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“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.”
~ Kurt Vonnegut
Wikiquote (Kurt Vonnegut (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) an American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle (1963), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), and Breakfast of Champions (1973) blend satire, gallows humor, and science fiction.)
November 11th, 308
Roman Empire:
308 - At Carnuntum Emperor emeritus Diocletian confers with Galerius, Augustus of the East, and Maximianus, the recently returned former Augustus of the West, in an attempt to restore order to the Roman Empire.
Wikipedia Image: Relief from a 3rd-century sarcophagus depicting a battle between Romans and Germanic warriors; the central figure is perhaps the emperor Hostilian / Depiction of the Menorah on the Arch of Titus in Rome.
November 11th, 1215
Catholic Ecumenical Councils:
1215 - Fourth Lateran Council: meets, defining the doctrine of transubstantiation, the process by which bread and wine are, by that doctrine, said to transform into the body and blood of Christ.
Wikipedia Painting: The Last Supper, 1520, by Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, called Giampietrino (508-1549), after Leonardo da Vinci, oil on canvas, currently in the collection of The Royal Academy of Arts, London.
November 11th, 1620
Mayflower Compact is signed in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Wikipedia Painting: "Mayflower", The Granger Collection, New York 1905; Pilgrims landing on Cape Cod in November of 1620; The Pilgrims on the Speedwell; Mayflower arrived inside the tip of Cape Cod fishhook, November 1620 (satellite image, 1997); Landing of the Pilgrims by Michele Felice Cornè, circa 1805. Displayed in the White House.
November 11th, 1675
Gottfried Leibniz demonstrates integral calculus for the first time to find the area under the graph of y = ƒ(x).
Wikipedia Image: Gottfried Leibniz demonstrates integral calculus.
November 11th, 1724
Joseph Blake, alias Blueskin, a highwayman known for attacking "Thief-Taker General" (and thief) Jonathan Wild at the Old Bailey, is hanged in London.
Wikipedia Painting: A Lion Attacking a Horse, oil on canvas, 1770, by Stubbs. Yale University Art Gallery.
Depection: Lion (A tyrant; An unjust ruler; Death; Healing from a sickness; Receiving an inheritance) A lioness in a dream represents ignorance, pride, affectation and perfidy. Horse has a distressed expression on it's face, while it's body is tensed up in pain, showing a detailed structure on the horses body.
November 11th, 1750
Flat Hat Club (F.H.C. Society):, is formed at Raleigh Tavern, Williamsburg, Virginia - it is the first college fraternity.
Wikipedia Photo: The Flat Hat, credit Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, Special Collections Research Center Earl Gregg Swem Library
November 11th, 1778
American Revolutionary War:
1778 - Cherry Valley Massacre; Loyalists and Seneca Indian forces attack a fort and village in eastern New York, killing more than forty civilians and soldiers.
Wikipedia Paintings: Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutz; Battle of the Chesapeake, French (left) and British (right) lines; Battle of Bunker Hill, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull; The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 13, 1782, by John Singleton Copley; Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, 1781; "The surrender at Saratoga" shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder; Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by (John Trumbull, 1797).
Grand Union - Stars and Stripes Flag
November 11th, 1805
French Revolutionary Wars / Napoleonic Wars:
1805 - War of the Third Coalition; Battle of Dürenstein - 8,000 French troops attempt to slow the retreat of a vastly superior Russian and Austrian force.
Wikipedia Painting: Battle of Trafalgar: The British HMS Sandwich fires to the French flagship Bucentaure (completely dismasted) in the battle of Trafalgar;
Napoleon in Berlin (Meynier). After defeating Prussian forces at Jena, the French Army entered Berlin on 27 October 1806;
Battle of the Bridge of Arcole Napoleon Bonaparte leading his troops over the bridge of Arcole, by Horace Vernet;
Napoleon as King of Italy (Appiani);
Napoleon Crossing the Alps (David). In 1800 Bonaparte took the French Army across the Alps, eventually defeating the Austrians at Marengo;
Charge of the Russian Imperial Guard cavalry against French cuirassiers at the Battle of Friedland, 14 June 1807;
Battle of Borodino as depicted by Louis Lejeune. The battle was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars;
Napoleon's withdrawal from Russia, a painting by Adolph Northen;
Wellington at Waterloo by Robert Alexander Hillingford;
Napoleon is often represented in his green colonel uniform of the Chasseur à Cheval, with a large bicorne and a hand-in-waistcoat gesture.
Napoléon at the Battle of Austerlitz; by François Pascal Simon, Baron Gérard.
November 11th, 1813
War of 1812:
1813 - Battle of Crysler's Farm; British and Canadian forces defeat a larger American force, causing the Americans to abandon their Saint Lawrence campaign.
Wikipedia Painting: Damage to the US Capitol after the Burning of Washington; HMS Shannon leading the captured American frigate USS Chesapeake into Halifax, Nova Scotia (1813); USS Constitution vs HMS Guerriere; the death of Tecumseh at Moraviantown; Oliver Hazard Perry's message to William Henry Harrison after the Battle of Lake Erie began with what would become one of the most famous sentences in American military history: "We have met the enemy and they are ours; "Andrew Jackson leads the defence of New Orleans; The mortally wounded Isaac Brock spurs troops on at the Queenston Heights.
November 11th, 1831
Southampton County, Virginia: escaped slave Nat Turner, American slave leader, is hanged after inciting a violent slave uprising in Virginia.
Wikipedia Painting: Nat Turner's slave rebellion, credit Aaheritageva.org (African American Historic Sites Database), Maryland State Archives.
November 11th, 1864
American Civil War:
1864 - Sherman's March to the Sea; Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins burning Atlanta, Georgia to the ground in preparation for his march south.
Wikipedia Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war.
● Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● First Battle Between Ironclads: CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads.
● Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.
November 11th, 1889
Washington state is admitted as the 42nd State of the United States.
Wikipedia Photo: Seattle Skyline, Washington; Olympic Mountains Olympic National Park; Olympic National Park by Melissa Farlow; The Cascade Loop, Washington State's Scenic Loop Highway; Washington State's Mount St. Helens, by USGS. credit National Geographic.
November 11th, 1911
The Great Blue Norther of 11/11/11: many cities in the Midwestern United States break their record highs and lows on the same day as a strong cold front rolls through.
Wikipedia Image: A cold front over the eastern and central region of the United States of America. credit NOAA, Poetryfoundation.org
November 11th, 1918
World War I:
1918 - Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car in the forest of Compiègne, France. The fighting officially ends at 11:00 a.m., (the eleventh hour in the eleventh month on the eleventh day) and this is annually honoured with a two-minute silence. The war officially ends on the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28th June, 1919.
Post World War I:
1918 - Józef Piłsudski assumes supreme military power in Poland - symbolic first day of Polish independence.
1918 - Emperor Charles I of Austria relinquishes power.
1919 - Veterans Day; coincides with other holidays Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, which are celebrated in other parts of the world and also mark the anniversary of the end of World War I.
1919 - Centralia Massacre (Washington); in Centralia, Washington deaths of four members of the American Legion and the lynching of a local leader of the Industrial Workers of the World.
1919 - Latvian War of Independence; Latvian forces defeat the Freikorps at Riga.
Wikipedia Photo: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV Tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.III biplanes. National Archives and Records Administration.
The allied representatives at the signing of the armistice. Ferdinand Foch, second from right, seen outside his railway carriage in the forest of Compiègne; Celebrations in London on November 11, 1918: But many battle-scarred soldiers found the concept of peace bewildering; Armistice Day 1918: Crowds in London's Tralfalgar Square celebrating the end of the first world war; End of WW1: Soldiers Celebrating WW1 Armistice, LIFE.
November 11th, 1921
Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by United States President Warren G. Harding at Arlington National Cemetery.
Wikipedia Photo: Tomb of the Unknowns, Arlington National Cemetery.
November 11th, 1926
U.S. Route 66 is established.
Wikipedia Image: U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 is established on November 11th, 1926 and closed on June 27th, 1985. credit Wallcoo.com
November 11th, 1930
Patent number US1781541 is awarded to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd for their invention, the Einstein refrigerator
Wikipedia Photo: Albert Einstein was encouraged by his colleague Leo Szilard to pen a letter to President Roosevelt warning of the dangers of a possible German atomic bomb. (Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd invented a refrigerator that runs on heat, had no moving parts.) credit Time & Life Pictures / Getty Image
November 11th, 1940
World War II:
1940 - Battle of Taranto; the Royal Navy launches the first aircraft carrier in history, on the Italian fleet at Taranto.
1940 - Armistice Day Blizzard; an unexpected blizzard kills 144 in the Midwestern United States.
1942 - Nazi Germany completes its occupation of France.
1942 - Second Battle of El Alamein; is won by the British in El Alamein, Egypt.
1944 - Dr. jur. Erich Göstl, a member of the Waffen SS, is presented with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, to recognise extreme battlefield bravery, after losing his face and eyes during the Battle of Normandy.
Wikipedia Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
November 11th, 1966
Gemini program: NASA's
Gemini 12 (human spaceflight); is launched.
Wikipedia Photo: An Agena Target Vehicle floats between the Gemini 11 spacecraft and Baja California, Mexico, while connected to the Gemini craft by a tether in September 1966. credit Arizona State University / NASA.
November 11th, 1972
Vietnam War:
1972 - Vietnamization; the United States Army turns over the massive Long Binh military base to South Vietnam.
1968 - Operation Commando Hunt; initiated. The goal is to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos into South Vietnam.
1967 - In a propaganda ceremony in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, three American prisoners of war are released by the Viet Cong and turned over to "new left" antiwar activist Tom Hayden.
Wikipedia Photo: Vietnam War: Hovering U.S. Army helicopters pour machine gun fire into a tree line to cover the advance of South Vietnamese ground troops in an attack on a Viet Cong camp 18 miles north of Tay Ninh, northwest of Saigon near the Cambodian border, in Vietnam on March 1965. (AP Photo / Horst Faas) / Boston Globe
November 11th, 1993
Vietnam Veterans Memorial: is dedicated at the Washington, D.C.; a sculpture honoring women who served in the Vietnam War is dedicated.
Wikipedia Photo: Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C..
November 11th, 2004
New Zealand War Memorial:
2006 - New Zealand War Memorial in London; Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II unveils the New Zealand War Memorial in London.
2004 - New Zealand Tomb of the Unknown Warrior; is dedicated at the National War Memorial, Wellington, New Zealand.
Wikipedia Photo: New Zealand Tomb of the Unknown Warrior; New Zealand War Memorial in London.
November 11th, 2012
Earthquake
2012 - Shwebo earthquake; A strong earthquake with the magnitude 6.8 hits northern Burma, killing at least 26 people.
Wikipedia Image: Preliminary Determination of Epicenters / Aleppo Syria; Anchorage, Alaska - March 28, 1964 Prince William Sound USA earthquake and tsunami; 8.9 Mega Earthquake Strikes Japan; Tsunami Swirls Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture March 12 2011. credit NOAA / NGDC, NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, USGS, National Geographics.
November 11th, 2014
Khairpur bus crash: Fifty-eight people are killed in a bus crash in the Sukkur District in southern Pakistan's Sindh province.
Wikipedia Photo: Khairpur bus crash: Fifty-eight people are killed in a bus crash in the Sukkur District in southern Pakistan's Sindh province.