View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
What : day is it
1918 – At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ended; a war that had lasted for 4 years and 97 days. Germany, bereft of manpower, supplies and food, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies. The war left 9 million soldiers dead and more than 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria, Hungary, France, and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. In addition, some 6 million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure.
1919 – Britain introduced a two minute silence at 11:00 a.m. to remember those who died in World War I.
1946 – Stevenage was officially designed as Britain’s first New Town, one of ten which were planned to relieve London’s post-war housing problems.
1953 – The BBC television programme Panorama was first broadcast.
1954 – Thousands of elderly people took part in a rally in London calling for an increase in their pensions.
1965 – The Rhodesian Government, led by Prime Minister Ian Smith, illegally severed its links with the British Crown.
1987 – Irises, a painting by Vincent Van Gogh was sold for £27m at Sotheby’s, a world record at that time for a work of art.
1992 – The Church of England General Synod voted to allow women to be ordained to the priesthood.
1997 – Britain’s Labour Party admitted to accepting a £1m donation from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, but claimed it would be repaid and that it had nothing to do with the Government’s decision to exempt motor racing from the ban on tobacco-related sports sponsorship.
1998 – In the first joint engagement of its kind, the Queen and the Irish president, Mary McAleese, unveiled a peace tower in memory of the Irish dead of the First World War.
2011 – The much-anticipated Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released for PC, PS4, and Xbox 360. Due to Bethesda being acquired by Microsoft, this was the last Elder Scrolls game to be released for a PlayStation console.
2013 – Sean Conway, 32, made history by completing a marathon swim from Land’s End to John O’Groats. He left Cornwall on 30th June, swimming along the west coast to the most northerly point of the UK mainland. He swam around 10 miles a day, slept on a yacht or in accommodation onshore and raised thousands of pounds for the War Child charity in the process.
2013 – Hundreds of people attended the funeral of 99 year old Harold Jellicoe Percival (from Lytham St. Annes), a war veteran they never knew who died with no close friends or relatives around him. Veterans’ groups and other military supporters campaigned, including via Twitter and Facebook, to acknowledge Mr. Percival’s career as ground crew with the RAF’s Bomber Command. He was also a distant relative of former Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated – (1812).
Did you know that on this day in 1918, Poland became an independent country? Due to partitioning in the 18th Century, Poland had not existed for 123 years before this.
I tried disproving the saying “you will always find it in the last place you look” by continuing to look for something after I found it the first time and go and find it again.
One of the best compliments you can give a friend is to call them family. One of the best compliments you can give to a family member is to call them a friend.
The Capital of El Salvador is San Salvador.
Dogs have masters, Cats have staff.
“I hate coconut. Not the taste, consistency.” – Tallahassee in Zombieland
“There are only three ages for women in Hollywood – Babe, District Attorney, and Driving Miss Daisy.” -Goldie Hawn
Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man could be perceived as instructions on how to make a snow angel.
Pop culture has overlooked how incredibly useful the humble bicycle would be in the event of a zombie apocalypse.
In 1849, a man named William Thompson would walk up to random strangers and spark a conversation. He would gain their trust and then ask, “Have you the confidence to trust me with your watch until tomorrow?” Having said that, he would never return. He was finally caught and was named confidence man, a.k.a Con-Man.
Birthday : quotes
“We are always living in the final days. What have you got? A hundred years or much, much less until the end of your world.” – Neil Gaiman
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.” – Martin Luther
“I think for me, any great art is art which communicates human emotion.” – Greg Lake
“It’s astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself into if one works at it. And astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself out of, if one simply assumes that everything will, somehow or other, work out for the best.” – Neil Gaiman, The Sandman
2018 – Xi’an, China, introduced a pedestrian lane for people who walk while looking at their phones.
1993 – The Holbeck Hall Hotel in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, fell into the sea following a landslide, making news around the world.
1805 – The first Trooping of the Colour took place on Horse Guards Parade. It was Edward VII who moved Trooping the Colour to its June date, because of the vagaries of British weather.