On This Day in History: Armistice ends World War I

Following are some of the major events to have occurred on November 11:

1918 – The First World War ended at 11 a.m; the armistice was signed in a railway carriage at Compiegne, France, bringing to a close a conflict in which more than 10 million people died.

1918 – The independent republic of Poland was proclaimed by Jozef Pilsudski.

1920 – The body of an unknown British soldier was buried in Westminster Abbey. The service was recorded using the first electronic recording process developed by Lionel Guest and H.O. Merriman.

1965 – Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith announced a Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain, which promptly declared the regime illegal and introduced trade restrictions.

1987 – Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “Irises” was sold for a then record $53.9 million in New York.

1992 – Overturning centuries of tradition, the Church of England voted to allow women to become priests.

1998 – Japan’s Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi arrived in Moscow for the first official visit to Russia by a Japanese leader in 25 years.

1999 – British hereditary lords ended 700 years in parliament when they passed legislation stripping away their right to sit in the House of Lords.

2001 – The World Trade Organisation approved Taiwan’s entry, a day after welcoming China into the global trade club.

2004 – Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, the guerrilla icon turned Nobel Peace Prize winner who ended up in renewed conflict with Israel, died. He was 75.

2006 – New Zealand War Memorial unveiled in London.

(Reuters)