This day in history

At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends. Germany, bereft of manpower, supplies and food, signs an armistice agreement with the Allies.

The war left nine million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. In addition, some six million civilians died from disease, starvation or exposure. World War I led to the fall of the imperial dynasties of Russia, Germany, Turkey and Austria-Hungary, and spurred the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.

In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles officially ended the conflict, but its punitive terms destabilised Europe and laid the groundwork for World War II.

The General Synod of the Church of England narrowly votes to accept women priests.

U.S. Route 66, “The Main Street of America” is opened.

In America, Nat Turner, the leader of a bloody slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia, is hanged.