November eleventh

Today's Highlight in History:
On November eleventh, 1918, fighting in World War One came to an end with the signing of an armistice between the Allies and Germany.

On this date:
In 1620, 41 Pilgrims aboard the "Mayflower," anchored off Massachusetts, signed a compact calling for a "body politick."

In 1831, former slave Nat Turner, who'd led a violent insurrection, was executed in Jerusalem, Virginia.

In 1889, Washington became the 42nd state.

In 1921, President Harding dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1939, Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" on network radio.

In 1965, Rhodesia proclaimed its independence from Britain.

In 1966, "Gemini 12" blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, with astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Junior aboard.

In 1972, the US Army turned over its base at Long Bihn to the South Vietnamese army, symbolizing the end of direct US military involvement in the Vietnam War.

In 1992, the Church of England voted to ordain women as priests.

In 1993, a bronze statue honoring the more than eleven-thousand American women who'd served in the Vietnam War was dedicated in Washington DC.

Ten years ago: Stormie Jones, the world's first heart-liver transplant recipient, died at a Pittsburgh hospital at age 13.

Five years ago: With a partial government shutdown looming, President Clinton and Republican congressional leaders clashed over Medicare and bickered over who to include in compromise budget talks.

One year ago: A car bomb ripped through a Bogota commercial district, killing at least eight people, but President Andres Pastrana defiantly signed extradition orders for three suspected drug traffickers. Sixty-seven people were killed when an apartment building collapsed in Foggia, Italy; an investigation blamed the collapse on cheap materials and slipshod construction. Argentine journalist Jacobo Timerman died in Buenos Aires at age 76.

"If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us."

-- Herman Hesse, German novelist (1877-1962).