1945-); Demi Moore, US actress (1962-); Norm Hewitt, All Black (1968-); Leonard DiCaprio, US actor (1974-); Lou Vincent, NZ cricketer (1978-).