Today in History for Nov. 11:
In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council was convened by Pope Innocent III. The council first defined transubstantiation, the Roman Catholic belief that the bread and wine of the Eucharist change invisibly into the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
In 1620, 41 Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, anchored off Massachusetts, signed a compact calling for a "body politick."
In 1813, British and Canadian troops stopped American invaders at the battle of Chrysler's Farm, near Cornwall, Ont.
In 1831, former slave Nat Turner, who'd led a violent insurrection, was executed in Jerusalem, Va.
In 1871, the last British troops left Quebec, ending the British military presence in Canada except for a small garrison at Halifax.
In 1889, Washington became the 42nd U.S. state.
In 1916, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden fired Sir Sam Hughes, Canada's militia minister, for administrative incompetence. Hughes had been a supporter of the military's use of the Ross rifle -- which turned out to be useless in the war because it was heavy and jammed in muddy trenches.
In 1918, the First World War officially ended on Armistice Day and hostilities ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. More than 595,000 Canadians enlisted, of whom 422,000 served overseas. Following the Second World War, Armistice Day was changed to Remembrance Day, which commemorates all the Canadian men and women who died in the Boer War, two world wars, the Korean War and in other actions for the United Nations.
In 1919, the Hart House cultural centre opened at the University of Toronto. It was conceived by Vincent Massey and named after his grandfather, Hart Massey. Hart House's facilities include a concert hall, a music room and a theatre, and the centre has served as home to the Hart House Glee Club, "The Hart House Orchestra" and "The Hart House String Quartet."
In 1921, the remains of an unidentified American service member were interred in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in a ceremony presided over by U.S. President Harding.
In 1929, the Ambassador Bridge spanning the Detroit River between Michigan and Windsor, Ont., was dedicated.
In 1942, during the Second World War, Germany completed its occupation of France.
In 1965, Rhodesia -- now Zimbabwe -- unilaterally declared its independence from Britain.
In 1966, "Gemini 12" blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Fla., with astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. aboard.
In 1966, Canada was elected to a two-year term on the United Nations Security Council.
In 1972, the U.S. Army turned over its base at Long Binh to the South Vietnamese army, symbolizing the end of direct American military involvement in the Vietnam War.
In 1973, Israel and Egypt signed a ceasefire agreement ending the Yom Kippur War.
In 1980, South Africa's apartheid government announced it would begin compulsory education for the country's eight-million black children.
In 1982, the space shuttle "Columbia" made its first commercial flight while carrying a powerful Canadian communications satellite.
In 1983, President Reagan became the first U.S. chief executive to address the Diet, Japan's national legislature.
In 1987, Boris Yeltsin, who had criticized the slow pace of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, was dismissed as Moscow Communist Party chief.
In 1992, the Canadian Auto Workers voted to forego $15 million in wage increases over the next three years to support the survival efforts of Canadian Airlines International.
In 1992, the Church of England voted to allow women to be ordained as priests. Women were already allowed to become priests in 11 branches of the Anglican church, including Canada and the U.S.
In 1994, an illustrated manuscript known as the "Codex Hammer" by Leonardo Da Vinci, which predicted submarines, steam engines and snorkels, was sold at a record price of US$30.8 million. The buyer was Bill Gates of Microsoft Corp.
In 1999, the National Geographic Society announced that with the help of new technology, they had added two metres to the height of the world's tallest mountain. The new height for Mt. Everest is 8,850 metres.
In 2000, a fire in a cable car inside a mountain tunnel near Kaprun, Austria, killed 155 people -- mostly skiers. German world freestyle skiing champion Sandra Schmitt, 19, was among those who died.
In 2002, San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds was unanimously voted the National League's Most Valuable Player, baseball's first five-time MVP.
In 2002, George Bowering, a West Coast author of about 50 books and a two-time winner of Governor General's Awards, was named Parliament's first poet laureate.
In 2003, Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Roy Halladay won the American League Cy Young Award.
In 2004, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, the guerrilla leader turned Nobel Peace Prize winner who forced his people's plight into the world spotlight, died at age 75, in a hospital in Paris. He was buried the next day in his heavily-bombed Ramallah compound in Palestinian territory after a military funeral in Cairo. Mahmoud Abbas, Arafat's most senior lieutenant, was elected the new chairman of the PLO, the supreme body in Palestinian politics.
In 2004, Canadian author Alice Munro won her second Giller Prize for her new collection of short stories, "Runaway."
In 2008, Joseph Boyden won the $50,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his second novel "Through Black Spruce," a portrait of contemporary aboriginal life and family struggles that ensue after a beautiful young woman goes missing.
In 2009, Prince Charles joined Prime Minister Stephen Harper and thousands of others in Ottawa to pay tribute to Canada's war dead at national Remembrance Day ceremony. For the first time since the First World War, the leaders of Germany and France held a joint ceremony to commemorate the end of the conflict.
In 2014, tens of thousands of people surrounded the National War Memorial on Remembrance Day as Gov. Gen. David Johnston formally rededicated the monument in the name of all who have died in the service of Canada.
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(The Canadian Press)
The Canadian Press
