Today in history
Today is Monday, November 11, the 315th day of 2019. There are 50 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1500 — King Louis XII of France and King Ferdinand of Aragon sign the secret Treaty of Granada for the conquest and partition of Naples.
1620 — Near Cape Cod, the heads of all 41 households aboard the Mayflower sign the
Mayflower Compact, which establishes a plan to enable the pilgrims to govern in the new American colony. They used the Julian Calendar, also known as Old Style dates, which, at that time, was 10 days behind the Gregorian Calendar.
1673 — Poland’s King John III Sobieski defeats the
Turks at Korzim, Poland.
1831 — Former American slave Nat Turner, who had led a violent insurrection, is executed in
Jerusalem, Virginia.
1880 — Infamous bushranger Ned Kelly is hanged at
the Melbourne Jail.
1916 — William Broome, a men’s clothing manufacturer and retailer in New Plymouth, submits his application to register the Swanndri.
1917 — A block of buildings in Christchurch known as the Canterbury Hall, including His Majesty’s Theatre, is destroyed by fire.
1918 — World War 1 ends with the Signing of the armistice; the independent republic of Poland is proclaimed by Jozef Pilsudski.
1920 — The body of an unknown British soldier is
buried in Westminster Abbey.
1928 — Six men drown when a boat capsizes in
Otago Harbour. 1951 — Juan Peron is elected for the second of three
presidential terms.
1952 — The first video recorder is demonstrated by inventors John Mullin and Wayne Johnson in Beverly Hills, California.
1961 — The Soviet city Stalingrad is renamed
Volgograd.
1964 — Food shortages in India provoke riots in
Kerala state.
1965 — Ian Smith declares Rhodesian independence, while Britain declares the regime is illegal.
1969 — Mark Burgess and Bob Cunis contribute a stubborn 94run ninthwicket stand in the drawn third test against Pakistan in Dacca (now Dhaka, in Bangladesh) to secure victory in the test series. New Zealand had won the second test in Lahore to take a 10 lead.
1970 — Arthur Allan Thomas is charged with the murders of Harvey and Jeannette Crewe. Twice convicted of the crimes, he was granted a Royal Pardon in 1980 by Prime Minister Robert Muldoon. 1971 — The United States Senate ratifies a treaty to
return Okinawa Island to Japan.
1972 — The US turns over its big base at Long Binh to the South Vietnamese, marking the end of direct US participation in the Vietnam War.
1992 — Overturning centuries of tradition, the Church of England votes to allow women to become priests.
1994 — A 72page manuscript of Leonardo da Vinci’s scientific diagrams and notes is sold at an auction in New York for a record $US30.8 million.
1995 — An avalanche buries a Japanese trekking
group in the Mt Everest region in Nepal, killing 26.
1999 — British hereditary lords end 700 years in Parliament when they pass legislation stripping away their right to sit in the House of Lords.
2000 — US 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.
Today’s birthdays
Thomas Ellison, member of the New Zealand Natives and New Zealand rugby teams (18671904); Fuzzy Zoeller, US golfer (1951); Peter Parros, US actor (1960); Stanley Tucci, US actor/director (1960); Demi Moore, US actress (1962); Calista Flockhart, US actress (1964); Norm Hewitt, All Black (1968); Michael Owens, New Zealand cricketer (1969); Adam Beach, Canadian actor (1972); Leslie Mann, US actress (1972); Leonardo DiCaprio, US actor (1974); Lou Vincent, New Zealand cricketer (1978); Merissa Smith, New Zealand football international (1990).
Quote of the day:
‘‘All the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.’’ — US novelist Kurt Vonnegut, who was born on this day in 1922. He died in 2007, aged 84.
ODT and agencies