On this day: Rhodesia announced independence

Poland Independence Day.

1830: Mail first carried by railway, on newly opened Liverpool to Manchester line.

1887: The first sod of the Manchester Ship Canal was cut.

1918: Armistice signed by Germany and Allies at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, in Marshal Foch’s railway coach at Compiègne, France.

1920: King George V unveiled the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London.

1921: British Legion held its first Poppy Day.

1940: Willys produced the Jeep, so-called from the initials GP, for general purpose car.

1944: The Home Guard was disbanded.

1946: Stevenage in Herefordshire was designated first “new town” in Britain.

1955: C&A Modes department store in Princes Street, Edinburgh, was destroyed by fire.

1965: Ian Smith, prime minister of Rhodesia, announced his country’s unilateral declaration of independence. Regime was declared illegal by Britain.

1982: Geoffrey Prime, GCHQ spy, was jailed for 35 years.

1988: George Bush defeated Michael Dukakis in United States presidential election.

1990: China told Saddam Hussein it would not use veto power to block UN Security Council resolution authorising military action to force Iraq out of Kuwait.

1991: The Metropolitan Police announced it would admit homosexuals to the force.

1992: Church of England general synod voted to allow women to become priests.

1995: The Scottish Football Association ordered an investigation and the procurator- fiscal’s office called for a police report into incidents, which were overlooked by the referee, involving Rangers’ Paul Gascoigne, in which an Aberdeen player needed five stitches in a head wound.

1997: Labour admitted Formula 1 motor-racing boss Bernie Ecclestone had donated £1m to it.

1999: The House of Lords Act was given Royal Assent, restricting membership of the British House of Lords by virtue of a hereditary peerage.

2006: The Queen unveiled the New Zealand War Memorial in London, commemorating the loss of soldiers from the New Zealand Army and the British Army.

2008: The world-famous QE2 liner left Southampton on its last ever voyage with thousands of well-wishers looking on from the quayside. The 41-year-old liner was turned into a floating hotel in Dubai.

BIRTHDAYS

Leonardo DiCaprio, actor, 40; Calista Flockhart, actress, 50; Kathy Lette, author, 56; Demi Moore, actress, 52; Richard Rowe, jockey and racehorse trainer, 55; Stanley Tucci, actor, 54; June Whitfield CBE, actress, 89; James Edward George Younger, 5th Viscount Younger of Leckie, 59; “Fuzzy” Zoeller, golfer, 63; Chris Joyce, drummer (Simply Red), 57; Ellie Simmonds, gold medal-winning Paralympic swimmer, 20; Philipp Lahm, captain of Germany’s 2014 World Cup winning team, 31; Lavell Crawford, comedian and actor, 46; Daniel Ortega, president of Nicaragua since 2007, 69; Maniche, Portuguese footballer, 37; Ian Craig Marsh, musician (Human League and Heaven 17), 58; Andy Partridge, singer-songwriter, musician (XTC), 61; Chris Dreja, musician (the Yardbirds), 69.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1050 Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor; 1744 Abigail Adams, US first lady; 1748 Charles IV, king of Spain; 1821 Fyodor Dostoyevsky, novelist; 1863 Paul Signac, artist, pioneer of Pointilism; 1868 Edouard Vuillard, artist; 1885 George Patton, US military commander in Second World War; 1899 Pat O’Brien, actor; 1901 Sam Spiegel, film producer (only winner of three outright Academy Awards for Best Picture); 1909 Robert Ryan, actor; 1918 Stubby Kaye, comic actor; 1919 Dr Hamish Henderson, folklorist, poet and songwriter; 1920 Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, politician and historian; 1922 Kurt Vonnegut, novelist; 1925 Jonathan Winters, comedian; 1929 LaVern Baker, R&B singer; 1930 Kenneth Fleetwood, royal fashion designer; 1942 Roy Fredericks, West Indies Test cricketer, Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1974; 1977 Ben Hollioake, England Test cricketer.

Deaths: 1623 Philippe de Mornay, writer; 1831 Nat Turner, leader of slave rebellion (hanged); 1855 Sören Kierkegaard, philosopher; 1880 Ned Kelly, Australian bushranger and bank robber; 1945 Jerome Kern, composer of musical theatre; 1976 Alexander Calder, sculptor and originator of the “mobile”; 1988 William Ifor Jones, Welsh conductor and organist; 1994 Ernest Clark, actor; 1999 Sir Vivian Fuchs, polar explorer; 2002 Very Rev Dr David Steel, Moderator of General Assembly of Church of Scotland 1974-75; 2004 Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation; 2005 Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield, photographer.