What happened on November 11 ?

1215 - The Fourth Lateran Council meets, adopting the doctrine of transubstantiation, meaning that bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ.

1500 - Treaty of Granada - Louis XII of France and Ferdinand II of Aragon agree to divide the Kingdom of Naples between them.

1620 - In what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod, the Mayflower Compact is signed on the Mayflower, establishing the basic laws for the Plymouth Colony.

1634 - Following pressure from Anglican bishop John Atherton, the Irish House of Commons passes "An Act for the Punishment for the Vice of Buggery" (anal sex).

1675 - Gottfried Leibniz demonstrated integral calculus for the first time to find the area under the graph of y = f(x) function.

1675 - Guru Gobind Singh becomes the Tenth Guru of the Sikhs.

1831 - In Jerusalem, Virginia, Nat Turner is hanged after inciting a violent slave uprising.

1833 - Former United States President John Quincy Adams is first chief executive involved in a railroad accident when the Camden & Amboy train he is riding derails due to a broken axle caused by an overheated journal box in the meadows near Hightstown, New Jersey. He is uninjured and continues his trip onto Washington, D.C. the following day.

1834 - Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling was first published.

1839 - The Virginia Military Institute is founded in Lexington, Virginia.

1864 - American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea - Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins burning Atlanta, Georgia to the ground in preparation for his march south.

1865 - Treaty of Sinchula is signed in which Bhutan ceded the areas east of the Teesta River to the British East India Company.

1880 - Australian Bushranger Ned Kelly is hanged at Melbourne Gaol.

1887 - Anarchist Haymarket Martyrs August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and George Engel are executed.

1887 - Construction of the Manchester Ship Canal starts at Eastham.

1889 - Washington is admitted as the 42nd U.S. state.

1911 - Many cities in the midwest broke their record highs and lows on the same day as a strong cold front rolls through. (see The 11/11/11 cold wave).

1918 - World War I ends: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside of Compiègne in France. The war officially stops at 11:00.

1918 - Józef Pi?sudski comes to Warsaw and assumes supreme military power in Poland. Poland regains its independence.

1918 - Emperor Charles I of Austria abdicates.

1919 - The Centralia Massacre in Centralia, Washington results the deaths of four members of the American Legion and the lynching of a local leader of the IWW.

1921 - The Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by US President Warren G. Harding at Arlington National Cemetery.

1930 - Patent number US1781541 was awarded to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd for their invention, the Einstein refrigerator.

1933 - Dust Bowl: In South Dakota, a very strong dust storm strips topsoil from desiccated farmlands.

1940 - World War II: Battle of Taranto - The Royal Navy launches the first aircraft carrier strike in history, on the Italian fleet at Taranto.

1940 - The German cruiser Atlantis captures top secret British mail, and sends it to Japan.

1940 - Armistice Day Blizzard: An unexpected blizzard kills 144 in U.S. Midwest.

1962 - Kuwait's National Assembly ratifies the Constitution of Kuwait.

1963 - Brian Epstein signs contract for the Beatles to make three appearances on the Ed Sullivan show.

1965 - Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) was declared independent by the white minority regime of Ian Smith.

1966 - NASA launches spaceship Gemini 12.

1967 - Vietnam War: 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.

1968 - Vietnam War: Operation Commando Hunt initiated. The goal was to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos into South Vietnam.

1968 - A second republic is declared in the Maldives.

1970 - First broadcast of Sesame Street.

1972 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - The United States Army turns over the massive Long Binh military base to South Vietnam.

1975 - Angola becomes independent from Portugal.

1975 - Australian constitutional crisis of 1975: Australian Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismisses the government of Gough Whitlam and commissions Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister, and announces a general election to be held in early December.

1978 - Maumoon Abdul Gayoom succeeded Ibrahim Nasir as the president of the Republic of Maldives. He has since been re-elected for six consecutive 5-year terms.

1992 - The Church of England votes to allow women to become priests.

1997 - Mary McAleese inaugurated as the eighth President of Ireland.

1999 - A six-storey apartment block collapses in Foggia, Italy, killing 62.

2000 - In Kaprun, Austria, 155 skiers and snowboarders die when a cable car catches fire in an alpine tunnel.

2004 - Under new ownership, G4TechTV terminated many great TechTV hosts, as well as crew, and aired their last episodes on the 10th and 11th.

2004 - New Zealand Tomb of the Unknown Warrior dedicated at the National War Memorial, Wellington

2004 - Yasser Arafat is confirmed dead by the Palestine Liberation Organization, of unidentified causes. Mahmoud Abbas is elected chairman of the PLO minutes later.

2004 - Mary McAleese inaugurated for a second term as President of Ireland.